Howmet Aerospace Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q2 results exceeded guidance: Revenue rose 24% year over year, organic growth reached 21%, EBITDA increased 39%, and adjusted EPS grew 46% to $1.33, supported by a 340-basis-point expansion in EBITDA margin.
  • Positive Sentiment: Howmet raised its full-year outlook to approximately $10.05 billion in revenue, $3.23 billion of EBITDA, $5.27 of adjusted EPS, and $1.9 billion of free cash flow. Management expects 2027 revenue to increase further.
  • Positive Sentiment: Demand remains strong across commercial aerospace, defense, and industrial gas turbines, with total spares revenue up 37% and gas turbine demand benefiting from electricity needs tied to data centers. Howmet is increasing capital spending beyond $500 million in 2026 and expects another significant step-up in 2027 to support growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: Capital returns continued through $800 million of year-to-date share repurchases, a 17% dividend increase, and debt reduction. Management expects leverage to return to approximately 1.0 times net debt to EBITDA by year-end while retaining flexibility for additional bolt-on acquisitions.
  • Negative Sentiment: The CAM Fastener acquisition is currently dilutive to margins and is expected to be roughly breakeven to EPS in 2026, with most synergies anticipated in 2027. Commercial transportation wheel volumes were down 8% year over year, while higher aluminum pass-through is expected to continue pressuring reported margins for the next several quarters.
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Earnings Conference Call
Howmet Aerospace Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good day, welcome to the Howmet Aerospace second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key, followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please limit yourself to one question today. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Luther, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Paul Luther
Paul Luther
VP of Investor Relations at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you, Chloe. Good morning, welcome to the Howmet Aerospace second quarter 2026 results conference call. I'm joined by John Plant, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Patrick Winterlich, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After comments by John and Patrick, we will have a Q&A session. I would like to remind you that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations. You can find the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these projections listed in today's presentation and earnings press release, and in our most recent SEC filings. In today's presentation, references to EBITDA, operating income, and EPS mean adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income, and adjusted EPS. These measures are among the non-GAAP financial measures that we've included in our discussion.

Paul Luther
Paul Luther
VP of Investor Relations at Howmet Aerospace

Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in today's press release and in the appendix in today's presentation. In addition, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to John.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you, PT, good morning, everyone, welcome to the Howmet Q2 earnings call. Let's start with the highlights on slide four. Howmet completed a successful second quarter. Headline revenues were up 24% year-over-year, with strong incremental margins of 46%, that was after some impact from the CAM acquisition. Excluding all the M&A activity this year, organic growth was very healthy, at 21% for the quarter and 20% for the first half. EBITDA margin in Q2 was 32.1%, an increase of 340 basis points year-over-year, including the absorption of CAM starting in April. 2027 is the focus year for our CAM optimization plan to begin to drive noticeable synergies. Operating margin was 28.8%. Second quarter free cash flow was just under half a billion dollars, free cash flow totaled approximately $840 million for the first half.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Earnings per share were $1.33, an increase of 46% year-over-year. A total of $600 million in shares were repurchased in the first half of the year, with $300 million being made in the second quarter. We continued to repurchase shares in July for a further $200 million, which resulted in repurchases in 2026 already greater than in 2025. A further $186 million of debt was retired. I'll now pass the call to Patrick, who will set out the end market growth percentages and provide some segment commentary.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Please move to Slide 5. It was another strong quarter for Howmet, with all end markets growing. We are well-positioned for the future and continue to invest for growth. Total revenue was up 24% in the first quarter. Excluding the net impact of the three transactions we completed this year, revenue was up 21% year-over-year, an acceleration from the 19% organic growth rate in the first quarter. Commercial aerospace growth was strong at 28%, with organic growth of 26%, driven by demand for both new builds and spares. We continue to see higher spares demand on both legacy and next-generation engines. Defense aerospace growth continued to be solid at 11%, with organic growth of 7%, reflecting healthy spares activity as well as higher legacy fighter demand. Commercial transportation revenue was up 12%, driven by the pass-through of higher aluminum costs.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

