HEXCEL CORP /DE/ - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D. C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021

or

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number 1-8472

Hexcel Corporation

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Two Stamford Plaza

281 Tresser Boulevard, 16th Floor

Stamford, Connecticut 06901

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (203) 969-0666

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any or new revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates was $5,232,152,266 based on the reported last sale price of common stock on June 30, 2021, which is the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter.

The number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

Portions of Part III will be incorporated by reference to the registrant’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later than 120 days after the end of the registrant’s fiscal year.

Auditor Firm Id: Auditor Name: Auditor Location:

00042 Ernst & Young LLP Stamford, Connecticut

HEXCEL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART I

ITEM 1. Business.

General

Hexcel Corporation and its subsidiaries (herein referred to as “Hexcel”, “the Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), is a global leader in advanced lightweight composites technology. We propel the future of flight, energy generation, transportation, and recreation through excellence in providing innovative high-performance material solutions that are lighter, stronger and tougher, helping to create a better world for us all. Our broad product range includes carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, honeycomb, resins, engineered core and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, space and defense, and industrial applications.

We serve international markets through manufacturing facilities, sales offices and representatives located in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, India, and Africa. We also have a presence in Malaysia where we are a partner in a joint venture which manufactures composite structures for Commercial Aerospace applications.

We are a manufacturer of products within a single industry: Advanced Composites. We have two reportable segments: Composite Materials and Engineered Products. The Composite Materials segment is comprised of our carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, resin systems, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, and honeycomb core product lines and pultruded profiles. The Engineered Products segment is comprised of lightweight high strength composite structures, RF/EMI and microwave absorbing materials, engineered core and specialty machined honeycomb products with added functionality and thermoplastic additive manufacturing.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have seen the impacts of COVID-19 on our markets and operations, including significant decreases in air traffic, temporary shutdowns of our customers’ and suppliers’ facilities and decreased demand from our customers. Our operations, margins and results have been adversely impacted by lower demand for our products due to substantial reductions in original equipment manufacturer build rates combined with a move to reduce inventory throughout our supply chain, particularly carbon fiber. The COVID-19 pandemic has had and may have further negative impacts on our operations, supply chain, transportation networks and customers, all of which may continue to compress our margins, even after the preventative and precautionary measures that we, other businesses and governments have taken and may take in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting the economies and financial markets globally and has contributed to volatile supply and demand conditions affecting prices and volumes in the markets for our products, services and raw materials, which could continue for an extended period of time.

In 2021, the Commercial Aerospace market began to see signs of recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an increase in domestic air travel and the conclusion of supply chain inventory destocking. The extent to which COVID-19 will continue to adversely impact our business, potentially diminishing the signs of recovery that began in 2021, depends on future developments, including availability of effective vaccines and medical treatments for all age groups and the rate of vaccinations and their effectiveness against new variants of COVID-19, as well as any other new information concerning the effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain or mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and the emergence and impact of new variants of COVID-19. The uncertainty over the future economic and operational impacts of COVID-19 means the future financial impact to the Company cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.

The following summaries describe the ongoing activities related to the Composite Materials and Engineered Products segments as of December 31, 2021.

Composite Materials

The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics, and specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, structural adhesives, honeycomb, molding compounds, tooling materials, polyurethane systems and laminates that are incorporated into many applications, including commercial and military aircraft, transportation (including automotive, marine and trains), wind turbine blades, recreational products, and other industrial applications.

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The following table identifies the principal products and examples of the primary end-uses from the Composite Materials segment:

Carbon Fibers: HexTow® carbon fibers are manufactured for sale to third-party customers as well as for our own use in manufacturing certain reinforcements and composite materials. Carbon fibers are also woven into carbon fabrics, used as reinforcement in conjunction with a resin matrix to produce pre-impregnated composite materials (referred to as “prepregs”). Carbon fiber is also used in filament winding to produce finished composite components. Key product applications include structural components for commercial and military aircraft and rotorcraft, space launch vehicles, and certain other applications such as recreational and industrial equipment.

Fabrics, Multi-axials and Specialty Reinforcements: HexForce® fabrics, multi-axials and specialty reinforcements are made from a variety of fibers, including carbon, glass, aramid and other high strength polymers, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. These reinforcements are used in the production of prepregs and other matrix materials for aerospace and select industrial markets including wind energy blades, automotive components, oil exploration and production equipment, boats, surfboards, skis and other sporting goods equipment.

Prepregs: HexPly® prepregs are manufactured for sale to third-party customers and for internal use by our Engineered Products segment in manufacturing composite laminates and monolithic structures. Prepregs are used in primary and secondary structural aerospace applications such as wing components, horizontal and vertical stabilizer components, fairings, radomes, engine fan blades and cases, engine nacelles as well as overhead storage bins and other interior components. They are also used in many of the industrial and recreational products noted above. Prepregs are manufactured by combining high-performance reinforcement fabrics or unidirectional fibers with a resin matrix to form a composite material that, when cured, has exceptional structural properties not present in either of the constituent materials individually. Prepregs are applied via hand layup, automatic tape layup and advanced fiber placement to produce finished composite components. Prepreg reinforcements include glass, carbon, aramid, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. Resin matrices include bismaleimide, cyanate ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyimide and other specialty resins.

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Other Fiber-Reinforced Matrix Materials: Fiber reinforced matrix developments include HexTool®, a specialized form of quasi-isotropic carbon fiber prepreg for use in the cost-effective construction of high temperature resistant composite tooling. HexFIT® film infusion material is a product that combines resin films and dry fiber reinforcements to save lay-up time in production and enables the manufacture of large contoured composite structures, such as wind turbine blades.

Resins: HexFlow® polymer matrix materials are sold in liquid and film form for use in direct process manufacturing of composite parts. Resins can be combined with fiber reinforcements in manufacturing processes such as resin transfer molding, resin film infusion or vacuum assisted resin transfer molding to produce high quality composite components for both aerospace and industrial applications, without the need for customer investment in autoclaves.

Structural Adhesives: We manufacture and market a comprehensive range of HexBond® film and paste adhesives. These structural adhesives, which bond metal to metal and composites and honeycomb structures, are used in the aerospace industry and for many industrial applications.

Honeycomb: HexWeb® honeycomb is a lightweight, cellular structure generally composed of a sheet of nested hexagonal cells. It can also be manufactured in over-expanded and asymmetric cell configurations to meet special design requirements such as contours or complex curvatures. Honeycomb is primarily used as a lightweight core material and acts as a highly efficient energy absorber. When sandwiched between composite or metallic facing skins, honeycomb significantly increases the stiffness of the structure, while adding very little weight.

We produce honeycomb from a number of metallic and non-metallic materials. Most metallic honeycomb is made from aluminum and is available in a selection of alloys, cell sizes and dimensions. Non-metallic materials used in the manufacture of honeycomb include fiberglass, carbon fiber, thermoplastics, non-flammable aramid papers, aramid fiber and other specialty materials.

We sell honeycomb as standard blocks and in slices cut from a block. Aerospace is the largest market for honeycomb products.

Our HexWeb® Acousti-Cap® sound attenuating honeycomb provides dramatic noise reduction during takeoff and landing without a structural weight penalty, Acousti-Cap® incorporates a non-metallic, permeable cap material that is embedded into honeycomb core. In addition, we produce honeycomb for our Engineered Products segment for use in manufacturing finished parts for airframe original equipment manufacturers.

Polyspeed® Pultruded Profiles: Hexcel manufactures a wide range of pultruded sections including rods, flat sections, tubes and specific profiles that are usually made from carbon fiber but can also be made from glass, quartz, basalt or other fibers. The profile matrix is a Hexcel formulation of thermoset resin (epoxy or polyurethane). Hexcel pultruded profiles are used in a wide range of industrial applications.

The following tables identify the key customers and the major manufacturing facilities of the Composite Materials segment:

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(1) A Raytheon Technologies Company.

(2) A Lockheed Martin Company.

Net sales for the Composite Materials segment to third-party customers were $1,019.4 million in 2021, $1,185.9 million in 2020, and $1,863.1 million in 2019, which represented about 80% of our net sales each year. Net sales for composite materials are highly dependent upon the number of commercial aircraft produced as further discussed under the captions “Significant Customers.” “Markets” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Engineered Products

The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets composite structures and precision machined honeycomb parts primarily for use in the aerospace industry. Composite structures are manufactured from a variety of composite and other materials, including prepregs, honeycomb, and structural adhesives, using such manufacturing processes as autoclave processing, multi-axis numerically controlled machining, heat forming, infusion and other composite manufacturing techniques. Composite structures include HexAM® 3D printed parts, which offer significant weight cost and time-to-market reductions compared to incumbent metal or traditional composite technologies. This segment also provides advanced interference control materials, structural composites, and services; dielectric absorber foams and honeycomb; magnetic absorbers; and thermoplastics for commercial and defense applications.

The following tables identify the principal products and examples of the primary end-uses from the Engineered Products segment:

Net sales for the Engineered Products segment to third-party customers were $305.3 million in 2021, $316.5 million in 2020, and $492.6 million in 2019, which represented approximately 20% of our net sales each year.

The Engineered Products segment includes a 50% ownership interest in a Malaysian joint venture, Aerospace Composites Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (“ACM”) with Boeing Worldwide Operations Limited. Hexcel historically purchased certain semi-finished composite components from the joint venture and performed inspection and additional assembly work prior to direct delivery to Boeing production lines. As part of Boeing's supply chain optimization, this assembly work has been transferred overseas in stages in 2020 and 2021 to other parts of the Boeing supply chain, including ACM. Effective January 1, 2022, all of this work was transferred and Hexcel no longer purchases semi-finished components from ACM. Under the ACM joint venture structure, 50% of ACM net income continues to accrue to Hexcel. ACM had revenue of $30 million in 2021, and $24 million and $61 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

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The following table identifies the key customers and the major manufacturing facilities of the Engineered Products segment:

Significant Customers

Approximately 33%, 33% and 39% of our 2021, 2020 and 2019 net sales, respectively, were to Airbus and its subcontractors. Of the 33% of overall sales to Airbus and its subcontractors in 2021, 29% related to Commercial Aerospace market applications and 4% related to Space & Defense market applications. Approximately 16%, 19% and 25% of our 2021, 2020 and 2019 net sales, respectively, were to Boeing and its subcontractors. Of the 16% of overall sales to Boeing and its subcontractors in 2021, 12% related to Commercial Aerospace market applications and 4% related to Space & Defense market applications.

