RYZ US Equity☆

ryi-10k_20201231.htm

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission File No. 001-34735

RYERSON HOLDING CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

227 W. Monroe St.,27th Floor

Chicago, Illinois60606

(Address of principal executive offices)

(312) 292-5000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☒

Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. Yes ☐ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing price of a share of the registrant’s common stock on June 30, 2020 as reported by the New York Stock Exchange on such date was approximately $78,979,779. Shares of the registrant’s common stock held by each executive officer, director, and holder of 5% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This calculation does not reflect a determination that certain persons are affiliates of the registrant for any other purpose.

As of February 19, 2021 there were 38,117,397 shares of our Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The information required to be furnished pursuant to Part III of this Form 10-K will be set forth in, and incorporated by reference from, the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the annual meeting of stockholders (the “2020 Proxy Statement”), which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 3

PART I

Item 1. Business 4

Item 1A. Risk Factors 13

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 25

Item 2. Properties 25

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 28

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 28

PART II

Item 6. Reserved 30

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 48

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 50

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 102

Item 9B. Other Information 102

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance 103

Item 11. Executive Compensation 103

Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 104

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 105

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains “forward-looking statements.” Such statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “objectives,” “goals,” “preliminary,” “range,” “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “estimates,” “will,” “should,” “plans” or “anticipates” or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and may involve significant risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may vary materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Among the factors that significantly impact the metals distribution industry and our business are:

• the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

• the management of inventory and other costs and expenses;

• customer, supplier, and competitor consolidation, bankruptcy, or insolvency;

• the failure to effectively integrate newly acquired operations;

• the ability of management to focus on North American and foreign operations;

• the adequacy of our efforts to mitigate cyber security risks and threats;

• prolonged disruption of our processing centers;

• the ability to retain and attract management and key personnel;

• our risk management strategies may result in losses;

• the impact of new or pending litigation against us;

• the risk of product liability claims;

These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various factors, including those set forth in this Annual Report under “Risk Factors” and the caption “Industry and Operating Trends” included in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. Moreover, we caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. We do not undertake any obligation to revise or publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS.

Ryerson Holding Corporation (“Ryerson Holding”), a Delaware corporation, is the parent company of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, Inc. (“JT Ryerson”), a Delaware corporation. Affiliates of Platinum Equity, LLC (“Platinum”) own approximately 21,037,500 shares of our common stock, which is approximately 55% of our issued and outstanding common stock.

We are a leading metals service center, value-added processor, and distributor of industrial metals with operations in the United States through JT Ryerson, in Canada through our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Ryerson Canada, Inc., a Canadian corporation (“Ryerson Canada”), and in Mexico through our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Ryerson Metals de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V., a Mexican corporation (“Ryerson Mexico”). In addition to our North American operations, we conduct processing and distribution operations in China through an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Ryerson China Limited (“Ryerson China”), a Chinese limited liability company. Unless the context indicates otherwise, Ryerson Holding, JT Ryerson, Ryerson Canada, Ryerson China, and Ryerson Mexico together with their subsidiaries, are collectively referred to herein as “Ryerson,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company.”

Our Company

We are one of the largest value-add processors and distributors of industrial metals in North America measured in terms of sales. We have approximately 3,900 employees across 93 facilities in North America and four facilities in China. Through this network we serve approximately 40,000 customers across a wide range of manufacturing end-markets. Our customers range from local, independently owned fabricators and machine shops to large, international original equipment manufacturers. We carry a full line of nearly 75,000 products in stainless steel, aluminum, carbon steel, and alloy steels and a limited line of nickel and red metals in various shapes and forms. In addition to our metals products, we offer numerous value-added processing and fabrication services, and more than 75% of the products we sell are processed to meet customer requirements.

Our business strategy includes providing a superior level of customer service and responsiveness, technical services, and inventory management solutions while maintaining low operating costs in order to maximize financial results. Our growth strategy is based on increasing our operating results through organic growth activities and strategic acquisitions.

To that end, we continue to focus on our interconnected network, systems, and to enhance our value-added services and online presence to provide increased access, functionality, and flexibility to our customers. Our service centers are strategically located near our customers, which permits us to quickly process and deliver our products and services, often within the next day of receiving an order. We own, lease, or contract a fleet of tractors and trailers, allowing us to efficiently meet our customers’ delivery demands. Our range of products together with our breadth of services allows us to service a diverse customer base and to create long-term partnerships with our customers and enhances our profitability.

We focus on strategic acquisitions that complement and enhance our product, customer, and geographic diversification. On July 2, 2018, JT Ryerson acquired Central Steel and Wire Company (“CS&W”), a leading metal service center with locations across the Central and Eastern United States offering a wide selection of products and capabilities, with a commercial portfolio centered on bar, tube, plate, and steel products. Since our acquisition of CS&W, we have focused on improving its operating performance through efficiencies by integrating the business into our operational model.

Industry Overview

Metals service centers serve as key intermediaries between metal producers and end users of metal products. They purchase in scale and sell in smaller quantities. End-users often look for “one-stop” suppliers that offer lower order volumes, shorter lead times, more reliable delivery, and processing services. Metal producers mainly sell metals in the form of standard-sized coils, sheets, plates, structurals, bars, and tubes in large quantities, with longer lead times, and limited inventory. Metal service centers serve as key intermediaries closing the gap between metal producers’ supply and end-users’ demand.

By aggregating end-users’ demand and purchasing metal in bulk to take advantage of economies of scale, metals service centers may purchase, process, and deliver metal to end‐users in a more efficient and cost‐effective manner than the end‐user may achieve by dealing directly with the primary producer. Further, specialized metals processing equipment is costly and requires high‐volume production to be cost effective. In addition, many customers are not able or willing to invest in the necessary technology, equipment, and warehousing of inventory to efficiently and effectively perform metal processing for their own operations. Due to this, many customers have reduced their in-house processing capabilities, opting to source processed metal from service centers like us. This saves our customers time, labor, and expense, reducing their overall manufacturing costs, while permitting us to focus on value-added

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services and increasing our fabrication mix. This supports our capital expenditures on processing equipment to grow annual gross profit margin. Our industry is highly fragmented with the largest companies accounting for only a small percentage of total market share. The majority of metals services companies have limited product lines and inventories, with customers located in a specific geographic area. In general, competition is based on quality, service, price, and geographic proximity. We primarily compete with other metals service centers and to a lesser extent with metal producers.

The metals service center industry typically experiences cash flow trends that are counter-cyclical to the revenue and volume growth of the industry. During an industry downturn, companies generally reduce working capital assets and generate cash as inventory and accounts receivable balances decline. As a result, operating cash flow and liquidity tend to increase during a downturn, which typically facilitates industry participants’ ability to cover fixed costs and repay outstanding debt.

Competitive Strengths

Leading Market Position in North America.

Based on sales, we believe we are one of the largest service center companies for carbon, stainless steel, and aluminum in the North American market where we have a broad geographic presence with 93 facilities.

Our service centers are located near our customer locations, enabling us to provide timely delivery to customers across numerous geographic markets. Additionally, our widespread network of locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico helps us to utilize our expertise to more efficiently serve customers with complex supply chain requirements across multiple manufacturing locations. We believe this is a key differentiator for customers who need a supplier that can reliably and consistently support them. Our ability to transfer inventory among our facilities better enables us to more timely and profitably source and process specialized items at regional locations throughout our network than if we were required to maintain inventory of all products and specialized equipment at each location.

Broad Geographic Reach Across Attractive End Markets.

Our operations serve a diverse range of industries including commercial ground transportation, metal fabrication and machine shops, industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing, consumer durable equipment, HVAC manufacturing, construction equipment manufacturing, food processing and agricultural equipment manufacturing, and oil and gas. We believe this broad range of industries in which we sell our products and services reduces our risk related to a downturn in a specific industry. We believe that our ability to quickly adjust our offering based on regional and industry specific trends creates stability while also providing the opportunity to access specific growth markets.

Established Platform for Organic and Acquisition Growth.

Our growth strategy is based on increasing our operating results through organic growth activities and strategic acquisitions that enhance our product, customer, and geographic diversification. Our strategies, include investing in value-added processing capabilities, analytically targeting attractive customers and end markets with our supply chain optimization service model, industry consolidation through targeted M&A, and providing customers faster and easier solutions to their metal needs, which we believe will provide us with growth opportunities.

Given the highly fragmented nature of the metals service center industry, we believe there are numerous additional opportunities to acquire businesses and incorporate them into our existing infrastructure. In addition, due to our large scale and geographic reach, we believe we can improve operating performance through efficiencies by integrating acquired businesses into our operational model, thus providing greater purchasing power, improving expense and working capital management, access to additional end markets, and broadening product mix.

Lean Operating Structure Providing Operating Leverage.

Ryerson has demonstrated the ability to effectively manage expenses through tactical productivity and spending improvements. In a stronger metals service center environment characterized by increases in demand and/or pricing, we believe that most additional expenses to service higher revenue and margins would come from variable expenses while further leveraging economies of scale on our existing fixed expenses. In 2020, industry volumes were negatively impacted by substantial COVID-19 pandemic-induced demand shocks. In response, we acted swiftly and decisively to reduce our expenses and succeeded in decreasing warehousing, selling, general and administrative expenses by $82.5 million compared to 2019. Although the decrease in revenues ultimately outpaced the decrease in expenses, as a result of these efforts, the Company’s expenses as a percentage of sales increased by only 190 basis points year-over-year to 16.0%.

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During thecourse of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to focus on and execute strong inventory management. While average inventory days excluding LIFO increased mid-year due to the recessed demand conditions, we responded quickly and effectively to reduce inventories in-line with the market environment. As a result, we ended the year with 74 days of inventory, down from 76 days at the end of 2019.

Extensive Breadth of Products and Services for Diverse Customer Base.

We believe our broad product mix and marketing approach provides customers with a “one-stop shop” solution few other metals service center companies are able to offer. We provide a broad range of processing and fabrication services to meet the needs of our approximately 40,000 customers and typically fulfill more than 1,300,000 orders per year. We provide supply chain solutions, including just-in-time delivery and value-added processing to many original equipment manufacturing customers.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, no single customer, including their subcontractors, accounted for more than 5% of our sales, and our top 10 customers, including their subcontractors accounted for less than 15% of our sales.

Strong Relationships with Suppliers.

We are among the largest purchasers of metals in North America and have long-term relationships with many of our North American suppliers. We believe we are frequently one of the largest customers of our suppliers and that concentrating our orders among a core group of suppliers is effective for obtaining favorable pricing and service. We believe we have the opportunity to further leverage this strength through continued focus on price and volume using an analytics-driven approach to procurement. In addition, we view our strategic suppliers as supply chain partners. We focus on logistics, lead times, rolling schedules, and scrap return programs to drive value-based buying that is advantageous for us. Metals producers worldwide are consolidating, and large, geographically diversified customers, such as Ryerson, are desirable partners for these larger suppliers. Our relationships with suppliers often provide us with access to metals when supply is constrained. Through our knowledge of the global metals marketplace and capabilities of specific mills we believe we have developed an advantageous global purchasing strategy.

Experienced Management Team with Deep Industry Knowledge.

Our senior management team has extensive industry and operational experience and has been instrumental in optimizing and implementing our strategy over the last five years. Our senior management has an average of more than 20 years of experience in the metals or service center industries. Our CEO, Mr. Edward Lehner, who joined the Company in August 2012 as CFO and became CEO in June 2015, has nearly 30 years of experience, predominantly in the metals industry. On February 17, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Mr. Mike Burbach as Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective April 2, 2021. Mr. Burbach has over 37 years of experience with the Company and currently serves as the President, North-West Region of the Company. Mr. Jim Claussen, named Executive Vice President & CFO in January 2021, has 26 years of industry experience and Ms. Molly Kannan, Corporate Controller and CAO, has 12 years of industry experience.

Industry Outlook

The Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (“PMI”) reported growth in the second half of 2020 with readings above 50%, indicating expansion in factory activity, after reporting severely weak demand in the months of April and May. This growth trend has continued from strong readings of 57.5 and 60.5 in November and December into 2021 with a reading of 58.7 for January. Overall, PMI has reported general economic expansion for the last three years as readings have exceeded 50% for 28 of the last 36 months. The PMI measures the economic health of the manufacturing sector and is a composite index based on five indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries, and the employment environment. PMI readings can be a good indicator of industrial activity and general economic growth.

Additionally, Federal Reserve reports that the midrange change in real GDP was -2.4% for 2020, but it is forecasting real GDP growth rates of 4.2%, 3.2%, and 2.4% for 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively.

