Greetings and welcome to Reliance Steel and Aluminum Company Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Brenda Miyamoto. Thank you, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and thanks to all of you for joining our conference call to discuss our second quarter 2019 financial results. I'm joined by Jim Hoffman, our President and CEO; and Karla Lewis, our Senior Executive Vice President and CFO; Bill Sales, our Executive Vice President of Operations will also be available during the question-and-answer portion of this call. 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, 2018 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 Jim Hoffman, President and CEO of Reliance.

Thanks, Brenda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm very pleased to discuss our 2019 second quarter results with you today. We had a solid second quarter characterized by relatively steady demand conditions in most of the key markets we serve. We generated quarterly sales of $2.88 billion and a strong gross profit margin of 29.6%, which produced second quarter gross profit dollars of $853.6 million, the third highest in Reliance's history. Our non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP quarterly earnings per share were also the third highest in our history, trailing only the record second quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. We also continue to make progress improving our safety performance, which remains a top priority. I'd like to thank the 15,000 plus employees for their ongoing commitment to maintaining a safe working environment each and every day. Underlying demand trends remained relatively healthy in the second quarter across the key end markets we serve. However, metal pricing was slightly weaker than we anticipated. While there were multiple mill price decreases on many of the carbon steel products we sell, our broad diversification of products, customers and end markets helped mitigate the impact on our business. During periods of declining metal prices, customers often changes their buying pattern, delaying purchases and reducing order sizes. However, our customers' buying patterns are generally more consistent as they focus more on need versus price. We service the majority of our customers on a just-in-time basis, which typically involves smaller order sizes that require next day deliver. We believe this contributed to our shipment volume declining less than the industry average. Our same-store tons sold declined 5.5% in the first half of 2019 compared to the first half of 2018, which compares favorably to the industry decline of…

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. We are very proud of our second quarter results. Our net sales in the second quarter of 2019 decreased 2.5% from the first quarter of 2019, mainly due to downward pricing pressure on many carbon steel products. Our tons sold increased 0.4% compared to the first quarter of 2019 in line with our expectations of down 1% to up 2% with one more shipping day in the second quarter of 2019 than the first quarter of 2019. Compared to the second quarter of 2018, our tons sold declined 4.9%, however, we do not believe the decline in shipments is reflective of end demand as there was unusual buying activity in the second quarter of 2018 due to the enactment of Section 232 tariffs at that time. Our average selling price per ton sold was down 2.8% compared to the first quarter of 2019, outside of our expected range of flat to down 1% due to multiple mill price decreases on many of the carbon steel products we sell. Our average selling price per ton sold increase for our aluminum, stainless and alloy products. Our continued pricing discipline and focus on higher margin orders by our managers in the field as well as our continued investments in value-added processing equipment, resulted in a strong gross profit margin of 29.6% in the second quarter of 2019 slightly above our estimated sustainable range of 27% to 29%. Because metal prices decreased more than we expected in the second quarter, we have increased our estimated full year LIFO income to $70 million from our previous estimate of $50 million. As a result, we recorded LIFO income of $22.5 million or $0.25 of earnings per diluted share in the second quarter of 2019 compared to LIFO income of $12.5…

Hi, good morning, everyone. So based on the sequential volume guide of down 4% to 6% continues to indicate that mid-single digit year-on-year declines that we've seen so far year-to-date. And you did touch on this earlier, but can you discuss end user destocking that's distorting the volumes where you think true underlying demand may be trending?

This is Jim. The term destocking, I've never really understood it. We really don't change our model, our model is we listen to our customers. They tell us what they're going to buy. We make sure we have the product form and we service the way they need us to service. So we react to what they do. We react to the intelligence we get from our suppliers. That's just the way we see things. I don't think there is -- I understand why people use that terminology but we don't. And as far as the markets themselves like we said, there is just some seasonality in our business. It's been there waiting for a long time and it really hasn't changed that much one way or the other, I think that's reflected in our comments. And the markets themselves are okay other than the ones we have pointed out in our energy seems to be slowing a little bit, but that's -- there's a lot of geopolitical issues involved with that, semiconductor has been slow and perhaps there may be an uptick in the future, we hope for that. And the other markets we sell into are relatively steady.

And I think, Martin, just to expand on that, we want to be clear that we think that, as Jim said, end demand will continue -- it's continued at reasonable rates for us. So there is no change in our outlook for that other than the comments Jim made on the specific end markets. It's really the downward guide is our normal seasonality. In 2018, our third quarter tons sold were down 5% -- 5.1% from the second quarter. 2017, we actually were up slightly. 2016, we were down 4.9%. So we're just at this point guiding to reflect the typical seasonality that we see due to a lot of our customers doing extended shutdowns and our small customers, vacation schedules can impact order activity also.

