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Steel Dynamics, Inc. (STLD)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Jan 26, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Steel Dynamics' Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. Please be advised that this call is being recorded today, January 26, 2016, and your participation implies consent to our recording this call. If you do not agree to these terms, please disconnect. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Tricia Meyers, (00:30) Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Unverified Participant

Management

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Steel Dynamics' fourth quarter and full-year 2015 earnings conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and will be available on the company's website for replay later today. Leading today's call are Mark Millett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Steel Dynamics; and Theresa Wagler, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We also have our leaders from the company's operating platforms, including Dick Teets, President and Chief Operating Officer for our Steel Operations; Russ Rinn, President and Chief Operating Officer for our Metals Recycling Operations; and Chris Graham, President of our Fabrication Operations. Please be advised that certain comments made today may involve forward-looking statements about future events that by their nature are predictive. These are intended to be covered by the Safe Harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we refer you to a more detailed form of this statement contained in the press release announcing this earnings call. These predictive statements speak only as of this date, January 26, 2016, and involve many risks and uncertainties related to our businesses and the environment in which they operate, any of which may cause actual results to turn out differently than anticipated. More detailed information about such risks and uncertainties may be found in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K under the heading, special note regarding forward-looking statements and risk factors; and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or in other reports which we from time to time file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Mark. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, Tricia (2:18), perfectly done – thank you – during your first call. Good morning,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question today is coming from Tony Rizzuto from Cowen and Company. Please proceed with your question. Anthony Rizzuto - Cowen & Co. LLC: Thank you very much. Happy New Year, Mark, Theresa, Dick, Russ, everybody. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Happy New Year, Tony (23:40). Anthony Rizzuto - Cowen & Co. LLC: Thank you. Thank you. I've got a little bit of a cold here. I apologize. Just a couple questions. First of all, in your steel segment, shipments were down sequentially, but it looks like your conversion costs were up somewhat. I wonder if you can provide a little bit of color on that. And then I've got some questions about mix shift, too, that I wanted to ask you. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Regarding the conversion costs, Tony, they were up somewhat across, really, most of the divisions, and that had to do with a couple different things. One was because of the lower volume. There was some additional, I think, maintenance that might have taken place in the fourth quarter as well. But predominantly, it was related to the lower utilization rates. Anthony Rizzuto - Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: (24:30), did you have some... Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: That's okay. Anthony Rizzuto - Cowen & Co. LLC: All right. Great. And then, Mark, you mentioned that you added over 100 – I think I heard you say over 100 new customers in 2015, so congrats on that. And I was wondering, how many of those customers were because of the Columbus acquisition?…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Matthew Korn from Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Matthew J. Korn - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Management

Hi. Good morning, everybody. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Matt. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Matt.

Matthew J. Korn - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Management

So on the steel operation side, we've seen industry capacity utilization numbers up from the December trough, but they're still low. I'm curious, now that we're about quarter to the quarter, is the velocity of orders that you're getting from buyers meaningfully improved? Have the buyers kind of pulled out of their deflationary expectations that had set in for so long? And overall, is the seasonality of demand, maybe even ex energy, is that following the normal track, in your view, or are things still fairly fragile? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think there's positive momentum, generally. I'm sure Dick can speak to some of it, but the inventory overhang, there's continued destocking there and it's becoming imbalanced. It's still relatively high, particularly in hot band. But in coated products, in coated (33:10) sheet, I think it's getting into a good position. And you speak to a seasonal uptick. I think we're seeing that as well. But the – we suffered in, I think it was October and November was where we took a real hit to volumes, and we were just talking this morning. In the last two weeks – Chris, the last two weeks of December, Columbus took 330,000 tons...

