EXHIBIT 99.1

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. Reports Record Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results

- Second highest quarterly EPS in Company’s history of $3.16 increased 125.7% year-over-year; record quarterly Non-GAAP EPS of $3.10

- Record quarterly pre-tax income of $306.6 million increased $154.2 million, or 101.2%, year-over-year

- Record quarterly net sales of $2.99 billion increased $513.7 million, or 20.8%, year-over-year

- Strong gross profit margin of 30.7% drove highest ever quarterly gross profit dollars of $917.5 million             

LOS ANGELES, July 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS) today reported its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Second Quarter 2018 Financial Highlights

• Net sales of $2.99 billion set a new Company record, and were up 20.8% from $2.48 billion in the second quarter of 2017 and up 8.4% from $2.76 billion in the first quarter of 2018.
• Tons sold were up 2.9% from the second quarter of 2017 and down 0.7% from the first quarter of 2018, with the average selling price per ton sold up 18.1% from the second quarter of 2017 and up 9.6% from the first quarter of 2018.
• Gross profit dollars were a record $917.5 million with a gross profit margin of 30.7%, compared to 28.4% in the second quarter of 2017 and 29.7% in the first quarter of 2018. FIFO gross profit margin was the second highest in the Company’s history at 32.8%, compared to 28.8% in the second quarter of 2017 and 30.6% in the first quarter of 2018.
• Pre-tax income was a record $306.6 million, up 101.2% from $152.4 million in the second quarter of 2017 and up 36.1% from $225.2 million in the first quarter of 2018.
• Net income attributable to Reliance was $230.8 million, up 124.1% from $103.0 million in the second quarter of 2017 and up 36.6% from $169.0 million in the first quarter of 2018.
• Earnings per diluted share were the second highest in the Company’s history at $3.16, up 125.7% from $1.40 in the second quarter of 2017 and up 37.4% from $2.30 in the first quarter of 2018.
• Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were a record at $3.10, up 121.4% from $1.40 in the second quarter of 2017 and up 34.8% from $2.30 in the first quarter of 2018.  
• The effective tax rate was 24.0%, compared to 31.2% in the second quarter of 2017 and 24.0% in the first quarter of 2018.
• Cost of sales includes a pre-tax net LIFO inventory valuation charge, or expense, of $62.5 million in the second quarter of 2018, compared to $10.0 million in the second quarter of 2017 and $25.0 million in the first quarter of 2018.
• Cash flow from operations was $83.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 and net debt-to-total capital was 27.9% at June 30, 2018.
• A quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share was declared on July 25, 2018 for stockholders of record as of August 17, 2018 and will be payable on September 7, 2018.

Management Commentary
“Pricing momentum continued to build throughout the second quarter, resulting in yet another quarter of milestone achievements, of which we are extremely proud,” said Gregg Mollins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Reliance. “We generated record quarterly net sales and gross profit dollars for the second consecutive quarter. Our record sales of $2.99 billion, coupled with our strong gross profit margin of 30.7%, produced the highest ever quarterly gross profit dollars in Reliance’s history of $917.5 million. The continued strong execution by our managers in the field, supported by the positive business environment, drove record quarterly pre-tax income of $306.6 million, and generated the second highest quarterly earnings in our Company’s history at $3.16 per diluted share, exceeded by only the fourth quarter of 2017, which included a significant benefit from tax reform.”

Mr. Mollins continued, “The metal pricing environment was significantly stronger than we had anticipated, gaining strength as the second quarter progressed, with prices increasing in each month of the quarter across all of our major commodities. Solid demand, coupled with ongoing Section 232 activity, drove metal price increases on almost every product we sell. As a result, our average selling price per ton sold increased 9.6% compared to the first quarter of 2018, exceeding our expectation of up 5% to 8%. Tons sold in the quarter were down 0.7%, in-line with our expectation given pre-buying activity by certain of our customers in the first quarter of 2018. However, underlying demand remained strong.”

Mr. Mollins concluded, “Throughout the second quarter, our managers in the field successfully executed on Reliance’s core principles that include strong pricing discipline, inventory management and expense control, helping to generate record quarterly sales, gross profit dollars and pre-tax income, as well as our second highest quarterly earnings per share. Looking ahead, despite some continued uncertainty regarding trade actions, we are encouraged by the positive pricing momentum and continuing solid demand conditions. We remain confident in our ability to maximize our earnings power in the current environment and maintain our focus on increasing value to our stockholders.”

End Market Commentary
Customer demand remained healthy throughout the second quarter of 2018. As anticipated, the Company experienced a limited amount of customer pre-buying activity in the first quarter of 2018 which reduced Reliance’s shipments by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2018. Reliance continues to benefit from its strategy of serving a broad spectrum of diverse end markets and providing superior quality products and processing services, generally in small quantities on a just-in-time basis.

• Aerospace demand remains strong, and continues to be one of the Company’s top-performing end markets. Reliance maintains its positive outlook for aerospace as build rates and the backlog for orders of commercial planes continues to improve. Reliance expects to continue growing its market share in aerospace given its increased exposure to the defense market and international expansion activities.
• Automotive demand continues to be strong. Reliance services the automotive market mainly through its toll processing operations in the U.S. and Mexico. Reliance maintains its positive outlook for this market as the usage of aluminum in the automotive industry continues to rise. Reliance remains well positioned to increase its processing capacity through the Company’s continued investments in new facilities and equipment.
• Non-residential construction demand, including infrastructure, continues to steadily improve. Reliance is well positioned to absorb increased volume into its existing facilities and cost structure and remains optimistic that the uptick in activity in the non-residential construction market will continue.
• Heavy industry demand continues to strengthen. Reliance continues to experience increased activity in the industrial equipment markets, primarily related to construction and agricultural equipment. Reliance believes the heightened demand in construction and agricultural equipment has been supported by increased capital spending budgets due to tax reform, and maintains its positive outlook that demand in this end-market will continue to improve.
• Energy (oil and gas) demand continues to recover slowly for the products Reliance sells into this end market. Rig counts and drilling activity continue to increase with mill lead times extending. Completion activity also continues to gain strength.  

Balance Sheet & Liquidity
Reliance ended the second quarter of 2018 with total debt outstanding of $2.05 billion, for a net debt-to-total capital ratio of 27.9%. The Company had $760.8 million available for borrowings on its $1.5 billion revolving credit facility at June 30, 2018.

“We are very pleased with our financial performance in the second quarter of 2018,” commented Karla Lewis, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Reliance. “Our increased average selling price and our strong gross profit margin generated milestone earnings levels that in turn, resulted in positive cash flow from operations of $97.0 million for the first six months of 2018. Our continued strong execution in a positive pricing environment generated cash from operations despite significantly higher working capital requirements. We remain pleased with our solid balance sheet which enables us to continue executing on our capital allocation strategy of investing in the growth of our business and returning value to our stockholders.”   

Acquisition of DuBose National Energy Services, Inc. and DuBose National Energy Fasteners & Machined Parts, Inc.
Effective March 1, 2018, Reliance acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of DuBose National Energy Services, Inc. (“DuBose Energy”) in Clinton, North Carolina and its affiliate, DuBose National Energy Fasteners & Machined Parts, Inc. (“DuBose Fasteners”) in Cleveland, Ohio. DuBose Energy and DuBose Fasteners specialize in global fabrication, supply and distribution of metal and metal products to the nuclear industry, including utilities, component manufacturers and contractors. The DuBose acquisition aligns with Reliance’s growth strategy of acquiring niche businesses that provide specialty products with high levels of value-added processing at attractive returns. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017, the DuBose companies’ combined net sales were $36.3 million.

Stockholder Return Activity
On July 25, 2018, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share of common stock, payable on September 7, 2018 to stockholders of record as of August 17, 2018. Reliance has paid regular quarterly dividends for 59 consecutive years and has increased the dividend 25 times since its 1994 IPO, with the most recent increase of 11.1% in the first quarter of 2018.

Reliance repurchased $50.0 million of its common stock in the first half of 2018 at an average cost of $84.38 per share. At June 30, 2018, approximately 7.5 million shares remained available for repurchase under the Company’s share repurchase program. Reliance expects to continue opportunistically repurchasing shares of its common stock going forward.

