Olympic Steel - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 delivered sales of $493.0M, EPS of $0.21, and EBITDA of $16.1M; revenue materially beat consensus ($466.8M*) while EPS modestly missed ($0.24*), and EBITDA was essentially in line ($16.15M*) — a mix driven by strong spot demand but higher operating expense intensity.
• Flat-rolled shipping volumes surged 24% sequentially and 6% year over year, reaching their highest levels since Q3 2021, as customers pulled forward orders following 25% tariff announcements on steel and aluminum.
• Operating cash flow was strong; working capital actions reduced debt by $37M since year-end, and the $625M ABL was extended five years, with ~$269M availability.
• All three segments posted positive EBITDA; Carbon led on shipments and coated mix, Specialty Metals held despite falling nickel surcharges, while Pipe & Tube was resilient but lagged the spot-driven boost.
• 2025 investment cadence remains intact: ~$35M capex focused on automation and throughput; management expects onshoring, data centers, and fabrication to be multi-quarter demand catalysts.

Consensus values marked with * are retrieved from S&P Global.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Strong shipment momentum: “flat-rolled shipping volumes were up 24% sequentially and 6% YoY… highest levels since Q3 2021,” driven by spot demand post-tariffs.
• Cash generation and balance sheet: $37M debt reduction since year-end; five-year extension of $625M ABL, with ~$269M available capital to fund growth.
• Diversification and coated mix: Carbon segment strength aided by coated carbon steel growth; recognition as John Deere Partner-Level Supplier underscores quality and OEM positioning.

What Went Wrong

• Earnings compression vs prior year: Net income fell to $2.5M (from $8.7M YoY), EPS $0.21 (from $0.75), reflecting lower pricing and higher operating expenses.
• Pipe & Tube lagged spot-driven lift: Segment volumes are more contractual and typically lag Carbon by 3–6 months; Q2 outlook similar to Q1.
• Higher operating expense intensity: Q1 operating expenses rose to $110.6M YoY, including ~$2.5M from MetalWorks and costs to process higher shipments.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Greetings and welcome to the Olympic Steel 2025 First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand the conference call over to Rich Manson, Chief Financial Officer at Olympic Steel. Please go ahead, sir.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Olympic Steel's earnings call for the first quarter of 2025. Our call this morning will be hosted by our Chief Executive Officer, Rick Marabito, and we will also be joined by our President and Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Greiff. Before we begin, I have a few reminders. Some statements made on today's call will be predictive and are intended to be made as forward-looking within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may not reflect actual results. The company does not undertake to update such statements, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting such forward-looking statements. Important assumptions, risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth in the company's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and the press releases filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

During today's discussion, we may refer to adjusted net income per diluted share, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA, which are all non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is provided in the press release that was issued last night and can be found on our website. Today's live broadcast will be archived and available for replay on Olympic Steel's website. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Rick.

Rick Marabito (CEO)

Thank you, Rich, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Olympic Steel's 2025 first quarter results. I'll begin with a summary of our first quarter earnings results, including our strong shipping start to the year despite a challenging macro environment for the steel industry. Then, Andrew will review our segment performance, and following that, Rich will discuss our financial results in more detail.

As always, we'll open up the call for your questions. We have talked a lot in recent years about our strategy to build a stronger, more resilient Olympic Steel, one that is positioned to deliver profitable results in any environment. Our first quarter performance during a challenging time for the metals industry reflects the success of these efforts and reinforces our strategy as we move forward. We reported strong shipments and first quarter sales of $493 million with net income of $2.5 million. All three of our business segments continued to deliver positive EBITDA. Our flat-roll shipping volumes were up 24% sequentially and 6% over the prior year, hitting their highest levels since the third quarter of 2021, which was also the height of the post-COVID pricing and demand market.

