MRC GLOBAL INC. - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)

PART I

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references to the “Company,” “MRC Global,” “MRC,” “we,” “us,” “our” and the “registrant” refer to MRC Global Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

General

We are the leading global distributor of pipe, valves and fittings ("PVF") and other infrastructure products and services to diversified energy, industrial and gas utility end-markets. We provide innovative supply chain solutions, technical product expertise and a robust digital platform to customers globally through our leading position across each of our diversified end-markets including the following sectors:

We offer over 250,000 SKUs, including an extensive array of PVF, oilfield supply, valve automation and modification, measurement, instrumentation and other general and specialty products from our global network of over 10,000 suppliers. With over 100 years of experience, we serve approximately 10,000 customers through digital commerce applications and approximately 210 service locations including regional distribution centers, service centers, corporate offices and third party pipe yards, where we often deploy pipe near customer locations.

Our customers use the PVF and other infrastructure products that we supply in mission critical process applications that require us to provide a high degree of product knowledge, technical expertise and comprehensive value-added services to our customers. We seek to provide best-in-class service and a one-stop shop for our customers by satisfying the most complex, multi-site needs of many of the largest companies in energy, industrial and gas utility sectors as their primary PVF supplier. We believe the critical role we play in our customers’ supply chain, together with our extensive product and service offerings, broad global presence, customer-linked scalable information systems and efficient distribution capabilities, serve to solidify our long-standing customer relationships and drive our growth. As a result, we have an average relationship of over 25 years with our 25 largest customers.

We have made significant strides in increasing the diversification of our end markets over the last few years supporting not only the energy transition but other industrial end markets. Our gas utility business, generating $1 billion in revenue, had the most significant contribution to our revenue improvement in 2021. This business, which is largely independent of oil and gas commodity prices, continues to be our largest sector. Our largest customers are among the leading investors in energy transition projects. As they further rebalance their capital investment away from traditional, carbon-based energy toward alternative sources, we expect to continue to supply them and enhance our product and service offerings to support their changing requirements, including in areas such as carbon capture, utilization and storage, biofuels and offshore wind.

MRC Global Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on November 20, 2006. Our principal executive office is located at 1301 McKinney Street, Suite 2300, Houston, Texas 77010. Our telephone number is (877) 294-7574. Our website address is www.mrcglobal.com. Information contained on our website is expressly not incorporated by reference into this document.

Business Strategy

As a distributor of PVF and other infrastructure products to diversified energy, industrial and gas utility sectors, our strategy is focused on growth, margin enhancement and the development of long-term customer relationships. Our strategic objectives are to:

We believe that preferred supplier agreements allow us to better serve our customers’ needs and provide customers with a global platform in which to procure their products. The agreements vary by customer; however, in most cases, we are the preferred supplier, and while there are no minimum purchase requirements, we generally have a larger proportion of the customer’s spending in our product categories when we enter into these agreements.

We strive to add scope to these arrangements in various ways including adding customer locations, product lines, inventory management and inventory logistics.

We conduct detailed account planning and educate potential customers on the offerings and logistics services we provide. In addition, through digital system integration with our customers and suppliers, we believe transactions with our customers can be more streamlined.

Our approach to expanding existing markets and accessing new markets is multifaceted. We seek to optimize our geographic footprint, pursue strategic acquisitions and organic investments and cultivate relationships with our existing customer base. We work with our customers to develop innovative supply chain solutions that enable us to consistently deliver the high-quality products that our customers need when they need them. By being a consistent and reliable supplier, we are able to maintain and grow our market share with both new and existing customers.

We maintain a diverse universe of suppliers that allows us to strategically partner with the largest manufacturers of the products we distribute while simultaneously providing our customers access to alternative sources of supply and high-quality products across the entire spectrum of their PVF needs. We continually broaden our product and service offerings and supplier base. Product expansion opportunities include alloy, chrome, stainless products, gaskets, seals, products that prevent the unwanted emission of greenhouse gases, such as methane, and other industrial supply products. We remain focused on products and value-added services such as valves, valve automation and modification, measurement and instrumentation, as well as, high alloy products that command higher margins.

Although we have not been active with acquisitions in recent years, our acquisition strategy is focused on those businesses that:

Where suitable acquisition opportunities are not available in the market, we may choose to grow through organic investment in the current markets we serve or consider expanding into markets that we do not currently serve to further diversify our revenue stream.

We invest in information technology (“IT”) systems and service center infrastructure to achieve improved operational excellence and customer service. Our concept of operational excellence leverages standardized business processes to deliver top tier safety performance, a consistent customer experience and a lower overall cost to serve. Our digital transformation strategy is a key component of operational excellence and is designed to add further differentiation to our product and service offerings with an objective to maintain and grow our business with new and existing customers. We continue to develop our digital commerce platform, MRCGO™. From this single portal, our customers have the ability to shop for material, track and expedite orders, research payment options, search for documents and receive support from MRC Global representatives. Through this platform we are able to enhance the customer experience through a broad array of customized digital services while simultaneously lowering our cost to serve by centralizing customer service resources, expanding customer self-service capabilities and routing a greater volume of our business through the regional distribution center (“RDC”) fulfillment model. Where practical and cost effective, we are delivering directly from our RDCs to the customer delivery location, supporting our efforts to consolidate inventory and increase working capital efficiency. Globally, over the last twelve months, 42% of our revenue was generated through e-commerce channels.

Operations

Our distribution network extends throughout the world with a presence in all major oil and natural gas providing regions in the U.S. and western Canada, as well as Europe, Asia, Australasia, and the Middle East. Many of these locations are also strategically located to service gas utilities and industrial customers. Our business is segregated into three geographical operating segments: U.S., Canada and International. These segments represent our business of providing PVF and other infrastructure products and services to the sectors that we serve. Financial information regarding our reportable segments appears in “Item 7—Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and in Note 15 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Safety.  In our business, safety is of paramount importance to us and to our customers. Unsafe conditions can cause or contribute to injuries, deaths, property damage and pollution that, in turn, can create significant liabilities for which insurance may not always be sufficient. We are also subject to many safety regulatory standards such as those standards that the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") and the U.S. Department of Transportation or state or foreign agencies of a similar nature may impose and enforce upon us. Failure to meet those standards can result in fines, penalties or agency actions that can impose additional costs upon our business. For all of these reasons, we and our customers demand high safety standards and practices to prevent the occurrence of unsafe conditions and any resulting harm. Our operations, therefore, focus on the safety of our employees and those with whom we do business. Our safety programs are designed to focus on the highest likely safety risks in our business and to build a culture of safe practices and continuous safety improvement for our employees, our customers and others with whom we do business or otherwise come into contact.

Among other safety measures, we track our total recordable incident rate (“TRIR”) and our lost work-day rate (“LWDR”), both per 200,000 hours worked. Our TRIR was 1.09 in 2021. This compares favorably to the 2020 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) average of 3.5 for wholesalers of metal products. Our LWDR was 0.48 in 2021. This also compares favorably to the BLS average of 2.3 for wholesalers of metal products. In addition, our recordable vehicle incident rate (“RVIR”) has also remained low at 0.39 compared to a peer group average of 1.94 based on the most recent survey that the National Association of Wholesaler Distributors compiled of its members with excess of $1 billion in annual revenue.

Products:  We distribute a complete line of PVF products, primarily used in gas utilities and energy and industrial infrastructure applications. The products we distribute are used in the construction, maintenance, repair and overhaul of equipment used in extreme operating conditions such as high pressure, high/low temperatures and highly corrosive and abrasive environments. We are required to carry significant amounts of inventory to meet the rapid delivery, often same day, requirements of our customers. The breadth and depth of our product and service offerings and our extensive global presence allow us to provide high levels of service to our customers. Due to our broad inventory coverage, we are able to fulfill more orders more quickly, including those with lower volume and specialty items, than we would be able to if we operated on a smaller scale or only at a local or regional level. Key product types are described below:

Services: We provide our customers with a comprehensive array of services which we believe result in deeply integrated customer relationships, such as the following:

Our self-service portal and system interfaces facilitate digital transaction exchange between our customers’ and our proprietary IT systems. This allows us to interface with our customers’ IT systems with cross-referenced part numbers, customized pricing, customized business to business processes, streamlining the order to cash process making it easier and more efficient to purchase our products. Such services strengthen our position with customers as we become more integrated into their supply chain and we are able to market a “total transaction value” solution rather than individual products.

We continue to invest in and expand our comprehensive IT systems. In North America, we operate an enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system, enhanced with differentiating distribution and service functionality. In 2017, we completed the transition of our International business to a single ERP platform. These systems, which provide for customer and supplier digital integrations optimizing business to business processes, information exchange and e-commerce applications, including our MRCGO™ platform, further strengthen our ability to provide high levels of service to our customers. Our highly specialized implementation group focuses on the integration of our information systems and implementation of improved business processes with customers during the initiation phase. By maintaining a specialized team, we are able to utilize best practices to implement our technology systems and processes, thereby providing solutions to customers in a more organized, efficient and effective manner. This approach is valuable to large, multi-location customers who have demanding service requirements.

As major gas utilities, along with integrated and large independent energy companies have implemented efficiency initiatives to focus on their core business, many of these companies have begun outsourcing certain of their procurement and inventory management requirements. In response to these initiatives and to satisfy customer service requirements, we offer integrated supply services to customers who wish to outsource all or a part of the administrative burden associated with sourcing and managing PVF and other related products. In integrated supply relationships, we offer electronic catalog service through MRCGO™ and often have MRC Global employees on-site full-time at many customer locations. Our integrated supply group offers procurement-related services, physical warehousing services, product quality assurance and inventory ownership and analysis services.

For years, in our valve engineering centers, we have designed and constructed assemblies that combine actuators with the valves we sell. In addition, in 2019 we opened a valve engineering and modification center in La Porte, Texas that provides services, primarily to our midstream pipeline customers. At this facility, we modify valves for customer requirements, weld segments of pipe to the intake/outtake openings of large pipeline valves, add extensions to the valve controls while installing actuators to the valve, hydrotest the valves, paint or coat the valves, x-ray the welds and deliver complete valve/actuation assemblies to our customers for field installations.

We provide customers with our ValidTorque™ service, whereby we utilize specialized test benches to provide customers with data on the operating characteristics of their valves and actuators. In addition, we have a FastTrack™ service that we provide customers, whereby we supply specified classes of actuated valves in short delivery windows.

Suppliers: We source the products we distribute from a global network of over 10,000 suppliers in over 40 countries. We have approximately 100 dedicated supply chain management employees that handle purchasing. Our suppliers benefit from access to our large, diversified customer base and by consolidating customer orders allowing for manufacturing efficiencies. We benefit from stronger purchasing power and preferred vendor programs. Our purchases from our 25 largest suppliers in 2021 approximated 43% of our total purchases, with our single largest supplier constituting approximately 6%. We are the largest customer for many of our suppliers, and we source the majority of the products we distribute directly from the manufacturer. The remainder of the products we distribute are sourced from manufacturer representatives, trading companies and, in some instances, other distributors.

We believe our customers and suppliers recognize us as an industry leader in part due to the quality of products we supply and for the formal processes we use to evaluate vendor performance. This vendor assessment process is referred to as the MRC Global Supplier Registration Process, which involves employing individuals who specialize in conducting on-site assessments of our manufacturers and their processes as well as monitoring and evaluating the quality of goods produced. These assessments are aimed at product quality assurance, including all aspects of the manufacturing processes, steel, alloy and material quality, ethical sourcing, product safety and ethical labor practices. The result of this process is the MRC Global approved manufacturer’s listing (“AML”). Products from the manufacturers on this list are supplied across many of the industries we support. Given that many of our largest customers, especially those in our downstream, industrial and energy transition sector, maintain their own formal AML listing, we are recognized as an important source of information sharing with our key customers regarding the results of our on-site assessment. For this reason, together with our commitment to promote high quality products that bring the best overall value to our customers, we often become the preferred provider of AML products to these customers. Many of our customers regularly collaborate with us regarding specific manufacturer performance, our own experience with vendors’ products and the results of our on-site manufacturer assessments. The emphasis that both our customers and suppliers place on the MRC Global AML helps secure our central and critical position in the global PVF supply chain.

We utilize a variety of freight carriers in addition to our corporate truck fleet to ensure timely and efficient delivery of our products. With respect to deliveries of products from us to our customers, or our outbound needs, we utilize both our corporate fleet and third-party transportation providers. With respect to shipments of products from suppliers to us, or our inbound needs, we principally use third-party carriers.

Sales and Marketing: We distribute our products to a wide variety of end-users. Our broad inventory offering and distribution network allows us to serve large global customers with consistent, high-quality service that is unrivaled in our industry. Local relationships, depth of inventory, responsive service and timely delivery are critical to the sales process in the PVF distribution industry. Our sales efforts are customer and product driven and provide a system that is more responsive to changing customer and product needs than a traditional, fully centralized structure.

Our sales model applies a two-pronged approach to address both regional and national markets. Regional sales teams are based in our core geographic regions and are complemented by a global accounts sales team organized by sector or product expertise and focused on large regional, national or global customers. These sales teams are then supported by groups with additional specific service or product expertise, including integrated supply, valves, valve automation and modification, engineering, procurement and construction projects, corrosion resistant products, pipe, measurement equipment and implementation. Our overall sales force is then internally divided into outside and inside sales forces.

Our over 180 account managers and external sales representatives develop relationships with prospective and existing customers in an effort to better understand their needs and to increase the number of our products specified or approved by a given customer. Outside sales representatives may be service center outside sales representatives, who focus on customer relationships in specific geographies, or technical outside sales representatives, who focus on specific products and provide detailed technical support to customers. Internationally, for valve sales, the majority of our sales force is comprised of qualified engineers who are able to meet complex customer requirements, select optimal solutions from a range of products to increase customers’ efficiency and lower total product lifecycle costs.

Our inside sales force of over 600 customer service representatives is responsible for processing orders generated by new and existing customers as well as by our outside sales force. The customer service representatives develop order packages based on specific customer needs, interface with manufacturers to determine product availability, ensure on-time delivery and establish pricing of materials and services based on guidelines and predetermined metrics that management establishes.

Seasonality: Our business normally experiences mild seasonal effects in the U.S. as demand for the products we distribute is generally higher during the months of August, September and October. Demand for the products we distribute during the months of November and December and early in the year generally tends to be lower due to a lower level of activity near the end of the calendar year in the industry sectors we serve and due to winter weather disruptions. In addition, certain exploration and production (“E&P”) activities, primarily in Canada, typically experience a springtime reduction due to seasonal thaws and regulatory restrictions, limiting the ability of drilling rigs to operate effectively during these periods.

