Belgium-based Bekaert, one of the world’s largest steel cord and wire manufacturers, has announced its financial results for 2022.
In the given year, the company achieved consolidated sales of €5.65 billion, up by 16.7 percent year on year, driven by significant pricing discipline to manage increased costs, principally raw materials and energy, while its EBITDA decreased by 4.6 percent compared to the previous year to €654 million, and its EBITDA margin declined to 11.6 percent from 14.2 percent in 2021.
Bekaert achieved strong sales growth responding quickly to the challenges of high raw material and energy costs with product price rises. These swift actions helped to protect profitability despite higher input costs and lower utilization.
Meanwhile, Bekaert has reached an agreement on the sale of its Steel Wire Solutions assets in Chile and Peru to its current partners for a total enterprise value of approximately $350 million. The transaction is expected to close this year.