Ashland Inc. (ASH) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

(presentation)

（簡報）

Good day and welcome to the Ashland Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.

各位好，歡迎參加 Ashland Inc. 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。

(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, Director of Portfolio Strategy. Please go ahead.

（接線員指示）請注意，今天的會議將被錄音。現在我想把會議交給今天的講者——投資組合策略總監 Seth Mrozek。請開始。

Thank you, Abigail. Hello everyone, and welcome to Ashland's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Seth Mrozek, Director of Portfolio Strategy for Ashland. 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. In addition, I want to welcome William Whitaker, Vice President of Finance and Director of Investor Relations, following this month's organization changes to Ashland's finance, strategy, M&A and portfolio teams. William and I will complete the Investor Relations transition following this earnings cycle.

謝謝你，Abigail。各位好，歡迎參加 Ashland 2024 會計年度第一季財報電話會議與網路直播。我是 Ashland 投資組合策略總監 Seth Mrozek。今天與我一同參與電話會議的有 Ashland 董事長兼執行長 Guillermo Novo，以及資深副總裁兼財務長 Kevin Willis。此外，隨著本月 Ashland 財務、策略、併購（M&A）與投資組合團隊的組織調整，我也歡迎財務副總裁兼投資人關係總監 William Whitaker 加入。William 與我將在本次財報週期結束後完成投資人關係的交接。

Ashland released results for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 at approximately 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time yesterday, January 30. The news release issued last night was furnished to the SEC in a Form 8-K.

Ashland 已於昨日 1 月 30 日美東時間約下午 5:00 公布截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日止季度的業績。昨晚發布的新聞稿已以 Form 8-K 形式提交至美國證券交易委員會（SEC）。

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.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將引用目前於我們網站 ashland.com「投資人關係」專區同步網路直播的投影片。我們鼓勵各位在通話期間搭配網路直播一同觀看。

As a reminder, during today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our financial outlook for our second quarter and full year fiscal 2024 results. These 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.

提醒各位，在今天的電話會議中，我們將就多項事項作出前瞻性陳述，包括我們對 2024 會計年度第二季及全年業績的財務展望。這些前瞻性陳述受風險與不確定性影響，可能導致未來結果或事件與今日預測存在重大差異。我們相信此類陳述係基於合理假設，但無法保證相關預期一定能達成。請參閱簡報第 2 頁，以了解這些風險與不確定性的說明，以及前瞻性陳述所適用的限制。您亦可查閱我們最新的 Form 10-K 之 Item 1A，以獲得影響我們業務之風險因素的完整討論。

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 these 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 reconciliation 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，我們將以調整後（adjusted）基礎引用 Ashland 的部分實際與預估財務指標，這些屬於非 GAAP 財務衡量指標。我們將把這些指標稱為「調整後」，並用以補充您對我們持續經營業務財務表現的理解與評估。非 GAAP 指標不應被視為 GAAP 計算之財務指標的替代或更優指標。與之最直接可比的 GAAP 指標，以及非 GAAP 指標與 GAAP 指標之間的調節表，已公布於我們網站及今日投影片簡報的附錄中。

Please turn to Slide 3. Guillermo will begin the call this morning with an overview of Ashland's performance and results in the first quarter. Next, Kevin will provide a more detailed review of financial results for the quarter, followed by commentary related to Ashland's outlook for the second quarter and fiscal year 2024. Guillermo will then provide an update related to Ashland's strategic priorities, and we will then open your line for questions.

請翻到第 3 頁。Guillermo 將於今天上午先就 Ashland 第一季的表現與業績作概述。接著 Kevin 將更詳細回顧本季財務結果，並就 Ashland 第二季及 2024 會計年度展望提供評論。之後 Guillermo 將更新 Ashland 的策略優先事項，最後我們將開放提問。

Now I would like to turn the call over to Guillermo for his opening remarks. Guillermo?

現在我想把電話會議交給 Guillermo 進行開場致詞。Guillermo？

Thank you, Seth, and hello, everyone. Thank you for your interest in Ashland and for your participation today. First, I want to acknowledge that Ashland will soon recognize 100 years in business. The company has transformed tremendously since 1924, and looking ahead, we anticipate an exciting future built on our portfolio of world-class businesses with innovation driving long-term sustainable growth.

謝謝你，Seth，各位好。感謝各位對 Ashland 的關注並參與今天的會議。首先，我想提到 Ashland 即將迎來成立 100 週年。自 1924 年以來，公司已歷經巨大的轉型；展望未來，我們預期將在世界級業務組合的基礎上，透過創新驅動長期可持續成長，迎向令人振奮的未來。

Please turn to Slide 5. Financial results in the December quarter exceeded our adjusted EBITDA outlook range issued on November 8, 2023 with revenues in line. Overall, sales declined 10% from prior year quarter to $473 million and reflects market demand dynamics consistent with previously communicated expectations.

請翻到第 5 頁。12 月季度的財務結果優於我們於 2023 年 11 月 8 日發布的調整後 EBITDA 展望區間，營收則符合預期。整體而言，銷售額較去年同期下降 10% 至 4.73 億美元，反映的市場需求動態與我們先前溝通的預期一致。

Demand patterns generally improved as we move through the quarter and with growing evidence of convergence between Ashland sales volume and customer end market demand. Pockets of lower demand during the quarter were more aligned with specific customer or regional dynamics. With generally reduced stress on supply chains, customer order patterns timing have normalized to pre-COVID levels of less than 30 days. I would note that December sales exceeded our expectations. And although seasonally lower demand months, our sales and order book for January and February are also exceeding our expectations.

隨著季度推進，需求型態整體有所改善，且愈來愈多跡象顯示 Ashland 的銷售量與客戶終端市場需求正在趨於一致。本季需求較弱的部分，較多與特定客戶或區域動態相關。由於供應鏈壓力普遍降低，客戶下單節奏已回到 COVID 之前、少於 30 天的正常水準。我也要指出，12 月銷售高於我們預期。雖然 1 月與 2 月屬季節性需求較低的月份，但我們 1 月與 2 月的銷售與訂單簿同樣高於預期。

Pricing in some of the more competitive segments turned modestly unfavorable compared to the prior year as we comp against our inflation recovery pricing actions in the prior year. Maintaining a pricing margin balance will be critical as we navigate the moderation of costs and increased competitive activity. The Ashland's team managed these dynamics very well during the quarter.

在部分競爭較激烈的領域，定價相較去年同期略為不利，主要因為我們正與去年為回收通膨成本所採取的定價措施形成比較基期。在成本趨緩與競爭活動增加的情況下，維持價格與毛利的平衡將至關重要。Ashland 團隊在本季對這些動態的管理表現非常出色。

The largest impact to our first quarter profitability was absorption-related costs versus the prior year quarter as we prudently manage production and inventory levels. While we are cautiously optimistic about the improving demand trends that we're experiencing in the quarter and into January and February, there's still heightened uncertainty regarding customer demand normalization. Typically, we would be building inventory for the peak season at this time. And currently, we are not doing that build. Ashland will remain disciplined in its production levels targeting to produce to near-term demand.

對第一季獲利影響最大的因素，是在我們審慎管理生產與庫存水位時，相較去年同期所產生的吸收（absorption）相關成本。雖然我們對本季以及 1 月與 2 月所見的需求改善趨勢抱持審慎樂觀，但客戶需求正常化仍存在較高不確定性。通常此時我們會為旺季建立庫存，但目前我們並未進行此一備貨。Ashland 將持續在生產水準上保持紀律，目標是依近期需求進行生產。

Production in the first quarter of 2023 exceeded customer demand as evidenced by the inventory build and necessary corrective actions later in the year, creating a difficult year-over-year comparison for the quarter. This is evident by comparing the sales and production volumes versus our prior year quarter. Sales volume and production volumes were down 12% and 24%, respectively, or a 2x relative difference. The overall adjusted EBITDA impact of lower operating rates at our plants versus the prior year quarter totaled $31 million, primarily impacting our Specialty Additives and Personal Care business units. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter decreased 35% to $70 million, reflecting these dynamics, but were above our expectations for the quarter.

2023 年第一季的產量高於客戶需求，從庫存增加以及年內稍後所需的修正措施可見一斑，這也使得本季的年對年比較更具挑戰。從銷售量與產量相較去年同期的比較即可看出：銷售量與產量分別下降 12% 與 24%，相對差異約為 2 倍。由於工廠營運稼動率低於去年同期，對整體調整後 EBITDA 的影響合計為 3,100 萬美元，主要影響 Specialty Additives 與 Personal Care 事業單位。本季調整後 EBITDA 下降 35% 至 7,000 萬美元，反映上述動態，但仍高於我們對本季的預期。

In terms of our longer-term priorities, we're delivering on our strategic priorities to execute, globalize, innovate and acquire to build resilience and improve performance of the core businesses as well as drive long-term profitable growth. We have conviction that our strategy will deliver sustainable long-term above-market growth for the company. Kevin and I will provide a detailed update later on our strategic priorities, but we remain on track and committed to delivering against our strategic and financial goals.

就長期優先事項而言，我們正落實策略重點：執行、全球化、創新與併購，以建立韌性、提升核心業務表現，並推動長期獲利成長。我們深信此一策略將為公司帶來可持續、長期且高於市場的成長。Kevin 與我稍後將就策略優先事項提供更詳細的更新；我們仍按計畫推進，並致力於達成我們的策略與財務目標。

We believe the current share price does not reflect our expectations for long-term growth, margin and capital return improvements with reduced performance volatility. We continue to believe our stock is an attractive use of capital as demonstrated by our repurchase of $100 million of shares during the quarter. Our strong balance sheet enables us to pursue a balanced capital allocation approach, investing in our targeted growth strategy in addition to returning capital to our shareholders.

我們認為目前股價尚未反映我們對長期成長、利潤率與資本回饋改善的預期，以及在降低績效波動後所帶來的提升。我們仍相信本公司股票是具吸引力的資本運用方式，這也體現在我們本季回購 1 億美元股份的行動上。我們強健的資產負債表使我們能採取平衡的資本配置策略，在投資於既定成長策略的同時，也向股東返還資本。

Please turn to Slide 6. Sales declined in each of our segments due to the factors that I referenced earlier, with the largest relative impact in our Specialty Additives and Intermediates business units. Disciplined production was approximately in line with near-term demand impacting plant loading, profitability and improving ongoing free cash flow for the quarter. However, we are encouraged by current demand patterns, implying a recovery is underway with an expectation of continued momentum into the second half of the fiscal year, narrowing the range of possible demand recovery scenarios.

請翻到第 6 頁。由於我先前提到的因素，我們各事業部門的銷售均下滑，其中以 Specialty Additives 與 Intermediates 事業單位的相對影響最大。具紀律的生產大致與近期需求一致，影響了工廠負載、獲利能力，並改善本季持續性自由現金流。然而，我們對目前的需求型態感到鼓舞，這意味著復甦正在進行中，並預期動能將延續至會計年度下半年，從而縮小可能的需求復甦情境範圍。

We continue to position the company for more resilient operations across multiple scenarios. While January and February demand improvements are encouraging, March is the critical month for seasonal demand pickup. We will be tracking March as a more meaningful indicator of demand normalization. We are well positioned for the coming inflection point.

我們持續讓公司在多種情境下都能具備更具韌性的營運能力。雖然 1 月與 2 月的需求改善令人鼓舞，但 3 月是季節性需求回升的關鍵月份。我們將把 3 月視為更具意義的需求正常化指標並加以追蹤。我們已為即將到來的轉折點做好充分準備。

Now let me turn over the call to Kevin to review Q1 in more detail. And I'll come back later to talk about our strategic progress on our strategic actions. Kevin?

現在我把電話會議交給 Kevin，更詳細回顧第一季。稍後我會再回來談我們在策略行動上的進展。Kevin？

Thank you, Guillermo, and good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，Guillermo，各位早安。

Please turn to Slide 8. Total Ashland sales in the quarter were $473 million, down 10% compared to prior year, with reduced volumes for all segments. Pricing was favorable for the Life Sciences and Personal Care business units, but offset by softer pricing in Intermediates & Architectural Coatings. Foreign currency had a favorable impact on sales of 1%. Gross profit margin declined to 25.2%, driven primarily by the absorption impact associated with decreased plant loading that Guillermo highlighted earlier. Negative absorption outpaced favorable price versus raw material costs during the quarter.

