Steel Mills
Klöckner's Sales Tumble on Lower Metal Prices
Written by Laura Miller
May 3, 2023
Lower metal prices resulted in a 15% year-on-year decline in first-quarter sales for Duisburg, Germany-based service center group Klöckner & Co.
Klöckner, which has a large presence in the US, had warned of lower metals prices in its Q4 earnings report.
Q1 sales still amounted to €2.08 billion million (US$2.29 billion), but earnings fell into the red, mainly due to the “implementation of a hub structure in France to support further growth,” the company said in its Q1 earnings report.
“We made a very good start to the new year, despite the ongoing challenging environment,” commented Klöckner CEO Guido Kerkhoff.
“Although the economic environment is expected to remain challenging, macroeconomic conditions have further improved compared to the second half of 2022,” the company noted.
Through the use its proprietary Nexigen® PCF Algorithm, Klöckner said it is now able to calculate the carbon footprint for almost all of its ~200,000 products.
With this new service, “we are tangibly helping our customers to achieve their decarbonization goals,” Kerkhoff said.
Working to reduce its own carbon emissions, Klöckner recently added to its logistics fleet its first all-electric truck, supplied by Daimler Trucks.
The service center group said its proprietary AI solution, Kloeckner Assistant, handled sales of €280 million in Q1.
By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com
Laura Miller
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