On a volume basis, wheels was down 8%. On a sequential basis, wheels volumes were up 7% as the North American market began to recover. Gas turbine growth remained very strong, with revenue up 38%. Gas turbine growth is driven by the increased demand for electricity generation, especially from natural gas for data centers. Growth in other market of 39% was largely driven by the Brunner acquisition completed in February. Within Howmet's markets, spares growth remained robust. Total spares revenue across the commercial aerospace, defense aerospace, and gas turbine markets was up 37% to approximately $560 million. Spares represents a greater portion of our total revenue than historically, now at approximately 22% through the first half of 2026. Continued strong performance in commercial aerospace, defense aerospace, and gas turbines, with the commercial transportation market recovery underway. Moving to slide six, starting with the P&L.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

Second quarter revenue, EBITDA margin, and earnings per share all exceeded the high end of guidance. On a year-over-year basis, revenue was up 24% and 21% organically, the strongest quarterly growth rate for the company since the first quarter of 2023. EBITDA continued to outpace revenue growth up 39%, the strongest growth in EBITDA since the third quarter of 2021. EBITDA margin increased 340 basis points to 32.1%, despite a modest headwind from the CAM acquisition. Incremental flow-through of revenue to EBITDA was healthy at 46% year-over-year. Earnings per share were $1.33, up 46% year-over-year. Let's cover the balance sheet and cash flow. The balance sheet remained strong with a quarter-end cash balance of $564 million. Free cash flow in the quarter was excellent at $479 million. Net debt to trailing EBITDA finished the quarter at 1.4x following the completion of the CAM acquisition.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

During the quarter, we paid down our $186 million japanese yen term loan due November 2026. In addition, during the quarter, we entered into a cross-currency swap to synthetically convert our $300 million note due 2028 into a japanese yen liability. The combined effect of these two actions saves approximately $12 million in annualized interest expense. Liquidity remains strong with an undrawn $1 billion revolver, complemented by a $1 billion commercial paper program, $450 million of which was drawn to support the CAM acquisition. Turning to capital deployment, CapEx was $104 million in the quarter. The majority of our capital spend continues to be in the engine product segment as we continue to invest for growth in both the aerospace and gas turbines markets. Investments are backed by customer contracts. In the quarter, we repurchased $300 million of common stock at an average price of $251 per share.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

We repurchased an additional $200 million in July at an average price of $277 per share. This brings year-to-date repurchases to $800 million at an average price of $248 per share. As of today, the remaining authorization from the board of directors for share repurchases is approximately $700 million. We continue to be confident in strong future free cash flow. We announced an increase in the Q3 quarterly stock dividend of 17%, from $0.12 per share to $0.14 per share, payable this August. Finally, turning to M&A, we completed the previously announced CAM Fastener acquisition on April 6th for approximately $1.8 billion, and the integration is on track. Now let's move to slide seven to cover the segment results for the second quarter. The engine products team delivered another excellent quarter for revenue growth, EBITDA, and EBITDA margin. Revenue increased 32% to $1.37 billion.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

Commercial aerospace was up 37%, and defense aerospace was up 17%. The gas turbines market was up 38%. Demand continues to be strong of both original equipment and spares. EBITDA outpaced revenue growth with an increase of 51% to $517 million. EBITDA margin increased 470 basis points to 37.7%, while absorbing approximately 485 net new employees in the quarter, positioning us well for future growth. Please move to slide eight. Fastening Systems had another solid quarter. Revenue increased 37% to $589 million, including the impact of the CAM and Brunner acquisitions. Commercial aerospace was up 39%, and defense aerospace was up 45%. Commercial transport was flat year-over-year. Excluding the impact from acquisitions, total fasteners growth was double digits. EBITDA outpaced revenue growth with an increase of 40% to $177 million. EBITDA margin increased 90 basis points to 30.1%, reflecting continued operational execution.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

As expected, margins declined sequentially, driven by the addition of the CAM business in the second quarter. Moving to slide nine. The Engineered Structures team continues to drive improvement in the business. Revenue declined 13% to $269 million due to the divestiture of the Savannah Disc forging facility on March 31st. Excluding the impact of Savannah, revenue growth was approximately flat. We continue to focus on higher margin and stronger return opportunities in the business. EBITDA margin increased 170 basis points to 23.8% as we continue to optimize the Structures segment to maximize profitability. Finally, please turn to slide 10. Forged Wheels delivered another healthy quarter. Revenue was up 14% as an 8% decrease in volume was more than offset by higher aluminum pass-through. Volumes rose 7% from the first quarter as the North American market began to recover. EBITDA was $88 million, an increase of 16% despite lower volume.