請翻到第 8 頁。本季 Ashland 總銷售額為 4.73 億美元，較去年同期下降 10%，各事業部門的銷量均有所減少。Life Sciences 與 Personal Care 事業單位的定價有利，但被 Intermediates & Architectural Coatings 較疲弱的定價所抵銷。外匯對銷售額帶來 1% 的正面影響。毛利率下降至 25.2%，主要受 Guillermo 先前提到的工廠負載下降所帶來的吸收影響所致。本季不利的吸收影響超過了價格相對原物料成本的有利因素。

When excluding key items, SG&A, R&D and intangible amortization costs were $103 million down from $116 million in the prior year, mainly reflecting lower variable compensation expenses primarily related to equity-based comp. In total, Ashland's adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $70 million down 35% from the prior year. Ashland's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 14.8% down from 20.6% in the prior year, reflecting the factors I just discussed. Adjusted EPS, excluding acquisition amortization for the quarter was $0.45, down from $0.97 in the prior year quarter. Ongoing free cash flow improved to $66 million for the quarter up from a $21 million use of cash in the prior year quarter, primarily reflecting changes in working capital resulting from our prudent inventory management as well as reduced incentive compensation payouts.

在排除關鍵項目後，SG&A、研發以及無形資產攤銷成本為1.03億美元，較前一年度的1.16億美元下降，主要反映變動薪酬費用降低，且主要與以股權為基礎的薪酬相關。整體而言，Ashland 本季調整後 EBITDA 為7,000萬美元，較前一年度下降35%。Ashland 本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為14.8%，低於前一年度的20.6%，反映我剛才討論的因素。本季調整後 EPS（不含併購攤銷）為0.45美元，低於前一年度同期的0.97美元。持續性自由現金流本季改善至6,600萬美元，高於前一年度同期淨現金流出2,100萬美元，主要反映因我們審慎的庫存管理而帶來的營運資金變動，以及獎勵性薪酬發放減少。

Now let's review the results of each of our 4 operating segments. Please turn to Slide 10. Within Life Sciences, normalized global supply of PVP reduced demand in pharma versus a strong prior year period. Nutraceuticals has maintained a strong recovery versus a weak prior year period, while sales to nutrition end markets remained challenged. Overall pricing for Life Sciences was favorable. Life Sciences sales declined by 3% to $200 million, while adjusted EBITDA decreased by 8% to $48 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to 24%, primarily reflecting negative sales and production volumes, partially offset by favorable pricing.

現在讓我們檢視四個營運事業部門各自的表現。請翻到投影片10。在生命科學部門，PVP 的全球供應正常化，使製藥需求相較於前一年度強勁期間有所下降。營養保健品相較於前一年度疲弱期間維持強勁復甦，但對營養終端市場的銷售仍面臨挑戰。生命科學整體定價有利。生命科學銷售額下降3%至2.00億美元，而調整後 EBITDA 下降8%至4,800萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率降至24%，主要反映銷售與產量下滑的負面影響，部分由有利的定價所抵銷。

Please turn to Slide 11. Weakened demand negatively impacted Personal Care in the quarter, primarily within the skin and oral care segments, partially offset by strength in hair care. Our Avoca business catering to the fragrance market remains challenged. Overall pricing for Personal Care was favorable. In the quarter, Personal Care sales declined by 7% to $129 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined 31% to $22 million. Pricing over raw material dynamics were sustained, but margins were negatively impacted by lower sales and production volumes.

請翻到投影片11。本季需求走弱對個人護理造成負面影響，主要在皮膚護理與口腔護理領域，部分由髮品護理的強勁表現所抵銷。我們服務香氛市場的 Avoca 業務仍面臨挑戰。個人護理整體定價有利。本季個人護理銷售額下降7%至1.29億美元，而調整後 EBITDA 下降31%至2,200萬美元。定價相對原物料的有利態勢得以維持，但利潤率受到銷售與產量下降的負面影響。

Please turn to Slide 12. Specialty Additives was impacted by reduced demand, though the architectural coating end market continues to be less impacted than others in the business. For the quarter, Specialty Additives sales declined by 15% to $122 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined by 74% to $6 million, primarily reflecting production volume and sales declines. Pricing turned negative in the quarter versus the prior year quarter, but was offset by favorable raw materials.

請翻到投影片12。特用添加劑受到需求下降影響，不過建築塗料終端市場相較於其他業務仍受影響較小。本季特用添加劑銷售額下降15%至1.22億美元，而調整後 EBITDA 下降74%至600萬美元，主要反映產量與銷售下滑。本季定價相較前一年度同期轉為不利，但由有利的原物料所抵銷。

Please turn to Slide 13. Intermediates reported sales of $33 million, down 39% compared to the prior year driven by lower pricing and volumes. Intermediates reported adjusted EBITDA of $10 million compared to $23 million in the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin declined to 30.3%, primarily reflecting lower pricing.

請翻到投影片13。中間體銷售額為3,300萬美元，較前一年度下降39%，主因為定價與銷量降低。中間體調整後 EBITDA 為1,000萬美元，較前一年度的2,300萬美元下降，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率降至30.3%，主要反映定價降低。

Please turn to Slide 14. Ashland continues to have a strong financial position following another quarter of robust ongoing free cash flow generation. As of the end of December, we had cash on hand of approximately $440 million with total available liquidity of roughly $1 billion. Our net debt was $901 million, which is about 2.1 -turns- of leverage. We have no floating rate debt outstanding, no long-term debt maturities for the next 3 years, and all of our outstanding debt is subject to investment-grade style credit terms.

請翻到投影片14。Ashland 在又一季強勁的持續性自由現金流產生後，仍維持穩健的財務狀況。截至12月底，我們手上現金約4.40億美元，總可用流動性約10億美元。我們的淨負債為9.01億美元，槓桿約為2.1倍。我們沒有任何浮動利率債務未償，未來三年也沒有長期債務到期，且所有未償債務均適用投資等級風格的信用條款。

As Guillermo noted, we continue to believe Ashland's stock is an attractive use of capital and deployed $100 million to repurchase 1.2 million shares during the quarter, bringing the total over the last 30 months to $1.05 billion deployed and 11.1 million shares retired. We have $900 million remaining under the current evergreen share repurchase authorization.

如 Guillermo 所提到的，我們仍認為 Ashland 的股票是具吸引力的資本運用方式，本季投入1.00億美元回購120萬股，使過去30個月累計投入達10.5億美元並註銷1,110萬股。我們在目前的常設（evergreen）股票回購授權下仍剩餘9.00億美元額度。

We are prudently managing inventory during the period of uncertainty. Inventory levels have decreased $136 million when compared to the prior year quarter and $38 million sequentially, which better positions us to produce the demand. Overall, working capital management supported the generation of $66 million of ongoing free cash flow in the quarter delivering a compelling 94% adjusted EBITDA conversion.

在不確定性期間，我們審慎管理庫存。與前一年度同期相比，庫存水準減少1.36億美元，較上一季亦減少3,800萬美元，使我們更能配合需求進行生產。整體而言，營運資金管理支持本季產生6,600萬美元的持續性自由現金流，帶來具吸引力的94%調整後 EBITDA 轉換率。

We are investing in our existing businesses and technology platforms 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. Ashland's balance sheet is well positioned to continue to give us the flexibility to pursue our targeted growth strategy as we reward our shareholders with a strong dividend policy and continued share repurchases.

我們正投資於既有業務與技術平台以推動有機成長，並持續推進策略，透過聚焦製藥、個人護理與塗料的目標型補強式併購（bolt-on M&A）機會，提升獲利性成長。Ashland 的資產負債表具備良好定位，能持續提供我們追求目標成長策略的彈性，同時以穩健的股利政策與持續的股票回購回饋股東。

With that, I'll now provide an update on the execute pillar of our strategic priorities in addition to an updated outlook. Please turn to Slide 16. A key aspect of our execute strategic priority captures needed portfolio optimization to address underperforming businesses that are not core and where we do not have technology or market leadership. As previously outlined in our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call, we have 4 primary portfolio actions underway, divesting our nutraceuticals business, optimizing and consolidating our CMC and MC Industrial businesses as well as rebalancing our global HEC production network.

接下來，我將就我們策略優先事項中的「執行（execute）」支柱提供最新進展，並更新展望。請翻到投影片16。我們「執行」策略優先事項的一個關鍵面向，是進行必要的投資組合最佳化，以處理表現不佳、非核心，且我們不具技術或市場領導地位的業務。如同我們在2023會計年度第四季法說會所述，目前有四項主要的投資組合行動正在進行：出售營養保健品業務、最佳化並整併我們的 CMC 與 MC Industrial 業務，以及重新平衡我們全球 HEC 生產網路。

The nutraceuticals process is underway and going well. Nutraceuticals is a high-quality business and continues to perform as evidenced by its recent strong recovery, but outside of our core business and strategy. The process has gained significant interest from higher-value owners, and we expect to sign and close a transaction within this fiscal year.

營養保健品的處分流程正在進行且進展順利。營養保健品是一項高品質業務，且如近期強勁復甦所示仍持續良好表現，但不屬於我們的核心業務與策略。該流程已獲得高價值買家的高度興趣，我們預期將在本會計年度內簽約並完成交易。

Ashland's most advanced portfolio action involves optimizing and consolidating our CMC business. We are exiting low-margin business and migrating select CMC volumes into Alizay, France, resulting in a closure of CMC production capacity in Hopewell, Virginia during the fiscal second quarter of 2024. This work stream led to $21 million of accelerated depreciation expense during the quarter.

Ashland 最為成熟的投資組合行動，是對我們的 CMC 業務進行最佳化與整併。我們正退出低毛利業務，並將部分 CMC 產量移轉至法國 Alizay，因而將於2024會計年度第二季關閉位於維吉尼亞州 Hopewell 的 CMC 產能。此工作流程在本季導致2,100萬美元的加速折舊費用。

Other actions to improve Ashland's MC Industrial and HEC businesses continue to be assessed and will be communicated in due course. As we take these actions, we will be exploring opportunities to leverage these assets to repurpose and support other strategic priorities. We continue to expect the portfolio optimization activities to be complete by the end of calendar year 2024.

其他用以改善 Ashland 的 MC Industrial 與 HEC 業務的行動仍在評估中，並將於適當時機對外溝通。在推進這些行動的同時，我們也將探索運用這些資產的機會，以重新配置並支援其他策略優先事項。我們仍預期投資組合最佳化活動將於2024曆年年底前完成。

In summary, all portfolio actions are on track, and we are committed to act with appropriate urgency to deliver on our commitments, including the reduction of all stranded costs that result from these actions.

總結而言，所有投資組合行動均按計畫推進，我們承諾以適當的緊迫感採取行動以履行承諾，包括降低因這些行動所產生的所有閒置成本（stranded costs）。

Please turn to Slide 17. As highlighted on the left, our portfolio actions will have a meaningful impact on the company's profitability as well as capital and operational efficiency to deliver stronger performance. Specifically, once the actions are fully complete, we expect expanded adjusted EBITDA margins of 200 to 250 basis points, an increase to return on net assets of 150 to 200 basis points, a 10% to 15% improvement in network utilization rates and impacted product lines as select SKUs are shifted within the network and a 10% reduction in working capital as well as capital investment avoidance going forward.

請翻到投影片17。如左側所示，我們的投資組合行動將對公司的獲利能力，以及資本與營運效率產生實質影響，以帶來更強勁的表現。具體而言，一旦行動全面完成，我們預期調整後 EBITDA 利潤率將擴大200至250個基點，淨資產報酬率提高150至200個基點，網路產能利用率提升10%至15%，且隨著部分 SKU 在網路內移轉，受影響的產品線將獲改善；同時營運資金降低10%，並在未來避免部分資本投資。

We expect a modest reduction in fiscal year 2024 sales from our portfolio actions totaling $30 million to $40 million of lower sales related to CMC and Industrial MC versus 2023. The impact from a nutraceutical sale will be dependent on the timing of closing, but the business is averaging quarterly sales of approximately $30 million over the past 12 months. And lastly, we expect no material sales impact from rebalancing our HEC production network in fiscal year 2024.

