Accounting Policies (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

The interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated and its subsidiaries. Unless the context requires otherwise, “Allegheny Technologies”, “ATI” and “the Company” refer to Allegheny Technologies Incorporated and its subsidiaries.

These unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for interim financial information and with the instructions for Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and note disclosures required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In management’s opinion, all adjustments (which include only normal recurring adjustments) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results of operations for these interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for any future period. The December 31, 2017 financial information has been derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements.

New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted

In January 2018, the Company adopted changes issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) related to revenue recognition with customers. See Note 2 for further explanation related to this adoption, including all newly expanded disclosure requirements.

In January 2018, the Company adopted changes issued by the FASB related to changes to the accounting for defined benefit pension and other postretirement benefit expenses. This new guidance requires the disaggregation of the service cost component from the other components of net benefit cost. The service cost component of net benefit cost is to be reported in the same line item on the consolidated statement of income as other compensation costs arising from services rendered by the pertinent employees, while the other components of net benefit cost are to be presented in the consolidated statement of income separately, outside a subtotal of operating income. The amendments also provide explicit guidance to allow only the service cost component of net benefit cost to be eligible for capitalization. With this adoption, the change in presentation of net benefit cost in the consolidated statement of income was applied retrospectively, and the change in capitalization for only service cost was applied prospectively. The Company adopted this new guidance using the practical expedient that permits the use of the amounts disclosed in the retirement benefits footnote for the prior comparative periods as the estimation basis for applying the retrospective presentation requirements. This required accounting change did have a material impact to previously-reported operating income in the consolidated statement of income due to the change in presentation of non-service cost expense components. For the second quarter and first six months of 2017, applying the practical expedient, operating income was higher by $13.7 million and $27.3 million, respectively, with the reclassification of this amount representing the other components of net benefit cost to a newly-created nonoperating retirement benefit expense category. There was no net impact to the reported income before income taxes as a result of this accounting change. This change in presentation of net benefit cost did not affect ATI’s measure of segment operating profit; all defined benefit pension and other postretirement benefit expense attributable to business segment operations remains a component of business segment financial performance. The Company did have a one-time, unfavorable impact of $5.4 million to pre-tax reported results in the first quarter of 2018 upon adoption, primarily affecting the Flat Rolled Products business segment, due to the change limiting only the service cost component of net benefit cost to be capitalizable into inventory.

In January 2018, the Company early adopted changes issued by the FASB related to changes to its accounting guidance for derivatives and hedging, which changes both the designation and measurement guidance for qualifying hedging relationships and the presentation of hedge results. Some changes resulting from this new guidance include the elimination of the concept of recognizing periodic hedge ineffectiveness for cash flow hedges, changes to the recognition and presentation of changes in the fair value of the hedging instrument, enhancement of the ability to use the critical-terms-match method for the cash flow hedge of groups of forecasted transactions when the timing of the hedged transactions does not perfectly match the hedging instrument’s maturity date, and the addition of new disclosure requirements and amendments to existing ones. The Company applied this new guidance to hedging relationships existing on January 1, 2018, the date of adoption. The adoption of these changes did not have a material impact on the Company's financial statements, and disclosures in Note 7 reflect the requirements of this adoption.

New Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

Pending Accounting Pronouncement

In February 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on the accounting for leases. This new guidance will require that a lessee recognize assets and liabilities on the balance sheet for all leases with a lease term of more than twelve months, with the result being the recognition of a right of use asset and a lease liability. The new lease accounting requirements are effective for ATI’s 2019 fiscal year. In July 2018, the FASB added an additional adoption method, which ATI will use to initially apply the new standard at the adoption date, January 1, 2019. This adoption method recognizes any impact to prior years’ results as a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the period of adoption. The Company is currently in the process of evaluating its existing lease portfolio, including accumulating all of the necessary information required to properly account for the leases under the new standard. In addition, ATI is implementing a company-wide lease management system to assist in the accounting and is evaluating additional changes to its processes and internal controls to ensure the standard’s reporting and disclosure requirements are met. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

On January 1, 2018, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606 (ASC 606), Revenue from Contracts with Customers. This new guidance provides a five-step analysis of transactions to determine when and how revenue is recognized, and requires an entity to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services.

The following is the Company’s accounting policy as it relates to the new five-step analysis for revenue recognition:

Identify the contract: The Company has determined that the contract with the customer is established when the customer purchase order is accepted or acknowledged. Long-term agreements (LTAs),which typically extend multiple years, are used by the Company and certain of its customers for its specialty materials, in the form of mill products, powders, parts and components, to reduce their supply uncertainty. While these LTAs generally define commercial terms including pricing, termination clauses and other contractual requirements, they do not represent the contract with the customer.