Steel demand in North America is largely dependent on growth of the automotive, industrial equipment, consumer appliance, and construction end markets. One of our key end markets is the industrial equipment sector, and according to the latest Livingston Survey, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, U.S. industrial production contracted by 7.1% in 2020, affected by pandemic-induced demand shocks, but is expected to grow by 5.0% in 2021, and 3.4% in 2022.

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China continues to be a key driver in the growth of global metals demand. According to the International Monetary Fund’s October 2020 report, China’s economic recovery is back to pre-pandemic levels has thus far been faster than expected. China’s GDP is expected to have grown by 2.3% in 2020 and is projected to grow 8.1% in 2021 and 5.5% in 2022.

Products and Services

We carry a full line of carbon steel, stainless steel, alloy steels, and aluminum, and a limited line of nickel and red metals. These materials are stocked in a number of shapes, including coils, sheets, rounds, hexagons, square and flat bars, plates, structurals, and tubing.

We also provide a wide variety of processing services to meet our customers’ needs. Most of the products that we carry require expensive specialized equipment for material handling and processing. We believe few of our customers have the capability to process the metal into the desired sizes, forms, or finishes or they are unwilling to incur the significant capital expenditures to acquire the necessary equipment. We are growing and diversifying our product mix mainly as a result of our targeted growth strategy to provide increased levels of value-added processing services. We believe our enhanced processing capabilities will increase our ability to sell higher-margin metals processing services to a larger group of customers. We expect this, together and with our focus on maintaining pricing discipline related to our processing services, will increase our gross profit margin.

We had capital expenditures of $158.3 million in the five-year period ended December 31, 2020. We are increasing our investments in processing equipment due to customers requesting higher levels of value-added processing. We expect this to increase our profitability. We currently perform processing services on more than 75% of the materials sold by us.

The following pie charts show our percentage of sales by major product lines for 2020 and 2019:

We are not dependent on any particular customer group or industry because we process and distribute a variety of metals. This diversity of product type and material reduces our exposure to fluctuations or other weaknesses in the financial or economic stability of particular customers or industries. We are also less dependent on any particular suppliers as a result of our product diversification. See pie charts showing our sales by metal consuming industry within “Customers and Markets” discussion below.

Customers and Markets

Our customer base is diverse, numbering approximately 40,000 in a variety of industries, including metal fabrication and machine shops, industrial machinery and equipment, commercial ground transportation, consumer durable, food processing and agricultural equipment, construction equipment, and HVAC. Although we sell directly to many large original equipment

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manufacturers, the majority of our sales are to smaller customers, including small machine shops and fabricators, in small quantities with frequent deliveries, helping them manage their working capital and credit needs more efficiently.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, no single customer, including their subcontractors, accounted for more than 5% of our sales, and our top 10 customers, including their subcontractors accounted for approximately 13% of our sales. Substantially all of our sales are attributable to our U.S. operations and substantially all of our long-lived assets are located in the United States.

The following pie charts show the Company’s percentage of sales by metal consuming industry for 2020 and 2019:

Our customers are primarily located throughout the United States, but we also have international customers. Most customers are located near one of our facilities, thus enabling an efficient delivery system capable of handling a high frequency of short lead time orders. We transport our products directly to customers via our in-house and dedicated truck fleet, which further supports the just-in-time delivery requirements of our customers, and via third-party trucking firms.

We process our metals to specific customer orders as well as for stocking programs. Many of our larger customers commit to purchase on a regular basis at agreed upon or indexed prices for periods ranging from three to twelve months. To help mitigate price volatility risks, these price commitments are generally matched with corresponding supply arrangements, or to a lesser degree by commodity hedges. Customers notify us of specific release dates for processed products. Customers typically notify us of release dates anywhere from on a just-in-time basis to one month before the release date. Consequently, we are required to carry sufficient inventory to meet the short lead time and just-in-time delivery requirements of our customers.

We also have international facilities located in Canada, Mexico, and China. Net sales of our international locations (based on where the shipments originated) accounted for 10.9% of our consolidated 2020 net sales, or $376.9 million. See Note 13 — “Segment information” of Part II, Item 8 “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further information on U.S. and foreign revenues and assets.

Customer demand may change from time to time based on, among other things, general economic conditions and industry capacity. Many of the industries in which our customers compete are cyclical in nature. We believe that our various and diverse offerings, ways-to-markets, and end markets reduce the volatility of our business in the aggregate, thus somewhat reducing earnings volatility. A portion of our customers experience seasonal slowdowns. Our sales, as measured in tonnage sold, in the months of July, November, and December traditionally have been lower than in other months because of a reduced number of shipping days and holiday or vacation closures for some customers. Consequently, our sales in the first two quarters of the year are usually higher than in the third and fourth quarters.

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Suppliers

We purchase the majority of our inventories from key domestic metals suppliers. Because of our total volume of purchases and our long‐term relationships with our suppliers, we believe that we are generally able to purchase inventory at the best prices offered by our suppliers.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, our top 25 suppliers, including their subcontractors, accounted for approximately 73% of our purchase dollars. We are generally able to meet our materials requirements because we use many suppliers, there is a substantial overlap of product offerings from these suppliers, and there are several other suppliers able to provide identical or similar products. While the metals producing supply base has experienced significant consolidation and supply interruptions due to tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, we believe both our size and our long-term relationships with our suppliers will continue to enable us to meet our material requirements.

Sales and Marketing

We maintain our own professional sales force. In addition to our office sales staff, we market and sell our products through the use of our field sales force that we believe has extensive product and customer knowledge and offers a comprehensive catalog of our products. Our office and field sales staff, which together consist of approximately 800 employees, include technical personnel. Additionally, we offer our customers the ability to purchase our products through our e-commerce website.

Because our business is relationship-based, we operate under many different trade names. Businesses we acquire often have strong customer relationships and solid reputations, and we will often continue to use the acquired business name to maintain existing customer relationships.

Capital Expenditures

Although our 2020 capital spending was reduced in accordance with our pandemic response plan, we continued to focus on organic growth in 2020 by expanding existing facilities and adding processing equipment. See the “COVID 19” discussion within Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, for further details. Investments by us in property, plant, and equipment, together with asset retirements for the five years ended December 31, 2020, excluding the initial purchase price of acquisitions are set forth below. The net capital change during such period aggregated to an increase of $65.2 million.

Additions Retirements or Sales Net

(In millions)

The net reduction in 2019 is related to a sale lease-back transaction. See Part II, Item 8, Note 6: Leases for additional information. We currently anticipate capital expenditures, excluding acquisitions, of up to approximately $40 million for 2021, much of which is related to organic growth activities comprised of maintenance, or purchases of, equipment. We expect capital expenditures will be funded from cash generated by operations and available borrowings. We will continue to evaluate and execute each growth project in light of the economic conditions and outlook at the time of investment and may significantly reduce our capital expenditures if economic conditions warrant a more conservative approach to capital allocation.

Environmental, Health, and Safety Matters

Our facilities and operations are subject to many foreign, federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment and to health and safety. In particular, our operations are subject to extensive requirements relating to waste disposal, recycling, air and water emissions, the handling of regulated materials, remediation, underground storage tanks, asbestos-containing building materials, workplace exposure, and other matters. We believe that our operations are currently in substantial compliance with all such laws and do not presently anticipate substantial expenditures in the foreseeable future in order to meet environmental, workplace health or safety requirements, or to pay for any investigations, corrective action, or claims. However, claims, enforcement actions, or investigations regarding personal injury, property damage, or violation of environmental laws could

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result in substantial costs to us, divert our management’s attention, and result in significant liabilities, fines, or the suspension or interruption of our facilities.

We continue to analyze and implement safeguards to mitigate any environmental, health, and safety risks we may face. As a result, additional costs and liabilities may be incurred to comply with future requirements or to address newly discovered conditions, and these costs and liabilities could have a material adverse effect on the results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows. For example, there is increasing likelihood that additional regulation of greenhouse gas emissions will occur at the foreign, federal, state, and local level, which could affect us, our suppliers, and our customers. While the costs of compliance could be significant, given the uncertain outcome and timing of future action by the U.S. federal government and states on this issue, we cannot accurately predict the financial impact of future greenhouse gas regulations on our operations or our customers at this time. We do not currently anticipate any new programs disproportionately impacting us compared to our competitors.

Some of the properties currently or previously owned or leased by us are located in industrial areas or have a long history of heavy industrial use. We may incur environmental liabilities with respect to these properties in the future including costs of investigations, corrective action, claims for natural resource damages, claims by third parties relating to property damages, or claims relating to contamination at sites where we have sent waste for treatment or disposal. Based on currently available information we do not expect any investigation, remediation matters, or claims related to properties presently or formerly owned, operated, or to which we have sent waste for treatment or disposal would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows.

In October 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) named JT Ryerson as one of more than 100 businesses that may be a potentially responsible party (“PRP”) for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site (the “PHS Site”). On January 6, 2017, the EPA issued an initial Record of Decision (“ROD”) regarding the site. The ROD includes a combination of dredging,capping, and enhanced natural recovery that would take approximately thirteen years to construct plus additional time for monitored natural recovery, at an estimated present value cost of $1.05 billion. In a change from its prior stance, at a meeting on December 4, 2018, the EPA indicated that it expected PRPs to submit a plan during 2019 to start remediation of the river and harbor per the original ROD within the next two to three years. The EPA also indicated that it expected allocation of amounts among the parties to be determined in the same two to three-year time frame. The EPA invited certain PRPs to a May 2, 2019 meeting to discuss starting the remedial design process. The EPA did not include JT Ryerson in those meetings.

On December 9, 2019, a PRP group met with Administrator Wheeler, the head of the EPA, to discuss updating the ROD as recent testing indicates that the levels of contamination have “drastically improved” and, thus, remediation should be much less drastic than that in the current ROD. Administrator Wheeler directed regional EPA staff to again review the ROD before moving forward with any enforcement action. On March 3, 2020, the regional EPA issued a letter to the PRP group, essentially rejecting the request but noting that new data would be used for fine-tuning the implementation of the remedy and to that extent could result in less active remediation.

The EPA indicated in a January 2, 2020 “progress update” letter that it is negotiating with certain parties to perform remedial design work at five unspecified areas which comprise 52% of the overall acreage subject to remediation. In late March 2020, the EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order for Remedial Design to Schnitzer Steel, ordering it to develop a remedial design plan for the river area which includes the area where our former facilities were. Schnitzer filed a petition for relief from the remedy required by the ROD as well as disclosures required by the EPA. Schnitzer’s 2020 disclosures made no mention of JT Ryerson and acknowledged that Schnitzer is the legal successor to the prior operator in the designated area.

The EPA has stated that it is willing to consider de minimis settlements, which JT Ryerson is trying to pursue; however, the EPA has not begun meeting with any of the smaller parties who have requested de minimis or de micromis status, stating that it does not have sufficient information to determine whether any parties meet such criteria and does not intend to begin those considerations until after the remedial design work is completed. It has met with selected parties that we believe to be larger targets. JT Ryerson has not been invited to meet with the EPA. As a result of the ongoing negotiations and filings over the ROD and the EPA’s decision not to meet with smaller parties, we cannot determine how allocations will be made and whether a de minimus settlement can be reached with the EPA.

As the EPA has not yet allocated responsibility for the contamination among the potentially responsible parties, including JT Ryerson, we do not currently have sufficient information available to us to determine whether the ROD will be executed as currently stated, whether and to what extent JT Ryerson may be held responsible for any of the identified contamination, and how much (if any) of the final plan’s costs might ultimately be allocated to JT Ryerson. Therefore, management cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter or estimate a range of potential loss at this time.

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There are various other claims and pending actions against the Company. The amount of liability, if any, for those claims and actions as of December 31, 2020 is not determinable but, in the opinion of management, such liability, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. We maintain liability insurance coverage to assist in protecting our assets from losses arising from or related to activities associated with business operations.

Our United States operations are also subject to the Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. We operate a private trucking motor fleet for making deliveries to some of our customers. Our drivers do not carry any material quantities of hazardous materials. Our foreign operations are subject to similar regulations. Future regulations could increase maintenance, replacement, and fuel costs for our fleet. These costs could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows.