我們預期2024會計年度的銷售額將因投資組合行動而小幅下降，合計減少3,000萬至4,000萬美元，主要來自 CMC 與 Industrial MC 相較於2023年的銷售降低。營養保健品出售的影響將取決於交割時點，但該業務在過去12個月的平均單季銷售約為3,000萬美元。最後，我們預期在2024會計年度，重新平衡 HEC 生產網路不會對銷售造成重大影響。

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2025, we expect sales to reduce an additional $130 million to $150 million versus fiscal year '24 as a result of the completed portfolio actions with little to no impact on EBITDA. We are committed to eliminating the stranded costs associated with these actions and recapturing lost gross profit, making them EBITDA neutral. There are approximately $80 million in stranded costs and $20 million of reduced gross profit associated with our actions.

展望2025會計年度，我們預期在投資組合行動完成後，銷售額將較2024會計年度再減少1.30億至1.50億美元，但對 EBITDA 幾乎沒有影響或影響極小。我們承諾消除與這些行動相關的閒置成本並收回流失的毛利，使其對 EBITDA 呈中性影響。與我們的行動相關的閒置成本約為8,000萬美元，毛利減少約2,000萬美元。

The majority of the stranded costs are directly related to manufacturing and will be eliminated after production is consolidated, and the lost gross profit will be offset by improved utilization in the plant network. While we're still finalizing the plans and specific cash costs for some of our portfolio actions, we expect the CMC and Industrial MC working capital release and capital avoidance to approximately fund the onetime cash cost associated with our plans.

大部分閒置成本與製造直接相關，將在生產整併後予以消除；而流失的毛利將透過廠區網路利用率提升來抵銷。雖然我們仍在就部分投資組合行動的計畫與具體現金成本進行最後定案，但我們預期 CMC 與 Industrial MC 的營運資金釋放與資本支出避免，將大致可支應我們計畫所需的一次性現金成本。

Now on to our outlook. Please turn to Slide 18. As we look ahead into Q2 and fiscal year 2024, the major question is the timing and magnitude of the demand recovery. As Guillermo mentioned, current demand patterns imply a recovery is underway with our sales volumes beginning to align with customer end market demand trends. Specifically, January sales are demonstrating a strong month-over-month recovery of approximately 25%, which is roughly in line with January 2023, a period before destocking had intensified.

現在來談我們的展望。請翻到第18頁投影片。展望第二季與2024會計年度，主要問題在於需求復甦的時點與幅度。如Guillermo所提到，目前的需求型態顯示復甦正在進行中，我們的銷售量開始與客戶終端市場需求趨勢對齊。具體而言，1月銷售呈現約25%的強勁月增復甦，這大致與2023年1月相當——那是去庫存尚未加劇之前的一段期間。

In addition, February is shaping up to be a promising month based on order pattern. As Guillermo indicated, March is the lynchpin month of the quarter and will largely define the magnitude of the recovery we are seeing in January and February. While these are clearly positive data points, the critical question is how sustainable is this demand normalization? The current trends suggest a demand recovery occurring in our second quarter with potential momentum heading into our second half of the fiscal year. We are encouraged by recent demand activity for our products as well as positive economic, consumer and industry data.

此外，從訂單型態來看，2月正逐步成為一個令人振奮的月份。如Guillermo所指出，3月是本季的關鍵月份，將在很大程度上界定我們在1月與2月所看到的復甦幅度。雖然這些顯然是正面的數據點，但關鍵問題是：這種需求常態化能持續多久？目前趨勢顯示，我們第二季將出現需求復甦，且在會計年度下半年可能延續動能。我們對近期產品需求活動，以及正面的經濟、消費者與產業數據感到鼓舞。

The next critical assumption is margin management. Depending on margin recovery, competitive pressures will vary across different segments. Maintaining pricing discipline will be important during our second quarter, but also throughout the year. We do expect pricing pressures to be partially offset by raw material deflation, but the timing will be important as we work through existing inventory. The Ashland team is keenly focused on pricing versus raw material balance for the year, which serves as a risk and an opportunity for overall results.

下一個關鍵假設是毛利管理。視毛利復甦情況而定，各細分市場的競爭壓力將有所不同。在第二季期間維持價格紀律很重要，但全年同樣如此。我們確實預期原物料通縮可部分抵銷定價壓力，但在我們消化既有庫存的過程中，時點將非常重要。Ashland團隊全年高度聚焦於價格與原物料之間的平衡，這對整體業績而言既是風險也是機會。

We have committed to produce to demand. We're much better positioned to do so than our prior year when in hindsight, production in the first half of the year meaningfully outpaced demand, requiring inventory actions later in the year. We do expect absorption benefits as demand normalizes, which should be much more impactful during the second half of the fiscal year as compared with 2023.

我們已承諾按需求生產。相較於上一年度，我們現在更有條件做到這一點；回頭看，去年上半年產量明顯超過需求，導致下半年需要採取庫存相關措施。隨著需求常態化，我們預期將帶來吸收率（absorption）效益；相較於2023年，這項效益在會計年度下半年應會更為顯著。

That said, we are continuing to manage production activities to maintain inventory discipline. Taking all of this into account, for the fiscal second quarter, the company expects sales in the range of $565 million to $585 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $115 million to $125 million. For the full year, we expect sales in the range of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $460 million to $500 million.

即便如此，我們仍持續管理生產活動，以維持庫存紀律。綜合以上因素，公司預期會計年度第二季銷售額介於5.65億至5.85億美元之間，調整後EBITDA介於1.15億至1.25億美元之間。全年方面，我們預期銷售額介於21.5億至22.5億美元之間，調整後EBITDA介於4.6億至5.0億美元之間。

Based on recent demand trends, we have removed the downside demand recovery scenario that we discussed on our last earnings call from our range of possible outcomes. Key risks and opportunities are listed on the slide, but aside from demand recovery, variability in plant loading and price versus raw material balance will be critical for upcoming financial results.

基於近期需求趨勢，我們已將上次財報電話會議中討論的「需求復甦下行情境」自可能結果區間中移除。投影片列出了主要風險與機會，但除了需求復甦之外，工廠負載率的波動，以及價格相對原物料的平衡，將是影響未來財務結果的關鍵因素。

And now let me turn the call back to Guillermo to provide an update on our strategic priorities. Guillermo?

接下來我把電話交回給Guillermo，請他更新我們的策略優先事項。Guillermo？

Thank you, Kevin, and please turn to Slide 20. Our strategic priorities remain unchanged and continue to guide our actions, investments and profitable growth expectations. The priorities include execute, globalize, innovate and acquire, as we outlined in our Innovation Day during the last earnings call. Each priority is rooted in our passion to win and operate with urgency. Our execute priorities include select portfolio actions. As Kevin shared, we are making good progress on these actions and the resulting impact will strengthen Ashland's performance. Our globalized and innovate priorities are focused on profitable growth. The Ashland team is making progress in both areas.

謝謝你，Kevin，請翻到第20頁投影片。我們的策略優先事項維持不變，並持續引導我們的行動、投資與獲利成長預期。這些優先事項包括：執行（execute）、全球化（globalize）、創新（innovate）與併購（acquire），正如我們在上次財報電話會議的創新日（Innovation Day）所概述。每一項優先事項都根植於我們渴望勝出的熱情，並以緊迫感運作。我們在「執行」方面的優先事項包含選擇性的投資組合（portfolio）行動。如Kevin所分享，我們在這些行動上進展良好，其帶來的影響將強化Ashland的表現。我們的「全球化」與「創新」優先事項聚焦於獲利成長。Ashland團隊在這兩個領域都在推進。

Please turn to Slide 21. Activities are underway to globalize 4 of our higher growth and higher-margin business lines, which include 2 businesses within pharma, our injectables and our film coatings for oral solid dose tablets as well as 2 businesses in our Personal Care businesses, biofunctionals and preservatives. Taking a closer look at pharma, the injectable business is making good progress across early, mid and commercial stage pipeline activities. The number of Viatel development pipeline projects increased in the quarter, totaling 160 programs.

請翻到第21頁投影片。我們正推動4條高成長且高毛利的業務線全球化，其中包括製藥領域的2項業務——注射劑（injectables）以及口服固體劑型（OSD）錠劑的薄膜包衣（film coatings）——以及個人護理（Personal Care）領域的2項業務——生物功能性（biofunctionals）與防腐劑（preservatives）。更聚焦於製藥方面，注射劑業務在早期、中期與商業化階段的管線活動上均取得良好進展。本季Viatel開發管線專案數量增加，合計達160個計畫。

Projects in development are progressing through the evaluation stages. Viatel UltraPure has already realized first commercial sales within two months of launch ahead of expectations. Similarly, the OSD film coatings business successfully secured new customer wins in key geographies and continues to strengthen customer intimacy as we build local support.

開發中的專案正推進至評估階段。Viatel UltraPure在上市後兩個月內即已實現首次商業銷售，優於預期。同樣地，OSD薄膜包衣業務在關鍵地區成功取得新客戶，並在建立在地支援的同時，持續強化與客戶的緊密合作關係。

Shifting to Personal Care, the biofunctionals business commissioned a new production facility in Nanjing, China, which I had the pleasure of visiting last week during my China trip. The ability to innovate and purchase materials locally, produce in-country and supply products that are tailored to local preferences is a source of differentiation and advantage in the region. The preservatives business has established labs around the world to enable the same level of service, independent of geography and our focus on developing multifunctional preserve risks. All 4 business lines took steps to accelerate globalization activities and remain hyper focused on implementing their respective business plans.

轉到個人護理方面，生物功能性業務在中國南京啟用了一座新的生產設施，我上週中國行期間也很榮幸前往參訪。能夠在地創新與採購原料、在國內生產，並供應符合在地偏好的客製化產品，是我們在該區域的差異化來源與優勢。防腐劑業務已在全球建立實驗室，以便不受地理位置影響、提供同等水準的服務，並聚焦於開發多功能防腐解決方案。這4條業務線都採取措施加速全球化活動，並持續高度專注於落實各自的業務計畫。

Please turn to Slide 22. Innovation is a fundamental component of our growth strategy. We have oriented the company around innovation and are investing in both our existing and new technology platforms. As we shared during the 2023 Innovation Day, Ashland has a rich history of leadership positions within existing technologies. We are building the same in our new platforms. As a reminder, the new technology platforms we discussed included are bioresorbable polymers, our transformed vegetable oils, our novel cellulosics, super-wetting agents, liquid cellulose plus as well as multifunctional starch and PH neutralizers, both of which are launching soon.

請翻到第22頁投影片。創新是我們成長策略的基本要素。我們已讓公司以創新為核心，並投資於既有與新技術平台。正如我們在2023年創新日所分享，Ashland在既有技術領域擁有深厚的領導地位歷史；我們也正在新平台上建立同樣的領先地位。提醒一下，我們討論的新技術平台包括：可生物吸收聚合物（bioresorbable polymers）、我們的轉化植物油（transformed vegetable oils）、新型纖維素（novel cellulosics）、超潤濕劑（super-wetting agents）、液態纖維素Plus（liquid cellulose plus），以及即將推出的多功能澱粉與pH中和劑（PH neutralizers）。

The new platforms all share similar themes. These technologies are scalable. We are commercializing in several market segments, which increases our overall growth opportunity. They are tunable. We are working with customers to tailor the technology to their specific needs. And the technologies have multiple functionalities. They create value beyond a one-for-one drop-in replacements. Multifunction offers the potential to avoid performance trade-offs in our customers' products.

這些新平台都有相似的主題。第一，這些技術可擴展（scalable）。我們正於多個市場區隔推動商業化，從而提升整體成長機會。第二，它們可調（tunable）。我們正與客戶合作，依其特定需求調整技術。第三，這些技術具備多重功能性。它們創造的價值不僅是「一比一」的直接替代。多功能性有機會避免客戶產品在性能上的取捨。

For the last few months, our leadership teams have presented our new technology platforms to many of our customers in Personal Care, Coatings and Life Sciences. I'm happy to say that they will receive with a high level of interest and excitement. We expect to start more specific collaboration projects with many of our customers.

過去幾個月，我們的領導團隊已向個人護理、塗料（Coatings）與生命科學（Life Sciences）的許多客戶介紹這些新技術平台。我很高興地說，客戶以高度的興趣與期待來回應。我們預期將與許多客戶啟動更具體的合作專案。

Our coherent innovation strategy with a hyper focus on execution has yielded near-term updates in our new technology platforms that I'd like to share. We continue to advance the development and sale of these platforms. We commercialize products, transformed vegetable oils and super-wetters that are gaining customer adoption and growing the sales opportunity pipeline. We're excited about the discoveries made for transformed vegetable oils, in architectural coatings and the positive testing in crop care for seed coatings.

