Salzgitter In Q3 Loss Of Euro67 Million

GEORGE FREY

FRANKFURT (AP) — German steelmaker Salzgitter AG reported a loss for the third quarter Thursday due to a sharp drop in steel demand and sales amid the economic downturn.

The company, based in the town of the same name, said it lost euro67 million ($101 million) in the July-September period compared with net income of euro252 million in the third quarter a year ago.

Revenue for the third quarter fell 47 percent to euro1.8 billion from euro3.4 billion a year ago.

Salzgitter, Germany's second largest steelmaker after ThyssenKrupp AG, predicted income for the year as a whole will be satisfactory, but not at the record level of 2008. In 2008, the company reported net income of euro667 million on revenue of euro12.5 billion.

"We anticipate that the European steel market will continue to stabilize moderately, to varying degrees depending on the product group," for the rest of the year, Salzgitter said in its report.

It noted, however, that the "recovery is fragile and might come to a halt if there is a renewed incidence of an oversupply in the market as a result of the reactivation of temporarily unused capacity."