Nucor Corporation Issues

Nucor Corporation is made up of 11,500 teammates whose goal is to "Take Care of Our Customers." We are accomplishing this by being the safest, highest quality, lowest cost, most productive and most profitable steel and steel products company in the world. We are committed to doing this while being cultural and environmental stewards in our communities where we live and work. We are succeeding by working together.

Nucor's History

Nucor Corporation is the largest steel producer in the United States and had net sales of $12.7 billion in 2005. Nucor is the nation's largest recycler. In 2004, Nucor recycled approximately 17 million tons of scrap steel, with 5 million of those tons being automobiles. Nucor's origins are with auto manufacturer Ransom E. Olds, who founded Oldsmobile and then Reo Motor Cars. Through a series of transactions, the company Olds founded eventually became the Nuclear Corporation of America. Nuclear Corporation was involved in the nuclear instrument and electronics business in the 1950's and early 1960's.

The company suffered through several money-losing years, and when facing bankruptcy in 1964, installed F. Kenneth Iverson as President and Samuel Siegel as Vice President of Finance. This change in management led to a restructuring and a decision to rebuild the company around the major profitable operations; the steel joist businesses in Florence, South Carolina and Norfolk, Nebraska called Vulcraft.

The company moved its headquarters from Phoenix, Arizona to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1966, and expanded the joist business with new operations in Texas and Alabama. Management then decided to integrate backwards into steel making by building its first steel bar mill in Darlington, South Carolina in 1968. In 1972 the company adopted the name Nucor Corporation. Throughout the remainder of the 1970's Nucor built two more joist plants and two more bar mills to supply its existing Vulcraft facilities.

In the 1980's Nucor began the decade by building its sixth Vulcraft facility and fourth bar mill which are located in the State of Utah. Later in the 1980's, Nucor revolutionized the sheet steel industry by pioneering thin slab casting technology in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Thin slab casting was a revolutionary process that substantially reduced the capital investment and costs to produce sheet steel. Forbes magazine described this accomplishment as the most substantial, technological, industrial innovation in the past 50 years. Nucor continued to enter into new markets and products by building and commissioning its first structural beam facility in Blytheville, Arkansas, through a joint venture with Yamato Kogyo in Japan.

In the 1990's, Nucor expanded its Nucor-Yamato facility by adding a second mill on its site which made Nucor-Yamato the largest structural beam facility in the Western Hemisphere. Nucor continued to grow its core businesses by building sheet mills in Hickman, Arkansas and Berkeley County, South Carolina. Nucor continued to grow by building an additional beam mill on its Berkeley County site which led to the Berkeley County facility becoming the largest mini-mill in the world producing over 3 million tons annually.

Since 2000, Nucor has continued its growth by entering the plate market by building its first plate mill in Hertford County, North Carolina. Nucor also expanded its Vulcraft product group by building its seventh plant in Chemung, New York. Nucor has also embarked on a four part growth strategy which has led to an unprecedented level of growth and profitability. The first part of the strategy is to optimize existing operations. Nucor has executed on this strategy by completing a three year bar mill modernization program adding vacuum degassers to our sheet mills and additional capital expenditures at each of our other divisions.

The second of the four part strategy is to pursue strategic acquisitions. In 2001, Nucor purchased substantially all of the assets of Auburn Steel Company, Inc.'s steel bar facility in Auburn, New York. In November 2001, Nucor announced the acquisition of ITEC Steel Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Steel Truss and Frame Corp. The name change of Nucon Steel Commercial Corporation happened in 2002. Also in 2002, Nucor completed the purchase of substantially all of the assets of Birmingham Steel Corporation, which includes four operating bar mills in Alabama, Illinois, Washington, and Mississippi. Also in 2002, Nucor's wholly owned subsidiary Nucor Steel Decatur, LLC purchased substantially all the assets of Trico Steel Company. This sheet mill is located in Decatur, Alabama. In 2004, Nucor's wholly owned subsidiary, Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, Inc., purchased substantially all the assets of Corus Tuscaloosa, which is a plate mill located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In February 2005, Nucor purchased the assets of Fort Howard Steel, Inc.'s operations in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. This facility is a producer of cold finished bars. In the second quarter of 2005, Nucor purchased substantially all of the assets of Marion Steel Company located in Marion, Ohio. Nucor's most recent acquisition happened on May 1, 2006, when we completed the purchase of substantially all of the assets of Connecticut Steel Corporation.

The third of the four part strategy is to continue Greenfield growth via the commercialization of new technologies. We have now successfully commercialized the Castrip process at our Crawfordsville facility. Castrip is the world's first production installation with a direct strip casting of carbon sheet steel. Nucor is currently building its second Castrip facility at the Nucor-Yamato beam facility in Blytheville, Arkansas.

The fourth of the four part strategy is to grow globally with joint ventures. Nucor is currently executing on this strategy in Australia by partnering with The Rio Tinto Group, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Chinese steel maker Shougang Corporation on a HIsmelt plant located in Kwinana, Western Australia. Production started in January 2006. Nucor has also entered a joint venture with Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) to construct and operate an environmentally friendly pig iron project in northern Brazil. Production of pig iron at this facility, Ferro Gusa Carajas S.A., began in the fourth quarter of 2005. Nucor continues to look for other opportunities globally.

Today, Nucor has operating facilities in 17 states. Products