HEXCEL CORP /DE/ (HXL) Business

ITEM 1. Business.

General

Hexcel Corporation and its subsidiaries (herein referred to as “Hexcel”, “the Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), is a global leader in advanced lightweight composites technology. We propel the future of flight and transportation through excellence in advanced material lightweighting solutions that create a better world for us all. Our broad product range includes carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, honeycomb, resins, engineered core and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, defense and space, and industrial applications.

We are a manufacturer of products within a single industry: Advanced Composites. We have two reportable segments: Composite Materials and Engineered Products. The Composite Materials segment is comprised of our carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, resin systems, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, and honeycomb core product lines and pultruded profiles. The Engineered Products segment is comprised of lightweight high strength composite structures, radio frequency/electromagnetic interference (“RF/EMI”) and microwave absorbing materials, engineered core and specialty machined honeycomb products with added functionality.

We serve international markets through manufacturing facilities, sales offices and representatives located in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, India, and Africa.

The following summaries describe the ongoing activities related to the Composite Materials and Engineered Products segments as of December 31, 2025.

Composite Materials

The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics, and specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, structural adhesives, honeycomb, molding compounds, tooling materials, polyurethane systems and laminates that are incorporated into many applications, including commercial and military aircraft, transportation (primarily automotive), recreational products, and other industrial applications.

3

The following table identifies the principal products and examples of the primary end-uses from the Composite Materials segment:

Carbon Fibers: HexTow® carbon fibers are used in certain reinforcements and composite materials. Carbon fibers are also woven into carbon fabrics, used as reinforcement in conjunction with a resin matrix to produce pre-impregnated composite materials (referred to as “prepregs”). Carbon fiber is also used in filament winding to produce finished composite components. Key product applications include structural components for commercial and military aircraft and rotorcraft, jet engine fan blades and fan casings, space launch vehicles, and certain other applications such as recreational and industrial equipment.

Fabrics, Multi-axials and Specialty Reinforcements: HexForce® fabrics, multi-axials and specialty reinforcements are made from a variety of fibers, including carbon, glass, aramid and other high strength polymers, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. These reinforcements are used in the production of prepregs and other matrix materials for aerospace and select industrial markets including automotive components, oil exploration and production equipment, and select sporting goods equipment.

Prepregs: HexPly® prepregs are used in manufacturing composite laminates and monolithic structures. Prepregs are used in primary and secondary structural aerospace applications such as wing components, horizontal and vertical stabilizer components, fairings, radomes, engine fan blades and cases, engine nacelles as well as overhead storage bins and other interior components. They are also used in many of the industrial and recreational products noted above. Prepregs are manufactured by combining high-performance reinforcement fabrics or unidirectional fibers with a resin matrix to form a composite material that, when cured, has exceptional structural properties not present in either of the constituent materials individually. Prepregs are applied via hand layup, automatic tape layup and advanced fiber placement to produce finished composite components. Prepreg reinforcements include glass, carbon, aramid, quartz, ceramic and other specialty fibers. Resin matrices include bismaleimide, cyanate ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyimide and other specialty resins.

4

Other Fiber-Reinforced Matrix Materials: Fiber reinforced matrix developments include HexTool®, a specialized form of quasi-isotropic carbon fiber prepreg for use in the cost-effective construction of high temperature resistant composite tooling. HexFIT® film infusion material is a product that combines resin films and dry fiber reinforcements to save lay-up time in production and enables the manufacture of large contoured composite structures.

Resins: HexFlow® polymer matrix materials are sold in liquid and film form for use in direct process manufacturing of composite parts. Resins can be combined with fiber reinforcements in manufacturing processes such as resin transfer molding, resin film infusion or vacuum assisted resin transfer molding to support high volume production of composite components for both aerospace and industrial applications, without the need for customer investment in autoclaves.

Structural Adhesives: We manufacture and market a comprehensive range of HexBond® film and paste adhesives. These structural adhesives, which bond metal to metal and composites and honeycomb structures, are used in the aerospace industry and for select industrial applications.

Honeycomb: HexWeb® honeycomb is a lightweight, cellular structure generally composed of a sheet of nested hexagonal cells. It can also be manufactured in over-expanded and asymmetric cell configurations to meet special design requirements such as contours or complex curvatures. Honeycomb is primarily used as a lightweight core material and acts as a highly efficient energy absorber. When sandwiched between composite or metallic facing skins, honeycomb significantly increases the stiffness of the structure, while adding very little weight.

