Germany's second-largest steelmaker Salzgitter AG has released its financial report for the financial year 2008.
According to the report, in the financial year 2008, despite the dramatic developments in global economic conditions which unfolded at the end of the year, the consolidated external sales of Salzgitter increased by 23 percent from €10.1923 billion to €12.4992 billion, its consolidated after-tax profit decreased from €905.1 million to €676.9 million, while its pre-tax profit dropped down from the all-time record of €1.3139 billion to €1.0034 billion, all compared with 2007.
The performance of Salzgitter AG's Steel Division varied over the course of financial year 2008. The steel boom, which culminated and subsequently tailed off in the first three quarters, enabled the steel companies to generate record sales and an extremely satisfactory set of results. External sales grew to €3.002 billion from € 2.852 billion in 2007. The considerable hikes in the cost of raw materials were not fully compensated by the higher-than-expected selling price trend. Also, due to the notably weaker fourth quarter and negative influences from inventory valuations, pre-tax profit in FY 2008 was down by 27 percent to €545.6 million from the previous year's record result of €749.4 million.