Higher Prices Drive Record Sales for Reliance Steel & Aluminum

Reliance Steel & Aluminum, North America’s largest service center organization, set a new company record with net sales of $2.99 billion for the second quarter of 2018. Sales grew by 20.8 percent from a year ago and 8.4 percent from the previous quarter. Net income totaled $230.8 million, up 124.1 percent from Q2 2017 and 36.6 percent from the first quarter of 2018.

“The metal pricing environment was significantly stronger than we had anticipated, gaining strength as the second quarter progressed, with prices increasing in each month of the quarter across all of our major commodities,” said President and CEO Gregg Mollins. “Solid demand, coupled with ongoing Section 232 activity, drove metal price increases on almost every product we sell. As a result, our average selling price per ton sold increased 9.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018, exceeding our expectation of up 5 percent to 8 percent. Tons sold in the quarter were down 0.7 percent, in line with our expectation given pre-buying activity by certain customers in the first quarter of 2018. However, underlying demand remained strong.”