Bulgaria's Alcomet swings to 9-mo non-cons net loss

The weak performance resulted from a 41% annual drop in revenue to 345.6 million levs in the January-September period, Alcomet said in an interim financial statement earlier this week.

Alcomet's expenses also significantly decreased, to 346.5 million levs from 551.6 million levs a year earlier. Costs for raw materials fell by 48% on the year to 232.1 million levs, while costs for hired services shrank by 31% to 13.8 million levs. Salary expenses went up to 27.9 million levs from 25.5 million levs.

In the context of geopolitical instability and high inflation, many of the sectors with increased consumption of aluminium products are in stagnation. This has affected the pace of inventory turnover and by consequence, the volume of new orders, Alcomet noted. As a result, over the nine months of 2023, the company saw a decrease in total sales of 38.2%.

Sales of extruded products went down by 4.3% on the year to 20,100 million tonnes, while sales of rolled products dropped by over 38% to 23.299 mt.

The company's output slipped by almost 30% year-on-year to 40,224 mt in the January-September period. The volume of rolled products went down to 21,556 mt from 37,425 mt a year earlier, whereas extruded products output edged down to 18,668 mt from 19,861 mt.

The automotive industry is in a relatively good condition, but new projects are being delayed due to their lengthy implementation and integration into regular production, Alcomet also said. The decline in sales of standard and special profiles is 4.3%, and 35.9% for painted profiles. Meanwhile, newly launched production capacities for profile anodisation have led to a 14% increase in sales of those products.

Germany remained Alcomet's biggest market in the first nine months of 2023 with a 20.6% share of all sales, followed by Poland with 16% and Italy with 13.1%

Based in Shumen, northeastern Bulgaria, Alcomet makes household, technical and container foils, sheets and strips, as well as standard and customised profiles.

Shares in Alcomet last closed at 7.55 levs on the Sofia bourse on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalisation of 135.5 million levs.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)