Customers: Our principal customers are companies active in the gas utilities, downstream, industrial and energy transition, upstream production and midstream pipeline sectors. Due to the demanding operating conditions in these sectors, high costs and safety risks associated with equipment failure, customers prefer highly reliable products and vendors with established qualifications, reputation and experience. As our PVF products typically are mission critical and represent a fraction of the total cost of a given project, our customers often place a premium on service and high reliability given the high cost to them of maintenance or project delays. We strive to build long-term relationships with our customers by maintaining our reputation as a supplier of high-quality, reliable products and value-added services and solutions.

We have a large customer base of approximately 10,000 customers. No single customer represents more than 10% of our revenue. For many of our largest customers, we are often their primary PVF provider by sector or geography, their largest or second largest supplier in aggregate or, in certain instances, the sole provider for their procurement needs. We believe that many customers for which we are not the exclusive or comprehensive sole source PVF provider will continue to reduce their number of suppliers in an effort to reduce costs and administrative burdens and focus on their core operations. As such, we believe these customers will seek to select PVF distributors with the most extensive product and service offerings and ability to supply customer needs in the geographies where our customers operate. Furthermore, we believe our business will benefit as companies in the energy industry continue to consolidate and the larger, resulting companies look to larger distributors such as ourselves as their sole or primary source PVF provider.

Backlog: We determine backlog by the amount of unshipped customer orders, either specific or general in nature, which the customer may revise or cancel in certain instances. The table below details our backlog by segment (in millions):

There can be no assurance that the backlog amounts will ultimately be realized as revenue or that we will earn a profit on the backlog of orders, but we expect that substantially all of the sales in our backlog will be realized within 12 months.

Competition: We are the leading global PVF distributor to the energy, industrial and gas utility end markets. The broad PVF distribution industry is fragmented and includes large, nationally recognized distributors, major regional distributors and many smaller local distributors. The principal methods of competition include offering prompt local service, fulfillment capability, breadth of product and service offerings, price and total costs to the customer. Our competitors include, among others, large PVF distributors, such as NOW Inc., Ferguson, plc, Van Leeuwen, FloWorks (including Sunbelt Supply Co.), Charbonneau Industries, Score Group, Bakerfield Pipe & Supply, Edgen Murray (a Sumitomo Corporation subsidiary), Elite Supply, Industrial Piping Specialists, RK Supply, Russell Metals, Sooner Pipe (a Marubeni Corporation subsidiary), several regional or product-specific competitors and many local, family-owned and privately held PVF distributors. In addition, most of our suppliers also sell directly to end users.

Human Capital

Employees.  We are a global team in 16 countries dedicated to our customers, our communities and each other. MRC Global employees regularly go out of their way to support each other in times of need, provide excellent service to our customers and uplift the communities where they live and work. 

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately 2,600 employees. Approximately 66% of our employees are in the U.S., 27% are in our International segment, and 7% are in Canada. In the U.S., Norway and Australia, as of December 31, 2021, we had 86 employees that belonged to a union and an additional 160 non-union employees that are covered by union negotiated agreements. We consider our relationships with our employees to be good.

Compensation.  We believe that we provide our employees with a competitive compensation within our industry in the form of wage or salary, depending upon the position. In the U.S., we pay our hourly employees at least $15 per hour beginning in their first year of employment and in other countries we pay prevailing wages for our industry. In the U.S., Canada, and Australia, we offer a defined contribution retirement plan and in other countries we offer similar plans or participate in local government retirement schemes. Likewise in the U.S., we offer employees the opportunity to participate in health, dental and vision benefit plans and in other countries our employees either participate in similar plans or in government provided healthcare schemes. For those positions where short-term incentives, such as annual or quarterly bonuses are applicable, we align our incentives with overall financial results. For profit centers, financial incentives often include adjusted EBITDA as a metric that supports our overall financial objectives. For sales personnel, incentives often include gross margin metrics for the employee’s location or unit that also support our overall financial objectives. While we align overall incentive payout with financial results, many employees are also incentivized on non-financial performance objectives and safety or operational efficiency goals or project objectives. An employee's objectives are usually set at the beginning of each year with the employee's supervisor.

Employee Development.  MRC Global provides its employees with educational tools and development opportunities to continually improve their talent and skills.

We maintain an organizational development and learning function with employees who develop and present training along with other subject matter experts inside and outside of the company. Because our workforce is distributed over 160 locations in 16 countries, we also maintain a strong internet-delivered learning management system ("LMS") that has many training modules that can be accessed throughout our company. Many of these training modules include interactive training, so that trainees are engaged as they learn. We require employees to take certain modules on anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, legal compliance, safety and computer security at regular intervals. We provide additional training covering the Company’s proprietary procedures and systems, product knowledge, leadership and management, sales skills, Microsoft Office 365 applications and a wide variety of IT areas. As we are increasing our digital capabilities through our MRCGO^TM offering as well as other internal initiatives, we are increasing the development of employees to develop, implement, use and promote these digital platforms. In addition to modules on the Company’s LMS, we provide employees many opportunities to grow their product knowledge through targeted training that the Company, its suppliers or its customers present. We track all of our training, so that every employee has a training record and plan. Our on-boarding process for new employees provides a broad and accelerated understanding of MRC Global’s business and culture. Additionally, all employees establish development goals at the beginning of the year, and we track the progress of these goals through periodic individual development reviews. Finally, we periodically assess our employees’ satisfaction and engagement through regular individual development reviews as well as company-wide surveys that we undertake every few years.

MRC Global’s employee development process begins upon hire and at the start of each calendar year by documenting individual goals, both for performance and development. Goals are mutually agreed upon between employee and manager, then reviewed for progress throughout the year. A mid-year review is undertaken, enabling employees to receive individualized feedback regarding goals and development progress in support of year-end success. MRC Global also offers employees with more than six months of service the opportunity to participate in a tuition reimbursement plan for both graduate and undergraduate courses that align with their career objectives within the company up to $5,250 USD per year based on their successful completion of classes. In 2021, 15 U.S. employees used this benefit to grow their professional development through formal education. MRC Global also hosts internships and apprentice programs in some countries. Both of these initiatives focus on allowing young employees the opportunity to learn on the job training and gain experience in technical product roles.

Culture. We are proud of the role we play in providing safe, productive and fulfilling jobs to our employees. Our core values underpin our culture. They are:

All new hires are onboarded with training that covers our culture including mission, vision, and core values. Adherence to the core values is also evaluated for every employee as part of our employee development process. We maintain an independent process for confidential reporting of workplace concerns through our toll-free hotline, and the ability to bypass management and directly contact the Legal or Human Resource Departments or the Company's Audit Committee regarding concerns.

Diversity.  As we operate in many countries and have an increasingly global and diverse customer base, we strive to have our team members reflect this diversity of cultures, backgrounds and approaches in our business. We are committed to maintaining a harassment and discrimination-free workplace where every employee feels safe, valued and encouraged regardless of age, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, veteran status, disabilities or backgrounds. We want every one of our employees to have the opportunity to grow his or her career. While we do not maintain specific diversity quotas, our Human Resources Department actively monitors our hiring and promotion processes, so that diverse candidates are considered for open roles. In addition, as part of our succession planning process, we identify high potential employees that include diverse candidates that are considered for promotions and developmental assignments. In 2021, across our global workforce, 27% of our employees were female. Additionally, 24% of our directors and above were female and 55% of our workforce in corporate functions were women.

Monitoring for Success.  We monitor our workforce to determine its overall effectiveness by reviewing metrics related to headcount, composition, voluntary and involuntary turnover, diversity, performance per employee (such as revenue per employee or adjusted EBTIDA per employee) and selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of sales. In 2020, we implemented a new human capital management system that is global in nature to help us manage our employee initiatives and development. 

Sustainability

Our Sustainable Business Model.  Our distribution capabilities can flex with the needs of customers and service new customers in new end markets. Although the primary customers for our PVF products are gas utility, energy and industrial companies, we also distribute PVF to other end users as well. For instance, in our downstream, industrial and energy transition sector, we distribute PVF to companies engaged in metals and mining, fabrication, power generation, chemical production, carbon capture, biofuels, offshore wind and other general industrial uses. Our distribution platform can also supply new product lines to existing customers and new end markets.

MRC Global’s Sustainability Initiatives.  The primary way that we can reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases in our operations is to create an efficient supply chain. An efficient supply chain reduces the carbon footprint of deliveries to our distribution centers and service centers and, ultimately to our customers. Use of our distribution centers and hub and spoke delivery model allow us to aggregate product across multiple suppliers and customers, which, in turn, prevents each customer from separately creating duplicative supply chains that require fuel for deliveries and resources to manage.

As a distributor, we are engaged in a relatively low amount of manufacturing and assembly, mostly through the actuation and valve modification services that we offer our customers. We do not utilize large amounts of water. Our energy inputs are primarily electricity for lighting, heating and office and warehouse equipment, natural gas for heating and gasoline for company sales and delivery vehicles. We are reviewing this usage and seeking efficiencies to reduce use of these resources and resulting emissions. We have recycling programs to minimize waste from used pallets, cardboard, office paper and other recyclables. 

Market Opportunities.  As a distributor of PVF, we sell products to existing and new customers that control the flow of liquids and gases in a sustainable manner. Most of the products we provide are used to prevent and minimize accidental leaks of hydrocarbons into the air and spills. In addition, integrated oil and other energy companies, many of which are our customers, have requirements to reduce their methane and other emissions and consider these targets when designing, constructing, upgrading, maintaining and operating their facilities. Recently, the EPA initiated a rulemaking process to require the reduction of methane in oil and gas production and hydrocarbon pipelines. We sell a number of products that reduce the emissions of gases, including methane. In particular, in 2021, 94% of our sales of valves were low-emission valves that control methane and other emissions. Many of the other valves that we sold were sold into applications such as the transfer of water that do not emit greenhouse gases or environmentally dangerous substances.

Environmental Matters

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local, foreign and provincial environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements (collectively, “environmental laws”), including those governing the following:

Historically, the costs to comply with environmental laws have not been material to our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. We are not aware of any pending environmental compliance or remediation matters that, in the opinion of management, are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our business, financial position or results of operations or cash flows. However, our failure to comply with applicable environmental laws could result in fines, penalties, enforcement actions, employee, neighbor or other third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions.

Certain environmental laws, such as the U.S. federal Superfund law or its state or foreign equivalents, may impose the obligation to investigate, remediate, monitor and clean up contamination at a facility on current and former owners, lessees or operators or on persons who may have sent waste to that facility for disposal. These environmental laws may impose liability without regard to fault or to the legality of the activities giving rise to the contamination. Although we are not aware of any active litigation against us under the U.S. federal Superfund law or its state or foreign equivalents, we have identified contamination at several of our current and former facilities, and we have incurred and will continue to incur costs to investigate, remediate, monitor and clean up these conditions. To date, these costs have no had a material impact on our business. Moreover, we may incur liabilities in connection with environmental conditions currently unknown to us relating to our prior, existing or future owned or leased sites or operations or those of predecessor companies whose liabilities we may have assumed or acquired. We believe that indemnities contained in certain of our acquisition agreements may cover certain environmental conditions existing at the time of the acquisition subject to certain terms, limitations and conditions. However, if these indemnification provisions terminate or if the indemnifying parties do not fulfill their indemnification obligations, we may be subject to liability with respect to the environmental matters that those indemnification provisions address.

Certain governments at the international, national, regional and state level are at various stages of considering or implementing treaties and environmental laws that could limit emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, associated with the burning of fossil fuels. For instance, in September 2016, 175 countries ratified the Paris Agreement, which requires member countries to review and determine their respective goals towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While the U.S. initially chose to pull out of the Paris Agreement, the new administration has implemented executive orders for the U.S. to rejoin the agreement, which presumably will require the U.S. to set greenhouse gas reduction goals and enact policies to meet those goals. Certain states, regions and cities have also adopted or are considering environmental laws that impose overall caps or taxes on greenhouse gas emissions from certain sectors or facility categories or mandate the increased use of electricity from renewable energy sources. It is not possible to predict how new environmental laws to address greenhouse gas emissions, including new laws or programs implemented by the new administration, would impact our business or that of our customers, but these laws and regulations could impose costs on us or create a shift in the market for the products that we distribute and hence affect our business. The U.S. Energy Information Agency ("EIA") in its International Energy Outlook 2021 report continues to project, based on the agency's reference case, increases in world energy consumption for oil and gas through 2050, although this projection could change depending on regulatory developments, technological changes and changes in energy mix.

In addition, the EPA has previously implemented regulations that require permits for and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for certain categories of emission sources, including (among others) New Source Performance Standards for new power plants and emission guidelines for existing power plants (commonly known as the “Clean Power Plan”). In anticipation of and in response to these regulations, United States electric producers have been switching from coal to natural gas as a cleaner burning fuel source. This replacement of natural gas for coal has benefitted our business as our customers include natural gas producers. There have been various court challenges and regulatory changes to these EPA regulations, such as the EPA’s June 2019 repeal of the Clean Power Plan and finalization of a replacement rule (known as the Affordable Clean Energy Rule) and, in January 2021, a D.C. Circuit vacatur of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Even so, switching from coal to natural gas has continued, in part, driven by low natural gas prices as well as continued regulatory uncertainty regarding coal emissions. In November, 2021, the EPA proposed amendments to the existing greenhouse gas emissions regulations for the oil and natural gas production industry, but it is currently not possible to predict the final scope of any new rule and, therefore, how this new rule will impact our business or that of our customers.  We predominately sell valves and other products that assist customers in the prevention of emissions of greenhouse gases, such as methane, and believe that the passage of a final rule could be an opportunity to assist customers with their compliance with the rule.

Federal, state, local, foreign and provincial governments have adopted, or are considering the adoption of, environmental laws that could impose more stringent permitting; disclosure; wastewater and other waste disposal; greenhouse gas, ethane or volatile organic compound control, leak detection and repair requirements; and well construction and testing requirements on our customers’ hydraulic fracturing. 

