Gianpietro Benedetti Chairman & CEO Danieli & Co reporting on the company results for FY 2011/12 (to June 30th) at Danieli’s headquarters in Buttrio, Udine, northern Italy said the results would have been significantly better had the company not had to temporarily shut down some construction sites in North Africa and the Middle East and without the negative impact of some unforeseen job handling extra costs in Asia.

The company reported a group EBITDA of €312.8M on a revenue of €3081.1M down 11% and 1% respectively on the year earlier. Of this, plantmaking took the largest hit with EBITDA down 26% while Danieli’s steelmaking division, special steels producer ABS, saw an increase of 46%. Net profit for the plantmaking division fell 10% to €155.5M while steelmaking saw an increase of 77% to €34.9M.

Looking ahead, Mr Benedetti said that in FY2012/13, results for the plant making sector are expected to be in line with this year's, while the steel making sector is likely to see a decline because of a weak European steel market where he anticipates a 10-15% drop in demand while demand elsewhere in the world is expected to remain stable.

The back-order intake for 2011/12 stands at €3225M, a figure that is forecast to be similar in 2012/13 (€3100-3300M) of which plantmaking will account for €2700-2900M and steelmaking €150-200M.