U.S. Steel swings a $106 million profit in third quarter
PITTSBURGH (AP) – U.S. Steel posted earnings Monday of $106 million for the third quarter, due mostly to higher production and steel prices. The nation’s largest integrated steelmaker reported a profit of $1.04 a share, compared to a loss of $23 million, or 26 cents a share, in the same period last year.
Excluding a one-time charge, the Pittsburgh-based company reported it earned $103 million, or $1 per share, compared with loss of $17 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier.
It was the second consecutive quarterly profit for U.S. Steel, and the second quarter in a row it has beat Wall Street’s expectations. U.S. Steel had hinted profits would be strong, but Wall Street remained skeptical. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting 64 cents a share.
U.S. Steel reported its first profit in a year in the second quarter, with earnings of $27 million, or 28 cents per share, and chairman Thomas Usher has said the steelmaker could post a profit this year after losing $218 million last year.
The company reported sales and other income of $1.91 billion, compared with $1.66 billion during the same period last year.
For the second consecutive quarter, production was high with domestic operations running at 93.7 percent capacity and its Slovakian mills running at 90.8 percent.
U.S. Steel also said it was helped by rising steel prices, which averaged $428 per ton, about $34 per ton more than a year earlier.
Last week, U.S. Steel announced it would sell its coke mills, iron mines and transportation company to a new company formed by Apollo Management, a New York City private equity firm, for $500 million.
The deal, combined with the pending sale of its coal business, would mark a departure for the company – which was cobbled together by financier J.P. Morgan more than a century ago. The company has owned the raw materials to make steel since it was founded in 1901.
For the first nine months, U.S. Steel reported earnings of $50 million, or 52 cents a share, compared to a loss of $44 million, or 50 cents a share last year. Revenues in the first nine months were $5.16 billion, compared to $4.96 billion during the same time last year.
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