Ashland Inc (ASH) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ashland Inc. first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

您好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Ashland Inc. 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, William Whitaker. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給今天的發言人威廉惠特克 (William Whitaker)。請繼續。

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ashland's first quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. My name is William Whitaker, Ashland Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Guillermo Novo, Ashland Chair and CEO; Kevin Willis, Ashland's CFO; and our business unit leaders, Alessandra Faccin, Jim Minicucci and Dago Caceres.

大家好，歡迎參加 Ashland 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議和網路廣播。我叫威廉‧惠特克 (William Whitaker)，來自阿什蘭投資者關係部。今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有 Ashland 董事長兼執行長 Guillermo Novo；亞什蘭財務長 Kevin Willis；以及我們的業務部門領導人 Alessandra Faccin、Jim Minicucci 和 Dago Caceres。

Ashland released results for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, at approximately 5:00 PM Eastern time yesterday, January 28. 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.

美國東部時間昨天 1 月 28 日下午 5 點左右，阿什蘭公佈了截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日的季度業績。昨晚發布的新聞稿以 8-K 表格的形式提交給美國證券交易委員會。在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考目前在我們的網站 ashland.com 的「投資者關係」部分上進行網路直播的幻燈片。我們鼓勵您在通話期間關注網路直播。

Please turn to slide 2. As a reminder, during today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our financial outlook for full year fiscal 2025. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from today's projections.

請翻到投影片 2。提醒一下，在今天的電話會議中，我們將就幾個事項做出前瞻性陳述，包括我們對 2025 財年全年財務展望。這些前瞻性陳述受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致未來結果或事件與今天的預測有重大差異。

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.

我們相信任何此類陳述都是基於合理的假設，但不能保證這些預期一定會實現。請參閱簡報的第 2 張投影片，以了解有關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。您也可以查看我們最新的 10-K 表格第 1A 項，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 of actions 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 the financial performance of our ongoing business. Non-GAAP financial 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 a 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，我們將參考調整後的某些實際和預期財務指標，這些都是非 GAAP 財務指標。我們將對這些指標進行調整並將其呈現給您，以補充您對我們持續業務的財務表現的理解和評估。非公認會計準則財務指標不應被視為替代或優於依照公認會計準則計算的財務指標。最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標以及非 GAAP 指標與 GAAP 指標的對帳表可在我們的網站上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 for the quarter. Next, Kevin will cover the financial details for the quarter and our business unit leaders will share insights into their respective segments. Guillermo will then provide an update on Ashland's strategic priorities and outlook. Following brief closing comments, we will open the line for your questions.

請翻到幻燈片 3。吉列爾莫將於今天上午在電話會議上概述亞什蘭本季的業績。接下來，Kevin 將介紹本季的財務細節，我們的業務部門負責人將分享各自部門的見解。隨後，吉列爾莫將介紹阿什蘭的戰略重點和前景的最新情況。在簡短的結束語之後，我們將開放熱線來回答您的提問。

To kick things off, I'll hand the call over to Guillermo for his opening remarks. Guillermo?

首先，我將把電話交給吉列爾莫，請他致開幕詞。吉列爾莫？

Thank you, William, and good morning to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. I'll focus my update on three topics. First, I'll provide an overview of our Q1 performance which generally align with the outlook we shared with you at last month's Strategy Day. While we saw some softening in European demand and inventory control actions from some of our pharma customers, the rest of the business performed generally as expected. Maintenance shutdowns were proactively shifted to Q1 to ensure we can adapt quickly and effectively to changes and trade policy environment.

謝謝你，威廉，大家早安。感謝您今天加入我們。我的更新將聚焦在三個主題。首先，我將概述我們第一季的業績，這與我們上個月策略日與您分享的展望基本一致。雖然我們看到歐洲需求減弱，部分製藥客戶採取了庫存控制措施，但其餘業務的表現總體上仍符合預期。維護停工主動轉移到第一季度，以確保我們能夠快速有效地適應變化和貿易政策環境。

Second, I'll reiterate our key priorities and our long-term financial commitment we outlined at our recent Strategy Day. The team is making progress, and we're confident that our portfolio of value-creating opportunities position us well for success. We're committed to providing regular and transparent updates on our progress going forward.

