Gerdau Group announces Q3 results

Gerdau Group announces Q3 results

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau Group has announced its profit for the third quarter of 2003. According to the data released, Gerdau's net profit recorded a 25% decrease in Q3 of this year and fell to Reals 246 million (approx. $87 million) when compared with same period last year. Gerdau's net sales reached to Reals 3.5 billion in the same period which indicated an increase of 18.1%. Production costs grew up by 25.8% to Reals 2.7 billion due to high raw material costs at the group's North American company Gerdau Ameristeel. The gain from foreign investments dropped to Reals 29.9 million from Reals 492 million. This is in relation with exchange rate changes, according to company officials. Group's EBITDA amounted to Reals 671.2 million, up by 3.9%. EBITDA increased by 24.8% to Reals 36.7 million at the company's South American operations while North America's EBITDA was down by 24.6% to Reals 49.6 million. Gerdau's shipments were up by 6% to 3.2 million tons while exports rose by 12.5% to 892'100 tons.