Erdemir Group’s nine-month-through-September steel output remained roughly in line with the previous year, while sales declined slightly, the company says.
The firm’s output of crude steel across its two principal mills totalled 6.5 million tonnes, flat on-year. The Eregli plant’s crude steel output continued to increase after a series of blast furnace and other equipment repairs last year, gaining 22% on-year at 2.74mt. The Isdemir plant meanwhile reduced production by -11% to 3.75mt.
The group’s crude steel capacity utilisation was up 1 percentage point on-year at 91% in January-September, Kallanish notes.
Output of flat products in the first nine months declined marginally, by -1.5% on-year to 5.42mt, while long products output gained 2.1% at 0.77mt. Iron ore and pellet output also increased, adding 9.7% on-year at 1.54mt.
Nine-month sales of flat products declined -1.4% on-year to 5.4mt, with domestic sales volumes rising 1% to 4.4mt. Long products domestic sales rose 21% to 726,000t. Export sales volumes remained at 18% of total sales, totalling 1.1mt. Exports of flat products totalled 1.04mt.
Erdemir’s consolidated January-September sales revenue increased 4.4% on-year to TRY 21.94 billion ($2.76 billion), while profit halved at TRY 1.55 billion. Profitability slid -2.9pp to 19.7%.
The company increased its capital expenditure in the first nine months of the year by 72.8% on-year to $216 million, it says.