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Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation (AP)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Tue, Mar 17, 2026

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation fourth quarter 2025 earnings results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kimberly P. Knox, Corporate Secretary. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Kimberly P. Knox

Management

Thank you, Nick, and good morning to everyone joining us on today's fourth quarter 2025 conference call. Joining me today are J. Brett McBrayer, our Chief Executive Officer, and David G. Anderson, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President of Air and Liquid Systems Corporation. Also joining us on the call today is Samuel C. Lyon, President of Union Electric Steel Corporation. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that participants on this call may make statements or comments that are forward-looking and may include financial projections or other statements of the corporation's plans, objectives, expectations, or intentions. These matters involve certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the corporation's control. The corporation's actual results may differ significantly from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements due to various risk factors, including those discussed in the corporation's most recently filed Form 10-Ks and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any obligation to update or otherwise release publicly any revision to our forward-looking statements. A replay of this call will be posted on our website later today. To access the earnings release or the webcast replay, please consult the Investors section of our website at amphcophgh.com. With that, I would like to turn the call over to J. Brett McBrayer, Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation’s CEO.

J. Brett McBrayer

Management

Thank you, Kim. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. The fourth quarter was a busy quarter for Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation where we initiated and completed the removal of significant underperforming assets from our portfolio. As we emerge from the slowdown in the steel market, we expect these actions to improve adjusted EBITDA by $7 million to $8 million annually. As reported in our press release, consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $3.2 million, down from $6 million the prior year. This anticipated dip in performance was driven by the pause in customer orders in our Forged and Cast segment after the announcement of new global tariffs. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $29.2 million. This performance is an improvement from the prior year despite the revenue impact FCEP experienced during 2025. With strong demand continuing in our Air and Liquid Processing segment, A&L achieved record revenue and income for 2025. As we shared in a recent press release, bookings for both operating segments have accelerated in the first two months of this year. I am now going to turn the call over to David G. Anderson, Chief Financial Officer and President of our Air and Liquid segment, for further comments on this quarter's results for Air and Liquid.

David G. Anderson

Management

Thank you, Brett. Good morning. As Brett mentioned, 2025 was a record-breaking year for Air and Liquid, as we achieved new highs in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. In Q4, revenue was 10% higher than prior year while full-year revenue was 7% above prior year. The Q4 revenue increase was driven by higher revenue in air handlers and heat exchangers, while full-year revenue was higher in all product lines. Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was $3.3 million versus $3.7 million in the prior year. The decrease versus prior year was driven by unfavorable product mix. Full-year adjusted EBITDA of $15.4 million was the highest in Air and Liquid’s history and a 21% increase over prior year. Backlog declined year over year by $8 million, primarily driven by the U.S. Navy's decision to terminate production of the Constellation frigate program, which resulted in $7.1 million of orders being removed from the backlog in late 2025. Costs related to the terminated orders are expected to be paid by the Navy along with normal profit margins. While backlog ended $8 million lower, we did see significant order activity at the start of 2026. As referenced in our press release dated March 10, order activity was up 73% for the first two months of 2026 compared to prior year. Bookings in the first two months of 2026 for the U.S. Navy market were over $9 million, which more than replaced the $7.1 million from the Constellation frigate program termination. We continue to see positive activity in multiple markets across our product lines. 2025 orders and shipments for heat exchangers in the nuclear market were the highest in our history as this market continues to show long-term growth potential. There continues to be strong demand from the U.S. Navy, and we expect this demand to continue as the Navy moves forward with fleet expansion plans. The manufacturing equipment installed in 2024 has already increased manufacturing capacity for our pump product line, and there is more capacity expansion in process. Additional manufacturing equipment from the Navy funding program arrived at our facility in early 2026 and is expected to begin producing products in 2026. There is additional equipment expected later this year. This equipment will position us to meet the expected growth in the market. We are also seeing significant demand for our commercial pumps due to the AI data center market. Our commercial pumps are used in the gas turbine market, which is seeing extremely high demand due to the need for additional power for data centers. Bookings for commercial pumps were at a record high in 2025. Demand for custom air handlers remained strong as there continues to be significant demand in the pharmaceutical market for our air-handling products. In summary, 2025 was the best year in Air and Liquid’s history, and we are well positioned in markets that are showing significant long-term growth potential.

