Czech Republic-based steelmaker Liberty Ostrava has announced that in the first quarter this year it achieved a production record and its strongest financial results in several years, due to the plant’s operational improvement efforts over last year as well as the strong recovery of the market and prices, which has led to the Ostrava mill operating at full capacity.
In the given quarter, the company shipped more than 550,000 mt of steel products, with production in January and March exceeding 200,000 mt each month, the highest monthly level since 2016. The company’s production in the given quarter increased by almost 20 percent compared to the same period last year and rose by more than 70 percent compared to the second quarter last year, which was hit by the coronavirus.
Liberty Ostrava forecasts that its EBITDA for the first quarter will increase to more than €60 million, which would be the plant’s best quarterly performance since it was acquired by GFG Alliance in July 2019.
“I am really pleased that, after the difficulties we faced together during the worst of the pandemic’s impact on our industry, we have shown that Liberty Ostrava is now going from strength to strength. We now look forward to helping our customers, our communities and our country to rebuild following the pandemic,” Vaclav Habura, director operations at Liberty Ostrava, said.