CMC 2024 Sustainability Report
  1. Environmental
  2. Management & Innovation
  3. Management & Innovation
product stewardship innovation round

Innovation

Our robust R&D process identifies projects, goals, benchmarks, schedules and commercial strategies. This includes tracking new manufacturing techniques and technologies in the market, enabling us to stay ahead of the competition and better serve our customers. Our sales, operations and technical teams are always searching for sustainable innovations that help address society’s greatest challenges and make our customers’ job easier. We collaborate between our U.S. and Poland teams to research upcoming innovative technologies to upgrade our operations more efficiently and sustainably. We also depend on data analytics and our massive databases of operational data around the world to measure and track our performance to identify areas for improvement.

Implementing successful new processes and innovations involves technological breakthrough and commercialization. Our R&D process involves understanding customer needs, forward market trends and potential new product demand. We learn about opportunities from our people at every level of our organization. At CMC, we have an open-door culture and encourage our stakeholders to elevate innovative ideas. We believe all research is valuable and we archive any innovative initiatives for a future application that may influence new projects and industry demands. However, not all innovative ideas are successful. Despite our rigorous planning and data modeling, some projects just don’t provide the return we require. We evaluate new projects monthly or quarterly, depending on their scale, and we accept that part of innovation is knowing that not all good ideas are right for us and our customers.

CMC has a positive track record of developing and acquiring new and innovative products that offer viable solutions to our customers. We are the only U.S. producer of cryogenic rebar, used primarily in the construction of liquefied natural gas storage tanks.

cryo steel product
RebarZero Logo_Horz_rgb

In August 2022, CMC launched RebarZero®, a line of products that provides customers with a carbon-neutral option. The carbon-neutral profile provided by RebarZero® extends from production to final delivery at the job site, covering Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Here’s how it works: CMC already produces steel with a GHG intensity that is significantly lower than the industry average. Once renewable energy credits and carbon offset credits are factored in, RebarZero® is effectively carbon neutral.

CMC’s new offering is also available in merchant bar, wire rod and T-post offerings and supports our commitment to helping customers in construction and industrial markets reach their own sustainability goals by offering a line of steel products with one of the lowest GHG emissions in the marketplace.

Manufacturing Excellence Group

To foster collaboration across our business, CMC has operational excellence teams that meet regularly to share best practices, insights into challenges and achievements at their different locations.

In 2024, we selected operations experts in all manufacturing lines of business to be dedicated full-time to improving efficiency, quality and safety companywide. This
newly formed manufacturing excellence group includes operations excellence managers for recycling, melt shops, rolling mills, rebar fabrication, continuous improvement, and maintenance and reliability.