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: We are very pleased with our third quarter results, which once again demonstrates the strength of Reliance's resilient business model.
Our diverse product mix and end-market exposures, along with our decentralized operating structure, enabled us to quickly respond to varying fluid market conditions.
Our gross profit margin expanded 200 basis points from the prior quarter to a record 32.4%, significantly exceeding our estimated sustainable range of 28% to 30% on net sales of $2.09 billion.
Our increased gross profit margin, combined with diligent expense control, increased our non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to $1.80, a 37.5% increase from the prior quarter, and generated strong cash flow from operations of $296.3 million.
Even more importantly, we would once again like to express our gratitude to all of our outstanding folks for their hard work and perseverance through one of the most challenging time in our company's history.
Our people are truly the key ingredient of the secret sauce of Reliance, and we would not be where we are today without their unwavering commitment and support.
Our managers maintain their focus on the employee health and safety, including adherence to strict procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and improve our safety performance on a year-to-date basis compared to the same period in 2019.
We continue to support our employees and their families as well as our customers, suppliers and communities in a safe, positive, sustainable manner.
Getting back to our third quarter financial results.
Our shipments surpassed our expectations, increasing 5.9% over the prior quarter despite typical third quarter normal seasonal customer shutdowns and vacation schedules.
Improved demand in the major in the majority our end markets as the economy continued to slowly reopen following COVID-19-related shutdowns and project delays in the second quarter of 2020 drove this strength.
In addition, our toll processing volumes increased materially compared to the second quarter levels as automotive production continued to ramp up.
As a reminder, since we do not take ownership of the metal, our toll processing volumes are not reflected in our tons sold metric.
Metal pricing began to improve in the third quarter as mill price increases from many of the products we sell were implemented, with announcements for further price increases continuing into the fourth quarter.
Despite these mill price increases, our average selling price per ton sold in the third quarter was down 4.3% compared to the second quarter, primarily as a result of product mix changes that Karla will discuss in more detail.
The 200 basis points improvement in our gross profit margin to a record 32.4% was the major highlight of our third quarter financial performance, which drove a 40.6% increase in our non-GAAP pre-tax income over the prior quarter.
The primary contributor to our record gross profit margin was a significant rebound in our tolling businesses that service the automotive market, which generally operate at higher gross profit margins than our companywide average.
In addition, shifts in our diverse product mix, along with our ability to implement price increases at the time of mill announcements, collectively drove incremental increases in our third quarter gross profit margin.
While we expect that the impact of certain of these factors will be temporary, we believe our managers will continue to successfully leverage the significant investments we have made to expand our value-added processing capabilities to support a sustainable higher gross profit margin.
In regard to conditions in our key end markets.
Demand in nonresidential construction, the largest market we serve, continue to slowly increase during the third quarter due to healthy bidding activity for new projects and the restart of projects that had previously been put on hold.
Quoting activity remains strong for projects related to transmission towers and military, schools and municipalities as well as large warehouses, data processing centers and assisted living facilities.
We have also seen an increase in certain infrastructure projects, such as roads and highways and water treatment plants.
As such, we remain cautiously optimistic that demand for nonresidential construction activity will continue to improve through the end of the year based on healthy backlogs and positive customer sentiment.
Demand for the toll processing services we provide to the automotive market rebounded significantly in the third quarter as automotive OEMs and steel and aluminum mills continued to ramp up production following COVID-19 shutdowns in the second quarter.
We simultaneously increased our processing volumes at our toll processing operations in both the U.S. and Mexico to support increased activities, and we were pleased to be able to recall the majority of our furloughed employees to our tolling operations.
We remain committed to expanding our presence in toll processing in response to ongoing solid demand trends.
Earlier this month, we commenced operations at a new facility in Kentucky.
We will also soon break ground on a new greenfield tolling facility in Texas.
These new facilities expand our carbon steel tolling capacity and will position us to better service our toll processing customers, primarily metals producers and their end users in the Ohio Valley and the Eastern United States as well as in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico.
Needless to say, our outlook for our tolling operations remains positive.
Demand in heavy industry for both agriculture and construction equipment remained generally consistent with the second quarter.
Production schedules in some areas have begun to increase, and we remain cautiously optimistic our businesses servicing the large industrial market should improve from current levels through the remainder of the year.
Semiconductor demand steadily improved from the second quarter of 2020, and the market continues to be strong.
