Wheeling-Pitt Announces First Quarter Results

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp., the holding company of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2005.

For the first quarter the company reported net income of $8.1 million, compared to a net loss of $6.7 million the same time last year.

Net sales for the quarter totaled $399.5 million. Excluding revenue from the sale of raw material, the average selling price of steel shipped during the quarter was $739 per ton on steel shipments of 522,803 tons. This compares to net sales of $274.2 million the same time last year. The average selling price of steel shipped during the first quarter last year was $509 per ton on shipments of 538,701 tons.

Cost of sales for the first quarter totaled $355.9 million. Excluding the cost of raw material sold during the quarter and a one-time $4.4 million cost recovery item, cost of sales per ton of steel shipped was $675. Cost of sales for the first quarter of 2004 totaled $256.1 million or $475 per ton of steel shipped. Cost of sales for the first quarter was adversely affected by increases in the cost of scrap, iron ore and metallurgical coal.

Production and shipments were adversely affected during the quarter by the basic oxygen furnace ductwork collapse.

"While our 2005 first quarter was adversely impacted by recent industry developments, we feel these developments also validate key elements of our long-term business strategy which shifts a significant amount of our steelmaking capacity to electric arc furnace technology," said James Bradley, chairman and CEO. "Our transition to EAF and blast furnace technology reduces our reliance on iron ore as world prices have increased and as scrap prices continue to moderate."