我們一致且高度聚焦執行的創新策略，已在新技術平台上帶來一些近期更新，我想在此分享。我們持續推進這些平台的開發與銷售。我們正將產品商業化，其中轉化植物油與超潤濕劑正獲得客戶採用，並擴大銷售機會管線。我們對轉化植物油在建築塗料（architectural coatings）的新發現，以及在農作物照護（crop care）種子包衣（seed coatings）上的正面測試結果感到振奮。

Super-wetting agents platform continues to expand as we work to launch within crop care. The development within the pH-neutralized platform is advancing with a planned launch later this year. Sales, development and testing of other new platforms is moving well, and we will share updates accordingly in future calls. We're all excited with the progress made, the continued discoveries and the customer feedback. Although we expect most of the impact of these investments to begin in fiscal year 2025, we will work diligently to accelerate their impact into fiscal year '24, and provide periodic updates on our progress.

超潤濕劑平台持續擴展，我們正推進其在農作物照護領域的上市。pH中和平台的開發也在前進，計畫於今年稍晚推出。其他新平台的銷售、開發與測試進展順利，我們將在未來的電話會議中適時分享更新。我們對已取得的進展、持續的發現以及客戶回饋都感到振奮。雖然我們預期這些投資的大部分影響將自2025會計年度開始顯現，但我們將努力加速其在2024會計年度的貢獻，並定期更新進度。

Please turn to Slide 23. In closing, our approach to this fiscal year is straightforward, build resilience by focusing on clarity of action in the face of uncertainty. We recognize that these are challenging times for our industry, but we also recognize the opportunities that lie ahead. Recent demand trends are promising, and we are cautiously optimistic.

請翻到第23頁投影片。最後，我們本會計年度的做法很直接：在不確定性之下，以清晰的行動聚焦來建立韌性。我們了解這對產業而言是艱難時期，但也看見前方的機會。近期需求趨勢令人鼓舞，我們保持審慎樂觀。

The Ashland team is poised to capitalize on improving market conditions, but we'll continue with production discipline during this period of uncertainty. We will stay on strategy, maintain operating and capital allocation discipline and take appropriate actions to maximize fiscal year 2024 performance. This includes optimizing our portfolio, focusing on our core businesses and perhaps more importantly, continuing to invest in our long-term growth strategy. We are confident in the quality and resilience of the markets we serve and our future. I want to thank the Ashland team once again for their leadership and proactive ownership of their businesses in a very dynamic environment.

Ashland團隊已準備好把握市場狀況改善所帶來的機會，但在這段不確定期間，我們仍將維持生產紀律。我們會堅守策略，維持營運與資本配置紀律，並採取適當行動以最大化2024會計年度的表現。這包括優化我們的投資組合、聚焦核心業務，更重要的是，持續投資於長期成長策略。我們對所服務市場的品質與韌性，以及我們的未來充滿信心。我想再次感謝Ashland團隊在高度動態的環境中展現領導力，並以積極主動的主人翁精神經營各自的業務。

Thank you for joining us. And operator, Abigail, if we could move to Q&A.

感謝各位加入我們。接線員 Abigail，若可以的話，我們進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.

（接線員指示）我們的第一個問題來自德意志銀行（Deutsche Bank）的 David Begleiter。

Guillermo, on the sequential strength you're seeing, can you describe what end markets and what geographies is it occurring in? And just how strong is this in February versus January?

Guillermo，針對你們看到的環比走強，你能描述一下這是發生在哪些終端市場、哪些地理區域嗎？另外，2 月相較於 1 月到底強勁到什麼程度？

We're seeing it across all the segments, as we said last year, the Pharma segment came out of a very strong year. So that's normalizing a little bit, especially on the PVP with some competitors coming back into the market. But the rest of them, we're seeing it pretty broad-based. If I look at December, January and February, December was stronger. We did see some pushback of orders pushing back just end of the year things. But even with those pushbacks, December came in stronger and January continued to strengthen. So it is building up. If you look at daily rates, the January and February are sort of maintaining a consistent daily rate.

我們在所有事業部門都看到了這種情況。正如我們去年所說，製藥（Pharma）部門在去年表現非常強勁，所以目前正在稍微回歸常態，特別是在 PVP 方面，因為一些競爭對手重新回到市場。不過其他部門方面，我們看到的走勢相當廣泛。如果我看 12 月、1 月和 2 月，12 月更強。我們確實看到一些訂單被往後推遲，主要是年底因素所致。但即便有這些延後，12 月仍然更強，而 1 月也持續走強。所以這股動能正在累積。如果看每日出貨/需求速率，1 月與 2 月大致維持一致的日均水準。

But the question really is going to be March. January and February is good that they're up versus expectations and more normalized. But usually, the March, April is really when the season starts from a sales perspective. So when we compare it to prior year, our production remained lower, but the sales are clearly picking up. The one area that we're looking at right now just for clarity is within the quarter, I don't think it's going to impact Q2 to Q3. But some of the issues in Europe with strikes and shipping, are we going to be able to today ship everything and some things might go into February, but that would just mean a stronger February for us so it's a pretty broad momentum.

但真正的關鍵會在 3 月。1 月和 2 月表現不錯，優於預期且更趨正常化；但通常從銷售角度來看，3 月、4 月才是旺季真正開始的時候。因此，當我們與去年同期相比，我們的產量仍然較低，但銷售顯然正在回升。目前我們關注的一個區域、只是為了釐清的是：在本季內，我不認為會影響到 Q2 到 Q3；但歐洲的罷工與航運問題，會不會導致我們今天無法把所有貨都出出去、部分可能延到 2 月出貨？但那只會意味著我們 2 月會更強，所以整體動能相當廣泛。

And just in Q2, do you expect any impact? And if so, how much from inventory control actions?

那在 Q2，你預期會有任何影響嗎？如果有，庫存控管措施會帶來多大影響？

So we're going to maintain where we are today. So that is really going to be in our outlook, both for the quarter, but more importantly, I think it's for the second half of the year. It's a 2:1 ratio right now between volume and sales and volume and production. If things pick up and we feel more confident, we're going to dial in the production depending on confidence. We areback to pre-COVID in terms of visibility so the issue that we have now is 30 days visibility. We don't have this order book like last 2 years, we've had 90 days of orders so it was much easier to see what was happening from our customers. Now we have to really count on our models, our forecasting models.

我們會維持目前的狀態。因此，這會反映在我們的展望中，既包括本季，但更重要的是下半年。目前銷量與產量之間大約是 2:1 的比例（銷量高於產量）。如果需求回升、我們更有信心，我們會依據信心程度調整產量。我們在可視性方面已回到疫情前水準；現在的問題是只有 30 天可視性。我們不像過去兩年那樣有 90 天的訂單簿，因此更容易看清客戶端發生什麼事。現在我們必須更依賴模型、也就是我們的需求預測模型。

Clearly, what's happened, our models statistically aren't as robust because just the last 2 years, especially last 2 years were down. So we're really trying to read into that normalization. The key points that we look at in terms of our demand outlook. One is most of the customers are saying that the destocking is behind. There's obviously maybe specific customers can have a little bit, but

很明顯地，從統計角度來看，我們的模型沒有那麼穩健，因為過去兩年、尤其最近兩年是下行的。我們正在努力解讀這個正常化過程。我們在需求展望上看的幾個關鍵點：第一，多數客戶都表示去庫存已經告一段落。當然，可能有個別客戶還會有一點，但……

in general, the destocking is a bit behind us. Two, that we have three months now of visibility that is improving sequentially and continue to gain strength. And three is just what our customers, if you look at our customers' earnings calls right now and their outlooks, it's projection of volumes being flat for at least the markets that we serve being flattish.

整體而言，去庫存大致已經過去。第二，我們現在有三個月的可視性，而且環比在改善、並持續增強。第三，如果你看我們客戶目前的財報電話會議與展望，他們對於我們所服務市場的量的預測至少是持平、或接近持平。

Last year, they were flattish, and we were down. This year, they're going to be flattish. We should be getting back to this connection to their own demand. And that's sort of the model that we're using at this point in time.

去年他們是持平，而我們卻是下滑。今年他們仍將持平，我們應該能回到與他們自身需求相連結的狀態。這就是我們目前所採用的模型。

So is there a number versus $31 million in Q1, we can use...

所以相較於 Q1 的 3,100 萬美元，有沒有一個數字我們可以用來……

I mean last year, Kevin, and you can comment is, we had stronger above sales production in Q1 and Q2 so the situation will flip more in the back end of the year where we took the actions last year. But Kevin, you might want to add more color.

我的意思是，Kevin，去年你也可以補充一下：我們在 Q1 和 Q2 的產量高於銷量、而且更強，所以情況會在今年後段反轉，因為我們去年已採取相關行動。不過 Kevin，你可能可以再補充一些細節。

Yes, sure, sure. So Dave, based on the outlook that we have for Q2 and the full year, our inventory is pretty well positioned right now, and we wouldn't see any need to take significant inventory control actions throughout the balance of the year. So that's the first thing.

好的，當然。Dave，基於我們對 Q2 與全年展望的判斷，我們目前的庫存水位配置相當到位，我們不認為在今年剩餘期間需要採取重大的庫存控管行動。這是第一點。

I think the second part, for Q2 versus last year, we started slowing down, I would say, our production later in the quarter in Q2 in some of our facilities so year-over-year, the guide would imply that we're kind of flattish on the absorption piece of the equation this Q2 versus last Q2. I mean there could be a little bit of play in that, but generally pretty flattish overall.

第二點，針對 Q2 相較去年：去年我們是在 Q2 的後段才開始在部分廠區放慢產量，所以從年對年來看，指引所隱含的是，今年 Q2 相較去年 Q2，在吸收（absorption）這一塊大致是持平。我是說，可能會有一些小幅變動空間，但整體而言大致持平。

Our next question comes from Josh Spector with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀（UBS）的 Josh Spector。

I actually want to kind of follow up on a similar point there. So rather than year-on-year, maybe if we talk sequentially, second quarter into the third quarter or second half. You expect EBITDA to step up another, say, $25 million or so per quarter. - Is that predicated on your production matching your demand? Or are you making the point that in the second half, you might produce more than demand to try to rebuild inventory? So wondering what needs to happen in your base case for that step up into the second half?

我想就類似的點追問一下。所以與其看年對年，也許我們看環比：第二季到第三季或下半年。你們預期 EBITDA 每季再增加大約 2,500 萬美元左右——這是以你們的產量會與需求相匹配為前提嗎？還是你們的意思是下半年可能會生產高於需求、以重建庫存？所以想了解在你們的基本情境下，要達成下半年那樣的提升，需要發生什麼？

We are not forecasting building inventory. So usually, we build inventory now and then we produce to demand because we're maxed out in the back end of the year. So we're still forecasting to demand. If you look at our outlook, the low end is going to be driven more by sales slowing down. The move to the higher end has a much more of a mix of both higher volume sales, and we would start to increase production. So the production impacts would be more of the upside drivers as we go into the year.

我們並沒有預測要建立庫存。通常我們會在現在建立一些庫存，然後在年底產能滿載時按需求生產。但我們目前仍是按需求預測。如果你看我們的展望，低端情境更多是由銷售放緩所驅動；往高端走則更同時包含兩個因素：更高的銷售量，以及我們會開始提高產量。因此，產量的影響會更偏向於今年進程中的上行驅動因素。

And the other thing that I would say is also because of the production, which segments recover are important because the upside on the manufacturing has a big impact in things like our Specialty Additives as an example. So that recovers that will also strengthen the mix impact.

另外我想說的是，由於產量的關係，哪些事業部門復甦也很重要，因為製造端的上行對例如我們的特用添加劑（Specialty Additives）等業務影響很大。因此，若這些業務復甦，也會強化產品組合（mix）的正面影響。

Kevin, do you have any other comments you'd add?

Kevin，你還有其他想補充的嗎？

Yes. Yes, and I'll go ahead and add a couple of things. Josh, if you look at our Q1 actual, the implied Q2 based on the guide and then think about the midpoint of the full year guide, what that would imply is that Q3 and Q4 would be approximately equal to Q2 of last year from an EBITDA perspective. We don't plan to build inventory. We don't see a need to build inventory. We're going to continue to produce to demand.

