Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about Norsk Titanium's first quarter report, operational update. I'm Carl Johnson, CEO.
I'm Ashar Ashary, CFO for Norsk Titanium.
I think it's really appropriate that we have the opportunity to explain the report and make sure that we have a common understanding of why we are optimistic about the year and our plans for the year. Let me first jump into what the report has as a summary. Of course, there's been a strong reaction to revenue, $0.6 million, up from $0.4 million last year. Probably the bigger issue is no parts transition. We'll go through that. Continuing discussion with Airbus, AeroStructures. Their third production order under the master supply agreement is slower in coming than we anticipated due to some internal process issues. The industrial sector, with the semiconductor customer we had, has slowed somewhat in the turbulence of the beginning of the year. Our targets, however, of 120 parts and $70-90 million in ARR are still achievable.
There is some push to revenue in 2025, but the targets that we've given are not changing. Our customer delays our projected revenue and do increase risk to the $150 million in 2026. We are looking at our cash management and our ability to manage our funds to stay fully funded to execute our business plan. Oh, I control that. Yeah. Same numbers up front, $0.6 million versus $0.4 million last year versus $2.4 million in the fourth quarter. We were at 54 parts transitioned and $12.2 million in annual recurring revenue. This looks flat, like not much has happened. Quite a bit has happened. We will go through that, our activities, to keep the business moving. Airbus is expanding the directed energy deposition plans for forged parts. They've been very vocal about it.
They've been vocal about it because we've met their requirements, and we are responding to all of their questions that go with their third production order. They are becoming advocates for us in the technical community and elsewhere. We've been engaged with them on that package. We expect a decision in the second half. We've had significant communication with them, including visits from senior executives to our facility. We are engaged with Safran on landing gear systems, some very large parts that we are developing for them. Progress with Boeing has been limited in transition of parts, but not in development activity for them with materials and other processes that we do for them. On the defense side and industrials, mentioned slowed on somewhat from the semiconductor industry. To offset that, we are targeting new industrial segments.
We've engaged experts in the forging industry, forging and casting, to identify targets of opportunity that will be quick transitions. On the defense side, we had a transition in government that kind of slowed down the budget allocations for our activity. Those transitions have been resolved. We're expecting that very soon that what we had anticipated will be coming forward. The interest from our customers and their support of our process has not changed, and they are becoming vocal advocates for what we do. On the internal side, we are strengthening our commercial team. We have a new Chief Commercial Officer. He has a sales background, has 35 years in aerospace and forgings. He's staffing internally, and he's engaged external sales force through commission sales. We anticipate that that will establish a global presence in terms of sales instead of our smaller force that we had before.
We've identified, already had one question about some projections we had last year that didn't come, that were tied up in our supply chain, the orders there, the contractors there. Because of transitions in ownership and supply chain on the customer side, we have been able to work through our own supply chain issues without a negative impact on customer relations. We've added new downstream suppliers to broaden our capacity, and those parts are now moving. We've also looked at for our customers that are trying to accelerate their production rate, where are their gaps in supply chain, where they're not being able to fulfill their forging needs, that we can go into their supply chain and provide our product to meet our customers' needs and help them fill their supply chain gaps. We're looking at, we're diversifying our mix and targeting parts for transition and quick wins.
We're getting traction in public from our customers as a result of what we're able to do in terms of efficiency, flexibility, and lead time, in particular lead time. That's where our advantage comes when our customers are trying to accelerate their production lines. Our procurement package, the third procurement package that we've been looking at from Airbus, is not their pacing item. They have had other things that they focus on, and that has resulted in some delays in us getting the package that we were looking for. Our value proposition of lower cost, faster, less waste, and being the only approved supplier really put us in a great spot from a DED, Directed Energy Deposition, RPD, additive manufacturing position. We have had visits from senior members of the commercial aerospace team to our facility in New York, our production facility.
They've been impressed with the capacity, the talent, and what we're able to show them and what we can do. Next slide. Aerospace is still the cornerstone of our strategy. Airbus in Berlin last month or the month before last laid out their strategy of three steps. The most often asked question I've heard so far is, "This looks like a long-term strategy." In total, it is their long-term strategy. This portion here is what we're looking at now for the third production order. We believe that we are already here, and this is where we're looking right now. Airbus outlined this in March. We are working with them to make their plans true. Right now, they're looking at mid-size, 10 kg, something like this. Parts for their next step, they're looking at larger parts and moving to multiple airframes. I keep forgetting I control this.
