Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Principles of Consolidation - The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of all subsidiaries after elimination of all intercompany accounts, transactions, and profits.

Use of Estimates - The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities, and reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Revenue Recognition - Revenue from product sales is recognized at the time products are shipped and title transfers. Allowances for returned products and other credits are estimated and recorded as revenue is recognized. Tooling revenue is recognized when the customer approves the tool and accepts ownership. Progress billings and expenses are shown net as an asset or liability on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet. Tooling in progress can fluctuate significantly from period to period and is dependent upon the stage of tooling projects and the related billing and expense payment timetable for individual projects and therefore does not necessarily reflect projected income or loss from tooling projects. At December 31, 2011 the Company had a net liability related to tooling in progress of $1,520,000, which represents approximately $8,270,000 of progress tooling billings and $6,750,000 of progress tooling expenses. At December 31, 2010 the Company had a net liability related to tooling in progress of $320,000, which represents approximately $2,697,000 of progress tooling billings and $2,377,000 of progress tooling expenses.

Cash and Cash Equivalents - The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. Cash is held primarily in one bank. The Company had cash on hand of $4,634,000 at December 31, 2011 and $5,657,000 at December 31, 2010.

Accounts Receivable Allowances - Management maintains allowances for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of its customers to make required payments. If the financial condition of the Company’s customers were to deteriorate, resulting in an impairment of their ability to make payments, additional allowances may be required. The Company recorded an allowance for doubtful accounts of $236,000 at December 31, 2011 and $118,000 December 31, 2010. Management also records estimates for customer returns and deductions, discounts offered to customers, and for price adjustments. Should customer returns and deductions, discounts, and price adjustments fluctuate from the estimated amounts, additional allowances may be required. The Company had an allowance for estimated chargebacks of $1,283,000 at December 31, 2011 and $695,000 at December 31, 2010. There have been no material changes in the methodology of these calculations.

Inventories - Inventories, which include material, labor and manufacturing overhead, are valued at the lower of cost or market. The inventories are accounted for using the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method of determining inventory costs. Inventory quantities on-hand are regularly reviewed, and where necessary, provisions for excess and obsolete inventory are recorded based on historical and anticipated usage. The Company has recorded an allowance for slow moving and obsolete inventory of $862,000 at December 31, 2011 and $750,000 at December 31, 2010.

Property, Plant, and Equipment - Property, plant, and equipment are recorded at cost. Depreciation is provided on a straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets. The carrying amount of long‑lived assets is evaluated annually to determine if adjustment to the depreciation period or to the unamortized balance is warranted.

Ranges of estimated useful lives for computing depreciation are as follows:



Land improvements		20 years
Buildings and improvements		20 - 40 years
Machinery and equipment		3 - 15 years
Tools, dies and patterns		3 - 5 years

Depreciation expense was $3,840,000 and $3,841,000 for 2011 and 2010, respectively. The Company capitalized interest cost of approximately $111,000 and $8,000 for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Long-Lived Assets - Long-lived assets consist primarily of property, plant and equipment. The recoverability of long-lived assets is evaluated by an analysis of operating results and consideration of other significant events or changes in the business environment. The Company evaluates whether impairment exists for property, plant and equipment on the basis of undiscounted expected future cash flows from operations before interest. There was no impairment of the Company's long-lived assets for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010.

Goodwill - Core Molding Technologies acquired certain assets of Airshield Corporation in 2001, and as a result, recorded goodwill related to its Matamoros, Mexico operations in the amount of $1,097,000. The Company evaluates goodwill annually on December 31^st to determine whether impairment exists, or at interim periods if an indicator of possible impairment exists. The Company evaluates goodwill for impairment using fair value measurements based on a projected discounted cash flow valuation model, in accordance with ASC 350, “Intangibles-Goodwill and Other.” If impairment exists, the carrying amount of the goodwill is reduced to its estimated fair value, less any costs associated with the final settlement. There was no impairment of the Company's goodwill for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010.

Income Taxes - The Company records deferred income taxes for differences between the financial reporting basis and income tax basis of assets and liabilities. A detailed breakout is located in Note 10.

Self-Insurance - The Company is self-insured with respect to its Columbus and Batavia, Ohio, Warsaw, Kentucky and Gaffney, South Carolina medical and dental claims and Columbus and Batavia, Ohio workers’ compensation claims, all of which are subject to stop-loss insurance thresholds. The Company has recorded an estimated liability for self-insured medical and dental claims incurred but not reported and worker’s compensation claims incurred but not reported at December 31, 2011 and December 31, 2010 of $1,045,000 and $1,041,000, respectively.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments - The Company’s financial instruments consist of long-term debt, interest rate swaps, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. The carrying amount of these financial instruments approximated their fair value. Further detail is located in Note 14.

