Nucor is nearly worth more than ArcelorMittal and earned more last quarter than ArcelorMittal did. Unthinkable just a few years ago.
Nucor's sales jumped from $16b to $25b in two years up through fiscal 2018. Net income jumped from $80m in 2015, to $2.3 billion in 2018 (operating income went from $654m to $3.3b).
US Steel Corporation saw its sales jump from $10b to $14b over two years through 2018, net income jumped from negative $1.6b in 2015 to positive $1.1b (operating income went from -$525m to +$950m over that time).
The US steel industry has been a disaster for decades. Now it's one of the strongest in the world financially. China's steel companies are hemorrhaging and require constant state support stimulus by comparison.
We can either have a healthy, strong domestic steel industry, or we can do nothing and watch China put it into the ground through dumping and massive state subsidies. I don't agree with any state protectionism. So long as China gets away with what they've been doing for decades in industries like steel, I agree with protecting important domestic industries. Steel companies (whether they're in the US or elsewhere) are directly competing with the Chinese state, the US state should intervene given the playing field is very uneven.