Otelinox ends 2005 in the red

Special steel producer Otelinox Targoviste, part of the Korean company Samsung”s portfolio, saw losses worth 13.8 million RON (3.8 million euros) in 2005, given a 17% drop in company sales as compared with the previous year. Otelinox saw an almost 8.5 million RON (2.1 million euro) net profit in 2004. Last year”s turnover stood at 124.5 million RON (41.6 million euros) as compared with 168.5 million RON (41.6 million euros) in 2004. Company representatives could not be contacted to comment on these results. Otelinox was faced with a drop in demand for long products and for flat products last year. Insufficient demand, as well as large stocks of steel existing on the market also caused a drop in the sale prices on the domestic market. In addition to that, the company was also affected by the RON”s appreciation against the euro and the dollar, given that an important part of the production is exported. This led to the company cutting its production and implicitly its raw material costs, but personnel expenses increased by about 20%. The price drop of steel touched all major players on the market last year. ZF