Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We are exposed to precious metal and commodity price, interest rate, foreign exchange rate, and utility cost differences. While the degree of exposure varies from year to year, our methods and policies designed to manage these exposures have remained fairly consistent over time. Generally, we attempt to minimize the effects of these exposures on our pre-tax income and cash flows through the use of natural hedges, which include pricing strategies, borrowings denominated in the same terms as the exposed asset, off-balance sheet financing arrangements, and other methods. Where we cannot use a natural hedge, we may use derivative financial instruments to minimize the effects of these exposures when practical and cost efficient. The use of off-balance sheet financing arrangements and derivative financial instruments is subject to policies approved by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors with oversight provided by a group of senior financial managers at our corporate office.
Precious metals . We use gold and other precious metals in manufacturing various products. To reduce the exposure to market price changes, the majority of our precious metal requirements are maintained on a consigned inventory basis. We purchase the metal out of consignment from our suppliers when it is ready to ship to a customer as a finished product. Our purchase price forms the basis for the price charged to the customer for the precious metal content and, therefore, the current cost is matched to the selling price, and the price exposure is minimized.
We are charged a consignment fee by the financial institutions that own the precious metals. This fee is a function of the market price of the metal, the quantity of metal we have on hand, and the rate charged by the institution. Because of market forces and competition, the fee can only be charged to customers in a limited case-by-case basis. Should the market price of precious metals that we have on consignment increase by 20% from the prices on December 31, 2021, the additional pre-tax cost to us as a result of an increase in the consignment fee would be approximately $1.5 million on an annual basis. This calculation assumes no changes in the quantity of metal held on consignment or the underlying fee and that none of the additional fees are charged to customers.
To further limit price and financing rate exposures, under some circumstances, we will require customers to furnish their own metal for processing. Customers may also elect to provide their own material for us to process on a toll basis as opposed to purchasing our material.
The available capacity of our existing credit lines to consign precious metals is a function of the quantity and price of the metals on hand. As prices increase, a given quantity of metal will utilize a larger proportion of the existing credit lines. A significant prolonged increase in metal prices could result in our credit lines being fully utilized, and, absent securing additional credit line capacity from financial institutions, could require us to purchase precious metals rather than consign them, require customers to supply their own metal, and/or force us to turn down additional business opportunities. If we were in a significant precious metal ownership position, we might elect to use derivative financial instruments to hedge the potential price exposure. The cost to finance and potentially hedge the purchased inventory may also be higher than the consignment fee. The financial statement impact of the risk from rising metal prices impacting our credit availability cannot be estimated at the present time.
In certain circumstances, we may elect to fix the price of precious metals for a customer for a stated quantity over a specified period of time. In those cases, we may secure hedge contracts with terms that match the terms in the agreement with our customer so that the gain or loss on the contract with the customer due to subsequent movements in the precious metal price will generally be offset by a gain or loss on the hedge contract. At December 31, 2021, we did not have a material amount of such hedge contracts outstanding.
Copper. We also use copper in our production processes. When possible, fluctuations in the purchase price of copper are passed on to customers in the form of price adders or reductions. While over time our price exposure to copper is generally in balance, there can be a lag between the change in our cost and the pass-through to our customers, resulting in higher or lower margins in a given period. To mitigate this impact, we hedge a portion of this pricing risk.
We consign the majority of our copper inventory requirements. As with precious metals, the available capacity under the existing lines is a function of the quantity and price of metal on hand. Should the market cost of copper increase by 20% from the price as of December 31, 2021, the additional pre-tax cost to us as a result of an increase in the consignment fee would be approximately $0.4 million on an annual basis. This calculation assumes no changes in the quantity of inventory or the underlying fee and that none of the additional fees are charged to customers.
Lower of cost or net realizable value. In our manufacturing processes, we use various metals that are not widely used by others or actively traded and, therefore, there is no established efficient market for derivative financial instruments that could be
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used to effectively hedge the related price exposures. For certain applications, our pricing practice with respect to these metals is to establish the selling price based upon our cost to purchase the material, limiting our price exposure. However, the inventory carrying value may be exposed to market fluctuations. The inventory value is maintained at the lower of cost or net realizable value and if the market value were to drop below the carrying value, the inventory would have to be reduced accordingly and a charge recorded against cost of sales. This risk is mainly associated with long manufacturing lead-time items and with sludges and scrap materials, which generally have longer processing times to be refined or processed into a usable form for further manufacturing and are typically not covered by specific sales orders from customers. We did not record any material lower of cost or net realizable value charges in 2021, 2020, or 2019 as a result of market price fluctuations of metals in our inventories.
Interest rates. We are exposed to changes in interest rates on our cash balances and borrowings under our Credit Agreement. We may manage this interest rate exposure by maintaining a combination of short-term and long-term debt and variable and fixed rate instruments. We may also use interest rate swaps to fix the interest rate on variable rate obligations, as we deem appropriate. There were no interest rate derivatives outstanding as of December 31, 2021. Excess cash is typically invested in high quality instruments that mature in 90 days or less. Investments are made in compliance with policies approved by the Board of Directors.
Foreign currencies. Portions of our international operations sell products priced in foreign currencies, mainly the euro and yen, while the majority of these products’ costs are incurred in U.S. dollars. We are exposed to currency movements in that if the U.S. dollar strengthens, the translated value of the foreign currency sale and the resulting margin on that sale will be reduced. To minimize this exposure, we may purchase foreign currency forward contracts, options, and collars in compliance with approved policies. If the dollar strengthened, the decline in the translated value of our margins would be at least partially offset by a gain on the hedge contract. A decrease in the value of the dollar would result in larger margins but potentially a loss on the contract, depending upon the method used to hedge the exposure. Our current policy limits our hedges to 80% or less of the forecasted exposure.
The notional value of outstanding currency contracts was $93.7 million as of December 31, 2021. If the dollar weakened 10% against the currencies we have hedged from the December 31, 2021 exchange rates, the reduced gain and/or increased loss on the outstanding contracts as of December 31, 2021 would reduce 2021 pre-tax profits by approximately $1.1 million. This reduction in profits would be primarily offset with the foreign currency gain from the 10% movement in the exchange rates with effective hedges.
Utilities. The cost of natural gas and electricity used in our operations may vary from year to year and from season to season. We attempt to minimize these fluctuations and the exposure to higher costs by utilizing fixed price agreements of set durations, when deemed appropriate, obtaining competitive bidding between regional energy suppliers, and other methods.
Economy. We are exposed to changes in global economic conditions and the potential impact those changes may have on various facets of our business. We have a program in place to closely monitor the credit worthiness and financial condition of our key providers of financial services, including our bank group and insurance carriers, as well as the credit worthiness of customers and vendors, and have various contingency plans in place.
Our bank lines are established with a number of different banks in order to mitigate our exposure to any one financial institution. All of the banks in our bank group had credit in good standing as of December 31, 2021. The financial statement impact from the risk of one or more of the banks in our bank group reducing our lines due to their insolvency or other causes cannot be estimated at the present time.
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