US Steel sees 35% loss

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :31/10/2007 06:56:23

United States Steel reported a 35 percent third quarter loss on Tuesday, hurt by lower prices, shipments and costs related to raw materials and a recent acquisition.

The steel maker said net income dropped to $269 million or $2.27 a share, from $417 million, or $3.42 a share, a year earlier, falling short of analysts’ expectations who expected $2.66.

Profit at U.S. Steel's European business also fell, dropping 31 percent because of maintenance outages and higher raw-materials costs.

Expectation

"We made good progress in implementing a unified business model for our Tubular segment and are realizing synergies from the Lone Star acquisition," said CEO John Surma.

The quarter included a $27 million pretax charge from inventory bought in its acquisition of Lone Star Technologies and a tax provision with charges totaling $11 million.

Revenue increased nearly six percent, to $4.35 billion from $4.11 billion in last year’s quarter; analysts had forecast a profit of $2.63 a share on $4.38 billion in revenue.

The company said it expects a decline in overall results for the fourth quarter due to normal seasonal effects and several scheduled blast furnace outages."

October 31 2007