The French concern Derichebourg a saw revenues and earnings from its scrap recycling and environmental services activities fall in the first half of its financial year on lower processed scrap volumes. Turnover for the six month period ending 31 March 2012 fell 9 per cent to €1.172bn, while operating income dropped by half to €35.5m compared with the first half of the prior financial year.
The environmental and services company identified the global economic downturn among the causes of the decline. Total scrap volumes processed were off by just over 7 per cent compared with the first half of fiscal 2010/2011 at 2.319m tonnes, with reductions in Europe (down 8.3 per cent) more significant than in the Americas, where they had fallen by only 2.5 per cent.