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Nucor is the largest steel manufacturer and recycler in North America. The company, founded in 1905, produces a variety of steel sheet products, bar products, and more through its steel mills segment, which serves steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers across North America. Nucor also operates through its steel products and raw materials segments. In addition to production, the company is involved in the steel trading, rebar distribution, and piling distribution businesses.

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Nucor (NUE): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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morning and welcome to the Nucor Corporation third quarter 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise, and today's call is being recorded. After the speakers' prepared remarks, I will provide instructions for callers wishing to ask any questions. At this time, I would like to introduce Chris Jacobi, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin your call.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to join you this morning as the newest member of the Nucor IR team and welcome you to our third quarter earnings review and business update. Leading our call today is Leon Topalian, Chair, President, and CEO, along with Steve Laxton, Executive Vice President and CFO. Other members of the Nucor executive team are also here with us today and may participate during the Q&A portion of the call. Yesterday, we posted our third quarter earnings release and investor presentation to Nucor's IR website. We encourage you to access these materials as we will cover portions of them during the call. Today's discussion will include the use of non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws.

Actual results may be different than forward-looking statements and involve risks outlined in our safe harbor statement and disclosed in Nucor's SEC filings. The appendix of today's presentation includes supplemental information and disclosures, along with a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. With that, let's turn the call over to Leon.

Thanks, Chris. I want to begin by thanking our 33,000 Nucor teammates for their continued commitment to safety. Our team has been lowering our injury and illness rate every year since 2017, and we are on track to do it again in 2025. This level of performance would be impressive at any point, but to do it through a period of significant growth is an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to the entire Nucor team, and let's make the last two months of 2025 the safest in Nucor's history. Turning to Nucor's third quarter financial performance, we generated EBITDA of approximately $1.3 billion and earned $2.63 of EPS. These results exceeded our third quarter guidance, driven by stronger than expected shipments from our steel mills and favorable corporate adjustments. Steve will provide more details during his financial update.

We remain committed to prudent capital management on behalf of our shareholders, balancing long-term growth with meaningful shareholder returns while maintaining our industry-leading credit profile. During the third quarter, we reinvested $807 million into the company, with the majority of this capital related to growth projects that are nearing completion. We've also returned approximately $230 million to Nucor shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, bringing our year-to-date returns to nearly $1 billion, or 72% of net earnings. We also saw our long-term credit ratings upgraded to A3 by Moody’s. Following the Moody’s upgrade, we are now rated A-minus or A3 by all three ratings agencies, making us the only major North American steel producer to hold that distinction.

Creating value for our stakeholders requires a relentless focus on execution, and I'm proud of the work our team has done to advance our long-term mission to grow the core, expand beyond, and live our culture. We are in the final phase of our multi-year capital investment campaign and will complete four major projects by the end of this year. Recent milestones include the commissioning of two bar mill projects and the commencement of pole production and galvanizing operations at our Alabama Towers and Structures facility. Our two new sheet coating facilities at Crawfordsville and Berkeley County remain on track, and the team in Crawfordsville recently processed the first coil through the new galvanizing line. Construction of our new sheet mill in West Virginia is two-thirds complete and remains on schedule to begin ramping up by the end of next year.

Even as we invest to grow our capabilities, we remain focused on leveraging our existing asset base to generate attractive returns for our shareholders. For example, in steel products, we've taken steps to repurpose two existing steel products facilities to support our faster-growing Nucor Data Systems businesses. Within the steel mills, we have recently decided to no longer pursue a new rebar micromill project in the Pacific Northwest region. With the recent investments we've made in the bar group, we can serve the Western U.S. and Canadian markets from our current footprint with superior cost and supply chain advantages. We will continue to monitor market developments to ensure the best use of our shareholder capital. As I've said in the past, our growth strategy is not about growing our capacity, it's about providing more capabilities for our shareholders, customers, and team.

The investments we're making now to grow our core steelmaking capabilities and expand into downstream steel-adjacent businesses will better position Nucor to offer comprehensive, integrated solutions unmatched by any of our competitors. By optimizing our full portfolio to operate as one team, we make it easier for our customers to buy, build, and succeed. Let me now take a few minutes to highlight a couple of the areas where Nucor is improving its position as a supplier, employer, and investment of choice within the steel industry. One of these is Nucor's bar mill group. As many of you know, Nucor entered the steelmaking business in 1969 when we began operating our first bar mill in Darlington, South Carolina. Over the following five decades, we have harnessed the inherent advantages of scrap-based steelmaking and Nucor's performance-driven culture to grow our bar mill group into the nationwide powerhouse that it is.

