22.7.2005
Flexible production and sales activities of VÍTKOVICE STEEL have resulted in very good financial results of the company for the first half of 2005. When compared with the same period last year, the pre-tax profit for the first six months of this year increased more than five times from 335 026 thousand crowns in the first half of 2004 to 1 818 298 thousand crowns this year.
Also sales from own products for the first six months of this year increased by more than 45 % when compared with the first half last year, i.e., from 5 512 799 thousand crowns to 8 020 880 thousand crowns.
VÍTKOVICE STEEL noted very good results also in an important financial parameter, i.e., value added which increased to 2 304 000 thousand crowns, which is an increase of 169 % when compared with the first half last year when this figure was 854 382 thousand crowns. „Although after the period of boom, the steel industry has been currently passing through a mild recession, the top management of VÍTKOVICE STEEL makes maximum effort to achieve good results also in the second half of this year in which the situation on the market is getting much tougher,“ said Dr. Ing. Jiří Chuchro, member of BOD and CFO in VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a.s.
VÍTKOVICE STEEL, with 99 % share on the basic capital owned by Osinek since 2002, was the last Czech government owned company. On Wednesday July 13, 2005, the Czech government decided to sell the 99 % share in VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a.s., to a Russian group Evraz, which offered 7.05 billion crowns. This company promised to invest another 2.5 billion to the development of the company and 800 million to the development of the region. VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a.s., currently has 1600 employees; 1200 employees work in the key operations – some 400 in the steel shop, 800 in the rolling mills. The company produces steel and steel products (heavy plates, heavy and medium sections, and cut shapes). In the heavy plate area the company is one of the leading European producers and in the Czech Republic the company is the dominant producer of these plates. The company produces also sheet piles. VÍTKOVICE STEEL is an exclusive producer of sheet piles on the domestic market, part of the production is exported.
