Mexico's Industrias CH (ICH) reported a drop in net profit of 76 percent and a 53 percent decline in sales in Q2 compared to the same period last year.
The firm reported Q2 profits of 309 million pesos while last year during the same quarter the same figured totaled 1,277 million pesos.
Sales during Q2 reached 5,088 million pesos compared to 10,909 million pesos last year during the same quarter. Sales during the first half of this year amounted to 11,099 million pesos while last year they reached 19,142 million pesos, or 42 percent higher.
ICH said, however, that Q2 figures were better than Q1 figures, because as sales decreased, operation costs followed and there were also fewer exchange rate related losses during Q2.
Through a series of acquisitions, particularly Simec in April 2001, the assets of Grupo Sidenor in August 2004 and Republic Engineered Products July 2005, ICH has positioned itself as one of the main producers of SBQ (special bar quality) steel in North America. ICH has eight production and steel processing plants, located throughout Mexico, and five distribution centers in the United States, located in Ohio, Indiana and New York, as well as one in Ontario, Canada.