Howmet Aerospace - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Record Q1 2025 revenue of $1.94B (+6% YoY), adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 28.8% (+480 bps YoY), and adjusted EPS reached $0.86 (+51% YoY), exceeding all aspects of baseline guidance.
• Fastening Systems and Engineered Structures delivered notable margin progression; Wheels faced market softness but held a 27% EBITDA margin.
• FY 2025 guidance raised: baseline adj. EBITDA to $2.25B (+$120M), adj. EPS to $3.40 (+$0.23), FCF to $1.15B (+$75M); revenue range widened to $7.88B–$8.18B (baseline $8.03B unchanged).
• Near-term catalysts: spares hit ~20% of total revenue (a year ahead of plan), Boeing 737 MAX rate assumption increased, and Fitch upgraded HWM to BBB+; tariffs expected to have <~$15M net impact in 2025 with pass-through, causing temporary Q2 margin drag.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• “Solid start to 2025, setting quarterly records in revenue, Adjusted EBITDA*, Adjusted EBITDA margin*, and Adjusted EPS* while exceeding all aspects of our baseline guidance” — John Plant.
• Fastening Systems and Engineered Structures posted standout margin gains (FS to 30.8%, ES to 21.3%) on productivity and mix optimization.
• Spares momentum: reached ~20% of total revenue, up ~33% across Commercial Aero, Defense, IGT, and O&G; balances growth narrative and supports margin quality.

What Went Wrong

• Commercial Transportation softness: Wheels revenue down 13% YoY; segment EBITDA -17% YoY (margin held 27.0%).
• Wide-body ramp delay and supply-chain constraints (787 and A350 component issues), moderating near-term trajectory despite strong backlogs.
• LEAP LPT destocking and inventory digestion at Boeing dampened sequential Commercial Aero growth; normalization expected as production rises through H2.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Luther, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Paul Luther (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Gary. Good morning and welcome to the Howmet aerospace First Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. I'm joined by John Plant, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Ken Giacobbe, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After comments by John and Ken, we will have a question-and-answer session.

I would like to remind you that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations. You can find factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these projections listed in today's presentation and earnings press release, and in our most recent SEC filings.

In today's presentation, references to EBITDA, operating income, and EPS mean adjusted EBITDA excluding special items, adjusted operating income excluding special items, and adjusted EPS excluding special items. These measures are among the non-GAAP financial measures that we've included in our discussion. Reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in today's press release and in the appendix in today's presentation.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to John.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thanks, PT, and good morning, everyone. I'll make my remarks at the outset fairly brief and then spend more time talking about the outlook after Ken's provided his commentary on markets and the EU commentary. First of all, Q1 was a solid start to the year. Revenue was a record and increased 6%, while EBITDA margin was 28.8%. Operating margin was 25.3% and up 500 basis points year over year. Free cash flow was a positive $134 million.

All segments grew revenue and EBITDA compared to Q4 of 2024. Of the segments, the most notable margin progression was within Fastening Systems and Structures. Free cash flow was deployed with a 25% increase in dividends, plus $125 million of share buyback in the first quarter, which was continued in Q2 with a further $100 million in April. We had strong performance on all fronts. My commentary on the outlook will be after Ken.

Over to yourself, Ken.

Ken Giacobbe (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, John. Good morning, everybody. Let's move to slide five. End markets continue to be healthy in the first quarter, with revenue up 6% year over year. A good start to the year, and we are well positioned for the future with continued investments for growth. Commercial aerospace was up 9% year over year, driven by accelerating demand for engine spares. Commercial aerospace growth is further supported by record backlog for new, more fuel-efficient aircraft with reduced carbon emissions.

Defense Aerospace growth continued to be robust in the first quarter and was up 19% year over year. With the global fleet of over 1,100 F-35 fighter jets in Defense Aerospace growth was driven by engine spares demand in addition to new builds. As expected, commercial transportation was challenging, with revenue down 14% in the first quarter.We continue to outperform the market with Howmet's premium wheels and coatings, although down year over year, commercial transportation was up 2% sequentially.

Finally, the industrial and other markets were up 10% in the first quarter, driven by Oil and Gas up 21% and IGT up 12%, while general industrial was flat. Within our markets, the combination of spares for Defense Aerospace, igt, and Oil and Gas continues to accelerate and was up approximately 33% in the first quarter and represented 20% of total revenue. As a compare, total spares revenue in 2019 was 11% of total revenue on a smaller base. In summary, continued strong performance in Defense Aerospace, and industrial partially offset by commercial transportation.