Environmental laws applicable to our business and the business of our customers, including environmental laws regulating the energy industry, and the interpretation or enforcement of these environmental laws, are constantly evolving; it is impossible to predict accurately the effect that changes in these environmental laws, or their interpretation or enforcement, may have upon our business, financial condition or results of operations. Should environmental laws, or their interpretation or enforcement, become more stringent, our costs, or the costs of our customers, could increase, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Exchange Rate Information

In this report, unless otherwise indicated, foreign currency amounts are converted into U.S. dollar amounts at the exchange rates in effect on December 31, 2021 and 2020 for balance sheet figures. Income statement figures are converted on a monthly basis, using each month’s average conversion rate.

Available Information

Our website is located at www.mrcglobal.com. We make available free of charge on or through our internet website our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file this material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. The information contained on the websites referenced in this Form 10-K is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Further, the Company’s references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov.

You should carefully consider the following risk factors as well as the other risks and uncertainties contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in our other SEC filings. The occurrence of one or more of these risks or uncertainties could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context expressly requires a different reading, when we state that a factor could “adversely affect us,” have a “material adverse effect,” “adversely affect our business” and similar expressions, we mean that the factor could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Information contained in this section may be considered “forward-looking statements.” See “Item 7—Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for a discussion of certain qualifications regarding forward looking statements.

Risks Related to Our Business

Decreased capital and other expenditures in the industries that we serve can adversely impact our customers’ demand for our products and our revenue.

A large portion of our revenue depends upon the level of capital and operating expenditures in the industries that we serve. For instance, demand for our products and services is sensitive to capital expenditures for the addition of distribution capacity and replacement of aging infrastructure in our gas utilities business.  In our upstream production, midstream pipeline and refining portion of our downstream, industrial and energy transition sectors, demand for the products we distribute and services we provide is particularly sensitive to the level of exploration, development, production, transportation and refining activity of, and the corresponding capital and other expenditures by oil and gas companies. Other industrial sectors have various drivers for their capital expenditures.  If our customers’ capital expenditures decline, our business will suffer.

General economic conditions may adversely affect our business.

U.S. and global general economic conditions affect many aspects of our business, including demand for the products we distribute. If general economic conditions deteriorate and the business of our customers in one or more of our end market sectors is negatively impacted, our customers may curtail their capital expenditures and demand for our products may suffer.  General economic factors beyond our control that affect our business and customers include (among others) interest rates, recession, inflation, deflation, customer credit availability, consumer credit availability, consumer debt levels, performance of housing markets, energy costs, tax rates and policy, unemployment rates, commencement or escalation of war or hostilities, the threat or possibility of war, terrorism or other global or national unrest, political or financial instability and other matters that influence our customers’ spending. In addition, worldwide economic conditions could have an adverse effect on our business.

Volatile oil and gas prices affect demand for our products.

As evidenced by the decline of oil prices from late 2014 through 2016 and again in 2020, prices for oil and natural gas are cyclical and subject to large fluctuations in response to relatively minor changes in the supply of and demand for oil and natural gas, market uncertainty and a variety of other factors that are beyond our control. A decline in oil and gas prices impacts the capital spending of many of our customers, particularly in our upstream production, midstream pipeline and the refining portion of our downstream, industrial and energy transition businesses.  Any sustained decrease in capital expenditures in the oil and natural gas industry could have a material adverse effect on us.

We may experience unexpected supply shortages.

We distribute products from a wide variety of manufacturers and suppliers. Nevertheless, in the future we may have difficulty obtaining the products we need from suppliers and manufacturers as a result of unexpected demand, production difficulties that might extend lead times or a supplier’s decision to sell its products through other distributors. In 2021, for instance, supply chain shortages have resulted from COVID-19 lockdowns and related health measures in various jurisdictions, labor shortages and transportation delays.  Our inability to obtain products from suppliers and manufacturers in sufficient quantities to meet customer demand, or at all, could adversely affect our product and service offerings and our business.

The loss of third-party transportation providers upon whom we depend, or conditions negatively affecting the transportation industry, could increase our costs or cause a disruption in our operations.

We depend upon third-party transportation providers for delivery of products to our customers. Strikes, slowdowns, transportation disruptions or other conditions in the transportation industry, including, among others, shortages of truck drivers or dock workers, disruptions in rail service, increases in fuel prices and adverse weather conditions, could increase our costs and disrupt our operations and our ability to service our customers on a timely basis. We cannot predict whether or to what extent increases or anticipated increases in fuel prices may impact our costs or cause a disruption in our operations going forward.

We may experience cost increases from suppliers and transportation providers, which we may be unable to pass on to our customers.

Highly inflationary environments may adversely impact our business. We may face supply cost increases due to, among other things, unexpected increases in demand for supplies, decreases in production of supplies, increases in the cost of raw materials, transportation, changes in exchange rates or the imposition of import taxes or tariff on imported products. Any inability to pass supply price increases on to our customers could have a material adverse effect on us. For example, we may be unable to pass increased supply costs on to our customers because significant amounts of our sales are derived from stocking program arrangements, contracts and maintenance and repair arrangements, which provide our customers time limited price protection, which may obligate us to sell products at a set price for a specific period. In addition, if supply costs increase, our customers may elect to purchase smaller amounts of products or may purchase products from other distributors. While we may be able to work with our customers to reduce the effects of unforeseen price increases because of our relationships with them, we may not be able to reduce the effects of the cost increases. In addition, to the extent that competition leads to reduced purchases of products or services from us or a reduction of our prices, and these reductions occur concurrently with increases in the prices for selected commodities which we use in our operations, including steel, nickel and molybdenum, the adverse effects described above would likely be exacerbated and could result in a prolonged downturn in profitability.

If steel prices rise, we may be unable to pass along the cost increases to our customers.

We maintain inventories of steel products to accommodate the lead time requirements of our customers. Accordingly, we purchase steel products in an effort to maintain our inventory at levels that we believe to be appropriate to satisfy the anticipated needs of our customers based upon historic buying practices, contracts with customers and forecasts of customer demands. Our commitments to purchase steel products are generally at prevailing market prices in effect at the time we place our orders. If steel prices increase between the time we order steel products and the time of delivery of the products to us, our suppliers may impose surcharges that require us to pay for increases in steel prices during the period. Demand for the products we distribute, the actions of our competitors and other factors will influence whether we will be able to pass on steel cost increases and surcharges to our customers, and we may be unsuccessful in doing so.

We do not have contracts with most of our suppliers. The loss of a significant supplier would require us to rely more heavily on our other existing suppliers or to develop relationships with new suppliers. Such a loss may have an adverse effect on our product and service offerings and our business.

Given the nature of our business, and consistent with industry practice, we do not have contracts with most of our suppliers. We generally make our purchases through purchase orders. Therefore, most of our suppliers have the ability to terminate their relationships with us at any time. Approximately 43% of our total purchases during the year ended December 31, 2021 were from our 25 largest suppliers. Although we believe there are numerous manufacturers with the capacity to supply the products we distribute, the loss of one or more of our major suppliers could have an adverse effect on our product and service offerings and our business.

Price reductions by suppliers of products that we sell could cause the value of our inventory to decline. Also, these price reductions could cause our customers to demand lower sales prices for these products, possibly decreasing our margins and profitability on sales to the extent that we purchased our inventory of these products at the higher prices prior to supplier price reductions.

The value of our inventory could decline as a result of manufacturer price reductions with respect to products that we sell. Such a decline could have an adverse effect.

Also, decreases in the market prices of products that we sell could cause customers to demand lower sales prices from us. These price reductions could reduce our margins and profitability on sales with respect to the lower-priced products. Reductions in our margins and profitability on sales could have a material adverse effect on us.

A substantial decrease in the price of steel could significantly lower our gross profit or cash flow.

We distribute many products manufactured from steel. As a result, the price and supply of steel can affect our business and, in particular, our carbon steel line pipe product category. When steel prices are lower, the prices that we charge customers for products may decline, which affects our gross profit and cash flow. At times pricing and availability of steel can be volatile due to numerous factors beyond our control, including general domestic and international economic conditions, labor costs, sales levels, competition, consolidation of steel producers, fluctuations in and the costs of raw materials necessary to produce steel, steel manufacturers’ plant utilization levels and capacities, import duties and tariffs and currency exchange rates. Increases in manufacturing capacity for the carbon steel line pipe products could put pressure on the prices we receive for our carbon steel line pipe products. When steel prices decline, customer demands for lower prices and our competitors’ responses to those demands could result in lower sales prices and, consequently, lower gross profit and cash flow.

If tariffs, quotas and duties on imports into the U.S. of certain of the products that we sell are lifted or imposed, we could have too many of these products in inventory competing against less expensive imports or conversely pay higher prices for products that we sell.

U.S. law currently imposes tariffs and duties on imports from certain foreign countries of line pipe and certain other products that we sell. If these tariffs and duties are lifted or reduced or if the level of these imported products otherwise increase, and our U.S. customers accept these imported products, we could be adversely affected to the extent that we would then have higher-cost products in our inventory or experience lower prices and margins due to increased supplies of these products that could drive down prices and margins. If prices of these products were to decrease significantly, we might not be able to profitably sell these products, and the value of our inventory would decline. In addition, significant price decreases could result in a significantly longer holding period for some of our inventory. Conversely, if tariffs and duties are imposed on imports from certain foreign countries of products that we sell, we could be required to pay higher prices for our products. Demand for the products we distribute, the actions of our competitors and other factors will influence whether we will be able to pass on additional cost increases to our customers, and we may be unsuccessful in doing so.

We may be adversely impacted by holding more inventory than can be sold in a commercial time frame.

A fundamental aspect of our business is to have inventory available for customers when they need it.  If we over-estimate the amount of inventory that can be sold in a commercial time frame or if market demand for a product drops unexpectedly, we may be forced to sell the product at substantially lower prices, scrap the product or write down its carrying value.  This can adversely impact our business.

A transition to alternative forms of energy could adversely impact our customers, result in lower sales and adversely impact our results and financial condition.

If through legislation, treaty or consumer preference demand for oil and gas is substantially reduced through the use of alternative forms of energy and sales of our products to alternative energy producers are less than sales of our products to existing customers that produce, transport and use hydrocarbons as feedstock as well as sales to other customers, we could experience a reduction in sales, which could adversely impact our results and financial condition. Likewise, to the extent that governments limit the use of oil or gas in various applications, such as in prohibiting natural gas connections to newly constructed homes or buildings, we could also experience a reduction in sales, which could adversely impact our results and financial condition.

Adverse weather events or natural disasters could negatively affect our local economies or disrupt our operations.

Certain areas in which we operate have been susceptible to more frequent and more severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods and to natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and coronal mass ejections (sometimes referred to as solar flares). Weather events, in particular, may be increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change.  These events can disrupt our operations, result in damage to our properties and negatively affect the local economies in which we operate. Additionally, we may experience communication disruptions with our customers, vendors and employees. These events can cause physical damage to our service centers and require us to close service centers. Additionally, our sales order backlog and shipments can experience a temporary decline immediately following these events.

We cannot predict whether or to what extent damage caused by these events will affect our operations or the economies in regions where we operate. These adverse events could result in disruption of our purchasing or distribution capabilities, interruption of our business that exceeds our insurance coverage, our inability to collect from customers and increased operating costs. Our business or results of operations may be adversely affected by these and other negative effects of these events.

We are subject to strict environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that may lead to significant liabilities and negatively impact the demand for our products.

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local, foreign and provincial environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements (collectively, “environmental laws”), including those governing the following:

Our failure to comply with applicable environmental laws could result in fines, penalties, enforcement actions, employee, neighbor or other third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions.

Certain governments at the international, national, regional and state level are at various stages of considering or implementing treaties and environmental laws that could limit emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, associated with the burning of fossil fuels. It is not possible to predict how new environmental laws to address greenhouse gas emissions would impact our business or that of our customers, but these laws and regulations could impose costs on us or negatively impact the market for the products we distribute and, consequently, our business.

Environmental laws applicable to our business and the business of our customers, including environmental laws regulating the energy industry, and the interpretation or enforcement of these environmental laws, are constantly evolving; it is impossible to predict accurately the effect that changes in these environmental laws, or their interpretation or enforcement, may have upon our business, financial condition or results of operations. Should environmental laws, or their interpretation or enforcement, become more stringent, our costs, or the costs of our customers, could increase, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Changes in our customer and product mix could cause our gross profit percentage to fluctuate.

From time to time, we may experience changes in our customer mix or in our product mix. We must provide the products that our customers need when they need them and provide an appropriate level of service to gain and retain customers.  If our customer experience is poor or customers require more lower-margin products from us and fewer higher-margin products, our business, results of operations and financial condition may suffer.

Demand for the products we distribute could decrease if the manufacturers of those products were to sell a substantial amount of goods directly to end users in the sectors we serve.

Historically, users of PVF and related products have purchased certain amounts of these products through distributors and not directly from manufacturers. If customers were to purchase the products that we sell directly from manufacturers, or if manufacturers sought to increase their efforts to sell directly to end users, we could experience a significant decrease in profitability. These or other developments that remove us from, or limit our role in, the distribution chain, may harm our competitive position in the marketplace, reduce our sales and earnings and adversely affect our business.

Failure to operate our business in an efficient or optimized manner can adversely impact our business.

To make a profit, we must control selling, general and administrative expense.  This requires our distribution network structure, our warehouse operations and the cost to serve customers to be diligently controlled for our Company to earn a profit after deducting the cost of goods sold from the price of the products that we sell.  We are constantly working to create a more efficient operation and will often review where our service centers and regional distribution centers are located, the transportation patterns and other operations among those centers and the needs and costs to operate our business.  Failure to operate our business in an efficient or optimized manner can adversely impact our business.

We may be unable to compete successfully with other companies in our industry.

We sell products and services in very competitive markets. In some cases, we compete with large companies with substantial resources. In other cases, we compete with smaller regional players that may increasingly be willing to provide similar products and services at lower prices. Competitive actions, such as price reductions, consolidation in the industry, improved delivery and other actions could adversely affect our revenue and earnings. Competition could also cause us to lower our prices, which could reduce our margins and profitability. Furthermore, consolidation of our customers' businesses could heighten the impacts of the competition on our business. Our results of operations could also be impacted, particularly if consolidation results in competitors with stronger financial and strategic resources and greater scale in inventory and purchasing power.  We must maintain an appropriate level of inventory and provide a service quality to adequately compete.  Our failure to successfully compete and maintain a competitive strategy can adversely affect our business.

We do not have long-term contracts or agreements with many of our customers. The contracts and agreements that we do have generally do not commit our customers to any minimum purchase volume. The loss of a significant customer may have a material adverse effect on us.