有的。有的，我再補充幾點。Josh，如果你看我們 Q1 的實際結果、依據指引推算的 Q2，然後再看全年指引中位數所隱含的結果，那意味著從 EBITDA 的角度，Q3 和 Q4 大約會與去年 Q2 相當。我們不打算建立庫存，也看不到需要建立庫存的理由。我們會持續按需求生產。

I think the important point here is that as demand ramps, and we expect it to continue to do so based on the guide that we're giving, the outlook we're giving that would imply that we'll need to produce more. And there's good leverage, just like you saw negative leverage last year as we took significant inventory actions, particularly in Q4. There's a lot of positive momentum that comes out of that as well. And then as you go forward, that just balances itself out into a more normal flow. But we would expect much better absorption in the second half of the year for sure than we saw last year in the second half and also, frankly, much better than what we expect in the first half of this year.

我認為這裡的重點是：隨著需求爬升——而我們基於所提供的指引與展望，預期需求會持續爬升——我們將需要生產更多。這會帶來良好的槓桿效應；就像你去年看到的負槓桿一樣，當時我們採取了重大的庫存行動，特別是在 Q4。這些行動也會帶來很多正向動能。再往後看，整體會回到更正常的運作節奏。但我們確實預期今年下半年的吸收會明顯優於去年下半年，也坦白說，會明顯優於我們對今年上半年的預期。

I appreciate that. And just thinking about the range of outcomes from a sales perspective and what that means. So you made some interesting comments about demand reconnection and your customers' demand flat over a couple of years, you're maybe run rating down 10% to 15% volumes. I guess if you go through the bridge of where things could be at, you talked about maybe 1% to 2% lower volumes because of your exits of certain businesses. I guess, is there anything else that limits that reconnection so customers holding less inventory, any share shifts? Or what's the potential volume regain you could see if you actually see further sequential improvements either this year or just longer term?

了解。再從銷售角度思考結果區間及其意涵：你提到一些有意思的觀點，像是需求重新連結、你們客戶的需求在兩年內持平，而你們的運行水準（run rate）可能在量上低了 10% 到 15%。我想如果把可能的變化拆解一下：你提到因退出某些業務，可能會有 1% 到 2% 的量下滑。那還有沒有其他因素會限制這種重新連結，例如客戶持有更少庫存、任何市占變動？或者，如果你們確實看到今年或更長期進一步的環比改善，你們可能回補的量（volume regain）潛力有多大？

So let me comment and Kevin, you can add some color. But if you look at the volume drivers for us in terms of share and reconnect. So our first step is just reconnecting to our customers. We have a lot of contracts with customers- so it's really about them not destocking and now that our alignment goes with their volumes. And I think this is where we don't have perfect clarity, and the models that we have are showing improvement, but we're not showing that we're going to necessarily reach where their flat volumes are, but we are showing significant improvement so we're closing our gap between them and us. So there could be some upside there, if things pick up a little bit more.

所以讓我先評論一下，Kevin 你也可以補充一些細節。不過如果你看我們在份額與重新連結（reconnect）方面的量的驅動因素，我們的第一步就是重新與客戶連結。我們與客戶有很多合約——所以重點其實在於他們不再去庫存（destocking），而且現在我們的對齊會隨著他們的量而變動。我認為這裡我們並沒有完全清晰的能見度；我們的模型顯示正在改善，但並不表示我們一定會回到他們的平坦（持平）量的水準，不過確實顯示出顯著改善，因此我們正在縮小他們與我們之間的差距。所以如果情況再多回溫一些，這裡可能會有一些上行空間。

Other than that, I think we really now get into share gains, innovation growth, what's going to drive those volume activities and that's really where we're focusing on our core businesses, HEC, Aquaflow, Benecel, Klucel, PVP, those kinds of products. And I think if they grow, they are higher margins for us. And where we're taking the sales reductions are more in businesses that don't generate a lot. So we're taking off the absorption noise of those low-end businesses.

除此之外，我認為接下來就真正進入份額提升、創新成長，哪些因素會驅動那些量的活動；而這正是我們聚焦的地方——我們的核心業務：HEC、Aquaflow、Benecel、Klucel、PVP 這類產品。我認為如果它們成長，對我們而言毛利率更高。而我們進行銷售縮減的部分，更多是在那些貢獻不大的業務上。因此我們是在把那些低端業務的吸收（absorption）雜訊移除。

So the mix, I think, as we look forward is not just are we hitting the volume growth,- is it are we hitting in the higher value segments? Or are we hitting them in the segments that have the more absorption upside in terms of that recovery impact, and that would be mostly in our cellulosics and Specialty Additives as well as our Intermediates.

所以我認為，往前看，產品組合（mix）不只是我們是否達成量的成長——而是我們是否在更高價值的區隔達成？或者我們是否在那些就復甦影響而言、在吸收（absorption）上行空間更大的區隔達成？而那主要會在我們的纖維素（cellulosics）與 Specialty Additives，以及我們的 Intermediates。

I'd say that's very fair. And let me just add. In terms of the outlook, we do not anticipate any major share shift, pro or con. There's always some of that, that happens, but we don't anticipate big share gains or anything like that in terms of supporting the outlook. So this is just kind of normal operations that we expect to see a nice pickup in the second half. In terms of what we're projecting versus what we see from our customers, I'd say we're the outlook would presume that we close that gap, but not completely.

我會說這非常合理。我再補充一下。就展望而言，我們不預期會有任何重大的份額變動，不論正面或負面。總是會有一些變動發生，但我們不預期會有很大的份額提升之類的情況來支撐展望。所以這基本上就是我們預期的正常營運，我們預期下半年會有不錯的回升。至於我們的預測相對於我們從客戶端看到的情況，我會說展望假設我們會縮小那個差距，但不會完全縮小。

I mean there's play in there. I would say at the upper end of the outlook, it's a more complete closure. At the lower end, it's less. In the middle, I think is, frankly, just where we're comfortable with based upon how we see order pattern flowing, how we see demand flowing through as well, et cetera. So said another way, there's nothing extreme in those numbers. There's nothing heroic that has to happen. There's also no presumption that anything particularly negative is going to occur. We're using the facts as we currently have when we see them.

我的意思是，那裡面是有彈性的。我會說在展望的上緣，是更完整的差距收斂；在下緣，收斂較少。中間值坦白說就是我們基於目前看到的訂單型態如何流動、需求如何傳導等因素所覺得舒適的水準。換句話說，這些數字沒有任何極端之處，沒有任何需要「英雄式」發生的事情。同時也沒有假設會發生任何特別負面的情況。我們是用目前所掌握、所看到的事實來做判斷。

Our next question comes from Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners.

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

You mentioned this consolidation that's going on with your CMC production at Alizay in France and closing some CMC capacity in Hopewell. Can you give a little bit more detail on the timing of those actions? And then is the benefit there just that you have better operating rates in Alizay or is there some near-term plan to repurpose those assets in Hopewell?

你提到你們正在整併法國 Alizay 的 CMC 生產，並關閉 Hopewell 的部分 CMC 產能。你能否就這些行動的時程提供更多細節？另外，這樣做的效益只是讓 Alizay 的開工率更好，還是你們在短期內有計畫要把 Hopewell 的資產改作其他用途？

I think there are several benefits that we're going to get. One is, we will be reducing our exposure on a low-margin business that has a high capital intensity and high absorption intensity. So it creates a lot of volatility with very little upside. And as we said in other calls, 2022 was really one of the best years we've had, and we still had returns on those businesses that would be lower cost of capital. So they're not sustainable long term. So we remove some of that noise.

我認為我們會獲得幾項效益。第一，我們將降低對一個低毛利業務的曝險；該業務資本密集度高、吸收（absorption）密集度也高，因此在上行空間很小的情況下會造成很大的波動性。正如我們在其他電話會議中所說，2022 年其實是我們表現最好的一年之一，但我們在那些業務上的報酬仍低於資本成本。因此長期而言並不可持續。我們會移除部分這樣的雜訊。

The second thing is that, as you said, we load Alizay, we can improve our mix, we can take some actions. And the returns that we get will be much better, and those will be parts of the business that we can actually invest in and grow for the future. So it stabilizes the core parts of CMC that we like, that we want to grow and maintain.

第二點是，如你所說，我們把 Alizay 的產能負載拉高後，可以改善產品組合，也可以採取一些行動。我們取得的報酬會好得多，而那些會是我們實際可以投資並在未來成長的業務部分。因此它能穩定我們喜歡的、想要成長並維持的 CMC 核心部分。

And then the last thing is, yes, we are looking at how we can repurpose. -In the depreciation number, solid depreciation number that Kevin mentioned that's not all the assets. We are planning to see how we can repurpose. There are some of the advanced the new cellulosic technologies. We need a plant to make those. We could make it in parts of that plant. We can restructure the CMC plant to do other cellulosic products, and we're looking at how we can better manage our mix that those are all activities that we're looking in at, at this point in time.

最後一點是，是的，我們正在評估如何進行資產再利用——在 Kevin 提到的折舊數字中，那個相當穩健的折舊數字並不包含所有資產。我們計畫看看如何再利用。有一些先進的新型纖維素技術（cellulosic technologies），我們需要一座工廠來生產；我們可以在該廠的部分區域生產。我們可以重整 CMC 工廠來生產其他纖維素產品；我們也在研究如何更好地管理我們的產品組合——這些都是我們目前正在進行的工作。

So all 3 of those areas would be part of the improvements. And what we'll see is improve margins, improve return on capital, and really our ability to use the capital we have to focus on the better higher quality businesses. So we'll allocate that capital better than to sustain these older businesses that really haven't improved, and they're not going to improve so significantly in the future.

所以這三個面向都會是改善的一部分。我們將看到毛利率改善、資本報酬率改善，以及我們運用現有資本、聚焦在更好、更高品質業務上的能力提升。因此我們會更好地配置資本，而不是用來維持這些較老的業務——這些業務其實沒有改善，而且未來也不太可能顯著改善。

And Mike, we would expect to close that CMC unit down by the end of this quarter. The inventory sell-through will take longer as we work with our customers on closing that part out. And we also have processes underway to transfer materials into Alizay and ramp that up, which is a process in and of itself. And as Guillermo indicated, over time, we'll figure out what makes sense in terms of the current CMC assets. I mean suffice it to say, we will be making CMC in those units. And potentially that can be repurposed down the road for something else. And we have a work stream focused on that as well.

Mike，我們預期會在本季末之前關閉那個 CMC 單元。庫存的銷售出清（sell-through）會花更久時間，因為我們需要與客戶合作把那部分收尾。同時我們也有流程在進行，把材料轉移到 Alizay 並把產能爬坡（ramp）起來，而這本身就是一個流程。正如 Guillermo 所指出的，隨著時間推進，我們會釐清就現有 CMC 資產而言什麼是合理的。我的意思是，可以這麼說，我們不會在那些單元生產 CMC。未來也可能把它們改作其他用途。我們也有一個工作流（work stream）專注在這件事上。

All right. And then Kevin, you mentioned the lower variable comp and lower equity-based comp that you saw year-on-year in Q1. When does that variable comp maybe flip to being a headwind year-on-year? And I guess for the full year, how much higher should we expect variable comp and merit or cost of living increases to be for the full year?

好的。接著 Kevin，你提到你們在第一季看到的變動薪酬（variable comp）與股權型薪酬（equity-based comp）相較去年同期較低。那變動薪酬何時可能會在年對年比較上轉為不利因素（headwind）？另外，就全年而言，我們應該預期變動薪酬以及績效調薪（merit）或生活成本調整（cost of living increases）全年會高出多少？

Yes. Merit is already flowing through. We changed merit. We changed merit first of the year. So call it January is when that is flowing through all that's anticipated and contemplated in the outlook. In terms of the Q1, most of that is equity-based comp. A very small portion of that is annual incentive comp. So it's more of the equity piece. I would expect in the corporate side of the equation to return to, call it, more normalized levels Q2 through Q4 time frame.

是的。績效調薪已經在反映了。我們調整了績效調薪，我們在年初就調整了。也就是說，大約從一月開始就已經反映；這些都已包含並納入展望之中。就第一季而言，其中大部分是股權型薪酬；只有非常小的一部分是年度獎金型的激勵薪酬（annual incentive comp）。所以主要是股權那一塊。我預期在公司端的部分，第二季到第四季會回到較正常化的水準。

The year-over-year difference from a merit and incentive comp perspective, it's about $25 million for incentive comp year-over-year and about $15 million would be the merit increase impact year-over-year. So those two things would be roughly $40 million higher this year than last year at target. And so you won't see all of that. A big chunk of that goes through COGS because it's related to plants in terms of both the annual incentive and the merit increase. Most of our employees are actually in the plantsso it will flow through various places in the P&L, but that's the number.

