Prior to January 2020, we had interest rate swaps that swap the EURIBOR on our European term loan for a fixed rate. We terminated these swaps in January 2020 when we repaid the European term loan. These interest rate swaps were designated as cash flow hedges to floating rate bank loans. The Euro swaps had final maturities dates between June 2023 and June 2024, in annual installments. The fair value of interest rate swap agreements was recorded in other assets or as a liability with a corresponding amount to other comprehensive income. At December 31, 2020, we had no interest rate swap agreements outstanding. The fair value of the interest rate swaps was a liability of $0.6 million at December 31, 2019.

The Company had treasury lock agreements to protect against unfavorable movements in the benchmark treasury rate related to the issuance of our senior unsecured notes. These hedges were designated as cash flow hedges for hedge accounting purposes thus any change in fair value was recorded as a component of other comprehensive income. As part of the issuance of our senior notes, we net settled these derivatives for $10 million in cash. As a result of settling these derivatives the previously deferred gains recorded in other comprehensive income will be released to interest expense over the life of the senior notes. The effect of these settled treasury locks will reduce the effective interest rate on the senior notes by approximately 0.25%.

In November 2020 we entered into a cross currency and interest rate swap which is designated as a cash flow hedge of a €270 million, 5-year amortizing, intercompany loan between one of our European subsidiaries and the US parent company. Changes in the spot exchange are recorded to the general ledger and offset the fair value re-measurement of the hedged item. The net difference in the interest rates coupons is recorded as a credit to interest expense. The derivative swaps €270 million bearing interest at a fixed rate of 0.30% for $319.9 million plus fixed rate interest of 1.115%. The interest coupons settle semi-annually. The principal will amortize each year on November 15, as follows: for years 1 through 4, beginning November 15, 2021, €50 million versus $59.2 million, and a final settlement on November 15, 2025 of €70 million versus $82.9 million. The carrying value of the derivative at December 31, 2020 is a current asset of $0.3 million and a long-term liability of $11.1 million.

A number of our European subsidiaries are exposed to the impact of exchange rate volatility between the U.S. dollar and the subsidiaries’ functional currencies, being either the Euro or the British pound sterling. We entered into contracts to exchange U.S. dollars for Euros and British pound sterling through June 2023. The aggregate notional amount of these contracts was $250.3 million at December 31, 2020 and $426.9 million at December 31, 2019. The purpose of these contracts is to hedge a portion of the forecasted transactions of European subsidiaries under long-term sales contracts with certain customers. These contracts are expected to provide us with a more balanced matching of future cash receipts and expenditures by currency, thereby reducing our exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. The effective portion of the hedges was a gain of $10.9 million and losses of $11.1 million and $25.8 million, for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and are recorded in other comprehensive income. At December 31, 2020, $16.0 million of the carrying amount of these contracts was classified in other assets ($10.7 million of which was recorded in prepaid expenses and other current assets) and $2.5 million as liabilities (less than $0.1 million of which is in other non-current liabilities) on the consolidated balance sheets and $3.7 million classified in other assets and $15.5 million ($2.9 million of which is in other non-current liabilities) as liabilities at December 31, 2019. During the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 the net impact for the hedges recognized in sales was a loss of $14.5 million and $13.1 million, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2018 the net impact on sales was not significant. For the three years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, hedge ineffectiveness was immaterial.

In addition, we enter into foreign exchange forward contracts which are not designated as hedges. These are used to provide an offset to transactional gains or losses arising from the remeasurement of non-functional monetary assets and liabilities such as accounts receivable. The change in the fair value of the derivatives is recorded in the statement of operations. There are no credit contingency features in these derivatives. During the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we recognized net foreign exchange losses of $2.4 million, gains of $0.4 million, and losses of $4.3 million, respectively, in the consolidated statements of operations. The carrying amount of the contracts for asset and liability derivatives not designated as hedging instruments was $0.1 million of current liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.

The activity, net of tax, in accumulated other comprehensive loss related to foreign currency forward exchange contracts for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 was as follows:

(In millions)	2020			2019			2018
Unrealized (loss) gain at beginning of period, net of tax	$	(8.4	)	$	(10.6	)	$	8.6
Loss reclassified to net sales		10.9			10.1			0.9
Increase (decrease) in fair value		8.1			(7.9	)		(20.1	)
Unrealized gain (loss) at end of period, net of taxes	$	10.6		$	(8.4	)	$	(10.6	)

Unrealized gain of $6.5 million recorded in accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of tax of $1.8 million, as of December 31, 2020 are expected to be reclassified into earnings over the next twelve months as the hedged sales are recorded. The impact of credit risk adjustments was immaterial for the three years.

On occasion we enter into commodity swap agreements to hedge against price fluctuations of raw materials, including propylene (the principal component of acrylonitrile). As of December 31, 2020, the Company had commodity swap agreements with a notional value of $9.1 million. The swaps mature monthly from January 2021 through June 2022. The swaps are accounted for as a cash flow hedge of our forward raw material purchases. The fair value of the commodity swap agreements was an asset of $2.2 million ($1.5 million of which was recorded in prepaid expenses and other current assets) and a liability of $1.1 million at December 31, 2020 and $5.4 million ($1.1 million of which is in other non-current liabilities) at December 31, 2019.