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 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, vice president of treasury, risk and procurement 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. Hedging transactions are governed by negotiated reciprocal credit lines, which generally require collateral to be posted above specified credit thresholds. We believe the risk of loss is remote and contained due to counterparty credit quality, our diversification practice and collateral requirements.

In a majority of our hedging counterparty agreements, our counterparty offers us a credit line that adjusts up or down, depending on our liquidity. Below specified liquidity thresholds, we may have to post collateral if the fair value of our net liability with such counterparty exceeds our reduced credit line. We manage this risk by allocating hedging transactions among multiple counterparties, using options as part of our hedging activities or both. The aggregate fair value of our derivative instruments that were in a net liability position was zero at September 30, 2021 and $2.7 million at December 31, 2020, and we had no collateral posted as of those dates.

Additionally, 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 from them, which we classify as deferred revenue and include as a component of Other accrued liabilities. We had no cash collateral posted from our customers at September 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020. For more information about concentration risks concerning customers and suppliers, see Note 15.

We designate as cash flow hedges forward swap contracts for aluminum, energy and, from time-to-time, zinc and copper (“Alloying Metals”) used in our fabrication operations and foreign currency forward contracts for supplies 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 9 for the total amount of gain or loss on derivative instruments designated and qualifying as cash flow hedging instruments and fair value hedging instruments that was reported in Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (“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 a conversion margin (representing the value added from the fabrication process(es)) and to pass through metal price fluctuations to our customers. For some of our higher value added products sold on a spot basis, the pass through of metal price movements can sometimes lag by as much as several months, with a favorable impact to us when metal prices decline and an adverse impact to us when metal 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 metal price movements to customers on some of our higher value added products sold on a spot basis and the volume that we have committed to sell to our customers under a firm-price arrangement create metal price risk for us. We use third-party hedging instruments to limit exposure to metal price risk related to the metal 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 Alloying Metals prices that are not passed through 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.

The following table summarizes the volume of our derivative and/or physical delivery commitments with energy companies in place to cover our exposure to price fluctuations of our expected variable priced energy purchases as of September 30, 2021:

Foreign Currency Hedges. We are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk related to certain supply 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.

We are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk related to firm-price commitments for equipment purchases from foreign manufacturers. We, from time to time, in the ordinary course of business, use third-party hedging instruments to mitigate our exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations on these purchases and designate such hedging instruments as fair value hedges. Gain or loss related to components excluded from the assessment of effectiveness from these fair value hedges is first recognized in AOCI and subsequently reclassified to Depreciation and amortization on a straight-line basis over the term of the hedge. Gain or loss on the hedged item (e.g., equipment purchase firm commitments) and the remaining gain or loss on the fair value hedge is recorded within Depreciation and amortization in the period that the gain or loss occurs. Any difference between the change in the fair value of the excluded component and amounts recognized in income on a straight-line basis over the term of the hedge is recognized in AOCI.

From time-to-time, we enter into commodity and foreign currency exchange contracts that are not designated as hedging instruments to mitigate certain short-term commodity and currency impacts, as identified. For derivative instruments that are not designated as hedging instruments, the gain or loss on these derivatives is recognized within COGS or Other expense, net, depending on whether it relates to commodity risk or foreign currency risk, respectively.

The following table summarizes the amount of (gain) loss included on our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income associated with all derivative contracts (in millions of dollars):

	Quarter Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,						Statements of Consolidated
	2021			2020			2021			2020			(Loss) Income Classification
Total of income and expense line items presented in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income in which the effects of hedges are recorded:
Cash flow hedges	$	677.8		$	208.4		$	1,613.6		$	719.5		Cost of products sold
Fair value hedges	n/a			$	12.9		n/a			$	39.1		Depreciation and amortization
Fair value hedges	n/a			$	(0.5	)	n/a			$	(0.8	)	Other expense, net

(Gain) loss recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to cash flow hedges:
Aluminum	$	(13.3	)	$	1.2		$	(24.3	)	$	14.5		Cost of products sold
Alloying Metals		(0.2	)		—			0.2			2.1		Cost of products sold
Alloying Metals (reclassification from AOCI due to forecasted transactions no longer probable of occurring)		—			0.1			—			0.8		Cost of products sold
Natural gas		(0.6	)		0.3			(0.7	)		1.2		Cost of products sold
Electricity		(2.6	)		—			(3.3	)		0.6		Cost of products sold
Total (gain) loss recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to cash flow hedges	$	(16.7	)	$	1.6		$	(28.1	)	$	19.2

Loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to fair value hedges:
Foreign exchange contracts	$	—		$	—		$	—		$	(0.1	)	Depreciation and amortization
Hedged item		—			—			—			0.1		Depreciation and amortization
Excluded component amortized from AOCI		—			—			—			0.4		Depreciation and amortization
Reclassification from AOCI related to early termination of firm commitment		—			—			—			(0.4	)	Other expense, net
Net settlement related to early termination of forward contracts		—			—			—			0.3		Other expense, net
Total loss recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to fair value hedges	$	—		$	—		$	—		$	0.3

(Gain) loss recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to non-designated hedges:
Alloying Metals – Realized (gain) loss	$	(1.2	)	$	0.3		$	(3.8	)	$	1.7		Cost of products sold
Alloying Metals – Unrealized loss (gain)		1.9			(1.8	)		2.0			(1.8	)	Cost of products sold
Total loss (gain) recognized in our Statements of Consolidated (Loss) Income related to non-designated hedges	$	0.7		$	(1.5	)	$	(1.8	)	$	(0.1	)

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 September 30, 2021								As of December 31, 2020
	Assets		Liabilities			Net Amount			Assets		Liabilities			Net Amount
Cash Flow Hedges:
Aluminum –
Fixed price purchase contracts	$	23.9	$	(0.2	)	$	23.7		$	4.6	$	(0.1	)	$	4.5
Fixed price sales contracts		—		(0.2	)		(0.2	)		—		—			—
Midwest premium swap contracts		7.1		(0.1	)		7.0			0.2		(1.2	)		(1.0	)
Natural gas – Fixed price purchase contracts		5.8		—			5.8			0.2		(1.5	)		(1.3	)
Electricity – Fixed price purchase contracts		9.4		(0.2	)		9.2			2.0		(2.5	)		(0.5	)
Total cash flow hedges		46.2		(0.7	)		45.5			7.0		(5.3	)		1.7

Non-Designated Hedges:
Alloying Metals –
Fixed price purchase contracts		2.0		(0.5	)		1.5			3.9		—			3.9
Fixed price sales contracts		—		(0.7	)		(0.7	)		—		(1.3	)		(1.3	)
Total non-designated hedges		2.0		(1.2	)		0.8			3.9		(1.3	)		2.6

Total	$	48.2	$	(1.9	)	$	46.3		$	10.9	$	(6.6	)	$	4.3

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

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.