Germany-based steelmaker Salzgitter Group has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the current year, declaring a net profit of €76.6 million, compared to a net loss of €43.7 million in the same period of the previous year, while the company’s sales revenues amounted to €2.09 billion, down by 0.9 percent year on year. The company’s EBITDA in the given period rose to €202.8 million compared to €57.2 million in the same quarter of the previous year.
Meanwhile, the company’s crude steel production totaled 1.64 million mt in the first quarter of the year, down by 2.4 percent year on year.
“The quarterly results and improved business activity give us every reason to be optimistic about how the year will develop going forward. The key foundations have also been laid for the Salzgitter Group’s long-term success: The company is robustly positioned in terms of its financial position and balance sheet, even as the coronavirus crisis diminishes. We have a well-diversified and balanced product portfolio in place. We will consistently forge ahead as a pioneer in low carbon steel production. Next week will already set another milestone: a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of the construction of a demonstration plant, that will realize the world’s first direct reduction process making flexible use of natural gas and hydrogen,” Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann, CEO of the company, said.
As for 2021, the company expects a sales revenue of more than €8.5 billion and a pre-tax profit of between €300 million and €400 million, in view of the good start to the year and the dynamic increase in rolled steel prices – nevertheless also with explicit reference to the still imminent risk of the coronavirus pandemic.