Array Technologies Inc (ARRY) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Array Technologies Second Quarter 202 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎來到 Array Technologies 第二季度 202 財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，正在錄製此會議。

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Cody Mueller, Investor Relations, Array. Please go ahead.

現在我很高興將電話轉給 Array 投資者關係部的 Cody Mueller。請繼續。

Good evening, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Array Technologies second quarter 2022 results. Slides for today's presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, arraytechinc.com.

晚上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議，討論 Array Technologies 第二季度 2022 年的業績。今天演示文稿的幻燈片可在我們網站 arraytechinc.com 的投資者關係部分獲取。

During this conference call, management will make forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect.

在本次電話會議期間，管理層將根據當前的預期和假設做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響。如果我們的任何關鍵假設不正確，實際結果可能與我們的前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。

We identify the principal risks and uncertainties that may affect our performance in our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements.

我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的報告和文件中確定了可能影響我們業績的主要風險和不確定性，這些信息也可以在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the company's second quarter press release for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures.

今天的演示文稿還包括對非 GAAP 財務指標的引用。您應該參考公司第二季度新聞稿中包含的信息，了解歷史非 GAAP 指標與可比 GAAP 財務指標的定義信息和對賬。

With that, let me turn the call over to Kevin Hostetler, Array Technologies' Chief Executive Officer.

有了這個，讓我把電話轉給 Array Technologies 的首席執行官 Kevin Hostetler。

Thanks, Cody, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. In addition to Cody, I'm also joined by Nipul Patel, our Chief Financial Officer. Let's begin with Slide 4, where I'll provide some highlights of our second quarter.

謝謝，科迪，大家晚上好。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。除了 Cody，我們的首席財務官 Nipul Patel 也加入了我的行列。讓我們從幻燈片 4 開始，我將在其中提供我們第二季度的一些亮點。

This was a strong quarter for Array. We delivered on our revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS expectations while having a strong quarter of bookings despite the impacts of the AD/CVD investigation, and we tightly managed working capital to ensure that we did not require additional financing or covenant relief. Revenue for the quarter of $425 million represents a 116% improvement year-over-year. Included in this number is legacy Array revenue of $352 million representing organic year-over-year growth of 79%. More impressive, this growth was achieved against the challenging set of industry circumstances, with numerous projects starts and stops, module changes and delays.

對於 Array 來說，這是一個強勁的季度。儘管受到 AD/CVD 調查的影響，我們仍實現了收入、調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的 EPS 預期，同時還有強勁的季度預訂量，並且我們嚴格管理營運資金以確保我們不需要額外的融資或契約減免。本季度的收入為 4.25 億美元，同比增長 116%。該數字中包括 3.52 億美元的 Array 傳統收入，同比有機增長 79%。更令人印象深刻的是，這一增長是在充滿挑戰的行業環境下實現的，包括許多項目的啟動和停止、模塊更改和延遲。

Our ability to achieve this operating performance is a strong reminder of 3 key elements of our business model. One, we offer a differentiated, patent-protected product that provides our customers with the lowest levelized cost of energy. Two, with continued redesigns due to issues with module availability, our flexible mounting structure and civil engineering expertise are key competitive advantages. And three, our large and well-established U.S. supply base, coupled with our asset-light operating model, allows for the shortest and most reliable lead times in our industry. This provides our customers the confidence in our ability to deliver the right products and services for their projects on time.

我們實現這一經營業績的能力強烈提醒我們商業模式的 3 個關鍵要素。第一，我們提供差異化的、受專利保護的產品，為我們的客戶提供最低的能源成本。第二，隨著模塊可用性問題的不斷重新設計，我們靈活的安裝結構和土木工程專業知識是關鍵的競爭優勢。第三，我們龐大而穩固的美國供應基地，加上我們的輕資產運營模式，使我們的行業能夠實現最短和最可靠的交貨時間。這讓我們的客戶相信我們有能力按時為他們的項目提供合適的產品和服務。

Despite the strong delivery volume for the quarter and the slowdown in orders due to the AD/CVD investigation in April and May, we added over $200 million in new orders, ending the quarter with a $1.9 billion order book. It is important to note that in July, after the announcement of the tariff moratorium, inbound opportunities increased by 25% compared to April and May, and we fully expect this momentum to continue.

儘管本季度交付量強勁且訂單因 4 月和 5 月的 AD/CVD 調查而放緩，但我們增加了超過 2 億美元的新訂單，本季度末的訂單量為 19 億美元。值得注意的是，在宣布暫停關稅後，7 月份入境機會比 4 月和 5 月增加了 25%，我們完全預計這種勢頭將繼續下去。

Gross margin for the quarter was 11.1%, which is an improvement of 70 basis points from prior year period and the third consecutive quarter of improvement, up 230 basis points from the first quarter. The 11.1%, while certainly on the right trajectory, is slightly down from where we would like to be as the STI business continued to have some cost challenges both in the U.S. construction business and in Spain. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of $26 million represents a year-over-year improvement of 162% and a sequential improvement of approximately $25 million from the first quarter.

本季度毛利率為 11.1%，比去年同期提高 70 個基點，連續第三個季度提高，比第一季度提高 230 個基點。 11.1%，雖然肯定處於正確的軌道上，但略低於我們希望達到的水平，因為 STI 業務在美國建築業務和西班牙繼續面臨一些成本挑戰。第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 2600 萬美元，同比增長 162%，比第一季度環比增長約 2500 萬美元。

Although we still have room for improvement in our working capital efficiency, overall, I was pleased with our execution this quarter. You'll recall, coming into our second quarter, we had some constraints on our liquidity due to our debt covenants, delivering $425 million of revenue and managing our working capital to not require either covenant relief or additional funding was a testament to this team's execution. Nipul will discuss this in more detail later, but as we look at liquidity moving forward, there are a few key aspects to keep in mind.

儘管我們在營運資本效率方面仍有改進空間，但總的來說，我對本季度的執行情況感到滿意。你會記得，進入我們的第二季度，由於我們的債務契約，我們的流動性受到一些限制，提供了 4.25 億美元的收入和管理我們的營運資金，不需要契約減免或額外資金，這證明了這個團隊的執行力. Nipul 稍後將對此進行更詳細的討論，但當我們展望未來的流動性時，有幾個關鍵方面需要牢記。

In Q2, we were limited to only being able to pull $70 million from our revolving facility because of our existing debt covenants. Given our Q2 results and expected second half performance, we now anticipate unlocking the full $200 million value of that facility. As we have discussed previously, the combination of margin improvement, our business cyclicality and improved working capital efficiency will provide positive free cash flow in both the third and fourth quarters.

在第二季度，由於我們現有的債務契約，我們只能從循環貸款中提取 7000 萬美元。鑑於我們第二季度的業績和預期的下半年業績，我們現在預計將釋放該設施的全部 2 億美元價值。正如我們之前所討論的那樣，利潤率的提高、我們的業務週期性和營運資本效率的提高相結合，將在第三季度和第四季度提供正的自由現金流。

And finally, as identified in a recent current report, we reached a $42.75 million legal settlement, and these funds were received in full after our quarter end. We had not planned for this in our cash forecast. With these factors in mind, we feel confident in our liquidity position as we move forward and execute on our $1.9 billion order book.

最後，正如最近一份當前報告所指出的那樣，我們達成了 4275 萬美元的法律和解，這些資金在我們的季度結束後全額收到。我們在現金預測中沒有為此計劃。考慮到這些因素，我們在推進和執行 19 億美元的訂單時對我們的流動性狀況充滿信心。

Turning to our next slide. Mindful of recent developments, I want to take some time to discuss the industry landscape here in the U.S. and what that means for Array as we progress through this year and into 2023. There are 3 key dynamics that are important when looking at our business moving forward: the regulatory environment, customer demand and project timing and the health of our supply chain.

轉到下一張幻燈片。考慮到最近的發展，我想花點時間討論一下美國的行業格局，以及這對 Array 在今年和 2023 年的發展意味著什麼。在審視我們的業務發展時，有 3 個重要的關鍵動態前瞻：監管環境、客戶需求和項目時間以及我們供應鏈的健康狀況。

First, on the regulatory side. The Biden administration's executive order providing a 2-year moratorium on tariffs offers welcome relief and a window of certainty for our customers. We now expect the $240 million of projects that we previously identified as at risk during our first quarter call to move forward, and we have already secured defined start dates on several of these projects. While we are pleased to see this demand solidified, I note we do not currently expect to see a significant impact from these projects in 2022 due to lead times and the time required for our customers to get these projects into their near-term build schedule.

首先，在監管方面。拜登政府的行政命令暫停徵收關稅 2 年，為我們的客戶提供了可喜的救濟和確定性窗口。我們現在預計我們之前在第一季度電話會議中確定為存在風險的 2.4 億美元項目將繼續推進，並且我們已經確定了其中幾個項目的確定開始日期。雖然我們很高興看到這種需求得到鞏固，但我注意到，由於交貨時間以及我們的客戶將這些項目納入其近期建設計劃所需的時間，我們目前預計這些項目不會在 2022 年產生重大影響。

We are also seeing some project delays due to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA. This is resulting in projects still requiring multiple module designs while customers navigate the potential for delays. As of today, these delays are within the range of the slower progression of projects that we have been forecasting all year.

我們還看到一些項目因維吾爾強迫勞動預防法 (UFLPA) 而延誤。這導致項目仍然需要多個模塊設計，而客戶則應對延遲的可能性。截至今天，這些延遲都在我們全年預測的項目進展緩慢的範圍內。

On the horizon, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, now passed on the U.S. Senate side, represents the biggest piece of climate-related legislation in the history of the United States.

即將在美國參議院通過的 2022 年通貨膨脹減少法案代表了美國歷史上最大的氣候相關立法。

While details of many of the provisions still need to be clarified, what is clear is this legislation will provide long-term certainty on incentives for both deployment and manufacturing related to solar energy. This certainty allows participants to invest in new facilities and bring jobs to the U.S. while accelerating the transition to clean energy. We strongly encourage the House to pass this bill and President Biden to sign it into law.

