The Company Was Successful Last Year as Profit Exceeded CZK 3 Billion

On Monday, June 24, the General Meeting of Třinecké železárny concluded the year 2018. Despite the difficult situation on the steel market, the Company achieved a profit of CZK 3.33 billion after tax last year. Revenues from the sale of products, services and goods amounted to CZK 40.496 billion. This is CZK 4.637 billion more compared to 2017.

“It's much more than we expected at the beginning of last year. It allows us to strengthen our raw material reserves and provides financial resources for the company's development, investments and employment retention,” said Tomáš Chrenek, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The positive result was also reflected in the extraordinary bonuses for employees already during the last year.

In 2018, Třinecké železárny produced 2.583 million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of approximately 2% compared to the previous year. The best-selling product is wire rod, which accounted for 41.2% of the total sales in 2018 and amounted to 979,000 tonnes, of which 70% was exported. Sales of bars and profiles reached 537,000 tons, and 250,000 tons of rails and rail accessories were sold to the global as well as domestic markets.

Commercial Activities

The US protective measures influenced the situation of steel trade in 2018. However, the situation on the steel market was quite positive last year. “The slight decline in the performance of the automotive industry is likely to be more significant this year. European markets are influenced by the upcoming change in the Emissions Trading Scheme to be post-2020. As a significant cost increase can be expected, we will have to adjust our product portfolio and investment direction to minimize these negative effects,” says Ján Moder, the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Třinecké železárny.

He points out that Třinecké železárny is still able to exploit its production capacity at a time when the excessive capacities are a problem on the world markets. Almost 70% products labelled with three hammers in the circle target to foreign markets. The most important export countries are Germany, Slovakia, Italy and Poland.

Investments

The company invested almost 2 billion Czech Crowns in 2018. The investments were focused on the modernization of the existing equipment, environmental projects and cost reduction. Important ones include the modification of the continuous casting equipment for the new 600 mm format, the desulphurisation of the Sinter Plant, the construction of a new hot blast stove, the new Billet Cleaning Plant and others.

The environmental investments implemented in the last five years have reduced dust emissions to the historically smallest volume of 138 tons in 2018. The most significant projects included the construction of a filtration station on the slag mill and central vacuuming of both Sinter Plants last year. The company continues to invest in a number of other measures that will reduce the impact of industrial activity on the environment.

This year, Třinecké železárny will complete the investments, which include the construction of a second finalizing line, the construction of a ladle furnace for EAF Steel Plant and the modernization of the hot blast stove and others. Their total value will exceed CZK 2.5 billion.

The annual production of Třinecké železárny is about 2.5 million tonnes of steel and its main products include mainly long rolled products –wire rod, steel profiles, special bars, drawn steel, rails, wide steel, seamless tubes and semi-finished products. Třinecké železárny has been the largest producer of crude steel in the Czech Republic in the last 10 years. Over its entire history, Třinecké železárny has produced more than 180 million tonnes of crude steel.

Petra Macková Jurásková
Press Secretary of the Třinecké železárny - Moravia Steel Group
phone: +420 558 535 841
mobile: +420 602 265 738
e-mail: Petra.Mackova@trz.cz