Ryerson Holding Corporation, along with its various operating entities, specializes in the processing and supply of industrial metals. The company's operations span ...
Ryerson Holding Corporation (NYSE: RYI) is a long-established industrials company focused on metal service centers—combining the distribution of industrial metals with customized processing capabilities. Founded in 1842 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Ryerson serves a wide range of end markets including manufacturing of industrial machinery and equipment, construction machinery, HVAC ...Ryerson Holding Corporation (NYSE: RYI) is a long-established industrials company focused on metal service centers—combining the distribution of industrial metals with customized processing capabilities. Founded in 1842 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Ryerson serves a wide range of end markets including manufacturing of industrial machinery and equipment, construction machinery, HVAC systems, automotive and ground transportation supply chains, food processing and agricultural equipment, and oil and gas related customers. Its operations extend across multiple geographies, notably the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China.
Business model and products: Ryerson primarily provides customers with ready-to-use metal inputs and tailored materials. The company offers carbon, stainless, and alloy steels as well as aluminum, nickel, and other “red metals.” Products come in many forms such as coils, flat sheets, round stock, and various bar types (including hexagonal and square bars), plates, structural sections, and tubing. Ryerson is positioned as a large North American supplier with a very broad product catalog—one of its differentiators is the breadth of SKUs and materials available.
Services and value-add processing: Beyond standard distribution, Ryerson provides value-added processing and fabrication services designed to convert raw metal inventory into customer-specified components. Common processing methods referenced include bending, beveling, surface blasting, precision cutting (e.g., laser and shearing), drilling, forming, grinding, and welding. This mix of inventory access plus fabrication capability supports faster turnaround and reduced complexity for manufacturers that require specific tolerances, geometries, and surface or cut-ready preparation.
Scale and footprint: The company is reported as employing roughly 4,300 full-time employees (with references also noting higher combined employment when including Olympic Steel) and operating around 100 locations, reflecting a service-center style network that supports regional delivery and customer responsiveness.
Financial/cost perspective (using provided indicators): The supplied financial snapshot indicates a business with working-capital intensity consistent with metal distribution (large inventory and receivables levels are typical in this sector). Liquidity metrics such as a current ratio above 2.0 suggest meaningful near-term coverage. Profitability metrics in the provided TTM snapshot show margins near zero to slightly negative (e.g., net profit margin around -0.6%), which can occur in cyclical metals markets or during periods of demand softness, input-cost volatility, or cost alignment issues. Valuation and cash-flow related ratios in the snapshot are also weak on a trailing basis (e.g., free-cash-flow yield negative), emphasizing that market conditions and working-capital dynamics materially influence results.
Key people and governance: The provided materials list James J. Claussen as CEO. Ryerson’s leadership focus typically aligns with operational efficiency across service centers, maintaining inventory effectiveness, and sustaining high service levels for fabrication-ready requirements.
Outlook/wishes: For a metal processor/distributor like Ryerson, typical strategic priorities include maintaining customer service reliability, expanding or optimizing processing capacity, managing inventory and working capital carefully through commodity cycles, and leveraging technology and plant execution to improve throughput and margins.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$4.6B
-0.6%
+28.1%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$-56.4M
-555.8%
+244.4%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+17.1%
-5.7%
-3.9%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
-0.6%
-187.5%
+15.7%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
-1.2%
-559.7%
+168.9%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$35.5M
-66.3%
+2.7%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+0.8%
-66.1%
+24.0%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
150.6%
+44.3%
+2.3%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
1.83x
-12.1%
-0.3%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Good day and welcome to the Ryerson Holding Corporation's second quarter 2026 conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. There will be a question and answer session later. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad at any time. Again, that is star one to ask a question. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Justine Carlson. Please go ahead.
Unknown Speaker: Good morning and thank you all for joining Ryerson Holding Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings call. On our call we have Eddie Lehner, Ryerson's Chief Executive Officer, Rick Marabito, our President and Chief Operating Officer, Jim Claussen, our Chief Financial Officer, and Molly Cannon, our Chief Accounting Officer and Corporate Controller. Mitch Manson, Ryerson's Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Olympic Steel, Andrew Greif, Executive Vice President of Ryerson and President of Olympic Steel, and Trent McFarland, our Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Ryerson Process Metals. joining us for Q&A. A recording of this call will be posted on our investor relations website at ir.ryerson.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 call. In addition, our remarks today refer to several non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these adjusted numbers are also.
Edward Lehner: included in our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Eddie. Thank you, Justine. Good morning, everyone. And thank you all for joining us. second quarter of twenty twenty six. I am pleased to say that we made the most of our opportunities and continued to position our YZ for higher quality earnings generation through the cycle as we further realized merger-related synergies while building an ever better customer experience engine. we delivered greater than expected shipments on a same store AND TOTAL COMPANY BASIS, ACHIEVED REVENUE, AND ADJUSTED EBITDA, EXCLUDING LIFO, well above our guidance ranges and generated higher net income sequentially and year over year. In our first full quarter together as RYZ, we continued advancing our shared vision of the Ryerson and Olympic steel merger potential as we attained second quarter synergy realizations in line with our guidance More importantly, we are finding additional opportunities for growth commercially, which we expect will continue to drive top-line performance, and market share gains. Our results in the quarter were impacted by a unique amalgamation of puts and takes. On the positive side of the ledger, business investment driven demand, quote activity, transactional order win rates, and spot transactional margins were outsized drivers for EBITDA generation while program customer business volumes, program pricing and margins, and spot transactional continue to lag with inflationary delivery cost pressures building through the …