Nucor Corp (NUE) 2015 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Nucor Corporation fourth-quarter and year-end 2015 earnings call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

今天是個好日子。歡迎參加紐柯公司 2015 年第四季和年底財報電話會議。提醒一下，今天的通話正在錄音。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Certain statements made during this conference call will be forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The words we expect, believe, anticipate, and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify those forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and information that is currently available.

本次電話會議期間所做的某些陳述將是涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述。我們期望、相信、預期的詞語以及這些詞語和類似表達的變體旨在識別這些前瞻性陳述，這些陳述基於管理層當前的預期和當前可獲得的資訊。

Although Nucor believes they are based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that future events will not affect their accuracy. More information about the risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements may be found in Nucor's latest 10-K and subsequently filed 10-Qs which are available on the SEC's and Nucor's website.

儘管紐柯公司認為它們是基於合理的假設，但不能保證未來的事件不會影響它們的準確性。有關與這些前瞻性陳述相關的風險和不確定性的更多信息，請參閱紐柯公司最新的 10-K 和隨後提交的 10-Q，這些信息可在 SEC 和紐柯公司的網站上找到。

The forward-looking statements made in this conference call speak only as of this date. And Nucor does not assume any obligation to update them either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

本次電話會議所做的前瞻性陳述僅代表截至目前為止的情況。紐柯公司不承擔因新資訊、未來事件或其他原因而更新它們的任何義務。

For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. John Ferriola, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Nucor Corporation.

我想請紐柯鋼鐵公司董事長、執行長兼總裁約翰費裡奧拉先生致開幕詞和介紹。

Please go ahead, sir.

請繼續，先生。

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our conference call. As always, we appreciate your interest in Nucor.

午安.感謝您參加我們的電話會議。一如既往，我們感謝您對紐柯鋼鐵的興趣。

With me for today's call are the other members of Nucor's Senior Management Team: Chief Financial Officer Jim Frias; and our other Executive Vice Presidents Jim Darsey, Ladd Hall, Ray Napolitan, Joe Stratman, Dave Sumoski, and Chad Utermark.

與我一起參加今天電話會議的還有紐柯高階管理團隊的其他成員：財務長吉姆‧弗里亞斯 (Jim Frias)；以及我們的其他執行副總裁 Jim Darsey、Ladd Hall、Ray Napolitan、Joe Stratman、Dave Sumoski 和 Chad Utermark。

Your leadership team in Charlotte would like to thank everyone on our Nucor Harris Steel, David J. Joseph, Duferdofin, NuMit, Steel Technologies and Skyline Steel teams for your hard work every day to build a safer, stronger and more profitable Nucor.

你們在夏洛特的領導團隊要感謝我們的Nucor Harris Steel、David J. Joseph、Duferdofin、NuMit、Steel Technologies 和Skyline Steel 團隊中的每一個人，感謝你們每天的辛勤工作，以建立一個更安全、更強大和更有利可圖的紐柯鋼鐵公司。

In extremely turbulent global steel industry conditions, we are taking advantage of Nucor's unrivaled competitive position and highly flexible business model to grow our Company's long-term earnings power. While many of our competitors are fighting to survive this protracted downturn, over more than 23,000 teammates are positioning Nucor to continue to thrive in the years ahead.

在極度動盪的全球鋼鐵業情況下，我們正在利用紐柯無與倫比的競爭地位和高度靈活的業務模式來增強公司的長期獲利能力。雖然我們的許多競爭對手正在努力度過這場長期的低迷期，但超過 23,000 名隊友正在為紐柯公司在未來幾年的持續發展做好準備。

Jim Frias will now review Nucor's fourth-quarter performance and financial position. Following his comments, I will update you on the execution of our strategy for long-term profitable growth.

吉姆·弗里亞斯現在將回顧紐柯第四季的業績和財務狀況。根據他的評論，我將向您介紹我們長期獲利成長策略的執行情況。

Jim?

吉姆？

Thanks, John.

謝謝，約翰。

Fourth-quarter of 2015 adjusted earnings of $0.46 per diluted share, excluding impairment charges of $237 million, exceeded our guidance range of $0.15 to $0.20 per diluted share. Fourth-quarter results included a LIFO credit of $218 million, somewhat higher than the $181 million LIFO credit projected in our guidance. The larger-than-expected LIFO credit increased our earnings for the quarter by approximately $0.07 per diluted share. The biggest factor driving our fourth-quarter outperformance was stronger-than-forecasted results for the month of December at our steel mills, particularly the sheet mills, and our downstream product segments.

2015 年第四季調整後每股攤薄收益為 0.46 美元（不包括 2.37 億美元的減損費用），超出了我們每股攤薄每股 0.15 至 0.20 美元的指導範圍。第四季業績包括 2.18 億美元的 LIFO 信貸，略高於我們指引中預計的 1.81 億美元的 LIFO 信貸。超出預期的後進先出信貸使我們本季攤薄後每股收益增加約 0.07 美元。推動我們第四季表現優異的最大因素是我們的鋼廠（特別是板材廠）以及下游產品部門 12 月的業績優於預期。

Nucor continues to benefit from effective execution of our channel-to-market strategy and our ongoing investments to expand our offerings of value-added products. At the same time, all of our Nucor teams continue their unrelenting focus on maintaining our position as the low cost producer across our extremely diverse product portfolio.

紐柯公司繼續受益於我們通路市場策略的有效執行以及我們為擴大增值產品供應而進行的持續投資。同時，我們所有的紐柯團隊繼續不懈地致力於在我們極其多樣化的產品組合中保持我們作為低成本生產商的地位。

During the fourth quarter of 2015, we recorded two non-cash impairment charges totaling $237 million. A $153 million charge reduced the value of our equity method investment in the Duferdofin Nucor steel making joint venture in Italy. In addition, an $84 million charge was taken to write off the entire amount of certain assets, primarily engineering planes and equipment related to a potential blast furnace project at our St. James Parish, Louisiana site.

2015 年第四季度，我們記錄了兩項總計 2.37 億美元的非現金減損費用。1.53 億美元的費用減少了我們對義大利 Duferdofin Nucor 鋼鐵生產合資企業的權益法投資價值。此外，還收取了 8,400 萬美元的費用來註銷某些資產的全部金額，主要是與聖路易斯潛在高爐項目相關的工程飛機和設備。路易斯安那州詹姆士教區遺址。

Due to technology advances and other factors, we no longer expect to use those plans if we proceed with the blast furnace project. Including these impairment charges, Nucor's consolidated net loss for the quarter was $62 million or $0.19 per diluted share.

由於技術進步和其他因素，如果我們繼續進行高爐項目，我們預計將不再使用這些計劃。包括這些減損費用在內，紐柯公司本季的綜合淨虧損為 6,200 萬美元，即稀釋後每股虧損 0.19 美元。

Our Duferdofin Nucor impairment charge reflects the ongoing financial performance and deterioration in near-term projections for this business. The 50% ownership in Duferdofin Nucor was acquired in July 2008 for approximately $667 million.

我們的杜弗多芬紐柯減損費用反映了該業務的持續財務表現和近期預測的惡化。Duferdofin Nucor 50% 的所有權於 2008 年 7 月以約 6.67 億美元的價格收購。

Although market conditions in Europe remain extremely weak, we are very pleased with the dedication and hard work of our approximately 700 teammates at Duferdofin Nucor. They have achieved very significant improvements in costs and product mix. As one example, conversion costs at our San Zeno melt shop have reached world class levels.

儘管歐洲的市場狀況仍然極其疲軟，但我們對 Duferdofin Nucor 約 700 名隊友的奉獻和辛勤工作感到非常滿意。他們在成本和產品組合方面取得了非常顯著的改進。舉個例子，我們的 San Zeno 熔煉車間的轉換成本已達到世界一流水準。

Duferdofin Nucor is also successfully expanding its portfolio to include value-added and more import-resistant products such as engineered bar, blooms and billets, as well as special profiles.

Duferdofin Nucor 也成功地擴展了其產品組合，包括增值和更耐進口的產品，例如工程棒材、大方坯和鋼坯，以及特殊型材。

Across the entire organization, our Duferdofin Nucor teammates have embraced and taken ownership of a culture focused on safety, environmental stewardship and production efficiency. All of these initiatives are focused on achieving consistent profitability for the joint venture in the near future.

在整個組織中，我們的杜弗多芬紐柯團隊成員已經接受並掌握了一種注重安全、環境管理和生產效率的文化。所有這些舉措都致力於在不久的將來為合資企業實現持續盈利。

A quick comment about our fourth quarter of 2015 tax rate, as it can be confusing due to the impact of profits from non-controlling interests and the impairment charges.

對我們 2015 年第四季的稅率進行快速評論，因為由於非控制權益利潤和減損費用的影響，它可能會令人困惑。

Excluding profits belonging to our business partners and the two non-cash charges, the effective tax rate was approximately 31% for the fourth quarter. Nucor continues to generate very robust operating cash flow in extremely challenging steel market conditions. With our highly variable and low cost structure, we benefit from significant reductions in working capital during downturns.

不包括屬於我們業務夥伴的利潤和兩項非現金費用，第四季的有效稅率約為 31%。在極具挑戰性的鋼鐵市場條件下，紐柯公司持續產生非常強勁的營運現金流。憑藉我們高度可變和低成本的結構，我們在經濟低迷時期受益於營運資金的大幅減少。

2015 cash provided by operations was approximately $2.2 billion, a dramatic increase from 2014's operating cash flow of about $1.3 billion. It also represents our strongest cash flow performance since 2008's record level of $2.5 billion.

2015 年營運提供的現金約 22 億美元，較 2014 年約 13 億美元的營運現金流大幅增加。它也代表了自 2008 年創紀錄的 25 億美元水準以來我們最強勁的現金流表現。

Over this prolonged steel industry downturn that began in 2009, Nucor's annual operating cash flow generation has averaged approximately $1.3 billion. That compares with average annual operating cash flow of $500 million to the previous cyclical downturn from 2001 to 2003.

在2009年開始的鋼鐵業長期低迷時期，紐柯鋼鐵公司的年經營現金流量平均約為13億美元。相較之下，2001 年至 2003 年的上一次週期性衰退期間，每年平均營運現金流為 5 億美元。

2015 capital expenditures were $365 million. For 2016, we estimate capital spending of approximately $500 million.

2015年資本支出為3.65億美元。我們預計 2016 年的資本支出約為 5 億美元。

Depreciation and amortization for 2016 is expected to total about $700 million.

2016年折舊及攤銷預計總計約7億美元。

Most of our recent larger-scale organic growth projects have been completed or are nearing completion. Nucor's financial strength allows us to invest in capital projects and strategic acquisitions during severe industry downturns when the long-term returns are most attractive. Through the downturn that began in 2009, and continued with a vengeance in 2015, Nucor has invested more than $6 billion to grow our long-term earnings power. That includes capital expenditures of approximately $4.4 billion and acquisitions totaling about $1.9 billion.

我們最近的大多數大型有機成長項目已經完成或即將完成。紐柯公司的財務實力使我們能夠在產業嚴重低迷時期投資資本項目和策略性收購，此時長期回報最具吸引力。經歷了 2009 年開始的經濟低迷以及 2015 年的嚴重衰退，紐柯公司已投資超過 60 億美元來增強我們的長期獲利能力。其中包括約 44 億美元的資本支出和總額約 19 億美元的收購。

Rather than fighting for survival, the Nucor team is executing our strategic plan for driving profitable growth and delivering attractive returns to our shareholders. Nucor's disciplined and balanced approach to capital allocation also allows us to reward shareholders with attractive cash returns on their investment. Over the 10-year period ending in 2015, Nucor has returned a total of approximately $6.8 billion of their capital to our shareholders through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases.

