Steel Dynamics (STLD) Tops Q1 EPS by 21c, Revenues Beat

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD) reported Q1 EPS of $2.10, $0.21 better than the analyst estimate of $1.89. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.5 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.39 billion.

• First quarter 2021 net sales of $3.5 billion and net income of $431 million, or $2.03 per diluted share.
  • Excluding the impact from the following item, the company's first quarter 2021 adjusted net income was $445 million, or $2.10 per diluted share.

"The team delivered a tremendous first quarter performance, achieving record quarterly net sales, operating income and adjusted EBITDA," said Mark D. Millett, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our first quarter 2021 operating income increased 130 percent sequentially to $594 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $664 million. Numerous individual operating and financial records were attained — a truly amazing achievement and a testament to the passion and dedication of our team. Based on their performance, we achieved solid cash flow from operations of $262 million in the first quarter 2021, while at the same time supporting increased working capital needs, meaningfully growing our business through significant organic growth investments, increasing our quarterly cash dividend by four percent, and maintaining strong liquidity of over $2.4 billion.

"During the first quarter, steel demand remained robust and product pricing gained momentum across our entire steel platform. Higher flat roll steel selling values were the most significant drivers for our record quarterly earnings, as demand strength and historically low customer inventories throughout the supply chain supported prices. Domestic steel consumption remained strong from the automotive, construction and industrial sectors, and energy has shown some signs of rebounding.

"Despite the challenges of the pandemic, as a result of our safety culture and spirit of excellence among our teams, our first quarter 2021 segment operating results were once again phenomenal," continued Millett. "First quarter operating income from our steel operations was a record $641 million and our metals recycling operations nearly doubled their earnings sequentially, as improved domestic steel mill utilization increased ferrous scrap demand. Our steel fabrication operations also displayed a solid performance, achieving record quarterly shipments and ending March with a record order backlog that is over 50 percent higher than our previous high point, as we head into the summer construction season."

Outlook

"We remain confident that market conditions are in place to benefit the domestic steel industry in 2021 and beyond," said Millett. "While global economies are still recovering from the shock of COVID-19, we are seeing strong steel demand coupled with extremely low customer steel inventory throughout the supply chain. The automotive sector has experienced the strongest recovery, despite the electronic chip shortage, and the construction, equipment and transportation sectors are also strong. Our order entry continues to be robust across our businesses, and when coupled with historically low inventories, supports continued strong steel selling values. We believe this momentum will continue throughout the year and that our second quarter 2021 earnings will be even higher than our record first quarter 2021 results. We also believe U.S. trade policies and existing steel trade cases will continue to moderate steel imports. Based on strong domestic steel fundamentals and customer optimism, we continue to be confident regarding North American steel market dynamics. This positive environment coupled with our strategic growth initiatives provide firm drivers for our further growth in the coming years.

"We and our customers continue to be extremely excited about our Sinton Texas Flat Roll Steel Mill investment. It represents transformational competitively-advantaged strategic growth, with associated long-term value creation for all of our stakeholders. The facility is designed to have product capabilities beyond that of existing electric-arc-furnace (EAF) flat roll steel producers, competing even more effectively with the higher-carbon emitting integrated steel model and foreign competition, providing a broader steel portfolio and a climate-conscious supply option for our customers. Construction continues to go well and remains within our expected project cost of $1.9 billion, with plans to commence steel production late summer 2021. We have targeted specific regional steel consuming markets and are competitively located close to these areas, with an opportunity to also displace foreign steel imports. We have executed agreements with several customers to co-locate on our site, currently representing over 1.3 million tons of annual steel consumption and processing capabilities, and we are still in discussion with others. Our recent acquisition of a Mexican scrap company is also providing a key support for Sinton's ferrous scrap needs.

"Additionally, as recently announced, we are planning to add four additional value-added flat roll steel coating lines comprised of two paint lines and two galvanizing lines with Galvalume® coating capability. The sites for these lines are still to be determined but two lines comprised of one paint line and one galvanizing line will be located in the Southern U.S., to provide Sinton with the same diversification and higher-margin product capabilities as our Butler and Columbus Flat Roll Steel divisions. The estimated investment for these two lines is $225 million, with a combined annual coating capacity of 540,000 tons. The other two lines will have the same annual coating capacity with an estimated investment between $175 million and $200 million. They will be located in the Midwest to support the growing demand for coated flat roll steel products and to further increase the diversification and cash generation capacity of our existing Midwest flat roll steel operations. Our unique operating culture, coupled with our considerable experience in successfully constructing and operating highly-profitable EAF steel mills and flat roll steel coating lines, positions us well to execute these strategic growth initiatives. Based on our current estimates, we believe these four lines will likely begin operating sometime in the second half of 2022.

"Our commitment is to the health and safety of our teams, families, and communities, while meeting the current and future needs of our customers. Our culture and business model continue to positively differentiate our performance from the rest of the industry, and we are in a place of strength. We are competitively positioned and focused to generate long-term sustainable value for all of our stakeholders," concluded Millett.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Steel Dynamics (STLD) click here.

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