Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. Aktie

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings press release as well as the company's 2025 10-K, which was filed on March 5, 2026, with the SEC. Additionally, the company may discuss adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and EBITDA as defined.

These metrics are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of EPS to adjusted EPS, operating income to adjusted operating income and net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Crawford, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Thank you very much, and good morning to everyone. We're pleased to report a solid second quarter performance, which included a number of record or near record financial performance metrics. More important is the continued success of our transformation efforts to become a business driven by organic growth and our most durable products and services. This transformation has and will continue to provide increased operating leverage as well as improved margin and cash flow performance.

Additionally, we are positioned to increase our expectations for 2026 performance as we gain deeper visibility into what is not only a stable and growing industrial economy, but one that also appears to continue to broaden out from some of the drivers of growth over the past several quarters, most notably electrical infrastructure, data center as well as aerospace and defense.

As it relates to our transformation, we continue to invest in productivity tools across the business and believe we are in the early innings of seeing these benefits, both in operating expense reduction and reduced investment per dollar of revenue growth.

Examples include more robust data management tools, facility optimization and automation investments and, importantly, infrastructure enhancements, particularly in the Engineered Products segment, where we continue to see consistently increased order and backlog activity across end markets, but particularly in defense and electric power-related. I want to thank all of our global associates for their commitment to operating excellence and their participation in the transformational work we are undergoing. Now I'll turn it over to Pat to review the second quarter results.

Thanks, Matt. Overall, our strong second quarter results exceeded our expectations and were highlighted by record consolidated revenues of $440 million, record revenues in both our Supply Technologies and Engineered Products segments and continued sales growth in our Assembly Components segment. Also, we continue to see strong demand across most of our key end markets, including semiconductor, aerospace and defense, AI data center, electrical steel, heavy-duty truck, oil and gas and powersports.

The strong performance in our Engineered Products segment resulted from strong new equipment and aftermarket demand in many end markets and improved results from our Forged and Machined Products business. And finally, gross margin of 17.9% increased 90 basis points from a year ago, and operating income increased 22% year-over-year.

Based on our record sales in the first half of the year, continued strong end market demand in Supply Technologies, strong backlogs in Engineered Products and ongoing operational improvements across several businesses, we are raising our full year 2026 guidance as follows: we are increasing net sales guidance to $1.7 billion to $1.73 billion. We are increasing adjusted EPS guidance to $3.10 to $3.30 per diluted share.

We're increasing EBITDA as defined guidance to a range of 8.5% to 9%, and we are maintaining our previous guidance of free cash flow of $20 million to $30 million. Turning now to the details of our second quarter results. Total sales in the quarter were $440 million compared to $400 million a year ago, an increase of 10%. Sequentially, compared to last quarter, total sales were up 5%.

Sales in each business segment increased year-over-year and also increased sequentially, resulting from strong demand for most key end markets. Our year-over-year consolidated gross margin improvement of 90 basis points and increased operating income increase of 22%, were driven by margin flow-through from the record sales levels and profit enhancement initiatives implemented across several of our businesses.

SG&A expenses in the quarter were approximately $53 million or 12.1% of sales compared to 11.7% of sales a year ago. The increase was driven primarily by general inflation, increases in personnel costs and support for the higher sales levels. Second quarter interest expense of $12.3 million was $1.1 million higher than last year due primarily to the higher interest rate on our senior secured notes that we refinanced in the third quarter of last year.

This increase was partially offset by lower interest rates on our revolving credit facility during the quarter. Our effective income tax rate was approximately 17% in the quarter. The favorable effective tax rate year-to-date was driven by federal research and development tax credit benefits estimated for the year. We expect our full year effective income tax rate to range between 17% and 20%. GAAP earnings per share for the quarter increased 30% year-over-year to $0.87 per diluted share.

On an adjusted basis, earnings per share increased 24% to $0.93 per share compared to $0.75 in the second quarter of last year. During the quarter, cash flow from operations was $9 million, an improvement of $23 million compared to a year ago. The cash flow improvement was due to higher income levels and our ongoing efforts to reduce working capital in each business.

Capital spending totaled $11 million in the quarter, which included investments in information systems, automation equipment, which will drive improved plant floor efficiencies and growth capital. We expect our full year CapEx to be approximately $35 million to $40 million. Our liquidity continues to be strong and totaled approximately $189 million at the end of the quarter, which consisted of $48 million of cash on hand and $141 million of unused borrowing capacity under our various banking arrangements.

Turning now to our segment results. In Supply Technologies, net sales increased 12% and totaled a record $209 million during the quarter compared to $187 million in the second quarter of last year. Higher sales were driven by strong customer demand in most key end markets, including semiconductors, AI data centers, powersports, aerospace and defense, heavy-duty truck and agricultural and industrial equipment end markets.

Our supply chain business continues to benefit from increasing demand in the semiconductor, electrical and AI data center sectors, which in total increased 29% year-over-year. In response to the growing demand trends in these interrelated end markets, we are expanding our global service center footprint in support of key customers and the expected demand for our supply chain services over the next several years.

In addition, aerospace and defense demand continues to be strong and increased 10% during the quarter. Segment operating income in the second quarter was $19 million, an increase of 13% year-over-year, and operating margins were 8.8% compared to 8.7% a year ago. We continue to be on track to open our new state-of-the-art North American distribution center in the third quarter of this year.

We are confident that this facility will be a best-in-class service center operation with automated sorting and kitting and additional value-added services for our customers. We expect to see the margin benefits of this strategic investment beginning in 2027. Our fastener manufacturing business performed well in the quarter as net sales grew 6% year-over-year.

Global customer demand for our proprietary products continues to grow, resulting from the expanded use of lightweight materials and increased global production of EV and hybrid vehicles. In our Assembly Components segment, sales for the quarter totaled $101 million compared to $95 million a year ago, an increase of 7%, driven by new product sales launched last year in each product line and higher customer demand from various automotive platforms.

Segment operating income totaled $5.3 million compared to $5.6 million last year and increased from $4.9 million last quarter. We continue to focus on improving operating margins in this segment through improved margin flow-through from revenue growth from new programs as well as through profit enhancement initiatives.

Several operating initiatives such as increasing our rubber mixing production to support sales growth in our molded and extruded products and plan for automation investments are expected to improve operating margins. In our Engineered Products segment, sales were a record $129 million, up 10% compared to last year and up 3% compared to last quarter.

The increase in sales was driven primarily by sales of aftermarket parts and services and strong new equipment backlogs in our Industrial Equipment Group as well as higher sales in our Forged and Machined Products Group, which were up 25% year-over-year. New equipment backlogs -- I'm sorry, new equipment bookings totaled $66 million in the quarter. Year-to-date, new equipment bookings totaled $153 million compared to $129 million for the same period last year, an increase of 19%.

Our equipment backlog at the end of the second quarter increased 23% to $252 million compared to $205 million at the end of last year. The increased capital equipment sales in the quarter were driven by strong customer demand in several end markets, including defense, electrical steel processing, oil and gas, agriculture, AI data center and semiconductor markets. Both our industrial equipment and forging businesses continue to experience strong demand from both defense and AI data center-related sectors.

We provide several products in support of these growing end markets, including transformer systems for IT equipment, induction furnaces for electrical steel processing, forgings for industrial turbines and various military applications, generators for emergency power and various induction equipment used by data center cooling systems and for military applications and forging presses used to produce munitions for military use.

During the quarter, segment operating income improved 50% to $9 million compared to $6 million both a year ago and sequentially last quarter. The improved operating income resulted from strong sales in the quarter and improved operating performance across many locations, including our forged product locations.

And finally, as we announced last quarter, as part of our ongoing portfolio optimization strategy, we engaged an investment banking firm to assist us with a formal review of strategic alternatives for our Southwest Steel Processing business, including a potential sale or other transaction. SSP is part of our Engineered Products segment. This review reflects our continued focus on aligning capital and resources toward higher growth, higher-margin opportunities across our portfolio.

We expect the process to be completed towards the end of this year. Our revised outlook includes the impact of Southwest Steel, which is expected to generate approximately $15 million in revenue and a net loss of approximately $0.50 per diluted share. The outcome of our strategic review with respect to this business represents potential upside to our current guidance. Now I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Great. Thank you, Pat. Before I open up to questions, I just want to draw some attention to both Pat and I discussing sort of the broadening out of demand. We've been very intentional over the last several years, as all of you know, around aerospace and defense and the things related to data centers and electrical grid investments. But this quarter really demonstrated the depth and broadening of the demand cycle.

Not only do we see growth for the year in all of our segments, but we also see it in most of our end markets and almost all of our geographies around the world. So I think it's important to note that this is part of our intentional strategy, but we're also benefiting from, again, a broadening out of industrial demand throughout the world. With that, we'll open it up for some questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from David Storms with Stonegate.

Congrats on the quarter. Congrats on the guidance raise. Admittedly, I did want to start my first question, maybe a little more in the weeds than normally. Starting with Assembly Components. It was mentioned that you called out specifically fluid transfer on the release last night. I know that's been a big part of your business for a long time. Can you maybe spend a little more time just talking about some of the challenges and problems that you're solving in fluid transfer as it relates to the AI infrastructure build-out?

Let me sort of kick that off, and I'll let Pat discuss more specifically where we may have said that. But let me point out, our -- we have a very strong brand and very strong market presence in multilayer extruded hose where we're vertically integrated mostly in the automotive space, not entirely, but mostly in the automotive space. So there are numerous areas in our business where we touch on data centers and electrical infrastructure, but that would not be one of them per se.

Other than we are seeing more and more applications on the automotive side for fluid transfer for things like battery coolant technology and et cetera. So cooling systems and so forth, washer systems, more advanced vehicles on the hybrid and EV side. So on that transition, we are involved. But I think more broadly, the themes that you're thinking about are less so.

One additional comment. When you think of our end markets, as Matt mentioned, automotive, heavy truck, industrial applications, to transfer fuel, to transfer cooling fluids, to transfer hydraulic fluids. We also produce extruded plastic hose for air and other types of fluids. There clearly is an opportunity to expand our makeup of customers outside of auto heavy-duty truck to other industrial applications, which might include data center activities or other parts of the industrial economy.

