Array Technologies Inc (ARRY) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Array Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Cody Mueller, Investor Relations at Array. Please go ahead.

各位好，歡迎參加 Array Technologies 2023 年第四季暨全年財報電話會議。(接線員指示) 提醒各位，本次會議將被錄音。現在很高興為各位介紹今天的主持人：Array 投資人關係部的 Cody Mueller。請開始。

Thank you and welcome to Array Technologies fourth quarter 2023 financial conference call. On the call with me today are Kevin Hostetler, our CEO and Kurt Wood, our CFO. Today's call is being webcast from our Investor Relations site at ir.arraytecinc.com, including audio and slides. In addition, a press release detailing our quarterly results has been posted on the website.

謝謝，歡迎各位參加 Array Technologies 2023 年第四季財務電話會議。今天與我一同出席的有我們的執行長 Kevin Hostetler，以及財務長 Kurt Wood。今天的電話會議將透過我們的投資人關係網站 ir.arraytecinc.com 進行網路直播，包含音訊與簡報投影片。此外，詳述本季業績的新聞稿也已發布於該網站。

Today's discussion of financial results is presented on a non-GAAP financial basis unless otherwise specified. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures can be found on our website. We encourage you to visit our website arraytecinc.com throughout the quarter for the most current information on the company, including information on financial conferences that we may be attending.

除非另有說明，今天對財務結果的討論將以非 GAAP 財務基礎呈現。GAAP 與非 GAAP 財務衡量指標之調節表可於我們網站查閱。我們鼓勵各位在本季期間持續造訪我們的網站 arraytecinc.com，以取得公司最新資訊，包括我們可能參與之財務會議相關資訊。

As a reminder, the matters we are discussing today include forward-looking statements regarding market demand and supply, our expected results, and other matters. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made today.

提醒各位，我們今天討論的事項包含前瞻性陳述，涉及市場需求與供給、我們的預期結果及其他事項。這些前瞻性陳述受風險與不確定性影響，可能導致實際結果與今日所述內容出現重大差異。

We refer you to the documents we file with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K for a recent discussion of risks that may affect our future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results. I'll now turn the call over to Kevin.

我們請各位參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提交的文件，包括我們最新的 Form 10-K，其中對可能影響未來結果的風險有近期討論。雖然我們相信前瞻性陳述所反映的預期屬合理，但我們無法保證未來結果、活動水準、績效或成就。我們沒有義務更新任何前瞻性陳述，以使其與實際結果一致。接下來把電話交給 Kevin。

Thank you, Cody, good afternoon everyone. First, turning to slide 3, I'll give some highlights from our fourth quarter and our full year results. We delivered a record year across almost every metric we track. We exited the year with an order book in excess of $1.8 billion on strong new bookings momentum in the fourth quarter.

謝謝你，Cody，各位下午好。首先請看第 3 張投影片，我將分享我們第四季與全年業績的一些重點。我們在幾乎所有追蹤的指標上都交出創紀錄的一年。在第四季強勁的新訂單動能帶動下，我們在年底的訂單簿超過 18 億美元。

On a global basis, our book-to-bill ratio was 1.7, with Q4 bookings coming in at approximately $600 million. The sequential growth in bookings and resulting increase of our order book further highlights the improved pipeline we discussed last quarter and is a testament to our winning product and services portfolio including energy optimization, software and severe weather mitigation solutions that enable an attractive, levelized cost of energy for our customers. I will speak more broadly about our order book and what we are seeing in the market in a few moments.

以全球來看，我們的接單出貨比（book-to-bill）為 1.7，第四季接單約為 6 億美元。接單的連續成長以及由此帶動的訂單簿增加，進一步凸顯我們上季所提到的管線改善，也證明我們具競爭力的產品與服務組合——包括能源最佳化、軟體以及嚴峻天候緩解解決方案——能為客戶帶來具吸引力的平準化能源成本。稍後我會更廣泛地談談我們的訂單簿以及我們在市場上看到的情況。

Revenue for the full year came in at $1.58 billion, which was above the high end of our latest guidance range. Full year adjusted gross margin was 27.3% inclusive of approximately $9.3 million, a 45X benefit recognized through the P&L in the fourth quarter.

全年營收為 15.8 億美元，高於我們最新指引區間的上緣。全年調整後毛利率為 27.3%，其中包含約 930 萬美元的 45X 抵減利益，並於第四季透過損益表認列。

This represents a year-over-year increase of 1,300 basis points, it is a record for Array as a public company. Our performance here is largely demonstrating the structural changes we have successfully executed around how we price, how we procure materials and how we design for value optimization in our new product introductions and existing products alike.

這代表年增 1,300 個基點，亦為 Array 作為上市公司以來的紀錄。我們在此的表現，主要反映我們已成功推動的結構性變革，包括定價方式、材料採購方式，以及在新產品導入與既有產品上進行價值最佳化設計。

With the 2023 proof point in hand, coupled with the upside from the 45X manufacturing credits, we are confident in our ability to deliver annual adjusted gross margin percentage in the low 30s in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $288 million, which was the highest year on record by over $100 million and marks the second consecutive year where this metric has more than doubled.

在 2023 年的實證基礎上，加上 45X 製造抵減帶來的上行空間，我們對於在 2024 年達成年度調整後毛利率落在 30% 出頭（low 30s）充滿信心。調整後 EBITDA 較前一年增加逾一倍至 2.88 億美元，不僅創下歷史新高，且較過往紀錄高出超過 1 億美元，並且是連續第二年該指標翻倍以上。

From a full year basis, we generated $215 million of free cash flow, which was $100 million higher than the outlook we provided at the beginning of 2023. We strengthened the balance sheet throughout the year and ended with $250 million of cash on hand and we now maintain a historically high level of liquidity at $424 million when factoring in our undrawn revolving credit capacity. This leaves us well positioned to fund growth while continuing to deleverage our balance sheet.

以全年來看，我們產生 2.15 億美元的自由現金流，較我們在 2023 年初提供的展望高出 1 億美元。我們在全年持續強化資產負債表，期末持有現金 2.5 億美元；若將未動用的循環信用額度納入考量，我們目前維持歷史高水準的流動性，達 4.24 億美元。這使我們在持續降低槓桿的同時，也能為成長提供資金，處於有利位置。

Please turn to slide 4 where we will discuss our capacity, domestic content and 45X. From an operational standpoint, we expanded our domestic and international supplier base and now have more than 30 gigawatts of deliverable capacity in the US and total capacity nearing 50 gigawatts across the globe.

請翻到第 4 張投影片，我們將討論產能、國內含量以及 45X。從營運角度來看，我們擴大了國內與國際供應商基礎，目前在美國可交付產能超過 30 吉瓦，全球總產能接近 50 吉瓦。

At the same time, with our enhanced focus on supply chain resiliency, we added additional sources of supply for several critical components throughout the year. We did this while simultaneously achieving both lower inventory levels and record on-time delivery performance. Our strong execution and proactive build-out of our domestic supply chain and manufacturing capabilities allows us to achieve domestic content levels in the mid 80% level and higher depending upon project configuration in high volume, not only on a one-off basis.

同時，隨著我們更聚焦於供應鏈韌性，我們在全年為多項關鍵零組件新增了額外供應來源。我們在做到這些的同時，也同步降低了庫存水位，並創下準時交付表現的新高。我們強勁的執行力，以及對國內供應鏈與製造能力的前瞻性建置，使我們能在高出貨量情境下達成約 80% 中段（mid 80%）甚至更高的國內含量（視專案配置而定），而非僅限於一次性的個案。

This level of scale will be critical as the domestic content requirements become better understood and more relevant to our customers over time. As many of you are aware, in December, the IRS published additional guidance on the 45X manufacturing benefits that largely confirmed our previous understanding of the eligibility of arc torque tube. In late 2023 and early 2024, we successfully negotiated agreements with key suppliers around domestic content incentives associated with our torque tube.

隨著國內含量要求逐步被更清楚理解，並隨時間推移對客戶變得更相關，這樣的規模將至關重要。如各位所知，12 月 IRS 發布了關於 45X 製造利益的進一步指引，基本上確認了我們先前對 arc 扭矩管（torque tube）適用資格的理解。在 2023 年底與 2024 年初，我們已成功與關鍵供應商就與扭矩管相關的國內含量激勵協議完成談判。

This resulted in us earning $50 million, a 45x benefit in our financial statements in the fourth quarter, which included a catch-up for certain volumes delivered earlier in 2023. Approximately $9 million was recorded as a benefit to our P&L and the remainder was recorded on our balance sheet and will be recognized through the P&L throughout 2024.

這使我們在第四季的財務報表中取得 5,000 萬美元的 45X 利益，其中包含對 2023 年較早期間已交付之部分數量的追溯調整（catch-up）。其中約 900 萬美元作為損益表利益入帳，其餘則記錄於資產負債表，並將於 2024 年期間逐步透過損益表認列。

Unfortunately, the 45X guidance published in December did not further clarify what would be considered a structural fastener. We continue to expect there will be additional benefits we can monetize for a number of our components under the definition of structural fasteners and we are actively working multiple initiatives to obtain clarity regarding specific eligibility.

不幸的是，12 月發布的 45X 指引並未進一步釐清何者可被視為結構性緊固件（structural fastener）。我們仍預期在結構性緊固件的定義下，針對多項零組件還能變現額外利益；我們也正積極推動多項工作，以釐清特定適用資格。

In parallel, we are continuing to negotiate the economic split with our supply base for parts we do not manufacture internally. Is our belief that the inclusion of these structural fastener components was the spirit behind the initial framework, and we intend to build legislation. We will provide additional updates on future calls as more information becomes available.

同時，我們也持續就我們未在內部製造之零件，與供應體系協商經濟利益分配。我們相信將這些結構性緊固件零組件納入，正是最初架構的立法精神，而我們也打算推動立法落實。隨著更多資訊出爐，我們將在後續電話會議中提供進一步更新。

I'd like to now transition to our product software and service offerings. During 2023, we strengthened our product, services, and software portfolio with the launch of two new tracker platforms, the expansion of our SmartTrack software to provide automated hail and snow response and the rollout of our new service offerings. This is all on top of numerous other improvements that have driven down our installed costs, it improved our customer experience.

接下來我想轉到我們的產品、軟體與服務方案。在 2023 年，我們透過推出兩個新的追日器平台、擴充 SmartTrack 軟體以提供自動化的冰雹與降雪應對，以及推出新的服務方案，強化了我們的產品、服務與軟體組合。此外，我們也進行了許多其他改進，降低了安裝成本並改善客戶體驗。

Turning to slide 5, as I mentioned earlier, I would like to provide additional color around current market dynamics and our order book. After gaining meaningful market share in 2021 and 2022, we chose not to pursue business in the first half of 2023 that would not generate a threshold level of financial return or would require us to assume elevated risk.

請看第 5 張投影片，如我先前提到的，我想就目前市場動態與我們的訂單簿提供更多說明。在 2021 與 2022 年取得顯著市占後，我們選擇在 2023 年上半年不追求那些無法達到最低財務報酬門檻，或會要求我們承擔較高風險的業務。

As we entered the second half of 2023, we were seeing the fruits of our structural cost enhancements and the implementation of more real-time processes around logistics and commodity costing come online, which allowed us to achieve lower price points while still sustainably achieving our margin expansion goals.

進入 2023 年下半年時，我們看到結構性成本改善的成果逐步顯現，並且更即時的物流與大宗商品成本流程也開始上線，使我們能在仍可持續達成毛利擴張目標的同時，達到更低的價格水準。

With our structural cost enhancements firmly in place and the market moving away from the short term high risk pricing environment, we saw our pipeline triple and our win rate increase, which are both important leading indicators of bookings and order book momentum. This was evidenced by the $900 million of new orders cumulatively received in the second half of 2023 and a 1.7 times book to bill ratio in the fourth quarter.

隨著我們的結構性成本改善措施穩固到位，且市場逐步遠離短期高風險的定價環境，我們看到商機管線增加至原來的三倍、得標率提升；這兩者都是預訂（bookings）與訂單簿動能的重要領先指標。這點可由 2023 年下半年累計取得 9 億美元新訂單，以及第四季 1.7 倍的接單出貨比（book-to-bill ratio）所印證。

As we look into our order book, we continue to see a consistent quality of customers as we have historically. But percentage of our executed contracts with Tier-1 customers has remained over 80% for the last two years. That being said, we are also seeing new customers into our pipeline. Our order book stands at over $1.8 billion as of yearend, excluding any BCA's that don't have a named project and or defined start date.

