Ashland Inc (ASH) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ashland Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Seth Mrozek. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加亞甚蘭公司 2023 年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在我想將會議交給今天的發言人 Seth Mrozek。請繼續。

Thank you, Victor. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ashland's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Seth Mrozek, Director, Ashland Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Guillermo Novo, Ashland Chair and Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Willis, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，維克多。大家好，歡迎來到亞甚蘭 2023 財年第三季度收益電話會議和網絡廣播。我的名字是 Seth Mrozek，阿什蘭投資者關係總監。今天和我一起參加電話會議的還有阿什蘭董事長兼首席執行官吉列爾莫·諾沃 (Guillermo Novo)；凱文·威利斯 (Kevin Willis)，高級副總裁兼首席財務官。

We released results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, at approximately 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time yesterday, July 25. The news release issued last night was furnished to the SEC in a Form 8-K. During today's call, we will reference slides that are currently being webcast on our website, ashland.com, under the Investor Relations section. We encourage you to follow along with the webcast during the call.

我們於下午 5:00 左右發布了截至 2023 年 6 月 30 日的季度業績。東部時間昨天，7 月 25 日。昨晚發布的新聞稿以 8-K 表格形式提交給 SEC。在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考目前在我們網站 ashland.com 的投資者關係部分下進行網絡廣播的幻燈片。我們鼓勵您在通話期間關注網絡廣播。

Please turn to Slide 2. As a reminder, during today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our outlook for fiscal year 2023. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from today's projections. We believe any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, but cannot assure that such expectations will be achieved. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation for an explanation of those risks and uncertainties and the limits applicable to forward-looking statements. You can also review our most recent Form 10-K under Item 1A for a comprehensive discussion of the risk factors impacting our business.

請參閱幻燈片2。提醒一下，在今天的電話會議中，我們將就多項事項做出前瞻性聲明，包括我們對2023 財年的展望。前瞻性聲明受到風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能會導致未來的結果或事件與今天的預測存在重大差異。我們相信任何此類陳述均基於合理的假設，但不能保證此類預期將會實現。請參閱演示文稿的幻燈片 2，了解這些風險和不確定性以及適用於前瞻性陳述的限制的解釋。您還可以在第 1A 項下查看我們最新的 10-K 表格，以全面討論影響我們業務的風險因素。

Please also note that we will be referring to certain actual and projected financial metrics on Ashland on an adjusted basis, which are non-GAAP financial measures. We will refer to those measures as adjusted and present them to supplement your understanding and assessment of the financial performance of our ongoing business. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered a substitute for or superior to financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. The most directly comparable GAAP measures as well as reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to those GAAP measures are available on our website and in the appendix of today's slide presentation.

另請注意，我們將參考亞甚蘭調整後的某些實際和預測財務指標，這些指標屬於非公認會計準則財務指標。我們將參考調整後的這些指標，並提出它們，以補充您對我們正在進行的業務的財務業績的理解和評估。非公認會計原則措施不應被視為替代或優於根據公認會計原則計算的財務措施。最直接可比的公認會計準則衡量標準以及非公認會計準則衡量標準與公認會計準則衡量標準的調節表可在我們的網站和今天幻燈片演示的附錄中找到。

Please turn to Slide 3. Guillermo will begin the call this morning with an overview of Ashland's performance and results in the third quarter. Kevin will then provide a more detailed review of financial results in the quarter. Guillermo will then provide additional commentary related to Ashland's financial outlook for fiscal year 2023. We'll then open the line for your questions.

請參閱幻燈片 3。吉列爾莫將於今天早上開始電話會議，概述阿什蘭第三季度的業績和業績。然後，凱文將對本季度的財務業績進行更詳細的審查。隨後，吉列爾莫將提供有關亞甚蘭 2023 財年財務前景的更多評論。然後我們將開通您的提問熱線。

Now please turn to Slide 5. And I'd like to turn the call over to Guillermo for his opening comments. Guillermo?

現在請翻到幻燈片 5。我想將電話轉給吉列爾莫，請他發表開場白。吉列爾莫？

Thank you, Seth, and hello, everyone. Thank you for your interest in Ashland and for your participation today. Results in the June quarter were consistent with the pre-announcement that we issued in late June. Total sales for the quarter declined 15% compared to the prior year. Our Pharma business continued to perform well and the inflation recovery actions taken last year and early this year continue to benefit overall results. However, the unprecedented reset impact from customer destocking actions across many supply chains continues to materially impact many of the markets we serve.

謝謝你，賽斯，大家好。感謝您對阿什蘭的興趣以及今天的參與。六月份季度的業績與我們在六月下旬發布的預先公告一致。該季度的總銷售額與去年同期相比下降了 15%。我們的製藥業務繼續表現良好，去年和今年年初採取的通脹復甦行動繼續有利於整體業績。然而，許多供應鏈中客戶去庫存行動帶來的前所未有的重置影響繼續對我們服務的許多市場產生重大影響。

As we stated in late June, our previous expectations that destocking would conclude during the fiscal third quarter proved to be optimistic. There's still significant uncertainty as to when these dynamics will end. Until the inventory control actions taken by our customers have subsided, it will remain difficult for us to gauge the true end market demand.

正如我們在 6 月底表示的那樣，我們之前對去庫存將在第三財季結束的預期被證明是樂觀的。這些動態何時結束仍存在很大的不確定性。在客戶採取的庫存控制措施消退之前，我們仍然很難衡量真正的終端市場需求。

Based on information from our customers, sales volumes as well as global retailers of consumer products, we do not believe current customer order dynamics are representative of the underlying consumer demand for the high-value products in which our ingredients are used. While this uncertain environment presents near-term challenges, it does not change our longer-term opportunities or priorities. I will discuss these in more detail at the end of the call.

根據我們的客戶、銷量以及消費品全球零售商的信息，我們認為當前的客戶訂單動態並不能代表消費者對使用我們成分的高價值產品的潛在需求。雖然這種不確定的環境帶來了短期挑戰，但它不會改變我們的長期機會或優先事項。我將在通話結束時更詳細地討論這些問題。

Please turn to Slide 6. As you can see in the chart on the left, sales declined in each of our segments due to the factors I referenced earlier. As a consequence, we pursued our own internal actions to control inventories. These actions impacted our margins during the quarter and are continuing into the current quarter. Kevin will discuss how these actions impacted each of our segments in a few moments.

請轉到幻燈片 6。正如您在左側圖表中看到的那樣，由於我之前提到的因素，我們每個細分市場的銷售額都出現了下降。因此，我們採取了內部行動來控制庫存。這些行動影響了我們本季度的利潤，並將持續到本季度。凱文將在稍後討論這些行動如何影響我們的每個細分市場。

On the positive side, it is good to see that consumer demand remains resilient for the core markets we serve. Unfortunately, it's also clear that destocking dynamics will continue to persist for longer across the supply chains of the industries we serve. While there are many global uncertainties in the horizon, the Ashland team is performing well and executing on the actions that are within our control, while not losing focus on the longer-term opportunities for innovation and profitable growth.

從積極的一面來看，我們很高興看到我們所服務的核心市場的消費者需求保持彈性。不幸的是，很明顯，在我們所服務的行業的供應鏈中，去庫存動態將繼續持續更長時間。儘管全球範圍內存在許多不確定性，但阿什蘭團隊表現良好，並執行我們控制範圍內的行動，同時也沒有失去對創新和盈利增長的長期機會的關注。

Let me turn over the call to Kevin to review our Q3 results in more detail, and then I'll be back. Kevin?

讓我把電話轉給凱文，更詳細地審查我們第三季度的結果，然後我會回來。凱文？

Thank you, Guillermo. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 8. Total Ashland sales in the quarter were $546 million, down 15% compared to prior year. Continued customer destocking dynamics resulted in reduced volumes for all segments. These volume declines were partially offset by sales growth within our Pharmaceutical business and continued inflation recovery, which is carried over from last year.

謝謝你，吉列爾莫。大家，早安。請參閱幻燈片 8。阿什蘭本季度的總銷售額為 5.46 億美元，比去年同期下降 15%。持續的客戶去庫存動態導致所有細分市場的銷量減少。這些銷量下降被我們製藥業務的銷售增長和去年延續的通脹持續復甦所部分抵消。

Foreign currency had a negligible impact on sales. Gross margin declined to 33.3%, driven primarily by lower absorption since we ran our plants slower to be in line with lower sales volumes across the segments due to customer destocking. As a consequence of the continued customer destocking we saw throughout the quarter, we slowed production for a number of products in order to control our own finished goods inventory levels. These intentional actions negatively impacted gross profit by approximately $15 million.

外幣對銷售的影響可以忽略不計。毛利率下降至 33.3%，主要是由於吸收率下降，因為我們放慢了工廠的運行速度，以適應客戶去庫存導致各部門銷量下降的情況。由於整個季度客戶持續去庫存，我們放慢了多種產品的生產，以控制我們自己的成品庫存水平。這些故意行為對毛利潤造成了約 1500 萬美元的負面影響。

When excluding key items, SG&A, R&D and intangible amortization costs, were $113 million and down from $127 million in the prior year, largely reflecting lower incentive compensation accruals. In total, Ashland's adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $133 million, down 24% from $174 million in the prior year and in line with our expectations in late June. Ashland's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 24.4%, down from 27% in the prior year, again, reflecting the factors I just discussed.

排除關鍵項目後，SG&A、研發和無形攤銷成本為 1.13 億美元，低於上一年的 1.27 億美元，主要反映了應計激勵薪酬的減少。總體而言，阿什蘭本季度調整後 EBITDA 為 1.33 億美元，比上年同期的 1.74 億美元下降 24%，符合我們 6 月底的預期。亞甚蘭本季度調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 24.4%，低於上一年的 27%，再次反映了我剛才討論的因素。

Adjusted EPS, excluding acquisition amortization for the quarter was $1.23 per share, down 35% from the prior year quarter. Ongoing free cash flow was $97 million for the quarter, a significant improvement from the prior year, primarily reflecting changes in working capital stemming from our internal inventory control actions and lower sales.

