united states steel corps profit and sales surged in the december quarter driven by strong demand and better pricing the steelmaker which thursday said it was adding 500 million to its stock buyback authorization in the first quarter reported a fourthquarter profit of 107 billion compared with 49 million a year earlier on a pershare basis profit was 375 or 364 as adjusted analysts surveyed by factset expected an adjusted profit of 437 a share and 544 billion in sales the company ended the year at a profit of 417 billion on 2028 billion in sales compared with a loss of 117 billion and 974 billion in sales in 2020 chief executive david b burritt in december said that fixed price contracts were resetting significantly higher which he said should give the company better earnings stability compared with competitors with more spot exposure on thursday mr burritt said 2022 will be another year of strategic progress and upon completion our announced strategic investments will deliver approximately 850 million of incremental throughcycle earnings power with winning customer solutions while reducing our capital and carbon intensity