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

(33:39) Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Of orders. Quite a flip. For some time the customer base has been concerned as to where raw material pricing might go. There's – consumer confidence out there, just from the global sort of geopolitical environment is a cloud. Once they saw stability in raw materials, I think they came back to market. So, our lead times have been stretching out. They are weakest in hot band. And again, there's still a lot of inventory out there. But lead time I think in Butler and Columbus is in the two weeks to probably stretching to three weeks. Still, we keep it no longer than four weeks in any event. But of all the products, hot band is probably the softest. On cold roll sheet and coated, I sense a tightness forming in that arena. I think it's a combination of – the automotive arena is strong. So, the integrated mills got a relatively good order book. Construction continues to come back. There's some destocking going on. And we have some relief from the trade cases and erosion of import levels. So, that's timing, and we're about five weeks at Columbus. We're over six weeks at Butler. And at Techs, we're about six weeks to seven weeks out. So, that arena, I think, is – again, I sense a tightness growing there and that obviously gives the ability for some further price appreciation. You may see a strange – I saw it in the American Metal Market this morning, but we are seeing two slight diversions of the typical spread between hot band and other products. I think hot band, near term, will be kind of flattish, whereas as I said, corro sheet and coated are likely to appreciate.

Matthew J. Korn - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Management

Got it. Thanks. That's actually very helpful. Let me switch over quickly to fabrication and tell me if this isn't the right way to think about it. But could you describe what would be your order backlog today relative to your current staffing levels, maybe compared to where you were a year ago? In other words, do you have 8 weeks, 10 weeks of work pending, 12 weeks, 4 weeks – again, if that's a reasonable way of comparison? And then you've mentioned that you still expect non-residential growth, construction growth for 2016. On terms of a rate, do you think that we're going to pick up from last year? Are things softening from last year? Have you seen any kind of new activity spurred on by the lower prevailing prices at all, anything like that? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: When you're comparing backlog from early in the year to the end of the year, one has to be a little careful because the productivity of the teams up there have done – the improvement in productivity has just been phenomenal. Chris, do you want to speak to the backlog?

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

I'd say, year-over-year, we have seen a change. We're going into – or we're in the middle of a quarter with a stronger backlog in this quarter than we had at this time last year. As far as our capacity, we did not have to add too much capacity in 2015, which is kind of remarkable given our results. That's more leveraging our existing capacity to a greater extent, occasionally working some overtime. We have a lot of flexibility in that regard. So, with about the same staffing, we were probably at – all of our backlog is about 12 weeks. And our backlog is always about 12 weeks out, it just depends on how large that backlog is, because that's a typical life cycle of a project for us. But we were soft last first quarter. First quarter, I think, was our lowest volume. This year, it's up substantially, Mark, everybody is running full. We've seen no seasonal downtime yet. That's always in the offing in February and March, depending on weather. But right now, things are steady. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Super. And I know we spoke about it already, but just to emphasize, the CSi acquisition, relatively small for us, perhaps, but very good value, and it's already paying great dividends. The deck share increased from beginning of the year at 24% to 31% at the end of the year, I think, is testament to the decision that the team made there.

Matthew J. Korn - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Management

Great. Thanks, Chris, Mark. Best of luck for the rest of the quarter. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from the line of Chris Terry from Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Terry - Deutsche Bank AG

Australia

Hi, guys. I just got a couple. Maybe for Theresa, on the balance sheet. So following a good year where you had some wins on the working capital side, can you dig into some more details around the opportunities perhaps on the accounts receivable and the inventory throughout 2016, and how we should think about the free cash flow and working capital positions towards the end of the year? Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Certainly. As we look at 2016, from a working capital perspective, the premise for us is that we think raw materials, specifically scrap, are going to stay pretty flat throughout the year on an annual basis. And with that, we really do try to manage our inventories to less than four weeks on hand at our steel mills. So we don't expect a big working capital funding requirement on the raw material side of the equation. So then you're really looking at finish goods and accounts receivable. From a finish goods perspective, we also traditionally produce to ship. There's only certain inventories that we keep at our bar mills and our structural mills. And so with that, if there's any significant appreciation in price or value, there'll be some funding requirements, but otherwise, we don't see that changing materially either. And from a receivable standpoint, we're pretty comfortable with our DSOs. There's always room for improvement, but the expectation right now is that working capital in 2016 shouldn't require, on an annual basis, a great deal of additional investment.