檢視我們的訂單簿，我們持續看到與過往一貫相同的客戶品質。此外，過去兩年我們已執行合約中，Tier-1 客戶占比一直維持在 80% 以上。話雖如此，我們也看到新客戶進入我們的商機管線。截至年末，我們的訂單簿超過 18 億美元，不包含任何未具名專案及／或未定義開工日期的 BCA。

For projects that we willingly walked away from in the first half of last year, coupled with the increase in project delays and pushouts are disproportionately impacting the first half of 2024 for revenues. As it resulted in our order book being more weighted towards the second half of '24 and into 2025 and historically would be the case at this point of the year.

對於我們在去年上半年主動放棄的專案，再加上專案延遲與展延增加，對 2024 年上半年營收造成了不成比例的影響。因此，我們的訂單簿權重更偏向 2024 年下半年並延伸至 2025 年，且在一年中的這個時間點，歷史上通常也會是如此。

As it relates to project pushouts that we highlighted on our last call, we are still seeing several industry-wide factors that are impacting project start dates, particularly in the first half of 2024. For the most common issues we are hearing are around permitting and interconnection, supply chain delays on long lead time equipment and timing of financing. It is also important to point out that while we are seeing these delays fairly well represented across all types of customers, utilities included, there are a handful of our customers who are not seeing an impact and projects are moving forward in a more normalized manner.

就我們在上次電話會議中提到的專案展延而言，我們仍看到數項全產業因素正在影響專案開工日期，尤其是在 2024 年上半年。我們最常聽到的問題包括：許可與併網（interconnection）、長交期設備的供應鏈延遲，以及融資時點。同時也必須指出，雖然這些延遲在各類型客戶（包含公用事業）中都相當普遍，但我們仍有少數客戶未受影響，專案以較正常的節奏推進。

Looking ahead, we are guiding full year 2024 revenue between $1.25 billion and $1.4 billion, representing a 16% decline at the midpoint versus 2023 on relatively flat volume. We expect ASPs will be down year over year, primarily due to declining commodity input costs.

展望未來，我們對 2024 全年營收的指引為 12.5 億至 14 億美元，在出貨量大致持平的情況下，以中位數計較 2023 年下降 16%。我們預期 ASP（平均銷售價格）將年減，主要因大宗商品投入成本下降。

However, we will again see adjusted gross margin expand to the low 30% range and expect to see year-over-year growth in both absolute adjusted EBITDA dollars and as a percentage of revenue. Our revenues will be more back-end loaded with just under 30% of our revenues expected to materialize in the first half of the year, reflecting the order book dynamics I spoke about earlier.

然而，我們將再次看到調整後毛利率擴張至 30% 出頭的區間，並預期調整後 EBITDA 的絕對金額與占營收比重皆將年增。我們的營收將更偏向下半年認列，預期全年略低於 30% 的營收會在上半年實現，反映我先前提到的訂單簿動態。

Q1 will be a trough with revenue in the range of $135 million to $145 million, followed by continued sequential growth for the remainder of the year and overall year-over-year growth returning in the second half. Kurt will now provide additional color on 2023 results and our 2024 outlook. I'll then give some concluding remarks before opening the line for questions.

第一季將是谷底，營收預估介於 1.35 億至 1.45 億美元之間；其後全年其餘期間將持續逐季成長，且整體年增將在下半年回歸。接下來 Kurt 將就 2023 年結果與我們對 2024 年的展望提供更多說明。之後我會在開放提問前做一些結語。

Kurt?

Kurt？

Thanks, Kevin. I would like to start off by providing some additional details around the fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. I'd ask that you turn your attention to slide 7. As Kevin mentioned, 2023 was a record year on many fronts, and we were able to deliver a highly profitable year despite the headwinds that came our way via project pushouts.

謝謝，Kevin。我想先就 2023 年第四季與全年業績提供一些補充細節。請各位把注意力轉到第 7 頁投影片。如 Kevin 所提，2023 年在多個面向都是創紀錄的一年，儘管專案展延帶來逆風，我們仍交出高獲利的一年。

In the fourth quarter, we delivered $342 million in revenue above the top end of the guidance range provided on our Q3 earnings call and down approximately 15% from the prior year period. We shipped 3.3 gigawatts in the fourth quarter, which was roughly flat versus the prior year. At the heart of the year-over-year decline in revenue was lower ASP, driven by a reduction in global commodity costs.

第四季我們實現 3.42 億美元營收，高於第三季法說所提供指引區間的上緣，且較去年同期約下降 15%。第四季我們出貨 3.3 吉瓦（gigawatts），與去年同期大致持平。營收年減的核心原因是 ASP 較低，係由全球大宗商品成本下降所驅動。

As a reminder, when commodity costs move up or down, we generally pass the movement onto our customers. Putting the revenue by geography, the $342 million was comprised of $278 million and $64 million from the legacy Array and STI units, respectively. We saw fourth quarter adjusted gross margin expand by 520 basis points on a year-over-year basis to 25.7%. Inclusive of the $9.3 million of 45X benefit to cost of sales realized in the quarter.

提醒一下，當大宗商品成本上升或下降時，我們通常會將變動轉嫁給客戶。按地區拆分營收，3.42 億美元中，分別有 2.78 億美元與 6,400 萬美元來自傳統的 Array 與 STI 單位。我們看到第四季調整後毛利率年增 520 個基點至 25.7%。其中包含本季認列的 45X 對銷貨成本的 930 萬美元利益。

Our ability to expand margin on relatively flat volume and lower revenue is directly attributable to the structural changes Kevin highlighted earlier. Our Q4 adjusted gross margin was negatively impacted by approximately 250 basis points due to one-time entries in our STI segment related to inventory adjustments. Absent those anomalies STI's adjusted Q4 '23 gross margin would have been in the mid-20s as expected.

在出貨量大致持平且營收下降的情況下，我們仍能擴張毛利率，直接歸因於 Kevin 先前提到的結構性變革。第四季調整後毛利率約受到 250 個基點的負面影響，原因是 STI 部門與存貨調整相關的一次性入帳。若排除這些異常項目，STI 2023 年第四季調整後毛利率將如預期落在 20% 中段。

I'd now like to expand further on the 45X benefits. In the fourth quarter, we recorded a $50 million benefit to our financials relating to torque tube with $9.3 million included as a reduction to our cost of goods sold and $40.6 million treated as a gross up to the balance sheet in the form of an increase to both other assets and other current liabilities.

接下來我想進一步說明 45X 的利益。第四季我們就扭矩管（torque tube）相關，認列對財務報表有利的 5,000 萬美元，其中 930 萬美元以降低銷貨成本的方式入帳，另有 4,060 萬美元以資產負債表「總額列示」（gross up）的方式處理，表現為其他資產與其他流動負債同時增加。

The entire benefit relates to certain volumes delivered during 2023. But based on the structure of the contract with each vendor and the timing when the contract was executed, $41 million of the amount we are entitled to will not materialize on the P&L until 2024. As Kevin noted earlier, we expect to see additional benefits in future periods relating to our 2023 volumes based on how eligibility for structural fasteners is determined.

這筆利益全部與 2023 年交付的特定出貨量相關。但依各供應商合約架構及合約簽署時點，我們有權取得的金額中，有 4,100 萬美元要到 2024 年才會在損益表（P&L）上反映。如 Kevin 先前所述，基於結構性緊固件（structural fasteners）資格認定方式，我們預期未來期間仍會就 2023 年出貨量看到額外利益。

Operating expenses of $54 million were down approximately 11% from the $60.5 million during the same period of the previous year. This decline was driven by an improvement in amortization expense relating to certain intangible assets from the STI acquisition. The decrease was partially offset by a couple one-time items that combined for nearly $5 million of expense in the period, including a reserve for value added tax or VAT due to a ruling received from the European tax authority in the fourth quarter on the refundability of certain VAT items and a reserve on certain outstanding overdue receivables.

營業費用為 5,400 萬美元，較去年同期的 6,050 萬美元約下降 11%。此下降主要來自與 STI 收購相關之部分無形資產攤銷費用改善。該降幅部分被幾項一次性項目抵銷，合計在本期增加近 500 萬美元費用，包括：因歐洲稅務機關於第四季就特定增值稅（VAT）項目可退稅性所作裁定而提列的 VAT 準備，以及對部分逾期未收應收款項提列的準備。

Both of these adjustments are related to items that occurred prior to 2023. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $6 million compared to a loss of $17.3 million during the same period in the prior year. And basic and diluted income per share was $0.04 compared to basic and diluted loss per share of $0.11 during the same period in 2022.

這兩項調整皆與 2023 年以前發生的事項相關。歸屬於普通股股東的淨利為 600 萬美元，相較去年同期為虧損 1,730 萬美元。基本與稀釋每股盈餘為 0.04 美元，相較 2022 年同期基本與稀釋每股虧損為 0.11 美元。

Adjusted net income increased to $31.4 million compared to adjusted net income of $15 million during the fourth quarter of 2024 and adjusted basic and diluted net income per share was $0.21 compared to adjusted basic and diluted net income per share of $0.1 during the prior year period.

調整後淨利增加至 3,140 萬美元，相較於 2024 年第四季調整後淨利 1,500 萬美元；調整後基本與稀釋每股淨利為 0.21 美元，相較去年同期調整後基本與稀釋每股淨利為 0.1 美元。

Finally, our free cash flow for the period was $88.6 million versus $93.5 million for the same period in the prior year. Kevin spoke to many of the full year metrics. So I'll just briefly cover these again on slide 8. Full year revenue was $1.577 billion, representing a 4% revenue decline versus 2022. This decline was primarily attributable to a reduction in ASP resulting from the lower commodity pricing on relatively flat volume and a change in the Brazilian ICMS benefit treatment.

最後，本期自由現金流為 8,860 萬美元，相較去年同期為 9,350 萬美元。Kevin 已談到許多全年指標。因此我將在第 8 頁投影片簡要再覆蓋一次。全年營收為 15.77 億美元，較 2022 年營收下降 4%。此下降主要歸因於在出貨量大致持平下，大宗商品價格較低導致 ASP 下滑，以及巴西 ICMS 優惠處理方式的變更。

As a reminder, we discussed on the last call how in prior years, the impact of the Brazil value added tax or ICMS was treated as an adder to revenue and starting in 2023, that was transacted as a reduction to cost of sales. For 2023, this amounted to $23.2 million less revenue relative to the 2022 comparison. Adjusted gross profit increased to $430.1 million from $234.1 million in the prior year.

提醒一下，我們在上次電話會議中討論過，過去幾年巴西加值稅（ICMS）的影響是作為營收的加項處理，而自 2023 年起，則改為以降低銷貨成本的方式入帳。就 2023 年而言，與 2022 年相比，這使營收減少了 2,320 萬美元。調整後毛利由前一年的 2.341 億美元增加至 4.301 億美元。

Again, driven by the expansion of our baseline gross margin from the structural enhancements we made to our business and to a lesser effect, the $9.3 million 45X benefit that was recorded in the fourth quarter. Operating expenses decreased to $201.4 million from to $230.9 million in the prior year. The lower expenses were provide primarily related to $46.9 million decrease in intangible amortization expense related to the STI acquisition, partially offset by higher headcount related costs to drive process improvement, operational execution, and product innovation.

同樣地，主要是受惠於我們對業務所做的結構性改善，帶動基礎毛利率擴張；此外，第四季認列的 45X 9.3 百萬美元利益亦有較小幅度的貢獻。營業費用由前一年的 2.309 億美元下降至 2.014 億美元。費用下降主要來自與 STI 收購相關的無形資產攤銷費用減少 4,690 萬美元，部分被為推動流程改善、營運執行與產品創新而增加的人力相關成本所抵銷。

Net income attributable to common shareholders was $85.5 million compared to a loss of $43.6 million in the prior year. And basic and diluted income per share was $0.57 and $0.56 compared to basic and diluted loss per share of $0.29 in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $288.1 million compared to $128.7 million in the prior period.