Intellectual Property

We own several U.S. and foreign trademarks, service marks, and copyrights. Certain of the trademarks are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, in certain circumstances, with the trademark offices of various foreign countries. We consider certain other information owned by us to be trade secrets. We protect our trade secrets by, among other things, entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees regarding such matters and implementing measures to restrict access to sensitive data and computer software source code on a need-to-know basis. We believe that these safeguards adequately protect our proprietary rights and we vigorously defend these rights. While we consider all our intellectual property rights as a whole to be important, we do not consider any single right to be essential to our operations as a whole.

Corporate Responsibility

Ryerson is committed to operating with a high level of integrity. We are driven by our dedication to support our employees and the communities we serve, deliver products that meet our stringent quality and compliance standards, and maintain high environmental, health, and safety standards to protect our people and the places where we operate. We work to continually improve each of these areas to make Ryerson an even better company for tomorrow.

Below are some highlights of our corporate responsibility programs.

Sustainability

As part of our efforts to operate with a high level of integrity, we continuously monitor and analyze ourselves and our supply-chain relationships. We strive, and expect our suppliers, to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, and Ryerson's Human Rights Policy, Conflict Minerals Policy,and Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.

We are committed to mitigating the impact our operations and products have on the environment. As an operator of metals service centers, our day-to-day business consists of the sale, distribution, and processing of a broad variety of metal products sourced from numerous primary metal producers. Our operations, by their nature, do not emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. Further, according to the Steel Recycling Institute, we believe steel, one of our most significant products,is the most recycled material on the planet—more than plastic, paper, and glass combined each year—which provides a strong foundation for our sustainability efforts. The Steel Recycling Institute notes that two out of every three tons of new steel are produced from old steel. As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, we:

• sell scrap material generated in our operations to recyclers; and

We alsouse propane fuel to operate forklifts, have installed energy efficient lighting in many of our operations, and utilize energy efficient diesel tractors that consume less fuel and reduce emissions for the majority of our trucking fleet to further mitigate our impact on the environment.

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Community Relations

We are committed to helping build better communities in the places where we operate. We invest in the community and our people in a variety of ways, from volunteerism to providing educational resources to help our employees and families advance their careers:

Human Capital

In order to provide best in class customer experiences, it is crucial that we continue to attract and retain top talent. To facilitate talent attraction and retention, we strive to create a diverse, inclusive, and safe workplace, with opportunities for our employees to grow and develop in their careers, supported by strong compensation, benefits, and wellness programs, and by programs that build connections between our employees and their communities.

Employees.As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 3,600 persons in North America and 300 persons in China. Our North American workforce was comprised of approximately 1,600 office employees and approximately 2,000 plant employees. Eighteen percent of our plant employees were members of various unions, including the United Steel Workers and The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Nine renewal contracts and one initial contract covering approximately 196 employees were successfully negotiated in 2020. Six contracts covering 96 employees are currently scheduled to expire in 2021.

Employee Development. Ryerson believes in promoting from within and provides the resources for long-term career development. Our summer internship program and Ryerson Academy provide meaningful training to entry-level employees. Ryerson Academy is a unique, 12-month immersive training program for entry-level inside sales associates. The program provides intensive training and experience in sales and customer service for approximately 20 new hires and entry-level employees each year. Ryerson Academy also teaches critical communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, and participants regularly interact with Ryerson’s senior leadership and subject matter experts. We have a robust training platform, Ryerson EDvantage, available to all employees which offers Ryerson product training along with general skills courses that are customized for our employees’ development. We focus on succession planning and ensure that proper cross-training and knowledge transfer is in place. Our average employee tenure is 12 years, and our voluntary turnover rate in 2020 was less than 7 percent.

Diversity and Inclusion. Ryerson is dedicated to building a diverse workplace of associates from a variety of cultures, educational backgrounds, and life experiences. A well-rounded community of talent helps cultivate new ideas and perspectives that help the Company expand its thinking and refine its practices and processes to continue growing in a smart way. Ryerson is aggressively working to engage diverse and under-represented individuals through its recruiting efforts in diverse and underserved communities. We have a Diversity & Inclusion Council that works across the Company to increase the number of minorities and women in positions of increased responsibility and leadership, to identify opportunities for the organization to engage with its broader communities to promote equity, social justice, and inclusion, and to sponsor additional employee resource groups dedicated to driving diversity, equity and inclusion. We promote the advancement of women in our organization through our Women’s Sponsorship Program which provides sponsorship of women in various levels and positions throughout the organization. From a governance perspective, our Board of Directors and Compensation Committee provides oversight of our policies, programs, and initiatives focusing on workforce diversity and inclusion.

Employee Safety. Upholding a safe workplace is one of our core values and a part of the company's culture. Our safety standards, which go beyond the minimum requirements required by applicable law, have helped protect the well-being of our people and prevent workplace injuries that can impact business productivity. We continuously work to maintain a safety performance rating that outperforms the industry average and have implemented an Environmental, Health, and Safety policy that reinforces the goal of a

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zero-injury workplace. Our low recordable injury rate compared to our peers in the metal services industry, based on U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) criteria, reflects our effectiveness in protecting our employees. Our 2020 performance at our facilities, measured as the number of OSHA recordable injuries per 200,000 labor hours, was 1.85, which was almost two times better than the industry average as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Please refer to the section titled “COVID-19” of Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations” for further information on the health and wellness actions taken in response to COVID-19.

Health and Wellness. The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our people. Accordingly, we are committed to the health and wellness of our employees. We provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of innovative, flexible, and convenient health and wellness programs, including benefits that provide protection and security so they can have peace of mind concerning events that may require time away from work or that impact their financial well-being; that support their physical and mental health by providing tools and resources to help them improve or maintain their health status, and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors; and that offer choice where possible so they can customize their benefits to meet their needs and the needs of their families.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented significant changes that we determined were in the best interests of our employees and the communities in which we operate, and which comply with government regulations, such as having office employees work from home and implementing additional safety measures for employees continuing critical on-site work.

Compensation and Benefits. We provide robust compensation and benefits programs to help meet the financial needs of our employees. In addition to salaries, we provide annual and quarterly sales incentive plans, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, retirement savings contribution matching, paid time off, family leave, employee assistance programs, and tuition assistance. Additionally, we have targeted equity-based grant programs with vesting conditions to facilitate retention of personnel, particularly those with critical skills and experience.

Available Information

All periodic and current reports and other filings that we are required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available free of charge from the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov) or through our Investor Relations website at http://ir.ryerson.com. Such documents are available as soon as reasonably practicable after electronic filing of the material with the SEC. Copies of these reports (excluding exhibits) may also be obtained free of charge, upon written request to: Investor Relations, Ryerson Holding Corporation, 227 W. Monroe St., 27th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60606.

The Company also posts its Code of Ethics on its website. See Part III, Item 10 for more information regarding our Code of Ethics.

Our website address is included in this report for informational purposes only. Our website and the information contained therein or connected thereto are not incorporated into this annual report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.

Our business faces many risks. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with the other information in this report, including the consolidated financial statements and notes to consolidated financial statements. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed in the risk factors below will not occur. These risks could have a material and adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows.

RISKS RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have had, and are expected to continue to have, an adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

The global outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and a national emergency by the U.S. government in March 2020 and has negatively affected the U.S. and global economies, disrupted global supply chains, resulted in significant travel and transport restrictions, mandated closures and stay-at-home orders, and created significant disruptions in the financial markets. We continue to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across our business. The global spread of COVID-19, and the various governmental, industry, and consumer actions related thereto, have had, and are expected to continue to have negative impacts on our business and operations, including softening demand for our products,

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disruptions in our supply chain and operations, and related restrictions on our employees, including quarantines, stay-at-home orders, and restrictions on travel.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have implemented several policies and procedures to protect the health and welfare of our employees first and foremost, while operating as an essential business, and maintaining our liquidity. We have communicated and enforced social distancing practices by alternating employee shifts, eliminating congregation, suspending non-essential travel, and by implementing work from home arrangements for those employees able to work remotely. COVID-19 has disrupted our internal operations, including by heightening the risk that our employees will suffer illness or otherwise not be permitted to work and exposing us to cybersecurity and other risks associated with a large number of our employees working remotely. In 2020, certain of our facilities have experienced temporary work disruptions as a result of COVID-19, and we cannot predict whether these will continue or if our facilities will experience more significant or frequent disruptions in the future. Furthermore, we have and may need to further reduce our workforce as a result of declines in our business caused by COVID-19, and any such reduction would cause us to incur costs. Moreover, there can be no assurance that we would be able to rehire our workforce in the event our business experiences a subsequent recovery.

On the whole, because manufacturing demand is tied closely to overall economic strength, economic uncertainty and/or increased unemployment that results from the COVID-19 pandemic or measures undertaken in response have led and could continue to lead to lower demand for our products. Although our end-markets are diverse, concerns regarding and measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have and could further negatively influence overall demand, particularly for the consumer durable sector, resulting in cancellations or deferrals of orders and/or decreases in new deliveries.

COVID-19 has also led to disruption and volatility in the capital markets, which depending on future developments could adversely impact our capital resources and liquidity in the future.

We are also monitoring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fair value of our assets. While we do not currently anticipate any material impairments of our assets as a result of COVID-19, future changes in expectations for sales, earnings, and cash flows related to intangible assets and goodwill below our current projections could cause these assets to be impaired.

We are continuing to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across our business and will take appropriate actions in an effort to mitigate adverse consequences. The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in response thereto adversely impacts our business, financial condition, and results of operations will depend on numerous evolving factors and future developments, which are highly uncertain, rapidly changing, and cannot be predicted, including: the duration and scope of the outbreak; governmental, business, and individual actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the outbreak, including travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing, vaccine rollouts, work-at-home and stay-at-home orders; the impact of the outbreak on the financial markets and economic activity generally; the effect of the outbreak on our customers, suppliers, and other business partners; our ability to access usual sources of liquidity on reasonable terms; and our ability to comply with the financial covenants in our $1 billion revolving credit facility (the “Ryerson Credit Facility”) if a material economic downturn results in increased indebtedness or substantially lower EBITDA. All of the foregoing will likely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and forward-looking expectations.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may also exacerbate the other risks discussed in this Form 10-K and in other filings we make from time to time with the SEC.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR INDUSTRY

Weakness in the economy, market trends, and other conditions affecting the profitability and financial stability of our customers could negatively impact our sales growth and results of operations.

Economic and industry trends affect our business environments. We serve several metals-consuming industries in which the demand for our products and services is sensitive to the production activity, capital spending, and demand for products and services of our customers. Many of these customers operate in markets that are subject to highly cyclical fluctuations resulting from seasonality, market uncertainty, costs of goods sold, currency exchange rates, foreign competition, offshoring of production, oil and natural gas prices, geopolitical developments, and a variety of other factors beyond our control. Any of these factors could cause customers to idle or close facilities, delay purchases, reduce production levels, or experience reductions in the demand for their own products or services.

Any of these events could impair the ability of our customers to make full and timely payments or reduce the volume of products and services these customers purchase from us and could cause increased pressure on our selling prices and terms of sale.

We do not expect the cyclical nature of our industry to change and any downturn in our customers’ industries could reduce our revenues and profitability or a significant or prolonged slowdown in activity in the United States (U.S.), Canada, or any other major world economy, or a segment of any such economy, could negatively impact our sales growth and results of operations.

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The metals services business is very competitive and increased competition could reduce our revenues and gross margins.

We face competition in all markets we serve, from metals producers that sell directly to certain customers or segments of the market, to other metal services companies. The metals services industry itself is highly fragmented and competitive. There are a few large competitors, but most of the market is served by small local and regional competitors. Competition is based principally on price, service, quality, production capabilities, inventory availability, and timely delivery.

We are experiencing increased pressure from online businesses that compete with price transparency. We expect technological advancements and the increased use of e-commerce solutions within the industry to continue to evolve at a rapid pace. As a result, our ability to effectively compete requires us to respond and adapt to new industry trends and developments, and implement new technology and innovations that may result in unexpected costs or may take longer than expected.

To remain competitive, we must be willing and able to respond to market pressures. These pressures, and the implementation, timing, and results of our strategic pricing and other responses, could have a material effect on our sales and profitability. If we are unable to grow sales or reduce costs, among other actions, to wholly or partially offset the effect on profitability of our pricing actions, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Changing metals prices may have a significant impact on our liquidity, net sales, gross margins, operating income, and net income.

