Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions). Your first question will come from the line of Bob Richard with Longbow Research.
Bob Richard – Longbow Research
Good morning and thank you for taking my call. Bill I understand the difficulty in LIFO forecasting, it can be difficult, but if you had to hazard a guess, did you miss more on pricing or volume as far as your inventories?
Bill Larson
No doubt about it, pricing, absolutely, we probably anticipated ferrous scrap prices to go up $30 or $35 or $40 a ton at the beginning of the year and cumulatively during the quarter they’re up $97, so shred it. So I blew it, clearly from a pricing standpoint.
Bob Richard – Longbow Research
Okay, thank you for that and I’ll get back into queue.
Operator
Your next question will come from the line of Barry Vogel with Barry Vogel & Associates.
Barry Vogel – Barry Vogel & Associates
Good morning gentlemen.
Bill Larson
Barry number two?
Barry Vogel – Barry Vogel & Associates
I had a power outage in your wonderful state of North Carolina about a half an hour before your call and therefore I was concerned I wouldn’t be on the call so I wouldn’t even be number anything. But they knew that you were going to say that on the call so therefore the electricity went on.
Bill Larson
I thought everybody was celebrating the big victories by North Carolina in the tournament.
Barry Vogel – Barry Vogel & Associates
Well, that’s another story, the electricity they don’t get right but maybe they get it right in college basketball.
Bill Larson
Yeah but you’re overlooking Duke, my Duke had a power outage.
Barry Vogel – Barry Vogel & Associates
But I don’t root for Duke. Okay, first of all I got to congratulate Bill Larson because he finally stepped up to the plate and bought $100 million worth of stock in the quarter, congratulations Bill. Does that mean that you’re going to be more aggressive as your value of your company has expanded over the last few years in terms of your stock buyback program?
Bill Larson
Well I think what it says is A, the company gets more valuable every quarter and therefore the price that the company might be willing to buy its shares back you know rises with the earning power of the corporation. But as far as any future expectations I think as we’ve discussed in the past it’s a question of the best use of the money at any particular point in time and that call will be made at that time.
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