Now, let's move to slide six, starting with the P&L. In the first quarter, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, and earnings per share were all records and exceeded the high end of guidance. Revenue was also a record, up 6% year over year. EBITDA outpaced revenue growth and was up 28%. EBITDA margin increased 480 basis points to 28.8%. Incremental flow-through of revenue to EBITDA was excellent at more than 100%. Earnings per share was $0.86, which was up a healthy 51% year-over-year.

Now, let's cover the balance sheet and cash flow. The balance sheet continues to strengthen. Quarter-end cash balance was a healthy $537 million. Free cash flow was $134 million, which was a record for the first quarter. Free cash flow included the acceleration of capital expenditures with approximately $120 million invested in the quarter, which was up 45% year over year. The majority of the CapEx investment was in our engines business as we continue to invest for growth, which is backed by customer contracts.

Net debt to trailing EBITDA continues to improve and remains at a record low of 1.4 times. All long-term debt is unsecured and at fixed rates. Howmet's improved financial leverage and strong cash generation were reflected in Fitch's Q1 ratings upgrade from BBB to BBB+ which is three notches into investment grade. Liquidity remains strong with a healthy cash balance and a $1 billion undrawn revolver, complemented by the flexibility of a $1 billion commercial paper program.

Regarding capital deployment, we deployed approximately $167 million of cash to common stock repurchases and quarterly dividends. In the quarter, we repurchased $125 million of common stock at an average price of approximately $124 per share.Q1 was the 16th consecutive quarter of common stock repurchases. The average diluted share count improved to a record low Q1 exit rate of 407 million shares.

Additionally, in April of 2025, we repurchased $100 million of common stock at an average price of $126 per share. Remaining authorization from the board of directors for share repurchases is approximately $2 billion as of the end of April. Finally, we continue to be confident in free cash flow. We increased the quarterly dividend 25% in the first quarter to $0.10 per share, which was double the Q1 2024 quarterly dividend.

Now, let's move to slide seven to cover the segment results for the first quarter. The Engine Products team delivered a record quarter with revenue, EBITDA, and EBITDA margin. Revenue increased 13% year over year to $996 million. Commercial aerospace was up 12%, Defense Aerospace was up 16%, driven by engine spares growth. Oil and Gas was up 21%, and IGT was up 12%. Demand continues to be strong across all engine markets with record engine spares volume. EBITDA outpaced revenue growth with an increase of 31% year over year to $325 million. EBITDA margin increased 450 basis points year-over-year to 32.6%, while absorbing approximately 500 net new employees in the quarter.

Now, let's move to slide eight. The Fastening Systems team also delivered a record quarter for revenue, EBITDA, and EBITDA margin. Revenue increased 6% year over year to $412 million. Commercial aerospace was up Defense Aerospace was up 8%. General industrial was up 5%. Commercial transportation, which represents approximately 13% of fasteners revenue, was down 20%.

Year-over-year, EBITDA outpaced revenue growth with an increase of 38% to $127 million, despite the lower-than-expected recovery of the wide-body aircraft. EBITDA margin increased an excellent 710 basis points year over year to 30.8%. The team has continued to expand margins through commercial and operational performance.

Now, let's move to slide nine. Engineered Structures performance continues to improve. Revenue increased 8% year over year to $282 million. Commercial aerospace was flat, Defense Aerospace was up 36%, primarily driven by the F-35 program. Year-over-year segment EBITDA outpaced revenue growth with an increase of 62% to $60 million, despite the delay in the wide-body recovery. EBITDA margin increased an excellent 720 basis points to 21.3% as we continue to optimize the structure's manufacturing footprint and rationalize the product mix to maximize profitability.

Finally, let's move to slide ten. Forged Wheels revenue was down 13% year-over-year. Although down year-over-year, the Forged Wheels revenue was up approximately 4% sequentially. EBITDA decreased 17% year over year. Despite the challenging market, we were pleased with the Forged Wheels team delivering a healthy 27% EBITDA margin as the team flexed cost and reduced headcount on a year-over-year basis.

Lastly, before turning back over to John, I wanted to highlight one additional item. Page 17 in the appendix highlights our ESG progress. We continue to leverage our differentiated technologies to help our customers manufacture lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft commercial trucks with lower carbon footprints. Howmet remains committed to managing our energy consumption and environmental impacts as we increase production. In 2024, we met our three-year target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by achieving a 21.7% reduction versus our 2019 baseline. In April, we issued our annual ESG report highlighting the meaningful progress we made throughout 2024.

