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Strategies & Market Trends : Sharck Soup -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (31045)	7/15/2001 8:55:16 PM
From: Softechie	Respond to of 37746

USX-U.S. Steel's 2nd-Quarter Loss Will Be Narrower Than Expected By ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The country's largest steelmaker said its second-quarter loss would be less than expected by Wall Street, an optimistic sign for the ailing industry. USX-U.S. Steel Group of Pittsburgh said it expects to report a loss of about 50 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected a per-share loss of 72 cents. U.S. Steel said domestic shipments jumped 10% from the first quarter, and shipments from its Eastern European operation, U.S. Steel Kosice, rose 40%. The company said it expects second-quarter earnings before interest, income tax, depreciation and amortization to be between $50 million and $60 million, compared with a negative Ebitda of $28 million in the first quarter. It expects revenue to be about $1.7 billion, better than the first quarter's $1.5 billion. Bush's Probe Into Alleged Dumping Could Lead to Curbs on Steel Imports (June 6) USX to Split U.S. Steel, Marathon Oil in Response to Shareholder Pressure (April 25) Steelmakers Try to Push Through Price Increases and Boost Output (Feb. 26) Steel Companies Ask White House to Start Probe Into Dumping (Oct. 17, 2000) Michael Gambardella, a steel analyst for J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., attributed U.S. Steel's improved performance in part to a reduction of $35 million in energy costs from the first quarter because of lower natural-gas prices. In the first quarter, steep declines in shipments and average steel prices produced red ink for many big steelmakers. Excluding one-time gains, U.S. Steel reported a loss of $98 million, or $1.12 a share. The first-quarter loss was eight cents wider than analysts' expectations. Imports, which in the past few years had taken market share away from domestic mills and caused prices to drop, continued to decline in the second quarter, helping to put a floor under prices in the U.S. Imports in May were down about 17% from the month before and down 35% from May 2000, U.S. statistics show. One reason imports have been declining is an indication by the Bush administration that it would step up a trade investigation aimed at stemming the flow of imports into the U.S. That news has prompted the shares of most U.S. steelmakers to rise modestly from decade lows. Charles Bradford, metals analyst for Bradford Research Inc., said demand for automobiles, a major user of steel, remains relatively strong. He also said automobile inventories have been falling, causing orders for steel to pick up since the first quarter. "This is an early sign of recovery, but steel makers are still not out of the soup yet," Mr. Bradford said. "You have to keep in perspective that U.S. Steel is still losing 50 cents a share, and that's not great." At 4 p.m. Friday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, USX-U.S. Steel shares were up 10 cents at $20.65. Write to Robert Guy Matthews at robertguy.matthews@wsj.com