March 25, 2010 (FinancialWire) — Commercial Metals Co. (NYSE: CMC) has reported a net loss of $173.3 million or $1.53 per diluted share, including a loss of $135.3 million or $1.19 per diluted share from continuing operations, for the quarter ended February 28, 2010.

This compares with a net loss of $35.3 million or $0.32 per diluted share, including a loss from continuing operations of $38.7 million or $0.35 per diluted share, for the second quarter last year.

Commercial’s net loss for the six months ended February 28, 2010, was $204.5 million or $1.81 per diluted share, including a loss of $163.9 million or $1.45 per diluted share from continuing operations.

For the same period last year, net earnings were $26.7 million or $0.23 per diluted share, including earnings from continuing operations of $7.6 million or $0.07 per diluted share.

CMC has decided to exit the joist and deck business. The current estimated after-tax costs including impairment of fixed assets and intangibles, severance, inventory valuation, operating losses, and other closing costs are around $38.1 million and are reflected as discontinued operations in the second quarter.

The company said its effective tax rate from continuing operations for the quarter is 15%.

CMC chairman and CEO Murray R. McClean said, "Our second fiscal quarter is always our weakest due to seasonal factors; however, this year it has been compounded by weak end-use demand in the nonresidential construction markets, unusually severe winter conditions in the U.S. and Europe, and rapidly rising ferrous scrap prices which have outpaced finished goods prices.”

He added that increases in ferrous scrap pricing are generally good trends, but the extreme volatility in price changes since December is causing short-term margin squeezes at the firm’s steel mills and fabricating operations, both domestically and internationally.

Texas-based Commercial Metals and subsidiaries manufacture, recycle and market steel and metal products, related materials and services through a network including steel minimills, steel fabrication and processing plants, construction-related product warehouses, a copper tube mill, metal recycling facilities and marketing and distribution offices in the United States and in various international markets.

FinancialWire(tm) is committed to serving the financial community through true journalism and providing relevant resources to investors. Standards-based, independent equity research on numerous public companies is available through the Investrend Research Syndicate (http://www.investrend.com/reports) written by FIRST Research Consortium (http://www.investrend.com/FIRST) member-providers. Free annual reports and company filings for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Investrend Information Syndicate (at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279). FinancialWire(tm), in cooperation with the Investrend Broadcast Syndicate, also provides complete, daily conference call and webcast schedules as a service to shareholders and investors via the FirstAlert(tm) Network’s “FirstAlert(tm) Daily” (http://www.financialwire.net/news-alerts/).

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) website (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.