Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Principles of Consolidation	Principles of Consolidation: Management believes the following critical accounting policies, among others, affect its more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of its consolidated financial statements.
Use of Estimates	Use of Estimates: The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States 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. On an on-going basis, management evaluates its estimates and judgments. Management bases its estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions.
Revenue Recognition	Revenue Recognition: The Company historically has recognized revenue from two streams, product revenue and tooling revenue. Product revenue is earned from the manufacture and sale of sheet molding compounds and thermoset and thermoplastic products. Revenue from product sales is generally recognized when products are shipped, as the Company transfers control to the customer and is entitled to payment upon shipment. In certain circumstances, the Company recognizes revenue from product sales when products are produced and the customer takes control at our production facility. Tooling revenue is earned from manufacturing multiple tools, molds and assembly equipment as part of a tooling program for a customer. Given that the Company is providing a significant service of producing highly interdependent component parts of the tooling program, each tooling program consists of a single performance obligation to provide the customer the capability to produce a single product. Based on the arrangement with the customer, the Company recognizes revenue either at a point in time or over a given period. When the Company does not have an enforceable right to payment, the Company recognizes tooling revenue at a point in time. In such cases, the Company recognizes revenue upon customer acceptance, which is when the customer has legal title to the tools. Certain tooling programs include an enforceable right to payment. In those cases, the Company recognizes revenue over time based on the extent of progress towards completion of its performance obligation. The Company uses a cost-to-cost measure of progress for such contracts because it best depicts the transfer of value to the customer and also correlates with the amount of consideration to which the entity expects to be titled in exchange for transferring the promised goods or services to the customer. Under the cost-to-cost measure of progress, progress towards completion is measured based on the ratio of costs incurred to date to the total estimated costs at completion of the performance obligation. Revenues are recorded proportionally as costs are incurred. 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 three banks in three separate jurisdictions. The Company had $4,492,000 cash on hand at March 31, 2023 and had $4,183,000 cash on hand at December 31, 2022.
Accounts Receivable Allowances	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 a $10,000 allowance for doubtful accounts is needed at March 31, 2023 and none at December 31, 2022. 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 $344,000 at March 31, 2023 and $502,000 at December 31, 2022. There have been no material changes in the methodology of these calculations.
Inventories	Inventories: Inventories, which include material, labor and manufacturing overhead, are valued at the lower of cost or net realizable value. 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 $536,000 at March 31, 2023 and $433,000 at December 31, 2022.
Contract Assets/Liabilities	Contract Assets/Liabilities: Contract assets and liabilities represent the net cumulative customer billings, vendor payments and revenue recognized for tooling programs. For tooling programs where net revenue recognized and vendor payments exceed customer billings, the Company recognizes a contract asset. For tooling programs where net customer billings exceed revenue recognized and vendor payments, the Company recognizes a contract liability. Customer payment terms vary by contract and can range from progress payments based on work performed or one single payment once the contract is completed. The Company has recorded contract assets of $782,000 at March 31, 2023, and $344,000 at December 31, 2022. Contract assets are generally classified as current within prepaid expenses and other current assets on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company recognized no impairments on contract assets. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company recognized $622,000 of revenue from contract liabilities related to open jobs outstanding as of December 31, 2022.
Income Taxes	Income Taxes: The Company evaluates the balance of deferred tax assets that will be realized based on the premise that the Company is more-likely-than-not to realize deferred tax benefits through the generation of future taxable income.
Long-Lived Assets	Long-Lived Assets: Long-lived assets consist primarily of property, plant and equipment and definite-lived intangibles. 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 property, plant and equipment on the basis of undiscounted expected future cash flows from operations before interest. There were no impairment charges of the Company’s long-lived assets for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022, respectively.
Goodwill	Goodwill: The purchase consideration of acquired businesses has been allocated to the assets and liabilities acquired based on the estimated fair values on the respective acquisition dates. Based on these values, the excess purchase consideration over the fair value of the net assets acquired was allocated to goodwill. The Company accounts for goodwill in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other. FASB ASC Topic 350 prohibits the amortization of goodwill and requires these assets be reviewed for impairment. The annual impairment tests of goodwill may be completed through qualitative assessments; however, the Company may elect to bypass the qualitative assessment and proceed directly to a quantitative impairment test for any period. The Company may resume the qualitative assessment in any subsequent period. Under a qualitative and quantitative approach, the impairment test for goodwill consists of an assessment of whether it is more-likely-than-not that the fair value is less than its carrying amount. As part of the qualitative assessment, the Company considers relevant events and circumstances that affect the fair value or carrying amount of the Company. Such events and circumstances could include changes in economic conditions, industry and market conditions, cost factors, overall financial performance, 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 step one of the impairment test. If the Company elects to bypass the qualitative assessment, or if a qualitative assessment indicates it is more-likely-than-not that the estimated carrying value exceeds its fair value, the Company proceeds to a quantitative approach. There were no impairment charges of the Company's goodwill for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022, respectively.
