Kardemir more than doubles net profit in Q1

Turkish integrated long steel producer Kardemir Karabuk Demir Celik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Kardemir) has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the current year, posting a net profit of TRY 100.8 million ($48.4 million), more than double compared to the net profit of TRY 47.6 million in the corresponding quarter of 2013. Sales revenues of the company increased by 48 percent year on year to TRY 549.57 million ($264.1 million). The company registered an operating profit of TRY 117.3 million ($56.3 million) in the given quarter, compared to an operating profit of TRY 42.8 million in the first quarter of the previous year.
 
In the first three months of 2014, Kardemir produced 258,300 mt of metallurgical coke - up 47.5 percent, 472,526 mt of crude steel - up 23.7 percent, and 869 mt of pig iron - decreasing by 94.9 percent, all on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the period in question, the company's billet output totaled 241,323 mt, declining by 1.7 percent, while its bloom output amounted to 221,514 mt, rising by 73.1 percent, both compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
 
Kardemir's rebar output in the first quarter increased by 16.7 percent to 173,151 mt, while its rail product output totaled 28,217 mt - down 18.5 percent, both compared to the first quarter of 2013. Kardemir did not report any steel section production for the first quarter this year.