KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Steel Works (KL) Bhd (Masteel) has submitted its outstanding annual audited accounts and will resume trading today.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the steel maker said it has submitted the annual audited accounts for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14), quarterly report for the first quarter of FY15, and annual report for FY14 on June 19, July 2 and  9, respectively.

Masteel (fundamental: 0.15; valuation: 0.9) had in April announced that its external auditor Messrs Nexia SSY was not able to express an opinion on its FY14 financial statements.

The group had said this was due to various issues, including the classification, description and recoverability of various transactions that it carried out in FY14.

Subsequently, Masteel had appointed special auditor UHY Advisory (KL) Sdn Bhd to conduct an independent and comprehensive special audit on the various issues raised by Nexia SSY. The special audit was completed on June 15.

Trading of Masteel shares was suspended on May 12, after the company failed to submit the audited accounts for FY14 by April 30. Its shares were last traded at 62 sen, with a market capitalisation of RM151.3 million.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement yesterday, Masteel said it is targeting to boost its revenue by RM360 million annually, with the commencement of its newly constructed 200,000-tonne per annum (tpa) rolling mill in Selangor at the end of this month.

It said the new rolling mill will boost its downstream steel bar production capacity from 450,000 tpa to 650,000 tpa upon reaching full capacity, efficiently matching its upstream steel billet production capacity of 700,000 tpa.

“Due to the premium prices of its new product range, the expansion is expected to contribute an additional RM360 million yearly to the group’s top line at full capacity,” said Masteel.

Masteel manufactures and markets high-tensile steel bars, mild steel bars and prime steel billets.

“Our new rolling mill will allow us to convert at least 90% of our upstream steel billets into higher value-added steel bars, compared with about 60% at present,” said its managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tai Hean Leng.

He said in addition to benefiting from better selling prices, the increased conversion rate will enable Masteel to capture a larger share of steel bar demand from the robust domestic construction sector.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 10, 2015.