Overview. In conducting our business, we enter into derivative transactions, including forward contracts and options, to limit our exposure to: (i) metal price risk related to our sale of fabricated aluminum products and the purchase of metal, including primary, rolling ingot and scrap, or recycled, aluminum, our main raw material, and certain alloys used as raw material for our fabrication operations; (ii) energy price risk relating to fluctuating prices of natural gas and electricity used in our production processes; and (iii) foreign currency requirements with respect to cash commitments for equipment purchases and/or other agreements denominated in foreign currency. We do not use derivative financial instruments for trading or other speculative purposes. Hedging transactions are executed centrally on behalf of all of our operations to minimize transaction costs, monitor consolidated net exposures, and allow for increased responsiveness to changes in market factors.

Our derivative activities are overseen by a committee (“Hedging Committee”), which is composed of our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, Treasurer, Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and other officers and employees selected by the Chief Executive Officer. The Hedging Committee meets regularly to review commodity price exposure, derivative positions, and strategy. Management reviews the scope of the Hedging Committee’s activities with our Board of Directors.

We are exposed to counterparty credit risk on all of our derivative instruments, which we manage by monitoring the credit quality of our counterparties and allocating our hedging positions among multiple counterparties to limit exposure to any single entity. Our counterparties are major investment grade financial institutions or trading companies, and our hedging transactions are governed by negotiated International Swaps and Derivatives Association Master Agreements, which generally require collateral to be posted by our counterparties above specified credit thresholds which may adjust up or down, based on increases or decreases in counterparty credit ratings. As a result, we believe the risk of loss is remote and contained. The aggregate fair value of our derivative instruments that were in a net liability position was $1.0 million and $3.3 million at December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, and we had no collateral posted as of those dates.

In addition, our firm-price customer sales commitments create incremental customer credit risk related to metal price movements. Under certain circumstances, we mitigate this risk by periodically requiring cash collateral to be posted by our customers, which we classify as deferred revenue and include as a component of Other accrued liabilities. We had no material cash collateral posted by our customers at both December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022. For more information about concentration risks concerning customers and suppliers, see Note 17.

We designate as cash flow hedges forward swap contracts for aluminum and energy. Additionally, in the fourth quarter of 2023, we adopted this treatment for our Alloying Metals. We also designate as cash flow hedges foreign currency forward contracts for equipment and services for which payments are due in foreign currency. Unrealized gains and losses associated with our cash flow hedges are deferred in Other comprehensive income, net of tax, and reclassified to COGS when such hedges settle or when it is probable that the original forecasted transactions will not occur by the end of the originally specified time period. See Note 11 for the total amount of gain or loss on derivative instruments designated and qualifying as cash flow hedging instruments that was reported in AOCI, as well as the related reclassifications into earnings and tax effects. Cumulative gains and losses related to cash flow hedges are reclassified out of AOCI and recorded within COGS when the associated hedged commodity purchases impact earnings.

Aluminum Hedges. Our pricing of fabricated aluminum products is generally intended to lock in our Conversion Revenue (representing our value added from the fabrication process) and to pass through aluminum price fluctuations to our customers. For some of our higher margin products sold on a spot basis, the pass through of aluminum price movements can sometimes lag by as much as several months, with a favorable impact to us when aluminum prices decline and an adverse impact to us when aluminum prices increase. Additionally, in certain instances, we enter into firm-price arrangements with our customers for stipulated volumes to be delivered in the future. Because we generally purchase primary and secondary aluminum on a floating price basis, the lag in passing through aluminum price movements to customers on some of our higher margin products sold on a spot basis and the volume that we have committed to sell to our customers under a firm-price arrangement create aluminum price risk for us. We use third-party hedging instruments to limit exposure to aluminum price risk related to the aluminum pass through lag on some of our products and firm-price customer sales contracts.

Alloying Metals Hedges. We are exposed to risk of fluctuating prices for alloying metals used as raw materials in our fabrication operations. We, from time to time, in the ordinary course of business, enter into hedging transactions and/or physical delivery commitments with third parties to mitigate our risk from fluctuations in certain alloying metals prices that are not passed through pursuant to the terms of our customer contracts.

Energy Hedges. We are exposed to risk of fluctuating prices for natural gas and electricity. We, from time to time, in the ordinary course of business, enter into hedging transactions and/or physical delivery commitments with third parties to mitigate our risk from fluctuations in natural gas and electricity prices that are not passed through pursuant to the terms of our customer contracts.

Foreign Currency Hedges. We are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk related to certain equipment and service agreements with vendors for which payments are due in foreign currency. We, from time to time, in the ordinary course of business, use foreign currency forward contracts in order to mitigate the exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations related to these purchases.

