Carpenter Technology Corp. provided financial guidance for the third quarter and fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. For the third quarter, The company expects capital expenditures to be lower than second quarter and while third quarter free cash flow will still be negative and will be substantially improved versus second quarter. The company announced that this year sales backlog is up versus first quarter. As a result, even factoring in the negative impact from the roughly $4 million unusual spike in energy costs and all incremental Athens expense, it expects fiscal year 2014 third quarter operating EPS to be similar or better to the adjusted EPS reported in the third quarter of last year.

For the fourth quarter, The company expects CapEx to again decrease on a sequential basis as the Athens spending declines significantly. Accordingly, The company anticipates strong positive free cash flow beginning in the fourth quarter of this year. The effective tax rate for the second quarter was 33.6%. However, for the remainder of fiscal 2014, the company uses an all-inclusive rate of 34%.