We really saw an increase in demand about halfway through the quarter as customers reacted to the announced 25% steel and aluminum tariffs and contemplated the impact of potential reciprocal tariffs. Andrew will talk more about this in a few moments. We continue to execute on our strategy to grow profitably by diversifying into metal-intensive end markets, expanding our fabrication capabilities, and focusing on a richer mix of higher margin metal products. Our commitment to M&A to bolster these areas has proven to be very effective. Our most recent acquisition, Metalworks, completed in late 2024, is off to an excellent start. As expected, it has been immediately accretive to our results. Building on our successful track record of completing eight acquisitions over the past seven years, we remain committed to M&A as an ongoing source of growth for Olympic Steel.

We are also committed to making key organic growth investments in our operations that will enhance throughput and safety, and Andrew will detail more about that in a few minutes. At the same time, we've demonstrated our operational discipline by staying focused on what we can control. We are closely managing our working capital and improved our inventory turns as we weather uncertain markets. These efforts drove strong operating cash flow during the quarter, which resulted in a $37 million reduction in our debt. In addition, last week, we announced the five-year extension of our $625 million asset-based revolving credit facility. This will continue to provide us with the flexible, low-cost capital to fund our continued growth, both organically and through acquisition. While tariffs have dominated the macroeconomic conversation, Olympic Steel is well-positioned to support increased manufacturing in the United States.

Over 90% of our metal supply and almost all of our sales are domestically based, and our fabrication capabilities provide an excellent solution for OEMs looking to onshore, outsource, or simply expand their first stage of manufacturing in the United States. Our long-standing, strong relationships with our domestic mills are also a real benefit in the current tariff environment. As we look ahead, we believe strongly in the Olympic Steel that we have been building. We remain confident in our ability to continue to drive profitable growth regardless of market conditions. I'll now turn the call over to Andrew.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. This certainly has been an interesting time for the steel industry, with a number of dynamics shaping our current environment, most notably the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

After the initial announcement of 25% steel and aluminum tariffs in January, hot roll pricing escalated quickly, increasing more than 30% during the quarter. As customers scrambled to digest the news, spot orders increased significantly. During the first quarter of 2025, Olympic Steel had its strongest flat-rolled shipping volume since the third quarter of 2021, which was the peak of post-COVID demand. As you may recall, we still owned our former Detroit facility back then. Increased shipping levels, along with our end products businesses, drove strong performance in our carbon segment with EBITDA of $10.9 million. In addition, continued growth in our coated carbon steel product line, a higher margin product, had a positive impact on performance. Also of note, we were recognized as a partner-level supplier for 2024 in the John Deere Achieving Excellence Program. This is John Deere's highest supplier rating.

We are incredibly proud to receive this recognition from our longtime customer and respected global OEM. Congratulations to our entire team on this great achievement. The pipe and tube market, which typically lags our carbon performance by three to six months, experienced slower OEM orders, similar to what the carbon market experienced during the second half of 2024. However, the segment still delivered EBITDA of $6.4 million. We are confident the team's focus on sales growth, margin improvement, and fabricated product expansion will continue to drive positive results for this business. The specialty metal segment, despite continually falling nickel surcharges, had a solid quarter, reporting EBITDA of $3.6 million. We continue to invest in the growth and expansion of specialty metals. In March, we opened our new facility in Houston.

The 105,000 sq ft facility will increase the Action Stainless Houston operations footprint by an additional 73,000 sq ft, expanding our distribution and fabrication capabilities in the Southwest. Our other planned capital investments remain on track, with most expected to become operational later this year or in early 2026. These include a new cut-to-length line at our Minneapolis coil facility to support our growing coated business, a new high-speed light-gauge narrow-width specialty metal slitter to expand our Berlin Metals' unique slitting capacity outside Chicago, a new white metals cut-to-length line in Schaumburg, Illinois, and the automation of our Chambersburg fabrication operation. These investments will continue to expand our capacity and enhance our safety and drive efficiency in targeted growth areas of our business. As Rick said earlier, we have built a more resilient Olympic Steel, and we are confident in our strategy and position in the market.