雖然許多條款的細節仍有待澄清，但顯而易見的是，這項立法將為與太陽能相關的部署和製造提供長期的激勵措施。這種確定性使參與者能夠投資新設施並為美國帶來就業機會，同時加速向清潔能源的過渡。我們強烈鼓勵眾議院通過該法案，並由拜登總統簽署成為法律。

Our initial analysis of this bill and its specific impact on Array can be broken down into 2 areas. First, it provides a meaningful tailwind to the solar industry in total. Initial industry estimates are that the extension of the investment tax credit would add over 40% of additional installations between 2023 and 2027. This would equal approximately 46 additional gigawatts of solar energy installations over 5 years.

我們對該法案的初步分析及其對 Array 的具體影響可分為 2 個方面。首先，它為整個太陽能行業提供了有意義的順風。最初的行業估計是，投資稅收抵免的延長將在 2023 年至 2027 年之間增加超過 40% 的新增裝置。這相當於在 5 年內新增約 46 吉瓦的太陽能裝置。

Second, between the domestic content adder of 10% and the advanced manufacturing credit for torque tube and fasteners, there are additional benefits for companies who manufacture and source within the United States. On the domestic content adder, as we have stated before, we have a long-standing and mature domestic supply chain. Since this draft bill was released, we have already been in conversations with our customers to begin mapping out how we can support this provision. Our long-standing domestic capacity serves as an important strategic asset for us should this bill pass.

其次，在 10% 的國內含量加成與扭矩管和緊固件的先進製造信用之間，在美國製造和採購的公司還有額外的好處。在國內內容加法器上，正如我們之前所說，我們有一個長期成熟的國內供應鏈。自該法案草案發布以來，我們已經與客戶進行了對話，以開始規劃我們如何支持該條款。如果該法案獲得通過，我們長期以來的國內產能將成為我們的重要戰略資產。

On the manufacturing credits, clarification of how these will be calculated and who will be the direct beneficiary will be important since we do not directly manufacture torque tubes or fasteners. Regardless of the direct beneficiary, these credits provide a meaningful incentive for our industry. We estimate the current credits of $0.87 per kilogram of torque tube and $2.28 per kilogram of fasteners would amount to approximately $0.015 to $0.017 per megawatt.

關於製造信貸，澄清這些將如何計算以及誰將是直接受益人將很重要，因為我們不直接製造扭矩管或緊固件。無論直接受益者是誰，這些信貸都為我們的行業提供了有意義的激勵。我們估計，目前每千克扭矩管 0.87 美元和每千克緊固件 2.28 美元的信用額度相當於每兆瓦約 0.015 美元至 0.017 美元。

Moving on to the demand side. As evidenced by our substantial year-over-year growth and our $1.9 billion order book, we have consistently seen strong demand for our products and services. If we look at the current distribution of the demand within our order book, we expect between $600 million and $800 million to be delivered for the remainder of this year based on our current guidance. This means we have already secured between $1 billion and $1.2 billion in revenue for 2023. And at the point in time when this was measured, we still had 6 months to go before 2023 begins.

轉向需求端。正如我們同比大幅增長和 19 億美元的訂單所證明的那樣，我們一直看到對我們的產品和服務的強勁需求。如果我們查看訂單中當前的需求分佈，根據我們目前的指導，我們預計今年剩餘時間將交付 6 億至 8 億美元。這意味著我們已經確保 2023 年的收入在 10 億到 12 億美元之間。在衡量這一點的時間點，我們距離 2023 年開始還有 6 個月的時間。

Any impact from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act would only represent an upside to this already strong start. With the potential for additional demand and the intricacies of where material is manufactured and sourced from becoming increasingly important, what becomes even clear is that our robust and flexible supply chain, coupled with strong execution, will be more important than ever.

通貨膨脹減少法案的通過的任何影響只會代表這個已經強勁的開端的上行空間。隨著潛在的額外需求以及材料製造和採購地點的複雜性變得越來越重要，更明顯的是，我們強大而靈活的供應鏈，加上強大的執行力，將比以往任何時候都更加重要。

Given this as a backdrop, it's important to provide some additional information about Array's supply chain. This year, we have increased our global capacity to serve the market by more than 25% and are now able to deliver over 30 gigawatts per year. By the end of Q1 2023, given the commitment of our existing partners and the addition of new suppliers already in queue, we expect this number to be near 40 gigawatts. Importantly, given our asset-light operating model, this scaling does not require meaningful capital expenditures and does not represent additional fixed costs to Array.

鑑於此作為背景，提供有關 Array 供應鏈的一些額外信息非常重要。今年，我們將服務市場的全球產能提高了 25% 以上，現在每年能夠提供超過 30 吉瓦的電力。到 2023 年第一季度末，鑑於我們現有合作夥伴的承諾以及已經排隊的新供應商的增加，我們預計這一數字將接近 40 吉瓦。重要的是，考慮到我們的輕資產運營模式，這種擴展不需要有意義的資本支出，也不代表 Array 的額外固定成本。

Our operating model and execution provide meaningful cyclical resiliency should volumes ebb and flow. Relative to our domestic content, we currently have over 20 suppliers here in the U.S. for our major components, with 5 additional suppliers in various stages of our vendor qualification process. It is important to note we not only utilize steel mills located in the U.S., we also have suppliers that source this deal from the U.S. This underlying source of steel becomes a crucial factor for our customers as they look to meet domestic content requirements.

如果交易量起伏不定，我們的運營模式和執行將提供有意義的周期性彈性。相對於我們的國內內容，我們目前在美國有 20 多家供應商供應我們的主要部件，另外還有 5 家供應商處於我們供應商資格流程的各個階段。重要的是要注意，我們不僅利用位於美國的鋼廠，我們還有從美國採購這筆交易的供應商。這種潛在的鋼材來源成為我們客戶尋求滿足國內含量要求的關鍵因素。

So as I take a step back and look at the industry landscape, the term that I'd like to focus on is flexibility. We want to position ourselves to meet the additional demand as it comes, while ensuring that our operational structure does not depend upon that volume. With our recent and continuing supply chain and logistics improvements, we're in an outstanding position to do just that.

因此，當我退後一步審視行業格局時，我想關注的術語是靈活性。我們希望自己能夠滿足額外的需求，同時確保我們的運營結構不依賴於該數量。隨著我們最近和持續的供應鍊和物流改進，我們在這方面處於領先地位。

As we move to Slide 6, I want to close out today by talking a little bit about my early observations about the company and some of the key focus areas we'll be driving as we move forward. First, let me reiterate my initial impression that Array has an incredibly solid foundation to build from. Within the legacy Array segment, we continue to round out a high-quality, experienced management team who know how to scale and run a large multinational publicly traded corporation. Further, we have set in place key building blocks for continued growth and expanding profitability.

當我們轉到幻燈片 6 時，我想談談我對公司的早期觀察以及我們在前進過程中將推動的一些關鍵重點領域，從而結束今天的工作。首先，讓我重申一下我的初步印象，即 Array 具有令人難以置信的堅實基礎。在遺留的 Array 部分，我們繼續完善一支高素質、經驗豐富的管理團隊，他們知道如何擴展和運營一家大型跨國上市公司。此外，我們已經為持續增長和擴大盈利能力奠定了關鍵基礎。

In addition to the supply chain elements I discussed earlier, this also includes: the change in our business process that was made this time last year, reducing the company's exposure to commodity cost fluctuations and therein producing more predictable results; our digital transformation initiatives deliver streamlined back-end processes, driving better operational efficiencies as we scale, as well as improving our interactions with our customers; and the expansion of the workforce in strategic areas like commercial excellence, commodity management and logistics to ensure we are driving margin expansion as well as growth.

除了我之前討論的供應鏈要素外，這還包括： 去年這個時候對我們的業務流程進行的更改，減少了公司對商品成本波動的風險，從而產生了更可預測的結果；我們的數字化轉型計劃提供簡化的後端流程，隨著我們的規模擴大而提高運營效率，並改善我們與客戶的互動；以及在卓越商業、商品管理和物流等戰略領域擴大員工隊伍，以確保我們在推動利潤擴張和增長的同時。

On the STI side, STI is a company with a great customer reputation and product operating in high-growth regions. I've recently spent a week in Brazil with our STI team. I was fortunate to meet many of our team members and our customers and to spend time in the field on utility-scale solar sites learning and understanding the STI product and service offerings, and the positioning opportunities between our Array and STI product lines. I've been incredibly impressed with the team at STI. They are dedicated to the company and to the industry, and they continue to rally to every challenge we present them.

在STI方面，STI是一家在高增長地區擁有良好客戶聲譽和產品運營的公司。我最近在巴西與我們的 STI 團隊一起度過了一個星期。我很幸運能見到我們的許多團隊成員和客戶，並花時間在公用事業規模的太陽能站點實地學習和了解 STI 產品和服務，以及我們的 Array 和 STI 產品線之間的定位機會。 STI 的團隊給我留下了難以置信的印象。他們致力於公司和行業，並繼續團結起來迎接我們向他們提出的每一個挑戰。

However, as you can imagine, there are still areas where we need to get better, and we will focus on going forward. First, we need to quickly mature the processes and execution within the STI business to meet its current growth trajectory and its operations under a U.S. public company. To that end, we have recently appointed Ken Stacherski, our Chief Operations Officer, as our integration leader, and we have brought in a renowned third-party operations and supply chain consulting company to further accelerate our integration efforts.

但是，正如您所想像的那樣，我們仍有需要改進的地方，我們將專注於前進。首先，我們需要快速成熟 STI 業務的流程和執行，以滿足其當前的增長軌跡和在美國上市公司下的運營。為此，我們最近任命了我們的首席運營官 Ken Stacherski 為我們的整合負責人，我們還引入了一家知名的第三方運營和供應鏈諮詢公司，以進一步加快我們的整合工作。

Second, we need to rationalize the construction business at STI. This area of the business continues to be a drag on margins, so we need to ensure we are only offering this service where we have clarity and experience in the scope of work, a strong value proposition and when we could deliver our required profitability. Since our last quarter call, we have made progress on this front. We discontinued quoting any construction projects in the U.S. and have significantly reduced our construction quotes in Brazil, where we have reduced our associated construction headcount by more than half since the beginning of this year.