Right now, the largest fatigue-loaded critical structure that's flying on commercial jets is this part here and installed, as you see here. It's our part. It's advertised by Airbus. This is from their presentation. It was installed in October and is flying now. We still maintain our 120-part transition to production and $70 million-$90 million in annual recurring revenue because we have seen the parts. The robust pipeline exists. We have not as much control over the timing as we'd like, but the parts are there. They haven't gone away. Our forecast has not changed for 2026 or 2025. Oh, still me. Our guidance and outlook, we do expect our forecasted transitions to pick up in the second half of 2025. Our year-end targets are still attainable. They do impact the transition of parts impacts revenue for 2025.
Our targets are based on parts we've seen and can build and anticipated broadened industrial base. We're managing our financial position through cost management and getting a credit facility in place to remain fully funded. Our customer delays are impacting the risk associated with 2026 revenue target of $150 million. As we see that the delays are 2025, we still believe that's achievable. We are significantly revising our sales team so that we can capture the opportunities that are available to us. Next. Oh, still me. Thirty-five machines. We have the capacity. We have the locations. We are qualified in the spec. We will be the only additive company to present material properties in the next edition of the MMPDS, which is what the industrial market uses instead of developing their own specs. We will be in that. I think the publication date is this summer.
We have the intellectual property. We have the employees, and we have the market presence. We are solid in our relationships with our customers and solid in our belief that we can meet our projections for 2025 and 2026. At this point, I think we take questions.
Okay. We'll move on to the Q&A. I guess we'll start with the audience first. Please raise your hand and then say your name and then state your question. Okay. I can begin. Airbus DED expansion plans look extremely positive, the long-term plan. What do you expect to materialize over the next 12 months?
In the next few months, we anticipate the third production order. I'm not allowed to discuss the content of that third production order, but it is not here in terms of its content. It is broader for us. At least their Chief Procurement Officer has indicated to us that it will be awarded before the end of the year. We're pretty confident in that.
Yeah. I would also add that we are currently the only qualified DED supplier for Airbus. When you hear them talking about their plans, it is based on what we have developed with them, right? We see this as a partnership. Carl talked about the third production order. That is forthcoming this year. There are other conversations going on that deepen our relationship with Airbus and expand the opportunity set with Airbus. We continue to be a very strong partner with them. They are important to us as much as we are important to their strategy as well. Thank you. And with no transitional parts and commercial progress, can you be confident that you will meet your targets?
Our targets are the 120 parts transition this year. The second target is $70 million-$90 million in annual recurring revenue. We're confident in that because we've seen parts that fulfill that, and we've bid on parts that fulfill that beyond that so that we do believe that we're not banking on a 100% win rate to be able to get these numbers.
Yeah. I would also add, I mean, I'll go back to the slide. We have a robust pipeline. The opportunity for us is there. We know the opportunity. It's not like we're chasing those opportunities. We continue to develop and diversify our revenue for sure, and that's what we're focusing our efforts on. The robust pipeline exists. We've developed those parts. We've printed those parts in our facility. We are very confident in those parts and the transition and the value that those parts bring us. I think there's a question, though.
The industry, aerospace industry, I can see the suppliers to the aerospace industry, the other suppliers have basically produced extremely good results over late. The industry seems to be on fire. I'm just surprised that Airbus are not moving forward quicker with you as all the other suppliers are obviously getting big orders around.
Besides the new technology aspect of what we're doing, we are competing with existing suppliers and taking market share away from them. That process with the supply chain owners at Airbus is taking longer than we anticipated. We do provide a cost savings, a schedule savings, and assuredness that is gaining attention within Airbus. Our job has been to convince the lowest level buyer that his job is secure with picking our products. We have managed to do that, and now we've gone all up the chain to build that confidence. When the decision is made later this year on wave three, we do expect a significant portion of that. As they deplete stock, they will place orders. I believe outside even what we're anticipating as the third production order, we'll see additional traction.
