Germany-based steelmaker Salzgitter Group has announced its financial results for 2015, stating that against the backdrop of a persistently challenging environment in the European steel market that deteriorated continuously over the course of the year due to the massive rise in Chinese imports at dumping prices, it generated a positive pre-tax profit of €12.6 million for the first time since 2011.
In 2015, Salzgitter recorded a net loss of €45.5 million, compared to a net loss of €31.9 million in 2014, while the company's sales revenues amounted to €8.62 billion, down 4.7 percent year on year due to the downturn in average selling prices for steel products.
For the current year, Salzgitter expects its sales virtually stable at around €8.6 billion, and an operating pre-tax result around breakeven, depending on when antidumping measures take effect and net of non-recurrent expenses for specific measures aimed at structural improvements within the company. As in recent years, opportunities and risks from currently unforeseeable trends in selling prices, input material prices and capacity level developments, as well as changes in the currency parity, may considerably affect performance in the course of the financial year 2016, the company stated.