Understood. I appreciate that clarification. I think I was putting the horse before the cart a little bit there. That's perfect. As I'm looking then at the data center build-out writ large, obviously, there's a lot of excitement you're able to take advantage of that. Are you seeing any pushback? I'm starting to see a lot of headlines of local pushback to data centers. Are you seeing that come through? Or is that more a headline that maybe doesn't have as much real-world impact?

Yes. I think that -- no, I think the headlines are real. How it affects our business is, I think, a little bit differently than you may expect. We touch really upstream and downstream on this area. For example, when you think about people like Caterpillar, who are providing mining equipment for rare earth minerals, when you think about a division of Caterpillar supplying stationary power, I mean there's a lot of upstream investments that I think candidly have multiyear backlogs.

So I'm not sure that they're real focused right now on what the latest sort of political headline is. Those are really durable opportunities. I also think in some of the build-out for some of these data centers are already commissioned. I'm going to call these sorts of the midstream investments, if you will, to steal a term from the energy sector, switchgears, transformers, fasteners that really build out these things.

I would tell you, those are ongoing. That will -- might be affected over time by some of those headlines. But again, there is a multi-year catch-up period going on right now for what just has not been built. I think you probably have watched this play out with Intel down near Columbus. I mean that's multi-years behind schedule. So I think those could play out over the next 3, 5, 10 years, but it will be interesting to see how that happens. I don't see it anticipating our backlogs.

I think our customers are trying to catch up. And then, of course, you've got the semiconductor sector that I think is really strengthening as sort of the final piece of the puzzle, right? You've got all the upstream. Now you got the facilities built. Now you need semiconductor tools, and you need things like that. And that's why I think that for so long, people like Applied Materials were pretty flat and everyone is like, how is that possible, right?

And now they're booming as more of these things are stood up and the actual guts or the intelligence of the operations being invested. So we really touch on all parts of that value stream. And so at this point, I feel like it's more catch-up than it is real political risk from those headlines. But long term, there's a lot of discussion. Is this a 5-year, 10-year, 20-year trend? And I would tell you that over 10 or 20 years, the issue you mentioned will certainly play out.

Understood. That's great commentary. If I could maybe ask one more around defense. Just trying to think about what the qualification, bidding, negotiating process is like there in the defense market. Are you seeing maybe manufacturing competence and time to market being on equal or close to equal footing as things like price that might maybe take the lead in other negotiations? Or maybe, I guess, how would you qualify the defense new customer acquisition environment?

Are you just referring to sort of more broadly?

Correct. Broadly and could be Engineered Products, could be Supply Tech.

Again, I think that there are parts of the business that are expanding fairly quickly, and we've touched on some of them, data centers, we've touched on aerospace and defense. The capacity building, stationary power, the capacity building is so important. I think these are all important issues, by the way, quality products, price, delivery. I mean these are all triangulated every day in our business.

But I would certainly say in some of the segments we're discussing, delivery is the most important thing. So I think the -- quality, sorry, quality is the most important thing, delivery, too. Price is always an important part of the puzzle to deliver value, overall value to the customer. So I would suggest to you that, by and large, those are the kinds of discussions that happen. Again, not to suggest that price is still not very important, particularly in some of the more traditional sectors, whether it be auto or rail or truck.

So delivering value to that supply chain, particularly after years of price increases as inflation came through is a little higher on their priorities than perhaps the people who are trying to build more missile cells or something like that, right? But it's an intersection of all 3, unquestionably, especially after years of inflation for sure, and cost increases on our side and theirs.

The next question comes from Christian Zyla with KeyBanc Capital.

This is Christian Zyla on for Steve Barger. First question from us. Just you guys divested Aluminum Products a few years ago and now have Southwest Steel in the strategic review. What other business units have negative or flat earnings? And should we expect further portfolio actions as your other core businesses really start to accelerate with the industrial cycle?

Well, let me first comment on Southwest Steel. Again, Southwest Steel has been an important contributor to Park-Ohio over the last 20 years and until recently has been consistently profitable and accretive to our overall margin profile. So there's some fundamental things that have happened in their end markets that make it less desirable for us as part of our core business and our goals to grow with significant operating leverage.

So we're patiently trying to find the right fit for that. Moving to your second question, I don't know as we sit here today that I would identify another part of our business, which certainly has the negative impact that Southwest does on our overall financial statements.

But to be honest with you, we're always -- I mean, we are always, particularly in this period of reinvestment, looking to optimize, looking to be more efficient. So while I would not call out any particular business, I would say that we always have what we call value drivers here across the business to optimize and improve the way that we come to market. So -- but not to that level nor would I call out any particular business other than SSP.

Understood. I guess sticking with Engineered Products, I know you guys have that silicon steel order that you're working through. So was some of the margin -- the year-over-year margin expansion driven by you fulfilling parts of that contract? Or was the margin improvement in EP partially driven by better mix in the quarter? You guys have said in the past that EP drives Park-Ohio.

So ultimately, what I'm trying to figure out is, is this a level of sustainable margin as a floor in your EP segment? And judging by the comments you made in the disclosure about Southwest Steel, it sounds like the answer is yes, but I'm just trying to frame out like long-term trajectory and how you're thinking about EP.

No, no, it's a great question. So first of all, more specifically, I think what Pat will tell you in a moment is we are benefiting from that order. But I think what's more important to focus on is that order entry this year is up over last year. So even with that big order, order entry continues to be very strong. And oh, by the way, there are certain dynamics about large orders versus small orders.

So no, the back business continues to be strong. And there's no question that we're benefiting from that large order last year. But I don't want you to suggest this is a lump going through the snake, so to speak. It may be operationally at times, I'm sure, but it's not -- that's not the way I would think about it. So we are really -- and then separately, I would say, I just want to comment generally.

We are seeing through, I think, great leadership out of that group and some really discrete investments that I discussed in terms of increasing their -- the reliability of their equipment as well as their infrastructure to perform. I think we're beginning to see a return to the profitability metrics we saw consistently for 20 years until COVID. So I don't -- I would not look at this as a one-off. I would look at this as an opportunity to return some of the profitability metrics to where they should be.

And I also think an opportunity to invest in the business. And yes, also benefit maybe a little disproportionately around some of the sort of electrical infrastructure stuff we've talked about, transformers and so forth, AI, et cetera, as well as aerospace and defense, which is where a big chunk of that exposure is for us. So no, I don't view that particular order, while beneficial to this year's earnings as being unusual or sort of lump in the snake.

I would also comment that this is a global business with global aftermarket presence as well as new equipment builds. We continue to see increased absorption in each of our plants based on the increase in bookings. So it makes perfect sense that as a result, we're going to see higher margins.

Our margins have continued to improve year-over-year, but still not where we need to be, and our team is working hard on that. So we expect continued improvement. EBIT margins north of 10% are not uncommon in this business over the long term, and we plan to get there.

Yes, that's great. And I guess back of the envelope math, if I exclude Southwest Steel from Engineered Products, it looks like you guys are closer to like a high single-digit 9-plus percent EBIT. So it sounds like you guys are kind of already there, which is great to hear. Just if I could do one last question.

For Supply Tech, what was the impact of the automation improvements in the new distribution center on the margin? Just typically, when you have double-digit sales in Supply Tech, you have some nice operating leverage and margin expansion there. I'm just trying to get a sense of what a clean operating margin level was excluding the investments that you guys made.

Yes. I'll address that. As I mentioned in the script, the effect of the North American distribution center will start to appear in our margins in 2027. There was no impact relative to that. We continue to make investments in people to support that activity. But I wouldn't say in the current quarter that had a meaningful impact on our margin. We'll start to see more of that over the next couple of quarters.

And then in terms of the information systems investments that we're making, again, it's people-driven, supporting 2 systems as we implement our new information systems will have an impact on our margins going forward. But we've seen continued improvement in the margins in this segment. We expect that to continue despite the investments that we're making.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Crawford for closing comments.

Great. Thank you much -- thank you very much for your questions this morning and your time, and we look forward to a very exciting second half. Have a great day.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of the relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings press release as well as the company's 2025 10-K, which was filed on March 5, 2026, with the SEC.

Additionally, the company may discuss adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and EBITDA as defined. These metrics are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of EPS, adjusted EPS, operating income to adjusted operating income and net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release.

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Crawford, Chairman, President and CEO. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Thank you, and thank you all for joining our first quarter earnings conference call. I'm pleased with the momentum which is building across our business. Not only are we observing growth in many of our end markets, both traditional and new, this strength comes in products and services, which are our most durable and innovative offerings.

We've worked hard to transform all aspects of our business over the last several years by carefully allocating capital towards our goals of faster growth, higher sustainable margins and more consistent cash flow. Our progress is beginning to connect to the results. We will continue to invest in people, products and processes where we can accelerate these changes. We are just at the beginning of seeing these improvements.

Regarding our strategic review of Southwest Steel Processing, we will respect the long-term contributions of our partners and associates who have created incredible value over the last 25 years. This fully automated forging site is one of the finest of its type anywhere, and we will find a way to optimize the hard work and investment of the SSP Park-Ohio team while improving the overall results of Park-Ohio.

Thank you to all of our associates for their contributions to the start of 2026, and I look forward to answering questions after Pat reviews the quarter. Thanks, Pat.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning. Overall, our first quarter results exceeded our expectations and are highlighted by sales growth across all 3 of our business segments on a year-over-year basis and sequentially.

Sales in the quarter totaled $421 million compared to $405 million a year ago, an increase of 4%. Sales growth in Supply Technologies was driven by increased customer demand in several key end markets. In our Assembly Components segment, sales growth of 3% was driven by new program launches throughout last year and increased year-over-year demand from various automotive platforms in each of our product lines. In Engineered Products, sales growth was 4% year-over-year, driven by strong capital equipment demand from several end markets in North America and Europe and continued strong aftermarket demand.

Our consolidated gross margin was 17.3% in the quarter, up 50 basis points compared to a year ago, driven by flow-through from the higher sales levels and profit enhancement initiatives implemented in several business units. Excluding restructuring and other special charges of approximately $1 million in both periods, consolidated operating income was $21 million, up 6% versus last year. Sequentially, adjusted operating income increased 4% compared to the fourth quarter.