紐柯團隊不是為生存而戰，而是執行我們的策略計劃，以推動獲利成長並為股東提供有吸引力的回報。紐柯公司嚴格且平衡的資本配置方法也使我們能夠為股東提供有吸引力的投資現金回報。在截至 2015 年的 10 年期間，紐柯透過股利和機會性股票回購向股東返還了總計約 68 億美元的資本。

With the dividend increase announced in December and effective with next year's quarterly payment, Nucor has increased its base dividend for 43 consecutive years, every year since it first began paying dividends in 1973. Reflecting our success in growing long-term earnings power, the base dividend has increased fivefold over the past ten years. In December, we began repurchasing shares of our common stock under the $900 million program approved by our Board in September. Our repurchases totaled about 1.7 million shares, at an average cost of just under $40 per share.

自1973年首次開始派息以來，紐柯公司已連續43年增加基本股息，自1973年開始派息以來，每年12月宣布增加股息並於明年的季度支付生效。基本股利在過去十年中增加了五倍，反映出我們在提高長期獲利能力方面的成功。12 月，我們開始根據董事會 9 月批准的 9 億美元計劃回購普通股。我們回購的股票總計約 170 萬股，平均成本略低於每股 40 美元。

Nucor's financial position remains strong. Our gross debt-to-capital ratio was 36% at the close of the fourth quarter. Cash and short-term investments totaled approximately $2 billion, which compares with total debt outstanding of $4.4 billion. Our next significant debt maturity is not until December 2017.

紐柯公司的財務狀況依然強勁。截至第四季末，我們的總負債與資本比率為 36%。現金和短期投資總額約 20 億美元，而未償債務總額為 44 億美元。我們的下一個重大債務到期要到 2017 年 12 月。

Nucor's strong liquidity position also includes our $1.5 billion unsecured revolving credit facility, which remains undrawn. The facility does not mature until August of 2018.

紐柯公司強大的流動性狀況還包括我們尚未提取的 15 億美元無擔保循環信貸額度。該設施要到 2018 年 8 月才會成熟。

Nucor is the only North American headquartered steel producer to hold an investment grade credit rating. Market conditions for our stainless segment remain extremely challenging as a result of global over-capacity and import levels that remain at extremely high levels. However, we anticipate some improvement in the steel mill segment in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the fourth quarter 2015, due to a lower average cost of inventory to begin the first quarter, a small decline in imports and more balanced inventory levels at service center customers.

紐柯鋼鐵公司是唯一一家總部位於北美且擁有投資等級信用評等的鋼鐵生產商。由於全球產能過剩和進口水平仍處於極高水平，我們的不銹鋼領域的市場狀況仍然極具挑戰性。然而，由於第一季開始的平均庫存成本較低、進口小幅下降以及服務庫存水準更加平衡，我們預計 2016 年第一季鋼廠業務將較 2015 年第四季有所改善。中心客戶。

The performance of our downstream steel product segment will be lower due to typical winter seasonality. We expect downstream products for the full year of 2016 to achieve notably-improved performance compared to 2015.

由於典型的冬季季節性，我們下游鋼​​鐵產品領域的表現將會較低。我們預計2016年全年下游產品的業績較2015年將有明顯改善。

Performance in the raw material segment should increase slightly over the fourth quarter level, as Nucor Steel Louisiana resumed production earlier this week following its extended fourth quarter maintenance outage. Margins are expected to improve modestly in our scrap recycling business.

由於紐柯鋼鐵路易斯安那公司在第四季度延長維護停運後於本週稍早恢復生產，原物料部門的業績應會比第四季水準略有成長。預計我們的廢料回收業務的利潤率將略有改善。

We are confident that Nucor's significant competitive advantages and highly-adaptable business model will allow our team to continue to execute our proven strategies for delivering profitable long-term growth and attractive returns to Nucor shareholders. We appreciate your interest in our Company.

我們相信，紐柯公司顯著的競爭優勢和高度適應性的商業模式將使我們的團隊能夠繼續執行我們行之有效的策略，為紐柯公司股東帶來可獲利的長期成長和有吸引力的回報。我們感謝您對我們公司的興趣。

John?

約翰？

Thanks, Jim.

謝謝，吉姆。

I am proud of the results achieved by our teammates in one of the toughest steel markets in decades. Because of their work, Nucor is growing stronger and actually thriving compared to our peers.

我為我們的隊友在幾十年來最艱難的鋼鐵市場之一所取得的成果感到自豪。由於他們的努力，紐柯鋼鐵公司與我們的同行相比變得更加強大並且實際上正在蓬勃發展。

First, I will comment on the overall industry issues we face today. It is not an exaggeration to say that the global steel industry is in a crisis. The crisis is the direct result of foreign governments, particularly China, blatantly subsidizing their steel industries.

首先，我將評論我們今天面臨的整體產業問題。毫不誇張地說，全球鋼鐵業陷入危機。這場危機是外國政府，特別是中國政府公然補貼其鋼鐵業的直接結果。

In further violation of international trade rules, this glut of global steel production has led to the dumping of steel products into the US market. Despite the highest level of domestic steel consumption since 2006, the American steel industry capacity utilization in 2015 was around 70%. And pricing for most steel products essentially collapsed.

全球鋼鐵生產過剩導致鋼鐵產品向美國市場傾銷，進一步違反國際貿易規則。儘管國內鋼材消費量達到2006年以來的最高水平，但2015年美國鋼鐵業產能利用率仍在70%左右。大多數鋼鐵產品的定價基本上崩潰了。

Nucor's culture has always been defined by our willingness to tackle challenges head on and focus our energy on what is within our control. To that end, Nucor continues to be proactive and aggressive in pursuing trade cases whenever and wherever it is appropriate.

紐柯公司的文化始終是我們願意麵對挑戰並將精力集中在我們控制範圍內的事情上。為此，紐柯公司將繼續在適當的時間和地點積極主動地追蹤貿易案件。

When foreign producers and governments break mutually-agreed-upon trade laws, there must be meaningful consequences. Nucor has joined other US steel producers in filing trade cases for hot rolled, coal rolled and corrosion resistant flat-rolled products. We are pleased that the International Trade Commission made preliminary determinations of injury in all three cases.

當外國生產商和政府違反共同商定的貿易法時，必然會產生有意義的後果。紐柯鋼鐵公司已與其他美國鋼鐵生產商一起提交了熱軋、煤軋和耐腐蝕扁軋產品的貿易案件。我們很高興國際貿易委員會對這三起案件都做出了損害的初步裁決。

Regarding the preliminary duties announced by the Commerce Department, we are satisfied with the duties applied to products from China in the corrosion resistant and coal rolled cases. But we are extremely disappointed in the other determinations and believe that the facts support higher duties. However, we are confident that the government will be more aggressive in its final determinations after further analysis is done.

關於商務部宣布的初步關稅，我們對針對來自中國的耐腐蝕和煤捲材產品徵收的關稅感到滿意。但我們對其他決定極為失望，並相信事實支持更高的責任。不過，我們相信，在進行進一步分析後，政府的最終決定將會更加積極。

Another important trade issue in 2016 is China's bid to gain recognition as a market economy under its protocol of ascension to the World Trade Organization agreed to in 2001. Over the past 15 years, China has failed to implement the reforms necessary to become a market economy. China remains a government-run, non-market economy today. Therefore, the US has no reason to change its treatment of China as a non-market economy.

2016年另一個重要的貿易議題是中國在2001年同意加入世界貿易組織的議定書下尋求獲得市場經濟地位的承認。過去15年來，中國未能實施市場經濟所需的改革。今天的中國仍然是一個政府管理的非市場經濟體。因此，美國沒有理由改變對中國的非市場經濟待遇。

Great challenges provide great opportunities for great companies that already foresees them. At Nucor, we are more than just ready; we are doing it. We are on the offensive and growing stronger.

巨大的挑戰為那些已經預見這些挑戰的偉大公司提供了巨大的機會。在紐柯，我們不僅做好了準備，而且還做好了準備。我們正在這樣做。我們正在進攻並變得更加強大。

Our multi-pronged growth strategy is simple and flexible. That strategy is supported by Nucor's five drivers to profitable growth, which highlight where we are focusing our energies to build long-term earnings power and provide our shareholders with attractive returns on their valuable capital. Here they are.

我們的多管齊下的成長策略簡單而靈活。這項策略得到了紐柯公司獲利成長的五個驅動因素的支持，這些驅動因素凸顯了我們將精力集中在建立長期獲利能力並為股東的寶貴資本提供有吸引力的回報上。他們來了。

One, strengthen our position as a low-cost producer; two, achieve market leadership positions in every product line in our portfolio; three, move up the value chain by expanding our capabilities to produce higher-quality, more import-resistant products; four, expand our downstream channels to market to increase our steel mills' base load volume, especially in weak markets; and five, achieve commercial excellence to complement our traditional operational strength.

一、強化低成本生產商地位；第二，在我們的產品組合中的每個產品線中取得市場領導地位；第三，透過擴大生產能力來提升價值鏈，生產更高品質、更耐進口的產品；四是拓展下游市場通路，增加鋼廠基本負載量，特別是在市場疲軟的情況下；五是實現商業卓越，以補足我們的傳統營運實力。

Our performance in 2015 provides numerous examples of how we are growing stronger in this downturn and positioning Nucor to deliver higher highs in profitability during the inevitable cyclical upturn. Despite the challenges, illegally-traded imports, and less-than-robust capacity utilization rates, our bar mills delivered solid profitability in 2015. The keys to their success are powerful and sustainable: market leadership positions, strong channels to the market, and an unrelenting focus to drive costs lower.

我們 2015 年的表現提供了無數例子，說明我們如何在這次低迷時期變得更加強大，並使紐柯公司在不可避免的周期性好轉期間實現更高的盈利能力。儘管面臨挑戰、非法進口貿易以及產能利用率不高，我們的棒材工廠在 2015 年仍實現了穩健的利潤。他們成功的關鍵是強大且可持續的：市場領導地位、強大的市場管道以及對降低成本的不懈關注。

Our Fabricated Construction Products group achieved very strong year-over-year profit growth in 2015 and actually approached the record profitability reached in 2007. That is very impressive when you consider the fact that US non-residential construction activity for 2015, as measured by square footage, represents less than 60% of 2007's peak activity. In addition to their strong market leadership positions, Nucor's fabricated construction products enhance the through-the-cycle profitability and flexibility of our steel making businesses.

我們的組裝式建築產品集團在 2015 年實現了非常強勁的同比利潤成長，實際上接近 2007 年創下的獲利記錄。考慮到 2015 年美國非住宅建築活動（以平方英尺計算）僅佔 2007 年高峰活動的不到 60%，這一事實令人印象深刻。除了強大的市場領導地位外，紐柯的組裝式建築產品還增強了我們煉鋼業務的整個週期獲利能力和靈活性。

Our structural steel business also delivered attractive earnings growth in 2015, while working against strong headwinds from high import levels and low mill capacity utilization. Impressive results were delivered by all of our structural steel teams: our Nucor-Yamato mill; our Berkeley County, South Carolina mill; and our piling distribution business, Skyline Steel. Nucor's ongoing success in the structural steel business continues to be powered by our market leadership position, strong channels to the market, and new product introductions that continue to move us up the value chain.

