Ascent Industries Co. (ACNT) Business, 2012

Synalloy Corporation, a Delaware corporation, was incorporated in 1958 as the successor to a chemical manufacturing business founded in 1945. Its charter is perpetual. The name was changed on July 31, 1967 from Blackman Uhler Industries, Inc. On June 3, 1988, the state of incorporation was changed from South Carolina to Delaware. The Company's executive offices are located at 775 Spartan Boulevard, Suite 102, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29301 and 4301 Dominion Boulevard, Suite 130, Glen Allen, Virginia 23060. Unless indicated otherwise, the terms "Company," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Synalloy Corporation and our consolidated subsidiaries.

The Company's business is divided into two segments, the Metals Segment and the Specialty Chemicals Segment. The Metals Segment operates as Bristol Metals, LLC ("Bristol"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Synalloy Metals, Inc., Ram-Fab, LLC ("Ram-Fab") and Palmer of Texas Tanks, Inc. ("Palmer"). Bristol manufactures pipe ("BRISMET") and fabricates piping systems ("BristolFab") from stainless steel and other alloys, and Ram-Fab fabricates piping systems from carbon, chrome, stainless steel and other alloys. Palmer manufactures liquid storage solutions and separation equipment. The Metals Segment's markets include the chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper, mining, power generation (including nuclear), water and waste water treatment, liquid natural gas ("LNG"), brewery, food processing, petroleum, pharmaceutical and other industries. The Specialty Chemicals Segment operates as Manufacturers Chemicals, LLC ("MC"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manufacturers Soap and Chemical Company, located in Cleveland, Tennessee and Dalton, Georgia. The Specialty Chemicals Segment produces specialty chemicals and dyes for the carpet, chemical, paper, metals, mining, agricultural, fiber, paint, textile, automotive, petroleum, cosmetics, mattress, furniture, janitorial and other industries.

Metals Segment – This segment is comprised of three wholly-owned subsidiaries: Synalloy Metals, Inc., which owns 100 percent of Bristol Metals, LLC, located in Bristol, Tennessee; Ram-Fab, LLC, located in Crossett, Arkansas; and Palmer of Texas Tanks, Inc., located in Andrews, Texas.

BRISMET manufactures welded pipe, primarily from stainless steel, but also from other corrosion-resistant metals. Pipe is produced in sizes from one-half inch to 120 inches in diameter and wall thickness up to one and one-half inches. Sixteen-inch and smaller diameter pipe is made on equipment that forms and welds the pipe in a continuous process. Pipe larger than 16 inches in diameter is formed on presses or rolls and welded on batch welding equipment. Pipe is normally produced in standard 20-foot lengths. However, BRISMET has unusual capabilities in the production of long length pipe without circumferential welds. This can reduce installation cost for the customer. Lengths up to 60 feet can be produced in sizes up to 16 inches in diameter. In larger sizes BRISMET has a unique ability among domestic producers to make 48-foot lengths in diameters up to 36 inches. Over the past six years, Bristol has made substantial capital improvements to both BRISMET and BristolFab, expanding and improving capabilities to service markets requiring large diameter pipe and specialty alloy pipe such as water and waste water treatment, LNG, and

scrubber applications for the power industry. These improvements include expanding its x-ray facilities which allows simultaneous use of real time and film examination; updating material handling equipment; expanding capabilities for forming large pipe on existing batch equipment, giving BRISMET the capability to produce 36-inch diameter pipe in 48-foot lengths with wall thicknesses of up to one inch; adding a shear that has the capacity of shearing stainless steel plate up to one-inch thick; completing plant expansions that allow the manufacture of pipe up to 42 inches in diameter utilizing more readily available raw materials at lower costs, provide additional manufacturing capacity, and provide improved product handling and additional space for planned equipment additions; and installing automated hydro-testing equipment for pipe up to 72 inches in diameter. During 2012, BRISMET also added equipment to manufacture carbon steel pipe to supply the needs of a nuclear project which it was awarded earlier in 2012.

