Rautarurukki does not expect to grow demand for steel in Europe over the next few years

Speaking today at a briefing at Helsinki, the general director of the largest Finnish metallurgical group Rautarukki Sakari Taminen said that his company does not expect a significant rise in demand from European consumers for steel over the next few years.

Commenting on the record profit made by his enterprise in the third quarter, Mr. Taminen said that "improvements occur mainly due to internal measures."

Rautarukki received 31 million euros of net profit in the third quarter, improving the previous result by exactly one million. The market reacted to the growth of the company's shares by 8.3 percent.

European metallurgy is fighting with the fading consequences of the global financial crisis, says Taminen, a slow increase in prices and the growing stream of Asian imports forces us to look for new ways to optimize expenses. The main competitor to Rautarukki in Europe Thyssenkrupp was forced to resort to a reduction in several thousand jobs.

Rautarukkki has lowered its own sales forecast for a year to 2.5 billion euros from 2.6 billion euros previously presented. In the third quarter, sales decreased by 5 percent compared to APPG-2012 and amounted to 592 million euros.

The company said that today it will take measures to save 30 million euros. This will achieve the total optimization of costs for 130 million euros from the beginning of 2012.