Reliance Sells Record Tonnage in Q1, Posts Net Sales of $4 billion
Reliance sold a record 1,672,700 tons in the first quarter the company reported Wednesday, up 9.4% from Q4 and up 2.7% from the same period a year ago. The major service center posted pretax income of $349.5 million, up 33% year over-year, on sales of $4 billion.
Reliance emphasized that its first quarter year-over-year growth in tons sold outperformed the industry-wide decrease of 5.1% reported by the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) by nearly 8 percentage points. “Reliance has now outperformed the MSCI’s quarterly year-over-year shipment results for 13 consecutive quarters,” the company said in its earnings report.
Average selling price per ton sold increased 5.3% sequentially, also surpassing management’s expectation of a 3% to 5% increase, supported by higher carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel pricing.
“Reliance is off to a strong start to 2026, capitalizing on favorable market fundamentals with first quarter volumes, pricing and earnings exceeding our expectations,” said Karla Lewis, Reliance president and CEO. Strong pricing and demand momentum continued to build throughout the quarter, she added.
Lewis noted in the company’s earnings statement: “As previously announced, we also secured two significant government contracts in the first quarter to supply the border wall and Joint Strike Fighter projects through our AMI Metals, Inc. (AMI) subsidiary, further reinforcing Reliance’s role as a trusted partner on critical US infrastructure and defense programs.”
She said Reliance is encouraged “by rising customer optimism and activity across our broad end market exposure, with continued strong and growing momentum in the infrastructure, data center, energy, and defense sectors.”
Lewis acknowledged the extended lead times at its mill suppliers, which she said, “bode well for a continued strong pricing environment, where access to metal becomes a strategic advantage.”
Turning to end markets, Reliance said non-residential construction demand (including infrastructure), which constitutes the company’s largest end market by tons, improved from the first quarter of 2025. The company expects nonresidential construction demand to remain healthy in the second quarter of 2026, supported by strong activity across data centers, energy infrastructure, and public infrastructure.
Demand across the broader manufacturing end market Reliance serves improved compared to the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to growth in the industrial machinery, shipbuilding, military, consumer products and construction machinery sectors, according to the company. Reliance anticipates that demand for its products from the manufacturing sector will remain healthy in Q2 2026.
Demand in aerospace improved compared to the first quarter of 2025. Reliance anticipates commercial aerospace demand to remain steady in the second quarter of 2026 with build-rate increases supporting improvement throughout the year. Demand in the defense and space related portions of Reliance’s aerospace business is expected to remain robust in the second quarter of 2026.
Demand for the toll processing services Reliance provides to the automotive market was stable compared to the first quarter of 2025. The company expects demand for automotive toll processing to remain relatively steady at healthy levels in the second quarter of 2026.
In its overall business outlook, Reliance anticipates both demand and pricing in the second quarter of 2026 “will remain generally consistent at healthy levels across the key products and end markets it serves, despite ongoing domestic and international trade policy uncertainty and the conflict in the Middle East which could pose supply availability and macroeconomic risks.”
Assuming activity in the second quarter generally consistent with the prior quarter and factoring in activity from border wall contract, Reliance expects tons sold to increase 1.0-3.0% compared to the first quarter of 2026 and to increase 4.5- 6.5% compared to the second quarter of 2025.
“Additionally, Reliance expects its average selling price per ton sold to be up 1.5% to 3.5% compared to the first quarter of 2026 supported by announced mill price increases given healthy underlying demand for those products,” the company noted.