The full report is available at howmet.com in the investor section. Now, let me turn it back over to John.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thanks, Ken. Turning to the outlook, let me comment first on tariffs. Clearly, they've increased uncertainty and reduced confidence in air travel. Regarding Commercial aerospace, the passenger traffic has continued to grow, albeit more slowly, but that's mainly due to Europe and Asia-Pacific, where growth has continued. There's been uncertainty in North America in particular, driven by a combination of political and economic statements. Travel to the U.S. is also reduced. Air cargo growth has moderated. Everything is a little less clear, and passenger and freight data, of course, is backwards looking.

Nevertheless, our Howmet customers are showing resilience and growth, which is both due to the consistent underbuilding of aircraft in recent years and hence having very large backlogs, and the fact that airline fleets have become aged and more fuel-efficient aircraft are needed with lower maintenance build, combined with the requirement for lower carbon footprints in order to meet emissions targets. Of note is the more optimistic mood around Boeing and their 737 MAX builds. We will provide improved build rate assumptions later in my commentary.

Spares demand has also continued to be strong, and while one quarter does not make a year, we did reach the 20% of total revenue milestone in 2025 in the first quarter, a year ahead of schedule. In the first quarter, spares increased by an average of 33% across our segments of Defense Aero, igt, and Oil and Gas. Within Defense, demand is steady and increasing, particularly around needed spares. The F-35 spares growth is notable.

Moving to industrial, demand continues to be solid. Addressing IGT turbine growth due to the electricity demand, which emanates from data center buildout, we see the growth assumptions for the next few years remaining intact, with large expected growth for both spares and turbine builds. These turbines cover the full spectrum from aero-derivative turbines all the way through to the larger size of gas turbine builds. This demand is global.

To this end, Howmet is building capacity in each of the major world's regions with additional building footprint investments in both Japan and Europe. These capacity expansions are backed by solid customer agreements for many years. IGT matches the aerospace margins. The expected second half increase commercial truck builds is now less certain given the North American economic uncertainties and some road freight concerns driven by tariffs. We're watching container shipment bookings very closely.

Net tariff costs in total for Howmet are expected to be passed on to customers with up to a quarter or so of lag, with the impact included in the updated increased guidance. We, of course, avail ourselves of all the trade programs to mitigate the gross tariff impact. Wider inflationary assumptions are unclear at this point. The footprint buildout of plants in the U.S. for aerospace and now Japan and Europe for IGT continues. We've been hiring to date for the U.S. footprint with a net 500 people recruited in the first quarter, mainly for our engine segment. This will accelerate as we move through 2025 and into 2026.

Overall, my summary is that this continues to be a good and exciting time for Howmet when we look forward to the next few years, albeit the near term is rather more uncertain. The specific guidance for Q2 is as follows: a revenue of $1.99 billion plus or minus $10 million, EBITDA of $560 million plus or minus $5 million, and earnings per share of $0.86 plus or minus $0.01. For the year, the midpoint of revenue guidance is similar to that provided last quarter.

The strength in Commercial aerospace is due to spares and the Boeing 737 build rate assumptions, which are being raised to an average of 28 per month compared to the prior assumption of 25 per month. The offset commercial truck build assumptions in the second half. We remain hopeful that the final builds achieved are better.

Having said that, given the uncertainty around markets, we are widening the range of outcomes for the year compared to that given in February. The year's guidance is revenue of $8.03 billion, which we are also widening the range to plus or minus $150 million. The EBITDA baseline has been increased $120 million to $2.25 billion plus or minus $25 million. Earnings per share, the baseline has been increased $0.23 to $3.40 plus or minus $0.04. The free cash flow baseline has been increased $75 million to $1.15 billion plus or minus $50 million.

The good news is that EBITDA, EBITDA margins, and free cash flow are expected to be higher for the year. The increased free cash flow guidance includes an increase in our capital expenditure guidance as well, as we continue to invest in future growth. This increase is approximately $15 million compared to prior guidance.

