Acerinox, the Spanish multinational dedicated to the manufacture of stainless steel, obtained an attributable profit (the profit that is directly attributable to the parent company in the group) of 162 million euros in the first nine months of the year, which represents 53 % less than the profits of 348 million euros in the same period of 2023.
As reported by the company today in a statement, this slowdown has been mainly due to the contraction in demand in the US and Europe, which are its main markets, and the five-month strike it endured at its plant in the Cadiz town of Los Barrios. It must be remembered, until June that facility was inoperative due to workers’ opposition to the signing of an agreement that included modification of shifts and staff layoffs.
After communicating these results, Acerinox shares fell by just over 3% at the opening of the Stock Market, to 8.8 euros per share. After the reopening of the Cádiz plant, production recovered 21% compared to the previous quarter (until reaching 491,000 tons), but the company’s results so far this year will necessarily be conditioned by this strike, in addition to the already mentioned drop in demand for steel in Europe and the US.
The gross operating result (Ebitda) in the first nine months of the year reached 350 million euros, 42% less than in the same period last year; In the third quarter alone, for its part, it was 114 million euros, 9% lower than the second quarter and 22% lower than the third quarter of 2023. The turnover, for its part, was 4,088 million euros , which represents a drop of 20% compared to the same period in 2023.
An end of the year of uncertainty
The company’s forecast, based on steel demand estimates and current geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties, is that in the short term there will be no recovery in profits, although they expect EBITDA for the last quarter to be higher than that of the third by the sale of Bahru Stainless (a company plant in Malaysia).
However, the debt at the closing of the company was in the 453 million euros (+261 million compared to June), a rebound that the company has justified by the greater operating working capital, the payment of the dividend (154 million euros in the first nine months), the payments for investments of 126 million euros and negative conversion differences amounting to 71 million of euros due to the depreciation of the dollar.
The CEO of Acerinox, Bernardo Velázquez, celebrated in the statement that “The strength of our American subsidiary, North American Stainless, and the high-performance alloys division have allowed the Group to present an EBITDA of 114 million euros in the third quarter, despite the complicated market conditions for stainless steels.”
At the same time, he has also highlighted the acquisition process of the American company Haynes as “a key step in our diversification strategy” which protects the group from exposure to the economic cycle and market fluctuations.
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