Okay, thank you for the additional color there. And if I could one other quick one, within Aerospace, there has been increased caution within the supply chain due to the max grounding. Can you provide an update on overall demand? And I know you touched on this earlier, but also any other changes within the supply chain inventories and maybe more specifically touch on product demand for aluminum heat-treat play?

Yeah, Martin, this is Bill Sales. We still see good strong steady demand on the aluminum aerospace plate market. We also continue to monitor and evaluate the 737 MAX situation. We've got action plans ready to implement as things become more clear on that situation. To date the impact on our business is negligible. And we believe if the plane is recertified -- if that happens this year, the impact to our business will be minimal. So I think you're hearing -- most of the mills are still really bullish and have a positive outlook for 2020 and based on our demand and what we see, we would agree with that.

And remember total aerospace sales are only about 10% of our overall sales dollars, and we're selling to several different customers on several different programs. So the exposure is pretty limited for us, if anything would happen.

Understood. And then just from a gross margin perspective, I would imagine that those gross margin dollars are higher than Group average for the aerospace, right?

Generally on those types of orders, we do have some contractual business on some of the aerospace products that we sell. There are higher prices based on the product mix, I mean, especially the heat-treated aluminum plate is one of our more valuable products that we're selling. But margins are generally kind of in line.

Okay, excellent. Thanks for all the color and congratulations on the results.

Our next question comes from Matthew Korn with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, this is Hunter Alley on for Matthew Korn. How should we think about the removal of Section 232 tariffs on Canada, Mexico impacting Reliance? Do you all see it as a tailwind or a headwind? Any color you can provide there?

Yes, we -- when all that started. When that’s announced, obviously nobody really knows what's going to happen with that. So we're like everybody else, we just operate our business day to day, week to week, month to month. The one thing it did do and we knew that would do it if the prices went up, and that's good. We appreciate we reaching higher pricing as our domestic partners deserve that money. They filed the suits based on facts and it would seems like that their results have basically just done that, gave them opportunity to raise the prices somewhat. But if you go back and compare the prices where they are today to one that hit, they're actually below that level. So I'm not sure where it's going to go from here. But sufficed to say that we will react accordingly.

And I think on the actual -- the resolution of Canada and Mexico in the removal of the tariffs for them. Generally, it's not that big of an impact to us because we're typically serving local customers generally within the 200 mile radius of our locations. We do have operations in Mexico, but primarily servicing those markets, same thing in Canada. So if anything, we think there is a little more certainty now that that part is behind us and we support free trade throughout North America. So to the extent our customers are busier, that's a positive for us. But overall, not a material impact anticipated for Reliance.

Great, thank you. That's very helpful. And one more if I may just turning to pricing, steel prices have moved material lower from the start of the year, albeit, they've seen an uptick more recently. How, should we think about this impacting Reliance? Can you all just walk us through the lags we should see on pricing and cost? Thank you.

Yes, I'm assuming you're referring to the price increases this week actually in flat roll. They have -- we've seen three increases this week alone, I hope they stick. But that is not a big part of our business, that just happens to be the focused product, if you will. I think it's less than 7% of our business. Certainly, it is important to us, but that's just one piece of that. If you go through all the rest of the products and material, we sell some prices are up, some prices are down, and that's all based on demand, and like we said, we -- the demand we've seen right now is steady to good depending on the market we're selling into, and as far as their lag is concerned, as soon as the prices are announced, we do our best to get those prices out. And when they're going down, we'd like to see what's going to happen. So we don't -- I can't give you a definitive answer on what exactly happens with pricing other than the fact that when they go up, we support them.

And there is, from a timing standpoint, as Jim said, we expect to get that sell price benefits right away when prices go up. But on the kind of receiving side from an inventory cost and cash flow standpoint, lead times vary but we're usually out -- it's usually at least two months for us to receive in the lower cost metal and have our average cost decline. So we would anticipate going into third quarter, still receiving in some lower cost metal which will be positive for us from a working capital release and cash flow standpoint. So we would expect to see a little continued benefit of that in the third quarter.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Phil Gibbs with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Hey, good morning. Hey, Jim. Can you educate us a little bit just here on this fabricated trade case and how you all play in that arena? And how you would be positively impacted by the resolution here? I think given that it's a reasonably new issue and it's starting to be talked about a little bit more, I think just trying to get a better feel for what this all means?

