Mount Airy, North Carolina-based steel wire manufacturer Insteel Industries, Inc. announced Thursday net earnings of $1 million in fiscal Q4 2011, compared to a $1.6 million net loss in fiscal Q4 2010. Insteel said the higher earnings were "favorably impacted" by the November 2010 acquisition of Ivy Steel and Wire as well as widening spreads between selling prices and raw material costs relative to last year. Shipments for fiscal Q4 2011 increased 50.4 percent from the prior year quarter and average selling prices increased 17.3 percent.
Nonetheless, demand for the company's products, PC Strand and welded wire reinforcement, remain at depressed levels because of ongoing construction-related weakness. Capacity utilization for the quarter was 49 percent, little changed from 48 percent in Q3 2011 and 49 percent in Q4 2010.
For the full fiscal 2011 year, Insteel Industries still recorded a $0.4 million net loss compared with earnings of $0.5 million in fiscal 2010.
Commenting on the outlook for fiscal 2012, Insteel's president and CEO, H.O. Woltz III said, "Recent macro indicators for the construction sector imply that conditions in our end-markets may have stabilized following the precipitous drop-off in demand that we have experienced in recent years. Unfortunately, we have yet to see signs of a pronounced recovery in our markets and there continues to be a high degree of uncertainty regarding the near-term prospects for nonresidential construction and the resolution of a new federal transportation funding authorization given the current political dynamics in Washington."