Finland-based stainless steel producer Outokumpu has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the current year, indicating a net loss of €41 million, narrowing down from a net loss of €45 million in the same quarter of the previous year, while the company's sales in the given quarter decreased by 21.6 percent year on year to €1.38 billion.
Outokumpu's stainless steel deliveries in the first quarter this year decreased by 1.6 percent year on year to 610,000 mt.
According to Outokumpu, in the first quarter, in the business area Europe, sequentially higher deliveries led to a stronger underlying EBIT despite price pressures. In the Americas, the company continued to grow the delivery volumes as planned in the given quarter. However, the business area Americas remained heavily at loss, because, despite all-time high quarterly deliveries and cost takeout measures, low prices continued to offset the positives.
Outokumpu also stated that, while it expects steady progress in its stainless steel business in the second quarter of this year, its results will be burdened by weaker performance of the ferrochrome business driven by the low ferrochrome price and the US dollar. With sequentially flat delivery volumes, Outokumpu expects the underlying EBIT to remain at a similar level as in the first quarter.