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DATE

Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at 10 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer — Richard Marabito
  • President and Chief Operating Officer — Andrew Greiff
  • Chief Financial Officer — Richard Manson

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TAKEAWAYS

  • Sales: $496 million for Q2 2025.
  • Net Income: Net income was $5.2 million for Q2 2025, compared with $7.7 million in Q2 2024, reflecting lower sequential shipping volumes.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $20.3 million for Q2 2025, up 26% compared with Q1 2025, with all three business segments achieving positive EBITDA.
  • Carbon Flat Products Segment EBITDA: EBITDA for the carbon segment was $12.5 million for Q2 2025, driven by continued strength in manufactured products.
  • Pipe and Tube Segment Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA for the Pipe and Tube segment was $6.7 million for Q2 2025, with ongoing focus on fabrication and expected second-half demand from data center projects.
  • Specialty Metals EBITDA: EBITDA was $5.9 million for Q2 2025, reflecting a more than 60% increase for the Specialty Metals Group versus Q1 2025, and accompanied by sequential volume and profitability improvements.
  • Total Debt: $233 million after a reduction of $39 million from year-end levels.
  • Liquidity: Approximately $305 million of availability under the asset-based revolving credit facility is maintained to support growth initiatives.
  • Operating Expenses: $110.4 million in consolidated operating expenses for Q2 2025, impacted by inclusion of Metalworks, which contributed $2.5 million in operating and acquisition-related expenses.
  • Capital Expenditures: $500,000 in capital expenditures in 2025, with a full-year estimate of approximately $35 million, primarily for automation and organic growth.
  • Dividend: A quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per share was paid, with approval for the next dividend at the same rate payable on September 15, 2025.
  • LIFO Impact: $750,000 of LIFO expense recorded in Q2 2025, compared to $1 million of LIFO pretax income in Q2 2024.
  • Tax Rate: Second-quarter 2025 effective tax rate was 29.1%; The company expects a full-year tax rate of 28%-29% for 2025.
  • CapEx Projects: Major initiatives include a new cut-to-length line in Minneapolis, an aluminum-focused line in Schaumburg, automation in Chambersburg, an expansion of Action Stainless in Houston, and a high-speed slitter in Berlin. All except the Berlin project are expected to be operational by the end of 2025.
  • Market Trends: The company highlighted margin improvements in flat roll products and stated that it achieved market share gains across stainless and aluminum lines.
  • M&A Outlook: Management stated "M&A is still a big piece of our strategy" and reported an uptick in acquisition opportunities in the second quarter.

SUMMARY

Management stated that the second quarter saw active integration of the Metalworks acquisition, contributing incremental operating expenses but remaining accretive to earnings. Olympic Steel (ZEUS -0.27%) remains committed to a $35 million capital expenditure plan for 2025 that prioritizes automation and new processing capacity, positioning several major equipment projects to go live by year-end. Liquidity remains strong, with $305 million in borrowing capacity to fund both M&A and organic initiatives. Management noted persistent market volatility due to tariff changes and seasonal demand slowdowns, but cited encouraging developments in US manufacturing onshoring and sustained growth in fabrication for OEM customers.

  • Chief Financial Officer Manson confirmed, "We reduced debt during the quarter, bringing our total debt to $233 million, which is $39 million lower than year-end levels."
  • President Greiff said, "We also gained market share across our stainless and aluminum product lines."
  • CEO Marabito emphasized, "Our track record on the M&A front has been highly successful, completing eight acquisitions in the last seven years."
  • Chief Financial Officer Manson described the tax law's bonus depreciation as "very helpful to our customer base," but clarified, "we will not get the bonus depreciation on those. But, yeah, future projects," with impacts expected only for investments made after January 2025.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • Cut-to-length line: Equipment that processes metal coils into sheets of specified lengths.
  • LIFO: Accounting method ("Last-In, First-Out") for inventory, affecting cost of goods sold and profit calculations, particularly relevant during periods of price volatility in metals.
  • Section 232 tariffs: US import duties on steel and aluminum products imposed for national security reasons, influencing industry pricing and trade flows.
  • OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer; companies that produce parts or equipment, often supplied by Olympic Steel for fabrication.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Olympic Steel 2025 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. To access the queue, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to hand the conference over to Richard Manson, Chief Financial Officer at Olympic Steel. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard Manson: Thank you, operator. Welcome to Olympic Steel's earnings call for the 2025. Our call this morning will be hosted by our Chief Executive Officer, Richard Marabito, and we will also be joined by our President and Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Greiff. Before we begin, I have a few reminders. Some statements made on today's call will be predictive and are intended to be made as forward-looking within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may not reflect actual results. The company does not undertake to update such statements, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting such forward-looking statements.

