Dan DiMicco has presided over stunning growth at Charlotte steel maker Nucor Corp. "I pinch myself when I look at where we are and where we were in 2000," said DiMicco, CEO since September of that year. "We exceeded our expectations."

During his tenure, sales more than tripled, to $14.75 billion. Earnings are more than five times higher, and Nucor's stock has soared from a low of $7.50 in 2000 to $69.25 Friday. The company has vaulted to No. 161 from 373 on the prestigious Fortune 500 listing.

Last year, construction in the commercial and energy sectors, as well as continued acquisitions, helped boost sales and push Nucor profits up more than one-third. The company's steel is used for products that include beams for highway overpasses, bolts for farm equipment, steel joists and girders for condo towers and sheet steel for refrigerators and water heaters.

Nucor's performance, including a stock increase of nearly 64 percent last year, propelled it to the top of the Carolinas 100, a ranking of public companies important to the two states.

Dividends have rewarded shareholders, with payouts jumping from $62 million in 2003 to $578 million last year.

This year, Nucor's stock is up 26.7 percent.

The company, named Nucor in 1972, grew from a nearly bankrupt conglomerate to an international steel legend during its first 25 or so years. Nucor revolutionized the steel industry, proving that so-called "mini-mills" could efficiently and profitably transform old cars, fridges and other scrap into steel. The mills, using electric furnaces, are cheaper to build and operate than old-line blast furnaces that make steel from iron ore.

Nucor touts its role as a major recycler, with a Web site counter that tallies tons of scrap recycled.

DiMicco is building the Nucor of the 21st century, which includes working on ways to make its raw material and use more environmentally friendly processes. Castrip, for example, enables molten steel to be formed without the extensive rolling typical in a steel mill. Think of it as pouring a giant cookie, at just the desired thickness, without using a rolling pin to flatten the dough. The streamlined process, for which Nucor has exclusive U.S. and Brazil rights, uses less energy and reduces emissions and allows for much smaller mills.

For Nucor, continuing a run of three record years could be hard as the industry faces weak home sales and rising steel imports. Acquisitions, which helped drive Nucor's recent growth, could become more expensive. But strong management, low production costs, an unusually diversified product line and new technologies have Nucor well-positioned.

"I never once thought that the team they put together couldn't do this," said Michelle Applebaum, an industry analyst. "The legacy is built-in growth."

DiMicco, with Nucor for 25 years, talked about where the company is headed. Applebaum, who owns Nucor stock, fielded questions separately. She has followed the company since 1981, for years on Wall Street and now through her boutique equity research firm, Michelle Applebaum Research, in Chicago.

Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Steel is a cyclical industry, and there were rough spots early in your time as CEO. How does the industry landscape look today?

DiMicco: We feel good, but this is a business where you can't feel good for too long. We've accomplished a lot of growth through acquisitions and through some greenfields [new plants]. We're developing new technologies. I look forward to seeing them take root and have an impact on global steel-making and also from an environmental standpoint, to reduce energy consumption. We want to reward shareholders with earnings growth.

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