Nucor NUE

NYSE NUE

$257.87 +1.47 (+0.57%)

As of: Sep 9, 2026 · 3:59 PM EDT

Key Stats

Market Cap58.75 Bn

P/E18.10

P/S1.63

Div. Yield0.01

Total Debt (Qtr)7.10 Bn

Revenue Growth (1y) (Qtr)22.95

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About

Nucor Corporation manufactures steel and steel products. The company also produces and procures ferrous and non ferrous materials primarily for use in its steel manufacturing business. Most of the company's operating facilities and customers are located in North America. Nucor is North America's largest recycler using scrap steel as the primary raw material in producing steel and steel products. In 2025 the company recycled approximately 20,000,000 gross tons of scrap…

Nucor generates revenue from the sale of steel mill products such as hot rolled sheet steel, cold rolled sheet steel, galvanized sheet steel, plate steel, structural steel including wide flange beams and H piling, and bar steel including concrete reinforcing bar, merchant bar and engineered special bar quality. The steel products segment contributes revenue from steel joists and joist girders, steel deck, galvanized solar torque tube, hollow structural section steel tubing, electrical conduit, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, steel grating and expanded metal, wire and wire mesh, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel racking, overhead doors, utility towers and structures. Revenue also comes from trading and distribution of steel products, scrap recycling and brokerage operations, direct reduced iron production, natural gas sales and industrial gas services. The company serves a diverse customer base including steel service centers, fabricators, manufacturers, construction firms, automotive companies, appliance makers, energy providers and infrastructure developers.

The company operates through the following segments: steel mills, steel products, and raw materials.

Steel mills: This segment produces sheet steel, plate steel, structural steel and bar steel using electric arc furnaces and continuous casting, sells primarily to steel service centers, fabricators and manufacturers in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and includes international trading and distribution operations as well as an equity investment in NuMit.
Steel products: This segment manufactures steel joists and joist girders, steel deck, galvanized solar torque tube, hollow structural section steel tubing, electrical conduit, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, steel grating and expanded metal, wire and wire mesh, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel racking, overhead doors, utility towers and structures, and serves nonresidential construction and infrastructure markets.
Raw materials: This segment produces direct reduced iron, brokers ferrous and non ferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron and direct reduced iron, supplies ferroalloys, processes ferrous and non ferrous scrap metal, and includes natural gas production operations and the industrial gas business Universal Industrial Gases.

Nucor is North America's largest recycler and a leading domestic supplier for many steel products including structural steel, merchant bar steel, steel joist and deck, pre engineered metal buildings, steel piling, cold finish bar steel, steel electrical conduit pipe and insulated metal panels. The company benefits from an electric arc furnace based steelmaking process that has lower greenhouse gas intensity than traditional blast furnace methods, a flexible cost structure, a diversified product mix and a strong balance sheet with low debt. Competitors include domestic integrated steel producers, other domestic electric arc furnace mills, steel imports and alternative materials such as concrete, aluminum, plastics, composites and wood.

Nucor serves a broad customer base that includes steel service centers, fabricators, manufacturers, construction companies, automotive firms, appliance producers, energy companies and infrastructure developers. The company's scrap recycling and brokerage operations sell ferrous and non ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills, foundries, aluminum can producers and secondary aluminum smelters.

Investment Thesis

▲ Bull case

Nucor is positioned to capture substantial upside from its $20 billion capital deployment as recent investments begin to contribute meaningfully to earnings, with management explicitly stating that the 'pent-up tsunami of earnings power' has yet to hit the balance sheet, indicating that current financial results significantly understate the company's future earning potential as projects like the West Virginia sheet mill and various downstream initiatives ramp up utilization and product mix improvements over the next 12-24 months.
The company's strategic focus on high-growth end markets such as data centers, energy infrastructure, and border security provides a structural tailwind that is underappreciated by the market, as Nucor can supply up to 95% of steel requirements for large data center projects and is the leading manufacturer of HSF structural tubing for border fences, creating durable demand streams less correlated with traditional cyclical industrial activity.
Nucor's disciplined approach to pricing and order book management in the sheet segment, characterized by 'slow and steady' increases aligned with true underlying demand rather than speculative buying, has effectively suppressed import volumes to 15% of the U.S. finished steel market—the lowest level in the CEO's career—thereby stabilizing domestic market share and creating a sustainable pricing environment that supports margin expansion without triggering volume downturns or import surges.
The company's strong financial profile, featuring $2.5 billion in cash, $3.2 billion in total liquidity, and a debt-to-capital ratio of only 24%, provides substantial flexibility to accelerate shareholder returns beyond the 40% annual target, invest in additional growth opportunities, or navigate potential downturns, with free cash flow improving materially due to rising operating cash flow and moderating capital expenditures as major projects near completion.
Nucor's vertical integration and supply chain advantages—spanning raw materials production (including DRI), steelmaking, and downstream fabrication—offer unmatched operating efficiencies and reliability that no other North American producer can replicate, enabling the company to capture greater value across the steel production process and maintain cost discipline amid fluctuating input costs.

