In the first quarter of the current year, Turkish integrated long steel producer Kardemir Karabuk Demir Celik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Kardemir) posted a consolidated profit of TRY 46.57 million ($29.5 million) compared to a profit of TRY 6.76 million recorded in Q1 2010, up by almost seven times, mainly due to higher sales prices.
In the given period, Kardemir's sales revenues improved by 29 percent year on year to TRY 295.61 million ($187.34 million).
In the first quarter of 2011, Kardemir's average sales price for steel billets improved by 45 percent to TRY 982/mt ($626/mt), while its average sale price for rebar stood at TRY 1,005/mt ($640/mt) - up 32 percent, its price for sections was TRY 1,178/mt ($750/mt) - up 29 percent, and its average sale price for rails amounted to TRY 1,661/mt ($1,058/mt) - up 0.48 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2010.
In the first quarter of this year, Kardemir produced 177,900 mt of metallurgical coke - up 5.65 percent, 277,287 mt of crude steel - up 0.4 percent, and 5,681 mt of pig iron - down 38.6 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Meanwhile, in the quarter in question, the company's billet output totaled 225,017 mt, increasing by 2.73 percent, while its bloom output amounted to 70,450 mt, rising by 21.22 percent, both compared to Q1 2010.
In the January-March period of this year, Kardemir's rebar output surged by 11 percent reaching 146,142 mt, its section production climbed by 87 percent to 32,894 mt, while its rail product output totaled 27,781 mt - down 3.65 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.