Insteel Industries, Inc. announced financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2025 ended December 28, 2024.
Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 remained unchanged from the prior year at $1.1 million. Insteel said in a statement that first quarter results for fiscal 2025 benefited from higher spreads between selling prices and raw material costs, as well as an improvement in demand for the company’s concrete reinforcement products which were partially offset by an increase in selling, general, and administrative expense.
Net sales increased by 6.6 percent to $129.7 million from $121.7 million in the prior year quarter, driven by an 11.4 percent increase in shipments partially offset by a 4.3 percent decline in average selling prices. The company said shipments for the current quarter benefited from favorable demand trends in our infrastructure and commercial construction markets, as well as the incremental volume generated from our two recent acquisitions. On a sequential basis, shipments decreased 4.5 percent from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, reflecting the usual seasonal slowdown, while average selling prices increased 1.1 percent.
“We are encouraged by recovering order activity we experienced during the first quarter, which is typically seasonally weak,” said H.O. Woltz III, Insteel’s President and CEO. “The improved start to the year, together with increasing contributions from our recent acquisitions, positions us well as we move into the balance of fiscal 2025. While we are optimistic that our markets will recover during 2025, we continue to face the headwinds of low-priced PC strand imports entering the U.S. market. We are addressing this issue with both the Biden Administration and the incoming Trump Administration.”
In addition, Woltz said, “Once again, our people did a remarkable job of integrating the acquisitions we completed during the first fiscal quarter. Within two weeks of closing, the legacy systems of the acquired companies were disabled and Insteel systems were up and running. While systems training will be ongoing, integration risk is substantially behind us, and we are well underway in capturing the significant cost reduction synergies that are available. Looking ahead to the remainder of fiscal 2025, we are focused on optimizing operations, taking advantage of emerging opportunities in our markets, and delivering long-term value to our shareholders.”