Mounty Airy, North Carolina-based Insteel Industries reported Thursday net earnings of $2.7 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 (ended December 28, 2013), compared to $2.4 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Net sales increased 1.5 percent to $87.2 million from $85.9 million in the prior year period. Shipments increased 6.4 percent year-over-year while average selling prices decreased 4.6 percent. On a sequential basis, shipments decreased 11.3 percent from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, reflecting the usual seasonal slowdown in construction activity, while average selling prices increased 0.1 percent.
Insteel's first-quarter results were favorably impacted by widening spreads between selling prices and raw material costs and higher shipments relative to the same period a year ago. Capacity utilization for the quarter was 47 percent compared with 46 percent in the prior year quarter and 50 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013.
"We are encouraged by the continued improvement reflected in the most recent macro indicators for our construction end-markets," commented H.O. Woltz III, Insteel's president and CEO. "Customer sentiment appears to be on the rise and there are growing signs of a broader based recovery developing for nonresidential construction which should favorably impact our financial results over the remainder of the year. We also expect to benefit from the ongoing initiatives that are underway to achieve further improvements in our costs, productivity levels and customer service capabilities."