Patrick Winterlich
Patrick Winterlich
EVP and CFO at Howmet Aerospace

EBITDA margin increased 30 basis points year-over-year, but declined 270 basis points sequentially, reflecting the dilutive effect of sharply higher aluminum cost pass-through. Higher metal pass-through diluted margins by approximately 360 basis points year-over-year, but had no material impact on EBITDA dollars. This dilutive impact on margin percentage is likely to continue at least for the next couple of quarters. EBITDA dollars were largely unchanged sequentially. We continue to outgrow the market driven by our premium products. Let me turn the call back to John.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you, Patrick, and please move to slide 11. Let me turn to the outlook. First, as you can see, the first half target outcomes have been achieved while also facing a turbulent economic and political backdrop. The tailwinds experienced have reflected more robust build rates for commercial aircraft and also for positive order intake for commercial truck builds. In addition, IGT demand has been extraordinary. Moving specifically to commercial aerospace, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has resulted in increased volatility of jet fuel and gasoline prices and has impacted recent commercial air traffic activity. Howmet has not experienced any changes in customer demand. Throughout the conflict to date, air freight volumes have continued to strengthen. At the same time, interest rates have climbed, reflecting higher inflationary signals, and the outlook for near-term rate cuts has dimmed.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Despite the issues in the Middle East, orders for new aircraft have continued to grow, and the overall backlog has increased. This bodes well for future aircraft build rates, with increases being seen for the balance of 2026-2027 and beyond. The business jet segment also continues to be strong, with increases both in new aircraft build and spares. Defense sales also continue to be strong, especially for spares on legacy aircraft, with the F-35 OE build continuing to be solid. The near-term outlook for our missile business continues to strengthen, with demand increases being either seen or signaled for the PAC-3, THAAD, Tomahawk, and some classified programs. The focus on engines for large missiles, drones, and collaborative combat aircraft continues, with growth expected in the medium term.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Turning to gas turbines, we have completed negotiations with the last of our seven major customers, although the overall picture continues to expand, with some customers already wanting to revisit and add to their demand outlooks. This gas turbine demand growth, both for large, small, and medium-sized turbines, is further supported by new gas turbine blade applications and also increased new product technology introductions. These will help Howmet to outgrow its current market share. Our capital expenditure requirements continue to increase, and while this year we are now likely to exceed $500 million in capital spend, we are already seeing the need to further increase this in 2027. This increased level of capital expenditure provides support to our future organic growth expectations. The outlook for free cash flow conversion and net income is maintained at our 90% target conversion throughout the period.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

The resultant cash flows to date have enabled us to deploy capital for organic growth, execute share buybacks, and support dividend growth while also absorbing a significant acquisition. Continued healthy cash generation should allow us to return our leverage level back to approximately one times net debt to EBITDA by year-end, the same level that we exited 2025. Given the level and the high level of our capital expenditure, plus our acquisitions of almost $2 billion and the share buybacks of an amount already exceeding 2025, our leverage level is very comfortable and allows us to consider all paths of optionality going forward. Moving now to the commercial truck wheels business. The results are strong, even after coping with extraordinary increases in the aluminum LME at Midwest premiums.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Growth into the second quarter accelerated. The outlook for the balance of the year looks healthy, with external forecasters now envisaging an even stronger 2027. Moving to specific numbers for the guide and reflecting the typical third quarter seasonality, including European vacations, our numbers are: revenue in the third quarter of $2.75 billion ±$10 million, EBITDA of $830 million ±$5 million, earnings per share of $1.35 ±$0.01. For the full year guide, this has increased again to revenue of $10.05 billion ±$50 million, EBITDA of $3.23 billion ±$20 million, earnings per share of $5.27 ±$0.04. Free cash flow is seen to be $1.9 billion ±$50 million. These guide increases are across the board given our growing confidence in the year.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

