On February 19, the world's largest scrap recycling company, Sims Group Limited (Sims), announced its financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2009.
Sims Group recorded a net loss after tax for the first half-year ended December 31, 2008 of AU$79.4 million ($51.56 million), compared with a net profit of AU$139.4 million ($90.53 million) a year earlier.
The company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and goodwill impairment charge) of AU$254.1 million ($165 million) was up three percent on the corresponding period of the previous year.
Sales revenue increased about 104 percent to AU$5.58 billion ($3.27 billion) in the first half of the 2009 financial year from AU$2.73 billion ($1.77 billion) a year before, as a result of its $1.49 billion acquisition of US-based Metal Management.
Meanwhile, the scrap intake of the company declined by 42 percent from 4.153 million mt in the first quarter of FY 2009 to 2.395 million mt in the second quarter.
Commenting on the results, company CEO Daniel W. Dienst stated, "As our results reflect, we experienced an unprecedented deterioration in economic conditions in the first half of our 2009 fiscal year. The downturn spread with remarkable speed, ultimately affecting demand and metal prices in a way that could not have been foreseen. As a consequence of the global credit crisis and rapid deleveraging, and the related effects on commodity markets, we recorded a number of significant abnormal items."