其次，我們需要理順STI的建築業務。該業務領域繼續拖累利潤率，因此我們需要確保我們只在我們對工作範圍有清晰度和經驗、強大的價值主張以及我們能夠實現所需盈利能力的情況下提供這項服務。自上個季度電話會議以來，我們在這方面取得了進展。我們停止了在美國的任何建築項目報價，並大幅減少了我們在巴西的建築報價，自今年年初以來，我們已將巴西的相關建築人員減少了一半以上。

We are still evaluating the strategic alternatives in Spain as that region has a more entrenched customer expectation that the tracker provider also performs construction. While this may take a bit more time than Brazil, we will be thoughtful and deliberate in our approach.

我們仍在評估西班牙的戰略選擇，因為該地區的客戶期望跟踪器供應商也進行施工。雖然這可能需要比巴西多一點的時間，但我們將在我們的方法中深思熟慮和深思熟慮。

Third, we need to become a world-class logistics company. You'll remember, we manufacture little ourselves. This means we are moving a lot of materials from multiple suppliers direct to multiple customer sites at any given time. We recognize our need to execute this in the most efficient, flexible and predictable way possible. We have recently hired a new Vice President of Logistics who has extensive international experience and a proven track record of delivering operational excellence in this area. Our second half ERP system enhancements will also greatly aid our efforts here.

第三，我們要成為世界一流的物流公司。你會記得，我們自己製造的很少。這意味著我們在任何給定時間都將大量材料從多個供應商直接運送到多個客戶站點。我們認識到我們需要以最高效、靈活和可預測的方式執行此操作。我們最近聘請了一位新的物流副總裁，他擁有豐富的國際經驗和在該領域提供卓越運營的良好記錄。我們下半年的 ERP 系統增強功能也將極大地幫助我們在這方面的努力。

Fourth, we need to have an intense focus on improving working capital efficiency. We felt a bit behind here as our team rightly pivoted to focus on margin restoration and improving delivery execution. Our business model inherently produces great free cash flow, and we need to ensure we are maximizing incoming cash to fund organic growth, pay down debt and provide funding for strategic acquisitions.

第四，我們需要高度重視提高營運資金效率。我們感覺有點落後，因為我們的團隊正確地將重點放在利潤恢復和改進交付執行上。我們的商業模式本質上會產生巨大的自由現金流，我們需要確保我們最大限度地利用現金來資助有機增長、償還債務並為戰略收購提供資金。

We have already restructured our collections process to better align with our customer-facing teams, and we have significantly improved the linearity of our shipments, allowing us to get more receivables into the billing cycle earlier in the period. This dramatically improved linearity throughout Q2 and into Q3, and was critical to and evidenced by our cash management in our second quarter. While improving, there is still work to do in optimizing inventory levels and bringing our DSO levels near our historic levels.

我們已經重組了我們的收款流程，以更好地與我們面向客戶的團隊保持一致，並且我們顯著提高了發貨的線性度，使我們能夠在此期間的早期將更多應收賬款納入計費周期。這顯著提高了整個第二季度和第三季度的線性度，這對我們第二季度的現金管理至關重要並得到了證明。在改進的同時，在優化庫存水平和使我們的 DSO 水平接近歷史水平方面仍有工作要做。

Finally, we will focus on becoming easier to do business with while creating a streamlined experience for our customers. We have always had a strong focus on our customers, but often, this is done through extraordinary efforts and manual processes, which at times can be slow, frustrating and exceedingly difficult to scale. This is a key area where we are focusing our near-term digital transformation efforts on. As designed, our digital transformation will improve turnaround times on customer quotes, project design, shipment scheduling and service appointments, to name a few. All this, while simultaneously providing enhanced visibility on project status and delivery directly to our customers.

最後，我們將專注於變得更容易開展業務，同時為我們的客戶創造簡化的體驗。我們一直非常關注我們的客戶，但通常，這是通過非凡的努力和手動流程來完成的，有時可能會很慢、令人沮喪並且極難擴展。這是我們近期數字化轉型工作重點關注的一個關鍵領域。按照設計，我們的數字化轉型將縮短客戶報價、項目設計、發貨安排和服務預約等方面的周轉時間。所有這一切，同時增強了項目狀態的可見性，並直接向我們的客戶交付。

As a company with multiple products servicing numerous regions, we need to ensure our customers know who to go to, to get the right answers in a timely manner. There is already a great deal of momentum behind these focus areas, and I'm confident that we could execute on improving them quickly. I look forward to updating you on our progress in these areas as we execute and move forward.

作為一家為眾多地區提供多種產品的公司，我們需要確保我們的客戶知道該找誰，並及時得到正確的答案。這些重點領域背後已經有了很大的動力，我相信我們可以快速改進它們。我期待著在我們執行和前進的過程中向您介紹我們在這些領域取得的進展。

With this, I'll turn the call over to Nipul for a deeper review of our second quarter financial performance.

有了這個，我將把電話轉給 Nipul，以更深入地審查我們第二季度的財務業績。

Thanks, Kevin. I'm glad to speak with you all today. First, turning to Slide 8, I'll walk through our results for the quarter. Revenues for the second quarter increased 116% to $424.9 million compared to $196.5 million for the prior year period. The $425 million in revenue reflects $352 million from the legacy Array business and $73 million from the STI business.

謝謝，凱文。很高興今天能和大家交談。首先，轉到幻燈片 8，我將介紹本季度的結果。第二季度收入增長 116% 至 4.249 億美元，而去年同期為 1.965 億美元。 4.25 億美元的收入反映了傳統陣列業務的 3.52 億美元和 STI 業務的 7300 萬美元。

As Kevin mentioned, the $352 million from the legacy Array business represents organic growth of 79% compared to the prior year and quarter-over-quarter growth of $101 million, which is partially due to our normal seasonality where we would expect more deliveries in the second and third quarters. The $73 million from the STI business represents growth of $23 million or 46% from the first quarter. Taken together, revenue exceeded our expectations as we had strong delivery execution and linearity throughout the quarter, and had favorable timing of project start date late in the quarter.

正如 Kevin 所提到的，傳統 Array 業務的 3.52 億美元與上一年相比有機增長 79%，環比增長 1.01 億美元，這在一定程度上是由於我們的正常季節性，我們預計第二季和第三季。 STI 業務的 7300 萬美元比第一季度增長 2300 萬美元或 46%。總的來說，收入超出了我們的預期，因為我們在整個季度的交付執行力和線性度都很高，並且在本季度末的項目開始日期也很有利。

Gross profit increased to $47.4 million from $20.5 million in the prior year period due to the increase in volume, coupled with better pass-through pricing on the projects signed under our new business process. Gross margin increased from 10.4% to 11.1%. Gross margin for the legacy array business was 11% and represents the third consecutive quarter of margin improvement as it was up 250 basis points from the first quarter and was in line with our expectations.

毛利潤從去年同期的 2050 萬美元增加到 4740 萬美元，原因是銷量增加，加上根據我們新業務流程簽署的項目的更好的轉手定價。毛利率從 10.4% 上升至 11.1%。傳統陣列業務的毛利率為 11%，連續第三個季度實現利潤率改善，較第一季度增長 250 個基點，符合我們的預期。

The STI business had gross margin of 11.7% in the quarter, which was lower than expected, as they continue to have construction and logistics cost challenges, not only in their U.S. construction projects, but also in Spain. Supply plan changes and longer shipping times are delaying materials to project sites, which is negatively impacting our labor utilization and productivity. However, as Kevin mentioned, we have all hands on deck right now to ensure we quickly address these issues.

STI 業務本季度的毛利率為 11.7%，低於預期，因為他們繼續面臨建築和物流成本挑戰，不僅在美國建築項目中如此，在西班牙也是如此。供應計劃的變化和更長的運輸時間延遲了項目現場的材料，這對我們的勞動力利用率和生產力產生了負面影響。然而，正如凱文提到的，我們現在已經全力以赴，以確保我們能夠迅速解決這些問題。

Operating expenses increased to $54.2 million compared to $21.1 million during the same period in the prior year. The higher expense is primarily related to an $18.3 million increase in amortization expense related to the STI acquisition. Excluding this impact, the increase is primarily due to the addition of STI Norland in addition to higher payroll-related costs due to an increase in headcount as we invest in key strategic areas for our growth. The increases were partially offset by a reduction in contingent consideration expense of $1.7 million.

營業費用從去年同期的 2110 萬美元增至 5420 萬美元。費用增加主要與收購 STI 相關的攤銷費用增加 1,830 萬美元有關。排除這一影響，增加主要是由於 STI Norland 的加入，以及由於我們投資於關鍵戰略領域以實現增長而導致員工人數增加而導致的工資相關成本增加。這些增長被或有對價費用減少 170 萬美元部分抵消。

Net loss attributable to common shareholders was $15 million compared to a net loss of $5.5 million during the same period in the prior year, and basic and diluted loss per share were $0.10 compared to basic and diluted loss per share of $0.04 during the same period in the prior year. The increase in losses to common shareholders primarily represents the preferred dividend payments which began in the third quarter of last year.

歸屬於普通股股東的淨虧損為 1500 萬美元，上年同期為淨虧損 550 萬美元，每股基本和攤薄虧損為 0.10 美元，而去年同期為每股基本和攤薄虧損 0.04 美元前一年。普通股股東虧損增加主要是去年第三季度開始的優先股股息支付。

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $25.9 million compared to $9.9 million for the prior year period. Adjusted EPS was $0.09, up from $0.02 a year ago and was positively impacted by a larger-than-expected income tax benefit this quarter.

調整後的 EBITDA 增至 2590 萬美元，而去年同期為 990 萬美元。調整後每股收益為 0.09 美元，高於一年前的 0.02 美元，並受到本季度高於預期的所得稅優惠的積極影響。

Looking at free cash flow. We used cash of $12.2 million in the current quarter, primarily due to an increase in our accounts receivable balance due to the increase in revenue from the prior quarter. However, it is important to note this slight use of cash was expected for the second quarter and represents a significant improvement over the prior year when we used $92.6 million.