We produce honeycomb primarily from non-metallic materials though some honeycomb is produced from metallic materials. Non-metallic materials used in the manufacture of honeycomb include fiberglass, carbon fiber, thermoplastics, non-flammable aramid papers, aramid fiber and other specialty materials. Most metallic honeycomb is made from aluminum and is available in a selection of alloys, cell sizes and dimensions. We sell honeycomb as standard blocks and in slices cut from a block. Aerospace is the largest market for honeycomb products.

Our HexWeb® Acousti-Cap® sound attenuating honeycomb used in aircraft engines and nacelles provides dramatic noise reduction during takeoff and landing without a structural weight penalty. Acousti-Cap® incorporates a non-metallic, permeable cap material that is embedded into honeycomb core. In addition, we produce honeycomb for our Engineered Products segment for use in manufacturing finished parts for airframe original equipment manufacturers.

Polyspeed® Pultruded Profiles: Hexcel manufactures a wide range of pultruded sections including rods, flat sections, tubes and specific profiles that are usually made from carbon fiber but can also be made from glass, quartz, basalt or other fibers. The profile matrix is a Hexcel formulation of thermoset resin (epoxy or polyurethane). Hexcel pultruded profiles are used in a wide range of industrial applications.

The following tables identify the key customers and the major manufacturing facilities of the Composite Materials segment:

5

During the third quarter of 2025, the Company completed the divestiture of its operations in Austria. The Company had previously announced in late 2024 that it was exploring strategic options for its operations in Austria and undergoing a process to find a suitable successor. The plant in Neumarkt, Austria only served industrial markets with industrial-grade fibers procured from third parties.

Net sales for the Composite Materials segment to third-party customers were $1,516.2 million in 2025, $1,531.0 million in 2024, and $1,474.2 million in 2023, which represented about 80% of our net sales each year. Net sales for composite materials are highly dependent upon the number of commercial aircraft produced as further discussed under the captions “Significant Customers”, “Markets” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”.

Engineered Products

The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets composite structures and precision machined honeycomb parts primarily for use in the aerospace industry. Composite structures are manufactured from a variety of composite and other materials, including prepregs, honeycomb, and structural adhesives, using such manufacturing processes as autoclave processing, multi-axis numerically controlled machining, heat forming, infusion or resin transfer molding and other composite manufacturing techniques. Composite structures include HexAM® 3D printed parts, which offer significant weight cost and time-to-market reductions compared to incumbent metal or traditional composite technologies. This segment also provides advanced interference control materials, structural composites, and services; dielectric absorber foams and honeycomb; magnetic absorbers; and thermoplastics for commercial and defense applications.

The following table identifies the principal products and examples of the primary end-uses from the Engineered Products segment:

Net sales for the Engineered Products segment to third-party customers were $377.7 million in 2025, $372.0 million in 2024, and $314.8 million in 2023, which represented approximately 20% of our net sales each year.

In early 2025, the Company divested its Hartford, Connecticut additive printing business and in June 2025, the Company closed its Welkenraedt, Belgium engineered products facility. The divestiture and closure were part of a strategy to streamline operations and focus on the company’s core competencies in carbon fiber composites.

The following table identifies the key customers and the major manufacturing facilities of the Engineered Products segment:

6

Significant Customers

Approximately 39%, 40% and 39% of our 2025, 2024 and 2023 net sales, respectively, were to Airbus and its subcontractors. Of the 39% of overall sales to Airbus and its subcontractors in 2025, 35% related to Commercial Aerospace market applications and 4% related to Defense & Space market applications. Approximately 13%, 15% and 15% of our 2025, 2024 and 2023 net sales, respectively, were to Boeing and its subcontractors. Of the 13% of overall sales to Boeing and its subcontractors in 2025, 11% related to Commercial Aerospace market applications and 2% related to Defense & Space market applications.

Markets

Our products are sold for a broad range of end-uses where durability, strength and weight are important factors to our customers. Beginning with the first quarter of 2025, sales are now being reported for two markets, Commercial Aerospace, unchanged from past practice, and a new sales category titled Defense, Space & Other, which combines the previous Space & Defense market and the Industrial market. Prior period sales amounts have been reclassified for comparative purposes.