Business Outlook
Reliance management is optimistic in regard to business conditions in the third quarter of 2018 and anticipates that the end markets in which the Company operates will continue to gradually improve. The Company expects that demand in the third quarter of 2018 will remain solid, subject to normal seasonal patterns, which include a decline in shipping volume due to customer shutdowns and vacation schedules. In addition, there is one less shipping day in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the second quarter of 2018.  As a result, the Company estimates tons sold will be down 2% to 4% in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the second quarter of 2018. Reliance management also believes pricing fundamentals will remain steady based on current demand levels and ongoing trade actions. Accordingly, the Company expects its average selling price per ton sold for the third quarter to be up 1% to 3% compared to the second quarter of 2018. As a result, management currently expects earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $2.65 to $2.75 for the third quarter of 2018.

Conference Call Details
A conference call and simultaneous webcast to discuss the second quarter 2018 financial results and business outlook will be held today, July 26, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time / 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. To listen to the live call by telephone, please dial (877) 407-0792 (U.S. and Canada) or (201) 689-8263 (International) approximately 10 minutes prior to the start time and use conference ID: 13681229. The call will also be broadcast live over the Internet hosted on the Investors section of the Company's website at investor.rsac.com.

For those unable to participate during the live broadcast, a replay of the call will also be available beginning that same day at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, August 9, 2018 by dialing (844) 512-2921 (U.S. and Canada) or (412) 317-6671 (International) and entering the conference ID: 13681229. The webcast will remain posted on the Investors section of Reliance’s website at investor.rsac.com for 90 days.

About Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.
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 300 locations in 40 states and thirteen countries outside of the United States, Reliance 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 focuses on small orders with quick turnaround and increasing levels of value-added processing. In 2017, Reliance’s average order size was $1,740, approximately 48% of orders included value-added processing and approximately 40% of orders were delivered within 24 hours. Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.’s press releases and additional information are available on the Company’s website at www.rsac.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, discussions of Reliance’s industry and its end markets, its business strategies and its expectations concerning future demand and metals pricing and the Company’s results of operations, margins, profitability, impairment charges, taxes, liquidity, litigation matters and capital resources. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "would," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" and "continue," the negative of these terms, and similar expressions.

These forward-looking statements are based on management's estimates, projections and assumptions as of today’s date that may not prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, but not limited to, those disclosed in reports Reliance has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). As a result, these statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and Reliance disclaims any and all obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Important risks and uncertainties about Reliance’s business can be found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the SEC.

CONTACT:      
Brenda Miyamoto
Investor Relations
(213) 576-2428
investor@rsac.com

or Addo Investor Relations
(310) 829-5400

^* Amounts were derived from audited financial statements.

                                                         
¹ Gross profit, calculated as net sales less cost of sales, and gross profit margin, calculated as gross profit divided by net sales, are non-GAAP financial measures as they exclude depreciation and amortization expense associated with the corresponding sales. About half of our orders are basic distribution with no processing services performed.  For the remainder of our sales orders, we perform “first-stage” processing which is generally not labor intensive as we are simply cutting the metal to size.  Because of this, the amount of related labor and overhead, including depreciation and amortization, is not significant and is excluded from our cost of sales. Therefore, our cost of sales is substantially comprised of the cost of the material we sell.  We use gross profit and gross profit margin as shown above as measures of operating performance.  Gross profit and gross profit margin are important operating and financial measures, as their fluctuations can have a significant impact on our earnings.  Gross profit and gross profit margin, as presented, are not necessarily comparable with similarly titled measures for other companies.
² See accompanying Non-GAAP earnings and adjusted gross profit reconciliation.
³ Net debt-to-total capital is calculated as total debt (net of cash) divided by total Reliance stockholders’ equity plus total debt (net of cash).
⁴ Calculations are based on the latest twelve months net income attributable to Reliance and beginning total Reliance stockholders’ equity.
⁵ Book value per share is calculated as total Reliance stockholders’ equity divided by outstanding common shares.

^* Amounts were derived from audited financial statements.