Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Michael Cox of Piper Jaffray. You may proceed.
Michael Cox – Piper Jaffray
Good morning. Congratulations on a very nice quarter.
Brian Lipke
Thank you.
Michael Cox – Piper Jaffray
My first question is on steel prices and the impact that that had in the quarter. I was wondering if you'd comment on any ability to pass along those price increases, maybe look at it by business line. And as you look to the balance of the year, you had mentioned that you're not seeing any abatement of commodity costs. Your ability to continue to pass along steel price increases or fuel charges if the case may be?
Brian Lipke
I kind of figured that was going to be a focus for this call this morning. So, I'm glad the first question breaks the ice. Let me take a look at it from a macro perspective. This country today, North America is producing somewhere around 105 million tons of steel a year. The country is consuming about 130 million tons a year, which means we are using more than we're producing. On top of that with the weak U.S. dollar that is having an impact on other countries of the world wanting to ship steel to the United States, all of which makes for a very tight supply situation. I think it's a fairly well known situation. I think most of the major customers out there are very well aware of what's happening out there. And in many cases I think the understanding is that this is a less of a pricing issue and more of an availability issue, making for a situation where there's going to be a realistic opportunity to continue to be able to pass on these price increases as they come along. I'd prefer not to get into too much detail relative to what we're doing in each of our segments primarily because that gets into more of a competitive situation and I really don't want to give our competitors, who I know are listening in on the call, too much insight into what we're going to be doing, but I can tell you that we are working directly with each and every one of our customers to keep them informed of the situation and to work with them to make sure that we're getting the supply that we need and from Gibraltar's perspective that we are maintaining our margins.
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