Nucor is positioned to capture substantial upside from its $20 billion capital deployment as recent investments begin to contribute meaningfully to earnings, with management explicitly stating that the 'pent-up tsunami of earnings power' has yet to hit the balance sheet, indicating that current financial results significantly understate the company's future earning potential as projects like the West Virginia sheet mill and various downstream initiatives ramp up utilization and product mix improvements over the next 12-24 months.
The company's strategic focus on high-growth end markets such as data centers, energy infrastructure, and border security provides a structural tailwind that is underappreciated by the market, as Nucor can supply up to 95% of steel requirements for large data center projects and is the leading manufacturer of HSF structural tubing for border fences, creating durable demand streams less correlated with traditional cyclical industrial activity.
Nucor's disciplined approach to pricing and order book management in the sheet segment, characterized by 'slow and steady' increases aligned with true underlying demand rather than speculative buying, has effectively suppressed import volumes to 15% of the U.S. finished steel market—the lowest level in the CEO's career—thereby stabilizing domestic market share and creating a sustainable pricing environment that supports margin expansion without triggering volume downturns or import surges.
The company's strong financial profile, featuring $2.5 billion in cash, $3.2 billion in total liquidity, and a debt-to-capital ratio of only 24%, provides substantial flexibility to accelerate shareholder returns beyond the 40% annual target, invest in additional growth opportunities, or navigate potential downturns, with free cash flow improving materially due to rising operating cash flow and moderating capital expenditures as major projects near completion.
Nucor's vertical integration and supply chain advantages—spanning raw materials production (including DRI), steelmaking, and downstream fabrication—offer unmatched operating efficiencies and reliability that no other North American producer can replicate, enabling the company to capture greater value across the steel production process and maintain cost discipline amid fluctuating input costs.

▼ Bear case

Nucor's guidance for only modest shipment growth of more than 5% in 2026, despite reporting record quarterly shipments of 7 million tons and a backlog at its highest level since Q2 2021, suggests management lacks confidence in sustaining current demand strength, implying that the recent performance may be driven by temporary factors such as inventory restocking or short-term infrastructure spending rather than enduring structural growth in key end markets.
The West Virginia sheet mill project, while progressing at 85% completion, remains a significant near-term drag on profitability due to escalating pre-operating and start-up costs—now at $108 million for the quarter and expected to rise further—with commercial ramp-up not beginning until early 2027 and utilization projected to reach only ~50% by end of 2027, meaning the full benefits of this major capital investment will be delayed for years, tying up capital without near-term returns.
Although management cites strong demand in data centers, energy, and infrastructure, it simultaneously acknowledges softness in consumer cyclicals, traditional office, heavy equipment, and agriculture—sectors that historically constitute a substantial portion of Nucor's volume base—creating a vulnerable demand profile where growth in niche markets may not offset weakness in broader industrial activity if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.
The company's reliance on trade policy tailwinds, specifically Section 232 tariff enforcement to suppress import shares to 15%, introduces material policy risk, as any relaxation of enforcement, changes in administration priorities, or successful legal challenges could rapidly reverse these gains and expose Nucor to renewed import pressure, undermining domestic pricing power and market share gains achieved over the past year.
Raw material cost pressures, particularly rising substrate costs affecting longer lead time products like fabricated rebar and joist and deck, are only expected to ease 'as the year progresses,' indicating near-term margin vulnerability in the Steel Products segment despite stable pricing, with any failure of realized pricing to catch up to input cost increases likely to compress margins and offset volume-driven earnings growth.

Nucor's guidance for only modest shipment growth of more than 5% in 2026, despite reporting record quarterly shipments of 7 million tons and a backlog at its highest level since Q2 2021, suggests management lacks confidence in sustaining current demand strength, implying that the recent performance may be driven by temporary factors such as inventory restocking or short-term infrastructure spending rather than enduring structural growth in key end markets.
The West Virginia sheet mill project, while progressing at 85% completion, remains a significant near-term drag on profitability due to escalating pre-operating and start-up costs—now at $108 million for the quarter and expected to rise further—with commercial ramp-up not beginning until early 2027 and utilization projected to reach only ~50% by end of 2027, meaning the full benefits of this major capital investment will be delayed for years, tying up capital without near-term returns.
Although management cites strong demand in data centers, energy, and infrastructure, it simultaneously acknowledges softness in consumer cyclicals, traditional office, heavy equipment, and agriculture—sectors that historically constitute a substantial portion of Nucor's volume base—creating a vulnerable demand profile where growth in niche markets may not offset weakness in broader industrial activity if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.
The company's reliance on trade policy tailwinds, specifically Section 232 tariff enforcement to suppress import shares to 15%, introduces material policy risk, as any relaxation of enforcement, changes in administration priorities, or successful legal challenges could rapidly reverse these gains and expose Nucor to renewed import pressure, undermining domestic pricing power and market share gains achieved over the past year.
Raw material cost pressures, particularly rising substrate costs affecting longer lead time products like fabricated rebar and joist and deck, are only expected to ease 'as the year progresses,' indicating near-term margin vulnerability in the Steel Products segment despite stable pricing, with any failure of realized pricing to catch up to input cost increases likely to compress margins and offset volume-driven earnings growth.

Statement Business Segments Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer group

Peer Comparison

Companies in the Steel

S.No.	Ticker	Company	match	Market Cap	P/E	P/S	Total Debt (Qtr)
1	TX	Ternium S.A.	primary	114.02 Bn	278.99	7.12	7.81 Bn
2	NUE	Nucor Corp	primary	58.75 Bn	18.10	1.63	7.10 Bn
3	STLD	Steel Dynamics Inc	primary	34.64 Bn	21.77	1.69	4.20 Bn
4	GGB	Gerdau S.A.	primary	10.07 Bn	23.15	0.77	1.97 Bn
5	CMC	COMMERCIAL METALS Co	primary	7.63 Bn	12.82	0.86	3.40 Bn
6	PKX	Posco Holdings Inc.	primary	4.73 Bn	5.21	0.13	0.74 Bn
7	SIM	GRUPO SIMEC, S.A.B. de C.V.	primary	4.41 Bn	49.98	2.67	0.08 Bn
8	SID	National Steel Co	primary	1.76 Bn	-1.89	0.10	0.37 Bn

Nucor NUE

About

Investment Thesis

Product Or Service Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Statement Business Segments Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer Comparison

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