Greetings, and welcome to the L.B. Foster’s First Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Judy Balog.

Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for L.B. Foster Company’s earnings conference call to review the company’s first quarter 2018 operating results. My name is Judy Balog and I’m the Investor Relations Manager of L.B. Foster. Hosting the call today is Mr. Robert Bauer, L.B. Foster’s President and CEO. Also on the call is Mr. James Maloney, L.B. Foster’s CFO and Treasurer. In addition to our press release, we have a fourth quarter presentation on our website under the Investor Relation’s tab for those who have online access. This evening, Jim will review the company’s first quarter financial results. Afterwards, Bob will review the company’s first quarter performance and provide an update on significant business issues and market developments. We will then open the session for questions. During today’s call, our commentary and responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements, including items such as the company’s outlook for our businesses and markets, cash flows, margins, operating costs, capital expenditures and other key business metrics, issues and projections. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements we make today. These forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these statements in light of new information, except as required by securities laws. All participants are encouraged to refer to L.B. Foster’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, as updated by subsequent items filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or additional information regarding risk factors that may affect our results. In addition to the results provided in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, our commentary includes non-GAAP EBITDA statements. A reconciliation of net loss to non-GAAP EBITDA has been included within the company's 8-K filings Statements referring to EBITDA are considered non-GAAP measures, and while they are not intended to replace the presentation of our financial results in accordance with GAAP, the company believes that the presentation of these measures provides additional meaningful information for investors to facilitate the comparison of past, present and forecasted operating results. Our accompanying earnings presentation reconciles these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measure. With that, we will commence our financial review discussion, and I will turn it over to Jim.

Thank you, Judy. Net sales for the 2018 first quarter were $122.5 million compared to $118.7 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of $3.8 million or 3.2%. The 3.2% first quarter sales increase was due to improvements within our tubular and energy services segment of 26% and our rail products and services segment increasing by 10.1%. These increases were partially offset by a reduction in the construction product segment of 22.6%. The tubular and energy services sales increase of $6.5 million or 26% was driven by substantial improvement in each of our business units within the segment compared to the prior year period. The rail sales improvement of $5.7 million or 10.1% was led by our European rail technologies businesses as well as domestic rail products. Our European rail technology businesses saw sales increases of 37.7% over the prior year, primarily from expanding transit projects, our domestic rail products increased 8.4% over the prior year period as class I activity remained strong. Our first quarter construction segment sales declined from the prior year by $8.4 million or 22.6%. Both our piling and fabricated bridge divisions drove the year-over-year reduction with piling sales decreasing by 35.5% and fabricated bridge sales decreasing by 35.3%. These reductions were partially offset by a 24% increase over the prior year quarter in precast concrete product sales. As a percent of first quarter 2018 sales, rail accounted for 50.8%, tubular and energy services was 25.6% and construction was 23.6%. Now looking at gross profit, our consolidated first quarter 2018 gross profit margin was 18%, an increase of 10 basis points from the prior year quarter, which was driven by our Tubular and Energy Services segment. Tubular gross profit margin improved significantly by 290 basis points. This was partially offset by construction, which saw a…

Thank you, Jim. With first quarter sales volume typically at seasonal low points, we're usually focused on a few other key measures to gauge whether the year is off to a good start. Sales volume was very close to forecast and when adjusting for the increase in legal expenses, EPS and EBITDA would have improved significantly over prior year on 3.2% better sales volume. Working capital was solid with only a modest increase in inventory as we prepare for increased volume in Q2. We generated cash in the quarter and more importantly, new orders and backlog were very strong, putting us in a position to boost sales in Q2 substantially over the first quarter. In addition, our debt position improved further as we took advantage of our foreign cash to pay down debt. We were very pleased to see solid order growth and double-digit backlog growth compared to prior year, particularly in light of the strong start we had last year. I'll spend more time on orders and backlog, but I'll begin with comments regarding the first quarter operating performance, The continued improvement in the tubular and energy services segment drove the consolidated first quarter gross profit increase, increased activity in the energy markets we serve particularly the midstream segment helped deliver a 26% sales increase in our tubular and energy segment over prior year, which drove significant operating leverage in the segment. While we're getting most of the tubular gross profit increase from projects that support midstream pipeline applications, the single greatest increase in sales is from the test and inspection services division that primarily serves upstream applications. The rail business segment had a very good quarter as well with sales up 10%, rail technologies drove most of the growth with a substantial impact from project and service activity…

At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session and I would like to turn the call back over to Bob Bauer for closing remarks. All right. Thank you, operator. Well, we appreciate everyone's attention today and we'll hope to see you on the call next quarter. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.