Steel Dynamics Third-Quarter Earnings Miss Street Views

06:26 AM EDT, 10/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Steel Dynamics (STLD) shares were down early Tuesday after the steel producer's third-quarter earnings fell short of market estimates, while revenue surpassed expectations amid higher prices and shipments. Per-share earnings came in at $5.26 for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $2.74 the year before, the company said late Monday. The consensus on FactSet was for $5.48. Last month, the steelmaker said it expected its third-quarter bottom line to come in between $5.34 and $5.38. The stock fell 6.4% in the most recent premarket activity. Sales rose to $6.51 billion from $4.83 billion in the prior-year quarter, topping the Street's view for $6.43 billion. "During the third quarter, the domestic steel market remained strong, supported by steady demand, low customer inventories, and historically low import levels," Chief Executive Mark Millett said in a statement. "Steel pricing strengthened, as lead times extended and spot availability tightened across flat-rolled and structural steel products." The average external product selling price for the company's steel operations rose to $1,400 per ton from $1,119 the year before and $1,298 in the previous three-month period. Overall shipments amounted to 3.8 million tons, compared with 3.6 million tons in the 2025 quarter. Steel Dynamics remains optimistic about the domestic steel and aluminum industries in 2027 and beyond, according to Millett. The company expects demand for both steel and aluminum to benefit from continued investment in infrastructure and data centers and improving economic activity, the CEO said. "These demand drivers, combined with a supportive US trade environment and reduced unfairly traded import competition, should provide a healthy backdrop for domestic steel and aluminum product producers," Millett said. Third-quarter operating income in the company's steel operations soared to $1.03 billion from $497.9 million last year, buoyed by higher shipments and prices and lower scrap raw material costs. In the steel fabrication business, operating income dropped to $90.6 million from $107 million, amid higher steel raw material input costs. The metals recycling division saw operating income tick up to $33 million from $31.5 million last year. The metric slipped sequentially amid lower ferrous scrap pricing and metal spread contraction. In the aluminum segment, the steel producer's operating loss narrowed to $26.2 million from $56.5 million. "Looking ahead, we expect aluminum volumes and profitability to improve in the fourth quarter 2026 and throughout 2027, as startup costs subside, utilization and yields improve, and scrap content increases," Millett said. Earlier on Monday, Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) swung to higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings buoyed by price and volume gains, while the company forecast a sequential rise in core profit for the ongoing three-month period.