Reliance Steel Expects Pricing to Rise Steadily Thru 2nd Quarter

Reliance Steel & Aluminum, the largest metals service center in the United States, announced earnings earlier today. The company reported net income of $87.2 on sales totaling $2.09 billion. Sales included the recent acquisitions of Metals USA and Haskins Steel. The company reported an 8.4 percent improvement in same store sales over the same quarter last year.
 
David Hannah, Chairman and CEO of Reliance, reported in the company’s earnings conference call, “Our first quarter results reflect the anticipated seasonal pickup in demand relative to the fourth quarter of 2013, along with a general demand improvement and a moderate increase in average price per ton of metal sold. The pricing improvement during the first quarter is an encouraging sign after a very difficult pricing environment throughout most all of 2013. In fact, improved pricing and stronger demand led to sequential increases in net sales per day for the 3 months in a row during the quarter, a trend we have not experienced since early 2012. Slow but steady economic improvement over the past year led to a solid increase in first quarter demand, which resulted in an 8.4% year-over-year increase in our same-store tons sold. Despite positive demand trends, pricing unfortunately remained lower on a year-over-year basis. This lower pricing somewhat offset the stronger year-over-year demand, and led to a 4.4% reduction in our same-store average price per ton sold.”

Hannah continued by commenting on what is to come from the second quarter of 2014. “As the U.S. economy maintains its slow but steady recovery, we expect metals pricing and demand to continue to improve throughout the second quarter.”