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F500-2021-343-Reliance Steel Aluminum

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F500-2020-291-Reliance-steel-and-Aluminum

Los Angeles-based Reliance processes and distributes metals like alloy steel and titanium, cutting and bending materials to prepare them for manufacturers.

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Reliance is the largest metals service center company in North America. The company operates a network of over 320 locations across 41 U.S. states and 10 countries, serving more than 125,000 customers. Reliance offers more than 100,000 metal products—including carbon steel, aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper, titanium, and specialty alloys—along with value-added processing services such as cutting, machining, and inventory management. Through its decentralized family of companies, comprising over 75 brands, Reliance emphasizes local expertise, quick turnaround, and exceptional customer service.

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Reliance (RS): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Reliance

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Greetings, and welcome to the Reliance, Inc Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should anyone require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Kim Orlando, with Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thanks to all of you for joining our conference call to discuss Reliance's fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. I am joined by Karla Lewis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Koch, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Arthur Ajemyan, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. A recording of this call will be posted on the Investors section of our website at investor.reliance.com. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosures included in our earnings release issued yesterday, and note that it applies to all statements made during this teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are included in the non-GAAP reconciliation part of our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Karla Lewis, President and CEO of Reliance.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. In 2025, we demonstrated strong operational execution and continued to expand our market share, underscoring the strength of our business model amid a complex macroeconomic backdrop and competitive operating environment. Our commitment to smart, profitable growth once again fueled strong results. In 2025, we increased our tons shipped by 6.2%, resulting in record tons sold of 6.4 million, outperforming the industry by over seven percentage points, with our U.S. market share increasing to approximately 17% in 2025 from 15% in 2024. In addition, we increased our tolling tons by 1.2% to 7.4 million customer-owned tons processed through our tolling operations.

Our shipment growth was in carbon long and flat-rolled products, where we also increased our gross profit margin year-over-year. By continuing to focus on exceptional customer service and maintaining our strong relationships with key domestic suppliers, we were successful winning new business and were able to better leverage our operating expenses over higher volumes, leading to increased FIFO profits that further strengthen our long-term industry-leading position. We increased our FIFO gross profit margin by 90 basis points in 2025 compared to 2024 through strong pricing discipline, mainly on increased mill prices for carbon products supported by healthy demand. However, significant tariff-related aluminum cost increases were more difficult to pass through due to plentiful supply and soft demand, especially in our commercial aerospace and semiconductor markets.

Our 2025 non-GAAP gross profit margin of 28.8% is just outside of our estimated sustainable range, which we attribute primarily to tariff-driven annual LIFO expense of $114 million. We expect our gross profit margin to improve in 2026 as the impact of tariffs and trade uncertainty lessens, maintaining our annual range of 29%-31%. We increased 2025 non-GAAP FIFO pretax income by $80 million. However, full-year 2025 earnings per diluted share declined 10.2% from 2024. Excluding the impact of significant LIFO adjustments in both periods, 2025 non-GAAP FIFO earnings per diluted share increased 13.5% year-over-year, thanks to the talented teams we have throughout the Reliance family. Our strong cash flow generation continues to fuel profitable growth and deliver meaningful returns to our stockholders.

In 2025, we generated $831 million in operating cash flow, which we redeployed into high-value initiatives, including investments in advanced processing equipment and other projects that support our long-term growth objectives. For 2026, we're announcing a capital expenditure budget of $275 million as we focus on maximizing returns on the significant capital deployed in recent years. Including carryover spending, we anticipate 2026 total CapEx spending of $300 million-$325 million, with approximately half directed toward growth initiatives. Our scale, financial strength, and operational capabilities position us to pursue compelling opportunities that may emerge in 2026, including acquisitions of well-run, profitable businesses that broaden our footprint and strengthen our portfolio of metal solutions, and through additional capital expenditure investments as attractive customer opportunities arise.

