US Steel reports profit, sales boost for 2018

Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. has reported full-year adjusted 2018 net earnings of $957 million, up 147 percent from full-year 2017 net earnings of $387 million. The company’s net sales for 2018 of nearly $14.18 billion represents a 15.7 percent increase from 2017 sales of $12.25 billion.

“We are pleased with both the strong earnings we reported in 2018 and the important progress we made on our strategic objectives,” says David B. Burritt, U. S. Steel’s president and CEO. “We are encouraged by the effectiveness of the investments we are making and remain focused on improving our operating and commercial performance to drive long-term value creation for our stockholders."

The company says it expects first quarter 2019 adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) to be approximately $225 million, but that excludes any impacts of from a Dec. 24, 2018, fire at the company’s Clairton, Pennsylvania, coke making facility.

First quarter 2019 EBITDA for the company’s Europe segment is expected to be down from the first quarter of 2018 because of lower volumes, higher raw materials costs and an unfavorable change in the U.S. dollar-to-euro exchange rate.

U.S. Steel operates integrated steel mills in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the United States and in Slovakia in Europe.