Commercial Aerospace

The Commercial Aerospace industry is our largest user of advanced composites. Commercial Aerospace represented 61% of our 2025 net sales. Approximately 77% of these revenues can be identified as sales to Airbus, Boeing, and their subcontractors for the production of commercial aircraft. Approximately 23% of these revenues were for business jets and regional and other commercial aircraft. The economic benefits to airlines from weight savings in both fuel economy and aircraft range, combined with the aerodynamic design enhancement that comes from the advantages of advanced composites over traditional materials, have resulted in the aerospace industry becoming the leader in the adoption and use of these materials. While military aircraft and spacecraft have led the development and adoption of these materials, Commercial Aerospace has greater production volumes and has commercialized the use of these products. Accordingly, the demand for advanced composites structural material products is closely correlated to the demand for new commercial aircraft.

The use of advanced composites in Commercial Aerospace is primarily in the manufacture of new commercial aircraft and jet engines. These composite materials are designed to last the life of the aircraft and engine so as a result, the aftermarket for these products is minimal. The demand for new commercial aircraft is driven by two principal factors, the first of which is airline passenger traffic (the number of revenue passenger miles flown by the airlines) which affects the required size of airline fleets. Growth in passenger traffic requires growth in the size of the fleet of commercial aircraft operated by airlines worldwide.

A second factor, which is less sensitive to the general economy, is the replacement rates for existing aircraft. The rates of retirement of passenger and freight aircraft, resulting mainly from obsolescence, are determined in part by the regulatory requirements established by various civil aviation authorities worldwide as well as public concern regarding aircraft age, safety, noise, and emissions. These rates may also be affected by the desire of the various airlines to improve operating costs with higher payloads and more fuel-efficient aircraft (which in turn is influenced by the price of fuel) and by reducing maintenance expense. In addition, pressure is increasing on airlines to replace their aging fleet with more fuel efficient and quieter aircraft to be more environmentally responsible. For example, aircraft operators subject to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) are facing high costs to purchase carbon credits for compliance, which may influence fleet replacement plans to purchase lightweight new aircraft. Additionally, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) emission reduction mandates for international aviation becomes mandatory on January 1, 2027, which may influence fleet renewal. When aircraft are retired from commercial airline fleets, they may be converted to cargo freight aircraft, used for parts, or scrapped.

An additional factor that may cause airlines to defer or cancel orders is their ability to obtain financing, including leasing, for new aircraft orders. This will be dependent both upon the financial health of the airline operators, as well as the overall availability of financing in the marketplace.

7

Each new generation of commercial aircraft has used increasing quantities of advanced composites, replacing metals and other materials. This follows the trend previously witnessed in military applications where composites now comprise the majority of the airframe of latest generation aircraft to enhance performance, range and payload, including the F-35 Lightning and the CH-53K heavy lift transport helicopter. Early versions of commercial jet aircraft, such as the Boeing 707, which was developed in the early 1950s, contained almost no composite materials. One of the first commercial aircraft to use a meaningful amount of composite materials, the Boeing 767, entered into service in 1983, and contains approximately 6% composite materials, primarily comprised of interior secondary composite structures. Boeing’s legacy 777 aircraft, which entered service in 1995, is approximately 11% composite including composite flaps/ailerons and landing gear doors. The Airbus A380, which was first delivered in 2007, has approximately 23% composite content by weight as the tail structure was built of composites. The Boeing 777X was redesigned with composite wings and a new composite-rich engine and is more than 30% composites. Boeing’s 787, which entered into service in 2011, has a content of more than 50% composite materials by weight including composite wings and fuselage. The Airbus A350 XWB (“A350”) which has a composite content of 53% by weight was first delivered in December 2014.

Engines and nacelles are also an attractive market for both Hexcel Composite Materials and Engineered Products, including composite fan blades, cowlings, and nacelles. Both Airbus and Boeing introduced updated versions of their narrow body aircraft which utilize composite-rich engines and nacelles but continue to incorporate metal wings and fuselages that were designed decades ago. The Airbus A320neo had its first customer delivery in 2016 and the Boeing 737 MAX entered into service in 2017. The LEAP engines and nacelles on both the A320neo and 737 MAX are composite-rich as is the GE9X engine on the Boeing 777X.

It is expected that future aircraft platforms will offer more opportunities for composite materials than their predecessors, as the Commercial Aerospace industry continues to utilize a greater proportion of advanced composite materials with each new generation of aircraft and each new generation of engines and nacelles. We refer to this steady expansion of the use of composites in aircraft as the “secular penetration of composites” as it potentially increases our average sales per airplane over time.

