Tax cuts spur Carpenter Tech to invest $100M in its Reading plant

The company made the announcement this morning for an investment that would add soft magnetics capabilities and a new precision strip hot rolling mill in its Reading facility to help meet increasing demand for customers in the aerospace, consumer electronics and electric vehicle manufacturing industries.

Tony Thene, Carpenter Technology president and CEO, said in a statement that the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act prompted the investment.

“Given these significant market opportunities and the benefits associated with the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we have decided to accelerate further investment in our business,” Thene said. “With more than 90 percent of our products manufactured in the U.S., this type of capital investment will strengthen our foundation for long-term sustainable growth, provide good-paying jobs and increase value for stakeholders for years to come.”

Carpenter Technology said the recent legislation would reduce cash taxes by about $90 million to $100 million over the next five years and would use the savings to increase its base level of capital investment in U.S. manufacturing operations over the same time frame.

Furthermore, the company said the new mill in its Reading plant would increase overall capacity and offer greater flexibility in processing alloys for highly specialized soft magnetics applications in the aerospace, consumer electronics and electric vehicle markets.

The company has another plant in Orwigsburg.

“This is exactly the type of capital investment we envisioned as a direct benefit of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, in a statement at the event. “It’s vitally important for Pennsylvania families that local companies increase their operations at home and provide high-paying jobs with a stable future. I’m pleased Carpenter is making such a strong commitment to Pennsylvania.”