Chris Terry - Deutsche Bank AG

Australia

Okay. Thanks very much. And then Mark, you touched on it in that last answer, but what would you expect then throughout the year on that gap between HRC and the CRC, without giving too much detail, but I think we're at about $140 to $160 per short ton at the moment as opposed to a normal $100 to $120 margin. Do you think it can blow out beyond that or do you think that's a sort of quantum that we should expect throughout the year? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think it will expand beyond the range today for sure. Dick, what do you think? Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: I think there'll be pressure on it. I think there's always boundaries, but I think under this current environment, you're right.

Chris Terry - Deutsche Bank AG

Australia

Okay. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Evan Kurtz from Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question. Evan L. Kurtz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hey. Good morning, guys. Hope you had a nice holiday. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Wonderful. Thank you. Evan L. Kurtz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Just maybe one on the FIFO. You mentioned that you had one and a half to two months of lag on your scrap costs in the fourth quarter when everything was coming down. Any way to quantify exactly how much that actually hurt in the fourth quarter, either in dollar per ton basis or just kind of overall? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I haven't personally quantified it. But I guess off the top of the head, no. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: No. That would be very difficult for us to quantify right at this time. So we'll just pass on that question. Evan L. Kurtz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. So I have another one. How about strategic options at the metals recycling business? I mean, it's – I know it was a very difficult quarter in the fourth quarter with prices falling so quickly. But is there anything you can do there as far as trimming some operations to maybe boost profitability in that business? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, Russ can chip in with some detail, but the softness in the fourth quarter, obviously driven by reduced ferrous margins, not just ferrous margins, but non-ferrous as well. But if you just look at the year, it's a tough environment when you have a progressively down-trending commodity market in every segment: copper, nickel, aluminum and ferrous. When you start the year, I don't know, $380 a ton or so, and you end the year at $160-$180. The recycling business, historically, has earnings capability in volatility, not just a consumer downward trend. So, that certainly impacted the year as a whole and the fourth quarter. And I would suggest -we already mentioned that the market is somewhat stable going forward through 2016. That unto itself should give that team some help, but Russ?

Russell B. Rinn - President and Chief Operating Officer

Management

Yeah, Evan, thank you for the question. Again, I think in more specific details, in 2015, we continues to try to mold our business around what markets are available. So, in 2015, during that prolonged downturn in market prices, we did idle or shut down, I think, 19 plants, locations across the platform. We also idled a couple of shredders to try to balance out the flow and the demand that comes through. Again in scrap business, we're flowing material through on a constant basis. And so as Mark talked about, that constant downturn does not give us a chance to pause or catch back up. So we're always trying to catch that falling knife. Evan L. Kurtz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. And maybe on that, what's your kind of near-term outlook for scrap?

Russell B. Rinn - President and Chief Operating Officer

Management

Well, I think – again, I think as Mark and Theresa both stated, Evan, I think we're seeing flat – in pretty range bound -- in a pretty flat environment for the year, again, after a more than 50% price decrease in 2015, we think we've kind of found a bottom point. Again, there will be some volatility, but we don't expect gross ups or gross downs. So, again, our view is that it is a pretty flattish environment for 2016. Evan L. Kurtz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from David Gagliano from BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

David Francis Gagliano - BMO Capital Markets

United States

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. It is related to the commentary regarding moving up the value chain, et cetera. I know traditionally, historically, Steel Dynamics has been more – has operated more in the – sort of in the spot end of the business, spot as compared to contract. Can you remind us your current mix between spot and contract, number one? Number two, how that may change in 2016? And number three, of the contract business, how much actually reprices on a calendar year basis? Thanks. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, when we talk of contract business, those are not fixed price contracts. They are index – they're volume contracts against the index. So, as the product pricing sort of ebbs and flows, the pricing changes with it, but we're not locked into fixed pricing all year. I wouldn't say none, there's a few tons, but absolutely (46:42) meaningful in the scheme of things. Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: And even those contracts, we don't have lots of those. Many of them we work with scrap buybacks and we have many types of arrangements. And so I would tell you we have a host of them. So, we've had to adapt ourselves. You ask how will we be changing in 2016. As we move up the value chain, as you pointed out, dealing with automotive, dealing with off-road heavy equipment and so forth, they have different expectations. We've tried to modify those expectations to fall more in line with our comfort levels. Some have been more willing than others to adapt towards our direction. Some have been surprisingly pleased with the results of some changes in our direction, and some we just can't get there with. But I think overall, there's always two parties that are satisfied, and we don't have long-term fixed contracts at all.