The impact on Hexcel of Airbus and Boeing production rate changes is typically influenced by two factors: the mix of aircraft produced and the inventory supply chain effects of increases or reductions in aircraft production. We have products on all Airbus and Boeing planes. The shipset or dollar value of our materials varies by aircraft type and aircraft platform. Newer designed aircraft use more of our materials than older generations, and as a materials provider, larger aircraft use more composites by weight than smaller aircraft. On average, for established programs, we deliver products into the supply chain about four to six months prior to aircraft delivery, with a range between one and eighteen months depending on the product and specific aircraft platform. For aircraft that are in the development or ramp-up stage we will have sales as much as several years in advance of the aircraft entry-into-service.

Airbus and Boeing combined backlog at December 31, 2025 was 15,474 aircraft, or a 3.8% increase compared to December 31, 2024. The backlogs are at near record levels reflecting strong demand as well as continued production challenges and constraints within the commercial aerospace supply chain that has been limiting the production of new aircraft. The balance of our Other Commercial Aerospace sales is related to business jets and regional aircraft manufacture, and other commercial aircraft applications. These applications also exhibit increasing utilization of composite materials with each new generation of aircraft.

Defense, Space & Other

The Defense, Space & Other market represented 39% of our 2025 net sales. The Defense, Space & Other market has historically been an innovator in the use of, and source of significant demand for, advanced composites. The aggregate demand by Defense, Space & Other customers is primarily a function of procurement of military aircraft, rotorcraft and space craft that utilize advanced composites, including the United States, a number of Western European countries, as well as a select number of other countries globally. We are qualified to supply materials to a broad range of military aircraft, commercial helicopter and space programs, including the Lockheed Martin F-35 (Lightning), Sikorsky CH-53K (King Stallion), Bell-Boeing V-22 (Osprey) tilt rotor aircraft, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, Dassault Rafale, Airbus A400M and Embraer KC-390 military transport aircraft. The F-35, which is our largest program, represents less than 25% of revenues in this market. No other program accounts for more than 10% of our revenues in this market. The sales from these programs are dependent upon government funding. Space applications for advanced composites include solid rocket booster cases, fairings and payload doors for both government funded and commercial launch vehicles, and satellite buss and solar arrays for military and commercial satellites.

Another growth generating trend for Hexcel is the further penetration of composites in rotorcraft blades, including both new and replacement blades. The Sikorsky Black Hawk wide chord blade program was the largest blade program in 2025 and 2024. Hexcel composites are being used in prototypes of new military and civilian helicopters globally. CH-53K is a growth program, including the composite helicopter blades and new helicopter programs in development which use Hexcel composites in prototypes. The blades include Composite Materials products such as carbon fiber, prepregs, and honeycomb core to improve blade performance. In addition,

8

our Engineered Products segment provides specialty value added services such as machining, sub-assembly, and even full blade manufacturing for rotorcraft.

The revenue from industrial-type markets includes automotive, a variety of recreational products, and other industrial applications. In developing new applications, we seek those opportunities where advanced composites technology offers significant benefits to the end user, often applications that demand highly engineered performance. This includes primarily carbon fiber and resin formulations that we produce, although we will procure some glass fiber from third parties that we then combine with our resin formulations and weaving expertise. Automotive is the largest submarket with sales to high-end performance vehicles. Sales to major end user sub-markets, in order of size based on our 2025 sales: general industrial applications (including those sold through distributors), transportation (e.g., automobiles) and consumer electronics, and recreational equipment (e.g., bicycles and hockey sticks). Historically, wind energy comprised the largest submarket within industrial as we would purchase third-party glass fiber and add value with our weaving expertise and resin formulations. The financial returns on new wind energy business became unattractive to the Company as the global wind industry works through a period of turmoil in terms of inflationary cost impacts, logistics challenges, permitting delays, and stiff competition amongst multiple wind turbine manufacturers globally. As previously discussed, in 2025, we divested our Neumarkt, Austria industrial composites business and closed our Welkenraedt, Belgium facility. The divestiture and closure were part of a strategy to streamline operations and focus on our core competencies in carbon fiber and resulted in an exit from prepreg for wind-energy and marine. We will continue to serve select industrial markets that demand the performance of our aerospace-grade composites from our existing aerospace-focused plants, with aerospace-oriented manufacturing assets.

