New York, October 13, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") placed
United States Steel Corporation's (U.S. Steel) Ba3
Corporate Family Rating (CFR), Ba3-PD Probability of Default
rating, B1 senior unsecured notes and B1 industrial revenue bond
ratings suppported by US Steel and (P)B1 senior unsecured shelf rating
under review for downgrade. The SGL-2 speculative grade
liquidity rating was affirmed.
On Review for Downgrade:
..Issuer: United States Steel Corporation
.... Corporate Family Rating, Ba3,
Placed on Review for Downgrade
.... Probability of Default Rating,
Ba3-PD, Placed on Review for Downgrade
....Senior Unsecured Shelf, (P)B1,
Placed on Review for Downgrade
....Senior Unsecured Conv./Exch.
Bond/Debenture, B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Allegheny County Industrial Dev.
Auth., PA
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Bucks County Industrial Development Auth.,
PA
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority,
TX
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Indiana Finance Authority
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Lorain County Port Authority, OH
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Ohio Air Quality Development Authority
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Ohio Water Development Authority
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Southwestern Illinois Development Authority
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4), Placed on Review for Downgrade
..Issuer: Utah (County of) UT
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds,
B1 (LGD4) Placed on Review for Downgrade
Affirmations:
..Issuer: United States Steel Corporation
.... Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating,
Affirmed SGL-2
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: United States Steel Corporation
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Under
Review From Stable
RATINGS RATIONALE
The review for downgrade results from the deterioration in U.S.
Steel's performance and debt protection metrics and expectations
that continued contraction will be evidenced given the challenging conditions
facing the US steel industry, particularly for flat-rolled
and tubular products. In addition, given ongoing weak fundamentals
in the drilling industry and U.S. Steel's exposure
to the OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods) market, performance in the
third quarter of 2015 is expected to continue to result in losses.
Given industry fundamentals, no material turnaround is expected
over the next several quarters. For the second quarter ended June
30, 2015 the company's EBIT/interest metric turned negative,
after adjusting for non-cash charges associated with further write
downs on U.S. Steel Canada and other non-cash charges
while leverage, as measured by the debt/EBITDA ratio increased,
on a twelve month basis, to 3.2x. Notwithstanding
the company's success with its Carnegie Way program, given
the ongoing weak industry fundamentals, these metrics are expected
to show further deterioration in the third quarter of 2015 and for the
balance of the year.
The US steel industry continue to struggle with challenging market conditions
with 2015 evidencing weaker capacity utilization rates and meaningful
price deterioration. U.S. Steel's capacity
utilization in the second quarter of 2015 was 58%. While
key input costs for scrap, iron ore and metallurgical coal have
also declined significantly, this has not been sufficient to help
earnings, particularly for integrated producers such as U.S.
Steel given the degree of price degradation and weaker capacity utilization
rates relative to fixed cost absorption. The industry also continues
to be pressured by high import levels and in the case of U.S.
Steel weak energy markets, which will continue to materially impact
the performance of the tubular segment
The review will focus on U.S. Steel's ability to further
reduce costs through the Carnegie Way program, expected costs per
ton, level of spot and contract value added sales and the ability
of the company to be at least break even free cash flow generation.
The review will also focus on the end markets to which U.S.
Steel sells and the expected demand from such markets as well as the time
horizon over which an improved performance by US Steel is likely to be
realized.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Steel Industry
published in October 2012. Please see the Credit Policy page on
www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Steel
Corporation is the second largest flat-rolled steel producer in
North America in terms of production capacity. The company manufactures
and sells a wide variety of steel sheet, tubular, and tin
products across a broad array of industries, including service centers,
transportation, appliance, construction, containers,
and oil, gas and petrochemicals. Through its major production
operations in North America and Central Europe, U.S.
Steel has a combined annual raw steel capacity of approximately 24 million
tons. Revenues for the twelve months ended June 30, 2015
were $14.8 billion down from $17.5 billion
for the twelve months ended December 31, 2014.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the
associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Carol Cowan
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Brian Oak
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's places U.S. Steel's ratings (Ba3 CFR) under review for downgrade