The bar mill team has delivered strong results in 2025, fueled by increased demand in the non-res construction markets and infrastructure markets. With our broad geographic coverage and capabilities, Nucor is well positioned to optimize both product mix and volume regionally. In fact, the team has set quarterly rebar shipment records twice so far this year, first in Q1 and then again in Q3. We also began ramping production in the third quarter at our new mill shop in Kingman, Arizona, and our new rebar micromill in Lexington, North Carolina. Both facilities are strategically located in high-growth regions with reliable access to local scrap supply, enhancing our existing footprint in the Western and Southeast markets. We will continue ramping up operations over the coming months, with both projects on track to be EBITDA positive by the first quarter of 2026.

While we build our leadership in steelmaking, we are also positioning Nucor as a key supplier to high-growth markets like data center construction. The Dodge Construction Network is forecasting 60 million square feet of data center construction in 2025, a 30% increase over 2024. The state of Virginia alone has seen 54 new data center permit applications in the first nine months of the year, underscoring the sector's momentum and long-term growth potential. With our comprehensive portfolio of products, Nucor is uniquely equipped to partner with leading developers and hyperscalers who increasingly value speed and certainty of execution. We now supply over 95% of all steel products that go into a data center, from the building envelope to the interior infrastructure. For example, we are the only provider capable of supplying steel for both conventional structures and pre-engineered buildings at scale.

Inside of data centers, we're accelerating growth in our Nucor Data Systems businesses, implementing domestic production of server cabinets and increasing capacity for hot aisle containment and data center support structures. This unlocks powerful cross-selling opportunities for our diverse product portfolio, creating better outcomes for customers and driving shareholder value. Turning to trade policy, we've seen meaningful federal action this year supporting the American steel industry. Section 232 measures and ongoing trade enforcement are curbing imports, with finished steel imports down nearly 11% year-to-date through August. Since the broader Section 232 tariffs were implemented, we have seen larger month-over-month reductions in imports and expect the trend to continue. While imports have decreased since the comprehensive 50% steel tariffs went into effect, they continue to be a necessary tool to counteract the massive amounts of overcapacity that persist in the global steel sector.

We believe that tariffs must stay in place with no exceptions or loopholes until there are fundamental changes in the global steel industry. Ongoing trade cases continue to provide another important defense against unfairly traded imports. In September, the ITC ruled that American steel producers were materially injured by imports of corrosion-resistant steel from 10 countries. Nucor is pleased with the decision, which clears the way for the Department of Commerce to issue final anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders in the coming weeks. We are also following the Department of Commerce's investigations into rebar imports from four countries and expect to see the preliminary determination later this quarter. Overall, we are encouraged by the administration's actions to help level the playing field for the American steel industry. As North America's largest and most capable steel products company, Nucor is well positioned to create value for our customers and shareholders.

With that, let me turn it over to Steve, who will share additional details about our third quarter financial performance. Steve.

Thank you, Leon, and thank you all for joining us on the call this morning. For the third quarter, Nucor generated net earnings of $607 million or $2.63 per share. Earnings were in line with the second quarter's adjusted earnings per share of $2.60 and above adjusted earnings per share of $1.49 for the third quarter of last year. Year-to-date, Nucor's adjusted net earnings are approximately $1.4 billion or $5.98 a share. Earnings for the 1/3 quarter exceeded the midpoint of our guidance range by approximately $0.50. The guidance beat was driven by two main factors: better than expected shipments and lower pre-operating and startup cost. Our steel mill segment realized higher than expected shipments in sheet, bar, and structural. In September, our Berkeley division set an all-time production record. As Leon mentioned earlier, the bar group achieved another quarterly record for rebar shipments.

