The Slovak plant of the U. S. Steel group, U.S. Steel Košice, closed last year with a net profit of €27.66 million. The company ended 2011 in
the red when its losses climbed to €24.77 million, the SITA newswire wrote.
According to U.S. Steel Košice’s annual report, sales of the company dropped from €2.605 billion in 2011 to almost €2.48 billion last year.
“The improvement of economic performance for 2012 against 2011 reflects the influence of lower prices of raw materials and an increase in the volume of orders that were partly offset by a drop in sales prices and an increase of energy prices," the firm commented, as quoted by SITA. U.S. Steel Košice produced 3.5 million tons of pig iron last year and 4 million tons of slabs. The steelmaker had considered leaving Košice due to the end of its tax holiday, growing energy costs and stricter environmental regulations. The company is obliged to rebuild three coal-fired boilers to propel its power plant’s turbines by 2016, in compliance with measures introduced by Brussels. The Slovak government and U.S. Steel signed a memorandum on the steelmaker’s continued presence in the eastern-Slovak metropolis. The government promised the company a reduction in energy and environmental fees.
U.S. Steel Košice was set up after U.S. Steel Corporation took over the metallurgical plant, VSŽ (Eastern-Slovak Ironworks), in June 2000. Together with its affiliations, the company is one of leading manufacturers of flat-rolled products in Europe, supplied chiefly to the automotive, engineering and electro-technical industries. The main business line of U.S. Steel Košice is the production of steel, flat-rolled steel products, spiral welded pipes and radiators. On the whole, it employs approximately 11,000 workers.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