Naturally, capital deployment continues to be on the same trajectory of uses as normal. At the same time, net leverage is going to further strengthen towards 1.1 times net debt to EBITDA by the end of the year, which is important given the current volatility and our desire for an even stronger balance sheet. This further supports the recent credit agency upgrades. Now we'll move to the questions and answers.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question and answer session. [Operator's Instruction] Our first question today comes from Seth Seifman with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Seth Seifman (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

Oh, thanks very much, and good morning and good results. I guess, John, one thing I wanted to touch on, you mentioned in the release where air traffic growth is, and I think the IATA number for March came out today, and it was something like 3% globally. I guess the question I had is, how much does it really matter? Just in that the Structures and fasteners will probably be dictated by build rate and engine. If it's not for aftermarket, it seems like there's plenty of demand on the OEM side and new content. It would have to be a pretty significant decline in traffic to affect your outlook.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

I think overall demand or end market demand for travel is important. It is important because it does affect, in particular, how we feel about 2026 and 2027. Therefore, for example, the rate at which we would invest and the underlying volume assumptions that are important to us.

I think that we are protected for a significant period of time and maybe many years. It remains to be determined by the fact that the aircraft manufacturers in Commercial aerospace have a very high backlog. Even though with the current situation, for example, where China is no longer taking Boeing aircraft, the question is, what does that mean? I mean, for the industry, it seems like Airbus probably cannot produce many more, but it strengthens their underlying demand, whereas Boeing may be not.

At the same time, their backlog is so enormous that their movement to rate 38 and beyond, I think, is still assured. At the same time, could I envisage that certain airlines might begin to cancel aircraft in the, let's say, coming year? I think it's possible, but that very much depends upon really what the passenger traffic is. At this point, I'd say it's okay, but I think all of us feel a little bit less certain than we did a few months ago, given the current, I'll say, economic policies being carried out in the U.S. in particular. It's a long way of saying I think it's important for when you look forward into the future of having strong underlying fundamentals for demand that start with confidence in the traveling public, the confidence in freight moving around the world.

At the same time, do we have other areas where strength? Yes, we have strength in Defense. We have strength coming from the continued buildout of data centers, which is giving us quite an extraordinary opportunity of demand. Also, as noted in the first quarter, at the moment, the demand for spares continues to be very high and possibly will further increase.

The opposite side of that is, should original aircraft engine production slow or aircraft build slow, then it does affect Structures business, fastening business, and all of the other componentry beyond turbine airfoils, for example, structural castings, where there is limited aftermarket demand compared to the wearing part.

In the last call, I commented, for example, on the existing fleet where I have been saying for some time that probably the peak for the CFM56 was going to be 2027, 2028. I think it's at least that, and current demand has actually been increasing substantially. All of that's playing well at the moment. I think the future's fine, but should I get my worry beads out? Yes, I think it's appropriate. That's one of the reasons why I've said we'll further strengthen the balance sheet as we go through this year and have a fortress balance sheet, totally fortress by the end of the year.

Seth Seifman (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thanks very much.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from David Strauss with Barclays. Please go ahead. Mr. Strauss, your line is open on our end.

David Strauss (Managing Director)

Great. Yep. Thanks. Thanks very much. John, I wanted to ask you progress on yields on the upgraded 1A blades and how things are going on GTFA and when you expect timing of the 1B blade upgrade certification. Thanks.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Okay. We have been moving along our typical learner curves for new, I'll say, turbine airfoil production. Everything is going to plan, and we are in very good stead in terms of being ahead of, I'll say, the engine manufacturer requirements. You may recall, I think it was in November of last year when I said we had already put in 500 engine sets' worth of turbine airfoils for the LEAP-1A. As we look at our production of raw castings, my assumption is that we are actually further ahead at this point, albeit we do not have perfect information of then what the subsequent processes are in terms of machining and hole drilling and etc., etc. At the moment, our production is going well in line with where we expected it to be. Nothing extraordinary at this point.

In terms of certification, it feels as though we now have, first of all, the 1A certified, the GTF Advantage certified, and the remaining one to, I'll say, fall into place is the LEAP-1B, which is still to be done. My current thought is that it's probably heading towards certification by the end of the calendar year. Then the final cutover date is yet to be determined as we move in from the end of this year into 2026.

David Strauss (Managing Director)

Thanks very much.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Doug Harned with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Doug Harned (Managing Director)

Good morning. Thank you. On Q4, you had good margins in Fastening Systems and Engineered Structures. This quarter, they're even much better. You commented that for each of those businesses, it's been disappointing to see the ramp on wide-body demand. It's a little slower. Can you talk about what drove the margins up? Are these sustainable? What additions might you expect once that wide-body ramp occurs?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yeah. Maybe I'll use Structures as a poster child for the conversation, Doug. Clearly, the year-on-year improvement is excellent. Obviously, the quarter-on-quarter increase is somewhat less, but nevertheless, I think still notable. I think it goes towards, I'm sure, the question on incremental margins, which is going to be what have we been able to achieve. In Structures, for example, I'd say we've had a large effort to improve process control.

