You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Despite the extraordinary challenges 2020 presented on a global scale, we are extremely pleased with the strong execution of our team -- that our team has shown, not only in the field, but by all of the employees within the family of companies, who demonstrated the true resiliency of the Reliance business model.
I applaud each and every one of you for your tremendous efforts to quickly and nimbly adapt to the changing environments, ensure our customers were always taken care of, and most importantly, maintain your unwavering commitment to health and safety, our most important core value.
Since 2017, our SMART Safety program has been focused on embedding our culture of safety across our entire family of companies.
Working together as one company, we focused on this initiative in 2020 like never before in response to the new and unique challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to developing new policies and procedures to prevent the spread of the virus, we improved our safety performance in 2020 with an approximately 23% reduction in our incident rate compared to 2019.
While this is a significant milestone, as I've stated in the past, we will not be satisfied until this rate reaches 0.
I'd like to take a moment to congratulate both Karla Lewis and Arthur Ajemyan for the recently announced well-deserved promotions.
Consistent with our Board's strategic executive leadership succession plan, Karla was promoted from CFO to President and was simultaneously appointed to our Board of Directors effective January 15.
Karla has demonstrated excellent judgment and leadership in each role she has held since joining Reliance in 1992, and her unique abilities and talents have earned the respect of our employees and shareholders.
Karla's promotion recognizes her significant contributions to Reliance.
It will allow her to broaden her knowledge of Reliance's field operations and increase the diversity of her experience.
In addition, Arthur Ajemyan was promoted to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective January 15.
Arthur has held various positions in Reliance's finance and accounting department for over 15 years and has done a phenomenal job.
I congratulate both Karla and Arthur on their promotions and look forward to continuing to work closely with them in their new roles.
Now let's turn to our 2020 results.
We delivered a solid financial performance in 2020, driven by consistently strong operational execution despite considerable turbulence in the market.
Our results demonstrate the strength and resiliency of our people and unique business model as well as our ability to execute through both good times and bad given the diversity of our products, end markets and geographies.
Our decentralized structure allowed us to respond rapidly to fluid market conditions and demand trends.
These factors, combined with pricing discipline and continuous improvements to our value-added processing capabilities, enabled us to achieve our second consecutive year of record annual gross profit margins at 31.5%, up 120 basis points from 2019 and exceeding our estimated sustainable range of 28% to 30%.
We also maintained healthy profitability levels despite the extraordinarily volatile and challenging market conditions.
For the full year, we generated non-GAAP earnings per share of $7.71 as a result of the combination of strong margin discipline and effective expense control, which helped mitigate our decline in profitability.
On the heels of a record year in 2019, we maintained strong cash flow from operations of $1.17 billion in 2020 driven by our profitability and focus on working capital management.
Fueled by our ongoing focus on rightsizing our inventory to reflect current demand levels and our differentiating advantage of cross-selling inventory among our family of companies, we achieved our companywide inventory turn goal of 4.7 times based on tons for 2020.
In line with historical trends and the cornerstone of our business model, a significant portion of our metal we purchase is from domestic suppliers.
And it is paramount that we continue to support our mill partners who, in turn, have consistently been there for Reliance during challenging times.
Our countercyclical cash flow generation allows us to remain flexible and opportunistic in executing our growth initiatives while concurrently returning value to our stockholders.
We invested $172 million in our business through capital expenditures in 2020, including many growth opportunities such as our recent toll processing expansion in Texas and Kentucky.
Today, we are introducing our 2021 capital expenditure budget of $245 million that includes new buildings and other projects to expand, upgrade and maintain many of our operating facilities.
We are installing energy-efficient lighting and solar panels in certain of our facilities.
Our 2021 budget also includes innovative new processing equipment to provide our customers with the highest-quality products and services.
Although COVID-19 has slowed the pace of acquisitions activity in general, we continue to see a healthy pipeline of potential candidates as we've begun to broaden our view on the universe of prospective growth opportunities.
As always, we evaluate opportunities based on a strict set of criteria to ensure a strong fit within the family of companies.
Now turning to stockholder returns.
In 2020, we repurchased $337.3 million worth of our common stock at an average cost of $91.80 per share and paid $164.1 million in dividends to our shareholders.
We've maintained our payment of regularly quarterly dividends for 61 consecutive years without ever suspending payment or reducing our dividend rate.
In addition, we've increased our dividend 28 times since our 1994 IPO, including the most recent increase of 10% for the first quarter of 2021.
Looking forward into the remainder of 2021.
Reliance will continue to execute and improve upon our tried-and-true model that has led us to industry-leading results for many decades.
Over the past year, we've adapted to operate more efficiently than ever before without sacrificing our competitive edge and the critical elements of our business that make Reliance a trusted and reliable business partner.
We will maintain our focus on opportunities to enhance our products, end markets and geographical diversification, along with our ongoing commitment to strong pricing discipline, diligent expense control, when-needed inventory management, organic growth and innovation.
As was evident throughout the past year, our customers rely on Reliance to continue to support them through trying times, often in greater capacity and on a more frequent basis.
As I continue to say, and I will say again, America is going to need Reliance to rebuild.
