Steel weakness depresses operating profit of ThyssenKrupp
May 15.05.2012, XNUMX Düsseldorf - ThyssenKrupp expects a significant decline in operating profit due to the flagging steel business in the current fiscal year.
The company is targeting special-interest earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in the mid three-digit million euro range for 2011 / 12 (end of September), ThyssenKrupp announced Tuesday. In the past fiscal year, the steel cooker had retracted some 1,8 billion euros. From January to the end of March, CEO Heinrich Hiesinger also suffered losses in the European steel business, while in America the new steel mills continued to write losses.
"Overall, we are assuming that we have bottomed out in terms of earnings," said Hiesinger. In the continued business - i.e. without the stainless steel subsidiary Inoxum, which is about to be sold to Outokumpu - the adjusted EBIT shrank to 134 million euros from 435 million euros in the second quarter. ThyssenKrupp brought in 217 million euros in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, the group is aiming for a “moderate increase” compared to the first half of the year.
From the adjusted figures, the company deducts sales results and expenses for restructuring. Unadjusted and including Inoxum, ThyssenKrupp posted a loss of around one billion euros in the first half of the year. "Overall, the report reads very disappointingly," said one trader. The share came under pressure before the market.
THYSSENKRUPP SOLD IRON COTTON WAUPACA
The steel industry around world market leader ArcelorMittal is suffering from slacking demand. Especially in the debt-ridden countries of southern Europe, customers are holding back with orders. At the same time, the excess capacities are putting pressure on prices. At ThyssenKrupp, adjusted EBIT in the European steel business melted to 30 million euros in the second quarter. In the same period of the previous year it was ten times as much. The American steel division posted a loss of 228 million euros - in the previous year, however, the deficit even amounted to 319 million euros.
On the other hand, Hiesinger made headway in the sale of investments. For the US-cast iron subsidiary Waupaca the group at the 14. May signed a purchase agreement with KPS Capital Partners of New York, it said. The negotiations with various interested parties for the sale of the spring and stabilizer business as well as the daughter Tailored Blanks would be continued.
(Reuters)
