Universal Stainless shipments drop on outages

Steel producer Universal Stainless' third quarter shipments fell from a year earlier amid production downtime and delays that led to 2mn lbs, or $6mn, less sales.

A fire in the company's North Jackson, Ohio, hydraulic forge area in the second quarter and subsequent repairs drove delays in product shipments during the third quarter for the Pennsylvania-based stainless and alloy steel producer.

Shipments totaled 9,776 short tons (st) in the latest quarter, down from 12,385st in the same period a year earlier.

Sales fell to $56.6mn in the latest quarter from $69.1mn in the third quarter of 2018.

The aerospace industry remained the company's largest end market, consisting of 72.3pc of total sales at $40.9mn, up by 17pc from the same period of 2018.

Premium alloy sales totaled $8mn, or 14pc of total sales, down from $9.2mn, or 13pc of sales from a year earlier.

Universal had a backlog of $118.3mn as of 30 September, an increase of 1pc from 30 June. The producer said order entry levels remained high at a 5pc increase, which will contribute to progress in the fourth quarter.

The company's profit for the third quarter of 2019 was $0.8mn, down from $3.9mn in the third quarter of 2018.

Universal Stainless manufactures and markets semi-finished and finished specialty steels, including stainless steel, nickel alloys, tool steel and certain other alloyed steels.

source: Argus Media