Nucor conducts business within the Basic Materials category, specifically the Iron & Steel Industry. As described in the post from the earlier chapter, NUE is in a Oligolopistic industry structure. Based on Chapter 4 definitions, the Iron & Steel industry can be categorized as mixture of Fragmented, Emerging and Mature industry attributes.
The Iron & Steel industry has consolidated within the US over the last ten years, due mainly to mergers and bankruptcies wrought from a period of cutthroat competition ushered in by overcapacity of steel products. The same is not true globally, however, as the largest 10 steelmakers in the world supply roughly 27% of global output. Therefore, the opportunity that fragmentation presents is available on a global scale if NUE wants to adopt a consolidation strategy.
Though one of the earliest of all industries, the steel industry - specifically the mini-mill industry - is still an emerging industry due to new technologies and advances in metal metallurgy. NUE needs to continue its technological leadership strategy in order to maintain its role as a first-mover within the mini-mill sector.
Finally, steel is steel after all, so there is a level of maturity within the industry - how steel is used, what shapes are common, what strength is expected, etc. NUE has seized on this fact through product refinement and a great swath of product line diversity that creates revenue opportunities which other firms within the industry do not have.
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