From time to time, we enter into commodity and foreign currency forward contracts that are not designated as hedging instruments to mitigate certain short‑term impacts, as identified. The gain or loss on these commodity and foreign currency derivatives is recognized within COGS and Other income (expense), net, respectively. There were no material non-designated hedges at both December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022.

The following table summarizes our derivative positions at December 31, 2023:


Aluminum	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (mmlbs)
Fixed price purchase contracts for LME	January 2024 through December 2025		69.8
Fixed price sale contracts for LME	January 2024 through April 2024		6.3
Fixed price purchase contracts for MWTP	January 2024 through December 2025		54.1
Fixed price sale contracts for MWTP	January 2024 through May 2024		26.6


Alloying Metals	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (mmlbs)
Fixed price purchase contracts	January 2024 through December 2025		8.4


Natural Gas	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (mmbtu)
Fixed price purchase contracts	January 2024 through December 2026		3,390,000


Electricity	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (Mwh)
Fixed price purchase contracts	January 2024 through December 2024		52,704


Euros	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (EUR)
Fixed price forward purchase contracts	January 2024 through January 2026		16,745,648


British Pounds	Maturity Period	Notional Amount of Contracts (GBP)
Fixed price forward purchase contracts	May 2024 through July 2024		216,799

The following table summarizes the amount of loss (gain) on derivative contracts recorded within our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) in Cost of products sold (in millions of dollars):


	Year Ended December 31,
	2023		2022			2021
Total of income and expense line items presented in our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) in which the effects of hedges are recorded:
Cash flow hedges	$	2,754.9	$	3,180.2		$	2,348.1

Loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) related to cash flow hedges:
Aluminum	$	12.8	$	7.4		$	(35.2	)
Alloying Metals		—		—			0.1
Natural gas		0.1		(6.6	)		(2.1	)
Electricity		—		(11.3	)		(4.7	)
Total loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) related to cash flow hedges	$	12.9	$	(10.5	)	$	(41.9	)

Loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) related to non-designated hedges:
Alloying Metals – Realized loss (gain)	$	0.1	$	(0.5	)	$	(5.0	)
Alloying Metals – Unrealized loss		—		1.4			1.2
Total loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) related to non-designated hedges	$	0.1	$	0.9		$	(3.8	)

The fair values of our derivative contracts are based upon trades in liquid markets. Valuation model inputs can be verified, and valuation techniques do not involve significant judgment. The fair values of such financial instruments are classified within Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy.

All of our derivative contracts with counterparties are subject to enforceable master netting arrangements. We reflect the fair value of our derivative contracts on a gross basis on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. The following table presents the fair value of our derivative financial instruments (in millions of dollars):


	As of December 31, 2023								As of December 31, 2022
	Assets		Liabilities			Net Amount			Assets		Liabilities			Net Amount
Aluminum –
Fixed price purchase contracts for LME	$	3.4	$	(0.6	)	$	2.8		$	0.7	$	(3.9	)	$	(3.2	)
Fixed price sale contracts for LME		—		(0.2	)		(0.2	)		—		—			—
Fixed price purchase contracts for MWTP		0.4		(0.3	)		0.1			0.5		(1.4	)		(0.9	)
Fixed price sale contracts for MWTP		0.1		(0.2	)		(0.1	)		—		—			—
Alloying Metals – Fixed price purchase contracts		0.7		(0.1	)		0.6			—		—			—
Natural gas – Fixed price purchase contracts		0.3		(0.9	)		(0.6	)		4.7		—			4.7
Electricity – Fixed price purchase contracts		0.5		(0.6	)		(0.1	)		—		—			—
Foreign Currency – Fixed price forward contracts		0.5		—			0.5			—		—			—
Total	$	5.9	$	(2.9	)	$	3.0		$	5.9	$	(5.3	)	$	0.6

The following table presents the total amounts of derivative assets and liabilities on our Consolidated Balance Sheets (in millions of dollars):


	As of December 31,
	2023			2022
Derivative assets:
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	$	4.8		$	3.6
Other assets		1.1			2.3
Total derivative assets	$	5.9		$	5.9
Derivative liabilities:
Other accrued liabilities	$	(2.4	)	$	(5.3	)
Long-term liabilities		(0.5	)		—
Total derivative liabilities	$	(2.9	)	$	(5.3	)

All Other Financial Assets and Liabilities. We believe that the fair values of our accounts receivable, contract assets, accounts payable, and accrued liabilities approximate their respective carrying values due to their short maturities and nominal credit risk.