SDI ‘well positioned’ for scrap, pig iron alternatives amid tariff impacts

Published by:Christian Willbern<>
23 Apr 2025 @ 21:00 UTC

US steelmaker Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) expects a softer tariff impact on its raw material imports as it plans to include more iron metallic alternatives in its melt mixes, the company said during its first-quarter 2025 earnings call on Wednesday April 23.

I think in general we are well positioned, SDI chairman and chief executive officer Mark Millet said on Wednesday.
Scrap flowing across the boarders is not an impact on us… we will have a little impact from tariffs on pig iron if they remain in place, Millet continued.
SDI imports roughly 700,000 gross tons of Canadian scrap and 400,000 gross tons of Mexican ferrous scrap, which remains unaffected by tariffs per the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) agreement, Millet said.
The company did not specify the time frame in which it imports 700,000 gross tons of Canadian and 400,000 gross tons of Mexican ferrous scrap.
The steelmaker plans to pivot toward more prime scrap and shred one — otherwise known aslow-copper shred— to supplant iron metallics in its steel melt mixes, Millet said.
Just as we did at the onset of the Ukrainian war, when pig iron pricing went skyrocketing and availability was challenged, we increased our prime scrap and more importantly our low-residual scrap and reduced that pig iron content or that type. So that will be reduced, he continued.
However, company executives noted that 2025 pig iron usage and potential raw material impacts are murkier as their Sinton flat-rolled steel facility comes online.
[It’s] a moving target for us… We could go anywhere from 8% to 25% [for] pig iron [in melt mixes], and we will make those decisions based on what the market pricing is for those different units, SDI president and chief operating officer Barry Schneider said during the call.
According to its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-K filing, the company consumed 13 million gross tons of metallic materials in 2023 and 2024, which accounted for 15% of the raw material consumed by their steelmaking furnaces during the same period.
SDI noted, however, it can draw on its Iron Dynamics asset at the Butler, Indiana, facility to create iron out of waste materials, which allows [it] to be a little more independent, Schneider said.
We’ve had great supply from our offshore pig iron suppliers… We think those pricing mechanisms will resound themselves through the year, he continued.
We feel good that as the situation unfolds, we will continue to find metallics at a competitive price, Schneider said.
Segment results Steel Dynamics’ scrap segment operating income reached $25.7 million in the first quarter of 2025 amid strong ferrous scrap pricing and modestly higher shipments across the platform, the company said in its first-quarter 2025 results released on Tuesday.
The improvement in earnings was driven by record steel shipments and supported by solid results from our metals recycling and steel fabrication operations, CEO Mark Millet said in the press release.
The company’s first-quarter 2025 income increased by roughly $9.05 million compared with the same period in 2024 and was up by $2.35 million from its fourth-quarter 2024 income.
SDI shipped out 1.45 million gross tons of ferrous scrap in the first quarter of 2025, down by 5,357 tonnes compared with the first quarter of 2024, but up by 31,411 tonnes from the fourth quarter of 2024.
The company shipped 233,080 million lb of non-ferrous scrap in the company’s first quarter, down by 10.9 million lb compared with the first quarter of 2024, but up by 6.5 million lb quarter on quarter.