As always, we will continue to control what we can control, while many market inputs and macroeconomic variables will no doubt continue to change. We strongly believe the combination of these efforts keeps us well-positioned to continue to grow and deliver profitable results under all market conditions. Now, I'll turn the call over to Rich.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Thank you, Andrew. As you have heard from Rick and Andrew, our team did an excellent job on the first quarter to navigate macroeconomic headwinds to deliver solid performance to the start of the year. Before I discuss the results in more detail, I want to remind you that comparisons are impacted by the November 2024 acquisition of Metalworks, whose results are included in the carbon segment. For the first quarter, net income totaled $2.5 million compared with $8.7 million in the first quarter of 2024. EBITDA in the first quarter was $16.1 million compared with $23.3 million in the prior year period. There was no LIFO adjustment in the first quarter of 2025 compared with $400,000 of LIFO expense in the first quarter of 2024. Consolidated operating expenses for the first quarter totaled $110.6 million compared with $103.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Our first quarter 2025 operating expenses reflect the addition of Metalworks, which does not report tons sold. Therefore, operating expenses per ton at the consolidated level and for the carbon segment will appear higher year over year. As a reminder, we do not report tons sold for McCullough Industries, Easy Dumper, Metal Fab, Shaw Stainless, or the entire pipe and tube segment. Consolidated operating expenses for the first quarter include operating expenses associated with shipping 6% more volume year over year, $2.5 million of Metalworks operating and acquisition-related expenses, and $500,000 of lower incentive expenses when compared with the first quarter of 2024. Our team's excellent working capital management drove strong operating cash flow, which enabled us to pay down debt by $37 million since year-end, lowering our total debt to $235 million at the end of the first quarter.

On April 22nd, we announced a five-year extension of our $625 million asset-based revolving credit facility. Immediately after the extension, we had approximately $269 million of availability under the facility, providing us with an excellent source of flexible, low-cost capital to fund strategic growth initiatives. Our capital expenditures totaled $8.8 million in the first quarter of 2025 compared to depreciation of $6.5 million. We estimate that 2025 capital expenditures will be approximately $35 million as we continue to invest in automation and other growth initiatives that Andrew mentioned earlier. Our first quarter 2025 effective tax rate was 30.1% compared with 27% in the same period last year. We expect our 2025 tax rate to approximate 28%. In addition, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share in the first quarter.

Our board of directors approved our next regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per share, which is payable on June 16th, 2025, to shareholders of record on June 2nd, 2025. The company has now paid regular quarterly dividends dating back to 2006. Before we open the call for your questions, I would like to thank the entire Olympic Steel team for all their efforts in the first quarter. It's because of the team's hard work and dedication that Olympic Steel remains in a strong operational and financial position and is equipped to manage through a challenging market environment while continuing to advance our strategy. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

Operator (participant)

Please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing your star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Samuel McKinney with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Hey, good morning, guys.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Good morning, Sam.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Hey, starting in carbon flat, volumes were up about 25% versus the fourth quarter. It's well ahead of your normal seasonality and the MSCI figures. You know, we've been hearing a lot about pull forward demand during this earnings cycle, and I was curious if you could frame up how much of that first quarter volume boost has to do with that.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

Yeah, Sam, this is Andrew. I would say a lot of it. Traditionally, you know, our sales are, call it 65-35 from a contract versus spot. It was stronger this quarter on the spot side of it. We certainly saw some great activity and some pull ahead relatively early in the quarter, and it really helped propel the strength of the carbon sales.

Rick Marabito (CEO)

I'd say, Sam, it's Rick. The other, I guess, way to look at it is typically, and I think, Rich, you calculate the number, but typically seasonally, fourth quarter to first quarter were what?

Rich Manson (CFO)

Yeah, 10-12.

Rick Marabito (CEO)

10-12% up. That would kind of be a normal increase. Certainly, you know, we lapped that. We doubled it. And as Andrew said, a big piece of that extra was certainly in the spot business.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Understood. I know first quarter tends to be the strongest revenue quarter for pipe and tube given the rebates. Are you expecting that to hold true this year off the $77 million baseline you set in the first quarter, or could we see some improvement as the year progresses?