SG&A expenses were approximately $52 million or 12.3% of sales compared to 11.9% of sales a year ago. The percent to sales increase was driven primarily by general inflation and increases in personnel costs.

First quarter interest costs were $1.3 million higher than a year ago due primarily to the higher interest rate on our senior notes that we refinanced in the third quarter of last year. The increase was partially offset by lower interest rates on our revolving credit facility compared to a year ago.

Our effective income tax rate improved to 17% in the quarter compared to 20% a year ago, driven by higher estimated federal research and development tax credits. We expect our full year effective income tax to range between 17% and 20%.

GAAP earnings per share from continued operations for the quarter was $0.58 per diluted share and on an adjusted basis was $0.65 per share, both exceeding our internal expectations due to higher levels of segment operating income.

During the quarter, cash flow from operations was a use of $8 million to fund working capital, primarily to support sales growth during the current year. Capital spending totaled $12.5 million, which included investments in information systems, automation equipment to help drive higher levels of profitability and improve plant floor efficiencies and growth capital. We expect our full year CapEx to be approximately $35 million.

Our liquidity continues to be strong and totaled approximately $200 million at the end of the quarter, which consisted of approximately $47 million of cash on hand and $153 million of unused borrowing capacity under our various banking arrangements.

Turning now to our segment results. In Supply Technologies, net sales totaled $195 million during the quarter compared to $188 million in the first quarter of last year, an increase of 4%. Higher sales were driven by strong customer demand in powersports, semiconductor, aerospace and defense, electrical and agricultural end markets.

Our supply chain business continues to benefit from the increased demand from the semiconductor, technology and data center sectors, which in total increased 13% year-over-year. In addition, aerospace and defense demand in the first quarter continued to be strong and increased 15% year-over-year. We expect continued growth in these end markets throughout the year in addition to improved demand from certain industrial end markets, such as heavy-duty truck and consumer end markets as they recover from historically low levels in the prior year.

During the quarter, the construction of our new state-of-the-art North American distribution center remained on track and is expected to be operational in the third quarter of this year. We believe this state-of-the-art distribution center once fully operational, will result in a highly efficient service center with automated sorting, kitting and packaging and provide additional value-added services to our customers.

Our fastener manufacturing business performed well in the quarter. Net sales grew 18% sequentially and were slightly down compared to sales in the prior year quarter. Global customer demand for our proprietary products is expected to grow, resulting from the expanded use of lightweight materials and global production of EV and hybrid vehicles.

Adjusted operating margins continued to be at historically strong levels and were 9% during the quarter, slightly down compared to last year, primarily due to product sales mix and higher personnel costs.

In our Assembly Components segment, sales for the quarter totaled $100 million compared to $97 million a year ago, an increase of 3%, driven by new product sales launched last year in each product line and higher customer demand from various automotive platforms.

Adjusted operating income in the quarter totaled $5.3 million compared to $5.5 million a year ago. And compared to the fourth quarter of last year, sales increased approximately 10% and adjusted operating income increased 23%.

We continue to focus on improving operating margins in this segment. Several initiatives such as increasing our rubber mixing production to support sales growth of our molded and extruded products and plant floor automation investments are expected to improve segment operating margins.

In our Engineered Products segment, sales of $126 million reached their highest quarterly level in recent years and were up 4% compared to last year and up 8% sequentially compared to last quarter. The increase in sales was driven by our industrial equipment group, which continues to maintain strong backlogs. Higher sales of new equipment in North America and Europe and strong customer demand for aftermarket parts and services resulted in a very strong quarter for our industrial equipment business.

The increased capital equipment sales in the quarter were driven by strong customer demand in defense, steel production, data center, oil and gas and industrial cooling end markets. New equipment bookings were strong in the quarter and totaled approximately $62 million in the quarter compared to a quarterly average bookings of $54 million last year, an increase of 15%. Backlogs as of March 31 totaled $196 million compared to $180 million last quarter, an increase of 9%.

During the quarter, our adjusted operating income in this segment improved 35% compared to a year ago to $6.2 million and $3.6 million from the fourth quarter of last year. This segment is experiencing strong demand from the aerospace and defense, power generation, steel production and data center sectors. Key products supporting these high-growth end markets include transformers, power generators, induction heating and forging-related equipment and pipe bending equipment.

For example, our industrial equipment, which includes induction hardening and melting and forging-related equipment is used to support a broad range of defense-related activities, including the production of munition shells, armored plate and the hardening of high-strength defense materials.

And finally, within this business segment, we commenced a formal review of strategic alternatives for our Southwest Steel Processing business, which is included in our forged and machine products group. We have engaged an investment banking firm to assist us with our review, which may result in an ultimate sale of this business.

With respect to our first quarter results, adjusted earnings from continuing operations, excluding Southwest Steel, would have increased from $0.65 per diluted share to $0.77 per diluted share.

Turning now to our full year guidance. We are reaffirming our outlook provided last quarter, including net sales of $1.675 billion to $1.710 billion, an increase of 5% to 7% over last year. Adjusted EPS of $2.90 to $3.20 per diluted share, an increase of 7% to 19% over last year. EBITDA as defined of 8% to 9% of net sales and free cash flow of $20 million to $30 million. This outlook includes the impact of Southwest Steel, which is expected to generate $17 million in revenue and a net loss of $0.53 per diluted share. The outcome of the strategic review process with respect to this business represents potential upside to our current guidance.

Now I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Great. Thank you very much, Pat. And now we'll open up the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This is Jacob Moore on for Steve today. First one from us is on backlog. It's really nice to see that up strongly again. And I think you gave some pretty good color on the end markets that's coming from, which seems pretty broad. Do any one of those end markets stand out to you right now? For example, are defense orders coming in stronger than usual or electrical infrastructure? Any color you could give there?

Yes, Jacob, this is Pat. I would comment on all of the above. I think when you look at our business, historically, our capital equipment business was very strong in the automotive, in the steel production space. But what we're seeing is continued interest in using our equipment for aerospace and defense applications, for data center-related activities. And in the first quarter, we saw an uptick in bookings relative to the oil and gas sector, which historically has been at pretty low levels. So we're excited about the diversity of the orders that we're getting and the quoting activity from many different end markets compared to historical end markets.

Jacob, I would only add, as you know, some of these jobs take a while to complete. So the backlog continues to have a significant amount of strength in battery steel and some of the big orders we talked about recently. I do think there's been a nice migration, as Pat mentioned, to other industries, which typically can be smaller dollar amounts, but can be executed a little more easily. So that's a good rotation. We love the big jobs. We love the innovation around battery steel, but a more diverse set of customers and some smaller jobs is great for our product mix.

So I would also say that we talk a lot about power management these days. A big part of our business is making power supplies and transformers. So while we cut our teeth, I think, in maybe one of the most difficult places to learn the business, which is heating and melting of steel and other conductive metals. Increasingly, we're seeing demand for people who understand how to manage large amounts of power and need components related to it like transformers. So the backbone of this business without question is the induction business, but power supplies are important, too.

Yes. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And Matt, to your point about longer-dated projects, the quick follow-up there would be just could you give us a sense for the expected conversion time line of the backlog? Just thinking about how much is shippable in 2026 versus '27 and beyond?

Great question. We've actually talked a little bit about the length of some of the conversions coming out of the last few years. So I think our speed of execution is better today than it's been probably for 4, 5, 6 years. So I've talked in the past about good backlog and bad backlog. I think we're in a much better position regarding execution than we've done in the past. We've made some really important investments in people and process at our key locations. Having said that, there's a number of projects, particularly the battery steel project that will take a couple of years to fully complete. But I would say, on average, the completion time is 9 months-ish.

Pat, would you agree with that?

Yes. Yes, Jacob, the other comment I would add is that the diversity of our brands allows us to manage production in several manufacturing sites, whether it be here in North America or in Italy or in Spain. And so that allows for a quicker turnover. But to Matt's point, 9 to 12 months is a reasonable production time line for the backlog that we currently have.

Okay. Great. Yes, that's really helpful. And then last one for me before I jump back in queue. Just you guys said that you're in the early innings of electrical infrastructure spending. Could you maybe help us paint the picture for what you envision the middle and late innings could look like for Park-Ohio?

I'll let Pat address explicitly that end market since it's grown so explosively, both in the U.S. and globally. One of my comments, I think, about early innings is more broad-based, candidly, than electrical infrastructure. We're seeing stabilization and increasing demand in a number of end markets. So I don't just want to focus too much on that, aerospace in particular, defense in particular. So I'll let Pat talk some numbers, but I just want to be clear, this is more broad-based than just that end market, although there are some new names there that are particularly exciting.

Yes, Jacob, I would comment that going back 3 years, we saw very little activity on the electrical side in both Supply Technologies and in our Engineered Products segment. Today, that revenue base starts at about $150 million and continues to grow north of 10% per year. So it's unclear as to how much we could expect that to grow over the next 5 years. But clearly, the market is telling us there is a huge demand for our products in both Supply Tech as we manage different switchgear manufacturers needed for data center build-outs, but also on the industrial equipment that is providing power management-related equipment as well as different component parts for the cooling systems needed in these data center activities.

And our next question comes from the line of Dave Storms with Stonegate.

I wanted to maybe start with just the consolidated margin on the adjusted side. I know you've been talking about some of the supply tech automation initiatives. Just maybe any color as to what the time line is to really getting those completed and maybe what that could do to the consolidated margin? Any thoughts there?

Yes. I mean I would start by saying we are on the front edge of that. We're in a multiyear investment cycle around people, process and the use of information technology. So to be quite candid, I don't think we've seen much, if any, impact to some of those investments at this point. So I would say that's really probably more of a 2027 opportunity where it could start to move the needle. So no, we have not benefited from those, maybe a little bit later this year, but we view those as really being 2027 investments for Supply Technologies. And beyond, I mean, again, these are very durable investments. We're not just making ROI investments, we're fundamentally changing the way in which we manage information and in which we go to market for our customers and manage the sort of value add on the operations side as well.

Understood. I appreciate that. And then I know, Pat, in the prepared remarks, I think you called out some of the changes in AC between some program launches last year. I think your release mentioned volumes being a driver there. Just curious as to maybe what you're seeing in terms of the business acquisition environment in the remainder of 2026, given some of these new program launches and maybe potential for increased volumes there.

