3D printing is booming, and major materials supplier Amaero (AMRO.US) has finalized terms for a $53 million listing.

Titanium and refractory metal powder maker Amaero (AMRO.US), which sells into defense and aerospace 3D printing, announced the terms of its Nasdaq IPO on Tuesday (September 15). The McDonald, Tennessee-based company plans to offer 7.5 million shares at an assumed offering price of $7.06 per share, raising $53 million. The $7.06 figure is derived from the September 11 closing price of its Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) stock (ticker 3DA), converted at prevailing exchange rates; at that offering price, Amaero's fully diluted market capitalization would be approximately $221 million. The company plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker AMRO, with Stifel and Baird serving as joint bookrunners, and pricing expected on Tuesday, September 22. Amaero produces spherical refractory metal and titanium alloy powders for additive manufacturing, and also provides large near-net-shape components made via powder metallurgy hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP). Its powder products include niobium, tungsten, tantalum, molybdenum, rhenium, and titanium alloys, designed for 3D printing of components for hypersonic weapons systems, satellite propulsion, strategic missiles, aerospace, and medical applications. Founded in 2013, the company generated $12 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2026. This is not a new company. It was founded in Australia in 2013 as Amaero Engineering Pty Ltd, completed its ASX listing in December 2019 under the ticker 3DA, changed its name to Amaero Ltd in April 2025, and then launched a U.S. reorganizationAmaero Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on February 20, 2026, with the domestication completed on June 22. The company first filed confidentially on July 10, then formally submitted its S-1 registration statement on August 28. In other words, this Nasdaq offering is a "home-field switch" for a company that has already traded on the ASX for nearly seven years, not a first foray into public markets. Growing fast, but still burning cash Financially, Amaero is in a classic "rapid revenue growth, profitability not yet positive" phase. The company reported FY2026 revenue (year ended June 30) of A$18.1 million, up 376% year-over-year; fourth-quarter revenue hit a record A$7.8 million, up 417% year-over-year. Contract backlog over the same period stood at A$23.1 million, equivalent to 128% of FY2026 revenue. There were two landmark events on the order side: on July 22, it won a A$6.5 million (about $4.5 million) U.S. Department of Defense contract for alternative refractory alloy powder development, running 13 months through August 2027, centered on C103 niobium-hafnium-titanium alloy used in hypersonics and space propulsion; in April, it signed a minimum A$7.8 million titanium powder supply agreement with a private-equity-backed advanced materials customer, running from July 2026 to June 2027the company says this single order roughly equals its entire FY2026 titanium powder sales, and it plans to roughly double titanium powder output in FY2027. But profitability is still far off. According to data compiled by Simply Wall St, the company posted a net loss of A$36.52 million over the past 12 months, with a gross margin of -26.12% and a price-to-sales ratio of about 13.9x. Another set of data from HDIN Research shows that as of June 30, 2026, the company had 23.8332 million common shares and accumulated losses of $75.5 million. Growth and losses expanding simultaneously is a common trait of materials companies in this capacity-ramp phase. It sits at the tightest link in 3D printing: powder Metal additive manufacturing has expanded rapidly in recent years, but the supply of "qualified powder" has not kept uphigh-performance titanium powder and refractory powders have historically been produced mostly overseas, leaving U.S. defense and aerospace programs under the dual pressure of long lead times and export controls. Amaero is betting on exactly this gap. Its core platform is electrode induction melting inert gas atomization (EIGA): a "non-contact" gas atomization process that avoids crucible contact melting, capable of producing high-purity titanium alloy and refractory alloy spherical powders while preventing reactive, high-melting-point metals from being contaminated by impurities. According to Pitt Street Research analysis, Amaero's EIGA Premium platform achieves a spherical titanium powder yield of about 50%, nearly double the 25% of conventional EIGA processes, at roughly half the production cost of plasma atomization or spheroidization routes. Capacity is the verifiable part. The company's McDonald, Tennessee plant already runs three EIGA atomizerstwo for titanium alloys and one for refractory alloystogether forming roughly 480 tons/year of titanium alloy powder capacity and about 200 tons/year of refractory alloy powder capacity, for a total of about 680 tons/year; the third unit was commissioned ahead of schedule in August. A three-year, A$72 million capex plan has been completed on time and on budget, and the company disclosed it has raised A$32.3 million to accelerate a fourth atomizer (targeted for production by June 2027). The company describes itself as the largest domestic U.S. supplier of spherical titanium and refractory powders by capacity, with a product line covering grades such as C103 niobium-based powder for rocket engines and hypersonics. The other leg is PM-HIP: loading powder into a sealed container and applying high temperature and pressure to directly produce large near-net-shape components with properties approaching those of forgings. For the U.S. submarine and maritime industrial base, this route can bypass lengthy casting and forging queues. The company says it is advancing multiple first-article qualification programs with DoD prime contractorsa necessary threshold for moving from samples to volume supply, and what distinguishes it from "lab companies." The company also holds ISO 9001/AS9100 certification and ITAR registration. Why now: 3D printing materials are hot, colliding with a policy-driven supply chain Amaero's choice of this moment to go to the U.S. comes as the entire materials segment is heating up. On the demand side, refractory metals are the tightest. Industry outlet PowderSight puts global demand for spherical refractory metal powders for additive manufacturing at an estimated 21,000 tons, growing at 23.6% year-over-year; a single hypersonic program can require hundreds of kilograms annually, while only a handful of companies worldwide have stable supply capability. The outlet also notes that Asia-Pacific surpassed North America this year for the first time to become the world's largest metal 3D printing materials market, with China accounting for 68% of the Asia-Pacific total; aerospace contributes about 35% of global metal 3D printing market revenue. The supply-side logic is policy-driven. U.S. domestic titanium sponge capacity has been nearly wiped out, leaving heavy reliance on imports, while China accounts for about 70% of global titanium sponge production. The Pentagon's domestic supply chain strategy (DFARS compliance) lists domestic titanium powder and refractory powder as critical materials, with "de-risking" continuing to intensifythis main thread directly determines where orders flow. Peers provide corroborating evidence: ATI reported revenue of $1.26 billion in its latest fiscal quarter, up 11% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA up 37% year-over-year to $284 million, backlog rising to a record $4.4 billion, and lead times for high-end titanium alloys extending to 20 months; IperionX won a second U.S. Army SBIR Phase III task order on August 31, with a base amount of $18.5 million ($11.5 million already disbursed, up to $25.4 million including options), part of an IDIQ contract with a ceiling of $99 million, targeting titanium powder capacity of about 200 tons/year by the end of 2026; 6K Additive reported first-half revenue of $13.27 million, up 73% year-over-year. Peripheral moves are equally busy: Elmet Group signed an agreement to acquire ams OSRAM's tungsten-molybdenum business in Schwabmnchen, Germany, establishing its first EU production base; Plansee and tungsten miner Almonty extended their Sangdong tungsten mine supply agreement to 21 years; Kennametal launched its first commercial additive tungsten carbide grade, KAF82. The temperature in capital markets can be read even more directly: on September 16, the A-share 3D printing sector index rose more than 2%.