German steelmaker Salzgitter said on 13 November that it expects the market to remain persistently weak in the fourth quarter due to reduced demand and reluctance to invest, particularly in Europe and Germany, with the short-term global economic outlook being more bearish.
German foreign trade in particular will be affected by weak global economic growth, Salzgitter said in its nine-month results statement.
"While the sector is still supported by a high order backlog, incoming orders are on a downward trend. The weak construction sector and domestic economy, resulting from high inflation rates and rising interest rates, have been a burden on the steel sector in particular," Salzgitter said.
Salzgitter produced 4.4 million metric tonnes of crude steel in the first half of the year, compared with 4.8 million metric tonnes in the same period last year. The production loss due to the restart of Blast Furnace A in August was largely offset by slab stockpiling, slab deliveries from group companies and the restart of Blast Furnace C, it said.
Salzgitter's total sales in the first nine months of the year decreased to EUR 8.4 billion from EUR 9.8 billion in the same period last year due to lower shipment volumes and lower average selling prices for many rolled steel products. The company nevertheless assessed the results as "satisfactory", thanks in particular to the performance of the Steelmaking and Steel Processing business units in the first half of the year and the strong performance of the Technology Business Unit.
Gunnar Groebler, CEO of Salzgitter, said: "In a time of economic and political turmoil, we continue to work full steam ahead to rapidly implement our SALCOS® decarbonisation programme. In order to secure and accelerate the transformation of our company, we still need a clear commitment from politicians to Germany as a place to do business and a resilient core industry."
Comments
No comment yet.