Stalprofil boosts performance despite price correction-related write-downs

Stalprofil expects first-half-of-2022 steel shipments to have risen 12% on-year and revenue to have soared 69% amid volatile steel prices and demand, Kallanish notes.

Prices and demand began to correct downwards from mid-April after skyrocketing in March as buyers make “precautionary” purchases en masse amid supply disruptions caused by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the Polish distributor says.

Distributors’ prices for many steel products returned to pre-Ukraine-war levels at the turn of the second and third quarters, it adds. When calculating Q2 earnings, the firm took into account the ongoing price correction in the steel market. Asset write-downs in Q2, mainly concerning the revaluation of steel inventories to their current market value, slashed PLN 22.7 million ($4.9m) from the company’s forecasted H1 net profit.

Stalprofil’s consolidated revenue, including its pipeline infrastructure segment, rose 47% in H1 to PLN 645.6m ($138.1m), while net profit was up 11% to PLN 61.4m.

The firm will release its full H1 report at the beginning of September.

In 2021, Stalprofil’s steel product sales rose 12% on-year to 207,721 tonnes, with steel structures sales up 9% to 2,216t.

Adam Smith Poland