Luxembourg-headquartered global stainless steel producer Aperam SA, which was spun off by ArcelorMittal and separately listed in 2011, has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2017.
In the fourth quarter, Aperam's net profit totaled $121 million, compared to a net profit of $58 million recorded in the same period of 2016. In the given quarter, the company's sales amounted to $1.3 billion, rising 23.7 percent, both year on year. In the fourth quarter of 2017, Aperam’s steel shipments increased by 8.3 percent year on year to 495,000 mt. Aperam's EBITDA increased by 6.8 percent year on year to $311 million.
In 2017, the company’s net profit increased by 68.7 percent to $361 million, while its sales amounted to $5.05 billion, up 18.4 percent, mainly due to higher stainless steel selling prices, both compared to the previous year. Aperam’s steel shipments increased by one percent year on year to 1.93 million mt in the given year. The company’s EBITDA rose by 24.5 percent year on year to $320 million.
Aperam stated that it will invest in a new cold rolling and annealing and pickling line at its Genk plant (Belgium) in order to further facilitate transformation of its business with state-of-the-art modern lines using the latest technology, to enlarge its product range to the most demanding applications, to improve lead-time and flexibility to the market demand, to increase efficiency and cost competitiveness of its assets, and to continuously enhance health, safety and environmental impact.