Armor business expands

Andrew Edwards

A Costa Mesa manufacturer of body armor announced Tuesday the opening

of a plant in Michigan to design prototypes for armored vehicles.

Ceradyne, Inc. opened the plant in Wixom, Mich., to be near the

automotive industry and the Army Tank-automotive and Armaments

Command, said Joel Moscowitz, Ceradyne chairman, president and chief

executive. In the past six months, the company inked contracts with

Ford Motor Co., the Department of Defense and other parties whom

Moscowitz said he could not disclose. Ceradyne has a five-year

agreement with Ford to provide armor for the Lincoln Town Car

Ballistic Protection System -- a luxury car with armor designed to

protect traveling dignitaries. Ceradyne is set to earn $12,000 for

each armored car that Ford sells.

Ceradyne’s contract with the defense department calls for the

company to manufacture armored Humvee seats, Moscowitz said. The

company plans to use a design similar to one already used in attack

helicopters. Other contracts call for Ceradyne to design prototypes

for vehicles designed to employ armor composed of ceramic plates and

Kevlar.

“We believe that ceramics are a natural solution for vehicle

armor; it’s 50% the weight of steel,” Ceradyne Chief Financial

Officer Jerrold G. Pellizzon said while speaking at a conference in

New York City on Tuesday. Pellizzon’s remarks were aired on the Web.

There are about 9,200 tactical trucks deployed in Iraq, and less

than 15% of those are armored, Pellizzon said, calling the trucks

slow-moving targets for terrorists.

Ceradyne had already been supplying personal body armor for the

military and has a backlog of about $150-million worth of body armor

orders, Moscowitz said. Body armor orders have recently increased due

to the controversy over whether troops fighting in Iraq and

Afghanistan have enough armored vests.

“We’re running 24 hours a day,” Moscowitz said. Ceradyne produces

about 25,000 ceramic body armor plates a month.

Ceradyne’s stock price fell 2.87% Tuesday, closing at $52.47 a

share. The company trades under the NASDAQ ticker CRDN. Through the

third quarter of 2004, the firm reported more than $56 million in

sales and close to $18 million in profits.