Markets

Our products are sold for a broad range of end-uses where durability, strength and weight are important factors to our customers. We sell to three different markets: Commercial Aerospace, Space & Defense and Industrial.

Commercial Aerospace

The Commercial Aerospace industry is our largest user of advanced composites. Commercial Aerospace represented 50% of our 2021 net sales. Approximately 82% of these revenues can be identified as sales to Airbus, Boeing, and their subcontractors for the production of commercial aircraft. Approximately 18% of these revenues were for business jets, regional and other commercial aircraft. The economic benefits airlines obtain from weight savings in both fuel economy and aircraft range, combined with the design enhancement that comes from the advantages of advanced composites over traditional materials, has resulted in the aerospace industry becoming the leader in the adoption and use of these materials. While military aircraft and spacecraft have led the development and adoption of these materials, Commercial Aerospace has greater production volumes and has commercialized the use of these products. Accordingly, the demand for advanced composites structural material products is closely correlated to the demand for new commercial aircraft.

The use of advanced composites in Commercial Aerospace is primarily in the manufacture of new commercial aircraft. These composite materials are designed to last the life of the aircraft and engine so as a result, the aftermarket for these products is minimal. The demand for new commercial aircraft is driven by two principal factors, the first of which is airline passenger traffic (the number of revenue passenger miles flown by the airlines) which affects the required size of airline fleets. Growth in passenger traffic requires growth in the size of the fleet of commercial aircraft operated by airlines worldwide.

A second factor, which is less sensitive to the general economy, is the replacement rates for existing aircraft. The rates of retirement of passenger and freight aircraft, resulting mainly from obsolescence, are determined in part by the regulatory requirements established by various civil aviation authorities worldwide as well as public concern regarding aircraft age, safety, noise, and emissions. These rates may also be affected by the desire of the various airlines to improve operating costs with higher payloads and more fuel-efficient aircraft (which in turn is influenced by the price of fuel) and by reducing maintenance expense. In addition, pressure is increasing on airlines to replace their aging fleet with more fuel efficient and quieter aircraft to be more environmentally responsible. For example, aircraft operators subject to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) are facing significantly higher costs to purchase carbon credits for compliance compared to the cost a few years ago, which may influence fleet replacement plans to purchase lightweight new aircraft. Additionally, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) emission reduction mandates for international aviation become mandatory later this decade, which may influence fleet renewal in the coming years. When aircraft are retired from commercial airline fleets, they may be converted to cargo freight aircraft, used for parts, or scrapped.

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An additional factor that may cause airlines to defer or cancel orders is their ability to obtain financing, including leasing, for new aircraft orders. This will be dependent both upon the financial health of the airline operators, as well as the overall availability of financing in the marketplace.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, aircraft manufacturers significantly reduced production rates during 2020 as demand for new aircraft decreased significantly. Select aircraft production rates began to modestly increase in 2021 but remain well below the pre-pandemic peak production rates of 2019. Additionally, the parked fleet of commercial aircraft reached record levels globally in April 2020 as passenger traffic fell and airlines reduced capacity. Since this time, aircraft continue to return to service but the parked fleet remains elevated due to the continuing impact on air travel from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each new generation of commercial aircraft has used increasing quantities of advanced composites, replacing metals and other materials. This follows the trend previously witnessed in military applications where composites now comprise the majority of the airframe of latest generation aircraft to enhance performance, range and payload, including the F-35 Lightning and the CH-53K heavy lift transport helicopter. Early versions of commercial jet aircraft, such as the Boeing 707, which was developed in the early 1950’s, contained almost no composite materials. One of the first commercial aircraft to use a meaningful amount of composite materials, the Boeing 767 entered into service in 1983, and contains approximately 6% composite materials, primarily comprised of interior secondary composite structures. Boeing’s legacy 777 aircraft, which entered service in 1995, is approximately 11% composite including composite flaps/ailerons and landing gear doors. The Airbus A380, which was first delivered in 2007, has approximately 23% composite content by weight as the tail structure was built of composites. The Boeing 777X was redesigned with composite wings and a new composite-rich engine and is more than 30% composites. Boeing’s B787, which entered into service in 2011, has a content of more than 50% composite materials by weight including composite wings and fuselage. The Airbus A350 XWB (“A350”) which has a composite content of 53% by weight was first delivered in December 2014.

Engines and nacelles are also an attractive market for both Hexcel Composite Materials and Engineered Products, including composite fan blades, cowlings, and the nacelle. Both Airbus and Boeing introduced new versions of their narrow body aircraft which utilize composite-rich engines and nacelles, but continue to incorporate metal wings and fuselages that were designed decades ago. Airbus’s A320neo had its first customer delivery in 2016 and Boeing’s B737 MAX entered into service in 2017. The LEAP engines and nacelles on both the A320neo and B737 MAX are composite-rich as is the GE9X engine on the Boeing 777X.

It is expected that future aircraft platforms will offer more opportunities for composite materials than their predecessors, as the Commercial Aerospace industry continues to utilize a greater proportion of advanced composite materials with each new generation of aircraft and each new generation of engines and nacelles. We refer to this steady expansion of the use of composites in aircraft as the “secular penetration of composites” as it potentially increases our average sales per airplane over time.

The impact on Hexcel of Airbus and Boeing production rate changes is typically influenced by two factors: the mix of aircraft produced and the inventory supply chain effects of increases or reductions in aircraft production. We have products on all Airbus and Boeing planes. The shipset or dollar value of our materials varies by aircraft type and aircraft platform. Newer designed aircraft use more of our materials than older generations, and as a materials provider, larger aircraft use more composites by weight than smaller aircraft. On average, for established programs, we deliver products into the supply chain about six months prior to aircraft delivery, with a range between one and eighteen months depending on the product and specific aircraft platform. For aircraft that are in the development or ramp-up stage we will have sales as much as several years in advance of delivery.

Airbus and Boeing combined backlog at December 31, 2021 was 12,216 aircraft, or a 0.3% increase compared to December 31, 2020. The production rates in 2021 remained low due to the impact of COVID-19 on air travel, low production rates of the Boeing 737 MAX following the aircraft's grounding that was only lifted in select regions by the end of 2020 and low production rates of the Boeing 787 following a temporary cessation of deliveries that was implemented during the second half of 2021. The balance of our Commercial Aerospace sales is related to regional and business aircraft manufacture, and other commercial aircraft applications. These applications also exhibit increasing utilization of composite materials with each new generation of aircraft.

Space & Defense

The Space & Defense market has historically been an innovator in the use of, and source of significant demand for, advanced composites. The aggregate demand by Space & Defense customers is primarily a function of procurement of military aircraft that utilize advanced composites, primarily by the United States and certain European governments, including both commercial and military rotorcraft. We are qualified to supply materials to a broad range of military aircraft, commercial helicopter and space programs, including the Lockheed Martin F-35 (Lightning), Bell-Boeing V-22 (Osprey) tilt rotor aircraft, UH-60 Black Hawk and Airbus A400M military transport. The F-35, which is our largest program, represents less than 25% of revenues in this market. No other program accounts for more than 10% of our revenues in this market. The sales from these programs are dependent upon those that are funded and the extent of the funding. Space applications for advanced composites include solid rocket booster cases, fairings

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and payload doors for both government funded and commercial launch vehicles, and satellite buss and solar arrays for military and commercial satellites.

Another growth generating trend for Hexcel is the further penetration of composites in rotorcraft blades, including both new and replacement blades. The UH-60 wide chord blade program and blades for the V-22 were the two largest blade programs in 2021. CH-53K is a future growth program, including the composite helicopter blades and new helicopter programs in development which use Hexcel composites in prototypes. The blades include Composite Materials products such as carbon fiber, prepregs, and honeycomb core to improve blade performance. In addition, our Engineered Products segment provides specialty value added services such as machining, sub-assembly, and even full blade manufacturing for rotorcraft.

The Space & Defense market represented 33% of our 2021 net sales. While our Space & Defense market has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact has been significantly less than the impact to our Commercial Aerospace market. As a result, our Space & Defense sales comprised a greater percentage of our 2021 net sales than Space & Defense sales have historically comprised prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the five fiscal years prior to the start of the pandemic, including 2015 through 2019, Space & Defense sales comprised between 16% and 19% of total net sales. When the Commercial Aerospace market recovers to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, we would expect Space & Defense sales to return to a range generally consistent with historical pre-pandemic percentages.

Industrial

The Industrial market represented 17% of our 2021 net sales. The revenue from this market includes wind turbine blades, automotive, a wide variety of recreational products, consumer electronics, marine and other industrial applications. A number of these applications represent emerging opportunities for our products. In developing new applications, we seek those opportunities where advanced composites technology offers significant benefits to the end user, often applications that demand high engineering performance. This includes carbon fiber and resin formulations that we produce as well as glass fiber we purchase from third parties that we then combine with our resin and weaving expertise. Within the Industrial market, wind energy has historically comprised the largest submarket with Vestas Wind Systems A/S (“Vestas”) as our primary customer. Demand in our wind energy sub-market declined in 2021 due in part to the commoditization and outsourcing of blades with a change in technology from prepreg using glass fiber that we purchased from third parties to infusion. The Industrial market also includes sales to major end user sub-markets, in order of size based on our 2021 sales: general industrial applications (including those sold through distributors), transportation (e.g., automobiles, mass transit and high-speed rail, and marine applications) and recreational equipment (e.g., skis and snowboards, bicycles and hockey sticks). Our participation in Industrial applications complements our commercial and military aerospace businesses, and in many instances, technology or products now used in aerospace were started in Industrial. We are committed to pursuing the utilization of advanced structural material technology and introducing new innovations to support our customers in response to changing market dynamics in Industrial markets where it can generate significant value and we can maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Further discussion of our markets, including certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors with respect to “forward-looking statements” about those markets, is contained under the captions “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, “Forward Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors”.