In terms of business acquisitions, Dave, I think our focus, at least within the Assembly Components segment, given the active quoting activity and the launches of new business that we're seeing that business that launched in 2025 and new business that is being launched in the current year, I would not expect any business acquisition activity within that segment, given our investments that we're making in the automotive space. The products that we sell in that space, as you probably remember, is fuel filler-related products, fuel rail products, molded and extruded rubber products, tremendous opportunities for us to grow organically in that segment. And so our current initiatives around margin enhancement are critical in this business, and we continue to be focused on that.

Yes, let me add a follow-on on that. Again, we are always looking for highly accretive, thoughtful acquisitions. ACG, though, I think, has been extremely focused on their product innovation, their vertical integration and their new business launches. So it has been a challenging environment. There has been huge new launches by every major OE, certainly here in the U.S. and globally. There has been challenges in the supply chain. I mean, the Novelis' fire, which has affected the Ford 150, the F-150 product line as well as others. So as well as I think the conversion and the shifting landscape for EVs, particularly in Europe and China.

So we're metabolizing a lot right now. But at the same time, we're getting through these product launches. We are, again, launching and working inside of our best products and services. So the operating leverage in that business is really teed up, and we couldn't be more excited, I think, about the latter half of this year. To the extent SAAR holds up at all, I think our most exciting days are ahead.

So again, we're always sort of on the prowl for the right kind of acquisition, but our best opportunities are right in front of us given the investments we've made there. Unlike Supply Technologies, many of those investments have been made over the last few years. So this is when we start to see the real operating leverage in the growth we're going to see in that business relative to the new business launches.

And not only are they metabolizing a number of launch costs, they're also having to metabolize some of the challenges I just outlined in the -- navigating sort of the ups and downs of the industry, so to speak.

Understood. And I do apologize. I said business acquisitions, I should have said customer acquisitions or new business acquisition. So that was poor phrasing on my side. Maybe one more for me. And you mentioned the fire. Obviously, there's a conflict in Iran that we didn't have the last time we talked. Just curious as to what you're seeing on the supply chain side and if you're seeing any ripple effects that may be impacting your ability to procure materials.

Broadly speaking, the only impact we've seen so far are freight costs. So those are, of course, real and require being addressed. In some cases, the mechanics of addressing it are inside the customer relationships and some may have to be addressed separately. To date, that is all we've really seen in terms of impact. I, like most other people, suspect that if this goes on longer, we could see more material impacts to availability, but we're not hearing that from our supply base at this point.

And our next question comes from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

I just had a couple on the Southwest Steel strategic review. I mean, bluntly, the EPS drag that you called out seems pretty stark. I guess, do you think that the business can transact at that $45 million asset value you called out? And maybe relatedly, if it doesn't transact in an acceptable time frame for you, is there a plan B for getting out or downsizing it over time?

We're at the beginning of that journey, not the end. So Jacob, I'm reluctant to say more. I do want to comment that this business, and I alluded to it in my comments, over 25 years, the first 20 or 21 of them, this business was not only profitable but was meaningfully accretive to overall profits, so -- or overall margins, excuse me. So we have a good business there. The business model is outstanding. The equipment we have, the 2 fully automated forge lines. So this is a good business.

And again, we've been penalized a bit with the rail market being down as much as it is for an extended period of time. We have tried to expand the product offering a bit with some limited success, but not fast enough. So this is not -- this is a good business. And I think we need to explore and think through what the right situation is for it because I agree with you. The purpose of the disclosure today was to let you know that we're -- we understand the drag and the size of the drag to point to the overall earning power of the underlying business without this $17 million in sales. But I don't want you to leave this call thinking that this isn't a tremendous business that has been profitable over a very long period of time.

So I anticipate. And by the way, I will also say, and this will probably not be received totally well, the business is improving, which I know it is hard to say, but the earnings drag that's in it, but it is getting better every day, and we are executing at a higher level. So I'm -- I don't have an answer to your question other than to say this is a good business, a good business model with good employees and good customers and good partners. So I'm going to stop there and just say this business has inherent value, and we, again, have benefited from this company over a long period of time.

Okay. Yes, that is helpful. And maybe a follow-up to that is, if it does transact, do those proceeds go to debt pay down? And honestly, maybe that's just a broader question on your thoughts for incremental capital allocation going forward?

Yes. I think Pat and I have made it -- I hope we've made it abundantly clear over the last 2 to 3 years that reduction in leverage is a key priority of this company. We have set an intermediate goal of 3x net debt to EBITDA. And again, we're not going to forego critical investments in our business. We are spending somewhere between 2 to 3x our maintenance capital in the business right now for some of the investments we're doing.

So I'd like to say the first parts of the trough is making us better at what we do every day in our key businesses. But right at the top of that list, our whole management team, not just Pat and I are aware, that it is a priority to allocate capital towards reducing the leverage in this company. So again, it's not our #1 goal because we've got plenty of liquidity, but it's not lost on us that, that is an important goal for our shareholders, of which our entire management team is, so.

And with that, there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Matthew Crawford for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you very much for the questions today and for your attention and most notably your support of Park-Ohio. We are quite anxious to continue through this year. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

Today's conference is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings release as well as in the company's 2024 10-K, which was filed on March 6, 2025, with the SEC.

Additionally, the company may discuss adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and EBITDA as defined on a continuing operations or consolidated basis. These metrics are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of EPS to adjusted EPS, operating income to adjusted operating income and net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release.

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Crawford, Chairman, President and CEO. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Great. Thank you, [ Daryl ], and welcome, everyone, to our end of 2025 fourth quarter conference call. I am very proud of our Park-Ohio team throughout 2025 and especially during the fourth quarter. Strong cost management, combined with the benefit of improved productivity in key locations, offset demand volatility in many industrial end markets caused by tariffs and general economic uncertainty. This uncertainty also delayed new business launches throughout the year and some new business awards in a few cases. Also during the fourth quarter, we made cash management a priority and met our debt reduction goal of $40 million. Most importantly, though, we focused on our long-term goals regarding asset allocation, durable growth and deleveraging. Regarding asset allocation, we continue to invest above our maintenance capital levels as we improve productivity and lower our cost to serve through automation, information technology and vertical integration.

While we continue this journey through 2026 and beyond, we're beginning to see the positive impacts on new business and improved profit flow-through. Our growth capital investment, which represented more than 1/3 of our total capital expense will not only underpin our significant growth in 2026, but is also targeted in products and services where we have above-average margins and a sustainable competitive advantage.

Lastly, while we are still above our target net debt leverage ratio, our cash performance in the fourth quarter and the investment we have made toward 2026 growth, including additional working capital, should put us in a good position to take a step forward in this area. So we start 2026 extremely excited to be rewarded with above-average growth and with solid incremental operating leverage in all profitability metrics. Thank you for your support, and thank you to all of our outstanding partners in our business.

Now over to Pat to cover the quarter results.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning. Overall, we are pleased with our accomplishments in 2025, many of which will support future sales growth and drive improved operating margin and free cash flow. Our accomplishments during the year included the following: First, we refinanced our $350 million senior notes with new senior secured notes maturing in 2030. In addition, we amended our revolving credit agreement to extend maturity date by 5 years. The refinancing completed during 2025 provides us with the capital structure to support our sales growth and investment in future years. Second, we invested our over $12 million in information technology during the year and began the implementation of new ERP systems in Supply Technologies and in our Industrial Equipment Group. We expect significant benefits from these investments, including lower working capital levels, lower operating costs and improved information flow to and from our supply base and our customers.

In Supply Technologies, we broke ground on a new state-of-the-art North American distribution center, which will be operational this year. This important investment will significantly improve how we service our customers and provide best-in-class warehouse operations with lower costs, lower working capital, automated sorting and kitting and additional value-added services to support our customers.

Also in our fastener manufacturing business, we invested in automation equipment to improve plant floor productivity and operating margins in several locations. Our capital investments in this business are focused on increasing production capacity to meet the strong demand for our self-piercing and clench products. In Assembly Components, we won new business during the year, totaling over $40 million of incremental annual sales, which will launch in the second half of this year and continue through 2027. We also implemented product price increases as well as plant floor improvements to increase profitability in 2026. And finally, in our Industrial Equipment business, we achieved record annual bookings totaling $217 million, including a record $47 million induction heating order placed by a leading steel producer. As a result, our backlogs were $180 million at December 31, an increase of 24% over the prior year levels. Before I discuss our fourth quarter and full year results, I want to comment on our 2026 guidance.

As outlined in our press release, we expect consolidated revenues to grow to $1.675 billion to $1.71 billion, an increase of 5% to 7% over 2025 consolidated revenues, driven by sales growth in each business segment. We expect adjusted earnings per share to increase to $2.90 to $3.20 per diluted share, an increase of 7% to 19% year-over-year. EBITDA as defined, to range from 8% to 9% of net sales, and we expect full year free cash flow to range from $20 million to $30 million. In our Supply Technologies segment, demand in power sports, industrial equipment and heavy-duty truck end markets are expected to recover from low production levels in 2025, and we expect continued sales growth from electrical distribution customers supporting the AI data center expansion and continued strong growth from semiconductor, aerospace, defense and agriculture end markets.

Also, our fastener manufacturing business will continue to expand its products into new applications and will benefit from the continued use of lightweight materials and electrification. In our Assembly Components business segment, sales of our molded and extruded rubber and fuel-related products are expected to grow year-over-year, driven by increased production volumes on business launched in 2025 and improved customer pricing. In our Engineered Products segment, revenues are expected to be at record levels in 2026, driven by strong new equipment backlogs in many end markets, including oil and gas, steel and aerospace and continued growth in global aftermarket demand. In addition, our forging equipment business recently won a new equipment order with an aerospace customer and strong aftermarket order activity will drive an increase in 2026 revenues.

Our Engineered Products segment is also seeing increased order activity from customers supporting the expansion of AI data centers. For example, we recently were awarded new business for power generation products, including transformers and power generators used to control and regulate power to data centers, and we are actively responding to strong demand for our forged products from turbine generator customers who also provide power for data centers.