The steel mills group also saw stronger than expected shipment levels from several mills coming out of the third quarter planned outages. Additionally, the steel product segment exceeded volume expectations, contributing further to overall outperformance. Several of our newer operations progressed through startup activities more rapidly than anticipated, resulting in lower than expected pre-operating and startup cost. Pre-operating and startup costs for the 1/3 quarter were $103 million. Favorable corporate and administrative impacts also contributed to the outperformance. These included lower inventory eliminations due primarily to lower than expected inventories in our downstream steel product segment, as well as lower overall corporate and administrative cost. Turning to the segment-level results for the 1/3 quarter, the steel mill segment generated $793 million of pre-tax earnings, a decrease of 6% from the prior quarter.

We saw improved results across our bar and structural steel groups, but lower profitability in sheet and plate more than offset the gains in longs. We continue to see strong demand for long products and more subdued but stable demand for flats. That said, we are gaining market share and are encouraged by the recent operating performance of our steel mills. Sheet shipments nearly matched our record volume set in the prior quarter, with sheet backlog tons up 13% year-over-year. Our bar products backlog at the end of the third quarter was 35% higher than the same time last year. Turning to steel products, we generated pre-tax earnings of $319 million, down from $392 million in the second quarter. Despite the sequential decline, volumes held up better than expected, with external shipments increasing 4% quarter-over-quarter.

However, operating profit was impacted by less favorable product mix, higher substrate pricing, and planned outage cost. Our steel products backlog has moderated alongside typical seasonal ordering trends, but ended the third quarter 14% higher year-over-year. The backlog extends well into the second quarter of 2026 for some of our more custom-engineered product lines. Quoting activity remains robust, and we believe this reflects business confidence among our customers servicing the construction and infrastructure markets, as well as their confidence in Nucor as a reliable provider of high-quality solutions. Turning to the raw materials segment, we realized pre-tax earnings of approximately $43 million compared to $57 million for the prior quarter. The primary driver of the sequential decline was lower pricing, partially offset by lower operating cost. Moving to the balance sheet, Nucor continues to have a differentiated position of strength and flexibility in our industry.

An example of this was on display in the past quarter, as evidenced by our recent ratings upgrade by Moody’s. We remain committed to maintaining a strong investment-grade credit profile. We entered the third quarter with a total debt-to-capital ratio of approximately 24% and cash of approximately $2.7 billion. We generated $1.3 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, a testament to Nucor’s cash-generating operating model. Capital expenditures totaled $807 million for the quarter, bringing our year-to-date total to $2.6 billion. We now expect full-year CAPEX to be $3.3 billion for 2025, as some project spending was pulled forward from 2026. We will provide more detail on our CAPEX budget for 2026 on our year-end earnings call in January. We expect overall expenditures to decline by more than a half a billion dollars compared with 2025.

A cornerstone of Nucor’s capital allocation framework is providing meaningful cash returns to shareholders. During the second quarter, we returned $227 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. Through the end of the third quarter, we’ve returned nearly $1 billion, representing 72% of Nucor’s year-to-date net earnings. During the same period, we repurchased approximately 4.8 million shares at a weighted average price of approximately $126 per share. Turning to our near to medium-term demand outlook, I'd like to take a closer look at the distinct demand drivers shaping our flats, longs, and steel products markets. While we're seeing varying levels of demand across these products, we expect each will continue to benefit from further declines in imports as the effects of tariffs and trade cases are realized. Beginning with our flat products, we expect strong demand from energy, data centers, and advanced manufacturing.

At the same time, we're monitoring softer conditions in areas like residential construction, consumer durables, heavy equipment, and agricultural machinery. Additionally, new domestic supply is still being absorbed in the market. Turning to long products, our bar and structural mills continue to benefit from a number of demand drivers underpinning a more constructive near-term outlook, though we remain mindful of typical seasonal purchasing trends. Infrastructure spending remains elevated. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association reports that bridge and tunnel contract awards are up nearly 20% year-over-year. 60% of total funds allocated to the IIJA highway projects remain unspent. As Leon mentioned, data centers and energy infrastructure needed to power them will continue to drive pronounced demand for Nucor's long products. We also see good demand from institutional construction, stadiums, warehouses, and chip facilities.