Backlog

In recent years, our customers have demanded shorter order lead times and “just-in-time” delivery performance. While we have many multi-year contracts with our major aerospace customers and our largest Industrial customer, most of these contracts specify the proportion of the customers’ requirements that will be supplied by us and the terms under which the sales will occur, not the specific quantities to be procured or the specific dates for delivery. Our Industrial customers have always desired to order their requirements on as short a lead-time as possible. As a result, twelve-month order backlog is not a meaningful trend indicator for us.

Raw Materials and Production Activities

Our manufacturing operations are in many cases vertically integrated. One example of the benefits of our vertical integration is that it enables us to control both the carbon fiber surface structure and resin formulations to optimize their interaction and ensure excellent interfacial adhesion or bonding. We produce and internally use carbon fibers, industrial fabrics, composite materials, and composite structures as well as sell these materials to third-party customers for their use in the manufacture of their products.

We manufacture high performance carbon fiber from polyacrylonitrile precursor (“PAN”). The primary raw material for PAN is acrylonitrile. All of the PAN we produce is for internal carbon fiber production. We utilized between 55% and 60% by value of the carbon fiber we produced in 2021 and between 60% and 65% in 2020, with the remainder of our output sold to third-party customers.

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However, as one of the world’s largest consumers of high-performance carbon fiber, we also purchase significant quantities of carbon fiber from external sources for our own use. The sources of carbon fiber we can use in any product or application are generally dictated by customer qualifications or certifications. Otherwise, we select a carbon fiber based on performance, price, and availability. With the increasing demand for carbon fiber, particularly in aerospace applications, in recent years we increased our PAN and carbon fiber capacity to serve the growing needs of our customers and our own downstream products. After a new production line starts operating, it can take up to a year to be certified for aerospace applications. However, these lines can start supplying carbon fiber for many industrial applications within a shorter time period.

We formulate a variety of resin systems that are tailored to specific applications and support the process for manufacturing composite parts. The type of epoxy and curative used in the resin systems vary depending on the application being considered, including the required service temperature, mechanical performance, and rate of cure. We continually focus on innovation that will help our customers reduce their cycle time and increase their production through put, including lower curing temperatures, faster curing times, and enhancing the flow characteristics of the resin formulations, particularly for infusion manufacturing processes.

We purchase glass yarn for our aerospace and industrial markets from a number of suppliers in the United States, Europe and Asia. We also purchase aramid and high strength fibers which are produced by only a few companies, and during periods of high demand, can be in short supply. In addition, epoxy and other specialty resins, aramid paper and aluminum specialty foils are used in the manufacture of composite products. A number of these products have only one or two sources qualified for use, so an interruption in their supply could disrupt our ability to meet our customer requirements. When entering into multi-year contracts with aerospace customers, we attempt to get back-to-back commitments from key raw material suppliers. While we are not dependent on any one supplier for the majority of our raw materials, we are highly dependent on our suppliers in order to meet commitments to our customers. During 2021, as a result of the challenges created by global transportation issues, the COVID-19 pandemic and market volatility, we experienced minor supply disruptions and anticipate that supply disruptions and material shortages may continue. We continue to work with our key suppliers who have been impacted by these supply disruptions to ensure that we are able to meet our customer commitments. While we have not experienced materially significant issues in the purchase of key raw materials, we continue to monitor the availability (including transportation) and price of raw materials on a regular basis, as well as any potential impact on our operations.

Our manufacturing activities are primarily based on “make-to-order”, or “demand pull” based on customer schedules, and to a lesser extent, “make-to-forecast” production requirements. We coordinate closely with key suppliers in an effort to avoid raw material shortages and excess inventories. However, many of the key raw materials we consume are available from relatively few sources, and in many cases the cost of product qualification makes it impractical to develop multiple sources of supply. The lack of availability of these materials could under certain circumstances have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations.

Research and Technology; Patents and Know-How

Our Research and Technology (“R&T”) centers of excellence located globally support our businesses worldwide. Through R&T activities, we maintain expertise in precursor and carbon fiber, chemical and polymer formulation and curatives, fabric forming and textile architectures, advanced composite structures, process engineering, application development, analysis and testing of composite materials, computational design, and other scientific disciplines related to our worldwide business base.

Our products rely primarily on our expertise in materials science, textiles, process engineering and polymer chemistry. Consistent with market demand, we have been placing more emphasis on higher performing products and cost-effective production processes while seeking continually to improve the consistency of our products and our capital efficiency. Towards this end, we have entered formal and informal alliances, as well as licensing and teaming arrangements, with several customers, suppliers, external agencies, and laboratories. We believe that we possess unique capabilities to design, develop, manufacture, and qualify composite materials and structures, including trade secrets and extensive internal knowledge gained from decades of experience. It is our policy to actively enforce our proprietary rights. We believe that the patents and know-how rights currently owned or licensed by Hexcel are adequate for the conduct of our business. We do not believe that our business would be materially affected by the expiration of any single patent or series of related patents, or by the termination of any single license agreement or series of related license agreements.

Environmental Matters

We view climate-change as an important social issue that presents some level of risk to our business while also creating opportunities for greater composite adoption. Our strategic and operational decision making is influenced by our commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, including our carbon footprint, air and water emissions and waste reduction. We continue to improve our emissions profile through operational efficiency improvements that lessen our use of fossil fuels and by increasing our use of renewable power. We have implemented sustainable energy sourcing within certain of our operations, with

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recent solar projects at our manufacturing sites in Neumarkt, Austria, Casa Grande, Arizona, and Casablanca, Morocco. The generation of solar power reduces our demand for fossil-fuel powered electricity, which supports our carbon and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. We have applied this same approach to our product life cycle, implementing circular economic principles to reduce waste – both in our manufacturing and product packaging. At this time, we are not subject to carbon emission trading programs at any of our facilities, though we are actively monitoring country and region-specific regulations and trends to ensure pricing and capital expenditures are incorporated into our future product portfolio planning.

The increasing global emphasis on emissions reduction is a trend that is supportive of our advanced composite light weighting solutions for transportation applications. We also market composite solutions that reduce aircraft engine noise, which benefits local communities near airports, supports aircraft operators in geographies that are subject to local noise abatement programs, and enables more direct routes for aircraft that saves fuel rather than having to fly longer routes to avoid noise-sensitive areas.

We are subject to various U.S. and international federal, state, and local environmental and health and safety laws and regulations. We are also potentially subject to liabilities arising under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA” or “Superfund”), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and similar state local and international laws and regulations that impose responsibility for the control, remediation and abatement of air, water and soil pollutants and the manufacturing, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous substances and waste. We believe that our policies, practices, and procedures are properly designed to prevent unreasonable risk of environmental damage and associated financial liability. To date, environmental control regulations have not had a significant adverse effect on our overall operations.

A discussion of environmental matters is contained in Item 3, “Legal Proceedings,” and in Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Other Regulatory Matters

As a materials supplier for U.S. prime contractors, we are subject to certain U.S. government Federal Acquisition Regulations, the Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement, and associated procurement regulations. As a result of our acquisition of ARC Technologies LLC in 2019, we have expanded our portfolio of U.S. government contracts and thereby increased our federal legal and regulatory compliance obligations. Specifically, we must comply with certain laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts, including the government security requirements and additional government export control laws and regulations. In complying with these laws and regulations, we may be required to make additional capital expenditures and incur other costs. Furthermore, failure to comply may result in the imposition of fines and penalties, including contractual damages, civil penalties, criminal penalties, or administrative sanctions, or suspension or debarment from contracting with the U.S. government.

As a company with significant international operations, we are also subject to numerous laws and regulations, including U.S. export controls and sanctions laws, customs regulations, international treaties and local trade rules around the world. These laws, rules and regulations may impose significant costs of compliance on the Company and may impact our competitiveness through restricting our ability to do business in certain places or with certain entities and individuals. The consequences of any failure to comply with trade regulations could limit our ability to conduct business internationally.

Sales and Marketing

A staff of salaried marketing managers, product managers and sales personnel, sell and market our products directly to customers worldwide. We also use independent authorized distributors for certain products, markets, and regions. In addition, we operate various sales representation offices globally.

Competition

In the production and sale of advanced composites, we compete with a number of U.S. and international companies on a worldwide basis. The broad markets for composites are highly competitive, and we have focused on both specific sub-markets and specialty products within markets. In addition to competing directly with companies offering similar products, we compete with producers of substitutes for composites such as metal, structural foam, and wood. Depending upon the material and markets, relevant competitive factors include technology, product performance, historical database of usage, delivery, service, price, customer preference for sole sourcing and customer preferred processes.

We believe that new competitors face significant barriers to entry into many of our markets. These barriers include the intellectual property and unique skills and expertise to design and manufacture carbon fiber and to formulate resin systems for aerospace applications, an extensive database of qualification and performance measurements of our products, the advantages of scale derived

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from significant global manufacturing capacity for aerospace-grade carbon fiber, and long-term customer relationships developed over decades of designing, manufacturing and working closely with our customers on composite applications. Further, the aerospace industry has rigorous product certification requirements and quality programs including one hundred percent traceability of all raw material and finished goods, and high expectations for consistent on-time delivery, which all act as barriers to entry.

Human Capital

We believe our success depends on the skills, experience, and industry knowledge of our key talent. As such, our management team places significant focus and attention on the attraction, development, and retention of employees, as well as ensuring our corporate culture reflects Hexcel’s values, and our board of directors provides oversight for various employee initiatives. Our Hexcel values guide our actions, reflect our culture, and drive our performance, as explained in our Code of Business Conduct posted on our website at www.hexcel.com. We have made and continue to make significant investments in training and professional development, and we have well-established performance management and talent development processes that encourage employees to aspire to different career opportunities and for our managers to provide regular feedback and coaching to develop employees.

