OLIN Corp

We are exposed to market risk in the normal course of our business operations due to our purchases of certain commodities, our ongoing investing and financing activities and our operations that use foreign currencies. The risk of loss can be assessed from the perspective of adverse changes in fair values, cash flows and future earnings. We have established policies and procedures governing our management of market risks and the use of financial instruments to manage exposure to such risks. ASC 815 “Derivatives and Hedging” (ASC 815) requires an entity to recognize all derivatives as either assets or liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets and measure those instruments at fair value. In accordance with ASC 815, we designate derivative contracts as cash flow hedges of forecasted purchases of commodities and forecasted interest payments related to variable-rate borrowings and designate certain interest rate swaps as fair value hedges of fixed-rate borrowings. We do not enter into any derivative instruments for trading or speculative purposes.

Energy costs, including electricity and natural gas, and certain raw materials used in our production processes are subject to price volatility. Depending on market conditions, we may enter into futures contracts, forward contracts, commodity swaps and put and call option contracts in order to reduce the impact of commodity price fluctuations. The majority of our commodity derivatives expire within one year.

For derivative instruments that are designated and qualify as a cash flow hedge, the change in fair value of the derivative is recognized as a component of other comprehensive income (loss) until the hedged item is recognized in earnings.

We use cash flow hedges for certain raw material and energy costs such as copper, zinc, ethane, electricity and natural gas to provide a measure of stability in managing our exposure to price fluctuations associated with forecasted purchases of raw materials and energy used in our manufacturing process. Settlements on commodity derivative contracts resulted in (losses) gains of $(30.6) million, $(72.5) million, and $58.2 million in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively, which were included in cost of goods sold. At December 31, 2024, we had open derivative notional contract positions through 2028 totaling $204.5 million. If all open futures contracts had been settled on December 31, 2024, we would have recognized a pretax gain of $10.2 million.

If commodity prices were to remain at December 31, 2024 levels, approximately $6.5 million of deferred gains, net of tax, would be reclassified into earnings during the next twelve months. The actual effect on earnings will be dependent on actual commodity prices when the forecasted transactions occur.

We use interest rate swaps as a means of minimizing cash flow fluctuations that may arise from volatility in interest rates of our variable-rate borrowings. We also use interest rate swaps as a means of managing interest expense and floating interest rate exposure to optimal levels. For derivative instruments that are designated and qualify as a fair value hedge, the gain or loss on the derivative as well as the offsetting loss or gain on the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk are recognized in current earnings. We include the gain or loss on the hedged items (fixed-rate borrowings) in the same line item, interest expense, as the offsetting loss or gain on the related interest rate swaps. There were no outstanding interest rate swaps at December 31, 2024 and 2023.

We actively manage currency exposures that are associated with net monetary asset positions, currency purchases and sales commitments denominated in foreign currencies and foreign currency denominated assets and liabilities created in the normal course of business. We enter into forward sales and purchase contracts to manage currency risk to offset our net exposures, by currency, related to the foreign currency denominated monetary assets and liabilities of our operations. All of the currency derivatives expire within one year and are for USD equivalents. The counterparties to the forward contracts are large financial institutions; however, the risk of loss to us in the event of nonperformance by a counterparty could impact our financial position or results of operations. We had the following notional amounts of outstanding forward contracts to buy and sell foreign currency:

Our foreign currency forward contracts and certain commodity derivatives did not meet the criteria to qualify for hedge accounting. The effect on operating results of items not qualifying for hedge accounting was a gain (loss) of $17.0 million, $(15.7) million and $(27.3) million in 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

The fair value of our derivative asset and liability balances were: