Koppers Announces New Five-Year, $50 Million Contract for Crosstie Disposal

Koppers Recovery Resources LLC (KRR), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds, today announced that it has entered into a new five-year, $50 million agreement with a Class I railroad customer to collect and manage end-of-life railroad crossties and other materials.

Under this agreement, which continues through December 31, 2027, KRR will collect and grade railroad crossties at the end of their useful life.  Depending on their condition, some of the recovered ties will be sold as agricultural or building materials, with the remainder processed into biomass fuel used to produce power for certain industrial facilities. 

Including this agreement, Koppers now serves four of six Class I railroads and remains active in exploring opportunities to increase its market presence in the industry.  Koppers continues to expand its business of converting otherwise landfill-bound wood products into a circular energy solution that uses treated wood waste as biofuel to displace fossil fuels, while advancing its contributions to the circular economy and sustainability.

"This further solidifies our company's proven reputation as a full-service solutions provider for industry," said Jim Sullivan, Koppers Chief Operating Officer.  "By repurposing end-of-life crossties and working in tandem with our customer to help improve their tie flow logistics, we also receive the benefit of optimizing our operating network – an integral component of our growth strategy and path to $300 million of EBITDA generation in 2025."

"Bringing solutions that represent a more efficient use of resources, especially at the end-of-life stage, creates a better outcome for the environment," added Leslie Hyde, Koppers Chief Sustainability Officer.  "Pursuing this cradle-to-cradle strategy further strengthens our purpose of protecting what matters and preserving the future.  It enables our customers to advance their own sustainability initiatives by reducing their environmental impact and utilizing new applications for existing materials – everyone wins."

About Koppers
Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds.  Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries.  We serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, and Europe.  The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP."

For more information, visit: www.koppers.com. Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin at [email protected] or 412-227-2025.  Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at [email protected] or 412-227-2049.

Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies.

Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil and copper, on product margins; general economic and business conditions; disruption in the U.S. and global financial markets; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; interest rate and foreign currency rate fluctuations; availability and costs of key raw materials; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.