We also remain committed to returning capital to our stockholders, delivering $849 million in 2025 through dividends and share repurchases. We increased our dividend by 4% to an annual dividend rate of $5 per share in the 2026 first quarter. In summary, Reliance's diversified business model and unrivaled scale help to offset market-specific weaknesses and support stable, stable performance through economic cycles. Our expansive capabilities and financial strength enable us to invest when others retreat, positioning us to capture market share and accelerate growth as markets stabilize and improve. As we entered 2026 in a healthy demand and strong pricing environment, we are seeing increasing optimism from our customers and increasing activity around large-scale projects across several key end markets, including infrastructure, data centers, energy, and defense.

Reliance has the capabilities, talent, and capital to continue to grow both our core small order, quick turn business, while also winning new business from these larger projects. We are excited to continue delivering disciplined, profitable growth in the year ahead. I'll now turn the call over to our COO, Steve, who will review our demand and pricing trends.

Thanks, Karla, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin by recognizing our teams for their solid operating performance and continued commitment to safety. Our 2025 total recordable incident rate improved in 2025, reflecting the discipline and care they bring to serving our customers each and every day. I also want to acknowledge our mill suppliers. When tariffs were imposed, our supply chain remained uninterrupted, which we attribute to our long-standing relationships with our mill partners and our disciplined supply chain strategy. Finally, we appreciate our customers, and we look forward to continuing to be their valued, reliable metal solutions provider and supporting their growth and success in 2026 and beyond. Turning to our demand and pricing trends.

Fourth quarter tons sold declined 5.4% from the third quarter of 2025 and increased 5.8% from the fourth quarter of 2024, significantly outperforming the service center industry, which reported a decline of 1.2% over the same period last year, and exceeding our expectations of up 3.5%-5.5%. Delivering this level of outperformance in a market shaped by cautious buying and intense competition reflects the strength of our smart, profitable growth strategy and the benefits of our continued investments. Carbon volumes remain the primary driver of growth, particularly in the non-residential construction and certain sub-sectors of manufacturing. Our fourth quarter average selling price increased about 1% from the third quarter of 2025, exceeding our expectation of relatively flat pricing.

Aluminum pricing continued its upward trend in response to tariffs, raising the Midwest Premium. As Arthur will discuss in our outlook, we believe pricing for most products will improve in the first quarter of 2026. Turning to our end markets, non-residential construction represented roughly one-third of our fourth quarter sales, primarily from carbon steel tubing, plate, and structural products. Shipments remained strong in the fourth quarter, supported by overall demand in heavy, civil, and public infrastructure work, along with record levels of data center and related energy infrastructure builds. These areas of strength outweighed pockets of softness in private, non-residential construction. Our broad participation and scale across a wide geographic footprint continued to support market share gains in this space. General manufacturing, also about one-third of fourth quarter sales, remained highly diversified across products, industries, and geographies.

Shipments increased year-over-year, driven by strength in military, industrial machinery, including data center equipment, consumer products, rail, and shipbuilding. We are also seeing higher nuclear-related demand tied to emerging small modular reactor activity and data center energy needs. Our performance across key product groups and our ability to move quickly into emerging markets continue to differentiate Reliance in the important general manufacturing market segment. Aerospace products accounted for approximately 10% of fourth quarter sales. Commercial aerospace demand remains subdued due to continuing elevated inventory levels in the supply chain, which we anticipate will gradually improve in 2026 as record OEM backlogs convert to increased build rates. Defense and space-related aerospace programs remained consistent at strong levels throughout the fourth quarter. Automotive, which we primarily serve through our cold processing operations, and therefore are not included in tons sold, represented about 4% of fourth quarter sales.

Underlying demand has remained solid, supported by our recent capacity investments. Semiconductor market remained under pressure due to ongoing excess inventory in the supply chain during the fourth quarter. Overall, our people, our strong mill relationships, and our commitment to customer service continue to differentiate Reliance and support solid performance. The capital investments we've made over the past several years are meaningfully contributing to our growth, and our commercial and operational discipline drive our industry-leading profitability. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Arthur Ajemyan, to review our financial results and outlook.