Given the nature of our business, and consistent with industry practice, we do not have long-term contracts with many of our customers. In addition, our contracts, including our maintenance, repair and operations (“MRO”) contracts, generally do not commit our customers to any minimum purchase volume. Therefore, a significant number of our customers, including our MRO customers, may terminate their relationships with us or reduce their purchasing volume at any time. Furthermore, the customer contracts that we do have are generally terminable without cause on short notice. Our 25 largest customers represented approximately 51% of our sales for the year ended December 31, 2021. The products that we may sell to any particular customer depend in large part on the size of that customer’s capital expenditure budget in a particular year and on the results of competitive bids for major projects. Consequently, a customer that accounts for a significant portion of our sales in one fiscal year may represent an immaterial portion of our sales in subsequent fiscal years. The loss of a significant customer, or a substantial decrease in a significant customer’s orders, may have an adverse effect on our sales and revenue. In addition, we are subject to customer audit clauses in many of our multi-year contracts. If we are not able to provide the proper documentation or support for invoices per the contract terms, we may be subject to negotiated settlements with our major customers.

If we are unable to attract and retain our employees or if we lose our key personnel, we may be unable to effectively operate and manage our business or continue our growth.

Our future performance depends to a significant degree upon the continued contributions of our employees and management team and our ability to attract, hire, train and retain employees for our workforce and qualified managerial, sales and marketing personnel.  If job openings for qualified personnel exceed the available qualified labor pool in a particular location, we may experience difficulty in attracting and retaining our workforce.  We may also need to increase our offered compensation and, thus, increase our costs to attract and retain qualified employees. 

We rely on our sales and marketing teams to create innovative ways to generate demand for the products we distribute. The loss or unavailability to us of any member of our management team or a key sales or marketing employee could have an adverse effect on us to the extent we are unable to timely find adequate replacements. We face competition for these professionals from our competitors, our customers and other companies operating in our industry. We may be unsuccessful in attracting, hiring, training and retaining qualified personnel.

Adverse health events, such as a pandemic, could adversely impact our business.

From time to time, various diseases have spread across the globe such as COVID-19, SARS and the avian flu. If a disease spreads sufficiently to cause an epidemic or a pandemic, the ability to operate our business or the businesses of our suppliers, contractors or customers could be reduced due to illness of employees or local restrictions to combat the disease. In addition, our supply chain that spans over 40 countries could be negatively impacted if our suppliers are unable to operate their business. Such an adverse health event could adversely impact our business.

Interruptions in the proper functioning of our information systems could disrupt operations and cause increases in costs or decreases in revenue.

The proper functioning of our information systems is critical to the successful operation of our business. However, our information systems are vulnerable to natural disasters, power losses, telecommunication failures, cyber incidents and other problems. Many of our systems utilize software as a service or operate on third party “cloud” servers.  Likewise, Company data is often stored on these servers.  If critical information systems, whether operated by the Company or a contracted third party, fail or are otherwise unavailable, our ability to operate our business could be adversely affected. Our ability to integrate our systems with our customers’ systems would also be significantly affected. We maintain information systems controls designed to protect against, among other things, unauthorized program changes and unauthorized access to data on our information systems. If our information systems controls do not function properly, we face increased risks of unexpected errors and unreliable financial data or theft of proprietary Company information.

We are constantly upgrading and modifying our information systems and the related software and hardware.  We are also implementing new systems and technology to support and grow our business and increase efficiencies.  Finally, we must maintain a number of aging information systems for our Company to operate.  A failure to properly upgrade, modify, implement or maintain these systems and technology can have an adverse effect on our Company.

The occurrence of cyber incidents, or a deficiency in our cybersecurity, could negatively impact our business by causing a disruption to our operations, a compromise or corruption of our confidential information or damage to our Company’s image or reputation, all of which could negatively impact our financial results.

A cyber incident is considered to be any adverse event that threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our information resources. More specifically, a cyber incident is an intentional attack or an unintentional event that can include gaining unauthorized access to systems to disrupt operations, corrupt data or steal confidential information. As our reliance on technology has increased, so have the risks posed to our systems, both internal and those we have outsourced. Our three primary risks that could directly result from the occurrence of a cyber incident include operational interruption, damage to our Company’s reputation and image and private data exposure. We have implemented hardware and software solutions, processes, training and procedures to help mitigate this risk, but these measures, as well as our organization’s increased awareness of our risk of a cyber incident, such measures may fail and do not guarantee that our financial results and operations will not be negatively impacted by such an incident. While we also have some insurance to protect against the financial damage that a cyber incident could cause, the insurance may not be adequate for every type of incident to protect against the financial damages that could occur. In some incidents, the Company may be required to shut off its computer systems, reboot them and reestablish its information from back up sources. In other incidents, the Company may be required under various laws to notify any third parties whose data has been compromised. These incidents can adversely affect us.

Cyber incidents could include (among others) the following:

Customer credit risks could result in losses.

Concentration of our customers in our various industry sectors may impact our overall exposure to credit risk as customers in a sector may be similarly affected by prolonged changes in economic and industry conditions. Further, laws in some jurisdictions in which we operate could make collection difficult or time consuming. In times when commodity prices are low, particularly in our upstream production sector, our customers with higher debt levels may not have the ability to pay their debts. Other customers may have specific issues regarding their ability to pay their indebtedness. We perform ongoing credit evaluations of our customers and do not generally require collateral in support of our trade receivables. While we maintain reserves for expected credit losses, these reserves may not be sufficient to meet write-offs of uncollectible receivables or that our losses from such receivables will be consistent with our expectations.

We may be unable to successfully execute or effectively integrate acquisitions.

From time to time, we may selectively pursue acquisitions, including large scale acquisitions, to continue to grow and increase profitability. However, acquisitions, particularly of a significant scale, involve numerous risks and uncertainties, including intense competition for suitable acquisition targets, the potential unavailability of financial resources necessary to consummate acquisitions in the future, increased leverage due to additional debt financing that may be required to complete an acquisition, dilution of our stockholders’ net current book value per share if we issue additional equity securities to finance an acquisition, difficulties in identifying suitable acquisition targets or in completing any transactions identified on sufficiently favorable terms, assumption of undisclosed or unknown liabilities and the need to obtain regulatory or other governmental approvals that may be necessary to complete acquisitions. In addition, any future acquisitions may entail significant transaction costs and risks associated with entry into new markets.

Even when acquisitions are completed, integration of acquired entities can involve significant difficulties, such as:

Failure to manage these acquisition risks could have an adverse effect on us.

We have a substantial amount of goodwill and other intangible assets recorded on our balance sheet, partly because of acquisitions and business combination transactions. The amortization of acquired intangible assets will reduce our future reported earnings. Furthermore, if our goodwill or other intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to recognize non-cash charges that would reduce our income.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $468 million of goodwill and other intangibles recorded on our consolidated balance sheet. A substantial portion of these intangible assets results from acquisitions we have made over the past several years. The excess of the cost of an acquisition over the fair value of identifiable tangible and intangible assets is assigned to goodwill. The amortization expense associated with our identifiable intangible assets will have a negative effect on our future reported earnings. Many other companies, including many of our competitors, may not have the significant acquired intangible assets that we have because they may not have participated in recent acquisitions and business combination transactions similar to ours. Thus, the amortization of identifiable intangible assets may not negatively affect their reported earnings to the same degree as ours.

Additionally, under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, goodwill and certain other indefinite-lived intangible assets are not amortized, but must be reviewed for possible impairment annually, or more often in certain circumstances where events indicate that the asset values are not recoverable. These reviews could result in an earnings charge for impairment, which would reduce our net income even though there would be no impact on our underlying cash flow. 

We face risks associated with conducting business in markets outside of North America.

We currently conduct substantial business in countries outside of North America, and we are subject to geopolitical events and risks related to international instability. We could be materially and adversely affected by economic, legal, political and regulatory developments in the countries in which we do business in the future or in which we expand our business, particularly those countries which have historically experienced a high degree of political or economic instability. Examples of risks inherent in such non-North American activities include:

If we begin doing business in a foreign country in which we do not presently operate, we may also face difficulties in operations and diversion of management time in connection with establishing our business there.

Risks Related to Our Capital Structure

Our indebtedness may affect our ability to operate our business, and this could have a material adverse effect on us.

We have now and will likely continue to have indebtedness. As of December 31, 2021, we had total debt outstanding of $297 million and excess availability of $484 million under our credit facilities. We may incur significant additional indebtedness in the future. If new indebtedness is added to our current indebtedness, the risks described below could increase. Our significant level of indebtedness could have important consequences, such as:

Our ability to make scheduled debt payments, to refinance our obligations with respect to our indebtedness and to fund capital and non-capital expenditures necessary to maintain the condition of our operating assets, properties and systems software, as well as to provide capacity for the growth of our business, depends on our financial and operating performance. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations, and future borrowings may not be available to us under our credit facilities in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. We may seek to sell assets to fund our liquidity needs but may not be able to do so. We may also need to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness on or before maturity. We may not be able to refinance any of our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

In addition, we are and will be subject to covenants contained in agreements governing our present and future indebtedness. These covenants include and will likely include restrictions on operations, business and capital flexibility.

Any defaults under our credit facilities, including our global asset-based lending facility (“Global ABL Facility”), our senior secured term loan B (“Term Loan”) or our other debt could trigger cross defaults under other or future credit agreements and may permit acceleration of our other indebtedness. If our indebtedness is accelerated, we cannot be certain that we will have sufficient funds available to pay the accelerated indebtedness or that we will have the ability to refinance the accelerated indebtedness on terms favorable to us or at all. For a description of our credit facilities and indebtedness, see “Item 7—Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources”.

Our parent company, MRC Global Inc., is a holding company and depends upon our subsidiaries for its cash flow.

Our parent company, MRC Global Inc., is a holding company. Our subsidiaries conduct all of our operations and own substantially all of our assets. Consequently, our parent company’s cash flow and its ability to meet its obligations or to pay dividends or make other distributions in the future will depend upon the cash flow of our subsidiaries and our subsidiaries’ payment of funds to MRC Global Inc. in the form of dividends, tax sharing payments or otherwise.

The ability of our subsidiaries to make any payments to us will depend on their earnings, the terms of their current and future indebtedness, tax considerations and legal and contractual restrictions on the ability to make distributions. In particular, our subsidiaries’ credit facilities currently impose limitations on the ability of our subsidiaries to make distributions to us and consequently our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders. Subject to limitations in our credit facilities, our subsidiaries may also enter into additional agreements that contain covenants prohibiting them from distributing or advancing funds or transferring assets to us under certain circumstances, including to pay dividends.

Our subsidiaries are separate and distinct legal entities. Any right that we have to receive any assets of or distributions from any of our subsidiaries upon the bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation or reorganization, or to realize proceeds from the sale of their assets, will be junior to the claims of that subsidiary’s creditors, including trade creditors and holders of debt that the subsidiary issued.

Changes in our credit profile may affect our relationship with our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity.

Changes in our credit profile may affect the way our suppliers view our ability to make payments and may induce them to shorten the payment terms of their invoices if they perceive our indebtedness to be high. Given the large dollar amounts and volume of our purchases from suppliers, a change in payment terms may have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and our ability to make payments to our suppliers and, consequently, may have a material adverse effect on us.

We may need additional capital in the future, and it may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all.

We may require more capital in the future to:

Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. The terms of available financing may place limits on our financial and operating flexibility. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be forced to reduce our operations or delay, limit or abandon expansion opportunities. Moreover, even if we are able to continue our operations, the failure to obtain additional financing could reduce our competitiveness.

Legal and Liability Risks

We may not have adequate insurance for potential liabilities, including liabilities arising from litigation.

In the ordinary course of business, we have, and in the future, may become the subject of various claims, lawsuits and administrative proceedings seeking damages or other remedies concerning our commercial operations, the products we distribute, employees and other matters, including potential claims by individuals alleging exposure to hazardous materials as a result of the products we distribute or our operations. Some of these claims may relate to the activities of businesses that we have acquired, even though these activities may have occurred prior to our acquisition of the businesses. The products we distribute are sold primarily for use in the energy, industrial gas utility sectors, which are subject to inherent risks that could result in death, personal injury, property damage, pollution, release of hazardous substances or loss of production. In addition, defects in the products we distribute could result in death, personal injury, property damage, pollution, release of hazardous substances or damage to equipment and facilities. Actual or claimed defects in the products we distribute may give rise to claims against us for losses and expose us to claims for damages.

We maintain insurance to cover certain of our potential losses, and we are subject to various self-insured retentions, deductibles and caps under our insurance. It is possible, however, that judgments could be rendered against us in cases in which we would be uninsured and beyond the amounts of insurance we have or beyond the amounts that we currently have reserved or anticipate incurring for these matters. Even a partially uninsured claim, if successful and of significant size, could have a material adverse effect on us. Furthermore, we may not be able to continue to obtain insurance on commercially reasonable terms in the future, and we may incur losses from interruption of our business that exceed our insurance coverage. Even in cases where we maintain insurance coverage, our insurers may raise various objections and exceptions to coverage that could make uncertain the timing and amount of any possible insurance recovery. Finally, while we may have insurance coverage, we cannot guarantee that the insurance carrier will have the financial wherewithal to pay a claim otherwise covered by insurance, and as a result we may be responsible for any such claims.

Due to our position as a distributor, we are subject to personal injury, product liability and environmental claims involving allegedly defective products.

Our customers use certain of the products we distribute in potentially hazardous applications that can result in personal injury, product liability and environmental claims. A catastrophic occurrence at a location where end users use the products we distribute may result in us being named as a defendant in lawsuits asserting potentially large claims, even though we did not manufacture the products. Applicable law may render us liable for damages without regard to negligence or fault. In particular, certain environmental laws provide for joint and several and strict liability for remediation of spills and releases of hazardous substances. Certain of these risks are reduced by the fact that we are a distributor of products that third-party manufacturers produce, and, thus, in certain circumstances, we may have third-party warranty or other claims against the manufacturer of products alleged to have been defective. However, there is no assurance that these claims could fully protect us or that the manufacturer would be able financially to provide protection. There is no assurance that our insurance coverage will cover or be adequate to cover the underlying claims. Our insurance does not provide coverage for all liabilities (including but not limited to liability for certain events involving pollution or other environmental claims). Our insurance does not cover damages from breach of contract by us or based on alleged fraud or deceptive trade practices.

We are a defendant in asbestos-related lawsuits. Exposure to these and any future lawsuits could have a material adverse effect on us.

