Nucor Corporation announced Tuesday consolidated net earnings of $713.9 million for the full year 2014, an improvement of 46 percent compared with consolidated net earnings of $488.0 million for the full year 2013. Nucor reported consolidated net earnings of $210.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014. By comparison, Nucor reported net earnings of $245.4 million in the third quarter of 2014 and net earnings of $170.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2013.
For the full year 2014, Nucor's consolidated net sales increased 11 percent to $21.11 billion, compared with $19.05 billion for 2013. Average sales price per ton increased 3 percent. Total tons shipped to outside customers in 2014 were 25,413,000, an increase of 7 percent from the full year 2013.
Nucor's consolidated net sales decreased 12 percent to $5.00 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with $5.70 billion in the third quarter of 2014 and increased 2 percent compared with $4.89 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013. Average sales price per ton decreased 2 percent from the third quarter of 2014 and increased 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 6,070,000 tons in the fourth quarter of 2014, an 11 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2014 and a 1 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2013. Total fourth quarter steel mill shipments decreased 7 percent from the third quarter of 2014 and increased 2 percent over the fourth quarter of 2013. Fourth quarter downstream steel products shipments to outside customers decreased 17 percent from the third quarter of 2014 and increased 3 percent over the fourth quarter of 2013.
Nucor said in a statement: “We currently expect that first quarter of 2015 earnings will decrease from the fourth quarter of 2014 to a level slightly exceeding the first quarter of 2014. Market conditions in the steel mills segment in the first quarter of 2015 will be impacted by challenges in energy markets due to customer inventory reductions caused by the recent collapse in oil prices. We do expect improvement in energy demand once inventory destocking is complete. Additionally, from a long-term macroeconomic perspective, we believe lower energy prices are good for the domestic economy and therefore good for Nucor. Import levels have continued to increase in 2015, and we expect imports to remain at high levels throughout the first quarter. The performance of our downstream products businesses is expected to decrease from the fourth quarter of 2014 due to typical seasonality experienced in the first quarter, and then to improve as we enter the construction season in the second quarter. We continue to see positive trends in nonresidential construction markets which should benefit our steel mills and fabricated construction products businesses as the year progresses.”