AK Steel Holding Corp (NYSE:AKS) is set to post its Q1 2018 results on April 30, 2018, before the start of trading on the NYSE. As it is known, AK Steel is a known name in the industry of flat-rolled carbon, electrical steel and stainless products. The company has its customers from the automotive, manufacturing, electrical power generation, infrastructure and distribution markets. Moreover, it has several subsidiary firms, which helps it to offer customer solutions with stainless steel tubing and carbon products, die design and tooling, and cold- and hot-stamped components.
The buzz
More recently, the CEO of AK Steel, Roger Newport expressed that they are in favor of President Trump decision of imposing a 25% international tariff on steel to protect America’s steel industry. This will also protect company’s workers from imports that threaten their national as well as economic security. Clearly this threat is growing in electrical steel industry where AK Steel is the sole domestic maker of electrical steel for electrical transformers.
The period of surging imports and the related market volatility led the only other U.S. producer to leave the market in 2016. The recent decision of President comes at an appropriate time as the electrical steel imports continued to grow throughout last year. Reports show that imports almost doubled in 2017 as compared to 2016.
Earlier this month, AK Steel reported that the IAM Local 1943 members have ratified a two-year labor deal. This agreement covers around 1,730 hourly employees at the firm’s Middletown facility. The contract was ratified in a meeting held on March 12, 2018.
The CEO of AK Steel expressed that they have finalized a deal at Middletown Works well ahead of time, which is certainly encouraging. They now have a competitive labor contract that looks after the interests of their staff and the firm.