We are a defendant in lawsuits involving approximately 1,161 claims, arising from exposure to asbestos-containing materials included in products that we are alleged to have distributed. Each claim involves allegations of exposure to asbestos-containing materials by a single individual, his or her spouse or family members. The complaints in these lawsuits typically name many other defendants. In the majority of these lawsuits, little or no information is known regarding the nature of the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries or their connection with the products we distributed. The potential liability associated with asbestos claims is subject to many uncertainties, including negative trends with respect to settlement payments, dismissal rates and the types of medical conditions alleged in pending or future claims, negative developments in the claims pending against us, the current or future insolvency of co-defendants, adverse changes in relevant laws or the interpretation of those laws and the extent to which insurance will be available to pay for defense costs, judgments or settlements. In addition, applicable insurance policies are subject to overall caps on limits, which coverage may exhaust the amount available from insurers under those limits. In those cases, the Company is seeking indemnity payments from responsive excess insurance policies, but other insurers may not be solvent or may not make payments under the policies without contesting their liability. Further, while we anticipate that additional claims will be filed against us in the future, we are unable to predict with any certainty the number, timing and magnitude of future claims. Therefore, pending or future asbestos litigation may ultimately have a material adverse effect on us. See “Item 7—Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Contractual Obligations, Commitments and Contingencies—Legal Proceedings” and “Item 3—Legal Proceedings” for more information.

We are subject to U.S. and other anti-corruption laws, trade controls, economic sanctions, and similar laws and regulations, including those in the jurisdictions where we operate. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could subject us to civil, criminal and administrative penalties and harm our reputation.

Doing business on a worldwide basis requires us to comply with the laws and regulations of the U.S. government and various foreign jurisdictions. These laws and regulations place restrictions on our operations, trade practices, partners and investment decisions. In particular, our operations are subject to U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-bribery and trade control laws and regulations, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), export controls and economic sanctions programs, including those administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). As a result of doing business in foreign countries and with foreign partners, we are exposed to a heightened risk of violating anti-corruption, anti-bribery and trade control laws and sanctions regulations.

The FCPA prohibits us from providing anything of value to foreign officials for the purposes of obtaining or retaining business or securing any improper business advantage. It also requires us to keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect the Company’s transactions. As part of our business, we may deal with state-owned business enterprises, the employees of which are considered foreign officials for purposes of the FCPA. In addition, the provisions of the United Kingdom Bribery Act (the “Bribery Act”) and other laws extend beyond bribery of foreign public officials and also apply to transactions with individuals that a government does not employ.

Economic sanctions programs restrict our business dealings with certain sanctioned countries, persons and entities. In addition, because we act as a distributor, we face the risk that our customers might further distribute our products to a sanctioned person or entity, or an ultimate end-user in a sanctioned country, which might subject us to an investigation concerning compliance with OFAC or other sanctions regulations.

Violations of anti-corruption and trade control laws and sanctions regulations are punishable by civil penalties, including fines, denial of export privileges, injunctions, asset seizures, debarment from government contracts and revocations or restrictions of licenses, as well as criminal fines and imprisonment. Such a violation could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, various state and municipal governments, universities and other investors maintain prohibitions or restrictions on investments in companies that do business with sanctioned countries, persons and entities, which could adversely affect the market for our common stock and other securities.

We are exposed to risks relating to evaluations of controls required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”).

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires us to annually evaluate our internal controls systems over financial reporting. This is not a static process as we may change our processes each year or acquire new companies that have different controls than our existing controls. Upon completion of this process each year, we may identify control deficiencies of varying degrees of severity under applicable U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) rules and regulations that remain unremediated. We are required to report, among other things, control deficiencies that constitute a “material weakness” or changes in internal controls that, or that are reasonably likely to, materially affect internal controls over financial reporting. A “material weakness” is a significant deficiency or combination of significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting that results in a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.

We could suffer a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements if we or our independent registered public accounting firm reports a material weakness in our internal controls, if we do not develop and maintain effective controls and procedures or if we are otherwise unable to deliver timely and reliable financial information. Any loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements or other negative reaction to our failure to develop timely or adequate disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls could result in a decline in the price of our common stock. In addition, if we fail to remedy any material weakness, our financial statements may be inaccurate, we may face restricted access to the capital markets and our stock price may be adversely affected.

Compliance with and changes in laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate could have a significant financial impact and affect how and where we conduct our operations.

We have operations in the U.S. and in 15 other countries. Expected and unexpected changes in the business and legal environments in the countries in which we operate can impact us. Compliance with and changes in laws, regulations and other legal and business issues could impact our ability to manage our costs and to meet our earnings goals. Compliance related matters could also limit our ability to do business in certain countries. Changes that could have a significant cost to us include new legislation, new regulations, or a differing interpretation of existing laws and regulations, changes in tax law or tax rates, the unfavorable resolution of tax assessments or audits by various taxing authorities, changes in trade and other treaties that lead to differing tariffs and trade rules, the expansion of currency exchange controls, export controls or additional restrictions on doing business in countries subject to sanctions in which we operate or intend to operate.

Not applicable.

In North America, we operate a hub and spoke model that is centered around our seven distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada with 92 service center locations which have inventory and local employees and house 13 valve and engineering service centers. Our U.S. network is comprised of 83 service center locations and six distribution centers. In Canada, we have 9 service center locations and one distribution center. We own less than 3% of our service center locations as we primarily lease these facilities. All of our distribution centers are leased.

Outside North America, we operate through a network of 21 service center locations located throughout Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East, including six distribution centers in the United Kingdom, Norway, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. Twelve valve and engineering service centers are housed within our distribution centers and service center locations. We own our Brussels, Belgium location, and the remainder of our locations are leased.

Our Company maintains its principal executive office at 1301 McKinney Street, Suite 2300, Houston, Texas, 77010 and also maintains corporate offices in Charleston, West Virginia and La Porte, Texas. These locations have corporate functions such as executive management, accounting, human resources, legal, marketing, supply chain management, business development and information technology.

From time to time, we have been subject to various claims and involved in legal proceedings incidental to the nature of our businesses. We maintain insurance coverage to reduce financial risk associated with certain of these claims and proceedings. It is not possible to predict the outcome of these claims and proceedings. However, in our opinion, there are no pending legal proceedings that upon resolution are likely to have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Also, from time to time, in the ordinary course of our business, our customers may claim that the products that we distribute are either defective or require repair or replacement under warranties that either we or the manufacturer may provide to the customer. These proceedings are, in the opinion of management, ordinary and routine matters incidental to our normal business. Our purchase orders with our suppliers generally require the manufacturer to indemnify us against any product liability claims, leaving the manufacturer ultimately responsible for these claims. In many cases, state, provincial or foreign law provides protection to distributors for these sorts of claims, shifting the responsibility to the manufacturer. In some cases, we could be required to repair or replace the products for the benefit of our customer and seek our recovery from the manufacturer for our expense. In the opinion of management, the ultimate disposition of these claims and proceedings are not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

For information regarding asbestos cases in which we are a defendant and other claims and proceedings, see “Item 7—Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Contractual Obligations, Commitments and Contingencies—Legal Proceedings” and “Note 17—Commitments and Contingencies” to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report.

Not applicable.  

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

The name, age, period of service and the title of each of our executive officers as of February 16, 2022, are listed below.

Robert J. Saltiel, Jr., age 59, has served as our president and chief executive officer (“CEO”) and a member of our board of directors since March 2021. Prior to this, he served as president and CEO of Key Energy Services from 2018 to 2019 and of Atwood Oceanics from 2009 to 2017. Mr. Saltiel held positions of increasing leadership in strategy, operations and marketing at Transocean from 2003 to 2009. Mr. Saltiel’s prior experience includes positions at Nabors Industries, Enron Corp., McKinsey & Co. and ExxonMobil. Mr. Saltiel received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1985 (magna cum laude) and an MBA from Northwestern University in 1990.

Kelly Youngblood, age 56, has served as our executive vice president and chief financial officer since March 2020 and executive vice president since November 2019. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Youngblood served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of BJ Services from December 2017 to November 2019 and prior to that was the senior vice president and chief financial officer at Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. from 2016 to 2017. He has also held a variety of finance and accounting positions of increasing responsibility at Halliburton, including vice president of investor relations. Mr. Youngblood is a CPA and received a B.A. in Accounting from Cameron University.

Daniel J. Churay, age 59, has served as our executive vice president – corporate affairs, general counsel, and corporate secretary since May 2012. In his current role, Mr. Churay manages the Company’s legal, risk and compliance, cyber security, external and government affairs and certain shared services functions. He also acts as corporate secretary to the Board. From 2012 until 2021, he served as chief human resources officer. Mr. Churay joined the Company in August 2011 as executive vice president and general counsel. Mr. Churay's prior experience includes positions at Rex Energy, YRC Worldwide, Inc., Baker Hughes and Norton Rose Fulbright. Mr. Churay received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Texas and a juris doctorate from the University of Houston Law Center.

Grant Bates, age 50, is our senior vice president of North America operations and e-commerce since July 2021. Before that he served as senior vice president of strategy, corporate development and e-commerce since April 2020. Prior to that he served as senior vice president of operations, International and Canada, and operational excellence. Prior to January 2019, Mr. Bates was our senior vice president and chief information officer since April 2016. Mr. Bates previously led our Canada region since March 2014 and prior to that served in various roles with the Company and one of its predecessors. Mr. Bates holds a B.E. in mechanical engineering from the University of Newcastle, a graduate diploma in management and a Master of Business Administration from Deakin University.

Steve Smith, age 54, is our senior vice president of international operations. Prior to that he served as vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa and has held multiple sales and operations leadership roles at MRC Global and one of its predecessors.

Rance Long, age 53, serves as our senior vice president of sales and marketing. Most recently he served as our vice president business development, midstream pipeline & gas utilities since 2013. Prior to this role, he served as vice president of line pipe and was responsible for all line pipe sales in the US. He joined MRC Global as part of the acquisition of LaBarge Pipe and Steel in 2008. Mr. Long holds a bachelor’s degree in construction from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Jack McCarthy, age 56, currently serves as our senior vice president of supply chain. Most recently, he served as our vice president of supply chain and technical sales. Prior to that role, Mr. McCarthy served as vice president of carbon steel pipe, fittings, flanges and VAMI supply chain management where he led our line pipe team since 2011 with responsibilities for our carbon steel fittings and flanges being added in 2016. Prior to joining MRC Global with the acquisition of LaBarge Pipe and Steel in 2005, he held roles in business development, sales and sales management in the industrial distribution industry for 17 years. Mr. McCarthy is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a former vice president and board member of the National Association of Steel Pipe Distributors.

Malcolm O'Neal, age 48, serves as our senior vice president of human resources. Mr. O'Neal served as BJ Services’ vice president, human resources & administration since 2017. Mr. O'Neal previously held senior management positions including North American HR vice president of Schindler Elevator Company since 2015 and positions at Ascend Performance Materials, Tyco International, Dupont, Wyeth and Milliken. Mr. O'Neal holds a B.S. in chemistry from Clemson University, an MS in human resource development from Clemson University and an MBA from Penn State University.

Gillian Anderson, age 36, serves as our vice president and chief accounting officer. Prior to that role, she held various positions with Ernst & Young LLP, including audit senior manager. Ms. Anderson is a CPA and a chartered accountant through the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. She holds an MA in accountancy and finance (with honors) from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).

PART II

As of February 9, 2022, there were 125 holders of record of the Company’s common stock.

The Company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “MRC”.

Our board of directors has not declared any dividends on common stock during 2021 or 2020 and currently has no intention to declare any dividends on common stock.

The Company’s Global ABL Facility, Term Loan and our 6.5% Series A Convertible Perpetual Preferred Stock restrict our ability to declare cash dividends under certain circumstances. Any future dividends declared would be at the discretion of our board of directors and would depend on our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, contractual obligations, the terms of our financing agreements at the time a dividend is considered, and other relevant factors.

Issuer Purchases of Securities

None.

PERFORMANCE GRAPH

The graph below compares the cumulative total shareholder return on our common stock to the S&P 500 Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index. The total shareholder return assumes $100 invested on December 31, 2016, in MRC Global Inc., the S&P 500 Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index. It also assumes reinvestment of all dividends. The results shown in the graph below are not necessarily indicative of future performance.

Comparison of Cumulative Total Return

This information shall not be deemed to be ‘‘soliciting material’’ or to be ‘‘filed’’ with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A (17-CFR 240.14a-1-240.14a-104), other than as provided in Item 201(e) of Regulation S-K, or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Exchange Act (15 U.S.C. 78r).

Reserved.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this report. This discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including, but not limited to, those set forth under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Item 1A—Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (as well as other sections of this Annual Report on Form 10-K) contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements include those preceded by, followed by or including the words “will,” “expect,” “intended,” “anticipated,” “believe,” “project,” “forecast,” “propose,” “plan,” “estimate,” “enable,” and similar expressions, including, for example, statements about our business strategy, our industry, our future profitability, growth in the industry sectors we serve, our expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, prospects and assumptions, and estimates and projections of future activity and trends in the energy, industrial and gas utilities industry. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on management’s expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control, including the factors described under “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” that may cause our actual results and performance to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things:

Undue reliance should not be placed on our forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements reflect our good faith beliefs, reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except to the extent law requires.

Overview

We are the leading global distributor of pipe, valves, and fittings ("PVF") and other infrastructure products and services to diversified energy, industrial and gas utility end-markets. We provide innovative supply chain solutions, technical product expertise and a robust digital platform to customers globally through our leading position across each of our diversified end-markets including the following sectors:

We offer over 250,000 SKUs, including an extensive array of PVF, oilfield supply, valve automation and modification, measurement, instrumentation and other general and specialty products from our global network of over 10,000 suppliers. With over 100 years of history, our over 2,600 employees serve approximately 10,000 customers through approximately 210 service locations including regional distribution centers, service centers, corporate offices and third party pipe yards, where we often deploy pipe near customer locations.

Our customers use the PVF and other infrastructure products that we supply in mission critical process applications that require us to provide a high degree of product knowledge, technical expertise and comprehensive value-added services to our customers. We seek to provide best-in-class service and a one-stop shop for customers by satisfying the most complex, multi- site needs of many of the largest companies in the energy, industrial and gas utilities sectors as their primary PVF supplier. We believe the critical role we play in our customers' supply chain, together with our extensive product and service offerings, broad global presence, customer-linked scalable information systems and efficient distribution capabilities, serve to solidify our long-standing customer relationships and drive our growth. As a result, we have an average relationship of over 25 years with our 25 largest customers.