其次，我將重申我們在最近的策略日中概述的重點和長期財務承諾。團隊正在取得進步，我們相信，我們的價值創造機會組合將為我們成功做好準備。我們致力於定期、透明地更新我們未來的進展。

Third, we'll provide an update to our guidance for fiscal '25. We're proactively addressing anticipated challenges like soft demand in China, and potential headwinds in Europe by taking decisive actions to deliver on our commitments. There are no significant changes to our underlying assumptions at this time. Our strong progress on self-health initiatives reinforces our confidence in achieving our full year financial targets. We'll share with you more details later but we're reaffirming our full year outlook.

第三，我們將對25財年的指引進行更新。我們正在採取果斷行動履行我們的承諾，積極應對中國需求疲軟和歐洲潛在阻力等預期挑戰。目前我們的基本假設並沒有重大變化。我們在自我健康計劃方面取得的重大進展增強了我們實現全年財務目標的信心。我們稍後會與您分享更多詳細信息，但我們重申我們的全年展望。

Please turn to slide 5. Let's begin with a recap of our first quarter performance. Customer demand was generally consistent with our update from last month's Strategy Day. We noted some additional softness in Europe across our business units. Although demand and overcapacity in China has increased competition, overall pricing and volumes remain in line with our expectations. And pharma customers actively reduced their inventory at year-end. The rest of the businesses performed largely as expected.

請翻到投影片 5。讓我們先回顧一下我們第一季的表現。客戶需求與我們上個月策略日更新的內容基本一致。我們注意到，我們各業務部門在歐洲的表現都有些疲軟。儘管中國的需求和產能過剩加劇了競爭，但整體價格和產量仍符合我們的預期。製藥客戶在年底積極減少庫存。其餘業務表現基本符合預期。

Our Q1 sales were $405 million, down 14% from the prior year. This decline was primarily driven by portfolio improvement actions, including the Nutraceutical divestiture. Adjusting for these actions, revenue decreased 3%. Organic sales volumes were relatively steady, down 1% year-over-year. As I mentioned, the overall pricing environment has been largely consistent with our expectations. Pricing was generally stable sequentially and down 2% year-over-year.

我們第一季的銷售額為 4.05 億美元，比上年下降 14%。這一下降主要歸因於包括營養保健品業務剝離在內的投資組合改善行動。經過這些措施調整後，收入減少了 3%。有機銷售量相對穩定，較去年同期下降 1%。正如我所提到的，整體定價環境與我們的預期基本一致。定價總體上與上一季保持穩定，與去年同期相比下降了 2%。

Now let's turn to key operational decisions we made in Q1. We proactively moved several plant maintenance turnarounds into the first quarter. Given the heightened uncertainty on policy transitions, this move enables us greater operational flexibility going forward. The turnarounds were planned for the year, but this productive measure was a key factor in the lower-than-expected Q1 absorption. The turnarounds were slightly extended and incurred about $5 million in unanticipated EBITDA due to lower absorption and higher maintenance costs. We expect to make up below absorption during the full year.

現在讓我們來回顧一下我們在第一季做出的關鍵營運決策。我們主動將幾項工廠的維護週轉轉移到第一季。鑑於政策轉型的不確定性加劇，此舉使我們在未來的營運中擁有更大的靈活性。這些扭轉局面的舉措是今年計劃好的，但這項生產性措施是第一季吸收量低於預期的關鍵因素。由於吸收量下降和維護成本上升，週轉時間略有延長，並產生了約 500 萬美元的意外 EBITDA。我們預計全年將彌補以下吸收量。

Overall, adjusted EBITDA decreased to $61 million, down 13% year-over-year. Key drivers for the decline include loss gross profit from the sale of nutraceutical and stranded costs from the portfolio optimization actions. We're actively pursuing restructuring and manufacturing optimization initiatives to more than offset the impact and improve our overall performance, which I'll discuss later in the call. Excluding portfolio optimization, adjusted EBITDA was down 2% year-over-year.

