[ffusco]

we'll see, The mini's have been profitable, locating their smaller plants closer to sources of scrap and closer to some industries that need specialty steels. Let the big boy handle the low margin coomodity steels and Nucor will continue to sell to smaller customers that need smaller runs.

[E Rocc]

we'll see, The mini's have been profitable, locating their smaller plants closer to sources of scrap and closer to some industries that need specialty steels. Let the big boy handle the low margin coomodity steels and Nucor will continue to sell to smaller customers that need smaller runs.

The thing is scrap metal is just as much as a commodity and there are players in the market that thrive on instability while producers thrive on stability. A lot of times you have to deal with scrap dealers who demand to be treated like customers, not suppliers. Secondary aluminum suppliers ran into some big problems with the automakers and the Tier I suppliers in the 80s and 90s for these reasons: the buyers didn't like the price instability and the quality people didn't like hearing that "supplier" quality was often uncontrollable.

-Eric

[Willie Green]

The mini's have been profitable, locating their smaller plants closer to sources of scrap and closer to some industries that need specialty steels. Let the big boy handle the low margin coomodity steels and Nucor will continue to sell to smaller customers that need smaller runs.

You got it bass-ackwards. Starting from scratch, the integrated mills have tighter control over specialty alloys. Relying on scrap, the minis generate efficient production of "commodity" alloys through recycling close to their customers.