Self-Insurance	Self-Insurance: The Company is self-insured with respect to its facilities in Columbus, Ohio; Gaffney, South Carolina; Winona, Minnesota; and Brownsville, Texas for medical, dental and vision claims and Columbus, Ohio for workers’ compensation claims, all of which are subject to stop-loss insurance thresholds. The Company is also self-insured for dental and vision with respect to its Cobourg, Canada location. 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 March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 of $918,000 and $889,000, respectively.
Post-retirement Benefits	Post-Retirement Benefits: Management records an accrual for post-retirement costs associated with the health care plan sponsored by Core Molding Technologies. 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 Core Molding Technologies’ operations. The effect of a change in healthcare costs is described in Note 12, "Post Retirement Benefits", of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Core Molding Technologies had a liability for post-retirement healthcare benefits based on actuarial computed estimates of $6,531,000 at March 31, 2023 and $6,625,000 at December 31, 2022.
New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy	Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses,” which changes the impairment model for most financial assets and certain other instruments. For trade and other receivables, held-to-maturity debt securities, loans and other instruments, entities will be required to use a new forward-looking “expected loss” model which replaced the previous “incurred loss” model and generally will result in the earlier recognition of allowances for losses. Subsequent to issuing ASU 2016-13, the FASB issued ASU 2018-19, “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses,” for the purpose of clarifying certain aspects of ASU 2016-13. ASU 2018-19 has the same effective date and transition requirements as ASU 2016-13. In April 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-04, “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses, Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and Topic 825, Financial Instruments,” which is effective with the adoption of ASU 2016-13. In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-05, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326),” which is also effective with the adoption of ASU 2016-13. In November 2019, the FASB voted to delay the implementation date for certain companies, including those that qualify as a smaller reporting company under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, until fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022. We have adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2023 with no material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations, cash flows, or presentation thereof.
Fair Value Measurement	Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in a transaction between market participants as of the measurement date. Fair value is measured using the fair value hierarchy and related valuation methodologies as defined in the authoritative literature. This hierarchical valuation methodology provides a fair value framework that describes the categorization of assets and liabilities in three levels based upon the assumptions (inputs) used to price the assets or liabilities. Level 1 provides the most reliable measure of fair value, whereas Level 3 generally requires significant management judgment. The three levels are defined as follows: Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities. Level 2 - Quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active and model-derived valuations, in which all significant inputs are observable in active markets. Level 3 -Significant unobservable inputs reflecting management's own assumptions about the inputs used in pricing the asset or liability. The Company’s financial instruments consist of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, debt, interest rate swaps and foreign currency derivatives. Cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and accounts payable carrying values as of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 approximate fair value due to the short-term maturities of these financial instruments. As of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the carrying amounts of the Huntington Term Loan and Huntington Revolving Loan approximated fair value due to the short-term nature of the underlying variable rate SOFR used to determine interest charged on the loans. The Company had Level 2 fair value measurements at March 31, 2023 relating to the Company’s interest rate swaps and foreign currency derivatives. Derivative and hedging activities Foreign Currency Derivatives The Company conducted business in foreign countries and paid certain expenses in foreign currencies; therefore, the Company was exposed to foreign currency exchange risk between the U.S. Dollar and foreign currencies, which could impact the Company’s operating income and cash flows. To mitigate risk associated with foreign currency exchange, the Company entered into forward contracts to exchange a fixed amount of U.S. Dollars for a fixed amount of foreign currency, which will be used to fund future foreign currency cash flows. At inception, all forward contracts are formally documented as cash flow hedges and are measured at fair value each reporting period. Derivatives are formally assessed both at inception and at least quarterly thereafter, to ensure that derivatives used in hedging transactions are highly effective in offsetting changes in cash flows of the hedged item. If it is determined that a derivative ceases to be a highly effective hedge, or if the anticipated transaction is no longer probable of occurring, hedge accounting is discontinued, and any future mark-to-market adjustments are recognized in earnings. The effective portion of gain or loss is reported in other comprehensive income and the ineffective portion is reported in earnings. The impacts of these contracts were largely offset by gains and losses resulting from the impact of changes in exchange rates on transactions denominated in the foreign currency. As of March 31, 2023, the Company had no ineffective portion related to the cash flow hedges.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

