Irving, Texas-based steelmaker, fabricator, and metals recycler, Commercial Metals Company (CMC), announced Friday that as a result of a $144 million charge related to the company's decision to exit its Sisak mill in Croatia and close five fabricating facilities, CMC recorded a net loss of $120.3 in fiscal Q4 (ended August 31). Excluding the charges, CMC earned a pre-tax profit of $31.3 million. For the full year ended August 31, 2011, CMC had a net loss of $129.6 million on net sales of $7.9 billion compared to a net loss of $205.3 million for the full year 2010 on net sales of $6.3 billion. And looking forward to 2012, CMC said during its quarterly earnings conference call that the cost of winding down the operations in Croatia will likely offset positive results in the short term, primarily in Q1 2012, but will yield a positive outcome in the mid- to long term.
During the call, CMC also noted that in Q4 the average rolling mill utilization rate was about 79 percent, up 6 percent from Q3. And while CMC has been seeing strong shipments and order books at its Americas mills as of late, the "low level of construction spending remains a headwind for CMC," said President and CEO Joe Alvarado, and the US would benefit greatly from more infrastructure spending.
Alvarado also briefly addressed the October 19 announcement by Carl Icahn, a major shareholder in CMC, to nominate three candidates to the CMC Board of Directors as well as make other proposals at CMC's Annual Meeting. Alvarado only briefly mentioned Icahn's intention and said that the Board will "seriously review Mr. Icahn's nominations," but said that CMC "will not be commenting further on this matter."