Nucor CEO John Ferriola doesn't know if 2019 will prove to be as good for steel as 2018, but he is still expecting a very good year, he told S&P Global Platts.
"Demand is good. We look at 24 end-markets that we supply and of those 24, [21] of them we think will be stable or increasing in 2019," he said in an interview this past week on the sidelines of the 2019 Steel Success Strategies conference in New York.
The three end-markets that are unlikely to top last year's demand are power transmission, automotive and automotive suppliers, he said. However, he was quick to note that these markets are coming down from exceptionally high demand.
"There were so many power transmission extension projects last year that it's just naturally falling off this year, and automotive and automotive suppliers are down...but it's gone from 17.2-17.3 million units to 16.8 million, so these are still historic highs," he said.
Nucor is continuing to focus on growing its presence in the automotive industry, particularly in exposed automotive steels, he said. In May the company was recognized as a General Motors Supplier of the Year for non-fabricated steel, marking the first electric arc furnace steelmaker to receive this recognition.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing people say that Nucor cannot produce automotive steel in our electric arc furnaces. If this doesn't debase that comment I don't know what will," he said.
When asked if he was seeing the tide turn in automotive away from integrated production and toward EAFs, Ferriola responded "at Nucor it is."
"We have been investing heavily in our mills for the last several years preparing for this and being able to get in," he said. "You don't just start producing automotive and you're supplier of the year."