Principles of Consolidation: Management believes the following critical accounting policies, among others, affect its more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of its consolidated financial statements.

Use of Estimates

Use of Estimates: The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States 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. On an on-going basis, management evaluates its estimates and judgments. Management bases its estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition: The Company historically has recognized revenue from two streams, product revenue and tooling revenue. Product revenue is earned from the manufacture and sale of sheet molding compounds and thermoset and thermoplastic products. Revenue from product sales is generally recognized when products are shipped, as the Company transfers control to the customer and is entitled to payment upon shipment. In certain circumstances, the Company recognizes revenue from product sales when products are produced and the customer takes control at our production facility.

Tooling revenue is earned from manufacturing multiple tools, molds and assembly equipment as part of a tooling program for a customer. Given that the Company is providing a significant service of producing highly interdependent component parts of the tooling program, each tooling program consists of a single performance obligation to provide the customer the capability to produce a single product. Based on the arrangement with the customer, the Company recognizes revenue either at a point in time or over a given period. When the Company does not have an enforceable right to payment, the Company recognizes tooling revenue at a point in time. In such cases, the Company recognizes revenue upon customer acceptance, which is when the customer has legal title to the tools.

Certain tooling programs include an enforceable right to payment. In those cases, the Company recognizes revenue over time based on the extent of progress towards completion of its performance obligation. The Company uses a cost-to-cost measure of progress for such contracts because it best depicts the transfer of value to the customer and also correlates with the amount of consideration to which the entity expects to be titled in exchange for transferring the promised goods or services to the customer. Under the cost-to-cost measure of progress, progress towards completion is measured based on the ratio of costs incurred to date to the total estimated costs at completion of the performance obligation. Revenues are recorded proportionally as costs are incurred.

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 three banks in three separate jurisdictions. The Company had $4,492,000 cash on hand at March 31, 2023 and had $4,183,000 cash on hand at December 31, 2022.

Accounts Receivable Allowances

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 a $10,000 allowance for doubtful accounts is needed at March 31, 2023 and none at December 31, 2022. 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 $344,000 at March 31, 2023 and $502,000 at December 31, 2022. There have been no material changes in the methodology of these calculations.

Inventories

Inventories: Inventories, which include material, labor and manufacturing overhead, are valued at the lower of cost or net realizable value. 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 $536,000 at March 31, 2023 and $433,000 at December 31, 2022.

Contract Assets/Liabilities

Contract Assets/Liabilities: Contract assets and liabilities represent the net cumulative customer billings, vendor payments and revenue recognized for tooling programs. For tooling programs where net revenue recognized and vendor payments exceed customer billings, the Company recognizes a contract asset. For tooling programs where net customer billings exceed revenue recognized and vendor payments, the Company recognizes a contract liability. Customer payment terms vary by contract and can range from progress payments based on work performed or one single payment once the contract is completed. The Company has recorded contract assets of $782,000 at March 31, 2023, and $344,000 at December 31, 2022. Contract assets are generally classified as current within prepaid expenses and other current assets on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company recognized no impairments on contract assets. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company recognized $622,000 of revenue from contract liabilities related to open jobs outstanding as of December 31, 2022.

Income Taxes

Income Taxes: The Company evaluates the balance of deferred tax assets that will be realized based on the premise that the Company is more-likely-than-not to realize deferred tax benefits through the generation of future taxable income.

Long-Lived Assets

Long-Lived Assets: Long-lived assets consist primarily of property, plant and equipment and definite-lived intangibles. 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 property, plant and equipment on the basis of undiscounted expected future cash flows from operations before interest. There were no impairment charges of the Company’s long-lived assets for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022, respectively.

Goodwill

Goodwill: The purchase consideration of acquired businesses has been allocated to the assets and liabilities acquired based on the estimated fair values on the respective acquisition dates. Based on these values, the excess purchase consideration over the fair value of the net assets acquired was allocated to goodwill. The Company accounts for goodwill in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other. FASB ASC Topic 350 prohibits the amortization of goodwill and requires these assets be reviewed for impairment.

The annual impairment tests of goodwill may be completed through qualitative assessments; however, the Company may elect to bypass the qualitative assessment and proceed directly to a quantitative impairment test for any period. The Company may resume the qualitative assessment in any subsequent period.