本季度調整後每股收益（不包括收購攤銷）為 1.23 美元，比去年同期下降 35%。本季度持續自由現金流為 9700 萬美元，比上年有顯著改善，主要反映了我們內部庫存控制措施和銷售額下降導致的營運資金變化。

Now let's review the results for each of our 4 operating segments. Please turn to Slide 9. Within Life Sciences, our Pharmaceutical business delivered mid-single-digit sales growth, pricing held up well and mix was strong despite volumes being down compared to a solid prior year period. Overall, Life Sciences sales declined by 4% to $219 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 7% to $72 million.

現在讓我們回顧一下我們 4 個運營部門的結果。請參閱幻燈片 9。在生命科學領域，我們的製藥業務實現了中等個位數的銷售增長，儘管銷量與去年同期相比有所下降，但定價保持良好且產品組合強勁。總體而言，生命科學銷售額下降 4%，至 2.19 億美元，而調整後的 EBITDA 增長 7%，至 7200 萬美元。

The nutrition and nutraceuticals businesses remained challenged due to continued customer destocking. We took appropriate actions to control inventory levels during the quarter, impacting EBITDA by approximately $5 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased meaningfully to nearly 33%, reflecting enhanced segment mix due to strong pharma results and weaker sales in low-margin areas like nutrition and nutraceuticals.

由於客戶持續去庫存，營養和營養保健品業務仍然面臨挑戰。我們在本季度採取了適當的行動來控制庫存水平，對 EBITDA 造成約 500 萬美元的影響。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率顯著增長至近 33%，反映出由於製藥業績強勁以及營養品和營養保健品等低利潤領域銷售疲軟而導致的細分市場組合的增強。

Please turn to Slide 10. Continued customer destocking negatively impacted personal care in the quarter. For the quarter, personal care sales declined by 15% to $146 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined 24% to $35 million. Pricing continues to hold, but margins were negatively impacted by lower volumes, driven by customer destocking, our proactive inventory control actions and a negative mix. Sales into the hair care market, were a bright spot, with sales down only modestly compared to the prior year. Sales to the oral care and skin care markets were more meaningfully impacted by destocking actions.

請參閱幻燈片 10。客戶持續去庫存對本季度的個人護理產生了負面影響。本季度個人護理品銷售額下降 15%，至 1.46 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 下降 24%，至 3500 萬美元。定價繼續保持不變，但由於客戶去庫存、我們主動的庫存控制行動和負面組合，銷量下降對利潤率產生了負面影響。護髮市場的銷售是一個亮點，與上一年相比，銷售額僅略有下降。口腔護理和皮膚護理市場的銷售受到去庫存行動的影響更為顯著。

Please turn to Slide 11. Specialty Additives also felt the impact of reduced demand primarily related to continued customer destocking. Pricing remained positive in the quarter versus prior year. However, volume declines due to destocking, primarily in coatings, construction and Performance Specialties as well as nearly $8 million of proactive inventory control actions by the team negatively impacted profitability in the quarter. For the quarter, Specialty Additives sales declined by 22% to $152 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined by 49% to $29 million.

請參閱幻燈片 11。特種添加劑也感受到了需求減少的影響，這主要與客戶持續減少庫存有關。與去年同期相比，本季度定價仍保持正值。然而，由於去庫存（主要是塗料、建築和特種性能產品）導致銷量下降，以及團隊採取的近 800 萬美元的主動庫存控制行動對本季度的盈利能力產生了負面影響。本季度，特種添加劑銷售額下降 22%，至 1.52 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 下降 49%，至 2900 萬美元。

Please turn to Slide 12. Intermediates reported sales of $43 million, down 41% compared to the prior year driven by lower pricing and volumes. Internal captive sales were about 30% of the year-over-year sales decline, while customer destocking of our higher-value merchant market solvents, including NMP, BLO and THF accounted for nearly 60% of the remaining year-over-year sales decline. Although pricing declines in this business more than offset raw material tailwinds, the continued delinking of our high-value solvents from BDO, which represents a very small part of our third-party revenue, contributed to strong margin performance in the quarter. Intermediates reported adjusted EBITDA of $16 million, a decrease of 52% compared to prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin declined to 37.2%.

請參閱幻燈片 12。由於價格和銷量下降，中間體銷售額為 4,300 萬美元，比上一年下降 41%。內部自營銷售約占同比銷售額下降的 30%，而客戶對我們的高價值商業市場溶劑（包括 NMP、BLO 和 THF）的庫存削減佔剩餘同比銷售額下降的近 60% 。儘管該業務的定價下降足以抵消原材料的不利影響，但我們的高價值溶劑與 BDO 的持續脫鉤（僅占我們第三方收入的一小部分）為本季度強勁的利潤表現做出了貢獻。中間體報告調整後 EBITDA 為 1600 萬美元，較上年下降 52%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率下降至 37.2%。

Please turn to Slide 13. As we reported in late June, Ashland's Board of Directors approved a new $1 billion Evergreen share repurchase authorization, which replaced the existing authorizations. Ashland had completed $300 million of share repurchases under the previous authorization during this fiscal year.

請參閱幻燈片 13。正如我們在 6 月底報導的那樣，亞甚蘭董事會批准了一項新的 10 億美元長榮股份回購授權，該授權取代了現有授權。亞甚蘭在本財年根據之前的授權完成了 3 億美元的股票回購。

As of the quarter closed on June 30, we had cash on hand of about $350 million, with total available liquidity of roughly $1.1 billion. Our net debt was $979 million, which is about 1.8 turns of leverage. We have no floating rate debt outstanding, no long-term debt maturities for the next 4 years, and all of our outstanding debt is subject to investment-grade style credit terms. We are investing in our existing businesses to grow organically and continue to pursue our strategy of enhanced profitable growth through targeted bolt-on M&A opportunities focused on pharma, personal care and coatings.

截至 6 月 30 日季度結束，我們手頭現金約為 3.5 億美元，可用流動資金總額約為 11 億美元。我們的淨債務為 9.79 億美元，約為 1.8 倍槓桿。我們沒有未償浮動利率債務，未來 4 年沒有長期債務到期，並且我們所有的未償債務均受投資級信用條款的約束。我們正在對現有業務進行投資，以實現有機增長，並繼續通過專注於製藥、個人護理和塗料領域的有針對性的補充併購機會，奉行增強利潤增長的戰略。

Against the backdrop of global uncertainty, Ashland has a strong balance sheet with the flexibility to pursue our targeted growth strategy as well as reward our shareholders with a strong dividend policy and continued share repurchase. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Guillermo to discuss our outlook for fiscal year '23. Guillermo?

在全球不確定性的背景下，亞甚蘭擁有強大的資產負債表，能夠靈活地追求我們的目標增長戰略，並通過強有力的股息政策和持續的股票回購來回報我們的股東。接下來，我會將電話轉回吉列爾莫，討論我們對 23 財年的展望。吉列爾莫？

Thank you, Kevin. Please turn to Slide 15. As we look ahead into Q4 and fiscal year 2024, the major question is the volume outlook. As we mentioned earlier, the good news is that customer sales volume tends to indicate continued customer resilience for the markets we serve. Clearly, there is a big disconnect between our customer sales volumes, our sales volumes and our suppliers' sales volumes.

謝謝你，凱文。請參閱幻燈片 15。當我們展望第四季度和 2024 財年時，主要問題是銷量前景。正如我們之前提到的，好消息是客戶銷量往往表明客戶對我們所服務的市場的持續彈性。顯然，我們的客戶銷量、我們的銷量和供應商的銷量之間存在很大的脫節。

As an example, our suppliers continue to feel a bigger impact of destocking actions from both our customers and our own destocking actions. To state the obvious, the challenge for us, our peers in the industry and our suppliers is continued impact of destocking actions across our supply chain. The big question is, when will destocking end? When will our customers' volume demand be in line with their sales and production volumes?

例如，我們的供應商繼續感受到我們客戶和我們自己的去庫存行動的更大影響。顯而易見的是，我們、業內同行和供應商面臨的挑戰是整個供應鏈去庫存行動的持續影響。最大的問題是，去庫存何時結束？我們客戶的需求量什麼時候才能與其銷量和產量相符？

Please turn to Slide 16. We do not have a clear view on when destocking will end. For our June update, if our Q4 performs in line with Q3, we expect to have sales of $2.2 billion and EBITDA of around $500 million. Although the global consumer remains resilient as evidenced by our customers' sales volumes, preliminary July results indicate continued destocking.

請參閱幻燈片 16。對於去庫存何時結束，我們沒有明確的看法。對於我們 6 月份的更新，如果第四季度的表現與第三季度一致，我們預計銷售額將達到 22 億美元，EBITDA 約為 5 億美元。儘管我們客戶的銷量證明了全球消費者仍然保持彈性，但 7 月份的初步結果表明庫存仍在持續減少。

Reported inventory levels by some of our customers would indicate further destocking actions may be expected if demand does not pick up. We currently anticipate about $25 million of internal inventory control actions in fiscal Q4. Global demand trends will drive potential further actions. Risk to the outlook in Q4 comes from extended customer destocking, we continues in specific end markets or regions and the need for added inventory control actions impacting our own absorption. There's a potential of global recession impact on consumer demand, price versus cost balances if something changes, growth in China and the escalation of the Russia/Ukraine War.

