Bursa-based Turkish steelmaker Cemtas Celik Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S (Cemtas) has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the current year.
Accordingly, Cemtas has reported a net profit of TRY 13.79 million ($3.87 million) for the given quarter, compared to a net profit of TRY 5.93 million in the first quarter of the previous year. In the first quarter this year, the sales revenue of the company amounted to TRY 98.96 million ($27.77 million), rising 49.9 percent year on year, while the company registered an operating profit of TRY 19.57 million ($5.49 million), increasing from the operating profit of TRY 6.67 million recorded in the same period of 2016.
In the first three months of the current year, Cemtas' steel billet output totaled 42,853 mt, increasing by eight percent, while its rolled steel output rose by five percent to 40,616 mt, both year on year.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter, the company’s sales to the domestic market increased by 19 percent year on year to 22,787 mt, while its export sales fell by four percent to 15,992 mt compared to the same period last year.
According to Cemtas, in 2015 Turkish mills produced finished steel from imported slab and billet instead of producing their own semi-finished steel. However, in the first quarter this year there was a sudden increase in scrap prices as producers chose to produce slab and billet themselves. High steel demand led to unexpected increases both in steel prices and scrap prices, Cemtas noted.