Important assumptions, risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth in the company's reports on Form 10-Ks and 10-Q and the press releases filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During today's discussion, we may refer to net income per diluted share, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA, which are all non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is provided in the press release that was issued last night and can be found on our website. Today's live broadcast will be archived and available for replay on Olympic Steel's website. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

Richard Marabito: Thank you, Rich, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Olympic Steel's 2025 second quarter results. I'll begin by providing some perspective on our performance in the second quarter and how we're navigating the current environment. Andrew will then review our segment performance, and following that, Rich will discuss our financial results in more detail. And then, as always, we'll open the call up for your questions. As we all know, news around tariffs has been dominating the headlines and creating uncertainty throughout the manufacturing industry, the metal supply chain, and with our customers.

Despite that uncertainty, our strategies and disciplined approach, combined with the strong foundation we have built for a more resilient Olympic Steel, resulted in solid performance in a challenging environment. In the second quarter, we reported sales of $496 million and net income of $5.2 million. As we mentioned on our last call, we saw significant buy-ahead activity by our customers late in the first quarter as they reacted to the initial steel and aluminum tariffs and the potential for reciprocal tariffs. As a result, there was some sequential volume pullback in the second quarter, yet our flat-rolled shipping volumes for 2025 remain slightly ahead of volume for 2024, while the industry actually experienced contraction for that period.

While second-quarter volumes were down sequentially, margins from our flat roll business improved, and we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $20.3 million, a 26% increase compared with the first quarter. Importantly, all three of our business segments continued to deliver positive EBITDA. This performance is the result of our strategy to build a stronger, more resilient Olympic Steel. Our efforts to diversify into higher-value metal-intensive products, expand our fabricating capabilities, and lean into our operational disciplines have put us in a position to deliver profitable results even when industry shipping volumes and pricing are falling.

With a strong balance sheet and more than $300 million of borrowing availability, we are in an excellent financial position to make additional accretive acquisitions as well as fund our organic investments to drive profitable growth, further efficiencies, and enhance safety in our operations. As we previously announced, our robust 2025 CapEx plan, which includes new processing and automation equipment, continues to proceed as scheduled. Andrew will share more specifics in a few moments. Our track record on the M&A front has been highly successful, completing eight acquisitions in the last seven years. The integration of our most recent acquisition, Metalworks, has gone seamlessly, and their results have been accretive to earnings.

As we look ahead to the second half of the year, we expect the environment will remain challenging. We do, however, see a few positive emerging trends, like the resolution of reciprocal tariffs and the new tax legislation that reinforce our optimism for the longer-term outlook for the steel industry and especially for Olympic Steel. Andrew will have more to share on that in his comments. As always, I'm proud of our team for their hard work and dedication to Olympic Steel. I'm confident that together we continue to build on our strengths and ensure Olympic Steel continues to deliver profitable results no matter the market environment. I'll now turn the call over to Andrew.

Andrew Greiff: Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. We continue to navigate an unprecedented environment for the metals industry. As previously noted, the 25% sequential increase in first-quarter 2025 volume was generated by purchasing ahead of anticipated price increases. Shipping data from our trade association indicates that for most products, service center shipping rates in 2025 are below 2024. Despite this negative trend, our first-half 2025 flat roll shipments remain above our first-half 2024 shipping levels. As Rick discussed, our team has done an excellent job positioning Olympic Steel for success in even the toughest markets. During the second quarter, we improved margins for our flat roll products.

