Swedish advanced iron ore products producer LKAB has issued its financial results for the first quarter of 2010, stating that the markets for both iron ore and industrial minerals have recovered after the downturn of 2008-2009 and LKAB is planning to produce at full capacity during 2010.
According to the financial results, the profit after tax of the company was SEK 984 million ($135.2 million) in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a profit after tax of SEK 251 million in the first quarter of 2009, increasing 292 percent. Sales revenues in the first quarter of 2010 increased by 94 percent year on year from SEK 2.31 billion to SEK 4.49 billion ($616.7 million).
LKAB said that its production of iron ore products amounted to 6.2 million mt in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 3.7 million mt in the same period of 2009. When the same periods are compared, total deliveries increased from 2.9 million mt to 6.3 million mt, of which 5.2 million mt was pellets compared to 2.3 million mt in Q1 2009. As of March 31, stocks of iron ore products amounted to 1.4 million mt, compared to 3.2 million mt one year before.
Regarding the 2010 outlook, the company said, "For the full year 2010, the market outlook remains very positive. Chinese import of iron ore shows no signs of diminishing, while global supply of iron ore remains lower than demand."