看自由現金流。我們在本季度使用了 1220 萬美元的現金，這主要是由於上一季度的收入增加導致我們的應收賬款餘額增加。然而，重要的是要注意第二季度預計會出現這種少量現金使用，這比我們使用 9260 萬美元的上一年有了顯著改善。

Overall, we were pleased with the execution this quarter. The legacy Array operating segment continued the margin restoration trajectory we outlined last year, and even though the STI operating segment has some near-term cost challenges that we will have to contend with, it showed improvement quarter-over-quarter in its margins, and we expect that trend to continue.

總體而言，我們對本季度的執行情況感到滿意。傳統的 Array 運營部門延續了我們去年概述的利潤率恢復軌跡，儘管 STI 運營部門面臨一些我們必須應對的近期成本挑戰，但它的利潤率環比有所改善，並且我們預計這一趨勢將繼續下去。

Now if we move to Slide 9, I will provide some additional details around our sources of liquidity for the remainder of the year. We ended the second quarter with $51 million in cash on hand and $2 million in availability under our revolving facility. I will remind everyone that the $2 million of availability this quarter was due to our inability to meet our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 7.1x, which would have been tested should we have drawn greater than $70 million. The net debt in the calculation includes only our term loan, and the amount drawn on the revolver less cash on hand.

現在，如果我們轉到幻燈片 9，我將提供一些有關今年剩餘時間流動性來源的更多詳細信息。我們在第二季度結束時手頭有 5100 萬美元現金，循環貸款下有 200 萬美元可用現金。我會提醒大家，本季度 200 萬美元的可用資金是由於我們無法滿足 7.1 倍的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率，如果我們提取的資金超過 7000 萬美元，這將得到測試。計算中的淨債務僅包括我們的定期貸款，以及從左輪手槍提取的金額減去手頭現金。

You can see here at the end of Q2, this totaled $341 million. However, as we move into the third and further quarters with the expected adjusted EBITDA performance, we expect we will no longer be restricted by this covenant, and therefore, will have between $150 million and $170 million of availability under this facility depending on the holdback of lines of credit. This means we now have access to between $80 million and $100 million in additional liquidity.

你可以在這裡看到第二季度末，總計 3.41 億美元。然而，隨著我們進入第三季度和未來的調整後 EBITDA 業績，我們預計我們將不再受此契約的限制，因此，根據保留情況，此貸款下將有 1.5 億至 1.7 億美元的可用資金信用額度。這意味著我們現在可以獲得 8000 萬至 1 億美元的額外流動資金。

That said, we currently anticipate paying down the revolver in full in the third quarter, with a combination of the funds received from the settlement Kevin discussed earlier and our free cash flow, which we expect will range from $75 million to $100 million in the quarter, driven by improved margins and better working capital efficiency. As discussed previously, as we progress forward and continue to produce free cash flow, we will first use that cash to fund our organic growth, and with any excess capital, we will look at deleveraging and funding strategic acquisitions.

也就是說，我們目前預計在第三季度全額支付左輪手槍，包括從凱文之前討論的和解中收到的資金和我們的自由現金流，我們預計本季度的自由現金流將在 7500 萬至 1 億美元之間，受利潤率提高和營運資本效率提高的推動。如前所述，隨著我們向前發展並繼續產生自由現金流，我們將首先使用這些現金為我們的有機增長提供資金，而對於任何多餘的資本，我們將考慮去槓桿化和為戰略收購提供資金。

Moving to the next slide. I won't spend a lot of time here, but you will see that we are reaffirming our full year 2022 guidance. We do see a potential for some upside from the AD/CVD release, but we are currently seeing more of that impact in early 2023 due to lead times and the time it takes to get these projects aligned with build schedules. Also, as Kevin mentioned, the UFLPA is causing some slower movement on getting projects started for the remainder of our order book, so we are still planning on our backlog conversion being a little bit slower than historical norms, but in line with our previous expectations for the year.

移動到下一張幻燈片。我不會在這里花很多時間，但你會看到我們正在重申我們的 2022 年全年指導方針。我們確實看到了 AD/CVD 發布的一些潛在好處，但由於交貨時間以及使這些項目與構建計劃保持一致所需的時間，我們目前在 2023 年初看到了更多的影響。此外，正如 Kevin 所提到的，UFLPA 導致我們訂單簿剩餘部分的項目啟動速度有所放緩，因此我們仍在計劃我們的積壓轉換比歷史規範慢一點，但符合我們之前的預期今年。

Finally, we also see some slight headwinds in STI from their margins being down a little bit from a reduction in the Euro to USD rate, which we are now assuming will be at par for the remainder of the year, putting the full year average around $1.05 versus original planning assumption of $1.12.

最後，我們還看到 STI 的利潤率因歐元兌美元匯率的下降而略有下降，我們也看到了一些輕微的不利因素，我們現在假設今年餘下時間將持平，全年平均水平約為1.05 美元，而原計劃假設為 1.12 美元。

With that, I'll turn it back over to Kevin to wrap up.

有了這個，我會把它轉回給凱文來總結。

Thank you, Nipul. I'd like to wrap up by thanking our employees, providing me with such a warm welcome to Array. I'm incredibly excited about the trajectory of our business. We are growing our market share, improving our margins and becoming more efficient with our working capital. We are not at the finish line yet and there are certainly areas that we are working on to improve, but I am proud of the team for delivering on a great quarter.

謝謝你，尼普爾。最後，我想感謝我們的員工，他們熱情地歡迎我來到 Array。我對我們的業務發展軌跡感到非常興奮。我們正在擴大我們的市場份額，提高我們的利潤率，並提高我們營運資金的效率。我們還沒有到達終點線，當然還有一些我們正在努力改進的領域，但我為團隊取得了出色的成績感到自豪。

And with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

那麼，接線員，請打開問題熱線。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Brian Lee of Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自高盛的 Brian Lee。

Kudos on the solid execution here. I know the business environment is still quite challenging. Maybe a couple of questions really just on the margins. First, Kevin, I appreciate all the sort of action plan items around STI and integrating that. Can you give us a sense for how many quarters do you think it will take to sort of implement these -- the strategy? And then as you see STI normalize in terms of margins, I know you took it down from the high teens to mid-teens in gross margin this year, it sounds like just based on the Euro. Like what is the new normal there? What are you kind of aspiring to get to for STI gross margins and sort of over what time frame? And then I have a follow-up.

感謝這裡的可靠執行。我知道商業環境仍然充滿挑戰。也許有幾個問題真的只是邊緣問題。首先，凱文，我很欣賞圍繞 STI 的所有類型的行動計劃項目並將其整合。您能否告訴我們您認為實施這些戰略需要多少個季度？然後當你看到 STI 在利潤率方面正常化時，我知道你今年的毛利率從高十幾歲下降到十幾歲中期，這聽起來就像是基於歐元。那裡的新常態是什麼？您希望在什麼時間範圍內獲得 STI 毛利率？然後我有一個後續行動。

Great question. I think from our perspective, we're looking at this as another 2 to 3 quarters of work, and there's work in several areas. The first, obviously, we talked about scaling down some of the construction business that's becoming more difficult to be profitable and is somewhat dilutive to kind of the core product margins. So we're working very aggressively on that. I think we're really far along in Brazil.

很好的問題。我認為從我們的角度來看，我們正在將此視為另外 2 到 3 個季度的工作，並且在幾個領域都有工作。首先，很明顯，我們談到了縮減一些建築業務，這些業務變得越來越難以盈利，並且在某種程度上稀釋了核心產品的利潤率。所以我們在這方面非常積極地工作。我認為我們在巴西真的很遠。

Spain is going to take us a little bit longer to evaluate and it will be more like a transition into more construction advisory services rather than actually performing the work ourselves. So that's ongoing. And while we've been really effective, the team in STI Brazil is scaling that down very quickly. It's going to take us a little bit longer, a few quarters to achieve that in Spain.

西班牙將花費我們更長的時間來評估，它更像是向更多建築諮詢服務的過渡，而不是我們自己實際執行工作。所以這正在進行中。雖然我們一直非常有效，但巴西 STI 的團隊正在迅速縮小規模。我們需要更長的時間，幾個季度才能在西班牙實現這一目標。

I think the second key area of focus is really about supply chain leverage. We're working really, really aggressively with the team in both Brazil and Spain, and bringing our supply chain expertise, our commodity management teams and logistics to bear on those businesses. We have a pretty aggressive sprint for that, frankly. We're in a 14-week very aggressive integration program in which through that time period, we'll be very aggressively working with them to improve their overall cost position. We're not going to be done in 14 weeks, let me be clear, but there's certainly a focused effort and push with support of a third party and able to do that over the next 14 weeks.

我認為第二個重點關注領域實際上是供應鏈槓桿。我們正在與巴西和西班牙的團隊進行真正、非常積極的合作，並利用我們的供應鏈專業知識、我們的商品管理團隊和物流來支持這些業務。坦率地說，我們為此進行了相當積極的衝刺。我們正在進行為期 14 週的非常積極的整合計劃，在此期間，我們將非常積極地與他們合作，以改善他們的整體成本狀況。我們不會在 14 週內完成，讓我明確一點，但在第三方的支持下肯定會有集中的努力和推動，並且能夠在接下來的 14 週內完成。

So I think the right answer is it's going to take 2 or 3 quarters to get STI margins where we think we really want them to be, kind of a terminal margin perspective, but you'll start to see that improvement here in the back half of the year for sure.

所以我認為正確的答案是需要 2 或 3 個季度才能使 STI 利潤率達到我們認為我們真正希望的水平，這是一種終端利潤率的觀點，但你會在後半部分開始看到這種改善肯定是年度最佳。

Okay. Fair enough. That makes sense. And then with respect to that improvement in the back half, I think you guys had talked about previously kind of getting to high teens, maybe even 20% plus gross margins exiting this year. Is that still intact? And then as I think about next year 2023, steel costs have come in quite significantly. Can you kind of give us a sense of what that means for you in terms of pricing strategy heading into '23? And then on the margins, does this translate into maybe potential further margin upside for you guys as you take advantage of lower steel costs on, what I would presume at this point, are sort of second half '23 project quotes and deployments?