This improvement, combined with the steadiness of our end products businesses, helped to drive a 26% sequential increase in adjusted EBITDA, showing once again our ability to be profitable in the face of challenging conditions. This was an outstanding effort by our team to stay focused on controlling what we can control. Second-quarter activity in our carbon segment reflected the overall metals industry sentiment. Profitability remained solid with second-quarter EBITDA of $12.5 million, with strength from our manufactured product companies. The Pipe and Tube segment recorded adjusted EBITDA of $6.7 million. The Pipe and Tube team continues to focus on fabrication with the goal to grow this business and drive margin improvement.

We expect improved second-half 2025 demand for data center work related to pipe and tube. Business conditions for both stainless and aluminum products began to improve during the second quarter, resulting in sequential improvements in both volume and profitability for the Specialty Metals Group. EBITDA was $5.9 million, a more than 60% improvement from the first quarter. We also gained market share across our stainless and aluminum product lines. We are seeing momentum in the market for 2025 following the doubling of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% and subsequent domestic mill price increases.

Our robust CapEx plan for 2025 includes $35 million of spending, primarily on organic growth opportunities, which include a new cut-to-length line in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a new white metals cut-to-length line in Schaumburg, Illinois, the automation of our warehouse in Chambersburg, PA, and the expansion of Action Stainless' presence in Houston, Texas, along with a new high-speed stainless slitter at our Berlin Metals operation outside of Gary, Indiana. With the exception of the slitter, the others are expected to be operational by the end of 2025 and will help fuel our growth in 2026 and beyond. The Berlin Slitter is expected to be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

While we expect market uncertainty to remain in the near term, we are encouraged by the emerging trends and opportunities for the steel industry. For example, we are seeing increased inquiries for fabrication, especially amongst OEMs looking to onshore, outsource, or expand their first stages of manufacturing in the US. Olympic Steel is well-positioned to capitalize on the trend to increase US manufacturing in the months and years to come. We are a resilient organization with the right strategy to lead us into the future, drive our growth, and help us deliver profitable results under all market conditions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rich.

Richard Manson: Thank you, Andrew. As you've heard from both Rick and Andrew, our team did an excellent job delivering solid results during the second quarter despite significant macroeconomic challenges and uncertainty. The benefits of our focus on controlling what we can control are apparent in our results. Before I discuss the results in more detail, I want to remind everyone that comparisons are impacted by the November 2024 acquisition of Metalworks, whose results are included in the Carbon segment. Second-quarter net income totaled $5.2 million compared with $7.7 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $20.3 million compared with $21.3 million in the prior year period.

These results include $750,000 of LIFO expense in 2025 compared with $1 million of LIFO pretax income in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for 2025 was 26% stronger than the adjusted EBITDA for 2025. Consolidated operating expenses for the second quarter totaled $110.4 million compared with $1.046 billion in 2024. Our second-quarter 2025 operating expenses reflect the addition of Metalworks, which does not report tons sold. Therefore, operating expenses per ton at the consolidated level and for the carbon segment will appear higher year over year. As a reminder, we do not report tons sold for McCullough Industries, EZ Dumper, Metal Fab, Shaw Stainless, or the entire pipe and tube segment.

Second-quarter consolidated operating expenses included $2.5 million of Metalworks operating and acquisition-related expenses and $200,000 of lower incentive expenses compared to 2024. We reduced debt during the second quarter, bringing our total debt to $233 million, which is $39 million lower than year-end levels. We have approximately $305 million of availability under our asset-based revolving credit facility, providing us with an excellent source of flexible, low-cost capital to fund our strategic growth initiatives. Total capital expenditures totaled $500,000 in 2025 compared with depreciation of $13 million. We estimate that 2025 capital expenditures will be approximately $35 million. Investment is higher than historical levels as we focus on supporting our automation and additional organic growth initiatives, as Andrew noted.

Our second-quarter 2025 effective tax rate was 29.1% compared to 28.4% in the same period last year. We expect our 2025 tax rate to approximate 28% to 29%. In addition, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share in the second quarter. Our Board of Directors approved our next regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per share, payable on 09/15/2025 to shareholders of record on 09/02/2025. The company has now paid regular quarterly dividends dating back to 02/2006. Before we open the call for your questions, I would like to thank the entire Olympic Steel team for all their efforts in the second quarter.