Leading indicators for semiconductor space currently points to a more positive development in the fourth quarter and early 2021, and we believe we are very well positioned to participate in any improvement.
I'd like to start by noting that our aerospace businesses service diverse segments.
Commercial aerospace represents about half of our aerospace exposure.
In the third quarter, commercial aerospace demand continued to decline as reductions in travel due to COVID-19 persisted.
In response to reduced commercial airline build rates that we expect to continue at low levels in the near term, we recorded impairment and restructuring charges related to facility closures, workforce reductions and a negative outlook at certain of our businesses servicing the commercial aerospace market.
Conversely, demand remains strong in the military, defense and space portions of our aerospace business, which represents the other half of our aerospace exposure.
We continue to see opportunities to expand our participation in defense, which will help offset some of the weakness on the commercial side.
We will continue to monitor and assess the health of each of our aerospace businesses and take appropriate cost-reduction actions, if and when needed, to ensure the continued long-term profitability of these businesses.
Finally, demand in the energy sector, which is mainly oil and natural gas, remains under significant pressure.
As I highlighted on our last call, we have taken proactive cost reduction measures throughout 2020, including the consolidation of certain facilities and head count reduction.
As a result, we believe we are well positioned to maintain our presence as a dominant player in the energy spaces and support any further recovery in that market.
One bright spot, in particular, is the renewable energy space in which we sell a significant amount of metal for solar and wind power projects.
Turning to capital allocation.
Our countercyclical cash flow generation enables us to remain flexible and opportunistic as we allocate capital for both growth and stockholder return opportunities in both good times and bad.
Our capital expenditure budget for 2020 is weighted toward growth activities that supports our customers through the addition of innovative equipment and advanced technology to further expand and strengthen our value-added processing capabilities.
We have increased our 2020 capital expenditure budget by $80 million to a total of $270 million in response to opportunities to better service our customers, including the toll processing expansion in Texas and to maintain and upgrade our equipment to provide our customers with the highest-quality products and services.
On the M&A front, we continue to see a healthy pipeline of prospective opportunities.
As always, we evaluate potential candidates using stringent criteria to ensure the best possible fit within our family of companies.
We continue to seek well-run profitable businesses that possess strong management teams and superior levels of customer service with a focus on safety.
Acquisitions must also complement our product and end-market diversification strategy and be immediately accretive to our earnings.
In regard to stockholder returns, we are pleased to maintain our payment of a regularly quarterly dividend, as we have for 61 consecutive years, without ever suspending payment or reducing our dividend rate.
We've increased our dividend 27 times since our 1994 IPO, including the most recent increase of 13.6% in the first quarter of 2020.
We also repurchased a small amount of our common stock during the third quarter of 2020.
Another key highlight during the quarter was our diligent inventory management.
We continue to rightsize our inventory to reflect current demand levels through reduced buying as well as cross-selling inventory within our expansive network of service centers.
And we are pleased to have achieved our companywide goal of 4.7 inventory turns during the third quarter.
In summary, we are very proud to have improved our financial results amid the unprecedented global uncertainty that continues to materially impact the economy.
Our decentralized structure afforded us the flexibility to immediately respond to rapidly changing demand trends and help preserve our long-term profitability.
It is through their efforts that the unique aspects of our business model were able to really shine through, enabling us to achieve significant gross profit margin expansion to a record 32.4%.
The consistent execution our -- of our resilient business model is a testament to, not only the diversity of our products, end markets and geographies, but also our commitment to: strong pricing discipline; diligent expense control, when needed; inventory management and leveraging our investments in organic growth and innovation.
We believe customers realize increased value in our model during challenging markets as they confidently rely on us to do more for them, often in smaller sizes or on a more frequent basis.
As Reliance continues to evolve as a leading diversified metal solution provider, we will leverage both the knowledge we have acquired while navigating the pandemic and our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation to provide enhanced solutions to our customers and drive stockholder value through increased efficiencies and profitability.
America is going to need Reliance to rebuild.
Our net sales of $2.09 billion for the third quarter of 2020 decreased 22.4% from the third quarter of 2019, with our tons sold down 13.1% and our average selling price down 11%.
Compared to the second quarter of 2020, net sales increased 3.3%, with our tons sold up 5.9% and our average selling price per ton sold down 4.3%.
Our tons sold exceeded our expectations of flat to up 2% from the prior quarter as demand in many of our end markets improved, with the most notable strength in nonresidential construction.
