Photo courtesy of Nucor Corp.
Recycled-content steelmaker Nucor Corp., Charlotte, North Carolina, has reported net earnings attributable to Nucor shareholders of more than $600 million in this year’s second quarter, representing a more than 280 percent leap in earnings compared with the first three months of 2025.
The quarter-on-quarter earnings growth puts Nucor on a closer track to its highly profitable 2024, but the metals company remains behind last year’s pace.
In the first half of this year, Nucor has reported earnings attributable to shareholders of nearly $760 million, or $3.26 per diluted share, compared with earnings of $1.49 billion, or $6.14 per diluted share, in the first six months of 2024.
The company, which also operates the David J. Joseph (DJJ) network of metals recycling and trading locations and makes metal building components, recorded net sales of $8.46 billion in the April through June time frame.
In its recycled-content electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking sector, Nucor says the average ferrous scrap and scrap substitute cost it paid per gross ton from April through June was $403, a 2 percent increase compared with $394 per ton in the first quarter of 2025 and $396 in the second quarter of 2024.
Nucor says its Raw Materials business unit, which includes DJJ and direct-reduced iron (DRI) production plants, experienced increased earnings in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the prior quarter due primarily to its scrap processing operations.
In the firm’s larger steelmaking sector, Nucor's average selling price per ton in the second quarter of 2025 increased by 8 percent compared with the first quarter of this year and decreased by 3 percent compared with the second quarter of 2024.
Total steel mill shipments in the second quarter of 2025 were comparable to the first quarter of 2025 but increased 10 percent compared to the second quarter of 2024, according to Nucor.
“As we head into the second half of 2025, we are encouraged by resilient demand across key end markets, a healthy order backlog and recently enacted tax and trade policies that promote American manufacturing,” Nucor President and CEO Leon Topalian says.
Regarding the financial quarter now underway, Nucor expects earnings to be nominally lower than in the second quarter of 2025, due to decreased earnings in the steel mills segment and similar earnings in the steel products and raw materials segments.
The company says despite “resilient backlogs and a stable demand outlook” in its EAF mills segment, it expects margin compression this summer compared with the second quarter of 2025.