Identify the performance obligation in the contract: When the Company accepts or acknowledges the customer purchase order, the type of good or service is defined on a line by line basis. Individual performance obligations are established by virtue of the individual line items identified on the sales order acknowledgment at the time of issuance. Generally, the Company’s revenue relates to the sale of goods and contains a single performance obligation for each distinct good. Conversion services that transform customer-owned inventory to a different dimension, product form, and/or changed mechanical properties are classified as “goods”.

Determine the transaction price: Pricing is also defined on a sales order acknowledgment on a line item basis and includes an estimate of variable consideration when required by the terms of the individual customer contract. Variable consideration is when the selling price of the good is not known, or is subject to adjustment under certain conditions. Types of variable consideration that the Company typically has include volume discounts, customer rebates and surcharges. ATI also provides assurances that goods or services will meet the product specifications contained within the acknowledged customer contract. As such, returns and refunds reserves are estimated based upon past product line history or, at certain locations, on a claim by claim basis.


4.	Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligation: Since a customer contract generally contains only one performance obligation, this step of the analysis is generally not applicable to the Company.

Recognize revenue when or as the performance obligation is satisfied: Performance obligations generally occur at a point in time and are satisfied when control passes to the customer. For most transactions, control passes at the time of shipment in accordance with agreed upon delivery terms. On occasion, shipping and handling charges occur after the customer obtains control of the good. When this occurs, the shipping and handling services are considered activities to fulfill the promise to transfer the good. This approach is consistent with our revenue recognition approach in prior years.

The Company has several customer agreements involving production of parts and components in the High Performance Materials and Components segment that require revenue to be recognized over time in accordance with the new guidance due to there being no alternative use for the product without significant economic loss and an enforceable right to payment including a normal profit margin from the customer in the event of contract termination. Over-time recognition was a change from the accounting for these products, which was point-in-time prior to the adoption of the new standard. The Company uses an input method for determining the amount of revenue, and associated standard cost, to recognize over-time revenue, cost and gross margin for these customer agreements. The input methods used for these agreements include costs incurred and labor hours expended, both of which give an accurate representation of the progress made toward complete satisfaction of that particular performance obligation.

Contract assets are recognized when ATI’s conditional right to consideration for goods or services have transferred to the customer. A conditional right indicates that additional performance obligations associated with the contract are yet to be satisfied. Contract assets are assessed separately for impairment purposes. If ATI’s right to consideration from the customer is unconditional, this asset is accounted for as a receivable and presented separately from other contract assets. A right is unconditional if nothing other than the passage of time is required before payment of that consideration is due. Performance obligations that are recognized as revenue at a point-in-time and are billed to the customer are recognized as accounts receivable. Payment terms vary from customer to customer depending upon credit worthiness, prior payment history and other credit considerations.

Contract costs are the incremental costs of obtaining and fulfilling a contract (i.e., costs that would not have been incurred if the contract had not been obtained) to provide goods and services to customers. Contract costs for ATI largely consist of design and development costs for molds, dies and other tools that ATI will own and that will be used in producing the products under the supply arrangement. Contract costs are classified as non-current assets and amortized to expense on a systematic and rational basis over a period consistent with the transfer to the customer of the goods or services to which the asset relates.

Contract liabilities are recognized when ATI has received consideration from a customer to transfer goods or services at a future point in time when the Company performs under the contract. Elements of variable consideration discussed above may be recorded as contract liabilities. In addition, progress billings and advance payments from customers for costs incurred to date are also reported as contract liabilities.

Inventory

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost (LIFO, first-in, first-out (FIFO), and average cost methods) or market. Most of the Company’s inventory is valued utilizing the LIFO costing methodology. Inventory of the Company’s non-U.S. operations is valued using average cost or FIFO methods. Due to deflationary impacts primarily related to raw materials, the carrying value of the Company’s inventory as valued on LIFO exceeds current replacement cost, and based on a lower of cost or market value analysis, the Company maintains NRV inventory valuation reserves to adjust carrying value of LIFO inventory to current replacement cost.

Derivatives

As part of its risk management strategy, the Company, from time-to-time, utilizes derivative financial instruments to manage its exposure to changes in raw material prices, energy costs, foreign currencies, and interest rates. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the Company accounts for most of these contracts as hedges. In January 2018, the Company early adopted changes issued by the FASB related to accounting guidance for derivatives and hedging, which includes, among other things, the elimination of the concept of recognizing periodic hedge ineffectiveness for cash flow hedges.

The Company sometimes uses futures and swap contracts to manage exposure to changes in prices for forecasted purchases of raw materials, such as nickel, and natural gas. Under these contracts, which are generally accounted for as cash flow hedges, the price of the item being hedged is fixed at the time that the contract is entered into, and the Company is obligated to make or receive a payment equal to the net change between this fixed price and the market price at the date the contract matures.

