
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994                   TAG: 9402230104
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STEEL MAKER'S EARNINGS UP 700 PERCENT

Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. of Roanoke on Tuesday reported a nearly 700 percent increase in earnings for its first 1994 quarter from the same period last year.

A big portion of the increase, however, was due to a change in accounting procedures for income taxes.

Still, the company's increase in profits based on operations was 100 percent more than the same quarter a year ago.

The asking price for the company's stock rose $1 to $16.50 Tuesday, based on the earnings report. The stock is traded on the over-the-counter market.

The price the stock is able to demand is up from about $13 at the end of last year and $8 at the end of 1992.

Trading volume was about average Tuesday, with 10,100 shares changing hands, said Guy W. Ford, an analyst with the brokerage firm Scott & Stringfellow.

For the quarter ended Jan. 31, the steel maker reported earnings of $4,125,536, or 78 cents per share, compared with $517,856, or 10 cents per share, in the 1993 quarter. Earnings from operations were $1,031,596, or 20 cents per share.

Sales in the quarter were $46.7 million, up 30 percent from $36 million in the 1993 quarter.

Twenty additional workers were hired and the company has been operating its Roanoke mill seven days a week since Jan. 17, Vice President Thomas Crawford said.

The company has been exporting semifinished steel billets, and its more lucrative production of finished domestic construction steel has picked up considerably in recent weeks, Crawford said.

"The increase in gross earnings and net earnings from operations were primarily attributable to a significant increase in the shipments of merchant bar products at improved gross profit margins," said Donald G. Smith, the company's president and CEO.

"The higher market levels were due to improved market conditions for bar products, and margins were enhanced by increased raw steel and bar production and its inherent cost efficiencies," he said.

Other steel companies are experiencing similar improvements as business has picked up from the depth of the recession, Ford said.

by CNB