2013-04-25 08:05:00 CEST

2013-04-25 08:05:31 CEST


REGULATED INFORMATION

English
Rautaruukki - Company Announcement

Ruukki to significantly grow its special steels business and to reorganise its construction business


Rautaruukki Corporation Stock exchange release 25 April 2013 at 9.05am EEST

Rautaruukki is to accelerate its step change into a company specialising in
steel construction and special steels and is to reorganise its structure. In
addition to the efficiency programmes initiated last year to improve cost
competitiveness and potential for profitable growth, focus within the company's
largest business area, Ruukki Metals, is shifting increasingly more clearly to
special steels. The other business area, Ruukki Construction, is to divide into
two new business areas, Ruukki Building Products and Ruukki Building Systems.
The aim of this is to improve profitability and growth, as well as to improve
manageability, the transformation pace and transparency.

Ruukki is aiming to significantly improve the company's cost competitiveness and
to strengthen the potential for profitable growth in all its business areas.
This is why, last year, Ruukki initiated an efficiency programme aimed at cost
benefits totalling EUR 100 million. Projects under the programme have progressed
as expected and it is currently estimated that that the improvement in earnings
performance pursued will be visible in full from the third quarter of this year
onwards."The decisions we have now made are a response to strengthen the company's
performance and especially to the overcapacity prevailing in the standard steel
business in Europe. This overcapacity weakens the profitability of operations
and forces companies to seek new business models and business opportunities.
Within our construction business, we have many segments with excellent potential
for profitable growth also in the future. On the other hand, we also have a
clear need to significantly improve the profitability of certain parts of the
business and to simplify business models. The specialisation strategy within our
steel business has proven effective and successful. During the first quarter of
the year, special steel products accounted for 32 per cent of net sales in our
steel business. We are now accelerating our transformation and focusing strongly
on special steels, building products and energy-efficient solutions with the aim
of being a leading niche actor in these sectors," outlines Sakari Tamminen,
Ruukki's President & CEO.

Standard steels business being more strongly turned into a special steels
business

Ruukki's specialisation in the steel business has proven successful.
Profitability of special steels is clearly higher than that of standard products
and price fluctuations are smaller. In recent years Ruukki has built a platform
for specialisation and now has a good market position and strong special steel
brands such as Raex, Optim, Laser and Ramor. Success in the present business
environment calls for increasingly advanced and faster specialisation. Ruukki's
size and flexibility make this possible.

During the course of 2013, the weaker performing standard steel business will
increasingly strongly be turned into a special steels business consisting of
high-strength, wear-resistant and special-coated steels. In addition, the
company will also accelerate global sales of special steels. This means
expanding and diversifying distribution, significantly strengthening the sales
organisation through transfers and recruiting new resources, and by establishing
a presence, during the current year, in many new markets such as Vietnam,
Indonesia and Mexico. Success on this front requires a strong focus on narrow
niche sectors within the limits of which the emphasis is strongly on identifying
new customers and applications. Our future focus will increasingly be on new
applications and markets such as, for example, sales of Optim high-strength
steels to the construction industry, speeding up in general the approval process
and launch of new products and intensifying important OEM customer
relationships. As regards standard products, we will concentrate on restoring
the soundness of our product portfolio. The underperforming part will be
downsized, whereas the share of special steels will grow and production capacity
will be aligned to achieve a more effective utilisation rate.

Construction business to be divided into growth areas and businesses for
improvement

Ruukki Construction is to be split into two business areas, Ruukki Building
Products and Ruukki Building Systems. The aim of this is to improve
profitability and growth, as well as to improve manageability, the
transformation pace and transparency by separating profitably growing business
areas from businesses which have clear need for profitability improvement.

Ruukki Building Products consists of roofing, sandwich panel, foundation and
infrastructure products, including services. The profitability of these sections
is at a satisfactory or good level and they show excellent potential for
profitable growth also in the future. Growth in market share of roofing products
will be pursued especially in Russia, Poland and the Nordic countries by, among
other things, strengthening our own distribution and partnership network,
expanding installation and by speeding up the launch of new products and
services onto the market. Our most recent launch was Ruukki Classic Solar
thermal roof, which utilises solar heat. The company will strengthen sales of
sandwich panels, especially energy panels, and piles in the Nordic countries,
actively pursue new markets and focus on developing and the rapid
commercialisation of new, energy-efficient products that utilise renewable
energy sources.

Ruukki Building Systems consists of the building project business, operations in
Russia and the new energy-efficient and functional buildings development unit.
The project business will be turned around to make it profitable during 2013 and
the company will withdraw from bridge projects. Use of the entire production
capacity will be optimised to restore competitiveness and profitability.
Construction in Russia offers significant potential for profitable growth,
especially within commercial construction and agriculture. Work in Russia will
continue on developing sales and the product portfolio driven customer needs.
The new unit developing energy-efficient and functional commercial buildings
aims to create a foundation for future growth by integrating the best of
Ruukki's products and know-how.

Corporate Executive Board appointments in conjunction with restructuring

Olavi Huhtala will remain EVP, Ruukki Metals and continue being a member of the
Corporate Executive Board.

Marko Somerma, who is currently Chief Strategy Officer, has been appointed EVP,
Ruukki Building Products with effect from 1 May 2013. Tommi Matomäki, who is
currently EVP, Ruukki Construction, has been appointed EVP, Ruukki Building
Systems. Toni Hemminki, who is currently SVP, Technology, Energy and
Environment, has been appointed Chief Strategy Officer and will retain his
existing responsibilities. The above persons will all continue being members of
the Corporate Executive Board.

Financial reporting revised

With effect from the second quarter onwards, Ruukki will report its operations
as three business areas:
Ruukki Building Products
Ruukki Building Systems
Ruukki Metals

Ruukki will host a Capital Markets Day in Hämeenlinna, Finland on 25-26 June,
where there will be an opportunity to expand on the matters arising here and on
the strategic focus areas and targets of the businesses.



 CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                        2012
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Comparable net sales
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Products                                                    478
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Systems                                                     262
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Comparable net sales, total                                             740
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Items affecting comparability included in reported net sales
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Reported net sales                                                      740
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Comparable operating profit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Products                                                     18
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Comparable operating profit as % of net sales                     3.7%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Systems                                                     -17
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Comparable operating profit as % of net sales                    -6.3%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Comparable operating profit, total                                        1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Comparable operating profit as % of net sales                     0.1%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Items affecting comparability included in reported operating profit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Products                                                   -4.1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Building Systems                                                    -6.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Reported operating profit                                               -10
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


For further information, please contact
Sakari Tamminen, President & CEO, tel. +358 20 592 9075.

Rautaruukki Corporation
Taina Kyllönen
SVP, Marketing and Communications

Ruukki specialises in steel and steel construction. We provide customers with
energy-efficient steel solutions for better living, working and moving. We have
around 9,000 employees and an extensive distribution and dealer network across
some 30 countries including the Nordic countries, Russia and elsewhere in Europe
and the emerging markets, such as India, China and South America. Net sales in
2012 totalled EUR 2.8 billion. The company's share is quoted on NASDAQ OMX
Helsinki (Rautaruukki Oyj: RTRKS). www.ruukki.com

DISTRIBUTION:
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
Main media
www.ruukki.com


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