Sector Snap: Steel makers fall after Schnitzer 3Q

Shares of steel makers fell Tuesday after Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. posted a third-quarter loss, missing Wall Street estimates.

In midday trading, shares of Schnitzer were down $7.13, or 11.8 percent, to $53.08. The stock has ranged from $16.45 to $118.55 over the past year.

Portland, Ore.-based Schnitzer posted a third-quarter loss of $1.5 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a profit of $61.7 million gain, or $2.14 per share, for the same quarter in 2008.

Revenue slid 58 percent to $411.8 million from $972.1 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 16 cents per share on revenue of $382 million.

In other steel sector developments, analyst Timna Tanners of UBS Investment Research wrote in a note to investors that most companies that responded to UBS's quarterly steel service center survey said prices are rising sequentially in the third quarter for the first time in a year and that inventory destocking has ended.

Of 108 responses, 53 percent said demand is stable in the third quarter and 57 percent said inventory was adequate, Tanners said.

Meanwhile, shares of U.S. Steel Corp. fell $1.18, or 3.2 percent, to $35.83 as the broader market slipped. Worthington Industries Inc. dropped 59 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $12.70. Nucor Corp. dropped 91 cents, or 2 percent, to $44.34.