Gerdau Ameristeel Posts Strong Adjusted 3Q Results

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Gerdau Ameristeel Corp. said Thursday it lost money in the third quarter as revenue fell and it took one-time accounting charges for halting steel production at a mill and cutting debt.

For the three months ended Sept. 30 the company lost $25.4 million, or 6 cents per share, compared with a profit in the year-earlier period of $316.9 million, or 73 cents per share.

But excluding a one-time charge for halting production at a steel mill and another for cutting debt, the company earned a profit of 8 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, a loss of 3 cents per share. Such expectations typically exclude one-time items.

In afternoon trading shares jumped 46 cents per share, or 6.3 percent, to $7.76. Over the last 12 months the stock has ranged from $2.85 to $9.02.

A 41 percent plunge in selling prices offset higher shipping volumes to cut revenue to $1.15 billion from $2.51 billion. Wall Street had expected revenue of $1.6 billion.

"Destocking of inventory by our customers seems to have been completed and resulted in a 12 percent, quarter over quarter, increase in our shipment levels," CEO Mario Longhi said.

Mill production rose about 24 percent over the second quarter's level and manufacturing costs continued declining, he added.

The company is a unit of Gerdau SA, a Brazilian steel producer.