US Steel reported second quarter 2018 net earnings of $214 million, compared to second quarter 2017 net earnings of $261 million. Net sales for the quarter totaled $3.61 billion, compared to $3.14 billion in Q2 2017.
Steel shipments in Q2 totaled 3.94 million tons, compared to 3.83 million tons in Q2 2017. Broken down by product, flat rolled shipments totaled 2.58 million tons, tubular shipments totaled 201,000 tons, and European division shipments totaled 1.16 million tons.
Flat rolled steel production in the US totaled 2.84 million tons in Q2, compared to 2.71 million tons in Q2 2017. Capacity utilization for the quarter reached 67 percent, compared to 64 percent in Q2 2017.
Commenting on US Steel’s guidance for 2018, President and Chief Executive Officer David B. Burritt said, “We currently expect that third quarter 2018 adjusted EBITDA will be approximately $525 million. We expect our Flat-rolled segment results to continue to improve as more of our adjustable contract and spot shipments realize the benefit of second quarter increases in index prices, partially offset by higher planned outage costs. We expect results for our Tubular segment to turn positive as selling price increases catch up to the rising substrate costs we saw in the first half of the year. We expect results for our European segment to be lower in the third quarter, primarily due to planned outages that coincide with normal seasonal customer demand patterns.”