AK Steel shares dropped on Tuesday after reporting underwhelming second-quarter earnings impacted by unforeseen operational costs on Monday.
Shares fell 13.6 percent through Tuesday's close after the steel producer reported earnings of 18 cents per share, missing a Thomson Reuters estimate of 20 cents. Still, revenue matched expectations at $1.75 billion for the quarter.
The steel maker said in the period it had $11.5 million in additional costs because of a fire at one of the company's tempering mills and a power outage caused by a lightning strike at its casting center Butler Works.
Higher steel selling prices during the quarter "more than offset" rising costs for raw materials needed for steel, according to the company's earnings release. Steel prices have increased largely because of a 25 percent tariff on imported steel announced by the Trump administration in March.
CEO Roger K. Newport said the company expects to rebound in the second half of the year on the back of stable demand from automotive plants and carbon steel shipments.
"We expect that the continued strong business environment will result in improved performance in the second half of 2018 compared to the first half and position us well for resetting a majority of our annual contracts later this year," said CEO Roger K. Newport in a statement.
The Ohio-based company produces steel products primarily for automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing purposes, with production operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe.