Ukraine-headquartered mining and steel producing group Metinvest has announced its financial results for 2019, having posted some significant decline in the net profit figures.
In the given period, Metinvest registered a net profit of $341 million compared to $1.188 billion in 2018. Last year, the company’s sales revenue fell by nine percent year on year to $10.8 billion.
In 2019, Metinvest strengthened its production results in all segments, while the downtrend in the global steel market in the fourth quarter significantly affected the financial performance of the company. “The steel pricing environment in the fourth quarter of 2019 was the weakest since 2016, which, coupled with high raw material costs, hit global steelmakers in general, and Metinvest in particular,” commented Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest. Moreover, a 12 percent appreciation of the Ukrainian currency against the US dollar in the second half of the year increased the company’s production costs and reduced its export competitiveness, the statement noted. In addition, by November 2019 Metinvest had completed its major investment at Ilyich SW, which may also have affected the company’s total financial results.
In September, Fitch and S&P upgraded Metinvest’s credit ratings to ‘BB-’ and ‘B’, respectively, both with a ‘stable’ outlook. In November, Moody’s charged its outlook on Metinvest’s corporate family rating to ‘positive’, affirming its ‘B3’ rating, which is capped by Ukraine’s long-term foreign currency bond ceiling.