從績效調薪與激勵薪酬的年對年差異來看，激勵薪酬年對年約 2,500 萬美元，績效調薪增加的年對年影響約 1,500 萬美元。所以這兩項加總，在目標水準下，今年會比去年高約 4,000 萬美元。因此你不會看到這些全部都落在同一處；其中很大一部分會進入銷貨成本（COGS），因為它與工廠相關——不論是年度激勵或績效調薪。其實我們大多數員工都在工廠，所以它會流經損益表（P&L）的不同項目，但數字就是這樣。

Our next question comes from Christina Low with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自 JPMorgan 的 Christina Low。

This is Jeff Zekauskas. Is the Intermediates & Solvents business getting better or worse, if you have visibility on that?

我是 Jeff Zekauskas。Intermediates & Solvents 業務是在變好還是變差？如果你們對此有能見度的話。

No, it's been stabler. I mean most of the volume drops have happened last year. Obviously, a big impact year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter in the last versus '23, but still is performing better than it did historically. So I think the two things we need to look at, ithas performed better historically because we have refocused it. We're focused on different regions where we have competitive advantage. Most of the stuff now is going into EV battery, semiconductors, coatings, high-quality segments, U.S., Europe, we obviously do sell still a little bit in Europe in the electronics side, and that slowed down for us because just the competitive intensity.

沒有，它一直比較穩定。我的意思是，大部分的量下滑都發生在去年。顯然，相較於 2023 年，去年在年對年與季對季的影響都很大，但目前的表現仍比過去的歷史表現更好。所以我認為我們需要看兩件事：它之所以比歷史表現更好，是因為我們已重新聚焦。我們聚焦在我們具競爭優勢的不同區域。現在大部分產品都用在電動車電池、半導體、塗料等高品質區隔，在美國、歐洲；我們在歐洲的電子領域當然仍有少量銷售，但因為競爭強度的關係，那部分對我們而言放緩了。

So if you look at the slowdown, there's two sides to it. There's our markets and then there's the BDO dynamic. BDO, we're not a big player there, but BDO prices have come down a lot more because of the commodity markets and polyurethane fibers all these other markets. So there's an excess, especially in Europe of raw material, BDO prices come down. So a lot of the NMP and BLO producers have a lower cost base right now. So there's a lot more aggressive positioning for loaded volumes and things of that nature coming from Asia. The issue is we've seen it mostly on volume. We're seeing some pricing, but we're still being able to maintain a better position.

所以如果你看這次放緩，其實有兩個面向。一個是我們的市場，另一個是 BDO 的動態。BDO 方面我們不是主要玩家，但由於大宗商品市場以及聚氨酯纖維等其他市場的影響，BDO 價格下跌得更多。因此原料出現過剩，尤其是在歐洲，BDO 價格下來了。所以現在很多 NMP 和 BLO 生產商的成本基礎更低。因此，來自亞洲在爭取裝載量（loaded volumes）等方面的布局更具侵略性。問題是我們主要看到的是量的影響。我們也看到一些價格面的壓力，但我們仍然能維持較好的位置。

I think the issue now is as volumes start recovering, not just in our markets, the EV, the semiconductor space is picking up again in the regions that we're focusing on will be good. But really, as the trend we're seeing applies to other companies later on, in terms of some of the more commodities and BDO prices start coming up, that also will change a little bit of the dynamics in our spaces. So you got to look at both of those the cost implication of BDO and the demand within our own markets as big drivers because it's not a differentiator as other parts of our portfolio.

我認為現在的問題是，隨著量開始回升，不只是我們的市場，電動車（EV）與半導體領域在我們聚焦的區域也再次回溫，這會是好事。但更重要的是，當我們看到的趨勢也開始套用到其他公司時，若一些更偏大宗的品項以及 BDO 價格開始回升，也會稍微改變我們所處領域的動態。所以你必須同時看兩件事：BDO 的成本影響，以及我們自身市場內的需求，因為這兩者是主要驅動因素；而在我們投資組合的其他部分，這並不是一個差異化因素。

Your unallocated costs were $16 million in the quarter. Is that the normal run rate for you now? And is there any meaningful share issuance? I know you bought back $100 million worth of stock. Are you issuing any shares to different plants?

你們本季未分攤成本（unallocated costs）是 1,600 萬美元。這現在是你們的正常水準（run rate）嗎？另外是否有任何具意義的股份發行？我知道你們回購了 1 億美元的股票。你們有把股份發行給不同工廠嗎？

I'll start with kind of the unallocated. Unallocated in Q1 was light, primarily because of equity-based comp. I would say, the more normalized level that we expect to see and what we would have in our outlook, it's more like around $20 million a quarter for the balance of the fiscal year. In terms of the share repurchase, there's been no meaningful change in what we do there in terms of when we buy those shares, we retire them. And so there's no other use that we're applying those to.

我先從未分攤項目談起。第一季的未分攤費用偏低，主要是因為股權基礎薪酬（equity-based comp）。我會說，我們預期較正常化的水準、也就是我們在展望中所假設的，會比較接近每季約 2,000 萬美元，涵蓋本財年剩餘期間。至於股票回購，我們在作法上沒有任何重大改變；我們買回那些股票時就會註銷（retire）它們，因此沒有把它們用在其他用途上。

So right now, as we stand today, total share count is around 50 million based on the repurchase of those shares. The weighted average for the quarter is higher than that we repurchased during the quarter. But we'll do a couple of hundred thousand shares a year for comp-based things, but nothing has changed with that.

所以以今天目前的狀況來看，因為回購並註銷了那些股票，總股數大約在 5,000 萬股左右。本季的加權平均股數會比這個數字高，因為我們是在季度期間才回購。但我們每年會為了薪酬相關事項發行幾十萬股，不過這部分也沒有改變。

And then lastly, I may have been muddled over your earlier discussion. Your revenue forecast for the March quarter is $565 million to $585 million, and your revenues in 2023 in the March quarter were $603 million. And you talked about the orders being much stronger than you expected, though I don't know what your expectations actually were. You talked about how important March was. So in that $565 million to $585 million, we're expecting volumes to be generally lower year-over-year in the March quarter. Is that right? And that's the current pattern for the first 2 months, too, or March is really different?

最後，我可能對你先前的說法有點混淆。你們對 3 月季度的營收預測是 5.65 億到 5.85 億美元，而你們在 2023 年 3 月季度的營收是 6.03 億美元。你提到訂單比你預期強很多，但我不知道你原本的預期是什麼。你也談到 3 月有多重要。所以在這個 5.65 億到 5.85 億美元的區間裡，我們預期 3 月季度的出貨量（volumes）整體會年減，對嗎？而且這也是前兩個月的現況嗎，還是 3 月真的會不一樣？

I would say we do expect volumes to be a little bit lower in this March quarter versus last March quarter. And again, that's based on the best look that we have. March could change that. I mean I think we're looking probably low single digits year-over-year from a comparison perspective on volumes. The other dynamic that's coming into play is the price/mix piece. As we said in our comments, there is some interplay there around price, raw materials and volumes. And so we're trying to make sure that we strike the appropriate balance as we do compete for some volume in the marketplace as demand has more normalized right now. So it's really been a combination of all those factors.

我會說，我們確實預期這個 3 月季度的量會比去年 3 月季度略低。同樣地，這是基於我們目前能掌握的最佳資訊。3 月也可能改變；我的意思是，從量的比較角度來看，我們大概預期年對年是低個位數的變動。另一個正在發生的動態是價格／組合（price/mix）的部分。正如我們在評論中所說，價格、原料與量之間存在一些交互影響。因此，隨著目前需求較為正常化，我們在市場上競爭部分量的同時，也在努力確保取得適當的平衡。所以這其實是上述所有因素的綜合。

What was the volume comparison in January?

1 月的量相比如何？

Well, we haven't closed January yetso we've got to see...

嗯，我們 1 月還沒結帳，所以我們得再看看……

We don't know yet. It's still...

我們還不知道。還在……

The order book, I mean, look, it was significantly stronger and normalizing a little bit more. I think we need to get back to you with some comments on with February, remember last year, we're also looking at China and all the things that were happening. So we're trying to look at some of those comparisons on a quarter-on-quarter. I think what we're seeing right now is the sequential, the momentum of improvement. I think the biggest challenge right now is to forecast inflections. When things are good and they turn down, it's very difficult to forecast. And now when things were down, we're starting to really see an inflection of changing. I think that's the really bigger focus for us right now.

訂單簿（order book），我的意思是，你看，它明顯更強，而且正在更趨於正常化。我想我們需要在 2 月之後再回覆你一些評論；記得去年我們也在看中國以及當時發生的各種事情。所以我們正嘗試用季度對季度的方式來看一些比較。我認為我們現在看到的是，按序（sequential）的改善動能。眼下最大的挑戰是預測拐點（inflections）。當情況很好然後轉弱時，很難預測；而現在當情況曾經很弱，我們開始真正看到轉折正在發生。我想這才是我們目前更大的關注重點。

As Kevin said, there's still things that we can't really be perfect about in terms of not just the year-on-year, but production volumes and other things on how good can this get? And we're just going to be prudent as we move forward in some of our numbers and projections just given the history. And that now we really don't have, as I said at the beginning, we don't have visibility to the orders anymore and our models, our statistical models don't capture recovery, right? So I think we're going to be looking recovery more based on the more recent demand. If we look at 12-month moving average demand versus 2-month moving average demand, our 2-month moving average demand is increasing significantly and strengthening. And now we have 3 data points so I think now we feel a little bit more comfortable on that side.

如 Kevin 所說，仍有一些事情我們無法做到完全精準，不只是年對年，還包括生產量等其他因素——這能好到什麼程度？鑑於過去的經驗，我們在往前推進時，會在一些數字與預測上保持審慎。而且現在，正如我一開始說的，我們對訂單已經沒有能見度了，我們的模型、我們的統計模型也無法捕捉復甦（recovery），對吧？所以我想我們會更多依據近期需求來判斷復甦。如果我們看 12 個月移動平均需求對比 2 個月移動平均需求，我們的 2 個月移動平均需求正在顯著上升並轉強。現在我們有 3 個資料點，所以我想我們在這一面也覺得更安心一些。

Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Laurence Alexander。

What's the price versus cost differential so far? And how do you think,when you think about the range that you're giving for the year, what are you assuming?

到目前為止，價格相對成本的差異（price versus cost differential）如何？以及當你思考你們給出的全年區間時，你們的假設是什麼？

So far, it's pretty balanced, I would say. And we're continuing to try and maintain that throughout the year. And that's our view, basically, we think that probably Specialty Additives is going to likely have more price raws dynamic to it just because there's a lot more volume there than on, say, Life Sciences and Personal Care. But that's what we would expect for the balance of the year.

到目前為止，我會說相當平衡。而且我們會持續努力在全年維持這種平衡。基本上這就是我們的看法：我們認為 Specialty Additives 很可能會有更多「價格—原料」的動態，因為那邊的量比例如 Life Sciences 和 Personal Care 大得多。但這就是我們對本財年剩餘期間的預期。

I think in Intermediates, obviously, it's been more price the raw materials. We have seen some benefits in natural gas and all that in our costs. But as I said before, the market price of BDO, obviously, impacting our competitors and all that, I think pricing has been a bigger impact for us in Intermediates. I think on the other side, traditionally, if you look at the high inflation time, we increased prices, we didn't increase margins based on pricing. We were able to recover the raw materials. So I think as long as we can maintain that balance, I think, will be okay, and that's where the businesses are trying to make sure that we do.

我認為在 Intermediates 方面，很明顯是價格相對原料的影響更大。我們在成本端確實看到天然氣等帶來一些好處。但如我之前所說，BDO 的市場價格顯然會影響我們的競爭對手等等，我認為在 Intermediates 對我們而言，價格的影響更大。另一方面，傳統上如果你看高通膨時期，我們提高了價格，但我們並沒有因為定價而提高毛利；我們能做的是回收原料成本。所以我認為只要我們能維持那個平衡，我想就會沒問題，而這也是各事業單位正在努力確保做到的。

And can you flesh out a little bit just how much, when you think about the growth CapEx that has been delayed, if demand does recover, how quickly we should expect CapEx to follow?

