SSAB has announced second quarter and first half 2010 results. Highlights are as follows:

The second quarter (Unless otherwise stated, the report relates to continuing operations, excluding the tubular business)

1. Sales increased by 66% to SEK 10,911 (SEK 6,583) million
2. Operating profit of SEK 708 (SEK -952) million
3. Profit after financial items of SEK 624 (SEK -1,096) million
4. Earnings per share of SEK 1.64 (SEK -1.95)
5. Operating cash flow of SEK 341 (SEK 2,119) million and cash flow from current operations of SEK 98 (SEK 1,917) million

The half year (Unless otherwise stated, the report relates to the continuing operations, excluding the tubular business)

1. Sales increased by 35% to SEK 19,776 million from SEK 14,618 million
2. Operating profit of SEK 876 million against SEK -1,086 million
3. Profit after financial items of SEK 707 million from SEK -1,311 million
4. Earnings per share of SEK 2.09 from SEK -1.45
5. Operating cash flow of SEK 597 million from SEK 3,043 million and cash flow from current operations of SEK 545 million from SEK 1,541 million
6. Net debt/equity ratio was unchanged since the beginning of the year and amounted to 49%

Mr Olof Faxander president & CEO of SSAB said that "The recovery in the steel market continued during the second quarter and generally, demand was good. The regions with the strongest growth were Asia and South America, but Europe and the US also performed well. We saw continued strong demand for our niche products, primarily within the Mining sector, Heavy Transport and Automotive. A part of the increase in demand during the first half of the year was driven by inventory restocking at our customers. Inventory restocking is now believed to have come to an end."

He added that "Agreements for deliveries of iron ore have now been signed for the full year of 2010 and are in line with the rest of the market. A small part of SSAB's coal agreements are for the full year, but most of the coal is purchased on a quarterly basis. The full impact of the steep increases in coal and iron ore prices will be felt during the third quarter. In order to offset these cost increases, we have increased prices on new orders for the third quarter. We therefore expect to be able to largely compensate for the increased raw materials costs."

Mr Faxander said that "As usual, we are carrying out maintenance outages in the Swedish operations during the summer; this year the outages will be somewhat longer than normal due to ongoing investments. The recovery in the steel market is expected to continue during the third quarter, but at a slower pace, which may also affect the price trend for SSAB's steel later in the year. Unease concerning the euro and development of the European economies has led to some uncertainty in the market. On the other hand, positive development is expected to continue in South America and Asia, primarily China."