Germany-based long steel producer Saarstahl has announced its financial and operational results for 2012, reporting pre-tax earnings of €9 million, compared to €210 million in 2011.
In 2012, the company's turnover decreased by 6.9 percent to €2.5 billion compared to the previous year. According to Saarstahl, price levels for steel products, which are falling globally while the cost of raw materials remains high, has created pressure on revenues. Germany continues to be the most important selling market for Saarstahl. In 2012, it succeeded in further increasing exports to third party countries, such as NAFTA, Asia and the rest of the world.
In the given year, Saarstahl's crude steel output amounted to 2.31 million mt, decreasing by two percent compared to 2.36 million mt in the previous year.
While the first months of 2012 were still satisfactory from an economic point of view, in the further course of the year the situation worsened in the automotive and mechanical engineering customer segments, which are important for Saarstahl.
Saarstahl stated that it started the year 2013 with its traditionally good utilization of capacity. However, due to the lack of impulse from the economy, no tangible change is expected in the trend for this year.