Stainless steel maker Outokumpu raises outlook as high prices lift profit

The coming months looked promising for Outokumpu thanks to an exceptional rise in stainless steel prices driven by surging demand as economies recover from the pandemic, offsetting high higher energy and raw material costs, Inderes analyst Petri Gostowski told Reuters.

“Outokumpu is going into annual contract negotiations with the high prices but the question is at what point the prices will turn,” he said.

Outokumpu sees high demand continuing across all sectors and aims to offset raw material cost increases with higher prices, Chief Executive Heikki Malinen told Reuters in an interview.

“We try to operate at full capacity, everything we can get out of the plants, we take,” he said.

Malinen added the 8% drop in third quarter stainless steel deliveries Outokumpu flagged three weeks ago, compared with the second quarter, was mainly due to planned maintenance.

The company expects deliveries to remain at a similar level in the fourth quarter.