So the hit the dollar is taking now should be an abbreviated one. Take the case of Nucor Corp., a highly efficient steelmaker based in Charlotte, N.C., that has watched its exports plunge from 700,000 tons just a few years ago to 100,000 tons this year. Nucor's exports have been depressed because the strong dollar makes its steel products more expensive in overseas markets and because the collapse of Asian economies has cut into sales to that region. So it was not surprising that Nucor chairman F. Kenneth Iverson was heartened last week when the dollar fell 8 percent against the yen in one day. Bidders he hadn't heard from in months, if not years, were on the phone.
Trouble is, no new business has yet materialized.
There's a good reason. The dollar has fallen 20.7 percent against the yen and 12.7 percent against the mark from its 1998 highs, but it remains relatively strong against other currencies that play a big role in U.S. trade, including the Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar. Those currencies both set record lows this year against the U.S. dollar. Indeed, until last month the trade-weighted dollar, which is intended to reflect each major currency's impact on U.S. trade, was the strongest it had been since 1985. The trade-weighted dollar had jumped 21 percent since May 1995, when the U.S. currency was at record lows against the yen and the mark.