總體而言，調整後的 EBITDA 下降至 6,100 萬美元，年減 13%。導致下滑的主因包括營養保健品銷售毛利損失和投資組合優化行動造成的擱淺成本。我們正在積極推行重組和製造優化舉措，以抵消影響並提高我們的整體業績，我將在稍後的電話會議上討論這個問題。不包括投資組合優化，調整後的 EBITDA 年比下降 2%。

Finally, a quick update on our portfolio. We recently announced an agreement to sell our Avoca business with the transaction expected to close in the March quarter. By divesting Avoca and completing our $30 million restructuring, we will have finalized our strategic transformation, enabling us to prioritize core businesses and drive profits (inaudible).

最後，快速更新一下我們的投資組合。我們最近宣布了一項出售 Avoca 業務的協議，預計交易將於 3 月季度完成。透過剝離 Avoca 並完成 3000 萬美元的重組，我們將完成策略轉型，使我們能夠優先考慮核心業務並提高利潤（聽不清楚）。

Please turn to slide 6. I'll now I'll summarize the performance of the individual segments. Starting with a review of the organic sales volume. We generated growth in Personal Care, Specialty Additives and Intermediates, up mid-single digits in full. Along with solid organic volume growth in several areas, we made strategic portfolio choices to optimize our business, which impacted overall sales.

請翻到幻燈片 6。現在我將總結一下各個部分的表現。從回顧有機銷售量開始。我們在個人護理、特種添加劑和中間體領域實現了中等個位數的成長。隨著多個領域的有機銷售量穩定成長，我們也做出了策略性投資組合選擇來優化我們的業務，這影響了整體銷售。

We also experienced softer life science volumes and lower overall pricing, primarily due to the 2024 carryover impact. It's worth noting that our EBITDA comparisons include $8 million of portfolio optimization impact, which we plan to address with restructurings. This roughly had a 200 basis points impact to EBITDA margins in the quarter. With this impact and the turnarounds, overall EBITDA margins remain consistent year-over-year.

我們也經歷了生命科學業務量的疲軟和整體價格的下降，這主要是由於 2024 年的結轉影響。值得注意的是，我們的 EBITDA 比較包括 800 萬美元的投資組合優化影響，我們計劃透過重組來解決這個問題。這對本季的 EBITDA 利潤率產生了約 200 個基點的影響。由於這種影響和扭轉，整體 EBITDA 利潤率比去年同期保持穩定。

Looking ahead, margins are expected to improve significantly throughout the year as our plans are now well positioned and cost savings are being realized.

展望未來，由於我們的計劃目前定位良好並且成本節約正在實現，預計全年利潤率將大幅提高。

And now to the business units. Life Science navigated a challenging quarter, particularly in pharma. In EMEA, softer markets and customer inventory actions were a key contributor to the high single-digit decline in pharma sales volumes. While pharma competitive intensity remains elevated, overall pricing trends were in line with our expectations following contract renewals. The team is focused on share gain initiatives globally to mitigate the impact of softer demand in Europe. We also made great progress in our strategic priorities of execute, globalize and innovate, which we'll discuss later.

現在談談業務部門。生命科學產業度過了一個充滿挑戰的季度，特別是在製藥領域。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，市場疲軟和客戶庫存行為是導致藥品銷售量出現高個位數下滑的主要原因。儘管製藥業的競爭強度仍然很高，但合約續約後的整體定價趨勢符合我們的預期。該團隊專注於全球份額成長計劃，以減輕歐洲需求疲軟的影響。我們在執行、全球化和創新等策略重點方面也取得了巨大進展，我們稍後將討論。

Personal Care delivered another strong quarter, achieving its fourth consecutive quarter of greater than 25% year-over-year EBITDA growth. We saw continued strong demand in our largest personal care end markets Skin Care and Hair Care. While demand slowed in Europe, it was more than offset by strong performance in other regions, particularly in Asia. Last 12 months EBITDA margin is now up 27%, and we expect further expansion, driven by our strategic priorities.