我們的結構鋼業務在 2015 年也實現了有吸引力的獲利成長，同時克服了高進口水平和低工廠產能利用率帶來的強勁阻力。我們所有的結構鋼團隊都取得了令人印象深刻的成果：我們的 Nucor-Yamato 工廠；我們位於南卡羅來納州伯克利縣的工廠；以及我們的樁分銷業務 Skyline Steel。紐柯鋼鐵在結構鋼業務上的持續成功繼續得益於我們的市場領導地位、強大的市場管道以及不斷推動我們向價值鏈上游邁進的新產品的推出。

Our Nucor-Yamato structural mill is continuing to expand its value-added product portfolio. In 2015, Nucor-Yamato began shipping its wider sheet piling sections. These new products are already enjoying strong marketplace success. We see significant opportunities for profitable growth in this market which currently is largely supplied by imports.

我們的 Nucor-Yamato 結構鋼廠正在繼續擴大其加值產品組合。2015 年，紐柯大和開始運送其更寬的板樁部分。這些新產品已經在市場上取得了巨大的成功。我們看到這個市場獲利成長的巨大機會，目前該市場主要由進口供應。

Further, during the second half of 2016, Nucor-Yamato will begin commissioning its $75 million Quench and Self-Tempering projects. This investment will position Nucor as the sole North American producer of high strength, low alloyed beams.

此外，2016 年下半年，紐柯大和公司將開始調試其價值 7,500 萬美元的淬火和自回火計畫。這項投資將使紐柯公司成為北美唯一的高強度低合金梁生產商。

Our Berkeley County, South Carolina sheet mill achieved very solid fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 profitability in what can best be described as horrific flat-rolled market conditions. The Berkeley team continues to capitalize on their investments in vacuum degassing and the wide light capabilities provided by caster and hot mill equipment upgrades.

我們位於南卡羅來納州伯克利縣的薄板廠在 2015 年第四季和全年實現了非常穩健的獲利能力，最貼切的描述就是可怕的平軋市場狀況。伯克利團隊繼續利用他們在真空脫氣以及連鑄機和熱磨設備升級提供的寬光能力方面的投資。

New products from the wide light modernization are allowing us to gain new business in a wide range of end use markets including metal buildings, railcars, auto heaters, automotive, heavy equipment and motor lamination. Of particular note, Nucor's automotive business continues to grow, with work awarded by a diversified and high-quality portfolio of automotive OEM customers.

來自廣泛輕型現代化的新產品使我們能夠在廣泛的最終用途市場中獲得新業務，包括金屬建築、軌道車、汽車加熱器、汽車、重型設備和馬達疊片。特別值得注意的是，紐柯的汽車業務持續成長，其工作由多元化、高品質的汽車 OEM 客戶組合授予。

Highlighting Nucor's overall commitment to profitable growth in the automotive market and our strategic focus on commercial excellence, we opened a Detroit sales office earlier this year. Our shipment rate to the automotive market from our sheet and SBQ bar mills increased by about 20% in 2015 versus 2014 to approximately 1.4 million tons. We believe the time could not be better for a financially strong and technologically advanced steel supplier, such as Nucor, to make a more significant contribution to the automotive industry.

今年早些時候，我們在底特律設立了銷售辦事處，突顯了紐柯公司對汽車市場獲利成長的整體承諾以及我們對商業卓越的策略重點。2015 年，我們的板材和 SBQ 棒材工廠向汽車市場的出貨量比 2014 年增加了約 20%，達到約 140 萬噸。我們相信，對於像紐柯這樣財力雄厚、技術先進的鋼鐵供應商來說，現在正是為汽車產業做出更大貢獻的最佳時機。

In November, we acquired Gerdau's cold finished bar facilities located in Ohio and Georgia. Adding combined annual production capability of 75,000 tons, this acquisition strengthens Nucor's market leadership position in this very attractive value-added business, an important channel to the market. I warmly welcome to the Nucor family all of our newest teammates in Orrville, Ohio, and Cartersville, Georgia.

11 月，我們收購了 Gerdau 位於俄亥俄州和喬治亞州的冷成品棒材工廠。此次收購使紐柯公司的年產能合計達到 75,000 噸，鞏固了紐柯公司在這一極具吸引力的增值業務（進入市場的重要管道）中的市場領導地位。我熱烈歡迎俄亥俄州奧爾維爾和喬治亞州卡特斯維爾的所有新隊友加入紐柯大家庭。

Our list of five drivers to profitable growth begins with the objective to strengthen our position as a low-cost producer. Nucor's DRI production capability, with its excellent conversion cost structure, has significantly strengthened our position as a low-cost steel maker. It gives us the flexibility to optimize Nucor's overall IM units mix and most importantly, cost.

我們列出的利潤成長的五個驅動因素首先是為了加強我們作為低成本生產商的地位。紐柯的直接還原鐵生產能力及其出色的轉換成本結構，顯著鞏固了我們作為低成本鋼鐵製造商的地位。它使我們能夠靈活地優化紐柯的整體 IM 裝置組合，最重要的是優化成本。

Consistent with our announcement earlier this month, our DRI plant in Louisiana has resumed operations and is producing high-quality DRI. Recent changes in raw material pricing led to this decision.

與我們本月稍早宣布的一致，我們位於路易斯安那州的 DRI 工廠已恢復運作並正在生產高品質的 DRI。最近原物料價格的變化導致了這個決定。

These are challenging times in the steel business. But for a company such as Nucor, one that is in a unique position of strength, these are also times of great opportunities. Here is what I see throughout Nucor. The right people working with their typical high energy level and sense of urgency to seize these opportunities for profitable growth, ensuring that Nucor's best years are still ahead of us.

這是鋼鐵業充滿挑戰的時期。但對於像紐柯這樣具有獨特優勢的公司來說，這也是一個充滿機會的時代。這是我在紐柯公司看到的一切。合適的人員以他們典型的高能量水平和緊迫感抓住這些利潤成長的機會，確保紐柯公司的最佳歲月仍在前方。

Thank you for your interest in Nucor. We would now be happy to answer your questions.

感謝您對紐柯鋼鐵的興趣。我們現在很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Tony Rizzuto, Cowen and Company.

托尼·裡祖托，考恩公司。

Hi, all. Hi, John.

大家好。你好，約翰。

Hi, Tony, how are you?

嗨，托尼，你好嗎？

Good. Happy New Year.

好的。新年快樂。

Happy New Year to you.

祝你新年快樂。

John, my first question, I just wanted to know on the trade side, what gives you the confidence the final decision will bite harder and be more broad based, first of all?

約翰，我的第一個問題，我只是想知道在貿易方面，是什麼讓你有信心最終的決定首先會更加有力、基礎更廣泛？

Well, let me start by saying that we take a hard look at the data, and as we view the data, and as we are anxious to go back and present it to the Commerce Department, we feel confident that we can prove a stronger case than came out in the preliminaries. So, we're pretty confident that as they look at all of the facts. Remember that during the preliminary findings, they see only some of the facts presented by, frankly, from the countries that we are looking to gain some duties from, so they don't see the whole picture.

好吧，首先我要說的是，我們仔細研究了這些數據，當我們查看這些數據時，當我們急於返回並將其提交給商務部時，我們有信心能夠證明更有力的理由比預賽中出來的還要多。因此，當他們考慮到所有事實時，我們對此非常有信心。請記住，在初步調查結果中，坦白說，他們只看到了我們希望從中獲得一些關稅的國家提供的一些事實，因此他們看不到全貌。

We have an opportunity during this period to present our case, and we're confident that when we get to present our case, and get a more balanced view in front of them, they'll come out with a stronger duty determination in the final determination.

在此期間，我們有機會陳述我們的案例，我們相信，當我們陳述我們的案例並在他們面前獲得更平衡的觀點時，他們將在最終的判決中做出更強有力的責任決心。

Fair enough. In this environment, provided that they do see a little bit more in the way of the industry and the final determination is a little bit stronger, we still have, obviously there are certain end markets which are, some call in recession, and US dollar is still fairly strong, raw materials at depressed levels. Can you envision hot rolled moving sustainably above $450 per ton?

很公平。在這種環境下，只要他們確實看到了行業的更多情況，並且最終的決心更強了一點，我們仍然有，顯然有某些終端市場，一些人呼籲經濟衰退，以及美元仍然相當堅挺，原材料處於低迷水準。您能否想像熱軋捲價格可持續上漲至每噸 450 美元以上？

It's very difficult to project where pricing is going to go. And let me answer maybe by addressing your earlier point that we do recognize at Nucor that despite our best efforts, and effective trade cases to effective trade action, we recognize that because of the dollar there's always going to be some challenges on the import front. Which is why when you look at our strategy and how we have developed our products to move up the value chain, we have got a strategy that we use to help insulate us as much as possible from the imports.

預測定價將走向何方非常困難。讓我回答一下您之前的觀點，我們在紐柯確實認識到，儘管我們盡了最大努力，並採取了有效的貿易案例和有效的貿易行動，但我們認識到，由於美元的影響，進口方面總會遇到一些挑戰。這就是為什麼當你了解我們的策略以及我們如何開發產品以提升價值鏈時，我們會使用一項策略來幫助我們盡可能免受進口影響。

Higher valued products that are harder to import. We continue to develop a stronger channel to the market. That provides a nice barrier for us, gives us some protection from the imports, so we're taking this from a two-front battle. One, we are continuing to fight the imports, the illegal, unfairly traded imports. Let me be real clear about that -- we do not have a problem with imports. We have a problem with illegal, unfairly traded imports, so we'll continue that battle, and we'll continue with our strategy of moving up the value chain, gaining more market leadership position in the products in which we participate and to continue to develop our channel to the market.

價值較高的產品較難進口。我們繼續開發更強大的市場管道。這為我們提供了一個很好的屏障，為我們提供了一些免受進口影響的保護，所以我們正在從兩條戰線的戰鬥中採取這一點。第一，我們將持續打擊進口，非法、不公平貿易的進口。讓我明確一點——我們在進口方面沒有問題。我們面臨非法、不公平貿易進口的問題，因此我們將繼續這場鬥爭，我們將繼續實施向價值鏈上游移動的策略，在我們參與的產品中獲得更多的市場領導地位，並繼續開發我們的市場通路。

Thanks for that, and just talking a little bit further about that, I was intrigued by your comments about market opportunities you see, and I wonder if you could talk a bit further about the opportunities you see to further penetrate the automotive and maybe HVAC? Is it possible to quantify the opportunities in terms of volume and margin potential that you see? Sounds like a lot of things you're doing --

謝謝你，只是進一步談論這一點，我對你所看到的市場機會的評論很感興趣，我想知道你是否可以進一步談談你所看到的進一步滲透汽車甚至暖通空調領域的機會？是否可以根據您看到的數量和利潤潛力來量化機會？聽起來你正在做很多事——

Let me address that from the automotive front, because that's probably where we feel we have the greatest opportunity.

讓我從汽車方面解決這個問題，因為這可能是我們認為擁有最大機會的領域。

Right.

正確的。

As you know, that we've increased sales into automotive on a delivery basis by about 20% over last year. Today we're at about a 1.4 million ton a year market penetration. We fully expect to be able to get up to 2 million tons over the next couple of years, and that's going to be in both sheet products and in our SBQs.

如您所知，我們的汽車交付銷售額比去年增加了約 20%。如今，我們的市場滲透率約為每年 140 萬噸。我們完全預計未來幾年的產量將達到 200 萬噸，這將用於板材產品和我們的 SBQ。

As we continue in sheet, we move up the value chain into the advanced high-strength steels, particularly when you think about what we've done at our Berkeley facility with the wide light project. That's given us the ability to continue to move even higher in the strength sheet steel products while maintaining the light gauge that they need in the automotive applications. So we feel very good about our sheet penetration into automotive and I'll also point out that on our SBQ, we continue to develop more and more products.

隨著我們繼續生產板材，我們向價值鏈上游移動，進入先進高強度鋼領域，特別是當你想到我們在伯克利工廠的寬光項目中所做的事情時。這使我們能夠繼續提高鋼板產品的強度，同時保持汽車應用所需的輕型規格。因此，我們對板材在汽車領域的滲透感到非常滿意，我還要指出，在我們的 SBQ 上，我們將繼續開發越來越多的產品。

And bear in mind, Tony, that as our team does a great job selling to the automotive market and our products present great opportunities for the automotive customers, let's be honest. The automotive industry is taking a look at the entire steel industry, today, and they look at Nucor and our balance sheet and they see a long-term, sustainable supplier.

東尼，請記住，我們的團隊在汽車市場銷售方面做得非常出色，而且我們的產品為汽車客戶提供了巨大的機會，所以說實話。今天，汽車業正在審視整個鋼鐵業，他們關注紐柯和我們的資產負債表，他們看到了一個長期、可持續的供應商。

When you think about how they order steel, they order steel today, it takes a long time to get qualified. It takes you years to go through that entire process and then the steel they're ordering today could show up on a platform that's not even going to rollout for two to three years from today. So they want to make absolutely certain that after they've gone through the entire qualification period that when they roll that product out, that new platform out, in two to three years, they want to make certain that their steel supplier is going to be there and able to supply the steel that they need to keep their factories running.

當你想到他們如何訂購鋼材時，他們今天訂購鋼材，需要很長時間才能獲得資格。您需要花費數年時間才能完成整個過程，然後他們今天訂購的鋼材可能會出現在一個平台上，而該平台甚至在從今天起兩到三年內都不會推出。因此，他們希望絕對確定，在經歷了整個資格期後，當他們在兩到三年內推出該產品、新平台時，他們希望確保他們的鋼鐵供應商將成為在那裡，能夠供應維持工廠運作所需的鋼材。

Great, great points. I wonder if you could comment, I've been hearing about a competitor, perhaps, losing some people on the R&D side out in the heavy auto area in Michigan. Since you guys opened up that office out there, I'm wondering if you might have been able to attract a few of those folks over to your shop?

太棒了，很棒的幾點。我不知道你是否可以評論一下，我聽說有一個競爭對手，也許在密西根州的重型汽車領域失去了一些研發人員。自從你們在那裡開設了那間辦公室以來，我想知道你們是否能夠吸引其中一些人到你們的商店？

Let me just answer the question this way. The most qualified people that are out there are going to look for companies, to work for companies, that they know are going to be around for the long term. And all I'll say is that when you look at our balance sheet, and when these potential candidates take a look at our Company, one of the things they bring up to us all the time is that, look we want to get with a company we know is going to be there for the long term. I want to finish my career with a company.

我就這樣回答一下這個問題吧。最有資格的人會尋找那些他們知道會長期存在的公司，為他們工作。我要說的是，當你查看我們的資產負債表時，當這些潛在候選人查看我們公司時，他們一直向我們提出的一件事是，看看我們希望得到一個我們知道這家公司將長期存在。我想在一家公司結束我的職業生涯。

Not only are they impressed with our balance sheet, but once they come down and spend some time with us, they like our culture. They like working for, the concept of working for the Nucor family. So yes, we have great potential to attract the best people out there.

他們不僅對我們的資產負債表印象深刻，而且一旦他們下來並與我們共度一段時間，他們就會喜歡我們的文化。他們喜歡為紐柯家族工作，為紐柯家族工作的概念。所以，是的，我們有巨大的潛力吸引最優秀的人才。

And having opened this office in Detroit, I'm telling you what, that was a great move and when we opened it, I guess it was two months ago we had the grand opening. I'll tell you, Tony, we had over 200 customers come by and talk to us, and the one thing that we heard consistently through that two or three hour period was, there's a major concern about the sustainability of some of our competitors in this industry, and they are anxious to do more business with Nucor as a result of that.

在底特律開設了這個辦事處，我告訴你，這是一個偉大的舉動，當我們開設它時，我想是兩個月前我們盛大開幕了。我告訴你，托尼，我們有超過 200 名客戶過來與我們交談，在兩三個小時內我們一直聽到的一件事是，人們對我們的一些競爭對手的可持續性感到非常擔憂。這個行業，因此他們渴望與紐柯開展更多業務。

We're going move on and give someone else a chance to ask some questions. Thank you, Tony.

我們將繼續前進，並給其他人提出一些問題的機會。謝謝你，托尼。

Absolutely. Thanks, John.

絕對地。謝謝，約翰。

Matt Murphy with UBS.

瑞銀集團的馬特墨菲。

Good afternoon. Maybe just picking up from there, in terms of R&D and auto, can you summarize what some of the main steps, the mini-mill industry have to do to make more inroads on auto? What is the key quality steps you've got to make and how quickly can you make them to make more meaningful inroads?

午安.也許只是從那裡開始，在研發和汽車方面，您能否總結一下小型工廠行業必須採取哪些主要步驟才能在汽車領域取得更多進展？您必須採取哪些關鍵的品質步驟？您能以多快的速度執行這些步驟以取得更有意義的進展？

Well, probably, I'm going to speak just to Nucor, because I can't speak for other competitors. Probably the biggest issue we have in front of us today is getting through the qualification period. It's an issue of timing. When you talk about what products do we need to develop to be able to get a deeper penetration into it, I would tell you that, today, we're producing just about all of the products we need to get our full penetration into automotive.

好吧，也許我只會與紐柯公司交談，因為我不能代表其他競爭對手說話。也許我們今天面臨的最大問題是如何度過資格賽期。這是一個時機問題。當你談到我們需要開發哪些產品才能更深入地滲透到汽車領域時，我會告訴你，今天，我們正在生產全面滲透到汽車領域所需的幾乎所有產品。

We're making advanced high-strength steels. We have great quality steel going to the automotive industry, so we're where we need to be in terms of products today. Now having said that, what's good today is not good enough tomorrow, so we need to continue to work on developing even more sophisticated grades that have higher strength while still maintaining flexibility or improved flexibility for the designs that are coming out in the future.

我們正在製造先進的高強度鋼。我們為汽車行業提供優質鋼材，因此我們現在的產品達到了我們需要的水平。話雖如此，今天的好明天還不夠好，所以我們需要繼續努力開發更複雜的牌號，具有更高的強度，同時仍然保持靈活性或提高未來設計的靈活性。

So there's always more to do, but I want to be clear about this point. Today, at least from Nucor's mini mill, we can produce virtually every type of steel that's needed in automotive. One of the questions I'm always asked is about exposed automotive quality, and I've answer this question several times, but I'll say it one more time. Today, we have the ability to produce exposed automotive that is actually out there on cars and went through a qualification period, so we're very comfortable with the products that we can supply and the quality that we can supply.

所以總是有更多的事情要做，但我想澄清這一點。如今，至少從紐柯鋼鐵的小型鋼廠，我們幾乎可以生產汽車所需的所有類型的鋼材。我經常被問到的問題之一是關於暴露的汽車質量，我已經多次回答過這個問題，但我會再說一次。今天，我們有能力生產實際用於汽車的裸露汽車，並經過了資格期，因此我們對我們可以提供的產品和我們可以提供的品質感到非常滿意。

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there's a very long qualification period, and after the qualification period you have to wait for the platform to be introduced that your steel is being specified on. So there's a period of time it's going to take to grow to this 2 million or better tons a year level with automotive, but it's strictly a question of working our way through that time period now.

現在，正如我之前提到的，有一個很長的資格期，在資格期之後，你必須等待指定你的鋼材的平台被引入。因此，汽車產量要成長到每年 200 萬噸或更高的水平還需要一段時間，但現在嚴格來說是我們如何度過這段時間的問題。

That's helpful, thanks.

這很有幫助，謝謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

Chris Olin, Rosenblatt Securities.

克里斯·奧林，羅森布拉特證券。

Hi. Thanks for taking my question.

你好。感謝您提出我的問題。

Just wanted to talk a little bit about the rebar market, and I know you mentioned December shipments were running a little bit better than you guys expected. I was just curious if you saw any order strength from the implementation of the new highway bill. Are you seeing public spending dollars starting to flow into your business?

只是想談談螺紋鋼市場，我知道您提到 12 月份的出貨量比你們預期的要好一些。我只是好奇你是否看到新高速公路法案的實施帶來了任何訂單強度。您是否看到公共支出開始流入您的業務？

It's really too early to see much of an impact on the highway bill. Although, we really are pleased at the government after, what's it been, more than a decade of having short periods of time, it's great to see them come out with a five-year plan.

現在判斷高速公路帳單受到多大影響還為時過早。雖然，我們真的對政府感到高興，畢竟十多年來，政府的任期很短，但很高興看到他們制定了五年計劃。

Frankly, we believe they need to go even further and have a longer-term plan for the infrastructure of our country. It is desperately needed, but to answer your question directly, we haven't seen much of an impact right now. We expect probably in 2016, we'll begin to see some effect and we believe that we'll see a more significant impact starting in 2017.

坦白說，我們認為他們需要走得更遠，為我國的基礎設施制定更長期的計畫。這是迫切需要的，但為了直接回答你的問題，我們目前還沒有看到太大的影響。我們預計可能在 2016 年，我們將開始看到一些影響，我們相信從 2017 年開始，我們將看到更重大的影響。

Just as a quick follow-up, have you ever tried to calculate the potential market impact from the spending dollars, like any thoughts on how much volume could be generated for the industry just from roads and bridge projects coming up?

作為一個快速的跟進，您是否曾經嘗試過計算支出對市場的潛在影響，例如對即將到來的道路和橋樑項目可以為該行業產生多少產量的想法？

I don't know that we've ever tried to figure out an exact number, but I'll tell you, when you look at the product prep we have to offer, the types of products that we have to offer, not only, you mentioned rebar, but think about the plate applications that go into infrastructure. So we've got bar products that go in there, we've got plate products that go in there, and oh, by the way, don't forget, a lot of this work is going into bridges and we've got great piling that we can offer today. We offer piling products that only we produce domestically.

我不知道我們是否曾試圖找出確切的數字，但我會告訴您，當您查看我們必須提供的產品準備時，我們必須提供的產品類型，不僅，您提到了螺紋鋼，但請考慮基礎設施中的板材應用。所以我們有酒吧產品，我們有板材產品，哦，順便說一句，別忘了，很多工作都在橋樑上，我們有很棒的產品我們今天可以提供的堆積。我們提供只有我們在國內生產的打樁產品。

And as I always like to say, when you're going to build a bridge, we can supply every type of steel you need in that bridge, and when you're all said and done, we'll sell you the nuts and bolts to put it together from our fastener division. So, when I look across the spectrum of companies in our industry, Nucor, I believe, is positioned better than most to take advantage and gain the most out of this highway bill as it comes into fruition and the dollars begin to flow.

