Preussag Stahl 97/98 Results

German steel maker Preussag Stahl AG said on Wednesday it expected to improve its results in the current fiscal year. The former Preussag AG unit, which the Lower Saxony government and NordLB recently agreed to buy, expected to see a normalisation of market prices and volumes in the year to September 30, chairman Hans-Joachim Selenz told the annual general meeting. Lower Saxony's take-over of the company has been widely seen as a move by state premier Gerhard Schroeder to strengthen his hand in elections held at the start of this month. Selenz said he had no plans for mergers with other firms, and the company had all it needs to be a strong, independent entity. Selenz said incoming orders in the first five months of fiscal 1997/98 had been at about average levels for the previous year, and profits had been clearly better. Orders on hand were high, at 1.1 million tonnes, and capacity was fully utilised, he said.