個人護理業務本季表現強勁，連續第四個季度實現 EBITDA 年成長超過 25%。我們發現，我們最大的個人護理終端市場皮膚護理和頭髮護理的需求持續強勁。雖然歐洲需求放緩，但其他地區（特別是亞洲）的強勁表現足以抵消這種影響。過去 12 個月，EBITDA 利潤率上漲了 27%，我們預計，在策略重點的推動下，利潤率還將進一步擴大。

Specialty Additives executed well with organic sales volumes up 1% year-over-year. Coatings demand was moderately weaker in China and EMEA but this was more than offset by improving volumes in Performance Specialties. We are closely monitoring the spillover effect of China's low demand and excess capacity on other export markets.

特種添加劑表現良好，有機銷售量較去年同期成長 1%。中國、歐洲、中東和非洲地區的塗料需求略有減弱，但高性能特種化學品銷量的增加足以抵消這種影響。我們正密切關注中國低需求和產能過剩對其他出口市場的外溢效應。

However, pricing remains consistent with our expectations. The team maintained pricing discipline with substantially stable pricing and significant narrowing of year-over-year decline to just 1%. With a mixed recovery, the Specialty Additives team is focused on operating -- operational discipline, optimizing our HEC network and pursuing share gain initiatives.

不過，定價仍與我們的預期一致。該團隊保持了定價紀律，價格基本穩定，年減幅大幅縮小至僅 1%。在好壞參半的復甦過程中，特種添加劑團隊專注於營運——營運紀律、優化我們的 HEC 網路和追求份額成長計畫。

To summarize, we're starting the year in an uncertain market environment like we expected. We factored much of the muted macro and competitive dynamics into our outlook. The clear agenda outlined at our Strategy Day continues to guide our efforts. Delivering and accelerating cost savings remain our top priority. We can unlock substantial near-term value through our productivity initiatives independent of the external factors. Beyond cost savings, the Ashland team is energized to deliver on our growth catalysts, making strategic progress and continuing to invest in innovation and global expansion. We have momentum here, and I'll discuss more of it about this later.

總而言之，正如我們所預料的那樣，我們在不確定的市場環境中開啟了新的一年。我們在展望中已經將許多低迷的宏觀和競爭動態考慮在內。我們在戰略日概述的明確議程將繼續指導我們的努力。實現並加速成本節約仍然是我們的首要任務。我們可以透過獨立於外部因素的生產力措施釋放巨大的近期價值。除了節省成本之外，阿什蘭團隊還充滿活力地發揮我們的成長催化劑作用，取得策略進展，並繼續對創新和全球擴張進行投資。我們在這裡有動力，稍後我將對此進行更多討論。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin to provide more detailed review of our first quarter financial performance. Kevin?

現在，我想將電話轉給凱文，以便更詳細地回顧我們第一季的財務表現。凱文？

Thank you, Guillermo, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 8. Ashland's total sales for the first quarter were $405 million, down 14% year-over-year. This decline was largely driven by our portfolio optimization initiatives which reduced sales by approximately $50 million or 11%. Excluding the impact of these initiatives, sales declined 3% year-over-year. Organic sales volumes were down 1% overall. We saw organic volume growth in Personal Care, Specialty Additives and Intermediates, more than offset by declines in Life Sciences. Overall, pricing was generally in line with our expectations, down 2% year-over-year, primarily in the Intermediates and Life Sciences segments.

謝謝你，吉列爾莫，大家早安。請翻到幻燈片 8。亞什蘭第一季的總銷售額為4.05億美元，年減14%。這一下降主要是由於我們的投資組合優化舉措導致銷售額減少了約 5000 萬美元，即 11%。除去這些措施的影響，銷售額較去年同期下降了 3%。有機銷售量整體下降了 1%。個人護理、特殊添加劑和中間體的有機銷量有所增長，但被生命科學領域的銷量下滑所抵消。整體而言，定價基本上符合我們的預期，年減 2%，主要集中在中間體和生命科學領域。

Gross profit margin increased 290 basis points to 28.1% in the quarter. This improvement was primarily due to a production volume recovery and portfolio optimization actions. These positives were partially offset by lower pricing against the backdrop of stable raw material costs. SG&A, R&D and intangible amortization costs were $104 million, up modestly versus the prior year. The reset of variable compensation was mostly offset by lower amortization and the transfer of Nutraceutical's employees.

