Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Is Steel Dynamics publicly traded?

Yes. Steel Dynamics trades on the Nasdaq under ticker STLD and is a member of the S&P 500. It has been public since 1996.

Who founded Steel Dynamics?

Keith Busse, Mark Millett, and Richard Teets founded the company in 1993 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, after leaving Nucor. Millett still leads it as Chairman and CEO.

What does Steel Dynamics make?

Flat-rolled and long steel products, recycled metals through OmniSource, steel joists and building components, flat-rolled aluminum, and biocarbon reductants for steelmaking.

Is Steel Dynamics bigger than Nucor?

Nucor remains the largest U.S. steel producer by shipments. Steel Dynamics is the second-largest domestic producer and frequently the most profitable per ton.

Keith Busse, Mark Millett, and Richard Teets founded Steel Dynamics in 1993 in Fort Wayne, leaving jobs at Nucor to build a leaner minimill company. The first mill, in Butler, Indiana, began producing flat-rolled steel in 1996 at costs that undercut integrated producers, and the company went public in 1996 on the Nasdaq.

Growth came through a steady cadence of greenfield construction and targeted acquisitions: the Structural and Rail division at Columbia City, the Engineered Bar division in Pittsboro, the Flat Roll Group expansion, and the 2007 acquisition of OmniSource, which gave the company captive scrap supply at scale. The 2014 purchase of a Columbus, Mississippi mill added a flagship southern asset.

The 2020s brought the company's largest expansion. A state-of-the-art flat-rolled mill in Sinton, Texas, opened in 2021 serving the southern U.S. and Mexico. SDI then committed to two adjacent ventures: an aluminum flat-rolled complex in Columbus, Mississippi, aimed at the beverage can and automotive shortage, and SDI Biocarbon Solutions, which converts biomass into a carbon-neutral coke substitute for its furnaces. Both hit operational milestones in 2025, with the aluminum platform achieving positive EBITDA in December of that year. Fiscal 2025 closed with $18.2 billion of net sales, $1.2 billion of net income, and a record 13.7 million tons of steel shipped.

SDI's EAF model is inherently among the lowest-carbon steelmaking routes, and the company reports emissions intensity well below integrated peers. The Biocarbon venture adds a genuine decarbonization asset, converting biomass into furnace reductant. It publishes annual sustainability reporting covering safety, where it invests heavily, water, and recycled content, which is effectively 100% for its feedstock.

SDI's record is comparatively clean for heavy industry. Matters of note include periodic environmental permit issues at scrap and mill sites, standard OSHA citations, and a legacy of non-union operations that has periodically drawn organizing pressure. The Columbus, Mississippi mill community relations and the aluminum plant's permitting attracted local attention rather than scandal.