正如我總是喜歡說的那樣，當您要建造一座橋樑時，我們可以提供橋樑所需的各種鋼材，當您完成所有工作後，我們將向您出售螺母和螺栓從我們的緊固件部門將其組合在一起。因此，當我縱觀我們行業中的眾多公司時，我相信紐柯公司比大多數公司都處於更有利的地位，能夠在這項高速公路法案取得成果和資金開始流動時充分利用並從中獲得最大收益。

Thanks, John.

謝謝，約翰。

Chris Terry, Deutsche Bank.

克里斯‧特里，德意志銀行。

Hi, guys. Just after a little bit more detail on the CapEx outlook for 2016, I think you mentioned a number of $500 million and talked about $75 million for Yamato. Just wondering if you can give a break down of how the CapEx layout looks for the year?

嗨，大家好。就在詳細介紹了 2016 年資本支出前景後，我認為您提到了 Yamato 的 5 億美元，並談到了 7500 萬美元。只是想知道您是否可以詳細說明今年的資本支出佈局如何？

I'm sorry I missed the second half of the question.

很抱歉我錯過了問題的後半部分。

The question is, we mentioned the $75 million going to QST, and we talked about a total budget of about $500 million. He's looking for a little bit more color on how the rest will be distributed.

問題是，我們提到了 QST 的 7500 萬美元，我們談到了大約 5 億美元的總預算。他正在尋找更多關於如何分配其餘部分的資訊。

A couple of things, we always have our maintenance CapEx, which accounts for somewhere around $300 million to $350 million typically, is that a good number?

有幾件事，我們總是有維護資本支出，通常約 3 億至 3.5 億美元，這是一個很好的數字嗎？

Yes, that's right. And there aren't as many large, organic projects right now in the pipeline separate of the project at Nucor-Yamato.

恩，那就對了。除了紐柯-大和專案外，目前正在醞釀的大型有機專案並不多。

But I would mention one other, Jim, if I would, and that's the Memphis heat-treating project. We're going to be adding heat-treating capability at our Memphis facility. An earlier question was about automotive. That will also help us move further into the automotive as we can heat treat our own product coming out of Memphis.

但如果我願意的話，我會提到另一個，吉姆，那就是孟菲斯熱處理項目。我們將在孟菲斯工廠增加熱處理能力。之前的一個問題是關於汽車的。這也將幫助我們進一步進入汽車領域，因為我們可以對來自孟菲斯的自己的產品進行熱處理。

Although we've already spent most of that money, because it was required more installing than spending fresh capital.

儘管我們已經花掉了大部分錢，因為它需要更多的安裝而不是花費新的資本。

But that's another project that we're doing, so those are two that we can mention. As Jim said, most of the large ones, and we're kind of happy about it, most of our large ones, we're past the phase of where we're spending the money, we're well into the start-up and, frankly, past the start-up, and we're beginning to see some of the returns from these projects that we've invested in heavily. We mentioned several types the wide light project, we mentioned piling project. I'll mention the DRI project, so it's nice to be past the point where we will have spent on the existing projects.

但這是我們正在做的另一個項目，所以我們可以提到這兩個項目。正如吉姆所說，大多數大型企業，我們對此感到高興，我們大多數大型企業，我們已經過了花錢的階段，我們已經進入了初創階段坦率地說，在啟動之後，我們開始看到我們大量投資的這些項目的一些回報。我們提到了幾種類型的寬光工程，我們提到了打樁工程。我將提到 DRI 項目，因此很高興能夠超越我們在現有項目上的支出。

Now having said that, I want to be very clear that I can't give you any specifics as to what we're doing, but there will be, we believe that there's many opportunities, both organically and through M&A activity, to continue to grow our business, and we're anxious to do that. Just because we're planning on a $500 million budget, that doesn't mean that that's what it will be at the end of 2016.

話雖如此，我想非常明確的是，我無法向您提供有關我們正在做什麼的任何具體信息，但我們相信，無論是有機的還是通過併購活動，都會有很多機會繼續發展我們的業務，我們渴望做到這一點。我們計劃的預算為 5 億美元，但這並不意味著 2016 年底的預算就是這樣。

Okay, thanks, very much. Is there anything else you wanted to say on the acquisition side or the competitive advantage? You've obviously talked quite a bit about the auto space, but specifically what sort of industries you're looking at there or what opportunities you actually see?

好的，非常感謝。關於收購方面或競爭優勢您還有什麼想說的嗎？顯然，您已經談論了很多關於汽車領域的內容，但具體來說您正在關注什麼類型的行業或您實際看到了哪些機會？

Well, I'll tell you what, I'd love to talk about that, but I don't want to go to prison, but there's really nothing I can say about it. Other than this, I'll make a general comment, and it's going to go back to our five points of profitable growth, so if you look at those areas that we talked about, there are going to be things in which we can continue to improve our market leadership position in the markets in which we compete.

好吧，我告訴你，我很想談談這個，但我不想進監獄，但對此我真的無話可說。除此之外，我會做一個一般性評論，這將回到我們的五個盈利增長點，所以如果你看看我們談論的那些領域，將會有一些事情我們可以繼續提高我們在競爭市場中的市場領導地位。

There will be things that strengthen our channel for the market. There will be things that continue to move us up the value chain, our products up the value chain, making them more import resistant, and I don't want to leave out one of the most important ones. That is, we will continue to invest in our operations in ways that will continue to lower our cost of operations.

將會有一些事情加強我們的市場管道。將會有一些事情繼續推動我們向價值鏈上游、我們的產品向價值鏈上游移動，使它們更具進口抵抗力，我不想遺漏最重要的其中之一。也就是說，我們將繼續以繼續降低營運成本的方式投資於我們的營運。

Because at the end of the day, we're at a commodity business, and we're in a global commodity business, and the way to succeed in a commodity business in a global marketplace is to be the low-cost producer. So we will continue to invest below our cost of production, which obviously was one of the big reasons we invested our $750 million to $780 million in our DRI facility. So that's more of a general answer to your question, but that's really all I can give you.

因為歸根究底，我們從事的是大宗商品業務，而且是全球大宗商品業務，而大宗商品業務在全球市場上取得成功的方法就是成為低成本生產商。因此，我們將繼續以低於生產成本的價格進行投資，這顯然是我們在 DRI 設施上投資 7.5 億至 7.8 億美元的重要原因之一。這只是對你的問題的一般性回答，但這就是我能給你的全部。

No, that's fine. That's what I was after. Thanks, very much.

不，沒關係。這就是我所追求的。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Timna Tanners, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

坦納斯 (Timna Tanners)，美銀美林。

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

嘿，大家下午好。

Good afternoon, Timna, how are you?

下午好，提姆納，你好嗎？

Good, thanks.

好的，謝謝。

Wanted to ask about your costs and about uses of cash. So, just for starters, can you provide a little bit more clarity on your SG&A run rate, since it dropped off sharply fourth quarter versus your run rate first three quarters of the year with $125 million-ish and then went to $84 million? And similarly, getting a lot of concerns over the LIFO swing potential into the first quarter. Can you provide a little bit more context for how to think about that?

想詢問您的費用以及現金的使用情況。那麼，首先，您能否更清楚地介紹一下您的SG&A 運行率，因為與今年前三個季度的1.25 億美元左右的運行率相比，第四季度的運行率大幅下降，然後又降至8400萬美元？同樣，人們對第一季的後進先出波動潛力也產生了許多擔憂。您能否提供更多背景資訊來說明如何思考這個問題？

Yes, I'll take that. First on the SG&A. We are a pay-for-performance company. We have a significant amount of our compensation across the Company, including profit-sharing for all employees, that's affected by our profitability.

是的，我會接受的。首先是SG&A。我們是一家按績效付費的公司。我們整個公司有大量薪酬，包括所有員工的利潤分享，這受到我們獲利能力的影響。

So the impairment charges did result in a reduction of our obligations to incentive compensation. So that's the first point, and that's why the second half run rate is different than the first half. The second point you asked about was remind me again, Timna?

因此，減損費用確實導致我們的激勵補償義務減少。這就是第一點，這就是為什麼下半場的跑動率與上半場不同。你問的第二點是再次提醒我，Timna？

Oh, yes, the concerns over the LIFO swing.

哦，是的，對後進先出擺動的擔憂。

Yes, LIFO. So, on LIFO, it's based on where we have a view about where the long-term raw material prices are going. So it's hard for us to predict what scrap is going to do over 2016, so we begin every year with kind of a conservative view that scrap is going to go up some, and we book some expense in the first quarter, and that's what we're being more transparent about in our guidance regarding the first quarter.

是的，後進先出。因此，根據後進先出法，它是基於我們對長期原物料價格走勢的看法。因此，我們很難預測 2016 年廢品會發生什麼，因此我們每年開始時都持保守觀點，認為廢品會增加一些，我們在第一季度記入一些費用，這就是我們的支出。我們對第一季的指導更加透明。

But clearly, with that view, without knowing what the final outcome is going to be, we are going to have some LIFO expense. It's non-cash, but we will have LIFO expense in the first quarter to position ourselves to move either way based on what really happens to scrap prices as the year unfolds.

但顯然，根據這種觀點，在不知道最終結果是什麼的情況下，我們將有一些後進先出的費用。它不是現金，但我們將在第一季有後進先出的費用，以便根據今年廢鋼價格的實際情況採取任何行動。

Okay, and then my other question was regarding uses of cash, and I know you've already highlighted your five areas of focus and talked a little bit about what M&A might look like, but if you could comment specifically on the buyback. So we couldn't find evidence of much buyback since 2008, so does this mean this is a new focus for the Company? Does it mean you're not finding better M&A alternatives, and therefore finding your shares as a better use of cash, or can you talk to us a little bit about your thinking there?

好的，然後我的另一個問題是關於現金的使用，我知道您已經強調了您的五個重點領域，並談論了一些併購可能會是什麼樣子，但您是否可以具體評論一下回購。那麼自2008年以來我們找不到大量回購的證據，這是否意味著這是公司的新重點？這是否意味著您沒有找到更好的併購替代方案，因此發現您的股票可以更好地利用現金，或者您可以和我們談談您的想法嗎？

I'll be happy to address that. We always have three approaches to our capital allocation, and let me make sure that I highlight the first one. The first one is to invest in profitable growth of our Company. That is always our first focus.

我很樂意解決這個問題。我們總是有三種資本配置方法，讓我確保強調第一種方法。第一個是投資我們公司的獲利成長。這始終是我們的首要關注。

And I want to be clear, Timna, we believe strongly that there are many opportunities to continue to invest in the profitable, sustainable growth of our Company, both internally or organic and externally through M&A activity. So that's the first objective. That will always be our first objective.

我想澄清的是，Timna，我們堅信，有很多機會繼續投資於我們公司的盈利、可持續增長，無論是內部還是有機的，還是透過併購活動進行外部投資。這是第一個目標。這永遠是我們的首要目標。

Second objective in capital allocation that we always look at is to make sure we return our shareholders' valuable capital to them in an appropriate way. We look at dividend as being a very appropriate way to do that. We think it's a good dividend. We think it's a well-balanced dividend. We look to maintain a prudent payout ratio between the supplemental and our base, and we look forward to the days like we had in 2005 and 2006, when we have such good cash flow coming in that we can increase the supplemental dividend and return more of the capital to our shareholders.

