Olympic Steel Inc's Competitiveness
A competitive positioning analysis and financial ratio benchmarking of Olympic Steel Inc (ZEUS) against its publicly traded competitors: sales growth, net income, profitability, valuation and market share, plus each peer's market capitalization, revenue, income and employees. Free below: the top 5 peers. Subscriber access adds the full competitor list and CSV downloads.
Key Findings: Olympic Steel Inc vs Its Competitors
- TTM: Trailing 12-month revenue of 1,899M vs 204,077M combined for tracked competitors (0.9% combined share).
- Trending: Latest-quarter revenue run-rate is accelerating (+3.4% annualized vs trailing 12 months), vs decelerating (-34.6%) for its tracked peer group.
- Growth: Olympic Steel Inc generated 4.4% revenue growth year over year in Q3 2025, vs 7.6% for its tracked competitors combined.
- Profitability: Its 0.4% net margin compares with 7.0% for the peer group.
- Peer revenue share: Olympic Steel Inc accounted for 1.5% of combined revenue among its tracked peer group, down from 1.5% a year earlier.
- Peer differentiation: Revenue per employee of $0.88M compares with $1.19M for the peer group (0.7x).
Every figure above is sourced and cited in detail further down this page (Market Structure, Profitability & Cost Structure, Productivity vs Peers).
ZEUS Sales vs. its Competitors, Q3 2025
Olympic Steel Inc reported revenue growth of 4.40 % year on year in Q3 2025, below its competitors' combined revenue growth of 7.60 %.
With a net margin of 0.44 %, Olympic Steel Inc reported lower profitability than its competitors (7.01 %).
Olympic Steel Inc generated 1.45 % of the combined sales of its peer group, down from 1.49 % a year earlier.
Olympic Steel Inc vs. its Competitors, Q3 2025
Revenue growth, year on year
Net income growth, year on year
Net margin
Revenue run-rate vs trailing 12 months
TTM net margin
TTM = trailing twelve months. Run-rate annualizes the latest quarter (×4) and compares it to TTM. In millions of $. High-Confidence Competitors are named as a competitor directly in an SEC filing; Similar-Size Competitors are the closest peers by market-cap rank within the same industry; Similar Growth & Profitability Competitors are the closest peers by combined revenue growth, operating margin and ROIC, all independent of the competitor list.
TTM revenue, latest-quarter run-rate and net income/margin benchmarked across Olympic Steel Inc and its 4 competitor groupings. Available under Commercial License.
| Entity | TTM Revenue | Rev Run-rate vs TTM |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | $12,345M | +12.3% · Accelerating |
| Competitors combined | $12,345M | +12.3% · Accelerating |
| Similar Growth & Profitability (5) | $12,345M | +12.3% · Accelerating |
TTM revenue, run-rate and net margin benchmarking across Olympic Steel Inc's competitor groups requires a Commercial License.
For context: the Iron & Steel industry grew revenue 0.0% year over year, combined, vs 4.4% for Olympic Steel Inc. Olympic Steel Inc's share of combined industry revenue moved from 0.21% to 0.22%, a gain of 0.01 percentage points.
Olympic Steel Inc's Competitor Quality Breadth
Share of each group, trailing 12 months: profitable (net margin > 0), expanding (revenue growth > 0), growing faster than the industry's own median, and financially distressed (Piotroski F-Score of 2 or below).
| Entity | Profitable | Expanding | Above Industry Growth | Distressed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Competitors combined (25) | ||||
| Similar Growth & Profitability (8) | 87.50 % (7 of 8) | 0.00 % (0 of 8) | 0.00 % (0 of 8) | 37.50 % (3 of 8) |
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months. Altman Z-Score is not shown here: it is not populated in the underlying data for any company. Percentages are of companies in each group that report the relevant metric, not of the full group size.
ZEUS Stock Performance relative to its Competitors
ZEUS Stock Performance relative to Similar Growth & Profitability Competitors
5 Best-Performing Tracked Competitors, Trailing 12 Months
| # | Competitor | TTM Share Price Return | vs U.S.A. 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ati Inc | 282.9% | Outperformed |
| 2 | Materion Corporation | 282.9% | Outperformed |
| 3 | Kaiser Aluminum Corporation | 282.9% | Outperformed |
| 4 | Arcelormittal | 282.9% | Outperformed |
| 5 | Nucor Corporation | 282.9% | Outperformed |
TTM share price return and U.S.A. 500 outperformance for Olympic Steel Inc's best-performing tracked competitors requires a Commercial License.
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months.
