Nucor Corp. expects its third quarter EPS to range between 75 U.S. cents and 80 U.S. cents, falling from the US$2.13 posted for the same period of 2018.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said Sept. 16 that results for the comparable year-ago period included a noncash impairment of US$110.0 million, or 26 cents per share, related to its natural gas well assets, and a gain of US$24.8 million, or 6 cents per share, related to insurance recoveries.
Nucor flagged a quarter-on-quarter decline in the performance of its steel mills segment due to lower prices for sheet and plate steel.
The company expects the profitability of its steel products segment to improve quarterly on the back of strong market conditions and recent efficiency initiatives in rebar fabrication and metal buildings.
Nucor also projected a sag in the performance of its raw materials segment quarter over quarter due to margin compression in its direct reduced iron businesses, with a planned outage underway at its direct reduced iron facility in Louisiana and expected to last until mid-November.
In the second quarter, Nucor's earnings plunged year on year to US$386.5 million from US$683.2 million, with EPS sliding to US$1.26 from US$2.13, due to unusually wet weather and aggressive supply chain destocking.
