Cremona-based Italian steel group Arvedi has announced its results for 2018. In the given year, the group recorded a production volume of 4.5 million mt, up five percent year on year, while its consolidated revenues rose by 9.5 percent to €3.126 billion "thanks also to the favorable trend in average sales prices, in particular in the first half of the year," as Arvedi explained in its press statement.
The group, which is one of the top 100 steel producers in the world, said that its gross operating margin in 2018 was in line with that of the previous year. In 2018, its consolidated EBITDA was €460.4 million, compared with €466.7 million in 2017. According to Arvedi, this result is of “particular importance, given the market trend, which was marked by a marked slowdown in the last months of the year,"
Group president Giovanni Arvedi stated, "We are very satisfied with the results achieved in 2018 because they confirm the solidity and competitiveness of our group, which is now steadily among the major players in the sector at national and international level." The carbon steel sector contributed the most to the company's EBITDA, accounting for around 85 percent of the total, while among the companies of the group which made the biggest contribution was Acciaieria Arvedi, with 73 percent. In 2018, the consolidated operating result of the group amounted to €269.6 million, while net financial debt decreased to €580.5 million, from €653.2 million in 2017.
In terms of investments, in the 2007-2018 period Arvedi invested a total of €1.86 billion to modernize and develop the companies of the group. Of this total, €1.2 billion was assigned to Acciaieria Arvedi Spa of Cremona. "Thanks to the investments made and the optimizations pursued on the side of production and transformation costs, today all the companies have very solid industrial bases, both in terms of processes and products, and therefore can compete effectively. This improvement process is still ongoing in all our companies, which are committed to new important investment plans," Giovanni Arvedi stated.
He continued by stating, "At a prospective level, 2019 is a difficult year. In addition to the economic situation, imports are weighing on the hot rolled coil sector. Such imports, despite the EU safeguard measures, increased in Italy by 54 percent in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2018, dragging down prices."
The group president also stressed the weight of energy costs, against which even the European Steel Association (EUROFER) has pointed its finger in recent weeks. "We hope for a review of the safeguard with the adoption of quotas by country also for hot rolled coils, in order to avoid predatory behavior by some non-European steel mills, and also for the adoption by Europe of a 'carbon border adjustment' on imports of steel products that allows our companies to compete on equal terms," he said.
"The group is in any case fully equipped to face the new competitive challenges in the long term and seize any opportunities that will arise in the market. This is demonstrated by the recent and important partnership agreement that we signed with a major US player (US Steel Corp.), which has decided to invest in our ISP/ESP technology and in our know-how," Arvedi said in conclusion.