Inventories

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Inventories [Abstract]

Inventories

6. Inventories

Inventory at December 31 consisted of the following:

	2019		2018
	(Dollars in thousands)
Raw materials	$	80,265	$	77,836
Work in process		49,717		42,093
Finished goods		134,640		125,842
Total inventories	$	264,622	$	245,771

In the production of some of our products, we use precious metals, some of which we obtain from financial institutions under consignment agreements with terms of one year or less. The financial institutions retain ownership of the precious metals and charge us fees based on the amounts we consign. These fees were $3.1 million for 2019, $2.1 million for 2018, and $1.2 million for 2017. We had on hand precious metals owned by participants in our precious metals consignment program of $66.2 million at December 31, 2019 and $55.2 million at December 31, 2018, measured at fair value based on market prices for identical assets.