The metals services industry as a whole is cyclical and, at times, pricing and availability of metal can be volatile due to numerous factors beyond our control, including general domestic and international economic conditions, labor costs, sales levels, competition, levels of inventory held by other metals service centers, consolidation of metals producers, higher raw material costs for the producers of metals, import duties and tariffs, and currency exchange rates. This volatility can significantly affect the availability and cost of materials for us. Our ability to pass on increases in costs in a timely manner depends on market conditions and may result in lower gross margins. In addition, higher prices could impact demand for these products, resulting in lower sales volumes. Moreover, we maintain substantial inventories of metal to accommodate the short lead times and just-in-time delivery requirements of our customers. Accordingly, we purchase metals in an effort to maintain inventory at levels that we believe to be appropriate to satisfy the anticipated needs of our customers based upon historic buying practices, contracts with customers, and market conditions. Commitments for metal purchases are generally at prevailing market prices in effect at the time orders are placed or at the time of shipment. During periods of rising metal prices, we may be negatively impacted by delays between the time of increases in the cost of metals to us and increases in the prices that we charge for our products if we are unable to pass these increased costs on to our customers. In addition, when metal prices decline, this could result in lower selling prices for our products and, as we use existing inventory that we purchased at higher metal prices, lower gross profit margins. Declines in prices or further reductions in sales volumes could adversely impact our ability to maintain our liquidity and to remain in compliance with certain financial covenants under our Ryerson Credit Facility, as well as result in us incurring inventory or goodwill impairment charges. Consequently, changing metals prices could significantly impact our liquidity, net sales, gross margins, operating income, and net income.

Unexpected product shortages could negatively impact customer relationships, resulting in an adverse impact on results of operations.

Disruptions could occur due to factors beyond our control, including economic downturns, political unrest, port slowdowns, trade issues, including increased export or import duties or trade restrictions, health crises, and other factors, any of which could adversely affect a supplier’s ability to manufacture ordeliver products to us. Public health problems may result in quarantines, business closures, transportation restrictions, import and export complications, and otherwise cause shortages in the supply of materials, higher costs for available supplies, or cause other disruptions within our operations and supply chain. Public health problems currently cause and may continue to cause increased costs of certain supplies and disruptions and delays within our supply chain, and public health problems may expose us to unanticipated liability or require us to change our business practices.

Any disruption resulting from these events could cause significant delays in shipments of products or difficulties in obtaining products, any of which may expose us to unanticipated liability or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business, results of operations, and financial condition. For our sources of lower cost products from Asia and other areas of the world, the effect of disruptions is typically increased due to the additional lead time required and distances involved. Further, the risk of disruption is increased due to the current political climate seeking trade reform. In addition, we have strategic relationships with a number of vendors. In the event we are unable to maintain those relations, there might be a loss of competitive pricing advantages which could, in turn, adversely affect results of operations.

Changes in customer or product mix could cause the gross margin percentage to decline.

From time to time, we experience changes in customer and product mix that affect gross margin. Changes in customer and product mix result primarily from business acquisitions, changes in customer demand, customer acquisitions, selling and marketing

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activities, and competition. If rapid growth with lower margin customers occurs, we will face pressure to maintain current gross margins, as these customers receive more discounted pricing due to their higher sales volume. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain historical gross margins in the future.

We may not be able to retain or expand our customer base if the North American manufacturing industry continues to erode through moving offshore or through acquisition and merger or consolidation activity in our customers’ industries.

Our customer base primarily includes manufacturing and industrial firms. Some of our customers operate in industries that are undergoing consolidation through acquisition and merger activity; some are considering or have considered relocating production operations overseas or outsourcing particular functions overseas; and some customers have closed as they were unable to compete successfully with overseas competitors. Our facilities are predominately located in the United States and Canada. To the extent that our customers cease U.S. operations, relocate, or move operations overseas to regions in which we do not have a presence, we could lose their business. Acquirers of manufacturing and industrial firms may have suppliers of choice that do not include us, which could impact our customer base and market share.

Global metal overcapacity and imports of metal products into the United States have adversely affected, and may again adversely affect, United States metal prices, which could impact our sales and results of operations.

At times, global metal production capacity may exceed global consumption of metal products. Such excess capacity sometimes results in metal manufacturers in certain countries exporting steel at prices that are lower than prevailing domestic prices and sometimes at or below their cost of production. Excessive imports of metal into the United States, such as in recent years, have exerted and may exert in the future, downward pressure on United States steel prices which may negatively affect our results of operations.

The U.S. government enacted several trade actions in 2018 and 2019 including tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. It is expected that these trade actions, while in effect, will limit metal imports from nonexempt countries. If these trade actions are relaxed, repealed, or if relatively higher U.S. metal prices make it attractive for foreign metal producers to export their products to the U.S., despite the presence of duties or tariffs, the resurgence of substantial imports of foreign steel could create downward pressure on U.S. metal prices which could have a material adverse effect on sales prices and future results of operations. To the extent these tariffs and other trade actions result in a decrease in demand for steel and aluminum, or products manufactured therefrom and, produced in the United States, or otherwise negatively impact demand for our products, our business may be adversely impacted.

Lead time and the cost of our products could increase if we were to lose one of our primary suppliers.

If, for any reason, our primary suppliers of aluminum, carbon steel, stainless steel, or other metals should curtail or discontinue their delivery of such metals in the quantities needed and at prices that are competitive, our business could suffer. The number of available suppliers could be reduced by factors such as industry consolidation and bankruptcies affecting steel and metal producers. For the year ended December 31, 2020, our top 25 suppliers represented approximately 73% of our purchases. We could be significantly and adversely affected if delivery were disrupted from a major supplier. If, in the future, we were unable to obtain sufficient amounts of the necessary metals at competitive prices and on a timely basis from our traditional suppliers, we may not be able to obtain such metals from alternative sources at competitive prices to meet our delivery schedules, which could have a material adverse effect on our sales and profitability.

RISKS RELATED TO MARKET AND ECONOMIC VOLATILITY

Changes in inflation may adversely affect gross margins.

Inflation impacts the costs at which we can procure product and the ability to increase prices to customers over time. Prolonged periods of deflation could adversely affect the degree to which we are able to increase sales through price increases.

The volatility of the market could result in a material impairment of goodwill.

We evaluate goodwill annually on October 1 and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate potential impairment. Events or changes in circumstances that could trigger an impairment review include significant underperformance relative to our historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner or the use of our assets or the strategy for our overall business, and significant negative industry or economic trends. We test for impairment of goodwill by assessing various qualitative factors with respect to development in our business and the overall economy and calculating the fair value of a reporting unit using a combination of an income approach based on discounted future cash flows and a market approach at the date of valuation, as necessary. Under the discounted cash flow method, the fair value of each reporting unit is estimated based on expected future

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economic benefits discounted to a present value at a rate of return commensurate with the risk associated with the investment. Projected cash flows are discounted to present value using an estimated weighted average cost of capital, which considers both returns to equity and debt investors.Please refer to the Section titled “Critical Accounting Estimates - Goodwill,” of Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations,” and Note 1 — “Summary of Accounting and Financial Policies” of Part II, Item 8 "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" for further information.

Poor investment performance or other factors could require us to make significant unplanned contributions to our pension plan and future funding for postretirement employee benefits other than pensions also may require substantial payments from current cash flow.

We provide defined benefit pension plans for certain eligible employees and retirees. The performance of the debt and equity markets affect the value of plan assets. A decline in the market value may increase the funding requirements for these plans. The cost of providing pension benefits is also affected by other factors, including interest rates used to measure the required minimum funding levels, the rate of return on plan assets, discount rates used in determining future benefit obligations, future government regulation, and prior contributions to the plans. Significant unanticipated changes in any of these factors may have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, and cash flows.

RISKS RELATED TO EXPANSION AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS

We may not be able to successfully consummate and complete the integration of future acquisitions, and if we are unable to do so, it could disrupt operations and cause unanticipated increases in costs and/or decreases in revenues and results of operations.

We have grown through a combination of internal expansion, acquisitions, and joint ventures. We intend to continue to grow through selective acquisitions, but we may not be able to identify appropriate acquisition candidates, obtain financing on satisfactory terms, consummate acquisitions, or integrate acquired businesses effectively and profitably into our existing operations. Restrictions contained in the agreements governing our notes, the Ryerson Credit Facility, or our other existing or future debt may also inhibit our ability to make certain investments, including acquisitions, and participations in joint ventures.

Acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, and other business combination transactions, both foreign and domestic, involve various inherent risks, such as uncertainties in assessing value, strengths, weaknesses, liabilities, and potential profitability. There is also risk relating to our ability to achieve identified operating and financial synergies anticipated to result from the transactions. Additionally, problems could arise from the integration of acquired businesses, including unanticipated changes in the business or industry or general economic conditions that affect the assumptions underlying the acquisition. Our future success will depend on our ability to complete the integration of these future acquisitions successfully into our operations. Specifically, after any acquisition, customers may choose to diversify their supply chains to reduce reliance on a single supplier for a portion of their metals needs. We may not be able to retain all of our and an acquisition’s customers, which may adversely affect our business and sales. Integrating acquisitions, particularly large acquisitions, requires us to enhance our operational and financial systems and employ additional qualified personnel, management, and financial resources, and may adversely affect our business by diverting management away from day-to-day operations. Further, failure to successfully integrate acquisitions may adversely affect our profitability by creating significant operating inefficiencies that could increase our operating expenses as a percentage of sales and reduce our operating income. In addition, we may not realize expected cost savings from acquisitions. Any one or more of these factors could cause us to not realize the benefits anticipated or have a negative impact on the fair value of the reporting units. Accordingly, goodwill and intangible assets recorded as a result of acquisitions could become impaired.

Certain of our operations are located outside of the United States, which subjects us to risks associated with international activities.

Certain of our operations are located outside of the United States, primarily in Canada, China, and Mexico. We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), which generally prohibits U.S. companies and their intermediaries from making corrupt payments or otherwise corruptly giving anything of value to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment, and requires companies to maintain adequate record-keeping and internal accounting practices. The FCPA applies to covered companies, individual directors, officers, employees, and agents. Under the FCPA, U.S. companies may be held liable for some actions taken by strategic or local partners or representatives. If we or our intermediaries fail to comply with the requirements of the FCPA, governmental authorities in the United States could seek to impose civil and/or criminal penalties.

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Our international operations and potential joint ventures may cause us to incur costs and risks that may distract management from effectively operating our North American business, and such operations or joint ventures may not be profitable.

We maintain foreign operations in Canada, China, and Mexico. International operations are subject to certain risks inherent in conducting business in, and with, foreign countries, including price controls, exchange controls, export controls, economic sanctions, duties, tariffs, limitations on participation in local enterprises, nationalization, expropriation and other governmental action, and changes in currency exchange rates. In addition, we may be subject to business disruptions created by health crises and outbreaks of communicable diseases, including the outbreak of COVID-19. While we believe that our current arrangements with local partners provide us with experienced business partners in foreign countries, events or issues, including disagreements with our partners, may occur that require attention of our senior executives and may result in expenses or losses that erode the profitability of our foreign operations or cause our capital investments abroad to be unprofitable.

We may be adversely affected by currency fluctuations in the U.S. dollar versus the Canadian dollar, the Chinese renminbi, and the Hong Kong dollar.

We have significant operations in Canada which incur the majority of their metal supply costs in U.S. dollars but earn the majority of their sales in Canadian dollars. Additionally, we have significant assets in China. We may from time to time experience losses when the value of the U.S. dollar strengthens against the Canadian dollar, the Chinese renminbi, or the Hong Kong dollar, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, we are subject to translation risk when we consolidate our Canadian and Chinese subsidiaries’ net assets into our balance sheet. Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar versus the Canadian dollar, Chinese renminbi, or the Hong Kong dollar could reduce the value of these assets as reported in our financial statements, which could, as a result, reduce our stockholders’ equity.

The Chinese government exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities, particularly with regards to the land our facilities are located on.

The Chinese government has exercised and continues to exercise substantial control over the Chinese economy through regulation and state ownership. Our ability to operate in China may be harmed by changes in its laws and regulations, including those relating to taxation, import and export tariffs, environmental regulations, land use rights, property, and other matters. We believe that our operations in China are in material compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. However, the central or local governments of the jurisdictions in which we operate may impose new, stricter regulations or interpretations of existing regulations that would require additional expenditures and efforts on our part to ensure our compliance with such regulations or interpretations. Moreover, the Chinese court system does not provide the same property and contract right guarantees as do courts in the United States and, accordingly, disputes may be protracted and resolution of claims may result in significant economic loss.

Additionally, there is no private ownership of land in China and all land ownership is held by the government of China, its agencies, and collectives, which issue land use rights that are generally renewable. We lease the land where our Chinese facilities are located from the Chinese government. If the Chinese government decided to terminate our land use rights agreements, our assets could become impaired and our ability to meet customer orders could be impacted.

