SDI's Earnings from Steel Operations to See Huge Drop

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Steel Dynamics, Inc. released guidance for third quarter earnings. The quarterly earnings are projected to range between $0.66 and $0.70 per diluted share. This compares with sequential earnings of $0.87 per diluted share in Q2 this year and prior year Q3 earnings of $1.69 per diluted share.

The company foresees reduced earnings from its steel operations during the third quarter of the year. This is mainly on account of lower profitability from the company’s steel sheet operations. The average steel pricing and total shipments are likely to report huge decline in Q3 ’19.

Meantime, the company noted that underlying domestic steel demand has continued to remain intact, with strong requirement, especially from construction sector.

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The ferrous and non-ferrous commodity prices have continued its decline during Q3 as well. The shipments too remained steady during the quarter. This is likely to result in further reduction in quarterly profitability of Steel Dynamics’ metal recycling platform, the company press release said.

On the contrary, it expects sequential improvement in steel fabrication segment earnings, primarily due to higher shipments and steady metal spread. Steel fabrication order backlogs continue to remain strong, said the company. Also, optimism continues to build around non-residential construction projects, it added.