Radius experiences sixth consecutive quarterly loss

Portland, Oregon-based Radius Recycling Inc. has reported a net loss of $37 million in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, which includes the months of September, October and November 2024. The firm has not recorded a quarterly profit since the third quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, covering the months of March, April and May 2023.

The most recent loss for the company, which operates a network of about 50 metal recycling facilities, roughly the same number auto dismantling retail sites and an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill, is double what it experienced in the same time frame in 2023.

Part of the widening loss, says Radius, is attributable to “a detriment on income tax” in the recently completed quarter. The tax-related loss amounted to nearly $3.8 million, according to the company’s financial statement, but its operating loss checked in at $24.9 million.

The company’s balance sheet portrays a gross margin (total revenue minus the cost of goods sold) of $657 million in late 2024. That total is down about 2.4 percent from one year earlier but down nearly 15 percent compared with the prior quarter.

In the prior quarter, which ran from June through August of 2024, Radius blamed “flat” ferrous scrap selling prices as one reason for its $16 million net loss during those three months.

“While market conditions during the quarter were more challenging than a year ago, our year-over-year consolidated operating results withstood the additional headwinds,” says Tamara Lundgren, board chair and CEO of Radius regarding the autumn 2024 stretch.

“The contribution from our recycled metals business improved versus a year ago, driven by benefits realized from our cost reduction and productivity measures and stronger nonferrous demand, which offset the tight scrap environment and the softer global ferrous markets,” she continues.

Lundgren says profits generated by the firm’s recycled-content EAF mill in Portland declined year on year “due to weaker domestic steel conditions and a scheduled maintenance outage.” Adds the CEO, “Our steel mill utilization [capacity rate] of 81 percent, while down sequentially, was still higher than the United States average of 75 percent, reflecting relatively stronger markets for long products.”

Operating statistics for the late 2024 timeframe released by Radius show its average ferrous scrap selling price was $340 per ton to overseas buyers and just $331 per ton to domestic consumers. The firm indicates it sold about 57 percent of its ferrous scrap to overseas buyers during the quarter.

In the nonferrous sector, Radius lists a nonferrous scrap average selling price of $1.02 per pound during the September through November 2024 time frame. That represents about a 5.5 percent decrease from what those materials fetched three months earlier ($1.08 per pound) but represents an 18.7 percent gain from what it garnered one year ago (91 cents per pound).

Looking ahead, Lundgren remarks, “We expect inventory rebuilding and seasonality will drive improved demand in the second half of our fiscal year. In the longer-term, the demand for recycled metals remains positive, underpinned by increased investments in infrastructure, including for energy projects, industrial reshoring, continued growth in U.S. EAF steelmaking capacity, and the transition to low-carbon technologies.”