Although not included in our tons sold metric, the significant rebound in our toll processing operations contributed meaningfully to our increased sales, with toll processing volumes up 81.5% from the lows experienced in the second quarter of 2020.
And our average selling price per ton sold declined 4.3% compared to the second quarter.
Our lower average selling price in the third quarter was mainly due to shifts in our product mix rather than overall metal pricing trends.
The most significant shift was a 14.9% decrease in our aerospace tons sold in the third quarter, the majority of which was heat-treated aluminum and titanium products, which represent some of the higher-priced products we sell.
Meanwhile, our shipments of flat-rolled carbon steel, which are among our lowest-priced products, increased as a percent of our total shipments, which also reduced our average selling price.
And lastly, our alloy sales now represent a lower portion of our total tons shipped due to the closure of certain of our energy businesses.
Our gross profit margin for the third quarter of 2020 was a record at 32.4% and well above our estimated sustainable range of 28% to 30%.
This ties our record gross profit margin set in the fourth quarter of 2019 when we recorded LIFO income of $81 million compared to LIFO income of $12.5 million in the current quarter.
On a non-GAAP FIFO basis, which we believe is the best measure of our day-to-day operations, our gross profit margin of 31.8% increased 300 basis points from 28.8% in the third quarter of 2019 and increased 160 basis points from 30.2% in the second quarter of 2020.
As Jim highlighted, this is a direct result of the outstanding performance by our managers in the field who, despite challenging circumstances, maintained pricing discipline by focusing on higher-margin orders and providing more value to our customers through our expanded value-added processing capabilities.
And these actions are the key drivers behind our ability to increase and sustain our strong gross profit margin.
During the third quarter, certain other factors contributed to our increased gross profit margin, the impacts of which we believe may be more temporary.
First, a significant rebound in our toll processing volumes drove a meaningful increase in our gross profit margin as our tolling businesses operate at higher margins than our companywide average.
Second, changes in our product mix contributed as our lower-margin contractual commercial aerospace sales declined, while shipments of lower-priced carbon flat-rolled products increased.
Given a lower average overall selling price, value-added charges are a larger component of our sales, which has a positive impact on our gross profit margin.
And third, we were able to enhance our gross profit margin for certain of our carbon steel products as mills announced price increases late in the third quarter.
We recorded LIFO income of $12.5 million or $0.15 of earnings per diluted share in the third quarter of 2020 compared to LIFO income of $40 million or $0.44 of earnings per share in the third quarter of 2019 and LIFO income of $5 million or $0.06 of earnings per share in the second quarter of 2020.
And given our current estimate of $50 million of annual LIFO income in 2020, we expect to record $12.5 million of LIFO income in the fourth quarter of 2020.
As a reminder, we will true-up to our actual LIFO adjustment at December 31.
And our LIFO reserve was $100.1 million at September 30.
Our third quarter non-GAAP SG&A expenses decreased $75.2 million or 14.5% compared to the third quarter of 2019 on a 13.1% reduction in shipments.
The decline in SG&A expense was mainly due to reduced variable expenses, such as plant supplies and freight costs, along with lower average head count, which was down 13.8%; as well as lower performance-based compensation.
When compared to the second quarter of 2020, our non-GAAP SG&A expenses increased only 2.6% on a 5.9% increase in our tons shipped, demonstrating the efficiencies gained through our state-of-the-art processing equipment along with our continuous improvement and innovation initiative.
During the third quarter of 2020, we recorded impairment and restructuring charges of $14.6 million as we continued to close or merge a few of our smaller locations and wrote off certain intangibles due to our outlook for a more challenging environment in certain markets.
We recorded an additional $14.6 million in nonrecurring charges, comprised of settlement charges related to the termination of multiple small, frozen, defined benefit plans and settlement of an obligation in our SERP plan.
We also recorded $1.8 million in debt restructuring charges related to our financing activities in the quarter for total nonrecurring charges of $31 million in the third quarter of 2020.
We remain solidly profitable in the third quarter of 2020, with non-GAAP pre-tax income of $158 million and a non-GAAP pre-tax margin of 7.6%.
Our effective income tax rate for the third quarter was 22.6%, down from 25% in the third quarter of 2019 and up from 20.9% in the second quarter of 2020.
Our lower tax rate was driven by reduced income levels in 2020 attributable to the impacts of COVID-19.
And at this time, we estimate our effective tax rate for the full year of 2020 will be approximately 22.5%.