Turning now to our fourth quarter and full year results. Our fourth quarter was highlighted by operating cash flow of $49 million and free cash flow of $36 million. We used our free cash flow and excess cash to reduce long-term debt by $40 million during the quarter. Our full year operating cash flow increased to $42 million from $35 million in 2024, with the increase driven by lower working capital usage compared to 2024. CapEx totaled $40 million in 2025 with investments in information technology totaling over $12 million during the year. Consolidated fourth quarter net sales were $395 million, an increase of 2% year-over-year. The sales growth was driven by higher sales in our Supply Technologies and Assembly Components segments.

In Engineered Products, demand was stable year-over-year as growth in our Industrial Equipment Group offset lower sales levels in our Forged and Machine Products Group. Full year sales totaled $1.6 billion, a decline of 4% from 2024 levels with the decline occurring primarily in North American industrial end markets. Our fourth quarter gross margin of 17.3% was 70 basis points higher than a year ago, resulting from higher sales levels and implemented profit improvement initiatives across several of our businesses. Full year gross margins were 17% in 2025, which were comparable to 2024 gross margins despite the lower sales levels.

Excluding special items in both periods, fourth quarter adjusted operating income increased 4% to $20 million compared to $19 million in the 2024 period. Special items in the fourth quarter included a noncash write-off of certain assets in our Forged and Machine Products Group totaling $8.9 million to align our investments in tooling and production assets with current business levels. Our effective tax rate was 12% in 2025, which is lower than the U.S. statutory tax rate due to research and development tax credits recognized during the year. We expect a more normalized tax rate in 2026, ranging from 18% to 20%.

Adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter was $0.65 per diluted share compared to $0.67 in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the decrease due primarily to higher interest expense in the 2025 quarter. Our full year adjusted earnings per share was $2.70 compared to $3.59 in 2024. And with respect to our segment results, in Supply Technologies, fourth quarter sales were $187 million compared to $182 million in the 2024 period, and operating income increased 31% to $21 million compared to $16 million last year. Operating income margin was up 240 basis points and was 11.1% of sales compared to 8.7% last year. The improved year-over-year fourth quarter results in 2025 were driven by higher sales and favorable impact of cost control measures taken during the quarter.

Full year sales in this segment were $748 million compared to $776 million in 2024, driven by lower customer demand in certain end markets, primarily in North America, including power sports, heavy-duty truck and bus, and industrial and agricultural equipment, offset by continued strong demand in data center, electrical and semiconductor end markets. Full year operating income in this segment was $72 million compared to $75 million in 2024. Operating margin was 9.7% in both periods due to our efforts to reduce variable operating costs given lower demand levels. In our Assembly Components segment, fourth quarter sales were $92 million, up 2% from $90 million a year ago. Adjusted operating income was stable at approximately $4 million in both periods.

Full year sales in this segment were $381 million compared to $399 million last year. Lower unit volumes on certain auto platforms and production delays on new business launches impacted revenues during the year. Full year adjusted operating income was $22 million in 2025 compared to $27 million in 2024, with the decrease driven by the lower unit volumes. We expect our operating margins in this segment to improve resulting from expanding our rubber mixing production, plant floor automation and improved margin flow-through from increased sales. In Engineered Products, fourth quarter sales were approximately $116 million in both 2025 and 2024. We continue to see strong sales in our Industrial Equipment business, which grew 5%, but was offset by lower sales in our Forged and Machine products business.

Fourth quarter adjusted operating income decreased to $3 million due to lower profitability from the Forged and Machine Products Group. Full year sales in this segment were $471 million compared to $482 million in 2024. The decrease was driven primarily by the closure of a small manufacturing operation in 2024 and lower demand from the railcar end market, which impacted our Forged and Machine Products Group. We continue to see growth in our Industrial Equipment business in 2025, driven by 7% growth in our aftermarket business. Adjusted operating income was $17 million compared to $21 million last year, with the decrease driven by lower sales levels and lower profitability in our Forged Group.

We expect significant improvement in operating profits in this segment in 2026 based on our strong new equipment backlog, aftermarket demand and operational improvements made in several of our plants.

Now I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Great. Thank you, Pat. Before I turn it over to questions, I do want to emphasize Pat's comments around the fourth quarter. We returned to growth in the fourth quarter. Year-over-year, we were down a bit. But as I mentioned, things were a bit choppy earlier in the year regarding tariffs and global uncertainty in the industrial market. So getting back to growth in the fourth quarter is great. We plan on building on that in 2026 meaningfully. I also want to point out that we continue to absorb some expenses related to some of the IT transformation, new business launches, et cetera. So I think we'll begin to see payback in 2026 and be able to build on that going forward as well. So some of the improvements, I think, are being masked by that, but we're very excited to demonstrate a big step forward in 2026.

And with that, I'll turn it over and ask some questions or answer some questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first questions come from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This is Jacob Moore on for Steve Barger today. I want to start with the guide, specifically the 5% to 7% sales growth. I see at least one mention of pricing in the slide. So can we just begin with your assumptions for price versus volume in that overall sales number? And then maybe you could finish with a by segment view of growth contributions for the year.

Sure. This is Pat. The price increases that are included in our 2026 sales guidance is primarily in our Assembly Components group. And I would say it's a small part of the increase that we're seeing in revenues. We will see an increase in revenues relating to tariffs and the recovery of such tariffs with our customer base in our Supply Technologies segment. But I would say the majority, call it, 75% of our growth in 2026 will be a result of production volume increases from our customers.

And then relative to improvements in gross margin by business, I'm going to refrain from giving any type of guidance on segment profitability in 2026 other than we expect improved flow-through in each of the business segments based on the increase in revenue that we're guiding to. So as we have experienced in 2025 and really for the last 1.5 years, our operating margins in both Assembly Components and Engineered Products Group are below our expectations. And we expect improvement in each of those segments in 2026.

Jacob, I want to add to that, while I completely agree with Pat's comments, there are tactical pricing discussions going on across the business. As you can see, a lot of our backlogs are very strong. So we are quoting new business in multiple areas, and we're also making sure that we dissect our customer base and our current pricing models and standards coming into the new year. So every one of our business continues to be evaluated. And I can think of a dozen different pricing conversations going on right now, much more tactical, I think, than we would have seen in the past. So I think to Pat's point, the growth leans heavily towards new business or expanded current relationships. That doesn't mean 1% or 2% and our model is $25 million or $30 million in price increases. So -- and those are happening consistently across the board on a more tactical basis.

Understood. That's really helpful. And I kind of wanted to dig into sales growth by segment as well, if you could comment on that.

Yes. Once again, we will not comment on individual business segments. But I would say, as I mentioned in my comments, that our guidance on increased revenues are across the board. And so they vary across the board. Engineered Products will be at record sales levels in 2026. We see continued growth in assembly components based on new business that we've already launched. That new business will be at full production levels in 2026. And then in Supply Technologies, we have seen nice growth in the AI data center space, where our business is focused on the switchgear manufacturers and those customers that provide digital infrastructure around data centers, we're seeing nice growth in that business. For example, 2 years ago, we had very little revenue in that space. Today, our revenues are approaching $150 million annually with that end market. So we expect that to continue. into 2026 and beyond.

Jacob, I think that to Pat's point, we'll see it across the board, AI and defense and power management really affecting Engineered Products and Supply Technologies. But we've talked consistently about the large -- the $40 million in new business that we've launched inside of Assembly Components. So without commenting specifically, I think it should be relatively broad-based. I think it also depends -- we've been -- had significant backlogs in Engineered Products. As we can clear those backlogs, that should be a tailwind as well.

That's really good color. I appreciate it. And if I could just follow up with the last one here on free cash flow. I know you're guiding to $20 million to $30 million. The last couple of years have been in the low single-digit millions. I know that you've been investing and you highlighted that, but it sounds like you still have a lot to juggle this year, too. So I want to ask what makes you confident that you've turned the corner, that the asset base can start to consistently produce cash flows? And what's your confidence level in that guidance?

Yes. Great question. Pat can give you a better answer. But I do want to comment, I talked earlier about volatility in the -- going back a couple of years in the supply chain. Then I've talked, I think, about volatility in demand last year related to tariffs and global uncertainty. These last couple of years have been really difficult to manage supply chain issues, demand issues. It has been not the best environment to predict the business needs of your customers and to manage your suppliers. So we have been heavy consistently, and I think we've been transparent on that on working capital.

I think as we come into 2026, whether it's some of the productivity tools we've talked about or whether it's just a little better visibility, I commented, I think, back in the second quarter call of last year that the -- while the sales were relatively stable year-over-year for the business, and let's use Supply Technologies as a kind of a last mile person that's a good proxy for the economy. There was total turmoil under the hood in terms of end markets. And aerospace and defense and AI was holding it up. Other key markets, most of the other key markets were down. So that was a very difficult environment.

We predict something slightly more better visibility, and we are more prepared, I think, to handle it. So I think we can, I think, manage the business a little better on the cash side because of that. And again, we're also going to begin to benefit from some of these data management tools as well. But it was a tough year last year to manage these things on top of investing heavily in the business.

Jacob, I would add that our free cash flow estimates are a result of obviously increased profits, but also lower working capital usage relative to every dollar of sales increase. So we still have some embedded working capital that we expect to harvest in 2026, but we expect that as a percentage of sales, our growth will not require us to invest in as much working capital as we have in the past.

Our next questions come from the line of Dave Storms with Stonegate.

I wanted to just go back to the guide here and maybe just get your thoughts on a general cadence for 2026. Should we expect that it will be maybe more typical seasonal year? Or is there anything that we should keep an eye out for that might throw that off?

I think we would expect a similar trend of sales in each business segment as we have in the past. So I don't see anything that would change the look of the individual quarters in 2026.

That's perfect. And then I just wanted to kind of turn to the record backlog you have in EP. Is there anything more you can tell us about that, maybe unexpected burn rate? Are there any outsized contracts in there that are going to demand a lot of focus, margin profile? Anything like that would be very helpful.