I'll give you an example of that. In our aircraft wheels business, for the last, now, I'm going to say, seven months, we've been having regular detailed reviews, including myself, with not only the business unit leadership, but also the plant management and even the departmental head, so that we can examine the control of temperatures within our forging metals, the dies.

We've looked at, for example, the dispensation of oiling, and not just quantity, but in terms of coverage, then also the controls within our furnaces and chemical composition and temperature in our edge tanks. It is not for that just by itself, which has actually led to probably an increase in production of, I'll say, 10-15%, but the improvement in scrap has been extraordinary. The improvement in productivity has been really, really good. It is meant to then obviously try to encourage increased process control across other areas. You could point to, for example, titanium melt as well. We have been, as I say, doing a lot, and I'm really pleased with the way that the team has done all of that.

When you are achieving those sort of yield improvements and scrap reduction with productivity, combine that, if you recall, where last year, I think it was in the May timeframe, we told you that we had exited one business and sold one business in the structure segment, so got rid of some, I'll say, fundamentally underperforming lower-margin entities. You get a positive mix effect. You combine that with some price, then you get some really good outcomes. I would say it's been a really great story of, let's say, beginning to fire on all cylinders. You may recall my statement when we'd held it for some years with all the downdraft in the, I'll say, inventory overhang on F-35 and the wide-body, I'll say, lower build, including cessation of the 787 some for a period of time.

Now we see stronger demand in the Defense segments, including F-35. We, I'll say, look still afford to increase wide-body. My statement was that we would probably get up to a high teens margin business, which we managed to exceed this quarter. I'm convinced that the statement I've made in terms of high teens is absolutely solid now. Clearly, we aspire to try to hold where we are. That gives you an example. You could write ditto for aspects of our Fastening Systems and indeed for engines as well. Really good controls and improving productivity yields have been really outstanding.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Robert Stallard with Vertical Research. Please go ahead.

Robert Stallard (Partner and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thanks so much. Good morning.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Rob.

Robert Stallard (Partner and Senior Equity Analyst)

John, I was wondering if you could give us an update on where you currently are on the 737, obviously noting you've increased your full-year production rate guide, and also where you are on the wide body. Of course, you did make those comments about the ramp there being a bit slower than expected. Thank you.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Maybe I'll start with the wide body first. As you know from public commentary, the 787 increase in ramp rate was delayed for three months, I think, until the I think it's the second half. While we think the demand for that aircraft is extraordinary and the backlog is very high, we have confidence that the full demand for that aircraft is there. It has caused a little bit of, I'll say, perturbation in the first half of this year. On the A350, again, well-publicized commentary is that there's been difficulty getting some of the fuselage componentry from Spirit AeroSystems. On that one, our rate assumption, which was six, is probably more like a five and a half now. Our rate assumption on the 787, which was going to seven earlier, is now pushed back a little bit.

That's the picture on wide body. Having said that, with absolute confidence that the demand is there, which will carry us through into 2026 and 2027. On narrow body, while we've noted and feel more confident in the pickup in build that's been going on in Boeing, there we've moved from a 25 rate assumption to a 28 rate assumption as an average for the year. That implies that we will see a higher rate of production in the second half. What we've been experiencing in the course of, because if you look at Commercial aerospace sequentially between Q4 and Q1, while the year-on-year plus 9% is really good, the sequential is a much more modest increase than that. That's basically because of, I'll say, inventory takeout that Boeing has been doing. I think it's the increased rate of production.

We haven't seen that come through in the first quarter. In fact, if anything, a little bit of reduction in certain componentry, particularly at the second tier level in terms of machining shops, which take out components and then go and machine them. As that inventory through the chain has been, I'll say, brought down, we have noted that reduction, albeit we feel as though we're going to see and are seeing already some pickup in that rate as we move forward in the latter part of Q2 into Q3 as the rate further improvements occur in Boeing. On Airbus A320, same assumption as before in the mid-50s, with hopefully improvements as we go through the year. I think that pretty much covers it.