Further discussion of our markets, including certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors with respect to “forward-looking statements” about those markets, is contained under the captions “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, “Forward Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.”

Backlog

In recent years, our customers have demanded shorter order lead times and “just-in-time” delivery performance. While we have many multi-year contracts with our major aerospace customers, most of these contracts specify the proportion of the customers’ requirements that will be supplied by us and the terms under which the sales will occur, not the specific quantities to be procured or the specific dates for delivery. As a result, twelve-month order backlog is not a meaningful trend indicator for us.

Raw Materials and Production Activities

Our manufacturing operations are in many cases vertically integrated. One example of the benefits of our vertical integration is that it enables us to control both the carbon fiber surface structure and resin formulations to optimize their interaction and ensure excellent interfacial adhesion or bonding. We produce and internally use carbon fibers, industrial fabrics, composite materials, and composite structures as well as sell these materials to third-party customers for their use in the manufacture of their products.

We manufacture high performance carbon fiber from polyacrylonitrile precursor (“PAN”). The primary raw material for PAN is acrylonitrile. All of the PAN we produce is for internal carbon fiber production. We utilized between 60% and 65% by value of the carbon fiber we produced in both 2025 and 2024 with the remainder of our output sold to third-party customers. However, as one of the world’s largest consumers of high-performance carbon fiber, we also purchase significant quantities of carbon fiber from external sources for our own use. The sources of carbon fiber we can use in any product or application are generally dictated by customer qualifications or certifications. Otherwise, we select a carbon fiber based on performance, price, and availability. With the increasing demand for carbon fiber, particularly in aerospace applications, in recent years we increased our PAN and carbon fiber capacity to serve the growing needs of our customers and our own downstream products.

We formulate a variety of resin systems that are tailored to specific applications and support the process for manufacturing composite parts. The type of epoxy and curative used in the resin systems vary depending on the application being considered, including the required service temperature, mechanical performance, and rate of cure. We continually focus on innovation that will help our customers reduce their cycle time and increase their production through-put, including lower curing temperatures, faster curing times, and enhancing the flow characteristics of the resin formulations, particularly for out-of-autoclave infusion and resin transfer molding manufacturing processes.

9

We purchase glass yarn for our aerospace and industrial markets from a number of suppliers in the United States, Europe and Asia as we only produce aerospace-grade carbon fiber. We also purchase aramid and high strength fibers which are produced by only a few companies, and during periods of high demand, can be in short supply. In addition, epoxy and other specialty resins, aramid paper and aluminum specialty foils are used in the manufacture of composite products. A number of these products have only one or two sources qualified for use, so an interruption in their supply could disrupt our ability to meet our customer requirements. When entering into multi-year contracts with aerospace customers, we attempt to get back-to-back commitments from key raw material suppliers. While we are not dependent on any one supplier for the majority of our raw materials, we are highly dependent on our suppliers in order to meet commitments to our customers. We continue to work closely with our key suppliers to ensure that we are able to meet our customer commitments. While we did not experience materially significant issues in the purchase of key raw materials, we have experienced cost increases in both materials and transportation, some of which we have been unable to recover or offset, as well as transportation and performance delays. We continue to monitor the availability (including transportation) and price (including impacts of tariffs and inflation) of raw materials on a regular basis, as well as any potential impact on our operations.

Our manufacturing activities are primarily based on “make-to-order”, or “demand pull” based on customer schedules, and to a lesser extent, “make-to-forecast” production requirements. We coordinate closely with key suppliers in an effort to avoid raw material shortages and excess inventories. However, many of the key raw materials we consume are available from relatively few sources, and in many cases the cost of product qualification makes it impractical to develop multiple sources of supply. The lack of availability of these materials could under certain circumstances have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations.

Research and Technology: Patents and Know-How

We maintain seven Research and Technology (“R&T”) Centers of Excellence to support our businesses worldwide, including in the U.S., France and the United Kingdom. Through R&T activities, we maintain expertise in precursor and carbon fiber, chemical and polymer formulation and curatives, fabric forming and textile architectures, advanced composite structures, process engineering, application development, analysis and testing of composite materials, computational design, and other scientific disciplines related to our worldwide business base. During the latter part of 2025, we determined that our R&T function will be renamed to Research and Development ("R&D") which will be reflected in our reporting beginning in 2026.