RISKS RELATED TO CYBERSECURITY

Damage to our information technology infrastructure could harm our business.

The unavailability of any of our computer-based systems for any significant period of time could have a material adverse effect on our operations. In particular, our ability to manage inventory levels successfully largely depends on the efficient operation of our computer hardware and software systems. We use management information systems to track inventory information at individual facilities, communicate customer information, and aggregate daily sales, margin, and promotional information. Difficulties associated with upgrades, installations of major software or hardware, and integration with new systems could have a material adverse effect on results of operations. We could be required to expend substantial resources to integrate our information systems with the systems of companies we have acquired. The integration of these systems may disrupt our business or lead to operating inefficiencies. In addition, these systems are vulnerable to, among other things, damage or interruption from fire, flood, tornado, and other natural disasters, power loss, computer system and network failures, operator negligence, physical and electronic loss of data, or security breaches and computer viruses.

We are subject to cybersecurity risks and may incur increasing costs in an effort to minimize those risks.

We depend on the proper functioning and availability of our information technology platform, including communications and data processing systems, in operating our business. These systems include software programs that are integral to the efficient operation of our business. We have established security measures, controls, and procedures, including established recovery procedures for

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critical systems and business functions, to safeguard our information technology systems and to prevent unauthorized access to such systems and any data processed or stored in such systems, and we periodically evaluate and test the adequacy of such systems, measures, controls, and procedures; however, there can be no guarantee that such systems, measures, controls, and procedures will be effective. Security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss or misuse of our information, litigation, and potential liability. In addition, cyber incidents that impact the availability, reliability, speed, accuracy, or other proper functioning of these systems could have a significant impact on our operations, and potentially on our results. We may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent rapidly evolving types of cyberattacks. A significant cyber incident, including system failure, security breach, disruption by malware, or other damage could interrupt or delay our operations, result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws, damage our reputation, cause a loss of customers, or give rise to monetary fines and other penalties, which could be significant.

RISKS RELATED TO OPERATING OUR BUSINESS

Any significant work stoppages can harm our business.

As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 3,600 persons in North America and 300 persons in China. Our North American workforce was comprised of approximately 1,600 office employees and approximately 2,000 plant employees. Eighteen percent of our plant employees were members of various unions, including the United Steel Workers and The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Nine renewal contracts and one initial contract covering approximately 196 employees were successfully negotiated in 2020. Six contracts covering 96 employees are currently scheduled to expire in 2021.

Certain employee retirement benefit plans are underfunded and the actual cost of those benefits could exceed current estimates, which would require us to fund the shortfall.

As of December 31, 2020, our pension plan had an unfunded liability of $154 million. Our actual costs for benefits required to be paid may exceed those projected and future actuarial assessments to the extent that those costs exceed the current assessment. Under those circumstances, the adjustments required to be made to our recorded liability for these benefits could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition and cash payments to fund these plans could have a material adverse effect on our cash flows. We may be required to make substantial future contributions to improve the plan’s funded status.

Any prolonged disruption of our processing centers could harm our business.

We have dedicated processing centers that permit us to produce standardized products in large volumes while maintaining low operating costs. We may suffer prolonged disruption in the operations of any of these facilities, whether due to labor or technical difficulties, destruction, or damage to any of the facilities or otherwise, which could adversely affect our operating results.

If we are unable to retain, attract, and motivate management and key personnel, it may adversely affect our business.

In order to compete and have continued growth, we must attract, retain, and motivate executives and other key employees, including those in managerial, technical, sales, marketing, and support positions. We believe that our success is due, in part, to our experienced management team. Losing the services of one or more members of our management team such as our CEO, Edward J. Lehner, could adversely affect our business and possibly prevent us from improving our operational, financial, and information management systems and controls. We compete to hire employees and then must train them and develop their skills and competencies. In the future, we may need to retain and hire additional qualified sales, marketing, administrative, operating, and technical personnel, and to train and manage new personnel. Our ability to implement our business plan is dependent on our ability to retain, hire, and train a large number of qualified employees each year. Our results of operations could be adversely affected by increased costs due to increased competition for employees, higher employee turnover, or increased employee benefit costs.

Our risk management strategies may result in losses.

From time to time, we may use fixed-price and/or fixed-volume supplier contracts to offset contracts with customers. Some of our existing supply agreements have required minimum purchase quantities. Under adverse economic conditions, those minimums may exceed our needs. Absent exceptions for force majeure and other circumstances affecting the legal enforceability of the agreements, these minimum purchase requirements may compel us to purchase quantities of raw materials that could significantly exceed our anticipated needs or pay damages to the supplier for shortfalls. In these circumstances, we would attempt to negotiate agreements for new purchase quantities. There is a risk, however, that we would not be successful in reducing purchase quantities, either through negotiation or litigation. If that occurred, we would likely be required to purchase more of a particular raw material in a particular year than we need, negatively affecting our results of operations and cash flows.

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Additionally, we may use commodity contracts, foreign exchange contracts, and interest rate swaps to manage our exposure to commodity price risk, foreign currency exchange risk, and interest rate risk. These risk management strategies pose certain risks, including the risk that losses on a hedge position may exceed the amount invested in such instruments. Moreover, a party in a hedging transaction may be unavailable or unwilling to settle our obligations, which could cause us to suffer corresponding losses. A hedging instrument may not be effective in eliminating all of the risks inherent in any particular position. Our profitability may be adversely affected during any period as a result of use of such instruments.

RISKS RELATED TO REGULATORY AND LEGAL MATTERS

We could incur substantial costs related to environmental, health, and safety laws.

Our operations are subject to increasingly stringent environmental, health, and safety laws. These include laws that impose limitations on the discharge of pollutants into the air and water and establish standards for the treatment, storage, and disposal of regulated materials, and the investigation and remediation of contaminated soil, surface water, and groundwater. Failure to maintain or achieve compliance with these laws or with the permits required for our operations could result in substantial increases in operating costs and capital expenditures. In addition, we may be subject to fines and civil or criminal sanctions, third party claims for property damage or personal injury, worker’s compensation or personal injury claims, cleanup costs, or temporary or permanent discontinuance of operations. Certain of our facilities are located in industrial areas, have a history of heavy industrial use, and have been in operation for many years and, over time, we and other predecessor operators of these facilities have generated, used, handled, and disposed of hazardous and other regulated wastes. Environmental liabilities could exist, including cleanup obligations at these facilities or at off-site locations where materials from our operations were disposed of, which could result in future expenditures that cannot be currently quantified and which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. Such liabilities may be imposed without regard to fault or the legality of a party’s conduct and may, in certain circumstances, be joint and several. Future changes to environmental, health, and safety laws, including those related to climate change, could result in material liabilities and costs, constrain operations, or make such operations more costly for us, our suppliers, and our customers.

In October 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) named JT Ryerson as one of more than 100 businesses that may be a potentially responsible party for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site. See Item 3 “Legal Proceedings.”

As the EPA has not yet allocated responsibility for the contamination among the potentially responsible parties, including JT Ryerson, we do not currently have sufficient information available to us to determine whether the Record of Decision will be executed as currently stated, whether and to what extent JT Ryerson may be held responsible for any of the identified contamination, and how much (if any) of the final plan’s costs might ultimately be allocated to JT Ryerson. Therefore, management cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter or estimate a range of potential loss at this time.

Regulations related to conflict-free minerals may force us to incur additional expenses and place us at a competitive disadvantage.

On August 22, 2012, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), the United States SEC adopted new requirements for reporting companies that use certain minerals and metals, known as “conflict minerals”, in their products, whether or not these products are manufactured by third parties. These requirements require companies to diligence, disclose, and report whether or not such minerals originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. Since our supply chain is complex, we may not be able to conclusively verify the origins for all metals used in our products and we may face reputational challenges with our customers. Additionally, as there may be only a limited number of suppliers offering “conflict free” metals, we cannot be sure that we will be able to obtain necessary metals from such suppliers in sufficient quantities or at competitive prices. Accordingly, we could incur significant cost related to the compliance process, including potential difficulty or added costs in satisfying the disclosure requirements. Moreover, we may encounter challenges to satisfy those customers who require that all of the components of our products be certified as conflict free which could place us at a competitive disadvantage if we are unable to do so.

Tax changes could affect our effective tax rate, the value of our deferred tax assets, and future profitability.

Our future results could be adversely affected by changes in the effective tax rate or changes in the treatment of deferred tax assets as a result of changes in Ryerson’s overall profitability, changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in tax legislation, the results of the examination of previously filed tax returns, and continuing assessment of the Company’s tax exposures. In particular, although the passage of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the U.S. tax rate to 21%, our future earnings could be negatively impacted by changes in tax legislation including changing tax rates and tax base such as limiting, phasing-out, or eliminating deductions or tax credits, changing rules for earnings repatriations, and changing other tax laws in the U.S. or other countries.

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We are subject to litigation that could strain our resources and distract management.

From time to time, we are involved in a variety of claims, lawsuits, and other disputes arising in the ordinary course of business. These suits concern issues including product liability, contract disputes, employee-related matters, and personal injury matters. It is not feasible to predict the outcome of all pending suits and claims, and the ultimate resolution of these matters as well as future lawsuits that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, or reputation.

We may face product liability claims that are costly and create adverse publicity.

If any of the products that we sell cause harm to any of our customers, we could be exposed to product liability lawsuits. If we were found liable under product liability claims, we could be required to pay substantial monetary damages. Further, even if we successfully defended ourselves against this type of claim, we could be forced to spend a substantial amount of money in litigation expenses, our management could be required to spend valuable time in the defense against these claims, and our reputation could suffer.

Changes in the method of determining the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), or the replacement of LIBOR with an alternative reference rate, may adversely affect interest rates on our outstanding variable rate indebtedness.

Certain of our variable rate debt, including the Ryerson Credit Facility, currently uses LIBOR as a benchmark for establishing certain interest rates. LIBOR is the subject of recent proposals for reform and on July 27, 2017, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority announced that it intends to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has begun publishing a Secured Overnight Funding Rate (“SOFR”), which is intended to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR, and central banks in several other jurisdictions have also announced plans for alternative reference rates for other currencies. These reforms may cause LIBOR to perform differently than in the past or to disappear entirely. The consequences of these developments with respect to LIBOR cannot be entirely predicted but may result in an increase in the interest cost of our variable rate indebtedness. In the future, we may need to renegotiate our outstanding indebtedness or incur other indebtedness, and the phase-out of LIBOR may negatively impact the terms of such indebtedness. In addition, the overall financial market may be disrupted as a result of the phase-out or replacement of LIBOR. Disruption in the financial market could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, and liquidity.

RISKS RELATED TO OWNERSHIP OF OUR COMMON STOCK

The market price for our common stock may be volatile.

Historically, there has been volatility in the market price for our common stock. Furthermore, the market price of our common stock could fluctuate substantially in the future in response to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the risk factors described herein. Examples include:

• changes in commodity prices, especially metals;

• sales of our common stock by large or controlling shareholders;

• the amount of shares acquired for short-term investments;

In the past, the stock market has experienced significant price and volume fluctuations. This volatility has had a significant effect on the market prices of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to their specific operating performance. These factors may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock, regardless of actual operating performance.

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In addition, stock markets from time to time experience extreme price and volume fluctuations that may be unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies. In the past, some shareholders have brought securities class action lawsuits against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. In the future we may be the target of similar litigation. Securities litigation, regardless of whether our defense is ultimately successful, could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources.

We have not paid cash dividends since our initial public offering in 2014 and any future dividend payments are at the discretion of our Board of Directors.

We have not declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock or any other equity security since our initial public offering in 2014. The amounts that may be available to us to pay cash dividends are restricted under our debt agreements. Any payment of cash dividends on our common stock in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon our results of operations, earnings, capital requirements, financial condition, future prospects, contractual restrictions, and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors. Therefore, you should not rely on dividend income from shares of our common stock. For more information, see “Dividend Policy.” Your only opportunity to achieve a return on your investment in us may be if the market price of our common stock appreciates and you sell your shares at a profit, but there is no guarantee that the market price for our common stock will ever exceed the price that you pay for our common stock.

Our corporate documents and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of the Company.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our Board of Directors. These provisions:

These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay, or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for our stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire.

Any issuance of preferred stock could make it difficult for another company to acquire us or could otherwise adversely affect holders of our common stock, which could depress the price of our common stock.

