Nucor Corporation announced Tuesday consolidated net earnings of $488.0 million, or $1.52 per diluted share, for the full year 2013, compared with consolidated net earnings of $504.6 million, or $1.58 per diluted share, for the full year 2012. Nucor reported consolidated net earnings of $170.5 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2013. By comparison, Nucor reported net earnings of $147.6 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2013 and net earnings of $136.9 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2012.
For the full year 2013, Nucor's consolidated net sales decreased 2 percent to $19.05 billion, compared with $19.43 billion for 2012. Average sales price per ton decreased 5 percent from full year 2012. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 23,730,000 tons, an increase of 3 percent from 2012 levels.
Nucor's consolidated net sales decreased 1 percent to $4.89 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared with $4.94 billion in the third quarter of 2013 and increased 10 percent compared with $4.45 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. Average sales price per ton increased 1 percent over the third quarter of 2013 and remained flat when compared with the fourth quarter of 2012. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 6,019,000 tons in the fourth quarter of 2013, a 2 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2013 and a 10 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2012. Total fourth quarter steel mill shipments decreased 3 percent from the third quarter of 2013 and increased 9 percent over the fourth quarter of 2012. Fourth quarter downstream steel products shipments to outside customers decreased 6 percent from the third quarter of 2013 and increased 3 percent over the fourth quarter of 2012.
Nucor expects that first quarter of 2014 earnings, excluding the impact of the fourth quarter out of period tax adjustment, will be similar to the fourth quarter of 2013 levels. The company anticipates that operating performance will benefit from having no major extended planned outages at steel mills during the first quarter and from having decreased start-up costs at the Louisiana DRI facility. These improvements will be largely offset by seasonally weaker performance in the fabricated construction products businesses, which the company believes will be even further exacerbated by unusually poor weather.