Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc (SCHN) Q1 2015 Earnings Call Transcript

Before we get started, let me call your attention to the detailed Safe Harbor statements on Slide 2, which are also included in our press release of today and in the Company’s Form 10-Q, which will be filed later today. These statements in summary say that in spite of management’s good faith current opinions on various forward-looking matters, circumstances can change and not everything we think will happen always happens.

Please note that we will be discussing some non-GAAP measures during our presentation today. We have included a reconciliation of those metrics to GAAP in the appendix to our Slide presentation. Now let me turn the call over to Tamara Lundgren, our Chief Executive Officer. She will host the call today with Richard Peach, our Chief Financial Officer.

Tamara Lundgren, President, CEO
Thanks, [inaudible]. Good morning, everyone, and Happy New Year and welcome to our fiscal 2015 first quarter call. On our call today, we will take you through a review of our financial results. I will begin with some highlights and provide a perspective on market trends. I will also discuss the new cost reduction and productivity initiatives on our auto parts business that we announced this morning. Richard will then share with you further details on our segment operating performance and our capital structure. After that, we will open up the call for questions.

Let’s turn to Slide 4 to get started. This morning, we announced adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of $0.08 for our first quarter. These results reflected improved performance in both our metals recycling and steel manufacturing businesses as compared to Q1 of fiscal 2014.

Before we go through the details, however, I think that it might be helpful to provide a bit of perspective on the quarter. Between September and November of this past year, ferrous export selling prices declined approximately $80 per ton, or 20 percent and ferrous domestic prices declined approximately $60 per ton or 15 percent. The market had not experienced this steep of a decline since 2012. Yet all three of our business segments generated positive operating income, largely due to benefits from their productivity initiatives.