on Tuesday, the Director General the American manufacturer of steel Nucor Leon Topalian said in interview CNBC that his company will continue to pay dividends despite the fall in steel prices and difficult situation in the U.S. economy.
Topalian, who in January became head of the company as chief Executive officer, said that producers with low costs can achieve success and that Nucor intends to share its profits with its shareholders.
Nucor, one of the largest steel producers in America, enhanced and paid without interruption a dividend from the date of registration in 1972, for nearly five decades, Topalian said, adding that he is not going to become the first Director of the company at which she first did not pay dividends.
Other metallurgical enterprises of the USA have already reduced or suspended a dividend, citing the problems of economic consequences of the pandemic coronavirus. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., for example, announced earlier this month that it will suspend dividend payments and that its Executive Director will receive a reduction of wages by 40%.
the Demand for steel in the United States in recent months have declined, and with it dropped and the current price of steel products. In its statement of profit and loss for the first quarter Nucor reported a fall in revenue of 7.7% compared to the same three month period in 2019. The company expects a loss in the current quarter, FactSet estimates although Nucor profit of 23 cents per share.
the Company has suspended part of its investments and deferred some planned projects. Capital expenditures in the current year decreased to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with an initial forecast of 2 billion U.S. dollars.
"We hope to see the bottom [in steel prices] in the second quarter and will come out of it, when we get to the third and fourth quarters," said Topalian.
Nucor expects to return to profitability in the second half of 2020. Shares of steel companies fell by 0.02% on Tuesday. Since the beginning of the year, its market capitalization fell 28%.