我們始終關注的資本配置的第二個目標是確保我們以適當的方式將股東的寶貴資本回饋給他們。我們認為股利是實現這一目標的一種非常合適的方式。我們認為這是一筆不錯的股息。我們認為這是一個均衡的股利。我們希望在補充股息和基礎股息之間保持審慎的派息比率，我們期待像 2005 年和 2006 年那樣的日子，那時我們有如此良好的現金流進來，我們可以增加補充股息並回報更多我們股東的資本。

So that's our second objective, and our third objective, as you mentioned, when we can't beat either of the two first ones is to look at stock as a potential buyback, and so those are the three areas we look at. And I'll point out that there's a lot of questions about the cash and our cash position today. When you look at 2015, we generated a lot of cash in 2015. If I have it correct, I think it's the second highest that we've had since what about 2005?

正如您所提到的，這是我們的第二個目標，當我們無法擊敗前兩個目標中的任何一個時，我們的第三個目標是將股票視為潛在的回購，所以這些是我們關注的三個領域。我要指出的是，今天關於現金和我們的現金部位存在著許多問題。回顧 2015 年，我們在 2015 年創造了大量現金。如果我沒猜錯的話，我認為這是自 2005 年以來的第二高水準？

It's our highest since 2008, which is our record year.

這是自 2008 年以來的最高水平，2008 年是我們創紀錄的一年。

Highest since 2008. So, we have a lot of cash on hand, but let me be clear, again, we feel we have a lot of opportunities to spend it wisely, in a disciplined manner, in a flexible disciplined manner to grow our Company. If we don't see opportunities out there that return the kind of capital, return on invested capital that we're looking for, then we'll do the prudent thing and either return it to our shareholders or buy stock.

2008年以來最高。因此，我們手頭上有大量現金，但讓我再說一遍，我們認為我們有很多機會明智地、有紀律地、靈活有紀律地使用這些現金來發展我們的公司。如果我們看不到能夠回報我們正在尋找的資本、投資資本回報的機會，那麼我們會採取謹慎的做法，要么將其返還給我們的股東，要么購買股票。

Right now, when we look the all three of those, we saw that during the past month, stock was a good opportunity, and we bought some stock. It is definitely not a major change in our position or direction or anything like that. I want to be really clear about that. Does that help time, Timna?

現在，當我們審視這三個方面時，我們發現在過去的一個月裡，股票是一個很好的機會，我們買了一些股票。這絕對不是我們的立場或方向或類似的重大變化。我想澄清這一點。這對時間有幫助嗎，蒂姆納？

Yes, totally, thanks a lot.

是的，完全可以，非常感謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

Phil Gibbs, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Phil Gibbs，KeyBanc 資本市場。

Good morning. Excuse me, good afternoon. Long day.

早安.對不起，下午好。漫長的一天。

Just trying to throw me a curve aren't you.

你只是想給我一個曲線不是嗎？

Something like that. I had a question on your sheet mix and how much of the shipments last year went to the hot roll market versus the downstream market, any way you could help us think about that?

類似的事情。我有一個關於你們的板材組合的問題，以及去年有多少出貨量流向熱捲市場與下游市場，你能幫助我們思考這個問題嗎？

When you look at our mix, about 55% to 60% goes to hot band, and the rest is pretty well split evenly between cold rolled and galvanized. Maybe we're just a bit heavy on galvanized, but basically I would say an easy way to remember the numbers, which is what I need, I use 60% hot band, 20% cold rolled and 20% galvanized, and that's pretty close.

當你看看我們的組合時，大約 55% 到 60% 進入熱軋帶材，其餘的則在冷軋和鍍鋅之間均勻分配。也許我們只是對鍍鋅有點重，但基本上我會說一個簡單的方法來記住數字，這就是我需要的，我使用60% 熱軋帶、20% 冷軋和20% 鍍鋅，這非常接近。

I appreciate that, and I was interested the comments on notable 2016 improvement in the fabrication piece of the business, and given the fact that at least we were thinking there were some pricing resets occurring on maybe some rebar fab and potentially some cold finished bar product, how are you thinking about the meaningful improvement? Is it volume related? Is it pricing related? How do we get there?

我很欣賞這一點，並且我對2016 年該業務製造部分顯著改善的評論很感興趣，並且考慮到至少我們認為可能某些螺紋鋼工廠和可能某些冷成品棒材產品發生了一些定價重置，您如何看待有意義的改進？與體積有關嗎？與定價有關嗎？我們怎麼去那裡？

I'm going to toss that over to Ray.

我要把它丟給雷。

Thank you, John.

謝謝你，約翰。

Well, our improved profitability in 2015 and expected in 2016 is a result of a couple of things. A strong operational performance by our teams led the way, in my view, with lower costs, and we expect those to continue in 2016. We also continue to see improving demand for our products and services in our downstream businesses, and we continue to lead the market in technology such as our 3D bin modeling, and, again, continue to add value to our products.

嗯，我們 2015 年獲利能力的提高以及 2016 年預期的獲利能力的提高是由以下幾個因素造成的。在我看來，我們團隊的強勁營運績效引領了這一趨勢，同時成本也降低了，我們預計這種情況將在 2016 年持續下去。我們也繼續看到下游業務對我們的產品和服務的需求不斷增長，我們繼續在 3D bin 建模等技術方面引領市場，並繼續為我們的產品增加價值。

I hope everyone understood the comment about the bin. What that allows us to do, that's a very sophisticated computer system we use that helps us design our building, and what it allows us to do is to tackle and build more complex structures, which are higher-margin structures, and it also impacts our cost, so it has two very positive effects for us. So, Ray hit them all on the head.

我希望每個人都能理解關於垃圾箱的評論。這讓我們能夠做的是，我們使用一個非常複雜的電腦系統來幫助我們設計我們的建築，它讓我們能夠處理和建造更複雜的結構，這些結構是利潤率更高的結構，它也會影響我們的成本，所以它對我們有兩個非常正面的影響。於是，雷就打在了他們的頭上。

I think that I want to just make a shout out to my team out there and say, great job, guys. I'm really proud of the fact that if you look at all three of our downstream businesses, and we had a very good year. We expect another one in 2016, and Ray, maybe a comment about our shipments in 2015, how they compared to the previous year, given the fact that when you look at McGraw Hill, the demand for non-residential construction was actually down 5% or 6%.

我想我只想向我的團隊大聲喊叫，夥計們，幹得好。我真的很自豪，如果你看看我們所有三個下游業務，你會發現我們度過了非常好的一年。我們預計2016 年還會有一次，Ray 可能會評論一下我們2015 年的出貨量，與前一年相比如何，考慮到麥格勞希爾(McGraw Hill) 的事實，非住宅建築的需求實際上下降了5%或 6%。

Sure, John. The non-residential market, as you said, was down in 2015 about 5% to 6% in new construction starts and backlogs and all of our key downstream business segments are up.

當然，約翰。正如您所說，2015 年非住宅市場的新開工和積壓訂單下降了約 5% 至 6%，而我們所有的關鍵下游業務部門都在成長。

And our shipments in 2015 were basically the same.

而我們2015年的出貨量基本上持平。

Basically flat, up a little bit.

基本持平，略有上升。

Up a little bit than 2014. So the team did a great job. Even though the demand was dropping, we were able to maintain our shipments, and we were able to improve our profitability. That's a formula for long-term success right there. So great job, team, thank you.

比2014年略有上升。所以團隊做得很好。儘管需求下降，我們仍能夠維持出貨量，並且能夠提高獲利能力。這就是長期成功的秘訣。幹得好，團隊，謝謝。

John?

約翰？

Yes.

是的。

And then just the last one I had. You said the recent changes in the raw material price environment led to getting the DRI back on track. Just clarifying what you meant on that, given that iron ore prices and pig iron prices have been relatively stable over the time frame, so looking for more color on that, and it's just a question I've been getting a lot from investors. Thank you.

然後就是我擁有的最後一個。您提到最近原物料價格環境的變化導致DRI重回正軌。只是澄清一下你的意思，考慮到鐵礦石價格和生鐵價格在一段時間內相對穩定，所以尋找更多的顏色，這只是我從投資者那裡得到的一個問題。謝謝。

Well, the key word you used there is relatively stable, and when we look at it and we see an increase of $20 to $30 a ton on scrap, and a $10 increase in pig iron, that might be relatively stable, but when you buy 15 million tons of scrap, and 5 million tons of pig iron, that's a big change.

嗯，你在那裡使用的關鍵字是相對穩定的，當我們看它時，我們看到廢鋼上漲了20 到30 美元一噸，生鐵上漲了10 美元，這可能是相對穩定的，但是當你購買時1500萬噸廢鋼和500萬噸生鐵，這是一個很大的變化。

And we felt, as we talked with our DJ Joseph team, who's out there all the time working in the marketplace, we felt we could attribute at least half of that to the fact we were taking a DRI plant offline. And since we, when we finished the maintenance outage at the end of last month, we were at a point where we had to make a decision as to bring it back on or not, and we were basically breakeven on a marginal contribution basis, and so we were kind of up in the air as to what to do.

我們覺得，當我們與一直在市場工作的 DJ Joseph 團隊交談時，我們覺得我們可以將其中至少一半歸因於我們將直接還原鐵工廠下線。自從我們上個月底完成維護中斷以來，我們就必須做出決定是否恢復運行，並且我們在邊際貢獻的基礎上基本上實現了盈虧平衡，並且所以我們對於該怎麼做有點猶豫。

We thought it was a good opportunity to leave it off. See, we've always believed that bringing it online had a significant impact for us on our cost of scrap and pig iron, so we said here is an opportunity to take a look and see in fact what happens, so we left it off. We saw a bump go up and it's about $25 to $30 a ton across the spectrum on scrap and about $10 on pig iron, so, again, that's a huge impact for us.

我們認為這是一個放棄它的好機會。你看，我們一直認為，將其上線對我們的廢鋼和生鐵成本產生了重大影響，所以我們說這是一個看看實際上會發生什麼的機會，所以我們放棄了它。我們看到價格有所上漲，廢鋼價格約為每噸 25 至 30 美元，生鐵價格約為每噸 10 美元，因此，這對我們來說又是一個巨大的影響。

So we brought it back online because of that, and I came away from the whole thing, and the team came away from the whole thing more convinced than ever that although you might not see immediate profitability in the DRI plant itself, when you look at the overall impact to our Company, on iron units which represent 60% of our costs, the overall impact to our Company is significantly better running that DRI plant than not running the DRI plant, even if it is not profitable in its own right.

因此，我們將其重新上線，我擺脫了整個事情，團隊也比以往任何時候都更加確信，儘管您可能不會看到 DRI 工廠本身立即盈利，但當您查看對我們公司的整體影響，對於佔我們成本60% 的煉鐵裝置，運行DRI 工廠對我們公司的整體影響明顯好於不運行DRI 工廠，即使它本身沒有盈利。

Thanks, John.

謝謝，約翰。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Andrew Lane, Morningstar.

安德魯萊恩，晨星公司。

First, just from a housekeeping perspective. My apologies if I missed it. I heard the comment about $300 million to $350 million of maintenance CapEx, but what's your full-year CapEx guidance figure and then also for D&A?

首先，僅從家務管理的角度來看。如果我錯過了，我很抱歉。我聽到關於 3 億至 3.5 億美元維護資本支出的評論，但是您的全年資本支出指導數字是多少，然後還有 D&A 的指導數字是多少？

The depreciation and amortization is about $700 million, and the CapEx is about $500 million, based on the things we have planned today.