Under a qualitative and quantitative approach, the impairment test for goodwill consists of an assessment of whether it is more-likely-than-not that the fair value is less than its carrying amount. As part of the qualitative assessment, the Company considers relevant events and circumstances that affect the fair value or carrying amount of the Company. Such events and circumstances could include changes in economic conditions, industry and market conditions, cost factors, overall financial performance, 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 step one of the impairment test. If the Company elects to bypass the qualitative assessment, or if a qualitative assessment indicates it is more-likely-than-not that the estimated carrying value exceeds its fair value, the Company proceeds to a quantitative approach. There were no impairment charges of the Company's goodwill for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022, respectively.

Self-Insurance

Self-Insurance: The Company is self-insured with respect to its facilities in Columbus, Ohio; Gaffney, South Carolina; Winona, Minnesota; and Brownsville, Texas for medical, dental and vision claims and Columbus, Ohio for workers’ compensation claims, all of which are subject to stop-loss insurance thresholds. The Company is also self-insured for dental and vision with respect to its Cobourg, Canada location. 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 March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 of $918,000 and $889,000, respectively.

Post-retirement Benefits

Post-Retirement Benefits: Management records an accrual for post-retirement costs associated with the health care plan sponsored by Core Molding Technologies. 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 Core Molding Technologies’ operations. The effect of a change in healthcare costs is described in Note 12, "Post Retirement Benefits", of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Core Molding Technologies had a liability for post-retirement healthcare benefits based on actuarial computed estimates of $6,531,000 at March 31, 2023 and $6,625,000 at December 31, 2022.

New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy

Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL)

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses,” which changes the impairment model for most financial assets and certain other instruments. For trade and other receivables, held-to-maturity debt securities, loans and other instruments, entities will be required to use a new forward-looking “expected loss” model which replaced the previous “incurred loss” model and generally will result in the earlier recognition of allowances for losses. Subsequent to issuing ASU 2016-13, the FASB issued ASU 2018-19, “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses,” for the purpose of clarifying certain aspects of ASU 2016-13. ASU 2018-19 has the same effective date and transition requirements as ASU 2016-13. In April 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-04, “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses, Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and Topic 825, Financial Instruments,” which is effective with the adoption of ASU 2016-13. In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-05, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326),” which is also effective with the adoption of ASU 2016-13. In November 2019, the FASB voted to delay the implementation date for certain companies, including those that qualify as a smaller reporting company under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, until fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022. We have adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2023 with no material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations, cash flows, or presentation thereof.

Fair Value Measurement

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in a transaction between market participants as of the measurement date. Fair value is measured using the fair value hierarchy and related valuation methodologies as defined in the authoritative literature. This hierarchical valuation methodology provides a fair value framework that describes the categorization of assets and liabilities in three levels based upon the assumptions (inputs) used to price the assets or liabilities. Level 1 provides the most reliable measure of fair value, whereas Level 3 generally requires significant management judgment.

The three levels are defined as follows:

Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities.

Level 2 - Quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active and model-derived valuations, in which all significant inputs are observable in active markets.

Level 3 -Significant unobservable inputs reflecting management's own assumptions about the inputs used in pricing the asset or liability.

The Company’s financial instruments consist of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, debt, interest rate swaps and foreign currency derivatives. Cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and accounts payable carrying values as of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 approximate fair value due to the short-term maturities of these financial instruments. As of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the carrying amounts of the Huntington Term Loan and Huntington Revolving Loan approximated fair value due to the short-term nature of the underlying variable rate SOFR used to determine interest charged on the loans. The Company had Level 2 fair value measurements at March 31, 2023 relating to the Company’s interest rate swaps and foreign currency derivatives.

Derivative and hedging activities

Foreign Currency Derivatives

The Company conducted business in foreign countries and paid certain expenses in foreign currencies; therefore, the Company was exposed to foreign currency exchange risk between the U.S. Dollar and foreign currencies, which could impact the Company’s operating income and cash flows. To mitigate risk associated with foreign currency exchange, the Company entered into forward contracts to exchange a fixed amount of U.S. Dollars for a fixed amount of foreign currency, which will be used to fund future foreign currency cash flows. At inception, all forward contracts are formally documented as cash flow hedges and are measured at fair value each reporting period.

Derivatives are formally assessed both at inception and at least quarterly thereafter, to ensure that derivatives used in hedging transactions are highly effective in offsetting changes in cash flows of the hedged item. If it is determined that a derivative ceases to be a highly effective hedge, or if the anticipated transaction is no longer probable of occurring, hedge accounting is discontinued, and any future mark-to-market adjustments are recognized in earnings. The effective portion of gain or loss is reported in other comprehensive income and the ineffective portion is reported in earnings. The impacts of these contracts were largely offset by gains and losses resulting from the impact of changes in exchange rates on transactions denominated in the foreign currency. As of March 31, 2023, the Company had no ineffective portion related to the cash flow hedges.