Ljubljana, 13 September (STA) - The steel manufacturing group SIJ posted EUR 582.1 million in sales revenues in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 3.2% that was mostly the result of lower selling prices and declining demand. Net profit stood at EUR 1.6 million, the group said on Friday.
A drop in selling prices also affected the manufacturer's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which declined by 21% to EUR 42.2 million in the first half of the year, reads the group's unaudited half-year financial report.
Net profit recorded an even bigger fall since the figure went down from EUR 12.7 million in the January-June period in 2023 to EUR 1.6 million in the same period this year.
SIJ reported the H1 net profit figure already in late August, but it did not reveal any other major results at the time.
The selling prices dropped this year "due to lower energy prices ... and reduced demand, which has led customers to push for lower prices". Together with stable raw material input prices this created "a price gap that negatively affected EBITDA and EBITDA margin".
Most of the group's sales revenue, EUR 501.3 million, was generated on foreign markets with its export share increasing to 86.1%. SIJ noted that it has "maintained a stable export share above 80% for an entire decade".
The group's key export markets remain Italy, Germany and other European countries.
Employing some 3,700 workers, SIJ spent EUR 35.8 million on investments in the first half of the year, which is EUR 7.4 million more than in the same period in 2023.
The group expects "the market situation will start to improve in the final quarter of this year, and that demand for steel and steel products in Europe will regain strength". New investments will help it meet the market needs, it added.
