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Mr. Matt added, "Infrastructure spending remains robust and conversations with customers across other sectors and geographies continue to point toward optimism for construction activity in the quarters ahead. This sentiment is consistent with our downstream bid levels and key external indicators that suggest a strong and growing pipeline of potential future projects. We remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of the U.S. construction market, driven by structural trends including infrastructure investment, reshoring of critical manufacturing, energy transition and generation growth, and the need to address our nation's housing shortage."

Mr. Matt added, "Execution of our operational and commercial excellence program, Transform, Advance, and Grow (TAG), continued to gain momentum during the quarter and is on pace to provide the financial benefits we anticipated in fiscal 2025, with more expected to be delivered in the years beyond. This effort is a key component of our long-term strategic plan and is expected to propel value by helping CMC to drive commercial and operational excellence and other efficiencies across the organization and to achieve higher through-the-cycle margins."

The Company's balance sheet and liquidity position remained strong. As of February 28, 2025, cash and cash equivalents totaled $758.4 million, with available liquidity of nearly $1.6 billion. During the quarter, CMC repurchased 906,603 shares of common stock valued at $48.0 million in the aggregate. As of February 28, 2025, $305.3 million remained available under the current share repurchase authorization.

On March 19, 2025, the board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.18 per share of CMC common stock payable to stockholders of record on March 31, 2025. The dividend to be paid on April 9, 2025, marks the 242^nd consecutive quarterly payment by the Company.

Business Segments - Fiscal Second Quarter 2025 Review
Demand for CMC's products in North America was resilient during the quarter. Shipments of finished steel products increased by 3.3% relative to the prior year period. The pipeline of potential future construction projects remained healthy as indicated by CMC's downstream bidding activity and the Dodge Momentum Index, which measures the value of projects entering the planning phase. Downstream backlog volumes increased by nearly 10% relative to the end of the first fiscal quarter and were stable on a year-over-year basis. New contract awards improved during the second quarter and ended the period at the second highest volume since late fiscal 2022. Shipments of merchant products (MBQ) grew compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2024 as CMC has increased its ability to serve West Coast customers from the Arizona 2 micro mill.

Long steel market conditions improved throughout the quarter from a low point reached in December 2024.  Domestic scrap pricing rose in both January and February prompting price increases for each of CMC's primary steel products. The supply of imported rebar remained modest relative to the longer-term average, despite a temporary jump in arrivals during January ahead of potential tariff implementations.

Adjusted EBITDA for the North America Steel Group decreased to $128.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 from $222.3 million in the prior year period. The earnings reduction was driven by lower margins over scrap costs on steel products and downstream products. Results for the second quarter also included unrealized losses of approximately $8 million related to financial positions used to hedge CMC's physical copper exposure. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the North America Steel Group of 9.3% declined from 15.0% in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

European market conditions in the second quarter improved modestly relative to recent periods, largely due to reduced import flows that helped establish a better balance of supply and demand. Lower import entries into the Polish market provided domestic suppliers with the ability to increase market penetration and maintain good shipment volumes despite seasonal headwinds. A sequential reduction in scrap costs led to a slight improvement in metal margins. Pricing trends within the quarter were positive, with monthly average selling prices ending the period $25 per ton above the low reached in December 2024. Financial results continued to benefit from an extensive cost management program that has meaningfully reduced controllable costs.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Europe Steel Group increased to $0.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 from a loss of $8.6 million in the prior year period. The second quarter results include a government rebate related to natural gas costs of $4.0 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the Europe Steel Group of 0.4% increased from (4.5%) in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

Emerging Businesses Group (EBG) second quarter net sales of $158.9 million increased by 1.8% compared to the prior year period, while adjusted EBITDA for the segment of $23.5 million was up 31.2% on a year-over-year basis. Improved segment profitability was driven by strong project related shipments of Performance Reinforcing Steel, as CMC continues to experience growing demand for its proprietary corrosion resistant solutions. Financial results within other EBG divisions were largely unchanged from the prior year period. Indications of future market conditions remained encouraging with pipeline measures such as project quotes and new planning activity at healthy levels. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.8% improved by 330 basis points compared to the prior year period.