We know there are challenges and uncertainty, but we also know our business, our markets, and our customers very well. Our team is executing in a consistent and strategic manner that enables us to deliver these results and to continue to build shareholder value. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press 1. You may press 2 if you like to remove your question from the queue. Our first question comes from Samuel McKinney with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Samuel McKinney: Morning, Sam. Thanks for the color earlier, Andrew, on some of the new equipment that you're getting in. Wanted to dive a little more into the new processing and automation equipment that's beginning to arrive. Just maybe talk a little more about the benefits that you'll see once those pieces start to contribute, and if possible, quantify some of the benefits that you'll glean from those.

Andrew Greiff: Yeah. Great question. Thanks, Sam. So this has been a project that has been years in the making. The equipment is a combination of things, including high-speed lasers, in addition to whole cast dose that allows us to move product throughout the building with very little touch from employees. So part of the automation will be, number one, to improve safety so that we're touching the product less. And it will, at some point, reduce the number of employees that we have in that specific location as the automation gets going. And then some of the other CapEx that Andrew talked about also really will enhance productivity.

So maybe you could talk about the new cut-to-length lines and the slitter also, I think.

Samuel McKinney: Those are

Andrew Greiff: Sure. So we have, as you know, we have two cut-to-length lines. One is going into our Minneapolis facility. The other is going into our Schaumburg facility. The Schaumburg facility cut-to-length line will be primarily for aluminum. It's a very fast-growing product line for us. As you know, Sam, the Minneapolis line is gonna be a light gauge line. Gonna be focusing a lot on galvanized and other tandem products. As well as the new slitter that's gonna be going into our Berlin operation, that won't be operational till the beginning of next year. But that is a very light gauge. So somewhere in the call it, in the 0.010 range is what that will end up doing for us.

Samuel McKinney: Yeah. Then, Sam, in terms of kind of quantification, obviously, as Andrew said, most of the equipment is just becoming operational. Call it, in the fourth quarter. With the exception of the Berlin Slitter, as he mentioned. So really, the ramp-up in terms of seeing the results in our results will be more towards next year. As you know, we do a pretty rigorous process in terms of justification on CapEx and acquisitions. So we're pretty excited about the return profiles of all five of these big projects. But you'd start to see them phasing in early next year. You, guys. That was very helpful.

And then it was great to see pipe and tube gross margins stay safely above that 30% mark. I know a component of that segment's profitability transformation over the last few years has been the OEM outsourcing fabrication work. Any more detail you can provide on the work you're doing for those OEMs? The incremental increase in interest since the tariff announcements, or if some of that increase has also been on the carbon side.

Andrew Greiff: Well, it has been a continuation of the customer kind of as on the flat roll side, Sam, where instead of supplying the tube, they're now looking for something else to be done. We have 19 high-speed tube lasers that are very active and going into a variety of industries. So very strong in the industrial OEMs, and where we're really seeing an increase in that business has been in the data. We've seen significant growth on that side of it. And so whether it's in the carbon side or even in the stainless side for the pipe and tube, the growth has been pretty extraordinary on the fabrication.

Samuel McKinney: Okay. And then last one for me. Obviously, first-quarter demand with some pull forward. And then coming off second-quarter volume decline in carbon flat, how were trends in July? And how do you think things are shaping up for August?

Richard Manson: Hey, Sam. It's Rich. And I think what we typically see is this is a typical seasonal year. Right? And what we've seen historically, say, over the last five to six years, is third quarter is typically down five to 6% sequentially from Q2, and that's really all due kind of to the July holiday. The first two weeks of July typically are very slow. And didn't see anything different this year than we typically see in other years.

Samuel McKinney: Okay. Thanks, guys, and congrats on the solid quarter.

Richard Manson: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Dave Storms with Stonegate Investment Group. Please proceed with your question.

Dave Storms: Morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to start with some of the flat roll margin improvements that you mentioned. How should we be thinking about maybe the main drivers of this margin improvement?

Richard Manson: Dave, it's Rich. And I think it was just really kind of a function of how the index pricing changed throughout the first half of the year. And so, obviously, index pricing shot up after the announcements in February with the tariffs. We had secured some inventory at lower pricing. That allowed you to sell that at higher prices coming into the second quarter. That's essentially the margin improvement that you see based on index pricing.