In addition, we expect to capitalize on the strong regional demand and gain market share as our North Carolina micromill and new mill shop in Arizona ramp up. Finally, in our steel products segment, many of our business lines are benefiting from pockets of strength in non-residential construction. As the market leader in custom-engineered building products like joist and deck, metal buildings, and insulated metal panels, we're seeing strong customer interest in our capabilities, particularly from those prioritizing speed, quality, and certainty of execution. We also expect healthy demand for our rebar fabrication business and incremental demand for tubular products. That said, we're closely monitoring the impact of evolving trade policy, higher construction cost, and persistent softness among residential construction activity. Turning to our fourth quarter outlook, we expect Nucor's consolidated earnings to be lower than the third quarter.

We expect lower total volumes across all operating segments due to a combination of factors, including seasonal effects, Nucor's fiscal quarter containing five less shipping days, and two scheduled outages at our DRI facilities during the fourth quarter. We anticipate a decline in realized pricing within our steel mills segment, primarily driven by sheet. In contrast, pricing in our steel products segment is expected to remain stable. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect stable domestic steel demand. With the broadest range of capabilities in the North American steel market, Nucor is confident in our ability to create value for our customers and shareholders as we capture a healthy share of that demand. We'd like to hear from you and answer any questions you may have. Operator, please open up the line for questions.

Thank you very much. We'd now like to open the lines for the Q&A. If you'd like to ask a question, please signal now by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to remove yourself from line of questioning, please star followed by two. As a reminder, to raise a question will be star followed by one now. Our first question comes from Alex Hacking from Citi. Alex, your line is now open.

Yeah, morning, and thanks for the call. Congrats on the strong results. It seems like Nucor's shipments are growing faster than the industry, and you referenced they're gaining share. Could you maybe give more color or other kind of specific products where you're gaining share? Any change in strategy that's led to you gaining share? Thanks a lot.

Yeah, thanks, Alex. Let me begin, Alex, with our most important value, and that is the value of safety. We're on track for a historic eighth year in a row of lowering our I&I rates and creating the safest year in the history of our company. I just wanted to take a moment and thank the 33,000 team members that execute that incredible value each and every day across 40 states, 300 locations, and multiple countries. We begin there, but specifically to address your question, Alex, we continue to stay very focused, and being the market leader means that we've got to do things to stay out in front. As we think about how we've restructured and positioned the plate group, it's a great example of that where Brandenburg's continued ramp up.

As you heard Steve mention earlier in his prepared remarks, the pre-operating and startup cost reduction means that Brandenburg is ramping up faster than we had anticipated. They're doing a great job. You'll hear more about that in a few moments, I'm sure, as we get into plate later in the call. Plate is another broad example where we're focused on that. Long products is another where Nucor is going to continue to look for the opportunities to grow in bar and beams in that segment. Ultimately, what I think the strategy that you've seen playing out over the last few years is really wrapped around our commercial and construction solutions group that are looking to attach these major developers, major hyperscalers that are looking for speed and a capability set that Nucor now has in bringing that to the market.

We're getting a ton of pull-through effect in our products groups from the upstream mills, from sheet, plate, bar, engineered bar, all the way through the downstream adjacent segments. We're seeing, I think, a lot of that play out, which is increasing our market share and, again, a capability set. You heard me say in my prepared remarks as well, Alex. You think about how white-hot the data center trend is today. With our Southwest Data Products acquisition, with our racking group, with the insulated metal panels, as well as the breadth of the steel products that we make, we are now capable of making 95% of all steel components within the framework, building, and in the high aisle containment within that data center. It offers a very unique solution set for, again, these developers and hyperscalers.

Thanks, Leon. I guess just to follow up on that point on the data centers, you know, are there specific products that Nucor's selling that are particularly exposed to data centers? I mean, I know that joist and deck shipments are up over 20% this year versus last year. Are they an obvious beneficiary from this? Thanks.

Yeah, Alex, it's really the gambit. Insulated metal panels, joists, grating, decking, fasteners, sprinkler conduit, the foundations, the rebar on the foundations, the civil side, the sheeting on the outside of the building, the overhead doors from CHI and Rytech. It's the full purview.  But John, anything else would you add to that?

Yeah, Alex. On the joist and deck side, we're definitely feeling the benefits of the data center build-out, as well as e-commerce. We're just well positioned with these end-use markets because of our industry-leading capabilities, the breadth of our product offering, and our nationwide coverage. Right now, our joist and deck backlogs are about 25% higher than what they were a year ago at this time. They extend well into 2026, and we're optimistic about what the next year is going to bring.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Bill Peterson from JPMorgan. Bill, your line's now open.