I don't think there's anything unusual in there. I would say that our expertise in managing large power has provided more opportunity across the industrial segment, including things like data centers and AI. So the breadth of opportunity, I think, has grown in what 30 years ago was largely focused on the steel market and some related forming markets and hardening markets. So I would say that the breadth of managing large power has increased the opportunity, if you will. So I would say that, that is a tailwind in the business. We are a global leader on the technical side in managing large amounts of power and industrial spaces. So we have names on our customer list that we just wouldn't have seen 5 years ago and trying to do things that they weren't trying to do 5 years ago in battery steels and high-strength steels and so forth as well as new energy markets and things like that.

So I do think that, that is a particular tailwind. I also think we've talked a lot about durable sales. We love our aftermarket business there, and we continue to reinforce and support what increasingly is a global effort to upgrade the industrial space. I know our team, including Pat here, was just in Europe. I mean, we are absolutely seeing green shoots and the reinvestment of the industrial space over there. Whether that means new facilities, which we don't see as much there, but certainly upgrading old facilities. So I think there's -- those markets are continuing to show life globally.

That's great color. I really appreciate that. And then maybe one more for me. You've mentioned a couple of times now, and we've talked about this in the past, the automation and information systems improvements. Just would love to get an update on how you think those are going, how much more runway you have there? And just any further thoughts on that?

Yes. No, that's a great question. And I -- we are attacking this piece and lowering our cost to serve on multiple fronts. And I say it a lot because it's really something we didn't focus on as much when we were growing so quickly over the years. First, I'll start with data management. Our efforts enterprise-wide in some cases, but more often by the different segments to invest in tools, I think, that begin with creating really clean data. A lot of people want to talk about AI, and we have some tremendous use cases going on, both on the sales funnel side and on the productivity side.

But the reality of it is the journey begins with really getting clean, usable data. So I'm very excited at the strides we're taking to manage data better and give the tools to our -- I've talked a lot in the past about the strength of our management teams increasingly and giving them the tools to have the visibility to do everything from manage pricing and manage cash flow and working capital the way that we discussed, the opportunity is huge, particularly in a business like Supply Technologies. So I would say that. I think on the automation side, we continue to attack vigorously costs in the business that a few years ago weren't a big deal. So for example, warehouse space, warehouse space has been explosive in terms of costs.

So opening up, as Pat mentioned, a new distribution center, a larger one allows us to have increased volumes and velocity, which allows us to invest in automation tools. Our flagship fastener manufacturing facility up in Toronto just invested several million dollars in finishing and packing equipment. This isn't just about doing things more cheaply. It's about doing more. So we are really looking at those kinds of investments, too, which aren't just robotics. They're about really stripping long-term costs out of the business model while growing. It's not about -- it is about productivity today, but it's really about getting the flow-through we talked about on the next $100 million in sales.

And then lastly, you didn't mention it, but I will. When we talk about durable sales at higher margins, the vertical integration piece, particularly assembly components, -- we have a wonderful footprint in the U.S., Mexico, China, a global footprint and with very competitive positioned products with tremendous know-how. And I think it's critical that we continue to invest in the whole value stream. So as we look at improving material science and mixing capabilities in the rubber side, this is going to be really important to controlling our value stream.

Our next questions come from the line of Jim Dowling.

Two big picture questions. Pat mentioned the data center business running at a rate of $150 million. Could you expand that and give us your top 5 end markets across the entire company and what percentage of the total those top 5 might be, for example, steel, automotive, energy, et cetera?

Well, I'll take the least exciting one, Jim, because that will make -- will give Pat a second to think. You have known us when automotive, light truck and auto was north of 1/3 of the business. Today, I'll give Pat a chance to think, but that number probably hovers closer to about 20%, a little over 20%. So we have meaningfully culled the herd, so to speak, and gotten rid of some business that were too focused, I think, not just on the automotive space, too much on the North American automotive space, and I think also we're more capital intensive. So we have moved out of those businesses.

Today, while that's still our biggest market, I want to be very clear that, that is a business that today not only is global in nature, we compete very successfully in Asia, for example, but also, I think, is a business that is extremely well diversified into products where we either have IP or we have business process or hard assets that put us in a very, very durable competitive position. So that is still our biggest market, but we really like where we are relative to the customer mix and the products that we're supplying. And while we don't see it in the margins yet, Jim, that is probably our biggest opportunity as we reposition that business and invest in that business for growth. Are we looking to be 50% or 40% or even 30% OE automotive? No. We like -- but we like where we are today, and we're going to continue to invest in those positions that we have great accretive margins.

Yes. Jim, this is Pat. We're very fortunate to be a very diversified industrial company. Matt talked about the auto side of the business as that has decreased over the years. But within that block of business that we have, we are very diversified in terms of products, in terms of customers, in terms of the type of auto platform that we're providing our products to. Once you get beyond that, heavy-duty truck, semiconductor, power sports, steel, AI data center related, electrical, oil and gas are the top markets that would follow. And each of those individual markets do not represent more than 15% of our revenue base. So very -- no one end market is really dominating our revenues from that perspective. We're very diversified.

Kind of following that same line of question. In broad terms, what percentage of the business is going for OEM application versus aftermarket?

I would say that Supply Technologies is 95% OE. Obviously, we don't always track perfectly what the OE does with that because we do sell their service arms too. So tracking exactly what goes into their service areas versus their direct OE business can be difficult. But you can think of that as primarily an OE supplier. I think you can -- whether that be on the aerospace side, even the MRO side, I guess, is still, in some cases, going into assemblers. I think on the automotive side, again, the vast majority is OE. We do sell aftermarket, both direct aftermarket on the extruded hose side. We also sell obviously customers that use them as service parts. So -- but again, in both those cases, I would say that. I think on the equipment side and the forging business side, the equipment side is a bit more discrete in terms of they're building capacity or improving capacity or investing in productivity inside their plants.

And then the aftermarket, which is $150 million part of that business is obviously all aftermarket. So -- and that's, again, one of the exciting parts of the business model. So while I would say, generally, the first 2 are largely OE based, I think that the Engineered Products business is a bit more complex and skews a little bit more towards not being entirely OE.

Okay. One last for me. How did China do last year versus the previous year?

China continues to be a good market for us. We have, I think, in a couple of different ways. First, I think that we have really reshaped -- I talk a lot about allocation of capital. While we have invested less money, we generate cash in China, and we generate cash exporting cash out of China, we have really focused on the businesses we have there that we can be successful in. So the products we sell there today, the service and the customer we service are often sometimes Chinese companies, but in most cases, global companies that are looking for global partnerships.

So that gives us a little buffer from a competitive standpoint. It's a tough market to do business in. No mistake. But it is a growing market. It's a market in which we have accretive margins. And again, it's not one that we're necessarily pulling back from, albeit more often, we will see that as a jumping off point for Southeast Asia and other areas of even faster growth.

Our next questions come from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

I just wanted to ask about the other part of your strategy that I haven't touched on yet, which is reshaping the portfolio. I know, Matt, you've talked about it a little bit already today, but I just wanted to ask you a little more directly. Is the current portfolio a set of assets that you want to be in longer term?

I think we're constantly tweaking and thinking about how we want to allocate capital. I think that we made the big moves over the last couple of years. And I think I've often said, I really like the businesses we're in. Each of them, I think, has real opportunity for growth and not only growth, but durable growth at accretive margins. Having said that, I think that we're not operating at the highest level across the board. So we will continue to fine-tune that as we go forward. But again, I think that from a revenue perspective, I think that the core businesses we have are fantastic.

Jacob, we've discussed on prior calls, and I know Matt has highlighted that the allocation of capital strategy that we are allocating capital to our best products, our highest margin businesses. And to the extent that there's businesses that are not going to get fed the same amount of capital, those are the businesses that we'll make decisions on going forward. But right now, we are happy with where we're at.

That's really good color. And then just the last thing from us, and it's maybe one for each of you. Pat, what do you see as the variables or watch items that could drive upside or downside to your 2026 outlook? And for Matt, what programs, initiatives or trends are you most excited about this year and why?

Those are some big questions, Jacob. So let me just comment and say, I think that, as I mentioned earlier, we have a little better visibility this year going into the planning year. I would say only half joking that last year, pretty early in the year, the economic uncertainty and tariff -- the spectrum of tariffs changed our ability to plan the business and made some of our business plans almost irrelevant by the end of the first quarter. So I think this year, I think we -- a lot of the inventories that were really overbuilt in the or prebought or prebuilt at the beginning of last year, a lot of that inventory is cleared in some of our traditional markets. A lot of the transportation markets in particular, I'm not talking auto. Some of the markets have been at historic lows.

For example, the train market and the track market. Some have been reasonably soft, the heavy-duty truck market. So there are a number of markets that we have some exposure to that have been sort of bumping along the bottom. So I think those businesses are in a position -- those markets are in a position to stabilize, perhaps a little upside. That should allow us to benefit from some of the faster-growing areas of the business that Pat has recognized. What do I think the risk is? It's less, I think, on the customer side this year and more on the macro side. It is somewhat surprising to me that the markets with the exception perhaps of the oil market have been as calm as they have been. And most of our key customers have been insulated from that.

But it's hard to imagine that an inflationary cycle that burns through this global economy or here in the U.S. because of the war, ongoing war on 2 fronts wouldn't in some way impact our business. It may help on the aerospace and defense side, but it probably will create some challenges and some demand chaos as we saw last year. So those are a couple of things we're thinking about. And that's one of the reasons we continue to invest well above our historic norms is because we want to be in a better position to respond to that kind of activity.

Jacob, this is Pat. To answer the question directed at me, obviously, higher production levels in the end markets that we serve will drive higher levels of profitability. But I think more importantly than that and because our guidance reflects where we think the end markets are going to be, better throughput of our products through our plants, whether that be in our capital equipment business, the more we can push through the plant, the more efficiently we push through new equipment orders through our plant will drive profitability. The same is true in our manufacturing plants in assembly components.

The more efficient we become, the better absorption we're able to obtain and the higher levels of profitability will result. And so those are the 2 areas that we're focused on, and that will drive any upside that we might see in our '26 guidance.

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'll now hand the call back over to Matthew Crawford for any closing comments.

