The strip steel and trading business units in particular made major contributions to the profit improvement, the firm said.

The technology business unit also significantly increased its pre-tax profit.

Its fiscal 2021 consolidated result was €586.1 million compared to a loss of €273.9 million the year before.

Basic profit per share was €10.74 euros compared to a loss of €5.13 in the prior year.

This brings return on capital employed to 16.2%.

External sales increased to €9.77 billion from €7.09 billion, on the back of higher shipment volumes compared with the previous year, and due to the significant improvement in the average selling prices of most rolled steel products, the firm said.

The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board will submit a proposal to the AGM to distribute a dividend of €0.75 per share, which is the highest since 2008.

For fiscal 2022, Salzgitter Group is projecting an increase in sales to just under €11 billion, a pre-tax profit of between €600 million and €750 million, and a return on capital employed that is around the previous year’s level.