Robert Stallard (Partner and Senior Equity Analyst)

That's it. Thanks, John. Thank you.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Myles Walton with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Myles Walton (Managing Director)

Thanks. Good morning. John, the fastening margins, Doug started to ask on that, but you sort of used the Structures as a case study. We could focus on fasteners. Did you get much benefit in the quarter from the PCC fire tightness that's likely been created? And have you closed on any share gain contracts under LTA or just general improvement that you saw in that business? Thanks.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

In the quarter, there was nothing of any note. I mean, we did do a few parts where one of our customers had an absolute need to have something in the quarter, so we did that, but it's not measurable in terms of any meaningful revenue number. We have been booking orders. I'll say at the moment, we're probably in that between $20 million-$30 million, probably, I'd say mid-$20 million in terms of orders booked at the moment. We're still hundreds of parts yet to quote. We're hoping that number moves up as we go through the year. Again, hopeful that by the time we get into mid-year and beyond, is that we'll start to produce a meaningful quantity to cover the, I'll say, some of those SPS-related issues.

Myles Walton (Managing Director)

Would that target potentially be over $100 million by the end of the year if those quotes?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

No, I don't think so. I think that's too much in a singular way. I think the whole of their output was somewhere between $150 million and $200 million of revenue. It's just sure PCC are going to reallocate some of that production to their other sites. Obviously, we'll get hopefully a slice of what remains, which can't be done. I mean, it's pretty difficult to take all of that production and move it in-house because nobody sits there with that capacity. How it all falls out, I think we'll be well short of the $100 million number. Maybe just total guesses would be half of that, but I don't really know.

Myles Walton (Managing Director)

Okay. Very good. Thanks, John.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Kristine Liwag (Executive Director)

Hey, good morning, everyone.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yes, please.

Kristine Liwag (Executive Director)

Hey. John, maybe taking a hindsight view, I mean, the earnings power of Howmet today is just so much stronger than the previous forms of this company with Arconic, Alcoa aerospace over the years. Your market share wins and the engine upgrades focus on the higher value tech items, and operating efficiencies are clearly paying off. I know you don't give a long-term outlook, but to the extent that you could, how should we think about incremental margins for the company once we do get to the 50-plus per rate per month for the 737 MAX and 10-plus per month for the 787? I mean, how high can margins really go?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

I don't know that I can answer that question given where we are and it's been moving. I think the majority of the benefits of having Howmet as a pure-play company has been increasingly the luxury of some of the conversations that we're able to have because of that focus and time and knocking problems over one by one. The example I gave, which was just focused on aircraft wheels, obviously, it's a segment of a single plant, and therefore, it's meant to convey what we're doing more generally. Having those sort of conversations and the luxury to have the time to have those sort of conversations is really good.

Where you go in the future, it's always a function of what's the angle of demand because margin rate assumptions are affected not only by the, I'll say, internal efficiencies that you do, but also it's fundamentally different when you're going at a 2% versus a 12%. At the moment, it's really difficult to know how to answer that question when we've seen such violent rate swing assumptions for both wide body and narrow body over the last few years. Here we are again now grappling with a set of circumstances that we had not really envisaged in terms of how we manage through the current tariff situation. It's so difficult to be able to respond and appear to be in any form of, let's say, clear thinking at this point in time.

As you know, when we went through inflation in the, let's say, 2022 timeframe, as that picked up, when you're just getting a dollar for a dollar, that impacts and flattens your margin. If we're successful, as I think we are, and it's been interesting. We haven't had a question on tariffs so far, but if we get a dollar for a dollar there, again, that's a dampener on margin. I don't know how to answer the question that would be anything meaningful for you, Kristine.

Kristine Liwag (Executive Director)

Thanks, John. Maybe pivoting to cash. Despite this uncertain environment, and you had COVID, you had inflation, now you have tariff risks. At the same time, free cash flow is still positive for the enterprise. You're able to support your CapEx increase with cash generated, and you've got extra. The balance sheet is underlevered. There's a point in time as the economic environment stabilizes for demand for aerospace. Could we see a period where you could return 100% of excess free cash flow to shareholders? Even if you should do that, the delevering aspect is still pretty meaningful. How do we think about priorities of capital, especially as we emerge from this period of uncertainty?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

I think we've had a pretty good record in returning the cash flow to our owners. I may have the year wrong, and I'll let Ken have a look. I think, for example, in 2023, we actually returned more than 100% of the available free cash flow to shareholders. You could say I also treat repayment of debt as effectively returning money to shareholders. Our conversion, if you look at the five-year—I looked at this recently. If you look at the five-year average, we're exactly at 100% conversion of net income into free cash flow, albeit it's been, let's say, closer to 90% the last year, a couple of years if we've kicked up the CapEx in particular. When I look at cash flows at the moment, clearly, we're able to afford to invest.