Great. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate your attention and your patience as we transform this business going forward. Thank you. Have a great day.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Greetings, and welcome to the Park-Ohio Holdings Group Corp. Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Matt Crawford. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to our third quarter call. Our third quarter was highlighted by our continued transformation into a leaner, more predictable business through the business cycle. While many end markets, particularly here in the U.S., where we derive a majority of our sales, showed mixed demand, we were able to demonstrate consistent operating profit and margin performance. While we did not -- while we do not anticipate a meaningful rebound in demand during the fourth quarter, we do expect to build on these initiatives as we move into 2026 and will also benefit from new business and strong backlogs. We use the word transformation here quite a bit, and I want to be more precise regarding what that means as we move towards 2026. Our transformation began several years ago as we challenged our capital allocation model and shed assets that were either underperforming or we felt were ill-suited for a higher growth, higher margin and less capital-intense business.

We then began to invest more urgently in those businesses, which we have great opportunities for significant operating leverage and include clear competitive moats. While this model continued to support some level of acquisition, we were and are more focused on long-term competitive advantage, the right kind of products and services and customer partnerships. During 2025, we have seen this transition take hold. While mixed demand signals from our diverse customer base have muted the improvements in our operating execution and quality of earnings, we see the improvements and also have seen a more consistent stream of earnings results despite the underlying volatility. We firmly believe that in 2026, will be another important step forward as we combine these productivity improvements with new business and strong backlogs. Equally important is that we expect to do these things while reducing debt meaningfully during the fourth quarter and we will continue that trend into 2026. I want to thank and applaud the effort of our entire Park-Ohio team as we manage the challenges of today with an eye toward the exciting times ahead.

Pat, can you cover the third quarter, please?

Thank you, Matt.

Our third quarter results were generally in line with our expectations for the quarter given the mixed industrial environment, and we continue to see positive trends in each of our business segments. Before I get into the details of our third quarter results, I want to provide a few highlights achieved during the quarter. First, as we previously announced, we refinanced both our senior notes and our revolving credit facility, extending maturity dates by 5 years and strengthening our balance sheet and liquidity. We incurred bond-related expenses of $2 million related to the redemption of our previous bonds, including a noncash write-off of unamortized costs. These expenses reduced our GAAP earnings during the quarter by $0.11 per share. In connection with the refinancing of our bonds, we received upgraded ratings on the new senior secured notes from Moody's, S&P Global and Fitch Ratings.

Second, we continue to make strategic capital investments in new technology and information systems, capacity expansion and margin improvement initiatives. These investments will enable sales growth and higher profitability in the future. And finally, new equipment orders in our industrial equipment business continue to be very strong with new bookings and backlogs at record high levels at most locations. Our business strategy focuses on end market and application diversification beyond traditional end markets.

Most notably, we continue to see strong order activity in the electrical steel processing to support both expanded application usages and electrical grid infrastructure and in the defense markets for munitions and shell production and armored vehicle protection plating. Bookings year-to-date are highlighted by an order from a major steel producer totaling $47 million for induction slab heating equipment for high silicon steel production. Further enhancing the strong demand for our induction products is our global operational footprint, enabling our customers to diversify their supply chains with local content to help minimize their risk and reduce their overall costs.

Backlogs as of September 30 were up 28% since year-end and are expected to remain strong heading into 2026. Turning now to our third quarter results. Third quarter revenue totaled $399 million and was stable in each business segment sequentially. The year-over-year sales decline was a result of lower end market demand, most notably in certain North American industrial end markets, which more than offset growth in Europe, where demand from electrical end markets continues to be strong. Third quarter gross margins of 16.7% were slightly below prior year's gross margins, demonstrating our pricing discipline and operational consistency despite modest volume pressure in certain end markets. Adjusted EPS was $0.65 per diluted share in the quarter compared to $0.66 in the first quarter and $0.75 in the second quarter of this year. Results in the third quarter underscored cost control and productivity gains, offsetting higher interest expense of $1.1 million from our new senior secured notes, which reduced adjusted EPS by $0.07 per diluted share.

We generated EBITDA of $34.2 million in the quarter. As a percentage of net sales, our EBITDA margin was 8.6% in the quarter. On a trailing 12-month basis, our EBITDA as defined totaled $140 million. In the quarter, we recorded an income tax benefit on pretax income of $4.5 million, driven by ongoing federal research and development credits and other discrete tax items. We expect our full year effective tax rate to range between 13% and 16%, reflecting the positive impact of ongoing tax initiatives. During the quarter, our working capital initiatives drove positive operating cash flow of $17 million compared to $9 million last year. We are currently estimating fourth quarter free cash flow to be strong and range between $45 million to $55 million. Full year free cash flow is estimated to range between $10 million to $20 million, driven by reduced working capital levels in each business.

Our liquidity continues to be strong and totaled $187 million as of September 30, which consisted of approximately $51 million of cash on hand and $136 million of unused borrowing capacity under our various banking arrangements. Turning now to our segment results. Supply Technologies net sales of $186 million in the quarter were in line with sales in both the first and second quarters of this year. Sales were down compared to a year ago as lower customer demand in certain key end markets, including industrial equipment, bus and coach and consumer electronics, partially offset increases in electrical, heavy-duty truck, semiconductor and agricultural end markets. Geographically, total sales in Europe were stronger year-over-year, but were offset by lower sales in North America and Asia on a year-over-year basis.

Our proprietary fastener manufacturing business performed well in the quarter despite a slight decline in demand for its proprietary products, primarily in North America. Adjusted operating income in this segment totaled $18 million, an increase sequentially compared to last quarter and a decrease from $21 million in the prior year due to lower year-over-year sales. Adjusted operating margins increased 100 basis points to 9.9% in the current quarter compared to 8.9% last quarter and down from 10.5% a year ago. The overall operating margins in this segment continue to exceed historic levels due to efforts to improve operating efficiencies in our warehouses and manufacturing plants around the world. During the quarter, we completed the consolidation and expansion of certain facilities in the U.K. and Ireland in support of expected growth in the electrical distribution market, supporting the data center build-out.

We recorded $1 million in expenses related to these activities and have added back these onetime nonrecurring costs to arrive at adjusted earnings per share. We expect further expansion resulting from investments to optimize warehouse operations and manufacturing capacity around the world. Although current demand in several end markets has remained stable to slightly down year-over-year, we expect improved demand trends and average daily sales levels in 2026 in certain end markets, including power sports, agriculture, semiconductor, consumer electronics and aerospace and defense. In our Assembly Components segment, sales improved sequentially to $97 million in the quarter. The sequential improvement compared to last quarter reflects increased production and new program launches beginning to ramp up. Segment adjusted operating income was $6 million compared to $6.1 million last quarter and $6.6 million a year ago.

In this segment, we continue to win new business in each of our product lines, which includes fuel filler and fuel rail products and molded and extruded rubber and plastic products. We are currently launching over $50 million of incremental business across all product lines throughout 2026. During the quarter, we incurred costs to expand our production capacity, improve asset utilizations and expand our rubber mixing capacity to accommodate the sales growth in each of our product lines. These nonrecurring costs are added back to arrive at our adjusted earnings in the quarter. In our Engineered Products segment, sales were $116 million compared to $124 million a year ago, with the decrease driven by lower demand in our forged and machined products business and lower levels of production in our industrial equipment facilities in North America and Asia.

Aftermarket sales remained strong during the quarter throughout most of our global service centers. In our Forged and Machined Products Group, the lower sales were driven by lower railcar demand and the closure of a small manufacturing operation last year. New equipment bookings were $174 million in the first 9 months of the year. And as I mentioned, we expect to achieve record annual bookings exceeding $200 million this year. Our capital equipment backlog continues to be strong, totaling $185 million, an increase of 28% compared to backlogs at the end of last year. In addition, order intake from aerospace and defense and power generation customers continues to be strong in our forging plant in Ohio. During the quarter, adjusted operating income in this segment was $3.7 million compared to $5.2 million a year ago. The decrease in profitability in the quarter was a result of the lower sales levels in our forged and machined products business.

We continue to implement plant floor improvements in this part of our business and our 2 forging plants, which will drive higher margins as sales volumes improve. I'll conclude my comments with an update on our current expectations for the full year. We expect full year 2025 net sales to be in the range of $1.600 billion to $1.620 billion and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.70 to $2.90 per diluted share. We also expect full year free cash flow to be in the range of $10 million to $20 million and fourth quarter free cash flow between $45 million to $55 million.

Now I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Thanks, Pat. We'll now open the floor for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Steve Barger from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This is actually Christian Zyla on for Steve Barger. First question, kind of a 2-part question. First, how are you accounting for the recent large orders in your EP backlog? Is that percentage of completion or completed contract? And then maybe just broader, do you expect that large order from last quarter to be largely delivered in '26? I guess that would imply double-digit growth rate in EP, assuming a steady business otherwise. So can you just help us square that circle and how you're thinking about EP?

Absolutely, Christian. This is Pat. Our contracts in that part of our business are accounted for using the percentage of completion method. So as it relates to the large order of $47 million, it represents 5 pieces of equipment. We expect 3 of the 5 to be recognized during the course of 2026, with the latter 2 in the following year in 2027.

Christian, I would just add that I think we said it a lot, but I want to be crystal clear. We are seeing electrical infrastructure, industrial electrification, whether it be the single order we talked about or a myriad of orders related to graphite and other things that are important to, again, the grid and battery technology are underpinning significant growth in this business, not just around that one order, around a myriad of orders globally. So this is a very, very exciting part of our business, and we will see it begin to impact maybe a little bit at the end of the year, but really into 2026 and beyond. This is not something that is stopping. This is something that is beginning.

So we feel that, that big order is really important, but also symbolic for what is happening in industrial electrification where we are extremely well positioned, both from an OE perspective and an aftermarket perspective. So this is one of the most exciting. And I think, as you know, why we have focused in our transformation a fair amount of energy around our business that focuses on this. But as Pat points out, these things are not built overnight. Even if you take percentage of completion, it will be a little bit choppy, but we'll begin to see the benefit of it clearly going into 2026.

Completely understood. And I guess with those comments, just doing the math, I think $50 million of orders this quarter for EP solid momentum. The backlog is at, I think, record highs from what we can see. So I guess a question on that is with the orders that are coming in the new business and part of EP's margin performance in this quarter, are you having margin pressure from some of those front-end investments of your projects? Does that abate as we go into '26 and '27 as you see that business ramp? Or just how should we think about the ramp of those contracts in that business related to the margin cadence?