Rick Marabito (CEO)

Yeah, Sam. The pipe and tube segment certainly didn't see the same bump up in sales that the carbon segment saw. That's primarily because they're more contractual-based than spot-based. As Andrew walked you through the increase in spot sales, you didn't see that in the pipe and tube segments. You know, I think what they're seeing is kind of that continued malaise that we saw in the back half of 2024 for the carbon segment for OEMs. Keep in mind, they basically lagged three to six months. Right now, what we're seeing, I think the pipe and tube segment, you know, going into Q2 looks a lot like Q1.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Okay.

Given your five-year extension on that ABL, just talk us through your current appetite for M&A and the potential areas you're looking to bolster, and how does the marketplace look now compared to prior recent periods?

Rick Marabito (CEO)

Yeah, it's Rick, Sam. Great question. Certainly, M&A continues to be one of the key pieces of our strategic growth for Olympic. We've talked a lot about that. That certainly remains. We're active looking. You are right. I think last call we had, I probably commented that we saw some of the inflow, the pipeline in terms of candidates slow. Certainly, that kind of continued through the first quarter. I tell you, in April, we've started to see a return of potential sellers and candidates who are really interested in dialoguing. It's going to continue to be, you know, you see our track record. We've done eight in seven years. It's going to continue to be a big piece of our growth strategy going forward. We'd anticipate really continuing on the pace that you've seen us do over the last five to seven years.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Okay. Would you be disappointed if you didn't get a deal done this year?

Rick Marabito (CEO)

You like repeating that line I use. Yeah, I would. I think, you know, certainly, I think we're trying to do at least one a year and have been successful doing that. I don't see why we wouldn't continue at that pace.

Samuel McKinney (Assistant VP of Equity Research)

Okay. Thanks, guys. Good luck.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Thanks, Sam.

Rick Marabito (CEO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Our next question is from Dave Storms with Stonegate.

Dave Storms (Director of Equity Research)

Hey, morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Morning, Dave.

Dave Storms (Director of Equity Research)

I wanted to circle back to pipe and tube and maybe a sense of what the outlook might be beyond Q2. You mentioned, obviously, that it lags. Are you seeing buying patterns that might indicate more of a muted response relative to carbon flats, or do you think it'll be more of a draft and slingshot situation where the market realizes that they need to kind of get ahead of some of this?

Rich Manson (CFO)

No, I think we'll see a more traditional year for pipe and tube. I think the area that we will see continued opportunity is going to be onshoring opportunities. A couple of areas that pipe and tube has been very strong, certainly with data centers. It's a big part of their growth. Really, with the onshoring opportunities on both our flat roll and our pipe and tube is really where we expect to see some great opportunities through 2025 and probably beyond. We're well prepared for it. You know, with CTI and now CTB, we can really service fabrication customers. We've got 20 high-speed sophisticated tube lasers, really positioned well in the Southwest. In our traditional Chicago Tube and Iron facilities, Chicago, Minneapolis, Lockport, as well as some others are really positioned well. On our flat roll side of it, the same thing.

We have invested, as you know, a lot in the flat roll side of our fabrication. A couple of specific facilities, our Buford, Georgia, and our Bartlett, Illinois facilities, but also, you know, in Bettendorf and Chambersburg and Mount Sterling. On the flat roll side, we have put a lot of money into the fabrication and are anticipating, as we have seen, some great opportunities that we have seen really in the last 30 days for big growth there.

