Russian steelmaker
Severstal has announced its financial results for the second quarter and the first half of 2012.
In the second quarter,
Severstal registered a net profit of $155 million, down 74.2 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of 2011. The company's sales revenues declined by 15.1 percent year on year to $3.7 billion.
In the first six months of the current year,
Severstal's net profit decreased by 49.1 percent year on year to $582 million. The sales revenues of the company amounted to $7.4 billion, declining by 2.2 percent compared to the first half of 2011.
Regarding the third quarter outlook,
Severstal expects domestic demand to be similar to second quarter levels. Domestic apparent steel use remains quite high allowing high capacity utilization of the Russian mills, while domestic steel consumption is expected to increase driven by high construction activity. The company anticipates a decrease in export prices.