Australian flat steel producer BlueScope expects its preliminary H2 FY2021 (January – June 2021) earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to be around $530mn, exceeding the earlier predictions of $475mn.
The company is uncertain about spot steel prices in H2 given the volatile macro economic factors that are affected by COVID-19 although the spot steel price in North America and Asia have been higher in in January compared to the previous half.
Based on the company’s preliminary results for the first half of 2021 (July – December 2020), BlueScope believed that Australian steel products have seen better demand in the construction and distribution segment, leading to the strongest sales volume in the past 10 years of 1.17mn mt.