A.M. Castle came out with first quarter earnings, reporting net sales of $272.8 million, a 22.3% increase from 1Q10. First quarter net income was $2.7 million after a net loss of $4.6 million for the same period last year.

Michael H. Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of A.M. Castle said in the conference call, “First quarter net sales in our metal segment were $244.6 million compared to $199.7 million in 2010. Overall ton sold to-date were up 17.7% from the first quarter of 2010 and we’re up 12.3% sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2010… Consolidated sales gained momentum throughout the quarter with March daily volume being 8.9% higher than January. In fact, March was our strongest volume month on a per day basis since January of 2009. Consolidated gross profit margins also increased sequentially for each month during the first quarter of the year with the total first quarter margin at 26.2%."

In regards to the current market, Goldberg said that, “demand is up, pricing is up and is remaining stable and supply lead times remain extended. Customers seem to be very busy and optimistic about the short to medium. Capital spending has increased and this very little inventory in the supply chain. In the mental segment most of our enduse markets continued to show increased business activity. General industrial markets continued to strengthen with mining and heavy industrial equipment continuing to show good growth. Oil and gas also picked up significantly throughout the quarter.”

Scott F. Stephens, Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer added “Given the current economic environment, we expect Q2 results to show continued growth in sales and earnings sequentially over Q1 levels.”

The question and following answer below arises from Goldberg mentioning upcoming acquisition and merger activity:

Question: Edward Marshall: Okay. And then you mentioned acquisitions in your prepared remarks and I am just – I am curious if you can kind of elaborate on that a little bit further if you haven’t done so already to kind of what are you looking for I mean is the geographic expansion which I think you probably say yes to, but if it is, is it domestic or is it international etcetera?

Answer: Michael H. Goldberg: Both would be answer. The way that we would look at it more than geographic expansion would be market expansion, so we’re very focused around certain end used markets and so it would be aerospace, oil and gas or heavy equipment and so we would look at that way and potential candidates may or may not have kind of international operations or they may be domestic. So our orientation is to look around through the market wins rather than through kind of geographic wins per see.