In closing, the Howmet team delivered a solid first half performance with prospects for further growth and a robust second half as outlined. In November, at our Q3 earnings call, we expect to provide our first sighting of the 2027 revenue, which we expect will be an increase over 2026. With that, we'll now move to the Q&A session.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Good morning, John, Patrick and PT. John, you noted IGT customers continue to revise upward their demand outlook, I don't blame them. Who wouldn't want more? You're talking about higher CapEx for the foreseeable future. What are you seeing in the competitive dynamics at play in the IGT market in terms of the technology advantage you have, the scale which you could produce? How are you thinking about your own ability to support these ramps as a few of your peers also seek new business there? Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Okay. Thanks, Sheila, good morning to you. Let's deal with scale first, I think I'll start off with saying it's important to note that Howmet has a market share in excess of 50% globally for turbine blades in the IGT market. Therefore, the growth of that market is dependent upon our willingness to invest, which we're doing. We've already commented in previous calls about the new plant we built in Japan, the major expansion in Europe. You can always call it a new plant. Also building out the capital in our existing footprint in Virginia in the U.S. In addition to facilitization that with very substantial investments in new capital equipment, we have created additional space in our Virginia plant by exiting some or moving some nickel alloy work such that we can either make additional IGT componentry or if not, some additional titanium castings.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I guess we'll deploy that space on a first come, first served basis and see expansion. I'm sure it's going to be sold out very quickly. We're also seeing, as I commented in my earlier remarks, that we have several new applications for existing technology, we have several new product introductions that we have to make over the next two or three years. That leads us to believe that our market share will further increase. To date, the market is roughly split equally for turbine blades between equiaxed and directionally solidified parts, with single crystal still being a fairly minor part of the overall turbine blade topology at less than 5%.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

When you think about our technologies, first of all, for the movement through the normal sequence through turbine blade applications, we see the opportunity of further moving from equiaxed to directionally solidified and then to single crystal. Albeit at the moment, the demand is such that customers, we really just want whatever we can make. For the next couple of years, I expect the demand increases to be roughly split between equiaxed and directionally solidified. In terms of where does this go in the future? Clearly, we're going to move to an increased use of cored blades to allow airflow through them. Again, that plays very much to the Howmet strength and our capabilities in very large core blade capabilities. We'll see that increasingly be deployed as we go through towards 2030 and beyond.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I feel as though both for the new applications we're seeing, the technology movement or drift that will go on, and the capacitization that we have, a fairly good situation for us. Plus the elevated CapEx. We have CapEx being significantly deployed in 2026. In my comments about the future direction is that we will see another significant step up in 2027, which will be both for the industrial gas turbine market, but also for commercial aerospace. I certainly don't want to forget commercial aerospace because as recently as last week, I signed off, in fact, the building of a new plant in that area as well. My expectation is we will continue to meet market demand, we'll grow with the market, and I think we'll also grow with those new product introductions beyond the market and increase our overall share.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Great. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I'll just digress for a moment, because I do want to cover something which has been topical of late, and that is: Is there a threat for data centers in space? I'll just speak very briefly to that because it is something which has been raised. Clearly conceptually, the opportunity of getting more direct access and using solar arrays is possible. It's a big solution to solve what may be a permitting problem at the moment. There's a lot of technical things which have to be overcome. I mean, starting with, if you're going to put a gigawatt of capacity into space, then maybe you've got to lift 20,000 tons. What sort of rockets and frequency of launches do you need to get that?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I imagine to do one data center using a current rocket technology, it's going to be 1,000 launches, or maybe it's 150 or 200 Starship launches. That's obviously a lot more than we have today. The benefit is you don't need to get permits, but the issues of maintenance, of replacement of GPUs every couple of years, and also the sheer scale of the solar arrays and the issue of space debris and how do you fix them once it's been hit with debris over, let's say, 4 sq km of unit. Those are big things to overcome. I think we're looking at really sometime in the 2040s or maybe the 2050s to consider this as a likely outcome. I just thought I'd try to give that perspective while talking about the overall current market as well.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Appreciate it. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

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

Doug Harned
Doug Harned
Analyst at Bernstein

Good morning. Thank you. John, continuing on the IGT path here, as you've talked about, the demand is extraordinary, and you've talked about a number, six or seven new agreements that you've signed. What I'm trying to understand here is how quickly can one respond to demand in terms of signing a deal and then actually delivering products on that? I say it because your reference to SpaceX, this week they talked about adding at least 15 GW of terrestrial capacity over the next 18 months. Is it possible to respond to this kind of growth since you're the leading player on blades?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I'll start with 2026, Doug, and our, let's say, 35%-38% increase in revenue has actually exceeded what I thought we would possibly do. That's been mainly from achieving yield improvements on the existing asset base. Albeit, if you go back and look at the comments I made towards the back end of 2024, where we were talking about making some investments in IGT, which was, let's say, notable because we'd not really talked about it before. Then what we've talked about in 2025, especially given the consequences of the new administration and their fossil fuel focus. We do have the benefit of some of that capacity coming on stream. Witness the delivery of our first new large casting machine into Japan and another one's going to follow in the second half.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

