Howard Woltz

President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Insteel Industries, Inc.

Search every verified Howard Woltz interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Howard Woltz, President, CEO, and Chairman of Insteel Industries, discussed the company's first quarter 2020 results on a January 2020 earnings call. He stated that the company's financial performance was negatively impacted by elevated import competition following the imposition of Section 232 tariffs, which limited its ability to recover higher costs in affected markets. Woltz said foreign competitors were underpricing the domestic market to capitalize on what he described as market distortions created by U.S. trade policy, and he expressed the view that extending the 232 tariffs to downstream products would be a reasonable resolution. Woltz also noted that steel scrap prices had rebounded for three consecutive months, rising nearly $80 per ton from an October low, and that the company had announced a price increase. He said he believed the cycle of continually declining steel prices had run its course, implying an opportunity for spreads to return to normalized levels. Regarding acquisitions, Woltz indicated that the company was constantly looking for opportunities, adding that down cycles typically present opportunities that up cycles do not, but he did not suggest an increase in activity.