Acerinox’s production, net sales and profitability were lower year-on-year in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic impact, the Spain-headquartered stainless steel producer tells Kallanish.
“The sharp reaction to the Covid-19 crisis with cost control along with the good performance of the American subsidiary, NAS, and the integration of VDM have offset the effects of the coronavirus crisis,” the company comments. “The recovery of the stainless steel market, which began in the middle of the fourth quarter, continues. The backlog in all our factories has improved. In the high-performance alloys sector, an increase is perceived and will materialise towards the end of the current quarter.”
Acerinox foresees Q1 Ebitda being slightly higher on-quarter.
Acerinox produced 2.19 million tonnes of crude steel in 2020, down 2% y-o-y. In Q4 alone, output was 614,000t, up 14% on Q3 and 25% more y-o-y. The company explains its better performance in the quarter with the recovery of the global economy, together with the improvement in raw materials prices and lower levels of inventories throughout the supply chain.
2020 cold rolled coil output fell by 13.9% to 1.38mt. Long products output, meanwhile, decreased by 4.2% compared to the previous year to 210,000t.
Acerinox net sales were 2% lower y-o-y at €4.66 billion ($5.62 billion), while the group’s Ebitda was also down 2% to €398m.