Key Drivers of Our Business

We derive our revenue predominantly from the sale of PVF and other oilfield and industrial supplies to energy, industrial and gas utility customers globally. Our business is, therefore, dependent upon both the current conditions and future prospects in these industries and, in particular, maintenance and expansionary operating and capital expenditures by our customers in each of our sectors. The outlook for PVF spending is influenced by numerous factors, including the following:

Recent Trends and Outlook

We have made significant strides in increasing the diversification of our end markets over the last few years supporting our customers in the gas utilities sector and traditional energy markets, along with other industrial end markets and the rapidly evolving energy transition. For the year ended 2021, 67% of our revenue was derived from our gas utility and downstream, industrial and energy transition ("DIET") sectors, with the remainder in the upstream production and midstream pipeline sectors.

Gas Utilities

Our gas utility business had the most significant contribution to our revenue improvement in 2021 generating $1 billion in revenue, an increase of 21% compared to 2020. This continues to be our largest sector, making up 38% of our total company revenue in 2021. This business, which is largely independent of oil and gas commodity prices, was initially impacted by certain customer activity delays due to COVID-19 concerns but did not experience any material budget cuts or project cancellations. This sector is expected to have continued growth in 2022 due to increased activity levels resulting from integrity upgrade programs as well as new home construction. We currently have contracts with nine of the top ten U.S. gas utility companies, based on meter count. A recent analyst report estimates a low double-digit increase in the capital expenditures of gas utilities for the 3-year forward period of 2021-2023 as compared to the proceeding 3-year period of 2018-2020. Other recent research analyst projections indicate a similar double-digit increase in capital expenditures for our largest gas utility customers in 2022 compared to 2021.

Downstream, Industrial and Energy Transition (DIET)

DIET, our second largest sector, generated 29% of our total company revenue for 2021. Although DIET revenue declined marginally compared to 2020, we have seen meaningful improvements in activity levels as impacts from COVID-19 on maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) and upgrade projects have moderated. This business has historically been less volatile than the upstream and midstream pipeline sectors as it is less commodity price dependent. The revenue allocation is generally evenly split between chemicals, refining and other industrial markets with a relatively stable installed base of facilities and as such, this sector is more weighted to MRO and turnaround project activity. This sector is expected to have growth in 2022 due to increased customer activity levels related to MRO, project turnaround activity and new energy transition related projects, which we began including in this sector’s reporting in the third quarter of 2021. 

Recent forecast projections by Industrial Info Resources (IIR) show expected spending, both MRO and projects, for chemical processing companies to increase low double digits in 2022 over 2021. Chemical companies benefit from the low cost, secure feedstock sources, such as that in the U.S. and have invested in building new facilities in recent years and are expected to build others in the future, which will provide us with new opportunities. We created a Downstream Center of Excellence to re-focus our efforts on improving market penetration in this sub-sector and capture more new projects as they are sanctioned. Global GDP is a driver of growth for the chemicals sector, which is expected to expand by 4.4% in 2022 according to the American Chemistry Council. As demand for plastics and other chemicals continues to rise with population growth and improving GDP, our global chemicals business will also continue to grow.

IIR also forecasts petroleum refining spending, both MRO and projects, to increase double digits, in 2022 over 2021. Analysts’ estimates indicate our largest customers intend to increase spending strong double digits in 2022 over 2021. We serve some of the largest refiners in the U.S. and their related infrastructure is aging and requires consistent maintenance with scheduled and unscheduled turnarounds. During the heights of the pandemic, refining utilization declined significantly and much of the scheduled turnarounds were delayed. We started to see improvement in our refining business in the latter part of 2021 as customers increased activity related to necessary turnarounds.  However, increased turnaround activity for our customer base is expected in 2022, based on IIR estimates.

While the energy transition portion of our business is relatively small today, the energy transition movement is in early stages of development, and we expect it to grow over the next several years. The outlook for energy transition projects in the coming years is robust, as growing momentum and pressure to decarbonize the economy rises. The regulatory regime in many countries is also pushing this effort with recent regulations such as the EU’s carbon neutrality mandate, among many others. Also, many of our customers have made commitments to net zero emissions and to improve their ESG profile. Our customer base is one of the primary leaders in the energy transition movement and are positioned to lead the effort to decarbonize through nearer-term efforts such as renewable or biodiesel refineries and offshore wind electric generation as well as longer-term efforts such as carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen. These projects will require substantially the same products we currently provide today to these customers. We also sell low-emission valves, which represent 94% of the valves we sell currently. We are well-positioned to grow our energy transition business as we supply products for these projects through our long-standing customer relationships and our product and global supply chain expertise.

Upstream Production and Midstream Pipeline

The upstream production and midstream pipeline sectors of our business are the most cyclical in nature; however, in 2021 these sectors represented only about a third of our company revenues. In 2020, demand for oil and natural gas declined sharply because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in lower commodity prices, which, in turn, led to a significant decline in oil and gas industry spending, which had a material impact to both the upstream production and midstream pipeline components of our business. However, we have experienced an improvement in the demand for oil and natural gas as the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccinations gradually improved around the globe and pandemic restrictions eased. The increasing optimism related to demand recovery has led to higher commodity prices, which is typically positive for our business. Although demand levels remain below pre-pandemic levels, there continues to be growing confidence of returning to 2019 demand levels as soon as the end of 2022. Demand recovery could still possibly slow or pause as a result of additional waves of pandemic outbreak or heightened pandemic control measures. Over the longer term, we could also experience a structural shift in the global economy and its demand for oil and natural gas as a result of changes in the way people work, travel and interact. 

Notwithstanding the ongoing uncertainty, our 2021 revenue recovered from the low point in the fourth quarter of 2020. Revenue in the second half of 2021 trended approximately 17% higher than the second half of 2020 run rate. We are expecting continued growth in all our sectors in 2022. Recent spending plan estimates by sell-side research analysts indicate U.S. upstream spending in 2022 will experience double-digit growth compared to 2021. However, the percentage increases can vary significantly by customer. We expect oil and gas exploration and production operators, particularly the larger public operators that typically represent a significant portion of our upstream revenue to have a continued focus on capital discipline. Additionally, analysts are projecting that North America upstream capital spending in 2022 will be more heavily weighted to drilling activity instead of completions activity. Completions are correlated more closely to our upstream revenues. Furthermore, since the U.S. rig count bottomed in the second quarter of 2020, private operators, who historically have represented a smaller portion of our upstream revenue, have driven the majority of the rig count. As such, our company upstream revenue may trend lower compared to projected market improvements in the U.S. upstream spending estimates.

Longer Term Outlook

In January 2021, the U.S. President took office and a new U.S. Congress was seated. Both have publicly stated a desire to support alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and “green” hydrogen, reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases and generally address climate change. To that end, the new administration has implemented executive orders for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Agreement, which presumably will require the U.S. to set greenhouse gas reduction goals and enact policies to meet those goals. It has also announced an aggressive policy agenda to change the tax system, increase corporate and other income taxes, modify the relationships between the United States and other countries and make changes that reverse actions taken by the prior President. Congress has made proposals to increase U.S. federal government spending significantly on infrastructure and programs to address climate change and to add new taxes to help pay for these proposals. In November 2021, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, H.R. 3684, the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act", the first of these proposals. This act is primarily focused on providing funding for upgrading roads, bridges, public transit, railways, broadband infrastructure and clean water projects. We do not expect this act to have a material impact on our business. As of the date of this filing, other proposals have not yet been enacted. Until specific laws are passed, executive actions are taken, or federal regulatory action is enacted, it is unclear what impact these policies will have on our business. However, we play a critical role in supporting economic growth, particularly in developing countries, and we believe that oil and gas demand will continue to be significant in the coming decades. We are also well-positioned to benefit from increases in new decarbonization infrastructure such as carbon capture, CO2 and hydrogen pipelines as well as offshore wind electric generation.

We play a critical role in supporting our customers and the energy industry throughout the cycles. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's ("EIA") Reference Case published in it's International Energy Outlook 2021 that by 2050 world energy consumption will increase by nearly 50% between 2020 and 2050. Additionally, the EIA projects in its Reference Case renewable energy consumption to grow 15% in 2020 and to 27% in 2050 and natural gas consumption to grow by 31% between 2022 and 2050. This would require an increase in oil and gas to meet the rise in demand from current levels, which would continue to provide a robust market for our existing goods and services. Furthermore, our largest customers are among the leading investors in renewable energy technology. As they further rebalance their capital investment from traditional, carbon-based energy to alternative sources, we expect to continue to supply them and enhance our product and service offering as needed to support their changing requirements.

Supply Chain

As a distribution business, we have also closely monitored the ability of our suppliers and transportation providers to continue the functioning of our supply chain, particularly in cases where there are limited alternative sources of supply. Lead-times for purchases of certain products have extended substantially over the last few quarters and we expect continued disruptions related to both lead-times and logistics for the foreseeable future. We have not experienced significant delays by transportation providers, but we are experiencing significant increases in transportation costs as the economies of the U.S. and other countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our inventory position has allowed us to continue supply to most customers with little interruption. In those instances where there is interruption, we work with our customers to limit the impacts on their business and maintain an ongoing dialogue regarding the status of impacted orders. We also continue to monitor the current constrained labor market and related costs.

We have experienced significant inflation this year for certain product categories, especially in carbon steel pipe. Although inflation causes the price we pay for products to increase, we are generally able to leverage long-standing relationships with our suppliers and the high volume of our purchases to achieve market competitive pricing and preferential allocations of limited supplies. In addition, our contracts with customers generally allow us to pass price increases along to customers within a reasonable time after they occur. The imposition and removal of tariffs and quotas also impact pricing on imported product or product components. To the extent further pricing fluctuations impact our products, the impact on our revenue and cost of goods sold, which is determined using the last-in, first-out ("LIFO") inventory costing methodology, remains subject to uncertainty and volatility.

COVID-19 Pandemic

We continue to have measures in place to safeguard the health and welfare of our employees, including (among other things) social distancing measures while at work, certain screening, providing personal protection equipment such as face masks and hand sanitizer and providing "deep" cleaning services at Company facilities. If we were to develop a COVID-19 outbreak at one of our facilities, we have plans to isolate those in contact with potentially infected employees and to either staff the facility with employees from other facilities or supply product to customers from other facilities. We monitor guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") and other authorities on an ongoing basis. As various governmental isolation orders evolve, we continue to review our operational plans to continue operating our business while addressing the health and safety of our employees and those with whom our business comes into contact.

Backlog

We determine backlog by the amount of unshipped customer orders, either specific or general in nature, which the customer may revise or cancel in certain instances. The table below details our backlog by segment (in millions):

There can be no assurance that the backlog amounts will ultimately be realized as revenue or that we will earn a profit on the backlog of orders, but we expect that substantially all of the sales in our backlog will be realized within twelve months.

Key Industry Indicators

The following table sets forth key industry indicators for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019:

Results of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019

The breakdown of our sales by sector for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 was as follows (in millions):

Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2020

For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the following table summarizes our results of operations (in millions):

Sales. Sales reflect consideration we are entitled to for goods and services when control of those goods and services is transferred to our customers. Our sales were $2,666 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to $2,560 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The $106 million, or 4%, increase included a $30 million favorable impact from the strengthening of foreign currencies in areas where we operate relative to the U.S. dollar.

U.S. Segment—Our U.S. sales increased $155 million to $2,178 million for 2021 from $2,023 million for 2020. This 8% increase reflected a $174 million increase in the gas utilities sector, a $6 million decrease in the DIET sector, a $8 million decrease in the upstream production sector and a $5 million decrease in the midstream pipeline sector. The increase in gas utilities was driven by a new customer contract, pent-up demand from pandemic restriction project delays and infrastructure improvement projects. The remaining sectors declined largely due to the decline in activity during the pandemic, which impacted the first half of 2021. 

Canadian Segment—Our Canadian sales increased $4 million to $132 million for 2021 from $128 million for 2020. This 3% increase reflected a $5 million increase in the DIET sector, a $2 million increase in gas utilities, a $1 million decrease in the upstream production sector and a $2 million decrease in the midstream pipeline sector. The increase in the DIET sector and gas utilities was due to projects previously delayed being resumed. The strengthening of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar favorably impacted sales by $9 million, or 6%.

International Segment—Our International sales decreased $53 million to $356 million for 2021 from $409 million for 2020. The 13% decrease is primarily driven by non-recurring projects predominantly in the upstream production sector. In addition, the strengthening of foreign currencies in areas where we operate relative to the U.S. dollar favorably impacted sales by $21 million, or 6%.

Gross Profit. Our gross profit was $417 million (15.6% of sales) for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to $431 million (16.8% of sales) for the year ended December 31, 2020. The $14 million decrease was primarily attributable to charges associated with our last-in first-out ("LIFO") inventory costing methodology offset by increased sales. As compared to average cost, our LIFO inventory costing methodology increased cost of sales by $77 million in 2021 compared to a $19 million decrease in cost of sales in 2020.

Adjusted Gross Profit. Adjusted Gross Profit increased to $537 million (20.1% of sales) for 2021 from $504 million (19.7% of sales) for 2020, an increase of $33 million. The increase was primarily due to improved margins on our line pipe and gas product sales. Adjusted Gross Profit is a non-GAAP financial measure. We define Adjusted Gross Profit as sales, less cost of sales, plus depreciation and amortization, plus amortization of intangibles, plus inventory-related charges incremental to normal operations and plus or minus the impact of our LIFO inventory costing methodology. We present Adjusted Gross Profit because we believe it is a useful indicator of our operating performance without regard to items, such as amortization of intangibles that can vary substantially from company to company depending upon the nature and extent of acquisitions. Similarly, the impact of the LIFO inventory costing method can cause results to vary substantially from company to company depending upon whether they elect to utilize LIFO and depending upon which method they may elect. We use Adjusted Gross Profit as a key performance indicator in managing our business. We believe that gross profit is the financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles that is most directly comparable to Adjusted Gross Profit.