Outlook 
Mr. Matt said, "We expect consolidated financial results in our third quarter of fiscal 2025 to rebound from the second quarter level. Finished steel shipments within the North America Steel Group are anticipated to follow normal seasonal trends as we enter the spring and summer construction seasons, while our adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to increase sequentially on higher margins over scrap on steel products. Adjusted EBITDA for our Europe Steel Group should remain near breakeven, as we enter the seasonally strong period of the year and continue to benefit from extensive cost management efforts. Financial results for the Emerging Businesses Group are anticipated to improve to levels modestly above the prior year period."

Mr. Matt concluded, "We are encouraged by recent developments across the various markets in which we participate. Margin and demand trends appear to be improving, which should position us well for the upcoming spring and summer construction season. Additionally, conversations with customers continue to indicate optimism about the coming quarters."

Conference Call
CMC invites you to listen to a live broadcast of its second quarter fiscal 2025 conference call today, Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. ET. Peter Matt, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Paul Lawrence, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will host the call. The call is accessible via our website at www.cmc.com. In the event you are unable to listen to the live broadcast, the call will be archived and available for replay on our website on the next business day. Financial and statistical information presented in the broadcast are located on CMC's website under "Investors."

About CMC
CMC is an innovative solutions provider helping build a stronger, safer, and more sustainable world. Through an extensive manufacturing network principally located in the United States and Central Europe, we offer products and technologies to meet the critical reinforcement needs of the global construction sector. CMC's solutions support early-stage construction across a wide variety of applications, including infrastructure, non-residential, residential, industrial, and energy generation and transmission.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to general economic conditions, key macro-economic drivers that impact our business, the effects of ongoing trade actions, the effects of continued pressure on the liquidity of our customers, potential synergies and growth provided by acquisitions and strategic investments, demand for our products, shipment volumes, metal margins, the ability to operate our steel mills at full capacity, future availability and cost of supplies of raw materials and energy for our operations, growth rates in certain reportable segments, product margins within our Emerging Businesses Group segment, share repurchases, legal proceedings, construction activity, international trade, the impact of geopolitical conditions, capital expenditures, tax credits, our liquidity and our ability to satisfy future liquidity requirements, estimated contractual obligations, the expected capabilities and benefits of new facilities, the anticipated benefits and timeline for execution of our growth plan and initiatives and our expectations or beliefs concerning future events. The statements in this release that are not historical statements, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified by phrases such as we or our management "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "future," "intends," "may," "plans to," "ought," "could," "will," "should," "likely," "appears," "projects," "forecasts," "outlook" or other similar words or phrases, as well as by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions.