A portion of the pipe produced is further processed into piping systems that conform to engineered drawings furnished by the customers. This allows the customer to take advantage of the high quality and efficiencies of BristolFab and Ram-Fab ("Synalloy Fabrication") rather than performing all of the welding at the construction site. BristolFab's pipe fabrication shop can make one and one-half inch diameter cold bends on one-half inch through eight-inch stainless pipe with thicknesses up through schedule 40S. Most of BristolFab's piping systems are produced from pipe manufactured by BRISMET.

Ram-Fab's carbon, stainless and chrome alloy pipe fabrication enhances BristolFab's operations, giving the Segment the capability to quote on all types of pipe fabrication projects utilizing any combination of these three material types. Ram-Fab, which was purchased by the Company in 2009, was established over 20 years ago in Crossett, Arkansas and provides affordable, quality pipe fabrication in carbon and stainless steel and high chrome alloys. From power plants to refineries to chemical plants, Ram-Fab serves a broad range of customers, both domestic and international. As a carbon and stainless steel and high chrome pipe fabrication facility, Ram-Fab is poised to take advantage of the anticipated increase in the construction of power generation plants utilizing coal or natural gas, as well as nuclear. Refinery upgrades and environmental work will also add to the requirements of quality shop-fabricated carbon steel and high chrome systems. Since BRISMET does not manufacture carbon or chrome alloy pipe, except for the project noted above, these materials are purchased from outside suppliers. During 2010, Ram-Fab completed a capital project to add a temperature and humidity controlled paint facility. Since the majority of its carbon steel fabrication systems requires painting, this increased their production throughput and improved quality.

Palmer is an International Organization for Standardization ("ISO") 9001 certified manufacturer of fiberglass and steel tanks for the oil and gas, waste water treatment and municipal water industries. Located in Andrews, Texas, Palmer is ideally located in the heart of oil and gas production territory. Palmer produces made-to-order fiberglass tanks, utilizing a variety of custom mandrels and application specific materials. Their fiberglass tanks range from two feet to 30 feet in diameter at various heights. The majority of these tanks are used for oil field waste water capture and is an integral part of the environmental regulatory compliance of the drilling process. Each fiberglass tank is manufactured to American Petroleum Institute Q1 standards to ensure product quality. In 2007, Palmer began investing in a dedicated steel tank production facility. Over the past four years, the Company has built an integrated production facility housing enclosed steel preparation, computer assisted plasma cutting table, automated submerged arc welding, blasting, painting and drying buildings. The facility enables efficient, environmentally compliant steel production with designed-in expansion capability to support future growth. Finished steel tanks range in size from 50 to 10,000 barrels and are used to store extracted oil.

In order to establish stronger business relationships, only a few raw material suppliers are used. Four suppliers furnish about 79 percent of total dollar purchases of raw materials, with two suppliers furnishing 34 percent and 30 percent of material purchases. However, the Company does not believe that the loss of any of these suppliers would have a materially adverse effect on the Company as raw materials are readily available from a number of different sources, and the Company anticipates no difficulties in fulfilling its requirements.

This Segment's stainless steel products are used principally by customers requiring materials that are corrosion-resistant or suitable for high-purity processes. The largest users are the chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper, waste water treatment and LNG industries, with some other important industry users being mining, power generation (including nuclear), water treatment, brewery, food processing, petroleum, pharmaceutical and alternative fuels. The Segment's carbon and chrome alloy products are used primarily in the power generation and chemical industries.

Specialty Chemicals Segment – This segment consists of the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Manufacturers Soap and Chemical Company ("MS&C"). MS&C owns 100 percent of MC, which is located in Cleveland, Tennessee and Dalton, Georgia and is fully licensed for chemical manufacture. The Segment produces specialty chemicals and dyes for the carpet, chemical, paper, metals, mining, agricultural, fiber, paint, textile, automotive, petroleum, cosmetics, mattress, furniture, janitorial and other industries.

MC, which was purchased by the Company in 1996, produces over 1,100 specialty formulations and intermediates for use in a wide variety of applications and industries. MC's primary product lines focus on the areas of defoamers, surfactants and lubricating

agents. Over 20 years ago, MC began diversifying its marketing efforts and expanding beyond traditional textile chemical markets. These three fundamental product lines find their way into a large number of manufacturing businesses. Over the years, the customer list has grown to include end users and chemical companies that supply paper, metal working, surface coatings, water treatment, paint, mining and janitorial applications. MC's capabilities also include the sulfation of fats and oils. These products are used in a wide variety of applications and represent a renewable resource, animal and vegetable derivatives, as alternatives to more expensive and non-renewable petroleum derivatives. In its Dalton, Georgia facility, MC stores and ships chemicals and specialty chemicals manufactured in MC's Cleveland plant to the carpet and rug market.

