Qatar Steel's sales increased by 6% and profits by 3% to reach $354 million, but it faced a net loss of $24 billion.
The company’s production of crude steel decreased by 9.5% during the first quarter of 2020, reaching 572 thousand tons.
But it faced a loss, as it represents the largest decline in crude steel production among the Gulf countries due to the decline in oil prices and the outbreak of the Corona virus. Therefore, Qatar Steel is determined to review the strategy for the coming period to confront the difficulties.
In general, Qatar Steel was able to benefit from the situation and was able to export quantities of value-added steel to the Asian region despite the spread of the virus.
Prices improved by 8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, which led to an improvement in net losses by 28% during the reporting period.
In the second quarter of 2020, the company has already begun to take some measures to overcome the challenges and weak demand, especially in global markets. Including restoring the volume of production operations for the local market to 0.8 million tons of rebar.