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Accounting Policies (Policies) | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2020
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
Basis Of Accounting | The interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated and its subsidiaries. Unless the context requires otherwise, “Allegheny Technologies”, “ATI” and “the Company” refer to Allegheny Technologies Incorporated and its subsidiaries.These unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for interim financial information and with the instructions for Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and note disclosures required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In management’s opinion, all adjustments (which include only normal recurring adjustments) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified in order to conform with fiscal year 2020 presentation. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results of operations for these interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for any future period. The December 31, 2019 financial information has been derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements.
New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted | New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted In March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new optional accounting guidance for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for (or recognizing the effects of) reference rate reform on financial reporting. In response to concerns about structural risks of interbank offered rates (IBORs), and, particularly, the risk of cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), regulators in several jurisdictions around the world have undertaken reference rate reform initiatives to identify alternative reference rates that are more observable or transaction based and less susceptible to manipulation. The new accounting guidance provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying generally accepted accounting principles to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. The new accounting guidance applies only to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform. The expedients and exceptions provided by the amendments generally do not apply to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated after December 31, 2022. Management is continuing to evaluate the issue, and presently does not expect a transition away from LIBOR, primarily involving ATI’s domestic credit facility and an interest rate swap contract, to have any significant financial impact to ATI. In December 2019, the FASB issued new guidance to simplify the accounting for income taxes. The areas for simplification in the guidance involve the removal of certain exceptions to the general principals in the current guidance, including intraperiod allocation and the calculation of income taxes in an interim period when a year to date loss exceeds the anticipated loss for the year. The new guidance also simplifies the accounting for income taxes in the area of franchise taxes. This new guidance is effective for the Company in fiscal year 2021, with early adoption permitted. This guidance was early adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without significant impact to the consolidated financial statements. In August 2018, the FASB issued new disclosure guidance on fair value measurement. This new guidance modifies the disclosure requirements on fair value measurements, including removal and modifications of various current disclosures as well as some additional disclosure requirements for Level 3 fair value measurements. Some of these disclosure changes must be applied prospectively while others retrospectively depending on the requirement. This guidance was adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements other than disclosures. In June 2016, the FASB added a new impairment model (known as the current expected credit loss (CECL) model) that is based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. Under the new guidance, an entity recognizes as an allowance its estimate of expected credit losses. The CECL model applies to trade receivables, other receivables, contract assets and most debt instruments. The CECL model does not have a minimum threshold for recognition of impairment losses, and entities will need to measure expected credit losses on assets that have a low risk of loss. This guidance was adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without significant impact to the consolidated financial statements.
Pending Accounting Pronouncements | Pending Accounting Pronouncements In August 2020, the FASB issued new accounting guidance related to accounting for convertible instruments. Under this new guidance, embedded conversion features are no longer separated from the host contract for convertible instruments with conversion features that are not required to be accounted for as derivatives, or that do not result in substantial premiums accounted for as paid-in capital. As such, a convertible debt instrument will be accounted for as a single liability measured at its amortized cost, as long as no other features require bifurcation and recognition as derivatives. By removing those separation models, the reported interest rate of convertible debt instruments typically will be closer to the coupon interest rate. The new guidance also addresses how convertible instruments are accounted for in the diluted earnings per share calculation, requiring the if-converted method, and requires enhanced disclosures about the terms of convertible instruments and contracts in an entity’s own equity. This new guidance is effective for the Company in fiscal year 2022, with early adoption permitted. The Company expects to early adopt this new accounting guidance related to accounting for convertible instruments effective January 1, 2021 using the modified transition approach with the cumulative effect recognized as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings. This new guidance is applicable to the Company’s 3.5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 (the 2025 Convertible Notes) that were issued in June 2020, for which the embedded conversion option was required to be separately accounted for as a component of stockholders’ equity. As such, upon adoption on January 1, 2021, the $49.8 million value of the embedded conversion, which is net of allocated offering costs, that was classified in additional paid-in-capital in stockholders’ equity will be reclassified to long-term debt on the consolidated balance sheet and will no longer be amortized as additional non-cash interest expense over the term of the 2025 Convertible Notes using the effective interest method, resulting in reported interest expense for the 2025 Convertible Notes that is closer to the 3.5% cash coupon rate. The $4.6 million of non-cash interest expense recorded in fiscal year 2020 for the amortization of the portion of the 2025 Convertible Notes that was allocated to stockholders’ equity will be shown as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings on January 1, 2021 with an offset to long-term debt on the consolidated balance sheet. These expected effects of adoption exclude any effects related to deferred taxes. There will be no impact to the Company’s earnings per share calculation as it previously applied the if-converted method to the 2025 Convertible Notes given ATI’s flexibility to settle conversions of the 2025 Convertible Notes in cash, shares of ATI’s common stock or a combination thereof, at ATI’s election.
Inventory | Inventories are stated at the lower of cost (last-in, first-out (LIFO), first-in, first-out (FIFO), and average cost methods) or market. Most of the Company’s inventory is valued utilizing the LIFO costing methodology. Inventory of the Company’s non-U.S. operations is valued using average cost or FIFO methods. Due to deflationary impacts primarily related to raw materials, the carrying value of the Company’s inventory as valued on LIFO exceeds current replacement cost, and based on a lower of cost or market value analysis, the Company maintains net realizable value (NRV) inventory valuation reserves to adjust carrying value of LIFO inventory to current replacement cost.
