European defence group EADS saw its profits tumble 41 percent in the first half of 2011 to 109 million euros ($156 million) but maintained its positive outlook on surging orders, it said Friday.

"/> European defence group EADS saw its profits tumble 41 percent in the first half of 2011 to 109 million euros ($156 million) but maintained its positive outlook on surging orders, it said Friday.

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EADS profits nosedive for first half of 2011

European defence group EADS saw its profits tumble 41 percent in the first half of 2011 to 109 million euros ($156 million) but maintained its positive outlook on surging orders, it said Friday.

Published: 29 July 2011 09:56 CEST

EADS profits nosedive for first half of 2011

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EADS, owner of plane maker Airbus, attributed the fall in net profits to exchange-rate adjustments and forecast stable operating profits for the whole year and rising sales, it said in an earnings statement.

Airbus logged a series of huge orders for hundreds of its planes at the Paris air show last month, including many for its new relatively fuel-efficient medium-haul A320neo model.

“Our results for the first half of 2011 mirror the strong demand in the commercial aviation sector,” said the chief executive of EADS, Louis Gallois, in the statement.

EADS, which also manufacturers military technology, said its sales in the first half of 2011 were up by eight percent to 21.9 billion euros compared to the same period last year.

Orders surged 89 percent percent to 58.1 billion euros.

“EADS 2011 revenues should be above the 2010 revenues,” the statement said.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

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The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa.

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology.

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces.

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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