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(AMM) Auto market demand helps drive improvement by USS? flat-roll segment

April 27, 2010 - 20:52 GMT Location: PITTSBURGH

KEYWORDS: U.S. Steel , flat roll , automotive , service centers

U.S. Steel Corp.'s flat-rolled business segment logged a significant improvement in its first-quarter results, buoyed by increased orders from the U.S. automotive market and restocking of low inventories by service centers.

While the segment suffered a first-quarter operating loss of $80 million, or about $22 per ton shipped, that was an 81-percent improvement from a $422-million operating loss, or about $199 per ton shipped, in the same period last year.

Other key factors contributing to the improved bottom-line results were higher quarter-on-quarter average realized selling prices and shipments; operating efficiencies; reduced costs for facility repair, maintenance and facility restarts; and increased inter-segment shipments to its tubular operations.

The flat-rolled segment's capacity utilization rate increased to 73 percent in the first quarter from 38 percent a year earlier as the segment's raw steel production nearly doubled to almost 4.4 million tons from about 2.3...

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