Dutch mining and metallurgical holding with assets in Ukraine Metinvest B.V. (Metinvest), controlled by Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky, reported a net loss of US $ 240 million from its January-June 2020 operations. The company's profitability fell to negative values of “minus” 5%, while in the same period last year, Metinvest made a net profit of USD 408 million with a positive margin of 7%.
Yuri Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest, stated that in the first half of 2020, the company's financial performance was affected by the fall in world steel prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the group's vertical integration, global sales network and our team's rich experience have once again proved their worth.
“We were able to quickly adjust our product portfolio and redistribute sales between markets. As a result, Metinvest was able to benefit from the rapid and robust economic recovery in China in the second quarter of this year, increasing shipments of ore to this market by more than 3 million tonnes. We also resumed sales of steel to this country, selling almost half a million tonnes of semi-finished and finished steel products during the reporting period. Combined with lower costs, the Metals segment has significantly improved its performance, increasing EBITDA by 80% compared to the same period last year. The total EBITDA was USD 715 million, ”said the head of the company.
“Looking ahead, despite the continued uncertainty of the macroeconomic environment and recurring global challenges caused by the pandemic, we believe that Metinvest is able to overcome these difficulties and provide stable results. Taking this opportunity, I would also like to thank our stakeholders for being with us at this time of profound changes, "the top manager summed up.
As reported, Metinvest B.V. in 2019, it reduced its net profit by 3.5 times compared to 2018 - to $ 341 million with a decrease in profitability by 7 percentage points - to 3%. The Dutch holding's revenue fell by 10% to $ 10.757 billion, EBITDA - by 52%, to $ 1.213 billion, while profitability fell by 10 percentage points - to 11% from 21%.
