Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. 2009 Third Quarter Update – July Results

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS) announced today information regarding its July operating results. July sales were $401.9 million, down 2.5% from June. Tons sold per day declined 3% in July from June levels, and July FIFO gross profit increased to 21.4% of sales from 19.1% in June and 16.7% for the 2009 second quarter. Also, FIFO inventory levels decreased $52 million in July from June 30, 2009. Reliance’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, David H. Hannah, said, "Our July results were in line with our expectations that demand may continue to soften somewhat but that our gross profit margins would improve. Because of our significant inventory reductions over the past several months in the face of rapidly falling demand and pricing, our inventory costs on hand are now more in line with current replacement costs allowing us to improve our gross profit margins from the historically low margins experienced in the most recent quarter. Also contributing to the improvement in our FIFO gross profit margin is the impact of mill price increases for many products that we sell.”

Hannah further commented that, "Over the past few quarters we had shifted our focus to generating cash flow to reduce our debt levels and we were very successful, paying off over $1 billion of debt leaving no borrowings outstanding on our $1.1 billion revolving credit facility. We are now focused more on profitability and less on shipping volumes and cash flow. Our July FIFO gross profit margin was the highest monthly level we have seen so far this year,” said Hannah.

The Company will announce its financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2009, on Thursday, October 22, 2009 prior to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange and will host a conference call web cast that same day at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time at: www.rsac.com/investorinformation.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is the largest metals service center company in North America. Through a network of more than 200 locations in 38 states and Belgium, Canada, China, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, the Company provides value-added metals processing services and distributes a full line of over 100,000 metal products to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.’s press releases and additional information are available on the Company’s web site at www.rsac.com. The Company was named to the 2008 "Fortune 500” List, the 2008 Forbes "America’s Best Managed Companies” List and the 2009 Fortune List of "The World’s Most Admired Companies.”

This release may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results and events may differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.’s control. Risk factors and additional information are included in Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.’s reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2009 and June 30, 2009.