Steel producer and metals recycler Schnitzer Steel Industries said Thursday that for its fiscal Q4 (ended August 31), the company reported a net loss of $485,000 or $0.02 per share. In the year-ago Q4, Schnitzer reported a $36.7 million profit. For the 2012 fiscal year, Schnitzer reported full year revenues of $3.3 billion, compared to $3.5 billion in fiscal 2011.
In Schnitzer's Metals Recycling Business, ferrous tons shipped totaled 5.1 million and ferrous sales volumes were 1.2 million tons in Q4 decreased 13 percent from Q3 levels. Export customers accounted for 78 percent of total ferrous sales volumes in the fourth quarter. Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan were Schnitzer's top scrap destinations in Q4, while Turkey, China and South Korea were the top three export destinations for the full fiscal year. Scrap demand softened in the export markets in early June, driving average ferrous net sales prices in Q4 down $46 per ton, or 11 percent from Q3 levels.
Looking to November, Tamara Lundgren, Schnitzer's President and CEO, said that there has recently been some firming in the export market as China reentered the market a few weeks ago after being quiet throughout most of the past couple months, and while there is currently a holiday in Turkey this week, Turkey is likely to resume its scrap buying next week. In the US domestic market, there have been signs of prices firming in early November as mills' scrap inventories remain at low levels and when inventories are low, a slight uptick in demand could result in a sharp increase in prices, Lundgren said.
Schnitzer's Steel Manufacturing Business (Cascade Steel Rolling Mills) had an operating loss of $3 million in Q4. While finished steel sales volumes of 126,000 tons increased 22 percent from Q3, average net sales prices for finished steel fell 7 percent.