The Duro Felguera Group recorded losses of 26.3 million euros in the first half, compared to the profits of 1.56 million obtained in the same period of the previous year, as declared by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
Concretely, the gross operating result (Ebitda) of the Asturian company was -8.8 million euros during the first six months of the year, in contrast to the positive Ebitda of 6.4 million euros for the same period in 2023.
Duro Felguera increases revenue by 11%
During the first six months of the year, the company earned ordinary income of 157 million eurosimproving the figure for the first half of 2023 by 11.3%.
Currently, the group operates mainly internationally. Thus, of the total ordinary income of the first half, more than two thirds came from outside Spain, notably from Europe, where it achieved a turnover worth 63.8 million dinars. euros, or 40% of its total income.
Duro Felguera closed the first half with a gross financial debt of 147.1 million, above the 144.4 million with which it ended the 2023 financial year.
The Asturian company highlighted that during the first half of 2024 the global economic situation showed fewer signs of growth than expected, the conflict in the Middle East was reactivated, the instability of energy prices continues and is always observed. “strain” on the market raw materials. All this represents, according to him, “an extraordinarily complex scenario for the normal development of commercial activities”.
Furthermore, Duro Felguera emphasizes that the fact that the salary increases Price increases in general “create lasting rigidity in labor markets, already noticeable in previous years, with a shortage of labor in many key sectors of the economy.”
“Among these sectors is the Duro Felguera Group, which faces increasing challenges, like the rest of the companies operating in the sector, when it comes to recruiting the scarce qualified and specialized workforce available,” says -he.
Despite this economic scenario, the Asturian firm maintains its roadmap, defined at the end of 2022 in a business plan which was presented to shareholders and investors in March 2023 “and which, today, remains relevant”.
This plan envisages overcoming the 1,000 million contracts and sales in four years and marks the transition from a phase of viability and stabilization to another of growth and expansion.
“This growth in sales and hiring will result, over the years, in an improvement in results and margins, impacting both the group’s Ebitda as well as the consolidated result and the reduction in financial debt,” underlines the company.
