Steel Dynamics, Inc. provided second quarter 2015 adjusted earnings guidance Monday in the range of $0.20 to $0.24 per diluted share, excluding the following items:
- Approximately $29 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, of expenses associated with the company's Minnesota Operations, including severance costs and non-cash inventory valuation adjustments related to idling these operations, and
- Approximately $9 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, of reduced earnings related to a furnace maintenance outage at Iron Dynamics that generally is required once every five years.
Estimated second quarter adjusted earnings are higher than sequential first quarter 2015 adjusted earnings of $0.17 per diluted share and lower than prior-year second quarter earnings of $0.31 per diluted share. Including the above items, earnings guidance for the second quarter 2015 is in the range of $0.11 to $0.15 per diluted share.
In a statement, the company said: “Profitability from the company's steel operations for the second quarter 2015 is expected to be similar in comparison to the sequential first quarter 2015 results. Improved second quarter 2015 shipments will be offset by unexpected metal margin compression, driven by steel imports remaining much higher than originally anticipated, resulting in average quarterly steel prices decreasing more than average quarterly scrap prices. The benefit of reduced scrap pricing was realized in the second quarter; but, the continued flood of steel imports thus far in 2015 continued to pressure steel product pricing to a greater degree. However, steel pricing has recently begun to stabilize and domestic steel demand remains solid.”