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

Leon Topalian: Yes. I mean, Timna I’m not going to get into the contract to contract comparison. But again, all contracts are not created equal. They are not all on a calendar year that are not all one-year contracts, and there are different escalators built in accordingly. And so again, we feel really good about our strategy. And that strategy really comes back to the pre-announcement as we were getting ready to announce West Virginia to build the most diversified capability set, not capacity. And so if you look at what the sheet group, in particular, is done this year, they have matched demand. They have matched the market in what was required and that flows through and you can look very quickly to see our EBITDA per ton and what we have been able to return back to our shareholders and our performance that I’m very proud of.

If you think about our positioning as we move forward, we are going to match that. And my answer to the Gallatin question, that mill will have the capability to run at full steam come Q2, but we will be very mindful about how we bring those tons into the marketplace. So again, we are going to be very thoughtful about how we do that. Rex, anything you would like to touch on in terms of that customer and segment as we move into 2023.

Rex Query: Yes, Timna thanks for the question. The only thing I would really add if you look at the volatility we had from what we saw in really the second half of 2022, but if you look at where CRU stood in third quarter and then the drop in the fourth quarter and now what we are seeing now, it is a really short window. And I think that is to Leon’s point, we have a long-term strategy. And in the short-term, you may see us do things from quarter-to-quarter based on what the market is happening. We chose very specifically not to participate in some of the spot market as heavily as we saw some of the lower pricing. So you would see some lower volumes, but we are a margin-focused company, long-term, as a group, as a sheet group, our goal, our purpose is to generate a return for our shareholders on our investment. So that would be the only addition I would have.

Timna Tanners: Okay. I was just trying to understand the margin guidance on the sheet side, in particular, if that was a pricing or cost driven, but I don’t want to press you on contracts. I understand that sensitive. So I guess I will switch to the second one. If you have anything else on the cost side, that would be great. But on the utilization at 70% in the fourth quarter, and one of your peers earlier today counting above 85% utilization. Should we think about that ramping up given all the positive commentary on demand that you are explaining, Slide 17 and the ramp-up of, of course, Gallatin and Brandenburg. I mean, is it reasonable to expect that there should be a commensurate increase with the new capacity coming on or to more normal utilization levels?

Leon Topalian: I think you are going to watch that unfold. And again, I’m not going to comment on what our competitor strategy or positioning is. However, obviously, one of our competitors has got a new mill and a lot of assets sitting on the books, and they are going to do whatever they are going to do and bringing that mill up. At the same time, we are going to focus on what Rex said, in providing a return to the margin that drives our business. And so we will meet the demand out there. We are not going to chase tons or pull forward demand that isn’t real. But again, I think what we are seeing in the indicator is that the sheet group is seen over the last two-months are very favorable. And I think that will continue, and you will see the uptick subsequently in our utilization rates as we head into the back half of Q1 into Q2.

Timna Tanners: Okay, thanks everyone.

Operator: Our next question will come from Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Carlos De Alba: Thank you very much. Good afternoon Leon and Steve. Leon, I have a couple of questions. One is on startup costs and the other is on Corporate and Eliminations segment or line in your reports. First, on the startup cost, as you complete some of the projects and you ramp up the play mill, how do you see the start-up costs coming out in 2023, given the big increase that we saw to $250 million in 2022 versus $130 million last year. Any clarity there would be great understanding that you are always a growing company but any color would be useful.

Leon Topalian: Yes. Carlos, and thank you for that comment. And that is where I would like to start where you ended. Nucor is very much a growth company and you do see different treatment of start-up costs from us versus some of our peers. Some of them like to make adjusted earnings, we don’t view that as an adjustment. That is just part of what we do. We are a growth company. You are going to see that going forward from us, continued start-up costs, pre-operating start-up costs. It was $73 million in the last quarter. We expect it to be down just a little bit in the first quarter. And some of the variability as you start to model out the year, will have to do with spending and the pace at West Virginia. So you will have to just kind of stay tuned on that. But for the next quarter, you will see that come down slightly from the fourth quarter. Did that address your question adequately?

Carlos De Alba: Yes, definitely. And then the other question is on Corporate and Elimination. The report was 77.1 million in the quarter. If I adjust back for the tax credit and the tax, the change in the valuation allowance. I think I calculate – and I’m assuming that this is all on just the same figure pretax and after tax. I calculate that line would have been around $71 million negative – $71.4 million negative, which will be a substantial improvement versus the $441 million reported in the third quarter and $617 million negative in the fourth quarter of 2021. So I wonder if you can comment a little bit about that delta, which is definitely helped the quarter. And I assume from your guidance that it is not going to be such as a positive tailwind in the first quarter of 2023.

Stephen Laxton: Yes, yes, very much so. The components that go into that segment, the corporate and Elims number, you have got several different things, administrative costs, you have got interest cost and in compensation-related costs, the largest of which is profit sharing, which as Leon said, we are thrilled that our team earned almost $1 billion in profit sharing this year which will get paid out in March. But the big swing from last quarter to this quarter was really the inventory valuations that occurred in our intercompany elims. That is why it swung to the positive credit that you see. So that is what we don’t expect to have going forward. That is going to be the biggest change between Q4 and as we head into Q1. And there is really two components to that.

If you start to look into your model in a little bit more detail. So one part of that was the DRI losses we had, which, of course, wiped out any profits – intercompany profits between DRI. And the other part is really around volumes. And that was more pronounced in our downstream steel product segment than it was anywhere else. We shipped a lot, Carlos, toward the end of the year, even more than we expected. So that is partly why you saw a little bit of increased free cash flow from working capital as well from that factor. And just to close the loop here between Dave Sumoski commented earlier, it is one of the drivers of why sometimes it is a little complicated to look at our costs when you are looking at a segment and you are trying to dial into steel mill cost.

Part of those elim numbers are actually falling out of that segment number down into the total corporate elims number as well. So it does get a little fuzzy when you are trying to look at.

Carlos De Alba: Alright, excellent. Well thank you very much.