STU - Steel & Tube Holdings

[lorraina]

On 4th November I thought the tide was starting to come in for STU, and bought a small parcel at 71 cents.
Yesterday after reading Forbar's STU report I saw the tide would stay out longer.
 Sold at 68 cents and recycled the funds into more SEK.

[winner (n)]

Last weeks update for 4 months showed they had sold 5% more steel (volume) v pcp but average price was nearly 3% lower.

It looks like costs/expenses are up a lot ... no wonder the loss is getting bigger

But they remqib ;leveraged' to gain from any upturn in market conditions. Love how many companies use this term 'leverage' these days

[Shareguy]

Pretty damning report Guy, especially from one who has been generally pretty positive about them (and loyal)

I've heard much the same

Yes a real shame. Heading towards Forbars target price.

[Cod]

Price reenters descending triangle, after bump out -- Fractal 5 commences.
You cannot view this attachment.

[Shareguy]

Gosh long term steel man John Beveridge retires from the board and sells his shares.

https://api.nzx.com/public/announcement/463525/attachment/457820/463525-457820.pdf

[BlackPeter]

Gosh long term steel man John Beveridge retires from the board and sells his shares.

https://api.nzx.com/public/announcement/463525/attachment/457820/463525-457820.pdf

Gosh - 20k down, these are $12.7k.

Still - interesting, he did this now, given that business copnfidence just starting to go up again ... (based on the last ANZ business report went up from mid 30ies to mid 40ies).

Maybe he had to fund the XMas meal ...

[Shareguy]

Gosh - 20k down, these are $12.7k.

Still - interesting, he did this now, given that business copnfidence just starting to go up again ... (based on the last ANZ business report went up from mid 30ies to mid 40ies).

Maybe he had to fund the XMas meal ...

And that was my point BP. He can't be thinking the future prospects are that great .

[BlackPeter]

And that was my point BP. He can't be thinking the future prospects are that great .

Sure ... the question is just whether he really neeeds to optimise his petty cash?

Not sure I would put any significance on a less than $13k transaction of a previous board member.

[entrep]

Looks like a CR has leaked judging by the price action.

[LoungeLizard]

Looks like a CR has leaked judging by the price action.

Would be bad timing if that is the case - bottom of the cycle, no dividends, spent $43m on Perrys only 6 months ago. A big ask putting the hand out in these circumstances - would have to be heavily discounted which would be bad for everyone. Maybe the trading is just reflective of investors patience wearing thin?

[winner (n)]

Mark sometimes talks to a chart showing Building Activity from Stats NZ so it's fair to use that as a proxy for market / Size rpthat STU is playing in.

Chart below goes back many years. For a long time STU sales tracked the market but no longer

It does show how bad STU have performed in the last 6 years

Amount of building activity is current about 30% higher than before the pandemic. STU sales are about 20% lower, in spite of acquisitions etc etc

Something not right with STU in spite of Mark's raves

PS ...same chart foe Metro Glass shows them to be not as bad.

You cannot view this attachment.

[LoungeLizard]

Mark sometimes talks to a chart showing Building Activity from Stats NZ so it's fair to use that as a proxy for market / Size rpthat STU is playing in.

Chart below goes back many years. For a long time STU sales tracked the market but no longer

It does show how bad STU have performed in the last 6 years

Amount of building activity is current about 30% higher than before the pandemic. STU sales are about 20% lower, in spite of acquisitions etc etc

Something not right with STU in spite of Mark's raves

PS ...same chart foe Metro Glass shows them to be not as bad.

You cannot view this attachment.

To be fair, you'd have to put this is in the context of increasing competition from Vulcan ( a much bigger outfit), lower global steel prices generally, and a government that has reneged on its promises to pour billions into infrastructure.

[winner (n)]

To be fair, you'd have to put this is in the context of increasing competition from Vulcan ( a much bigger outfit), lower global steel prices generally, and a government that has reneged on its promises to pour billions into infrastructure.

Vulcan sales in NZ are $312m compared to STU of $385m. Also need to take into account Vulcan sales were boosted by the Ullrich acquisition in F23 which probably added about $80m sales to NZ.

Vulcan sales trend in NZ over last couple of years is much the same as STUs so STU seem to be doing quite handling the smaller competitor quite well

[winner (n)]

Building Activity as per Stats NZ peaked in Q223 and is down 12% since then (volume is -18%)

STU sales are down about 30% in sa,e period

Maybe steel related products not being used as much these days?

[LoungeLizard]

Vulcan sales in NZ are $312m compared to STU of $385m. Also need to take into account Vulcan sales were boosted by the Ullrich acquisition in F23 which probably added about $80m sales to NZ.

Vulcan sales trend in NZ over last couple of years is much the same as STUs so STU seem to be doing quite handling the smaller competitor quite well

Vulcan are over 10 times the capitalisation of STU, so much deeper pockets. And being solely a distributor they can access the product from the cheapest source (probably China). It would be illogical to ignore the Vulcan effect...