REVENUES at one of the driving forces of the Slovak economy, the U.S. Steel Košice facility, have almost returned to their pre-crisis level. After recording a 40-percent decline in revenues in 2009, to about €1.9 billion, the company posted a revenue increase of over 39 percent last year to €2.621 billion.
Operating profit last year jumped by over €110 million to reach €133 million, while taxable profit rose by €82 million to €96 million, the SITA newswire reported.
According to the company’s annual financial statement, the significant improvement was due to better use of capacity as a result of recovery in demand after the global financial and economic crisis, and was sufficient to balance increased prices paid by the company for raw materials.
Output increased from 3 million tonnes of pig iron in 2009 to 3.6 million tonnes last year and steel production jumped from 3.5 million tonnes in 2009 to 4.3 million tonnes in 2010.
The company made capital investments that totalled €105 million last year.
U.S. Steel Košice expects moderate growth in demand and further improvement of the economic environment in 2011 but added that this is still not certain.
The share capital of U.S. Steel Košice was €839.4 million as of December 31, 2010. The company employed an average of 11,129 employees last year, down from 11,465 in 2009.
U.S. Steel Košice focuses on manufacturing products for the automotive, packaging, electrotechnical, consumer and construction industries.
The steel mill in Košice dates back to the 1960s. The original Východoslovenské Železiarne (VSŽ) became part of U. S. Steel in 2000.