Our Board of Directors will have the authority to issue preferred stock and to determine the preferences, limitations, and relative rights of shares of preferred stock and to fix the number of shares constituting any series and the designation of such series, without any further vote or action by our stockholders. Our preferred stock could be issued with voting, liquidation, dividend, and other rights superior to the rights of our common stock. The potential issuance of preferred stock may delay or prevent a change in control of us, discouraging bids for our common stock at a premium over the market price, and adversely affect the market price and the voting and other rights of the holders of our common stock.

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RISKS RELATED TO OUR CAPITAL STRUCTURE

We have a substantial amount of indebtedness, which could adversely affect our financial position and prevent us from fulfilling our financial obligations.

We currently have a substantial amount of indebtedness. As of December 31, 2020, our total indebtedness was approximately $740.0 million and we had approximately $277 million of unused capacity under the Ryerson Credit Facility. Our substantial indebtedness may:

We may also incur additional indebtedness in the future. The terms of the Ryerson Credit Facility and the indenture governing our outstanding notes restrict but do not prohibit us from doing so, and the indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. If new indebtedness is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we now face could intensify.

The covenants in the Ryerson Credit Facility and the indenture governing our notes impose, and covenants contained in agreements governing indebtedness that we incur in the future may impose, restrictions that may limit our operating and financial flexibility.

The Ryerson Credit Facility and the indenture governing our outstanding notes contain a number of significant restrictions and covenants that limit our ability and the ability of our restricted subsidiaries, including JT Ryerson, to:

• incur additional debt;

• pay dividends on our capital stock or repurchase our capital stock;

• make certain investments or other restricted payments;

• create liens or use assets as security in other transactions;

• engage in transactions with affiliates.

The terms of the Ryerson Credit Facility require that, in the event availability under the facility declines to a certain level, we maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio at the end of each fiscal quarter. Total credit availability is limited by the amount of eligible accounts receivable, inventory, and qualified cash pledged as collateral under the agreement insofar as the Company is subject to a borrowing base comprised of the aggregate of these three amounts, less applicable reserves. As of December 31, 2020, total credit availability was $277 million. See discussion regarding the Ryerson Credit Facility in Note 10: “Debt” of Part II, Item 8 “Financial Statements and the Supplemental Data” as well as the discussion within the “Liquidity and Capital Resources” section of Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Additionally, subject to certain exceptions, the indenture governing the outstanding notes restricts JT Ryerson’s ability to pay Ryerson Holding dividends. Our future indebtedness may contain covenants more restrictive in certain respects than the restrictions contained in the Ryerson Credit Facility and the indenture governing the notes. Operating results below current levels or other adverse factors, including a significant increase in interest rates, could result in our being unable to comply with financial covenants that are contained in the Ryerson Credit Facility or that may be contained in any future indebtedness. In addition, complying with these covenants may also cause us to take actions that are not favorable to holders of our notes and may make it more difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy and compete against companies that are not subject to such restrictions.

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We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness.

We are highly leveraged. Our ability to make payments on our indebtedness depends on our ability to generate cash in the future. Our outstanding notes, the Ryerson Credit Facility, and our other outstanding indebtedness are expected to account for significant cash interest expenses. Accordingly, we will have to generate significant cash flows from operations to meet our debt service requirements. If we do not generate sufficient cash flow to meet our debt service and working capital requirements, we may be required to sell assets, seek additional capital, reduce capital expenditures, restructure or refinance all or a portion of our existing indebtedness, or seek additional financing. Moreover, insufficient cash flow may make it more difficult for us to obtain financing on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all.

The right to receive payment on the 2028 Notes and the guarantees will be subordinated to the liabilities of non-guarantor subsidiaries.

The notes and related guarantees are structurally subordinated to all indebtedness of our subsidiaries that are non-guarantors of the 2028 Senior Secured Notes (the “2028 Notes”). While the indenture governing the 2028 Notes limits the indebtedness and activities of these non-guarantor subsidiaries, holders of indebtedness of, and trade creditors of, non-guarantor subsidiaries, including lenders under bank financing agreements, are entitled to payments of their claims from the assets of such subsidiaries before those assets are made available for distribution to any guarantor, as direct or indirect shareholder. While the non-guarantor subsidiaries have agreed under the indenture not to pledge or encumber their assets (other than with respect to permitted liens) without equally and ratably securing the notes, they will not guarantee the 2028 Notes notwithstanding any such pledge or encumbrance in favor of the 2028 Notes.

The non-guarantor subsidiaries represented, respectively, 10.9% and 52.5% of our net sales and EBITDA for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. In addition, these non-guarantor subsidiaries represented respectively, 12.2% and 7.7% of our assets and liabilities, as of December 31, 2020.

Accordingly, in the event that any of the non-guarantor subsidiaries or joint venture entities become insolvent, liquidates, or otherwise reorganizes:

Because a portion of our indebtedness bears interest at rates that fluctuate with changes in certain prevailing short-term interest rates, we are vulnerable to interest rate increases.

A portion of our indebtedness, including the Ryerson Credit Facility, bears interest at rates that fluctuate with changes in certain short-term prevailing interest rates. As of December 31, 2020, we had $285.0 million of outstanding borrowings under the Ryerson Credit Facility, with an additional $277 million available for borrowing under such facility. Assuming a consistent level of debt through-out 2020, a 100 basis point change in the interest rate on our floating rate debt effective from the beginning of the year would increase or decrease our interest expense under the Ryerson Credit Facility by approximately $2.5 million on an annual basis. If interest rates increase dramatically, we could be unable to service our debt, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows.

Changes in our credit ratings and outlook may reduce access to capital and increase borrowing costs.

Our credit ratings are based on a number of factors, including our financial strength and factors outside of our control, such as conditions affecting our industry generally or the introduction of new rating practices and methodologies. We cannot provide assurances that our current credit ratings will remain in effect or that the ratings will not be lowered, suspended, or withdrawn entirely by the rating agencies. If rating agencies lower, suspend, or withdraw the ratings, the market price or marketability of our securities may be adversely affected. In addition, any negative change in ratings could make it more difficult for us to raise capital on acceptable terms, impact the ability to obtain adequate financing, and result in higher interest costs for our existing credit facilities, including the Ryerson Credit Facility, or on future financings.

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RISKS RELATED TO OUR STOCKHOLDER BASE

Platinum owns a significant percentage of our stock and has the right to nominate a majority of the members of the Corporation’s board and will be able to exert control over matters subject to stockholder approval.

Platinum owns approximately 21,037,500 shares of our common stock, which is approximately 55% of our issued and outstanding common stock. Therefore, Platinum may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, Platinum may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that our stockholders may believe are in their best interest as stockholders.

The Company is party to an investor rights agreement (the “Investor Rights Agreement”) with certain affiliates of Platinum which provides, among other things, that for so long as Platinum collectively beneficially owns (i) at least 30% of the voting power of the outstanding capital stock of the Company, Platinum will have the right to nominate for election to the board of directors of the Company no fewer than that number of directors that would constitute a majority of the number of directors if there were no vacancies on the board, (ii) at least 15% but less than 30% of the voting power of the outstanding capital stock of the Company, Platinum will have the right to nominate two directors, and (iii) at least 5% but less than 15% of the voting power of the outstanding capital stock of the Company, Platinum will have the right to nominate one director. The agreement also provides that if the size of the board of directors is increased or decreased at any time, Platinum’s nomination rights will be proportionately increased or decreased, respectively, rounded up to the nearest whole number. As a result of Platinum’s ownership of a majority of the Company’s outstanding capital stock as well its board nomination rights pursuant to the Investor Rights Agreement, Platinum may significantly influence or effectively control our policies and operations, including the appointment of management, future issuances of our common stock or other securities, and the payment of dividends. In addition, Platinum has significant control over our decisions to enter into any other corporate transaction.

The interests of Platinum may not in all cases be aligned with the interests of the other holders of our common stock. For example, a sale of a substantial number of shares of stock in the future by Platinum could cause our stock price to decline. Further, Platinum could cause us to make acquisitions that increase the amount of the indebtedness that is secured or senior to the Company’s existing debt or sell revenue-generating assets, impairing our ability to make payments under such debt. Additionally, Platinum is in the business of making investments in companies and may from time to time acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. Accordingly, Platinum may also pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. In addition, Platinum may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures, and other transactions that, in their judgment, could enhance their equity investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to holders of our common stock.

We are exempt from certain corporate governance requirements because we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, our stockholders do not have the protections afforded by these corporate governance requirements.

Because Platinum controls more than 50% of the voting power of our common stock, we are considered to be a “controlled company” for purposes of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) listing requirements. Under the NYSE rules, a “controlled company” may elect not to comply with certain NYSE corporate governance requirements, including (1) the requirement that a majority of our Board of Directors consist of independent directors, (2) the requirement that the nominating and corporate governance committee of our Board of Directors be composed entirely of independent directors, (3) the requirement that the compensation committee of our Board of Directors be composed entirely of independent directors, and (4) the requirement for an annual performance evaluation of the nomination/corporate governance and compensation committees. Given that Platinum controls a majority of the voting power of our common stock, we are permitted, and have elected, to opt out of compliance with certain NYSE corporate governance requirements. Accordingly, holders of our common stock do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.

Not applicable.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.

As of December 31, 2020, the Company’s facilities are set forth below:

Operations in the United States

JT Ryerson maintains 80 operational facilities, including 5 locations that are dedicated to administration services. All of our metals service center facilities are in good condition and are adequate for JT Ryerson’s existing operations. Approximately 50% of

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these facilities are leased. The lease terms expire at various times through 2032. JT Ryerson’s properties and facilities are adequate to serve its present and anticipated needs.

Location Own/Lease

Birmingham, AL Owned

Mobile, AL Owned

Fort Smith, AR Owned

Hickman, AR** Leased

Little Rock, AR** Leased

Phoenix, AZ Leased

Dos Palos, CA Leased

Fresno, CA Leased

Livermore, CA Leased

Vernon, CA Owned

Commerce City, CO Owned

South Windsor, CT Leased/Vacated

Wilmington, DE Owned

Jacksonville, FL Owned

Tampa Bay, FL Owned

Lavonia, GA Leased

Norcross, GA Leased/Vacated

Norcross, GA** Owned

Des Moines, IA Owned

Eldridge, IA** Leased

Marshalltown, IA Owned

Chicago, IL (Headquarters)* Leased

Chicago, IL Owned

Chicago, IL Leased/Vacated

Chicago, IL Leased/Vacated

Dekalb, IL Leased

Elgin, IL Leased

Lisle, IL* Leased

Burns Harbor, IN Owned

Indianapolis, IN Owned

Portage, IN** Leased

Wichita, KS Leased

Shelbyville, KY** Owned

Shreveport, LA Owned

St. Rose, LA Owned

Devens, MA Owned

Grand Rapids, MI* Leased

Lansing, MI Leased

Minneapolis, MN Owned

Plymouth, MN Owned

Maryland Heights, MO Leased

North Kansas City, MO Owned

Jackson, MS Owned

Charlotte, NC** Owned

Charlotte, NC Leased

Greensboro, NC (2) Owned

Pikeville, NC Leased

Youngsville, NC Leased

Omaha, NE Owned

Lancaster, NY Leased

Cincinnati, OH Owned

Columbus, OH Leased

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Hamilton, OH* Leased

Hilliard, OH Leased

Streetsboro, OH Leased

Strongsville, OH Leased

Oklahoma City, OK Owned

Tulsa, OK Owned

Tigard, OR Leased

Ambridge, PA** Owned

Fairless Hills, PA Leased

Charleston, SC** Owned

Greenville, SC Owned

Wellford, SC Owned

Chattanooga, TN Owned/Vacated

Chattanooga, TN Leased

Gallatin, TN Leased

Knoxville, TN* Leased

Memphis, TN Owned

Dallas, TX Leased

El Paso, TX Leased

Houston, TX Owned

Houston, TX (2) Leased

McAllen, TX Leased

Odessa, TX Leased/Vacated

Salt Lake City, UT Leased

Pounding Mill, VA Leased

Richmond, VA Owned

Renton, WA Owned

Spokane, WA Leased

Green Bay, WI Owned

Green Bay, WI Leased

Hammond, WI Leased

Milwaukee, WI Owned

* Office space only

** Processing centers

Operations in Canada

Ryerson Canada, a wholly-owned indirect Canadian subsidiary of Ryerson Holding, has nine operational facilities in Canada. All of the metals service center facilities are in good condition and are adequate for Ryerson Canada’s existing and anticipated operations. Four facilities are leased. The lease terms expire at various times through 2025.

