Turkish rebar producer Izmir Demir Çelik Sanayi A.Ş. (IDC) has announced its financial results for 2018.
Accordingly, in 2018 IDC registered a net loss of TRY 362 million ($67 million), compared to a net profit of TRY 9.36 million in 2017. In the same year, the company's sales revenues increased by 56.7 percent year on year to TRY 4.67 billion ($864.8 million). IDC recorded an operating profit of TRY 784,300 ($145,240) in 2018, compared to an operating profit of TRY 119.2 million in the previous year.
IDC said that last year its steel billet output decreased by seven percent to 1.24 million mt, while its rebar production totaled 977,629 mt, rising seven percent, both year on year. Besides, 307,593 mt of rebar was also produced by the company's contractual partners in the given period, with a year-on-year decrease of three percent. In the given year, the company produced 265,636 mt of steel sections, up 20 percent year on year.
IDC chairman Halil Şahin stated that low domestic demand caused by foreign exchange fluctuations and rising protectionism in the global markets led to a contraction in the Turkish steel industry last year. Considering that raw material prices and other costs of production have not shrunk accordingly, the outlook for the Turkish steel sector in 2019 does not look optimistic.