Nerds of Steel

Today US Steel reported first quarter 2008 financial results. EBITDA per ton was $62, which is up from Q4 2007 but down from the 2007 average of $78. There were some special charges (inventory adjustments and a litigation reserve) which reduced reported operating income and EBITDA. Excluding these charges, EBITDA was $71 per ton, which is still below US Steel’s peers. To see how US Steel’s results compare to its peers, check out the Nerds of Steel Earnings spreadsheet.
A transcript of US Steel’s first quarter earnings conference call can be found here.

AK Steel announced earnings today. EBITDA per ton was $142 in Q1, which beat AK’s 2007 average of $129. The company guided towards higher margins in Q2, with operating income per ton expected to hit a record level of $125. This implies Q2 EBITDA per ton close to $160. Check out AK’s results along with those of its steel industry peers on the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet.

Today, Steel Dynamics announced first quarter earnings. EBITDA was $191 per ton, well above the 2007 average of $135. You can see the results and compare them to Steel Dynamic’s industry peers by checking out the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet.

This year’s results include the EBITDA generated by STLD’s recent acquisition, Omnisource. We decided to include the Omnisource results in the calculation of EBITDA per ton of steel shipments to keep SDI’s results comparable to Nucor’s. Nucor doesn’t break out earnings by segment, at least not yet. So their cash flow from operations (EBITDA) includes the results from the recent acquisition of David J. Joseph, although I don’t believe the impact to Nucor was significant in the first quarter.

Nucor today announced earnings for Q1 2008. EBITDA per ton was $144, up from an average of $130 per ton in 2007. See our EBITDA per ton calculations on the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet. In its press release Nucor indicated that second quarter net income per share would be in the range of $1.55 to $1.60 up from $1.41 per share in Q1. This suggests that Q2 EBITDA will be over $150 per ton.

ArcelorMittal and Gerdau Ameristeel both released Q4 and 2007 full year results today. These results have been added to the NoS quarterly financial results spreadsheet. With the exception of US Steel, all the companies we have entered into the spreadsheet so far have achieved very similar EBITDA/ton results for 2007.  Excluding US Steel, the range is $123 per ton to $135 per ton.