I would also add to what Carl was saying, Airbus is trying to increase rate, right? The quickest way to do that for them is to go back to the current supply chain that they have, right? What they're developing with us is a much more sustainable growth pattern, right? We can respond quicker to rate increases. We can respond with cheaper material. Right now, the easiest answer for them is to go back to the supply chain and squeeze out as much as they can, right? As we develop our technology, we become a long-term partner in that to grow with them much faster, right? Right now, we're just kind of in the introductory phase of our technology. As we show that with the third production order, everything starts coming faster then, right?
We just got to get over this tipping point right now where we're demonstrating our technology, and then the parts will come faster.
The recognition, I think, from Airbus has come from their supply chain. We've been talking to their technical people for quite a long time, it seems. The supply chain side comes to the table afterwards. They're now recognizing that we're an alternative to forging houses. If the forging house requires large investment to increase rate or requires a long lead time to increase rate, I think the recognition is now there that we're their alternative, that we can compete with and supplement, be the second source for their existing supply chain. That seemed intuitive to me, but it's taken a while to bring that through, I think, in aerospace to more senior executives.
Just a follow-up question. I mean, we expected this order to come in Q1 of the year, and now it's getting delayed into the third or even fourth quarter, I understand. Is that because they already have awarded a lot of this wave to somebody else in the meantime, or what's the status here?
No. The package that we bid on has not been awarded to anyone at this time. Their original forecast for schedule of this was actually in 2024. This is, I would say, somewhat indicative of the supply chain issues they're having across the board, that other, I think, elements have taken priorities over this package, and so they have not yet awarded this. We really anticipate that from the comments that they've made at the senior level, that this is happening this year.
Thank you.
Okay. Moving on. Given delays in revenue, how is your funding situation looking?
Yeah. So we finished the first quarter with about $16 million in cash balance. We're burning about $2 million a month in cash. We are working on debt facilities that are about $15 million on two separate debt facilities we're working on. That will carry us through the funding, through the fully funded. We talk about fully funded to our existing business plan. That will carry us to that. We are always prudent with our cost in terms of we're not buying ahead of schedule too much. We are timing them with when we expect revenue to come in. Secondly, we're not increasing our cost base at all. We are trying to maintain the cost base while we are increasing revenue-generating activities.
We have run several different scenarios internally, and we are confident that we remain fully funded with the debt facilities in place.
Thank you. We have on the web multiple questions on wave three. I think you have answered some of them. What is your visibility on wave three? Do you expect this in the first part of H2, or could it be postponed until?
The answer when I ask specifically that question, it will happen this year. They were not more specific than that. Okay.
Due to the delays, can we expect any change in the size of the order?
I don't believe so. What they've had us look at is a significant package. They are for active production lines, so the parts are going to be needed. I don't anticipate a change in what the package is. What I'm very interested in is how many parts and what percentage of the total need that we are able to capture. Yeah.
There is a question on the global plan you have there on step three in the roadmap. It says that the transition and transitioning of 20-200 kg per part will need a new TNT method. Is your current guidance dependent on the new DMT method?
NDT method, yeah.
Yeah. So that's non-destructive test. That's inspection. I don't know of a requirement for any new inspection technique. These airplanes exist, and the parts exist, and they're being inspected now. For us, we have our own inspection capability and expertise that we use to inform our customers of the inspectability of their parts. We have not bid parts that are uninspectable. I don't want to get too technical, but we have methods that we can adjust our preform to ensure inspectability. It's not the issue for us.
Yeah. The third production order is within our capability.
Yes. Yeah.
Thank you. Can you elaborate on the Boeing situation? What have they communicated in terms of ramping up?
Boeing has been less open to engagement. They tend to be right now internal looking. We are meeting more with their defense organization than we are with their commercial. We are still delivering all of the parts that we are under contract for. We are also working with their commercial materials organizations to develop additional materials that Boeing is interested in. We are maintaining our engagement with Boeing as they work through their own issues more with their development side than we are with their production side just to make sure that we stay engaged with them.
On cost, what's your visibility on both volume and price for titanium, both plate and wire?
Yeah. We are always monitoring cost for titanium plate and wire. We have locked in our purchase orders for wire, so our costs haven't changed at all. They are still the same. Plate has gone down somewhat for us. In our metrics and what we are seeing right now in the market, the costs are unchanged.
To make sure we have flexibility, we are qualifying additional suppliers of both wire and plate, and we've done that successfully in the past year. We look at both domestic in the U.S. and international suppliers of both plate and wire.
One question on the Q1 revenue. Could you please provide more light on how parts are delivered and invoiced?