Thanks, Steve, and thanks, everyone, for joining today's call. We delivered a strong fourth quarter with record shipment levels, driving continued market share gains, improved profitability, and solid cash flow. As Steve mentioned, volumes were strong and pricing improved 90 basis points sequentially, mainly due to tariff-driven increases in aluminum product pricing. Although we're able to pass through most of the tariff-driven aluminum cost increases during the quarter, ample supply limited the incremental margin benefit, resulting in modest near-term margin compression. Higher than anticipated aluminum costs contributed to fourth quarter LIFO expense of $39 million, above our $25 million estimate, and increased full-year LIFO expense to $114 million, compared to $100 million annual estimate. On a FIFO basis, which is how we measure our day-to-day performance, fourth quarter non-GAAP pretax income rose 28% year-over-year.

This reflects the combined benefit of roughly 6% higher volumes and 6% higher selling prices, which more than offset the modest 30 basis point decline in our non-GAAP FIFO gross profit margin. Non-GAAP fourth quarter earnings per diluted share were $2.40, an 8% increase year-over-year. LIFO expense represented $0.56 per share for the quarter, compared to the $0.35 per share assumption embedded in our guidance. Including the year-end LIFO and income tax true-ups, our results reflected a net unfavorable impact of $0.25 per share. Adjusting for these items, non-GAAP EPS would have been within management's guidance at $2.65. For the full year 2026, we currently estimate LIFO expense of $100 million, mainly from higher carbon and aluminum product costs.

Accordingly, we expect $25 million of LIFO expense for the first quarter of 2026. Turning to expenses. Same-store non-GAAP SG&A expenses increased 6.7% in the fourth quarter, and 4.4% for the full year compared to 2024, driven by inflationary wage adjustments and higher variable warehousing and delivery costs associated with our increased tons sold. We also incurred higher incentive compensation in both periods from improved FIFO profitability. On a per ton basis, same-store non-GAAP SG&A expenses were down nearly 1% for the full year, highlighting the operating leverage generated by our growth strategy. I'll now address our balance sheet and cash flow. We generated strong cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter of $276 million.

Our ability to consistently produce strong operating cash flow across market cycles supports our discipline and opportunistic capital allocation strategy. During the quarter, we funded $73 million of capital expenditures, paid $64 million in dividends, and repurchased $200 million of our common stock at an average price of roughly $279 per share. During 2025, repurchases reduced our total shares outstanding by 4%, and we have about $763 million available for additional share repurchases under our current share repurchase program. In addition, we increased our quarterly cash dividend rate by 4.2%. This marks our 33rd increase since our 1994 IPO to a current annual rate of $5 per common share. At the end of the year, our total debt was $1.4 billion.

Our leverage position remains favorable, with net debt to EBITDA ratio of less than one, providing significant liquidity to support continued execution of our capital allocation priorities. Looking ahead, we expect healthy overall demand in the first quarter of 2026 in several key end markets, subject to ongoing domestic and international trade policy uncertainty. For the first quarter of 2026, we estimate our tons sold will be up 5%-7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, which is consistent with seasonal trends and relatively flat compared to the first quarter of 2025, mainly due to tariff-related demand pull forward in Q1 2025.

We expect our average selling price per ton sold for the first quarter of 2026 will improve 3%-5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 due to healthy demand and higher mill pricing. As a result, we anticipate these dynamics will contribute to a modest improvement in FIFO gross profit margin in the first quarter. Based on these expectations, we anticipate first quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $4.50-$4.70, reflecting year-over-year growth of approximately 19%-25%, and inclusive of quarterly LIFO expense of $25 million, or $0.36 per diluted share. In summary, we are pleased with our strong organic growth, continued market share gains, and disciplined pricing execution in 2025.

While we experienced some temporary margin headwinds from tariff-driven cost increases and excess inventory in the supply chain for certain pockets of the commercial aerospace and semiconductor end markets, tariffs have had an overall positive impact on our business, with higher selling prices supporting a meaningful year-over-year increase in FIFO profitability as 2025 progressed and as we head into 2026. This concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you again for your time and participation. We'll now open the call for your questions. Operator?

