Nucor News

Nucor Corp., the second-largest U.S. steel producer, forecast a second-quarter loss that is narrower than analysts estimated and said orders have increased in recent weeks.

The loss may be 55 cents to 65 cents a share, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor said today in a statement. Analysts expected a 71-cent loss, the average of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The company forecast in April it may have a second-quarter loss that was greater than the previous period’s loss of 60 cents.

Steel prices may have found support because manufacturers need to rebuild inventories following production cuts by steelmakers, analysts including Dahlman Rose & Co.’s Tony Rizzuto and Keybanc Capital Markets’s Mark Parr have said. Nucor said in April it’s running its mills at 45 percent to contend with a drop in demand that has dragged down steel prices by more than half since July.

“Destocking has largely run its course,” Rizzuto said in a note to clients today. “We do anticipate that order entry at the steel mills will begin to match end-user demand.”

Nucor rose $1.11, or 2.4 percent, to $46.86 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 40 percent in the past 12 months.

Orders Rising

“Order entry has improved in recent weeks,” Chief Executive Officer Dan DiMicco said in the statement. “We believe this period of economic and steel industry distress will present unusually attractive growth opportunities for Nucor.”