In fact, that new plant that I visited that in April, it's already essentially fully spoken for. We have one casting pit left, but I think that capacity is going to be gone. We have a progressive build-out of what we've already committed by way of significant investments. For the new, I will say gigawatts of capacity coming on, really we're looking at 2028-2029, and even the more recent ones, 2029-2030. What I expect is that we will see growth throughout the next four or five years. We've installed some of that already. Some of it's already logged to come in in 2027, but with another major step into 2028 and 2029.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I suspect that we may not have finished yet, because as I said earlier, we are seeing some of the demand patterns revisited, I think there's more at play to come, which we haven't built into our future plans yet, because until it's more certain, we'll just hold off on that and be clear. It's not a single item which equals capacity index. If we started now, you can assume that it's a brand new commitment, in, let's say August of 2026. You can say it's earliest August of 2028 if you just say, okay, what's the next piece of machine equipment that we could build or we can get from our machine tool suppliers? We've had to book capacity at some of those on the expectation of some of this coming through, just to make sure we can be responsive to our customers.

Doug Harned
Doug Harned
Analyst at Bernstein

Okay. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

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

Robert Stallard
Robert Stallard
Analyst at Vertical Research

Thanks so much. Good morning.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Hey, Rob.

Robert Stallard
Robert Stallard
Analyst at Vertical Research

John, I was wondering if you could give us an update on what you're seeing on aerospace OE and the wide body market, how those rates are progressing and whether you think Howmet has enough capacity in place for the targeted rates or even beyond that. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Okay. First of all, by way of capacity, essentially the majority of our manufacturing equipment, that equipment does not know whether it's building parts for a narrow body aircraft or a wide body aircraft. It'll have, I'll say, similar casting machines, similar transfer presses, and going through similar, I'll say, continuously moving heat treatment furnaces or kilns. For us, it's more a question of the overall market rather than wide body per se. We do feel as though wide body will increase over the next, I'll say, couple of years. There are demand increases signaled at both Boeing for the 787 up to rate 10 until their South Carolina plant is further expanded, and then maybe opportunities to go significantly higher after that expansion.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Also Airbus, which has probably struggled on the A350 over the last two or three years and now seem to be entering a period where there's some confidence that their, let's say, rate five or six will move to eight or nine over the next year. We're getting increasingly confident that with the freighter plus additional A350 demand, that that will also move up significantly in the future. We do expect, on a percentage basis, large increases in the wide body market and build rates over the next, say, two or three years. Also we're going to see, I think, increases in the narrow body market, also for the 737, for the A320.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

We are poised with additional capacities we've already prepared, and I think I just referenced a new plant that we committed to last week, a major expansion and building out of one of the sites we have, to create the opportunity for that further expansion that's going to be required.

Robert Stallard
Robert Stallard
Analyst at Vertical Research

Thanks, John.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

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

Scott Deuschle
Scott Deuschle
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hi. Good morning. John, is today's commercial aerospace growth at Engine Products seeing any benefit from shipping these newer, higher value multi-chemistry coatings, or is that transition to multi-chemistry coatings still largely in front of you? I was wondering if you could help contextualize the scope of the growth opportunity that that provides. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Okay. We have, first of all, again, been increasing our coating capacity the last two or three years, and indeed coat both our own turbine blades and also those of others in the industry. That expansion has continued with, let's say, what are called new coating guns and pits. In fact, we have just completed the last available space in our Whitehall facility, pending a decision about whether we again expand the footprint of that. That is facilitized for multi-chemistry and also the opportunity to put all of the coatings on at the same time. Today we already put on more than one type of coating. Briefly, talking about some of the exotic coating capability, we actually do not do separate batch runs through that capacity.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

We're able to deposit all of the different chemistries all at the same time and do it on both the external surfaces and also the internal surfaces of the turbine blades through some very small orifices that need to have this chemical deposition at a nanoparticle level of, I'll say, technology deposition on a very consistent basis, because you cannot afford to block any of the airflow passages. A short answer is, yes, we're capacitating, facilitizing. We're just building out the ability to do multiple depositions all in one. We're actually facing the decision now, do we actually expand the plant? It's probably a more likely than not given I'm already very predisposed to actually buying the advanced equipment for that which, in extremis, because we tend to get ahead of these things. It's a three-year lead time for some of that very exotic equipment.