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we pull for questions. The first question is from Katja Jancic from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Maybe starting on the gross profit side. So you expect the margin to improve modestly in first Q, which I think, based on your guide, implies you will be getting kind of closer to the lower end of your sustainable range. How should we think about margining in the rest of the year? In other words, is there opportunity to further increase it, or is this the new norm where you might be leaning more on the lower end of that range?

Hey, Katja. So from a gross profit margin standpoint, while we did have, you know, some headwinds during 2025, most specifically on the aluminum side, with the tariffs driving up the price of the Midwest Premium significantly. And, you know, typically we can get ahead of those price increases, and it was more difficult given the reason for the price increase being tariff-driven. There was plentiful supply of inventory, aluminum inventory available, and demand, you know, was soft to okay. So typically, when you have price increases, they're driven by healthy increasing demand, and that wasn't the backdrop for the aluminum price increases, also with stainless, so we had a little margin pressure there.

But what we were really proud of were our teams on the carbon side, who were both growing their tons sold significantly and getting ahead of the price increases, because those increases, there was demand to support that. And as we go into 2026 and, you know, towards the end of 2025, you saw continued price increases in certain of the carbon products that are strong, and we're seeing really good activity and increasing demand as we go into 2026 for those products. So that, those are really good markets for us. On the, you know, margin pressure on the aluminum, remember, costs continued to increase during Q4 for aluminum products, and our teams have, you know, basically caught up, and they're able to pass through the increased cost from the tariffs.

But given the, you know, demand outlook, which is improving a bit, you know, we're still seeing some pressure on getting a premium on those tariff costs, but we think that's gonna improve as demand improves for those products as we move through 2026. So while Q1 2026, we may be near the low end of the range, as we see continued price increases, we would expect margins to trend up from that during the year, as long as there's demand supporting the price increases.

And then, you know, you mentioned that the outlook on the demand side, at least right now, it seems still pretty healthy, but there are some potential tailwinds from lower interest rates and, manufacturing activity seems to be picking up. How are you thinking about the kind of volume growth in the second half of the year, especially with you focusing on profitable growth?

Yeah. So, you know, Katja, we do anticipate it's hard for us to look out a full year. You know, it depends. There are a lot of factors in the market that can change, but we are you know, very positive at this point on 2026, based upon the quoting activity we're seeing right now. We are seeing, especially on the carbon side, which is the majority of our volume, we are seeing, like I mentioned earlier, good activity. There are a lot of large projects out there in different areas. They're being quoted. There are purchase orders in place, on some of that. We are seeing some of our customers on the carbon side buy a little heavier than they had historically.

We think part of that is because they're coming off of low customer inventory levels, but also, you know, mill lead times are going out, which is always a positive sign. And, you know, people are looking to be able to secure the metal. I think, you know, with Reliance, we really appreciate our strong relationships with our domestic mill partners, who are there to help support us, to be able to get the metal, to increase our shipments and support our customers.

The next question is from Martin Englert, from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Wanted to touch on structural products. It was a larger portion of the mix in fourth quarter. Just can you provide an update regarding what you're seeing with demand, and also remind us of the margin profile of these products, and how your demand typically compares to what's happening upstream at the mill level?

Good morning, Martin. So for structural beams, we just experienced another price increase last week. The base price is the highest it's ever been, you know, been recorded. And that's due to demand throughout the non-residential markets. Lead times are being pushed out. That's one of our larger products that we do stock. So we're seeing demand in public infrastructure, energy and infrastructure, and data centers. So our outlook for wide flange beams and, you know, structural tubing is very bullish.

Can you remind us generally if there's any timing difference between when you see activity and the mills see activity, and just overall how the margin profile compares to, you know, the average margins for the group?

Yeah, from the your question on the lag from the mills, I mean, in general, on kind of the non-residential infrastructure side, typically, we've seen about a six-nine-month lag on large projects in particular. But we are, you know, we seem to be participating a little more in those larger projects. We're not the prime on the large projects in most cases, but we are getting more meaningful share in some of those large projects. So could the lag be a little less now? Possibly, but that's kind of been the trend historically. And from a margin side, we have healthy margins on our structural book of business.

