For the three months ending 30 June 2021, Steel Dynamics posted net income of US$702 million on sales of US$4.5 billion, outdoing its record performance in the first quarter. 

Its mills also shipped 2.9 million tons of steel in Q2, up nearly 15% from the same quarter last year. 

“We can’t make enough steel,” SDI chief executive Mark Millett told analysts during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. 

The company said the results were driven by robust steel demand and prices as well as low inventories. 

“Higher steel selling values drove significant metal spread expansion across the entire platform and were most prominent within the flat roll steel operations, as continued demand strength and historically low customer inventories persisted throughout the supply chain and supported prices. Domestic steel consumption was strong from the automotive, construction, and industrial sectors, while the energy sector continued to show signs of rebounding,” Millett said.

“We remain confident that macroeconomic and market conditions are in place to support strong domestic steel demand in 2021 and beyond,” he added. 

“We continue to see strong steel demand coupled with extremely low customer steel inventories throughout the supply chain. The automotive sector continues to be strong, despite the electronic chip shortage, and other sectors such as construction, equipment and transportation remain solid. Order entry activity continues to be robust across our businesses, and when coupled with low inventory, supports strong steel selling values. We believe this momentum will continue throughout the year and that our third quarter 2021 earnings could represent another record performance.”