Emirates Steel Arkan (ADX: EMSTEEL) today announced its financial results for the first half of 2023 (H1'23), posting a net profit of AED 280.5 million, as compared to AED 279.9 million in H1'22.

The H1'23 performance demonstrated the resilience of the Group's Steel business in the face of market downturn, as well as a continued improvement of revenues and profits from the Building Materials division.

The Group's EBITDA stood at AED 612 million, up by 3 percent as compared to H1'22, and up 6 percent as compared to H2'22, a result of enhanced efficiency levels across the Group, with the EBITDA margin settling at 13.8 percent versus 12.9 percent reported in H1 2022.

Emirates Steel Arkan's six-month combined business revenue reached AED 4.43 billion compared to AED 4.61 billion during the same period in 2022. The Group's Steel division recorded a revenue of AED 3.95 billion in H1'23, with its profit totalling AED 224.8 million.

Revenue from the Building Materials division stood at AED 475.8 million in H1'23, a 9 percent year-on-year increase, while its profit was AED 56 million, a significant increase compared to AED 20 million in the same period in 2022, primarily driven by the growth in the UAE construction sector.

Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO, said, "Emirate Steel Arkan’s overall performance continued to be strong in the first six months of 2023 with healthy profits in line with our expectations, further demonstrating our agility and resilience despite volatile market conditions. This performance was delivered by focusing on higher-value-added products with improved margins and enhanced efficiencies. Better capital control and targeted capital expenditure has also strengthened our balance sheet to support our ability to drive our growth strategy forward.”

He added, “We also remain committed to achieving our decarbonisation and sustainability goals by making our facilities run more efficiently, using less energy to produce our products, utilising clean and renewable energy when possible, and forging partnerships with regional and global powerhouses to establish a new low-carbon iron supply chain here in the UAE. We have said that we will aim at reducing our carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and achieve Net Zero by 2050 and we are taking bold steps to make this ambition a reality.”