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BREAKING NEWS: AK reports 1Q increased shipments
By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer
AK Steel Corp. this morning reported sharply lower net income and operating profit but slightly higher shipments compared to a year ago for the first quarter of 2006.
The company also acknowledged additional costs related to the lockout of its largest union from Middletown Works.
And for the first time, AK acknowledged Tuesday the lockout has the plant operating at about "85 percent of steelmaking capacity."
One month of the three-month period has seen a lockout of Armco Employees Independent Federation, which represented about 2,600 Middletown Works hourly workers when the lockout started March 1. Since then, AK has operated the mill, the company's largest, with about 1,500 salaried supervisors and temporary replacement workers. AK has also performed blast furnace maintenance and completed installation of new air-pollution controls in the first quarter.
AK said new costs related to the lockout reached about $13 million for training and overtime. Another $14 million is related to "fixed costs associated with the reduced level of operations at Middletown Works during March."
The Curtis Street-based steelmaker reported net income of $6.2 million, or six cents per share of common stock, for the first quarter. Net sales were $1,435.9 million on shipments of 1,526,800 tons, a one-percent increase in revenues on slightly higher shipments from the year-ago quarter, AK said.
The company also reported a first-quarter operating profit of $29.4 million, or $19 per ton, compared to $113.6 million, or $75 per ton, for the first quarter last year.
Also, AK said its average selling price reached a quarterly record of $940 per ton in the first quarter, significantly higher than the $860 per ton average in the fourth quarter of 2005.
See Wednesday's Middletown Journal for more on this story.
Contact this reporter at (513)
705-2833
or
tgnau
@coxohio.com.
