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(AMM) Steel on the road to recovery, but a slow one, executives agree

March 12, 2010 - 21:21 GMT Location: CHICAGO

KEYWORDS: Nucor , ThyssenKrupp Steel , Severstal North America , U.S. Steel

Some of the top executives of North American steelmakers are in general agreement when it comes to the direction the industry is headed. After such a difficult year in 2009, most believe better days are ahead.

Just how soon those better days will be realized, however, remains a question. Daniel R. DiMicco, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Nucor Corp., Charlotte, N.C., believes recovery is still a long way off.

"We are in a very, very, very ugly period of time," he said Friday during Steel Business Briefing's North American Steel Markets 2010 conference in Chicago. "I wish I could say the ugliness is behind us, but we will be fighting through it for the next several years. I don't think we are completely done with it yet."

The industry's economic woes?and those of U.S. manufacturing in general?will persist until U.S. government leaders focus on two things, DiMicco said.

"The big question is still out there," he said. "We still are not doing enough in Washington to...

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