Roman Abramovich hit for £48m as Evraz profits miss goals

This year has been a game of two quarters rather than halves for Roman Abramovich’s steelmaker Evraz, whose improvement since March was not enough to stop profits plunging.

The FTSE 250 firm, in which the billionaire Chelsea FC owner has a 31% stake, revealed consolidated revenues slumped 28% to $3.5 billion (£2.7 billion) in the first six months of 2016 and pre-tax profits dived 60% to $48 million.

Evraz, which is headquartered in London but operates mainly in Russia, said the performance was dependent on steel prices. Shares fell 11p to 161.9p, knocking £48 million off the value of Abramovich’s stake.

Evraz said it will continue to work with lenders to refinance its net debt of $5.3 billion.

The global steel industry has been crippled by oversupply as China’s industrial revolution continues apace.

Chief executive Alexander Frolov said the company was still trying to cut costs to deal with “structural overcapacity”. “Given the higher prices and stronger domestic demand in the second quarter, Evraz’s outlook for the rest of the year is cautiously optimistic,” he added.

Closer to home, the Tata Steel stalemate is yet to be resolved with 11,000 jobs at risk as the Indian firm bids to pull out of the Port Talbot steelworks amid the global crisis.