The health and safety of our employees is also a top priority. Over the past ten years, our focus on the reduction of injuries and illnesses has significantly improved our safety performance. We have attained these improvements by fostering a global safety culture supported with regular training and education that includes robust systems and philosophies centered on personal responsibility and accountability. There is a high-level of leadership engagement, ensuring appropriate safety equipment is installed and operational at all of our manufacturing sites worldwide combined with vigorous reviews of root causation and systemic corrective actions of any safety incidents that may occur.

In response to the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, we implemented a proactive internal procedure and complied with local, federal and international governmental guidance that has enabled us to maintain a safe and healthy environment for our employees and site visitors. Our internal procedure has evolved with the pandemic as a risk-based approach and varies by facility and region, allowing for adjustment based on local transmission rates and worker vulnerability. The procedures range from temperature screening and pre-entry questionnaires to masking to disciplined distancing and workzone isolation procedures. There are also robust contact tracing programs in place, with strict adherence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for COVID-19 isolation and quarantine.

An engaged, innovative, skilled, and collaborative workforce is critical to our continued leadership in the advanced composites industry. We operate globally under policies and programs that provide competitive wages, benefits, and terms of employment. We are committed to efforts to increase diversity and foster an inclusive work environment that supports our global workforce through recruiting efforts, equitable compensation policies, and educational workshops to promote a positive and collaborative culture. Our diversity recruitment efforts include targeted university recruitment and attendance at conferences promoting racial and gender diversity in engineering, which have historically been a major source of candidates for our summer internship program and Early Career Program for new hires.

Employee levels are managed to align with business demand and management believes it currently has sufficient human capital to operate its business successfully. As of December 31, 2021, we employed 4,863 full-time employees and contract workers: 2,611 in the United States and 2,252 in other countries. We employ a minimal number of contract workers. Approximately 30% of employees in the United States and the majority of those in Europe are represented by collective bargaining agreements. We believe that our relations with employees, unions and works’ councils are good. The total number of full-time employees and contract workers as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 was 4,647 and 6,977, respectively.

Other Information

Our internet website is www.hexcel.com. Information contained on or accessible through, including any reports available on, our website is not a part of, and is not incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with the SEC. Any reference to our website in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is intended to be an inactive textual reference only. We make available, free of charge through our website, our Form 10-Ks, 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and any amendments to these forms, as soon as reasonably practicable after filing with, or furnishing to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

Forward-Looking Statements

This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. These statements also relate to future prospects, developments and business strategies. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “seek,” “target,” “would,” “will” and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions. Such statements are based on current expectations, are inherently uncertain and are subject to

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changing assumptions. No assurance can be given that any commitment, plan, initiative, projection, goal, expectation, or prospect set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K can or will be achieved. Inclusion of information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is not an indication that the subject or information is material to our business or operating results

Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (a) the estimates and expectations based on aircraft production rates provided by Airbus, Boeing and others; (b) the revenues we may generate from an aircraft model or program; (c) the impact of the push-out in deliveries of the Airbus and Boeing backlog and the impact of delays in the startup or ramp-up of new aircraft programs or the final Hexcel composite material content once the design and material selection have been completed; (d) expectations with regard to regulatory clearances or the build rate of the Boeing 737 MAX or Boeing 787 and the related impact on our revenues; (e) expectations with regard to raw material cost and availability; (f) expectations of composite content on new commercial aircraft programs and our share of those requirements; (g) expectations regarding revenues from space and defense applications, including whether certain programs might be curtailed or discontinued; (h) expectations regarding sales for wind energy, recreation, automotive and other industrial applications; (i) expectations regarding working capital trends and expenditures and inventory levels; (j) expectations as to the level of capital expenditures and completion of capacity expansions and qualification of new products; (k) expectations regarding our ability to improve or maintain margins; (l) expectations regarding the outcome of legal matters or the impact of changes in laws or regulations or government policies; (m) our projections regarding our tax rate; (n) expectations with regard to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on worldwide air travel and aircraft programs, as well as on our customers and suppliers and, in turn, on our operations and financial results; (o) expectations regarding our strategic initiatives and other goals, including, but not limited to, our sustainability goals; and (p) the anticipated impact of the above factors and various market risks on our expectations of financial results for 2022 and beyond.

Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (including continued disruption in global financial markets and supply chains, ongoing restrictions on movement and travel, employee absenteeism and labor shortages, the impact of any vaccine mandate, and reduced demand for air travel) on the operations, business and financial condition of Hexcel and its customers and suppliers; reductions in sales to any significant customers, particularly Airbus or Boeing, including related to the timing of pending regulatory clearances for the Boeing 737 MAX and the Boeing 787, as well as due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; our ability to effectively adjust production and inventory levels to align with customer demand; our inability to effectively motivate, retain and hire necessary workforce, including potential employee attrition resulting from any vaccine mandate; our ability to successfully implement or realize our business strategies, plans, goals and objectives of management, including our sustainability goals and any restructuring or alignment activities in which we may engage; the impact of any government mandated COVID-19 precautions, including mandatory vaccination; changes in sales mix; changes in current pricing and cost levels, including cost inflation; changes in aerospace delivery rates; changes in government defense procurement budgets; changes in military aerospace program technology; timely new product development or introduction; industry capacity; increased competition; availability and cost of raw materials, including the impact of supply shortages and inflation; supply chain disruptions; our ability to install, staff and qualify necessary capacity or complete capacity expansions to meet customer demand; cybersecurity-related risks, including the potential impact of breaches or intrusions; currency exchange rate fluctuations; changes in political, social and economic conditions, including, but not limited to, the effect of change in global trade policies; work stoppages or other labor disruptions; our ability to successfully complete any strategic acquisitions, investments or dispositions; compliance with environmental, health, safety and other related laws and regulations, including those related to climate change; the effects of natural disasters, which may be worsened by the impact of climate change, and other severe catastrophic events; the potential impact of environmental, social and governance matters; and the unexpected outcome of legal matters or impact of changes in laws or regulations.

Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. As a result, the foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with other cautionary statements included in this and other reports we file with the SEC. For additional information regarding certain factors that may cause our actual results to differ from those expected or anticipated, see the information under the caption “Risk Factors,” which is located in Item 1A of Part I of this report. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements or risk factors to reflect future events or circumstances, except as otherwise required by law.

ITEM 1A. Risk Factors

You should consider carefully the following risk factors and all other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and the documents we incorporate by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. While we believe we have identified and discussed below the material risks affecting our business, there may be additional risks and uncertainties that we do not presently know or that we do not currently believe to be material that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of

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operations or cash flows in the future, and may require significant management time and attention. You should not interpret the disclosure of any risk factor to imply that the risk has not already materialized.

Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Our business has been and will continue to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and difficult to predict.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created significant uncertainty and economic disruption and has negatively affected the business and results of operations for the Company. Given the ongoing and dynamic nature of the pandemic, we cannot reasonably estimate the full extent of the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, and there is no guarantee our efforts to address the adverse impacts of COVID-19 will be effective.

While all of our manufacturing sites are currently in operation, during 2020 and 2021 we reduced or furloughed certain operations in response to government measures, employee welfare concerns and the impact of COVID-19 on the global demand and supply chain. Our manufacturing operations may be further adversely affected by impacts from COVID-19, including, the reimplementation of previously lifted measures or imposition of new measures, such as the mandatory vaccination measures in the United States and other locations in which we operate, further decreases in demand and/or deeper supply chain disruptions, shortages in necessary raw materials and resulting cost inflation, and health and availability of essential onsite personnel. While subject to ongoing legal challenge, the U.S. government through executive order and other regulatory action, has attempted to implement mandatory vaccination and other workforce safety measures related to COVID-19 applicable to our business that could materially impact our operations, and vaccine mandates may also be implemented in other jurisdictions in which we operate. Any inability to meet our customers’ needs due to any of the foregoing could negatively impact our business and reputation.

We are heavily dependent on sales to customers in the aerospace industry, which has been materially negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions, as well as changes in the propensity for the general public to travel by air as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, have caused reductions in demand for commercial aircraft, which has had an adverse impact on our sales and operating results and may continue to do so for an extended period of time. While we remain unable to predict the magnitude and duration of such impact, the further loss of, or significant reduction in, purchases by Airbus or Boeing will materially impair our business, operating results, prospects, and financial conditions.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in market volatility, which previously caused a significant decline in our stock price, subjecting us to increased takeover risk, impaired our ability to declare dividends or other distributions and conduct share buybacks, which may impact our ability to comply with the covenants contained in the agreements that govern our indebtedness and raise additional funds when and as needed. We may also incur additional costs to remedy damages caused by COVID-19 related business disruptions, performance delays or interruptions, which could lead to additional charges, impairments, and other adverse financial impacts.

We cannot predict at this time the full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will adversely impact our business, results, and financial condition, which will depend on many factors that are currently not known. These include, among others, (i) the duration, scope and severity of the pandemic; (ii) the effectiveness of the actions taken to contain the virus or treat its impact; (iii) the extent of further disruption to the manufacturing of and demand for our products and our ability to adjust our production schedules to align with changing demand; (iv) the effectiveness of our past and any potential future restructuring actions; and (v) the extent to which global economic and operating conditions, including air travel and business spending, return to their pre-pandemic levels.

In addition to the foregoing, many of the risk factors disclosed herein have been, and we anticipate will continue to be further, heightened or exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Risks Related to Our Strategy

The markets in which we operate can be cyclical, and downturns in them may adversely affect the results of our operations.

