U.S. Steel (X) Misses Q1 EPS by 19c, Lowers FY EBITDA Guidance

U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) reported Q1 EPS of ($0.07), $0.19 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.12. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.27 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.43 billion.

2015 Outlook

Commenting on U. S. Steel's outlook for 2015, Longhi said, "We are currently operating in the face of extremely difficult conditions, particularly in North America. We have made significant progress during our Carnegie Way transformation on improving our business model, including cost structure improvements, which will enable us to increase our earnings power across all market conditions."

The headwinds we faced entering 2015 have intensified. Spot prices for flat-rolled products have decreased at an accelerated pace reaching levels well below market expectations at the beginning of the year and imports have remained at historically high levels, both negatively impacting our flat-rolled order rates. The pace and magnitude of the drop in both oil prices and drilling rig counts have resulted in decreased steel demand for both finished tubular products and substrate supplied by our Flat-Rolled segment for the production of tubular products. Lower order rates for both flat-rolled and tubular products have resulted in lower utilization rates and increased operational inefficiencies at all of our U.S. facilities.

We expect lower overall steel consumption levels to unfavorably impact the timing of a rebalance of supply chain inventory levels in both the flat-rolled and tubular markets we serve; however, we expect market conditions to improve during the second half of 2015, which will have a positive impact on our Flat-Rolled segment as inventory destocking nears completion. We have taken aggressive actions to reduce costs and adjust our operating levels in the near term but cannot fully offset these increased headwinds. We remain focused on meeting both the current and future needs of our customers by providing innovative and value enhancing solutions, as well as on the Carnegie Way transformation.

Based on all of the factors described above, we expect full-year 2015 adjusted EBIT to be between $115 million and $315 million, or full-year 2015 adjusted earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $700 million and $900 million.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on U.S. Steel (X) click here.

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