US minimill Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) said Friday that it expects to post a loss in the second quarter but that it also expects to be profitable in the second half of the year as a result of improving demand for its products.
While the company did not release gross or sales income figures, it expects to post a loss of 10 cents to 15 cents per diluted share in the second quarter. In April, the company had expected to come close to breaking even in the second quarter, predicting a range from a small loss to a small profit.
SDI's chairman and chief executive Keith Busse explained its revised Q2 outlook in a statement Friday, "As we expected early in the quarter, we have experienced some improvement in flat roll steel order entry and shipping volumes as the quarter progressed while, at the same time, pricing continued to erode."
However, due to recent increasing flat rolled pricing and slight demand improvement, the company expects things to turn around during the third and fourth quarters of 2009. Busse stated, "I do believe that flat rolled pricing has finally bottomed and is currently moving higher. Demand is strengthening for some of our steel products and recycled metals. We now expect to be profitable in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 assuming only a modest increase in production volume."
SDI will release its second quarter financial report on July 22, 2009.