Since I advised buying the aug 19 calls at the low which I bought and u had the chance

AK Steel posts 2nd-qtr loss, sees better 3rd qtr

* 2nd-quarter loss 43 cents/shr beats estimates

* Sees break-even operating results in 3rd quarter

* Shares close day down 4.7 percent

(Adds analyst's comment, closing share price)

NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - AK Steel Holding Corp posted a second consecutive quarterly loss on Tuesday as it shipped more than 50 percent less steel and revenue dropped 64 percent because automakers idled North American car plants.

But the steelmaker forecast break-even operating results in the third quarter as it expects to benefit from lower operating and raw material costs.

After the company announced its results, which beat Wall Street estimates, AK Steel's stock rose 4.4 percent, but it

closed down 4.73 percent at $19.34 on the New York Stock Exchange.

"They came in at the high end of expectations and gave a nice forecast for next quarter," said Michelle Applebaum, an independent steel industry analyst in Chicago.

For the second quarter, the West Chester, Ohio-based company reported a net loss of $47.2 million, or 43 cents per share, compared with earnings of $145.2 million, or $1.29 per share, in the same quarter last year. In the first quarter, the company had an operating loss of $99.9 million.

Second-quarter revenue fell about 64 percent to $794 million from $2.24 billion, AK Steel said.

The results exceeded the consensus Wall Street estimate for a loss of 50 cents, according to Reuters Estimates. It was also an improvement on AK Steel's own estimate for an operating loss of $75 million to $80 million. That estimate was based on announcements by two big steel buyers, General Motors and Chrysler LLC , that they planned to idle North American plants.

AK Steel's second-quarter shipments dropped to 740,600 tons from 1,737,800 tons in the year-ago quarter. The company said its average selling price for the second quarter dropped 17 percent to $1,072 per ton from a year earlier.

AK Steel said it expects shipments for the third quarter of 2009 to rise nearly 27 percent to around 940,000 tons. The company anticipates an average per-ton selling price roughly the same as the second-quarter level.

The company said it expected to achieve about breakeven operating profit, which would represent an improvement of about $70 million, or $100 per ton, over second-quarter results.

Planned maintenance costs are expected to be about $6 million lower in the third quarter, primarily because of completion of the planned blast furnace outage at its Middletown Works in Ohio. (Reporting by Steve James) ((steve.james@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-6013; Reuters Messaging: steve.james.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: AKSTEEL/

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