Scott Deuschle
Scott Deuschle
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Seth Seifman with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Seth Seifman
Seth Seifman
Analyst at JPMorgan

Thanks very much, and good morning. I wanted to ask about the ramp on commercial aero sales in the engine business. It was, I think, about 10% sequential growth in the quarter. Assuming that's driven in large part by new capacity that you've added. In terms of that new capacity that started coming online at the end of last year, how far are you towards the utilization of that new capacity, and how do we think about that continued kind of sequential trajectory from here?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

First of all, we still have some of the machines that we have installed coming up to full rate. We've also been building out the employee base that is necessary to go along with that build-out across all the shifts. From the existing major capacity expansions we signaled, there's still some equipment still to flow in during the second half of 2026. It's not like one and done, Seth. It's going to be additional equipment that we have to install from what we've already committed to and contracted either with external machine tool manufacturers or, if not, our own. For example, building of our own testing machines that we do. We have a very active program of doing that over the next, I'll say two or three years, both for commercial aerospace and the IGT market.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

When we're looking at it right now, we do need to make further investments beyond what we have today to be able to achieve the stated rates that our customers will want as we go forward. I mean, the only question we have is, what's the total size of the narrow body market, total size of the wide body market? Then add them together because for us, it's less a question of is it this aircraft platform or that aircraft platform? It's the aggregate of all of them put together. Plus, in addition to that, the spares demand. As you've seen, spares growth has also been very substantial. We expect that to continue to be positive because we've still got the transition for the LEAP-1B and then some, I'll say retrofit on that.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

While we've started the GTFA for Pratt & Whitney, there's a very large increase to be achieved in the second half of this year and even larger into and through 2027.

Seth Seifman
Seth Seifman
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Thanks very much.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Okay.

Operator

The next question comes from Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Hi, John. I wanted to just follow up on the aerospace capacity theme for a minute. Boeing and Airbus are talking about getting to production rates that are 25%-30% higher than where they peaked pre-pandemic. You've got a lot of moving pieces on the engine side in particular, but where do you think you and the industry are in terms of supporting those rates three to four years from now? Ultimately, what's the interest to put capacity and to support those rates when you're gonna be hitting those rates, right when you're likely talking about new narrow-body clean sheet aircraft?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

It's very difficult to predict the date of entry into service of a new narrow-body, and it's probably even more difficult to predict what form the engines are on those, let's say, aircraft platform selections. Particularly because some of the options are mutually exclusive in terms of wing design, and therefore it's gonna depend upon more fundamental questions of sourcing strategy, whether you go single source or dual source and your preparedness to do so, and what risks are involved. That's one big topic to be considered around a date uncertain picture. I think more pertinent is probably what is the true demand pattern over the next, let's say, three to five-year horizon and its sustainability? Because again we don't want to certainly invest for a singular year peak and then face the obviously demand destruction thereafter.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

We have to be continually monitoring the aircraft backlogs and surety around those, in terms of what's the propensity for cancellation and how many are real orders versus options. Therefore, what's the true demand pattern? When we look at things like narrow-body previous highs, which may have got to about 100 between Boeing and Airbus, the 737 and A320 in 2019. If you look at today's and add those two aircraft platforms plus the A220 and what do they peak out at? The question is that a combined 125 versus 100 peak, prior peak, or is it 150? What's the ability of the whole supply base to be able to support those levels of demand and then what's the state of sustainability thereof? I think it's reasonable to say that we're clear we're going to make more.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

The degree to which we have to make more is really yet to be determined. I suppose it's to some degree also same as we view, say, rate increases where we think they're likely, but when we see numbers maybe spike for a moment, then we'll let inventory deal with that while we recruit the workforce to be able to operate and produce those parts inside our capacity envelope. It's a very live topic and you also have to look at not just what can Howmet produce, but also what's the ability of the whole industry to march in lockstep, and what's the weakest link in that chain of overall build rate increase. There's been a lot of commentary in recent years about those weak links and the supply base, as you know, has been held as responsible for much of the build rate issues.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Again, whether that's justified or not, that's not a question for Howmet.