You know, years ago, people who followed us for a long time, you know, we used to talk about higher return businesses in aerospace and energy and semiconductor. They have higher value products, but, you know, for the last few years, with I think the pricing improvements we've seen generally in the market on the carbon side, as well as our companies doing more value-added processing with the investments we've made to expand their capabilities, the carbon margins for most of our products are right up there, and we don't see the big difference. So, a very good margin profile on our structural book of business.

Appreciate that color. Semiconductors, the inventory overhang persisting here in the end market. When was the last time that there was an upcycle here, if you can remind me? And, any signs or visibility as to when the inventory situation may abate, and kind of how this cycle might, down cycle might compare to other ones historically?

Yeah, well, Martin, if you'll recall, I mean, semiconductor had been on an uptrend for quite some time, and I would say through most of 2023, you know, industry-wise, it was, you know, record-level shipments in semiconductor. We were participating in that. We had really good years at record levels. We believe a lot of customers were very concerned about being able to secure the metal they needed with how strong the market was, and so they bought ahead quite a bit. And, you know, quite honestly, for us, some of our book of business in the U.S., somewhat depended on which customers you're with, because some are participating in the AI upswing more than others. So I would say, you know, just being honest, we're a little behind on that side with certain parts of our customer base.

But we have seen some slight improvement in some of the equipment makers. But, you know, we're expecting late this year we might see that inventory being worked through and start to see a bit of an improvement there.

The next question is from Phil Gibbs from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Karla and team, maybe just talk about the M&A environment. I know you weren't very active in 2025, but certainly a big part of your longer term growth trajectory. So just curious in terms of what may be out there, you know, how, how is the valuations, how are the valuations looking for, for some of the things that might be appealing to you all?

Hey, Phil. Yeah, on the M&A front, I guess I would say I felt like we were active in 2025. Excuse me. We were looking; there was deals out there. We just didn't close any in 2025. So there are opportunities out there. There are some that are attractive to us. But to your, you know, question on valuations, we have to be able to agree upon that, and in some instances, we are. Others, there are some other companies who, you know, might be willing to pay more than we are. Maybe there's a strategic reason for them that's different from our view. And, you know, with the...

We are still very interested in acquiring the right companies, and we're continuing to look at those and will complete, you know, where we think it's appropriate and we can agree on the valuation. But, you know, I would also point out that, you know, 2025, our 6% tons growth over 2024, that was over 300,000 tons of incremental volumes we were shipping. And if you compare that to, you know, a dollar value, if we acquired a company, that would be like acquiring a $650 million revenue plus company.

You know, it was a significantly lower cost for us to make some investments in, you know, facilities and processing equipment to be able to increase our volumes like that, as opposed to paying a premium to buy a $650 million company out there through an acquisition. And that doesn't mean that there aren't $650 million companies out there that we would want to acquire, but I just, you know, want to highlight the efforts that our teams made and the significance of being able to grow organically.

Thank you, Karla. Then on the gross margin piece, the 29%-31%, just wanted to qualify that, that is a LIFO range that you all are talking about as being sort of your long-term sustainable range. And then also to that, any way to size up the drag on gross margins, maybe in 2025 from the aerospace and, you know, semis headwinds, which doesn't sound like that it's all going to completely normalize this year, but maybe, maybe by 2027. Thank you.

Yeah, Phil. So on the gross profit margin, you know, the 29%-31%, that is an annual LIFO range. LIFO makes it less volatile than on FIFO, on a FIFO basis. And as we mentioned, we did increase our FIFO gross profit margin in 2025 over 2024. Again, a lot on the carbon side with great execution, you know, by our teams in the market. You know, kind of, I guess, somewhat unique, we would say in 2025, you know, aluminum is typically around 15-ish% of our sales, but it made up over half of our LIFO expense because those increased tariff costs also impact our LIFO adjustment. So we had kind of an outsized impact because of those tariffs.

