Jul. 24--Two of Decatur's largest employers continue to struggle with the recession, but both noted the efforts of local employees as rare sweet notes in an economic dirge.

Nucor Corp. lost money in the second quarter, but at its earnings call Thursday it announced the Decatur plant's galvanizing line began production Tuesday.

"I hold in my hand as we speak a piece of the first prime galvanized coil from our new galvanizing line at Decatur," said Chief Operating Officer John Ferriola. "This line started up two days ago, and their first full coil after start-up was prime quality."

Despite depressed orders in all steel segments, Ferriola said, the Decatur galvanizing line will immediately contribute to Nucor revenue.

"Congratulations and thanks to the entire Decatur team for a great start-up, and a very timely one," Ferriola said. "In addition to running qualification trials, the line will be running overflow orders from three other galvanizing lines that are at full production."

The announcement was huge for Nucor Decatur.

Nucor began construction of the $185 million line in October 2006. After the steel market collapsed, it announced in January it would finish the project but would delay production until economic conditions improved.

The coated steel coils will find their strongest markets in the construction and automotive industries.

Despite Nucor's $133 million loss in the quarter, it beat expectations and its own forecast as steel service centers began restocking their inventories.

Chief Executive Officer Dan DiMicco was far from optimistic going forward, but there were positive signs.

While Nucor sales were down 65 percent from the same quarter in 2008, they increased every month during the quarter.

3M optical film

3M Co. also beat expectations in the second quarter and, unusual these days, managed a profit.

A major driver for the profit, said Chief Financial Officer Patrick Campbell, was the optical film segment based in Decatur.

"First and foremost, our teams have been hard at work devising new film solutions to improve the energy efficiency of LCD panels," Campbell said. "In short, our films enable fewer light bulbs in the back panel of an LCD screen."

The optical film segment has struggled in past quarters, due in part to technical problems in the manufacturing process and in part to the competitive market.

The other factor in the success of the optical film segment, Campbell said, was that consumer electronics sales -- especially of LCD products -- have grown despite the ugly economy.