nue s & p 500 component industry steel founded 1940 headquarters charlotte north carolina united states key people john james ferriola executive chairman ceo & president 1 products steel rebar revenue us 16.4394 billion 2015 2 net income us 357.6 million 2015 2 total assets us 14.25 billion 2015 2 total equity us 7.416 billion 2015 2 number of employees 23 700 2015 1 slogan it s our nature website www.nucor.com nucor corporation is an american producer of steel and related products . it currently ranks as the largest steel producer in the united states of america and is the largest mini mill steelmaker i.e. it uses electric arc furnaces to melt scrap steel as opposed to blast furnaces to melt iron . nucor is north america s largest recycler of any material and recycled 16.9 million tons of scrap in 2015 . 1 it is headquartered in charlotte north carolina united states . contents 1 current operations 2 history 2.1 the reo motor car era 2.2 the nuclear corporation era 2.3 the nucor era 2.4 dimicco era 2.5 ferriola era 3 nucor s divisions 4 the nucor culture 4.1 decentralized management philosophy 4.2 performance based compensation 4.3 non union culture 4.4 egalitarian benefits 4.5 technological leadership 5 controversies 5.1 environmental record 6 see also 7 references 8 external links current operations edit in 2015 the company produced and sold over 25 million tons of steel . nucor operates 23 scrap based steel production mills . 1 nucor produces steel bars carbon and alloy steel beams sheet flat rolled steel plate steel joists joist girders steel deck fabricated concrete reinforcing steel cold finished steel steel fasteners metal building systems light gauge steel framing steel grating expanded metal and wire and wire mesh . in addition through its david j. joseph company subsidiary nucor also brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals pig iron and hri dri ; supplies ferro alloys ; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap . history edit nucor s history consists of distinct eras the reo motor car era the nuclear corporation of america era the iverson years 1967 98 the dimicco era 2000 2012 and the ferriola era 2013 present . 3 4 the reo motor car era edit nucor s origins are with auto manufacturer ransom e. olds who founded olds motor vehicle company in 1897 later as oldsmobile to become a part of general motors corporation . in 1905 olds left oldsmobile and established a new company reo motor car company in lansing michigan . though olds products including the luxurious reo flying cloud car and reo speed wagon truck were popular they were not profitable and the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1938 . 5 after the bankruptcy reorganization reo exited the car business to concentrate on trucks but continued to suffer losses . in december 1954 reo sold its entire manufacturing operations to bohn aluminum and brass corporation . 5 the nuclear corporation era edit the company initiated liquidation proceedings after the sale of its operations but a group of dissident activist shareholders noticing the existence of a usable tax loss successfully challenged the liquidation in a proxy fight in september 1955 and forced reo to take over a tiny nuclear services company called nuclear consultants inc. in a reverse takeover . the company was renamed nuclear corporation of america inc. and relocated to offices in the empire state building in new york city . nuclear s attempt to recast itself as a nuclear industry services company was unsuccessful and it followed the example of other companies in the 1950s and 60s and attempted to become a conglomerate moving its headquarters to phoenix arizona . it made several acquisitions including vulcraft corporation a steel joist manufacturer located in florence south carolina . vulcraft had been founded by sanborn chase no relation to chase & sanborn coffee who died at an early age leaving the company to his widow . nuclear purchased vulcraft from chase s widow in 1962 and hired f. kenneth iverson as general manager . the conglomerate fared no better than its predecessors and in march 1965 filed for bankruptcy . the board of directors fired nuclear s president and had to return his private jet to him but could not find a replacement . eventually samuel siegel an accountant with nuclear and friend of iverson who had been looking to leave the company informed the board that he would remain with the company under two conditions iverson would become president and he siegel would become chief financial officer conditions the board accepted . 6 the nucor era edit iverson and siegel reorganized nucor around its only profitable business steel fabricator vulcraft and all other businesses were either sold or liquidated . the company moved its headquarters to charlotte north carolina in 1966 to be closer to its main vulcraft plant . 6 unable to get favorable steel prices from american manufacturers and unhappy with the imported steel available at the time iverson a metallurgist by training decided to extend nuclear vertically into steelmaking by building its first steel bar mill in darlington south carolina in 1968 . the company chose to purchase an electric arc furnace which was far cheaper than the traditional steel blast furnace with a us 6 000 000 loan secured by all of the company s assets . production delays and staffing problems caused the stock to drop to pennies but earnings soared in 1971 and 1972 . 6 in 1972 the company recognizing that the company was misnamed adopted its current name . since that time nucor has expanded into other steel products gained some control of its raw material supply became a leader in recycling technology and expanded its market presence . in 1988 nucor became the first minimill to manufacture wide flange beams with a depth of 40 . the company opened its building products division that same year . in 1989 nucor opened a facility in crawfordsville indiana which was the first mini mill to produce flat rolled steel using thin slab technology . 