Global Fastener News

Obituary: Nucor’s Iverson

John Wolz

Ken Iverson, who built Nucor into a major steel manufacturer, died April 14, 2002, at age 76.
Iverson was CEO when Nucor�s Fastener Division was formed and fastener production began in December 1986.
Iverson took over the failing nuclear instruments company and turned it into a revolutionary steel manufacturer.
Before Nucor steel was generally produced in capital-intensive blast-furnace factories. Iverson decided to manufacture steel from relatively small factories using recycled steel scrap. These “mini-mills” now produce more than half of all steel made in the United States. Nucor grew to the largest steelmaker (measured by tons) in the United States and the largest individual recycler of any material.
Nucor created a joint venture with a Japanese steelmaker in the mid-1980s when anti-Japan sentiment was high. Within a decade the Nucor-Yamato became the dominant producer of wide-flange beams for construction in the United States.
Iverson’s most famous gamble was adopting a technology in the 1980’s creating sheet steel by casting the steel in 2-inch slabs, much thinner than the standard at the time. The technology is now used around the world. �2002 FastenerNews.com