On January 26, the US's fifth largest producer of carbon steel products, Steel Dynamics, Inc. (SDI), announced a strong year of growth in 2008, with the achievement of record full year results, despite weak fourth quarter sales and shipments and fourth quarter losses from unrealized hedging losses and inventory write-downs.
In 2008 SDI's steel shipments of 5.08 million mt were slightly higher than 2007 shipments of 4.99 million mt, ferrous metals shipments of 5.04 million mt were up 409 percent from 2007 shipments of 989,000 mt, and non-ferrous metals shipments of 413,000 mt were up 566 percent from 2007 shipments of 62,000 mt.
The company's net sales for the year 2008 grew to a record $8.1 billion, an increase of 84 percent compared to net sales of $4.4 billion in 2007, while net income for 2008 was a record $463 million, a 17 percent increase from $395 million in 2007.
On the other hand, compared to the third quarter, in the fourth quarter of 2008 steel shipments of 854,570 mt were down 34 percent, ferrous metals shipments of 814,650 mt were down 49 percent, and non-ferrous metals shipments of 80,000 mt were down 27 percent.
Lower volumes combined with declining prices for all business segments resulted in fourth quarter sales of $1.2 billion, down 53 percent from $2.6 billion in the third quarter, and down 17 percent from $1.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. For the fourth quarter, the company incurred a net loss of $83 million, compared to net income of $193 million in the third quarter of 2008, and to net income of $98 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.