我們的一些客戶報告的庫存水平表明，如果需求沒有回升，預計可能會採取進一步的去庫存行動。我們目前預計第四財季的內部庫存控制行動約為 2500 萬美元。全球需求趨勢將推動潛在的進一步行動。第四季度前景面臨的風險來自於客戶去庫存的擴大、我們在特定終端市場或地區的持續擴張以及需要採取額外的庫存控制行動，從而影響我們自身的吸收能力。全球經濟衰退可能會對消費者需求、價格與成本平衡（如果發生變化）、中國的增長以及俄羅斯/烏克蘭戰爭的升級產生影響。

As I've said before, this is the time for caution. We will continue to operate with strong capital allocation discipline so that we're in a strong financial position to invest and grow our core businesses. On the positive side, what we see is that our consumer demand remains resilient, and that is more in line with our customers' sales volumes. We will remain focused on the things in our control, driving innovation, maintaining operating discipline, managing pricing, mix, cost, productivity and capital allocation.

正如我之前所說，現在是謹慎的時候了。我們將繼續按照嚴格的資本配置紀律進行運營，以便我們擁有強大的財務狀況來投資和發展我們的核心業務。從積極的一面來看，我們看到我們的消費者需求仍然具有彈性，這與我們客戶的銷量更加一致。我們將繼續專注於我們控制的事情，推動創新，維持運營紀律，管理定價、組合、成本、生產力和資本配置。

Please turn to Slide 17. In spite of the near-term challenges, our long-term growth drivers remain unchanged. First, we're expanding capacity of our key technologies where we have leadership positions. HEC, Klucel, Benecel and Aquaflow, all segments where we were sold out over the last 2 years. We're going to globalize our high-value businesses, our preservatives, our biofunctionals, our oral solid dose coatings business and our injectables business.

請參閱幻燈片 17。儘管近期面臨挑戰，但我們的長期增長動力保持不變。首先，我們正在擴大我們處於領先地位的關鍵技術的能力。 HEC、Klucel、Benecel 和 Aquaflow，過去 2 年我們所有的產品都已售罄。我們將全球化我們的高價值業務、我們的防腐劑、我們的生物功能產品、我們的口服固體劑量包衣業務和我們的注射劑業務。

Innovation will be central to our growth. And as Kevin said, bolt-on M&A opportunities. We will continue to take actions to maximize near-term performance while not losing focus on our longer-term growth opportunities. In many cases, our focus is on accelerating these exciting long-term initiatives. Innovation will be a central point of our growth focus.

創新將是我們發展的核心。正如凱文所說，補強併購機會。我們將繼續採取行動，最大限度地提高近期業績，同時不會失去對長期增長機會的關注。在許多情況下，我們的重點是加速這些令人興奮的長期計劃。創新將是我們增長重點的中心點。

Please turn to Slide 18. I'm pleased to announce that Ashland will host a live Innovation Day at our Wilmington, Delaware headquarters and research campus on September 12, 2023. This event will showcase how technology is playing a critical role in Ashland's long-term profitable growth strategy and highlight the company's innovation playbook and portfolio of scalable technologies. The event will include presentations, prepared remarks and moderated Q&A sessions with members of Ashland's executive leadership team. The event will also include poster sessions and guided tours of Ashland's research and development laboratories for in-person attendees. Additional details and registration information will be provided later this week. We look forward to sharing our exciting innovation-driven growth strategy with you in September.

請參閱幻燈片18。我很高興地宣布，阿什蘭將於2023 年9 月12 日在特拉華州威爾明頓總部和研究園區舉辦現場創新日活動。該活動將展示技術如何在阿什蘭的長期發展中發揮關鍵作用。術語盈利增長戰略，並強調公司的創新策略和可擴展技術組合。該活動將包括演講、準備好的發言以及與阿什蘭執行領導團隊成員主持的問答環節。該活動還將包括海報展示以及為現場與會者參觀阿什蘭研發實驗室的導遊活動。更多詳細信息和註冊信息將於本週晚些時候提供。我們期待在九月份與您分享我們激動人心的創新驅動增長戰略。

Please turn to Slide 20. Despite the challenging environment, we remain confident in the quality and resilience of the markets we serve and the future. I want to thank the Ashland team again for their leadership and proactive ownership of their business in an uncertain environment.

請參閱幻燈片 20。儘管環境充滿挑戰，但我們對我們所服務的市場和未來的質量和彈性仍然充滿信心。我要再次感謝亞甚蘭團隊在不確定的環境中的領導力和對業務的主動主人翁意識。

Thank you for your attention today. And Victor, let's move to Q&A.

感謝您今天的關注。維克多，讓我們進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from the line of David Begleiter from Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Guillermo, as destocking ends, how should we think about operating leverage and earnings power of the company heading to '24?

Guillermo，隨著去庫存的結束，我們應該如何考慮進入 24 世紀的公司的運營槓桿和盈利能力？

If you look at it, Dave -- well, first, thank you for the question. The big question, as I said, is volume and where the demand is. If you look at the delta between where our customers' sales volumes are and us and all the suppliers in the industry, it's a big delta. So the issue is when we normalize, the destocking goes away, the trend would be to come back up to where our customers' volumes would be and production demand so there's a lot of leverage. All the things that you're seeing negative today will be the positives of tomorrow. So we will go in our next call when we start talking about 2024. We'll try to go through the reset. There's going to be items like incentive comp, things like that, they get reset for the full year. But then the assumption really is going to be based on what the volume outlook is. And I think this quarter, will be important to see how things evolve. But there's a lot of leverage in terms of the volume return, both gross profit as well as absorption.

如果你看一下，戴夫——嗯，首先，謝謝你提出這個問題。正如我所說，最大的問題是數量和需求在哪裡。如果你看看我們客戶的銷量與我們以及行業內所有供應商的銷量之間的差異，就會發現這是一個很大的差異。因此，問題是，當我們實現正常化時，去庫存就會消失，趨勢將回到我們客戶的數量和生產需求的水平，因此存在很大的槓桿作用。你今天看到的所有消極的事情都將成為明天的積極因素。因此，當我們開始談論 2024 年時，我們將進行下一次通話。我們將嘗試進行重置。將會有像激勵補償之類的項目，它們會在全年重置。但這個假設實際上將基於銷量前景。我認為這個季度對於了解事情如何發展非常重要。但就銷量回報而言，無論是毛利潤還是吸收率，都有很大的槓桿作用。

Very good. And just for you and Kevin, how should we think about share buybacks in both Q4 and perhaps next year?

非常好。對於您和凱文來說，我們應該如何考慮第四季度甚至明年的股票回購？

Go ahead, Guillermo.

繼續吧，吉列爾莫。

No, I was going to say we're going to continue to be very balanced on our approach to rewarding our shareholders. As Kevin said, our primary focus is on that innovation, on growth and those initiatives that I laid out. I think on the CapEx, we're well defined on where we're going. Equally on the globalization of businesses, there are several investments for our oral solid dosing coatings and our biofunctionals in China that we're bringing up in Brazil and in India. Those are areas that we're investing and putting production facilities, but that's all well within our plan and more asset-light to a degree.

不，我想說的是，我們將繼續以非常平衡的方式回報股東。正如凱文所說，我們的主要關注點是創新、增長和我提出的那些舉措。我認為在資本支出方面，我們明確了我們的發展方向。同樣在業務全球化方面，我們在中國對口服固體劑量包衣和生物功能產品進行了多項投資，並在巴西和印度進行了投資。這些是我們正在投資和建設生產設施的領域，但這一切都在我們的計劃之內，並且在一定程度上更加輕資產。

So the real question, and we'll talk about it in September is innovation. We have a really exciting portfolio of scalable technologies. They're not just, here's a nice product, cool product, and here's what it does. These are technologies, thinking about them HEC. It's not a product, it's a technology. You can make multiple products for multiple markets. So as we launch these technologies over the next 3, 5, 10 years, there's going to be significant growth potential there. So the question we're asking is, do we need to invest more? Should we be increasing R&D investments should be doing? So that's our #1 priority in terms of our allocation of capital because that's a very high return for our shareholders. But given our cash flows and where we are even today, we're in a good position to do both, reward our shareholders and invest in the business. But Kevin, if you want to give some other color?

所以真正的問題是創新，我們將在九月份討論它。我們擁有非常令人興奮的可擴展技術組合。它們不僅僅是，這是一個很好的產品，很酷的產品，這就是它的作用。這些都是技術，想想它們 HEC。它不是一種產品，而是一種技術。您可以為多個市場生產多種產品。因此，當我們在未來 3 年、5 年、10 年推出這些技術時，那裡將會有巨大的增長潛力。所以我們要問的問題是，我們需要更多投資嗎？我們應該增加研發投入嗎？因此，就資本配置而言，這是我們的第一要務，因為這對我們的股東來說是非常高的回報。但考慮到我們的現金流以及我們今天的處境，我們有能力做到這兩點，即獎勵我們的股東並投資於業務。但是凱文，你想給一些其他顏色嗎？

Yes, just a little bit. We've done $300 million this year so far. Over the last 10 years, we've done over $3 billion of share repurchase. And I think the important point is we can do that along with all of what Guillermo just mentioned, and we've demonstrated that in the past, and you can expect us to demonstrate that into the future as well. We're going to strike a ballot. We don't think it's wise to lever the balance sheet up per share repurchase, but we do think that our shares remain undervalued, and we'll continue to invest in them as well as promote a strong dividend policy now and in the future.

是的，只是一點點。到目前為止，我們今年已經完成了 3 億美元的投資。過去 10 年裡，我們進行了價值超過 30 億美元的股票回購。我認為重要的一點是我們可以做到這一點以及吉列爾莫剛才提到的所有內容，我們過去已經證明了這一點，你可以期望我們在未來也能證明這一點。我們要進行投票。我們認為提高每股回購資產負債表的槓桿並不明智，但我們確實認為我們的股票仍然被低估，我們將繼續投資於它們，並在現在和未來推行強有力的股息政策。

And our next question will come from the line of Christopher Parkinson from Mizuho Group.

