Gerdau Ameristeel Announces Second Quarter Earnings

Gerdau Ameristeel, a Toronto-based scrap recycling company, has reported record earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2008. The company reported a net income of $262.1 million for the past three months ending June 30, which is an 88.4 percent increase to the net income of $139.1 million experienced in the second quarter of 2007.

Additionally, for the first six months of 2008, net income was reported at $425.1 million, an increase of 55.9 percent compared to the first six moths of 2007.

For the six months ended June 30, 2008, metal spread, the difference between mill selling prices and scrap raw material costs, was $478 per ton, an increase of $85 per ton from the same period in the prior year.

"We recorded the highest quarterly level of shipments, revenue and earnings in the history of Gerdau Ameristeel during the second quarter, attributable to the successful execution of our strategic plans over the past several years,” says Mario Longhi, president and CEO of the company. “The acquisition of Chaparral Steel diversified our product mix into high margin structural steel products while our acquisition of Century Steel expands our value added downstream fabrication and installation business in the western United States markets.”

 

Over the past year, Gerdau and its subsidiaries have been active in expanding their businesses with Gerdau’s acquisition of Chaparral Steel in September 2007, their majority-owned Pacific Coast Steel’s acquisition of Central Steel Inc. in April 2008 and Gerdau’s acquisition of the assets of Hearon Steel Co. in July 2008.