No, that's a great question. Really good question. So you're going to -- I'm going to have to harp on transformation again. Let me start by saying, again, I didn't misspeak, but I want you to understand the value stream we're talking about here. This is not just graphite and steelmaking. This is also mining. rare earth mineral mining, the Caterpillars of the world, all the people that make mining equipment. I mean the distribution of the value stream and where we're seeing the benefit is remarkable. Again, we haven't seen much in the way of mining in a long time, and we are. So I think there is some transition going on in the order book. I would also highlight defense. I know it's not related to this, but highlight defense as well. There is a transition going on vis-a-vis our order book. And I think that we have seen this year sort of a period of time in the third and fourth quarter where we were filling the order book and preparing to respond to this.

We were onboarding people and preparing our facilities for what we think is a pretty long run. And to some extent, clearing out some old jobs that we've mentioned in the past that had some challenges. So I do feel as though there has been margin pressure, not from the customer standpoint, not from the market standpoint, but really around preparing this business for what we anticipate is going to be a heck of a run here on this backlog. So -- and I would also highlight that to say where we are seeing very strong performance is in the aftermarket. So we continue, I think that's, as we've discussed, a razor-razor blade model. And our expectation is that continues to underpin and pay for this transition as we modernize our key facilities, both here in Europe. So we're making some investments here around long-term competitiveness.

So you're right, we are seeing some cost pressure as we as we bring people on board to prepare for these orders, we are seeing some investment around modernizing these facilities, preparing for these large orders. But this pipeline is a lot bigger than just that one order, I can tell you that. And you're seeing it in the order book. And it's not just steel. It's all aspects of that value stream as well as defense and others.

Got it. And then if I could just follow up on that. Do you expect that margin pressure to then flip into a benefit in parts of '26? Or is that a '27 event? Just how should we think about it in terms of the ramp versus the execution of the contract and when that business starts kind of flipping and performing as you expect?

Yes, Christian, I would -- this is Pat again. Clearly, margins will begin to improve as each individual contract is priced uniquely. So -- but clearly, there -- under the percentage of completion method, we're estimating our end margin on each of the jobs and recognizing that as we complete the job during the course. So coupled with aftermarket strong margins, we would expect margins in the industrial equipment side of our business to continue to improve. And keep in mind, this part of our business historically was our highest margin business. And so between the repricing of the new jobs and various value drivers that we're implementing in each of the manufacturing facilities around the world will clearly have a benefit on future margins.

Christian, I don't want to overstate. I hate to not be positive, but there are -- and again, we're just finishing, I think, in closing out. As Pat mentioned, some of these jobs take 18 months to complete. So a few of the jobs that have impaired profitability in 2025 have been related to orders that were placed a year or 2 ago, where there are some challenges around inflation, around execution, around labor. Those are the kinds of risks that we're just not seeing in the marketplace now. And you might or might not ask about tariffs. That's a positive for us here, not only in terms of our customers' health, but also in terms of our global footprint allows us to be exceedingly nimble versus our competition on where and how we make this product.

So all of the above, every one of those things I just talked about is a positive for margin accretion. I don't -- to Pat's point, I don't really know another way to talk about it other than to say, for years, this business operated at 10%, and there's nothing about it that's worse today than it was then. The aftermarket mix is better. The margins are strong. The customer relationships are strong. Our locations and where we operate are appropriate and cost effective. Like I said, we're spending some money to modernize some of the locations, which I think is great. This is an exciting time. So yes, I would expect to see meaningful progress in 2026 and not the end of 2026.

Great. I appreciate that answer. If I could sneak in one more, and we appreciate you letting us take the time for the questions. But just last question on free cash flow, Pat. Your guide of $45 million to $55 million would be a record free cash flow quarter. Can you just talk about what's embedded in that expectation? I mean, is that largely working capital benefits, less CapEx that quarter? And then just what drove the overall difference or reduction from last quarter?

No problem. Let's talk about the reduction from the guidance. The previous guidance was $65 million for the second half of the year. Our guidance for the quarter takes down the results of the third quarter, which was $7 million of free cash flow. What we're seeing throughout every one of our businesses is the growth in working capital that we've seen year-over-year has primarily been in receivables and a little bit in inventory. We're seeing the harvesting of many accounts and various working capital items in the fourth quarter, primarily receivables. In inventory, there -- the management of Supply Technologies is reducing receipt activity, which will help lower inventory based on the revenues they're seeing in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. But more importantly, is the reduction of days on hand and the ability to manage lead times better.

As we ended last year with the threat of tariffs, there was a lot of prebuy activity, a lot of excessive order taking by our supply base and delivering into our facilities in the first half of the year. We now see lead times reducing dramatically. So that helps days on hand. That helps our inventory levels, and we're seeing that happen. It began to happen in the third quarter, but significantly reducing levels in the fourth quarter.

Christian, I might say it a different way, too. I might just say that by historical standards, we are still not where we need to be in terms of our working capital efficiency. So this -- the fourth quarter begins to bring that back into line. It doesn't get us where we need to be. There's nothing underlying -- no fundamental issue on that. It's as Pat described, our customers push-pull in terms of tariffs, push-pull in terms of demand planning as well as new product launches that, in some cases, have been delayed, but we will see come to fruition as we get into 2026.

So all those things have made us less efficient managing working capital than we have been in the past, and we see a significant move stride forward, some of which because new products will launch, some of which there's a little more clarity, if possible, on tariffs or at least supply chains and some of which I think is because we're not necessarily expecting a big uptick in the economy, but at least people are getting accustomed to how to manage their supply chains.

Next question is coming from Dave Storms from Stonegate.

I want to start at a high level here. The latest macro headwind -- potential macro headwind is this government shutdown domestically. Are you seeing any impacts of that ripple through to your business lines?

I don't have any explicit examples of that. I mean we know it can't be good, right? We have not -- we -- as you know, Dave, we've seen a lot of strength across the business from defense. I am sure it has slowed down the internal workings of some of the major orders or some of the updates or scope changes, the kinds of things that happen under the hood every day. So I don't want to suggest that we're not probably seeing a little bit of adverse effect, but not in a way that would be important to explicitly discuss.

That's perfect. I just wanted to check to see if...

No, it's a great question.

Moving on, I did want to touch on Supply Tech, too. It sounds like you're seeing some volume pressure in a couple of end markets and a couple of different geographies. But it seems like pricing is still holding up. How sustainable do you think this is? Do you feel like we're maybe reaching an inflection point where margin can maybe get back to growing further in Supply Tech?

Well, I think that we did an incredible job last year, I think, in managing price. I think we've done a good job today with some of the tariff exposure -- or this year with some of the tariff exposure we had. I think where we are today is more focused on strategic initiatives around growth, a return to growth to provide the operating leverage that we know exists in that business, which should take us to higher levels. And equally, some of the investments that we've talked about that will be transformative in terms of our costs and how we go to market. And I talk a lot about competitive long-term advantages. Some of the infrastructure investments we're making around how we distribute products and how we manage data are going to be meaningful over years to come.

So I do think there's opportunity on the margin side. But to be clear, I think it's less today about pricing than it is about competitive -- improving our competitiveness as well as getting operating leverage that comes with some incremental volume. What's tough to manage in any business is volatility, right? It's not as simple as significant changes. It's the month-to-month variability. So when you see across Industrial America, a gross number of being things being -- build rates adjusted for inflation being down a little bit, that's one thing.

The volatility is what's particularly hard to manage. And we've seen a lot of that this year. So I compliment the Supply Tech team and their service model being able to respond and react to somebody going from flat to down 10% one month to up 10% the next month. It's not as simple as everything just being down a couple of percent. So it's been difficult to manage this year. And again, against the backdrop of what we expect to be a strong 2026. So you got to manage that as well.

Understood. That's great commentary there. And just kind of sticking with that, as you're adding improvements of macro theme for the last year or so has been the implementation of AI. Are you seeing any areas to strategically implement AI to further enhance your operations?

Well, we can spend a long time trying to define AI. But I'm going to answer emphatically yes, in one particular way and then a good conversation going forward. But I'm going to answer emphatically that our investments in information technology over the last couple of years, which now include harnessing AI around cleaning data, around managing data, around investing in data management tools. These, I think, have been the building blocks to position ourselves for some of the use cases we're seeing on AI. So when I think about business improvements that we'll see in 2026 and efficiencies we'll garner from the business, a lot of that, I think, is just from how we manage data differently and the quality of data we have today in our business. So -- particularly in supply technology, which is really a data business in many ways.

So that is where I think we're beginning to see the benefit and where we're beginning to see the building blocks of some of the use cases that are going to actually drive efficiencies in the business. So we do see incremental improvement in the context I discussed. And I think that as we build better and broader use cases across the business, that's going to be a bigger opportunity for us. But the benefits today are more just on the data management side, AI or not.

Understood. And then one more for me, if I could sneak it in here. you pretty explicitly mentioned that your outlook for 2025 is meaningful cash generation with the goal of debt reduction. Are there any metrics that you could put around that debt reduction maybe in terms of market debt levels or time lines?

Yes. Well, the debt reduction as a result of the strong free cash flow in the quarter, clearly will happen. When you look at the amount of the free cash flow for the full year, $10 million to $20 million after the payment of our quarterly dividends, you can extract the debt reduction from that. So it's roughly $5 million to $10 million year-over-year. And as we step into next year and expect an improvement in free cash flow, that debt reduction will increase.

But explicitly in the fourth quarter, the end of this quarter, the end of the fourth quarter, what do we expect to reduce debt?

Of the $45 million to $55 million, we would expect $35 million to $45 million of debt reduction.

Yes, that's, I think, the answer to your question.

Quarter-over-quarter.

Quarter-over-quarter, we're expecting $35 million to $40 million of debt reduction from free cash flow.

We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.

Great. Thank you all, and thank you for your very important questions. It allowed us, I think, to highlight some of the positive changes happening in the business. We look to not only close out the year strong, but also to begin to set the table as we are for a really successful 2026. Thank you for your time today. Bye-bye.

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.