歸屬於普通股股東的淨利為 8,550 萬美元，相較前一年的淨損 4,360 萬美元。基本與稀釋每股盈餘分別為 0.57 美元與 0.56 美元，相較前一年的基本與稀釋每股虧損 0.29 美元。調整後 EBITDA 較前期的 1.287 億美元增加逾一倍至 2.881 億美元。

Adjusted net income increased by approximately three times to $171.3 million compared to $57.3 million during the prior year and adjusted basic and diluted net income per share was $1.13 compared to $0.38 in the prior year.

調整後淨利約增加至三倍，達 1.713 億美元，相較前一年的 5,730 萬美元；調整後基本與稀釋每股淨利為 1.13 美元，相較前一年的 0.38 美元。

Finally, our free cash flow for the year was $215 million compared to $130.9 million in the prior year. Excluding the $42.8 million legal settlement proceeds received in the third quarter of 2022, we more than doubled our free cash flow year over year and ended the year with approximately $250 million of cash on hand and total liquidity of $424 million factoring in capacity in our undrawn revolver.

最後，全年自由現金流為 2.15 億美元，相較前一年的 1.309 億美元。若排除 2022 年第三季收到的 4,280 萬美元法律和解款，我們的自由現金流年增逾一倍；年底現金約 2.5 億美元，若將未動用循環信貸額度的可用額度納入，總流動性為 4.24 億美元。

Throughout the year, we paid down $87 million of our debt, including nearly $75 million of principal on our term loan and we ended the year with a net leverage ratio of 1.6, excluding our preferred shares.

全年我們償還了 8,700 萬美元的債務，其中包含定期貸款本金近 7,500 萬美元；年底淨槓桿比率為 1.6（不含優先股）。

Now I'd like to go to slide 9, where I will discuss our outlook for 2024. I want to begin by noting that we will be providing guidance as one consolidated array segment going forward rather than breaking out array and STI. This changed reflective of how we are managing our business following the successful integration of STI and streamlining of our collective processes. We're hopeful we will continue to give regional and product commentary for additional color on our business performance throughout the year.

接下來我想看第 9 頁投影片，討論我們對 2024 年的展望。我先說明，未來我們將以單一合併的 Array 事業部門提供指引，而不再拆分 Array 與 STI。此變更反映我們在成功整合 STI 並精簡整體流程後的業務管理方式。我們也希望在全年持續提供區域與產品面的補充說明，讓大家更了解我們的營運表現。

Additionally, starting in 2024, we will be reporting all metrics on an all end basis, inclusive of 45X benefits. 2023 was a transitional year in warrants at a specific call out or the benefit given the number of uncertainties for outage treatment. In future periods, we will call out any material differences in our assumptions including those resulting around the inclusion of structural fasteners within the 45X benefit to the extent there are any. We expect full year 2024 revenue to be within the range of $1.25 billion to $1.4 billion.

此外，自 2024 年起，我們將以「全額（all-in）」基礎報告所有指標，並納入 45X 的利益。2023 年是過渡年度，因此我們在特定處仍會單獨揭露該項利益，因為對於中斷（outage）處理仍存在若干不確定性。未來期間，若我們的假設出現任何重大差異（包括因將結構緊固件納入 45X 利益所造成者，如有），我們都會加以說明。我們預期 2024 全年營收將介於 12.5 億至 14 億美元。

As Kevin discussed earlier, there are a number of dynamics driving our outlook. Primarily, we are forecasting a reduction in ASP of low double digit percent year over year, driven by lower input costs, our ability to lower price due to our lower cost structure and the pass through of a portion of the 45X benefit to our customers as we strive to lower the overall cost of solar generation for the industry.

如 Kevin 先前所提，推動我們展望的動態因素有好幾項。主要而言，我們預估 ASP（平均售價）年減低雙位數百分比，原因包括投入成本下降、我們因成本結構降低而具備降價能力，以及我們將 45X 利益的一部分回饋給客戶，以協助降低產業整體太陽能發電成本。

From a linearity perspective, the year will be more weighted towards the second half. Q1 will be the trough with revenues at approximately $135 million to $145 million importantly, begin to see sequential growth in the second quarter, which then continues in earnest in the second half. To that end, we are expecting year-over-year revenue growth in the second half of the year when compared to the second half of 2023.

就營收線性（linearity）而言，今年將更偏向下半年。第一季將是谷底，營收約 1.35 億至 1.45 億美元；重要的是，第二季將開始看到季增，且下半年將明顯延續成長。因此，我們預期下半年營收將較 2023 年下半年呈現年增。

Inclusive of 45X benefits from our torque tube, we expect our adjusted gross margins to be in the low 30s for the year. As you would expect on a quarterly basis, this may fluctuate slightly based on product mix, project mix and fixed cost absorption. For adjusted SG&A, we expect approximately $33 million to $35 million per quarter, which is slightly down from $1 dollar standpoint compared to 2023.

納入扭矩管（torque tube）的 45X 利益後，我們預期全年調整後毛利率將落在 30% 出頭。如各位所預期，按季度來看，毛利率可能會因產品組合、專案組合與固定成本吸收而略有波動。調整後 SG&A（銷售、一般及行政費用）方面，我們預期每季約 3,300 萬至 3,500 萬美元，較 2023 年在金額上略為下降。

We expect adjusted EBITDA to be within the range of $285 million to $315 million. This guidance is driven by the improvement in profitability from our structural cost enhancements that drive efficiency and scale as well as the 45X benefits for our torque tube. At the midpoint, this represents a 4-percentage-point increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 430 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin year over year, marking the third consecutive year in both dollar and percent of revenue expansion.

我們預期調整後 EBITDA 將介於 2.85 億至 3.15 億美元。此指引反映我們透過結構性成本改善所帶來的效率與規模提升，以及扭矩管的 45X 利益所推動的獲利改善。以中位數計算，調整後 EBITDA 金額年增約 4 個百分點，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率年增 430 個基點，這也將是連續第三年在金額與營收占比上同步擴張。

For adjusted diluted earnings per share, we anticipate a range of $1 to $1.15, which represents a 5% year-over-year decline at the midpoint. This decrease is largely due to an effective tax rate increase related to a change in tax treatment of the ICMS benefit in Brazil. Previously, this benefit was tax exempt, but will now become subject to the federal Brazil taxation beginning in 2024.

調整後稀釋每股盈餘方面，我們預期介於 1.00 至 1.15 美元，以中位數計算年減 5%。此下降主要是因巴西 ICMS 利益的稅務處理方式改變，導致有效稅率上升。先前該項利益免稅，但自 2024 年起將改為需繳納巴西聯邦稅。

As such we expect our effective tax rate for the year to be between 26% and 28%. We expect preferred dividends will be approximately 14 million on a quarterly basis of which approximately 6 million will be the cash or PIK. portion and the remaining will be the amortization of the discount.

因此，我們預期全年有效稅率將介於 26% 至 28%。我們預期優先股股利每季約 1,400 萬美元，其中約 600 萬美元為現金或 PIK（實物支付）部分，其餘為折價攤銷。

We expect free cash flow to be between $100 million and $150 million in 2024, which is inclusive of our estimate of the cash received during the year from the 45X torque tube benefit. I would point out here that a large portion of the expected cash benefit will occur later than the P&L benefit due to the timing of the payments from the IRS. Embedded in our free cash flow forecast in the CapEx assumption of $25 million to $30 million.

我們預期 2024 年自由現金流將介於 1 億至 1.5 億美元，其中包含我們對全年可收到之 45X 扭矩管利益現金的估計。我在此要指出，由於 IRS 付款時點的影響，預期現金利益有很大一部分將晚於損益表（P&L）所反映的利益入帳。我們的自由現金流預測中亦包含資本支出（CapEx）假設為 2,500 萬至 3,000 萬美元。

Now I'll turn the call back over to Kevin for closing remarks.

現在我把電話交回 Kevin，請他做結語。

Thank you, Kurt. I want to again highlight our record 2023 financial performance. For structural enhancements, we made to our cost structure and the strong top line momentum we are seeing for the second half of 2024 and into 2025. We made a lot of progress as a business over the last few quarters and are confident that this will lead to sustainable and profitable growth as we continue our journey.

謝謝你，Kurt。我想再次強調我們在 2023 年創下紀錄的財務表現。我們對成本結構所做的結構性改善，以及我們看到 2024 年下半年延伸至 2025 年的強勁營收動能。過去幾季我們在業務上取得了很大進展，我們有信心這將帶來可持續且具獲利性的成長，並持續推進我們的旅程。

I'm very proud of what our team accomplished in 2023. I want to take a moment to thank our hard-working employees for all of their dedicated efforts. We will now open the call up for questions.

我為我們團隊在 2023 年的成果感到非常自豪。我想花點時間感謝辛勤工作的員工們所付出的努力與投入。現在我們將開放提問。

Operator?

接線員？

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。我們現在開始問答環節。(接線員指示)

Mark Strouse, JPMorgan.

Mark Strouse，摩根大通（JPMorgan）。

Yes, good evening. Thank you very much for taking our questions. I wanted to start with the 2024 outlook and the revenue decline. Yes, I fully appreciate kind of the first half of '23, the being more selective on higher margin projects that created a bit of a hole that you needed to fill.

是的，晚安。非常感謝讓我們提問。我想先從 2024 年展望以及營收下滑談起。是的，我完全理解 2023 年上半年，你們在高毛利專案上變得更為挑選，這確實造成了一個需要補上的缺口。

Just trying to compare what we're hearing today to what we heard on the 3Q call though, as far as the project delays, are there continued delays in those projects that you were seeing back then, are there incremental delays? Is there anything you can do to kind of help me compartmentalize what's happening here? Thank you.

我只是想把我們今天聽到的內容，和第三季電話會議上聽到的內容做個比較：就專案延遲而言，當時你們看到的那些專案是否仍在持續延遲？是否有新增的延遲？你能否幫我把這裡發生的事情做個更清楚的分類與理解？謝謝。

Thanks for your question, Mark, this is Kevin. Yes, relative to the project delays, what we've seen is the continuing delays and pushouts of projects for many of the same issues that we talked about earlier on the call. So we've -- I'll highlight them again, but certainly some related to interest rates and financing and some confusion around the tax equity transfer rules, there is still lack of clarity around the IRA and we still, as I'm engaging, our customers still hearing of orders sitting on the sidelines waiting for better clarity around the overall domestic content adder to the ITC.

謝謝你的問題，Mark，我是 Kevin。是的，關於專案延遲，我們看到的是持續的延遲與時程往後推遲，原因多半與我們先前在電話會議中談到的相同。所以我們——我再重點提一下：其中一些與利率與融資有關，也有一些是因為稅務股權（tax equity）轉讓規則的混淆；此外，IRA 仍缺乏明確性。當我與客戶互動時，我們仍聽到有訂單在觀望，等待就 ITC 的整體「國內含量加成」（domestic content adder）有更清楚的指引。

What we're hearing more of now than we have previously are really about supply chain issues and that's really related to shortages of long lead time items of switches, transformers and the one that keeps coming up as being very acute is on high-voltage breakers. And these are placing interconnection queues at risk and we're hearing about that come throughout now.

我們現在比以前更常聽到的是供應鏈問題，主要與長交期品項短缺有關，例如開關、變壓器；而反覆被提到、且情況非常嚴峻的是高壓斷路器（high-voltage breakers）。這些問題正在使併網排隊（interconnection queues）面臨風險，我們目前各處都聽到這樣的回饋。

That is not ubiquitous. There are certain customers and utilities that were able to safe harbor lots of electrical equipment and we're finding that those are the ones that seemingly are moving forward with projects now unabated, those that have a huge supply of those electrical components in particular that fit their design criteria.

但這並非普遍現象。有些客戶與公用事業公司能夠透過「安全港」（safe harbor）提前鎖定大量電氣設備；我們發現，這些客戶似乎能不受影響地推進專案，特別是那些擁有大量、符合其設計標準之電氣元件的客戶。

And last permitting delays, long queues, accentuated by the dramatic increase in solar and solar plus battery. So in many municipalities, we're getting used to doing solar projects, the addition of the battery storage to sites, and we're seeing that increasing as a percentage is creating again confusion and permitting delays.