Olympic Steel Inc's Comment on Competition and Industry Peers
Publicly Traded Peers of Olympic Steel Inc
Revenue and income for trailing 12 months, in millions of $, except employees| Company | Market Cap | Revenues |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | 562.98 | 1,898.86 |
| Nucor Corporation | 55,865.97 | 36,101.00 |
| Arcelormittal | 53,505.10 | 61,352.00 |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | 33,312.32 | 20,538.68 |
| Ati Inc | 24,986.66 | 4,715.20 |
| Mueller Industries Inc | 13,486.08 | 4,661.14 |
| SUBTOTAL | 247,671.89 | 221,206.80 |
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Sources: Olympic Steel Inc's official press releases and regulatory filings; CSIMarket.com's market research; and the financial filings and press releases of the other companies cited.
Updated on:
Focus of this report: publicly traded companies. Ten additional tables on Olympic Steel Inc versus competitors, including market share analysis, are in the navigation menu under Competition. To download the tables, please subscribe.
Olympic Steel Inc's Business Segment Mix vs Peers
Revenue by operating segment or division, as named and reported by each company. Segment names are the filer's own and are not standardized across companies. Do not assume a same-named or similarly-named segment is defined identically between two companies. Shares are of each company's own total revenue and are not required to sum to 100% (intersegment revenue, unallocated items).| Company | Largest Segment |
|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | Carbon Flat Products 54.66 % |
| Nucor Corporation | Steel mills 63.56 % |
| Ati Inc | High Performance Materials & Components 56.92 % |
| Mueller Industries Inc | Piping Systems 63.75 % |
| United States Steel Corp | Flat Rolled Products 60.10 % |
| Alcoa Corp | Aluminum 79.58 % |
Source: operating segment revenue as reported in each company's SEC filings (10-K/10-Q), via the CSIMarket API, leaf-level reportable segments only (parent roll-up segments are excluded where sub-segments are separately disclosed).
Olympic Steel Inc's Productivity vs Peers Comparison
Revenue and income per employee, trailing 12 months, in $; market cap in millions of $| Company | Market Cap | Revenue / Employee | Income / Employee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | 563 | 875,859 | 6,360 |
| Nucor Corporation | 55,866 | 1,093,970 | 98,667 |
| Arcelormittal | 53,505 | 475,596,899 | 25,139,535 |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | 33,312 | 1,426,297 | 111,065 |
| Ati Inc | 24,987 | 620,421 | 64,329 |
| Mueller Industries Inc | 13,486 | 964,639 | 177,331 |
| PEERS TOTAL | 247,109 | 1,192,189 | 73,985 |
Olympic Steel Inc's Geographic Revenue Exposure vs Peers
Revenue by country/region as reported in each company's most recent filing. Disclosure granularity varies by filer (some report by country, others by broad region) and is shown as disclosed.| Company | Largest Market |
|---|---|
| Steel Dynamics Inc | US 92.24 % |
| Ati Inc | United States 60.14 % |
| Valmont Industries Inc | North America 75.89 % |
| Remitly Global Inc | United States 65.76 % |
| Century Aluminum Company | United States 86.55 % |
Source: revenue geography as reported in each company's SEC filings (10-K/10-Q), via the CSIMarket API. Percentages are of that company's own total consolidated revenue for its most recent reported period.
Olympic Steel Inc's Position in Industry Market Structure
Market-capitalization share and concentration across all 29 companies in Olympic Steel Inc's industry classification, broader than the peer set above. Market cap in millions of $.Olympic Steel Inc ranks #0 of 29 companies by market capitalization in its industry, holding 0.00 % of total industry market cap. The industry's Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) is 1,141, indicating a unconcentrated market structure (U.S. antitrust guidance: below 1,500 unconcentrated, 1,500 to 2,500 moderately concentrated, above 2,500 highly concentrated).
| Rank | Company | Market Cap | Industry Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nucor Corporation | 55,891 | 18.91 % |
| 2 | Arcelormittal | 53,436 | 18.08 % |
| 3 | Steel Dynamics Inc | 33,358 | 11.29 % |
| 4 | Tenaris Sa | 29,635 | 10.03 % |
| 5 | Ati Inc | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 6 | Reliance Inc | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 7 | Carpenter Technology Corporation | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 8 | Posco Holdings Inc | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 9 | Ternium S a | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 10 | Gerdau S a | 1,234 | 5.2% |
| 0 | Olympic Steel Inc | 563 | 0.00 % |
Market cap and industry share for the rest of Olympic Steel Inc's industry peers requires a Commercial License.
Source: CSIMarket API (daily market-structure computation) across CSIMarket's industry classification, market capitalization as of 2026-02-12.
