Commercial Metals Company today announced financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended May 31, 2021. Earnings from continuing operations were $130.4 million on net sales of $1.8 billion, compared to prior year earnings from continuing operations of $64.2 million on net sales of $1.3 billion.
The North America segment generated record adjusted EBITDA of $207.3 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, an increase of 30 percent compared to $159.4 million in the prior year period. In a press release, the company said this improvement was driven by growth in demand and increased margins across multiple products lines.
Shipment volumes of finished steel, which include steel products and downstream products, increased by 9 percent from the prior year third quarter. The company said demand for rebar from the mills remained good, growing year-over-year, supported by resilient construction activity. Shipments of merchant and other products increased by 37 percent from the prior year, driven by the broad reopening of the US economy.
Barbara R. Smith, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Demand for our products was robust and our teams executed well, setting new production and shipment records at several of our facilities. We continued to tightly manage the operating factors within our control, and again reduced year-over-year production costs per ton."
As for an outlook, Smith said, "Strong demand across multiple end-use markets should support robust shipment levels of finished steel during the fourth quarter in both North America and Europe. Construction activity is strong and the industrial sectors are growing in both the US and Central Europe, as both regions continue to recover from the pandemic. We expect margins over scrap on steel products in North America and Europe to be relatively flat or up modestly from third quarter levels."
Smith also noted the "increased willingness of downstream customers in our North America segment to contract new work and the stability of our construction backlog both point to continued demand strength.”
Smith said the view is supported by "several widely monitored construction indicators that generally lead activity by nine to twelve months, which have improved significantly in 2021."