AK Steel reported Tuesday net income of $35.2 million, or $0.26 per diluted share of common stock, for the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to a net loss of $230.4 million, or $1.89 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2012. Excluding the effect of an income tax adjustment, the company reported adjusted net income of $12.5 million, or $0.09 per diluted share. The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $87.2 million, or $61 per ton, for the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to $16.8 million, or $12 per ton, for the fourth quarter of 2012. The company’s results were also favorable to a third quarter 2013 net loss of $31.7 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, and the third quarter’s adjusted EBITDA of $53.5 million, or $43 per ton.
Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 were $1.46 billion on shipments of 1,420,000 tons, compared to net sales of $1.42 billion on shipments of 1,406,100 tons for the year-ago fourth quarter and net sales of $1.33 billion on shipments of 1,242,400 tons for the third quarter of 2013. The fourth quarter increase in shipments from the prior year fourth quarter was primarily due to stronger demand in automotive sales, partially offset by lower carbon shipments to the spot market. The increase in shipments from the third quarter of 2013 was primarily a result of higher carbon sales to the spot market and reflects the benefits of the company’s recovery from the previously disclosed unplanned Middletown Works blast furnace outage in June 2013.
For the full year, the company reported a net loss of $46.8 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1,027.3 million, or $9.06 per diluted share for 2012. Sales for 2013 were $5.57 billion, a decrease of 6 percent compared to $5.93 billion for 2012. Shipments for 2013 were 5,275,900 tons, a decrease of 3 percent from 5,431,300 tons in 2012 as a result of lower shipments to the carbon spot market.