As an essential business, we were able to continue operating throughout the pandemic, with our 2020 tons sold decreasing only 10.8% compared to 2019.
Our average selling price was down 9.6% in 2020 compared to 2019 due to declining mill prices for most of the products we sell during the first nine months of the year.
Despite these negative trends, we achieved record gross profit margin in 2020.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, healthy demand conditions in the majority of our end markets resulted in our tons sold declining only 1.3% compared to the prior quarter.
This was the lowest Q4 seasonal decline we've experienced in the last 10 years and exceeded our guidance by a significant margin.
Despite customer holiday-related closures and less shipping days typical of the fourth quarter, we experienced solid demand trends throughout the fourth quarter as the economy continued to regain momentum.
Supported by solid demand and rising input costs, metal pricing improved as mill price increases for many of the products we sell accelerated throughout the fourth quarter with prices for certain carbon steel products almost doubling, which led to our average selling price increasing 4.6% compared to the third quarter of 2020, again, exceeding our expectations.
The favorable demand and pricing conditions in the fourth quarter contributed to our record gross profit margin of 33%, a 60 basis point improvement from the third quarter of 2020.
And on a non-GAAP FIFO basis, which we believe is the best measure of our day-to-day operating performance, our gross profit margin of 33.6% increased 180 basis points from 31.8% in the third quarter of 2020.
Our record gross profit margin reflects the outstanding performance by our managers in the field who effectively implemented price increases at the time of mill announcement prior to receiving the higher-cost metal into inventory, pushing our gross profit margin above already strong levels, resulting from our focus on higher-margin orders.
While we are very pleased with our record Q4 and full year gross profit margin, we continue to believe our estimated sustainable gross profit margin range of 28% to 30% is appropriate as we navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and operate through this uncertain environment.
That said, maintaining our strong gross profit margin remains a cornerstone of our business model.
We believe our managers will continue to successfully leverage the significant investments we have made to expand and improve our value-added processing capabilities.
In fact, one of the key factors contributing to our record gross profit margin for the full year was our value-added processing capabilities, which have increased in recent years as a result of our significant investments in state-of-the-art equipment.
While the percentage of orders with value-added processing declined to approximately 49% from 51% in 2019 due to changes in product mix caused by the pandemic, process orders continue to serve as a stabilizer to our margins in challenging markets with declining demand and pricing trends.
I'll now turn to a high-level overview of the conditions in our key end markets.
Demand in nonresidential construction, the largest market we serve, remained relatively steady during the fourth quarter due to ongoing healthy bidding activity for new projects and the restart of projects that had been put on hold earlier in the year.
We've been seeing quoting activity in the areas you might expect such as infrastructure projects, schools, utilities, water and power, strip malls and data and distribution centers.
Demand for the toll processing services we provide to the automotive market was strong, with activity back to pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter as automotive OEMs and steel and aluminum mills continued to ramp production as a result of reopenings following COVID-19 shutdowns in the second quarter of 2020.
We commenced operations at our new facility in Kentucky in late November and also recently broke ground on a new greenfield tolling facility in Texas, with both focused on carbon steel tolling to support increased capacity of our toll processing customers, who are primarily metal producers and their end users.
Demand in heavy industry for both agricultural and construction equipment rebounded to solid levels in the fourth quarter as production schedules continued to ramp following customer reopenings from COVID-19-related shutdowns and to meet equipment dealer restocking needs.
Semiconductor demand steadily improved from the third quarter of 2020, and the market continues to be one of our strongest.
Demand in commercial aerospace further declined in the fourth quarter as a direct result of reduced air travel due to COVID-19, which has reduced airplane build rates.
We believe the fourth quarter represented the trough.
That said, demand in the military, defense and space portions of our aerospace business remained stable at solid levels throughout the fourth quarter.
Finally, demand in the energy sector, which is mainly oil and natural gas, remained under pressure in the fourth quarter of 2020.
And throughout 2020, we took prudent cost-reduction measures, including the closure of certain facilities, which helped strengthen our overall efficiency and position us to support a recovery in this market.
We are optimistic on both demand and pricing trends in the first quarter of 2021 as we have experienced strength in both so far in the first quarter.
And Arthur will now review our financial results.
I'll start with our sales discussion.
Fourth quarter 2020 sales were down 12.8% from the prior year period as our markets continued to recover following the reopening of the economy.
Approximately half of the decline in our sales can be attributed to our businesses supporting the commercial aerospace and energy end markets, as evidenced by the disproportionately higher declines in our sales of aluminum and alloy products.
For the full year of 2020, sales were down 19.7% from 2019.
Approximately half of the decline in sales was due to lower shipping volumes across all major end markets we sell to, and the remaining half was due to lower average selling prices.
However, both recovering demand and pricing from the reopening of the economy in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 helped to mitigate the annual decline in our sales.
As Jim and Karla highlighted, we generated a record quarterly gross profit margin of 33% in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 60 basis points from both Q3 2020 and Q4 2019 and a record gross profit margin of 31.5% for the full year of 2020, up 120 basis points from our previous annual record of 30.3% in 2019.