你能再多說一點嗎：當你想到那些被延後的成長型資本支出（growth CapEx），如果需求確實復甦，我們應該預期資本支出會多快跟上？

I think we're looking at the portfolio actions. The HEC, I mean, as we take action on CMC and MC, the bigger volume now is going to be the HEC side. Some of these network adjustment we're doing we should be in a very good position to be able to grow and support the growth of the business so we would start implementing different actions as demand picks up. For other areas where we put more of the slowdown in CapEx, Aquaflow was one. A lot of that goes into the DIY market that continues to be slower. So we're pacing still ourselves there. Benecel is done. The HEC expansion is done.

我想我們正在看投資組合的行動。HEC——我的意思是，當我們對 CMC 和 MC 採取行動時，現在更大的量會在 HEC 這一端。我們正在做的一些網路調整（network adjustment），會讓我們處於非常好的位置，能夠成長並支援業務成長，所以當需求回升時，我們會開始實施不同的行動。至於其他我們放慢資本支出的領域，Aquaflow 是其中之一；那有很大一部分面向 DIY 市場，而那個市場仍然比較疲弱，所以我們仍在控制節奏。Benecel 已經完成。HEC 擴產也已完成。

So a lot of the big asset projects are basically done except for the Aquaflow. Most of the other activities are to support our higher margin, the more asset-light type investments, those are moving ahead per plan. We just, as I said, finished our biofunctional plant in China. We're converting our plant in Brazil from nutraceuticals to the oral solid dose of coatings and biofunctionals in Brazil, and we're in the process of buying land in India. We should be closing soon and expanding production capabilities there, again, for some more of these more specialized lower like asset-intensive type businesses. So all of those are going to be growing. And the other plant that we just finished was our injectables plant in Ireland. That's also in final stages. So everything else other than Aquaflow, we're pretty much moving on.

所以除了 Aquaflow 之外，很多大型資產專案基本上都已完成。其他大多數活動是為了支援我們較高毛利、較偏資產輕（asset-light）的投資類型，這些都依計畫推進。我們剛剛如我所說，完成了在中國的生物功能（biofunctional）工廠。我們正在把巴西的工廠從營養保健品（nutraceuticals）轉為口服固體劑型（oral solid dose）的包衣與生物功能產品，在巴西進行；同時我們也在印度購地，應該很快就會完成交割，並在那裡擴充產能，同樣是針對一些更專業、資產投入較低（asset-intensive 較低）的業務。所以這些都會成長。我們剛完成的另一座工廠是愛爾蘭的注射劑（injectables）工廠，也已進入最後階段。因此除了 Aquaflow 之外，我們幾乎都在持續推進。

And then just lastly on the free cash flow...

然後最後再談一下自由現金流……

I'll ask a free cash flow question because that's where I was headed.

我想問一個關於自由現金流的問題，因為我原本就是要往那個方向問。

Well, I was going to take it in a slightly different tangent in terms of the restructuring outlays in 2024 versus 2025. But so, however, you want to tackle it.

嗯，我本來想從稍微不同的角度切入，談談 2024 年相較於 2025 年的重組支出。不過你想怎麼回答都可以。

For fiscal '24, the current outlook would anticipate free cash flow conversion, call it, in the 50% to 60% range of adjusted EBITDA. So just in support of what Guillermo just said around, our CapEx shouldn't be outsized necessarily compared to what we would have otherwise expected. We still expect strong free cash flow conversion this year.

就 2024 財年而言，目前的展望預期自由現金流轉換率大約會落在調整後 EBITDA 的 50% 到 60% 區間。這也呼應 Guillermo 剛才提到的：我們的資本支出（CapEx）不應該會相較於原先預期而顯得特別偏高。我們仍預期今年會有強勁的自由現金流轉換。

Our next question comes from John McNulty with BMO.

下一個問題來自 BMO 的 John McNulty。

If I understand it right, you're not building up inventory kind of ahead of the busier season. But it also sounds like you're not really planning on destocking any further. So are you moving pretty much to a just-in-time type operation going forward? Or is there inventory that you have? And it's not really a fixed cost absorption anymore, but you have enough safety stock to kind of handle that seasonal updraft? I guess how should we be thinking about that?

如果我理解正確，你們並沒有在旺季前提前建立庫存。但聽起來你們也不打算再進一步去庫存。所以你們未來基本上是要轉向即時（just-in-time）式的營運嗎？還是你們其實有持有一些庫存？而且它不再真正涉及固定成本吸收（fixed cost absorption），但你們仍有足夠的安全庫存來應對季節性需求上升？我想我們應該怎麼看待這件事？

-We carry inventory. We don't carry excess inventory. So we're looking now at more of the near-term demand, our safety stocks. We look at safety stocks that we want to hold in different parts of the world, the transportation time, all those things factor into what would be our target inventories to support our ongoing business, and that's where we're going.

—我們會持有庫存，但不會持有過量庫存。因此我們現在更著眼於短期需求與我們的安全庫存。我們會評估在全球不同地區希望持有的安全庫存水位、運輸時間等因素，這些都會納入我們為支撐日常業務所設定的目標庫存水準，而我們正朝這個方向前進。

What we didn't do is really look like in the past, we would just have looked at much longer outlook and say we'll start producing for 6 months out because we just want to build up the inventory to meet long-term demand.

我們沒有做的是：像過去那樣看更長期的展望，然後說我們要開始為 6 個月後的需求生產，因為我們想建立庫存以滿足長期需求。

Given that outlook is still muted versus historic, we are not building that inventory at this point in time. So we're really looking at more near-term inventories. And as orders increase, then we will take appropriate action. That's why to the comments we said before, if in the back end of the year, what moves us towards the upper side of our guidance range, it's not just higher sales, it is do we have confidence that the higher sales, higher demand is moving that we would run our plants a little bit more aggressively.

鑑於目前的展望相較於歷史水準仍偏疲弱，我們此刻不會建立那樣的庫存。因此我們真正關注的是更短期的庫存。隨著訂單增加，我們會採取適當行動。這也是為什麼我們先前提到：如果在今年下半年，有因素推動我們走向指引區間的上緣，那不只是銷售更高，而是我們是否有信心更高的銷售、更高的需求正在形成，讓我們可以把工廠的運轉拉得更積極一些。

Right now, we're being much more cautious. I think what you can hear today is we're more optimistic on the sales, the inflection point, but we are not taking the equal actions in our operating side of the equation from a manufacturing perspective, that's where we'll probably be more conservative at this point in time.

目前我們採取更謹慎的做法。我想你今天聽到的是：我們對銷售與拐點更樂觀，但在營運端、特別是製造端，我們並沒有採取同等幅度的行動；在這個時間點，我們可能會更保守。

Got it. Okay. No, that helps. And then from a capital allocation perspective. So over the last, I guess, 4 quarters or so, you've bought back about $100 million worth of stock, not really anything on the M&A front and for probably various reasons that the markets were kind of closed down for a while. I guess can you speak to how you're looking at 2024? And if you see that pipeline opening up a bit, where there may be opportunities. And then also, do you feel like you have the bandwidth to go after those types of opportunities, given all the self-help work that you're doing yourself? So can you help us to think about that?

了解。好的，這很有幫助。接著從資本配置的角度來看，過去大概 4 個季度左右，你們回購了約 1 億美元的股票，在併購（M&A）方面幾乎沒有動作，可能有各種原因，包括市場一度幾乎關閉。我想請你談談你們如何看待 2024 年？如果你們看到管線開始更開放、可能出現一些機會。另外，考量到你們正在推動的各種自助式改善（self-help）工作，你們是否覺得自己有足夠的能力與資源去追逐這類機會？能否幫我們理解一下？

So in M&A, we haven't stopped. We've been active even in this year. I mean if the right deal came, we are capable of doing it. Most of these are bolt-ons. - There are things that we can do within our financial position and continue to support our organic growth activities. The issues that we've been disciplined, I mean, even in the downturn, some of the properties that would have been in the spaces that we're looking at when a very still valuations that we didn't believe were appropriate for the returns that we would need to generate from those acquisitions.

在併購方面，我們並沒有停止。我們今年其實也一直很積極。我的意思是，如果出現合適的交易，我們有能力去做。這些多半是補強型（bolt-on）併購。—以我們的財務狀況而言，我們可以完成這些交易，同時也能持續支持我們的有機成長活動。我們之所以保持紀律，是因為即便在景氣下行期間，一些我們關注領域的標的，其估值仍然很高，我們認為那樣的估值無法帶來我們從這些收購中所需的報酬。

So we've been active. There's been things, but we've just been disciplined, and we will continue to be disciplined. So as we go into '24, there are opportunities, we have the targets, we are working them. But at the end of the day, we do have a very strong organic growth potential here. So that's our #1 priority. We want to do the M&A, but we don't have to do it to drive some of our growth objectives, and we're going to be prudent on that.

所以我們一直很積極，也有一些案子，但我們只是保持紀律，而且會持續保持紀律。展望 2024 年，確實有機會，我們也有目標，並正在推進。但歸根結底，我們在這裡有非常強的有機成長潛力，所以那是我們的第一優先。我們想做併購，但我們不必靠併購來推動部分成長目標，我們會審慎行事。

If you look at the M&A, nothing's really changed on the priorities. Pharma and Injectables being the #1 priority for us. Technologies in Personal Care that are more natural, natural derived, biodegradable and expanding beyond rheology and coatings sort of are the big themes. And if you look at our organic growth themes that I cover today, they basically hit those 3 themes. So we got plenty to do, but we will augment them, but we will maintain the same prudence that we have done in the last 2 years.

如果看併購，我們的優先順序其實沒有改變。製藥與注射劑（Pharma and Injectables）仍是我們的第一優先。個人護理（Personal Care）方面，更天然、天然來源、可生物分解，並且擴展到流變（rheology）與塗料（coatings）之外的技術，是幾個主要主題。而如果你看我今天談到的有機成長主題，基本上也正好對應這三個主題。所以我們有很多事情要做；我們會用併購來補強，但也會維持過去兩年同樣的審慎態度。

Next question comes from Michael Sison with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自 Wells Fargo 的 Michael Sison。

Cheers, nice start to the year. Just curious where your network utilization rates are now? And then if you were able to hit the midpoint of your guidance, for the second half of the year, where your utilization rates need to be? And then do you get another 10% to 15% above that as you head into '25 because of your portfolio actions?

恭喜，新年度開局不錯。我想了解你們目前的產能利用率（network utilization rates）大概在哪裡？如果你們能達到指引的中位數，那在今年下半年你們的利用率需要到什麼水準？另外，因為你們的產品組合調整（portfolio actions），到 2025 年時是否還能在此基礎上再提升 10% 到 15%？

So let me get some comments and Kevin, you might want to comment also based on some of the portfolio actions we're doing. But if you look, obviously, volumes have been down, absorption is the biggest issue. So utilization rates have been much lower. But if you look at our actions and the specific product line, so CMC, obviously, we're consolidating. So Alizay will be very well loaded as we finish those actions. And that takes away a lot of the noise in the low-end business.

我先說一些看法，Kevin 你也可以就我們正在做的一些產品組合調整補充。若你看整體情況，顯然出貨量下滑，固定成本吸收（absorption）是最大的問題，所以產能利用率一直低很多。但若看我們的行動與特定產品線，例如 CMC，我們正在整併，因此隨著這些行動完成，Alizay 的負載會非常飽滿。這也能消除低端業務帶來的許多雜音。

Similarly, we're looking at how we optimize our MC businesses, and that's progressing well. HEC with the network optimization opportunities we have. I do think that one we can get much better loading. I think obviously, we're looking to grow that part of the portfolio. So we want to make sure the volume pickup will be very important, and it will normalize more to below the healthy utilization rates in many of our plants. So a better that network optimization.

同樣地，我們也在檢視如何最佳化我們的 MC 業務，而且進展良好。HEC 方面，我們有網路最佳化（network optimization）的機會。我確實認為那一塊可以把負載拉得更好。當然，我們也希望成長那部分的產品組合，所以出貨量回升會非常重要，並會讓許多工廠的利用率回到較健康水準以下、但更正常的區間。因此，網路最佳化會帶來改善。

Aquaflow is at low utilization rates right now. DIY has not recovered as much, and we have a big position in the U.S. and Europe with those technologies. So that one we're moving slower on the capacity and all that because that we are underutilized at this point in time. The rest, it's a mix of things, smaller units. It's not as big of a worry for us. So I would focus on HEC is really the one that as we look into 2025, that we really want to make sure that some of these actions really optimize are loading, but allow us to continue to drive the organic growth for that business, which is we're the market leader in that business.

