Salzgitter AG expects its sales for 2020 to drop significantly given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business and projects the cost of raw materials, precious metal prices, and exchange rates to impact its overall results.
The group also announced that it has successfully produced low CO2 green steel slab at its Peine Steel mill with a 75pc less CO2 emission compared to conventional production. This environmentally-friendly steel can be put to use for vehicle production, construction, and various industrial applications, Salzgitter said in a statement.
The company is now working on a project called SALCOS- Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking to help reduce CO2 emissions by almost 95pc.
The firm’s crude steel production in the first nine months of the year declined to 4.3mn mt from 5mn mt in January-September 2019 and fell to1.3mn mt in Q3 2020 from 1.6mn mt in the same quarter last year.
The German steelmaker’s sales in the January-September period dropped to €5.2bn ($6.16bn) from €6.6bn in the same nine-month period in 2019 while its sales in the third quarter fell to €1.6bn from €2.1bn in Q3 2019.
The firm’s EBITDA declined to €35.5mn in the first nine-month of 2020 from €351.9mn during the same year-ago period while its loss in Q3 2020 deepened to €14.2mn compared to €1.7mn in Q3 2019.
(€1=$1.18)