Italian rebar producer Alfa Acciai experienced a very difficult year in 2009, says a report published in local newspaper Giornale di Brescia.
Accordingly, the company's turnover decreased to €815 million in 2009 from €1.7 billion in 2008. In 2009 Alfa Acciai had losses of €2.3 million compared to €65.2 million of net earnings in the previous year. EBITDA fell 92 percent to €11.1 million, while investments decreased from €33.3 million to €17.2 million.
"Our business is mainly related to the Italian construction sector. If real estate and infrastructural projects do not restart, Alfa Acciai will be faced with big problems," said senior officials of the company. Currently, Alfa Acciai is operating at 50 percent capacity, and production activities are mainly concentrated on weekends at night, taking advantage of the lower cost of electricity at that time. Also, operations at the workshop are being stopped for one week every month.
Meanwhile, exports are unable to provide support for the business of Alfa Acciai, since the Turkish and Spanish steelmakers are more competitive than their Italian counterparts, due to the higher costs of labor, energy and scrap facing the latter.