David Francis Gagliano - BMO Capital Markets

United States

Okay. So, generally speaking, should we expect a meaningful shift in volume tied to – whether – obviously, there's pass-throughs for scrap, but volumes tied to either a fixed margin or price in 2016 versus 2015, or very consistent versus 2015, you would say? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: No. I would say that generally, it'd be consistent.

David Francis Gagliano - BMO Capital Markets

United States

Okay. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: We're pretty happy with the balance between those volume commitments versus the spot market. And to emphasize Dick's point, because I think it's a critical point, because it's a changing paradigm maybe. But this past year, when automotive pricing, we don't know for sure, but automotive pricing probably on a fixed basis was in the $600-ish (48:50) range. When we see our perspective customers in that arena, see the positive impact of a CR-based index, and with us, they saved in the spot world considerable money. I think you're going to see that paradigm actually change for the auto industry, personally.

David Francis Gagliano - BMO Capital Markets

United States

Okay. And then just a quick follow-up. Just remind us again, on the $100 million investment in Columbus on the paint line, as we get out to 2017, what's the combination of volume and a rough rule of thumb on a sort of a margin expansion expectation for that investment? Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: So, the volume is – the paint line has the capability of doing 250,000 tons annually. And then, we also have the capability of Galvalume as well, which could start a little bit earlier than the paint line. But the paint line's expected to start in the first quarter of 2017. Traditionally, we sometimes talk in payback periods, and the idea around the paint line is that much like a lot of our other projects, that payback period is around a 24-type month payback period... Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: Two years to three years. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: ...two to three years. So, we're very comfortable there. And if you look at our product portfolio across the company, painted flat roll is really our highest margin or very close to our highest margin product across the entire company landscape. So, it should be meaningful for Columbus.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

And as we grab that last 300,000 or 400,000 tons of capacity at the current design, we think allows for – that will just be some vanilla hot band that won't be sold. But 250,000 tons will be sold as painted, that would otherwise maybe be sold as a vanilla plain hot band.

David Francis Gagliano - BMO Capital Markets

United States

All right. Perfect. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Timna Tanners from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please proceed with your question.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Hi. Good morning. Happy 2016. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Timna.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

