“While we remained loss-making, the improvement in profitability during 2014 shows we are starting to reap tangible benefits of our strategy. Furthermore, our balance sheet is substantially stronger than a year before”, said Seitovirta.
 
Referring to the conclusions by the European Commission regarding their anti-dumping investigation, Seitovirta noted the following: “We welcome the conclusions of the European Commission regarding the anti-dumping measures against Chinese and Taiwanese imports, as we see this as a statement in favor of fair competition.“
 
According to the European Commission’s announcement, provisional anti-dumping duties on cold rolled stainless steel would be issued to imports from China (24.3–25.2%) and Taiwan (10.9–12.0%), as of 26 March 2015. The final decision for duties is expected in September.
 
Said Seitovirta: “While we believe fair competition to be beneficial for the stainless steel industry in Europe, we do not speculate on the impact of the duties on the market conditions. Furthermore, it remains to be seen how this will impact the global trade flows of stainless steel.”
 
In his review, Seitovirta summarized Outokumpu’s continuing efforts to reach sustainable profitability. The key levers in this are the EMEA restructuring, which is making steady progress and proceeds next with the closure of Bochum melt shop in Germany during this year, as well as the ramp-up in Americas. On the latter, Seitovirta noted the following: “We have resolved the technical issues that occurred last year in our cold rolling mills in Calvert, Ala., and all lines are running. Our top priority now is to gain back the trust of our customers through improved delivery reliability, and continue the profitability improvement in Coil Americas which has been hampered by the delivery issues and current weakness in the distributor sector due to recent surge in Asian imports.”
 
Outokumpu’s guidance for the first quarter of 2015 given in connection with the Annual accounts 2014 on 12 February 2015 is unchanged.
 
Seitovirta concluded his review by addressing the shareholders: “Two years ago we started a new chapter in the Outokumpu history with the goal to stop and reverse the downward spiral of losses that had continued for years. Due to the scale of the required changes the journey has tested our endurance and the patience of our shareholders. The progress we have made despite the headwinds has given us confidence to continue the relentless execution of our strategy, constantly raising the bar to return Outokumpu back to sustainable profitability.”