BWX Technologies' chief executive said today the company's missile tube rework efforts are on track, noting the majority of the repairs are scheduled to be complete by mid-year.
The company last year disclosed it had identified welding problems on missile tubes slated for the Columbia-class submarine and later established a reserve to cover repairs.
Speaking to analysts this morning, Rex Geveden said the company is "working through very challenging, self-imposed inspection requirements using ultrasonic inspection techniques."
"We're recovering from that very nicely," he added.
Still, Geveden said the company would have to take a close look at whether it would pursue this type of work in the future.
"The business hasn't been especially kind to us so far," he said. "We just have to evaluate and see what we want to do with it going forward."
Meanwhile, BWX Technologies said sales in its most recent quarter reached $478 million, up 11 percent from the same three-month period a year earlier.
The company's quarterly profit hit $21.9 million, up from a loss of $15.7 million the prior year.
For 2018, BWXT recorded sales of $1.8 billion, up almost 7 percent from 2017. The company's profit for the year hit $227 million, up 54 percent from 2017.
The company's nuclear operations group, which includes its naval work, reported quarterly sales of $351 million, up 13 percent from the same period a year earlier. The unit's 2018 revenue reached $1.3 billion, up nearly 4 percent. BWXT attributed the gains to "increase in volume from naval nuclear components as well as nuclear fuel and downblending operations."
The unit's profit for the year was $271 million, up about 1 percent from 2017. BWXT noted the figure included a $29.2 million reserve for missile tube rework.
Geveden also said today the company is seeing a "future demand signal" from other agencies related to its nuclear reactor work.
"We see interest from places like DARPA, continuing interest from NASA; Department of Energy is very interested in classes of reactors," Geveden said, noting the company refers to these classes as "microreactors."
He said BWXT sees space, defense and security applications for its work. "We're actually quite impressed with what we see here," Geveden added.