Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions). And our first question today comes from Timna Tanners with UBS.
Timna Tanners - UBS
Hi, thanks for the really thorough overview. Good morning -- good afternoon, I should say.
Jack Hockema
Hi, Timna.
Timna Tanners - UBS
It's good morning for you guys, sorry. Wanted to just ask you to clarify and follow-up on two points that you mentioned. One is on the production for the fourth quarter from Trentwood. The local newspaper is reporting some layoff there. When Jack gave his summary, he talked about expectation that with the additional capacity could be at higher volumes than the third quarter. But also with some comments that given conditions it may or may not be as robust. Can you just clarify what your outlook is or what are the driving factors on your outlook for Trentwood?
Jack Hockema
Certainly. In relation to the layoffs and you'll recall we've been saying earlier in the year that we expected to be running at capacity or near capacity as we came into the fourth quarter. The world changed in September. And as we reflected on that situation, Trentwood had a number of temporary employees that had been in training for several weeks or even months gearing up for full capacity operations. And when the credit markets collapsed in September and the economic uncertainty was clear and distributors started very heavy de-stocking activities. It was clear that we would not be running at a near capacity rate in the fourth quarter. So plant management made the decision to remove those temporary employees.
However, given that, I think Dan made a comment and we had it in our earnings release, we still expect that we will have record shipments in the fourth quarter. So -- aerospace and defense continue to be very strong going into our fourth quarter. And as I said, the potential risk and the downside is in service centers where I use the word ?aggressive.? I would even qualify that, ?very aggressive? de-stocking by distributors. It's not an unusual situation in the fourth quarter, because typically there is some dressing of the balance sheet in service centers. But given the uncertainty at this time, it's about the most dramatic de-stocking across the board that I have experienced in many, many years in the service center industry. That's really the uncertainty and even with that, we still believe that we are going to be at a record level in the fourth quarter.
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