Concentration Risks - The Company has significant transactions with two major customers (see Note 4), which together comprised 80% and 82% of total sales in 2011 and 2010, respectively and 77% and 73% of accounts receivable at December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively. The Company performs ongoing credit evaluations of its customers' financial condition. The Company maintains reserves for potential bad debt losses, and such bad debt losses have been historically within the Company's expectations. Sales to certain customers' manufacturing and service locations in Mexico and Canada totaled 24% and 15% of total sales for 2011 and 2010, respectively.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company employed a total of 1,596 employees, which consisted of 644 employees in its United States operations and 952 employees in its Mexican operations. Of these 1,596 employees, 194 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (“IAM”), which extends to August 10, 2013, and 848 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with Sindicato de Jorneleros y Obreros, which extends to January 16, 2013.

Earnings Per Common Share - Basic earnings per common share is computed based on the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted earnings per common share are computed similarly but include the effect of the assumed exercise of dilutive stock options and vesting of restricted stock under the treasury stock method. A detailed computation of earnings per share is located in Note 3.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income - Accumulated other comprehensive income is comprised of the following, net of tax:



	December, 31
	2011			2010
Interest rate swaps	$	(109,000	)	$	(122,000	)
Post retirement benefits	3,986,000			3,335,000
Total	$	3,877,000		$	3,213,000

Research and Development - Research and development activities focus on developing new material formulations, new structural plastic products, new production capabilities and processes, and improving existing products and manufacturing processes. The Company does not maintain a separate research and development organization or facility, but uses its production equipment, as necessary, to support these efforts and cooperates with its customers and its suppliers in research and development efforts. Likewise, manpower to direct and advance research and development is integrated with the existing manufacturing, engineering, production, and quality organizations. Research and development costs, which are expensed as incurred, totaled approximately $400,000 in 2011 and $249,000 in 2010.

Foreign Currency Adjustments - In conjunction with the Company's acquisition of certain assets of Airshield Corporation, the Company established operations in Mexico. The functional currency for the Mexican operations is the United States dollar. All foreign currency asset and liability amounts are remeasured into United States dollars at end-of-period exchange rates. Income statement accounts are translated at the weighted monthly average rates. Gains and losses resulting from translation of foreign currency financial statements into United States dollars and gains and losses resulting from foreign currency transactions are included in current results of operations. Foreign currency translation and transaction losses included in selling, general and administrative expense totaled $132,000 and $97,000 in 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Reclassifications - Certain items previously reported have been reclassified to conform to the current year's reporting format. These reclassifications had no effect on net income or shareholders' equity as previously reported.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements - In May 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-04, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820) — Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRS (ASU 2011-04). ASU 2011-04 represents the converged guidance of the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board on fair value measurement. The guidance clarifies certain existing requirements and changes certain principles to achieve convergence between U.S. GAAP and IFRS. ASU 2011-04 also expands the disclosures for fair value measurements. ASU 2011-04 is effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company does not anticipate the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In June 2011, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-05, Presentation of Comprehensive Income (ASU 2011-05). ASU 2011-05 amends guidance on the presentation of comprehensive income to require entities to report components of comprehensive income in either a continuous statement of comprehensive income or two separate but consecutive statements. In addition, an entity is required to present on the face of the financial statements reclassification adjustments for items that are reclassified from other comprehensive income to net income in the statement(s) where the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income are presented. In December 2011, the FASB issued an update to this guidance, Accounting Standards Update 2011-12, Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) — Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassifications of Items Out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05 (ASU 2011-12), which defers the effective date for the presentation of reclassification of items out of accumulated other comprehensive income to some future period. Except for the presentation of reclassification adjustments, the provisions of this guidance are effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company does not anticipate the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In September 2011, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-08, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) — Testing Goodwill for Impairment (ASU 2011-08). ASU 2011-08 amends guidance on the testing of goodwill for impairment to reduce complexity and costs by allowing an entity the option to make a qualitative evaluation about the likelihood of goodwill impairment to determine whether it should calculate the fair value of a reporting unit. ASU 2011-08 is effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company does not anticipate the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In September 2011, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-09, Compensation — Retirement Benefits — Multiemployer Plans (Subtopic 715-80) — Disclosures about an Employer's Participation in a Multiemployer Plan (ASU 2011-09). ASU 2011-09 amends guidance for employers that participate in multiemployer pension plans to create greater transparency in financial reporting by requiring additional disclosures about an employer's participation in a multiemployer pension plans. The additional disclosures will increase awareness about the commitments that an employer has made to a multiemployer pension plan and the potential future cash flow implications of an employer's participation in the plan. ASU 2011-09 is effective for annual periods for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2011. This accounting standards update impacted our disclosures only, and did not have any impact on our financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. The disclosures required by this accounting standards update are presented in Note 11.