The Company's forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and beliefs as of the time this news release was prepared. Although we believe that our expectations are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may vary materially. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events, new information or circumstances or any other changes. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include those described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024, as well as the following: changes in economic conditions which affect demand for our products or construction activity generally, and the impact of such changes on the highly cyclical steel industry; rapid and significant changes in the price of metals, potentially impairing our inventory values due to declines in commodity prices or reducing the profitability of downstream contracts within our vertically integrated steel operations due to rising commodity pricing; excess capacity in our industry, particularly in China, and product availability from competing steel mills and other steel suppliers including import quantities and pricing; the impact of geopolitical conditions, including political turmoil and volatility, regional conflicts, terrorism and war on the global economy, inflation, energy supplies and raw materials; increased attention to environmental, social and governance ("ESG") matters, including any targets or other ESG, environmental justice or regulatory initiatives; operating and startup risks, as well as market risks associated with the commissioning of new projects could prevent us from realizing anticipated benefits and could result in a loss of all or a substantial part of our investments; impacts from global public health crises on the economy, demand for our products, global supply chain and on our operations; compliance with and changes in existing and future laws, regulations and other legal requirements and judicial decisions that govern our business, including increased environmental regulations associated with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions; involvement in various environmental matters that may result in fines, penalties or judgments; evolving remediation technology, changing regulations, possible third-party contributions, the inherent uncertainties of the estimation process and other factors that may impact amounts accrued for environmental liabilities; potential limitations in our or our customers' abilities to access credit and non-compliance with their contractual obligations, including payment obligations; activity in repurchasing shares of our common stock under our share repurchase program; financial and non-financial covenants and restrictions on the operation of our business contained in agreements governing our debt; our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate acquisitions and realize any or all of the anticipated synergies or other benefits of acquisitions; the effects that acquisitions may have on our financial leverage; risks associated with acquisitions generally, such as the inability to obtain, or delays in obtaining, required approvals under applicable antitrust legislation and other regulatory and third-party consents and approvals; lower than expected future levels of revenues and higher than expected future costs; failure or inability to implement growth strategies in a timely manner; the impact of goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangible asset impairment charges; the impact of long-lived asset impairment charges; currency fluctuations; global factors, such as trade measures, military conflicts and political uncertainties, including changes to current trade regulations, such as Section 232 trade tariffs and quotas, tax legislation and other regulations which might adversely impact our business; availability and pricing of electricity, electrodes and natural gas for mill operations; our ability to hire and retain key executives and other employees; competition from other materials or from competitors that have a lower cost structure or access to greater financial resources; information technology interruptions and breaches in security; our ability to make necessary capital expenditures; availability and pricing of raw materials and other items over which we exert little influence, including scrap metal, energy and insurance; unexpected equipment failures; losses or limited potential gains due to hedging transactions; litigation claims and settlements, court decisions, regulatory rulings and legal compliance risks, including those related to the PSG litigation and other legal proceedings discussed in Note 12, Commitments and Contingencies, in Part I, Item 1, Financial Statements and in Part II, Item 1, Legal Proceedings of this Form 10-Q; risk of injury or death to employees, customers or other visitors to our operations; and civil unrest, protests and riots.

 

 

 

 

 

COMMERCIAL METALS COMPANY
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (UNAUDITED)

This press release contains financial measures not derived in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure are provided below.

Adjusted EBITDA, core EBITDA, core EBITDA margin and adjusted earnings are non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted earnings per diluted share is defined as adjusted earnings on a diluted per share basis. Core EBITDA margin is defined as core EBITDA divided by net sales. The adjustment "Settlement of New Markets Tax Credit transactions" represents the recognition of deferred revenue from 2016 and 2017 resulting from the Company's participation in the New Markets Tax Credit program provided for in the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 during the development of a micro mill, spooler and T-post shop located in eligible zones as determined by the Internal Revenue Service. In prior periods, the Company included within the definition of core EBITDA, core EBITDA margin, adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per diluted share an adjustment for "Mill operational commissioning costs" related to the Company's third micro mill, which was placed into service during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Periods commencing subsequent to February 29, 2024 no longer include an adjustment for mill operational commissioning costs. Accordingly, the Company has recast core EBITDA, core EBITDA margin, adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per diluted share for all prior periods to conform to this presentation.

Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as alternatives for, the most directly comparable measures derived in accordance with GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. However, we believe that the non-GAAP financial measures provide relevant and useful information to management, investors, analysts, creditors and other interested parties in our industry as they allow: (i) comparison of our earnings to those of our competitors; (ii) a supplemental measure of our underlying business operational performance; and (iii) the assessment of period-to-period performance trends. Management uses non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate financial performance and set target benchmarks for annual and long-term cash incentive performance plans.

A reconciliation of net earnings (loss) to adjusted EBITDA and core EBITDA is provided below:

A reconciliation of net earnings (loss) to adjusted earnings is provided below:

 

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SOURCE Commercial Metals Company