According to reports, Egypt’s largest steel producer Ezz Steel has reported a 316% rise in its nine-month profits to EGP 996.5 million (USD 55.6 million). Profits earlier stood at EGP 239.5 million during the first nine months of 2017.
Sales recorded EGP 30.9 billion (USD 1.72 billion) at the end of September, up from EGP 24.3 billion (USD 1.35 billion) last year. However, during the third quarter of this year, profits fell to EGP 93.5 million (USD 5.21 million) from EGP 318.4 million (17.73 million) during the same period in 2017.
Standalone profits after tax increased to EGP 2.27 billion (USD 0.13 billion) during the January-September 2018 period, compared with EGP 1.4 billion (USD 0.08 billion) during the same period in 2017.
Ezz Steel is one of the biggest steel producers in Egypt & the MENA region, and export its steel products to most of the countries across continents adopting the most advanced steelmaking technology.
The company saw a significant jump in its earnings in the first two quarters of 2018 (Jan-Mar) and continuing the trend Ezz Steel repeated its operational performance in the third quarter of the year, leading to the consolidation of a stable recovery.
However, in the third quarter of 2018, the positive effect of improved performance on the bottom line is hindered by the growing disturbance in the global steel sector, coming from the implementation of trade protection measures.
Egypt has itself imposed anti-dumping duties on rebar imports from China, Turkey and Ukraine for a period of five years with effect from December 2017 which helped the country’s local demand to improve over January-June this year. However, the country has started rebar imports from Saudi Arabia from Jun’18.
Egypt is dependent upon imports to meet its billet requirements. Steel billet import prices in Egypt have fallen slightly over the past week amid poor demand and lower offer prices, while domestic rebar prices were unchanged despite expectations of lower values.
The imported billet prices in Egypt are being heard at USD 475-480 CFR basis whereas rebar prices are unchanged at EGP 12,180 – 12,198/MT (USD 678 – 680/MT).
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