好的。很公平。這就說得通了。然後關於後半部分的改善，我想你們之前已經談到過達到十幾歲，甚至可能超過今年毛利率的 20%。那還是完好無損嗎？然後當我想到明年 2023 年時，鋼鐵成本已經大幅上漲。就進入 23 世紀的定價策略而言，您能否告訴我們這對您意味著什麼？然後在利潤率上，當你們利用較低的鋼鐵成本時，這是否會轉化為你們潛在的進一步利潤率上升，我現在假設的是 23 年下半年的項目報價和部署？

Yes. So 2 questions there. The first is, we still stand by our high teens, low 20s exit rate on margins than we certainly do. We feel really good about that. We see that trajectory. I don't think anything is changing our assumptions in that with what we see in the next 6 months or so. I think the second question is really about one of the changes in our business model, as you remember that we put in place last year to protect us on the upside of rising commodity costs, also don't mean that we necessarily take huge chunks of profit improvement when commodities go down. It's really about managing that cycle of commodities and quoting at the time that we take that order. So don't expect that if steel comes down, our margins are going to just balloon up. That's really not the way the industry is pricing at this point.

是的。所以有 2 個問題。首先是，我們仍然堅持我們的高青少年，低 20 多歲的利潤退出率比我們當然做的要低。我們對此感覺非常好。我們看到了那個軌跡。我認為在未來 6 個月左右的時間裡，我們所看到的情況不會改變我們的假設。我認為第二個問題實際上是關於我們商業模式的變化之一，正如你記得我們去年採取的措施以保護我們免受商品成本上漲的影響，也不意味著我們必須採取大量措施商品價格下跌時利潤增加。這實際上是關於在我們接受訂單時管理商品週期和報價。因此，不要指望如果鋼鐵價格下降，我們的利潤率就會飆升。在這一點上，這確實不是行業定價的方式。

Our next question is from Philip Shen of ROTH Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 ROTH Capital 的 Philip Shen。

First one is on the IRA. And in terms of the $0.016 per watt manufacturing tax credit benefit, Kevin, I think you quantified, I was wondering if you could talk through how much of that you think you might be able to secure. And I know this is fluid and technically, I think the torque tube producer, seller, manufacturer gets that credit. But ultimately, how does that play out? Do you think you can get half of that or more? And I know it starts effective the first of next year, and so how would you expect that to kind of flow through margins and so forth?

第一個是關於愛爾蘭共和軍的。就每瓦 0.016 美元的製造稅收抵免優惠而言，凱文，我想你量化了，我想知道你是否可以談談你認為你可能能夠獲得多少。我知道這是流動的，從技術上講，我認為扭矩管生產商、銷售商、製造商得到了這一點。但最終，結果如何？你認為你能得到一半或更多嗎？而且我知道它從明年的第一天開始生效，那麼你如何期望它通過利潤率等等流動？

Well, I think it's really going to be too early to tell. In the past when these have come, there's been some level of sharing between the manufacturer and the end users. The end users will have an expectation knowing that the manufacturer is getting that level of credit for some level of sharing that in the price. But I think it's too early to tell what that looks like. I think the important thing to remember is that while others are scrambling out there to identify and develop a reliable U.S. supply base, we've had a long-standing and tested U.S. supply base that is really ready made for these provisions.

好吧，我認為現在下結論還為時過早。過去，當這些出現時，製造商和最終用戶之間存在某種程度的共享。最終用戶會期望知道製造商因價格中的某種程度的共享而獲得了該程度的信用。但我認為現在說它是什麼樣子還為時過早。我認為需要記住的重要一點是，當其他人爭先恐後地尋找和發展可靠的美國供應基地時，我們已經擁有一個長期存在且經過測試的美國供應基地，真正為這些規定做好了準備。

So I think we feel we're sitting in a very, very good position as these provisions come into play. because we've been at this for a long time in the U.S., using U.S. steel. So it's not only about where the torque tube is formed, right? So it's not whether you run out and put a bunch of rolling mills in place in the U.S., it actually goes down to the raw steel and where your source of supply for the raw steel is. And that's something that we've really focused on very aggressively over the last several years in building out a U.S. supply base. So we're well positioned, but I think it's too early to tell how that will play out in the end market.

所以我認為，隨著這些規定的發揮，我們覺得我們處於非常非常有利的位置。因為我們在美國使用美國鋼鐵已經很長時間了。所以這不僅與扭矩管的形成位置有關，對嗎？所以這不是你是否用完並在美國建立一堆軋鋼廠，它實際上歸結為粗鋼以及你的粗鋼供應來源。在過去的幾年裡，我們在建立美國供應基地時非常積極地關注這一點。所以我們處於有利地位，但我認為現在判斷這將如何在終端市場上發揮作用還為時過早。

Right, because the $0.016 would accrue in the value chain. But then with your U.S. steel content, you can then enable that 10% ITC adder on the back end or down for the stream, if that makes sense.

是的，因為 0.016 美元會在價值鏈中累積。但是，如果有意義的話，然後根據您的美國鋼鐵含量，您可以在後端或下游啟用 10% ITC 加法器。

Okay.Good.

好的。

Anything else you want to add on that topic?

關於那個話題你還有什麼想補充的嗎？

No, I think it's just a bit early. We're still figuring out. I think everyone is figuring out. While these provisions are put into law, the actual execution, clarifications and details of them still have yet to be worked out. I can only say that I think that we're in a great position and have a seat at the table, working with several of the larger industry bodies. We've certainly spend time with SIA, and we have representatives on the Board at SIA who will have a seat at the table in terms of helping the government work through some of the details in the language that's going to come further as these provisions get more clarity wrapped around. So I think we'll have good representation. We'll have a better understanding earlier than others, but that's still to come.

不，我認為現在有點早。我們還在想辦法。我想每個人都在弄清楚。雖然這些規定已寫入法律，但具體的執行、澄清和細節仍有待制定。我只能說我認為我們處於有利地位並且在談判桌上佔有一席之地，與幾個較大的行業機構合作。我們當然花時間與 SIA 打交道，我們在 SIA 的董事會中有代表，他們將在幫助政府處理一些細節方面佔據一席之地，這些細節將隨著這些規定的獲得而進一步完善周圍更清晰。所以我認為我們會有很好的代表性。我們會比其他人更早地有更好的理解，但這還沒有到來。

Great. My second question here is on working capital. I think on the Q1 call, you guys highlighted that you expected to collect on AR in Q2, but the receivables really kind of continued to increase. So can you talk to us about what happened there? And then importantly, how much might you be able to collect in Q3? And yes, some additional color on that overall would be fantastic.

偉大的。我的第二個問題是關於營運資金。我認為在第一季度的電話會議上，你們強調你們希望在第二季度通過 AR 收款，但應收賬款確實在繼續增加。那麼你能和我們談談那裡發生的事情嗎？然後重要的是，您可以在第三季度收集到多少？是的，在整體上增加一些顏色會很棒。

Phil, this is Nipul. So yes, we did state that our receivables are going to come down hard. But we did have a large revenue quarter, larger than originally expected for Q2, but the receivables in that go. But we did have a lot of receivables in the collection process, and we still expect a strong Q3 in the balance of the year. So although it's higher than we expected, the higher revenue has helped our overall conversion cycle, and we believe we're going to get our overall cash conversion cycle down into historical levels near the end of the year.

菲爾，這是尼普爾。所以是的，我們確實聲明我們的應收賬款將大幅下降。但我們確實有一個很大的收入季度，比第二季度最初預期的要大，但應收賬款還在。但我們在收款過程中確實有很多應收賬款，我們仍然預計今年餘下的第三季度會表現強勁。因此，儘管它高於我們的預期，但更高的收入幫助了我們的整體轉換週期，我們相信我們將在年底前將我們的整體現金轉換週期降至歷史水平。

Our next question is from Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer and Company.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的 Colin Rusch。

I'm curious about the product evolution in the European market. And as you've started to make some progress there, what you're seeing in terms of product fit and which platform is tending to sell a little bit better, whether it was the traditional U.S. business or the one coming out of Brazil.

我很好奇歐洲市場的產品演變。隨著你在那裡開始取得一些進展，你所看到的產品契合度以及哪個平台的銷售情況會更好一些，無論是傳統的美國業務還是來自巴西的業務。

That's a great question, Colin. I think what you see is that one of the key reasons we acquired the STI business was to have a dual position strategy. And as we all -- you're -- we all know Europe is not kind of monolithic, right? Where you have coastal areas, you need one product. Where you have inland areas with low wind, you may need another. When you're in the northern part of Europe where you've got snow and frost, all of the above, you need another.

這是一個很好的問題，科林。我想你所看到的是，我們收購 STI 業務的關鍵原因之一是採用雙重定位戰略。正如我們所有人 - 你 - 我們都知道歐洲不是那種鐵板一塊的，對吧？在沿海地區，您需要一種產品。在內陸地區風力小的地方，您可能需要另一個。當你身處歐洲北部，那裡有雪和霜，以上所有情況，你都需要另一個。

So the key in us buying STI was to give us a dual position strategy with 2 different price points but similar margin levels to be able to attack all those different regions that you need. And as we're actively, in real time, completing our go-to-market strategy globally, we're looking at being able to sell both throughout Europe. And we have a lot of large multinational customers wanting access to both product lines, depending upon the specific geography of where this particular utility scale plant is going to go.

因此，我們購買 STI 的關鍵是為我們提供具有 2 個不同價格點但相似保證金水平的雙重頭寸策略，以便能夠攻擊您需要的所有這些不同區域。隨著我們積極、實時地在全球範圍內完成我們的上市戰略，我們希望能夠在整個歐洲銷售這兩種產品。我們有很多大型跨國客戶希望獲得這兩條產品線，這取決於這個特定公用事業規模工廠將要去往的具體地理位置。

So there's not one answer. I think we benefit by having both answers and are able to satisfy their needs at 2 different price points, depending upon the geography, weather conditions, wind conditions for their specific locations. So there's not -- because that's emerging as kind of a more desired, if you will, it really comes down to specific geography and the conditions of that individual market.