Yeah, congrats on the quarter. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe to follow up on this data center opportunity, but maybe to contextualize relative to what I think is a larger market, but much larger now, which is warehouses. I guess based off of your backlog, how should we think about square foot growth beyond 2025, maybe from a market perspective as well as your own opportunity? Is there a way you can, I guess, help quantify or provide any anecdotes on how you're gaining share in the market with like Southwest Data Products compared to industry growth averages? Just trying to get more context on this opportunity relative to larger ones such as warehouses.

Yeah, Bill, let me start with, to your point, the larger segment, which is the warehousing. Look, that you know is probably flat year over year and expected to be about the same in 2026. That peaked, I don't know, 2021, 2022, where we saw massive layouts from Amazon, you know, others that were, you know, building them as fast as they could come. The shift has come in the last, you know, 12, 18 months into the data center side. With that, the energy infrastructure is a big piece of that that Nucor is, again, tying into. Southwest Data Products enable us to do things in that hot aisle that we weren't able to do prior. Nucor now has a Nucor Warehouse and Data Systems group that kind of provides that overarching solution set for, again, these major developers.

John, maybe you unpack that just a little bit further and how we use that go to market with that.

Yeah, Bill, when you think about a data center, and it's on our slide seven in our presentation, all of the different products that Nucor supplies into that market, and we're the only company that can supply all of those products. Many of our competitors can supply one of them. We have the ability to supply all, and we work directly with a lot of these companies to guarantee the surety of their supply to meet their deliveries to get these facilities operational on time. It's a big advantage that we have with that entire portfolio of products. In addition to that, having redundancy in our portfolio, we made mention we've converted a couple of facilities over the last several months to help the build-out of these data centers because we see that market being so hot moving into the coming years.

Hey, Bill, this is Steve. I'd like to just add, you know, one thing that's implicit in the questions that you and Alex both ask is a commentary on the flexibility of Nucor's overall portfolio. As you see different markets get strong, Nucor has excelled over the years at winning in a variety of different ways. Right now, you're focused in on data centers, and we can capture, as John and Leon described, the unprecedented—we're unparalleled with anyone in the space and the ability to gain in that area. It's not lost on us and shouldn't be on you that Nucor has won at various times when different markets have been strong because of the product diversity and the flexibility that we have in supplying the market.

I appreciate that color. I guess maybe just to follow up, maybe I missed or didn't hear it, but you said data center flat for 2026. Is there a sense for how we should think about the data center growth next year? And then I pose a question. Thanks.

Sorry, Bill. No, traditional warehouse would be flat. Data centers are up double-digit growth for the next five to six years is what every major category we're looking at is tracking. I think in my prepared comments that I opened with that the forecast is for 60 million square feet of capacity in 2026. It's an incredibly fast-growing segment, so not flat on the data center side.

Yeah, understood. On my second question, scrap costs were down, but conversion costs were up. Can you speak to what contributed to the latter? Is this related to the new mill ramps, or is there something else there? More importantly, how should we think about this trend into the fourth quarter?

Thanks, Bill. This is Dave Sumoski. Although our cost quarter-over-quarter were up, cost year over year are down 5%. Specifically, the items affecting the quarter over quarter results are slab costs for CSI. Some of our consumables were up, such as refractory, and labor was slightly up due to some significant planned outages in the quarter.

Okay, thanks for that. Congrats again on the quarter.

Thank you very much. As a reminder, if you would like to raise a question, please signal now by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Lawson Winder from Bank of America. Lawson, your line's now open.

Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, Leon, and good morning, Steve. Appreciate the update today. Could I ask about the guide, which I mean, in the guidance for Q4, you pointed to lower volumes just because of fewer shipping days. That all makes sense. You also suggested there was some lower realized sheet pricing factored in. Yesterday, Nucor's CRU was $10 higher. Was that factored in? We also saw a competitor raise their pricing by $50 yesterday. How should we think about the movement we've just seen very recently in that?