Location Own/Lease

Calgary, AB Owned

Edmonton, AB Owned

Richmond, BC Owned

Winnipeg, MB Owned

Winnipeg, MB Leased

Saint John, NB Owned

Brampton, ON Leased

Burlington, ON (includes Canadian Headquarters) Leased

Vaudreuil, QC Leased

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Operations in China

Ryerson China, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Ryerson Holding, has four service and processing centers in China, in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Kunshan, and Tianjin, performing coil processing, sheet metal fabrication, and plate processing. Ryerson China’s headquarters office building is located in Kunshan. We own all of our China facilities and have purchased the related land use rights. All of the facilities are in good condition and are adequate for Ryerson China’s existing and anticipated operations.

Operations in Mexico

Ryerson Mexico, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Ryerson Holding, has four facilities in Mexico. We have service centers in Monterrey, Tijuana, Hermosillo, and Queretaro, all of which are leased. The facilities are in good condition and are adequate for Ryerson Mexico’s existing and anticipated operations.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

In October 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) named JT Ryerson as one of more than 100 businesses that may be a potentially responsible party (“PRP”) for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site (the “PHS Site”). On January 6, 2017, the EPA issued an initial Record of Decision (“ROD”) regarding the site. The ROD includes a combination of dredging,capping, and enhanced natural recovery that would take approximately thirteen years to construct plus additional time for monitored natural recovery, at an estimated present value cost of $1.05 billion. In a change from its prior stance, at a meeting on December 4, 2018, the EPA indicated that it expected PRPs to submit a plan during 2019 to start remediation of the river and harbor per the original ROD within the next two to three years. The EPA also indicated that it expected allocation of amounts among the parties to be determined in the same two to three-year time frame. The EPA invited certain PRPs to a May 2, 2019 meeting to discuss starting the remedial design process. The EPA did not include JT Ryerson in those meetings.

On December 9, 2019, a PRP group met with Administrator Wheeler, the head of the EPA, to discuss updating the ROD as recent testing indicates that the levels of contamination have “drastically improved” and, thus, remediation should be much less drastic than that in the current ROD. Administrator Wheeler directed regional EPA staff to again review the ROD before moving forward with any enforcement action. On March 3, 2020, the regional EPA issued a letter to the PRP group, essentially rejecting the request but noting that new data would be used for fine-tuning the implementation of the remedy and to that extent could result in less active remediation.

The EPA indicated in a January 2, 2020 “progress update” letter that it is negotiating with certain parties to perform remedial design work at five unspecified areas which comprise 52% of the overall acreage subject to remediation. In late March 2020, the EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order for Remedial Design to Schnitzer Steel, ordering it to develop a remedial design plan for the river area which includes the area where our former facilities were. Schnitzer filed a petition for relief from the remedy required by the ROD as well as disclosures required by the EPA. Schnitzer’s 2020 disclosures made no mention of JT Ryerson and acknowledged that Schnitzer is the legal successor to the prior operator in the designated area.

The EPA has stated that it is willing to consider de minimis settlements, which JT Ryerson is trying to pursue; however, the EPA has not begun meeting with any of the smaller parties who have requested de minimis or de micromis status, stating that it does not have sufficient information to determine whether any parties meet such criteria and does not intend to begin those considerations until after the remedial design work is completed. It has met with selected parties that we believe to be larger targets. JT Ryerson has not been invited to meet with the EPA. As a result of the ongoing negotiations and filings over the ROD and the EPA’s decision not to meet with smaller parties, we cannot determine how allocations will be made and whether a de minimus settlement can be reached with the EPA.

As the EPA has not yet allocated responsibility for the contamination among the potentially responsible parties, including JT Ryerson, we do not currently have sufficient information available to us to determine whether the ROD will be executed as currently stated, whether and to what extent JT Ryerson may be held responsible for any of the identified contamination, and how much (if any) of the final plan’s costs might ultimately be allocated to JT Ryerson. Therefore, management cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter or estimate a range of potential loss at this time.

There are various other claims and pending actions against the Company. The amount of liability, if any, for those claims and actions as of December 31, 2020 is not determinable but, in the opinion of management, such liability, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. We maintain liability insurance coverage to assist in protecting our assets from losses arising from or related to activities associated with business operations.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Market Information for Common Stock

Our common stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RYI” and was first traded on August 13, 2014.

Holders

As of February 24, 2021, there were 2 stockholders of record of our common stock. Because many shares of our common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of beneficial stockholders represented by these record holders.

Dividend Policy

We have not declared any cash dividends for the past two years. Any payment of cash dividends on our common stock in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon our results of operations, earnings, capital requirements, financial condition, future prospects, contractual restrictions, including under the Ryerson Credit Facility and our outstanding notes, and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors.

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Performance Graph

The following graph and accompanying table show the cumulative total return to stockholders of Ryerson Holding’s common stock relative to the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 and a metals service center peer group (the “Peer Group”). The graph tracks the performance of a $100 investment in each of the indices (with reinvestment of dividends) from December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2020. While there is no nationally-recognized industry index consisting of metals service center companies, Ryerson considers its Peer Group to consist of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. and Olympic Steel Inc., each of which has securities listed for trading on the NASDAQ; and Russel Metals Inc., which has securities listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The returns of each member of the Peer Group are weighted according to that member’s stock market capitalization. The stock price performance included in this graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

Comparison of 5 Year Cumulative Total Return

Assumes Initial Investment of $100

This graph is not deemed to be “filed” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“the Exchange Act”), and should not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our prior or subsequent filings under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Exchange Act.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities and Use of Proceeds

None.

ITEM 6. RESERVED.

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The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of Ryerson Holding Corporation and Subsidiaries and the Notes thereto in Item 8. “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See the section entitled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results and the timing of selected events could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those discussed in Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Form 10-K.

This section of this Form 10-K generally discusses 2020 and 2019 items and year-over-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019. Discussions of 2018 items and year-over-year comparisons between 2019 and 2018 that are not included in this Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

Overview

Business

Ryerson Holding Corporation (“Ryerson Holding”), a Delaware corporation, is the parent company of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, Inc. (“JT Ryerson”), a Delaware corporation. Affiliates of Platinum Equity, LLC (“Platinum”) own approximately 21,037,500 shares of our common stock, which is approximately 55% of our issued and outstanding common stock.

We are a leading metals service center, value-added processor, and distributor of industrial metals with operations in the United States through JT Ryerson, in Canada through our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Ryerson Canada, Inc., a Canadian corporation (“Ryerson Canada”), and in Mexico through our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Ryerson Metals de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V., a Mexican corporation (“Ryerson Mexico”). In addition to our North American operations, we conduct processing and distribution operations in China through an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Ryerson China Limited (“Ryerson China”), a Chinese limited liability company. Unless the context indicates otherwise, Ryerson Holding, JT Ryerson, Ryerson Canada, Ryerson China, and Ryerson Mexico, together with their subsidiaries, are collectively referred to herein as “Ryerson,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company.”

Industry and Operating Trends

We are a metals service center providing value-added processing and distribution of industrial metals with operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China. We purchase large quantities of metal products from primary producers and sell these materials in smaller quantities to a wide variety of metals-consuming industries. We carry a full line of nearly 75,000 products in stainless steel, aluminum, carbon steel, and alloy steels and a limited line of nickel and red metals in various shapes and forms. In addition to our metals products, we offer numerous value-added processing and fabrication services, and more than 75% of the metals products we sell are processed by us by bending, beveling, blanking, blasting, burning, cutting-to-length, drilling, embossing, flattening, forming, grinding, laser cutting, machining, notching, painting, perforating, polishing, punching, rolling, sawing, scribing, shearing, slitting, stamping, tapping, threading, welding, or other techniques to process materials to a specified thickness, length, width, shape, and surface quality pursuant to specific customer orders.

Similar to other metals service centers, we maintain substantial inventories of metals to accommodate the short lead times and just-in-time delivery requirements of our customers. Accordingly, we purchase metals to maintain our inventory at levels that we believe to be appropriate to satisfy the anticipated needs of our customers based upon customer forecasts, historic buying practices, supply agreements with customers, mill lead times, and market conditions. Our commitments to purchase metals are generally at prevailing market prices in effect at the time we place our orders. At the request of our customers, we have entered into swaps in order to mitigate our customers’ risk of volatility in the price of metals and we have entered into metals hedges to mitigate our own risk of volatility in the price of metals. We have no long-term, fixed-price metals purchase contracts. When metals prices decline, customer demands for lower prices and our competitors’ responses to those demands could result in lower sale prices and, consequently, lower gross profits and earnings as we sell existing metals inventory. When metals prices increase, competitive conditions will influence how much of the price increase we may pass on to our customers.

The metals service center industry is cyclical and volatile in both demand and pricing, and difficult to predict. In 2020, Ryerson experienced both weaker pricing and demand compared to 2019, with shipments 15.6% lower and average selling prices 8.7% lower, affected by the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) in North America and China and end-market weakness in the U.S. prior to the start of the pandemic. Changes in average selling prices are primarily driven by commodity metals prices, which

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impact Ryerson’s selling prices over the subsequent three to six-month period. During the first quarter of 2021, mill lead times continue to extend. Although mill capacity utilization has increased to nearly Q1 2020 levels, many mills are recovering from unplanned outages in Q4 2020 and supply is likely to remain tight in the near future. In the meantime, Ryerson will continue to rely on the support of its long-term supply chain partners and leverage its North American interconnected network of services centers to react and respond to customer requirements.

In the second half of 2020, indicators in the key steel industry end markets that reported weakness as demand conditions were impacted by temporary customer closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic began to improve and, in some cases, inflect. This is evidenced by the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (“PMI”), which reported strength in the last seven months of the year with readings above 50%, indicating general expansion in factory activity. This strength has continued into 2021 with a January reading of 58.7. However, while PMI reports an increase in month-over-month activity, U.S. Industrial Production, while improved from historically low levels reported in April and May of 2020, reported contraction through the end of 2020. This indicates that conditions have improved recently, but are still well below year-ago levels.

According to the Metal Service Center Institute, North American service center volumes declined by 10.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. On a North American basis, we experienced demand contraction more severe than the industry, with tons sold down by 17.0% over the same period. Demand softness was experienced across all of Ryerson’s end-markets, but most significantly in oil and gas, commercial ground transportation, and food processing and agricultural equipment sectors on a year-over-year basis. When customer demand falls, our operations typically generate countercyclical cash flow as our working capital needs decrease.

COVID-19

The global outbreak of COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and a national emergency by the U.S. government in March 2020 and has negatively affected the U.S. and global economies, disrupted global supply chains, resulted in significant travel and transport restrictions, mandated closures and stay-at-home orders, and created significant disruption of the financial markets. As of the date of this filing, COVID-19 continues to be a substantial risk factor for business operations and the Company continues to monitor and address these risks and uncertainties as conditions develop.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryerson implemented several policies and procedures to protect the health and welfare of our employees first and foremost, while operating as an essential business and maintaining our liquidity.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we communicated and enforced social distancing practices by alternating employee shifts, eliminating congregation, suspending non-essential travel, and implementing work from home arrangements for those that could work remotely. We also mobilized a task force and engaged our communications team to establish open lines of communications for our employees to ensure that all members of the Ryerson team are informed and supported throughout the pandemic.

Even as the pandemic continues into the beginning of 2021, we remain resilient and committed to protecting our workforce. Led by our dedicated COVID-19 response team, we continue to follow CDC and other relevant governmental guidance appropriate for our business, carefully monitor COVID-19 data in the areas in which we operate, and strive to be safe and nimble in executing our internal response. While some of our locations are more likely to progress through our phased “back to normal business activity” approach more quickly than others, we remain committed to operating our business under COVID-19 safety policies until we are certain that related risks have subsided. To support the sustainability of current circumstances, we are supporting our workforce by reinforcing the importance of mental health and promoting the use of existing benefits such as prescription delivery and telemedicine. Further, we are encouraging our workforce to receive the flu vaccine and, in some locations, we are providing the opportunity to receive the flu vaccine on-site. Additionally, we are encouraging our workforce to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available. Our workforce in our warehouse facilities is classified as group 1b, as described by the CDC, as essential workers, and in many jurisdictions are now eligible to take the vaccine when supply is available.

The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration and spread of the pandemic, vaccine rollouts, and related actions taken by government officials to prevent disease spread, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. Certain of our facilities have experienced temporary work disruptions as a result of COVID-19, but we have generally continued to operate during stay-at-home mandates due to our business being deemed essential by state and local government authorities. While the majority of our customers that announced temporary closures have at this time resumed operations, our business and the business of our customers continues to be impacted by economic pressures and the ultimate impact of COVID-19 remains uncertain.

