Leon J. Topalian
President and Chief Executive Officer at Nucor
Good afternoon, and welcome to our 2021 fourth quarter and full year's earnings call. Joining me on the call today are several members of Nucor's executive team including Jim Frias, our Chief Financial Officer; Dave Sumoski, Chief Operating Officer; Al Behr, responsible for Plate and Structural Products; Doug Jellison, responsible for Raw Materials and Logistics; Greg Murphy, responsible for Business Services and our General Counsel; Dan Needham, responsible for Bar and Rebar Fabrication and Engineered Bar Products; Rex Query, responsible for Sheet and Tubular Products; MaryEmily Slate, responsible for Commercial Strategy; and Chad Utermark, responsible for Fabricated Construction Products.
By so many measures 2021 was an extraordinary year for Nucor. Our team delivered incredible financial and operating results over the course of the year, while working safely and responsibly. Every single day our nearly 29,000 team members remain focused on our company's mission to grow our core steel making capabilities, while expanding our presence into related businesses that fit with our culture and leverage our strengths. For our team, the most important value is safety and so I'm incredibly pleased to report that 2021 was the safest year in our history. Becoming the world's safest steel company is a lofty goal and our team is now achieved back to back record years in safety. Nucor had 16 divisions that went zero recordable injuries in 2021 and I look forward to the day when our entire company achieves that same goal. I want to thank each of my Nucor team members for your daily commitment to safety, looking out for one another and I look forward to an even safer year in 2022.
Turning to our fourth quarter results. Earnings per share were $7.97, exceeding our guidance range of $7.65 to $7.75. This represents another new quarterly record for our company. Looking at 2021 as a whole we said several other financial records. Net income for 2021 was $6.8 billion and full year earnings per share was $23.16, which were both notable increases over the prior records we'd set in 2018 with $2.4 billion of net income and an EPS of $7.42. Our record financial performance is the result of years of work reinvesting to strategically position and grow our portfolio of capabilities across the steel value chain. We are leveraging our competitive advantage to aggressively and opportunistically pursue value enhancing long-term growth. Along the way, we are delivering a differentiated value proposition to our customers and expanding our relationships with them.
By executing operationally across our business lines and in parallel, investing in Nucor's future, we are generating attractive returns for our shareholders and positively impacting our local communities. In the process, we can offer Nucor teammates secure employment and competitive compensation and benefits as well as the opportunities to further their professional growth and development. Our talented, dedicated team members are Nucor's greatest value creators. Reflecting this for 2021, our profit sharing total about $850 million. Adding this amount to teammate profit sharing over the course of the last five decades Nucor's allocated a total of about $3.8 billion in profit sharing to our team members. Most profit sharing payments are contributed directly to teammates' retirement savings accounts, and as a result, we believe that Nucor teammates are far more prepared for retirement than the average American.
Of course, we are also mindful of our responsibility to shareholders. We're proud to have been able to provide cash returns via dividends and share repurchases totaling about $3.8 billion in 2021 and in December to increase our regular quarterly dividend for the 49th year in a row this year by 23% to a rate of $0.50 per quarter. Our quarterly dividend is now about 30% higher than it was in 2018. We reduced our share count by more than 11% in 2021 even as we funded capital expenditures and acquisitions totaling approximately $3 billion to drive the next chapter of our growth story. And as Jim will share, we remain very well capitalized enable to pursue our objectives.
And speaking of those, as we move into 2022, we are not letting up when it comes to executing our strategy to grow our value-added product portfolio and expand into new product markets and geographic regions. Two weeks ago, we announced that Mason County West Virginia will be the location of our new state-of-the-art 3 million ton sheet mill. The location along the Ohio River provides Nucor with important transportation and logistics advantages in serving the country's two largest sheet steel consuming regions in, the Midwest and Northeast, two areas where Nucor is currently under-represented. Once operational our West Virginia mill will have some of the most advanced capabilities and one of the lowest carbon footprints of any sheet mill in the world. We are very excited to begin work with the local community in Mason County on this transformational project that will create substantial long-term value for all Nucor shareholders.
