Investor Relations

In the first three months of 2010 the stock markets displayed pronounced volatility. Following an uptrend, which set in a year ago and held steady through to January thanks to good economic data emanating from the USA and an upward revision to growth forecasts, the recovery came to an end in the wake of news of the possibility of Greece falling into bankruptcy, the huge debt problems of other EU member states and the modest outlook of American companies. The weeks which followed saw share prices declining, a trend which came to a halt only in mid-February. On the reporting date, the stock markets had already compensated for losses sustained. All in all, the DAX had improved by around 3 % on March 31, 2010, as against the closing price in 2009; the MDAX was 8 % higher.

The price of the Salzgitter share virtually mirrored the DAX as Germany’s leading index through to the end of February and had already reached its highest point for the current financial year of € 74.32 on January 11. The releasing of the key data for the financial year 2009, which took place during this period, did not place a sustained burden on the share price performance despite the considerable accounting-related precautionary measures included in the result, as the capital market factored in the easing effect of these measures in the future. As from mid-March, cyclically sensitive shares came under pressure from worries about the potentially more stringent monetary policy in China and the associated impact on global economic development. Moreover, the explosion in the cost of the most important raw materials used in steel production, which became apparent at the end of the first quarter, had an additional adverse impact. The Salzgitter share was last quoted at € 68.73 on March 31 2010, which is a slight improvement in comparison with the closing price 2009 of € 68.44.

In the first three months of the financial year 2010, the daily turnover of the Salzgitter share on German stock exchanges averaged around 615,000 units, thus falling markedly below the previous-year's figure which reflected the great uncertainty prevailing at that time. In terms of stock market turnover, Salzgitter AG took 25th place in the index ranking of Deutsche Börse AG as per March 31, 2010. Free-float market capitalization came to € 2.6 billion, which puts the company at 30th place in the DAX.

As part of our capital market communication, we presented the company at a series of investor conferences and road shows in New York, London and Frankfurt during the period under review. A number of analysts and investors visited the plants in Salzgitter and Peine. The results of the financial year 2009 were presented at the end of March at well-attended analyst events in Frankfurt and London and discussed in detail with the capital market. We were especially delighted that our investor relations work has also been acknowledged this year through the good positions in the rankings published to date, which are evidence of appreciation by the capital market.

In the analyst survey recently conducted the Salzgitter share was assessed by 21 banks, which issued the following ratings (as per March 31, 2010): 9 buy/outperform, 6 hold/market perform, 6 sell/underperform.

Salzgitter AG’s portfolio of treasury shares came to 5,795,240 as per March 31, 2010. As against December 31, 2009 (5,795,252 units), shares decreased by 12 units which were given to members of the workforce as a bonus for improvement suggestions.

		Q1 2010	Q1 2009
Nominal capital as of 31/03/	€ million	161.6	161.6
Number of shares as of 31/03/	million	60.1	60.1
Number of shares outstanding as of 31/03/	million	54.3	54.1
Market capitalization as of 31/03/ 1)2)	€ million	3.732	2.276
Price as of 31/03/ 1)	€	68.73	42.08
High   01/01/ - 31/03/ 1)	€	74.32	69.50
Low   01/01/ - 31/03/ 1)	€	63.00	40.22
Security identification number	620200
ISIN	DE0006202005