First of all, it's a very complex issue. What happened was the -- basically the domestic suppliers have been getting cheated. There's countries that they are just starting all of the laws. They have government subsidized producing metals, which we don't here. And they countries like China, I have been shipping subsidized material into Canada and Mexico having some fabrication done to it and ship right back into United States and that's not the way the rules are supposed to most we follow, so they file the suits. So what's happened recently, they -- over a period of time -- short period of time they did rule that there has been subsidies to certain countries, China and Mexico were the two that got hit with that. Canada was found to be doing some of it, but to a very, very small degree. So they didn't hit the register where they're actually going to have something -- some negative impact. So that's what's happening right now. There is more to come. They've identified there has been subsidy. They've identified there has been damage. The next phase of that will be how much of the damage is and what the tariff quotas fines will be for the countries that continue to do that and that's scheduled I believe for November. So we'll know more in November how it actually reacts. I can tell you this, there is enough information around it for fabricators in the U.S. to just determine it's not worth it. So we have seen some business that would have been earmarked for that kind of behavior that has come back into the United States. I think the domestic mills are doing the right thing. There is good as it gets when it comes to making material -- making the material we make worldwide. They just -- you just can't fight a battle with one arm behind your back. So I think they did -- they've done what they needed to do. I think the long-term if everything plays out the way it could, they'll be stronger. I think the fabricators would be stronger. I think some of the domestic manufacturing business will return onshore, which is a good thing for the U.S. economy and certainly a good thing for Reliance. But right now, Phil, it's all very positive, and we hope that although our business strategy we -- it looks like it's going to be a good thing for Reliance and we'll continue to service those customers who are in that space.

I think Phil specific to Reliance is, as I think you're aware non-residential construction is our largest end market exposure, structurals is the big part of that, it's usually about 9% to 10% of our revenue dollars that we sell in structurals. So as Jim said, to the extent that there is more activity sourced within the U.S., we would hope to sell more metal to our customers to support that. And also we've talked in the past about the fact that we had made a lot of investments in our non-residential construction businesses in the form of additional value-added processing equipment. So if there is more fabricating done in the U.S., we could pick some of that up or certainly support our customers, so we would like to see them be stronger and we would support them with whatever they need from us. So we look at that as a positive. We did make a comment in the script about potential tailwind on non-res construction in the second half due to difficult weather in the first half. We're hearing that from others in the industry, we have not factored any of that into our guidance on volume for the third quarter. So just want to be clear that we -- there's none of that factored in. So that could be a positive for us, if we see more activity from both the trade case and stronger activity in the second half.

And so just one other comment, along with these trade cases, the 232. It certainly has filled some positive forward looking issues with their other domestic suppliers. The capacity and more importantly, the capabilities that these -- our partners are investing in, they're very encouraging. You're talking about, I believe it's over $13 billion worth of future investment in the United States, in our economy and that's really good to see. So I'm happy that there are partners who are able to feel that good about what's been going on as far as material coming into United States being dumped in United States that seems to be something that they're not going to have to fight with as much going forward, so that's very positive and it looks good for your lines too.

So if I'm hearing you right on the fabricated piece of the equation. I can consider you to some degree a fabricator and then certainly your customers. Is that the right way to look at it?

I would consider us a value-adder of material. I would consider our customer's fabricators. We don't compete with our customers or our suppliers.

Understood. And then second question I have is just on the energy market. Clearly, drilling is down, completion activity though was strong internationally, things look strong. So kind of a mixed bag when you look at the world that's certainly slowing down here. How do you see the inventories right now generally positioned at the distributor level and then also at the end user level, because I know we were heavy coming into the year? Thanks.

Yeah, we were. We were heavy coming into the year. I can just speak for Reliance, we've done a lot of work to get our inventories in line, I think we're close. As far as what's in the pipeline at the end users. My guess is not a lot, they don't -- they have a tendency to use Reliance versus putting in their own inventory, which we're good with that. It's just an interesting market, I mean the world changed. I mean the whole technology of drilling and completions and what have, and I've said this before, I don't think we ever going to see the days where we have upwards of 2000 active rigs in the United States, they just don't need that anymore. With the sophisticated way that they can bring oil and natural gas out of the ground with fracking and what have you, there's no need for that many wells, but there certainly is a need for a lot of metal that goes into the completion and there is a plenty of that to come and we're very active in that with a lot of our customers. And then the takeaway, the tanks and a lot of the pipelines and what have you, in the LNG plants and all these -- this infrastructure when it comes to natural gas and oil, that all consumes metal and we are heavily involved in that. It's just a matter of what happened yesterday as far as geopolitical, whether it's Iran or many different things. So we're -- it's a good market for us, it's a value added market for us and it's the big consumer of metal. So we like that space, it's not a huge part of our business, it's smaller than it used to be based on all the things that I just said, but we still like it and our companies that are in that space are involved with the drilling and the completion. So we've got -- we like that space.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the end of the question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back to Jim Hoffman for closing comments.

Yes. Thank you everyone for sitting on the call today and your continued support and commitment to Reliance. Have a great rest of your day.

This concludes today conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. And we thank you for your participation.