所以沒有一個答案。我認為我們可以通過同時獲得這兩個答案而受益，並且能夠以 2 個不同的價位滿足他們的需求，具體取決於他們特定位置的地理、天氣條件和風力條件。所以沒有——因為這是一種更受歡迎的方式，如果你願意的話，它真的歸結為特定的地理位置和個別市場的條件。

Excellent. And then this is maybe just a silly question, but just from a supply chain diversity and resiliency perspective, can you talk a little bit about any additional sources of materials that you guys are looking at? Is it even necessary at this point? But curious if there's something to do there in terms of driving some cost out and driving a little bit of competition into the supply chain.

出色的。然後這可能只是一個愚蠢的問題，但從供應鏈多樣性和彈性的角度來看，你能談談你們正在尋找的任何其他材料來源嗎？在這一點上什至有必要嗎？但好奇的是，在降低成本和推動供應鏈競爭方面是否有什麼可做的。

Yes. I think when you think about the opportunities in supply chain, there is much about logistics. So you hard-pressed to have a competitive advantage when your largest commodities are our steel and aluminum. To say that you're buying that commodity at a dramatically improved rate than your competitors, probably isn't really sustainable longer term. So it's really about being able to convert that commodity and then logistically get it to site in the cheapest way possible for your customers. It's a huge portion of the cost. It's on the logistics side.

是的。我認為當你考慮供應鏈中的機會時，物流有很多。因此，當您最大的商品是我們的鋼鐵和鋁時，您很難擁有競爭優勢。要說您以比競爭對手顯著提高的速度購買該商品，從長遠來看可能並不是真正可持續的。因此，這實際上是關於能夠轉換該商品，然後以最便宜的方式為您的客戶在物流上將其運到現場。這是成本的很大一部分。這是在物流方面。

So what we've been more focused on is not worrying about the source of supply of our steel, too, for example. We know we have several U.S. suppliers of that. We can also bring it in for Asia if it's a large-enough scale project that warrants that.

因此，例如，我們更關注的是不擔心鋼鐵的供應來源。我們知道我們有幾家美國供應商。如果這是一個足夠大的項目，我們也可以將其引入亞洲。

It really comes down to geographically adding those suppliers so that the distance between those suppliers and where the largest sites are now being built is smaller. So again, your overall landing cost is cheaper. But it's less about that individual commodity, if you think of it that way.

這實際上歸結為在地理上添加這些供應商，以便這些供應商與現在正在建設的最大站點之間的距離更小。同樣，您的整體著陸成本更便宜。但如果你這樣想的話，它與個別商品的關係不大。

Our next question is from Maheep Mandloi of Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Maheep Mandloi。

And congrats on the strong quarter here. Most of my questions are somewhat answered in your slide deck, but maybe just a question on international mix. What's just the growth on the international projects next year, could you just probably throw some light around that? And is it just mostly going to be Brazil or you have like a mix of Europe or Brazil for 2023?

並祝賀這裡的強勁季度。我的大部分問題都在您的幻燈片中得到了一定程度的回答，但也許只是關於國際組合的問題。明年國際項目的增長情況如何，您能否對此進行一些說明？ 2023 年主要是巴西還是歐洲或巴西的混合體？

Yes. Maheep, it's Nipul. So yes, we still feel that we're going to be about a 75-25 mix from a U.S. domestic to international. And similar to what we've said in the past, the international mix is going to be primarily Brazil leading that way, and then Spain and Western Europe being a majority of the rest. But you have to keep in mind that mix may vary because the U.S. continues to be strong. And in our forecast, we see the U.S. continue to have growth in '23 and beyond.

是的。 Maheep，我是 Nipul。所以是的，我們仍然認為從美國國內到國際我們將達到 75-25 的比例。與我們過去所說的類似，國際組合將主要由巴西引領，然後西班牙和西歐佔其餘大部分。但你必須記住，由於美國繼續強大，組合可能會有所不同。在我們的預測中，我們看到美國在 23 世紀及以後繼續保持增長。

Got you. That's helpful. And maybe just like one housekeeping. And you've kind of alluded a little bit on the working capital question. Deferred revenues increase or higher in Q2, what is that related to? And should we expect something similar in the second half year?

明白了這很有幫助。也許就像一次家政服務。你在某種程度上提到了營運資金問題。第二季度遞延收入增加或更高，這與什麼有關？我們是否應該期待下半年出現類似的情況？

Yes. So that's related to our LOI process that we described that we instituted about a year ago from now. And we'll continue to see stronger deferred revenues just as customers continue to secure their projects earlier. And as you recall, with our new process, they secure that with an advanced payment, which would go into deferred revenue.

是的。所以這與我們描述的 LOI 流程有關，我們大約一年前從現在開始製定。隨著客戶繼續更早地確保他們的項目，我們將繼續看到更強勁的遞延收入。正如你所記得的，通過我們的新流程，他們通過預付款來確保這一點，這將進入遞延收入。

Got you. And then maybe just a follow-up on that. Now that given there are more constraints or limitations around the IRA and what projects your customers can get, does that accelerate this deferred revenue or the share of down payments on their purchase orders here?

明白了然後可能只是對此的後續行動。既然 IRA 有更多的約束或限制，以及您的客戶可以獲得哪些項目，這是否會加速這種遞延收入或他們採購訂單的預付款份額？

So as we've said before, obviously, having supply is a really good resource and the commodity that we have. So as we continue to grow, and we continue to have a greater amount of supply, we absolutely believe that's going to allow us to secure 4 projects earlier, thus, impacting our deferred revenue positively.

因此，正如我們之前所說，顯然，供應是一種非常好的資源，也是我們擁有的商品。因此，隨著我們繼續增長，我們繼續擁有更多的供應量，我們絕對相信這將使我們能夠更早地獲得 4 個項目，從而對我們的遞延收入產生積極影響。

Our next question is from Donovan Schafer of Northland Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 Northland Capital Markets 的 Donovan Schafer。

Yes, congratulations on the quarter. The revenue was great, very cool to see, and the story seems to kind of be unfolding the way you guys signaled as far back as over a year, I suppose, with the initial steel price situation. Talking about steel torque tubes and all that stuff, yes, I know Nextracker has had 2 announcements kind of setting up supply lines -- setting up manufacturing lines for torque tubes in the U.S. domestic sourcing, kind of supports the idea that, that was a really good move by you guys. But I guess that also raises the question if that can create -- can make it sort of a crowded space.

是的，祝賀這個季度。收入很好，看起來很酷，而且這個故事似乎有點像你們早在一年多以前發出的信號，我想，在最初的鋼鐵價格情況下。談到鋼扭矩管和所有這些東西，是的，我知道 Nextracker 已經發布了 2 條關於建立供應線的公告——在美國國內採購中為扭矩管建立生產線，有點支持這樣的想法，那是一個你們真的很好。但我想這也提出了一個問題，是否可以創造 - 可以使它成為一個擁擠的空間。

I mean I don't know how much flexibility there is among U.S. domestic steel production to just pivot and make a lot more torque tubes. You guys also have the octagonal cross-section that's unique to your torque tubes. So I'm just curious, the game change and other U.S. tractor manufacturers, with the Inflation Reduction Act, are likely to be trying to source more of that from the U.S. Is there just any anything to be mindful of from a -- as that gets congested, for instance, say, with the Nucor agreement you already have, does the new core agreement you have, does that allow for taking up volumes there with some kind of firm commitment? Any color there would be great.

我的意思是，我不知道美國國內的鋼鐵生產有多大的靈活性，可以轉向生產更多的扭矩管。你們還擁有扭力管獨有的八角形橫截面。所以我很好奇，遊戲規則的改變和其他美國拖拉機製造商，隨著通貨膨脹減少法案，可能會試圖從美國採購更多的拖拉機。有什麼需要注意的嗎？變得擁擠，例如，你已經擁有的 Nucor 協議，你擁有的新核心協議是否允許以某種堅定的承諾佔據那裡的數量？任何顏色都會很棒。

Yes. I mean I think what you're seeing is that -- in the competitive landscape, they're recognizing one of the stronger competitive advantages that we've had for a long time, and that's our ability to deliver more expeditiously than the competitors because of our local ad supply closer to the sites that we're working on. So end of the day, we feel that we're in really great shape in terms of overall volume. In some of the prepared remarks, I mentioned that one of the things we do is we try to build capacity well ahead of where we need it.

是的。我的意思是我認為你所看到的是——在競爭環境中，他們認識到我們長期以來擁有的更強大的競爭優勢之一，那就是我們比競爭對手更快地交付的能力，因為我們的本地廣告供應更接近我們正在處理的網站。所以一天結束時，我們覺得我們在整體數量方面處於非常好的狀態。在一些準備好的發言中，我提到我們所做的其中一件事是我們試圖在我們需要的地方之前建立能力。

And certainly, as of today, with the vast improvements we've been making in supply chain, the additional vendors we've been qualifying and bringing on board, as of today, our current capacity that we measure and talk about as a senior leadership team monthly on a global basis is already over 30 gigawatts, and that really is over 25 gigawatts supply in the domestic market. So that's a committed, ready, available volume. By the end of Q1 next year, with the current supply base that we're bringing on, the commitment from the supply chain organizations will be at 40 gigawatts. So again, we're staying well ahead of the demand, and we're building that, and those are -- those aren't just kind of soft agreements, those are where we have some really hard commitments in support of our volumes with our vendor base....

當然，截至今天，隨著我們在供應鏈方面取得的巨大改進，我們一直在鑑定和引入更多的供應商，截至今天，我們作為高級領導衡量和談論的當前能力團隊每月在全球範圍內已經超過 30 吉瓦，而這實際上是在國內市場超過 25 吉瓦的供應。所以這是一個承諾的、準備好的、可用的捲。到明年第一季度末，根據我們目前的供應基礎，供應鏈組織的承諾將達到 40 吉瓦。因此，我們再次保持遠遠領先於需求，並且我們正在構建它，那些是 - 這些不僅僅是一種軟協議，那些是我們有一些真正硬性的承諾來支持我們的數量我們的供應商基礎....