Olympic Steel Inc's Profitability & Cost Structure
Trailing 12-month margins from SEC-filed financials. Operating margin is compared to the Iron & Steel industry median; gross margin, EBITDA margin and capital intensity are compared to the live industry average (39 companies).| Metric | Company | Industry | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Margin | 100.00 % | 24.76 % (avg) | +75.2 pp |
| Operating Margin | 1.87 % | industry median | -1.5 pp |
| EBITDA Margin | 3.25 % | 3.07 % (avg) | +0.2 pp |
| Capital Intensity (Capex / Revenue) | 1.69 % | 4.65 % (avg) | -3.0 pp |
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months. SG&A and R&D as a share of revenue have limited coverage as this data is backfilled and appear only where reported. Higher capital intensity is not inherently negative; it reflects the industry's asset requirements.
Olympic Steel Inc's Valuation vs Competitive Position
Valuation multiples vs the Iron & Steel industry average (39 companies, excluding loss-making/negative-equity outliers), alongside returns on capital for context on whether a premium or discount lines up with measurably stronger or weaker returns.| Metric | Company | Industry Average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| P/E | 27.1x | 31.3x | -4.2x |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.8x | 13.1x | -3.3x |
| P/B | 0.6x | 2.4x | -1.8x |
| Return on Equity | 2.39 % | industry aggregate | -7.28 % |
| Return on Invested Capital | 2.42 % | 1.14 % (avg) | 1.28 % |
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months. A valuation premium or discount is not, by itself, a judgment of over- or under-valuation. Compare it against the return and growth context shown elsewhere on this page.
Olympic Steel Inc's Multi-Year Financial Trajectory
Fiscal-year revenue growth, operating margin, return on invested capital and P/E, as reported in SEC filings.| Metric | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Growth | 26.12 % | 28.89 % | -7.93 % | -21.84 % | 87.36 % | 10.71 % | -15.70 % | -10.03 % |
| Operating Margin | 1.80 % | 3.33 % | 1.05 % | 0.05 % | 7.46 % | 5.22 % | 3.60 % | 2.46 % |
| Return on Invested Capital | 3.12 % | 6.27 % | 1.82 % | 0.07 % | 16.13 % | 10.31 % | 5.70 % | 3.37 % |
| P/E | 12.9x | 6.0x | 49.0x | - | 2.2x | 4.4x | 15.6x | 17.4x |
Source: CSIMarket API, fiscal-year figures. P/E is this company's own historical ratio at each fiscal year end and can swing sharply around an earnings trough: that is real, not a data error.
Olympic Steel Inc's Strategic Group Map
Every company in Olympic Steel Inc's industry and named-competitor list, plotted by trailing 12-month revenue growth and operating margin. Olympic Steel Inc is shown in red; its closest peers by combined growth, margin and ROIC (the Similar Growth & Profitability group above) are labeled.
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months. Extreme outlier values (from near-zero-revenue companies) are excluded from the plotted cloud but never from the highlighted company or its labeled peers.
Olympic Steel Inc's Competitive Forces (Porter's Five Forces)
Only the forces this data can support honestly are shown; the other three are marked as such rather than guessed.| Force | Assessment | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive Rivalry | High | Industry HHI of 1,141 (see Industry Market Structure & Concentration above) |
| Barriers to Entry | Lower than typical for the industry | Capital intensity (capex / revenue) of 1.69 % vs industry average 4.65 % (see Profitability & Cost Structure above) |
| Supplier Power | Not covered on this page | See Olympic Steel Inc's dedicated suppliers page for concentration and dependency data |
| Buyer Power | Not covered on this page | See Olympic Steel Inc's dedicated customers page for concentration and dependency data |
| Threat of Substitutes | - | No systematic data source for cross-product substitution exists in this system; not estimated |
Note: this is a partial, data-grounded application of the framework, not a complete strategic assessment. Rivalry and barriers-to-entry readings are mechanical translations of the HHI and capital-intensity figures shown elsewhere on this page, not independent judgments.
Olympic Steel Inc's Industry Attractiveness & Competitive Strength
A CSIMarket composite, not a standard field: each axis is an equal-weighted average of three factors already shown elsewhere on this page (industry growth, industry profitability and rivalry for attractiveness; relative market share, profitability and growth vs industry for strength). Disclosed as a designed methodology, not a precision measurement.
Olympic Steel Inc falls in the Low attractiveness / Low strength cell: Harvest / Divest.
Source: CSIMarket API, trailing 12 months. Each axis score is a simple 1(low)/2(medium)/3(high) average across its three inputs -- a transparent, disclosed simplification, not a validated academic scoring model.
