Nucor Corp announces financial results of Q3
Charlotte-based steel producer Nucor Corp has recently announced financial results of the third quarter ending September 30, 2004 and financial results regarding the first nine months of the current fiscal year. Accordingly, in the first nine months, consolidated net earnings were recorded as $780.1 million against $42.2 million recorded in the same period of 2003. Consolidated net earnings for the third quarter were recorded as $415.4 million against $16 million recorded in the third quarter of 2003 and $251.4 million recorded in the second quarter of 2004. The record figures are highly attributed to the higher sales prices. Nucor's consolidated net sales in the first nine months of the year increased by 80% to $8.3 billion when compared with $4.6 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. In the third quarter of 2004, consolidated net sales of the company increased by 102% to $3.2 billion compared with $1.6 billion in the same quarter of 2003 and by 17%, when compared with $2.7 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2004. In the first nine months of the year, Nucor produced 15'153'000 tons of steel products, up by 16%, when compared with 13'015'000 tons recorded in the corresponding period of previous year. Moreover, shipments in the subject period increased by 14% to 15'018'000 tons against 13'189'000 tons recorded in the first nine months of 2003. Company officials state that they expect fourth quarter shipments to be lower than third quarter shipments due to a temporary market imbalance and traditional seasonal and holiday factors. Moreover, it is stated that the fourth quarter shipments will be impacted by the scheduled shut-downs of certain mills due to maintenance.