Following a highly successful first quarter, Klöckner & Co expects stable to slightly increasing shipments in Q2.
In Q1, the distributor’s shipments came to 1.26 million tonnes, down 2.3% on-year but surging by 13.4% on the preceding quarter. Revenue increased by around 60% on-year to €2.4 billion ($2.5 billion), largely on the back of rising prices. The operating result (Ebitda) adjusted for special effects was €201 million, far above the previous year’s €130m.
Klöckner is optimistic for the current quarter and also the rest of the year, executives said at a conference call on Wednesday monitored by Kallanish. In the long run, it sees demand in Europe good to slightly up in most of its customer groups, and forecasts an increase in orders of 1-3%. In the USA, it sees orders rising even by 3-5%.
Apart from the group’s typical customer sectors, construction, mechanical engineering, energy and automotive, chief executive Guido Kerkhoff agreed that defence could also play an increasing role going forward.
Klöckner highlighted its ambitions amid the steel industry’s transformation to low-carbon steel. It claims that it is the world’s first company to have all its net zero carbon targets recognised in the standard validation process, in accordance with the latest standards of the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Christian Koehl Germany