我們的下一個問題將來自瑞穗集團的克里斯托弗·帕金森。

Guillermo, on Slide 15, you gave a very helpful breakdown. I want to focus on personal care. Just given everything in your portfolio right here, right now and given the market dynamics with your customer volume trends down mid-single digits. Just a very simple question. How comfortable are you that you ultimately have the right portfolio, specifically in skin and hair across bioactives, biofunctionals, Schulke, I would love an update there. But just in terms of that normalization process and thinking about fiscal year '24 and '25, everything your long-term holders are looking at. Just what gives you the confidence that you ultimately have the right tools to snap back and ultimately gain share in that portfolio and grow over time?

Guillermo，在幻燈片 15 上，您給出了非常有幫助的分解。我想專注於個人護理。就在此時此刻，考慮到您的投資組合中的所有內容，並考慮到市場動態，您的客戶量趨勢下降到中個位數。只是一個非常簡單的問題。您最終擁有正確的產品組合，特別是在生物活性物質、生物功能物質的皮膚和頭髮方面，舒爾克，我希望有更新，您對此感到滿意嗎？但就正常化過程以及考慮 24 和 25 財年而言，您的長期持有者正在關注的一切。是什麼讓您有信心最終擁有正確的工具來恢復並最終獲得該投資組合的份額並隨著時間的推移而增長？

So Chris, first, thanks for joining us, and thanks for the question. I think we need to separate what's happening in the short-term and the long-term. And I've been very open about that for the last 2 quarters. They are different dynamics. And I go back to last year, we did very well last year. We drove in on price, and we had a very strong year. Having a strong year last year did not help our innovation or growth opportunities. Equally, some of the challenges in destocking, it's a challenge we need to perform. We need to take actions in the short term, but they do not be tracked from the long-term opportunities that we have. So I really do separate the two. I think the short-term issues are broad based. They're impacting everybody in the industry and all the segments. It's not a 1 product or 1 category thing. And as we see our customers' volume versus ours, it's clearly an indication and all the other suppliers to the industry. This is a destocking event that we have never seen before as an industry, and we will overcome that sooner or later.

克里斯，首先，感謝您加入我們，也感謝您提出問題。我認為我們需要將短期和長期發生的事情分開。過去兩個季度我對此一直非常開放。它們是不同的動力。我回顧去年，去年我們做得很好。我們在價格方面取得了進展，並且度過了非常強勁的一年。去年的強勁表現對我們的創新或增長機會沒有幫助。同樣，去庫存的一些挑戰也是我們需要應對的挑戰。我們需要在短期內採取行動，但不能從我們擁有的長期機會中追踪這些行動。所以我確實將兩者分開。我認為短期問題具有廣泛的基礎。它們正在影響行業和所有領域的每個人。這不是 1 個產品或 1 個類別的事情。當我們看到我們客戶的數量與我們的數量相比時，這顯然是一個跡象，也表明了該行業的所有其他供應商。這是我們行業從未見過的去庫存事件，我們遲早會克服它。

On the innovation side, this is going to be a central part of our discussion in September. We're really excited. All the innovations that we're working on, you'll see they're scalable. If you go back to our November '21 Investor Day that we talked to sort of the model of additives and ingredients, if you innovate and then you scale it by developing more products or more applications around markets, we feel very excited about these opportunities that we have.

在創新方面，這將成為我們九月份討論的核心部分。我們真的很興奮。我們正在研究的所有創新，您都會看到它們都是可擴展的。如果你回到我們 11 月 21 日的投資者日，我們討論了添加劑和成分的模型，如果你創新，然後通過圍繞市場開發更多產品或更多應用來擴展它，我們對這些機會感到非常興奮我們有。

They're ESG focused, 99% of them that we're launching are going to be greener chemistries, either natural, natural derived, biodegradable. They're going to bring functional performance advantage. This is not just green for green; we can get both performance and advance our ESG solutions. They're very elegant. We're very excited even from a manufacturing perspective. Very clean processes in many cases than some other technologies that we've seen, very little waste, very efficient in how we make them. And most importantly, we can leverage existing assets. We don't have to invest a lot more. A lot of the capacity that we had empty from 2019, we're going to start using for a lot of these technologies.

它們以 ESG 為重點，我們推出的 99% 都是更環保的化學物質，要么是天然的、天然衍生的、可生物降解的。他們將帶來功能性能優勢。這不僅僅是為了綠色而綠色；我們可以獲得績效並推進我們的 ESG 解決方案。他們非常優雅。即使從製造角度來看，我們也非常興奮。在許多情況下，與我們見過的其他一些技術相比，流程非常乾淨，浪費很少，而且我們的製造方式非常高效。最重要的是，我們可以利用現有資產。我們不必投入太多。從 2019 年起，我們的大量閒置產能將開始用於許多此類技術。

So I think for personal care, it's all these technologies are going to have a great fit, and I would say not just for personal care, for coatings and for pharma, you'll see that it's pretty broad-based. It's very exciting for us. And this is a separate growth opportunity relative to just our traditional market growth and normal innovation with just improvements to our technologies. These are add-on platforms that can really energize growth for the coming decade for us.

因此，我認為對於個人護理而言，所有這些技術都將非常適合，而且我想說，不僅對於個人護理、塗料和製藥，您會發現它的基礎相當廣泛。這對我們來說非常令人興奮。相對於我們的傳統市場增長和正常創新以及技術改進而言，這是一個單獨的增長機會。這些附加平台可以真正為我們未來十年的增長注入活力。

Got it. And just as a quick, something you said towards the end of your response. How should [The Street] be thinking about the ultimate portfolio? I mean in November '21, you laid out, obviously, your core businesses. Obviously, pharma, you can just do pretty well. But when we think about substrates of your business that have not been forming up to your standards and/or technologies and the ability to repurpose assets. Can you just hit a little bit more on that? And it seems like you're taking the current situation is a bit of an opportunity to kind of facilitate a transfer more towards those core end markets and away from some of those end markets you've been essentially running for cash. So any color there would be very helpful.

知道了。同樣，您在回复快要結束時說了一些話。 [華爾街]應該如何考慮最終的投資組合？我的意思是，在 21 年 11 月，您顯然佈局了您的核心業務。顯然，製藥公司，你可以做得很好。但是，當我們考慮您的業務基礎尚未達到您的標準和/或技術以及重新利用資產的能力時。你能再多說一點嗎？看來你正在利用當前的情況作為一個機會，以促進更多地向這些核心終端市場轉移，並遠離一些你本質上一直在追逐現金的終端市場。所以任何顏色都會非常有幫助。

No. So if you look at the technologies and the businesses that we have, and I would say, go back again to the Investor Day, we had 2 businesses that we highlighted - they were related, but not integrated to our core Additive and Ingredients. Most of the Additives and Ingredients we have today, all these other technologies that we bring in, we sell across multiple segments. So those are core, and we want to keep that integration.

不。所以，如果你看看我們擁有的技術和業務，我想說，再次回到投資者日，我們有兩項我們強調的業務- 它們是相關的，但沒有集成到我們的核心添加劑和成分中。我們今天擁有的大多數添加劑和成分，以及我們引入的所有其他技術，我們在多個領域進行銷售。所以這些是核心，我們希望保持這種整合。

We have our Intermediates business, which supports our back integration strategy for our PVP resins, but it is a separate business. And I think what we've done is trying to make it better. We can, at any point in time, choose what we want to do. We want to keep it. The last few years has created a lot of value for us, but if we want to change that in the future, we are well positioned to do that. And what's exciting about that business is where the merchant market that we have in the Intermediates is not BDO, we sell very little BDO. As Kevin said, it's NMP-BLO, all of those are going into EV market, into semiconductors, active ingredient production for ag and pharma and coatings. And we're focused on U.S. and Europe as our core markets. We're one of the few merchant players with capacity.

我們有中間體業務，它支持我們 PVP 樹脂的反向整合策略，但它是一項獨立的業務。我認為我們所做的就是努力讓它變得更好。我們可以在任何時候選擇我們想做的事情。我們想保留它。過去幾年為我們創造了很多價值，但如果我們想在未來改變這一點，我們完全有能力做到這一點。該業務的令人興奮之處在於，我們中間體的商業市場不是 BDO，我們銷售的 BDO 非常少。正如 Kevin 所說，這是 NMP-BLO，所有這些都將進入電動汽車市場、半導體、農業和製藥的活性成分生產以及塗料。我們專注於美國和歐洲作為我們的核心市場。我們是少數有能力的商人之一。

When all the EV investments come in, they need NMP, for example, for battery production and they need local content. We're the only ones with capacity right now. So there's a lot of positivity that is going through. And what we've done is separate; we had a lot of BDO and the focus was to low the BDO plants, we just priced everything like BDO. We've separated. These are separate markets, separate technologies, and we price them accordingly. And you've seen that even in this downturn, that business is actually performing much better than it ever has historically. So we feel very good about that, and we have that optionality.

當所有電動汽車投資進來時，他們需要 NMP，例如用於電池生產，並且需要本地內容。我們是目前唯一有能力的人。因此，我們正在經歷很多積極的事情。我們所做的事情是分開的；我們有很多 BDO，重點是降低 BDO 工廠的產量，我們只是像 BDO 一樣對所有產品進行定價。我們已經分開了。這些是獨立的市場、獨立的技術，我們會相應地定價。您已經看到，即使在當前的低迷時期，該業務的表現實際上也比歷史上任何時候都要好。所以我們對此感覺非常好，並且我們有這種選擇。

The second business is nutraceuticals. We've stabilized it. We've improved it. The key issue is, what's the fit long-term into our portfolio. And again, we want to make it more valuable. We're investing to improve the business, and we'll decide what we do there.