Richard Marabito: Yeah. And then the other thing I'd add, this is Rick, Dave. The other thing I'd add is obviously, we've talked a lot about it the last several years. Strategically, as we've also tried to enrich our mix. And when I say enrich our mix, it's everything including on the carbon side doing more coated product. A product that carries a slightly higher pricing point and better margins. It's doing more fabricating and value-add work. And a big piece of it is our acquisition strategy where we've gained diversification by owning some companies that make some end products. So it's all of that.

And sometimes, you know, when the markets start to recede, is the time you see the manifestation of that. And so I think that's part of what you're seeing. Aside from the basics, in the service center, you know, pricing market and where the cost of the metal is.

Dave Storms: That's very helpful. Thank you. Know you also mentioned in your prepared remarks you're seeing some inbound inquiries. Jumping up, and that's nicely the indicator. There any other leading indicators, to maybe highlight, maybe some divergence in contract for spot price? Lead times extending, anything like that?

Richard Marabito: No. I think, you know, from my perspective, as I take a little bit of a longer view, you know, I think getting some of the uncertainties settled out of Washington DC will be helpful. So I think we check the box on the tax legislation, so that's a good thing. You know, the tariffs are still as evidenced by last night's all the announcements, the tariffs are still in flux. Hopefully, we get some resolution on those in the near term. We do like, and Andrew talked about it, continue to see really strong quoting on fabricating and outsource value-add work from a lot of our OEMs.

And I think that's really a continuation from what we've talked about as far back as coming out of COVID. So, we see that. Andrew mentioned some strength in data center business, which we're a big participant in really, many of our divisions and many of our products. So those would be some of the positives. I think it's always July, as Rich said. July is always a more of a muted seasonally slow month, and we obviously saw that this year. But it'll be good moving into August. I think we'll see some normal pickup in business. But, but, yeah, that's what we see. And then I'd tell you the general backdrop hasn't changed, though, that much.

Dave Storms: That's very informative. Thank you. And then just one more for me if I could. You mentioned that comment to checking the box on tax legislation. Hoping to spend a little more time there, any other impacts from the tax legislation other than maybe just the bonus depreciation? That could work as a tailwind for you guys. You know, anything else here that you're keeping your eye on as it evolves?

Richard Manson: Well, Rich, why don't you answer for Olympic? And then we can also talk about why it's good for our business in terms of the bonus depreciation.

Richard Manson: Yeah. Absolutely, Dave. So it's Rich. Yeah. I think the bonus depreciation of anything is the most significant part of the tax legislation. You know? This has happened a number of times over, say, the last decade through various tax legislation, and it's very helpful to our customer base. You know, so for us, you know, it will obviously allow us to depreciate some of the projects that not the current projects, but any project that we've entered into after January 2025 on a faster basis. But I think the bigger impact really is our customer base.

That really does help, you know, kind of the OEMs and their customer base feel the need, you know, helps drive demand, is always good for us and good for the industry.

Richard Marabito: Yeah. I think the depreciation deductibility for customers when you combine that with when we start to see interest rates come down, whenever that will be. Those two things, I think, will be a pretty powerful boost to demand. So we've got part of the equation in place, but the bigger part is really the interest rates.

Dave Storms: Understood. Thank you for the time, and good luck in Q3.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Sakai with Singular Research. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Sakai: Yes. Hi. Good morning. Chris. Can you talk about the gross margin in carbon flat? Looks like it improved year over year. What initiatives, you know, really helps that improvement?

Richard Manson: Hey, Chris. It's Rich. And I think Rick had addressed a couple of those on the last question. But I think that what you saw was a combination of an increase in index pricing. You saw the better mix that we've had as Rick indicated, we've got a better concentration in some higher margin products. It's the focus on fabrication and, you know, all of that combined to help that gross margin on the carbon side.

Chris Sakai: Okay. Great. Can you talk about operating expenses? What should we be expecting for the rest of the year in operating expenses?

Richard Manson: Chris. I mean, I think what you saw is operating expenses were relatively flat in Q2 versus Q1. And, you know, what we try to do is make sure that those operating expenses move in a variable basis with volume. You know, we did, in an earlier question, say that, you know, typically, Q3 is seasonally slower than Q2. With that, we'd expect to take the operating expenses down commensurately with volume.

