Reliance "Right-sizes Operations to Sustainable Levels"

Reliance Steel & Aluminum said demand remains healthy, especially in construction, despite impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. The company posted net sales of $2.57 billion for the first quarter of 2020, a 13 percent decrease year-over-year due to lower metal prices. Net income was $61.7 million, down from $190.1 million in the same quarter last year. Average selling price declined 1.2 percent from Q4 2019 to $1,727 per ton as a result of downward pricing pressure due to the pandemic. The company shipped 1.469 million tons, up 6.8 percent from Q4 but down 2.2. percent from Q1 2019.

“We have taken difficult but appropriate actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including workforce reductions, to right-size our operations to sustainable levels,” said CEO Jim Hoffman. “We believe this will allow us to emerge from this current crisis intact, prepared and positioned to face new business realities, including the ability to quickly ramp up with our customers and suppliers, and to recall laid off employees when the time comes. Although the current situation is unlike anything we have experienced, we believe the resilience of our business model will help us manage through this particularly challenging time just as it has in the past.”