Earnings Labs

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (RS)

Q2 2018 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 26, 2018

$361.46

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.'s Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Brenda Miyamoto. Brenda S. Miyamoto - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thanks to all of you for joining our conference call to discuss our second quarter 2018 financial results. I'm joined by Gregg Mollins, our President and CEO; Karla Lewis, our Senior Executive Vice President and CFO; Jim Hoffman, our Executive Vice President and COO; and Bill Sales, our Executive Vice President of Operations. A recording of this call will be posted on the Investors section of our website at investor.rsac.com. The press release and the information on this call may contain certain forward-looking statements, which are based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors, which may not be under the company's control, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include but are not limited to those factors disclosed in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, under the caption Risk Factors and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The press release and the information on this call speak only as of today's date and the company disclaims any duty to update the information provided therein and herein. I will now turn the call over to Gregg Mollins, President and CEO of Reliance. Gregg J.…

Operator

Operator

At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Seth Rosenfeld from Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Seth Rosenfeld - Jefferies International Ltd.

Analyst

Morning. Thank you for taking my questions today. Two questions just to better understand your outlook for gross margins both in the second half of this year and perhaps longer-term. To start out I mean, obviously over recent quarters you've had a number of times strongly outperforming your guidance range of 27%, 29%. Can you talk us through what sort of structural elements Reliance is currently enjoying that might allow you to surpass that margin range going forward? When you think about your growth in tolling and aluminum, a cyclical recovery in construction, how much could that add? And then secondly, could you perhaps talk about what impact weakening prices could have on margins? You did talk about the benefit you obviously enjoyed in Q2 from rising prices. With the forward curve pointing to a year-end hot-rolled coil price $100 below spot, do you think that Reliance could still secure that 27%, 29% margin in that environment or is there risk of some downside there? Thank you. Karla R. Lewis - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Yeah. Good morning, Seth. So, our 27% to 29% gross profit margin range is based on our current – the way the company is structured today that is based on our LIFO gross profit margins. So that came in at 30.7% for the quarter. We have said that when we're in periods of rising prices that we anticipate that we should be at the top end of that range or could exceed it which is what happened in the second quarter of 2018. We had pretty significant price increases during the quarter. So as we've talked about we typically try to pass those increases on to our customers before we receive the higher cost metal in. So we get that temporary bump in our…

Seth Rosenfeld - Jefferies International Ltd.

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. And just one follow-up. You commented earlier about the recovery we're seeing in the non-resi construction side. I believe you noted that your existing capacity could support increased volumes without additional cost. Can you just talk to that a little bit more, what scale of upside could be achieved in terms of the volume side? And what's that mean for fixed cost leverage, please? Thank you. James D. Hoffman - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Yeah. Hi, Seth. This is Jim. Yeah. It's just an estimate. We could handle another 20% with the investments we've made over the years in non-residential construction value-added processing. We may have to add a body or two, but our plants were set up for additional volume and our folks in the field are very good at throughput. So we'd be fine with that.

Seth Rosenfeld - Jefferies International Ltd.

Analyst

That's great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Phil Gibbs from KeyBanc. Please proceed with your question.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Hi. Good morning. James D. Hoffman - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Good morning. Gregg J. Mollins - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Good morning.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Gregg, how is daily demand in July so far comparing to second quarter average levels? I think you should have a pretty good view right now given the month is almost over, so just curious on that. Gregg J. Mollins - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Our average daily sales are basically in line with what we saw in the second quarter. So it started off a little slow because of the 4th of July holidays which is typical, okay. But as the month progressed, our average daily sales progressed with it. So I think that our volumes, our demand in the third quarter are going to be very similar to what we saw in the second quarter, understanding and factoring in the seasonality that does take place with vacations, plant closures that type of thing. And we have – as Karla pointed out, we have one less shipping day. We have 63 shipping days as compared to 64 in the second quarter. So that has to be considered as well. But demand in and of itself as compared to the second quarter, I think, is going to be very, very similar.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. And, Jim, you had mentioned that alloy prices were solid and perhaps getting stronger, and you talked a little bit about energy demand as well. You made some comment to that effect. I was wondering what you were alluding to there on those fronts? James D. Hoffman - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Well, just from a lead time standpoint, you can see how the lead times are going out. Our domestic friends – that's a very difficult product to make. They're extremely busy. The two products that that goes into is automotive and energy whether it's the lighter – the smaller size is for auto or the larger size is for energy. And, all kidding, they're struggling to deal with their on-time performance. They just got inundated with orders. They're all busy. And especially when you get into the heat-treated type products, it seems to be a little bit of a bottleneck there. But we are more than confident that they're capable of improving those things. But as far as the demand is concerned, it's there and it continues to get better and better, seems to be weekly, so.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. James D. Hoffman - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: You always have to remember. The S in SPQ bars means special. So, it's really hard to measure.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

I appreciate that and last question here is for Bill. I think, Bill, you had mentioned $0.15 increase, I think, on common alloy. Curious about how much of that would have been within the second quarter and how much of that is shifting into the third? And I just was surprised. It sounded like a pretty big number. So anything you could provide on that would be helpful. Thanks. William K. Sales, Jr. - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Yeah, Phil. It is a big number, the biggest increase I've ever seen in my career on common alloy. But I think it's justified based on where lead times and demand are, seems to be getting full domestic support. And you're probably going to see that actually – we'll start to see the results of that late September, into October. So, we're not going to see much of that in Q3.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I would like to turn the call back to Gregg for closing remarks. Gregg J. Mollins - Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.: Thank you again for participating in today's call. I'd also like to thank all of our employees, customers, suppliers and stockholders for their continued support and commitment to Reliance Steel. Thanks again and have a great day.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.