Steel Mills
Nucor Downgrades Earnings for Q4
Written by Sandy Williams
December 14, 2017
Nucor offered fourth-quarter guidance on Wednesday, forecasting a decrease in earnings compared to the third quarter. Fourth-quarter results are expected to be in the range of $0.50 to $0.55 per diluted share compared to third-quarter consolidated net earnings of $0.79 per diluted share and comparable to year-ago earnings.
Imports continue to negatively impact the U.S. steel industry, said Nucor in its statement. Imports were up 19.4 percent in the first 10 months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. Imports of finished steel products accounted for an estimated 28 percent market share.
“We are encouraged by the steady progress we are achieving through the prosecution of product- and country-specific trade cases, although the process is still slower than we feel is appropriate. We believe this success is due to the overwhelming evidence that our foreign competitors receive support from illegal subsidies,” said Nucor.
Nucor points to a healthy automotive market and a nonresidential construction market that, although stable, is still significantly below 2007 levels. Improvement was seen in heavy equipment and agriculture, as well as the energy market.
Overall demand in Q4 is solid, said the company, but the summer import surge caused margin compression during the quarter.
Said Nucor, “This pressure from imports combined with weakness in plate steel have caused us to lower our fourth-quarter 2017 earnings estimate for the steel mills segment. We expect similar results in the steel products segment in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the third quarter of 2017.”
An unplanned outage occurred at Nucor Steel Louisiana in the fourth quarter, but was shorter than the unplanned outages in Q4 2016, which should result in year-over-year improvement in the raw materials segment.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills
Ternium pushes forward with growth projects despite slump in earnings and Mexican market
Ternium S.A. Fourth quarter ended Dec.31 2024 2023 Change Net sales $3,876 $4,931 -21.4% Net income (loss) $333 $554 -39.9% Per diluted share $1.43 $2.11 -32.2% Full year ended Dec.31 Net sales $17,649 $17,610 0.2% Net income (loss) $174 $986 -82.4% Per diluted share $(0.27) $3.44 -108% (in millions of dollars except per share) While […]
Kestenbaum, Ancora state their case in proxy fight for U.S. Steel
Ancora Holdings is moving forward with its proxy fight to oust U.S. Steel’s leadership and install a new board of directors and Alan Kestenbaum as CEO.
BlueScope shelves midstream facility but still upbeat on US
BlueScope Steel is pulling back on its expansion plans in the US for now but remains optimistic about the North American market.
Japanese PM cites ‘unjust political interference’ in Nippon/USS deal: Report
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that former President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s buy of U.S. Steel was “unjust political interference,” according to a report in Reuters. This comes after another Reuters report on Friday saying that President Trump would not object to Nippon taking a minority stake in the […]
Trump says Nippon will ‘invest heavily’ in USS rather than buy it
Nippon Steel has agreed to “invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it,” President Donald Trump said on Friday during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. U.S. Steel is “a very important company” and was once “the greatest company in the world”. Of potential foreign ownership of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, Trump said, “the concept, psychologically, not good."