I think that takes away for our customers any uncertainty about the supply base for us in particular, can we invest to meet the future demands. When you look at the investment we made back in 2020, that was a quarter of a billion in our Engine Products. We're investing more than that currently in our, I'll say, aerospace turbine airfoil increase in production. That ignores the IGT aspect. We're able to fund that. This year, in terms of the contours of, I'd say, capital deployment, clearly, we've already mentioned that we've increased the dividend. I think the buyback of shares will actually be at a higher number than it was in 2024.

At the same time, I expect that our balance sheet will be further strengthened by the end of the year because we've got, I think, improved EBITDA that is in the guide. We need to look at any further tranches of debt which we want to pay down. When I recognize that at 1.1 times net debt to EBITDA, we're a little bit underlevered. I think given all of the uncertainties, it's appropriate for us to have that as a year-end view currently. Obviously, if some of the immediate grey clouds pass over, we're looking to further deploy. It's going to be a good return for shareholders this year with increased share buyback over last year, increased dividend. It's all going to be good.

Kristine Liwag (Executive Director)

Great. Thanks, John.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Ron Epstein with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Ron Epstein (Senior Equity Analyst)

Let me ask the tariff question that nobody asked. How are you thinking about that, John? You guys were, I think, really the first to come out with the force majeure concept on tariffs. I mean, how pass-throughable is it, and how are you broadly thinking about it?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yeah. I thought for a second, even despite my prompting, that no one would ask the question. I was going to have to find a way of talking to it so that it could be out there. I mean, first of all, I'd say the wider picture in tariffs has been very fast-moving and changing, both in terms of the percentages and also exemptions either by product or by country. It has been tough to keep up with all of the changes there. At the same time, we do understand the thrust of the administration to, I'll say, try to reshore production where it's appropriate. Having said that, our duty is to, first of all, minimize the impact. We do that with a series of trade programs.

I'm sure you're familiar with all of the names, let's say, whether it is the USMCA, whether it's duty drawback using a bonded warehouse, it's free trade zones. You have some other exemptions which you can talk to. I could quote like 9801, 2 and 3 exemptions, and inward processing relief, and so on. There are a lot of programs that you look at to see, first of all, can you minimize the impact for the company and also for our customers? The third point is clearly we want to protect Howmet. When we examined our contracts, while we have very solid, for example, material escalators in place, in certain cases, tariff is not called out in the contract language. We wanted to protect for that so there was no ambiguity.

Also, as you know, issued letters of force majeure, which we had to issue to all of our customers so that we would have consistent messaging. You can't say to one and not the other, etc. It was a stance from the company. Today, let's now move to impact at the gross level. Assuming after all the mitigation actions that we've taken, and assuming that after the 90-day period, there is a bounce back to the previous levels, which hopefully won't be the case, but we envisage the gross impacts for the company in a worst-case position to be at about $80 million. That's if the 90-day period goes and passes, comes and goes, and there's a bounce back there. The next point would be, what is the net impact after all the mitigation and then pass-through?

We see that as less than $15 million in 2025. The majority of that $15 million, but not all of it, but the majority of it is what I call the drag impact. That is when you incur costs. We'll be having to fund certain importers because they haven't got the working capital to pay the duties. We have all of that, and we see it as a drag in we'll be paying out, but then invoicing either as supplements to existing invoices or surcharges. Obviously, that affects you in the quarter. That's why we see, and you'll see in Q2, we assumed a lower margin rate than we had in Q1, essentially because of tariff drag. It just goes on for a period of time.

by the time we get into the second half of the year and into the fourth quarter, it will be just normal course of business in terms of invoicing recovery. We will still have had that drag in 2025. That is how we see it today. Of course, it could be still fast-moving. To give you a little bit more granularity, the majority, I will say there are two real impacts for us. One is the imports from Europe, and the second one is the imports from China, not surprisingly, given the percentage of tariffs for China at the moment. Two of our business units out of the four are primarily affected. In one, we have already secured individual customer agreements covering more than 90% of revenue to cover the tariffs. That is clear.

Of the second one, then about 50% is covered through distribution where it's contract to contract. Therefore, it's a small net overhang which is yet to be locked down with, let's say, a larger customer. That's all within the net $15 million that I told you about. Hopefully, that gives you a pretty comprehensive walkthrough from how we see it, what the gross impact might be, what the net impact is, and what our assumptions are.

