Salzgitter recorded in the first quarter its best quarterly results since 2008. This performance is attributable to the results of the Strip Steel, Trading and Technology units, but to a large extent also to in-house measures implemented in 2013.

External sales reached €2.354 billion ($2.584 billion) in Q1, up €485 million on Q1 2016. The business units Strip Steel, Plate/Section Steel, and Trading made major contributions to this result, above all due to better average selling prices for steel products, with the other business units also reporting growth. Pre-tax profit advanced to €77.1m, up from €3.1m. Earnings after taxes stood at €48.7m, compared with €1m a year earlier.

The group is sticking to the forecast for the full year of a pre-tax profit of between €125m and €175m, as reported by Kallanish at the beginning of May. The forecast assumes the absence of renewed recessionary developments. Instead, “…we anticipate that the economies of our fiercely contested main markets will continue to firm up in the current financial year,” the group states.

The group underlines the considerable range the pre-tax result might have. The dimensions of the range become clear if one considers that, with around 12 million tonnes/year of steel products sold by its units, an average €25 change in the margin per tonne is sufficient to cause a variation in the annual result of more than €300m, it explains.