On December 16th, our Nucor Steel Arkansas Sheet Mill produced its first prime coil from its new generation 3 flexible galvanizing line. The new galvanizing line combined with Hickman's highly successful specialty cold rolling mill that's been in operation for more than two years uniquely positions our company among North American EAF steelmakers to provide the high strength lightweight steels that are increasingly in demand. These capabilities represent important competitive advantages for our company exemplifying Nucor's ability to meet the needs of our customers for high strength steels. Congratulations to the entire Nucor Arkansas team. Another sheet mill project Nucor Steel Gallatin top end modernization and expansion is beginning to start up in the current quarter. This project gives Gallatin's new mill thicker slab casting and wider coil capabilities, expanding our product portfolio into markets currently served by higher cost competitors. Our Gallatin team members continue to impress with their ability to safely construct the expansion project within the environment of an operating mill and we look forward to its continued ramp up.
We are also expanding our presence in the Western U.S. In December, we announced an agreement to acquire a majority ownership stake of 51% in California Steel Industries for about $400 million. CSI is a flat rolled converter with annual capacity to produce more than 2 million tons of finished steel and steel products. This investment, which is expected to close shortly, expands our geographic reach in the sheet market, grows our portfolio of value-added sheet products, and enables us to supply Nucor's downstream businesses in the region, including Verco and the recently acquired Hannibal Industries. We are very excited to partner here with JFE Steel Corporation on our second joint venture.
Switching to the plate market, our Brandenburg, Kentucky greenfield mill is on track to begin rolling its first steel plate product in the fourth quarter of this year with a capability to manufacture nearly all the different types of plate products consumed in the United States, Brandenburg will position Nucor as the supplier of choice in the domestic plate market, which includes applications in offshore wind, heavy equipment, construction and military. Finally, I would also like to mention a new project in our bar mill group. In December, we announced our plan to build a new rebar micro mill with annual capacity of 430,000 tons in the South Atlantic region. This will be Nucor's third rebar micro mill joining micro mills in Missouri and Florida that begin operations in 2020. We are currently evaluating potential sites and are excited about this opportunity to grow our profitable leadership position in rebar, a core business for Nucor throughout the last 50 years.
I am extremely proud of all of our teammates who are working so hard on all of these projects as they are prime examples of Nucor's continued execution of our mission to grow the core, expand beyond and live our culture. And before I leave this topic, I just want to note that we believe we are seeing an acceleration of a transformation in our industry that has been underway for decades, forces driving economic efficiency and lower emissions in steel making. No North American producer is better positioned than Nucor to continue leading in these areas. With our team's disciplined focus on execution and Nucor's financial and operational strengths, we expect to realize very attractive returns on our investments.
We are very proud of Nucor's help make the United States the cleanest place in the world to make steel. The green economy is being built on steel and the steel is built on matters. We are also capitalizing on the opportunities to supply the sustainable steel that is building our 21st century economy. Earlier this month, we shipped our very first coil of Econiq to General Motors after having just launched this new line of steels this past October. Our Econiq offering represents the world's first ever net zero carbon steel available at scale. We look forward to continuing to offer Econiq to more customers, and of course, lower greenhouse gas emission steel across our product portfolio.
Nucor will continue to be a key part of our modern economy by supplying the most advance and sustainable steel products needed to rebuild Americas infrastructure. We are pleased that our leaders came together in the fourth quarter to pass historic bipartisan infrastructure legislation that will help advance and modernize U.S. infrastructure and strengthen the health of our economy by creating opportunities for American workers. With approximately half of Nucor's products going into the construction market, we stand ready to help our country meet its infrastructure needs.
We also continue to work with the administration and members of Congress to enforce our trade laws so that our market is free from the distortions caused by unfairly traded imports. In that, as we reinvest in our infrastructure, we do so with steel produced in America the highest quality cleanest deal possible. And before I turn the call over to Jim, I would like to congratulate the entire Nucor team on reaching new heights to achieve our safest and most profitable year in company's history. You have much to be proud of. And on behalf of myself and our entire executive team thank you. Team let's keep up our focus in 2022 and of course for Nucor that begins with a value of safety. We have much to look forward to as we progressed throughout this new year.
Now, Jim will provide more details about our fourth quarter and full year performance. Jim?
