Posted on 10/22/2002 9:45:38 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
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.
Shares of U.S. Steel rose 13 cents to $12.96 in morning trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).
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.
"U.S. Steel is positioning itself in the right direction with operations, especially with consolidation," said Chris Olin, an analyst with Midwest Research. "With the liquidity they have, they will be the leaders in the movement."
Usher said U.S. Steel would likely use the $500 million toward buying or merging with another domestic steelmaker, but declined to identify any companies.
The Bush administration has threatened to lift tariffs on imported steel, which were enacted in March, if steelmakers don't deliver on promises to reorganize and become more competitive.
U.S. Steel continues to look at companies in Poland and Hungary, chief financial officer John Surma said.
Surma said fourth quarter earnings would be slightly lower with slides in prices and demand, repair outages at two blast furnaces, escalating natural gas prices and a $100 million pretax charge from pension disbursements.
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 $4.96 billion during the same time last year.
The Pittsburgh economy needed a break from foreign steel dumping. Let the steel industry compete fairly and it will survive! Mr. Bush is watching the results. He's also insisting on measures from the steel industry in response. This is fair, and I applaud him in this.
Oh Bull$*&% This is what happens when dumping is stopped, don't try to hand me competition crap. When foreign governments are dumping subsidized steel in the US for less than the cost of production to prop up their own failed economic policies at home, don't hand me banned competition BS. "Free Trade" is the biggest scam ever perpetrated against america and it is NOT a tenement of conservative ideaology and it is shamefull that so many think it is.
It's pretty convenient how a company can make a profit when it can charge pretty much any price it likes. That's amazing!
No, what is amazing, is that you honestly believe "Free Trade" is that, and that you believe "Free Trade" is competition, and that you believe DUMPING is competative at all. Some foreign nation dumping subsidize products on US shores for less than the cost of production is nothing more than a ploy to prop up their own failed economic policies on the backs of US workers. It is illegal, it is shameful, and it is lunacy! "Free Trade" is not a tenement of conservatism, and it is disgusting that so many think it is. Its a scam, nothing more.
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