The following table reconciles gross profit, as derived from our consolidated financial statements, with Adjusted Gross Profit, a non-GAAP financial measure (in millions):

Selling, General and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses. Costs such as salaries, wages, employee benefits, rent, utilities, communications, insurance, fuel and taxes (other than state and federal income taxes) that are necessary to operate our service center and corporate operations are included in SG&A. Also contained in this category are certain items that are non-operational in nature, including certain costs of acquiring and integrating other businesses. Our SG&A expenses were $410 million (15.4% of sales) for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to $449 million (17.5% of sales) for the year ended December 31, 2020. The $39 million decrease in SG&A was driven by effective cost management of employee-related costs, including incentives and benefits. Additionally, we incurred $1 million of severance and restructuring charges and $2 million of charges associated to an employee separation in 2021 as compared to $14 million of expenses associated with facilities closures and $14 million of severance and restructuring charges in 2020. 2020 SG&A was reduced by a $2 million recovery of supplier bad debt. Excluding the impact of these charges, SG&A decreased $16 million. The strengthening of foreign currencies in areas where we operate relative to the U.S. dollar unfavorably impacted SG&A by $6 million.

Operating Income (Loss). Operating income was $7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to operating loss of $260 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, an increase of $267 million.

U.S. Segment—Our U.S. segment had an operating loss of $3 million for 2021 as compared to an operating loss of $207 million for 2020. The $204 million operating loss decrease was due to 2020 charges of $202 million of goodwill and intangible asset impairments, $28 million of inventory-related charges, $8 million of severance costs, and $3 million of costs associated with facility closures. Excluding these charges, operating income decreased $37 million from 2020, which is primarily due to the charges associated with LIFO.

Canadian Segment—Our Canadian segment had an operating loss of $0 million for 2021 as compared to an operating loss of  $6 million for 2020. The $6 million improvement in operating loss was primarily a result of $2 million of inventory-related charges, $1 million of severance costs, and $1 million of costs associated with facility closures in 2020.

International Segment—Our International segment had operating income of $10 million for 2021 as compared to operating loss of $47 million in 2020. The $57 million improvement in operating income was primarily attributable to certain unusual charges in 2020. These included $40 million of goodwill impairment charges, $16 million of inventory-related charges, $5 million of severance and $10 million of cost associated with facility closures. Excluding these charges, operating income decreased $14 million from 2020, which is primarily due to the reduced levels of sales activity.

Interest Expense. Our interest expense was $23 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to $28 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease in interest expense was attributable to lower average debt levels in 2021 as compared to 2020.

Other, net. Our other income was $2 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to income of $5 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. Other income for 2020 included a $5 million gain from a sale leaseback transaction.

Income Tax (Benefit) Expense. Our income tax benefit was $0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to a benefit of $9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. Our effective tax rates were 0% and 3% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Our rates generally differ from the U.S. federal statutory rates of 21% as a result of state income taxes and differing foreign income tax rates. The lower effective tax rate for 2021 was lower primarily due to tax expense in a foreign jurisdication related to a provision for valuation allowances on certain deferred tax assets.

Net (Loss) Income. Our net loss was $14 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to net loss of $274 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, an increase of $260 million due to the goodwill and intangible asset impairments and inventory-related charges described above.

Adjusted EBITDA.  Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $146 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to $97 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. Our Adjusted EBITDA increased $49 million over that period primarily due to the increase in sales and effective cost management.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income plus interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, amortization of intangibles and certain other expenses, including non-cash expenses such as equity-based compensation, severance and restructuring, changes in the fair value of derivative instruments, long-lived asset impairments (including goodwill and intangible assets), inventory-related charges incremental to normal operations and plus or minus the impact of our LIFO inventory costing methodology.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides investors a helpful measure for comparing our operating performance with the performance of other companies that may have different financing and capital structures or tax rates. We believe it is a useful indicator of our operating performance without regard to items, such as amortization of intangibles, which can vary substantially from company to company depending upon the nature and extent of acquisitions. Similarly, the impact of the LIFO inventory costing method can cause results to vary substantially from company to company depending upon whether they elect to utilize LIFO and depending upon which method they may elect. We use Adjusted EBITDA as a key performance indicator in managing our business. We believe that net income is the financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles that is most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDA.

The following table reconciles net income, as derived from our consolidated financial statements, with Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure (in millions):

Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2019

For discussion and analysis of fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, please refer to Item 7 of Part II, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 12, 2021 and is incorporated herein by reference.

Financial Condition and Cash Flows

Cash Flows

The following table sets forth our cash flows for the periods indicated below (in millions):

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $56 million in 2021 compared to $261 million provided by operating activities in 2020. The change in operating cash flows was primarily the result of an increase in working capital as a result of inventory purchases and other expenses to support growing market activity, as compared to a reduction in working capital in 2020 as a result of reduced market activity.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $7 million in 2021 compared to $19 million provided in 2020. In 2020, we completed sale leaseback transactions involving four of our locations which generated net proceeds of $29 million. Purchases of property, plant and equipment utilized cash of $10 million and $11 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities was $118 million in 2021, compared to net cash used in financing activities of $195 million in 2020. In 2021, we made a payment of $86 million on our Term Loan as a result of excess cash flow generation in 2020 as well as $1 million mandatory principal payment. Net payments on our Global ABL Facility totaled $0 million in 2021 compared to $161 million in 2020. We used $24 million to fund dividends on our preferred stock in each of 2021 and 2020. 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our primary credit facilities consist of a Term Loan maturing in September 2024 with an original principal amount of $400 million and a $750 million Global ABL Facility. As of December 31, 2021, the outstanding balance on our Term Loan, net of original issue discount and issuance costs, was $297 million. On an annual basis, we are required to repay an amount equal to 50% of excess cash flow, as defined in the Term Loan agreement, reducing to 25% if the Company’s senior secured leverage ratio is no more than 2.75 to 1.00. No payment of excess cash flow is required if the Company’s senior secured leverage ratio is less than or equal to 2.50 to 1.00. Under the terms of the Term Loan, the amount of cash used in the determination of the senior secured leverage ratio is limited to $75 million. Under this provision of the Term Loan, in April 2021 we made a payment of $86 million as a result of excess cash flow generation in 2020. Based on our senior secured leverage ratio at the end of 2021, we will not be required to make an excess cash flow payment for 2021 in 2022.

In September 2021, we amended and renewed our Global ABL Facility. The Global ABL Facility now matures in September 2026 and provides $705 million in revolver commitments in the United States (with a $30 million sublimit in Canada), $12 million in Norway, $10 million in Australia, $10.5 million in the Netherlands, $7.5 million in the United Kingdom and $5 million in Belgium. The Global ABL Facility contains an accordion feature that allows us to increase the principal amount of the facility by up to $250 million, subject to securing additional lender commitments. U.S. borrowings under the facility bear interest at LIBOR plus a margin varying between 1.25% and 1.75% based on our fixed charge coverage ratio. Canadian borrowings under the facility bear interest at the Canadian Dollar Bankers' Acceptances Rate ("BA Rate") plus a margin varying between 1.25% and 1.75% based on our fixed charge coverage ratio. Borrowings under our foreign borrower subsidiaries bear interest at a benchmark rate, which varies based on the currency in which such borrowings are made, plus a margin varying between 1.25% and 1.75% based on our fixed charge coverage ratio. Availability is dependent on a borrowing base comprised of a percentage of eligible accounts receivable and inventory which is subject to redetermination from time to time. As of December 31, 2021, we had no borrowings outstanding and $484 million of Excess Availability, as defined under our Global ABL Facility.

Our primary sources of liquidity consist of cash generated from our operating activities, existing cash balances and borrowings under our existing Global ABL Facility. At December 31, 2021, our total liquidity, consisting of cash on hand and amounts available under our Global ABL Facility, was $532 million. Our ability to generate sufficient cash flows from our operating activities is primarily dependent on our sales of products to our customers at profits sufficient to cover our fixed and variable expenses. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $48 million and $119 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, $38 million and $57 million of our cash and cash equivalents were maintained in the accounts of our various foreign subsidiaries and, if those amounts were transferred among countries or repatriated to the U.S., those amounts may be subject to additional tax liabilities, which would be recognized in our financial statements in the period during which the transfer decision was made. During 2021, we repatriated $7 million of cash from our Canadian subsidiaries.

Our credit ratings are below “investment grade” and, as such, could impact both our ability to raise new funds as well as the interest rates on our future borrowings. In the first quarter of 2021, Moody's Investor Services changed our ratings outlook from negative to stable and, in the second quarter of 2021, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings revised the Company's outlook to stable. Our existing obligations restrict our ability to incur additional debt. We were in compliance with the covenants contained in our various credit facilities as of and during the year ended December 31, 2021 and, based on our current forecasts, we expect to remain in compliance. Our credit facilities contain provisions that address the potential need to transition away from LIBOR when LIBOR is discontinued or replaced.

We believe our sources of liquidity will be sufficient to satisfy the anticipated cash requirements associated with our existing operations for the foreseeable future. However, our future cash requirements could be higher than we currently expect as a result of various factors. Additionally, our ability to generate sufficient cash from our operating activities depends on our future performance, which is subject to general economic, political, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. We may, from time to time, seek to raise additional debt or equity financing or re-price or refinance existing debt in the public or private markets, based on market conditions. Any such capital markets activities would be subject to market conditions, reaching final agreement with lenders or investors, and other factors, and there can be no assurance that we would successfully consummate any such transactions.

Contractual Obligations, Commitments and Contingencies

Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes our minimum payment obligations as of December 31, 2021 relating to long-term debt, interest payments, capital leases, operating leases, purchase obligations and other long-term liabilities for the periods indicated (in millions):

We historically have been an acquisitive company. We expect to fund future acquisitions primarily from (i) borrowings, either the unused portion of our facilities or new debt issuances, (ii) cash provided by operations or (iii) the issuance of additional equity in connection with the acquisitions.

Other Commitments

In the normal course of business with customers, vendors and others, we are contingently liable for performance under standby letters of credit and bid, performance and surety bonds. We were contingently liable for approximately $19 million of standby letters of credit, trade guarantees that banks issue and bid, and performance and surety bonds at December 31, 2021. Management does not expect any material amounts to be drawn on these instruments.

Legal Proceedings

Asbestos Claims.  We are one of many defendants in lawsuits that plaintiffs have brought seeking damages for personal injuries that exposure to asbestos allegedly caused. Plaintiffs and their family members have brought these lawsuits against a large volume of defendant entities as a result of the various defendants’ manufacture, distribution, supply or other involvement with asbestos, asbestos-containing products or equipment or activities that allegedly caused plaintiffs to be exposed to asbestos. These plaintiffs typically assert exposure to asbestos as a consequence of third-party manufactured products that the Company’s subsidiary, MRC Global (US) Inc., purportedly distributed. As of December 31, 2021, we are a named defendant in approximately 596 lawsuits involving approximately 1,161 claims. No asbestos lawsuit has resulted in a judgment against us to date, with the majority being settled, dismissed or otherwise resolved. Applicable third-party insurance has substantially covered these claims, and insurance should continue to cover a substantial majority of existing and anticipated future claims. Accordingly, we have recorded a liability for our estimate of the most likely settlement of asserted claims and a related receivable from insurers for our estimated recovery, to the extent we believe that the amounts of recovery are probable.

We annually conduct analyses of our asbestos-related litigation to estimate the adequacy of the reserve for pending and probable asbestos-related claims. Given these estimated reserves and existing insurance coverage that has been available to cover substantial portions of these claims, we believe that our current accruals and associated estimates relating to pending and probable asbestos-related litigation likely to be asserted over the next 15 years are currently adequate. This belief, however, relies on a number of assumptions, including:

If any of these assumptions prove to be materially different in light of future developments, liabilities related to asbestos-related litigation may be materially different than amounts accrued or estimated. Further, while we anticipate that additional claims will be filed in the future, we are unable to predict with any certainty the number, timing and magnitude of such future claims. In addition, applicable insurance policies are subject to overall caps on limits, which coverage may exhaust the amount available from insurers under those limits. In those cases, the Company is seeking indemnity payments from responsive excess insurance policies, but other insurers may not be solvent or may not make payments under the policies without contesting their liability. In our opinion, there are no pending legal proceedings that are likely to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Other Legal Claims and Proceedings. From time to time, we have been subject to various claims and involved in legal proceedings incidental to the nature of our businesses. We maintain insurance coverage to reduce financial risk associated with certain of these claims and proceedings. It is not possible to predict the outcome of these claims and proceedings. However, in our opinion, there are no pending legal proceedings that are likely to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements. See also “Note 17—Commitments and Contingencies” to the audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2021.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We do not have any material “off-balance sheet arrangements” as SEC rules and regulations define that term.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. To apply these principles, management must make judgments and assumptions and develop estimates based on the best available information at the time. Actual results may differ based on the accuracy of the information utilized and subsequent events. The notes to our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this report describe our accounting policies. These critical accounting policies could materially affect the amounts recorded in our financial statements. We believe the following describes significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements:

Inventories: Our U.S. inventories are valued at the lower of cost (principally using the LIFO method) or market. We record an estimate each quarter, if necessary, for the expected annual effect of inflation (using period to date inflation rates) and estimated year-end inventory balances. These estimates are adjusted to actual results determined at year-end. Our inventories that are held outside of the U.S., totaling $118 million and $145 million at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, were valued at the lower of weighted-average cost or estimated net realizable value.

Under the LIFO inventory valuation method, changes in the cost of inventory are recognized in cost of sales in the current period even though these costs may have been incurred at significantly different values. Since the Company values most of its inventory using the LIFO inventory costing methodology, a rise in inventory costs has a negative effect on operating results, while, conversely, a fall in inventory costs results in a benefit to operating results.

We determine reserves for inventory based on historical usage of inventory on-hand, assumptions about future demand and market conditions. Customers rely on the company to stock specialized items for certain projects and other needs. Therefore, the estimated carrying value of inventory depends upon demand driven by oil and gas spending activity, which in turn depends on oil and gas prices, the general outlook for economic growth worldwide, political stability in major oil and gas producing areas, and the potential obsolescence of various inventory items we sell.

Goodwill and Intangible Assets: We record goodwill and intangible assets in conjunction with acquisitions that we make. These assets comprise 28% of our total assets as of December 31, 2021. We record goodwill as the excess of cost over the fair value of net assets that we acquire. We record intangible assets at fair value at the date of acquisition and amortize the value of intangible assets over the assets’ estimated useful lives unless we determine that an asset has an indefinite life. We make significant judgments and estimates in both calculating the fair value of these assets and determining their estimated useful lives. The carrying values of our goodwill and intangible assets, by reporting unit, were as follows as of December 31, 2021 (in millions):

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets: 

Our long-lived assets consist primarily of:

The carrying value of these assets is subject to an impairment test when circumstances indicate a possible impairment. These circumstances would include significant decreases in our operating results and significant changes in market demand for our products and services. When events and circumstances indicate a possible impairment, we assess recoverability from future operations using an undiscounted cash flow analysis, derived from the lowest appropriate asset group. If the carrying value exceeds the undiscounted cash flows, we would recognize an impairment charge to the extent that the carrying value exceeds the fair value.

