Demand for Schnitzer Steel’s recycled metals fells sharply in October due to fears of a global recession.
Demand for Portland-based Schnitzer Steel’s recycled metals fells sharply in October due to fears of a global recession.
Tamara Lundgren said exports resumed the next month but at much lower prices, hurting results for Schnitzer’s fiscal 2012 first quarter. Net income for the quarter that ended Nov. 30 fell from $17.8 million, or 64 cents a share, to $7 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with the same period a year before.
Overall, Schnitzer’s first-quarter sales rose 20 percent, from $675 million to $812 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast revenue of $790 million.
Lundgren told stock analysts the October suspension in buying was highly unusual, reminiscent of customer uncertainties in the fall of 2008. But this time, she said, Schnitzer didn’t see the contract cancellations and credit contraction that occurred during the recession. She dismissed the latest downturn as temporary.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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