Derivatives | As part of its risk management strategy, the Company, from time-to-time, utilizes derivative financial instruments to manage its exposure to changes in raw material prices, energy costs, foreign currencies, and interest rates. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the Company accounts for most of these contracts as hedges. The Company sometimes uses futures and swap contracts to manage exposure to changes in prices for forecasted purchases of raw materials, such as nickel, and natural gas. Under these contracts, which are generally accounted for as cash flow hedges, the price of the item being hedged is fixed at the time that the contract is entered into, and the Company is obligated to make or receive a payment equal to the net change between this fixed price and the market price at the date the contract matures. The majority of ATI’s products are sold utilizing raw material surcharges and index mechanisms. However, as of September 30, 2020, the Company had entered into financial hedging arrangements, primarily at the request of its customers, related to firm orders, for an aggregate notional amount of approximately 3 million pounds of nickel with hedge dates through 2023. The aggregate notional amount hedged is less than 5% of a single year’s estimated nickel raw material purchase requirements. At September 30, 2020, the outstanding financial derivatives used to hedge the Company’s exposure to energy cost volatility included natural gas cost hedges. At September 30, 2020, the Company hedged approximately 100% of the Company’s forecasted domestic requirements for natural gas for the remainder of 2020, approximately 70% for 2021 and approximately 25% for 2022. While the majority of the Company’s direct export sales are transacted in U.S. dollars, foreign currency exchange contracts are used, from time-to-time, to limit transactional exposure to changes in currency exchange rates for those transactions denominated in a non-U.S. currency. The Company sometimes purchases foreign currency forward contracts that permit it to sell specified amounts of foreign currencies expected to be received from its export sales for pre-established U.S. dollar amounts at specified dates. The forward contracts are denominated in the same foreign currencies in which export sales are denominated. These contracts are designated as hedges of the variability in cash flows of a portion of the forecasted future export sales transactions which otherwise would expose the Company to foreign currency risk, primarily euro. In addition, the Company may also hedge forecasted capital expenditures and designate cash balances held in foreign currencies as hedges of forecasted foreign currency transactions. At September 30, 2020, the Company had no significant outstanding foreign currency forward contracts. The Company may enter into derivative interest rate contracts to maintain a reasonable balance between fixed- and floating-rate debt. The Company has a $50 million floating-for-fixed interest rate swap which converts a portion of the Term Loan to a 4.21% fixed rate. The swap matures in June 2024. The Company designated the interest rate swap as a cash flow hedge of the Company’s exposure to the variability of the payment of interest on a portion of its Term Loan borrowings. The ineffectiveness at hedge inception, determined from the fair value of the swap immediately prior to its July 2019 amendment, will be amortized to interest expense over the initial Term Loan swap maturity date of January 12, 2021. There are no credit risk-related contingent features in the Company’s derivative contracts, and the contracts contained no provisions under which the Company has posted, or would be required to post, collateral. The counterparties to the Company’s derivative contracts are substantial and creditworthy commercial banks that are recognized market makers. The Company controls its credit exposure by diversifying across multiple counterparties and by monitoring credit ratings and credit default swap spreads of its counterparties. The Company also enters into master netting agreements with counterparties when possible. For derivative financial instruments that are designated as cash flow hedges, the gain or loss on the derivative is reported as a component of other comprehensive income (OCI) and reclassified into earnings in the same period or periods during which the hedged item affects earnings. For derivative financial instruments that are designated as fair value hedges, changes in the fair value of these derivatives are recognized in current period results and are reported as changes within accrued liabilities and other on the consolidated statements of cash flows. There were no outstanding fair value hedges as of September 30, 2020. The Company did not use net investment hedges for the periods presented. The effects of derivative instruments in the tables below are presented net of related income taxes, excluding any impacts of changes to income tax valuation allowances affecting results of operations or other comprehensive income, when applicable (see Note 16 for further explanation).
Retirement Benefits | The Company has defined contribution retirement plans or defined benefit pension plans covering substantially all employees. Company contributions to defined contribution retirement plans are generally based on a percentage of eligible pay or based on hours worked. Benefits under the defined benefit pension plans are generally based on years of service and/or final average pay. The Company funds the U.S. pension plans in accordance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The Company also sponsors several postretirement plans covering certain collectively-bargained salaried and hourly employees. The plans provide health care and life insurance benefits for eligible retirees. In most retiree health care plans, Company contributions towards premiums are capped based on the cost as of a certain date, thereby creating a defined contribution. All defined benefit pension and retiree health care plans are closed to new entrants.
Commitments And Contingencies | Environmental liabilities are recorded when the Company’s liability is probable and the costs are reasonably estimable. In many cases, however, the Company is not able to determine whether it is liable or, if liability is probable, to reasonably estimate the loss or range of loss. Estimates of the Company’s liability remain subject to additional uncertainties, including the nature and extent of site contamination, available remediation alternatives, the extent of corrective actions that may be required, and the number, participation, and financial condition of other potentially responsible parties (PRPs). The Company adjusts its accruals to reflect new information as appropriate. Future adjustments could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations in a given period, but the Company cannot reliably predict the amounts of such future adjustments.

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