7 dimicco era edit in september 2000 daniel ralph dimicco formerly the general manager of the company s highly profitable nucor yamato steel joint venture was appointed as chief executive officer . in the years that followed the company made several acquisitions . in 2001 the company acquired auburn steel its first acquisition in 36 years . 8 in 2002 nucor bought birmingham steel including the mississippi steel plant and birmingham alabama operations . 9 in 2004 nucor purchased corus tuscaloosa 10 and in 2005 nucor purchased fort howard steel 11 and marion steel . 12 in 2006 nucor purchased connecticut steel 13 verco decking 14 and harris steel . 15 the 1.07 billion acquisition of harris steel expanded nucor into production of rebar a strong market due to increased spending on infrastructure . in 2007 the company s nucor building systems division acquired magnatrax which bolstered its share of the pre engineered metal building systems market . 16 in march 2008 in order to take more control of its raw material supply and prices nucor purchased the david j. joseph company one of the largest scrap brokers and recycling companies in the united states . 17 in 2012 nucor purchased skyline steel . 18 ferriola era edit effective january 1 2013 john j. ferriola was named as chief executive officer of nucor and daniel r. dimicco was named executive chairman . 19 in 2014 the company purchased gallatin steel company . 20 in 2015 the company acquired additional rebar facilities in marion ohio and georgia . 21 nucor s divisions edit nucor consists of many subsidiary businesses that operate independently some of these companies include harris rebar is a leading fabricator installer and distributor of concrete reinforcing steel and related products . harris supply solutions is a national distributor of steel and concrete products including steel rebar black rebar epoxy coated rebar fabricated rebar and steel remesh . harris supply has warehouses across the us to serve their customer base . skyline steel is a premier steel foundation supplier serving the u.s. canada mexico the caribbean central america and colombia markets . the david j. joseph company is a world leader in scrap metal brokerage ferrous and nonferrous metal recycling and transportation services . the nucor culture edit nucor attributes its success to decentralized management philosophy performance based compensation egalitarian benefits customer service and quality and technological leadership . none of nucor s plants whether built from scratch or acquired are unionized and nucor is opposed to unions believing them to be a destructive force in the us steel industry . no nucor plant has ever held a successful union certification election even though nucor management has not engaged in the controversial union busting tactics adopted by some companies and has never laid off an employee due to a work shortage . decentralized management philosophy edit nucor is highly decentralized in its operations there are only five managerial levels at nucor supervisor professional department manager division general manager executive vice president and president ceo . most operating decisions are made at the division level or lower . in addition nucor claims that its corporate office staff numbers around 75 employees which may be the smallest number of corporate office employees among major corporations . performance based compensation edit all nucor employees from senior officers to hourly employees are covered under one of four basic compensation plans in addition to base pay which reward employees for meeting certain incentive specific goals and targets production incentive plan operating and maintenance employees and supervisors at the facilities are paid weekly bonuses based on the productivity of their work group which can average from 80 to 150 percent of an employee s base pay . department manager incentive plan department managers earn annual incentive bonuses based primarily on the percentage of net income to dollars of assets employed for their division . these bonuses can be as much as 80 percent of a department manager s base pay . professional and clerical bonus plan this bonus is paid to employees not on the production or department manager plan and is based on the division s net income return on assets . senior officers incentive plan nucor s senior officers do not have employment contracts . they do not participate in any pension or retirement plans . their base salaries are set lower than those in comparable companies . the remainder of their compensation is based on nucor s annual overall percentage of net income to stockholder s equity and is paid out in cash and stock . in addition nucor has periodically issued an extraordinary bonus to all employees except officers in years of particularly strong company performance . this bonus has been as high as 2000 for each employee . non union culture edit nucor workers have never been unionized and the nucor culture is opposed to trade unions . 22 egalitarian benefits edit nucor s senior officers are not provided traditional perks such as company cars executive parking spaces or executive dining rooms though in august 2006 the company did purchase a corporate jet for use by senior management . several programs such as nucor s profit sharing scholarship program employee stock purchase plan extraordinary bonus and service awards program are not available to nucor s officers but only to lower level employees . each annual report since 1975 has listed the names of every employee ; in the 2007 annual report it took 12 pages to list the names of all 18 000 employees . technological leadership edit nucor was among the first steel companies in the united states to use electric arc furnaces to melt recycled steel primarily from junked automobiles . in 2007 nucor recycled nearly 10 million cars in its production processes the equivalent of one suv every four seconds . currently nucor in conjunction with two foreign owned steel companies operates a facility in