Some of the markets in which we operate have been, to varying degrees, cyclical and have experienced downturns. A downturn in these markets could occur at any time as a result of events that are industry specific, such as aircraft production slowdown resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel, the Boeing 737 MAX grounding or regulatory scrutiny of the Boeing 787, or macroeconomic, such as an economic downturn. Any deterioration in any of the cyclical markets we serve could adversely affect our financial performance and operating results, as occurred during 2020 and 2021 with respect to the Commercial Aerospace industry.

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During both 2020 and 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Commercial Aerospace, we experienced a material decrease in demand, resulting in order cancellations and deferrals from our Commercial Aerospace customers, which resulted in decreased sales for our Commercial Aerospace products and reduced operating income for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. To the extent there are any further significant deferrals, cancellations, or reductions in demand results in decreased aircraft build rates, including as a result of the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would have a further negative impact on sales for our Commercial Aerospace products and as a result reduce our operating income. Approximately 50% of our sales for 2021 were derived from sales to the Commercial Aerospace industry. Reductions in demand for commercial aircraft or a delay in deliveries could result from many factors, including delays in the startup or ramp-up of new programs, suspension or discontinuation of current commercial aircraft programs, changes in the propensity for the general public to travel by air (including as a result of terrorist events and any subsequent military response or a public health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic), a significant change in the cost of aviation fuel, a change in technology resulting in the use of alternative materials, environmental concerns (including climate change), consolidation and liquidation of airlines, availability of funding for new aircraft purchases or leases, inventory corrections or disruptions throughout the supply chain and slower macroeconomic growth. Although U.S. domestic air travel has increased during 2021, international travel has not yet begun to recover at the same pace. Furthermore, as companies and employees become accustomed to working remotely, business travel and the associated flight hours may not reach pre-pandemic levels.

At different times, both Airbus and Boeing have experienced various delays in the start and ramp up of several aircraft programs. In the past, these have delayed our expected growth, or our effective utilization of capacity installed for such growth. Future delays, or production cuts arising from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, future pandemics or other macro-economic factors in these or other major new customer programs could similarly impact our results.

In addition, our customers continue to emphasize the need for cost reduction or other improvements in contract terms throughout the supply chain. In response to these pressures, we may be required to accept increased risk or face the prospects of margin compression on some products in the future. Where possible, we seek to offset or mitigate the impact of such pressures through productivity and performance improvements, cost index contractual provisions, hedging and other actions.

A significant decline in business with Airbus, Boeing, or other significant customers could materially impact our business, operating results, prospects, and financial condition.

We have concentrated customers in the Commercial Aerospace and the Space & Defense markets. In the Commercial Aerospace market, approximately 82%, and in the Space & Defense market, approximately 22%, of our 2021 sales were made to Airbus and Boeing and their related subcontractors. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, approximately 33% and 33% of our total consolidated sales, respectively, were to Airbus, and its related subcontractors and approximately 16% and 19% of our total consolidated sales, respectively, were to Boeing and its related subcontractors. Significant changes in the demand for our customers’ end products, program delays, the share of their requirements that is awarded to us or changes in the design or materials used to construct their products could result in a significant loss of business with these customers. The loss of, or significant reduction in, purchases by Airbus or Boeing or any of our other significant customers could materially impair our business, operating results, prospects and financial condition. The level of purchases and product mix demanded by our customers is often affected by events beyond their control, including general economic conditions, demand for their products, conditions in the airline industry, disruptions in deliveries, business disruptions, strikes and other factors, including the previous grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX by the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators and the regulatory scrutiny of the Boeing 787 causing production delays, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel and general economic conditions. Further delays in the production ramp-up of the Boeing 737 MAX or the Boeing 787, and the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Reductions in space and defense spending could result in a decline in our sales.

Space and defense production that has occurred in recent years may not be sustained, individual programs important to Hexcel may be cancelled, production may not continue to grow and the increased demand for composite-intensive programs may not continue. In addition, the production of military aircraft depends upon defense budgets and the related demand for defense and related equipment. Approximately 33% of our sales in 2021 were to the Space & Defense market, of which approximately 79% were related to military programs in the United States and other countries. In addition to normal business risks, our indirect supply of products to the U.S. government is subject to unique risks largely beyond our control. U.S. Department of Defense budgets could be negatively impacted by several factors, including, but not limited to, a change in defense spending policy as a result of the current political environment or otherwise, the U.S. government’s budget deficits, spending priorities (e.g., allocating more spending to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic), increased defense regulatory requirements resulting in additional expenses, the cost of sustaining the U.S. military presence internationally and possible political pressure to reduce military spending, each of which could cause the U.S. Department of Defense budget to remain unchanged or to decline.

If we fail to comply with government procurement laws and regulations, we could lose business and be liable for various penalties or sanctions.

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We must comply with laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts, including the government security requirements and additional government export control laws and regulations, as well as certain cybersecurity certifications and other cybersecurity requirements. These regulations and other requirements regularly evolve, and new laws, regulations or procurement requirements or changes to current ones (including, for example, regulations related to cybersecurity and related certification requirements for us and our partners, privacy, information protection, cost accounting, recovery of employee compensation costs, counterfeit parts, pensions, anti-human trafficking, specialty metals, conflict minerals and use of certain non-U.S. equipment and materials) could significantly increase our costs and risks and reduce our profitability. In complying with these laws and regulations, we may incur significant costs, and non-compliance may result in the imposition of fines and penalties, including contractual damages. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations or if a government audit, review, or investigation uncovers improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil penalties, criminal penalties, or administrative sanctions or suspension or debarment from contracting with the U.S. government.

If we are unable to develop new products on a timely basis, it could adversely affect our business and prospects.

We believe that our future success depends, in part, on our ability to develop, on a timely basis, technologically advanced products that meet or exceed current industry standards, including developing products with an improved environmental footprint. Although we believe we have certain technological and other advantages over our competitors, maintaining such advantages will require us to continue investing in research and development and sales and marketing. There can be no assurance that we will be able to make the technological advances necessary to maintain such competitive advantages or that we can recover major research and development expenses.

Acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, business combinations or joint ventures may entail certain operational and financial risks.

Over the past several years, we have completed strategic acquisitions of complementary manufacturing companies, as well as strategic investments in companies. We expect to continue to explore complementary mergers, acquisitions, investments and joint ventures and may also pursue divestures of business lines or investments that do not fit with our core strategy. We may also engage in further vertical integration. We may face competition for attractive targets and may not be able to acquire potential targets at prices acceptable to us, if at all. In addition, these types of transactions may require significant liquidity, which may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all.

We cannot provide any assurance that we will realize the intended benefits from any such transactions. The process of integrating acquired businesses into our existing operations may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and may require additional financial resources and attention from management that would otherwise be available for the ongoing development or expansion of our existing operations. Even if successfully integrated, the acquired business may not achieve the results we expect or produce expected benefits in the time frame planned.

Risks Related to Our Operations

Our operations would be adversely affected by a shortage of trained personnel or work stoppages.

Our business has historically been dependent on a highly trained workforce because of the complex nature of our products. Furthermore, as of December 31, 2021, approximately 30% of employees in the United States and the majority of those in Europe were represented by collective bargaining agreements. During 2020 and 2021, we furloughed or eliminated a significant portion of our skilled workforce as a result of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on our customer demand. If the demand for trained personnel returns to pre-COVID-19 levels, and we are unable to quickly reassemble our workforce and subsequently retain a sufficient number of trained personnel, including as a result of any applicable vaccination mandate, or we experience a significant or prolonged work stoppage in such an environment, our ability to secure new business and our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our ability to attract, retain and motivate key employees is vital to our success.

Our success, competitiveness and ability to execute on our global strategies and maintain a culture of innovation depend in large part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees and leaders with expertise and capabilities, representing diverse backgrounds and experiences. Achieving this objective may be difficult due to many factors, including fluctuations in global economic and industry conditions, management changes, increasing local and global competition for talent, particularly due to the increase in remote working opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of qualified employees, restructuring and alignment activities (including workforce reductions), and the attractiveness of our compensation and benefit programs. If we are unable to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees and leaders, we may be unable to fully capitalize on current and new market opportunities, which could adversely impact our business and results of operations. The loss or retirement of employees presents particular challenges to the extent they involve the departure of knowledgeable and experienced employees and

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the resulting need to identify and train existing or new candidates to perform necessary functions, and ineffective succession planning could result in unexpected costs, reduced productivity, and/or difficulties with respect to internal processes and controls. There is also the risk that we are unable to achieve our diversity, equity and inclusion objectives or, more broadly, to meet sustainability goals increasingly required by our stockholders, employees and other stakeholders. If we are unable to attract and retain a qualified and diverse workforce, we may be unable to maintain our competitive position and our future success could be materially adversely affected.

We have engaged in restructuring and alignment activities from time to time and there can be no assurance that our efforts will have the intended effects.

From time to time, we have responded to changes in our industry and the markets we serve, or other changes in our business, by restructuring or aligning our operations, including actions taken during 2020 and 2021 as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of our Windsor, Colorado wind energy prepreg production facility in 2020. Due to necessary cost reduction measures or changes in the industry and markets in which we compete, we may decide to implement additional restructuring or alignment activities in the future, such as closing plants, idling certain equipment or operations, or making additions, reductions or other changes to our management or workforce. These restructuring and/or alignment activities generally result in charges and expenditures that may adversely affect our financial results for one or more periods. Restructuring and/or alignment activities can also create unanticipated consequences, such as instability or distraction among our workforce, and we cannot provide any assurance that any restructuring or alignment efforts that we undertake will be successful. A variety of risks could cause us not to realize expected cost savings, including, among others: (a) higher than expected severance costs related to headcount reductions; (b) higher than expected costs of closing plants; (c) incurring costs to hire new employees or delays or difficulty hiring the employees needed; and (d) delays in the anticipated timing of activities related to our cost-saving plan. If we are unable to align our operations in light of evolving market conditions, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

A decrease in supply, interruptions at key facilities or an increase in cost of raw materials could result in a material decline in our profitability.

