Safety Recognition for AK Steel's Zanesville Plant - Analyst Blog

AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS announced that its Zanesville Works has received an award for outstanding safety performance by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Division of Safety and Hygiene. The plant received the "100% Award for Safety" for functioning full-year 2013 without any lost-time injuries or illnesses.

The plant also received a “Special Award for Safety" for operating 4,465,715 man-hours without a lost-time injury between April 21, 2003 and Dec 31, 2013.  The award is part of a collaborative safety awareness program established by the Muskingum County Safety Council and Chamber of Commerce.

In Feb 2014, AK Steel announced that its Middletown (OH) Works coke plant received the Max Eward Safety Award from the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute (ACCCI), a leading industry trade organization.  The company was given the award for operating one of the safest cokemaking facilities in America in 2013.   

AK Steel recently provided its outlook for the first quarter of 2014. The company expects to incur a loss in the range of 44 cents to 49 cents per share in the first quarter mainly due to higher energy costs and an unplanned outage at the company's Ashland Works blast furnace.

Due to the outage, AK Steel expects its steel shipments to decline by 10%–12% sequentially to about 1,250,000 to 1,275,000 tons in the first quarter. However, AK Steel expects its average selling price to rise by roughly 6% to about $1,095 from $1,031 per ton in the fourth quarter of 2013 due to a richer shipment mix of value-added products.

AK Steel is slated to release its first quarter  results on April 22, 2014, before the market opens. Analysts polled by Zacks currently expect a loss of 22 cents per share on average for the quarter.

AK Steel currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Other companies in the steel and related industries with favorable Zacks Rank are Norsk Hydro ASA (NHYDY), NN Inc. NNBR, and Worthington Industries, Inc. WOR. All of them retain a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).