Company Announcements
January 8, 2026
CMC swings to profit on firm North American market
Written by Ethan Bernard
Commercial Metals Co.
| First quarter ended Nov. 30 | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | $2,120.3 | $1,909.6 | 11% |
| Net earnings (loss) | $177.3 | $(175.7) | 201% |
| Per diluted share | $ 1.58 | $(1.54) | 203% |
CMC’s earnings jumped in the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2026 on strong market conditions in North America.
The Irving, Texas-based steel and metal solutions provider reported net earnings of $177.3 million in fiscal Q1’26 ended Nov. 30, 2025, swinging to a profit from a loss of $175.7 million a year earlier. Net sales rose 11% to $2.12 billion in the same comparison.
“Our results were meaningfully enhanced by solid execution that allowed us to capitalize on the opportunities we are seeing across our North American footprint,” President and CEO Peter Matt said on an earnings call on Thursday.
He added that shipments of finished steel were virtually unchanged year over year and off less than one percentage point from fiscal Q4 vs. a more typical 4-5% sequential seasonal decline.
In a statement on Thursday, Matt noted CMC’s performance was specifically supported by a solid domestic market environment for both its North America Steel Group and Construction Solutions Group, “characterized by stable demand and expanding margins.”
He noted the company announced, and subsequently completed, buys of two precast businesses, “establishing a highly profitable and scalable new growth platform that positions CMC to create even more value for existing and new customers.”
During fiscal Q1’26, CMC recorded net after-tax charges of $28.9 million. This was related primarily to expenses from the acquisitions of Concrete Pipe and Precast of Ashland, Va., and Newman, Ga.-based Foley Products Co. In addition, there was an unrealized loss on undesignated commodity hedges.
Micro-mill updates
The company said shipments of merchant products grew from last year as CMC increased its ability to serve West Coast customers from its Arizona 2 micro-mill.
For its West Virginia micro-mill, Matt said CMC is now within six months of the start-up. “So we’ve actually started some of the cold commissioning already,” he said on the call. “The hot commissioning, which is the official start-up … is likely to begin, or will begin, in June of this year. And we feel really good about it.”
Outlook
Matt said, based on current conditions and developing economic trends that should drive construction activity into the future, “We are excited about the long-term outlook and believe CMC’s strategic focus positions us to reap significant benefits.”
CMC expects consolidated core EBITDA in fiscal Q2’26 to decline slightly from the previous quarter. Matt cited a typical seasonal slowdown in the firm’s key markets, but the recently acquired precast businesses should partially offset it.
However, CMC will recognize several acquisition-related expenses during the current quarter, but these will be excluded from core EBITDA.
Segment adjusted EBITDA for the North America Steel Group is anticipated to be lower sequentially. This is due to “normal seasonal volume trends and the impact of planned maintenance outages, while steel products’ metal margin is expected to remain relatively stable.”
But results for the Construction Solutions Group should improve vs. fiscal Q1’26 “with the contribution of the precast business more than offsetting seasonal weakness across the segment’s other divisions.”
“We remain confident that emerging structural drivers, including investment in US infrastructure, reshoring industrial capacity, growth in energy generation and transmission, the build-out of AI infrastructure, as well as addressing a US housing shortage, will support construction activity over the long term,” Matt said on the call.
