Nucor 2015 Annual Report Download - page 8

6
Another bright spot was the improved performance of our downstream businesses. All three major fabricated construction products –
joists and decking, fabricated rebar and metal buildings – achieved very strong profit growth year-over-year driven by lower steel
costs. Combined backlogs at Vulcraft, Verco, Harris Steel and our building systems businesses increased and are the strongest
they have been in a ten-year period. Our downstream businesses are also providing another benefit by helping establish strong
channels to market, which gives our steel mills the opportunity to earn a base level of volume. Steel mill shipments to internal
customers increased from 11% in 2008 to 14% in 2015.
Our five drivers to profitable growth are producing results. This strategy acknowledges the changes occurring in the steel market,
while taking advantage of well-established Nucor strengths, like our position as a low-cost producer and our history of innovation.
Today, we are the market leader in nine of the eleven markets in North America in which we compete. We will not be satisfied
until we are the market leader in all eleven. We are moving up the value chain, benefiting from strong channels to market and
continually improving how we serve our customers.
Aggressively Fighting Back Against Unfair Trade
While we are focused on executing our strategy for long-term profitable growth, we are not sitting idly by as unfairly traded imports
continue to come into the U.S. market. We are aggressively fighting back. Last year, Nucor and the entire steel industry scored a
significant victory when Congress passed legislation strengthening our nation’s trade laws. These important changes to trade law
enforcement will help us fight back more effectively against the surge of illegally dumped and subsidized imports. These changes
were long overdue. Our trade laws had not been updated in more than 20 years. While these new trade laws alone will not solve
the serious issues facing the U.S. steel industry due to systemic steel overcapacity overseas, they do put us in a much stronger
position to hold foreign governments and steel producers accountable for violating trade laws.
Nucor has also joined other U.S. steel companies in filing trade cases for several flat-rolled products, including corrosion-resistant,
hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel. The International Trade Commission has made preliminary determinations of injury in all three
cases, allowing the investigations to proceed. Nucor will continue to assess market conditions in other product areas and pursue
cases when appropriate.
Staying Focused
Being the most diversified steel and steel products company in North America was a real asset to Nucor in 2015. We are pleased with
the early results we are seeing from the execution of our five drivers to profitable growth, but we know more work needs to be done.
China’s economic slowdown, coupled with its massive amount of steel production overcapacity, means that high levels of imports
will likely burden the steel industry again in 2016. At Nucor, we will continue to focus on controlling what we can control. While
current market conditions have put others in a defensive mode, fighting to survive, Nucor has been on the offensive and growing
stronger. In 2016, we will remain on the offensive.
Let me conclude by saying thank you to our stockholders for your confidence and your support. Thank you to our customers. We
truly appreciate your business. We know that without you there would be no Nucor. And, thank you to my Nucor teammates for
creating value for our customers, generating attractive returns for our stockholders and building a sustainable future for all of us.
And most importantly, thank you for doing it safely.
Sincerely,
John J. Ferriola
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President