Our products rely primarily on our expertise in materials science, textiles, process engineering and polymer chemistry. Consistent with market demand, we have been placing more emphasis on higher performing products and cost-effective production processes while seeking continually to improve the consistency of our products and our capital efficiency. Towards this end, we have entered into formal and informal alliances, as well as licensing and teaming arrangements, with several customers, suppliers, external agencies, universities and laboratories. We believe that we possess unique capabilities to design, develop, manufacture, and qualify composite materials and structures, including trade secrets and extensive internal knowledge gained from decades of experience. It is our policy to actively enforce our proprietary rights. We believe that the patents and know-how rights currently owned or licensed by Hexcel are adequate for the conduct of our business. We do not believe that our business would be materially affected by the expiration of any single patent or series of related patents, or by the termination of any single license agreement or series of related license agreements.

Environmental Matters

We view climate change as an important social issue that presents some level of risk to our business while also creating opportunities for greater adoption of lightweight advanced composites. Our strategic and operational decision making is influenced by our commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, including our carbon footprint, air and water emissions and waste reduction. We continue to pursue initiatives to improve our emissions profile through operational efficiency improvements that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase our use of renewable power. We procure renewable power through our energy suppliers and at several sites, through power purchase agreements (PPA). We also work with our energy suppliers to provide on-site renewable power including the installation of on-site solar panels at our manufacturing sites in Casa Grande, Arizona and Casablanca, Morocco. The generation of solar power reduces our demand for fossil-fuel powered electricity, which supports our carbon and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. We have applied this same approach to our product life cycle, implementing circular economic principles to reduce waste – both in our manufacturing and product packaging. At this time, we are not subject to carbon emission trading programs at any of our facilities, though we are actively monitoring country and region-specific regulations and trends to ensure future potential pricing and capital expenditures are incorporated into our product portfolio planning.

Governments and agencies worldwide are increasingly proposing and/or implementing legislation, regulations and other requirements resulting in more restrictive air emission limits globally, which could impact our operations. Changes in environmental and climate change laws or regulations, including laws relating to greenhouse gas emissions, could lead to new or additional investment in manufacturing processes or product designs and could increase environmental compliance expenditures, including

10

increased energy, controls and raw materials costs. Conversely, the increasing global emphasis on emissions reduction supports the adoption of our advanced composite light weighting solutions for transportation applications. We also market composite solutions that reduce aircraft engine noise, which benefits local communities near airports, supports aircraft operators in geographies that are subject to local noise abatement programs, and enables more direct routes for aircraft that save fuel rather than having to fly longer routes to avoid noise-sensitive areas.

We are subject to various International and U.S. federal, state, and local environmental and health and safety laws and regulations. We are also potentially subject to liabilities arising under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA” or “Superfund”), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and similar state local and international laws and regulations that impose responsibility for the control, remediation and abatement of air, water and soil pollutants and the manufacturing, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous substances and waste. We believe that our policies, practices, and procedures are properly designed to prevent unreasonable risk of environmental damage and associated financial liability. To date, environmental control regulations have not had a significant adverse effect on our overall operations and all Hexcel operating sites have been assessed for ISO 14001 readiness and 100% of our sites as of December 31, 2025, are ISO14001:2015 certified under a Corporate umbrella certification.

A discussion of environmental matters is contained in Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. For further discussion of risks related to environmental and climate matters and other government regulations, see Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Other Regulatory Matters

As a materials supplier for U.S. prime contractors, and, in some cases, directly to the U.S. government, we are subject to certain U.S. government Federal Acquisition Regulations, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement, and associated procurement regulations. Specifically, we must comply with certain laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts, including the U.S. government security requirements, such as the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual and any other applicable U.S. government industrial security regulations, as well as additional government export control laws and regulations. We must follow similar requirements when doing business with foreign governments. In complying with these laws and regulations, we may be required to make additional capital expenditures and incur other costs. Furthermore, failure to comply may result in the imposition of fines and penalties, including contractual damages, civil penalties, criminal penalties, administrative sanctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with the U.S. or foreign government or termination of any applicable facility security clearance, which in turn would preclude us from being awarded classified contracts or, under certain circumstances, performing on our existing classified contracts. The U.S. Government also has the ability to unilaterally terminate existing contracts with us and our U.S. prime customers, reduce the value of such contracts, audit contract-related costs and fees, including allocated indirect costs, and control and potentially prohibit the export of our products, among other things. If a contract supporting the U.S. government was terminated for convenience, we could only seek to recover the costs we have incurred or committed, settlement expenses, and profit on the work completed prior to termination.

