AK Steel Earnings Recap: Losses Widen, Production Issues

On Tuesday

reported its first quarter results. The steel-maker earned a net loss of $0.40 per share, beating the consensus estimate which called for a net loss of $0.43 per share. Revenue of $1.38 billion fell short of the consensus estimate by $20 million. In the quarter, AK Steel's net loss widened to $86.1 billion from $9.9 million in the same quarter last year, as shipments of steel dropped 2.1 percent year-over-year to 1.26 million tons. Higher production costs impacted the company's earnings due to an unplanned outage of the Ashland Works blast furnace. Higher energy costs due to weather issues were also noted by the company as dragging down earnings. AK Steel believes that it is “well-positioned for a much improved second quarter,” but investors are not convinced as shares were trading lower by more than 2.5 percent Tuesday morning.