Mr. Rupert: We are celebrating our 50th year in making titanium this year. RTI had a number of predecessor companies, with different names, which I won't go through, but we began producing titanium commercially in 1951. The company has evolved to a holding company now, and is called RTI International Metals, Inc., and we are still very much in the titanium production business. We operate through two groups: the Titanium Group, which is engaged primarily in the production of titanium mill products, basic mill shapes such as slabs, blooms, billets, plate, tubing, sheet, and so forth. We have a second group that we refer to as a Fabrication and Distribution Group that does just that: they do hot forming of titanium sheet, they extrude a number of products from titanium, stainless, and other specialty metals in addition to titanium. We have a business that does fabricating for offshore oil and gas exploration. And then we have a distribution unit that has nine locations throughout the world that distributes not only titanium products, but also other specialty and high-temperature metals.
TWST: What kinds of customers do you have?
Mr. Rupert: Most of the titanium products go to aerospace, one way or
another. So our biggest customers are Boeing and Airbus and all of the
folks who supply titanium components to Boeing and Airbus. Commercial
aerospace represents about 40% of our customer base. Another 30% is
represented by military aerospace and, of course, that's also Boeing,
Airbus and Lockheed and other European manufacturers that make,
primarily, fighter aircraft. And then the balance, the remaining 30%,
are a number of industrial customers ranging from oil refineries,
chemical companies, golf club manufacturers, and other consumer
applications. There is an increasing number of people making bicycles,
and eyeglass frames, wristwatches, and medical implants, and so forth
from titanium. So it's a wide, diverse customer base, but with a
concentration in aerospace.
Tickers included in this excerpt: RTI
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