voestalpine ag said thursday that aftertax earnings for its fiscal first quarter more than doubled driven by strong demand but warned of a more difficult business environment ahead the austrian steelproducts maker said aftertax profit for the three months ended june 30 was 6145 million euros 6247 million compared with eur2592 million for the comparable period a year earlier as reported last month revenue came to eur465 billion an increase of 38 the company had positive growth in all of its business divisions despite economic forecasts that became increasingly pessimistic voestalpine said largely in line with preliminary figures published last month voestalpines earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization came in at eur8791 million while it reported eur6927 million in earnings before interest and taxes looking ahead voestalpine said it expects a significant cooling of the economy in the second half of its fiscal year to weigh on its earnings going forward due to the dampening sentiment the voestalpine group cannot assume a continuation of its earnings performance for the remainder of the business year the company said assuming adequate supplies of natural gas in europe continue uninterrupted the company backed its full fiscalyear outlook of ebitda of about eur2 billion