Posted on 26 Jul 2019
Nucor’s shipped volume should align closely with a pick-up in real demand over the balance of the year, company executives told analysts during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call.
Several extant sheet price hikes are already driving buyers back into the market, says ceo John Ferriola. That demand is coming from both service centre buyers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), he says.
“When we meet with our service centres, we talk about what they will think is going to happen in the second half, [and] they feel that the demand, end-demand for their products will be steady and still strong,” he says. “They talk about the need for making sure that they get their inventories complete now, which is what they're striving to accomplish.”
Ferriola adds that the company is optimistic, but not recklessly so, Kallanish notes.
“So I don't want to be too overconfident here, but we are cautiously optimistic that we hit the bottom on pricing and on volumes,” he says. “We see our lead times are beginning to stretch out a little bit. Whenever that starts to happen, that encourages the service centres to come back into the market.”