As we said, if prices start to stabilize a little more on the aluminum side, you know, we can catch up with our margins and maybe start to see some improvement there. But, you know, again, we feel strong with how our people are executing, but LIFO did have a big impact on 2025 from aluminum. Arthur, anything you would add?

Yeah, I think, you know, Phil, on the same thing, kind of headed into 2026, the LIFO estimate, you have a fair amount of aluminum, you know, carryover, right? So the cost increases that happened in Q4, you're going to be receiving that material throughout 2026. So again, we're going to have disproportionate contribution, you know, from aluminum to LIFO expense. It's somewhat unique. Like, this is not kind of typical dynamic that we've experienced before, this type of a mismatch, you know, from LIFO to the FIFO margin side. But, you know, then nonetheless, you know, we're executing really well. I think the one nuance that perhaps kind of gets lost is, you know, aluminum prices have been going up.

You know, while there's been, you know, some slight margin compression, we're still realizing higher gross profit per pound. So from that perspective, overall profitability is improving from higher selling prices. It's just you know, mathematically experiencing some margin compression because, to Karla's point on the cost increases, while they're being passed through, we may not be able to get, you know, the full margin on that as, as we would on other cost increases that are supported by solid demand.

And then anything you all could discuss on aerospace and semis in terms of maybe how much that's impacting the, the gross margins right now from a, you know, basis point-

Good question, Phil. So, I think would there be a little bit of an overlap with aluminum, but, you know, if you look at aerospace and semiconductor, let's say, less than, you know, 15%—10%-15% of overall sales and consolidated margin impact, you know, 50 basis points plus.

Thank you. That's helpful. Appreciate it.

The next question is from Bennett Moore, from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Karla, Steve, and Arthur. Thank you for taking my questions.

In the context of the lower expected CapEx spend this year and notwithstanding the recent dividend hike, how might this directionally impact your appetite for share buybacks in 2026?

Hi, Bennett. I don't know that it significantly changes, because we've consistently had an appetite, strong appetite for acquisitions, for organic growth, for share buybacks and, you know, consistently increasing our dividend. So we continue to look for opportunities in all of those areas and, you know, not changed from the last few years. We've got the, you know, resources and the financial strength to execute in all of those areas. You know, our capital expenditure budget for 2026 is a little lower than the last few years, but we've had kind of outsized budgets the last couple of years. We've had some good greenfield projects in there.

We've had a lot of investment in value-added processing equipment, which we're continuing to do, but we're really challenging our teams to look at the investments we've already made and make sure that we are, you know, maximizing the capabilities. And, you know, the equipment that we buy now is much more technologically advanced. It can, it can do things faster. It's increasing, you know, some of our productivity. So we're really pushing our teams to, to maximize and look at what they have before we go out and spend more on, on, you know, additional capital. But that being said, the $275 million for this year, it's a good budget. It's right-sized.

But as we've mentioned, there is a lot of activity from our customers as we go into 2026, and we are very open to increase our CapEx budget to support those customers and those opportunities if we see, you know, good, profitable opportunities come in front of us. So that budget could increase as we go through the year, given solid opportunities in front of us.

Thanks for that. And then coming to SG&A per ton, I think it was up around 1.2% in the fourth quarter, despite record shipments. So I'm wondering if anything to flag here, maybe it was the incentive comp. And then, do you expect that this year, your growth trend to reverse in the first quarter? And what's your confidence that, I guess, for the balance of the year, we can see this, this metric trend lower?

Yeah, good question. So at a high level, that's what we've been focusing on, right? Leveraging our cost structure with our smart, profitable growth strategy. I mean, on a full year basis, our SG&A per ton, I think, trended down roughly a percent. You know, so that's us basically being able to leverage our cost structure and drive incremental profit from, you know, the organic growth. I think, you know, quarter-on-quarter, Q4 to Q4, important, you know, highlight, you know, from a FIFO perspective, profits were up nearly 28%. So yes, absolutely, there's gonna be year-over-year some incentive comp that is associated with that. That's gonna affect the comparability. But overall, yeah, that is an area of focus.