I wanted to follow up on the automotive discussion. I thought it was a really interesting point about the concern over the financial strength of some of your competitors. But I hadn't heard you talk as much about automotive in the past, so can you remind us like what applications you're targeting? I know Columbus at one point was looking at exterior automotives before you bought them. Is that still on your target? And how big, either on a percent or absolute value, could auto become over the next several years for Steel Dynamics? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, we have always been a reasonably large player in automotive. Obviously not anything close to the integrated mills, but relative to our electric-arc furnace-based peers. Butler, for instance, is around about 30%, 32% of its product mix has been for a long time going into automotive. Supply chain, different there, where we've used processes to be the conduit into that business, whereas, we are – we're going to retain and keep those relationships. At the same time, the automotive consumers have a mill direct buy or business, which is substantial. And so we're targeting that mill directly through our automotive team of eight folks that we brought on. Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: (52:42) Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. And as I said, they've been doing a phenomenal job. The addition of Columbus gives us some better product capabilities. Obviously, the width, 72-inch wide helps. And it also allows us to get into some of the – not all, but some of the high-strength low-alloy-type products for automotive. We are not targeting exposed. There's plenty of steel on a car, on a vehicle, on a truck that doesn't need the super surface-critical qualities that maybe an integrated producer can provide.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay. And if you had a percent or any more quantification, that would be great. I wanted to change gears to the trade cases, because you are the first of the mills in the U.S. to host your conference call. And the numbers that came out, at least in the preliminary results, so far, have been – aside from Chinese galvanized, have been kind of small in terms of the damages awarded? So, I just wanted to get your sense, you did say in your prepared remarks that the trade cases should help keep imports lower than they have been. But in light of what we've seen so far, what gives you that conviction or what do you expect to see happen? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Just one follow-up from your original question, Timna. The aim for automotive coming out of Columbus, we'd like to grow that business to about 400,000 to 500,000 tons a year. Dick, do you want to talk the trade? Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: Sure. I'll just make some real quick observations that – from a timing perspective, we have preliminary rulings on the corrosion-resistant on both the antidumping and countervailing, and that the final determinations, we asked them to be aligned as an industry. And those would come out middle of May. The ITC will likely rule on final injury in July. Just why would the industry ask for the alignment of the two to determine final determinations by the DOC? That would be because we think that not all the information was taken into account, we believe that like the findings in Taiwan on Galvalume and so forth weren't necessarily correct, and to give the Department of Commerce more time to review…

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay. Thanks for that perspective.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Phil Gibbs from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Thanks. Good morning. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Phil.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

I had a question on just the SBQ business, and I know there are some out there that price that business on an annual basis with annual, call it, contract prices. Any sense to – any sense you could provide us as to how much of that business may be more on an annual contract reset? Because I know you typically are commercially a bit more nimble than maybe some others. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, Phil, from that perspective, you're right, we're much more spot-focused. So what you would consider a truly annual reset on base pricing, aside from obviously we have the alloy and the scrap surcharges and whatnot, we would say that maybe about 25% to 30% of our volume, and that did price down somewhat heading into 2016, but we still have a lot of opportunity on the spot side of the equation and just on volume in total. And that kind of 25% – 20% to 25% is based on 2015 volumes not on capacity, which obviously capacity is a lot higher than that at 950,000 tons.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Okay. I appreciate that. And then second, just real quickly for Dick. The downstream products like cold-rolled and galv have made their way incrementally higher relative to hot-rolled, I know, Mark, you had talked a little bit about that earlier in the call, but is there more – does that invite more import on that side if that gets too far out of whack relative to hot-rolled? Thanks. Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: It always has the opportunity if it gets out of alignment. And so I would tell you that I think right now, there's an opportunity for, as we said earlier, some more expansion, but it can't go stupid. So we're – everyone's very conscious of it and I think our sales people are working very hard in trying to find where that fine line is.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Thanks so much. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Michael will (1:03:14) Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Aldo Mazzaferro from Macquarie. Please proceed with your question. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Hi. Good morning, gentlemen and Theresa. Richard P. Teets - Director, President & COO-Steel Operations: Morning (1:03:25) Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Aldo. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And Tricia. (1:03:26) Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Yeah. And sorry, Tricia (1:03:29). And I like the business philosophy, don't do anything stupid. Okay. In terms of the scrap business, can I just ask, the numbers were actually better than I expected given the major drop. And I'm wondering, you must've at least kept pace with the decline in pricing on your input cost. Would you say that's fair or do you think you trailed it somehow?

Russell B. Rinn - President and Chief Operating Officer

Management

Aldo, I would tell you, you can't keep complete pace with it, that's the problem with a falling market. What you think you're getting ahead today, you get slammed at the next market turn. We kept fair pace with it but it was virtually impossible last year to try to get out in front of it and try to make a headway on it. So I think us and the entire industry, I'm sure you've seen the entire industry is struggling, as Mark talked about earlier. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Yes. So if you go – if you take this forward a couple – like a quarter or two and you see a sideways pattern and you probably gain back some of that stuff you missed on the spread, right, going forward next couple of quarters?

