Krakatau?s first-half loss shrinks on higher steel price

Petromindo|Khalsa

IDX-listed steel maker PT Krakatau Steel Tbk said that net loss in the first semester of this year significantly contracted to $56.70 million from $87.5 million in the corresponding quarter of last year.

Krakatau President Director Mas Wigrantoro Roes Setiyadi said in a recent statement that although sales volume during the first six-month period of this year declined to 841,101 tons due to overhaul of its HSM plant and the recent Islamic Idul Fitri holiday, the company saw steel price rising from $520 per ton in January to $629 per ton at the end of June this year.

As a result, the company managed to book an operatin profit of $4.45 million. The company did not provide comparative figure. It also said that EBITDA margin improved from 12.57 percent to 12.89 percent.

Mas Wigrantoro is optimistic about this year?s financial performance as demand for steel products will continue to rise amid massive infrastructure projects being developed by the government. He pointed out that one of the construction projects that would support steel demand is the Jakarta-Cikampek II elevated toll road project, which requires up to 200,000 tons of steel for the next 10 months. As per May, the company has supplied 14,353 tons of steel to the project.

Krakatau controls about 44 percent of the domestic market share of hot-rolled coil and 28 percent of the cold-rolled coil steel products.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak