On June 4, Egypt's largest steel producer Ezz Steel announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2009.
According to a statement released by the company, in the first quarter of 2009, Ezz Steel's net profit plummeted by 85 percent to EGP 66 million ($11.79 million) from EGP 436 million in Q1 2008 due to lowering steel prices and a challenging export market.
Meanwhile, the company's consolidated net sales in the first quarter of 2009 were EGP 3.4 billion ($607 million) compared with EGP 5.0 billion during the first quarter of 2008, down by 33 percent year on year.
The producer's long steel sales volume reached 847,000 mt in the first quarter of 2009, up eight percent over the 782,000 mt sold during the same period in 2008. On the other hand, flat steel volumes saw a sharp decline from 503,000 in the first quarter of 2008 to 209,000 mt in the first quarter of 2009, mainly due to the shutdown of the company's flat steel production facility Ezz Flat Steel (EFS), which is expected to remain closed for the second quarter of the year.
Long steel products accounted for 81 percent of Ezz Steel's total sales in the first quarter of 2009, in comparison to 60 percent for the first quarter of 2008, while flat steel products represented 18 percent of sales in the first quarter of 2009.
Commenting on the results, Ezz Steel managing director Paul Chekaiban said, "Unlike most of its peers in the steel industry, Ezz Steel was able to operate profitably during the first quarter of 2009. Although the financial performance has been heavily impacted by the fall in steel prices and the weakness of the export markets, we continued to enjoy sustained demand for our steel products in the domestic market."
"Ezz Steel remains committed to pursuing its growth strategy in order to further enhance its solid position in the steel industry," Mr. Chekaiban added.
The company said that it expected its total production for the current year to remain steady at 5.3 million mt.