Nucor Corporation today announced guidance for its second quarter ending June 29, 2019. Nucor expects second quarter earnings to be in the range of $1.20 to $1.25 per diluted share. This range is a decrease compared to first quarter of 2019 earnings of $1.63 per diluted share and a decrease relative to second quarter of 2018 earnings of $2.13 per diluted share.
In a statement, the company said most end-use markets remain strong or stable, but market dynamics are keeping many customers on sidelines
Nucor said the performance of the steel mills segment in the second quarter of 2019 is expected to decrease compared to the first quarter of 2019 as service center destocking is impacting order rates. “Increased domestic supply and a declining scrap price environment have led to aggressive inventory management by our customers,” the statement said. “We still see stability in most of the end use markets that we serve, with some softening in automotive.”
The profitability of the steel products segment in the second quarter of 2019 is expected to improve as compared to the first quarter of 2019, Nucor said, as typical seasonal patterns and improved weather conditions have benefited nonresidential construction markets.
Additionally, the company said the performance of the raw materials segment is expected to decrease in the second quarter of 2019 as compared to the first quarter of 2019 due to further margin compression in the company’s DRI businesses; Nucor’s DRI facility in Trinidad began a planned 25-day outage in June.