Steel Mills

Nucor Expects Weak Q4

December 16, 2015

Nucor is expecting weaker financial results in fourth quarter. Operating performance in the steel mill segment was down from third quarter, especially at sheet and bar mills, as lower selling prices outpaced the decline in raw materials pricing.

“This performance is due to continued deterioration in global steel markets amplified by global excess capacity and historically high import levels,” wrote Nucor in its Q4 guidance. “Although the trade remedy process has not moved as quickly as we would like, we believe that preliminary antidumping and countervailing duties and affirmative critical circumstances findings in the steel sheet cases should have a positive impact on domestic sheet mills in the first half of 2016.”

In their market assessment, Nucor noted seasonal slowdown in the nonresidential market and continuing weakness in energy, heavy equipment and agriculture. The automotive market remains strong.

Downstream product performance is expected to be lower than third quarter due to typical fourth quarter seasonality, but is expected to increase from Q4 2014 due to improvement in the nonresidential construction market in 2015.

Raw materials segment results are expected to be down due to lower scrap and metal commodity prices at the company’s scrap processing business.

A planned maintenance will be completed at Nucor Steel Louisiana in Q4. The Louisiana DRI facility will not resume operations following the maintenance outage until market prices improve.