Reliance Steel earnings fall year-on-year

US service centre chain Reliance Steel &Aluminum saw its net income cut by about two-thirds on-year in the first-quarter, Kallanish reports. 

Reliance earned $61.7 million on sales of $2.57 billion in Q1, down from earnings of $190.1m on sales of $2.96 billion in Q1 2019. 

“We have taken difficult but appropriate actions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including workforce reductions, to right-size our operations to sustainable levels. We believe this will allow us to emerge from this current crisis intact, prepared and positioned to face new business realities, including the ability to quickly ramp up with our customers and suppliers, and to recall laid off employees when the time comes,” says ceo Jim Hoffman. “Although the current situation is unlike anything we have experienced, we believe the resilience of our business model will help us manage through this particularly challenging time just as it has in the past.”

Post Covid-19, Reliance plans to continue its diversification and value-added strategy to weather the long-term recovery, Hoffman adds.