Armor maker reports order of $113 million

A Costa Mesa-based ceramics manufacturer announced it received a $113-million delivery order for body armor from the Aberdeen Proving Ground U.S. Army base in Maryland.

The order is for Ceradyne Inc.’s enhanced small arms protective inserts and is the largest single order of the body armor the company has ever received.

The order comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for sales and orders, with 2006 more than doubling its sales records and new-orders records from the previous year.

In its preliminary, unaudited, year-end financials, the company reported that sales rose 80% from 2005, to $663 million in 2006. Ceradyne received $730 million in new orders, a jump of 64% from 2005.

In the fourth quarter of 2006 alone, the company received almost half of its new orders, with $314 million coming in.

And this year, the company seems to be following that trend, already reporting almost $120 million in new orders for January 2006.

“We believe that the increase in delivery rates is due to our prior quality and delivery performance,” President of North American Operations Dave Reed said in a news release issued by the company Wednesday. “We are committing the company’s development and production resources in order to fulfill the Army’s immediate and longer-term requirements.”

No one from Ceradyne’s Costa Mesa office was available for comment Wednesday.

In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced that he plans to send more than 20,000 more American troops to Iraq, where he said “epic battles” from the Sunnis and Shiites await them.

“The vast majority [of troops] will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisors embedded in Iraqi Army units,” Bush said in his Jan. 23 address.

The president said that “it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk” and said he plans to reinforce the troops who are already in the war-torn country.

Ceradyne expects to begin shipping the $113-million order in April and continue through September, with help from its Irvine and Lexington, Ky., facility.

The Costa Mesa manufacturer develops and makes ceramic products for use in defense, auto, industrial and other industries.