Kloeckner & Co's largest German metal engineer expects a sharp decrease in profit and negative profitability this year. This was announced by the financial director of the company Marcus Kitter.
“To achieve a positive result, we must be very strong in the second half of the year. It is simply unthinkable,” Marcus Kitter said in an interview with Boersen-Zeitung.
The fall of demand for steel from the automotive industry and the construction sector of the EU, coupled with increased competition from China, had a restraining effect on prices and did not allow achieving positive profitability. In addition, according to the financial director of Kloeckner, the prices of excess capacity for the production of steel in Europe itself press on prices.
"The situation simply does not improve. I think Kloeckner will finish the 2013 with a pure loss," the financial analyst from Dusseldorf Mark Gabriel said by phone.
Meanwhile, the company will return to profit in 2014, after the end of the restructuring processes, Kitter says.
The current state of affairs in Kloeckner for its shareholders became unexpected, as they counted on improving the situation until the end of 2013 and increasing steel prices in Europe, which unfortunately has not yet happened.
The largest German metal trader Kloeckner is waiting for losses this year
|
Azovpromstal® 14 July 2013 г. 13:00 |
