SCI Engineered Materials (SCIA) Risk Factors

We face various cyber and other security threats, including attempts to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information and networks; employee threats; virtual and cyber threats to the safety of our directors, officers, and employees; threats to the security of our facilities and infrastructure; and threats from terrorist acts or other acts of aggression. Our customers and vendors face similar threats. Although we utilize internal and external independent controls to monitor and mitigate the risk of these threats, including a Security Incident Response Plan and periodic Information Technology training for all employees, there can be no assurance that these procedures and controls will be sufficient. Our security measures may also be breached due to employee error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities, or otherwise. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, users, or customers to disclose sensitive information to gain access to our data or our user's or customer's data. These threats could lead to losses of sensitive information or capabilities, harm to personnel, infrastructure, or products, and/or damage to our reputation as well as our vendor's ability to perform on our contracts. Cyber threats are evolving and include, but are not limited to, ransomware, malicious software, destructive malware, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data, disruption or denial of service attacks, and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in critical systems, unauthorized release of confidential, personal, or otherwise protected information (ours or that of our employees, customers, or vendors), and corruption of data, networks, or systems. The impact of these factors is difficult to predict, but one or more of them could result in the loss of information or capabilities, harm to individuals or property, damage to our reputation, loss of business, regulatory actions, and potential liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and/or cash flows.

We are subject to various federal, state, and local environmental and health and safety laws and regulations with respect to our operations. These laws and regulations address various matters, including asbestos, fuel oil management, wastewater discharges, air emissions, and hazardous wastes. The costs of complying with these laws and regulations and the penalties for non-compliance can be substantial. For example, with respect to leased property, we may be held liable for costs relating to the investigation and cleanup of our leased property from which there has been a release or threatened release of a regulated material as well as other properties affected by the release. In addition to these costs, which are typically not limited by law or regulation and could exceed the property's value, we could be liable for certain other costs, including, without limitation, governmental fines, and injuries to persons, property, or natural resources. Further, some environmental laws create a lien on the contaminated site in favor of the government for damages and the costs it incurs in connection with the contamination. While we are not aware of any potential environmental problems, no assurances are made that such problems and costs associated with them will not arise in the future. If any of our properties were found to violate environmental laws, we may be required to expend significant amounts of time and money to rehabilitate the property, and we may be subject to significant liability. Any environmental compliance costs and liabilities incurred may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our products are sold in a highly competitive global marketplace which continues to experience increased concentration. We may be negatively affected by changes in the strategies of our trade customers, such as inventory de-stocking, delisting of our products, and other conditions.

As a public company, we are subject to reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes Oxley Act and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls for financial reporting. We are required to document and test our internal control procedures to satisfy the requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. The Dodd-Frank Act requires us to audit our supply chain and report conflict minerals usage. These requirements may place a strain on our systems and resources in the future and may require us to hire additional accounting and financial staff with the appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. In addition, the failure to maintain such internal controls could result in us being unable to provide timely and reliable financial information which could potentially subject us to sanctions or investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission or events could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Although we have taken steps to maintain our internal control structure as required by the Exchange Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we cannot provide any assurances that control deficiencies will not occur in the future.

The market for PVD materials is substantial with significant competition in both ceramic and metal materials. While we believe that our products enjoy certain competitive advantages in design, function, quality, and availability, considerable competition exists from well-established firms such as Vacuum Engineering & Materials, Process Materials, Inc., and Materion, all of which may have more financial resources than us. We cannot provide assurance that developments by others will not render our products or technologies obsolete or less competitive.

Revenue attributable to these customers includes the sale of multiple applications. Our top two customers accounted for approximately 89.9% of our net sales for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Although they have been major customers of the Company for nearly twenty years, we do not have written agreements with these customers that require any minimum purchase obligations, and the customers could stop buying the Company's products at any time and for any reason. A reduction, delay, or cancellation of orders from these customers or the loss of these customers could significantly reduce our future revenues and profits. We cannot provide assurance that these customers or any of our other current customers will continue to place orders, that orders by existing customers will continue at current or historical levels or that we will be able to obtain orders from new customers.

We continue to develop our marketing and sales capabilities through targeted marketing, sales, technical, customer service and distribution capabilities. This includes increased participation in industry specific trade shows which attract representatives from domestic and international companies. We may enter into agreements with third parties to also provide these services to successfully market our products outside North America.