As a company with significant international operations, we are also subject to numerous laws and regulations, including export controls and sanctions laws, customs regulations, tariffs, international treaties and local trade rules around the world. These laws, rules and regulations may impose significant costs of compliance on the Company and may impact our competitiveness through restricting our ability to do business in certain places or with certain entities and individuals. Any failure to comply with trade regulations could limit our ability to conduct business internationally.

Sales and Marketing

A staff of salaried marketing managers, product managers and sales personnel sell and market our products directly to customers worldwide. We also use independent authorized distributors for certain products, markets, and regions. In addition, we operate various sales representation offices globally.

Competition

In the production and sale of advanced composites, we compete with a number of U.S. and international companies on a worldwide basis. The broad markets for composites are highly competitive, and we have focused on both specific sub-markets and specialty products within markets. In addition to competing directly with companies offering similar products, we compete with producers of substitutes for composites such as metal, structural foam, and wood. Depending upon the material and markets, relevant competitive factors include technology, product performance, historical database of usage, on-time delivery, service, price, customer preference for sole sourcing and the ease-of-use of our material to support customer-preferred processes.

11

We believe that new competitors face significant barriers to entry into many of our markets. These barriers include the intellectual property and unique skills and expertise to design and manufacture carbon fiber and to formulate resin systems for aerospace applications, an extensive database of qualification and performance measurements of our products, the advantages of scale derived from significant global manufacturing capacity for aerospace-grade carbon fiber, and long-term customer relationships developed over decades of designing, manufacturing and working closely with our customers on composite applications. Further, the aerospace industry has rigorous product certification requirements and quality programs including one hundred percent traceability of all raw material and finished goods, and high expectations for consistent on-time delivery, which all act as barriers to entry.

Human Capital

We believe our success depends on the skills, experience, and industry knowledge of our key talent. As such, our management team places significant focus and attention on the attraction, development, and retention of employees, as well as ensuring our corporate culture reflects our values, and our board of directors provides oversight for various employee initiatives. Our Hexcel values guide our actions, reflect our culture, and drive our performance, as explained in our Code of Business Conduct posted on our website at www.hexcel.com. We have made and continue to make significant investments in training and professional development, and we have well-established performance management and talent development processes that encourage employees to aspire to different career opportunities and for our managers to provide regular feedback and coaching to develop employees.

The health and safety of our employees is a continual focus and a top priority. Our initiatives and actions to reduce injuries and illnesses have led to significant improvements to our safety performance over time. We have attained these improvements by fostering a global safety culture supported with regular training and education that includes robust systems and philosophies centered on personal responsibility and accountability. There is a high-level of leadership engagement, ensuring risks are assessed, robust procedures and guidance are available with worker training, mitigation is managed through the hierarchy of management controls, and appropriate safety equipment is installed and operational at all of our manufacturing sites worldwide. We also have leading indicators in place to prevent safety events, and rigorous reviews of root causation and systemic corrective actions when safety incidents do occur. Hexcel achieved corporate umbrella certification for both ISO14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 in 2019. Achieving both certifications to these globally recognized management system standards underscores Hexcel’s commitment to excellence in environmental, health, and safety performance. This milestone reflects the dedication of our senior leadership to driving continuous improvement by reducing workplace injuries and illnesses, minimizing the environmental impact of our operations, ensuring adherence to rigorous compliance obligations, and reinforcing our position as a sustainable and trusted supplier.

An engaged, innovative, skilled, and collaborative workforce is critical to our continued leadership in the advanced composites industry. We operate globally under policies and programs that provide competitive wages, benefits, and terms of employment. We are committed to efforts to foster an inclusive work environment that supports our global workforce through recruiting efforts, equitable compensation policies, and educational workshops to promote a positive and collaborative culture. Our recruitment efforts include targeted university recruitment and attendance at conferences, which have historically been a major source of candidates for our summer internship program and Early Career Program for new hires.

Employee levels are managed to align with business demand and, while we have experienced and continue to expect tight labor markets, management believes it currently has sufficient human capital to operate our business successfully. As of December 31, 2025, we employed 5,563 full-time employees and contract workers: 3,050 in the United States and 2,513 in other countries. We employ a minimal number of contract workers. Approximately 26% of employees in the United States and the majority of those in Europe are represented by unions or works’ councils. We believe that our relations with employees, unions and works’ councils are good. The total number of full-time employees and contract workers as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 was 5,894 and 5,590, respectively.