Dave Storms (Director of Equity Research)

That's fantastic, COLA. Thank you. Just one more from me. Just would love to get your thoughts on, you know, your working capital and maybe inventory management to try to cover for the 10% amount of supply that's not domestic. Any thoughts there would be great.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Yeah, I'll touch the working capital, and then I'll let Andrew talk about the supply base. Dave, yeah, we did take that down $37 million in Q1, and part of that was taking inventory down. I would expect, you know, to see maybe a modest decrease in debt during Q2, but I'm not expecting a whole lot. As we've been talking on these calls, we really expect the large reduction in debt to come in the back half of the year. We see no reason why, you know, by year-end, we couldn't be back down in the low 200s in terms of borrowing on our debt. Andrew, I'll let you talk about the supply base.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

No, I think our inventory is sort of appropriate levels. I think, as you saw in the MSCI Mar report, a lot of the service centers were sitting with too much inventory coming into 2025. I think we are in really good position, continue to be into the second quarter, and expect that, you know, the supply will be relatively stable as we head into the, you know, into the balance of the year. I think we are well positioned because the majority of our material comes from the domestic supply. Tariffs really are not going to impact us relative to that side of it. We think that there's fine availability domestically to support our growth.

Dave Storms (Director of Equity Research)

That's fantastic. Thank you very much, and good luck in Q2.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

Thanks, Dave.

Operator (participant)

Our next question is from Chris Sakai with Singular Research.

Chris Sakai (Equity Research Analyst)

Yes, hi. Good morning.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

Morning, Chris.

Chris Sakai (Equity Research Analyst)

Just had a question on carbon flat. Looks like operating expenses took a jump up from last year. Was that from acquisitions? How are you managing that going forward?

Rich Manson (CFO)

Yeah, Chris, really caused by two things. One being the acquisition of Metalworks. Remember, that occurred in November of 2024. When you're comparing Q1 versus Q1, there's about $2.5 million extra operating expenses that weren't there last year, but associated with a great growth company in Metalworks. We shipped, you know, quarter over quarter, we were 24% up in volume and 6% in volume up year over year. Those tons have to be processed, those tons have to be shipped. That's really what you're seeing: an increase in warehouse and processing, and then an increase in distribution expense associated with that volume growth. You know, we continue to monitor our expenses on a same-store basis.

You know, what we continue to see is our inflation, you know, adjusting for volume is essentially, you know, in the low single digits as far as inflation goes, you know, say 1-2%. And that's after giving people a 3% COLA raise at the beginning of the year. So we think the operating expenses on a same-store basis continue to be managed very well.

Chris Sakai (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thanks for that. With all this tariff talk, you know, how is that affecting your M&A strategy? Is it hurting it or helping it?

Rich Manson (CFO)

I'd tell you really not an impact directly. You know, we are domestic-based. All of our acquisitions have been in the U.S. at this point. We're not really looking at foreign acquisitions. What I would tell you is the tariff impact really has a greater impact on our fabricating business. And Andrew talked about that. I mean, we are exceptionally well prepared should the big bet that this administration is doing on bringing back manufacturing to the United States actually take place. We're exceptionally positioned to take advantage of that. I think from an M&A front, you'll continue to see us do what we've done in the past, which is find service center distribution businesses that are very successful, and then just as importantly, continue to buy end manufacturing companies.

Really, the tariff impact, I'd tell you, has more of a, I think, more of an impact on, you know, the core business going forward than really an impact on M&A. As I stated earlier, I think, you know, there was a little trepidation as the year started in terms of the capital markets and M&A, and that's probably why we saw a little bit of a slow down in the pipeline. I think as companies are getting a little more used to, and you hate to say used to the changes out of D.C., but I think people are getting a little more comfortable, and we're seeing certainly more companies come into the pipeline.

Chris Sakai (Equity Research Analyst)

Do you think that the tariffs will increase competition for acquisition?

Rich Manson (CFO)

Yeah, I do. I mean, I think if this plays out as planned and we continue to build our manufacturing base in the United States, I could certainly see some others choosing to grow more quickly through an M&A route versus a capital expenditure investment route. I think that's sort of one stream where you may see M&A increase.

Chris Sakai (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, great. Thanks.

Rich Manson (CFO)

Thank you.

Andrew Greiff (President and COO)

Thanks, Chris.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the floor back over to Richard Marabito for any closing comments.

Rick Marabito (CEO)

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today on our call. We certainly appreciate your continued interest in Olympic Steel and look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great day, everyone. Bye-bye.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.