Ryerson Holding Corporation has refrained from providing a third quarter guidance because of uncertainty stemming from the pandemic.
While the company nevertheless anticipated that COVID-19 would affect its Q3 results, it has seen encouraging trends occurring in average selling prices and demand for carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium through the first few weeks of the third quarter, it said in a statement.
Total shipment across all three products—carbon, stainless steel, and aluminium—totaled 932,585mt in H1 2020, while carbon steel shipments fell by 17pc to 721,211mt in H1 2020 from 869,083mt in H1 2019. Shipments of stainless steel declined by 15pc to 123,377mt in the first half of the year from 145,150mt in H1 2019, while aluminium shipments dropped by 22.7pc to 83,461mt 107,955mt.
Carbon steel shipments in Q2 2020 dropped by 25.4pc to 327,494mt from 439,077mt in Q2 2019, and by 16.8pc from 393,718mt during the first quarter of the year. Stainless steel shipments decreased by 26.3pc to 53,524mt in the second quarter of the year compared to 72,575mt during the same period in 2019, while falling by 23.4pc from 69,853mt during the previous quarter. Aluminium shipments in Q2 2020 declined by 33.3pc to 36,287mt from 54,431mt in Q2 2019, and by 23.1pc from 47,174mt in Q1 2020.
Ryerson’s carbon steel net sales in H1 2020 fell by 29.3pc to $913mn from $1,291mn during the same period in 2019. Its stainless steel net sales in the first six months of the year decreased by 17.4pc to $460mn from $557mn in H1 2019, while aluminium net sales plummeted by 30.7pc to $379mn in H1 2020 from $547mn during the same period a year ago.
The firm’s net sales in Q2 2020 for carbon steel dropped by 36.6pc to $402mn from $634mn in Q2 2020, and decreased by 21.3pc from $511mn in Q1 2020. Stainless steel net sales fell by 29.4pc to $197mn in the second quarter of the year from $279mn in Q2 2019, and by 25.1pc from $263mn in the previous quarter. Aluminium net sales also witnessed a 42pc decline to $159mn last quarter from $274mn in Q2 2019, and a 27.7pc decline from $220mn in Q1.
The company’s adjust EBITDA, excluding LIFO, plunged by 51.6pc to $55mn in H1 2020 from $114mn in H1 2019. In Q2 2020, Ryerson’s adjusted EBITDA decreased by 59.4pc to $21mn from $51mn in Q2 2019, and by 40.1pc from $34mn in Q1.