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| Statement |
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| Our pipe and tube segment had another exceptional quarter as this segment completed its second best full year in its 109-year history, with adjusted EBITDA of $40.3 million |
| So, -- as we think about growth, we think that first quarter growth is going to be pretty good compared to fourth quarter, probably up tonnage-wise in the 10% to 12% range versus a pretty strong fourth quarter, relatively speaking, from what has been traditional |
| We believe our 2023 performance is a defining statement about our company's strength and resilience |
| And it is -- the demand coming today, in particular, from the industrial OEM has really put us in a terrific position to convert what was originally rectangles going to the customer to now value-added parts in a lot of cases, welded finished goods that go directly into the assemblies of these industrial OEMs |
| All three of our business segments positively contributed to our results for both the fourth quarter and the full year |
| And so I would say that we expect that 2024 is going to be a really good -- will be a good growth year for specialty metals |
| So we're excited about the growth there |
| Rick Marabito And I'd say and Dustin Ward, who was the previous owner of CTB, is a fantastic leader |
| As Rick mentioned earlier, our inventory management and strong cash flow have helped us to continue to fortify our balance sheet |
| We thank all of our employees for a successful 2023, and we expect 2024 to be another solid year |
| Our newest fabrication facilities in Buford, Georgia and Bartlett, Illinois, are performing extremely well |
| Our inventory management and strong cash flow have fortified our balance sheet and positioned Olympic Steel for future growth |
| In 2023, we invested $170 million in the highly accretive Metal-Fab and Central Tube & Bar acquisitions, and both investments have produced immediate, strong EBITDA returns |
| As a result, we remain in excellent position to continue to invest in higher-return opportunities in the future |
| The recent decision by our Board of Directors to increase our quarterly dividend by 20% also reflects our company's strong financial position and the success of our strategy |
| We are seeing very strong demand for industrial fabrication, especially for data centers |
| We are very proud of the accomplishments of our Specialty metals team and our performance under challenging market conditions |
| I'm proud of the entire Olympic Steel team for their commitment to our strategy and the progress we've made the past five years, and we continue to enhance our team with new hires and promotions |
| As we head into 2024, Olympic Steel is stronger than ever |
| The business fits seamlessly into our growth plans, which will further enhance the performance of the pipe and tube segment |
| We're confident in our ability to build on our success in 2024, driving profitable growth and creating value for our shareholders |
| We expect margins will continue to strengthen with the addition of central tube and bar |
| Olympic Steel finished the year strong, capping off another year of solid performance, despite challenging and dynamic market conditions |
| Our strategy to increase the amount of value-added mix and upgrades and additions to our laser fleet resulted in gross margins remaining above 30% throughout 2023, resulting from the team's focus on margin improvement through fabricated product growth |
| Turning to our Carbon segment, along with the contributions from Metal-Fab acquisition, Carbon delivered another solid performance while navigating some unusual market dynamics |
| So that's certainly a positive |
| So, we're seeing the start of the year be pretty good, and this is how we kind of see the year |
| Carbon shipments were up 8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and up 6% for the full year |
| Although, we faced significant pricing headwinds and other market challenges throughout 2023, the success of our strategy and the strength of our company enabled us to deliver consistent results and reward our shareholders |
| 2023 an important year for Olympic Steel as we demonstrated our ability to deliver consistent profitable results in all markets |
| Statement |
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| As a result, fourth quarter sales were down less than 3% sequentially from the third quarter rather than the traditional 6% to 8% decline |
| For the second year in a row, we withstood a hot-rolled carbon steel index pricing decline of more than 45% during the year, as well as specialty metal surcharges that fell throughout the year |
| We've seen certainly at the beginning of the year that the volumes are down not horribly, but they're certainly down, but they had anticipated that they were going to be down |
| On the specialty metals side, truck-trailer, again, that's down a little bit, but not off significantly |
| Hot-rolled today is, call it, in the -- for the six-week time period, that's down |
| Before I discuss the results, I want to remind you that year-over-year comparisons will be more difficult due to the 2023 acquisitions of Metal-Fab, and Central Tube & Bar |
| Rick Marabito And I think the item to really note, as Andrew talked about, a couple of the end industries where our customers have forecasted slightly softer volume |
| The entire M&A marketplace for metals really broadly due to the economic environment, the interest rate environment, the back half of last year seemed to slow a little |
| The spot piece feels like, obviously, it's been moving down |
| In a typical year, fourth quarter carbon pricing falls during the seasonally slowest quarter |
| But in 2023, we saw index pricing fall 45% from April through September, and then it began rebounding in October in anticipation of the UAW strike settlement |
| Despite all those market challenges and unusual circumstances, the Carbon segment earned adjusted EBITDA of $7.9 million in the fourth quarter |
| And so they -- historically, at least what we've seen in the last two, three years are a little bit lower |
| We've seen lead times from the mills -- from the carbon mills in particular, we've seen lead times come in a little bit |
| Chris Sakai Just had a question on specialty metals and the stainless steel headwinds, are we expecting to see those in 2024? Or are they going to be reduced? Andrew Greiff Well, I think, Chris, what you've seen is nickel prices have hovered right in that 7.50 range |
| I don't think inflation at the margin is accelerating too much from here |
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