Steel Dynamics

Keith Busse headed NucorNucorNucor Corporation is a manufacturer of steel and steel products with operating facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and North America’s largest recycler.Open the full entry’s thin-slab minimill project in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where Mark Millett and Richard Teets Jr. were key members of his team. Busse proposed launching a brand-new steelmaking company of their own, and the trio launched Steel Dynamics in 1993.⁠[1]

The company’s first steel mill, in Butler, Indiana, took a record 13 months from groundbreaking to the start of production and began producing hot rolled steel early in 1996. Expansion in the summer of 1998 raised its annual capacity to 2.2 million tons, and it reached 3 million tons in 2009.⁠[2]

In November 1996 the company offered 9,843,750 shares of common stock at $16.00 per share in its initial public offering, under a prospectus dated November 21, 1996, quoted on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol STLD.⁠[3]

In 2000 the company built its first steel joist and deck facility in Butler, Indiana. In 2002 it began operating its second greenfield electric arc furnace steel mill, in Columbia City, Indiana, and acquired its third, in Pittsboro, Indiana, entering the special-bar-quality market. In 2003 it built its first flat roll steel paint line in Butler.⁠[4]

Steel Dynamics completed its acquisition of Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. on April 11, 2006, immediately after Roanoke stockholders approved the transaction. The combined companies operated five electric-furnace mini mills with annual production capacity of about 5 million tons, making flat-rolled, merchant bar, engineered bar and light structural steels as well as wide-flange beams and rail.⁠[5]

On October 26, 2007, the company completed its acquisition of OmniSource Corporation, a privately owned ferrous and non-ferrous scrap processing and trading company, for about $1.1 billion: $425 million in cash, 9.7 million Steel Dynamics common shares valued at $451 million, and roughly $220 million of OmniSource debt repaid at closing.⁠[6]

In October 2011 the company disclosed that co-founder Keith Busse, its only CEO since 1993, would retire at the end of 2011 and that President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Millett would succeed him as President and CEO effective January 1, 2012. Busse would remain Board Chairman.⁠[7]

On September 16, 2014, the company completed its acquisition of Severstal Columbus, LLC, in Mississippi, for $1.625 billion in cash, subject to customary adjustments, funded with about $350 million of cash on hand, $1.2 billion of new senior unsecured notes and revolving credit borrowings. The deal raised the company’s annual steel shipping capacity by 40 percent to 11.0 million tons.⁠[8]

On October 18, 2016, the company agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle Standard Iron Works v. Arcelor Mittal, et al., a 2008 direct purchaser class action in Chicago federal court alleging it conspired with other steelmakers to restrict production. Denying wrongdoing, Mark Millett said, “We maintained at all times that the lawsuit was without merit.”⁠[9]

In July 2019 the company announced plans for a $1.9 billion flat roll steel mill in Sinton, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Corpus Christi. The electric arc furnace mill was expected to create about 600 jobs and to produce coils of up to 52½ tons (48 metric tons), with construction expected to begin in 2020.⁠[10]

On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement alleging that two of the company’s Butler divisions violated their Clean Air Act Title V permit by failing to send emissions from three ladle metallurgical stations to a baghouse. The company agreed to a $475,000 civil penalty and to upgrade emission capture and control.⁠[11]

On January 31, 2022, the company completed the acquisition of a 45 percent minority equity interest in New Process Steel, L.P., a Houston, Texas-based metals solutions and distribution supply-chain management company with four manufacturing locations in the United States and two in Mexico, two of them at Steel Dynamics’ Butler and Columbus flat roll steel divisions.⁠[12]

On December 19, 2022, S&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is a global index provider that compiles and licenses benchmark indices including the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was formed in 2012 by combining McGraw-Hill’s S&P index business with the Dow Jones Indexes business held by a joint venture of CME Group and Dow Jones, and it is now the index business division of S&P Global, which holds about 73% of the interest.Open the full entry announced that Steel Dynamics would join the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry before the open on December 22 in the Materials sector, replacing Abiomed, which Johnson & JohnsonJohnson & JohnsonJohnson & Johnson is an American healthcare company founded in 1886, headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker JNJ.Open the full entry was acquiring.⁠[13]

The company’s Mississippi team cast its first aluminum ingot in January 2025 and its Mexico team in March 2025. As of April 2025 construction of the hot and cold mills was near completion, and the company expected to ship commercial aluminum flat rolled coils in mid-2025.⁠[14]

On December 1, 2025, the company announced it had completed the acquisition of the remaining 55 percent equity interest in New Process Steel, making it wholly owned.⁠[15]

As of December 31, 2025, the company had four segments, Steel Operations, Metals Recycling, Steel Fabrication and Aluminum Operations, estimated steelmaking and coating capacity of approximately 16 million tons, and approximately 14,400 full-time team members.⁠[16]

BlueScope’s board unanimously rejected a first proposal from a consortium of SGH and Steel Dynamics, disclosing this on January 7, 2026. On February 18 BlueScope announced a revised proposal under which SGH would buy all its shares for A$32.35 cash each and on-sell the North American businesses to Steel Dynamics. The non-binding, conditional proposal was expressed to be “best and final.”⁠[17]

In late February 2026 BlueScope said the revised proposal “does not adequately address our valuation concerns,” while remaining open to a deal at fair value. The proposal valued its equity at A$15 billion, and Steel Dynamics was to take the North Star steelworks in Ohio and the North American downstream business.⁠[18]

On January 26, 2026, the company announced 2025 net sales of $18.2 billion, up from $17.5 billion in 2024, and net income attributable to Steel Dynamics of $1.2 billion, or $7.99 per diluted share, compared with $1.5 billion, or $9.84, in 2024, on record steel shipments of 13.7 million tons.⁠[19]

On August 4, 2026, the company announced that Theresa E. Wagler, Chief Financial Officer since 2007, would become President and CEO on January 1, 2027, when Mark D. Millett would retire as CEO and become Executive Chairman, and that Richard A. Poinsatte would succeed her as CFO.⁠[20]

On October 19, 2026, the company announced third-quarter net sales of $6.5 billion, net income of $756 million and diluted earnings of $5.26 per share, compared with $4.8 billion, $404 million and $2.74 a year earlier. At the aluminum mill all three cold mills and the first of two CASH lines were running, with the second expected early in 2027’s first quarter.⁠[21]