2 / Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. Form 10-K 2021 PART I ITEM 1. BUSINESS General Founded in 1906, Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. is one of North America’s largest recyclers of ferrous and nonferrous metal, including end-of-life vehicles, and a manufacturer of finished steel products. As a vertically integrated organization, we offer a range of products and services to meet global demand through our network that includes 50 retail self-service auto parts stores, 52 metals recycling facilities and an electric arc furnace (“EAF”) steel mill. Worldwide demand for recycled ferrous and nonferrous metal is driven primarily by production levels for finished steel and for products using nonferrous metal. Recycled ferrous metal is the primary feedstock for steel mill production using EAF technology and one of the raw materials utilized for steel manufacturing using blast furnace technology. Steel mills around the world, including those in the North American domestic market in which our own steel mill operates, are the primary end markets for our recycled ferrous metal products. Specialty steelmakers, foundries, refineries, smelters, wholesalers, and other recycled metal processors globally are the primary end markets for our recycled nonferrous metal products. Our steel mill produces finished steel products using internally sourced recycled ferrous metal as the primary raw material and sells to customers located primarily in the Western United States and Western Canada. We believe long-term demand for recycled metals will continue to be driven by factors including global economic growth and an increased focus on environmental policies promoting natural resource conservation, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and lower energy usage. We believe the significant environmental benefits and production efficiencies associated with steelmaking that maximizes the use of recycled metal as a raw material, compared to iron ore mined from natural resources, will positively contribute to worldwide long-term demand for recycled ferrous metal. Further, we believe decarbonization efforts by companies, industries, and governments around the world, including investments in low carbon technologies that are more metal intensive and minimize carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels, among other factors, support global long-term demand for recycled nonferrous metal such as aluminum and copper. Segment Reporting Prior to the first quarter of fiscal 2021, our internal organizational and reporting structure included two operating and reportable segments: the Auto and Metals Recycling (“AMR”) business and the Cascade Steel and Scrap (“CSS”) business. In the first quarter of fiscal 2021, in accordance with our plan announced in April 2020, we completed the transition to a new internal organizational and reporting structure reflecting a functionally-based, integrated model (“One Schnitzer”), supporting a single segment. We consolidated our operations, sales, services, and other functional capabilities at an enterprise level reflecting enhanced focus by management on optimizing our vertically integrated value chain. This change in structure has resulted in a more agile organization and solidified achievement of recent productivity improvements and cost efficiency initiatives. We began reporting on this new single-segment structure in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Revenue-Generating Activities We acquire, process, and recycle end-of-life (salvaged) vehicles, rail cars, home appliances, industrial machinery, manufacturing scrap, and construction and demolition scrap through our facilities. Our retail self-service auto parts stores located across the United States (“U.S.”) and Western Canada, which operate under the commercial brand-name Pick-n-Pull, procure the significant majority of our salvaged vehicles and sell serviceable used auto parts from these vehicles. Upon acquiring a salvaged vehicle, we remove catalytic converters, aluminum wheels, and batteries for separate processing and sale prior to placing the vehicle in our retail lot. After retail customers have removed desired parts from a vehicle, we may remove remaining major component parts containing ferrous and nonferrous metals, which are primarily sold to wholesalers. The remaining auto bodies are crushed and shipped to our metals recycling facilities to be shredded or sold to third parties where geographically more economical. At our metals recycling facilities, we process mixed and large pieces of scrap metal into smaller pieces by crushing, torching, shearing, shredding, separating, and sorting, resulting in recycled ferrous, nonferrous, and mixed metal pieces of a size, density, and metal content required by customers to meet their production needs. Each of our shredding, nonferrous processing, and separation systems is designed to optimize the recovery of valuable recycled metal.
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