Intangible resources
In addition to tangible resources, the business model of voestalpine AG is based on specific intangible resources that promote innovation or secure competitive advantages. These have no physical substance and are sometimes not recognized on the balance sheet. Intangible resources are categorized as human capital, social and relational capital, and intellectual capital.
Human capital
The voestalpine Group has a qualified and experienced workforce that contributes to the company’s operational performance and competitiveness and constitutes an important foundation of the business model. Human capital therefore represents a key foundation for delivering the company’s range of services.
To secure and further develop this skills base in the long term, voestalpine attaches great importance to training and continuing education. The continuous professional development of employees is a central element of the HR Strategy 2030+ and serves to align existing skills with current and future requirements. In the 2025/26 business year, Group-wide expenditures for personnel development totaled over EUR 74 million. 85.0% of employees (excluding apprentices) participated in training and continuing education programs. The total training volume amounted to 793,101 hours, corresponding to an average of 20.1 training hours per participant. These investments contribute to securing know-how, advancing technological development, and strengthening personal skills, thereby supporting the Group’s sustainable value creation.
In addition, voestalpine promotes lifelong learning and personal development through Group-wide programs. The Group-wide “value:program” is also used for the targeted development of current and future managers; 193 employees from 24 countries participated in the program during the 2025/26 business year.
To ensure long-term knowledge transfer, a balanced age structure among employees is essential for the company. In the 2025/26 business year, 17.6% of employees were in the under-30 age group (8,204 people), 55.9% to the 30–50 age group (25,981 people), and 26.5% to those over 50 (12,299 people). This balanced structure facilitates the transfer of expertise across generations.
Strong employee retention is viewed as a key factor in safeguarding expertise. Therefore, the company strives to maintain a low turnover rate. Based on the total number of employees (excluding apprentices) as of the balance sheet date, which was 46,484, the turnover rate for employment relationships terminated by mutual agreement or by employees was 7.5% in the 2025/26 business year. A total of 5,622 employees (excluding apprentices) left the company (e.g., resignation, retirement, death), which is 45 more employees than in the 2024/25 business year (5,577). This corresponds to a total turnover rate of 12.1%, representing an increase of 0.4% compared to the previous year.
Employee loyalty to the company is reflected, among other things, in length of service. 31.7% of the workforce has been with the company for more than 15 years. For 63.8% of employees, the length of service with the company exceeds 5 years.
Further details can be found in the Sustainability Statement in accordance with ESRS S1-4 (Training), ESRS S1-6 (Turnover), and ESRS S1-9 (Age Structure).
Social and relationship capital
voestalpine’s business model is based on long-standing relationships of trust between the company and its employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. These relationships are underpinned by a clearly defined set of values and binding principles of corporate governance. Specifically, entrepreneurial thinking (passion for solutions and innovation, team orientation, results focus), active appreciation (respectful, fair treatment, diversity, a culture of trust), and sustainable action (personal responsibility, continuous improvement, forward-looking and future-oriented behavior) shape collaboration within the Group and form the corporate culture along the entire value chain.
In addition, the Group-wide Code of Conduct—which applies to all employees, including members of the Executive Board, managing directors, and other executives—as well as the Code of Conduct for Business Partners derived from it, establishes binding standards for lawful, ethical, and responsible conduct. It serves as a guiding framework for day-to-day business operations and for strengthening the trust of internal and external stakeholders in the Group’s reliability and integrity.
In addition, voestalpine maintains a continuous and structured dialogue with local stakeholders at its key locations. Through regular exchanges, the concerns and needs of the affected communities are systematically taken into account and integrated into decision-making processes. The Group-wide stakeholder dialogue is managed through a central cross-functional unit and supports the joint development of solutions for site-specific and overarching challenges. Insights from the dialogue are incorporated into internal consultations and contribute to the further development of projects, strategies, and measures. In this way, voestalpine strengthens long-term trust, social acceptance, and cooperative relationships in its regional environment.
Further details can be found in the Sustainability Statement in accordance with ESRS G1-1 and ESRS S3-1.
Intellectual capital
Intellectual capital represents another key intangible resource for voestalpine and forms an essential foundation for the Group’s technological differentiation, innovative strength, and long-term competitiveness. As of March 31, 2026, voestalpine held 3,484 registered intellectual property rights, of which 2,579 had been granted, from 654 patent families. These intellectual property rights are distributed across all divisions and underscore the Group’s broad technological portfolio: The Steel Division held 982 intellectual property rights from 220 patent families, the High Performance Metals Division 583 intellectual property rights from 95 patent families, the Metal Engineering Division 1,195 intellectual property rights from 169 patent families, and the Metal Forming Division 883 intellectual property rights from 186 patent families. 109 intellectual property rights, and 16 patent families, relate to joint rights held by the Steel Division and the Metal Forming Division.
In addition, 76 new priority applications were filed in the 2025/26 business year. Group-wide, approximately EUR 1.4 million was incurred for the maintenance of intellectual property rights, and approximately EUR 3 million for new applications. In addition, the Group invested EUR 221.6 million in research and development in the 2025/26 business year, corresponding to a research ratio of 1.47% of revenue.
voestalpine’s business model is heavily dependent on this intellectual capital, as patents secure key product, process, and material innovations and support the Group’s positioning in specialized market segments.
In particular, the materials and processing expertise related to the greentec steel transformation project is of great importance to voestalpine. Thanks to intensive research and targeted investments in pilot projects, voestalpine is strengthening its quality and technology leadership in the transition to low-emission steel production.
Furthermore, information technology and digital platforms represent a key resource for voestalpine. They support the management of production and logistics processes as well as the company-wide use of data, thereby providing a central basis for efficiency, quality, and supply security along the value chain. An increased focus on information and operational technology security strengthens the resilience of the systems and makes a sustainable contribution to the Group’s competitiveness and future viability.