ALJ Announces 1st Quarter Earnings
02/17/2009 - ALJ, the parent company of Kentucky Electric Steel, reports a net loss of $198,431 on net sales of $39.96 million for the three months ended December 31, 2008.
ALJ, the parent company of Kentucky Electric Steel, reported a net loss of $198,431 on net sales of $39.96 million for the three months ended December 31, 2008.
The $198,431 net loss ($0.00 per share) compares to net income of $4,965,246 ($0.12 per share) for the year-ago first quarter. The $39.96 million net sales compares to net sales of $37.43 million for the year-ago first quarter.
“The first quarter of fiscal 2009 was a tough one with the normal seasonal decline in shipments exacerbated by the continuing poor economic conditions seen industry-wide,” commented John Scheel, ALJ’s Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that the comparison with 2008 is not necessarily indicative of ALJ’s performance because the first quarter of fiscal 2008 included other income of $3.7 million related to the write-off of discontinued assets. That having been said, the first quarter of 2009 was a break-even quarter.
“We generated an operating profit and, although it was much less than that generated last year, we were able to achieve profitability on an operating basis despite significantly lower volume,” continued Scheel. “In fact, we have made significant progress lowering our break-even point, as evidenced by the fact that we achieved operating profitability at volumes approaching 50% of capacity.”
ALJ is the parent company of KES Acquisition Co., which does business as Kentucky Electric Steel, the owner and operator of a steel mini-mill near Ashland, Ky., producing both merchant bar quality flats and special bar quality steel flats.