We group customer base intangible assets on a basis consistent with our reporting units. We determine the fair value of customer base intangibles using a discounted cash flow analysis. The most significant factor in the determination of the fair value of our customer base intangibles is forecasted sales to our customers including, in particular, our largest customers. Possible indicators of impairment could include the following:

Although we determined there were no impairments of long-lived assets in 2021 and 2020, significant decreases in our forecasted sales, particularly with our largest customers, could result in future impairments of our customer base intangible assets.

The carrying value of property, plant and equipment as of December 31, 2021 was $91 million, or 5% of total assets. This amount was comprised of $81 million, $1 million and $9 million in our U.S., Canada and International segments, respectively. We group property, plant and equipment and evaluate it for recoverability at a country or regional level. We determine the fair value of property, plant and equipment based on appraisal procedures which involve both market and cost techniques depending on the nature of the specific assets and the availability of market information. In 2021, no indicators of property, plant and equipment impairment were present. Based on the nature of our property, plant and equipment and the reduction in carrying value each year through depreciation, we believe future impairments are not likely.

When testing for the impairment of the value of long-lived assets, we make forecasts of:

We make these forecasts using the best available information at the time, including information regarding current market conditions and customer spending forecasts. While we believe our assumptions and estimates are reasonable, because of the volatile nature of the energy industry, actual results may differ materially from the projected results which could result in the recognition of additional impairment charges. Factors that could lead to actual results differing materially from projected results include, among other things, further reductions of oil and natural gas prices and changes in projected sales growth rates.

Impairment of Goodwill and Other Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets: We assess goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite useful lives for impairment annually, as of October 1^st each year, or more frequently if events and circumstances indicate that impairment may exist. We evaluate goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level. Within each reporting unit, we have elected to aggregate the component countries and regions into a single reporting unit based on their similar economic characteristics, products, customers, suppliers, methods of distribution and the manner in which we operate each segment. 

In the first half of 2020, demand for oil and natural gas declined sharply as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This disruption in demand and the resulting decline in the price of oil had a dramatic negative impact on our business. We experienced a significant reduction in sales beginning in April 2020 which continued throughout the second quarter. At that time, there remained ongoing uncertainty around the timing and extent of any recovery. We took a more pessimistic long-term outlook due to the significant reduction in the demand for oil, the implications of that demand destruction on the price of oil for an extended period of time and actions our customers had taken to curtail costs and reduce spending. As a result of those developments, we concluded that it was more likely than not the fair values of our U.S. and International reporting units and our U.S. indefinite-lived tradename were lower than their carrying values. Accordingly, we completed an interim impairment test as of April 30, 2020 and recognized impairment charges of $217 million for goodwill, comprised of $177 million in our U.S. reporting unit and $40 million in our International reporting unit, and $25 million for our indefinite-lived intangible asset. Subsequent to these impairments, we only have goodwill recorded in our U.S. reporting unit and U.S. tradename is our only indefinite-lived intangible asset.

In connection with our annual goodwill and indefinite-lived tradename impairment tests as of October 1, 2021, and 2020, we performed a qualitative assessment of the carrying value of the goodwill for our U.S. reporting unit and U.S. indefinite-lived tradename asset. This assessment took into consideration changes in the broader economy, our industry and our business since the interim quantitative impairment tests completed as of April 30, 2020. Based on our assessment, we concluded there was no additional impairment of our goodwill or U.S. tradename.

When we perform a quantitative goodwill impairment test, we compare the carrying value of the reporting unit that has the goodwill with the estimated fair value of that reporting unit. To the extent the carrying value of a reporting unit is greater than its estimated fair value, a goodwill impairment charge is recorded for the difference, up to the carrying value of goodwill. Our impairment methodology uses discounted cash flow and multiples of cash earnings valuation techniques, acquisition control premium and valuation comparisons to similar businesses to determine the fair value of a reporting unit. Each of these methods involves Level 3 unobservable market inputs and require us to make certain assumptions and estimates regarding:

We make these forecasts using the best available information at the time including information regarding current market conditions and customer spending forecasts. While we believe that these assumptions and estimates are reasonable, because of the volatile nature of the energy industry, actual results may differ materially from the projected results which could result in the recognition of additional impairment charges. Factors that could lead to actual results differing materially from projected results include, among other things:

When we perform a quantitative impairment test for intangible assets with indefinite useful lives, we compare the carrying value of the indefinite-lived intangible assets with their estimated fair value. If the carrying value is more than the estimated fair value, we recognize impairment losses in an amount equal to the excess of the carrying value over the estimated fair value. Our impairment methodology uses discounted cash flow and estimated royalty rate valuation techniques. Utilizing these valuation methods, we make certain assumptions and estimates regarding:

As with the goodwill impairment test described above, while we believe that our assumptions and estimates are reasonable, because of the volatile nature of the energy industry, actual results may differ materially from the projected results which could result in the recognition of additional impairment charges.

Income Taxes: We use the liability method for determining our income taxes, under which current and deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded in accordance with enacted tax laws and rates. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded for differences between the financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities using the tax rate expected to be in effect when the taxes will actually be paid or refunds received. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in earnings in the period that includes the enactment date. A valuation allowance to reduce deferred tax assets is established when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.

In determining the need for valuation allowances and our ability to utilize our deferred tax assets, we consider and make judgments regarding all the available positive and negative evidence, including the timing of the reversal of deferred tax liabilities, estimated future taxable income, ongoing, prudent and feasible tax planning strategies and recent financial results of operations. The amount of valuation allowances, however, could be adjusted in the future if objective negative evidence in the form of cumulative losses is no longer present in certain jurisdictions and additional weight may be given to subjective evidence such as our projections for growth.

Our tax provision is based upon our expected taxable income and statutory rates in effect in each country in which we operate. We are subject to the jurisdiction of numerous domestic and foreign tax authorities, as well as to tax agreements and treaties among these governments. Determination of taxable income in any jurisdiction requires the interpretation of the related tax laws and regulations and the use of estimates and assumptions regarding significant future events such as the amount, timing and character of deductions, permissible revenue recognition methods under the tax law and the sources and character of income and tax credits. Changes in tax laws, regulations, agreements and treaties, foreign currency exchange restrictions or our level of operations or profitability in each taxing jurisdiction could have an impact on the amount of income taxes we provide during any given year.

A tax benefit from an uncertain tax position may be recognized when it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained upon examination, including any related appeals or litigation processes, on the basis of the technical merits. We adjust these liabilities when our judgment changes as a result of the evaluation of new information not previously available. Because of the complexity of some of these uncertainties, the ultimate resolution may result in a payment that is materially different from our current estimate of the tax liabilities. These differences will be reflected as increases or decreases to income tax expense in the period in which the new information is available.

Interest Rate Risk

As of December 31, 2021, all of our outstanding debt was at floating rates. These facilities prescribe the percentage point spreads from U.S. prime, LIBOR, Canadian prime and EURIBOR. Our facilities generally allow us to fix the interest rate, at our option, for a period of 30 to 180 days. We are currently party to a $250 million interest rate swap to fix a portion of our variable rate exposure that matures in March 2023.

As of December 31, 2021, a 1% increase in the LIBOR rate would result in an increase in our interest expense of less than $1 million per year if the amounts outstanding under our Term Loan and Global ABL Facility remained the same for an entire year.

Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

Our operations outside of the U.S. expose us to foreign currency exchange rate risk, as these transactions are primarily denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, our functional currency. Our exposure to changes in foreign exchange rates is managed primarily through the use of forward foreign exchange contracts. These contracts increase or decrease in value as foreign exchange rates change, protecting the value of the underlying transactions denominated in foreign currencies. All currency contracts are entered into for the sole purpose of hedging existing or anticipated currency exposure; we do not use foreign currency contracts for trading or speculative purposes. The terms of these contracts generally do not exceed one year. We record all changes in the fair market value of forward foreign exchange contracts in income. Gains and losses incurred in the years ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 were not material.

Steel Prices

Our business is sensitive to steel prices, which can impact our product pricing, with carbon steel line pipe prices generally having the highest degree of sensitivity. While we cannot predict steel prices, we manage this risk by managing our inventory levels, including maintaining sufficient quantity on hand to meet demand, while reducing the risk of overstocking.

None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As required by the Exchange Act, we maintain disclosure controls and procedures designed to provide assurance that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Our disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management, with the participation of our principal executive and financial officers, has evaluated our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021 and has concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2021.

Pursuant to section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have provided certain certifications to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These certifications are included herein as Exhibits 31.1 and 31.2.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

The Company’s management report on internal control over financial reporting is set forth on page F-1 of this annual report and is incorporated herein by reference.

Attestation Report of our Registered Public Accounting Firm

The Company’s registered public accounting firm’s attestation report on our internal control over financial reporting is set forth on page F-2 of this annual report and is incorporated herein by reference.

Changes in Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

None.

PART III

The information regarding our directors and nominees for director required by Item 401 of Regulation S-K will be presented under the heading “PROPOSAL I: ELECTION OF DIRECTORS” in our Proxy Statement prepared for the solicitation of proxies in connection with our annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held in 2022 (“Proxy Statement”), which information is incorporated by reference herein.

Information required by Item 405 of Regulation S-K to the extent required, will be included, if applicable, under the heading “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

Information regarding our executive officers required by Item 401(b) of Regulation S-K is presented at the end of Part I herein and captioned “Executive Officers of the Registrant” as permitted by General Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K and Instruction 3 to Item 401(b) of Regulation S-K.

Information required by paragraphs (c)(3), (d)(4) and (d)(5) of Item 407 of Regulation S-K will be included under the heading “QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE ANNUAL MEETING AND VOTING” and “CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MATTERS” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

We have adopted a Code of Ethics for Principal Executive and Senior Financial Officers (“Code of Ethics for Senior Officers”) that applies to our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, and Controller, or persons performing similar functions. The Code of Ethics for Senior Officers, together with our Corporate Governance Guidelines, the charters for each of our board committees, and our Code of Ethics applicable to all employees are available on our Internet website at www.mrcglobal.com. We will provide, free of charge, a copy of our Code of Ethics or any of our other corporate documents listed above upon written request to our Corporate Secretary at 1301 McKinney Street, Suite 2300, Houston, Texas, 77010. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of the Code of Ethics for Senior Officers on behalf of our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, and Controller, and persons performing similar functions on our Internet website at www.mrcglobal.com under the Investor Relations page, promptly following the date of any such amendment or waiver.

The information required by Item 402 and paragraphs (e)(4) and (e)(5) of Item 407 of Regulations S-K regarding executive compensation will be presented under the headings “COMPENSATION DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS,” “Employment and Other Agreements,” “Summary Compensation Table for 2021,” “Grants of Plan-Based Awards in Fiscal Year 2021,” “Outstanding Equity Awards at 2021 Fiscal Year-End,” “Option Exercises and Stock Vested During 2021,” “Potential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control,” “Non-Employee Director Compensation Table,” “Compensation Committee Report,” and “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the information provided under the heading “Compensation Committee Report” in our Proxy Statement is furnished and shall not be deemed to be filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act is not subject to the liabilities of that section and is not deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act.

The information regarding the security ownership of certain beneficial owners and management required by Item 403 of Regulation S-K will be presented under the headings “SECURITY OWNERSHIP – Directors and Executive Owners” and “SECURITY OWNERSHIP – Certain Beneficial Owners” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

The following table summarizes information, as of December 31, 2021, relating to our equity compensation plans pursuant to which grants of options, restricted stock, or certain other rights to acquire our shares may be granted from time to time.

The information regarding certain relationships and related transactions required by Item 404 and Item 407(a) of Regulation S-K will be presented under the headings “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions”, “Related Party Transaction Policy”, "PROPOSAL I: ELECTION OF DIRECTORS - 'Knowledge, Skills and Experience of Nominees Plus our Designated Director' and 'Certain Information Regarding Nominees' and “Director Independence” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

The information regarding our principal accounting fees and services required by Item 9(e) of Schedule 14A will be presented under the headings “Principal Accounting Fees and Services” and “Policy on Audit Committee Pre-Approval of Audit and Non-Audit Services of Independent Auditors” in our Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

PART IV

All schedules are omitted because they are not applicable, not required or the information is included in the financial statements or the notes thereto.

†Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement required to be posted as an exhibit to this report.

*Filed herewith.

**Furnished herewith.

None. 

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date: February 16, 2022

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacity and on the dates indicated.

MANAGEMENT’S REPORT ON INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING

MRC Global Inc.’s management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. MRC Global Inc.’s internal control system was designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Internal control over financial reporting cannot provide absolute assurance of achieving financial reporting objectives because of its inherent limitations. Internal control over financial reporting is a process that involves human diligence and compliance and is subject to lapses in judgment and breakdowns resulting from human failures. Internal control over financial reporting also can be circumvented by collusion or improper management override. Because of such limitations, there is a risk that material misstatements may not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis by internal control over financial reporting. However, these inherent limitations are known features of the financial reporting process. Therefore, it is possible to design into the process safeguards to reduce, though not eliminate, this risk.

Management has used the framework set forth in the report entitled “Internal Control—Integrated Framework” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (“COSO”) of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Management has concluded that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2021.

Ernst & Young LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the Company’s consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K, has issued an attestation report on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Ernst & Young LLP’s attestation report on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting is included in this Form 10-K.

Houston, Texas

February 16, 2022

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of MRC Global Inc.

Opinion on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited MRC Global Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control— Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, MRC Global Inc. (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the 2021 consolidated financial statements of the Company, and our report dated February 16, 2022, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

Houston, Texas

February 16, 2022

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of MRC Global Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of MRC Global Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of the Company at December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission 2013 framework and our report dated February 16, 2022, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2007.

Houston, Texas

February 16, 2022

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS 

MRC GLOBAL INC.

(in millions, except shares)

See notes to consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

MRC GLOBAL INC.

(in millions, except per share amounts)

See notes to consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS)

MRC GLOBAL INC.

(in millions) 

See notes to consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

MRC GLOBAL INC.

(in millions)