Erdemir Group has released the overall performance report for its companies for the first quarter of 2008. The group's net profit reached TRY 226.6 million ($189.3 million), up 57 percent compared to the figure of TRY 144.0 million ($102.5 million) for Q1 2007. The net profit margin of the group reached 14.9 percent, up four percentage points when compared to the same period last year.
In the first three months of 2008, Erdemir produced 30 percent more flat products in comparison to Q1 2007. The group's flats production totalled 1,126,000 mt, including 425,000 mt CR and 701,000 HR. Meanwhile, Erdemir's Iskenderun mill produced a total of 737,000 mt, up 26 percent year on year, thanks to its slab production.
Finished product sales from Erdemir's Ereğli mill reached 1,106,000 mt in Q1 2008, up 11 percent in comparison to the same period of last year; 448,000 mt of total sales were CR and 658,000 mt were HR. Total sales of the Iskenderun mill amounted to 692,000 mt, up 24 percent year on year, including slab supplied to the Ereğli mill.
The group's consolidated sales revenue in Q1 2008 totalled TRY 1,517,002 million ($1,267,005) up 12 percent in comparison to the same period of 2007, aided by positive developments in flats and longs, the influence of improved efficiency at the group's facilities and the soaring sales volumes.
Erdemir increased its gross turnover by 70 percent to TRY 378.3 million ($316.1 million) from TRY 222.5 million ($158.5 million) in comparison to the same period of last year. This increase was achieved with the help of improved levels of sales revenues on the back of skyrocketing sales prices caused by the rise in raw material costs, specificially for coal, coking coal and iron ore.
Finally, the most important development regarding production at Erdemir was the start of production operations at "Ayşe, Blast Furnace No.1" as of May 31, 2008.