Steel Dynamics CEO sees increased demand across operating platforms in 2024

“We believe the market dynamics are in place to support increased demand across our operating platforms in 2024,” said CEO Mark Millett. “Steel pricing has firmed, and customer order entry activity continues to be solid across our steel operations, as demand continues to be steady and customer inventories remain at historically low levels. In addition, we believe demand for lower-carbon emission, U.S. produced steel products will also support future domestic steel pricing. The continued onshoring of manufacturing businesses, combined with the expectation of significant fixed asset investment to be derived from public funding related to the U.S. Infrastructure, Inflation Reduction Act, and Department of Energy programs, will competitively position the domestic steel industry. We believe this will benefit all of our operating platforms, especially our steel and steel fabrication businesses. Steel Dynamics continues to be in a position of strength as we enter 2024. We are ramping up operations at our new state-of-the-art electric arc furnace flat rolled steel mill located in Texas, and just recently completed construction of four additional value-added flat rolled steel coating lines comprised of two paint lines and two galvanizing lines with Galvalume coating capability. These lines will increase our value-added flat rolled steel annual capacity by 1.1 million tons. We plan to commission these lines during the first quarter of 2024. This demand environment, in combination with our ongoing expansion initiatives, provide firm drivers for our continued growth. The team continues to make great progress on our aluminum flat rolled products mill and related investments. We still plan to begin commissioning of the aluminum flat rolled mill mid-2025. We remain incredibly excited about this meaningful growth opportunity, which is aligned with our existing businesses and operational expertise,” said Millett. “We have intentionally grown with our customers’ needs, providing efficient sustainable supply-chain solutions for the highest quality products. Thus far, this has primarily been achieved within the steel industry – however, a significant number of our flat rolled steel customers are also consumers and processors of aluminum flat rolled products. We are pleased to further diversify our end markets with plans to supply aluminum flat rolled products with high recycled content to the countercyclical sustainable beverage can and packaging industry, in addition to the automotive, industrial, and construction sectors. We believe our unique performance-based operating culture, coupled with our considerable experience in successfully constructing and operating cost-effective, highly profitable flat rolled steel mills, positions us exceptionally well to execute this strategic opportunity and to deliver strong long-term value creation. Our planned biocarbon production facility is also progressing well, and the team plans to begin operating the plant before the end of 2024,” said Millett. “This project is a key to our further decarbonization strategy for our already low-carbon emissions steel offerings. In combination, with our renewable product purchase agreement with NextEra, these two initiatives will help us achieve our stated Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reduction goals. Our commitment is to the health and safety of our teams, families, and communities, while meeting the current and future needs of our customers. Our culture and business model continue to positively differentiate our performance compared to others. We continue to strengthen our financial position through strong cash flow generation and the execution of our long-term strategy,” concluded Millett.