Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAP) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

June Filingeri - CommPartners, IR

Denny Oates - Chairman, President and CEO

Chris Zimmer - EVP and COO

Steve DiTommaso - VP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Michael Leshock - KeyBanc

Alan Weber - Robotti Advisors

Bob Sales - LMK Capital

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Universal Stainless First Quarter 2023 Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded.

I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, June Filingeri. Please go ahead.

June Filingeri

Thank you, Lydia. Good morning. This is June Filingeri of CommPartners, and I would also like to welcome you to the Universal Stainless conference call and webcast. We are here to discuss the company's first quarter 2023 results reported this morning.

With us from management are Denny Oates, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer; Chris Zimmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; John Arminas, Vice President and General Counsel; and Steve DiTommaso, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Before I turn the call over to management, let me quickly review procedures. After management has made formal remarks, we will take your questions. Lydia will instruct you on procedures at that time.

Also, please note that in this morning's call, management will make forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. I would like to remind you of the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in today's press release and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

With the formalities complete, I would now like to turn the call over to Denny Oates. Denny, we are ready to begin.

Denny Oates

Thanks June. Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We got off to a solid start in 2023 and our first quarter performance exceeded expectations. The main drivers were robust aerospace demand, a favorable mix of premium and finished bar products, increased base selling prices and surcharges, and higher plan activity levels.

Progress [ph] has made an improving profitability with our gross margin returning to double-digits and increasing each month of the quarter. The tempo of business remains exceptionally strong, pointing to continued sales growth and profitability improvement over the balance of the year.