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Improved Metal Spreads Lift Insteel Industries Q1 Profits

For the quarter ended 2 January 2016, Insteel posted net sales of US$92.4 million, down more than 16 percent from the same quarter last year. Sales declined on account of a 9 percent decrease in shipments and an 8.3 percent decrease in average selling prices.

The declines, however, were offset by a higher spreads between raw material costs and selling prices.

Insteel is the country’s largest manufacturer of steel wire reinforcing products for concrete construction.

"As we move into the second fiscal quarter, we expect that our results will be affected by the usual seasonal slowdown in construction activity in most of our markets related to winter weather conditions," H.O. Woltz III, Insteel's president and CEO, said in a statement.

"Looking ahead to the remainder of fiscal 2016, we anticipate improved demand for our concrete reinforcing products driven by the gradual recovery in non-residential construction. We also expect to benefit from the recent passage of a five-year federal highway spending bill, which provides a higher degree of funding certainty for states and municipalities that should translate into increased infrastructure construction in the coming years."