And, you know, every year there's inflation, obviously, and that. So that's something that, you know, we have to give. We give our people wage increases, et cetera. But, you know, to the extent that, you know, that we're leveraging our cost structure and focusing on growth and, you know, driving profitable growth, that should, you know, work out the way we intend it to be.

Understood. Thank you very much, and best of luck.

The next question is from Matt Dushkin, from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hey, everyone. Thanks for getting me in.

Just curious, are you all seeing any substitution to or away from aluminum? You know, we're just kind of wondering what the boots on the ground are seeing, with all the price volatility, and you guys play into both the aluminum and the steel markets.

Yeah. Hi, Matt. That is, we have not seen that, at least not in a material way. You know, coming through, we know there's buzz about that out there, but, we haven't seen any real impact in any of our markets from that. And, you know, as you commented on, we're in all markets, and so we're happy to support our customers in whatever products are the best use for their needs.

In some architectural usage, there have been substitutions from copper to aluminum or other products, which isn't a huge part of our business, but the copper spike has been substantial, so our customers are looking for more economical, you know, weight alternatives.

Okay, that's helpful. Yeah, we've heard of from copper to aluminum. Just shifting over on the plate markets, we seem to be gaining a lot of momentum there. Can you all provide any color on what's driving the relative strength versus other products and whether or not you think it's underlying demand, or is it more customer restocking right now?

So we're seeing customer restocking. We're seeing mill price increases. We're seeing mill lead times extend for the first time in quite some time. There's a lot of energy infrastructure, onshore wind, shipbuilding, defense work that's, you know, driving up the price and demand. There's also recently, with the hot rolled coil market being pretty tight, there's been substitution from sheet to plate, which is usually plate to sheet because it's more economic. So we think that when we see something like that, we think that there's real demand, you know, behind it.

All right. I'll leave it there. Thanks for the color.

The next question is from Phil Gibbs, from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Well, thanks. Just regarding headcount and hiring, Karla, can you describe the environment there? I mean, I know you guys grew your tonnage pretty solidly last year, and seemingly have a reasonably positive outlook for your markets in 2026 as well. So just curious in terms of where you all stand on, you know, headcount or hiring and what your intentions may be. Thanks.

Yeah. I think at the end of 2025, our actual headcount was down a bit from the beginning of the year. Up slightly during the year, which again, I mentioned earlier, the advancements in some of the equipment we use and our company's focusing on being more efficient. You know, we shipped 6% more tons, but had a pretty modest increase in headcount. As far as, you know, being able to fill positions and hiring, I would say the labor market is a little better than it had been. Certainly, you know, better than just after post-COVID. But, you know, a lot of our jobs in the warehouses for drivers, those still take more time to fill.

You know, to get qualified people in, we have to do more training than we did, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, as we're bringing people into the workforce. So, it's not easy. It's still, you know, it's maybe you end up with one good qualified person who stays out of five to seven that you try out. But, you know, we're able and I think at Reliance, you know, people like to work for a company that's growing and doing well. We try to treat our people well and, you know, pay them fairly, provide good benefits and, you know, do things to help give us an advantage in the market.

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Karla Lewis for closing comments.

Thanks again for joining our call today and for your continued support of Reliance. Before we close out today's call, I'd like to remind everyone that we'll be in Florida next week presenting at BMO's 2026 Global Metals, Mining, and Critical Minerals Conference, where we hope to meet with many of you there. But I'd also like to once again thank our team throughout Reliance for all of your efforts that you do every day and for keeping our employees safe. I'd also like to remind everyone that even though there were some headwinds in 2025, we're really proud of what Reliance and our team accomplished then, and we're really excited moving into 2026.

You know, a healthy demand environment, a lot of good large projects that we're seeing out there, that we've got the capabilities to participate in and, you know, strong pricing environment. So we're looking forward to 2026. Thank you.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Reliance (RS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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