European steel industry still heavily loss-making and Nordic steel companies aren’t faring a whole lot better. Their fourth quarter results were brutal and so far there has been little improvement in market conditions during Q1. Below is an illustration just how weak a market we are in. The numbers are from Q4 2012.
Outokumpu (OMXH: OUT1V)
Operating result -76 million
Net result -309 million
SSAB (OMX: SSAB A)
Operating result of -665 million SEK (-80 million €)
Loss after financial items of -842 million (-101M€)
Net result of -227 (-27M€)
Rautaruukki (OMXH: RTRKS)
Operating profit -58 million
Net result -56 million
Scana Industrier (OSE: SCI)
Operating result -99 million NOK (-13M€)
Net profit of -132 million NOK (-17.5M€)
Now granted some of these numbers contain one-off items and at least the former three had positive operating cash flow. SSAB and Rautaruukki plan to pay a small dividend of 1 SEK and EUR 0.20 respectively. Out of the said companies SSAB has been making decent money in the United States as of late and New Outokumpu does begin to have a presence in other geographies as well but it is further away and Rautaruukki is even later to the party. Even still the Nordic industry is content to hear that EU might be considering protective measures and other types of support mainly due to companies to the south struggling even more.
Scana Industrier has nearly burned out its recent stock offering and looks to be in a bad shape. Outokumpu hinted it may have to tap into equity financing once more as well unless it finds other ways to strengthen balance sheet. It updated on the much anticipated Terni mill sale couple weeks back, merely stating that numerous parties have expressed interest.
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