Operator

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

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Thanks. Good morning. I was wondering if you could touch on fastener operations below the surface of the acquisition. In particular, are you, John, starting to see the pull on the wide body yet, or is just the commentary more positive at this point?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

We are beginning to see the pull. If you were to say, are we anticipating getting to, let's say, rate nine or even rate 10 towards the back end of 2027 for the 787, then yes, we're beginning to see demand fill in for those increased rates above the, let's say, level of six or seven last year and possibly now production of eight. Yes, we are beginning to see that. Of course, it's still ways away from the prior peak in 2019 at 13 a month, achieved on a few months. Still well short of the anticipating numbers, which are well in excess of 13, which I said earlier, requires the capacity expansion in South Carolina to be done to achieve that. Yes, we're seeing it. It's just part of the overall demand increase for our fasteners business.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

We are seeing increased demand across not just, I'll say, today's commercial aerospace platforms, but also for defense platforms and also, for I'll say some of the larger drones and also working with some of the, let's call it the new tech defense companies as well, where we're seeing our first orders from those as well. We have a very broad-based increase in demand and our issue right now is being able to cope with all of those increases. Again, we are putting investment into fasteners business, the legacy fasteners business, and also we are providing additional capital to the new CAM acquisition as well.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Can you update us where you are in the cutovers of the LEAP-1A/-1B, and GTF Advantage? Thanks.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

The LEAP-1A/-1B cutover to the new technology blade has not yet occurred. We have tooled a lot of it, not all of it. We'll see increased builds during the second half of 2026. I expect we'll do the same as we did on the LEAP-1A and have a few hundred engine sets ready in either our or our customers' inventory, such that the cutover, which I think will probably more likely be the first half of or first quarter of 2027, again, date not fixed, we'll be in a good supply situation for that cutover. There will be demand, not just for the OE build, but also, I'll say to refit some of the existing fleet with that more robust solution.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

On GTFA, similarly, we are building and each month we are lifting our outputs, albeit it's nowhere near the rate that needs to be achieved currently. That applies to both the turbine blades and the vanes for that aircraft engine. What I see is that the back half of this year, I think that we'll probably be supplying the full volume of the legacy blade, with still a very large aftermarket demand, because that's the only one that's truly available as a complete suite of upgrade for the engine. So, it's going to be the legacy blade, pretty full volumes for the balance of this year, us building out increased production each quarter for the GTFA, ready for some time in 2027 to be fitted to aircraft engine, which arrives at customers.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Plus also, the retrofit program, which I think is going to be an even bigger program for us on the 1B.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Thanks, John.

Operator

The next question comes from Scott Mikus with Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Scott Mikus
Scott Mikus
Analyst at Melius Research

Morning, John and Patrick. Turning to the defense side, the F-35 fleet has seen heavy utilization in Iran. Curious about how you're thinking about the uplift to defense spares in the second half of this year and in 2027 as well, beyond what you were initially expecting. Is that also driving the need for incremental CapEx at Engine products?

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I guess that question, Scott, needs to be widened out a little bit beyond just F-35 because of the other aircraft being flown, also use of missiles as well. The very precise answer to, are we seeing a demand increase currently from all the additional missions flown and missile stocks utilized? The answer to that is no. We are not. In discussions with our engine customer, as recently as the air show last month, both of us are expecting to see a significant increase in spares demand coming from that. I think we'll see it on aircraft from F-18, F-22s, F-35, et cetera. Plus the parts we supply to some of the stealth bombers, et cetera.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I think there's going to be, I know it's an anticipation of some bubble of demand coming, I don't necessarily think it's not going to be in Q3 2026. I don't know about Q4 yet. It's more likely a 2027 item that is anticipated but not assured, because we don't have specific orders in hand or say, anticipated requirements in hand. On the missile side, which I would say is currently very active, given the use of missiles. We are being asked to consider various rate increase proposals across, again, I'll say two or three customers with the sort of missile programs that I mentioned in my earlier remarks. To some degree, we've got to work our way through that in terms of the durability of that demand. It's actually competing for the space in our Virginia facility.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

At the moment, we have nothing formally agreed by way of increased orders, which are going to be absolutely necessary should those missile programs actually get built out.

