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 loss of TRY 5.6 million ($1.57 million), compared to a net profit of TRY 249,848 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Sales revenues of the company increased by 72.4 percent year on year to TRY 866.89 million ($243.5 million). The company registered an operating profit of TRY 58.76 million ($16.51 million), compared to an operating loss of TRY 16.88 million in the same quarter of 2016.
In the first quarter this year, Kardemir produced 285,300 mt of metallurgical coke, rising by 10.3 percent, 607,434 mt of crude steel, up 33.43 percent, and 1,187 mt of pig iron, increasing by 80 percent, all on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the period in question, the company's billet output totaled 240,916 mt, rising by 13.3 percent, while its bloom output amounted to 355,188 mt, increasing by 51.3 percent, both year on year.
Kardemir's rebar output in the January-March period increased by 5.15 percent to 169,365 mt, while its rail product output totaled 34,601 mt, up 239.7 percent, both compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. During the first quarter this year, Kardemir produced 71,706 mt of steel sections, rising by 15.5 percent year on year.