Accounting Policies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Accounting Policies

Accounting Policies

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. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified in order to conform with fiscal year 2020 presentation. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s 2019 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, 2019 financial information has been derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements.

Effective January 1, 2020, the Company began operating under two revised business segments: High Performance Materials & Components (HPMC) and Advanced Alloys & Solutions (AA&S). HPMC is now comprised of the Specialty Materials and Forged Products businesses, as well as the ATI Europe distribution operations. The new AA&S segment combines the Specialty Alloys & Components (SAC) business, including the primary titanium operations in Richland, WA and Albany, OR, with ATI’s former Flat Rolled Products (FRP) business segment, which included the FRP business and the 60%-owned Shanghai STAL Precision Stainless Steel Company Limited (STAL), as well as the Uniti LLC (Uniti) and A&T Stainless 50%-owned joint ventures that are reported in AA&S segment results under the equity method of accounting. See Note 12, Business Segments, for further information. Financial results of aerospace-grade titanium plate products also transferred from HPMC to AA&S effective January 1, 2020. Prior period segment information has been restated to conform to this operating structure.

The Company’s collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) involving approximately 1,500 full-time employees expired on February 29, 2020 involving United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied & Industrial Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC (USW)-represented employees located primarily within the AA&S segment operations, and at one HPMC segment facility. On March 25, 2020, the Company announced an agreement with the USW that extended the terms of the expired CBAs for one year, to February 28, 2021.

New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted

In March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new optional accounting guidance for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for (or recognizing the effects of) reference rate reform on financial reporting. In response to concerns about structural risks of interbank offered rates (IBORs), and, particularly, the risk of cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), regulators in several jurisdictions around the world have undertaken reference rate reform initiatives to identify alternative reference rates that are more observable or transaction based and less susceptible to manipulation. The new accounting guidance provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying generally accepted accounting principles to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. The new accounting guidance applies only to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform. The expedients and exceptions provided by the amendments generally do not apply to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated after December 31, 2022. Management is continuing to evaluate the issue, and presently does not expect a transition away from LIBOR, primarily involving ATI’s domestic credit facility and an interest rate swap contract, to have any significant financial impact to ATI.

In December 2019, the FASB issued new guidance to simplify the accounting for income taxes. The areas for simplification in the guidance involve the removal of certain exceptions to the general principals in the current guidance, including intraperiod allocation and the calculation of income taxes in an interim period when a year to date loss exceeds the anticipated loss for the year. The new guidance also simplifies the accounting for income taxes in the area of franchise taxes. This new guidance is effective for the Company in fiscal year 2021, with early adoption permitted. This guidance was early adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without significant impact to the consolidated financial statements.

In August 2018, the FASB issued new disclosure guidance on fair value measurement. This new guidance modifies the disclosure requirements on fair value measurements, including removal and modifications of various current disclosures as well as some additional disclosure requirements for Level 3 fair value measurements. Some of these disclosure changes must be applied prospectively while others retrospectively depending on requirement. This guidance was adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements other than disclosures.

In June 2016, the FASB added a new impairment model (known as the current expected credit loss (CECL) model) that is based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. Under the new guidance, an entity recognizes as an allowance its estimate of expected credit losses. The CECL model applies to trade receivables, other receivables, contract assets and most debt instruments. The CECL model does not have a minimum threshold for recognition of impairment losses, and entities will need to measure expected credit losses on assets that have a low risk of loss. This guidance was adopted by the Company in fiscal year 2020 without significant impact to the consolidated financial statements.