The majority of ATI’s products are sold utilizing raw material surcharges and index mechanisms. However, as of June 30, 2018, the Company had entered into financial hedging arrangements, primarily at the request of its customers, related to firm orders, for an aggregate notional amount of approximately 11 million pounds of nickel with hedge dates through 2021. The aggregate notional amount hedged is approximately 11% of a single year’s estimated nickel raw material purchase requirements.

At June 30, 2018, the outstanding financial derivatives used to hedge the Company’s exposure to energy cost volatility included natural gas cost hedges. At June 30, 2018, the Company hedged approximately 35% of the Company’s forecasted domestic requirements for natural gas for the remainder of 2018, approximately 35% for 2019, and approximately 15% for 2020.

While the majority of the Company’s direct export sales are transacted in U.S. dollars, foreign currency exchange contracts are used, from time-to-time, to limit transactional exposure to changes in currency exchange rates for those transactions denominated in a non-U.S. currency. The Company sometimes purchases foreign currency forward contracts that permit it to sell specified amounts of foreign currencies expected to be received from its export sales for pre-established U.S. dollar amounts at specified dates. The forward contracts are denominated in the same foreign currencies in which export sales are denominated. These contracts are designated as hedges of the variability in cash flows of a portion of the forecasted future export sales transactions which otherwise would expose the Company to foreign currency risk, primarily euros. At June 30, 2018, the Company held euro forward sales contracts designated as cash flow hedges with a notional value of approximately 23 million euros with maturity dates through May 2019. In addition, the Company may also designate cash balances held in foreign currencies as hedges of forecasted foreign currency transactions.

The Company may enter into derivative interest rate contracts to maintain a reasonable balance between fixed- and floating-rate debt. There were no unsettled derivative financial instruments related to debt balances for the periods presented.

There are no credit risk-related contingent features in the Company’s derivative contracts, and the contracts contained no provisions under which the Company has posted, or would be required to post, collateral. The counterparties to the Company’s derivative contracts are substantial and creditworthy commercial banks that are recognized market makers. The Company controls its credit exposure by diversifying across multiple counterparties and by monitoring credit ratings and credit default swap spreads of its counterparties. The Company also enters into master netting agreements with counterparties when possible.

For derivative financial instruments that are designated as cash flow hedges, the gain or loss on the derivative is reported as a component of other comprehensive income (OCI) and reclassified into earnings in the same period or periods during which the hedged item affects earnings. For derivative financial instruments that are designated as fair value hedges, changes in the fair value of these derivatives are recognized in current period results and are reported as changes within accrued liabilities and other on the consolidated statements of cash flows. There were no outstanding fair value hedges as of June 30, 2018. The Company did not use net investment hedges for the periods presented. The effects of derivative instruments in the tables below are presented net of related income taxes, excluding any impacts of changes to income tax valuation allowances effecting results of operations or other comprehensive income, when applicable (see Note 14 for further explanation).

Retirement Benefits

The Company has defined contribution retirement plans or defined benefit pension plans covering substantially all employees. Company contributions to defined contribution retirement plans are generally based on a percentage of eligible pay or based on hours worked. Benefits under the defined benefit pension plans are generally based on years of service and/or final average pay. The Company funds the U.S. pension plans in accordance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, and the Internal Revenue Code.

The Company also sponsors several postretirement plans covering certain collectively-bargained salaried and hourly employees. The plans provide health care and life insurance benefits for eligible retirees. In most retiree health care plans, Company contributions towards premiums are capped based on the cost as of a certain date, thereby creating a defined contribution.

Commitments And Contingencies

Environmental liabilities are recorded when the Company’s liability is probable and the costs are reasonably estimable. In many cases, however, the Company is not able to determine whether it is liable or, if liability is probable, to reasonably estimate the loss or range of loss. Estimates of the Company’s liability remain subject to additional uncertainties, including the nature and extent of site contamination, available remediation alternatives, the extent of corrective actions that may be required, and the number, participation, and financial condition of other potentially responsible parties (PRPs). The Company adjusts its accruals to reflect new information as appropriate. Future adjustments could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations in a given period, but the Company cannot reliably predict the amounts of such future adjustments.

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for pension and other postretirement benefit plans. This accounting policy may address (1) the types of plans sponsored by the entity, and the benefits provided by each plan (2) groups that participate in (or are covered by) each plan (3) how plan assets, liabilities and expenses are measured, including the use of any actuaries and (4) significant assumptions used by the entity to value plan assets and liabilities and how such assumptions are derived.

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