ATI Reports Profitable Second Quarter
By
Metal Center News Staff on
Jul 24, 2019
Allegheny Technologies Inc, Pittsburgh, reported second-quarter income of $75.1 million, a decline of 25 percent from the same period last year. The quarter included several sales of “non-core assets.”
Sales for the specialty metals producer in the second quarter totaled $1.08 billion, a 7 percent increase compared with the same quarter in 2018.
“In the second quarter, we demonstrated our ability to successfully manage near-term headwinds, as well as make progress on strengthening our balance sheet,” said Robert S. Wetherbee, ATI president and CEO. “Both of our business segments made important strides in the quarter to resume our trajectory of profitable growth. Non-core asset sales, including divesting a smaller business that did not align with our strategic priorities, sharpens our focus on differentiated products requiring our materials science capabilities and advanced process technologies.”
The company’s HPMC sales increased 9 percent in the second quarter compared to the prior year primarily due to a 17 percent increase in sales to the aerospace & defense markets. Next-generation jet engine products sales increased by 26 percent and represented 59 percent of total second quarter 2019 HPMC jet engine product sales.
Sales to the commercial airframe market were 40 percent higher, driven by increasing emergent demand from a large OEM customer, and government aerospace and defense sales were 32 percent higher across a broad range of programs.
Flat Rolled Product sales were 5 percent higher in the second quarter compared with the prior year, primarily due to project-based demand for high-value products in the oil and gas market, as well as marine scrubber products within the energy market and demand growth from the aerospace and defense market.
“Our U.S. Flat Rolled business returned to profitability in the second quarter as we achieved a better balance of raw material costs and indexed-based selling prices. Sales of high-value nickel-based and specialty alloys were more than 30 percent higher than both the first quarter 2019 and the second quarter 2018 as we continue to focus on differentiated products,” said Wetherbee.