Carpenter reports two businesses, but one carries the group. Specialty Alloys Operations, the main alloys business, earns almost all the profit. The other, Performance Engineered Products, is much smaller. Customers pay for materials that perform in demanding uses and are already approved in their designs. Metal is the cost that matters most. Prices of nickel, cobalt and titanium have swung, partly because of tariffs. Carpenter passes these swings on through surcharges (extra charges tied to metal prices), but with a delay. If nickel jumps, the surcharge catches up only later, and profit is squeezed in between. Other running costs are light. So what remains depends on two things: the price earned above the metal's cost, and how fully the plants run.