Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

David Sumoski: Curt, this is David Sumoski. Inflation has certainly been a factor for us in our convergence costs. It probably falls anywhere within $40 to $80, depending on the division. Couple of divisions would be higher than that, Gallatin being one of those, but those are outliers. So inflation has been a big factor. Two other big hitters we have to remember – well, two other big hitters are as we bought C.H.I. and ramped it up this year, we run slabs through that facility and the cost of the slabs go right directly into our cost of goods sold. So we had some pretty expensive slabs on the ground. So that was a pretty big hit year-over-year for our cost of goods sold. And then across all of our divisions, we had significant inventory adjustments throughout the year. And the cost of those inventory adjustments goes right into our cost of goods sold as well. So those three factors were pretty big, were very big, and that is why you see that big increase.

Curtis Woodworth: Okay. Okay. That is helpful. And then second question is, if I look at Slide 7 on the expand beyond, you are talking, I think, targeted EBITDA across those assets of roughly $700 million. And it seems like they are making good progress on C.H.I. to get to the $400 million number. But can you kind of help frame like roughly like where we are in that progression? And then when you look at, I guess, those business segments, can you talk about growth potential within those? Or how should we think about maybe how much capital you would look to allocate M&A-wise into expanding beyond the core this year, if you have any preliminary views? Thank you guys.

Leon Topalian: Yes, Curt, I will begin and let Steve sort of talk about the – as we think about through cycle EBITDA. But I will touch on your second question first. As we continue to think about the growth of Nucor. We are coming off two historic years. And really, over the last several years, our strategy has not changed. Our mission and our vision is very clear that is to grow our company, period. And we are going to do it in two ways: in the core and expanding beyond. You have seen our investments in the core. And while we are certainly not done, those will be probably more in line with what you have seen in terms of positioning strategies, moving into more galvanized, more prepaid, more higher value-added products as opposed to what we are doing in West Virginia in terms of a greenfield facility.

But on the Expand Beyond piece, Steve, Alex Hoffman, who heads up our business development team and our executive team is focused on growing and looking in that expand beyond area. For those adjacent companies that have sort of steel centricity at some piece that are efficient manufacturers because that is really where we see the value set in coupling. That is one of the reasons why we were so excited about C.H.I. Again, I couldn’t be more proud of Dave Bangert and the entire C.H.I. team for how they have performed through this year. And again, their EBITDA and where we sit today is so far beyond the models that we built out. So that focus for us is going to continue. We are going to continue to look to grow Nucor, to position Nucor well into the future and be generating significant revenues as well as our bottom line net earnings through the expand beyond businesses that we continue to acquire.

Stephen Laxton: Yes. Curt, I will just add a couple of comments there to what Leon said in terms of where we are. With these particular platforms, there is not a significant amount of capital other than what we have announced on the towers business to achieve the $700 million target that we outlined for these businesses. So we are well along that path, very proud of the teams that are in these four platforms. The work they have done so far to integrate into new for as Leon touched up in opening remarks has been very solid and I think they just underline what Nucor’s business model really is. At our heart, we are a strong, diversified industrial manufacturing model. And we are able to leverage that model in businesses and across a broad spectrum of our portfolio to drive value.

So if you are looking for how much money might be in new expand beyond platforms. As Leon said, we are a growth company and so we are not done yet, but these platforms that are established are well on their way to that $700 million figure.

Curtis Woodworth: Okay. Thanks very much.

Operator: Our next question will come from Timna Tanners with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Timna Tanners: Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to explore a little bit the outlook and then ask a question about volumes, and I think they are a bit tight. But just start with the outlook in the Steel Mills, in particular. You talked to improve profitability on higher volumes and improved margins, specifically in the sheet business. So the higher volumes I get seasonally and off a pretty low base at 70% utilization. On the margin side, I mean, it looks like trending prices at 750 hot rolled and compared to Q4’s average price of 960 looks like a tough comp. And costs have increased and there is deeper discounts on your quarterly context and monthly context. So I’m just trying to figure out if your guidance is more about the volume side or if I’m missing something on mix or costs?