Other Information

Our internet website is www.hexcel.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website, including any reports available therein, is not a part of, and is not incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Any reference to our website in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is intended to be an inactive textual reference only. We make available, free of charge through our website, our Form 10-Ks, 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and any amendments to these forms, as soon as reasonably practicable after filing with, or furnishing to, the SEC.

Forward-Looking Statements

This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. These statements also relate to future prospects, developments and business strategies. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,”

12

“intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “seek,” “target,” “would,” “will” and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions. Such statements are based on current expectations, are inherently uncertain and are subject to changing assumptions. No assurance can be given that any commitment, plan, initiative, projection, goal, expectation, or prospect set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K can or will be achieved. Inclusion of information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is not an indication that the subject or information is material to our business or operating results.

Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (a) the estimates and expectations based on aircraft production rates provided by Airbus, Boeing and others and the revenues we may generate from an aircraft model or program; (b) expectations with regard to the impact of regulatory activity related to the Boeing 737 MAX on our revenues; (c) expectations with regard to raw material cost and availability, including any impact associated with quotas, duties, tariffs, taxes or other similar restrictions upon the import or export of materials; (d) expectations of composite content on new commercial aircraft programs and our share of those requirements; (e) expectations regarding revenues from defense and space applications, including whether certain programs might be curtailed or discontinued, and government funding opportunities; (f) expectations regarding sales for industrial applications; (g) expectations regarding cash generation, working capital trends, and inventory levels; (h) expectations as to the level of research and technology investment, capital expenditures, capacity, including the timing of completion of capacity expansions, and qualification of new products; (i) expectations regarding our ability to improve or maintain margins; (j) expectations regarding our ability to attract, motivate, and retain the workforce necessary to execute our business strategy; (k) projections regarding our tax rate; (l) expectations with regard to the continued impact of macroeconomic factors or geopolitical issues or conflicts; (m) expectations regarding our strategic initiatives, including our sustainability goals; (n) expectations with regard to the effectiveness of cybersecurity measures; (o) expectations regarding the outcome of legal matters or the impact of changes in laws or regulations; (p) expectations relating to our accelerated share repurchase program and other share repurchases; and (q) our expectations of financial results for 2026 and beyond.

Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, that may cause actual results to be materially different. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the following: the extent of the impact of macroeconomic factors or geopolitical issues or conflicts, including U.S. trade policy and retaliatory actions taken in response; reductions in sales to any significant customers, particularly Airbus or Boeing, including related to regulatory activity or public scrutiny impacting the Boeing 737 MAX; our ability to effectively adjust production and inventory levels to align with customer demand; our ability to effectively motivate, retain and hire the necessary workforce; the availability and cost of raw materials, including the impact of supply disruptions, inflation, and tariffs; our ability to successfully implement or realize our strategic initiatives, including our sustainability goals and any restructuring or alignment activities in which we may engage; changes in sales mix; changes in current pricing due to cost levels; changes in aerospace build or delivery rates; any impact from a shutdown of the U.S. federal government; changes in government defense procurement or investment budgets; timely new product development or introduction; our ability to install, staff and qualify necessary capacity or complete capacity expansions to meet customer demand; the market prices of our common stock during the term and after the completion of the accelerated share repurchase period; uncertainty regarding our ability to complete share repurchases within the proposed timing or at all; uncertainty regarding the amount and timing of future share repurchases or dividends and the source of funds used for such repurchases or dividends; cybersecurity-related risks, including the potential impact of breaches or intrusions; currency exchange rate fluctuations; uncertainty related to governmental actions and changes in political, social and economic conditions, including the effect of change in global trade policies, tariff rates, economic sanctions and embargoes; work stoppages or other labor disruptions; our ability to successfully complete any strategic acquisitions, investments or dispositions; compliance with environmental, health, safety and other related laws and regulations, including those related to climate change; the effects of natural disasters or other severe weather events, which may be worsened by the impact of climate change, and other severe catastrophic events, including any public health crisis; and the unexpected outcome of legal matters or impact of changes in laws or regulations.

Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. As a result, the foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with other cautionary statements included in this and other reports we file with the SEC. For additional information regarding certain factors that may cause our actual results to differ from those expected or anticipated, see the information under the caption “Risk Factors,” which is located in Item 1A of Part I of this report. We caution you not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements or risk factors to reflect future events or circumstances, except as otherwise required by law.