OREANDA-NEWS. Ferroglobe PLC, the world’s leading producer of silicon metal, and a leading silicon- and manganese-based specialty alloys producer, announced today results for the second quarter of 2016. 

In the second quarter of 2016, Ferroglobe posted a net loss of $(42.2) million, or $(0.25) per share on a fully diluted basis. Excluding the impairment charge for Venezuela, due diligence and transaction costs, the company posted an adjusted net loss of $(2.8) million, or $(0.01) per share on a fully diluted basis.     

Ferroglobe reported an EBITDA loss of $(46.6) million for the second quarter due to the write-off of the company’s Venezuelan assets $(58.6) million. Excluding the impairment charge for Venezuela, due diligence and transaction costs, Q2 2016 adjusted EBITDA was $17.2 million.

Net sales in the second quarter totalled $398.0 million, down from $423.5 million sequentially. In the second quarter, Ferroglobe’s average selling price for silicon metal declined by 6% from the previous quarter’s average selling price, primarily due to pressure from low-priced imports. During this period, the average selling price for silicon-based alloys remained flat and the average selling price for manganese alloys, new to our product mix, increased 2% from the first quarter of 2016.

In terms of sales volumes, silicon metal experienced a decline of 5% quarter over quarter, but improved dynamics in the steel industry allowed sales increases of 2% in silicon alloys and a strong 11% in manganese alloys.

“The pricing environment in silicon metal has remained tough this quarter, primarily due to increased pressure from low-priced imports. While in silicon metal we continue to achieve spot sales prices above the index, as we said last quarter, we do not expect overall market pricing to begin recovering before late 2016. In the meantime, we are focused on positioning ourselves for the future by managing costs, optimizing the operational footprint of our business, pursuing both organic and inorganic growth opportunities, identifying non-core asset divestiture opportunities and extracting the synergies from our merger,” said CEO Pedro Larrea. “Financial discipline and prudent management of our business remain our core priorities, and we have made significant progress on our cost base and working capital. Despite a challenging pricing environment, we continue to generate cash flows and reduce our net debt, maintaining our strong balance sheet.”

Continued focus on financial discipline and balance sheet strength

Ferroglobe reported an EBITDA of $(46.6) million, primarily due to a large impairment charge and a continued challenging pricing environment. The company impaired its assets in Venezuela based on the continuous operating losses and the overall operating environment in that country and is currently evaluating strategic options in Venezuela overall.

Excluding the impairment charge, due diligence and transaction costs, Q2 2016 adjusted EBITDA was $17.2 million. Overall the price decline adversely impacted EBITDA by $(16.1) million quarter-over-quarter, partially offset by a meaningful reduction of production cost on a per ton basis, aggregating to $11.1 million in Q2 2016.

Moreover, when compared to legacy Globe Specialty Metals production costs (measured in $/lb) in silicon metal and silicon alloys, Ferroglobe achieved post-combination cost reductions of 22% in the first half of the year, and it has already reached $28 million in captured synergies year-to-date.

Ferroglobe generated operating cash flows of $24.3 million in Q2 2016, or $53.9 million year-to-date. A significant part of the operating cash flows comes from working capital improvements of $41.2 million during Q2 2016, bringing improvements year-to-date to $96.5 million and to $169.9 million over the last 12 months. The company has generated $43.9 million of free cash flow year-to-date, of which $8.6 million was generated during Q2 2016.1 Ferroglobe’s net debt was $413 million at the end of Q2 2016, compared to $421 million at the end of Q1 2016.

“In addition to systematic cost improvements, we continue to drive integration savings, cost reductions and platform optimization. We expect to deliver on our annualized run rate synergies target of $65 million by the end of 2016 with approximately $28 million achieved in 1H 2016.  We are also closely reviewing our asset portfolio and considering actionable opportunities to improve our footprint. Recently, we have renegotiated our power contracts in Argentina which will enable us to restart the facility next week and reverse the negative impact of that facility since February of 2016,”  concluded Larrea.

The Board has decided to maintain the quarterly interim dividend of $0.08 per share, further reflecting the confidence in the underlying strength of the business and the company’s long-term outlook.

About Ferroglobe

Ferroglobe PLC is one of the world’s leading suppliers of silicon metal, silicon-based specialty alloys, and ferroalloys serving a customer base across the globe in dynamic and fast-growing end markets, such as solar, automotive, consumer products, construction and energy.  The company is based in London.