January 2026
Customer Communication of Steel Requirements
Steelscape proudly produces a diverse range of coated and painted products to meet customer, regulatory, and project requirements. In Steelscape’s manufacturing process, the raw material from which we produce our products is hot band steel coil. Typically, the composition and source of hot band steel will impact the finished products' ability to meet project-specific federal and state sourcing or green building program requirements. These requirements must be communicated to Steelscape in a consistent manner at the time of order entry or quote.
For clarity, the primary terms for hot band steel coil are outlined below. We ask customers to use this terminology when interacting with Steelscape customer service teams. Key terms include:
Standard Material – Steelscape’s standard material is produced from several suppliers, including domestic and foreign sources. Currently, Steelscape’s primary hot band suppliers use a Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) process. The amount of recycled content can vary by producer and typically, coil-specific recycled content information is not collected. Standard hot band is applied to all orders unless a customer specifies otherwise.
Domestic Melted and Poured Material (also known as MPUSA)- This reflects hot band material produced in the USA but does not have to meet recycled content requirements. This material is commonly requested to meet American Iron and Steel (AIS) requirements for programs such as Buy America, or the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) revolving funds program. This material may be produced using either Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) or Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) methods. Steelscape does not capture recycled content information for these requests.
High-Recycled Content Material– This includes hot band material produced exclusively by the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) production method. EAF utilizes a high component of scrap in the production process that enables it to achieve a higher threshold of recycled content. This high-recycled content hot band steel may contain 50-75% recycled content in total recycled content. This is a common request for projects seeking program accreditation such as LEED, and some state-based project requirements. The recycled content in High-Recycled Content Material can still vary by supplier and product, and the customer must outline the total recycled content threshold required as a % (e.g. 60%) as part of the ordering process. Please note that products manufactured using EAF-sourced steel may offer a lower carbon intensity than Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) products. To assist users, Steelscape publishes a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for EAF and BOF sourced bare and painted products. LCA documentation is available by request. If specific carbon intensity objectives are required, please consult directly with Steelscape before quotation.

Steelscape, LLC | 222 West Kalama River Road, Kalama, WA 98625

Domestic Melted and Poured AND High-Recycled Content Material – Some projects may require both domestically produced material that features high recycled content. This is a common request for projects seeking program accreditation such as LEED, and some state-based project requirements. These requests must be delineated as Domestic Melted and Poured Material and High-Recycled Content Material. These are not interchangeable terms and do not infer the attributes of one another. For example, ‘MPUSA’ material may not necessarily feature high recycled EAF sourced material.
If you have any questions, please contact Steelscape at (888) 553-5521 or productinfo@steelscape.com.

Michelle Vondran
Manager, Technology and Innovation Steelscape, LLC