Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc. said Monday that its first-quarter net income climbed 63 percent as the number and average selling price of steel shipments rose.

For the quarter that ended March 31, Steel Dynamics earned $105.9 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $65 million, or 29 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of 41 cents per share.

Revenue rose 30 percent, to $2 billion. Analysts were looking for $1.91 billion.

The Fort Wayne-based company said it shipped 1.5 million tons of steel during the quarter, up 4 percent from last year's first quarter, and the average external steel selling price climbed to $154 per ton, to $890, a 21-percent gain from $736 a year earlier.

CEO Keith Busse said in a prepared statement that weakness in the non-residential construction market "remains a challenge" for the company's structural and fabrication businesses, however.