Russia’s fourth largest steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) saw US GAAP 2011 net profit grow eight percent year-on-year to $1.358 billion, while revenue rose 40 percent to $11.729 billion as the firm sold a record 12 million tons of steel.
Fourth quarter 2011 net profit fall 32 percent on the previous quarter to $153 million, the firm said on Tuesday.
Revenue for the quarter edged down eight percent to $3.053 billion due to “the overall deterioration in the steel market as the European financial crisis hit a new peak in the second half of 2011 and the Russian segment’s costs grew 20 percent.”
NLMK’s sales grew five percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to $3.552 billion.
EBITDA fell 20 percent in October-December 2011 to $383 million, while EBITDA margin slipped to 13 percent from 14 percent in July-September last year.
The company’s net debt increased 14 percent to $3.355 billion and net debt/EBITDA ratio went up to 1.47 from 1.23.
Investment for this year is estimated at $1.7 billion.
“In 2012 we plan to increase crude steel output to over 15 million tons on the back of incremental capacity growth,” NLMK said “In the midterm we expect a gradual improvement in our financial performance as we improve the operating efficiency at the newly launched facilities in Russia and reduce costs at our international assets, as well as strengthen upstream vertical integration at our domestic operations.”