最後是許可（permitting）延遲與漫長的排隊時間，而這又因太陽能以及太陽能加電池（solar plus battery）的大幅增加而更加嚴重。因此，在許多地方政府/市政單位，我們已逐漸習慣處理太陽能專案；但當場址加入電池儲能後，我們看到其占比提高，反而再次造成混淆與許可延遲。

So really the same set there's continuing on and what we're seeing in the order book and how it translates to the order book is that customers are beginning to bake those delays into their order book and that's when we talked about in our prepared remarks, a higher proportion of course are coming now where they're getting themselves a couple of extra quarters for that work to begin. They solve some of these issues.

所以基本上還是同一組因素在持續發生；而我們在訂單簿中看到的、以及它如何反映到訂單簿上的是：客戶開始把這些延遲「內建」到他們的訂單規劃中。這也就是我們在事先準備的講稿裡提到的——目前進來的訂單中，有更高比例是把開工時間往後多留了幾個季度。他們會去解決其中一些問題。

Okay. And then, Kurt, a couple of quick questions on the 45X here. Are you planning, are you able to today, are you planning in 2024 to provide kind of what the gross margin is excluding 45X just so we can get a sense of kind of what your structural margin improvements that you've been talking about are.

好的。接著，Kurt，關於 45X 我有兩個簡短問題。你們是否規劃、或目前是否能在 2024 年提供「排除 45X」後的毛利率，讓我們能理解你們一直在談的結構性毛利改善到底是什麼樣子？

And then second, the low 30s outlook for '24, does that include the $41 million a catch-up from 2023?

第二，2024 年「30% 出頭」的展望，是否包含來自 2023 年的 4,100 萬美元追溯調整（catch-up）？

Yes, great questions. We are still sticking to our structural margin in the mid-20s percent range. We think that we saw that in the fourth quarter as well. If you take out the one-time items there that we were saddled with. And then yes, the that low 30s does take into account the 40%. And you got to remember where it takes into a couple of things. Our margin takes into our cost enhancements that we've done that allow us to lower the price and still maintain our margin profile that we won.

是的，問題很好。我們仍維持結構性毛利率在 20% 中段（mid-20s）區間的看法。我們認為第四季也看到了這一點。如果把那些我們當時背負的一次性項目排除掉的話。另外，是的，那個「30% 出頭」確實把那 40%（相關因素）納入考量。而你也要記得，它同時考量了幾件事。我們的毛利率包含了我們已做的成本改善，讓我們能夠降價，同時仍維持我們所贏得的毛利結構。

It takes into account the 45X credits that we're talking about here and it takes into account a certain pass through of the 45X that will pass along to the customers on new deal that we signed going forward. So it's got all that and what it doesn't have in there is any additional contracts that we may sign is in our prepared remarks.

它也把我們在此討論的 45X 抵減納入考量，並且也納入了我們在未來新簽交易中，會把部分 45X 讓利/轉嫁給客戶的情況。所以這些都包含在內；但不包含的是我們可能額外簽下的任何合約——如同我們在事先準備的講稿中所說。

We talked about structural fasteners and what might be included in there. So that would be upside if those materialize, as well as any other deals that we negotiate with our vendors going forward and we don't want to give specific because obviously, that puts us in a disadvantage when we're negotiating some of these things.

我們提到結構性緊固件（structural fasteners）以及其中可能包含的內容。因此，如果那些真的落地，將會是上行空間；同樣地，未來我們與供應商談成的任何其他交易也會帶來上行。但我們不想給出具體細節，因為很明顯地，那會讓我們在談判這些事項時處於不利位置。

Okay. I'll take the rest offline. Thank you.

好的。其餘我會私下再跟進。謝謝。

Christine Cho, Barclays.

Christine Cho，巴克萊。

Yes, hi, guys. This is Juan on for Christine. Just one quick one from me. What sort of bookings are waiting on the sideline. You show this chart where your high-probability pipeline tripled since 4Q '22. So I'm wondering what actually needs to happen for this to be converted?

是的，嗨，各位。我是 Juan，代 Christine 發問。我這邊只有一個簡短問題。目前有哪些類型的訂單/預訂（bookings）還在觀望中？你們展示的圖表顯示，自 2022 年第四季以來，你們的高機率管線（high-probability pipeline）成長了三倍。所以我想了解，究竟需要發生什麼，才能把這些轉換成實際訂單？

Yes, it's a great question. So what we typically see momentum in our business is you go from overall pipeline, meaning pipeline is down in that 25% range to when it becomes over 50% it becomes the high probability pipeline that so we're waiting on, in some cases, an EPC to be named.

是的，這是個很好的問題。一般來說，我們在業務上看到的動能是：從整體管線開始——也就是說，管線在大約 25% 的區間；當它提升到 50% 以上時，就會成為我們所稱的高機率管線。在某些情況下，我們是在等待指定 EPC（工程採購施工承包商）。

In other cases, it's still competitive, even at 50%, there may be a portion of that, that we're still competing with one of our peer companies to get that business. But what we measure is that trend of high probability pipeline, then once it goes from 50 to 75, that's when it begins to convert to verbal orders. So that's really the trend.

在其他情況下，即使到了 50% 仍可能具有競爭性，其中一部分我們仍在與同業競爭以爭取該筆業務。但我們衡量的是高機率管線的趨勢；當它從 50% 提升到 75% 時，就開始轉換為口頭訂單（verbal orders）。所以趨勢大致如此。

So what we look at that trend is the overall what's coming into the funnel, what's getting through the stage gates in the funnel, in terms of quality of that order, and our position to win that order. That's where it gets into the high probability. So that's really an indication of the momentum we're seeing in the business of a tripling of that high probability pipeline is very significant to us.

因此，我們觀察這個趨勢時，會看整體有哪些進入漏斗、哪些通過漏斗中的階段關卡（stage gates），也就是該訂單的品質，以及我們贏得該訂單的勝算位置。這些因素會讓它進入高機率範疇。所以，高機率管線成長三倍，對我們而言是非常顯著的，這確實反映了我們在業務上看到的動能。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Bank of America.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith，美國銀行。

[Cameron Walker John] from BofA for Julien. Quick one for me and so they kind of tied together. Just asking both tandem. First on the backlog, can you speak a little bit too I appreciate the commentary around some of the customer delays and things of that nature, interconnection permitting, things like that.

我是 BofA 的 [Cameron Walker John]，代 Julien 發問。我這邊有個簡短問題，且兩個部分彼此相關。我想把兩個一起問。首先關於在手訂單（backlog），能否多談一點？我理解你們提到一些客戶延遲、以及諸如併網許可（interconnection permitting）之類的因素。

Are you seeing any project churn in the backlog? Any projects coming out of backlog as we resolve some of these delays, were those projects or press being sold to others? Or what have you at the customer level? And then at the same time, US international dynamics in 4Q and how those kind of play out in 2024?

你們是否在在手訂單中看到任何專案流失/更替（project churn）？隨著我們解決部分延遲，有沒有專案從在手訂單中退出——例如那些專案或壓力（press）被轉賣給其他人？或是在客戶層級發生了什麼情況？同時，第四季美國與國際的動態如何？以及這些在 2024 年會如何發展？

I'll certainly take the first one. I'll let Kurt talk about the specific Q4 bookings. So look, we have only when we put a project into our backlog, we're pretty sure that product -- project rather is going to go forward. It may be delayed, but they we've only we've modelled this out actually in the last few months. We've only ever had two projects pull out of backlog and get cancelled.

我先回答第一個問題。我會讓 Kurt 談談第四季接單（bookings）的具體情況。你看，我們只有在相當確定某個專案——更正，是專案——會往前推進時，才會把它放進我們的在手訂單。它可能會延遲，但我們其實在過去幾個月把這件事建模分析過。我們過去只有兩個專案曾從在手訂單中退出並被取消。

Certainly that's domestically internationally as you do some of the smaller projects and the Brazilian forgiveness stays a little bit different to that, but I'll broadly speak to our North American backlog, and that's only two projects that are.

當然，這在國內與國際上都適用；當你在做一些較小的專案時，巴西的寬免（forgiveness）在這方面會有些不同，但我會大致談談我們北美的在手訂單（backlog），而那只有兩個專案是。

We are in fact, seeing some projects get sold, some developers are coming in and taking advantage of the fact that others are having supply issues and they're coming in and refinancing and moving those and in some cases, we're benefiting from that in terms of some of the developers doing that work are for lack of a better word, friends of Array, and we're picking up some additional orders and they're converting it from other suppliers to Array as they do that business. So far, we've not seen any meaningful cancellations at all. And in fact, we're benefiting from some of this secondary market emerging from these projects getting on sold prior to completion.

事實上，我們確實看到有些專案被轉售；有些開發商趁著其他人面臨供應問題之際進場，他們進行再融資並推動這些專案，在某些情況下，我們也因此受益——因為做這些工作的部分開發商，姑且稱之為 Array 的「朋友」，我們因此拿到一些額外訂單；他們在做這些交易時，會把原本其他供應商的產品轉換成 Array。到目前為止，我們完全沒有看到任何有意義的取消。而且事實上，我們正受益於這些專案在完工前被轉手所帶動的次級市場浮現。

And for the second part of your question on the US and international dynamics, you'll see when we post our K out in the next day or so that we've got about in Q4 75% US 25% of our revenue was domestic or was international excuse me.

至於你問題的第二部分、關於美國與國際的動態，你會在我們接下來一兩天發布的 10-K（K）中看到：在第四季，我們約 75% 的營收來自美國、25% 來自國際——抱歉，我是說國際。

As we look into the first half of the year, we talked about the first softness in the first half. Obviously, that's hard to overcome. So we do expect overall a decline in US volumes year over year. Your first half will be down, second half will be up as we talked about, and then we'll see a little bit more meaningful growth on our international locations, including Spain and Brazil.

當我們展望上半年時，我們談到上半年會先出現疲軟。顯然，這很難克服。因此，我們確實預期美國出貨量（volumes）年對年整體會下滑。如同我們所說，你的上半年會下降、下半年會上升；接著我們會在國際據點看到更有意義的成長，包括西班牙與巴西。

Perfect. Thank you, guys. I'll pass it back.

很好。謝謝各位。我把時間交回去。

Welcome, Kevin.

歡迎，Kevin。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Brian Lee, Goldman Sachs.

Brian Lee，高盛。

Hi, guys, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I've had a couple, I apologize, I jumped on late. So if you did cover these. I apologize in advance. On the gross margin guidance last year you were talking about mid to high 20s ex-IRA. Are you expecting the same level in 2024 ex-IRA ? Are you actually targeting gross margin expansion into the 30s ex-IRA ? Maybe just give us some of the breakdown of the overall margin guidance and what's embedded in there for kind of core margin versus what IRAs adding this year?

嗨，各位，下午好。謝謝讓我提問。我有幾個問題，抱歉我晚了一點才加入。所以如果你們已經涵蓋過這些，我先致歉。關於毛利率指引，去年你們談到排除 IRA 的情況下約為 20% 中段到高段。你們預期 2024 年在排除 IRA 的情況下也是同樣水準嗎？還是你們其實目標是在排除 IRA 的情況下把毛利率擴張到 30% 區間？也許請你們拆解一下整體毛利率指引，以及其中所包含的核心毛利率與今年 IRA 帶來的增量各是多少？

The one that was specifically, are you going to break it up the US we definitely expect to be in the higher than what we said on the call, which was consolidated at 25%. So kind of mid to high 20s for the US and then obviously mid 20s for the international units. So combined that's where you get free any 45X or IRA benefit. And then on a consolidated basis, the low 30% range for gross margin is an all-in number inclusive of the benefits from any new incentive program that's out there.

那個特別的部分是，你是否要把它拆成美國與其他地區：我們確實預期美國會高於我們在電話會議上所說的水準——當時合併口徑是 25%。所以美國大概是 20% 中段到高段，而國際單位顯然是 20% 中段。因此合併起來，就是在不含任何 45X 或 IRA लाभ益（benefit）的情況下的水準。而在合併口徑下，毛利率落在 30% 低段的區間，這是包含所有數字、並納入任何新的激勵方案所帶來的利益。

Okay. Fair enough. That's helpful. And then I know, it sounds like there's already been a decent number of questions, and you're providing some thought process around why the revenue guidance on paper looks like it's softer than what the backlog you ended the year with. What kind of entails.