Furthermore, we deployed a dedicated COVID-19 team to closely monitor all critical areas daily including cash positioning and credit line availability and projections as well as our debt covenant requirements and working capital needs. We continue to actively manage relationships with our customers and vendors to ensure that we balance our receivables and payables cycles. Examples of

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specific actions taken in response to COVID-19 include increased focus on working capital management with targeted inventory reductions, receivables risk assessment, limiting discretionary spending, temporarily furloughing employees or reducing work hours, reducing executive and salaried employee pay, delaying salary increases, eliminating non-essential travel, delaying or reducing hiring activities, deferring certain discretionary capital expenditures, payroll tax and pension contribution deferrals, and accelerating Alternative Minimum Tax credit refunds as provided for under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“The CARES Act”). We intend to continue to assess the effect of ongoing government guidance related to COVID-19 that may be issued and intend to take advantage of opportunities that support our balance sheet. With respect to liquidity, we took the actions listed above to bolster our financial condition and have contingency plans in place to reduce costs while supporting business operations. During the fourth quarter, Ryerson restored employee salaries to their previous levels, brought back furloughed employees, and increased work hours to service strengthening business. The Company will also resume limited hiring activities. Ryerson continues to closely monitor its liquidity position as the economy begins to improve.

2020 Performance Highlights

These key metrics illustrate Ryerson’s financial performance for the full year 2020 compared to 2019:

Total Revenues Gross Margin Net Loss Attributable to Ryerson

23% decrease 50bps decrease $148M decrease

Diluted EPS Diluted Adj. EPS Cash from Operating Activities

$3.90 decrease $1.87 decrease $85M increase

Compared to 2019, Ryerson’s revenues decreased by 23% as tons shipped decreased by 15.6% and average selling prices decreased by 8.7%, affected by pandemic induced demand shocks and commodity price deflation. However, both pricing and demand environments improved as the year progressed, leading to fourth quarter 2020 volume and pricing growth of 0.6% and 2.0%, respectively, compared to the third quarter of 2020. Gross margin decreased 50 bps from 2019 due to a $57 million reduction in LIFO income during the year caused by falling costs in inventory, offset by impacts of significantly reduced inventory levels and selling from higher costed LIFO layers as the Company lowered inventory levels in line with demand. Warehousing, delivery, selling, general, and administrative expenses for 2020 decreased by $82.5 million, or 13.0%, compared to 2019 primarily due to lower salaries and wages due to workforce and compensation reductions of $36.4 million in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. Net loss attributable to Ryerson Holding Corporation was $65.8 million, or a loss of $1.73 per diluted share, in 2020 compared to $82.4 million of net income attributable to Ryerson Holding Corporation, or $2.17 per diluted share, for 2019.

To provide greater insight into the Company’s 2020 operating trends apart from the year’s one-time transactions, Ryerson provides adjusted net income (loss) and diluted adjusted earnings (loss) per share figures, which are not U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) financial measures, to compliment the reported GAAP net income (loss) and diluted earnings (loss) per share figures. Management uses these metrics to assess year over year performance excluding non-recurring transactions. Adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per share do not represent, and should not be used as a substitute for, net income or earnings per share determined in accordance with GAAP. Illustrated in the below table, the 2020 net loss attributable to Ryerson of $65.8 million includes $17.7 million of expenses largely related to the redemption price paid to creditors as well as unamortized debt issuance costs written off related to the refinance of the 11.0% senior secured notes due 2022 (“2022 Notes”) as well as the redemption of $50.0 million of the 8.50% senior secured notes due 2028 (the “2028 Notes”) completed in the fourth quarter. It also includes $64.6 million of nonrecurring pension settlement expenses driven by the third quarter partial annuitization of our pension liabilities and a lump sum settlement offering in the fourth quarter. See “Pension Funding” discussion below for further details on these transactions. After adjusting for these non-core business transactions, the related benefit for income taxes, and $2.2 million of restructuring expenses, the adjusted net loss attributable to Ryerson for 2020 is $3.1 million, a decrease of $71.0 million compared to the prior year’s adjusted net income attributable to Ryerson of $67.9 million which included adjustments for a gain on sale of assets

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related to the fourth quarter 2019 sale and leaseback transaction, an insurance settlement gain, restructuring, loss on retirement of debt, and related income taxes.

(Dollars and shares in millions, except per share data) 2020 2019

Net income (loss) attributable to Ryerson Holding Corporation $ (65.8) $ 82.4

Gain on sale of assets — (20.6)

Gain on insurance settlement — (1.5)

Restructuring and other charges 2.2 2.4

Loss on retirement of debt 17.7 0.2

Nonrecurring pension settlement charge 64.6 —

Provision (benefit) for income taxes (21.8) 5.0

Diluted earnings (loss) per share $ (1.73) $ 2.17

Diluted adjusted earnings (loss) per share (0.08) 1.79

Shares outstanding - diluted 38.0 38.0

Driven by successful working capital management throughout the year, Ryerson generated strong cash from operating activities in 2020 of $278 million, an increase of $85 million over the previous year.

As previously discussed, throughout 2020 in response to the COVID-19 market environment, Ryerson took early and decisive actions to protect the liquidity and recovery capacity of the organization. As a result of these actions, Ryerson ended 2020 with a strong global liquidity of $373 million, composed of $312 million of availability under the Ryerson Credit Facility and foreign debt facilities, and $61 million of cash and cash equivalents. The below bar chart illustrates Ryerson’s liquidity position compared to previous years. Total liquidity is not a GAAP financial measure. We believe that total liquidity provides additional information for measuring our ability to fund our operations. Total liquidity does not represent, and should not be used as a substitute for, net income or cash flows from operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and total liquidity is not necessarily an indication of whether cash flow will be sufficient to fund our cash requirements.

Ryerson’s 2020 Strategy Achievements

Ryerson’s market strategy focuses on providing excellent customer experiences consistently with speed at scale. Our culture is based on our trademarked “say yes, figure it out” mantra as we strive to grow volume and sustainably expand margins by increasing our fabrication business and improving our speed through our use of both tools and analytics.

Ryerson’s financial strategy includes a focus on generating strong cash from operating activities, enabled by industry-leading working capital management and a stronger through the cycle operating model to effectively decrease both net debt and fixed cash commitments. Throughout 2020, the Company made substantial progress on this strategy. In July, Ryerson successfully refinanced its

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2022 Notes and issued $500 million in 8.50% 2028 Notes. The reduced interest rate and principal amount is expected to save approximately $16 million in annual interest expenses. ​In the refinance, Ryerson also secured favorable redemption terms, which will allow the Company to reduce the outstanding principalamount by up to $100 million at 104% plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but not including the redemption date,with proceeds from a property sale and up to 10% of the original principalamount during each twelve-month period commencing on July 22, 2020 through August 1, 2023 at 103% plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but not including the redemption date.​ In October, Ryerson exercised the first of these options to redeem $50 million in outstanding Notes at a price of 103%, plus accrued and unpaid interest through, but not including the redemption date. This redemption is expected to provide Ryerson $4.3 million in additional annual interest rate savings. ​In November 2020, Ryerson completed an amendment and extension of its $1.0 billion revolving credit facility(asamended, the “Ryerson Credit Facility”). The amendment and five-year extension of the credit facility marked another important advancement in improving Ryerson’s balance sheet and cost of debt capital following the bond refinance.See Part II, Item 8 “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data”, Note 10: Debt for a full description of the 2028 Notes and redemption options, and the Ryerson Credit Facility.

Total debt was $740 million and $982 million as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Throughout the year, Ryerson reduced the outstanding balance on the Ryerson Credit Facility utilizing the cash flows generated by operating activities. Coupled with the reduction in outstanding notes principal achieved through open market repurchases, the July refinance, and October redemption, total debt decreased by $242 million in 2020 and net debt decreased in 2020 by $244 million compared to December 31, 2019. Net debt is not a GAAP financial measure. We believe that net debt provides a clearer perspective of the Company’s overall debt situation. Net debt should not be used as a substitute for total debt outstanding as determined in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of debt to net debt is provided with the “Liquidity and Capital Resources” discussion below.

As a result of the 2020 net debt reduction, cash interest payments in 2020 totaled $62 million, compared to $88 million in 2019. Pension and retiree medical contributions also decreased compared to the prior year as Ryerson has deferred $12 million of pension contributions to early 2021 as allowed under the CARES Act. Additionally, as part of Ryerson’s “dual mandated” response to COVID-19, the Company decreased its capital expenditure budget in 2020 from approximately $45 million to approximately $25 million, driving cash contributions to maintenance capital expenditures down to $15 million for the year. In all, fixed cash commitments totaled $88 million in 2020, significantly down from $142 million in the previous year and showing even more substantial improvement compared to 2014, the Company’s first year on the public market. Ryerson’s annual fixed cash commitments are illustrated in the below bar chart.

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Industry Developments

On March 1, 2018, the White House announced a 25% tariff on all imported steel products and 10% tariff on all imported aluminum products for an indefinite amount of time under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Subsequently, the White House announced steel quotas, in lieu of tariffs, with South Korea. On May 1, 2018, the White House further announced agreements-in-principle with Argentina, Australia, and Brazil for permanent exemptions from the tariffs in exchange for export quotas or voluntary export restraints, with the exception of Australia which has not agreed to quotas at the time of this report. In May 2019, steel tariffs put in place on Turkey in August of 2018 with the intention of offsetting the weakening Turkish Lira were revised down to 25% from 50%.

Further trade actions announced by the U.S. under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 imposed various levels of tariffs and duties on imported Chinese goods with China reciprocating in kind on American goods. Currently, effective as of February 14, 2020, the Phase one trade deal reduced U.S. duties from 15% to 7.5% on $120 billion worth of Chinese products while still leaving other tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products in place. Since the agreement, China has unveiled new tariff exemptions and the countries reaffirmed their phase one trade deal in early May 2020. However, negotiations with China are ongoing and subject to change based on the policies of the Biden administration. If these or other tariffs or duties expire or if others are relaxed or repealed, or if relatively higher U.S. metal prices make it attractive for foreign metal producers to export their products to the U.S., despite the presence of duties or tariffs, the resurgence of substantial imports of foreign steel could create downward pressure on U.S. metal prices which could have a material adverse effect on our potential earnings and future results of operations.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (“USMCA”), which is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), was ratified by all three countries as of March 13, 2020, and became effective on July 1, 2020. Ryerson expects that implementation of the USMCA will support demand for North American steel through strengthening of rules of origin for steel-intensive goods and will continue to provide tariff-free trade access in North American markets.

In August 2020, President Trump re-imposed a tariff of 10% on some aluminum goods imported from Canada, after having lifted the tariffs in May 2019. However, on September 15, 2020, the administration determined that the imports of Canadian aluminum would normalize, and based on this assumption, the administration decided to remove the 10% tariffs. Additionally, the import quota set for Brazil was lowered in September 2020 for shipments of semi-finished steel for the remainder of 2020. According to the Steel Manufacturers Association, the remaining quota for Brazilian semi-finished steel products has been lowered to 60,000 metric tons, down from 350,000 metric tons.

Further, on October 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued affirmative preliminary antidumping duty determinations on common alloy aluminum sheet from 18 countries, including Bahrain, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey. The alleged dumping margins range from single digits up through triple digits. The Department of Commerce will investigate whether or not common alloy aluminum sheet is being unfairly dumped or subsidized and whether or not the U.S. is being harmed by the imports of these countries. Preliminary determinations are to be made by the Department of Commerce on or before April 23, 2021.

Acquisitions

On April 2, 2018, we acquired Fanello Industries (“Fanello”), a privately-owned metal service company located in Lavonia, Georgia. Fanello is a processor and service provider that supplies blanking, stamping, laser cutting, bending, and machining metal solutions to a diverse group of industries in the Southeastern United States.

On July 2, 2018, JT Ryerson acquired Central Steel and Wire Company (“CS&W”). CS&W is a leading metal service center with locations across the Central and Eastern United States offering a wide selection of products and capabilities, with a commercial portfolio centered on bar, tube, plate, and steel products. Our combined commercial, operational, and processing strengths provide a broader and deeper array of products to our customers in the Midwest and Northeast United States. The fair value of the consideration totaled $163.5 million. Please refer to Note 2 — “Acquisitions” of Part II, Item 8 "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" for further information on our 2018 acquisition of CS&W.

Components of Results of Operations