Specialty Alloy Operations (SAO) segment sales without surcharge increased 18% on 10% higher volume, while Performance Engineered Products (PEP) segment sales without surcharge increased 15% on 5% lower volume compared with the fiscal year 2011 fourth quarter.
“We had a very strong finish to an excellent year,” said William A. Wulfsohn, president and CEO of Carpenter. “We exceeded our financial goals. These results were driven by solid execution of our strategies to grow premium product output while improving productivity, mix and pricing. [...]We also shipped 4,500 additional premium tons this year and expect to ship about 4,000 additional premium tons over each of the next two years.
According to Wulfsohn, one highlight of the year was Carpenter Technology's acquisition of Latrobe Specialty Metals. He said the integration process is going extremely well, and he is excited about the strategic value and synergies from this transaction.
Overall, Carpenter's order backlog remains strong, and the company is moving forward to add capacity to support customers demand. "Along with our actions to increase near-term capacity in Reading and Latrobe by roughly 4,000 premium tons over each of the next two years, we are expanding our Dynamet Titanium wire capacity," Wulfsohn explained. In addition, we have started construction of our new US$500 million state-of-the- art premium products facility in Alabama.”