Lonato del Garda, Italy-based steelmaker Feralpi Group, which is among the leaders in Europe in the production of steel for the construction industry, has announced its financial results for 2020.
The group said it reported a positive 2020 despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which imposed a lockdown in March and April in Italy. The steel group closed the year with a profit, a turnover and production in line with the already-good results for 2019. Margins also remained positive, though affected by the period of production stoppages imposed by government measures to counteract the pandemic.
Specifically, in 2020 the group's turnover amounted to €1.238 billion, down 4.9 percent year on year. 62 percent of the figure was generated abroad, in line with the percentage in the previous year. Feralpi's EBITDA in 2020 stood at €73.7 million, compared to €125.101 million in the previous year. The group's net profit decreased by 86.7 percent to €5.45 million in 2020. Last year, the company's investments amounted to €55.6 million, up compared to the previous year's €54.5 million.
As for the group's operating results, in 2020 Feralpi produced 2.48 million mt of steel, down slightly compared to previous year's 2.49 million mt.
"2020 can hardly be described as an ordinary year due to a global pandemic that has disrupted lives, businesses and markets. In this scenario, after protecting our own people, being able to minimise the impact on our group has been crucial in making us ready to catch the recovery wave we’re now experiencing," commented Feralpi Group's chairman Giuseppe Pasini.
Pasini added that, after having achieved a positive 2020 despite the difficulties, Feralpi is now "intercepting the recovery we are experiencing." The Feralpi official defined the first five months of 2021 as excellent in terms of both production and revenues. "We expect the current growth trend to last at least until the end of the year, because there is a lack of material both in the finished steel market and in that for raw materials. This situation may also continue in the first quarter of 2022, even if it is not easy to read the dynamics of prices beyond this time horizon," he said. In any case, "for construction, excellent consumption is expected in the next three to four years, especially in the Italian market, in the face of numerous public works and projects in sight, including the modernization and maintenance of bridges and roads," he concluded.