第二個業務是營養保健品。我們已經穩定下來了。我們已經改進了它。關鍵問題是，什麼適合我們的長期投資組合。再說一遍，我們想讓它變得更有價值。我們投資是為了改善業務，我們將決定我們在那裡做什麼。

In the portfolio of integrated, we are looking at all the businesses that we have, which assets are underperforming, as I said before. If you look at our metrics, sales growth, margin versus many of our peers, I think that's a big change, and we're performing better. The part that we haven't performed as well is return on capital and some of the investments, and we're looking at those areas. We have 2 businesses that are performing below our expectations. Even last year where we had peak performance for those businesses, it wasn't good enough. And that's our CMC business and our MC Industrial business. And we are looking at what we want to do with those businesses because those assets are very valuable. And as you'll hear in our Innovation Day, part of what we want to do is how can we repurpose some of these assets? Many of them are in the U.S., for example. These are very valuable assets.

正如我之前所說，在綜合投資組合中，我們正在審視我們擁有的所有業務，哪些資產表現不佳。如果你看看我們的指標、銷售增長、利潤率與許多同行相比，我認為這是一個很大的變化，而且我們的表現更好。我們表現​​不佳的部分是資本回報率和一些投資，我們正在關注這些領域。我們有 2 家企業的業績低於我們的預期。即使去年我們的這些業務取得了巔峰表現，但還不夠好。這就是我們的 CMC 業務和 MC 工業業務。我們正在考慮如何處理這些業務，因為這些資產非常有價值。正如您將在我們的創新日聽到的那樣，我們想做的一部分是如何重新利用其中一些資產？例如，其中許多人在美國。這些都是非常寶貴的資產。

As part of our capital allocation discipline, it's not just about how we invest new capital, it's also about how we manage old capital. And these plants are very, very valuable. We have very experienced teams in those sites, and we can repurpose it, we can get significant earnings growth, I mean not revenue growth, if we replace all businesses, but earnings growth and returns, and you'll hear about that in the September call. There's a lot of these new technologies that we can use in those assets just like some of the technologies that you're going to hear that we're launching now in September, we're going to be using assets from the business we lost in 2019 so that should be very positive to our returns.

作為我們資本配置原則的一部分，這不僅涉及我們如何投資新資本，還涉及我們如何管理舊資本。這些植物非常非常有價值。我們在這些網站上擁有經驗豐富的團隊，我們可以重新利用它，我們可以獲得顯著的盈利增長，我的意思不是收入增長，如果我們更換所有業務，而是盈利增長和回報，你會在9月份聽到這一點稱呼。我們可以在這些資產中使用很多新技術，就像你會聽到我們在 9 月份推出的一些技術一樣，我們將使用我們失去的業務中的資產2019 年，這對我們的回報應該是非常積極的。

And our next question will come from the line of Michael Sison from Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題將來自富國銀行的邁克爾·西森。

Could you maybe just help us think about building up from the $500 million that you're going to do this year? It doesn't have to necessarily be in '24, but if the destocking ends, how do you get that EBITDA back? What else can sort of get you back on track to- we were close to $600 million initially at the beginning of this year. So could you just maybe help us think about walking back upward over time?

您能否幫助我們考慮一下您今年計劃投入的 5 億美元？不一定要在 24 年，但如果去庫存結束，如何收回 EBITDA？還有什麼可以讓您重回正軌——今年年初我們的初始資金接近 6 億美元。那麼您能否幫助我們考慮隨著時間的推移向後走？

Right. So Mike, that's the question as I mentioned, it's the volume question, right? And what the implications are for the future? We will talk about that more in specifics in the next call. We have the pleasure of being one of the first ones to talk about 2024. But what I would say is, as we look at the numbers, like I said, there's incentive comp reset. There's a few things that we can call out as we do that. What I would say is this thing of the destocking has evolved in a way that nobody expected over time. It's just longer and bigger than everybody expected.

正確的。邁克，這就是我提到的問題，是音量問題，對嗎？這對未來有何影響？我們將在下次電話會議中詳細討論這一點。我們很高興成為第一批談論 2024 年的國家之一。但我想說的是，正如我所說，當我們看到這些數字時，激勵補償會被重置。當我們這樣做時，我們可以指出一些事情。我想說的是，隨著時間的推移，去庫存這一事情的發展方式是沒人預料到的。它只是比大家預期的更長更大。

At the beginning, a lot of the questions we get as well, you took this action and it goes away, you're going to get that all back. I think what we're seeing now is, look, this is more protracted. It's not just the actions we take. We're running plants lower. There's a lot of noise here. I think you're going to look at volume itself rather than what events happen, what they go away. What was our volume this year? I think that's the question we had before of, what's that leverage? And I think the question is, you can do the math, if our volumes were in line with our customers, what would that mean? And it would be a very different number. And I think that's really an indication I would give you is when volume normalizes, what does that look like? And then what you need to estimate is, well, when will destocking end? For every month, what does that mean? And that's, I think, the big question for the entire industry right now. Volume recovery and timing of that volume growth.

一開始，我們也收到了很多問題，你採取了這個行動，它就消失了，你會得到所有的回來。我認為我們現在看到的是，看，這更加持久。這不僅僅是我們採取的行動。我們正在降低工廠運行速度。這裡有很多噪音。我認為你會關注交易量本身，而不是發生了什麼事件，以及它們消失了什麼。今年我們的銷量是多少？我認為這就是我們之前提出的問題，槓桿是什麼？我認為問題是，你可以算一下，如果我們的銷量與我們的客戶一致，那意味著什麼？這將是一個非常不同的數字。我認為這確實是我要給你們的一個跡象，那就是當成交量正常化時，會是什麼樣子？然後你需要估計的是，去庫存什麼時候結束？每個月，這意味著什麼？我認為，這是目前整個行業面臨的大問題。銷量恢復以及銷量增長的時機。

Got it. And then just a quick follow-up. Pharma has continued to do well. Any thoughts? I mean, how your customers' inventory is there? Could there be a destocking event there going forward? How do you feel about that business at near term?

知道了。然後進行快速跟進。製藥業繼續表現良好。有什麼想法嗎？我的意思是，您客戶的庫存情況如何？未來是否會出現去庫存事件？您近期對該業務有何看法？

As we said last quarter and we expected this fourth quarter the demand to start to normalize, and we're seeing that. I think what you're going to see is now it's going to go back to normal growth rates as we move forward. I don't think that industry built; they increase a little bit their safety stocks. They can adjust a little bit, but it's not the same level as some of the other industries. And you can see because they've continued while other industries were taking actions, they've continued. So you will see a moderation, but we don't expect to see the level of actions that we've seen in the other industries.

正如我們上季度所說，我們預計第四季度需求將開始正常化，我們已經看到了這一點。我認為隨著我們的前進，你將看到它現在將恢復到正常增長率。我不認為這個行業是建立起來的；他們增加了一點安全庫存。他們可以稍微調整一下，但是和其他一些行業不是一個水平。你可以看到，因為當其他行業採取行動時，他們仍在繼續，他們仍在繼續。因此，您會看到適度的行動，但我們預計不會看到我們在其他行業看到的行動水平。

Our next question will come from the line of John McNulty from BMO.

我們的下一個問題將來自蒙特利爾銀行 (BMO) 的約翰·麥克納爾蒂 (John McNulty)。

So with the level of destocking that you're seeing and the volume pressure, I guess can you speak to the pricing trends quarter-over-quarter? Have they been kind of solid still? Are they up? Are they down? Can you give us a little bit of color on that?

因此，考慮到您所看到的去庫存水平和銷量壓力，我想您能談談季度環比的定價趨勢嗎？它們還堅固嗎？他們起來了嗎？他們倒下了嗎？您能為我們提供一些信息嗎？

So pricing is holding. If you look at a lot of our customers' earnings commentary, our performance is basically the same thing without the volume. Pricing dynamics, the cost dynamics, in our case, if you look at our margins, were less petrochemicalso I think the petrochemical exposed are going to get much more of a swing up and down as these volumes impact our downstream suppliers. And as I mentioned in the call, our suppliers, we talk to them a lot because they're important to our chain. They're feeling it much more than we are. So we're working with them. But we see the cotton - the cellulosic prices are more stable. They're improving a little. The petrochemicals are coming down a little bit, but not a significant change. In the acetylenics, obviously, we see natural gas coming down. So it's going to vary, but we're not in the same dynamics as some of the other ones where they're holding price and raw materials are really coming down significantly. We're more stable on that side of the equation.

因此定價保持不變。如果你看一下我們很多客戶的盈利評論，我們的業績基本上是一樣的，沒有數量。在我們的例子中，如果你看看我們的利潤率，石化產品的定價動態、成本動態就會減少，所以我認為，隨著這些產量影響我們的下游供應商，石化產品的波動將會更大。正如我在電話中提到的，我們的供應商，我們與他們進行了很多交談，因為他們對我們的連鎖店很重要。他們比我們更能感受到這一點。所以我們正在與他們合作。但我們看到棉花-纖維素價格更加穩定。他們正在一點點進步。石化產品價格略有下降，但變化不大。顯然，在炔烴中，我們看到天然氣價格下降。因此，情況會有所不同，但我們與其他一些公司的動態不同，他們保持價格，原材料確實大幅下降。我們在等式的這一邊更加穩定。

I think the question everybody is saying, well, will these volumes, prices come down. The issue is there is no volume. You're going to drop prices for what? It's not like you can go out and try to get share. There's not a lot of volume out thereso until destocking ends, if somebody has product, why are they going to buy more product at any price? So I think the issue now is work through the destocking. For pricing, we are holding. Our prices tend to be more sticky. As raw material adjusts, we see there's some movement; we're very confident on our margin, our ability to maintain our margins as we move forward. But it goes back to the volume question. That's the biggest issue for the next few months.