了解。可以。這很有幫助。另外，我知道聽起來已經有人問了不少問題，而你們也提供了一些思路，說明為什麼從紙面上看，營收指引似乎比你們年末的在手訂單更疲弱。這其中包含了哪些因素。

So maybe just taking even a further step by, you talked about a flat volume view for the year, it seems like peers are growing faster and some of the utility scale forecasts for the US are all up double digits 10%, 15% this year.

所以也許再往前一步：你們談到今年的出貨量看法是持平，但同業看起來成長更快，而且美國公用事業級（utility-scale）的預測都上修到雙位數，大約 10%、15% 的成長。

So maybe just kind of walk through for you specifically, what's different, is it a customer mix, is it share, just kind of trying to understand and reconcile the build to the flat volume view for you this year and after last year, where you already had some push outs and just expectations for 2023. So just trying to reconcile a bit here.

所以也許請你們說明一下，對你們而言到底哪裡不同：是客戶組合、是市占、還是其他？我只是想理解並調和你們今年出貨量持平的看法；尤其在去年你們已經有一些遞延（push outs），以及對 2023 年的預期。所以只是想在這裡做一些調和。

I think that's a great question and look to answer that question. We have seen a lot of news recently about market share changes and shifts and let me start by reminding everyone that this is fundamentally a large project business with a few projects can have an outsized impact either the shorter term windows of share, which is widely in a general practice. We don't overly focus on quarter over quarter market share statistics. I'll remind you in my prepared remarks, I tried to remind you that not too long ago, we were discussing the dramatic market share gains are a secured in both 2021 and 2022.

我認為這是個很好的問題，我來嘗試回答。我們最近看到很多關於市占變化與移轉的新聞；我先提醒大家，這本質上是一個大型專案的生意，少數幾個專案就可能在較短期的市占窗口造成不成比例的影響，這在業界是很普遍的做法。我們不會過度聚焦於逐季的市占統計。我也提醒各位，在我事先準備的發言中我提到，不久之前我們還在討論我們在 2021 與 2022 年所取得的顯著市占提升。

So that being said, let me talk a few part about a few items. I think about relative to the market share change. First, we've discussed previously and in our prepared remarks that there was a period of time in early '23 where our primary objective in my role here was to help demonstrate a margin recovery for the business and build a backlog of high quality for the business.

話雖如此，我來談幾個面向。我先從相對於市占變化來看。第一，我們先前以及在準備發言中都提到，2023 年初有一段時間，我在這個職位上的首要目標，是協助公司展現毛利率修復，並建立高品質的在手訂單。

We've talked about this before that in doing so, we brought in less projects into our pipeline to actively pursue in the first half of 2023. We temporarily ceded a portion of projects to our competitors, based on what we saw was dramatically lower pricing and terms that we felt were just simply too risky for our business.

我們之前談過，為了做到這點，我們在 2023 年上半年主動追逐並納入管線（pipeline）的專案變少了。基於我們看到的價格與條款大幅偏低、且我們認為對公司風險過高，我們暫時把一部分專案讓給了競爭對手。

These projects are now being delivered in the first half of '24. We see that and in retrospect, we have yielded a bit more on some of these orders and still here are committed mid 20s margin, perhaps we could have. But the reality is, our focus was on improving our pricing to our customers without sacrificing margins to do this and we were so focused on methodically attacking our cost structure.

這些專案現在正在 2024 年上半年交付。回頭看，我們在其中一些訂單上確實讓出更多；即便如此，我們仍承諾 20% 中段的毛利率，也許我們本可以做到。但現實是，我們的重點是在不犧牲毛利率的前提下，改善我們對客戶的定價；同時我們非常專注於有系統地改善成本結構。

We focus really on increasing our global strategic sourcing. We really did a deep dive review of our internal engineering and design standards and we invested in the last two years, nearly $11 million in improved IT systems and cybersecurity systems that would inherently improve our visibility to our bill of materials, our cost structure, our logistics operations, for every project that we do.

我們的重點確實放在提升全球策略採購。我們也對內部工程與設計標準做了深入檢視；並且在過去兩年投資了將近 1,100 萬美元在改善 IT 系統與資安系統，這些都能本質上提升我們對物料清單（BOM）、成本結構、物流營運的可視性，涵蓋我們所做的每一個專案。

In engaging with our customers, it was really important to our customers that the cost reductions that we were able to provide them were structural in nature and therefore they could count on these into the future as they realign and do business with Array.

在與客戶互動時，對客戶而言非常重要的一點是：我們能提供的成本下降必須是結構性的，因此他們在未來可以依賴這些下降，並在他們重新調整、與 Array 展開業務往來時把它納入考量。

And to be clear, we're not out there trying to buy business. And that's evidenced by our committed 2024 expanding gross margins. I'm confident that if you go out and pull the marketplace today, you'll find the structural cost reductions are becoming very apparent to our customers and they're making a difference in our win rates on projects, we're actually seeing win rates substantially increase from that pipeline and follow we talked about earlier.

而且要說清楚，我們並不是在外面用低價去「買」生意。這也反映在我們對 2024 年毛利率擴張的承諾上。我有信心，如果你今天去市場上做調查，你會發現這些結構性降本對客戶而言正變得非常明顯，並且正在改善我們在專案上的得標率；我們確實看到得標率相較於先前提到的管線大幅提升。

Since completing the first two planned initiatives for cost reduction, we've seen a marked improvement in the high probability of pipeline that we noted in the presentation and it's nearly three times larger than at the end of Q2. And that's what drove the really strong Q4 bookings on the back of this.

在完成前兩項規劃中的降本措施後，我們看到簡報中提到的高機率管線明顯改善，規模幾乎是第二季末的三倍。而這也推動了第四季非常強勁的接單（bookings）。

earlier this month, we completed our third structural cost reduction initiative. This one was all about emphasizing automation and optimization of some of our engineering calculations that were all about reducing our customers' costs through optimizing the foundations they would be required to purchase and put into the ground. So again, that's not one that reduces our costs, but we're focusing beyond our cost into our customers' costs and identify ways that we can reduce Care cast.

本月稍早，我們完成了第三項結構性降本措施。這一項主要是強調自動化與最佳化我們的一些工程計算，目的在於透過最佳化基礎（foundations）設計，降低客戶必須採購並打入地面的基礎成本。因此再次強調，這一項不一定是降低我們的成本，而是我們把焦點延伸到客戶成本，找出我們能降低「Care cast」的方法。

Earlier this month, we completed our third structural cost reduction initiative. This one was all about emphasizing automation, and optimization of some of our engineering calculations that were all about reducing our customers' cost through optimizing the foundations they would be required to, to purchase and put into the ground. So again, that's not when that reduces our cost. But we're focusing beyond our cost into our customers' costs and identify ways that we can reduce their costs.

本月稍早，我們完成了第三項結構性成本削減計畫。這一項的重點在於強化自動化，以及優化我們部分工程計算；其核心是透過最佳化客戶必須採購並打入地面的基礎（foundation），來降低客戶的成本。所以再說一次，這並不是在降低我們的成本。但我們把焦點延伸到我們的成本之外，轉向客戶的成本，並找出我們能夠協助他們降低成本的方法。

The second thing is, we continue to see project timing be negatively impacted by the factors we talked about. And one of the first questions that we got to ask, the supply chain issues permitting, interconnect delays, IRA clarity, timing of financing all of the above.

第二點是，我們持續看到專案時程受到我們先前談到的因素而產生負面影響。而我們首先必須問的問題之一是：供應鏈問題、許可（permitting）、併網（interconnect）延遲、IRA（《通膨削減法案》）政策明確性、融資時點等等，以上各項。

And then, last, I would just note that we saw strong bookings in the fourth quarter. But one of the things we are seeing, as I indicated just a minute ago is, we're seeing projects get rewarded for longer time periods than we have historically. Our customers are now building in a couple of quarters of buffer and what they're doing is locking in capacity with us.

最後我想補充的是，我們在第四季看到強勁的接單。但如同我剛才提到的，我們看到專案被授予（awarded）的時程比過去歷史上更長。我們的客戶現在會預留幾個季度的緩衝，而他們正在做的是向我們鎖定產能。

I think this is really our customers desire to buy more time to clear some of the project timing challenges. But obviously, this limits our ability to fill in more near-term revenue than we would have historically.

我認為這其實反映了客戶希望買到更多時間，以解決一些專案時程上的挑戰。但顯然，這會限制我們在短期內填補更多營收的能力，相較於過去的情況。

Like others in our industry, we keep a portfolio of lots of projects. And historically we've been able, we would be able to work with our customers to push and pull projects in, when one we push out further. Simply stated right now that option is less given that the kind of cycles that we're seeing in our stated backlog.

和產業內其他公司一樣，我們維持一個包含許多專案的投資組合。過去我們通常能與客戶合作，在某個專案往後推遲時，把其他專案往前拉或往後推來調整。簡單來說，就目前而言，鑑於我們已揭露的在手訂單（backlog）所呈現的週期型態，這種調整空間變小了。

I think that to just put a topping on this. I don't see any real dislocation, or any indication of a longer trend, there's not been a killer app or any major new product that diminishes the strength of our products, and services and software portfolio.

我想為這點做個總結。我沒有看到任何真正的失衡（dislocation），或任何顯示更長期趨勢的跡象；也沒有出現什麼殺手級應用（killer app）或重大新產品會削弱我們產品、服務與軟體組合的競爭力。

There is a short-term dislocation based on what we previously discussed. I can tell you in the last three months, I've been in front of over 20 of our largest customers and we continue to receive great feedback from our customers on our current product, software, service offerings, as well as high marks for many of the operational and business improvements we've been making over the last two years. And most recently, I can tell you, I'm receiving very positive feedback on our increasingly competitive pricing position.

確實存在一個短期的失衡，原因就是我們先前討論過的那些因素。我可以告訴各位，在過去三個月裡，我與我們超過20家最大客戶面對面交流，我們持續從客戶那裡收到對我們現有產品、軟體與服務方案的高度回饋，同時也對我們過去兩年在營運與業務上的多項改善給予很高評價。而最近我也可以說，我收到對我們日益具競爭力的定價地位非常正面的回饋。

So that's where we were driving that early, Q1 results and that's why we're very confident calling it the trough. We're seeing that that backlog and pipeline momentum and we're certainly going to lean into that as we build the back half of our year here.

因此，這就是我們推動第一季初期業績的背景，也就是為什麼我們非常有信心把它稱為谷底（trough）。我們看到在手訂單與商機管線（pipeline）的動能，並且在我們打造今年下半年表現的過程中，肯定會加大投入、順勢而為。

Appreciate all that color. And then maybe just the last one if I could squeeze in and take taking all that into account. I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, Kevin, but it sounds like first half of the year maybe you're because of all the circumstances you just outlined, you're growing the market, but then back half of the year back to like being in line with market growth trends, if that's the way to read it.

感謝你提供這麼多細節。如果可以的話，最後再擠一個問題，綜合你剛才提到的所有因素。我的意思是，我不想替你說話，Kevin，但聽起來上半年可能因為你剛概述的各種情況，你們的成長會高於市場；而下半年則回到與市場成長趨勢一致，這樣解讀對嗎？

Yes, I think it would be maybe even better in the back half and how you've left it. If we just simply look at the win rate percentages, I think we feel really good about the direction of our businesses at this point.

是的，我認為下半年的表現甚至可能比你剛才描述的還要更好一些。如果我們單純看得標率（win rate）的百分比，我想我們對目前業務的發展方向感到非常樂觀。

Okay. Fair enough. That's great. Thank you. Pass it on.

好的。合理。很棒。謝謝。我把時間交出去。

Maheep Mandloi, Mizuho.

Maheep Mandloi，瑞穗（Mizuho）。

Hi, this is David Benjamin on for Maheep. I was just wondering if you guys expect to see the same sort of gross margin breakdown in the first half versus the second half despite the delta in revenues?