Chris Sakai: Can you talk about do you have an outlook for the pricing for hot rolled steel in the second half of the year? Do you see any stabilization there?

Andrew Greiff: Yeah, Chris. This is Andrew. I think you'll see the second half of the year is gonna be similar to what you'll see what we saw in the first half. I think there's some variables that could change that. Certainly, you have a 50% tariff. If the tariff is reduced, as you know, it went from 25 to 50%. If it's reduced back to 25%, if the tariff is replaced by a quota, and the economy stays, at least with our customers the way that we see it, you could see some pressure. But barring that, I think you're gonna see some stability for the second half of the year.

Chris Sakai: Okay. Thanks. And last one. This is more of a macro question, but we're seeing some large investments from other countries like Japan and Europe from and from these tariff deals. Is that going to be affecting demand?

Andrew Greiff: Chris, this is Andrew. I think it's a little early to tell. There have been a lot of numbers that have been reported. I would say soft on specifics. And I think the more manufacturing that can come to the United States, the better it's going to be for the United States and certainly the steel industry. And so we're encouraged by the news out of Washington and the tariff deals that have been made that's talking about countries investing in the US, and the building and potential opportunities for us and manufacturing in general.

Chris Sakai: Okay. Great. Thanks for the answers.

Richard Manson: Thanks, Chris.

Operator: Our next question comes from Phil Gibbs with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Phil Gibbs: Hey. Good morning.

Richard Marabito: Good morning, Phil.

Phil Gibbs: I know there was a question earlier about the big beautiful bill. Are there actual discrete tax benefits that you all will realize in '25, given a lot of the investments you're putting in place this year?

Richard Manson: Hey, Phil. It's Rich. Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, we went forward with this large organic growth, you know, these opportunities before January 2025. Which that's the cutoff date for those. So we will not get the bonus depreciation on those. But, yeah, future projects, we certainly will look to get that benefit, but I do not expect to have a significant impact on the 2025 tax rate.

Phil Gibbs: Okay. And then regarding that working capital, you know, typically, second half is a source of cash for you all. I know pricing has been kind of been volatile across products, but you typically do have a second half tailwind and cash inflow associated with that. What are you expecting this year?

Richard Manson: Yeah. So I think we're evaluating that right now. I think the thing that has changed since we had the last call was that the 25% base increase in stainless pricing. You know? So we're evaluating some opportunities in stainless. And so, you know, my outlook right now for Q3 is probably more flattish on debt than a pay down.

Phil Gibbs: And then Q4, you typically will still get that release?

Richard Manson: Well, we'll see where pricing goes. So I'm going quarter by quarter right. And so based on what I know, I think we're flattish for Q3.

Phil Gibbs: Good. And then lastly, mentioned have over $300 million of liquidity available to you all. Know M&A has been a big part of your strategy over the last several years. Are there still a swap of decent opportunities out there that you could be exploring?

Richard Marabito: Yeah, Phil. Great question. It's Rick. Really, we saw the opportunity flow really slow down towards the end of last year and through the first quarter. We've seen it pick up in the second quarter, so we're certainly seeing and looking at more things. Obviously, as we've stated every quarter, M&A is still a big piece of our strategy. In addition to the pretty large CapEx plan we went through for this year. So we're actively looking. I think we're starting to see some better candidates that really fit our target zone. So more to come on that as we work through the third quarter.

But the good news is, I think that little bit of a hesitation and pause that we saw for, call it, three or four months seems to start to be that logjam of nothing happening seems to be opening up a bit. So we'll continue to be active. We're looking at a lot of things. And we'll continue to be disciplined too, Phil. You know, we've said it many times. While growth through a combination of organic growth and our CapEx and acquisition is the way forward for us strategically. We're gonna stay disciplined, and we're not gonna make an acquisition just to say we have to make an acquisition because it's been a couple quarters.

But I'm optimistic as we work through the back half that we'll continue to see some really good fits for Olympic.

Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Richard Marabito for closing comments.

Richard Marabito: Thank you, operator. And I just want to thank all of you for joining us today on our call. We appreciate your continued interest in Olympic Steel, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you, and everyone have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.