Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation

Welcome to the AMCO Pittsburgh Corporation first quarter 2023 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 your telephone keypad. To withdraw a question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Kim Knox, Corporate Secretary. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Vaishnavi, and good morning to everyone joining us on today's first quarter 2023 conference call. Joining me today are Brett McBurr, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mike McCauley, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us 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 statement 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 yesterday's press release, AMCO Pittsburgh achieved a net income of of $.7 million, or 3 cents per share, in Quarter 1 of 2023. Sales were up 11 percent versus the prior year and 12 percent over the prior quarter. We experienced backlog growth in both our Forged and Cast Engineer products and air and liquid processing segments, with total backlog up 16 percent versus the prior year and 3 percent over the prior quarter. Our air and liquid processing segment has now seen five consecutive quarters of record backlog. We continue to see strong demand for our products in North America, with softness continuing in Europe. The recent announced blast furnace restarts, however, in Europe indicate demand may be recovering. Our pricing actions and expanded surcharges continue to improve the performance of our forged and cast-engineered product segment. Our U.S. equipment modernization program remains on track, with completion expected in the fourth quarter of this year. From a health and safety perspective, our company had a solid quarter as we continue to focus on our goal of zero injuries in the workplace. David Anderson, president of Air and Liquid Systems, will now discuss his segment's performance in more detail.