AKS AK Steel Holding Corp

AK Steel Holding Corp. said its first-quarter loss narrowed on lower costs that offset lower revenue as the steelmaker continued to get hurt by lower prices.

The West Chester, Ohio, company's shares rose 2.2% to $4.64 in recent premarket trading as the per-share loss wasn't as wide as analysts had feared and revenue edged past expectations.

Like other U.S. steelmakers, AK Steel has said its business is being hurt by unfairly priced imports, particularly from China. The company has aimed to strengthen its margins by focusing on products that command higher prices and reducing its exposure to spot market prices for carbon steel.

The company's shipments declined 5% to roughly 1.66 million tons for the latest quarter, compared with 1.75 million tons a year earlier. Average selling prices decreased to $914 a ton, compared with $999 a ton a year earlier and $929 a ton in the fourth quarter.

AK Steel's shipments of hot rolled carbon steel products, most of which were sold into the commodity spot market, declined 34%, Chief Executive Roger K. Newport said in prepared remarks. The decline was partly offset by an 7% increase in shipments of higher value coated products that are sold mostly to the automotive market.

Over all, AK Steel reported a loss of $13.6 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $306.3 million, or $1.72 a share.

The year-earlier period included a charge of $1.44 a share related to AK Steel's investment in Minnesota mining company Magnetation LLC, an iron-ore recovery company that filed for bankruptcy last year. Revenue decreased 13% to $1.52 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share loss of 10 cents and revenue of $1.51 billion.

Total operating expenses declined 14%.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2016 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

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