Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) Misses Q3 EPS by 23c

Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ: KALU) reported Q3 EPS of $0.79, $0.23 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.02. Revenue for the quarter came in at $339 million versus the consensus estimate of $341.3 million.

"Third quarter 2014 reflected two unanticipated challenges at our Spokane (Trentwood), Washington facility that caused our results to fall short of our expectation for shipments and adjusted EBITDA," said Jack A. Hockema, President, CEO and Chairman. "In an effort to further enhance quality attributes and customer performance of our KaiserSelect® plate products, we made process refinements that temporarily resulted in higher internal scrap, remakes, and lost opportunity for additional spot business during the quarter. In addition, we experienced unplanned downtime in our aerospace sheet processing operations that, although not as significant, further impacted shipments during the quarter. These two issues had a direct impact on adjusted EBITDA of approximately $5 million in the third quarter.

"Although the proactive process refinement caused some unanticipated challenges in the third quarter, we are pleased with the resulting quality improvement as we are positioned for further differentiation of our aerospace plate product offering. In addition, despite the unanticipated obstacles to performance and normal seasonal demand weakness, the third quarter reflected our second highest quarterly shipments of heat treat plate and automotive extrusions. Additionally, we continue to benefit from the strategic investments made over the past several years, generating strong manufacturing cost performance in the quarter. We expect further improvement as our Phase 5 heat treat plate expansion and new casting complex continue to ramp up to full production and as we continue to capitalize on strong secular demand growth in aerospace and automotive applications," stated Mr. Hockema.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) click here.

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