J. Brett McBrayer

Management

Thank you, David. Samuel C. Lyon, President of Forged and Cast Engineered Products (FCEP), will now share more details regarding his group's performance.

Samuel C. Lyon

Management

Thank you, Brett, and good morning, everyone. For 2025, the Forged and Cast Engineered Products Division, FCEP, reported net sales of $70.9 million compared to $66.5 million in the fourth quarter 2024. For the full year, we achieved total net sales of $292.6 million, representing a stable top-line performance compared to $280.6 million in the prior year. Our operating results reflect the strategic transformation of our footprint. On a GAAP basis, the FCEP segment reported an operating loss of $44.7 million for the full year. As Brett mentioned, this was primarily driven by one-time exit costs, including a $41.4 million deconsolidation charge associated with the closure of our U.K. facility. Given these large one-time charges, we believe adjusted EBITDA provides a clearer picture of our underlying performance. For the full year of 2025, FCEP generated $24.4 million in adjusted EBITDA. In the fourth quarter, adjusted results were $2.2 million compared to $5.5 million in the prior year. This Q4 decrease was primarily driven by fewer operating days in the U.S. than in 2024, higher FCEP production relative to rolls, FX headwinds, and ramp-up costs in Sweden. In the U.S., we proactively curtailed production days in response to temporary softness in roll demand driven by the digestion of steel tariffs. With the U.K. closure behind us, one of our primary focuses is optimizing our Sweden facility. We have a clear roadmap for improvements in Sweden throughout 2026 that will begin to materialize in our results this year and be fully realized in 2027. The recent weakening of the dollar to the SEK has created a short-term headwind, as supplies and labor are in SEK and euros, while approximately 40% of our product is sold to the U.S. in dollars. We are adjusting 2027 pricing to account for this and moving some…

J. Brett McBrayer

Management

Thanks, Sam. I will now turn the call over to David G. Anderson, our Chief Financial Officer, for more detail regarding our financial performance for the quarter.

David G. Anderson

Management

Thank you, Brett. As indicated in both our Form 10-Ks and in our press release 8-Ks filed yesterday, there was a great deal of one-time, primarily non-cash items recorded in the quarter related to the previously disclosed decisions to exit the unprofitable U.K. operations and the small steel distribution business in the U.S. In mid-October, we issued a press release and filed a Form 8-Ks, which detailed the accelerated exit from our U.K. cast roll facility through a structured insolvency process. The mostly non-cash deconsolidation and other costs related primarily to the U.K. exit totaled $42.4 million in Q4 and $52.2 million full year. We also recorded a non-cash $11.9 million after-tax expense in Q4 related to a revaluation charge of our asbestos accrual. All of this certainly causes a great deal of noise in our Q4 results, which, when we move to discuss adjusted EBITDA, it becomes much easier to see the core business, how it performed in 2025, and expectations of what it looks like going forward. I do want to provide some details on the non-cash asbestos expense, what it means, and perhaps more importantly, what it does not mean. At 12/31/2025, we had a third party evaluate our asbestos accrual and provide the adjustment needed based on their projection of payments in the years ahead. This does not mean that we expect our asbestos payments to increase in the years ahead. It is quite the opposite. The estimate projects we will begin to see our asbestos payments decrease starting in 2027. The reason for the increased asbestos accrual at 2025 is because their projection shows the decrease will be slower than what they projected as of 12/31/2024. Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation's net sales for Q4 2025 were $108.8 million, an increase of $7.8 million compared to net sales…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star. The first question will come from Justin Bergner with Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Good morning, Brett. Good morning, Sam. Good morning. David, I just want to delve a little bit more into the Air and Liquid Processing margins. Could you review the mix dynamic in the fourth quarter? And should I think of the mix for the full year and the margins for the full year as being more representative of Air and Liquid Processing as the company grows off of the 2025 base in that business?

David G. Anderson

Management

Yes. I would say the full year is definitely more representative of what we would typically see. Q4 just was a little bit of an unusual mix for us, and it is really timing of what orders are shipping when into which markets, but it is just a short-term Q4 issue. I think the full year is much more representative of what you would typically see.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Okay. Any color you can give on what sort of incrementals this business should generate as it grows? If you do not want to go there, I totally understand, but figured I would put that out there.

