EoW March 2010

Transat lant ic Cable

CEO John P Surma said the modest advance was driven, primarily, by the North American automotive and service centre markets, and by the return to pro tability of the company’s tubular operations, which generated $39 million in income for the quarter. While the year as a whole was less rewarding for USS, it did chalk up $11 billion in total sales, surpassed only slightly by Nucor with $11.19 billion. USS pulled back on capital spending in 2009, investing $470 million instead of the $740 million projected for the year. Nucor (Charlotte, North Carolina) announced consolidated ❈ net earnings of $58.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, after three consecutive quarterly losses. Average price-per-ton of steel sold increased 4% from third-quarter 2009 but was down 35% from the fourth quarter of 2008. Total shipments were 4,638,000 tons in fourth-quarter 2009, a decrease of 9% from the third quarter but 8% higher than in fourth-quarter 2008. For the full year 2009, Nucor reported a consolidated net loss of $293.6 million, compared with net earnings of $1.83 billion for 2008. Nucor’s good news lay in its strong liquidity position: $2.24 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, plus an untapped $1.3 billion revolving credit facility that matures in November 2012. Pre-operating and start-up costs of new facilities increased from $128.6 million in 2008 to $160 million in 2009. These costs related mainly to the SBQ mill in Memphis, Tennessee; the Castrip (R) project in Blytheville, Arkansas; and a proposed iron-making facility and the galvanizing line in Decatur, Alabama. The good news for Nucor’s stockholders of record on 31 st December 2009 was the announcement of a 2.9% increase in their cash dividend. Noting that this is its 147 th consecutive quarterly dividend, Nucor said on 26 th January that it expects an improvement of approximately 5% in steel mill shipments in rst-quarter 2010, together with “signi cant increases” in both sales prices and scrap costs. The last quarter of 2009 also showed a mild uptick in US steel ❈ imports, suggesting nascent recovery after a year in which steel imports of 16.2 million tons totalled 49.3% less than the 32 million tons imported in 2008. According to preliminary government reports cited by the American Institute for International Steel, imports inched up to 1.4 million tons in December from 1.3 million tons in November. This represents a 1.3% increase as compared with a 32.5% decrease in the corresponding report for December 2008. “Early in 2010, there are some signs that demand is improving,” said David Phelps, president of AIIS. “But whether [this] is merely a restocking of inventories or re ects a systemic improvement in demand is unknown at this time.” As reported by Thomas L Gallagher in the Journal of Commerce [29 th January], Mr Phelps cited the increase in imports from America’s partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as “the positive element in the import data for December.” Canada and Mexico, he said, react more quickly than o shore suppliers to demand conditions in the US market.

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EuroWire – March 2010 Euro ire – January 20 6