Aquaflow 目前的利用率很低。DIY 的復甦也沒那麼多，而我們在美國與歐洲在這些技術上有很大的布局。因此在產能等方面，我們對那一塊的動作會比較慢，因為目前確實是產能未被充分利用。其餘部分則是各種因素混合、也多是較小的單位，對我們來說不是那麼大的擔憂。所以我會把重點放在 HEC：展望 2025 年，我們真的希望確保這些行動能最佳化負載，同時也讓我們能持續推動該業務的有機成長，因為我們在那個業務是市場領導者。

But Kevin, I don't know, if you want to have any specific numbers on the portfolio assets.

不過 Kevin，我不知道你是否想就產品組合資產提供一些具體數字。

Yes, sure. The 10% to 15% increase in utilization rates is only related to CMC, MC and HEC. And the way to think about that is those utilization rates will offset the lost gross profit, not just from CMC and MC. There won't be any loss gross profit from HEC, but will also offset the lost gross profit from the nutraceuticals business. It's part of why we get the uplift that we get from an EBITDA margin perspective and also from a return on net assets perspective.

好的，當然。利用率提升 10% 到 15% 只與 CMC、MC 和 HEC 有關。理解方式是：這些利用率的提升將抵消毛利的流失，不僅是來自 CMC 和 MC 的毛利流失。HEC 不會有毛利流失，但也會抵消來自營養保健品（nutraceuticals）業務的毛利流失。這也是為什麼我們在 EBITDA 利潤率以及淨資產報酬（return on net assets）角度會看到提升。

I think across the rest of the network, it's a little bit mixed in terms of where we are from a utilization perspective. But we're well positioned to be able to ramp based on the outlook that we have. And I'm really not concerned about being able to do that, assuming that demand continues to unfold as it has here early in the fiscal year. So we feel good about that.

我認為就網路其餘部分而言，從利用率角度看情況有些參差不齊。但以我們目前的展望來看，我們的布局足以支撐產能爬坡。我並不擔心我們做不到，前提是需求能如同本財年初期所呈現的那樣持續展開。因此我們對此感到樂觀。

And as Guillermo said, as we move into fiscal '25, we're going to be pretty well positioned to take advantage of continued improvement. And to the extent that DIY architectural coatings, business improves. We're well positioned at Alizay because our utilization rates are pretty low right now for Aquaflow, and we are increasing our capacity there and can ramp that project up based on how we see demand unfolding. And again, HEC, we're commissioning the new unit at Hopewell now. We've been doing that for a while. And as you'll recall, about a year or so ago, we completed the commissioning of our new continuous dryer there, which was a major bottleneck for us in terms of general cellulosic capacity. And so that's now off the table, which is also good and helpful.

正如 Guillermo 所說，隨著我們進入 2025 財年，我們將處於相當有利的位置，以把握持續改善的機會。而在 DIY 建築塗料業務改善的程度上，我們在 Alizay 也具備良好條件，因為目前 Aquaflow 的產能利用率相當低，我們正在提高那裡的產能，並可依據我們對需求走勢的判斷來加速推進該專案。再者，HEC 方面，我們目前正在 Hopewell 為新機組進行投產試車（commissioning），這項工作已進行一段時間。如各位所記得，大約一年前左右，我們完成了那裡新的連續式乾燥機的投產試車；這曾是我們在整體纖維素產能上的主要瓶頸。因此現在這個問題已經排除，這也很好且很有幫助。

I think, Mike, the other comment I would make on just capacity utilization, just to reinforce our innovation and growth. For all these new projects, we're basically not making significant capital investments. So our transformed vegetable oils, we have capacity already in two of our plants that as this ramps up, we have plenty to support growth there. Our super-wetters, we're making at Calvert City and assets that were not utilized before. So as that ramps up, that will be positive. The pH Neutralizer, we will be making also in Calvert City and another unit that was underutilized.

我想，Mike，關於產能利用率我還想補充一點，以再次強調我們的創新與成長。對於所有這些新專案，我們基本上不需要進行重大的資本投資。因此，就我們的轉化植物油而言，我們在兩座工廠已經具備產能；隨著業務放量，我們有充足的能力支援那裡的成長。我們的超級潤濕劑（super-wetters）是在 Calvert City 生產，使用的是先前未被利用的資產；因此隨著放量，將帶來正面效益。pH 中和劑（pH Neutralizer）也將在 Calvert City 生產，使用的是另一套先前產能利用不足的裝置。

We're back integrating into some of our preservative raw materials. Also, rather than building a new plant that we were planning to build in Europe, we are leveraging existing assets in Calvert City that we're going to use there. And as I said, with the novel cellulosics, that progresses we can repurpose some of the assets that we're addressing now with CMC and maybe utilizing bringing them for more higher value. So on the capital side, I think it's not just a capital dollars, the time-wise, we can support some of these growth initiatives much faster than you would normally be able to support it if you require building new plants.

我們也重新整合（back integrating）部分防腐劑原料。此外，我們原本計畫在歐洲新建一座工廠，但我們改為利用 Calvert City 的既有資產來推進。如我所說，隨著新型纖維素（novel cellulosics）的進展，我們可以將目前用於 CMC 的部分資產重新用途化（repurpose），並可能將其用於更高價值的用途。因此在資本面上，我認為不僅是資本支出金額的問題，時間面也同樣重要；我們能以比通常需要新建工廠更快的速度，支援其中一些成長計畫。

So I think there's a lot of things. This first step of normalization of demand is the critical step for us, and we're not controlling that. That's more of the market recovering market normalizing, and I think we're starting to see that. The rest then is the actions that we take all these portfolio actions, driving, sticking to our strategy. I think that's why we're making the point of, look, once things stabilize, it's what we do that's going to make the difference. It's not now just recovery. It's the hard work of where we're putting our efforts, our resources and our capabilities to drive growth.

所以我認為有很多因素。需求正常化的第一步是對我們而言最關鍵的一步，而這並非我們能控制的；這更多是市場復甦、回歸常態的結果，而我認為我們開始看到這種跡象。接下來就是我們所採取的行動——所有這些產品組合（portfolio）調整行動，推動並堅持我們的策略。我想這就是我們要強調的重點：一旦情勢穩定，真正造成差異的是我們做了什麼。這不再只是復甦而已；而是我們把努力、資源與能力投入到哪裡，以推動成長的扎實工作。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from John Roberts with Mizuho.

（接線員指示）我們的下一個問題來自 Mizuho 的 John Roberts。

On the cellulosic restructuring, if you look, gross profit for Specialty Additives and Intermediates were both down 60%-ish. The gross margins are actually lower in Specialty Additives than they are in Intermediates. Any thought to merging those 2 segments, or even just pulling the cellulosic plants out of Specialty Additives, putting them in Intermediates and having them sell to the other segments, the same way you sell BDO from the Intermediate segment to the other segments?

關於纖維素業務重整（cellulosic restructuring），如果你看，Specialty Additives 和 Intermediates 的毛利都下滑了約 60%。而且 Specialty Additives 的毛利率實際上比 Intermediates 還低。是否考慮合併這兩個部門？或者甚至只是把纖維素工廠從 Specialty Additives 中抽出，放到 Intermediates，並讓它們像你們把 Intermediate 部門的 BDO 賣給其他部門那樣，對其他部門銷售？

I think it's a little bit more critical strategic for us to keep it in line with our businesses. I mean, one, what you're seeing in Specialty Additives is all of the absorption issues of the HEC as an example, and CMC are captured in Specialty Additives. So they're the landlord, so they're getting all the hit. I mean they're the biggest volume in HEC, but in CMC, they're not the biggest volume, but it's in their sites. So there's a little bit more of a distortion that some of the products that are down are in Life Science and Personal Care, and we're exiting it. So we'll resolve those issues moving forward.

我認為，從策略角度來看，對我們而言更關鍵的是讓它與我們的業務保持一致。第一，你在 Specialty Additives 看到的，是例如 HEC 的產能吸收（absorption）問題，以及 CMC 的相關影響，都被計入 Specialty Additives。因為他們是「房東」（landlord），所以承擔了所有衝擊。他們在 HEC 上是最大量的業務，但在 CMC 上不是最大量，不過工廠在他們的場址裡。因此會有一些失真：部分下滑的產品是在 Life Science 和 Personal Care，而我們正在退出該領域。所以我們會在未來逐步解決這些問題。

But if you look at HEC with the recovery and all that, I think that is a core business. This is sort of the model that we have on how do we build scale with Additives. We have to have one or two applications that give it more scale for manufacturing production and then we're able to sell them out. It's a little bit different than the Intermediates where it's just BDO that we're making it, it is a true, true commodity. There's many producers. We are a very small producer. It just gives us back integration. We're the largest HEC player. So I think there, we need to make sure that we're controlling it and driving it for our core business, which is our Specialty Additives.

但如果你看 HEC，隨著復甦等等，我認為那是一項核心業務。這有點像我們在 Additives 上建立規模的模式：我們必須有一到兩個應用領域，讓製造生產具備更大的規模，然後我們才能把產品銷售到外部。這與 Intermediates 有些不同；Intermediates 主要是我們在做 BDO，它是真正的、完全的商品（commodity）。有很多生產商，我們只是非常小的生產商，它主要提供我們的向後整合（back integration）。而在 HEC 上，我們是最大的玩家。因此我認為在這裡，我們需要確保我們能掌控並推動它，服務於我們的核心業務——也就是我們的 Specialty Additives。

Since you're just back from China, we had an extended, I think, Chinese New Year shutdown period last year as the Chinese economy was reopening. What are your thoughts on how this Chinese New Year plays out?

既然你剛從中國回來，去年在中國經濟重新開放之際，我們經歷了一段延長的、我想是春節停工期。你對今年這個春節的情況有何看法？

So I think not just the new year, but I think in general, things have slowed down in terms of our plant in China, specifically HEC. A lot of it is coatings and it stays in China. We don't export much. So it's still offering a well, but the volumes are down. We are well aligned with some of the big players and they've done well in the last year because of just their own chair and commercial activities. But in general, the property market on that, we are seeing a general slowdown in China.

所以我認為不只是春節，而是整體而言，我們在中國的工廠，特別是 HEC，已經放緩。很大一部分是塗料需求，而且主要留在中國，我們出口不多。所以它仍然在運作，但銷量下滑。我們與一些大型客戶的合作非常契合，而他們在過去一年表現不錯，主要是因為他們自身的市佔與商業活動。但總體來看，房地產市場方面，我們看到中國出現普遍放緩。

The big question is going to be not so much the Chinese New Year, it's what actions do we see in support of the real estate, the construction market over the coming months. And there is some indication that is something that is at play at this point in time. But clearly, for us, China for 2024, is going to be stable, but we're not expecting it to just recover very quickly at this point in time.

最大的問題不會是春節本身，而是未來幾個月我們會看到哪些支持房地產、建築市場的措施。現在有一些跡象顯示這些措施正在醞釀中。但很明顯，對我們而言，2024 年的中國市場將會保持穩定，但我們目前不預期它會很快快速復甦。

That concludes the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the call back to Guillermo Novo for closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。此時，我想把電話交回 Guillermo Novo 作結語。

Okay. Thank you, Abigail, and thank you everyone for your questions and participation, and we look forward to engaging all of you in the coming weeks, and get into more discussions. But I hope as the big takeaway is, one, that we are seeing some improvement in the overall market dynamics, number one; two, that we're focused on our strategy and our actions, and we are going to continue to drive them as we move forward and there's a great future ahead in a lot of these new technologies in for Ashland.

好的。謝謝你，Abigail，也謝謝各位的提問與參與。我們期待在接下來幾週與各位持續互動，並進一步深入討論。但我希望大家的主要收穫是：第一，我們看到整體市場動態正在出現一些改善；第二，我們專注於我們的策略與行動，並將在前進過程中持續推動。我們在許多這些新技術上都有很好的未來，對 Ashland 而言前景可期。

So thank you very much for your time, and look forward to talking to you soon.

非常感謝各位撥冗參與，期待很快再與各位交流。

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

感謝各位參與今天的電話會議。至此本次議程結束。您現在可以掛線。