David G. Anderson

Management

The margins are generally good. What I can tell you is in the growth markets that we are seeing—nuclear, the Navy markets—those are all good markets for us. There is very limited competition because there are a lot of barriers to entry. It is very difficult to supply into those markets, so that is favorable for us.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Okay. Fantastic. And with respect to forged and cast rolls, help me understand the inflection from the headwinds in 2025 to the strong orders in 2026. I mean, the tariffs were in place in 2025, so what is changing in terms of behavior or market behavior?

Samuel C. Lyon

Management

Justin, there was a lot of noise because, first of all, the tariffs had to be calculated. On the cast side almost all the rolls we make are composite, so part of them is cast iron and part of them is steel, so you have to calculate what the tariff is. We and the whole industry had to figure out what the tariff was going to be, so you did not even know what your pricing was going to be. A lot of customers, particularly in the U.S., paused what they were doing, what they were taking, until that was figured out. And just on the large roll side, which is our most profitable product line, the demand for those kind of slowed down as well as people digested what was happening. So now that is all digested, and you can see that the U.S. continues to raise pricing on hot-rolled coil as an indicator. Nucor is above $1,000 a ton now, and demand has been slowly increasing in the U.S. One other thing I will mention is another thing happened when the U.S. increased tariffs. Canada and Mexico reduced their material coming into the U.S. They have since put tariff protections in place as well to support their markets, and so we are seeing everybody kind of follow the model of the U.S., which should all be positive for us, as our biggest markets are North America and Europe.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Okay. And one more follow-on on Forged and Cast Engineered Products. With respect to the costs in euros and the revenue in dollars, I think you said that is 40%—a certain percentage—of Sweden only?

Samuel C. Lyon

Management

Yes.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Okay. So 40% of Sweden incurs costs in euros and revenues in dollars. Will that get resolved this year or next year in terms of pricing?

Samuel C. Lyon

Management

Pricing will be 2027, but we have already seen a recovery from the low point. SEK to the dollar was as low as 8.8, 8.9. It is 9.3 this morning. So it is already—well, we do not know what it is going to do—but right now it is kind of reverting to the mean a little bit. We run almost all exclusively on yearly contracts. So there was some adjustment in 2026. There will be further adjustment for 2027. It has not been as significant in euro to dollar, but there has also been a decrease there. And so our competitors will be in the same boat as us from a pricing perspective.

Justin Bergner

Analyst

Thank you for taking all my questions.

Samuel C. Lyon

Management

Thanks, Justin.

Operator

Operator

The next question will come from John Bair with Ascend Wealth Advisors LLC. Please go ahead.

John Bair

Analyst

Good morning, gentlemen. I have a question. I saw an article not too long ago about Westinghouse's AP1000 reactors. I was wondering if you are involved in supplying any components there or any involvement with that.

David G. Anderson

Management

John, it is Dave. I can answer that. The short answer is yes. We have supplied to Westinghouse in the past, and we have supplied to that particular product. So that would definitely fall under our heat exchangers. We do not know the timing yet of when they are expecting those, but we have certainly seen some of the same indicators that they are expecting to ramp up a lot of building those. So that is a positive for us for sure.

John Bair

Analyst

How much of a lead time is there in that? I mean, I am sure it is a long build cycle, but where would you fit into the order cycle of that?

David G. Anderson

Management

We usually fit in fairly early because they want to secure things like heat exchangers fairly early in the process. So once they have their timetable, then we will start to see activity from them.

John Bair

Analyst

Is there very much inquiry in that regard, or is that just kind of out in the distance at this point?

David G. Anderson

Management

Still a little bit in the distance for that particular—the Westinghouse, the AP1000s. We are certainly seeing continued nuclear market activity though across—from the plant restarts to all the other things that I have talked about on some of the other calls, the small modular units—the nuclear market continues to be quite active.

John Bair

Analyst

Very good. Thank you.

David G. Anderson

Management

Thank you. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to J. Brett McBrayer for any closing remarks.

J. Brett McBrayer

Management

Thank you, Nick. In closing, I want to thank our employees who are making the positive improvements you heard about today. With the actions taken in the fourth quarter, our core business is improving. We anticipate improved profitability as we emerge from the slowdown in the steel market. We are excited to demonstrate the improved results from these strategic actions in 2026. I want to thank the Board of Directors and our shareholders for your continued support and for joining our call this morning.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.