我想每個人都在問的問題是，這些數量和價格會下降嗎？問題是沒有音量。你要降價是為了什麼？這並不是說你可以出去嘗試獲得份額。在去庫存結束之前，市場上的銷量並不多，如果有人有產品，為什麼他們要以任何價格購買更多產品？所以我認為現在的問題是通過去庫存來解決。對於定價，我們持有。我們的價格往往更具粘性。隨著原材料的調整，我們看到有一些變動；我們對我們的利潤率以及我們在前進過程中保持利潤率的能力非常有信心。但這又回到了音量問題。這是未來幾個月最大的問題。

Got it. Fair enough. And then I guess the other question is I know you had been sold out in a whole bunch of product lines, and you're bringing up some HEC capacity, Benecel, Klucel, et cetera. I guess, just given the destocking speed bump that seems like we're in the middle of, I guess, can you speak to, first of all, as these expansions come on, are they largely accounted for from a customer perspective and a demand perspective? And if not, do you think about delaying some of the start-up of these or pushing it out a few quarters or what have you? I guess how should we be thinking about that?

知道了。很公平。然後我想另一個問題是我知道你們的一大堆產品線已經賣完了，你們正在增加一些 HEC 產能，Benecel、Klucel 等等。我想，考慮到我們正處於去庫存的減速階段，我想，首先，隨著這些擴張的進行，它們是否主要是從客戶的角度和需求來考慮的？看法？如果沒有，您是否考慮推遲其中一些項目的啟動或推遲幾個季度或採取什麼措施？我想我們應該如何思考這個問題？

So several things. On that first bullet on investing -- the first two bullets is where we're doing our investments. On the second bullet, these growth globalization, we're not stopping them. They're asset-light. It's about real, real growth independent of some of these dynamics. So investing in China, Brazil and India, we're going to continue doing that.

有幾件事。關於投資的第一個要點——前兩個要點是我們進行投資的地方。關於第二點，即全球化的增長，我們不會阻止它們。他們是輕資產的。這是真正的、真正的增長，獨立於其中一些動態。因此，我們將繼續投資中國、巴西和印度。

On investing in the core assets, and some of them, Benecel, it's coming online. So we're managing through that. HEC, and we were basically sold out, so we needed the capacity. HEC, the project is well advanced and it will be coming in next year. We're not stopping that. In Aquaflow, we've slow paced it so it will come in a few quarters because the [Aqua] market is down, and we can push that back a little bit. And the Klucel is ongoing. It's again, very pharma, very high value, and we need that capacity to support our customers so we're not going to stop it. But I think the important point, I go back to the volume question. The destocking is a major challenge for all of us, but it's a short-term issue. What's really exciting for me is that our customers' volumes are resilient. That is the most important message, if I can leave one is, as long as they're okay, we're eventually going to be back to what they're doing. So to your question, are we going to need HEC? Well if the HEC and coatings is the biggest volume, if they're up single digits to plus or minus 2%, 3% in volume depending on the customer and the industry was sold out, not just us, but the industry was sold out, that capacity is going to be needed. Now we got to separate that destocking from what that real demand is. So based on real demand, the capacity will be needed. Based on destocking, we could be off a quarter or 2, and we can't manage that to that level of specificity.

關於投資核心資產，其中一些資產，Benecel，它正在上線。所以我們正在解決這個問題。 HEC，我們基本上已經賣完了，所以我們需要產能。 HEC，該項目進展順利，將於明年推出。我們不會阻止這一點。在 Aquaflow 中，我們放慢了步伐，因此它將在幾個季度內推出，因為 [Aqua] 市場正在下滑，我們可以將其推遲一點。 Klucel 項目仍在進行中。這又是非常製藥、非常高的價值，我們需要這種能力來支持我們的客戶，所以我們不會阻止它。但我認為重要的一點是，我回到音量問題。去庫存對我們所有人來說都是一個重大挑戰，但這是一個短期問題。對我來說真正令人興奮的是我們客戶的數量具有彈性。這是最重要的信息，如果我可以留下的話，那就是，只要他們沒事，我們最終就會回到他們正在做的事情。那麼對於你的問題，我們需要 HEC 嗎？好吧，如果HEC和塗料是最大的銷量，如果它們的銷量增長個位數到正負2%、3%，具體取決於客戶和行業，不僅僅是我們，整個行業都被賣完了，將需要這種能力。現在我們必須將去庫存與實際需求分開。因此，根據實際需求，將需要容量。根據去庫存的情況，我們可能會減少四分之一或兩個季度的庫存，但我們無法將其管理到那麼具體的水平。

Our next question comes from the line of Josh Spector from UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團 (UBS) 的喬什·斯佩克特 (Josh Spector)。

I was wondering if you could separate some of the line between mix and volumes. So I think one of the challenges here is that Ashland never really saw a big volume uplift over the last couple of years, but we've talked a little bit about a lot of mix improvement. So is there a way to frame maybe how much tons or volumes went from a lower-margin product to a higher-margin product? And is that where there has been some inventory built? And just if I look at this relative to personal care, as an example, my math is your volumes there might be down 25%, 30%, versus 2019, full year basis for this year. So is there some percent of that volume that you've walked away from as a part of the mix improvement, which means we don't get all that volume back, but we might come back at a higher margin because the mix is better?

我想知道你是否可以分開混音和音量之間的一些界限。所以我認為這裡的挑戰之一是阿什蘭在過去幾年中從未真正看到銷量的大幅提升，但我們已經討論了很多混合改進。那麼有沒有一種方法可以確定有多少噸或數量從利潤率較低的產品轉移到利潤率較高的產品？那是不是已經建立了一些庫存？以個人護理為例，我的數學計算是，與 2019 年全年相比，今年的銷量可能會下降 25%、30%。那麼，作為組合改進的一部分，您是否放棄了一定比例的銷量，這意味著我們不會收回所有銷量，但我們可能會以更高的利潤回來，因為組合更好了？

It's very hard to do because of all the different products and technologies so it's not a simple one explanation. We got to go technology by technology. I think if you look at our mix improvements in general, pharma, personal care, architectural coatings are the higher-margin stuff. So that's not where we had a negative view maybe in specific product categories on that. If you step back, the volume destocking has impacted our secondary businesses and our lower-margin businesses more than our high-value businesses. Unfortunately, those are also high absorption businesses so that's where we see the negativity.

由於產品和技術各不相同，因此很難做到這一點，因此這不是一個簡單的解釋。我們必須逐個技術地發展。我認為，如果你看看我們總體的產品組合改進，就會發現製藥、個人護理、建築塗料是利潤率較高的產品。因此，這並不是我們對特定產品類別持負面看法的地方。如果退一步看，庫存去化對我們的二級業務和低利潤業務的影響比對高價值業務的影響更大。不幸的是，這些也是高吸收率的業務，因此我們看到了負面影響。

Disproportionately, the big impact was CMC. This is one of the questions we had before, what are the ones that we want to repurpose assets? CMC, which goes into nutrition, which was very heavily impacted and it goes into a number of energy and a lot of other markets. The margins there are way below our average for the company and our return is way below the average for the company.

不成比例地，CMC 產生了巨大的影響。這是我們之前遇到的問題之一，我們想要重新利用哪些資產？ CMC 涉足營養領域，受到了非常嚴重的影響，它還涉足許多能源和許多其他市場。那裡的利潤率遠低於我們公司的平均水平，我們的回報率也遠低於公司的平均水平。

Our MC Industrial, it's mostly construction, mostly in Europe, same thing, heavily impacted and construction in Europe as a segment has been heavily impacted. But again, if you look at margins, way below our average. The absorption impact is bigger than the margin impact in those areas and I would say, Intermediates, our BDO plants, it's a big asset. That's where the majority of the impact was.

我們的 MC 工業，主要是建築業，主要在歐洲，同樣的事情，受到了嚴重影響，歐洲的建築業作為一個細分市場受到了嚴重影響。但同樣，如果你看一下利潤率，你會發現，它遠低於我們的平均水平。在這些領域，吸收影響大於利潤影響，我想說，中間體，我們的 BDO 工廠，它是一筆巨大的資產。這就是大部分影響所在。

The next one would be HEC. We have many plants. It was an impact, but it's not something I'm as worried about. It's not as big as in the other areas. We can manage through it. Volumes will come back quickly in their core markets. CMC and MC, that's where we did a lot of the mix improvement. Last year was a much better year than any year we've ever had, and I'm very open. It wasn't good enough so that's where we really have that strategic work we're doing. Those are the things we're going to talk about in the September Innovation Day - is how can we leverage, these are very valuable assets, building a plant like this like these are $100 million-plus investments so if we can leverage them for other technologies, we can get a lot of the value. These lower-end segments were disproportionately the bigger challenge for us in this quarter. The higher quality businesses are doing fine.

下一個將是 HEC。我們有很多植物。這是一種影響，但我並不擔心。它不像其他地區那麼大。我們可以應對它。其核心市場的銷量將迅速恢復。 CMC 和 MC，這是我們進行大量混合改進的地方。去年是比我們以往任何一年都要好的一年，而且我非常開放。這還不夠好，所以這就是我們真正正在做的戰略工作的地方。這些是我們將在9 月創新日討論的內容- 是我們如何利用這些資產，這些都是非常有價值的資產，建設像這樣的工廠需要1 億多美元的投資，所以如果我們可以將它們用於其他方面技術，我們可以獲得很多價值。這些低端市場在本季度對我們來說是不成比例的更大挑戰。質量較高的企業表現良好。

Yes. And just on Life Sciences margins within the quarter, I mean, obviously, a bit of a bright spot. Just curious how much of that is just mix of pharma holding in better versus the nutraceutical down versus structural improvement there?

是的。就本季度生命科學利潤而言，我的意思是，顯然，有一點亮點。只是好奇其中有多少只是製藥公司保持更好的狀態與營養保健品的下降與結構改善的混合？

Pharma has been good, is good, is expected to be good. We're selling less of nutrition and nutraceuticals. The lower margin stuff is the one that got impacted; therefore, you're seeing more of the mix improvement to the core pharma.