MC's strategy has been to focus on industries and markets that have good prospects for sustainability in the U.S. in light of global trends. MC's marketing strategy relies on sales to end users through its own sales force, but it also sells chemical intermediates to other chemical companies and distributors. It also has close working relationships with a significant number of major chemical companies that outsource their production for regional manufacture and distribution to companies like MC. MC has been ISO registered since 1995.

The Specialty Chemicals Segment maintains four laboratories for applied research and quality control which are staffed by ten employees.

Most raw materials used by the Segment are generally available from numerous independent suppliers and about 50 percent of total purchases are from its top eight suppliers. While some raw material needs are met by a sole supplier or only a few suppliers, the Company anticipates no difficulties in fulfilling its raw material requirements.

Please see Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which are included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K, for financial information about the Company's segments.

Metals Segment – The Metals Segment utilizes separate sales organizations for its different product groups. Stainless steel pipe is sold nationwide under the BRISMET trade name through authorized stocking distributors at warehouse locations throughout the country. In addition, large quantity orders are shipped directly from BRISMET's plant to end-user customers. Producing sales and providing service to the distributors and end-user customers are BRISMET's President, one outside sales employee, nine independent manufacturers' representatives and nine inside sales employees. The Metals Segment has one domestic customer that accounted for approximately ten and eleven percent of the Metals Segment's revenues in 2011 and 2010, respectively, but accounted for less than ten percent for 2012. The loss of this customers' revenues would have an adverse effect on both the Metals Segment and the Company.

Fabrication systems are sold nationwide under the Synalloy Fabrication, BristolFab, Bristol Piping Systems and Ram-Fab trade names by two outside sales employees. They are under the direction of Synalloy Fabrications' General Manager. Synalloy Fabrication also uses six independent manufacturers' representatives to reach and expand their customer base. Fabrication systems are marketed to engineering firms and construction companies or directly to project owners. Orders are normally received as a result of competitive bids submitted in response to inquiries and bid proposals.

Palmer does not employ a dedicated external sales and marketing resource. However, they have an inside sales professional that manages the relationships with past customers to identify and secure new sales. Additionally, the Company President assumes account relationship management with large customers. Customer feedback and in-field experience generate product enhancements and new product development.

Specialty Chemicals Segment – Specialty chemicals are sold directly to various industries nationwide by five full-time outside sales employees and eleven manufacturers' representatives. The Specialty Chemicals Segment has one domestic customer that accounted for approximately 28 percent of the Segment's revenues in 2012 and 24 percent in 2011 and 2010. However, this customer is a large global company, and the purchases by this customer are derived from several different business units that operate autonomously from each other. Even so, loss of this customer's revenues would have a material adverse effect on both the Specialty Chemicals Segment and the Company.

Metals Segment – Welded stainless steel pipe is the largest sales volume product of the Metals Segment. Although information is not publicly available regarding the sales of most other producers of this product, management believes that the Company is one of the largest domestic producers of such pipe. This commodity product is highly competitive with seven known domestic producers and imports from many different countries. The largest sales volume among the non-commodity specialized products comes from fabricating stainless, nickel alloys, chrome alloys and carbon piping systems. Management believes the Company is one of the largest producers of such systems. There is also significant competition in the piping systems' markets with 13 known

domestic suppliers with similar capabilities as BristolFab and Ram-Fab, along with many other smaller suppliers. Due to the size of the tanks produced and shipped to its customers, the majority of Palmer's product is sold within a 300 mile radius from its plant in Andrews, Texas. There are currently eight tank producers, with similar capabilities, servicing that same area.

Specialty Chemicals Segment – The Company is the sole producer of certain specialty chemicals manufactured for other companies under processing agreements and also produces proprietary specialty chemicals. The Company's sales of specialty products are insignificant compared to the overall market for specialty chemicals. The market for most of the products is highly competitive and many competitors have substantially greater resources than does the Company.