Non-GAAP net income attributable to Reliance for the third quarter of 2020 was $120.9 million, resulting non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $1.87, down from $2.39 in the third quarter of 2019 and mainly due to lower pricing, demand levels; and up from $1.36 in the second quarter of 2020 due to our strong gross profit margin and recovering demand.
On a GAAP basis, our earnings per diluted share were $1.51 in the third quarter 2020.
Turning to our balance sheet cash flow.
We generated strong cash flow of -- from operations of $296.3 million during the third quarter and $942.8 million during the first nine months of 2020 due to our continued profitable operations and effective working capital management, including a continued focus on rightsizing our inventory levels, which resulted in achieving our inventory turn goal of 4.7 times.
During the quarter, we issued $400 million of 1.3% 5-year senior notes and $500 million of 2.15% 10-year senior notes through a public offering.
We used a portion of the proceeds to repay all of our outstanding indebtedness under our unsecured revolving credit facility and term loan, and we'll utilize the remaining proceeds for general corporate purposes.
Additionally, in early September, we entered into an amended and restated $1.5 billion five year unsecured revolving credit facility that replaced our previous credit agreement and includes an increase option for up to an additional $1 billion.
The facility amendment, combined with the proceeds from the notes offering, have significantly enhanced our liquidity position and extended our debt maturity profile.
At September 30, 2020, our total debt outstanding was $1.66 billion, resulting in a net-debt-to-total-capital ratio of 17.3%.
Our net debt-to-EBITDA multiple was 1.1 times.
And as of the end of the third quarter, no borrowings were outstanding on our $1.5 billion revolving credit facility.
In regard to capital allocation, our increased 2020 capital expenditure budget of $270 million includes additional strategic investments to address our customers' needs and drive organic growth.
We will continue to pay our regular quarterly dividend and selectively execute attractive acquisition and share repurchase opportunities.
In the third quarter of 2020, we invested $38.2 million in capital expenditures and returned $41.2 million to our stockholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Turning to our outlook.
While macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, based on current expectations and market conditions, we anticipate that overall demand will continue to slowly improve in the fourth quarter of 2020.
We expect shipping volumes will decline in the fourth quarter due to normal seasonal factors, including customer holiday-related shutdowns and fewer shipping days in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter.
But we believe the impact of seasonal factors in the fourth quarter may be less significant than in prior years.
As a result, we estimate our tons sold will be down 4% to 6% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the third quarter of 2020.
We anticipate metals pricing, primarily for carbon steel products, will improve due to mill price increases.
However, similar to the drivers behind our average selling price decline in the third quarter, we believe the impact of these price increases will be partially offset by our diverse product mix and declining sales in certain markets, such as aerospace, which typically involves higher-priced products.
As a result, we expect our average selling price in the fourth quarter of 2020 will be flat to up 2% compared to the third quarter of 2020.
Based on these expectations, we currently anticipate non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.30 to $1.40 for the fourth quarter of 2020.
Looking ahead, we will continue to execute our business model and remain focused on managing the elements of our business that are within our control.
In closing, we are very pleased with our third quarter results amid the broader macroeconomic uncertainty the pandemic has caused.
Our managers in the field delivered excellent execution as demand began to slowly recover throughout the quarter, maintaining their strategic focus on high levels of customer service and value-added processing.
This, combined with our emphasis on expense control and our ability to respond quickly to market conditions, resulted in yet another quarter of solid profitability and cash flow, enabling us to support our growth and stockholder return priorities.
We believe our people, along with our proven business model, are the keys to the strength and resiliency of our business.
We look forward to improved conditions in the quarters ahead as we work with our employees, customers, suppliers and communities to mitigate the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

user
sees q4 2020 non-gaap earnings per share $1.30 to $1.40.
q3 non-gaap earnings per share $1.87.
q3 earnings per share $1.51.
qtrly tons sold 1.3 million, down 13.1%.
qtrly average selling price per ton sold $1,609, down 11%.
anticipates overall demand to continue its slow improvement in q4 of 2020.
estimates that tons sold will be down 4% to 6% in q4 of 2020 compared to prior quarter.
estimates its average selling price per ton sold for q4 will be flat to up 2% versus q3.
believes remaining businesses servicing energy sector are well positioned to support any future recovery in this market.
qtrly net sales $2,085.6 million, down 22.4%.
cautiously optimistic demand for non-residential construction activity will continue to improve in q4 2020.

assistant