The Catalan steel company Celsa considers its darkest phase closed. This was confirmed by its president, Rafael Villaseca, and its CEO, Jordi Cazorla, during the presentation of the 2025 results held this Wednesday in Barcelona. After a 28-month transformation process, in which the court ordered the Rubiralta family to exit the capital and hand over the shares to the creditors, the group returned to profits for the first time during the first quarter of this year 2026.
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Between January and March, Celsa recorded earnings of 18 million euros, compared to losses of 13 million a year ago. Even so, the net result for 2025 was still in the red, with losses of 143 million. This is almost half compared to the previous year.
“Last spring we said the company was no longer in the ICU, but that we had moved up to the ward. Today we are completely out of the hospital and it is now a normal company,” emphasized Vilaseca, returning to a metaphor he has used on several occasions since being appointed president by the funds owning Celsa.
Before reaching this “normality,” the steel company suffered a very delicate financial situation, with a large debt that it has been reducing as part of this plan. At the end of 2025, Celsa had liabilities of 1,145 million euros, 70% less than before the October 2023 court ruling, when it was 3,689 million.
One of the world’s leading steel manufacturers also sold its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Nordic countries in 2024 to resolve this debt predicament. At the end of last year, Celsa completed the refinancing of its debt with the placement of 1,200 million euros in green bonds, added to a contribution of 800 million from its shareholders (200 in the form of a capital increase and 600 as subordinated loans).
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Celsa completed the refinancing of its debt with the placement of 1,200 million euros in green bonds
The group has dedicated 109 million in investment solely to this efficiency plan, involving a team of 110 workers. Cazorla explained that by the end of 2025, savings of 115 million had already been achieved, 79% of the initially planned target of 174 million. For the whole year, total investment was 183 million and the company has no plans to exit other countries where it operates.
In 2025, Celsa faced a European steel market that still had not fully awakened to the threat of imports, especially those coming from China. The group’s turnover was practically the same as the previous year, 3,347 million, although sales did grow by 3.2% in volume to 3,346 tons. This effect, Cazorla clarified, is due to the drop in scrap costs, which was passed on to prices. The Catalan company trusts that the new EU tariff regulation will raise the price of Asian steel and boost demand for European products.
Villaseca also confirmed that the possibility of seeking a Spanish industrial partner for the project is closed, after Criteria, the investment arm of La Caixa, backed out after reaching a preliminary agreement. “This matter has been forgotten,” concluded the executive.
Although the company faces this new stage away from the noise of the courts, Celsa still has ongoing legal proceedings regarding the management of the previous owners. “We have the obligation to defend the company’s rights and try to recover the amounts we believe should be recovered,” Villaseca noted to close this legal chapter for now.