製藥業一直很好，現在很好，預計也會很好。我們銷售的營養品和保健品越來越少。利潤率較低的產品受到了影響；因此，您會看到核心藥品的更多組合改進。

Our next question will come from the line of John Roberts from Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題將來自瑞士信貸銀行的約翰·羅伯茨。

Personal care business looks like it didn't have any earnings hit from your own destocking. Why was that?

個人護理業務看起來並沒有因你們自己的去庫存而受到任何影響。為什麼會這樣？

I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? Is that personal care?

抱歉，您能重複一下這個問題嗎？這就是個人護理嗎？

Yes. It looked like it didn't have any earnings hit from your own destocking?

是的。看起來你自己的去庫存並沒有對盈利造成任何影響？

Yes. One item I would point out. I mean they did get impacted on some areas. We've said it, I think, in the last 2 calls our Specialty Additives business, the way we do it, they own most of the cellulosic plants. So a lot of, like, for example, CMC and HEC absorption impact, it's all captured in SA, in Specialty Additives. So some of that really would flow to other businesses, but the way we do it is just in SA. There is an impact. It's captured in another business the way we do it.

是的。我要指出的一項。我的意思是他們確實在某些領域受到了影響。我想，我們在過去的兩次電話會議中已經說過了，我們的特種添加劑業務，按照我們的做法，他們擁有大部分纖維素工廠。因此，很多，例如 CMC 和 HEC 的吸收影響，都在 SA 和特種添加劑中得到了體現。因此，其中一些確實會流向其他企業，但我們這樣做的方式只是在南澳。有影響。它以我們的方式在另一項業務中得到體現。

It was probably a couple of million dollars that flowed through the Personal Care P&L from an absorption perspective.

從吸收角度來看，個人護理損益表中可能有幾百萬美元流過。

And then are customers pulling back on any of the new product initiatives because of this correction and could you talk a little bit about new win rates?

然後，客戶是否會因為這次調整而取消任何新產品計劃？您能談談新的獲勝率嗎？

Yes. We're really excited. You'll hear some of the stories. We've been trying to be very transparent with everybody, videos on the conferences and all that, we'll do more of these, but we're getting awards. We're getting a lot of these products qualified to launch a product. A lot of these new innovations, we've started to launch at the end of last 2022 so we're getting that momentum. People are coding them, qualifying them. We're very excited about all of the new technologies. It just takes time.

是的。我們真的很興奮。你會聽到一些故事。我們一直在努力對每個人保持透明，會議視頻等等，我們會做更多這樣的事情，但我們正在獲得獎項。我們已經獲得了許多有資格推出產品的產品。我們已於 2022 年底開始推出許多新的創新，因此我們正在獲得這種動力。人們正在對它們進行編碼，對它們進行限定。我們對所有新技術感到非常興奮。只是需要時間。

And what we want to show is visibility of what we're doing so that you as investors have a little bit of indicators that it's not just the revenue, but what's happening with some of these products. But personal care specifically, all the innovations have been very well received, feedback from customers were being one of the more innovative. Players, especially when it comes to ESG, natural, natural derived, biodegradable. Our portfolio itself lends itself to some of these technologies. But that will be a central part of our discussion in September. And you'll see some of the newer technologies that we're looking at that if you look at it over the next decade, really, they can generate significant growth opportunities.

我們想要展示的是我們正在做的事情的可見性，以便您作為投資者有一些指標，表明這不僅僅是收入，還有其中一些產品的情況。但具體而言，在個人護理領域，所有創新都非常受歡迎，客戶的反饋是最具創新性的創新之一。玩家，尤其是在ESG方面，天然、天然衍生、可生物降解。我們的產品組合本身就適合其中一些技術。但這將是我們九月討論的核心部分。你會看到我們正在研究的一些新技術，如果你在未來十年中觀察它們，它們確實可以產生巨大的增長機會。

When we say scalable, we're not just launching a nice product that can sell $5 million, $10 million, $15 million. We're looking at platforms that are targeting $300 million, $400 million, $600 million markets that we can get significant share. And if only part of the portfolio impacts, it will really provide a very nice growth engine and more profitable than our current technologies.

當我們說可擴展時，我們不僅僅是推出一款可以賣出 500 萬美元、1000 萬美元、1500 萬美元的好產品。我們正在尋找目標為 3 億美元、4 億美元、6 億美元市場的平台，我們可以在這些平台上獲得重要份額。如果只有部分投資組合產生影響，它確實會提供一個非常好的增長引擎，並且比我們當前的技術更有利可圖。

Our next question will come from the line of Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas。

Great. How are your cash flows looking this year, either cash flow from operations or free cash flows?

偉大的。今年您的現金流情況如何，是來自運營的現金流還是自由現金流？

Kevin, do you want to take this one?

凱文，你想買這個嗎？

Sure, sure. It was strong in the quarter, Jeff, and a lot of that was working capital driven. Unfortunately, part of it is from lower sales, which drives lower receivables. As our terms really haven't changed, but our receivable numbers are going down. For the full year, we're probably looking at 45%, 50% free cash flow to EBITDA conversion. As things normalize, we would expect that number to creep back up to the, call it, 55% to 60% or maybe a little better percent over the course of time, which is more in line with our target. As you'll recall, last year, it was probably in the 20s due to pretty significant working capital build just because of inflation so it has bounced around some just due to the external environment. But we'd expect it to normalize as demand and volumes normalize.

一定一定。傑夫，本季度表現強勁，其中很大一部分是由營運資金驅動的。不幸的是，部分原因是銷售額下降，導致應收賬款下降。因為我們的條款確實沒有改變，但我們的應收賬款數量卻在下降。就全年而言，我們可能會看到 45%、50% 的自由現金流轉化為 EBITDA。隨著情況正常化，我們預計這個數字會隨著時間的推移回升至 55% 至 60%，或者可能更好一點，這更符合我們的目標。正如您所記得的那樣，去年，由於通貨膨脹而增加了相當大的營運資本，因此它可能在 20 多歲左右，因此由於外部環境而出現了一些反彈。但我們預計隨著需求和銷量的正常化，它會正常化。

And I guess for my follow-up, if your operations were running efficiently, where would your inventories be? So you're at $712 million, would they be at $600 million? Would they be at $550 million? Would they be at $500 million? What's the right number as far as you can tell?

我想對於我的後續行動，如果您的運營高​​效運行，您的庫存會在哪裡？那麼你的收入是 7.12 億美元，他們會是 6 億美元嗎？價格會是 5.5 億美元嗎？價格會達到 5 億美元嗎？據您所知，正確的數字是多少？

Yes. I think the issue is not the dollar value right now. It's the days because it's not how much we're producing or how we're running our plants. It's what's demand. We tend to run based on what our demand outlook, what are the days of inventory we need, very significantly by technology. If you have some of these global assets, for example, HEC that you're producing in certain areas, and shipping around the world. We look at days of how long does it take to ship, what safety stock do you need in the other country? And that gives you a number, and that's basically our days of sales are high. That's really the big issue, and that's what's driving all the production and adjustments.

是的。我認為現在的問題不是美元價值。重要的是這些日子，因為重要的不是我們生產了多少，也不是我們如何運營我們的工廠。這就是需求。我們傾向於根據我們的需求前景、我們需要的庫存天數來運行，特別是根據技術。如果您擁有其中一些全球資產，例如，您在某些地區生產並運往世界各地的 HEC。我們會考慮運送需要多長時間，您在另一個國家需要多少安全庫存？這給了你一個數字，這基本上就是我們銷售量很高的日子。這確實是一個大問題，也是推動所有生產和調整的原因。

If you normalize everything back to where, call it, demand and volumes were, the number is probably in the $650 million range would be my guess. I mean, that's where you could be plus or minus $25 million on either side of that, probably. But as Guillermo said, and to expand on that a little bit, we do more of our manufacturing in the U.S. than anywhere else, but we're very global. So from a days perspective, we do tend to be a little longer than some of our peers might be. But we think that's about the right number. And again, that's going to vary just depending on what inflation does or doesn't do, et cetera.

如果你將一切正常化回到需求和銷量的水平，我猜測這個數字可能在 6.5 億美元範圍內。我的意思是，這可能是您可以在兩邊增加或減少 2500 萬美元的地方。但正如吉列爾莫所說，並進一步擴大這一點，我們在美國的製造比其他任何地方都多，但我們非常全球化。因此，從一天的角度來看，我們確實比一些同行的時間要長一些。但我們認為這個數字是正確的。再說一次，這將根據通貨膨脹的作用或不作用等而變化。

Our next question will come from the line of Mike Harrison from Seaport Research Partners.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Seaport Research Partners 的 Mike Harrison。

Just wanted to follow up on the capacity addition that you guys have talked about. In some of those product lines where you are moving forward near term, you guys haven't really given us a whole lot of detail about the magnitude of those additional volumes. So I guess how much additional volume should we be thinking about coming in, in areas like Benecel, where you are moving forward, and that's going to contribute, presumably early in '24?

只是想跟進你們談論的容量增加。在近期推進的一些產品線中，你們並沒有真正向我們提供有關這些額外產量規模的大量細節。所以我想我們應該考慮在 Benecel 這樣的領域增加多少銷量，你們正在向前推進，這大概會在 24 年初做出貢獻？

Yes. So this one is coming in at early '24, and the HEC will be finished coming on stream also Q1, Q2 of '24, probably early part of the calendar year. I think the HEC about 10% capacity improvement, 10,000 metric tonnes?

是的。因此，這個項目將於 24 年初投入使用，HEC 也將在 24 年第一季度、第二季度（可能是今年年初）完成投產。我認為 HEC 的產能提高了 10% 左右，即 10,000 公噸？

That's right.

