Swedish value-added, high-strength steel producer Svenskt Staal AB (SSAB) has issued its financial results for the first quarter of 2010, stating that 2010 began with a continued increase in demand and increasing production volumes.
According to the financial results, the company's profit after financial items was SEK 83 million ($11.3 million) in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a loss of SEK 134 million in the first quarter of 2009. Sales revenues in the first quarter of 2010 increased by 10 percent year on year from SEK 8.04 billion to SEK 8.87 billion ($1.21 billion).
Commenting on the results, SSAB president and CEO Olof Faxander said, "The improvement is due to recovery at our customers and a degree of inventory restocking at our customers. The quarter was negatively affected by a scheduled maintenance outage in the US and by the anticipated increases in the price of iron ore. However, due to existing stocks the price of iron ore had only a limited effect."
Mr. Faxander also said that steel prices are expected to rise in the remainder of 2010 in line with raw material prices.