你好，我是代替Maheep的David Benjamin。我想請問，儘管營收在上半年與下半年有差異，你們是否預期毛利率的拆分（gross margin breakdown）仍會呈現類似的型態？

It'll be roughly to say, obviously slightly lower, probably in the first half, given the lower scale, but not on a material basis, we expect it to be fairly constant. However, I would no doubt that as you project mix and everything else it could move quarter to quarter. You saw that in 2023 and past years, but we should be relatively consistent slightly better in the second half than the first half.

大致來說會是如此；顯然由於規模較小，上半年可能會略低一些，但不會有實質性的差異，我們預期會相當穩定。不過，毫無疑問地，隨著產品組合（mix）以及其他因素的變化，毛利率可能會在各季度之間波動。你在2023年和過去幾年都看過這種情況，但整體而言我們應該會相對一致，下半年會比上半年略好。

Thanks very much. And is there also any of that due to work? Can you talk a little bit about like a ASP between international business and US. You mentioned cost downs. Are you applying those to customers both domestically or internationally?

非常感謝。另外，這是否也有部分是因為相關工作所致？你能否談談例如國際業務與美國之間的平均售價（ASP）差異？你提到降本。你們是把這些降本同時應用在國內與國際客戶身上嗎？

One of the great things about the product base that we have is that applied universally, obviously, there's some new geographic differences you have to do for compliance. But generally, the cost savings we do will pass on to customers, or will be in our product to help the margin and/or ASP there.

我們產品平台的一大優點是可普遍適用；當然，為了合規（compliance），不同地理區域會需要做一些差異化調整。但一般而言，我們所做的成本節省會讓利給客戶，或體現在產品中，以協助提升毛利率和／或ASP。

And each margin has a slightly different dynamic, we approach it on a portfolio basis, as you can imagine, as receding new markets, you might go in with a little bit more aggressive pricing, and you will have more established products. But as long as you're looking at portfolio basis, you're generally covered and that's how we do it.

而各項毛利率的動態略有不同；如你所想像，我們會以投資組合的角度來處理。進入新市場時，你可能會採取更具侵略性的定價，而在更成熟的產品上則不同。但只要你以投資組合的角度來看，通常就能被涵蓋到，而這也是我們的做法。

Try not to give too much color on a region by region specific just for a competitive and customer related info. We don't want to give that secret sauce out, so to speak.

基於競爭以及客戶相關資訊的考量，我們會盡量避免逐一區域提供過多細節。換句話說，我們不想把那套「獨門秘方」透露出去。

But the one thing I will note on the international, there's obviously not a pass through the 45X benefits clearly.

但我想就國際市場補充一點：顯然國際市場並沒有45X優惠的轉嫁（pass-through）效益。

Donovan Schafer, Northland Capital Markets.

Donovan Schafer，Northland Capital Markets。

Hi guys. So I want to ask about the H250 tracker. I know I think when you initially -- you really focusing on the US actually at the moment. So when you initially launched, you kind of had a push-pull design. I think like a lot of the other two row tracker companies do.

各位好。我想問一下H250追日系統（tracker）。我知道你們一開始——我想你們目前其實非常聚焦在美國市場。所以在最初推出時，你們採用的是推拉式（push-pull）設計。我想這跟其他許多雙排（two-row）追日系統公司類似。

I know you switched to I think we saw Replus. You have the kind of more elevated two-row link to rotary because that was kind of required for the US. So has that like -- if we can get an update on the roll out there and what was the backlog, the large increase in backlog they had in this quarter, if you could give us the mix of H250 versus the DuraTrack or OmniTrack or if you could just give us some, whether it's more quantitative or cause it has risen to a level of materiality and moving a needle and is that part of what drove that increase?

我知道你們後來切換到——我想我們看到的是Replus。你們採用了較高架的雙排連桿搭配旋轉（rotary）的設計，因為那對美國市場是必要的。所以這方面——如果可以的話，能否請你更新一下目前的導入進度，以及本季在手訂單大幅增加時的在手訂單內容？如果你能提供H250相對於DuraTrack或OmniTrack的組合占比，或提供一些資訊（不論是更量化的），因為它已經上升到具有重要性、能推動指標的程度；而這是否也是推動這次增加的一部分？

Anything that helps us understand the nexus of that with the conversations about prices, ASPs and such.

任何能幫助我們理解這與你們談到的價格、ASP等議題之間關聯的資訊都很有幫助。

So what's really been happening, Donovan, that the whole point of us launching the H250 was to have a tracker at a lower price point to be able to compete with those super capex sensitive customers, and there's a handful of them, right, that are out there and what we found that's really building is that as we've reduced our price on the core DuraTrack, that is putting a lot of pressure on those competitors to have those price sensitive and our win rate against those products using DuraTrack has really gone way up.

Donovan，實際上發生的情況是：我們推出H250的整體目的，是要提供一款價格點更低的追日系統，以便與那些對資本支出（capex）極度敏感的客戶競爭；而這類客戶確實只有少數幾家。

So what we're seeing is customers are preferring the DuraTrack at the lower price point far better than saying, hey, let's go and chase the H250 up against this other competitive platform, right? So that's what we're seeing. We still have a large backlog of quotes.

因此我們看到的是：客戶更偏好以較低價格點購買DuraTrack，而不是說「我們去用H250去追逐、對打另一個競爭平台」，對吧？這就是我們目前看到的情況。我們仍然有大量的報價（quotes）在手。

On the H250, we're still pursuing that and we think that's really important because as those competitors, and some have publicly even noted that they're getting pricing pressure to reduce their price, that's where the H250 will come into play. But what we've seen thus far is a big uptick in the sale of DuraTrack versus those competitors that we targeted the H250 at.

關於 H250，我們仍在推進，我們認為這非常重要，因為當那些競爭對手（其中一些甚至已公開提到）正面臨降價壓力、需要降低售價時，H250 就會派上用場。但截至目前我們看到的是，DuraTrack 的銷售相較於我們原本以 H250 鎖定的那些競爭對手，出現了大幅上升。

And while you're on it, let me address OmniTrack as well. We have began getting orders, real orders for OmniTrack and as we've said all along, we expect that to kind of be at that 10% to 15% of the overall share domestically versus DuraTrack and I think that's really beginning to play out in kind of that volume range, if you will. So the orders in hand, I think we're already nearly just over half of our anticipated volume for this year already. So that's beginning to translate pretty good for us at this point.

既然提到這點，我也一併說明一下 OmniTrack。我們已開始收到 OmniTrack 的訂單，是真正的訂單；而且如同我們一直以來所說，我們預期在國內整體占比中，OmniTrack 相對於 DuraTrack 大約會落在 10% 到 15%，我認為這正逐步在那個量級區間內實現。所以就手上已拿到的訂單來看，我想我們今年預期出貨量已經接近、略高於一半了。因此到目前為止，這對我們的轉化表現相當不錯。

And what's more important is that's translating to our customers in that it's a very small price premium to the customers and that's really related to the fact that you may need a couple more foundation or posts to utilize that, but it's far more offset by the amount of grading savings to our customers.

更重要的是，這也正在為我們的客戶帶來價值：對客戶而言只需要非常小的價格溢價，而這主要是因為你可能需要多幾個基礎或立柱來使用它，但這部分成本會被客戶在整地（grading）節省的金額大幅抵消。

So net-net, that OmniTrack is providing the customer several percentage points of improvement in a project even relative to DuraTrack. So we're seeing that traction and I think that traction is going to accelerate as more of the EPCs work with civil engineering companies and learn how to design in that product as we go forward.

因此整體而言，OmniTrack 甚至相較於 DuraTrack，也能讓客戶在專案上提升好幾個百分點的效益。我們正在看到這樣的動能，而且我認為隨著更多 EPC 與土木工程公司合作、並在後續逐步學會如何把這個產品納入設計，這股動能會加速。

Joseph Osha, Guggenheim Partners.

Joseph Osha，Guggenheim Partners。

Yes, thank you. When you discussed some of the push-outs and timing issues that you've seen, one of the issues that didn't come up is cost of capital in terms of on the things your developers are struggling with. And I'm wondering if in the course of your conversations you had that is something that has come up as a factor.

是的，謝謝。你們在談到一些延期（push-outs）與時程問題時，有一個議題沒有被提到，就是資本成本，亦即你們的開發商在面對的困難之一。我想請問在你們的對話過程中，這是否也曾被提及為一項因素。

And if you don't mind also, I do want to quickly follow up on the previous question. Is it your intention still to take a 250 and drive it into the lower ASP segment of the market? Or is am I hearing a more fundamental shift in your strategy vis a vis that and to attract? Thank you.

另外如果不介意，我也想快速追問上一個問題。你們是否仍打算用 H250 切入市場中較低 ASP 的區隔？還是我聽到的是你們在這方面的策略有更根本的轉變、轉而去吸引（不同客群）？謝謝。

So let me, I'll take the latter first, if you don't mind. No, we still intend to have the H250 as a lower value product to be able to compete with others that may drop their price in order to maintain their market share in that segment.

那我先回答後半段，如果你不介意。沒有，我們仍打算把 H250 作為較低價值的產品，用來與那些可能為了維持該區隔市占而降價的競爭對手競爭。

But again, what we're truly seeing now is much more as we move our value line closer that trade-off between us and one of those lower-priced competitors becomes somewhat negligible with our advantages and installation costs when you add those in and that's what we're seeing. So we're seeing people start that project and say, look, this is a much better, much more competitive price. I'm going to go and start the project with a Dura track.

但再說一次，我們現在真正看到的是，當我們把價值產品線拉近之後，若把我們的優勢與安裝成本一併納入考量，我們與某些低價競爭對手之間的取捨差異變得相當不明顯，而這正是我們所看到的情況。所以我們看到有人開始做專案時會說：你看，這個價格更好、更具競爭力。我會用 DuraTrack 來啟動這個專案。

We are -- the H250 is ready to go . Obviously, we have lots of quotes in there for that and internationally, it's really, really quoting off the charts at this point. We feel great about that. So what we're really focused on is having that ready to be a response so that we don't have to further decline the Dura track price. So we can do that with the H250.

我們——H250 已經準備就緒。顯然，我們已經有很多針對它的報價；而在國際市場上，目前的報價需求真的非常、非常熱絡。我們對此感覺非常好。所以我們真正聚焦的是把它準備好，作為一種回應手段，讓我們不必再進一步下調 DuraTrack 的價格。因此我們可以用 H250 來做到這點。

So the original thesis is still solid. It's not playing out nearly to the degree. We thought what we're seeing is the Dura track takeover much more on that. I'm sorry, can you repeat your first part of the question ?

所以原本的論點仍然成立。只是它的發展程度遠不如我們原先預期。我們看到的是 DuraTrack 在那一塊的取代效應更明顯。抱歉，你可以重複一下你問題的第一部分嗎？

Oh, the push outs, so relative, in talking to a lot of our customers and developers, there were several that talked, I can only put it in a phrase that was used to me is, why go forward and finance a project today when I know it's 50 basis points cheaper if I wait for the back half?

喔，關於延期（push-outs）。所以相對地，在和許多客戶與開發商交流時，有幾位提到——我只能用他們對我說的一句話來表達——「如果我知道等到下半年融資成本會便宜 50 個基點，為什麼要今天就推進並為專案融資？」

And I look, I don't claim to be an expert in project financing, and I would think there's ways around that in the finance community, but that was a phrase, conveyed to me by a couple of developers over the last three months. I don't know honestly to what degree that's impacting things.

我先說，我不敢自稱是專案融資的專家，我也認為在金融圈應該有方法可以處理，但這句話是在過去三個月裡，有幾位開發商轉述給我的。老實說，我不確定這對事情的影響程度有多大。

Colin Rusch, Oppenheimer.

Colin Rusch，Oppenheimer。

Thanks so much, guys. You know, you've gotten off a lot of details. I appreciate that, but I'm just curious, embedded in the guidance for this year, can you talk about the product mix and how that's trending?

非常感謝，各位。你們提供了很多細節。我很感激，但我只是好奇：在今年的財測指引中，能否談談產品組合（product mix）以及它的趨勢？

You're just alluding to it. I'm just curious what the assumptions are underlying that in terms of some of the newer products versus older products larger versus smaller systems.