Yeah, Lawson, appreciate the question. Most of Nucor's sheet deliveries are based on contracts. While you see the moves today, what I would tell you is you're seeing the typical seasonality in a softer Q2 flow through the order book, which is our projection for Q4, to see lower realized pricing. Again, with the current price increases in that group, we anticipate Q1 will be we'll certainly realize those higher pricings. It takes some time, right, to flow through that. On the positive side, there are two factors I'd point out in terms of how quickly that can move through. One is the service center inventory side of things is pretty, very, well, seasonally low in terms of that overall picture. Also, internally to Nucor, we are not sitting on high volumes of inventory at our mills.

It's going to enable us a much faster realization of that pricing you just mentioned. Those two factors, we'll see that move through the order books into the balance sheet for Q1.

Fantastic. Thank you, Leon. Could I ask on acquisition opportunities? When you look at the relevant acquisition set for Nucor, how would you characterize that in terms of product and region or segment, upstream versus downstream? Appreciate any thoughts.

Yeah, Lawson, broadly, here's how I would tell you. Our mission statement is very simple, right? Eight words that we launched on January 1st, 2020. It's to grow the core, expand beyond, and live our culture. The core is just that, the core steelmaking capabilities. You're seeing that with the startups of Lexington's bar mill in North Carolina, the melt shop in Kingman, Arizona, the ramping up and pre-startup at Crawfordsville's sheet coating facility, Berkeley next year, the startup of our first towers and structures facility in Alabama, the next two that will be next year. That will ultimately culminate with the startup of the largest investment in Nucor's history in Mason County, West Virginia, with the most state-of-the-art sheet mill that's going to offer a capability set unparalleled in our industry.

We're going to have the breadth of capabilities to provide our customers the steel they need today, as well as what they're going to need for tomorrow. That's the core. As we think about expand beyond, it sits in the CHI and Rytec, Southwest Data Products, our Summit, which is the first acquisition in the towers and structures we made, the insulated metal panels group that continues to bring a really differentiated product mix to the Nucor offering. As we look to the future now, we don't anticipate building any more greenfield facilities, at least in the near term. That capital is now going to get deployed in the adjacent space as well. More, we'll leave you that ambiguous if we think a little bit more about, well, where's that going to go? It's going to go in the megatrends that we're seeing in the U.S.

economy, like towers and structures, like energy, energy infrastructure, the data center community. What are the things that we're not providing or don't provide today that, again, hit a few boxes, right? As we look for targets, it's going to be like-minded culturally that fits who we are. It's going to be a converter model that we bring in terms of our competencies to that acquisition. Three, it's going to be low capital intensity. Four, we're going to look for high margins. Fifth, a sort of countercyclical to the traditional cyclicality of steel. We want something that isn't as affected by the true steel cycles that we see over the last 60 years that we've been in this business. CHI, Rytec, IMP all provide a much more stable earnings platform, growth throughout all the sectors, and highs and lows in both the financial crisis, COVID, and whatnot.

Their return profiles are incredibly stable. Ultimately, our goal is to stabilize Nucor's overall earnings to provide higher highs and higher lows.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Timna Tanners from Wells Fargo. Timna, your line is now open.

Yeah, hey, good morning. I wanted to ask about my home state of Washington and what's happening in Seattle. I saw the announcement of not replacing the existing mill. Can you just elaborate on that decision? You said you could supply it from other mills, but with imports to the West Coast down, I'm assuming, like is there enough supply on the West Coast? Can you supply it from Kingman, and are you just not replacing the existing mill, or are you just not shutting it down? Thanks.

Yeah, look, you kind of answered the question within that question as well, Tina. Thank you for it. We have a great relationship with the city of Seattle, and our team out there does an amazing job connecting with that community, being in that community, and welcoming that community with open arms and how we take care of our safety, the environmental, the sustainability side. They do a really, really nice job. It is, as we step back and look at our prudent capital allocation, where are our dollars best spent? Where's the best returns on those dollars going to be? With the investment of the melt shop in Kingman, Arizona, our Utah facility, and the breadth and exposure of our Seattle mill, we are adequately covered for the western side of the United States as well as western Canada.

