Metallus, the Canton-Ohio
electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaker formerly known as
TimkenSteel, says its net sales totaled more than $328 million in
last year’s fourth quarter, with the net income it derived from those sales
standing at just $1.3 million.
The recycled-content
steel producer says that net income figure is down by nearly 95 percent from
the net income of $24.8 million achieved in the third quarter of 2023. However,
the result is an improvement on the fourth quarter of 2022, when the
then-TimkenSteel suffered a net loss of
$33.2 million in the wake of a fatality-causing furnace incident and temporary furnace
shutdown.
For the full calendar
year of 2023, Metallus says it attained a net income of $69.4 million,
representing a 6.6 percent improvement from 2022, when the firm’s net income
was $65.1 million.
“Our continued
profitability was driven by strong aerospace and defense demand coupled with
increased base pricing,” says Mike Williams, president and CEO of Metallus.
On the same day it
announced its results, Metallus also announced a defense industry-related
agreement to upgrade its production assets in order to supply more steel to the
United States Army.
The agreement calls for
up to $99 million in funding from the U.S. Army to “support a project aimed at
bolstering the Army’s mission of ramping up artillery shell production in the
coming years.”
The use of artillery
weaponry and ammunition by Ukraine in its defense of a Russian invasion has
entailed a consistent drawing down of artillery shells in the U.S. and other
nations that have supplied munitions to Ukraine.
Metallus says its contract ties into a
project designed to “enable the development of additional capacity to help
fulfill increased global demand for artillery shells.” That new capability is
expected to increase throughput of high-quality bar-based steel products used
in artillery applications, adds the firm.
Says CEO Williams,
“Metallus is honored to expand our commitment to the defense sector, reliably
providing high-quality specialty metals for critical applications. With this
funding, we intend to further optimize our assets to meet the Department of
Defense’s heightened demand while reducing our carbon footprint.”