Ron Epstein (Senior Equity Analyst)

Gotcha. Gotcha. That's helpful. If I can just one quick follow-on. How exposed are you to rare earths and maybe rare minerals? I mean, is that a question mark for you guys, or do you have that covered?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yeah. There are three that we are, I'll say, worried about. If I pick the first one, which would be yttrium, then there's gadolinium. There's another one, struggling to remember the name of it. In the case of two, the supplier has approximately 10 years of inventory. We feel pretty good on that. The one, and I can't remember which of those names it was now, maybe it's the gadolinium then, that's a short, maybe less than a year. There is, just like everything, a possibility of, I'll say, working around that. I think, I might misread these words, but I think that we're okay. Certainly, in the case of, say, start with yttrium, like a very long decade of inventory. That is held in Europe, actually. We are in, I think, good shape there.

Ron Epstein (Senior Equity Analyst)

Gotcha. All right. Thank you very much.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Sheila Kahyaoglu (Managing Director)

Good morning, John and Ken. John, I'm going to have you double down on tariffs since you asked.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Oh no.

Doug Harned (Managing Director)

I know.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

I want to go back. I thought of a third word, the third rare earth. I could tell you that it's erbium, if that means anything to you. It's in fact in our titanium shell. Anyway, sorry. Carry on.

Sheila Kahyaoglu (Managing Director)

It means absolutely nothing. But thank you. So with the Q1 margins of 28.8%, really strong leverage across the segments, whether it was fasteners or your poster child. Just curious, relative to the full-year guidance, when we think about first half, top-line growth of 6%, second half is up 10%. But the margins are implied to step down 100 basis points. So from 28.5% to 27.5%, but the net tariff impact is only about 15 basis points of that. So how do you think about what else is built into the contingency and how sustainable are Q1 levels across segments?

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yeah. I think there's a few things going on. There's the, I'll say, dampening effect of the tariff. I don't have to hand the same basis points you've obviously calculated quicker than I did. I look at the flattening effect of a dollar for a dollar. I look at the thing we haven't talked about is our assumption is that there will be actually a step down of production in commercial truck business. While we've been holding onto margins as much as we have so far, it's been good. There are still, there are points you get to where it's increasingly painful. A little bit more caution because of commercial truck business. Of course, we have yet to see the commercial aircraft production step up and see it affect all over.

I point to several things that are a little bit of concern. I feel as though it's an appropriate guide and with more concern in the one segment, which commercial truck and its volumes and what that could do to us. Meanwhile, of course, as you know, we're recruiting significantly for the new facilities and building those out. We'll put in 500 people in the first quarter. If you ask me to call it again today, I'm thinking an additional 1,000 by the end of the year. Of course, those have to go through not just the recruitment, but the training process. There's a bit of that. I think it's where we think it's appropriate at this point in time, Sheila. We try to do better, of course.

With all the uncertainty, with all the things I mentioned, I think still staying north of that 28% is really good in the balance of the year with all the things that we're trying to do and the run rate that we're trying to achieve as we go into 2026.

Sheila Kahyaoglu (Managing Director)

Sure. Thank you.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Scott Deuschle with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Scott Deuschle (Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hey, good morning. John, within that 33% spares growth figure, can you segment that at all by end market? Perhaps just to highlight what end markets were accretive to that 33% growth rate and what were dilutive. Secondly, I think Engine Products may have been experiencing some destocking headwinds for cold-section engine parts in the LEAP engine. Is that correct? If so, is that now behind you? Thank you.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Yeah. Dealing with the engine segment question first, yes, we have had some of that destocking effect, in particular for the LPT part of the production where, if anything, those LPT parts which are produced in France were, I think, probably a little bit overproduced last year. Given the output of LEAP in the first quarter, which was, I think, 314 OE engines, that was probably less than we had originally thought. The LPT overhang still exists. Going with that is the structural casting. I do not think that is over yet, but it depends upon the rate of increase in production. If you reverse engineer the math, which was to get to a, I think the guidance on LEAP was roughly around 1,670 engines for the year, then clearly production's got to go well north of 400 engines.

Should that occur, I think as we get into Q3 and Q4, we should be beyond that destocking effect that we've seen, which is because of, let's say, lesser production last year and a modest startup this year. Should we see 450 engines per quarter, that would be good for us. The first part of your question was regarding spares. Basically, Commercial Aero and Defense were in the over 40% increase, while the IGT and Oil and Gas were more like a 15% increase. That's just to do with available capacities at this point and trying to turn up there because there is demand for additional parts for the IGT business in particular. If you assume 40% for commercial and Defense and mid-teens for the IGT, Oil and Gas, that's a vast spares business.

Scott Deuschle (Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you, John.

John Plant (Chair of the Board and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question and answer session, and the conference has also now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.