Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based service center Metals USA reported Wednesday that net sales for Q4 2012 were $437.5 million, down from $455.7 million in Q4 2011. Q4 2012 shipments of 353,000 tons were 8 percent higher in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per diluted share were $0.10 in Q4 2012, compared to $0.37 per share in Q4 2011.
Net sales for fiscal year 2012 were $1.98 billion, compared to net sales of $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2011. Shipments for fiscal year 2012 totaled 1,550,000 tons, 11 percent higher than the 1,396,000 tons shipped during fiscal year 2011. Fiscal year 2012 earnings per diluted share were $1.41 per share, down from fiscal year 2011 diluted earnings per share of $1.73.
Lourenco Goncalves, the company's Chairman, President and CEO, stated: "During the fourth quarter the market continued to be impacted by too much steel chasing too few orders. A prevailing weak business environment, compounded with typical seasonality around the holidays, forced us to choose between preserving margin or sales volumes, and we chose to maintain margin. As a consequence, our Q4 gross margin of 23.2 percent was consistent with margins achieved throughout 2012."