SDI anticipates upturn in quarter-on-quarter earnings

Published by: Mark Burgess<>
18 Mar 2025 @ 18:13 UTC

Steel Dynamics (SDI) is guiding toward sequentially improved first-quarter results based on increased shipments offsetting metal margin compression, the company said in its first-quarter earnings guidance released on Monday March 17.

The Fort Wayne, Indiana-based producer said that the increase in spot prices for the first quarter has outpaced contractual prices early in 2025, but spot and contract prices are expected to return to a balance in the next several months.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $47.31 per hundredweight ($946.20 per short ton) on Monday, up by 31.97% from $35.85 per cwt on January 2.
SDI’s Texas flat roll division operated at production levels above 90% in the first quarter of 2025, as it continued to clear [a] path to profitability in the second quarter of 2025, the company said.
The energy, non-residential construction, automotive and industrial sectors are leading demand improvement, SDI said.
Within its aluminium division, SDI confirmed that it is on pace to begin shipping material from its Columbus, Mississippi, aluminium flat-rolled products mill around June or July.
The company cast its first aluminium ingot in January and has since completed the start-up of the ingot scalper. Construction is close to complete on the hot line and No. 1 cold rolling mill. Finishing equipment installation for the automotive treatment and can coil coating lines are also on schedule, SDI said.
When the mill starts, they will consume around 20,000 tons of UBCs [used beverage cans], a source familiar with the operation said.
Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium P1020A premium, ddp Midwest US at 38-45 cents per lb on March 18, down from a recent all-time high of 43-45 cents per pound on March 12-13.
SDI said that its first-quarter earnings from the company’s metals recycling operations are also expected to come in higher than in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The company cited stronger realized prices and stable volumes for ferrous and non-ferrous materials.
SDI said that earnings from its steel fabrication operations are expected to be lower quarter-on-quarter based on seasonally lower shipments and less than a 5% decline in realized pricing.
The company plans to release its first-quarter earnings after the markets close on April 22.
Amy Hinton and David Bartle contributed to this report.