根據我們今天的計劃，折舊和攤提約為 7 億美元，資本支出約為 5 億美元。

Okay. Great, thanks.

好的。萬分感謝。

And wanted to ask about scrap flows. How are you seeing scrap flows currently in the recycling market, and would we need to see a significant improvement in scrap flows for your recycling operations to restore positive margins?

並想詢問廢料流向。您如何看待目前回收市場中的廢料流？我們是否需要看到您的回收業務的廢料流顯著改善才能恢復正利潤？

Joe, do you want to take that one?

喬，你想拿那個嗎？

Sure, I will. Thank you. Scrap flows over the last 60 to 90 days have been basically flat, but on a year-over-year basis, they are still down, running down, probably 25% to 30%.

相信我會。謝謝。過去 60 至 90 天的廢鋼流量基本上持平，但與去年同期相比，仍在下降，持續下降，可能下降 25% 至 30%。

The second part of your question, I think -- let me take a shot at looking at it this way. Our DJJ business model is a very diverse business model. We sometimes get caught up in thinking that it's only a recycling business with scrap yards, but we have five or six different business elements in our DJJ business, and the recycling group alone, as a part of that, only represents about 15% of the DJJ revenue flow. So, the DJJ business model performance, financial performance, does not extensively rely on the recycling group.

我想，你問題的第二部分——讓我試著這樣看待它。我們的 DJJ 商業模式是一個非常多元的商業模式。有時我們會陷入這樣的想法：這只是一個帶有廢料場的回收業務，但我們的DJJ 業務中有五六個不同的業務元素，而僅回收集團作為其中的一部分，僅佔整個業務的15%左右。 DJJ 收入流。所以，DJJ的商業模式表現、財務表現，並沒有廣泛依賴回收集團。

For the recycling group to see improvements, really, all you need, it's not as much flow based as much as you need stability in the pricing. In other words, for most of 2015, we were seeing significant drops in the market price for scrap, and that's kind of like catching a falling knife. You can never really catch up with it. Once prices stabilize or shows any sign of increase, then that is what drives margins and profitability at the recycling group more than just volumes. Does that help?

對於回收小組來說，要看到改進，實際上，您所需要的並不是基於流量，而是需要穩定的定價。換句話說，在 2015 年的大部分時間裡，我們看到廢鋼市場價格大幅下跌，這有點像是接住一把掉落的刀。你永遠無法真正趕上它。一旦價格穩定或出現任何上漲跡象，那麼推動回收集團利潤和獲利能力的不僅僅是銷量。這樣有幫助嗎？

Yes, great. Thank you, very much.

對，很好。非常感謝。

Brian Yu, Citi.

布萊恩·餘，花旗銀行。

Thanks, and good afternoon, John, Jim and team.

謝謝，約翰、吉姆和團隊都下午好。

Good afternoon, Brian, how are you?

下午好，布萊恩，你好嗎？

Good. First question is, this touches on your auto comments a little bit earlier, but a bit broader. With the various blast furnace operators out there have said contract price should reset lower, but they're really not giving any indications of whether or not they've lost business in that process, and I know you've mentioned your auto shipments are going to improve.

好的。第一個問題是，這涉及到你的汽車評論有點早，但更廣泛。那裡的各種高爐運營商都表示合約價格應該降低，但他們實際上沒有給出任何跡象表明他們是否在過程中失去了業務，而且我知道你已經提到你的汽車運輸正在減少改善。

If we just look at the broader contract picture, and the billions you have done business within the past and any new ones you've got, were you able to win in new customers going into 2016, and is it possible to give us an order of magnitude, like how much more does that base load your order book for this year?

如果我們只看更廣泛的合約情況，以及您過去完成的數十億美元的業務以及您獲得的任何新業務，您是否能夠在 2016 年贏得新客戶，是否有可能給我們訂單數量級，例如今年您的訂單簿的基數增加了多少？

Well, I can only talk in terms of what I've already said in terms of the amount of tons we are selling into it. So our order entry rate will result in about 1.4 million tons we sold in 2015. We think it will be up a little bit in 2016, maybe to the order of 1.5 million or 1.6 million, but we do think over the next two to three years, based upon the interest we have, people that are working with us on qualifying our products, we feel very comfortable in saying that we'll be up in the 1.9 million or 2 million ton a year range within the next couple of years. Does that answer your question?

好吧，我只能根據我已經說過的我們銷售的噸數來談論。因此，我們的訂單輸入率將導致我們 2015 年的銷售量約為 140 萬噸。我們認為 2016 年這個數字會有所上升，可能達到 150 萬或 160 萬左右，但我們確實考慮在未來兩到三年內，根據我們的興趣以及與我們合作進行資格認證的人們我們的產品，我們可以非常放心地說，在未來幾年內，我們的年產量將達到190 萬噸或200 萬噸。這是否回答你的問題？

Yes, it does. I was thinking maybe a little bit more broadly than just autos, you know appliance producers, and machinery companies.

是的，它確實。我想的可能不只是汽車、家電生產商和機械公司。

I'm sorry. Okay.

對不起。好的。

Yes.

是的。

Well -- I think, John, in that case the 2 million ton number is right for next year versus in two or three years. In the broader market, that's --

嗯，我認為，約翰，在這種情況下，明年的 200 萬噸數字是正確的，而不是兩三年內的數字。在更廣闊的市場中，那就是—

If you take the entire market, if you're going across the market, I would say we're looking at about 2 million tons of contract business next year.

如果你考慮整個市場，如果你考慮整個市場，我想說我們明年的合約業務量約為 200 萬噸。

And then what is that versus what you did in 2015?

那麼，與您在 2015 年所做的相比，這又如何呢？

It was a little bit less. Not significantly less. Maybe improvement of about 10%.

有點少了。並沒有明顯減少。或許可以提高 10% 左右。

That's helpful. And then the second question I've got is, this goes back to the fabrication business, and you guys have noted profitability is up, shipments were sideways and pricing is down a little bit. One thing, and not taking anything away from your team there, but steel prices did come down a lot, so I'm thinking that maybe the drop in steel prices did improve margin?

這很有幫助。我的第二個問題是，這又回到了製造業務，你們已經注意到盈利能力上升了，出貨量橫盤整理，價格略有下降。有一件事，並沒有從你的團隊那裡拿走任何東西，但鋼材價格確實下降了很多，所以我在想，也許鋼材價格的下降確實提高了利潤率？

We were remiss in not mentioning that. You're absolutely correct and, frankly, I apologize for that, because one of my notes I have right in front of me here said steel pricing, and we forgot to mention it. But I have to tell you that we looked at this carefully, taking that into account, and we're very comfortable saying, that still our team did a great job on lowering the costs, exclusive of our steel costs, and we're confident that the other things that we mentioned played a large role in the picture, the profitability picture.

我們沒有提及這一點是失職的。你完全正確，坦白說，我對此表示歉意，因為我面前的一張筆記說的是鋼鐵定價，但我們忘了提及它。但我必須告訴你，我們仔細考慮了這一點，考慮到這一點，我們很放心地說，我們的團隊在降低成本（不包括鋼鐵成本）方面仍然做得很好，我們有信心我們提到的其他事情在盈利能力方面發揮了重要作用。

John, if I might. That and adding value to the construction projects we work on. And through our channel to market and with our customers, so our team has done well in that area, but certainly to reinforce reduced steel prices certainly helped in 2015.

約翰，如果可以的話。這並為我們正在進行的建設項目增加價值。透過我們的市場管道以及與客戶的合作，我們的團隊在該領域做得很好，但肯定會加強鋼材價格的下降，這對 2015 年確實有所幫助。

Okay, the other part of my question was just going to be given that you are guiding for increased profitability in 2016, it sounds like you're getting better prices, above your input cost in 2016 versus 2015, and then on the volume side, are you looking for a pick up in volumes out of the downstream business in 2016?

好的，我的問題的另一部分是考慮到您正在指導 2016 年提高盈利能力，聽起來您的價格比 2016 年與 2015 年的投入成本更高，然後在銷量方面，您是否希望2016 年下游業務的銷量有回升？

Well, the only thing I can tell you on that is we look at our order entry rate and we look at our backlogs, okay? And we feel the backlogs are very strong, order entry rate is strong. Our best estimate today is we'll see an improvement of about 5% to 6% in our businesses in 2016 versus 2015. And if you'll look at the pundits, the McGraw Hills and so forth, they are saying 6% to 7% improvement. We think across the industry, that might be a little bit aggressive, but we think in our business we will see 5% to 6%.

好吧，我唯一能告訴你的是我們會看看我們的訂單輸入率和我們的積壓訂單，好嗎？我們覺得積壓情況非常嚴重，訂單輸入率也很高。我們今天的最佳估計是，與 2015 年相比，2016 年我們的業務將成長約 5% 至 6%。如果你看看麥格勞山 (McGraw Hills) 等專家，他們會說改善了 6% 到 7%。我們認為在整個行業中，這可能有點激進，但我們認為在我們的業務中我們會看到 5% 到 6%。

Great. Appreciate it. Thank you.

偉大的。欣賞它。謝謝。

Garrett Nelson, BB&T Capital Markets.

Garrett Nelson，BB&T 資本市場。

Hi. Good afternoon. There's been some data suggesting there's been a bounce in domestic steel capacity utilization rates over the past month or so. Is that consistent with what you're seeing across the industry, and should we expect to see a rebound in Nucor's volumes with utilization appearing to be moving up and with imports and inventories having come down a bit?

你好。午安.有數據顯示，過去一個多月國內鋼鐵產能利用率出現反彈。這與您在整個行業中看到的情況是否一致？我們是否應該預期紐柯鋼鐵的產量會反彈，利用率似乎會上升，而進口和庫存會略有下降？

You kind of answered the question for me. Imports are coming down a little bit. In addition to imports coming down a little bit, the service center inventories are down a little bit, so bottom line is, yes, we do see our utilization rates increasing as we go into the first quarter. And also remember that we are moving into a period where we've come out of, look, fourth quarter is usually the weakest quarter in terms of the steel business. So we're kind of coming out of that quarter, first quarter, second quarter, we typically see an improvement in utilization rates, and we think we'll continue to see that.

你算是替我回答了這個問題。進口量略降。除了進口略有下降外，服務中心庫存也略有下降，因此底線是，是的，隨著進入第一季度，我們確實看到利用率上升。還要記住，我們正在進入一個時期，看，第四季度通常是鋼鐵業務最疲軟的季度。因此，從該季度、第一季、第二季開始，我們通常會看到利用率的提高，我們認為我們將繼續看到這種情況。

You mentioned the slowdown in imports. You mentioned the reduction of the inventories in our service centers, but I would also mention to you that there's been quite a few shutdowns from some of our competitors that we believe we'll see some improved utilization as a result of that, also.

您提到進口放緩。您提到了我們服務中心庫存的減少，但我還要向您提到，我們的一些競爭對手已經關閉了相當多的工廠，我們相信我們也會因此看到利用率的提高。

And also, with pricing, we're seeing a small bounce in pricing, and when you see a bounce in pricing, typically that gets things going again. Customers, when pricing is going down, are kind of waiting until they hit the bottom. As you know, we've increased pricing in several of our products, and those price increases have been holding, so we feel pretty confident we've stopped the slide and we're moving back up. Customers see that, also, and the order entry rates go up.