本季毛利率增加290個基點至28.1％。這項改善主要歸功於產量恢復和投資組合優化行動。在原材料成本穩定的背景下，價格下降部分抵消了這些積極因素。銷售、一般及行政費用、研發和無形攤銷成本為 1.04 億美元，較上年略有成長。浮動薪資的重新設定大部分被較低的攤提和 Nutraceutical 員工的調動所抵銷。

Ashland's adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $61 million, down 13% year-over-year. This decline was largely driven by our portfolio optimization which reduced adjusted EBITDA by approximately $8 million. Excluding this, adjusted EBITDA was down 2% due to the factors mentioned earlier. Despite advanced plant turnarounds and stranded costs, Ashland's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 15.1%, up 30 basis points year-over-year. Adjusted EPS, excluding acquisition amortization, was $0.28, down 38% from prior year.

亞什蘭本季調整後的 EBITDA 為 6,100 萬美元，年減 13%。這一下降主要歸因於我們的投資組合優化，導致調整後的 EBITDA 減少了約 800 萬美元。除此之外，由於前面提到的因素，調整後的 EBITDA 下降了 2%。儘管工廠提前檢修且成本擱置，亞什蘭本季的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 15.1%，比去年同期上升了 30 個基點。調整後的每股收益（不包括收購攤銷）為 0.28 美元，較上年下降 38%。

Now let's hear from our General Managers to review the results of each of our operating segments. Alessandra, let's start with Life Sciences.

現在讓我們聽聽總經理們對各個營運部門的績效的回顧。亞歷珊卓，我們從生命科學開始。

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 9 for Life Sciences. As Guillermo mentioned, the first quarter was marked by both strategic progress and softer market conditions. Overall, Life Sciences sales declined 33% to $134 million. Our portfolio optimization initiatives were a major factor in the sales decline. We divest our Nutraceutical business line and added low-margin nutrition business which reduced sales by approximately $41 million or 21%. This actions improve our long-term profitability and focus but impact year-over-year comparisons in fiscal year 2025. Organic sales were down 12% year-over-year, primarily in pharma.

謝謝你，凱文。大家早安。請翻到投影片 9，查看生命科學。正如吉列爾莫所提到的，第一季既取得了策略進展，也帶來了市場狀況疲軟。整體而言，生命科學銷售額下降 33% 至 1.34 億美元。我們的投資組合優化舉措是銷售額下降的一個主要因素。我們剝離了營養保健品業務線，並增加了低利潤的營養業務，這導致銷售額減少了約 4,100 萬美元，即 21%。此舉將提高我們的長期獲利能力和重點，但會影響 2025 財年的年比對比。有機銷售額較去年同期下降 12%，主要源自製藥業。

As we shared last month, customers implemented stronger inventory control measures and the market for pharma is softer, particularly in Europe. This led to high single-digit declines in pharma sales volume year-over-year. While we experienced inventory adjustments of four to six weeks in many cases, we expect those actions are largely behind us. Ashland's global presence is a key strength allowing us to strategically target pharma growth opportunities in many markets.

正如我們上個月所分享的，客戶實施了更嚴格的庫存控制措施，製藥市場更加疲軟，尤其是在歐洲。這導致藥品銷售額較去年同期出現高個位數下降。雖然在許多情況下我們經歷了四到六週的庫存調整，但我們預計這些行動基本上已經過去了。亞什蘭的全球影響力是其關鍵優勢，使我們能夠策略性地瞄準眾多市場的製藥成長機會。

While navigate near-term challenges in Europe, we are actively pursuing growth opportunities in Asia and Latin America, leveraging our reputation with local and generics manufacturers. Despite elevated competition in pharma sequential pricing trends were generally stable and year-over-year pressure was in line with our expectations, reflect the carryover impact.

在應對歐洲近期挑戰的同時，我們也積極尋求亞洲和拉丁美洲的成長機會，利用我們在當地和仿製藥製造商中的聲譽。儘管製藥業競爭加劇，但連續定價趨勢整體保持穩定，且同比壓力符合我們的預期，反映了結轉影響。

We are pleased with our globalization progress for injectables and OSD film coatings, which achieved double-digit sales growth in the quarter. For injectables, our recently established R&D Center of Exxon is already delivering results. Centralized collaboration is accelerating innovation, and we are forecasting four product launches in 2025, more than tripling the three-year average. These efforts are positioning us for success in attractive new adjacent markets within the high-growth injectables space.

