Indonesia-based steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel (Persero) Tbk (PT KS) has announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, reporting a net loss of $62.84 million, increasing from the net loss of $42.92 million in the same period of 2015. In the first quarter, Krakatau Steel’s sales revenues decreased by 11.6 percent year on year to $311.2 million.
In the first quarter this year, Krakatau Steel’s steel sales increased by 32.3 percent year on year to 572,540 mt, including 292,209 mt of hot rolled coil, 52,747 mt of wire rod and 19,643 mt of steel profile.
The company stated that, despite the improvement in sales volume, selling prices are still low due to the excess supply of steel in the world during the past year.
Meanwhile, Krakatau Steel also stated that it continues to improve its production capacity by establishing its hot strip mill No. 2, which will have a hot rolled steel production capacity of 1.5 million mt per year and will start operations in the first quarter of 2019, and by constructing a rebar plant through its joint venture PT Krakatau Osaka Steel, which has an output capacity of 500,000 mt per year and will start production at the end of this year.