It depends on the condition of supply, right? Some parts have longer lead time, which are finished parts that you print, and then we send it down into our supply chain to finish them and then sell a finished part. We also sell printed preforms, which are just printing at our facility, inspecting, and then they go out the door. It depends on which condition of supply these parts are delivered in. Our purchase orders are very clear in terms of incoterms and delivery terms. They are invoiced as they are delivered to customers as per purchase order. There are two things here, right? We are not holding inventory.
We're printing and shipping to those, and we're invoicing as soon as they get delivered or whatever the correct ink term is.
Thank you. Given the expected ramp-up from 54 parts to 120 parts, how confident are you that you will meet that demand without any delays?
Towards that ramp-up, we have wire and plate that we have—we anticipated the—just like you, we anticipated the decisions earlier. We have put in place sufficient raw materials so that we can meet at award, we can meet the ramp-up, and have lead time to fulfill the requirement. For Airbus in particular, we have completed the process for qualifying additional machines and show that we have capacity for all of that, and we have staffed to be ready for the ramp-up. I believe we've done all the things prudent with Airbus. We deliver in this condition, the forging condition, so there's less supply chain impact on our delivery process. Yeah.
You keep talking about Airbus.
Sure.
From your point of stand, do you think that Airbus will award this contract? I mean, you keep talking about it, but are you convinced this will happen? From a scale from 1 to 10, where are you? 50% chance, 60%, 80, 90?
That they will award it?
Yes.
I would say 100%, but you wouldn't believe that. So I'll back off a little bit and say 90% in discussions with their procurement team and all the way up to the executive level, there will be a procurement this year.
Okay. Thank you.
Any comments on tariff or trade war impacts?
Of course, there must be a comment on that. I mentioned that we have both domestic to the United States and international sources for our raw materials that provide some protection from that. Further, there's an exemption. If you look at the executive order, read the executive order, which you can easily do online, the exception is a treaty that says there will be no tariffs on commercial aerospace products. Anything that goes into commercial aerospace is exempt from the executive order. That's by a treaty that I think dates back to the 1970s. The U.S. exports parts for Airbus and imports parts for Boeing. It would not be beneficial to disrupt the plan that's been there for the last 30-40 years. Additionally, from a tariff standpoint on titanium, there's also an exception for titanium in the executive order.
Titanium or concentrate, which is sponge, is exempted from the executive order. To the point that we already are in, there has been for the last 30 years or so a 20% tariff on titanium sponge coming into the United States from Japan. That's really the source we've been dealing with all along, and we're able to provide cost benefit with that in place.
We'll do one last question. Can you please discuss where you see the biggest non-aviation opportunities, such as European defense contractors, and what is the timeline for such contracts?
Our anticipation is the next biggest opportunity is on the industrial side, not in aerospace. There are a couple of reasons for that. There's a supply chain bottleneck for oil and gas and chemical and other industries in castings and forgings. Titanium is an inert metal and offers an opportunity for replacement of existing supply chain with our product. With publication in MMPDS, we get the opportunity to present material values without them having to go through all the process that aerospace did with developing their own specifications. All of those industries are exposed to us and our material properties already because they voted on admitting our material properties into MMPDS. It is an industry-wide document, and the values that are put in there are adjudicated by the people that will use them. Our participation there is well known.
I was in meeting last week with a customer, and they are not developing their own spec. They have seen the data that we presented in MMPDS and are using that as their specification.
Any more questions from the audience? Yeah, I'll do one more.
Sure.
Got the last one here. You guide on a range of $70-$90 ARR. How big is the full bid on wave three if you win that?
If we were to win all of the third production order, you guys would be very, very happy. It far exceeds our 2025 or 2026 if you were thinking the full package.
But that.
We are not doing that.
We don't anticipate that.
The question was, is the whole thing enough?
It's fairly sizable, but obviously, in our estimation, we're not.
We do not anticipate full production rates. We don't expect to win every part that's in there. This package that was given to us is representative of what goes out to the forging world on a regular basis.
Yeah. Thank you, guys. I think that concludes today's presentation.
Thank you very much. We really do appreciate the opportunity to discuss our first quarter results, why they are what they are, and to reiterate that we believe we are fully funded through our business plan and that our projections for key metrics, ARR and parts in transition, will be met this year. Thank you.
Thank you.