As we step back to really evaluate that, we feel really good about where the mill is and its capability set in Seattle. Couple that with the addition of Kingman's melt shop, and we think we've got a very adequate coverage there. We're going to use those dollars elsewhere to think about growth. Again, how do we not just meet our cost of capital, but double our cost of capital? How do we make sure that we're generating EVA for our shareholders for the long term? That's where we're going to put that. If we don't have that home, as you've seen over the course of the years and following us, Tina, this year, we're at 72% return of our net earnings back to our shareholders in dividends or share buybacks, and that will continue.

Great. That's my next question. Just to clarify, the Seattle mill keeps operating. You're just not replacing it with a micromill. Is that right?

Okay, super. Along the lines of the shareholder returns, your third quarter buybacks at $100 million is the smallest you've had, I think, since 2020 when you didn't have any buybacks. Is that correct? If so, is that a statement of anything? Do you have other uses of capital? Anything you can elaborate on there?

Yeah, I'll let Steve answer that. I would remind you of the $13 billion that we've returned back to our shareholders over the last five years. I think you're accurate. Steve.

Yeah, hey, Timna, you're correct. That is the lowest quarterly return we've had. We remain committed to giving back at least 40% of our earnings every year. We don't necessarily do that every quarter. Over the course of the year, we're well ahead of that mark. As Leon alluded to, over the last five years, we've given back around 60%, just under 60% of our earnings. We've continued that discipline of balancing investment with our capital and growing the company while we also maintain strong liquidity and a strong balance sheet position. We've actually improved that, even getting the upgrade from Moody’s this past September and give meaningful returns. Those three elements remain in place, and that's not going to change going forward. I wouldn't get too focused in on the quarterly number.

I'd just remind you that we remain very mindful and intentional about management of those three pillars of our capital allocation framework.

Okay, I appreciate it, and that's clear. Thank you again.

Thank you very much. As a reminder, if you would like to raise a question on today's call, please signal now by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Phil Gibbs from KeyBanc. Phil, your line's now open.

Just wondering if you could give us the state of the West Virginia sheet investment in terms of where you are in the spending and your expected startup timeframe.

Yeah, certainly, Phil. I'll ask Noah Hanners, our EVP over our Sheet Group, to give you a more detailed update. Noah?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Phil. It gives me a good opportunity to congratulate, recognize the team on the progress there. I'd tell you we're at about 75% on the build, and in terms of capital spending, we're about to that same point now. Most of the 25% we have remaining remains in the labor category. If you go there today, it looks like a steel mill. I tell you, we have the world's best steelmaking team, and you see the foundation of it starting there with that team in West Virginia. We have done an awesome job. That West Virginia team has done an awesome job of bringing in some of the most talented people from across our sheet group and from across Nucor to lead that project. We've done a great job of hiring and experience.

You know I get often asked about like, how do you feel about this investment? We could not be more excited because we're taking this awesome team, and we're giving them the world's best equipment. They're going to have assets, capabilities there that are the best in our market. We are turning them loose in a region where we've been underserved, but where we have really strong customer demand. When you stack those things up, we're going to be extremely successful with that investment, and we're excited about what the future brings for West Virginia.

Thank you. Just a question for Steve on the tax side. Is there a distinct difference between your cash tax rate and your book tax rate for 2025 and 2026, given the recent changes in tax legislation?

No. Surprisingly, Phil, not necessarily, because of the way that legislation was written, it accelerates things that start after legislation. Most of our spend has already been started. To give you a sense and a feel for that, the deferred tax benefits, the cash flow benefits this year and in 2025 will be around $100 million. When you look out into 2026, that gets smaller because of the nature of the bill. The one big beautiful bill had relatively modest impacts for us on that. It does accelerate some of the R&D credits a little bit. That's where some of the gain is coming from.

In terms of the capital spending, maybe not as pronounced as you might expect, given the dollars we're spending in capital.

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. Appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Katja Jancic from Emo Capital. Katja, your line's now open.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Starting on the startup costs, given that you have a couple of projects now that are ramping up, how should we think about these costs over the next few quarters?

Hey, Katja. This is Steve. We would expect over the next quarter them to be in line to a third quarter. You know, give or take, they're going to be in that range into the first quarter as well. Call it $100 million to $110 million a quarter going forward for the next couple of quarters.

I think some of the margin compression in the mill segment was tied to the slabs you purchased for the CSI operations. If I'm not mistaken, that mostly comes from Brazil. Is that correct? If so, why not use more of the material produced internally?

