Steel Mills

Strong Q4 Leads to Most Profitable Year in Olympic Steel's History

Written by David Schollaert

February 24, 2022

Olympic Steel announced record results in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, a strong finish to the company’s most profitable year to date.

“We achieved record sales and net income for the fourth quarter, a fitting capstone to a year of record-setting performance for Olympic Steel,” said Richard Marabito, Olympic’s CEO. “All three of our operating segments earned record EBITDA in 2021, reflecting not only strong market demand for our products but also the benefits of our diversification and acquisition strategy. At the same time, we remained focused on operational and working capital disciplines, including record inventory turns, which further enhanced our financial performance.”

olympic steel logoThe Cleveland, Ohio-based metals distributor and service center saw profits soar in Q4 to $24.9 million on sales of $625 million, versus net earnings of $1.8 million in the same quarter last year. For the year, the company swung to a profit of $121.1 million on revenue that nearly doubled to $2.3 billion in 2021, versus a loss of $5.6 million in 2020 .

The company’s top result in 2021 came thanks to record steel prices and strong shipment volumes, though Q4 shipping volumes were down slightly from the prior quarter.

Olympic posted an average selling price of $1,459 per ton for carbon flat products in 2021, nearly double $769 per ton in 2020. Shipping volumes for the segment rose just 2.6% year-over-year to shipments of 921,295 tons, but revenue more than doubled to $1.34 million.

Last year was a busy one for Olympic in the M&A space, said Marabito, as the company sold its Detroit flat-rolled metal operations and assets in September, redeploying a portion of the proceeds to acquire Shaw Stainless and Alloy, the company’s fifth acquisition since 2018.

Looking ahead, Marabito said the company expects strong results in Q1 2022 as the stainless steel, aluminum, and pipe and tube markets remain robust, adding that they are optimistic about business conditions for their carbon segment despite the current price correction. “We are confident that our efforts to diversify and expand in higher-margin products will help Olympic Steel provide more consistent profitability and reduce the impact of market cyclicality on our financial performance.”

Olympic Steel is a leading U.S. metals distributor and service center focused on the direct sale of processed metals, operating 41 facilities in North America.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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