Our profitability depends largely on the price and continuity of the supply of raw materials, which may be supplied through a sole source or a limited number of sources. We purchase large volumes of raw materials, such as epoxy and phenolic resins, acrylonitrile, carbon fiber, fiberglass yarn, aramid paper and, to a lesser extent, aluminum foil. Any restrictions on the supply, or an increase in the cost, including any impact of inflation or resulting from tariffs, of our raw materials could significantly reduce our profit margins. Efforts to mitigate restrictions on the supply or price increases of these raw materials by long-term purchase agreements, productivity improvements, hedging or by flowing through cost increases to our customers may not be successful. During 2021, as a result of the challenges created by global transportation issues, the COVID-19 pandemic and market volatility, we experienced minor supply disruptions and anticipate that supply disruptions and material shortages may continue. While we have not experienced materially significant issues in the purchase of key raw materials, we continue to monitor the availability (including transportation) and price of raw materials on a regular basis, as well as any potential impact on our operations.

The occurrence of material operational problems or interruptions, including but not limited to, as a result of the failure of key equipment, a quality or financial failure of a sole source or major supplier, the effects of natural disasters or climate change-related events, the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or other public health crises, ongoing supply chain disruptions and supply shortages, the inability to install, staff and/or qualify necessary capacity, political or social unrest, the failure to achieve planned manufacturing improvements or other causes, or any other inability to meet customer requirements, may have a material adverse effect on the productivity and profitability of a particular manufacturing facility, and could have a material effect on the Company as a whole. In addition, the increasing focus on reducing energy usage and improving the environmental impact and sustainability associated with manufacturing operations, including through legislation or government regulations, may increase our costs and could impact production if we are required to implement certain environmental or sustainability measures at our facilities.

We have substantial international operations subject to uncertainties which could affect our operating results.

We believe that revenue from sales outside the U.S. will continue to account for a material portion of our total revenue for the foreseeable future. In 2021, 48% of our production and 59% of our customer sales occurred outside of the United States. Additionally, we have invested significant resources in our international operations, and we intend to continue to make such investments in the future. Our international operations are subject to numerous risks, including: (a) general economic, political, legal, social and health conditions in the countries where we operate may have an adverse effect on our operations in those countries or not be favorable to our growth strategy, such as the impact of a public health crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, or social unrest on employees and the global economy or the impact of inflation, as well as changes in existing and expected rates of inflation, which may vary across the jurisdictions in which we do business; (b) the difficulty of enforcing agreements and collecting receivables through some foreign legal systems; (c) foreign customers may have longer payment cycles than customers in the United States; (d) the cost of compliance with international trade laws of all of the countries in which we do business, including export control laws, relating to sales and purchases

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of goods and equipment and transfers of technology; (e) loss of sales to international customers, including those located in China and Russia, as a result of more stringent trade control laws in the United States; (f) tax rates may vary and foreign earnings may be subject to withholding requirements or the imposition of exchange controls or other restrictions; (g) governments may adopt regulations or take other actions that would have a direct or indirect adverse impact on our business and market opportunities, including, but not limited to, resulting from tariffs and other trade restrictions imposed by the United States, China and other jurisdictions; and (h) the potential difficulty in enforcing our intellectual property rights in some foreign countries, and the potential for the intellectual property rights of others to affect our ability to sell products in certain markets. Any one of these could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. With respect to tariffs, implementation of new tariff schemes by various governments, such as those implemented by the United States and China in recent years, could potentially increase the costs of our materials, increase our cost of production, and ultimately increase the landed cost of our products sold from one country into another country.

Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may influence the profitability and cash flows of our business. For example, most of our European operations sell a majority of the products they produce in U.S. dollars, yet the labor, overhead costs and portions of material costs incurred in the manufacture of those products are primarily denominated in Euros, British pound sterling or U.S. dollars. As a result, the local currency margins of goods manufactured with costs denominated in local currency, yet sold in U.S. dollars, will vary with fluctuations in currency exchange rates, reducing when the U.S. dollar weakens against the Euro and British pound sterling. In addition, the reported U.S. dollar value of the local currency financial statements of our foreign subsidiaries will vary with fluctuations in currency exchange rates. While we enter into currency hedge agreements to mitigate these types of fluctuations, we cannot remove all fluctuations or hedge all exposures, and our earnings are impacted by changes in currency exchange rates.

We currently do not have political risk insurance in the countries in which we conduct business. While we carefully consider these risks when evaluating our international operations, we cannot provide assurance that we will not be materially adversely affected as a result of such risks.

We could be adversely affected by environmental and safety requirements.

Our operations require the handling, use, storage, transport and disposal of certain regulated materials and wastes. As a result, we are subject to various laws and regulations pertaining to pollution and protection of the environment, health, and safety. These requirements govern, among other things, emissions to air, discharge to waters, the generation, handling, storage, transport, treatment and disposal of regulated materials and waste, and remediation of contaminated sites. We have made, and will continue to make, capital and other expenditures in order to comply with these laws and regulations. These laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and could become more stringent in the future.

We have been named as a “potentially responsible party” under Superfund or similar state laws at our former and current sites requiring clean up. These laws generally impose liability for costs to investigate and remediate contamination without regard to fault. Under certain circumstances, liability may be joint and several, resulting in one responsible party being held responsible for the entire cleanup obligation. Liability may also include damages to natural resources. We have incurred and likely will continue to incur expenses to investigate and clean up certain of our existing and former facilities, for which we believe we have adequate reserves. The ongoing operation of our manufacturing plants also entails environmental risks, and we may incur material costs or liabilities in the future that could adversely affect us. Although most of our properties have been the subject of environmental site assessments, there can be no assurance that all potential instances of soil and groundwater contamination have been identified, even at those sites where assessments have been conducted. Accordingly, we may discover previously unknown environmental conditions and the cost of remediating such conditions may be material. See “Legal Proceedings” below and Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We may also be required to comply with evolving environmental, health and safety laws, regulations or requirements that may be adopted or imposed in the future or to address newly discovered information or conditions that require a response. In particular, climate change is receiving increased attention worldwide, which presents both risks and opportunities for our businesses as legislative and regulatory efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions increase. Our manufacturing plants use energy, including electricity and natural gas, and some of our plants emit amounts of greenhouse gases that may in the future be affected by these legislative and regulatory efforts. Potential consequences could include increased energy, transportation and raw material costs and may require us to make additional investments in our facilities and equipment, increase our expenditures or limit our ability to grow. Failure to comply with applicable regulations could result in fines and could affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We could also face increased costs related to defending and resolving legal claims and other litigation related to climate change and the alleged impact of our operations on climate change.

In addition to regulatory compliance, growing customer environmental and sustainability requirements, including procurement policies that include social and environmental responsibility provisions or requirements that their suppliers are required comply with,

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as well as sustainability goals that we have adopted, could cause us to alter our manufacturing, operations or equipment processes, and incur substantial expense to meet these requirements. The failure to comply with such customer requirements, or similar types of requests, could adversely affect our relationships with some customers, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Furthermore, our reputation could be damaged if we or others in our industry do not act, or are perceived not to act, responsibly with respect to our impact on the environment, or if we fail to achieve our sustainability goals, which could limit our ability to grow and otherwise adversely affect our results of operations.

Our business and operations may be adversely affected by cybersecurity breaches or other information technology system or network intrusions.

We depend heavily on information technology and computerized systems to communicate and operate effectively. We store sensitive data, including proprietary business information, intellectual property and confidential employee or other personal data, on our servers and databases. In addition to traditional information technology systems, we leverage cloud-based systems, where data is stored and exchanged with external third-party vendors. From time to time, we experience cyberattacks on our information technology systems, including vendor-hosted systems. Attempts by others to gain unauthorized access to our information technology systems have become more sophisticated and could be material. These attempts, which could be related to industrial or foreign government espionage, activism, or other motivations, include attempting to covertly introducing malware to our systems, performing reconnaissance, impersonating authorized users, and stealing, corrupting, or restricting our access to data, among other activities. We continue to update our infrastructure, security tools, employee training and processes to protect against security incidents, including both external and internal threats, and to prevent their occurrence or recurrence. While Company personnel have been tasked to detect and investigate such incidents, future cybersecurity attacks could still occur and may lead to potential data corruption or loss of data and exposure of proprietary and confidential information, disruptions in critical systems and theft of data, funds, or intellectual property. In addition, we face increased information technology security and fraud risks due to our increased reliance on working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may create additional information security vulnerabilities and/or magnify the impact of any disruption in information technology systems. The unauthorized use of our intellectual property and/or confidential business information could harm our competitive position and reputation, reduce the value of our investment in research and development and other strategic initiatives or otherwise adversely affect our business. An intrusion may also cause operational stoppages or result in fines, penalties, litigation or governmental investigations and proceedings, diminished competitive advantages through reputational damages and increased operational costs. Further, cybersecurity and data protection laws and regulations continue to evolve, and are increasingly demanding, both in the U.S. and globally, which adds compliance complexity and may increase our costs of compliance and expose us to litigation, monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions or fines in one or more jurisdictions. Additionally, we have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, additional costs to comply with our customers’, including the U.S. government’s, increased cybersecurity protections and standards.

We operate our business in regions subject to natural disasters and other severe weather events and any disruption to our business resulting from such events will adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.

We operate, and rely on suppliers who operate, in regions subject to natural disasters and other severe weather events. In addition, extreme weather events and changing weather patterns present physical risks on existing infrastructure that may become more frequent or more severe as a result of factors related to climate change. We have in the past and will continue in the future to assess potential manufacturing risks related to climate change, including risk of exposure to significant rainfall, flooding, hurricane or tornado events within our supply chain. We previously determined that we have a small percentage of suppliers who manufacture in vulnerable locations, which may impact distribution of raw materials to our operations, although we have taken actions to mitigate the potential impact where possible. We also have two sites in the southeast United States, a region vulnerable to severe weather events (i.e., hurricanes, tornadoes and floods), that are associated with excess warming. Although preventative measures may help to mitigate damage, any disaster could adversely affect our ability to conduct business, including disrupting our supply of raw materials, damaging our manufacturing facilities or otherwise affecting production, transportation and delivery of our products or affect demand for our products, and the insurance we maintain may not be adequate to cover our losses resulting from any business interruption resulting from a natural disaster or other severe weather events. Any future disruptions to our operations, as a result of a natural disaster or severe weather event could have a material adverse impact on our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business could be negatively impacted by sustainability/environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters and/or our reporting of such matters.