這是正確的。

So we can just follow up with you, Mike, and share a little bit more on some of the specifics there. The Aquaflow is a new plant, and we put it in a different site. Some of our customers wanted also just to make sure that they were more from a supply security, more sites since it's an important product for them. So it's not just volume. It's also where we're locating some of these assets. I will say also, all these investments are in existing facilities so we're not building a new, new, new plant. They're just production units within plants. So that will also bring productivity to these plants.

因此，邁克，我們可以跟進您的情況，並分享一些具體細節。 Aquaflow 是一個新工廠，我們把它放在了不同的地點。我們的一些客戶還希望確保他們更多地獲得供應安全、更多的站點，因為這對他們來說是一個重要的產品。所以這不僅僅是數量。這也是我們放置其中一些資產的地方。我還要說的是，所有這些投資都是對現有設施的投資，因此我們不會建造一座新的、新的、新的工廠。它們只是工廠內的生產單位。這也將為這些工廠帶來生產力。

All right. And then I apologize if I missed this, but kind of a broad question about whether you're taking any additional cost actions as a response to some of the weakness that you're seeing right now? And I guess maybe more specifically, as you talk about CMC and the MC Industrial business being below expected returns or where you want the margins to be? What specific actions can you take in those businesses that would help near-term? Or is it not that simple?

好的。如果我錯過了這一點，我深表歉意，但這是一個廣泛的問題，即您是否正在採取任何額外的成本行動來應對您現在看到的一些弱點？我想也許更具體地說，當您談論 CMC 和 MC Industrial 業務低於預期回報或您希望利潤率達到多少時？您可以在這些業務中採取哪些有利於近期的具體行動？或者事情並沒有那麼簡單？

So I think 2 things that we are doing. One is on the structure cost side. We are taking some actions, not just to reduce cost, but also to reallocate resources. As I mentioned, we'd like to increase investments, especially in R&D and marketing commercial resources in some of these new platforms. So rather than add just like we were talking about on the asset side, are there initiatives that are less critical to us that we can shift some of the resources around. So we have been restructuring and realigning some of our businesses.

所以我認為我們正在做兩件事。一是結構成本方面。我們正在採取一些行動，不僅是為了降低成本，也是為了重新分配資源。正如我所提到的，我們希望增加投資，特別是在其中一些新平台的研發和營銷商業資源方面。因此，與其像我們在資產方面討論的那樣添加，是否有一些對我們來說不太重要的舉措，我們可以轉移一些資源。因此，我們一直在重組和調整我們的一些業務。

So we moved, for example, Intermediates now is reporting into the same leaders of Life Sciences business so that the entire chain is owned by 1 group they can see point-to-point what we're doing. We're consolidating some of the management and resources. That's really where we want to shift a lot of the new technologies in Personal Care and Specialty Additives so that we can share some resources more efficiently and free up some resources really to support growth. And then we're putting a team together, we announced that we had added a person who's really looking at the portfolio, really to drive some of these platforms that you will be hearing about in September. And by drive, I mean, is really helping coordinate because a lot of these things cross businesses so that we have clarity on not just introducing a product in a certain segment and selling it, how do we really build a business plan around getting that scale that we want when we need to move forward with these technologies across multiple areas. So that will deliver both cost and allow us to shift resources around.

因此，我們採取了行動，例如，中間體現在向生命科學業務的同一領導者報告，以便整個鏈條由一個小組擁有，他們可以點對點地看到我們正在做的事情。我們正在整合一些管理和資源。這確實是我們希望在個人護理和特種添加劑領域應用大量新技術的地方，以便我們能夠更有效地共享一些資源，並釋放一些真正支持增長的資源。然後我們組建了一個團隊，我們宣布我們增加了一個真正關注產品組合的人，真正推動您將在 9 月份聽到的一些平台。我的意思是，驅動力確實有助於協調，因為很多事情都是跨業務的，因此我們不僅要在某個細分市場推出產品並銷售它，還要清楚我們如何真正圍繞實現這一規模製定業務計劃當我們需要在多個領域推進這些技術時，我們希望得到這樣的結果。這樣既可以降低成本，又可以讓我們轉移資源。

I think the other part we're still working on is the part that you mentioned is on assets. And clearly, it's not just about shutting things down. These are valuable assets. And the good news is we can leverage. As an example, we are launching in September a new super very high-end surface changing technology that goes around multiple markets, very high end, competes with silicones. We're planning to make this in the asset where we used to make some of the products for oral care that we lost in 2019. So we're very limited assets.

我認為我們仍在研究的另一部分是你提到的資產部分。顯然，這不僅僅是關停事情。這些都是寶貴的資產。好消息是我們可以利用。舉個例子，我們將在九月推出一種新的超高端表面改性技術，該技術涉及多個市場，非常高端，與有機矽競爭。我們計劃在 2019 年失去的一些用於生產口腔護理產品的資產中進行此生產。因此，我們的資產非常有限。

We already launched in personal care, but now we're taking it to other markets, oil, vegetable oil-based polymers. There's a whole category of products that can go into all our segments. Very exciting technology. We're using existing assets, but as we grow them out, we can do some things. You'll hear about technologies that we can make in our CMC or MC assets around [EO free] cellulosics - HEC type products, but EO free. We can look at starches that we're looking at. I mean there's just a ton of technologies that we're looking at. But we need to do that in an organized way. We're not just going to shut down and move things around. There's a real value-creation opportunity if we do this with discipline, and that's what we've got to lay out for all of you in terms of where we're going and then the pace of that will depend on that innovation agenda that we're going to drive.

我們已經推出了個人護理產品，但現在我們正在將其推向其他市場：石油、植物油基聚合物。一整套產品可以進入我們所有的細分市場。非常令人興奮的技術。我們正在使用現有資產，但隨著它們的發展，我們可以做一些事情。您將了解到我們可以在 CMC 或 MC 資產中圍繞[不含環氧乙烷]纖維素製造的技術 - HEC 型產品，但不含環氧乙烷。我們可以觀察我們正在觀察的澱粉。我的意思是我們正在研究大量的技術。但我們需要以有組織的方式做到這一點。我們不會只是關閉並轉移一些東西。如果我們有紀律地做到這一點，就會有真正的價值創造機會，這就是我們必須為你們所有人制定的我們前進的方向，然後其步伐將取決於我們制定的創新議程。要去開車了。

Our next question will come from the line of Kevin Estok from Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Jefferies 的 Kevin Estok。

This is actually Kevin Estok on for Laurence Alexander. Most of them are actually asked, but I guess if maybe you could talk a little bit about maybe like the regional differences in destocking that you're seeing maybe between Europe, Asia, North America and maybe anything on specific customers?

這實際上是凱文·埃斯托克（Kevin Estok）代表勞倫斯·亞歷山大（Laurence Alexander）。實際上大多數人都被問到了，但我想您是否可以談談您在歐洲、亞洲、北美之間看到的去庫存的區域差異，也許還有特定客戶的任何問題？

Clearly, Europe is still the one that's the softest if you look at coatings as an example, a step down in terms of demand. And where I'm spending my time is looking at our customers, frankly, where they're selling, their demand is more probably reflective of the end market demand. And I think we see that also in their numbers that Europe is a bit softer so there's no surprise there. China has not recovered to the rate that everybody expected. We do see significant variability by customers. For example, in China, the big players are actually doing better than some of the smaller players in terms of their volumes and ability to gain share in this kind of environment.

顯然，如果以塗料為例，歐洲仍然是最疲軟的地區，需求有所下降。我花時間關注我們的客戶，坦率地說，他們在哪裡銷售，他們的需求更可能反映了終端市場的需求。我認為我們從他們的數據中也看到歐洲有點疲軟，所以這並不奇怪。中國還沒有恢復到大家預期的速度。我們確實看到客戶的顯著差異。例如，在中國，在這種環境下，大型企業在數量和獲得份額的能力方面實際上比一些小型企業做得更好。

Pharma is pretty global, and both the big pharma players as well as the generics are pretty uniform around the world. So I think it's really more the customer specific and Europe that we're seeing the dynamics for our business at least.

製藥業相當全球化，世界各地的大型製藥公司和仿製藥都相當統一。因此，我認為至少我們看到了我們業務的動態，這實際上更多是針對特定客戶和歐洲的。

And I'm not showing any further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference back to Guillermo for closing remarks.

我不會在隊列中顯示任何其他問題。現在我想請吉列爾莫致閉幕詞。

Okay. Thank you very much, Victor. Thank you all for participating. I guess the 2 big messages if I can leave you with one. We all know the destocking dynamics, we will work through them. But the 2 important messages- One, our customers volumes, sales volumes are healthier and really show more resilience of the end markets we serve. We're very excited about that. That's really at the end of the day what's going to drive our own demand in the mid to long term. We'll work through the short term, but that's a really good perspective, I think that the markets are still healthy. And two, that regardless of this short-term situation, the long-term growth opportunities have not changed. We're very excited about them, and that's really where we want to really spend our time and energy so we'll continue to manage the short term to maximize near-term performance without losing traction and momentum on some of these important longer-term initiatives. So thank you for your attention, and we look forward to seeing many of you in September in Wilmington. So thanks, everyone.

好的。非常感謝你，維克多。感謝大家的參與。如果我能給你留下一條的話，我想這是兩條重要的信息。我們都知道去庫存的動態，我們將努力解決它們。但有兩個重要信息——第一，我們的客戶量、銷售量更加健康，並且真正顯示出我們所服務的終端市場更具彈性。我們對此感到非常興奮。歸根結底，這才是真正推動我們中長期需求的因素。我們將在短期內努力，但這是一個非常好的觀點，我認為市場仍然健康。第二，無論短期情況如何，長期增長機會都沒有改變。我們對它們感到非常興奮，這確實是我們真正想要花費時間和精力的地方，因此我們將繼續管理短期，以最大限度地提高近期業績，同時又不會失去其中一些重要的長期目標的吸引力和動力倡議。感謝您的關注，我們期待九月在威爾明頓見到您。謝謝大家。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。大家，祝你有美好的一天。