Our non-GAAP FIFO gross profit margin in the fourth quarter of 2020 was up 450 basis points from Q4 2019, and for the full year of 2020 was up to 280 basis points from 2019.
We incurred LIFO expense of $15.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to rapidly increasing mill costs for most of our products.
However, for the full year of 2020, we still recognized LIFO income of $22 million as our cost of inventory on hand at the end of the year was still below the levels at the beginning of the year.
This compares to LIFO income in the fourth quarter and full year of 2019 of $81 million and $156 million, respectively.
We ended 2020 with a LIFO reserve of $115.6 million on our balance sheet.
Based on current market conditions, we expect to incur an annual LIFO expense of $340 million in 2021.
Consistent with our accounting policy, we allocate our annual estimate on a pro rata basis in each quarter.
As such, our current projected Q1 2021 LIFO expense is $85 million.
As in prior years, we will update our expectations each quarter based upon our inventory cost and metal pricing trends.
Our fourth quarter non-GAAP SG&A expenses decreased $51 million or 9.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 on a 7.9% reduction in shipments.
For the full year, same-store SG&A expenses declined $241 million or 11.5% on a 10.8% reduction in shipments.
The decline in SG&A expenses was due to reduced spend across every major expense category.
As you've heard us say before, approximately 60% to 65% of our SG&A expenses are people related.
When looking at the 11.5% year-over-year decline in same-store SG&A expenses, approximately half of the decrease was people-related as our headcount declined 14% compared to the prior year.
In addition, lower incentive pay due to lower gross profit and pre-tax income levels also contributed to the decline in our compensation costs.
Although we are entering the first quarter of 2021 with a more efficient expense structure because of strong volume and pricing trends, we expect our expenses will increase in the first quarter of 2021 from the fourth quarter of 2020, consistent with seasonal trends.
I will address our Q1 2021 outlook for demand and pricing shortly.
For the full year of 2020, our effective income tax rate declined to 22.1% from 24% in 2019 mainly due to our lower pre-tax income level in 2020.
We currently anticipate our full year 2021 effective income tax rate will be 24%.
Our strong gross profit margin and effective expense management resulted in $2.01 of earnings per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2020, well above our outlook of $1.30 to $1.40 per diluted share but down 17.6% from $2.44 in the fourth quarter of 2019 mainly due to reduced demand levels related to the pandemic, with commercial aerospace and energy end market sales being significant contributors to the decline in our sales.
In comparison to the third quarter of 2020, fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $2.01 was up 7.5% from $1.87 due to improved pricing, strong gross profit margin and recovering demand in most end markets.
Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow.
We generated strong cash flow from operations of $230.2 million during the fourth quarter due to our profitable operations and effective working capital management, including our focus on rightsizing our inventory levels.
At the end of the year, our total debt outstanding was $1.66 billion, resulting in net debt-to-EBITDA multiple of 1.1 times.
Also at the end of the year, no borrowings were outstanding on our $1.5 billion revolving credit facility.
As mentioned last quarter, we significantly strengthened our liquidity position through the successful completion of both our $900 million senior notes offering and amended/restated $1.5 billion five-year unsecured revolving credit facility.
The facility amendment, combined with the proceeds from the notes offering, provides us with ample liquidity and an improved debt maturity profile.
I'll now turn to our outlook.
While macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, favorable market conditions have persisted so far into the first quarter of 2021, with improving demand and additional mill price increases on many carbon and stainless steel products.
This environment allows us to maintain higher gross profit margin levels as we increase our selling price prior to receiving the higher-cost metal in our inventory.
We expect these favorable conditions to continue for the remainder of the first quarter.
As a result of these favorable conditions and the normal seasonal improvement, we estimate our tons sold will be up 10% to 12% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
We also expect our average selling price in the first quarter of 2021 will be up 12% to 14% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
Based on these expectations, we currently anticipate non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $3.40 to $3.50 for the first quarter of 2021.
In closing, we are very pleased with our fourth quarter 2020 financial and operational results.
Outstanding execution by all of our employees greatly contributed to our success in 2020.
Their efforts, coupled with our resilient business model and disciplined execution of our strategy, resulted in yet another quarter of solid profitability and cash flow, enabling us to continue supporting our growth and stockholder return priorities.

user
reliance steel & aluminum q4 earnings per share $2.01.
q4 non-gaap earnings per share $2.01.
qtrly average selling price per ton sold $1,683 up 4.6% versus q3.
sees q1 non-gaap earnings per share $3.40 to $3.50.
qtrly diluted earnings per share $2.01.
experienced ongoing improvements in demand in nearly all of end markets it serves in quarter.
cautiously optimistic demand for non-residential construction activity in co's space will continue at q4 levels in q1.
maintains its positive outlook for aerospace defense market.
cautiously optimistic that demand in commercial aerospace may begin to slowly recover in latter half of 2021.
demand in energy market remained under pressure in q4 with modest improvement expected in q1.
estimates that tons sold will be up 10% to 12% in q1 of 2021 compared to q4 of 2020.
estimates its average selling price per ton sold for q1 of 2021 will be up 12% to 14% compared to q4 of 2020.

assistant