Steel Mills

Record Year, Q4 Results for SSAB Group in 2021

Written by David Schollaert

January 28, 2022

Swedish steelmaker SSAB saw its best full-year earnings in company history in 2021 with all divisions posting record results thanks to high steel prices, the company said.

SSABSSAB Americas’ revenue was $6.153 billion Swedish krona ($650 million USD) in the fourth quarter of 2021, up 78% compared to the same year-ago quarter thanks to higher steel prices and contributing to full-year revenue of $20.68 billion SEK ($2.19 billion USD), according to financial results posted Friday, Jan. 28.

Compared with the third quarter of 2021, earnings were up $317 million SEK ($33.54 million USD), also driven by higher prices. Earnings were partially offset by lower shipments, down 27% year on year to 413,000 tons, due to planned maintenance outages.

Prices for heavy plate in the U.S. rose somewhat during the first part of the fourth quarter before leveling out. Demand for heavy plate in North America was good through the fourth quarter, while inventory levels at distributors were still low, the company said.

In all, SSAB Group saw all-time high net earnings of $14.66 billion Swedish krona ($1.55 billion USD) on revenue of $95.891 billion SEK ($10.14 billion USD) for the full year.

The results are thanks in part to fourth-quarter earnings of $5.458 billion SEK ($58 million USD) on revenue of $27.337 billion SEK ($2.89 billion USD) versus $16.988 billion SEK ($1.8 billion USD) during the same year-ago quarter.

Thanks to the historic result, SSAB Group is debt free, with net cash of 2.3 billion SEK ($24 million USD), the company said.

Despite some uncertainty due to a shortage of components at several downstream customers, and bottlenecks in logistics chains, the steelmaker said the outlook for the first quarter of 2022 remains positive.

“We see good underlying demand for plate in North American, especially for infrastructure purposes,” SSAB President and CEO Martin Lindqvist said. “The spread between hot rolled coil and plate should overtime normalize. We expect good demand and results to continue.”

SSAB Americas’ shipments are expected to be higher during Q1 2022 compared to the prior quarter, whereas prices are expected to be stable, company executives said.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com

 

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. Based in CRU’s Pittsburgh office, David can be reached at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

Read more from David Schollaert

Latest in Steel Mills

SDI bullish on Sinton as capacity utilization passes 80% threshold

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) remains upbeat about progress at its Sinton, Texas, sheet mill and expects it to be profitable in the upcoming months. “The Sinton team gained considerable momentum in the last two months—running above 80% capacity—and they are doing even better in January, with expectations to reach profitability in the coming months,” SDI Chairman and CEO Mark Millett said in a Q4’24 earnings call on Thursday.