我們對注射劑和OSD薄膜塗層的全球化進展感到滿意，本季實現了兩位數的銷售成長。對於注射劑，我們最近建立的埃克森美孚研發中心已經取得了成果。集中協作正在加速創新，我們預計 2025 年將有四款產品上市，是三年平均值的三倍多。這些努力使我們在高成長注射劑領域中具有吸引力的新興鄰近市場中取得成功。

Overall, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 42% to $28 million. Excluding portfolio optimization, EBITDA was down $12 million or 25%, adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 310 basis points to 20.9%. This decrease reflects lower pharma volumes, carryover pricing and an $8 million impact from portfolio optimization. As Guillermo mentioned, turnaround incurred unanticipated costs and absorption due to longer time lines and higher expenses, which totaled $3 million for Life Sciences. As outlined in our Strategy Day, we have cost savings initiatives underway to offset this impact at the Ashland lab.

總體而言，調整後的 EBITDA 下降 42% 至 2,800 萬美元。不包括投資組合優化，EBITDA 下降 1,200 萬美元或 25%，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率下降 310 個基點至 20.9%。這一下降反映了藥品銷售下降、結轉定價以及投資組合優化帶來的 800 萬美元的影響。正如吉列爾莫所提到的，由於時間線變長和費用增加，扭轉局面產生了意想不到的成本和吸收，生命科學部門總計產生了 300 萬美元。正如我們的策略日所概述的，我們正在實施成本節約舉措，以抵消阿什蘭實驗室的這項影響。

Please turn to slide 10 for Intermediates. Intermediates sales were $33 million, in line with prior year quarter. This consistent performance was delivered across both merchant and captive sales. Captive internal video sales were $11 million and merchant sales were $22 million. Despite challenging global market conditions, the team cured additional volumes of NMP during the quarter. Demand in the electric vehicle and battery markets remained soft due to delays in battery plant startups. On gains were offset by lower year-over-year merchant pricing.

請翻到投影片 10 檢視中級部分。中間體銷售額為 3,300 萬美元，與去年同期持平。商家銷售和專屬銷售均實現了這種穩定的表現。內部影片銷售額為 1,100 萬美元，商家銷售額為 2,200 萬美元。儘管全球市場環境充滿挑戰，該團隊仍在本季固化了額外的 NMP 產量。由於電池廠啟動延遲，電動車和電池市場的需求仍然疲軟。上述收益被去年同期商家定價的下降所抵銷。

Intermediate generated $6 million in adjusted EBITDA, representing an 18.2% adjusted EBITDA margin. This compares to $10 million in the prior year lower pricing and unfavorable product mix driven by large loan customers reduced profitability. This was partially offset with higher year-over-year production volumes.

Intermediate 的調整後 EBITDA 為 600 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 18.2%。相較之下，去年同期的虧損為 1,000 萬美元，原因是大型貸款客戶導致的定價下降和產品組合不利，獲利能力下降。但這變化被同比產量的增加部分抵消。

Now I will turn the call over to Jim to discuss the performance of Personal Care. Jim?

現在我將把電話轉給吉姆，討論個人護理的表現。吉姆？

Thank you, Alessandra. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 11 for Personal Care. Personal Care continued its strong momentum, achieving its fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue and EBITDA growth. Organic volumes increased by mid-single digits driven by strong demand in Hair Care, Skin Care and Bio Functions.

謝謝你，亞歷珊卓。大家早安。請翻到投影片 11 檢視「個人護理」。個人護理業務持續保持強勁勢頭，連續四個季度實現收入和 EBITDA 同比增長。受護髮、護膚和生物功能產品強勁需求的推動，有機銷售量實現了中等個位數成長。

While Europe experienced some weakness, demand improved in most other regions particularly in Asia, where our focus on local and regional customers generated positive momentum. Portfolio optimization streamlined our oral care offerings focusing on higher-margin products. The portfolio optimization initiatives reduced Personal Care sales by approximately $2 million or 2% in the first quarter.