Yeah, Katja, this is Noah. I'll take that. Yes, mostly from Brazil. We have been mostly slab served there this year, but we have a team that looks at the decision about whether to supply with internal substrate, so coils from our own mills like Gallatin or Crawfordsville, or to buy slab. Most of this year, it's made the most economic sense to buy slab and roll it there through our hot mill. There have been months where we've supplied a lot more coil. I would tell you, over the course of this year, we've leaned into more of our own internal substrate. That team will continue to look at what makes the most economic sense, and we'll go that way.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Andrew Jones from UBS. Andrew, your line's now open.

Thank you. Hey, Leon. Hi, Steve. I've got a couple of questions on price hikes. First of all, the MBQ aborted hike from some of your peers. It sounds from the commentary like you didn't support it. Curious on reasons there. Secondly, on plates, curious how you're seeing the market at the moment. Obviously, we've had some relief on the import side, or we should have done. It doesn't seem like the Canada carve-out is coming anytime soon. I'm curious how you're sort of thinking about pricing and the state of the market in the coming months in plate, given that sort of tighter supply side. Thanks.

Okay, Andrew, we'll start off with the bar group. I'll ask Randy Spicer to just give you an update on your questions there. We'll kick it to Brad on plate.

Yeah, Andy, thank you for the question. Certainly, we're not going to comment on specific pricing actions, but what I can tell you is that the momentum across our bar products remains very strong. We're seeing robust order entry across all regions and key end markets. As has been mentioned, you know, it's driven by infrastructure projects, chip plants, warehouses, and data centers. That strength is being amplified by the continued growth of our downstream businesses: Newport Rebar Fab, Fulcraft, and so forth. It's also worth noting we have implemented and realized meaningful price increases in merchant bar throughout 2025, supported by our multi-year high backlogs and extended lead time. All of that gives us confidence as we move through Q4 and into 2026 that the market is strong and ready for us to continue in that space.

Yeah, and I'm happy to comment on the plate side. You know, our plate market overall this year has been pretty good. You know, EDC, based on the last data we got, is trending up around 15% year over year. We're starting to see the impact. The tariffs on imports, right? Imports were up a little bit in the beginning of the year, but have come down pretty significantly over the last couple of months. Similar pockets of strength in plate that you heard from Randy and Leon and Steve around energy, both traditional and renewable infrastructure. Our bridge business has been very strong this year. On the non-res construction side, as we sit today, our backlog is 58% higher at the end of Q3 than we ended Q3 of last year. We're pretty optimistic about where the plate market's going.

Hey, Brad, why don't you touch on just the military applications and great development at Brandenburg as well?

Yeah, quick Brandenburg update. The team continues to make significant progress at the mill. We announced last quarter that we achieved EBITDA positive results. We achieved that again in Q3. I'd mentioned some weekly or monthly records from last quarter, but honestly, the team has already shattered those records so far here into Q4. On the product development side, we've had some pretty notable achievements, one being X70 API grade for line pipe. We've achieved qualifications and certifications there and captured a very large order for Q4 and into Q1. On the military side, we're really encouraged by the early-stage military armor trials. Nucor's product breadth in plate between our three plate mills really is going to allow us to become the premier plate supplier to the U.S. military.

Finally, Brandenburg's capabilities, I know we've mentioned on prior calls that we're seeing opportunities with existing customers, and we're really seeing that play out. The capabilities of Brandenburg are allowing us to sell deeper with our current customer base, and we're seeing that in our total plate volumes, where we've shipped nearly as much plate through the first three quarters this year as we did for all of last year.

Yeah. Does that cover the questions you had, Andrew?

Yeah, just one follow-up on the military side. I'm curious whether, you know, export markets like obviously Europe with the sort of potential doubling, tripling of defense spending, is that a market you're focused on, given, I guess, with these higher, you know, higher quality grades? It's more of a global market than a U.S. one. Is that a target for Nucor?

Yeah, thanks for the question. Certainly, it's an opportunity. Again, Brandenburg's capability set is unique in the world market. There's only so few folks that can produce the qualities and size ranges and gauges that Brandenburg can. Defense spending increases not just here in the U.S., but across the world. We're well positioned to take advantage of that.

Nucor (NUE) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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