Russell B. Rinn - President and Chief Operating Officer

Management

Well, I think we've got an opportunity. We've got an opportunity – as Mark said earlier, in a volatile market, one that moves up and down, provides best opportunity for the guys in the scrap business. But after last year, I'll take a flat market all day long.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: So, Russ, does this opportunity – Mark mentioned how the regional competitors are either for sale or are on the way to bankruptcy, do you see this as an opportunity to increase your stake at all in the scrap business, or do you think the opposite, or not all?

Russell B. Rinn - President and Chief Operating Officer

Management

No, I'll – I would say our teams are very busy in trying to secure business where those opportunities arise. Again, I think just like Mark alluded to or talked to about earlier the strong financial condition of our company, certainly, that bears in mind when you've got people who are generating scrap that want to get paid. And so we certainly use that leverage to try to help get the right kind of business for us for the long term. And our teams have done a great job. They've been very active in trying to do what's right for us in the long term. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And I think the emphasis there would be the focus on secure business, not necessarily assets. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Yeah. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: The industry obviously is going through incredible financial stress. If you read – if one reads the American Metal Market, literally, every single morning, there are two or three scrap yards, scrap organizations either idling, going bankrupt, selling. I mean, it's a stressed, stressed, stressed industry. You might see us on a very small basis, on a very regional basis, pick up a small asset here and there, but I'm talking small, small dollars, not huge. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: (1:06:40) I'm sorry. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And you may see us also – and you may also see us strengthen our abilities around the Columbus mill to provide some security there. But we're not in a big -- let's roll the scrap industries up and consolidate. Aldo Mazzaferro - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Could I ask one more question? In terms…

Operator

Operator

Okay. Your next question today is coming from Justine Fisher from Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question. Justine Fisher - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Good morning. I know it's been a long call, so I just have one question for Theresa. As far as the potential acquisition opportunities that you guys are looking at, are most of the opportunities that you're seeing in a range that could be financed with cash or are more of the opportunities big enough such that they would require coming to the capital markets? Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, first of all, we're in a unique position that the capital markets are a bit messy right now, but we believe that we're one of the few that still have access, which is important and a good thing, so we see that just improving throughout the rest of the year. But I think that we're looking at all ranges of potential growth. and so with that, were we to need to access capital markets, we believe we have the ability to do so. If not, the cash generation you've seen is pretty significant. With over $700 million of cash on the balance sheet, we've got quite a capacity just with that in and of itself. But for meaningful long-term investments, we like to use the capital markets, as appropriate, to invest long term. Justine Fisher - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay. So it could be something in the kind of high hundred millions, billion dollar range there? Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think everything's on the table. Justine Fisher - Goldman Sachs & Co.: All right. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

Theresa, while we had a question on – sorry.

Operator

Operator

No. Please proceed. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Okay.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

I'm sorry. This is Chris. I just wanted to report on our Columbus acquisition. We owed some answers or some information to the team. Just an update. When we contemplated the Columbus Division, we had about – identified about $30 million in what you might call non-operating cost savings opportunities that might have been power renegotiations, headcounts, things like that. We identified about $15 million in 2015 which we capitalized on. About another $15 million or so in 2016 is on the horizon. Those kind of pale in – we have a unique incentive program for our folks that stresses not only quality production, but also cost of conversion. And the savings in 2015 that we realized in conversion costs are multiples of the numbers we talked about in non-operational. More non-operational opportunities in 2016. We're nowhere near Butler's cost structure in some departments. So another big opportunity for multiples of that number in 2016. So I just wanted to report that the plan's coming through and the Columbus folks are executing well. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: So I guess what you're saying is that $30 million in total synergies pales in comparison to the opportunity in conversion cost and market share shift.

Chris Graham - President of New Millennium and Vice President of Steel Dynamics, Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Management

That would have made for a shorter call. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Okay. Thank you. All right. Kevin, we can go with the next question.

