Afarak profit and revenue fall amid "very complicated" environment
Afarak Group SE on Friday reported lower first-half revenue and earnings, but said it expects ferro-chrome demand to improve later this year.
The Helsinki-based speciality alloys supplier, which has operations in South Africa, Turkey and Germany, reported EUR57.1 million in revenue for the first six months of 2026, down 26% from EUR77.1 million the year before.
Pretax profit plummeted 96% to EUR130,000 from EUR3.4 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 77% to EUR1.6 million from EUR6.9 million.
Afarak said the amount mined decreased 13% on-year to 130,256 tonnes from 149,410 tonnes, while the amount of processed material sold fell 26% to 11,372 tonnes from 15,354 tonnes.
Nonetheless, the company said it had delivered "an improved performance" in comparison with the second half of 2025.
"The market conditions throughout 2026 have been very complicated," commented Chief Executive Officer Guy Konsbruck. "Whereas the prices of [low carbon ferro-chrome] have improved on USD terms, there has been steep decline in consumption, especially in Europe...The disruptions caused by the Iran war and the Ukraine war impacted our customer base gravely. As a consequence, we decided to reduce our LC FeCR production in order to match the output and the demand."
Going forward, Afarak said it expects demand for standard grade low carbon ferro-chrome "to improve after the summer holiday, given the very low inventories of the industry at present." Konsbruck noted that this was "especially" likely "if a resolution of the Iran conflict could be reached quickly."
"In the meantime, we are actively pursuing future business opportunities as an attempt of diversifying our activities and creating new revenue streams," he added.
The firm added that the specialty segment may experience "more substantial improvements in demand," and that it expects its South African chrome ore business "to remain stable".
"The concentrate production in the new Vlaakport mine wash plant is running smoothly," Afarak continued. "The demand for [chromium] ore in China is continuously growing, and the prices have recently started to increase again after a decline during Q2 2026."
However, it cautioned: "The weak USD will continue to impact the profit margins, and cheap imports from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Brasil and India will continue to weigh on the market price development."
Afarak shares were down 2.0% at 25 euro cents late on Friday afternoon in London.
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