Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURE ABOUT MARKET RISK
The Company’s major market risk exposures are changing interest rates, movements in foreign currency exchange rates and potential price volatility of commodities used by the Company in its manufacturing processes. The Company’s policy is to manage risk of exposure to interest rates through the use of a combination of fixed and floating rate debt as well as interest rate swaps. The Company employs foreign currency denominated debt and currency swaps which serve to partially offset the Company’s exposure on its net investments in subsidiaries denominated in foreign currencies. The Company’s policy generally is to hedge major foreign currency transaction exposures through foreign exchange forward contracts. These contracts are entered into with major financial institutions thereby minimizing the risk of credit loss. In order to limit the unanticipated earnings fluctuations from volatility in commodity prices, the Company selectively enters into commodity swaps to convert variable raw material costs to fixed costs. The Company does not hold or issue derivative financial instruments for speculative or trading purposes. The Company is subject to other foreign exchange market risk exposure in addition to the risks on its financial instruments, such as possible impacts on its pricing and production costs, which are difficult to reasonably predict, and have therefore not been included below.
Foreign Exchange Risk Management
The Company enters into derivative financial instruments to hedge the foreign exchange revaluation risk associated with recorded assets and liabilities that are denominated in a non-functional currency. The Company hedges various currencies, primarily in euros, Swedish kronor, Canadian dollars, British pounds, Swiss francs and Japanese yen. The gains and losses on these derivative transactions offset the gains and losses generated by the revaluation of the underlying non-functional currency balances.
The Company primarily uses forward foreign exchange contracts and cross currency basis swaps to hedge these risks. The Company uses a layered hedging program to hedge select anticipated foreign currency cash flows to reduce volatility in both cash flows and reported earnings of the consolidated Company. These cash flow hedges have maturities of six to 18 months and do not change the underlying long-term foreign currency exchange risk. The Company accounts for the forward foreign exchange contracts as cash flow hedges. The Company has numerous investments in foreign subsidiaries the most significant of which are denominated in euros, Swiss francs, Japanese yen and Swedish kronor. The net assets of these subsidiaries are exposed to volatility in currency exchange rates.
Currently, the Company uses both derivative and non-derivative financial instruments, including foreign currency denominated debt held at the parent company level and foreign exchange forward contracts to hedge some of this exposure. Translation gains and losses related to the net assets of the foreign subsidiaries are offset by gains and losses in the non-derivative and derivative financial instruments designated as hedges of net investment. At December 31, 2022, a 10% weakening of the U.S. dollar against all other currencies would decrease the net fair value associated with the forward foreign exchange contracts by approximately $42 million.
Interest Rate Risk Management
The Company enters into financial instruments, including derivatives, that expose the Company to market risk related to changes in interest rates. The Company uses a combination of financial instruments, including long-term and short-term financing, variable-rate commercial paper and derivative interest rate swaps to manage the interest rate mix of our total debt portfolio and related overall cost of borrowing.
At December 31, 2022, an increase of 1% in the interest rates on the variable interest rate instruments would decrease the Company's fair value associated with the derivative interest rate swaps by approximately $11 million.
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Consignment Arrangements
The Company holds on a consignment basis, from various financials institutions, the precious metals used in the production of precious metal dental alloy products. Under these consignment arrangements, the financial institutions own the precious metal, and, accordingly, the Company does not report this inventory on consignment as part of its inventory on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. The consignment agreements allow the Company to take ownership of the metal at approximately the same time customer orders are received and to closely match the price of the metal acquired to the price charged to the customer (i.e., the price charged to the customer is largely a pass through). These agreements are cancellable by either party at the end of each consignment period, which typically run for a period of one to nine months; however, because the Company typically has access to numerous financial institutions with excess capacity, consignment needs created by cancellations can be shifted among the other institutions
As precious metal prices fluctuate, the Company evaluates the impact of the precious metal price fluctuation on its target gross margins for precious metal dental alloy products and may revise the prices customers are charged for precious metal dental alloy products accordingly. While the Company does not separately invoice customers for the precious metal content of precious metal dental alloy products, the underlying precious metal content is the primary component of the cost and sales price of the precious metal dental alloy products. For practical purposes, if the precious metal prices go up or down by a small amount, the Company will not immediately modify prices, as long as the cost of precious metals embedded in the Company’s precious metal dental alloy price closely approximates the market price of the precious metal. If there is a significant change in the price of precious metals, the Company adjusts the price for the precious metal dental alloys, maintaining its margin on the products.
At December 31, 2022, the Company had approximately 31,000 troy ounces of precious metal, primarily gold, platinum, palladium and silver on consignment for periods of less than one year with a market value of $42 million. Under the terms of the consignment agreements, the Company also makes compensatory payments to the consignor banks based on a percentage of the value of the consigned precious metals inventory. At December 31, 2022, the average annual rate charged by the consignor banks was 2.6%. These compensatory payments are considered to be a cost of the metals purchased and are recorded as part of the cost of products sold.
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