Siderar turns loss to US$94mn profit

Argentine flat steelmaker Siderar posted a net profit of 270mn pesos (US$94.1mn at current rates) in the first nine months of the year, compared with a loss of 437,892 pesos in the same period last year. Sales revenues came in at 2.03bn pesos (US$707mn) in the January-September period, up from 1.85bn pesos in 9M02. Ebitda totaled 789mn pesos for the nine-month period, up from 497mn, and Ebitda margins stood at 39% compared to 27%. The Buenos Aires-based company said it sold 1.70Mt of steel in the first nine months of 2003, up on 1.57Mt in the year-ago period. Domestic sales rose 63% to 884,000t and exports were off 21% at 814,000t. Siderar said the decline in exports was explained largely by fewer slab sales abroad and recovery in the domestic market. Controlled by the Techint group, Siderar is Argentina's largest integrated steelmaker with installed capacity of 2.2Mt/y.