General Steel Issues Second-Half Guidance - Update

(RTTNews) - Beijing-based steel manufacturer General Steel Holdings, Inc. (GSI) Wednesday said it remains confident in its business turnaround and issued earnings per share guidance for the second half of 2014.

General Steel stated that it is on its way to earn positive net income for the month of June, and sees a clear path to earn positive net profits for the remainder of 2014.

For the six months ending December 31, 2014, the company currently expects earnings per share to be in the range of $0.08 to $0.12. Net income attributable to the company is expected to be in the range of $4.5 million to $6.5 million.

The firm anticipates second-half sales to be between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion, on sales volume of about 3 million metric tons.

Henry Yu, chairman and chief executive officer of the company said, "We are excited that the changing market fundamentals for the steel industry in China and our improved production efficiency gained over the past two years are clearly benefiting General Steel, providing us with greater confidence for a profitable second half of 2014."

The company anticipates that its strong procurement capability and improved operational-efficiency will significantly lower its raw material and production costs.

"It is our expectation that this combination of firm pricing and lower costs drives higher gross profits," Yu added.

GSI closed Tuesday's regular trading at $0.93 on the NYSE.