Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) anticipates a "difficult period" ahead for structural products and doesn't expect a real recovery until 2011, but the company believes its structurals business can operate in the black barring a further price meltdown.

Keith Busse, chairman and chief executive officer of the Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker, said that while the federal economic stimulus package and energy-related work might eventually change the outlook for wide-flange beams, private non-residential construction doesn't look good.

"I don't think we're going to find a lot of people running out and building casinos and (shopping) malls," Busse said during an interview at the Steel Survival Strategies XXIV conference in New York. Moreover,...