Nucor Corporation announced Thursday consolidated net earnings of $67.8 million for the first quarter of 2015. By comparison, Nucor reported net earnings of $111.0 million for the first quarter of 2014 and net earnings of $210.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014.
Nucor's consolidated net sales decreased 14 percent to $4.40 billion in the first quarter of 2015 from $5.11 billion in the first quarter of 2014 and decreased 12 percent compared with $5.00 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. Average sales price per ton in the first quarter of 2015 decreased 5 percent from both the first quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2014. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 5,635,000 tons in the first quarter of 2015, a 9 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2014 and a 7 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2014. Total first quarter steel mill shipments decreased 10 percent from the first quarter of 2014 and decreased 8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. First quarter downstream steel products shipments to outside customers increased 1 percent over the first quarter of 2014 and decreased 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014.
Overall operating rates at steel mills decreased to 65 percent in the first quarter of 2015 as compared to 75 percent in the first quarter of 2014 and 76 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
According to a statement, the company expects earnings in Q2 2015 to be “somewhat improved” from the first quarter: “Although margins in the steel mills segment are expected to improve, they will remain under pressure during the second quarter of 2015 as selling prices have not yet fully stabilized and imports remain at exceptionally high levels. This pricing pressure is expected to mitigate the benefits of lower average raw materials costs in the second quarter. We expect much better performance in the downstream products segment in the second quarter of 2015. The performance of the raw materials segment is expected to decrease in the second quarter of 2015 due to a planned one month outage at our DRI facility in Trinidad. We anticipate an operating loss similar to the first quarter of 2015 at Nucor Steel Louisiana, which, due to the extended length of the time the facility was not operating, will work through higher cost iron ore inventory that was purchased in 2014. Performance in the second half of 2015 is expected to further improve on the strength of continuing improvement in nonresidential construction and its impact on our downstream products businesses and steel mills. Additionally, steel pricing is expected to stabilize and rebound as service center destocking runs its course.”