Steel Dynamics nets $217M on record shipments

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), a Fort Wayne, Indiana-based metals recycler and producer, has reported first-quarter 2025 net sales of $4.4 billion and net income of $217 million. The net income figure is up by 4.8 percent compared with the prior quarter but represents a nearly 63 percent year-on-year drop.

In the first three months of this year, the company’s Metals Recycling business unit—consisting largely of Omni branded (OmniSource LLC) facilities and trading offices—produced more than $25.7 million in operating income, a 54 percent increase compared with the prior quarter and up by 10 percent from one year earlier.

“The improvement in earnings was driven by record steel shipments and supported by solid results from our metals recycling and steel fabrication operations,” SDI Chair and CEO Mark D. Millett says, referring to the 3.5 million tons of steel shipments made in the first quarter.

“Our three-year after-tax return on invested capital of 20 percent is a testament to our ongoing high-return capital allocation execution. Across the company, our teams had a solid performance while keeping each other safe.

“Underlying steel demand improved in the first quarter as customer orders rebounded and backlogs increased throughout the quarter at our steel and steel fabrication operations. Steel prices improved throughout the quarter from the lows seen in the second half of 2024 as trade actions have seen imports decline from recent highs. We should see the benefit from these higher steel prices in the coming months as lagging flat rolled steel contracts roll. In combination with our ongoing value-added flat-rolled steel and aluminum expansion initiatives, there are firm drivers in place for our continued growth.”

SDI is in the midst of a major capital expenditure project—the Aluminum Dynamics facility being constructed and equipped in Columbus, Mississippi.

“The aluminum team is continuing with successful commissioning of the company’s Columbus, Mississippi, aluminum flat-rolled products mill, along with the San Luis Potosi, Mexico, satellite recycled slab center," Millett says of that project.

“The Mississippi team successfully cast its first aluminum ingot in January 2025, and the Mexico team in March 2025. Construction is near completion on the hot and cold mills. The finishing equipment installation for the automotive treatment and can sheet coating lines are also on schedule. The company continues to expect to ship commercial aluminum flat-rolled coils mid-2025.”

In the company’s core recycled-content electric arc furnace (EAF) steel market, SDI says the average external product selling price of its steel products decreased $13 per ton sequentially to $998 per ton in the first quarter.

The average ferrous scrap cost per ton melted at the company’s steel mills, meanwhile, increased by $16 per ton sequentially to $386 per ton, potentially narrowing mill margins.

“The energy, nonresidential construction, automotive and industrial sectors led steel demand in the quarter,” SDI says.

The firm reports its Sinton, Texas, Flat Roll Division mill operated at an 86 percent capacity rate during the quarter and oftentimes at production levels in excess of 90 percent.

“We remain constructive that market conditions are in place for domestic steel consumption to be solid through 2025 and into the following years,” Millett says. “Order entry activity improved across our businesses, and steel pricing firmed in the first quarter [of] 2025. However, we have seen some uncertainty from certain customers related to recent trade actions.

"Overall, we believe demand for lower-carbon emission, United States-produced steel products coupled with lower imports will support steel pricing and demand. The continued onshoring of manufacturing businesses, combined with the expectation of fixed-asset investment to be derived from public and private funding, should competitively position the domestic steel industry.”

Addressing the company’s strategy this year and beyond, Millett says, “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. Our customers and our people are also incredibly excited for this growth opportunity.”