There is an increasing focus from certain investors, customers, employees, and other stakeholders concerning sustainability/ESG matters, and an increasing number of investors are requiring companies to disclose corporate sustainability/ESG policies, practices and metrics. Our customers may require us to implement sustainability/ESG responsibility procedures or standards before they continue to

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do business with us. Additionally, we may face reputational challenges in the event that our sustainability/ESG responsibility procedures or standards do not meet the standards set by certain constituencies.

In addition, from time to time, we communicate certain initiatives or goals regarding sustainability/ESG matters. Although we intend to meet these commitments, we may be required to expend significant resources to do so, which could increase our operational costs. Further, there can be no assurance of the extent to which any of our commitments will be achieved, if at all; we could fail, or be perceived to fail, in our achievement of such initiatives or goals, or we could fail in fully and accurately reporting our progress on such initiatives and goals. In addition, we could be criticized for the scope of such initiatives or goals or perceived as not acting responsibly in connection with these matters. Any such matters could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

We cannot make any guarantees with respect to payment of dividends on, or repurchases of, our common stock.

In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020, we suspended our dividend payments and stock repurchases. In addition, in January 2021, we entered into an amendment to our Facility (as defined below) that limits our ability to engage in share repurchases and cash dividends through and including March 31, 2022. Our board of directors regularly evaluates our capital allocation strategy and dividend policy, and determined to declare our first quarterly dividend since the first quarter of 2020 on January 26, 2022. Any future determination to pay, maintain or increase cash dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other factors, our results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements and contractual or legal restrictions, including the requirements of the Facility and other financing agreements to which we may be a party. No assurance can be given that cash dividends will be declared and paid at historical levels or at all.

Our share repurchase program does not have an expiration date, and we are not obligated to repurchase a specified number or dollar value of shares, on any particular timetable or at all. There can be no assurance that we will repurchase stock at favorable prices. As described above, activity under this program has been suspended, and there can be no assurance whether or when activity will resume. If resumed, the repurchase program may be suspended or terminated at any time and, even if fully implemented, may not enhance long-term stockholder value. The program, and any purchases under the program, may also be impacted by proposed SEC rules relating to share repurchases.

Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for certain legal actions between us and our stockholders, which could discourage lawsuits against the Company and our directors and officers.

Our amended and restated bylaws provide to the fullest extent permitted by law that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents to us or our stockholders, any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) or our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, or amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the State of Delaware.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, this exclusive forum provision applies to state and federal law claims, including claims under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, although the Company will not be deemed to have waived its compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. The enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ organizational documents has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that, in connection with claims arising under federal securities laws or otherwise, a court could find the exclusive forum provision contained in the amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable.

This exclusive forum provision may limit the ability of our stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholders find favorable for disputes with the Company or our directors or officers, which may discourage such lawsuits against the Company and our directors and officers. Alternatively, if a court were to find this exclusive forum provision inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings described above, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Certain provisions of our charter, bylaws, and of the DGCL have anti-takeover effects and could delay, discourage, defer or prevent a tender offer or takeover attempt that a stockholder might consider to be in the stockholders’ best interests.

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Certain provisions of our charter and bylaws and the DGCL may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control if our board of directors determines that such changes in control are not in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders. Such provisions include, among other things, those that:

These provisions may delay or discourage transactions involving an actual or potential change in the Company’s control or change in the board of directors or management, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares of common stock or transactions that our stockholders might otherwise deem to be in their best interests. Accordingly, these provisions could adversely affect the price of our common stock.

ITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

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ITEM 2. Properties

We own and lease manufacturing facilities and sales offices located throughout the United States and in other countries, as noted below. The corporate offices and principal corporate support activities are located in leased facilities in Stamford, Connecticut. Our research and technology administration and principal laboratories are located in Dublin, California; Duxford, England; Les Avenières, France; Salt Lake City, Utah and Decatur, Alabama.

The following table lists our manufacturing facilities by geographic location, related segment, and principal products manufactured. This table does not include manufacturing facilities owned by any of our joint ventures.

Manufacturing Facilities

We lease the land and buildings in Amesbury, Massachusetts; and South Windsor, Connecticut, and the land on which the Tianjin, China; Burlington, Washington and Roussillon, France facilities are located. We also lease portions of the facilities located in Casa Grande, Arizona; Pottsville, Pennsylvania; Parla, Spain; and Leicester, England. In November 2020 we closed our wind energy prepreg production facility in Windsor, Colorado and the plant is currently held for sale. We own all other remaining manufacturing facilities. For further information, refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and to Note 6 to the accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 3. Legal Proceedings

The information required by Item 3 is contained within Note 16 on pages 70 through 71 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 4. Mine Safety Disclosure

Not applicable.

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PART II

ITEM 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Hexcel common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HXL.

During 2020 and 2019 the Company repurchased a total of $25 million and $143 million of shares, respectively. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020, we announced that we had suspended our dividend payments and stock repurchases. On January 26, 2022, the Company announced it was reinstating the dividend commencing with the first quarter of 2022.

On January 31, 2022, there were 449 holders of record of our common stock.

ITEM 6. [Reserved]

ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The information required by Item 7 is contained on pages 30 to 36 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

The information required by Item 7A is contained under the heading “Market Risks” on pages 36 to 38 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

The information required by Item 8 is contained on pages 39 to 75 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under “Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” and is incorporated herein by reference. The Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm are contained on page 41 to 43 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the captions “Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” and are incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

ITEM 9A. Controls and Procedures

Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have evaluated our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021 and have concluded that these disclosure controls and procedures are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. These disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports we file or submit is accumulated and communicated to management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that there have not been any changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Management’s report on our internal control over financial reporting is contained on page 40 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 9B. Other Information

None.

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ITEM 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

Not applicable.

PART III

ITEM 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

The information required by Item 10 will be incorporated by reference to the Company’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year.

ITEM 11. Executive Compensation

The information required by Item 11 will be incorporated by reference to the Company’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year.

ITEM 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

The information required by Item 12 will be incorporated by reference to the Company’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year.

ITEM 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by Item 13 will be incorporated by reference to the Company’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year.

ITEM 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services

The information required by Item 14 will be incorporated by reference to the Company’s definitive proxy statement, in accordance with Instruction G(3) to Form 10-K, to be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year.

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PART IV

ITEM 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

(a) Financial Statements, Financial Statement Schedules and Exhibits

(2) Consolidated Financial Statement Schedules:

All financial statement schedules are omitted as they are inapplicable, or the required information has been included in the consolidated financial statements or notes thereto.

(3) Exhibits:

The following list of exhibits includes exhibits submitted with this Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the SEC and those incorporated by reference to other filings.

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26

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* Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.

** Schedules and exhibits have been omitted pursuant to Regulation S-K, Item 601(a)(5). The Company will provide a copy of any omitted schedule or exhibit to the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff upon request.

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ITEM 16. Form 10-K Summary

None.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

KNOWN TO ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints each of Nick L. Stanage, Patrick Winterlich and Gail Lehman, individually, his or her attorney-in-fact, with the power of substitution, for him or her in any and all capacities, to sign any amendments to this report, and to file the same, with exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming all that each said attorney-in-fact, or his or her substitute or substitutes, may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Management’s discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, and comparison to the year ended December 31, 2020 should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes of this Annual Report on Form 10K.

For discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations for 2020 compared to 2019 refer to Part II, Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on February 9, 2021, which is incorporated by reference into this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Business Overview

Reconciliations to adjusted operating income, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted net income per share and free cash flow are provided below:

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The Company uses non-GAAP financial measures, including sales and expenses measured in constant dollars (prior year sales and expenses measured at current year exchange rates); operating income, net income and earnings per share adjusted for items included in operating expense and non-operating expenses; and free cash flow. Management believes these non-GAAP measures are meaningful to investors because they provide a view of Hexcel with respect to ongoing operating results and comparisons to prior periods. These adjustments can represent significant charges or credits that we believe are important to an understanding of Hexcel’s overall operating results in the periods presented. Such non-GAAP measures are not determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and should not be viewed in isolation or as an alternative to or substitute for GAAP measures of performance. Our calculation of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies, and the measures exclude financial information that some may consider important in evaluating our performance.

Business Trends

In 2021, our business and the Commercial Aerospace market began to see signs of recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase in domestic air travel and the conclusion of supply chain inventory destocking. Despite these improvements in business and market conditions, COVID-19 has had and may continue to have further negative impacts on our operations, supply chain, transportation networks and customers, all of which have and may continue to compress our margins, even after the preventative and precautionary measures that we, other businesses, and governments, are taking. The global economic effects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have been unprecedented in their scope and depth and could for an extended period, adversely affect demand for our products and contribute to volatile supply and demand conditions, affecting prices and volumes in the markets for our products, services, and raw materials.

In 2021, our Commercial Aerospace sales decreased 18.7% compared to 2020, although sales increased during the second half of 2021 compared to the prior year. Sales decline in the first half of 2021 as compared to the prior year period was due to the global pandemic which led to lower commercial aircraft build rates and a period of inventory destocking by our customers. The increase in sales during the second half of 2021 showed signs of recovery and was led by higher narrowbody sales. The demand for new commercial aircraft is principally driven by two factors. The first is airline passenger traffic (measured by revenue passenger miles) and the second is the replacement rate for existing aircraft. Overall, the Commercial Aerospace industry continues to utilize a greater proportion of advanced composite materials with each new generation of aircraft.

