To protect and profit

Paul Clinton

Joel Moskowitz’s assertion that he “saves lives” as the chief

executive and chairman of Costa Mesa’s Ceradyne Inc. sounds like

exaggeration.

Last year, however, 29 U.S. soldiers survived machinegun attacks

overseas with armor provided by Moskowitz’s ceramics company.

Moskowitz even received a letter from an army ranger stationed in

Afghanistan who said he was shot in the back with a Russian-made

AK-47 assault rifle. The bullet was absorbed by Ceradyne’s ballistic

armor.

“That’s a dead man [without the armor],” Moskowitz said. “In order

to stop a machinegun bullet, you have to have something harder than

the bullet. The only thing harder than these ceramics is a diamond.”

Ceradyne, headquartered in the city since 1975, manufactures and

markets state-of-the-art ceramics products, including the armor,

ballistic plating for a new Lincoln Towncar, orthodontic braces,

truck engine parts and other products.

In the defense market, Ceradyne sells protective panels for

military helicopters -- the Black Hawk, Cobra and Apache --

ceramic-plated seats for Hummers, as well as the personnel armor.

As investors scour the stock tables for defense-oriented

companies, with President Bush’s readying a military action against

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Ceradyne has worked its way into the

spotlight.

Moskowitz said he isn’t counting on the possible war to benefit

his share price, which closed Friday at $8.65, down 22 cents.

“What is going to affect our stock is our performance,” he said.

“The future looks pretty bright.”

On Feb. 24, the publicly traded company announced that it beat

Wall Street’s consensus earnings estimates, by reporting

fourth-quarter sales of $17.6 million, or 11 cents per share, which

was a 45% increase from the $12.1 million, or 10 cents per share,

from the fourth quarter of 2001.

Ceradyne trades as CRDN on the Nasdaq exchange.

In 2002, the company grew sales 35%, from $45.3 million to a

record $61.2 million.

Moskowitz, Ceradyne’s founder, owes his success, in part, to his

success in attracting contracts from the military. On Feb. 13, the

company nailed down a $3.7-million deal with the Army’s Defense

Supply Center in Philadelphia to provide the personnel armor.

Moskowitz himself served in the Army, as a young ROTC officer in

the 1960s, after graduating from Alfred University in Western New

York. After a stint at a base in Alabama, Moskowitz worked for a

ceramics company in Glendale; he formed Ceradyne with colleagues in

1967.

In 1970, Moskowitz took the company public with an offering of

shares.

More than a quarter of a century later, Ceradyne now counts three

operational plants in the country (including Georgia and Kentucky),

350 employees and two satellite offices in London and Beijing.