TRUMBULL COUNTY WCI reports a profit for 4th month in a row

Profits have increased every month since February.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
WARREN -- May was another profitable month for WCI Steel, the fourth consecutive moneymaker for the Warren steelmaker as it moves closer to emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
WCI earned $10.5 million in May on sales of $58.3 million, according to reports the company filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court in Akron.
The company has recorded profits of $23 million since February, its first month in the black after more than two years of accumulated losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Earnings have been increasing month-to-month, starting at $1.7 million in February, rising to $1.9 million in March, more than quadrupling to $8.9 million in April, and up an additional 18 percent in May.
WCI spent $954,000 in May for attorneys, financial advisors and other professionals working on its bankruptcy case, bringing its total Chapter 11 costs to $5.7 million.
Employment costs totaled $11.1 million in May, about 25 percent of the cost of its product cost, and raw materials cost $21.3 million, about 48 percent of that total.
The company lost $67.4 million since filing its voluntary bankruptcy petitions last September, on total sales of $399 million.
Ballots have been mailed to WCI creditors who will get the chance to vote on two competing plans for bringing the company out of bankruptcy as an operating steel mill.
The company itself has a plan, funded by its parent company Renco Group, and a group of creditors who hold $324 million of WCI's secured bonds has offered a rival plan. Ballots must be returned by July 16, and a series of court hearings to confirm a plan will begin at 1:30 p.m. July 21 in the Akron court.
vinarsky@vindy.com