As demand has been falling for its products, the company has posted losses during each of its last two quarters, and is expected to show another loss tomorrow, with analysts expecting to see a loss of 51 cents per share.

A big reason why AK Steel has been struggling lately is the ailing auto industry. Last year Detroit automakers and their suppliers accounted for about one-third of the company's demand. Demand for autos has been slowly increasing, but still remains very weak.

Steel prices have been slowly increasing over the past few weeks, but still remain very depressed compared to the last year when high demand resulted in record profits for steel makers.

While the company is expected to show poor numbers for its second quarter, there is optimism over the company's future once the economy rebounds. Goldman Sachs analyst Sal Tharani stated in a note to investors that the company was "one of the best-positioned companies" due to its high exposure to the auto industry which is expected to continue to improve in the months to come.

Another analyst that has a bullish long term view of the company is Gimme Credit analyst Carl Blake. He believes that the company is in a great position to benefit from "a recovery in the auto sector, as well as a rebound in consumer spending." Of course, this does assume that both the auto industry and consumer spending are going to continue to improve sooner than later.

Auto demand has been slowly increasing, but there is still a long way to go, and AK Steel is heavily dependent on the future of the auto industry. Recent increases in demand has allowed AK Steel to restart production at some of its plants that had been idled, and the company expects to return to profitability by the end of this year.

We will keep an eye on this one in the morning, and report the actual results of its second quarter when they are available.