Olympic Steel Inc's SWOT
Every point below is a fixed rule applied to a metric already shown elsewhere on this page (Market Structure, Profitability, Valuation, Run-Rate, Stock Performance, Quality Breadth) not an independent strategic assessment. A blank quadrant means no rule was met, not that none apply.Strengths
- Latest-quarter revenue run-rate is accelerating (+3.4% annualized vs trailing 12 months).
- Outperforming the U.S.A. 500 over the trailing 12 months.
Weaknesses
- Return on equity 7.3 points below the industry aggregate.
- Piotroski F-Score of 2 or below, the standard financial-distress signal.
Opportunities
- Trades at a lower P/E than the industry average (27.1x vs 31.3x) despite a higher return on invested capital -- a possible re-rating opportunity.
Threats
- Tracked peer group's revenue run-rate is broadly decelerating (-34.6% annualized).
Methodology: mechanical, rule-based SWOT. Each bullet reuses a figure already sourced and cited elsewhere on this page; nothing here is generated narrative or independent analyst judgment.
Olympic Steel Inc's Financial Strength vs Peers Comparison
Quick ratio, working capital, debt to equity and asset turnover, trailing 12 months| Company | Quick Ratio | Working Capital | Debt / Equity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | 0.07 | 3.35 | 0.43 |
| Nucor Corporation | 0.52 | 2.76 | 0.31 |
| Arcelormittal | 0.24 | 1.36 | 0.05 |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | 0.31 | 3.12 | 0.46 |
| Ati Inc | 0.44 | 2.52 | 1.29 |
| Mueller Industries Inc | 2.68 | 5.17 | 0.00 |
Quick ratio = cash / current liabilities; working capital ratio = current assets / current liabilities; asset turnover = revenue / total assets. Peers in the Blank Checks industry are excluded.
Olympic Steel Inc's Revenue and Income Growth vs Peers
Quarterly revenue and net income growth, year over year and quarter over quarter| Company | Period | Revenue Y/Y | Income Y/Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | Q3 2025 | +4.4 % | -21.2 % |
| Nucor Corporation | Q2 2026 | +23.0 % | +81.3 % |
| Arcelormittal | Q4 2025 | -1.7 % | +135.0 % |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | Q2 2026 | +33.4 % | +76.2 % |
| Ati Inc | Q2 2026 | +10.6 % | +48.4 % |
| Mueller Industries Inc | Q2 2026 | +25.5 % | +0.5 % |
| PEERS TOTAL | +6.9 % | +109.7 % |
Growth is shown only where both periods are positive. Peers in the Blank Checks industry are excluded.
Olympic Steel Inc's Peers' Costs of Sales and Capital Expenditures
Context for revenue growth: peer costs and capex, year over year and quarter over quarter| Company | Period | Costs Y/Y | Capex Y/Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | Q3 2025 | - | -17.5 % |
| Nucor Corporation | Q2 2026 | +15.6 % | -40.1 % |
| Arcelormittal | Q4 2025 | +1.1 % | - |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | Q2 2026 | +30.0 % | -57.0 % |
| Ati Inc | Q2 2026 | +5.9 % | -4.9 % |
| Mueller Industries Inc | Q2 2026 | +31.5 % | +52.9 % |
Olympic Steel Inc's Returns and Turnover vs Peers
ROA, ROI and ROE (trailing 12 months), receivables and inventory turnover| Company | ROA | ROI | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | 1.29% | 1.55% | 2.39% |
| Nucor Corporation | 9.14% | 9.96% | 14.49% |
| Arcelormittal | 3.32% | 4.09% | 5.74% |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | 9.66% | 10.53% | 17.76% |
| Ati Inc | 9.28% | 10.11% | 25.64% |
| Mueller Industries Inc | 21.93% | 24.78% | 25.84% |
ROA = net income / total assets; ROI = net income / investments; ROE = net income / equity; turnover ratios use trailing 12 month revenue (receivables) and cost of sales (inventory).
Olympic Steel Inc's Valuation vs Peers
P/E, price to sales, PEG, price to cash flow and price to book| Company | P/E | Price / Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Steel Inc | 40.91 | 0.30 |
| Nucor Corporation | 19.51 | 1.55 |
| Arcelormittal | 16.97 | 0.87 |
| Steel Dynamics Inc | 20.94 | 1.62 |
| Ati Inc | 53.14 | 5.30 |
| Mueller Industries Inc | 15.88 | 2.89 |
| PEERS AVERAGE | 18.18 | 1.12 |
P/E = price / diluted EPS (trailing 12 months); PEG = P/E divided by EPS growth; the average row divides the peers' combined market cap by their combined income, sales, cash flow and equity.