Space & Defense sales in 2021 decreased 3.0% compared to 2020 driven by lower Space sales including launchers and satellites, partially offset by stronger F-35 sales. New or retrofit rotorcraft programs have an increased reliance on composite materials. In addition, our Engineered Products segment provides specialty value added services such as machining, sub-assembly, and even full blade manufacturing for rotorcraft. Our products are included on a wide range of rotorcraft, military aircraft, and space programs, with the largest programs including the F-35 Lightning and CH-53K.

Industrial sales decreased 4.3% in 2021 from 2020. Industrial sales include wind energy, recreation, automotive, and general industrial applications. In 2021, wind energy sales experienced a decline compared to 2020 reflecting softer demand and the cessation of sales in North America. This decline was partially offset by growth in a variety of markets including the automotive and recreation markets. In November 2020, we closed our wind energy prepreg production facility in Windsor, Colorado which served the U.S. market. Hexcel's wind material facilities in Austria and China continue to produce materials for our wind energy customers in Europe and Asia.

Results of Operations

We have two reportable segments: Composite Materials and Engineered Products. Although these segments provide customers with different products and services, they often overlap within our three end business markets: Commercial Aerospace, Space & Defense and Industrial. Therefore, we also find it meaningful to evaluate the sales of our segments through these business markets. Further discussion and additional financial information about our segments may be found in Note 18 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Net Sales: Consolidated net sales of $1,324.7 million for 2021 decreased by 11.8% (12.6% in constant currency) compared to 2020. The sales decrease in 2021, which was primarily driven by the impact of the pandemic, resulted in lower demand for our products as commercial aerospace original equipment manufacturers continued their build rate reduction and supply chain destocking in the first half of the year. In the second half of 2021, we began to see the effects of recovery with an increase in new aircraft orders.

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The following table summarizes net sales to third-party customers by segment and end market in 2021 and 2020:

Sales by Segment

Composite Materials: Net sales of $1,019.4 million for 2021 decreased 14.0% from 2020. Commercial Aerospace sales declined 22.1% in 2021 as compared to 2020 primarily driven by lower sales across all major programs as build rates decreased compounded by extensive supply chain adjustments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Industrial sales in 2021 decreased 4.5% from 2020 due to lower wind energy sales partially offset by strength in the automotive and recreation markets. Space & Defense 2021 sales declined 3.5% from 2020 primarily due to lower Space sales which included launchers and satellites.

Engineered Products: Net sales of $305.3 million for 2021 decreased 3.5% from 2020, driven primarily by lower sales and lower build rates across Commercial Aerospace in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Space & Defense sales decreased approximately 2.1% and is largely attributable to lower demand for U.S. military helicopter programs.

Sales by Market

Commercial Aerospace: Net sales of $668.2 million decreased $154.1 million or 18.7% (19.1% in constant currency) as compared to 2020. The decline in 2021 sales were driven by lower commercial aircraft build rates and a period of inventory destocking by customers and the supply chain as a result of the global pandemic which only partially impacted the prior year. The sub-category Other Commercial Aerospace, which includes business and regional aircraft, decreased 10.5% in 2021 compared to 2020 .

Space & Defense: Net sales of $434.9 million in 2021 decreased 3.0% (3.4% in constant currency) compared to 2020. The decline in 2021 was driven by lower Space sales including launchers and satellites partially offset by stronger F-35 sales.

Industrial: Net sales of $221.6 million for 2021 decreased 4.3% (7.3% in constant currency) compared to 2020 due to lower wind energy sales partially offset by strength in the automotive and recreation industrial markets. Wind energy sales in 2021 decreased 35.6% (37.8% in constant currency) compared to 2020.

2021 Consolidated Results Compared to 2020

Gross Margin: Gross margin for 2021 was $250.1 million or 18.9% of net sales as compared to $239.7 million or 16.0% of net sales in 2020. The improvement in 2021 was due to a favorable sales mix oriented towards carbon fiber combined with the benefits of cost reduction actions that reduced the overhead cost base.

Selling, General and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses: SG&A expenses for 2021 were $135.0 million or 10.2% of net sales as compared to $121.1 million or 8.1% of net sales for 2020. The higher SG&A expenses in 2021 were primarily due to an increase in employee-related costs as the prior year period included benefits from headcount and other temporary cost reductions made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research and Technology (“R&T”) Expenses: R&T expenses for 2021 were $45.1 million or 3.4% of net sales and in 2020 were $46.6 million or 3.1% of net sales.

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Other operating expense: Other operating expenses for 2021 of $18.2 million were primarily related to severance and other restructuring-related expenses. Other operating expenses of $57.9 million for 2020 primarily included severance costs across a number of facilities, the restructuring charge for the Windsor facility closure and costs related to the terminated merger with Woodward Inc.

Operating income: Operating income for 2021 was $51.8 million compared with operating income in 2020 of $14.1 million. Operating income as a percent of sales was 3.9% and 0.9% in 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase in operating income in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily driven by strong gross margins, resulting from favorable sales mix and a reduction in the overhead cost base, as well as lower restructuring costs.

Depreciation and amortization expense of $138.0 million for 2021 decreased $2.9 million from 2020.

Other income: Other income of $8.5 million in 2021 included the receipt of $10.5 million related to the AMJP program, partially offset by a dispute resolution payment.

Interest expense: Interest expense was $38.3 million for 2021 and $41.8 million for 2020, decreasing due to lower average debt levels.

Income tax expense (benefit): For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had a tax provision of $5.9 million and a tax benefit of $61.0 million, respectively. The tax benefit in 2020 was primarily due to the release of a valuation allowance in a foreign jurisdiction.

Equity in earnings (losses) from affiliated companies: Earnings and losses primarily represents our portion of the earnings or losses from our joint venture in Malaysia.

Net income: Net income was $16.1 million or $0.19 per diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to net income of $31.7 million or $0.38 per diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Financial Condition

In 2021, we ended the year with total debt, net of cash, of $695.6 million and generated $151.7 million of operating cash resulting in $123.8 million of free cash flow (cash provided by operating activities less cash paid for capital expenditures). Our cash flow needs for fiscal year 2022 will be funded by our available borrowings under our Senior Unsecured Revolving Facility (the “Facility”) as needed.

We have a portfolio of derivatives related to currencies, interest rates and commodities. We monitor our counterparties and we only use those rated A- or better.

Liquidity

Our cash on hand at December 31, 2021 was $127.7 million, as compared to $103.3 million at December 31, 2020. Of the total cash on hand at December 31, 2021, $54.6 million was held by our foreign locations. As of December 31, 2021 total debt was $823.3 million, as compared to $926.4 million at December 31, 2020. As of December 31, 2021, we were in compliance with all debt covenants.

In September 2020, we amended our Facility to allow for relief from certain terms, including adjusting the maximum leverage ratio covenant for a defined period. On January 28, 2021, we entered into the Second Amendment, which further amended the Facility agreement to provide that, from January 28, 2021 through and including March 31, 2022, we will not be subject to a maximum leverage ratio covenant but will instead be required to maintain Liquidity (as defined in the Facility agreement) of at least $250 million. Additionally, during such period, the Company will be subject to limitations on share repurchases, cash dividends, and its ability to incur secured debt, in each case subject to certain exceptions. In addition, the Second Amendment provided that the Company was not subject to an interest coverage ratio covenant until the test period ending December 31, 2021 and revolving commitments under the Facility were reduced to $750 million.

As of December 31, 2021, total borrowings under the Facility were $125 million, which approximates fair value. The Facility agreement permits us to issue letters of credit up to an aggregate amount of $50 million. Outstanding letters of credit reduce the amount available for borrowing under the Facility. As of December 31, 2021, there were no issued letters of credit under the Facility, resulting in undrawn availability under the Facility of $625 million.

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For more information regarding our Facility Notes, see Note 6, Debt, to the accompanying consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Short-term liquidity requirements consist primarily of normal recurring operating expenses and working capital needs, capital expenditures, dividend payments and debt service requirements. We expect to meet our short-term liquidity requirements through net cash from operating activities, cash on hand and the Facility. As of December 31, 2021, long-term liquidity requirements consist primarily of obligations under our long-term debt obligations. We do not have any significant required debt repayments until June 2024 when the Facility expires.

Earlier in 2021, the Company applied for the AMJP program, created under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provides funding to eligible businesses to pay up to half of their compensation costs for certain categories of employees, for up to six months. To qualify for funding, eligible companies must have involuntarily furloughed or laid off at least 10% of its U.S. workforce or have experienced at least a 15% decline in 2020 global operating revenue. In September 2021, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it had approved for the Company to receive up to $20.9 million under the AMJP program. The Company received $10.5 million of the offered funds in the fourth quarter of 2021 and anticipates receiving the remaining funds in 2022.

Operating Activities: We generated $151.7 million in cash from operating activities during 2021, a decrease of $112.6 million from 2020. Working capital was a cash use of $18.3 million in 2021 to support growing sales as compared to a source of $116.5 million in 2020.

Investing Activities: Cash used for investing activities was $27.9 million in 2021 compared to $50.6 million in 2020.

Financing Activities: Financing activities were a use of cash of $96.8 million in 2021 as compared to $178.5 million in 2020. In 2021, we repaid $103 million of our senior unsecured credit facility. In 2020, we repaid $85 million of our senior unsecured credit facility and $49.9 million of our Euro term loan, repurchased $24.6 million of common stock and paid dividends of $14.2 million. In response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we announced in the early part of 2020 that our dividend payments and stock repurchases had been suspended.

Financial Obligations and Commitments: We had $0.9 million of current debt maturities as of December 31, 2021. The next significant scheduled debt maturity will not occur until 2024, the year the Facility matures. In addition, certain sales and administrative offices, data processing equipment, vehicles and manufacturing equipment, land and facilities are leased under operating leases.

Total letters of credit issued and outstanding were $5.6 million as of December 31, 2021. These letters of credit were not issued under the Facility.

The following table summarizes the scheduled maturities as of December 31, 2021 of financial obligations and expiration dates of commitments for the years ended 2022 through 2026 and thereafter.