Operator

Operator

Certainly. Our next question today is coming from the line of Garrett Nelson from BB&T Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Garrett Scott Nelson - BB&T Capital Markets: Hi, everyone. Great quarter from a free cash flow perspective. Could you talk a little bit more about some of the uses of cash we should expect in 2016 in addition to the CapEx increase from the paint line project and the potential acquisition opportunities that you talked about in the past? It looks like you've typically raised your quarterly dividend in the second quarter. Is this something we should expect again this year? And is debt paydown a priority or are you comfortable with your current leverage ratios, given the strong cash flow and record-high liquidity? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think from a net leverage basis, we're about 2.7 times, so that's under our, say, hurdle of three to 4 (1:17:13) relatively comfortable there. That's not to say we wouldn't take advantage going forward. From a dividend perspective, we have – or you've seen a, what we call, a positive profile but an improvement or an increase sort of year-over-year. Last year was a big step-up, 20% or so, and that was really a reflection of the acquisition of Columbus and the step-up in natural cash flow from that asset. So, I would not suggest that when we say a positive profile, you're going to see 20% every year. But I would suggest that the positive profile will hopefully remain intact going forward. We've got substantial cash flow generation as you saw last year, and our business model will continue to provide the ability for that dividend payment. Garrett Scott Nelson - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is a follow-up from Phil Gibbs from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I just had a question on capital allocation, Theresa, approaching $800 million in cash right now. Your debt maturities are pretty well laddered, CapEx under control. Any thoughts on what the hierarchy of capital allocation is at this point, and how we should be thinking about deployment? Thanks. Theresa E. Wagler - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, I think from the team's perspective, and Mark can kick me under the table if he disagrees, but growth, we believe, is still going to drive the greatest value to the shareholder, and so, especially in this environment when things are pretty weak for our peers, to wait and watch to see what assets might become available. And then also on the organic side, we mentioned several projects where we have extra melting capacity that we want to utilize. So that tends to be very capital efficient. So I think that's our primary focus. And then obviously, we have the positive dividend profile. We have additional, potential debt reduction which you're right, the maturity ladder is really flexible for us from the long-term great rate perspective. But we evaluate all different aspects of returning value to shareholders. But I would say that's the hierarchy. Mark, do you agree? Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Totally. We continually assess options. I would tell you that the current environment is certainly unique, I think, in most of our short lifespan as an industry. But it's going to be an interesting year, interesting 18 months. And I think it's a case of a good time to keep one's gunpowder dry. Be patient, because I think there's going to be – there are already tremendous opportunities – tremendous, I take that back. There are already a myriad of opportunities coming to market. And I think the focus needs to be being prudent and patient, and waiting for those opportunities that will really, really improve our margin profile and not just take the first thing that comes down the road, so to speak.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

That's truly helpful. I appreciate it. And the last one, and I'll take off. If you had to guess right now, Mark, would you expect your steel utilizations to be better in the first quarter than the fourth quarter? Thanks. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Utilization, yes. I think the – for the first quarter, volumes will be improved. I think margins will – one needs to realize that there's going to be a carry-through pricing. We do have index pricing. So the contract pricing will carry through into January through December, so that's going to mute things a little bit. But no, volumes, utilization definitely will improve.

Philip N. Gibbs - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Thanks so much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That concludes our question-and answer session. I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Millet for any closing remarks. Mark D. Millett - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Super. Well, for those on the line, we certainly appreciate your support. And we continue to say that we are incredibly and uniquely positioned in our industry. Our business model has paid off. We have and will continue to generate a strong cash flow in these difficult times. We have, as I said earlier, a couple million tons of latent capacity to exploit over the year. We have inorganic opportunities. We have certainly organic opportunities to improve. Columbus continues to do a phenomenal job, we expect great things there. And as we've discussed, I think there are going to be opportunities available for sort of acquisitional growth as well, we just need to be careful and make sure they're the right ones. But we're excited. Even in a tough environment, we all get excited every day to come to work. We've got a phenomenal team and we're supported by phenomenal customers. And we certainly appreciate your support, too. So thank you. Have a great day and be safe.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's call. We thank you for your participation. Have a great and safe day.