The Company is committed to a long-term strategy of (a) reinvesting capital in our current business segments to foster their organic growth and (b) completing acquisitions that expand our current business segments or establish new manufacturing platforms. Targeted acquisitions are priced to be economically feasible and focus on achieving positive long-term benefits. These acquisitions may be paid for in the form of cash, stock, debt or a combination thereof. The amount and type of consideration and deal charges paid could have a short-term dilutive effect on the Company's earnings per share. However, such transactions are anticipated to provide long-term economic benefit to the Company.

On August 21, 2012, the Company completed the purchase of all of the outstanding shares of capital stock of Lee-Var, Inc. (now Palmer of Texas Tanks, Inc.), a Texas corporation doing business as Palmer of Texas ("Palmer"), pursuant to a stock purchase agreement among Palmer's former shareholders listed below and the Company dated August 10, 2012 (the "SPA"). Palmer is a manufacturer of liquid storage solutions and separation equipment for the petroleum, municipal water, wastewater, chemical and food industries. The shares were purchased from Jimmie Dean Lee, James Varner, and Steven C. O'Brate.

The purchase price for the acquisition was $25,575,000 in cash, and subject to working capital and fixed asset adjustments at closing. The adjustments at closing increased the purchase price at closing to $26,951,209. In addition, the amount of maintenance capital expenditure expenses over the 18-month period following closing and the final cost of a production expansion capital project currently underway could also result in purchase price adjustments. Currently, the Company does not expect to realize any material purchase price adjustments from these two items. Palmer shareholders will also have the ability to receive contingent consideration ("earn-out") payments ranging from $2,500,000 to $10,500,000 if the business unit achieves targeted levels of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") over a three year period following closing; and the Company will have the ability to claw-back portions of the purchase price over a two year period following closing if EBITDA falls below baseline levels.

Environmental expenditures that relate to an existing condition caused by past operations and do not contribute to future revenue generation are expensed. Liabilities are recorded when environmental assessments and/or cleanups are probable and the costs of these assessments and/or cleanups can be reasonably estimated. Changes to laws and environmental issues, including climate change, are made or proposed with some frequency and some of the proposals, if adopted, might directly or indirectly result in a material reduction in the operating results of one or more of our operating units. We are presently unable to foresee the future well enough to quantify such risks. See Note 5 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which are included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K, for further discussion.

The Company spent approximately $612,000 in 2012, $352,000 in 2011 and $392,000 in 2010 on research and development activities that were expensed in its Specialty Chemicals Segment. Four individuals, all of whom are graduate chemists, are engaged primarily in research and development of new products and processes, the improvement of existing products and processes, and the development of new applications for existing products.

The Company's businesses and products are not normally subject to any seasonal impact causing significant variations from one quarter to another.

The Specialty Chemicals Segment operates primarily on the basis of delivering products soon after orders are received. Accordingly, backlogs are not a factor in this business. The same applies to commodity pipe and storage tank sales in the Metals Segment. However, backlogs are important in the Metals Segment's fabrication products because they are produced only after orders are received, generally as the result of competitive bidding. Order backlogs for these products were $19,300,000 at the end of 2012.

Approximately 80 percent of the backlog should be completed in 2013. The backlog totaled $22,700,000 and $25,300,000 at the 2011 and 2010 respective year ends.

At December 29, 2012, the Company had 597 employees. The Company considers relations with employees to be satisfactory. The number of employees of the Company represented by unions, all located at the Bristol, Tennessee facility, is 224, or 38 percent of the Company's employees. They are represented by two locals affiliated with the AFL-CIO and one local affiliated with the Teamsters. Collective bargaining contracts will expire in January 2015, February 2014 and March 2015.

Information about revenues derived from domestic and foreign customers is set forth in Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

The Company electronically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") its annual reports on Form 10-K, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, its periodic reports on Form 8-K, amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "1934 Act"), and proxy materials pursuant to Section 14 of the 1934 Act. The SEC maintains a site on the Internet, www.sec.gov, that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The Company also makes its filings available, free of charge, through its Web site, www.synalloy.com, as soon as reasonably practical after the electronic filing of such material with the SEC. The information on the Company's Web site is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other filing the Company makes with the SEC.