Nucor announced today that it expects third quarter results to be in the range of $0.75 to $0.80 per diluted share. This range is a decrease compared to the second quarter of 2017 consolidated net earnings of $1.00 per diluted share and third quarter of 2016 earnings of $0.95 per diluted share.
In a statement, Nucor said third quarter of 2017 expected earnings are lower than the qualitative guidance provided with the company’s second quarter of 2017 earnings release, which stated, “Earnings in the third quarter of 2017 should be in a range similar to the quarterly results of the first half of 2017.”
Though the third quarter of 2017 expected range is less than what Nucor had originally anticipated earlier in the quarter, the company noted that the range, combined with the diluted earnings per share from the first two quarters of the year, would exceed the amount of reported full year diluted EPS of the previous eight years.
The company said it expects the steel mills segment's earnings in the third quarter of 2017 to decrease compared to the second quarter of 2017. Despite high utilization rates at Nucor’s sheet mills, the company said “continued import pressure has not allowed pricing to keep pace with increasing raw material costs during the third quarter of 2017. The forecasted earnings of our plate mills are expected to be significantly less than what was expected when we provided our qualitative guidance in July. Following increased demand earlier in the year primarily due to inventory restocking in the supply chain, demand in plate end use markets has been tepid. In general, we expect stable conditions to continue for most end use markets we serve.”
Additionally, Nucor Steel Louisiana has experienced unplanned outages for most of the third quarter of 2017 which has caused Nucor to “significantly” lower forecasted third quarter earnings estimate for the raw materials segment. The facility stopped production in late July to make repairs to its materials handling systems and to address other equipment issues. Nucor expects to resume operations in early October.
The profitability of the steel products segment in the third quarter of 2017 is expected to be improved from the second quarter of 2017, but less than the third quarter of 2016. Nonresidential construction indicators continue to show marginal improvement over 2016 activity levels.