Steel Dynamics (STLD) Risk Analysis

Existing laws or regulations, as currently interpreted or as may be interpreted in the future, as well as future laws or regulations, may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. We are subject to numerous local, state, federal and international statutory and regulatory environmental requirements relating to, among other things: - the generation, storage, treatment, handling and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes and secondary materials;- the discharge of materials into the air, including periodic changes to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and to emission standards;- the management, treatment and discharge of wastewater and storm water;- the use and treatment of groundwater and surface water;- the remediation of equipment, product, soil or water contamination;- climate change legislation or regulation;- the need for and the ability to timely obtain air, water or other environmental permits;- the timely reporting of certain chemical usage, content, storage and releases;- the remediation and reclamation of land used in or affected by our operations;- natural resource protections; and - the protection of our employees' health and safety. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations, which affect our EAF steelmaking, metals recycling, liquid pig-iron, aluminum, and copper production operations, is a significant factor in our business. We are required to obtain and comply with environmental permits and licenses, and failure to obtain or renew or the violation of any permit or license may result in substantial fines and penalties, capital expenditures, operational changes, suspension of operations or the closure of a subject facility. Similarly, delays, increased costs or the imposition of onerous conditions to the securing or renewal of permits may adversely affect these operations. Uncertainty regarding appropriate pollution control levels, testing and sampling procedures, and new pollution control technology are factors that may increase our future compliance expenditures. We are unable to predict the ultimate cost of future compliance with environmental requirements or their effect on our operations. Although we strive to be in substantial compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, legal requirements frequently change and are subject to interpretation such that regulatory agencies may bring enforcement actions for alleged noncompliance. Private parties might also bring claims against us under citizen suit provisions and/or for property damage or personal injury allegedly resulting from our operations. New laws, regulations and changing interpretations by regulatory authorities, together with uncertainty regarding the application of existing requirements, are among the factors that may increase our future expenditures to comply with environmental requirements. The cost of complying with existing laws or regulations as currently interpreted or reinterpreted in the future, or with future laws or regulations, may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Our operations produce significant amounts of by-products, some of which are handled as solid or hazardous waste or as hazardous secondary materials. For example, our steel mills generate EAF dust, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency (United States EPA) and other regulatory authorities classify as hazardous waste and regulate accordingly unless recycled in an exempt manner. In addition, the feed materials for the shredders operated by our metals recycling operations include automobile bodies. A portion of the feed materials consist of currently unrecyclable material known as shredder residue. If laws or regulations or the interpretation of the laws or regulations change with regard to EAF dust or shredder residue or other by-products created by our operations, we may incur significant additional expenditures. Federal and state environmental laws enable federal and state agencies and certain private parties to recover from owners, operators, generators and transporters the cost of investigation and cleanup of sites at which wastes or hazardous substances were disposed and/or migrated. In connection with these laws, we may be required to clean up contamination discovered at our sites including contamination that may have been caused by former owners or operators of the sites, to conduct additional cleanup at sites that have already had some cleanup performed, to address emerging and newly-regulated contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4-dioxane, or to perform cleanup with regard to sites formerly used in connection with our operations. In addition, we may be required to pay for, or to pay a portion of, the costs of cleanup at sites to which we sent materials for disposal or recycling, notwithstanding that the original disposal or recycling activity may have complied with all regulatory requirements then in effect. Under certain laws, a party can be held jointly and severally liable for all of the cleanup costs associated with a disposal site. In practice, a liable party often splits the costs of cleanup with other potentially responsible parties. We have received notices from the United States EPA, state agencies and third parties that we have been identified as potentially responsible for the costs of investigating and cleaning up a number of disposal sites. In most cases, many other parties are also named as potentially responsible parties and also contribute to payment of those costs. Because cleanup liability can in some cases be imposed retroactively on activities that occurred many years ago, and because federal and state agencies are still discovering sites that pose a threat to public health or the environment, we can provide no assurance that we will not become liable for significant costs associated with investigation and remediation of cleanup sites.

Global steelmaking capacity currently exceeds global consumption of steel products, which adversely affects United States and global steel prices. Such excess capacity sometimes results in steel manufacturers in certain countries exporting steel and steel products, at prices that are lower than prevailing domestic prices, and sometimes at or below their cost of production. Excessive imports of steel and steel products, into the United States, may exert downward pressure on United States steel and steel products prices, which adversely affects our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Fluctuations in the value of the dollar can also affect imports, as a strong United States dollar makes imported products less expensive, potentially resulting in more imports of steel and steel products into the United States by our foreign competitors. Furthermore, the introduction of additional domestic steel capacity could increase this global overcapacity. This, in turn, has led to and may further lead to increased domestic demand for ferrous scrap resulting in increased scrap prices. Our steel operations financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows are driven primarily from the metal spread achieved from the price we sell steel and steel products compared to the price of our metallic raw materials, including scrap. During prolonged periods of steel and steel products overcapacity, leading to lower selling prices, combined with high demand for scrap and raw materials, leading to higher buying prices, our metal spreads could be compressed, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. United States steel producers compete with many foreign producers, including those in China, Vietnam and other Asian and European countries. Competition from foreign producers is typically strong and is periodically exacerbated by weakening of the economies of certain foreign steelmaking countries, at times leading to imports of steel involving dumping and subsidy abuses by foreign steel producers. Some foreign steel producers are owned, controlled or subsidized by foreign governments. As a result, decisions by these producers with respect to their production, sales and pricing are sometimes influenced to a greater degree by political and economic policy considerations than by prevailing market conditions, realities of the marketplace or consideration of profit or loss. A higher volume of steel imports into the United States tends to occur at depressed prices when foreign steelmaking countries experience periods of economic difficulty, decreased demand for steel products or excess capacity. The global steelmaking overcapacity is exacerbated by Chinese steel production capacity that far exceeds that country's demand and has made China a major global exporter of steel, resulting in weakened global steel pricing than otherwise would be expected. While measures to curb unfair trade such as tariffs, duties or quotas, along with trade agreements with other countries, have decreased the volume of steel and steel products imports, domestic steel and steel products prices can be negatively impacted by excessive imports of steel and steel products. Should current or new tariffs, duties or quotas expire or be relaxed, repealed or circumvented by importers of steel and steel products, or should trade agreements be renegotiated, downward pressure may be exerted on United States steel and steel products prices, which may adversely affect our steel business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

The steel and aluminum manufacturing business is cyclical in nature, and the selling price of the products we make may fluctuate significantly due to many factors beyond our control. Furthermore, a number of our products are commodities, subject to their own cyclical fluctuations in supply and demand in both metal consuming and metal generating industries, including the construction and manufacturing industries. The timing, magnitude and duration of these cycles and the resulting price fluctuations are difficult to predict. The sale of our manufactured steel and aluminum products is directly affected by demand for our products in other cyclical industries, such as construction, automotive, manufacturing, transportation, heavy and agricultural equipment, energy, food packaging, beverage can and pipe and tube (including OCTG) markets. Economic difficulties, stagnant or slow global economies, supply and demand imbalances, supply chain disruptions, periods of heightened inflation or high interest rates, and currency fluctuations in the United States or globally may decrease the demand for our products or increase the amount of imports of steel or aluminum into the United States, which may decrease our sales, margins and profitability.