Spanish stainless steelmaker Acerinox posts €122.7 million net profit in 2010

The Spanish stainless steel producer Acerinox, S.A. has announced that in 2010 its profit after tax amounted to €122.7 million, compared to a loss of €229.2 million in 2009, while its sales came to €4.5 billion, increasing by 50.3 percent year on year.
 
"In the whole year, Acerinox worked with a melting capacity lower than 80 percent, which makes the achieved results very worthy, proving the success of the ‘Excellent Plan 2009-2010', which has allowed us to improve the competitiveness in the three factories, reads the company's statement. 
 
In the given period, sales in Europe accounted for 40.3 percent of Acerinox' total sales, while 44.4 percent of total sales were made to the Americas. Acerinox supplied 9.1 percent of its total sales to Asia, 5.9 percent to Africa and 0.3 percent to Oceania.
 
In 2010, melting output amounted to 2.06 million metric tons, 14 percent higher than in 2009.
 
Regarding the outlook, Acerinox said that the demand recovery, sustained from the year end, and the increase of the alloy surcharges are favoring the orders entry and allowing the company to increase capacity utilization during the first quarter of 2011, which makes the company feel optimistic for the first quarter results. In addition, Acerinox said that the inventory level in the market will allow the consolidation of better price levels.
 
With the startup of the cold rolling mill in Bahru Stainless in the summer, the outputs of the other factories will increase to supply the new Asian factory of Acerinox with hot rolled coils.