Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Principles of Consolidation - The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of all subsidiaries after elimination of all intercompany accounts, transactions, and profits.

Use of Estimates - The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities, and reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Significant estimates relate to allowances for doubtful accounts, inventory reserves, self-insurance reserves related to healthcare and workers compensation, deferred taxes, post retirement benefits, goodwill and long-lived assets. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Revenue Recognition - Revenue from product sales is recognized at the time products are shipped and title transfers. Allowances for returned products and other credits are estimated and recorded as revenue is recognized. Tooling revenue is recognized when the customer approves the tool and accepts ownership. Progress billings and expenses are shown net as an asset or liability on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet. Tooling in progress can fluctuate significantly from period to period and is dependent upon the stage of tooling projects and the related billing and expense payment timetable for individual projects and therefore does not necessarily reflect projected income or loss from tooling projects. At December 31, 2017, the Company had a net asset related to tooling in progress of $1,917,000, which represents approximately $8,724,000 of progress tooling billings and $10,641,000 of progress tooling expenses. At December 31, 2016, the Company had a net liability related to tooling in progress of $1,084,000 which represents approximately $11,052,000 of progress tooling billings and $9,968,000 of progress tooling expenses.

Cash and Cash Equivalents - The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. Cash is held primarily in one bank. The Company had cash on hand of $26,780,000 at December 31, 2017 and $28,285,000 at December 31, 2016.

Accounts Receivable Allowances - Management maintains allowances for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of its customers to make required payments. If the financial condition of the Company’s customers were to deteriorate, resulting in an impairment of their ability to make payments, additional allowances may be required. The Company has determined that no allowance for doubtful accounts is needed at December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively. Management also records estimates for customer returns and deductions, discounts offered to customers, and for price adjustments. Should customer returns and deductions, discounts, and price adjustments fluctuate from the estimated amounts, additional allowances may be required. The Company had an allowance for estimated chargebacks of $857,000 at December 31, 2017 and $309,000 at December 31, 2016. There have been no material changes in the methodology of these calculations.

Inventories - Inventories, which include material, labor and manufacturing overhead, are valued at the lower of cost or market. The inventories are accounted for using the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method of determining inventory costs. Inventory quantities on-hand are regularly reviewed, and where necessary, provisions for excess and obsolete inventory are recorded based on historical and anticipated usage. The Company has recorded an allowance for slow moving and obsolete inventory of $624,000 at December 31, 2017 and $770,000 at December 31, 2016.

Property, Plant, and Equipment - Property, plant, and equipment are recorded at cost. Depreciation is provided on a straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets. The carrying amount of long‑lived assets is evaluated annually to determine if adjustment to the depreciation period or to the unamortized balance is warranted.

Ranges of estimated useful lives for computing depreciation are as follows:



Land improvements		20 years
Buildings and improvements		20 - 40 years
Machinery and equipment		3 - 15 years
Tools, dies and patterns		3 - 5 years

Depreciation expense was $6,190,000, $6,217,000 and $5,955,000 for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Company capitalized interest costs of approximately $7,000 and $0 for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Long-Lived Assets - Long-lived assets consist primarily of property, plant and equipment and definite-lived intangibles. The Company acquired substantially all of the assets of CPI on March 20, 2015, which resulted in approximately $650,000 of definite-lived intangibles and $12,474,000 of property, plant and equipment, all of which were recorded at fair value. The recoverability of long-lived assets is evaluated by an analysis of operating results and consideration of other significant events or changes in the business environment. The Company evaluates, whether impairment exists for long-lived assets on the basis of undiscounted expected future cash flows from operations before interest. There was no impairment of the Company's long-lived assets for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Goodwill - The Company has recorded $2,403,000 of goodwill as a result of two acquisitions. In 2001, the Company acquired certain assets of Airshield Corporation, and as a result, recorded goodwill in the amount of $1,097,000. The Company also acquired substantially all of the assets of CPI on March 20, 2015, which resulted in approximately $1,306,000 of goodwill.

The Company evaluates goodwill annually on December 31^st to determine whether impairment exists, or at interim periods if an indicator of possible impairment exists. The Company evaluates goodwill for impairment utilizing the qualitative assessment. We consider relevant events and circumstances that affect the fair value or carrying amount of the Company. Such events and circumstances could include macroeconomic conditions, industry and market conditions, cost factors, overall financial performance, entity specific events and capital markets pricing. The Company places more weight on the events and circumstances that most affect the Company's fair value or carrying amount. These factors are all considered by management in reaching its conclusion about whether to perform the first step of the impairment test.

If the Company's carrying amount is determined to be more likely than not impaired based on the qualitative approach, a quantitative valuation to estimate the fair value of the Company is performed. Fair value measurements are based on a projected discounted cash flow valuation model, in accordance with ASC 350, “Intangibles-Goodwill and Other.”

There was no impairment of the Company's goodwill for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Income Taxes - The Company records deferred income taxes for differences between the financial reporting basis and income tax basis of assets and liabilities. A detailed breakout is located in Note 11.

Self-Insurance - The Company is self-insured with respect to its Columbus and Batavia, Ohio, Gaffney, South Carolina and Brownsville, Texas medical, dental and vision claims and Columbus and Batavia, Ohio workers’ compensation claims, all of which are subject to stop-loss insurance thresholds. The Company has recorded an estimated liability for self-insured medical, dental and vision claims incurred but not reported and worker’s compensation claims incurred but not reported at December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 of $862,000 and $1,139,000, respectively.