你們剛剛有稍微提到。我想了解在這背後的假設是什麼，例如一些較新產品相對於較舊產品、大型系統相對於小型系統。

Yes. I don't think we give that level of detail, to be honest. I would only say that the product mix as anticipated, vis a vis the OmniTrack is on track and the comment I'll make about the DuraTrack winning more against certain competitors versus the H250 in the near term.

是的。老實說，我不認為我們會提供到那個細節層級。我只能說，產品組合如預期般進展；就 OmniTrack 而言一切都在軌道上，而我也會補充一點：短期內，DuraTrack 對某些競爭對手的勝出程度，比 H250 更明顯。

Okay. And then just in R&D spending, is there an expected change in terms of how much you're going to spend on the OpEx side, looking at new products now that you feel like you've got a pretty full portfolio here, so we see that moderate a little bit.

好的。另外在研發支出方面，預期在營業費用（OpEx）端會有變化嗎？考量到你們覺得產品組合已相當完整，是否會看到研發支出稍微趨緩？

No you're actually going to see that accelerate from where we feel really good about the changes we've made to our engineering organization over the last two years and it's my commitment to the engineering organization that if they continue to bring forward, really viable products with great margin enhancements and this includes new software. This includes new additional services.

不，實際上你會看到它加速，因為我們對過去兩年在工程組織所做的調整感到非常滿意；而我對工程團隊的承諾是，只要他們持續推出真正可行、且能大幅提升毛利的產品——這也包括新的軟體，也包括新的附加服務。

The amount of work we're doing on, say accessories and clamping solutions and things like that and value added engineering efforts is very substantial at this point. So we're going to continue to accelerate and spend there and I think we're getting a phenomenal return out of that.

我們在配件、夾持（clamping）解決方案等方面，以及增值型工程（value added engineering）工作的投入，目前非常可觀。所以我們會持續加速並增加這方面的支出，我認為我們從中獲得了極佳的回報。

And again, we talked earlier last year on a call relative to the amount of patents. I think we're now up to nearly 120 patents that have been granted in the last two years, which, again, is more than the previous 18 years combined. So you're just going to continue to see us build that mode around our business with technology and patents and continue to build that data as we go forward.

另外，我們去年也在電話會議上談過專利數量。我想我們現在在過去兩年獲准的專利已接近 120 件；同樣地，這比之前 18 年的總和還多。所以你會持續看到我們透過技術與專利，在業務周圍建立這道護城河，並在未來持續累積這些資料。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kashy Harrison, Piper Sandler.

Kashy Harrison，Piper Sandler。

Hi. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for taking my question. My questions I should say. So my first set are on the US pipeline growth and conversion. You talked about a three growth in the US pipeline between 2Q 2023 and 4Q 2023. And I just want to clarify so are you saying that the growth is mainly due to cost reductions and DuraTrack or that H250 or that OmniTrack?

嗨。各位下午好，謝謝讓我提問。應該說是我的幾個問題。我第一組問題是關於美國管線（pipeline）的成長與轉換。你們提到美國管線在 2023 年第二季到 2023 年第四季之間成長了三倍。我想確認一下：你們是說這個成長主要是因為成本下降與 DuraTrack，還是因為 H250，或是因為 OmniTrack？

And then you said you win rate has gone up recently, is that compared to early 2023, 2022, 2021? And then finally, how should we think about pipeline conversion into orders the time line?

另外你們說近期的得標率（win rate）提高了，這是相較於 2023 年初、2022 年、還是 2021 年？最後，我們應該如何看待管線轉換成訂單的時間線？

Yes. Great questions, Kashy. So when I think about win rate, what I'm comparing it to is our baseline win rate is, think about it as our historical domestic market share. So think of it that way. So if our win rate was just simply equal to our historic market share, obviously the underlying assumption is that we're seeing most projects that are out there in the market, which is not entirely true, but largely accurate, I would say.

是的。問題問得很好，Kashy。所以當我在思考得標率（win rate）時，我拿來比較的基準是：我們的基準得標率，可以把它視為我們歷史上的國內市場占有率。可以這樣理解。所以如果我們的得標率只是單純等於我們歷史市場占有率，顯然其背後的假設是：我們看到了市場上大多數的專案；這並非完全正確，但我會說大致上是準確的。

So what we try to do is, we look at that win rate accelerating above that, and that tells us that there's market share takeaway happening, above that historical market share rate and that's what we're beginning to see now. We've seen that consistently for several months.

因此我們嘗試做的是：觀察得標率是否加速高於該基準；這告訴我們正在發生市占率的奪取，且幅度高於歷史市占率水準，而這正是我們現在開始看到的情況。過去幾個月我們一直持續看到這種趨勢。

So we feel really good about the fact that our reduced pricing in the market from those structural activities is really holding and again, and I said, as I've gone out and met with many of our customers, they're really focused on, I have one large EPC come to see me here in Chandler, and the entire part of the meeting was, please tell me that this is structural in nature and you're not trying to buy business because at these prices I can lock in a lot of work going forward.

所以我們對於：透過那些結構性措施而在市場上降低的定價確實站得住腳，感覺非常好；而且我也說過，當我外出拜訪並與許多客戶會面時，他們非常關注這點。我有一家大型EPC來錢德勒（Chandler）這裡見我，整場會議的重點就是：請告訴我這是結構性的，而不是你們在用低價搶生意，因為以這樣的價格，我可以把未來很多工作都鎖定下來。

And that was a great conversation. We walked that customer through in detail the amount of work we're doing to reduce the costs for them and it was very satisfying meeting on both our sides. So I can tell you that. So again, relative to the pipeline, that pipeline is made up of a strong mix of OmniTrack, DuraTrack and H250. That's all I can say on that. It's all of the above is sitting in that pipeline at this point.

那是一場很棒的對話。我們非常詳細地向該客戶說明我們為他們降低成本所做的工作量，對雙方而言都是一次非常令人滿意的會議。所以我可以這麼告訴你。再者，關於案源（pipeline），該案源由OmniTrack、DuraTrack與H250的強勁組合所構成。我能說的就到這裡。目前案源裡面三者都有。

Andrew Percoco, Morgan Stanley.

Andrew Percoco，摩根士丹利。

Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just as a follow-up to some of the margin questions earlier, you're kind of alluding to some declining ASPs this year, some of that's being offset by lower commodity prices, lower manufacturing costs potentially. But I was just curious, how much additional room do you have left to lower the cost of your product from here?

謝謝讓我提問。也許作為對先前一些毛利問題的追問，你們有提到今年ASP在下降，其中一部分可能會被較低的大宗商品價格、以及可能較低的製造成本所抵銷。但我想請教的是：從現在起，你們在降低產品成本方面還有多少額外空間？

If you were to take a 12 to 24-month view and pricing continues to come down, whether that's competition driven or otherwise, how much cost per watt if you want to use that measure, how much left or how much further can you drive down that metric versus where you are today?

如果以12到24個月的角度來看，而價格持續下滑，不論是競爭所致或其他原因，以每瓦成本（如果用這個衡量方式）來說，你們還剩下多少空間？或相較於今天，你們還能把這個指標再往下推多少？

I would say a couple of things, this is Kurt. One, the R&D spend that Kevin spoke about earlier isn't only for new product introductions. We're constantly designing for how we can reduce costs out of our program as well and also, obviously, getting smarter in the supply chain side around how we price logistics in and redesign clamps and other things like that to optimize.

我會說幾點，我是Kurt。第一，Kevin先前提到的研發支出不只是用於新產品導入。我們也持續在設計上思考如何把成本從我們的方案中移除；同時，當然也會在供應鏈端變得更聰明，例如我們如何為物流定價、重新設計夾具（clamps）以及其他類似事項來做最佳化。

And then, obviously, there's each EPC or developer does things a little bit differently, so we work with them, if they have volume with us to make sure we're optimizing, to make sure, not just our product, but the residual balance of system costs that overall [LCLE] is taking into effect as well. Because there could be some instances where our price is a little bit higher because we're driving value on the backend where they reduce costs there.

另外，很明顯地，每一家EPC或開發商的做法都略有不同，所以我們會與他們合作；如果他們與我們有一定的量，我們會確保我們在做最佳化——不只是我們的產品，也包括整體系統其餘部分（balance of system）的剩餘成本，而整體[LCLE]也會把這些納入考量。因為有些情況下，我們的價格可能稍高一些，但我們在後端創造價值，讓他們在那裡降低成本。

So I think we continue to have room. You know, we will continue to design costs out. H250 is another example. It is a lower cost product of the DuraTrack. We have the ability to use that product if the price points get down to that level and still maintain our margin.

所以我認為我們仍然有空間。我們會持續透過設計把成本降下來。H250就是另一個例子。它是相較於DuraTrack更低成本的產品。如果價格點降到那個水準，我們有能力改用該產品，同時仍能維持我們的毛利。

So we will continue to focus on that. I will say our operations team has done a phenomenal job in executing the cost reduction goals that we had in 2023 and is a big reason of why we're sitting in the mid-20s margin without any 45X or other benefits included in there at the time.

所以我們會持續聚焦在這件事上。我也要說，我們的營運團隊在執行2023年所設定的降本目標方面做得非常出色；這也是為什麼即使當時未把45X或其他效益納入，我們仍能維持在20%中段毛利的重要原因。

So I think there's still headway and every company will do that. You have to match that and I think you're seeing that across the industry and we're committed to lowering the cost of solar energy globally.

所以我認為仍然有進展空間，而每家公司都會這麼做。你必須跟上這個節奏，我想你也看到整個產業都是如此，而我們致力於在全球降低太陽能的成本。

Derek Soderberg, Cantor Fitzgerald.

Derek Soderberg，Cantor Fitzgerald。

Yes, hi, thanks for squeezing me in. Just one for me. I was curious if you could just talk a bit more about non tracker revenue opportunities on any plans or introductions this year. Did non tracker play into the gross margin guidance. If so, to what degree ? Just any call-outs on the product development side there, how we should think about non tracker revenue trends on '24 ? Thanks.

是的，嗨，謝謝讓我插個問題。我只有一題。我想請你們多談一點今年在非追日系統（non-tracker）營收機會方面的計畫或產品推出。非追日系統是否有納入毛利率指引？如果有，程度到什麼程度?另外在產品開發面有沒有什麼重點可提？我們應該如何看待2024年非追日系統營收趨勢？謝謝。

I'll start, Kevin, and maybe you can add on if you have it. I think, look, we've made some good progress on there. Again, I'll talk about the structural enhancements, starting with Q4. If you take the 45X, which was 9.3 million, and we said we had 8.5 million of one-time charges, so they net each other out, that gives us 520 basis points year-over-year.

我先開始，Kevin，如果你有要補充也可以接著說。我認為，總之，我們在那方面取得了一些不錯的進展。同樣地，我會從結構性改善談起，從第四季開始。如果你把45X（為930萬美元）拿掉，而我們也說過有850萬美元的一次性費用，所以兩者大致互相抵銷，這讓我們年對年增加了520個基點。

About 3 quarters of that was coming from structural cost enhancements that Kevin talked about, and the remaining 25% was coming from these non-tracker revenue sources that we have. We expect that to continue to grow in the year, probably not a very material amount above what you're seeing here, but there lies a potential tailwind we have going out, we're promoting it, but it is factored into our guidance.

其中大約四分之三來自Kevin提到的結構性成本改善，剩下的25%則來自我們這些非追日系統的營收來源。我們預期這在今年會持續成長，可能不會比你現在看到的高出非常顯著，但這裡確實存在一些潛在的順風；我們正在推廣，而且它已經納入我們的指引。

And just adding some color to what those entail, there's kind of three major buckets we've been focusing on. The one is accredited training programs. In order to qualify for the ITC and domestic content provisions, you have to be able to demonstrate you're using accredited training programs.

再補充一些這些內容的細節，我們主要聚焦在三大類。第一類是認證培訓（accredited training）計畫。為了符合ITC以及國內內容（domestic content）條款，你必須能夠證明你使用的是認證培訓計畫。

And there's really a lack of them out there in the industry. So as our customers, as those EPCs are hiring labor to handle future acceleration, they need to be able to have that labor set for accredited training. So we've taken the time to create many training modules and get them fully accredited. And that's already up and running at this point.

