ThyssenKrupp’s steel order books bulging

14 May 2004

DUESSELDORF – German steel concern ThyssenKrupp said Friday its order books were bulging thanks to the worldwide surge in demand, with new orders in the second quarter of its fiscal 2004 year jumping by 29 percent.

The company said it took in EUR 4.3 billion worth of new orders in the 1 January-31 March period.

At the same time, pre-tax profits in the quarter rose by an adjusted 19 percent to EUR 138 million. Sales gained 12 percent year-on-year to EUR 3.6 billion in the second quarter.

“Our capacities are no longer able to keep up completely with the explosion-like rise in the volumes desired by our customers,” the company said.

The company said that the huge steel demand posed by China was also affecting raw materials and shipping costs. The costs for coking coal and for shipping had nearly tripled in the quarter compared with a year earlier, ThyssenKrupp said.

However, the strong euro and price increases had helped to cushion the cost pressures, the German steelmaker noted.

With the second-quarter results, ThyssenKrupp’s pre-tax earnings in the first six months of the business year reached EUR 541 million, up 38.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.

New orders in the six-month period were up 12.5 percent to EUR 20.3 billion, while turnover came to EUR 18.5 billion, up 4 percent.

ThyssenKrupp said the figures were keeping the company on course to meet its target of EUR one billion pre-tax profits for the business year ending 30 September, on projected turnover of EUR 38 billion.

DPA

Subject: German news