MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russian leading steelmaker Evraz, part-owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, posted an IFRS net loss of $335 million for 2012 compared with a net profit of $453 million in the previous year, the company said on Thursday, citing weaker demand and falling prices.
The figure was below a consensus forecast of analysts polled by Prime news agency, who predicted the company’s loss for the year at $24.6 million.
Evraz’s revenue for the year fell by 10.2 percent to $14.726 billion, which was above the analysts’ forecast of $14.285 billion while EBITDA plummeted by 30.6 percent to $2.012 billion compared with a forecast of $1.966 billion.
“The year 2012 was characterised by challenging trading conditions for the global steelmaking industry,” Evraz CEO Alexander Frolov was quoted as saying in a statement.
“Although some recovery was seen during the first half of the year, there was a significant deterioration in sentiment towards the year-end. As a result, steel and raw material markets remained highly volatile with global steel industry capacity experiencing substantial underutilization.”
The Evraz Board of Directors has recommended not to pay a final dividend for 2012 “due to the deterioration in the market environment, and consequently our performance in H2 2012,” the company said.
