Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) doubled to EUR 127.1m.

"The achieved 15.1% EBITDA margin puts the group among the most successful business groups in Slovenia last year," SIJ said in a press release.

Likewise, operating profit also almost doubled compared to 2015 to EUR 68.6m, while investments in production equipment were up by 24% to EUR 70.3m.

In steelmaking alone, net sales revenues were up by 17.2% to EUR 631.9m.

The group meanwhile generated EUR 211.4m in sales revenues and EUR 24.2m in EBITDA in the ten months during which Poultry producer Perutnina Ptuj was included in consolidated statements, which is a 25% growth compared to the same period in 2015.

The group generated EUR 677.9m or 80.4% of total sales revenues on foreign markets.