Ohio-based steel maker AK Steel posted a profit of $33.5mn in the fourth quarter on higher prices and sales.
The earnings were up from the $80.4mn loss the company had in the fourth quarter of 2017.
AK Steel's average selling price for flat-rolled steel was $1,106/st in the fourth quarter, up by 8pc compared to the same period of 2017.
It shipped 1.39mn st of flat-rolled steel in the quarter, a 4pc increase. Fourth quarter sales of coated flat-rolled steel, the company's largest offering, increased to 720,000 st, a 7pc increase over the fourth quarter of 2017. For full-year 2018 sales of coated flat-rolled steel fell by 2pc to 2.89 mn st.
Cold-rolled flat-rolled steel volumes grew by 2pc to 262,000st in the fourth quarter, and for the full-year increased by 9pc to 1.08mn st. Hot-rolled coil shipments fell by 8pc to 165,300st in the quarter, and increased by 2pc to 720,100st for the full year.
The company said it would be shutting down its Ashland Works facility in Kentucky by the end of 2019, impacting AK Steel with a one-time $80mn charge recorded in the first quarter of 2019. The plant had been mostly idled for at least three years, but had maintained a single hot tip galvanizing coating line. The work from that line will be distributed to other AK Steel locations and boost their utilization rates.
For full-year 2018 AK Steel recorded profits of $186mn, up by 70pc compared to the $103.5mn it earned in 2017.
The company expects to earn between $160mn and $180mn in 2019, and is basing its guidance on an average carbon hot rolled coil spot market price in January of $720/st.
