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Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (Policies)
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 29, 2024
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]  
Derivative Financial Instruments and Hedging Derivative Financial Instruments and Hedging
As part of its risk management strategy, the Company, from time-to-time, utilizes derivative financial instruments to manage its exposure to changes in raw material prices, energy costs, foreign currencies, and interest rates. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the Company accounts for most of these contracts as hedges.
The Company sometimes uses futures and swap contracts to manage exposure to changes in prices for forecasted purchases of raw materials, such as nickel, and natural gas. Under these contracts, which are generally accounted for as cash flow hedges, the price of the item being hedged is fixed at the time that the contract is entered into and the Company is obligated to make or receive a payment equal to the net change between this fixed price and the market price at the date the contract matures.
The majority of ATI’s products are sold utilizing raw material surcharges and index mechanisms. However, as of December 29, 2024, the Company had entered into financial hedging arrangements primarily at the request of its customers, related to firm orders, for an aggregate notional amount of approximately 4 million pounds of nickel with hedge dates through fiscal year 2027. The aggregate notional amount hedged is approximately 5% of a single year’s estimated nickel raw material purchase requirements. These derivative instruments are used to hedge the variability of a selling price that is based on the London Metals Exchange (LME) index for nickel, as well as to hedge the variability of the purchase cost of nickel based on this LME index. Any gain or loss associated with these hedging arrangements is included in sales or cost of sales, depending on whether the underlying risk being hedged was the variable selling price or the variable raw material cost, respectively.
At December 29, 2024, the outstanding financial derivatives used to hedge the Company’s exposure to energy cost volatility included natural gas cost hedges. At December 29, 2024, the company hedged approximately 75% of the Company’s annual forecasted domestic requirements for natural gas for fiscal year 2025 and approximately 35% for fiscal year 2026.
While the majority of the Company’s direct export sales are transacted in U.S. dollars, foreign currency exchange contracts are used, from time-to-time, to limit transactional exposure to changes in currency exchange rates for those transactions denominated in a non-U.S. currency. The Company sometimes purchases foreign currency forward contracts that permit it to sell specified amounts of foreign currencies expected to be received from its export sales for pre-established U.S. dollar amounts at specified dates. In addition, the Company may also hedge forecasted capital expenditures and designate cash balances held in foreign currencies as hedges of forecasted foreign currency transactions. At December 29, 2024, the Company had no significant outstanding foreign currency forward contracts.
The Company may enter into derivative interest rate contracts to maintain a reasonable balance between fixed- and floating-rate debt. The Company previously maintained a $50 million floating-for-fixed interest rate swap which converted a portion of the ABL Term Loan to a 4.21% fixed rate that matured during the quarter ended June 30, 2024. There are no outstanding derivative interest rate contracts at December 29, 2024.
There are no credit risk-related contingent features in the Company’s derivative contracts, and the contracts contained no provisions under which the Company has posted, or would be required to post, collateral. The counterparties to the Company’s derivative contracts were substantial and creditworthy commercial banks that are recognized market makers. The Company controls its credit exposure by diversifying across multiple counterparties and by monitoring credit ratings and credit default swap spreads of its counterparties. The Company also enters into master netting agreements with counterparties when possible.
For derivative financial instruments that are designated as cash flow hedges, the gain or loss on the derivative is reported as a component of other comprehensive income (OCI) and reclassified into earnings in the same period or periods during which the hedged item affects earnings. For derivative financial instruments that are designated as fair value hedges, changes in the fair value of these derivatives are recognized in current period results. There were no outstanding fair value hedges as of December 29, 2024 or December 31, 2023. The cash flow impact for all derivative financial instruments is reported in cash flows provided by operating activities on the consolidated statement of cash flows. The Company did not use net investment hedges for the periods presented.
The Company may also use derivative instruments that are not designated as hedges to protect the Company’s results from certain fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, as well as to offset a portion of the foreign currency gains and losses generated by the remeasurement of certain assets and liabilities denominated in non-functional currencies. Changes in the fair value of these foreign exchange contract derivatives not designated as hedging instruments are recorded in cost of sales or selling, general and administrative expenses on the consolidated statement of operations, and the Company recognized $2.2 million of expense, net, for settled foreign currency forward contracts that were not designated as hedges during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024, which offset foreign currency gains/losses in the relevant currency. We have no significant outstanding hedges that are not designated as of December 29, 2024.