AK Steel announced Tuesday its financial results for Q2 2014, reporting a net loss of $17.1 million, compared to a net loss of $40.4 million for Q2 2013 and a net loss of $86.1 million for Q1 2014.
Net sales for the second quarter of 2014 were $1.53 billion on shipments of 1,397,500 tons, compared to net sales of $1.40 billion on shipments of 1,323,700 tons for the year-ago second quarter and net sales of $1.38 billion on shipments of 1,262,100 tons for the first quarter of 2014. The increase in shipments in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the first quarter of 2014 was primarily a result of the recovery from the planned and unplanned outages at the Ashland Works blast furnace in the first quarter, partially offset by the effects of the extreme winter weather conditions which reduced the availability of iron ore pellets.
For the first six months of 2014, the company reported a net loss of $103.2 million. In the corresponding six months of 2013, the company reported a net loss of $50.3 million. Sales for the first six months of 2014 were $2.91 billion compared to sales of $2.77 billion in the first half of 2013. Shipments for the first half of 2014 were 2,659,600 tons compared to 2,613,500 tons in the first half of 2013.