Profile: Hawk Corporation (HWK)

Hawk Corporation (Hawk) is a supplier of friction products for industrial, aerospace, agricultural and performance applications. Through its subsidiaries, the Company operates in the friction products segment. Its friction products include parts for brakes, clutches and transmissions used in construction and mining vehicles, agricultural vehicles, trucks, motorcycles and race cars, and brake parts for landing systems used in commercial and general aviation. The friction products are made principally from formulations and designs of composite materials and metal powders. The Company operates friction manufacturing facilities in United States, Orzinuovi, Italy, Suzhou, China, and Ontario, Canada. On May 30, 2008, the Company completed the sale of its performance racing facility in North Carolina. On December 22, 2008, it completed the sale of its performance racing facility in Illinois.

In May 2008, the Company completed the sale of Tex Racing Enterprises Inc. to Leonard C. Long, a manufacturer of motorsport components based in Cleona, Pennsylvania and Charlotte, North Carolina. In December 2008, the Company completed the sale of Quarter Master Industries, Inc. to COMP Cams, a provider of camshafts to the high performance racing market.

Friction Products

The Company’s friction products include friction components for use in automatic and power shift transmissions, clutch facings that serve as the main contact point between an engine and a transmission, and brake components for use in truck, construction, mining, agriculture, aircraft and specialty vehicle braking systems. Its friction products segment manufactures products made from formulations of composite materials that primarily consist of metal powders and synthetic and natural fibers. Its friction products are custom-designed to meet the performance requirements of a specific application and meet the temperature, pressure, component life and noise level criteria. The principal markets served by the Company’s friction products segment include manufacturers of truck clutches, transmissions, heavy-duty construction, mining and agricultural vehicle brakes, aircraft brakes, motorcycle, snowmobile and racing, and performance automotive brakes.

The Company supplies friction products, such as transmission discs, clutch facings and brake components to manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, including Caterpillar,Volvo and Carraro. Replacement components for construction equipment are sold through original equipment manufacturers, as well as directly to aftermarket distributors. The Company supplies friction products to the manufacturers of aircraft braking systems for the Boeing, EADS, Lockheed, United Technologies and Bombardier for the Canadair regional jet series used by commuter airlines, as well as certain military aircraft. It also supplies metallic friction products to the general aviation (non-commercial airline, non-military) market, supplying friction materials for aircraft, such as Cessna, Hawker, Lear and Pilatus.

Hawk supplies friction products, such as clutch facings, transmission discs and brake components to manufacturers of agriculture equipment, including John Deere and CNH. The Company supplies friction products for clutch buttons and facings used in medium and heavy trucks to original equipment manufacturers, such as Eaton and ZF Sachs. It supplies friction products for use in specialty applications, such as brake pads for Bombardier, Polaris and Arctic Cat snowmobiles, race cars and performance automotive vehicles, fleet vehicles, such as delivery trucks, police cars and ambulances, as well as motorcycles. Its replacement components are sold through original equipment manufacturers and directly to aftermarket distributors through relationships with national automotive retailers, such as Tire Rack. The Company also supplies stack components used in manufacture of phosphoric acid fuel cells.