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Steel Dynamics Inc. turned a profit of $69 million, or 30 cents a share, for the three months ending Sept. 30, the company announced Monday.
That’s better than the $16 million loss it reported in the second quarter of 2009 but below the $193 million, or 98 cents a share, profit the company earned in the third quarter of 2008.
Fort Wayne-based Steel Dynamics, the nation’s fifth-largest steelmaker, credited lower costs and higher volumes for the profit. Net sales for the third quarter were $1.2 billion, up from the $792 million reported in the second quarter of 2009, but 54 percent below the $2.6 billion reported for the third quarter of 2008.
“Current business conditions remain relatively steady,” Chairman and CEO Keith Busse said in a statement. “Orders for flat-rolled steel products continue to be strong; merchant, specialty and engineered bars are reasonably good; but structural steel backlogs remain weak.”
The company released its earnings after the financial markets closed Monday. Its stock closed at $15.32, down 7 cents on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
A consortium of private-equity firms has completed its purchase of most assets of auto parts maker Metaldyne Corp. The purchase includes plants in Edon, Ohio, Bluffton and Fremont.
Metaldyne filed for bankruptcy in May as the recession caused a sharp downturn in car and truck sales. Private-equity firms the Carlyle Group and Solus Alternative Management formed MD Investors Corp. to create Metaldyne LLC and buy the plants, Metaldyne announced Friday.
Not all Metaldyne plants were included in the sale. One in New Castle, for example, closed Aug. 31.
The Metaldyne Web site says each of the plants in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio employs between 150 and 200 workers, but those numbers don’t reflect a layoff at the Edon plant announced in September that would have brought the headcount there to 121. A spokeswoman couldn’t be reached Monday.
The Better Business Bureau of Northern Indiana is warning consumers and businesses about a new e-mail scam. The bogus message resembles a confirmation response the BBB would send after someone has filed a complaint.
The falsified e-mail makes it appear that the recipient has filed a complaint against his own employer. If you received such an e-mail, do not click on any links or attachments, the BBB said Monday in a statement.
The BBB asks consumers to delete the message or forward it to phishing@council.bbb.org.
In another sign that CIT Group Inc. is struggling to restructure its debt, billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered the lender a $6 billion lifeline.
In a letter Monday to CIT’s board of directors, Icahn said he would give the company the loan to replace a debt restructuring plan CIT has asked bondholders to approve.
Icahn, who is a CIT bondholder, said in his letter the $6 billion loan would save the company $150 million in fees.
He also criticized the board for pushing an exchange offer that he said unfairly favors large bondholders at the expense of smaller investors.