而在產業裡這類資源其實非常缺乏。因此當我們的客戶、也就是那些EPC在招募勞動力以因應未來加速時，他們需要能讓這些人力接受認證培訓。所以我們投入時間建立了許多培訓模組，並讓它們取得完整認證。而且目前已經開始運作。

And again, as I'm in front of customers, even as recent as two weeks ago, they're thrilled that there's another resource where they can send people for this accredited training.

同樣地，當我面對客戶時，就在兩週前，他們都非常高興，因為又多了一個資源可以把人送來接受這種認證培訓。

That second area was in, for lack of a better word, [process-tizing] our services, if you will, and taking some of the things that we do in terms of commissioning, golden row inspection, health assessment inspection services, site optimization services, all of those things that we do from time to time and productizing them so that they're highly repeatable and that we actually generate revenue for them and again, that's really good high value revenue for us.

第二個領域是——姑且這麼說——把我們的服務「流程化／產品化」（[process-tizing]）。也就是把我們不時提供的服務，例如試運轉（commissioning）、黃金列（golden row）檢查、健康狀態評估檢查服務、場址最佳化服務等，把它們產品化，使其高度可重複交付，並且我們能因此產生營收；而且這對我們而言是非常高價值的營收。

And then, the last is, really comes down to project management and looking at where we can in-source engineering services that maybe some of our customers are doing from time-to-time. And for example, the civil engineering terrain analysis that would be required to use Omni, bringing some of those services in-house and being able to provide that value added for our customers.

最後一項，主要是專案管理，並檢視我們可以在哪些地方把工程服務內製（in-source），而這些服務可能是部分客戶不時自行處理的。例如，使用Omni所需的土木工程地形分析（civil engineering terrain analysis），把其中一些服務帶回內部，並能為客戶提供這些加值。

So we're really excited about that. We're really excited about the team we've built around our services offerings, and we do expect that to continue to grow.

所以我們對此非常興奮。我們也對圍繞服務方案所建立的團隊感到非常興奮，而且我們確實預期這部分會持續成長。

Dylan Nassano, Wolfe Research.

Dylan Nassano，Wolfe Research。

Yes, hi thanks for taking my question. I'm sorry if this was already covered, but I just wanted to go back to the $300 million that you guys talked about last quarter as being on the sidelines. I guess what I'm trying to say is what is the churn or if it was any of that included in this quarter's bookings? And just generally, what is the churn in those kind of delayed projects? Thanks.

是的，您好，感謝讓我提問。如果這個問題先前已經談過我先致歉，但我想回到你們上季提到的那筆 3 億美元、當時說是暫時觀望中的金額。我想問的是，這裡面的流失（churn）情況如何？或者其中是否有任何部分已包含在本季的訂單（bookings）之中？更一般性地說，這類延後專案的流失率大概是多少？謝謝。

Well, what we saw is about half of that came into the order book at this point, these are projects that they could just no longer delay. They need to get the orders for us to begin working with our supply chain. So we did see about half of that 300 million that were on the sideline, specifically related to IRE clarity comment.

我們看到的是，其中大約一半目前已進入訂單簿；這些是客戶已經無法再延後的專案。他們需要下單，讓我們能開始與供應鏈合作展開作業。因此，我們確實看到先前那筆 3 億美元中約有一半從觀望轉為下單，這部分特別與 IRE 的釐清意見相關。

I think the rest will just roll in project by project normal course of business. We won't really call it out with a specificity as we go forward. But half of that is already converted now.

我認為其餘部分會在正常業務進程中，按專案逐一回流。我們未來不會再以非常具體的方式逐項點名說明。但其中一半現在已經完成轉換。

Philip Shen, ROTH Capital Partners.

Philip Shen，ROTH Capital Partners。

Kevin, Kurt, thanks for taking my question. Can you quantify how much of the 45X you might pass along to customers? When the IRA first came out, you guys quantified the torque tube credit being roughly $1.06 a watt. The torque tube guy might get maybe a third or a quarter.

Kevin、Kurt，謝謝讓我提問。你們能否量化一下，45X 抵免中有多少可能會轉嫁（讓利）給客戶？當 IRA 剛推出時，你們曾量化扭矩管（torque tube）抵免約為每瓦 1.06 美元。扭矩管供應商可能拿到大約三分之一或四分之一。

Do you think you pass along as much as a quarter or a third to customers, and you guys keep maybe a third or half of it? And did you pass any along in the 45X? Sorry, did you pass some of the 45X credit with the recent $600 million in bookings in Q4? Or if not, when do you expect to start to pass some of the 45X credit along to customers? Thanks.

你們認為會把多達四分之一或三分之一讓利給客戶，而你們自己保留大約三分之一或一半嗎？另外，你們是否已經在 45X 上做了任何讓利？抱歉，我是說，你們在第四季最近新增的 6 億美元訂單（bookings）中，有把部分 45X 抵免讓利給客戶嗎？如果沒有，你們預期何時會開始把部分 45X 抵免讓利給客戶？謝謝。

So, Phil, our margin guidance assumes that there will be a portion. So what we've been clear in our messaging is that that low 30s margin is net of the retained portion of our 45X credit. We have not entered into any specific contracts requiring us to do that as of yet.

所以，Phil，我們的毛利率指引假設其中會有一部分需要分享出去。我們在對外訊息中一直很清楚：我們所說的 30% 出頭毛利率，是扣除我們保留之 45X 抵免部分後的淨額（net）。截至目前，我們尚未簽訂任何要求我們必須這麼做的特定合約。

But our view, when we've been working with our customers and certainly our large partners, we've committed to them that there would be a level of sharing of that credit as we go forward. So we're not about to negotiate that over an open conference call, but our expectation and what's baked into our guidance is an expectation that there'll be a portion of that that we're going to share with our customers.

但我們的看法是，當我們與客戶、尤其是大型合作夥伴合作時，我們已向他們承諾，未來會在一定程度上分享這項抵免。因此我們不會在公開電話會議上談判細節，但我們的預期、以及已反映在指引中的假設，是我們會把其中一部分與客戶分享。

Vikram Bagri, Citi.

Vikram Bagri，花旗（Citi）。

Good afternoon, everyone. I think in the prepared comments, you had mentioned that you're evaluating multiple avenues to gain clarity on structural fasteners. Can you talk about what avenues you are evaluating and anticipated timing of clarity ?

各位下午好。我記得在事先準備的講稿中，你們提到正在評估多種途徑，以釐清結構緊固件（structural fasteners）的認定。能否談談你們正在評估哪些途徑，以及預期何時能獲得明確釐清？

The carbon period for our 45X clarification expired, mid Feb, but I believe you did not see clarity through that process. And on the same topic, the $40 million of 2023 IRA credit realized -- earned in '23 to be realized in '24, is that a one-time boost to this year's EBITDA? Or we may see a similar amount of hiring credits from '24 to '25?

你們 45X 釐清的徵詢期（comment period）在 2 月中旬到期，但我相信你們並未透過該流程獲得明確結果。同一個主題下，2023 年已取得（earned）但將於 2024 年實現（realized）的 4,000 萬美元 IRA 抵免——這是否會對今年 EBITDA 形成一次性（one-time）的提振？或者我們可能會看到類似金額的抵免從 2024 年延後到 2025 年？

I'm just trying to understand what is the right EBITDA, excluding any one-time boost or one-time items that I should use for '24. Is this $40 million shift from '23 to '24 is it onetime or we'll see '24 also -- at the end of '24, a similar amount shifting from '24 to '25? Thank you.

我想了解的是，若排除任何一次性提振或一次性項目，2024 年應採用的合理 EBITDA 水準是多少。這筆 4,000 萬美元從 2023 年移轉到 2024 年，是一次性的嗎？還是我們也會在 2024 年底看到類似金額從 2024 年移轉到 2025 年？謝謝。

Now I'll take the second part first, Kevin, and then you can go on to the first part. On the second part regarding the one-time nature, we think it's, one, you didn't have all of the 45X negotiated at -- including the structural factors that we know will be included going in.

我先回答第二部分，Kevin，然後你再接著回答第一部分。關於第二部分、是否屬一次性：我們認為，第一，你當時並沒有把所有 45X 都談妥——包括我們知道未來會納入的結構性因素（structural factors）。

There's parts that are a little bit more vague that we're waiting for clarity on. So I think at least from what we know now, you're probably safe that you'll have an equal amount pushed to the following year. That amount will provide a little bit more clarity as we go throughout the year and we provide 2025 guidance.

有些部分仍較為模糊，我們正在等待進一步釐清。因此，就我們目前所知，你大概可以放心，會有相當的金額延後到下一年度。隨著今年進展、以及我們提供 2025 年指引時，該金額會更清楚。

But from what we know now, that's what I tell you at that point and I think what we're focusing on is the structural margin in the mid 20% range on the core.

但就我們目前所知，我此刻能告訴你的就是這些；而我們聚焦的是核心業務在 20% 中段（mid 20%）的結構性毛利率。

And I'll address your comments on structural fasteners. So specifically, some of the things we're doing. So first of all, I'm really thrilled that at the end of the year, we increased our government affairs team and hired a new SVP of External Policy and Government Affairs and Jessica's really having a great impact working with us and being able to navigate some of these challenges around Washington D.C.

我來回應你對結構緊固件的問題。具體來說，我們正在做的幾件事。首先，我非常高興我們在年底擴編了政府事務團隊，並聘請了一位新的對外政策與政府事務資深副總裁（SVP）。Jessica 與我們合作帶來很大影響，能協助我們在華盛頓特區周旋處理這些挑戰。

So setting that aside, we are active in working with providing additional clarity to the IRS in terms of additional variations of definitions around structural fasteners for one. We're certainly active in a broader political push to ensure that the structural faster elements as is further supported. And I think for us, there's kind of two categories we're focused on.

撇開這點不談，我們正積極與 IRS 合作，提供更多針對結構緊固件的定義變體之補充釐清。我們也積極參與更廣泛的政治推動，以確保結構緊固件相關要素能獲得進一步支持。對我們而言，大致有兩個類別是我們正在聚焦的。

The first are the amount of parts that we are already today, very confident that qualify for credits based on the current guidelines as written and our focus there isn't about changing the definition. It's really about negotiating with our parts suppliers in terms of the split, much like we did at the end of the year into early this year with our torque tube suppliers.

第一類，是我們目前已非常有把握、依照現行書面指引即可符合抵免資格的零組件。我們在這部分的重點不是改變定義，而是與零組件供應商協商分配比例，就像我們在去年底到今年初與扭矩管供應商所做的一樣。

We're in those same negotiations with our suppliers in hopes of retaining a disproportionate amount of that benefit as well. So once we do that, once we have clarity, we've committed to come back to the market and given and give you guys an idea of what the size of that breadbox really is.

我們也正與供應商進行同樣的協商，希望同樣能保留相對更高比例的利益。一旦完成協商、並取得釐清後，我們承諾會回到市場，讓各位了解那個「麵包盒」（breadbox）的實際規模到底有多大。

The second, it is a little bit more nebulous. It's a bunch of parts that may qualify and the efforts we're doing, there's we've hired some third party engineering companies to go to evaluate those parts and the definitions and give us rendered opinions on whether or not Part A or B or C would actually qualify under that definition.

第二類則比較不明確。這是一批可能符合資格的零組件；我們正在做的努力包括聘請第三方工程公司來評估這些零組件與相關定義，並提供專業意見，判斷零組件 A、B 或 C 是否真的符合該定義下的資格。

But again, we'll then take that onboard once we get the rest of the body of analytics done and as a management team will decide whether or not we feel confident enough to take some additional elements of structural fasteners. So there's a lot of work going on around that. Again, we'll maintain our commitment to come back to you when we have full clarity and disclose that. But what I will say is that an upside to the guidance we've currently provided.

但同樣地，等我們完成其餘分析工作後，我們會把結果納入考量，並由管理團隊決定是否有足夠信心，把更多結構緊固件要素納入。因此，這方面有很多工作正在進行。同樣地，我們會遵守承諾：在取得完整釐清後回來向各位說明並揭露。但我要說的是，這會是我們目前所提供指引的上行空間（upside）。

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. And with that, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。我們的問答環節到此結束。至此，今天的電話會議也告一段落。各位現在可以掛線。感謝各位的參與。