Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported today financial results from the fourth quarter and full-year of 2018.
For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $85.6 million, compared to net income of $148.3 million in Q3 2018 and $301.4 million in Q4 2017. Revenue for the quarter totaled $2.81 billion, compared to $2.97 billion in Q3 and $2.38 billion in Q4 2017. Total tons sold in Q4 2018 reached 1.43 million tons, compared to 1.50 million tons in Q3 and 1.45 million tons in Q4 2017.
For the full-year 2018, the company reported net income of $633.7 million, compared to $613.4 million in 2017. The company reported record net revenues in 2018, at $11.53 billion, compared to $9.72 billion in the full-year 2017. Total tons sold in 2018 reached 6.11 million tons, compared to 6.05 million tons in 2017.
As for an outlook on Q1 2019, the company said in a press release that it remains “optimistic in regard to business conditions.” The company said it expects that demand in the first quarter of 2019 will remain healthy and estimates tons sold will be up 6 percent to 8 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, which includes the normal seasonal increase in shipping volumes compared to the fourth quarter.
The company also anticipates price increases for many of the products it sells given recent announcements and “solid pricing fundamentals supported by current demand, raw material costs and the effects of ongoing trade actions.”
However, the company expects its average selling price per ton sold for the first quarter of 2019 will be flat to down 1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 as “many of these price increases will not be effective for the full quarter and the company’s average selling price trended downward during each month of the fourth quarter of 2018.”