Post Retirement Benefits - Management records an accrual for post retirement costs associated with the health care plan sponsored by the Company for certain employees. Should actual results differ from the assumptions used to determine the reserves, additional provisions may be required. In particular, increases in future healthcare costs above the assumptions could have an adverse effect on the Company's operations. The effect of a change in healthcare costs is described in Note 12 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. Core Molding Technologies had a liability for post retirement healthcare benefits based on actuarially computed estimates of $9,050,000 at December 31, 2017 and $8,667,000 at December 31, 2016.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments - The Company's financial instruments consist of long-term debt, interest rate swaps, foreign currency hedges, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. The carrying amount of these financial instruments approximated their fair value. Further detail is located in Note 14.

Concentration Risks - The Company has concentration risk related to significant amounts of sales and accounts receivable with certain customers. Sales to five major customers comprised 84%, 85% and 85% of total sales in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively (see Note 4). Concentrations of accounts receivable balances with five customers accounted for 84% and 85% of accounts receivable at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The Company performs ongoing credit evaluations of its customers' financial condition. The Company maintains reserves for potential bad debt losses, and such bad debt losses have been historically within the Company's expectations. Sales to certain customers' manufacturing and service locations in Mexico and Canada totaled 36%, 32% and 35% of total sales for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company employed a total of 1,304 employees, which consisted of 596 employees in its United States operations and 708 employees in its Mexican operations. Of these 1,304 employees, 248 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (“IAM”), which extends to August 10, 2019, and 611 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with Sindicato de Jorneleros y Obreros, which extends to December 31, 2019.

Earnings Per Common Share - Basic earnings per common share is computed based on the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted earnings per common share are computed similarly but include the effect of the assumed exercise of dilutive stock options and vesting of restricted stock under the treasury stock method. A detailed computation of earnings per share is located in Note 3.

Research and Development - Research and development activities focus on developing new material formulations, new products, new production capabilities and processes, and improving existing products and manufacturing processes. The Company does not maintain a separate research and development organization or facility, but uses its production equipment, as necessary, to support these efforts and cooperates with its customers and its suppliers in research and development efforts. Likewise, manpower to direct and advance research and development is integrated with the existing manufacturing, engineering, production, and quality organizations. Research and development costs, which are expensed as incurred, totaled approximately $848,000, $965,000 and $719,000 in 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Foreign Currency Adjustments - In conjunction with the Company's acquisition of certain assets of Airshield Corporation, the Company established operations in Mexico. The functional currency for the Mexican operations is the United States dollar. All foreign currency asset and liability amounts are remeasured into United States dollars at end-of-period exchange rates. Income statement accounts are translated at the weighted monthly average rates. Gains and losses resulting from translation of foreign currency financial statements into United States dollars and gains and losses resulting from foreign currency transactions are included in current results of operations. Net foreign currency translation and transaction activity is included in selling, general and administrative expense. This activity resulted in a gain of $30,000, $89,000 and $54,000 in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in ASC 605, Revenue Recognition. ASC Topic 606 is based on the principle that revenue is recognized to depict the transfer of 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. ASC Topic 606 also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments and changes in judgments and assets recognized from costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract. The effective date for ASC Topic 606, as updated by ASU No. 2015-14 in August 2015, has been delayed until the first quarter of fiscal year 2018. The Company will adopt the new revenue standard in the first quarter of 2018 using the modified retrospective adoption method. We have determined that certain tooling programs with customers meet the criteria listed in ASU 2014-09 to recognize revenue over time. Prospectively, the Company expects to recognize revenue related transactions from certain tooling programs earlier than we have historically.

In March 2017, FASB issued ASU No. 2017-07, Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost ("ASU 2017-07"). The amendments in this update require that an employer disaggregate the service cost component from the other components of net periodic cost (benefit) and report that component in the same line item as other compensation costs arising from services rendered by employees during the period. The other components of net periodic cost (benefit) are required to be presented in the statement of operations separately from the service cost component and outside of operating earnings. The amendment also allows for the service cost component of net periodic cost (benefit) to be eligible for capitalization when applicable. The guidance will be effective for the Company on January 1, 2018 and interim periods within that reporting period; early adoption permitted. The guidance on the income statement presentation of the components of net periodic cost (benefit) must be applied retrospectively, while the guidance limiting the capitalization of net periodic cost (benefit) in assets to the service cost component must be applied prospectively. The Company will adopt this standard update as required and does not expect the adoption of this ASU to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Upon adoption, the Company plans to update the presentation of net periodic cost (benefit) accordingly, noting all components of the Company's net periodic cost (benefit) will be presented outside of operating earnings, as the plan is not active.The estimated impact of adoption of this update will be a reclassification of all components of net periodic benefit from operating earnings to other income in the amount of $49,000 and $18,000 for the years ended December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively.

In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. The amendments in this update allow a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The reclassifications should be applied either in the period of adoption or retrospectively to each period in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is recognized. The amendments also require certain disclosures about stranded tax effects. This ASU is effective for all entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018 and interim periods within those fiscal years and may be early adopted. The Company has elected to early adopt, which resulted in a reclassification of $162,000 from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings at December 31, 2017.