It's not the kind of thing where you get bumped if it gets competitive or people are fighting for it? Yes. Okay. Well, okay. Well...

如果它變得有競爭力或者人們正在為它而戰，這不是那種你會被撞到的東西嗎？是的。好的。哦，那好吧。出色地...

What you is that you do have many of the steel converters and steel manufacturing companies fully recognizing that solar is going to be a hyper-growth market that happens to use a lot of high-quality steel. And as such, we have lots knocking on our doors as the leading provider in the U.S. begging for our business. So kind of the opposite is happening. We're actually getting, where it's become very competitive to get our business in those supplier because, right, they see the hyper growth space going forward that uses a lot of their product, the high-quality version. So we feel pretty good about our position.

許多鋼鐵轉爐和鋼鐵製造公司充分認識到太陽能將成為一個恰好使用大量優質鋼材的高速增長市場。因此，作為美國領先的供應商，我們有很多人來敲我們的門，乞求我們的業務。因此，相反的情況正在發生。我們實際上正在獲得，在這些供應商中獲得我們的業務變得非常有競爭力，因為，正確的，他們看到了使用大量產品的高增長空間，即高質量版本。所以我們對自己的立場感覺很好。

Okay. That's very helpful. Okay. And then pivoting to STI Norland. So I actually did not realize that STI Norland was also self-performing installations in Brazil and Spain. I had always -- I just kind of took for granted, because my understanding of how different types of trackers and designs and stuff, how they play in different geographies, that there was sort of a historic need for some of the non-U.S. tracker manufacturers to self-perform in the U.S. because of the high labor costs, right? They couldn't get buy-in, couldn't get the EPCs to believe that it could be installed fast enough so they had to hire their own people and kind of try and prove it, either successfully or unsuccessfully.

好的。這很有幫助。好的。然後轉向 STI Norland。所以我其實沒有意識到STI Norland在巴西和西班牙也是自演裝置。我一直 - 我只是有點想當然，因為我了解不同類型的追踪器和設計以及它們如何在不同地區發揮作用，對某些非美國追踪器存在某種歷史需求製造商在美國自營是因為勞動力成本高，對嗎？他們無法獲得支持，無法讓 EPC 相信它可以足夠快地安裝，因此他們不得不僱用自己的人員並嘗試證明它，無論是成功還是失敗。

So -- but I don't think of Brazil or Spain is high-labor cost market. So I guess I was surprised to realize that you were doing -- you're self-performing there. Was that the case historically? When the acquisition was made, some pretty -- I think the gross margins might have been cited as something on the order of 30% to 40%. Was that -- were those really attractive historical margins of STI Norland? Was that was then doing all of this kind of self-performance work in Spain and Brazil?

所以——但我不認為巴西或西班牙是高勞動力成本市場。所以我想我很驚訝地意識到你在做——你在那裡自我表演。歷史上是這樣嗎？進行收購時，有些漂亮——我認為毛利率可能被引用為大約 30% 到 40%。那是 STI Norland 那些真正有吸引力的歷史利潤率嗎？那是在西班牙和巴西做所有這種自我表演的工作嗎？

Yes. And if you think about -- go ahead. Sorry, what was your question?

是的。如果你考慮 - 繼續吧。抱歉，你的問題是什麼？

Well, I'll let you finish. I just have a real quick follow-up.

好吧，我會讓你完成。我只是有一個真正的快速跟進。

Sure. So when you think about the construction that was going on in Spain and Brazil, and first, geez, I think it was my first 10 days here, we had kind of a come together meeting because we saw that the construction business needed to be adapted a little bit better. And when you think about us being a an engineering and construction company ourselves in terms of developing those products, we're thinking about much more engineering and construction advisory service who's been actually performing the construction itself.

當然。所以當你想到西班牙和巴西正在進行的建設時，首先，天哪，我想這是我在這裡的頭 10 天，我們召開了一次類似的會議，因為我們看到建築業務需要調整好一點。當你想到我們在開發這些產品方面自己是一家工程和建築公司時，我們正在考慮更多的工程和建築諮詢服務，他們實際上一直在進行建築本身。

So when you think about Brazil, if you go back to the beginning of '21, for example, we had, within the STI business, as many as -- I think it was just over 600 employees performing construction services, right? So that is a massive amount of your workforce doing construction services. We have no competitive advantage in the actual hiring of labor. And this isn't where we had our own construction crews that we would move around the country of Brazil. This was all about, hey, we're going to start a site on the East Coast and the Southern Belt of Brazil, so we're going to go hire lots of local labor to perform on that site. So we would set up shop, hire people, qualify people, manage them throughout the construction process. We teach them how to build and then once the site is done and they're gone, and we move on to another site to do that work.

因此，當你想到巴西時，如果你回到 21 年初，例如，我們在 STI 業務中有多達 - 我認為只有 600 多名員工從事建築服務，對嗎？因此，這是您從事建築服務的大量勞動力。我們在實際僱用勞動力方面沒有競爭優勢。這不是我們要在巴西全國各地調動的自己的施工人員所在的地方。這一切都是關於，嘿，我們將在巴西東海岸和南部地帶建立一個站點，因此我們將僱用大量當地勞動力在該站點上執行。因此，我們會在整個施工過程中開設商店、僱用人員、鑑定人員並管理他們。我們教他們如何構建，然後一旦站點完成並且他們走了，我們就會轉移到另一個站點來完成這項工作。

And what we found was that the problem in the construction and the management of that particular labor pool was taking a disproportionate amount of our managers' time away from customers, away from focusing on the business. You could imagine you had the safety challenges. You had weather challenges, productivity, utilization, all of the above, that was really hard to run a predictive P&L when you have those kind of challenges running the construction business.

我們發現，該特定勞動力池的構建和管理問題正在佔用我們經理不成比例的時間來關注客戶，而不是專注於業務。您可以想像自己遇到了安全挑戰。你遇到了天氣挑戰、生產力、利用率，所有這些，當你在經營建築業務時遇到這些挑戰時，很難預測損益。

So 3 months ago, we said as a leadership team and said, let's start scaling that down and pivot those resources into what we call the CAS, or Construction Advisory Services group. So we took our best field -- the best people we had in the field that run those sites and they're going in and sign. So rather than have 50 individual on a particular site, we'll have 2 or 3 of the senior construction advisers that will go and they will source local labor, meaning that the EPC will, and we'll provide them a couple of bodies to help educate, train, oversee the construction, but not....

所以 3 個月前，我們作為一個領導團隊說，讓我們開始縮小規模並將這些資源轉移到我們所說的 CAS 或建築諮詢服務小組。因此，我們選擇了我們最好的領域——我們在該領域擁有的最好的人來運營這些網站，他們將加入並簽約。因此，我們不會在某個特定地點安排 50 人，而是安排 2 或 3 名高級建築顧問前往，他們會尋找當地勞動力，這意味著 EPC 會，我們會為他們提供幾個機構幫助教育、培訓、監督建設，但不是……

Okay. Well, so from that standpoint, just will there be -- if you do get rid of these workforces, will there be any sort of meaningful severance amounts or higher expenses costs sort of associated with Spain...

好的。那麼，從這個角度來看，如果你真的擺脫了這些勞動力，是否會有任何有意義的遣散費或與西班牙相關的更高費用成本......

We've been scaling them down in Brazil as projects close because they're only hired on these short-term pieces. So for example, I think, what I made in my prepared comments, we're already down to half. We're all the way down to -- as of the last few weeks when I was in Brazil and checking on the progress of the scale down, we're down to maybe 120 individuals. We'll stop when we get down to about 20, that will be our best kind of foreman, and they form that Construction Advisory Services group.

隨著項目的結束，我們一直在縮減他們在巴西的規模，因為他們只受僱於這些短期項目。因此，例如，我認為，我在準備好的評論中所做的，我們已經減少了一半。我們一路縮減到——最近幾週，當我在巴西檢查縮減規模的進展時，我們已經減少到大約 120 人。當我們減少到大約 20 人時，我們將停止，那將是我們最好的工頭，他們組成了建築諮詢服務小組。

Now I want to be clear, it's going to take a little bit longer for us to do that work in Spain. Spain has much more of an entrenched expectation in construction services. So we have to work with our customers in Spain and guide them through the process of, hey, look, we're not going to leave you stranded. We're going to continue to be on site to help you construct. But we're going to let the EPC actually hire that labor, manage that labor. And it just leads us to a much more predictable set of results as we go forward.

現在我想明確一點，我們在西班牙完成這項工作需要更長的時間。西班牙對建築服務有著更根深蒂固的期望。所以我們必須與我們在西班牙的客戶合作，並引導他們完成這個過程，嘿，看，我們不會讓你陷入困境。我們將繼續在現場幫助您構建。但我們要讓 EPC 實際僱用該勞動力，管理該勞動力。隨著我們的前進，它只會讓我們獲得一組更可預測的結果。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Joseph Osha of Guggenheim.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自古根海姆的約瑟夫奧沙。

I've got 2 questions for you. First, during the prepared comments, I believe I heard something about the retention of cash for future strategic acquisitions. I was just wondering what type of moves we might be expecting from you all and in the future?

我有兩個問題要問你。首先，在準備好的評論中，我相信我聽說過為未來的戰略收購保留現金。我只是想知道我們可能期望你們所有人以及未來採取什麼樣的行動？

Again, I'm not working enough to foreshadow that, right? Look, the inorganic growth part of our business is going to be an important part of our model as we go forward. When we look around the near adjacent products to what we do, I think there are several areas that we would look at. We would look at different technology plays that increase the share of our customers' wallet in this space. I think there's some something to be said for buying our way into some additional geographic expansion in particular regions that we think, going forward, will be hyper growth regions for solar. And that's really the focus. So we're active in looking at these different opportunities at this point.

