Argentina's Siderar 2Q earnings up 167.5 pc

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine steel maker Siderar on Tuesday announced that second-quarter earnings jumped 167.5 per cent over the same quarter last year, citing an increase in the price of its raw material inventories.

Siderar SA says its second-quarter earnings rose to 1 bn pesos (US$331 mn) for the April to June period, compared to 379 mn pesos (US$124 mn) in the same period of 2007.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, rose to 484.2 mn pesos (US$159.4 mn), compared to 401.7 mn pesos (US$132.3 mn) in the second quarter of 2007.

"The change was generated principally by the larger results of our holdings, due to the impact a sharp increase in raw material prices had on inventories," the company said in a statement posted at the Buenos Aires stock exchange.

Siderar doesn't announce quarterly revenues. The company had revenues of 1.2 bn pesos (US$375 mn) in the first half of 2008 compared to 944 mn pesos (US$308 mn) in the first half of 2007.

Siderar SA is Argentina's biggest producer of flat-rolled steel and forms part of the international conglomerate Ternium, the largest steel producer in Latin America.