Commercial Metals Company announced financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended August 31, 2023. Net earnings were $184.2 million on net sales of $2.2 billion, compared to prior year period net earnings of $288.6 million on net sales of $2.4 billion.
For the full year fiscal 2023, CMC reported net earnings of $859.8 million on net sales of $8.8 billion, compared to prior year net earnings of $1.21 billion on net sales of $8.9 billion.
In a press release, the company said demand for CMC's finished steel products in North America continued to be healthy during the quarter, adding that downstream new project bid volumes, a significant indicator of the construction project pipeline, improved from a year ago. However, the company demand from industrial end markets, which is important for merchant products, was mixed, with certain applications experiencing slower activity compared to past quarters.
North America shipment volumes of finished steel, which include steel products and downstream products, increased 2 percent year-over-year. The average selling price for steel products decreased $172 per ton compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, while the cost of scrap utilized declined $49 per ton, resulting in a year-over-year decrease in steel products margin over scrap of $123 per ton. The average selling price for downstream products increased $81 per ton from the prior year period.
As for an outlook, the company said it expects first quarter consolidated financial performance to remain strong by historical standards, but decline from the fourth quarter as a result of seasonally lower shipments, steel product margin compression in North America, and the continuation of challenging market conditions in Europe.