Scott Mikus
Scott Mikus
Analyst at Melius Research

All right. Thank you.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Peter Arment with Baird. Please go ahead.

Peter Arment
Peter Arment
Analyst at Baird

Yeah. Good morning, John, Patrick. Nice results. Hey, John, if I look at fastening margins, if we backed out the CAM contribution, or at least our estimate, looks like you had, again, another kind of almost record margin for fastening. What's the best way to think about the timeline for synergies for the CAM acquisition? Thanks.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Okay. I think the first three months of the acquisition have been very much getting hold of, for example, their IT systems and correcting and improving them to have the latest levels of, let's say, CMMC capabilities for cybersecurity and a more modern approach in that area, whole IT suite. A lot of work has gone on there. The usual assimilation and harmonization of benefit programs for the employees and also an assessment of what needs to be done to improve the asset base. All of the original theses about what we think we can do by way of improving the margins is there, both for, I'll say, the more straightforward operating synergies of amalgamating and looking at the supply base. We've got clear line of sight to that now, and we'll begin to see some of that in the second half of the year.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

I think the majority of it comes in 2027. It'll take us a little while to burn down some prior commitments, both in the supply base and also in the customer arena. Also, all the work we said that we would do by way of building out some additional distribution programs through our own distribution arm, rather than going through third-party distributors, that will be progressively come on board during 2027. We're doing it. Everything we thought that CAM would be for us is still intact and it looks good for us.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

This quarter and for the majority of this year, we're going to see, they were a 20% company, let's say we were 30%, you blend them together and basically any increase we've done on our legacy business has offset that dilution, so we're still doing it like a 30% fastener margin, but with the prospects, hopefully, of seeing some improvements on that as we get into 2027. In earnings per share terms, the debt servicing that will offset a lot of the earnings. We said it'd be pretty breakeven-ish for this year. Again, starting to see a positive EPS effect in 2027 and beyond.

Peter Arment
Peter Arment
Analyst at Baird

Appreciate it. Thanks, John.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from John Godyn with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

John Godyn
John Godyn
Analyst at Citigroup

Hey, guys. Hey, John. Thanks for taking my question. John, I just wanted to follow up on free cash flow, deployment and opportunities. Obviously, you guys are executing a balanced approach. We saw the dividend go up, the buyback is going up. Just given the top-tier operational execution of the company, there seems to be an argument to continue leaning into M&A, and I wanted to take your temperature there and maybe just plug into your kind of vision and worldview. Thanks.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

As you've seen, we did lean into a couple of acquisitions this year, and I think the really good outcome is that we've expanded the top line and bottom line of the company. Even with all of that, I'll say use of cash flow to buy back stock and now increase the dividend. We see ourselves returning very close to the same leverage level that we had at the end of last year. In one sense, that's really good and gives us that optionality going forward. What do I expect now looking into 2027 and 2028? I doubt we'll do much by way of change on the dividend in the next 12 months, given we've just increased it by a further 17% on top of the increase last year and the year before. I think that's settled for a period of time.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

In going into 2027, certainly my expectation is that we'll probably buy back more stock than we have in 2026. At the same time, I think we have a willingness to examine further M&A opportunities and feel quite predisposed to doing it. Albeit it would follow our MO of trying to buy a, what we think is a fundamentally quality company. To see whether the combination with Howmet and that company can produce, let's say, some form of synergized benefits, one way or the other. If taking my temperature is, yes, we absolutely willing to consider further steps. Currently in that more bolt-on, we did, let's call it $2 billion between the CAM and that sort of area. I'm not envisaging at this point anything mega large.

John Plant
John Plant
Executive Chairman and CEO at Howmet Aerospace

If we could have an epiphany, which I guess we'd signal, but at the moment, we don't see that. I think it's far better we just continue with our path of trying to build out a company with a high growth rate, a high margin, a good cash flow and rinse and repeat.

Operator

This concludes our Q&A session as well as our conference. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Paul Luther
      Paul Luther
      VP of Investor Relations
    • John Plant
      John Plant
      Executive Chairman and CEO
    • Patrick Winterlich
      Patrick Winterlich
      EVP and CFO
Analysts
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