再一次，我沒有足夠的工作來預示這一點，對吧？看，隨著我們前進，我們業務的無機增長部分將成為我們模型的重要組成部分。當我們環顧我們所做工作的鄰近產品時，我認為我們會關注幾個領域。我們將研究不同的技術方案，以增加我們客戶在這個領域的錢包份額。我認為，在我們認為未來將成為太陽能高速增長區域的特定地區進行一些額外的地理擴張時，有一些話要說。這才是真正的重點。因此，我們目前正在積極尋找這些不同的機會。

But I want to be really clear in the near term, our team is focused on building that muscle of integration, right? We've taken a big bite with STI. We've gone out and hired a third party to assist us and teach us how to effectively integrate a large acquisition, and not saying that the future ones are going to be large, by the way. But it's certainly something that we have to develop and how do we transfer all those core processes over in a very rapid time period. So our focus here in the near term in the next 6 months is going to be a focus on integrating fully the STI and getting its business model to where we'd like it to be. While we're actively doing that, the subset of us will continue to look at these adjacencies and prioritize the geographics and the adjacencies that we want to play in. But it's too early to say that there's kind of specific types and where they are at this point.

但我想在短期內非常清楚，我們的團隊專注於建立整合的力量，對吧？我們在 STI 上大吃一驚。我們已經出去聘請了第三方來協助我們並教我們如何有效地整合大型收購，順便說一句，並不是說未來的收購會很大。但這肯定是我們必須開發的東西，我們如何在非常快的時間內轉移所有這些核心流程。因此，我們在未來 6 個月的近期重點將集中在完全整合 STI 並將其商業模式帶到我們希望的地方。在我們積極這樣做的同時，我們的子集將繼續關注這些鄰接並優先考慮我們想要參與的地理和鄰接。但是現在說有某種特定類型以及它們在哪裡還為時過早這點。

I understand. Obviously, you can't tip your hand, but that was a helpful answer. And then a completely unrelated question for Nipul. Looking at that Q3 free cash flow number you're talking about, which is quite impressive, and just thinking about that a little more holistically, how much of that, especially as we may be thinking in Q4 comes from the sort of onetime goodness as the working capital accounts go back the other way and how much of it might we think of as real kind of sustainable recurring free cash flow?

我明白。顯然，您不能給小費，但這是一個有用的答案。然後是 Nipul 的一個完全不相關的問題。看看你正在談論的第三季度自由現金流數字，這是相當令人印象深刻的，只是更全面地考慮一下，其中有多少，尤其是我們在第四季度可能會想到的，來自那種一次性的好處營運資金賬戶反過來，我們認為其中有多少是真正可持續的經常性自由現金流？

So a portion of that is the -- basically the flipping of the buildup of inventory and delivering those products and the collection of those receivables. But our business -- if you step back, our business is truly a free cash flow generation business. As margins continue to go up in the subsequent quarters, that drives free cash flow along with just more working capital efficiency. Kevin talked about what we're doing on the receivables side, we are more connected with our front-end sales side to ensure that our receivables that are in the collection process get collected on time very quickly. So I would say that, of course, you're going to have that just normal transition of the receivables and build up after Q2 being collected in Q3, but we're normally a free cash flow generating business. And feel that once our margins are back at historical levels, we'll continue to generate free cash flow.

所以其中一部分是 - 基本上是庫存積累的翻轉和交付這些產品以及這些應收賬款的收集。但我們的業務——如果你退後一步，我們的業務確實是一個自由現金流產生業務。隨著利潤率在隨後幾個季度繼續上升，這將推動自由現金流以及更高的營運資本效率。凱文談到了我們在應收賬款方面所做的工作，我們與前端銷售方面的聯繫更加緊密，以確保我們在收款過程中的應收款能夠非常快速地按時收款。所以我想說的是，當然，你將有應收賬款的正常過渡，並在第三季度收集第二季度後積累，但我們通常是一個產生自由現金流的企業。並且感覺一旦我們的利潤率回到歷史水平，我們將繼續產生自由現金流。

Okay. Would you care to put a number on that? I mean I used to cover industrials and people are always talking about free cash flow and net income. Is there sort of some kind of aspirational free cash flow number that you might want to share with us?

好的。你願意在上面加上一個數字嗎？我的意思是我過去常常報導工業，人們總是談論自由現金流和淨收入。您是否想與我們分享某種理想的自由現金流量？

So what I can share with you -- and obviously, as we progressed on this journey, we'll get -- we'll provide further detail. But for the balance of this year, we still believe we're going to be free cash flow positive in the tune of around $100 million for the full year. So that obviously means we're going to be flipping from the negative free cash flow position we're in the first half of the year pretty significantly here in the back half.

因此，我可以與您分享的內容 - 顯然，隨著我們在這一旅程中取得進展，我們會得到 - 我們將提供更多細節。但對於今年的餘額，我們仍然相信我們全年的自由現金流量將達到約 1 億美元。因此，這顯然意味著我們將從今年上半年的負自由現金流狀況轉變為下半年。

Our next question is from Kashy Harrison of Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自 Piper Sandler 的 Kashy Harrison。

So maybe just following up on Joe's last question, just maybe wanted to give it another shot. Like you said, you are -- your EBITDA margins are going to be better next year. Working capital management is improving, attaining historical cash conversion cycles, et cetera. So maybe moving forward, how are you thinking about, say, either an EBITDA to free cash flow conversion? Or maybe how do you think about just the ongoing working capital requirements of this business moving forward?

所以也許只是跟進 Joe 的最後一個問題，也許只是想再試一次。就像你說的，你是——明年你的 EBITDA 利潤率會更好。營運資金管理正在改善，實現歷史現金轉換週期等。因此，也許向前邁進，您如何考慮將 EBITDA 轉換為自由現金流？或者您如何看待這項業務向前發展的持續營運資金需求？

What we look at, Kashy, is really our cash conversion cycle and trying to target overall cash conversion cycle in the low 70s, which we've historically done. And when we've done that, we've generated significant free cash flow to fund our business, both internal ROI projects as well as funding for acquisitions. So we'll continue to focus on all elements of cash conversion cycle, but really getting back to that around 70 -- in the 70s for that overall CCC.

Kashy，我們所關注的實際上是我們的現金轉換週期，並試圖將整體現金轉換週期定為 70 年代低點，這是我們歷史上所做的。當我們這樣做時，我們已經產生了大量的自由現金流來為我們的業務提供資金，包括內部 ROI 項目和收購資金。因此，我們將繼續關注現金轉換週期的所有要素，但真正回到 70 歲左右——在 70 年代，整個 CCC。

That's super helpful. And then for my next question, in the prepared remarks and in the press release, you indicated that the business organically grew by 79% year-over-year. I was wondering if you could just help us think through how much of that might be driven by higher steel prices and just inflation, and how much of that is driven by units.

這非常有幫助。然後對於我的下一個問題，在準備好的評論和新聞稿中，您表示該業務同比有機增長 79%。我想知道你是否可以幫助我們思考其中有多少可能是由鋼鐵價格上漲和通貨膨脹驅動的，以及其中有多少是由單位驅動的。

Yes. So when we look at ASPs, we see about a 20% growth year-on-year on ASPs. So the remaining increase there on the organic side is really related to volume and project mix, but about 20% on the ASP side.

是的。因此，當我們查看平均售價時，我們看到平均售價同比增長約 20%。因此，有機方面的剩餘增長確實與數量和項目組合有關，但在 ASP 方面大約增加了 20%。

Got it. That's super helpful. And then just maybe my final one. Obviously, a lot of detailed discussion surrounding STI. If you just maybe think about STI at a higher level, with all the changes that are going into play, how are you thinking about the growth potential for this business? It sounds like this year is maybe a reset year or flattish year. But longer term, how do you think about the growth for STI?

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後可能只是我的最後一個。顯然，圍繞 STI 進行了大量詳細討論。如果您只是在更高層次上考慮 STI，隨著所有變化的發生，您如何看待這項業務的增長潛力？聽起來今年可能是重置年或持平年。但從長遠來看，您如何看待 STI 的增長？

Yes. So STI, we believe we're positioned well in the regions that we're currently at. So if you think about Brazil, being the top player in Brazil with the majority of the share of demand, we see the growth in Brazil over the next several years, and we're in a great position to capture a lot of that growth. In Spain, as we continue to grow our business. As Kevin mentioned, with self-performing less of our business and being more of delivery of the products, the engineering products, we continue to believe that we'll be in the top 3 in Spain. So if you look at those 2 regions, we'll grow with the market or better in both of those and having good positions in the market. So we don't have an exact growth percentage right now, but we will grow with market and above market in those 2 regions primarily.

是的。所以 STI，我們相信我們在我們目前所在的地區定位良好。因此，如果你想想巴西，它是巴西的頭號玩家，擁有大部分需求份額，我們會看到未來幾年巴西的增長，而且我們有能力抓住大部分增長。在西班牙，隨著我們繼續發展我們的業務。正如凱文提到的那樣，由於我們的業務自我執行較少，而更多地交付產品，工程產品，我們仍然相信我們將躋身西班牙前三名。因此，如果你看看這兩個地區，我們將在這兩個地區與市場一起成長或更好，並在市場上擁有良好的地位。所以我們現在沒有確切的增長百分比，但我們將主要在這兩個地區與市場和以上市場一起增長。

Our next question is from William Grippin of UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 William Grippin。

Great. Just one quick one from me. But wondering if you could provide any color on kind of the revenue cadence here for the second half of the year. It looks like, relative to the second quarter, your guidance kind of implies flat to potentially lower revenue for third quarter and fourth quarter. So just curious if you could provide any color there.

偉大的。我只是一個快速的。但是想知道你是否可以提供關於今年下半年收入節奏的任何顏色。看起來，相對於第二季度，你的指導有點暗示第三季度和第四季度的收入持平或可能較低。所以很好奇你是否可以在那裡提供任何顏色。

Yes, sure, Will. So for Q3, I would say we're going to be about the same as Q2, so stay flat to Q3. And in Q4, we're seasonally down in Q4, with most of our business being in North America. So we'll continue to see that to get to the full year guidance range that we've stated.

是的，當然，威爾。所以對於第三季度，我會說我們將與第二季度大致相同，所以保持與第三季度持平。在第四季度，我們在第四季度出現季節性下滑，我們的大部分業務都在北美。因此，我們將繼續看到它達到我們已經聲明的全年指導範圍。

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And with that, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，我們的問答環節已經結束。至此，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您加入我們。您現在可以斷開線路。