News Details

• Net income of $34.6 million or $0.65 per share
• Net sales of $498.6 million
• Adjusted EBITDA of $97.4 million

WYOMISSING, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2013-- Carpenter Technology Corporation (NYSE:CRS) today reported net income of $34.6 million or $0.65 per diluted share for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 compared to $39.2 million or $0.74 per diluted share in the prior year first quarter.

Financial Highlights

“Our first quarter earnings were in-line with our expectations,” said William A. Wulfsohn, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The team executed at a high level within the context of generally soft market conditions. Our core markets remained relatively weak as continued supply chain destocking in the aerospace and energy markets reduced demand for our premium and ultra-premium products. At the same time, the commercial team executed well by bringing in more 'value' sales to meet growing demand from the Transportation and Industrial & Consumer markets. Thus our sales, excluding surcharge, declined by 7 percent but our volume increased by 1 percent.

“Our strong manufacturing performance contributed significantly to our earnings. The team executed on multiple fronts to reduce production and overhead costs. We achieved these results while successfully performing a significant planned maintenance overhaul on our Reading forge, positioning this critical piece of hot working equipment to support future growth.

“Our second quarter now looks weaker than we initially anticipated at the start of the year. Even as volumes stabilize, our mix will remain weak. We could see a similar change in earnings from Q1 to Q2 as we saw last year. The timing and duration of seasonal customer closures can impact, positively or negatively, shipments near the end of the calendar year.

“That said, we are just now beginning to see some very early indications that demand is stabilizing. If this continues, we could see a recovery in the second half of the fiscal year. We remain confident that market fundamentals will significantly improve in calendar 2014. This will coincide with the completion of Athens enabling us to target sustained sales growth, margin improvement and strong positive cash flow.”

Net Sales and Operating Income

Net sales were $498.6 million and net sales excluding surcharge were $412.1 million in the first quarter. Net sales, excluding surcharge, decreased by $28.7 million or 7 percent from the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 on 1 percent higher shipments. The sales decline can be attributed to the continued Aerospace and Energy supply chain adjustments that impacted near- term order activity of premium and ultra-premium products. This was partly offset by higher volumes of materials sold into the Transportation and Industrial & Consumer markets.

Operating income, excluding pension earnings, interest, and deferrals (EID) decreased by $7.8 million or 11 percent from the prior year first quarter. This reduction mainly reflects the sales mix impact, partially offset by improved manufacturing performance.

Cash Flow

Free cash flow in the first quarter was negative $60.5 million, compared to negative $102.7 million in the prior year first quarter. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter was $64 million which included $10 million of increased working capital and $1.5 million of pension contributions. This compares to cash flow from operations of negative $36.7 million in the prior year first quarter, which included $71 million of increased working capital and $48.1 million of pension contributions. These year-over-year changes helped offset $114.9 million of capital spending, largely related to the Athens facility construction, compared to $56.4 million of capital spending in the prior year.

Total liquidity, including cash and available revolver balance, was $693 million at the end of the first quarter. This consisted of $201 million of cash and $492 million of available revolver.

End Markets:

* Excludes sales through Carpenter’s Distribution business

Aerospace and Defense

• Airplane delivery rates (Boeing and Airbus) up 9 percent August year-to-date 2013 versus 2012
• Numerous customers have publicly announced temporary production reductions
• Achieved solid year-over-year growth in titanium fastener demand

Energy

• Rig count down 1 percent compared to same quarter last year, but clear shift toward drill collar rentals versus purchases
• Gas turbine orders down versus prior year

Medical

• Volumes stabilizing but industry cost reduction efforts continue
• Expect modest demand recovery as OEM inventories reach structurally low levels
• Titanium pricing extremely competitive — lead times remained short

Transportation

• Strong volume growth — North American auto sales up 3 percent August year-to-date 2013 versus 2012
• European light vehicle sales down 4 percent year-over-year for the first six months of 2013
• Carpenter directly benefiting from strong demand growth for materials used in newest engine platform fuel delivery systems

Industrial and Consumer

• Strong demand for materials used in sporting goods, and industrial valve and infrastructure materials
• Softer demand within electronics and distribution channels

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release includes discussions of financial measures that have not been determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, accompanied by reasons why the Company believes the measures are important, are included in the attached schedules.

Conference Call and Webcast Presentation

Carpenter will host a conference call and webcast presentation today, October 29, at 10 a.m., EDT, to discuss financial results and operations for the fiscal first quarter. Please call 610-208-2097 for details of the conference call. Access to the call and presentation will also be made available at Carpenter's website (http://www.cartech.com) and through CCBN (http://www.ccbn.com). A replay of the call will be made available at http://www.cartech.com or at http://www.ccbn.com. The presentation materials used during this conference call will be available for viewing and download at 8:30 a.m. today at http://www.cartech.com.

About Carpenter Technology

Carpenter produces and distributes premium alloys, including special alloys, titanium alloys and powder metals, as well as stainless steels, and alloy and tool steels. Information about Carpenter can be found on the Internet at http://www.cartech.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those projected, anticipated or implied. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Carpenter’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2013 and the exhibits attached to that filing. They include but are not limited to: (1) the cyclical nature of the specialty materials business and certain end-use markets, including aerospace, defense, industrial, transportation, consumer, medical, and energy, or other influences on Carpenter’s business such as new competitors, the consolidation of competitors, customers, and suppliers or the transfer of manufacturing capacity from the United States to foreign countries; (2) the ability of Carpenter to achieve cost savings, productivity improvements or process changes; (3) the ability to recoup increases in the cost of energy, raw materials, freight or other factors; (4) domestic and foreign excess manufacturing capacity for certain metals; (5) fluctuations in currency exchange rates; (6) the degree of success of government trade actions; (7) the valuation of the assets and liabilities in Carpenter’s pension trusts and the accounting for pension plans; (8) possible labor disputes or work stoppages; (9) the potential that our customers may substitute alternate materials or adopt different manufacturing practices that replace or limit the suitability of our products; (10) the ability to successfully acquire and integrate acquisitions, including the Latrobe acquisition; (11) the availability of credit facilities to Carpenter, its customers or other members of the supply chain; (12) the ability to obtain energy or raw materials, especially from suppliers located in countries that may be subject to unstable political or economic conditions; (13) Carpenter’s manufacturing processes are dependent upon highly specialized equipment located primarily in facilities in Reading and Latrobe, Pennsylvania for which there may be limited alternatives if there are significant equipment failures or catastrophic event; and (14) Carpenter’s future success depends on the continued service and availability of key personnel, including members of our executive management team, management, metallurgists and other skilled personnel and the loss of these key personnel could affect our ability to perform until suitable replacements are found. Any of these factors could have an adverse and/or fluctuating effect on Carpenter’s results of operations. The forward-looking statements in this document are intended to be subject to the safe harbor protection provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Carpenter undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Management believes that removing the impacts of raw material surcharges from operating margin provides a more consistent basis for comparing results of operations from period to period. Management believes that excluding the impact of pension earnings, interest and deferrals, which may be volatile due to changes in the financial markets, is helpful in analyzing the true operating performance of the Company.

Management believes that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted to exclude net pension expense is helpful in analyzing the operating performance of the Company.

Source: Carpenter Technology Corporation

Carpenter Technology Corporation
Media Inquiries:
William J. Rudolph, Jr., 610-208-3892
wrudolph@cartech.com
or
Investor Inquiries:
Michael A. Hajost, 610-208-3476
mhajost@cartech.com