此外，在定價方面，我們看到價格出現小幅反彈，當你看到價格反彈時，通常情況會再次好轉。當價格下降時，客戶會等待價格觸底。如您所知，我們已經提高了幾種產品的價格，並且這些價格上漲一直持續，因此我們非常有信心我們已經停止了下滑，並且正在回升。客戶也看到了這一點，訂單輸入率也隨之上升。

Okay, great. In the past, you've said one of Nucor's goals is to control 6 million to 7 million tons of annual capacity in scrap and scrap substitutes. Is that still your goal, or has your thinking changed at all in light of the drop in scrap prices we've seen over the last several quarters?

好的，太好了。您過去曾說過，紐柯鋼鐵的目標之一是控制廢鋼和廢鋼替代品的年產能600萬噸至700萬噸。這仍然是您的目標嗎？或者鑑於過去幾季我們看到的廢鋼價格下跌，您的想法是否發生了根本改變？

Frankly, our thinking has not changed at all. We still see that as a key long-term, strategic goal. Again, I've said this several times that at Nucor, all of our strategies are pointed towards long-term, sustainable, profitable growth. And at the end of the day, we still believe very, very strongly that, I'm not sure whether it's going to be 5 years, 7 years or 10 years, but we believe that as a result of the manufacturing decreasing in the United States and several other things, we will be glad we have that DRI plant.

坦白說，我們的想法根本沒有改變。我們仍然認為這是一個關鍵的長期策略目標。我已經多次說過，在紐柯，我們所有的策略都是為了長期、可持續、獲利的成長。歸根結底，我們仍然非常非常堅信，我不確定這會是 5 年、7 年還是 10 年，但我們相信，由於美國的製造業下降，州和其他一些事情，我們會很高興我們擁有直接還原鐵工廠。

Just remember one other thing. We're very heavy into pig iron. That's very important to us, and right now we get about 70% to 80% of our pig iron out of Russia. The rest of it is coming out of Brazil. Those are not the most stable places in the world geopolitically. HBI, which is another potential product we could use as a scrap substitute, comes out of Venezuela. That's also not a very stable geopolitical area.

請記住另一件事。我們非常熱衷於生鐵。這對我們來說非常重要，目前我們大約 70% 到 80% 的生鐵來自俄羅斯。其餘部分來自巴西。這些並不是世界上地緣政治上最穩定的地方。HBI 是另一種我們可以用作廢料替代品的潛在產品，來自委內瑞拉。這也不是一個非常穩定的地緣政治區域。

So when you look at all of these facts and you look at our goal of being flexible, long term having flexibility and balance across our portfolio. In a cyclical business, you know, scrap pricing is cyclical. Iron ore pricing is cyclical. Pig iron pricing is cyclical. Steel pricing is cyclical. When you look at that, I believe the key to long-term, stable returns to our investors, the best way to accomplish that is to have a nice, balanced portfolio and a flexible portfolio that allows us to move things around as we need to, to optimize the cost, provide the lowest cost product inputs and optimize our margins coming out of our mills.

因此，當您查看所有這些事實並查看我們的靈活目標時，我們的投資組合長期保持靈活性和平衡。您知道，在周期性業務中，廢品定價是週期性的。鐵礦石定價具有週期性。生鐵定價具有週期性。鋼材價格具有週期性。當你看到這一點時，我相信為我們的投資者帶來長期、穩定回報的關鍵，實現這一目標的最佳方法是擁有一個良好、平衡的投資組合和一個靈活的投資組合，使我們能夠根據需要進行調整。 ，以優化成本，提供最低成本的產品投入並優化我們工廠的利潤。

Sure. Makes a lot of sense.

當然。很有道理。

So, long-winded answer to your question, but no, our strategy hasn't changed. We believe it's the right strategy, and we're going to continue with it.

所以，冗長地回答你的問題，但不，我們的策略沒有改變。我們相信這是正確的策略，我們將繼續下去。

Makes sense. Thanks for those comments.

說得通。感謝您的評論。

Aldo Mazzaferro, Macquarie.

阿爾多·馬扎費羅，麥格理。

Good afternoon, Jim and John.

下午好，吉姆和約翰。

I noticed how sharply your scrap costs fell in the fourth quarter, and I note also, though, that it's been lagging the index on the industry if you take some of the published numbers. And I'm wondering, your comment on the first quarter, low scrap would help you in first quarter, do you think there's a chance you're going to see, even if the index is, say, flat to slightly up in the first quarter versus the fourth, the actual cost of your scrap that you consume probably goes down a little bit?

我注意到你們的廢品成本在第四季度下降了多少，但我也注意到，如果你看一些公佈的數據，你會發現它一直落後於行業指數。我想知道，您對第一季的評論，低廢品率會對您在第一季度有所幫助，您認為您是否有機會看到，即使指數在第一季度持平或略有上升與第四季度相比，您消耗的廢料的實際成本可能會下降一點？

Let me start that. You're right. There is a lag between the index and our performance, because we always have some scrap inventory we own at our steel mills, so the indexes don't reflect what we're consuming. They reflect what we're buying. So you're right. The bottoming of the scrap prices that happened during the fourth quarter, we're going to benefit from some of that to start the first quarter. John, if there's more you want to add?

讓我開始吧。你說得對。該指數與我們的業績之間存在滯後，因為我們的鋼廠總是擁有一些廢鋼庫存，因此該指數不能反映我們的消耗量。它們反映了我們所購買的東西。所以你是對的。第四季廢鋼價格觸底，我們將從第一季開始受益。約翰，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Took the words right out of my mouth, Jim.

吉姆，把話從我嘴裡說出來。

Okay, I'm sorry.

好吧，對不起。

Jim, one other follow-up on that. The large LIFO credit you took in the fourth quarter, does that help, or would that lower the average cost of scrap in the first or would that actually keep it higher?

吉姆，另一位跟進者。您在第四季度獲得的大量後進先出信用是否有幫助，或者會降低第一季的平均廢品成本，還是實際上會使其保持在較高水平？

It does not go through the scrap line, so it doesn't affect the scrap costs we publish at all. It's in the corporate/elims line we show the segments, in fact.

它不經過報廢線，因此根本不會影響我們發布的報廢成本。事實上，我們在 Corporate/elims 行中展示了這些細分市場。

Jim, there might be one thing I'd want to add to your comments, and that is you have to look at that by segment, right? Because when you look at our bar mills, we have a lot less scrap on the ground. In fact, some of our bar mills, just because they are geographically challenged, we don't have a lot of room. Some of them have as little as two to three weeks of scrap on the ground.

吉姆，我可能想在您的評論中添加一件事，那就是您必須逐段查看，對嗎？因為當你觀察我們的棒材軋鋼機時，你會發現我們地面上的廢料少了很多。事實上，我們的一些棒材工廠，只是因為地理上的限制，我們沒有太多的空間。其中一些工廠的廢料只有兩到三週。

And then you take a look at our sheet mills, and not only do they necessarily have to have more on the ground, but it's a different mix, and the mix they use will depend upon the mix of products they are producing. So it's a very complicated process that you go through, but the impact that you mentioned, Jim, will occur more on a larger plate and sheet mills.

然後你看看我們的板材工廠，他們不僅必須在地面上擁有更多的板材，而且是不同的組合，他們使用的組合將取決於他們生產的產品的組合。因此，這是一個非常複雜的過程，但吉姆，你提到的影響將更多地發生在較大的板材和薄板工廠上。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Just to give you a little more color.

只是為了給你多一點色彩。

One more question, separately, is there any way you could comment on your lead times in the sheet products and the long products?

另外還有一個問題，您是否可以對板材產品和長材產品的交貨時間發表評論？

We can do that. I know hot band is the shortest lead time. We're probably only out a couple weeks, maybe three or four weeks in hot band, but when you look at coal rolled and galvanized, we are probably out to March, towards the end of March, for our coal rolled and galvanized.

我們能做到這一點。我知道熱帶是最短的交貨時間。我們的熱軋帶可能只停產幾週，也許三到四個星期，但是當你看看煤炭軋製和鍍鋅時，我們的煤炭軋製和鍍鋅可能要到三月，接近三月底。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

David Lipschitz, CLSA.

大衛‧利普希茨，里昂證券。

Good afternoon.

午安.

Hi, David, how are you?

嗨，大衛，你好嗎？

Good. So you might have answered this a couple questions ago, but a couple of your competitors have taken impairment charges on their scrap facilities. I was wondering where do you guys stand with DJ Joseph?

好的。因此，您可能在幾個問題之前就已經回答過這個問題，但是您的一些競爭對手已經對其報廢設施收取了減值費用。我想知道你們對 DJ Joseph 的立場如何？

Well, we aren't going to answer that question directly. What we will say is that we do it, we do our impairment testing every year, and we always look at all of our operations, and we're comfortable with where we are with that. I'm going to refer back to what Joe said earlier about the business model at DJ Joseph being different.

好吧，我們不會直接回答這個問題。我們要說的是，我們這樣做了，我們每年都會進行減值測試，我們總是關注我們所有的運營，我們對目前的情況感到滿意。我將回顧 Joe 之前所說的關於 DJ Joseph 商業模式與眾不同的內容。

We aren't going to comment on what our competitors have done in terms of breakdowns, but when we look at our business model, as Joe mentioned, it's much more than simply recycling. In fact, the vast majority is out of recycling. And when we look at our brokerage, we look at how they are performing, we're very comfortable that we are well within the range of having a comfort level on impairment.

我們不會評論我們的競爭對手在故障方面所做的事情，但當我們審視我們的商業模式時，正如喬所提到的，這不僅僅是簡單的回收。事實上，絕大多數都已不再回收。當我們審視我們的經紀業務時，我們會關注他們的表現，我們非常滿意，我們完全處於減值的舒適水平範圍內。

And Dave, if I could add, John's absolutely correct. When you look at that mix within what we call the DJJ business, the recycling components can be a little bit cyclical, but the non-recycling components provides a very, very stable and very, very healthy earnings and cash flow stream, so that diversity adds a lot of strength to the value of the DJJ model.

戴夫，如果我可以補充的話，約翰絕對是對的。當你看看我們所說的 DJJ 業務中的這種組合時，回收成分可能有點週期性，但非回收成分提供了非常非常穩定、非常非常健康的收益和現金流，因此多樣性為DJJ模型的價值加了不少力量。

With no further questions at this time, I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Ferriola for any additional or closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題，我會將電話轉回給費裡奧拉先生，以徵求任何補充或結束語。

Let me conclude by saying, thank you to all of our customers. We really appreciate the opportunity to earn your business every day, and if we are blessed with your business, we won't let you down.

最後，我要說，感謝我們所有的客戶。我們非常感謝每天有機會贏得您的業務，如果我們有幸獲得您的業務，我們不會讓您失望。

And thank you to our shareholders. We appreciate your ongoing confidence and support. It means a lot to us.

感謝我們的股東。我們感謝您持續的信任與支持。這對我們來說意義重大。

And to my teammates, I want to say, thank you for creating customer value, generating attractive returns for our shareholders and building a sustainable future for all of us. And most importantly, thank you for doing it safely.

對於我的隊友，我想說，感謝你們創造客戶價值，為我們的股東創造有吸引力的回報，並為我們所有人建立可持續的未來。最重要的是，感謝您安全地完成了這一切。

Thanks for your interest in Nucor. Have a great day.

感謝您對紐柯鋼鐵的興趣。祝你有美好的一天。

That does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。