Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation

Welcome to the Amsco-Pittsburgh Corporation fourth quarter 2022 earnings results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kim Nock, Corporate Secretary.

Please go ahead. Thank you, Betsy, and good morning to everyone joining us on today's fourth quarter 2022 conference call. Joining me today are Brett McBrayer, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mike McCulley, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Also joining on the call today are Sam Lyon, President of Union Electric Steel Corporation, and Dave Anderson, President of Air and Liquid Systems 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-K 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 investor section of our website at amcopgh.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Brett McBrayer, AMCO Pittsburgh CEO. Brett?

Thank you, Kim. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. As shared in today's press release, AMCO Pittsburgh recorded an operating income of $0.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. and a full year 2022 operating income of $2.8 million with a full year EPS of 18 cents per share. Our fourth quarter sales improved by 11% over the prior year quarter and full year 2022 sales were up 13% from 2021. As of the end of 2022, our backlog is up 26% versus the prior year and 11% versus the prior quarter. Successful pricing actions continue to be taken in the Forged and Cast Engineer product segment to combat core inflation. Energy and transportation has been added to our surcharge mechanism and now covers over 80% of our backlog. The exciting transformation of our North American fixed assets in the Forged and Cast Engineer product segment continues to progress with our first piece of new equipment installed this quarter. We are on track to complete the new equipment installations this year. The impact of the war in Ukraine and the softness in the European market continues to be a headwind for our foreign assets in the forged and cast engineered product segment. We are encouraged by domestic demand for our products, which remains robust. Our air and liquid segments growth strategy continues with record profits and backlog achieved in 2022. Suppliers to the naval shipyards continue to struggle, resulting in a continuation of delays for our fluid pump products. We believe these bottlenecks will be resolved as we progress through the year. Recordable and lost time rates improved dramatically in 2022 across our global operations. The engagement of our workforce and their actions to improve our work environment have been impressive. as we continue to pursue a goal of zero injuries in our workplaces around the globe. David Anderson, President of Air and Liquid Systems, will now discuss his segment's performance in more detail. Dave.