Albany: Customer's production cut to hit Q3, Q4 sales

(Reuters) - Albany International Corp (AIN.N), a supplier of aircraft composites, said sales growth for the third and fourth quarters would be hurt as a key customer was cutting production of a jet, knocking its shares to a four-year low.

Albany said the customer, Eclipse Aviation, would reduce planned purchases of components for the rest of 2008 and the first half of 2009.

Albany, mainly a paper machine products maker, expects delayed sales of components for the Eclipse 500 jet to reduce 2009 revenue growth rate substantially.

However, it sees 2008 aggregate revenue to exceed 2007 levels by 35 percent or more. Last year's revenue was $1.09 billion.

Profitability of Albany Engineered Composites (AEC), which supplies specialty materials and composite structures for aircraft and other applications, is expected to fall below breakeven and remain at that level till the first and second quarters of 2009, the company said.

Eclipse Aviation, maker of the Eclipse 500 jet, is one of AEC's customers for commercial airframe applications.

Eclipse 500, with room for six seats, is a form of a very light jet.

Shares of the New York-based company were down $3.26 at $30.27 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a low of $26.05 earlier in the session.

(Reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)