AK Steel provided guidance for its second quarter 2015 financial results Monday, saying that it expects to report a net loss of $0.37 to $0.42 per diluted share of common stock for the second quarter of 2015. AK Steel said that the company’s expected second quarter results continued to be negatively impacted by lower carbon steel prices due to the continued high level of what the company believes are unfairly traded imports.
For the second quarter of 2015, AK Steel expects shipments of approximately 1.8 million tons, an increase of approximately 3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2015. The increase in shipments quarter over quarter is primarily related to increased shipments to the carbon steel spot market and continued strength in the automotive market.
AK Steel expects an average selling price of approximately $929 per ton for the second quarter of 2015, or about 7 percent lower than the first quarter of 2015. The decrease in average selling price is primarily a result of continued high levels of imports that have negatively affected selling prices in the carbon spot market. Also impacting the average selling price is a less rich product mix as a result of increased shipments to the carbon spot market in the second quarter as compared to the first quarter. Lower costs for raw materials (principally carbon scrap and iron ore pellets) and energy partially offset the effects of lower selling prices.