U.S. Steel Corp. sees better days ahead. Investors may be looking for more evidence.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, which just hosted President Donald Trump at one of its restarted mills, said Wednesday it expects its 2018 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be higher than previously forecast. The company cited success revitalizing its aging facilities as well as strong demand.
“The success to date of our ongoing $2 billion asset revitalization program, as well as our earnings power in the current market, makes us increasingly optimistic about future investments that will drive long-term profitable growth,” Chief Executive Officer David Burritt said in the company’s second-quarter earnings release.
U.S. Steel raised its full-year adjusted Ebitda forecast to a range of about $1.85 billion to $1.9 billion, up from earlier guidance of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion.
To be sure, U.S. Steel said it expects adjusted Ebitda of $525 million in the third quarter, less than the $589.8 million average of nine analysts’ estimates tracked by Bloomberg. The company also expects results of its European segment to be lower in the third quarter mainly due to planned outages.
The results were released after the close of regular trading in New York, where U.S. Steel initially rose about 6 percent before paring most of those gains by 5:15 p.m. Despite the imposition of 25 percent U.S. tariffs on steel imports, the shares are up only 1.8 percent this year.
