Nucor Corporation announced today that it expects third quarter results to be in the range of $2.35 to $2.40 per diluted share. This range is an increase compared to the second quarter of 2018 consolidated net earnings of $2.13 per diluted share and third quarter of 2017 earnings of $0.79 per diluted share.
In a press release, the company said: “Earnings in the third quarter of 2018 are expected to continue the trend of strong 2018 performance. We continue to believe there is sustainable strength in steel end use markets. We expect the performance of our steel mills segment in the third quarter of 2018 to increase compared to the second quarter of 2018 due primarily to higher earnings at our sheet mills and plate mills, despite the impact of both planned and weather-related outages at certain mills. The earnings of the steel products segment are expected to decrease in the third quarter of 2018 as compared to the second quarter of 2018. We expect our raw materials segment's earnings in the third quarter of 2018 to be lower as compared to the second quarter of 2018 due to the decreased performance of our scrap brokerage and processing operations and the decreased performance of our DRI facilities as our Louisiana DRI facility experienced outages for much of the third quarter.”