儘管歐洲經歷了一些疲軟，但大多數其他地區的需求都有所改善，特別是在亞洲，我們對本地和區域客戶的關注產生了積極的勢頭。產品組合優化簡化了我們的口腔護理產品，並專注於利潤率更高的產品。投資組合優化措施導致第一季個人護理銷售額減少約 200 萬美元，即 2%。

As Guillermo mentioned, we have an agreement to sell the Avoca business. In the appendix provides details on the financial impact of this divestiture going forward. Our globalized strategy drove bio functional growth in Asia, even with some customer-specific weakness. Despite a recent slowdown in EMEA, we see significant potential in the sales pipeline for microbial protection. By commissioning the new production capacity for microbial protection products in Brazil this quarter, we are getting closer to our customers in this growing market and enhancing our ability to serve their needs.

正如吉列爾莫所提到的，我們已經達成出售 Avoca 業務的協議。附錄提供了此次資產剝離未來財務影響的詳細資訊。儘管存在一些客戶特定的弱點，但我們的全球化策略推動了亞洲生物功能的成長。儘管近期歐洲、中東和非洲地區市場成長放緩，我們仍看到微生物防護在銷售管道中具有巨大潛力。透過本季在巴西啟動微生物防護產品的新生產能力，我們將在這個不斷成長的市場中更加貼近客戶，增強我們滿足他們需求的能力。

Overall, Personal Care sales increased by 4% to $134 million, and organic sales were up 6%. Pricing and raw materials remained stable year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew an impressive 36% to $30 million. This quarter's profit improvement reflects both higher sales and production volumes. Similar to Life Sciences, turnarounds incurred unanticipated costs in absorption due to longer time lines and higher expenses at our shared site which totaled $2 million for Personal Care. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 530 basis points to 22.4%. Last 12 months EBITDA is up 35%, highlighting the robust recovery from destocking.

總體而言，個人護理銷售額成長 4% 至 1.34 億美元，有機銷售額成長 6%。價格和原料較去年同期保持穩定。調整後的 EBITDA 大幅成長 36%，達到 3,000 萬美元。本季利潤的成長反映了銷售量和生產量的增加。與生命科學類似，由於時間軸更長、共享站點的費用更高，週轉產生了意想不到的吸收成本，個人護理業務總計達 200 萬美元。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率擴大 530 個基點，至 22.4%。過去 12 個月，EBITDA 成長了 35%，突顯了去庫存帶來的強勁復甦。

Now I'll hand it over to Dago to review the results of Specialty Additives. Dago?

現在我將把任務交給 Dago，讓他審查特種添加劑的結果。達戈？

Thank you, Jim. Please turn to slide 12 for Specialty Additives. Our first quarter results were generally in line with our expectations. Sales volume was down mid-single digits year-over-year, primarily due to our portfolio optimization initiatives. Portfolio optimization streamline our construction offerings focusing on higher-margin products. Organic sales volumes improved low single digits driven by continued growth in Performance Specialties.

謝謝你，吉姆。請翻到第 12 張投影片查看「特種添加劑」。我們第一季的業績基本上符合我們的預期。銷售量年減中個位數，主要歸因於我們的投資組合最佳化措施。投資組合優化簡化了我們專注於高利潤產品的建築產品。在高性能特種產品持續成長的推動下，有機銷售額實現了低個位數成長。

This growth was partially offset by slightly weaker demand in coatings, primarily in China and EMEA. As expected, low demand and overcapacity in China is driving increased competition impacting both volume and pricing in local and export markets. We are taking steps to partially mitigate the impact on local operations.

但這一增長被塗料需求略微減弱（主要在中國以及歐洲、中東和非洲地區）部分抵消。正如預期，中國需求低迷和產能過剩導致競爭加劇，對本地和出口市場的產量和價格均產生影響。我們正在採取措施部分減輕對當地營運的影響。

Pricing remained relatively stable, down 1% year-over-year, reflecting our disciplined pricing strategy. This represents a significant improvement from the mid-single-digit declines we saw in fiscal year 2024. Overall, Specialty Additives sales declined by 6% to $115 million. Excluding the $7 million impact of our portfolio optimization actions, sales were roughly flat year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $13 million primarily due to higher production volumes compared to last year's inventory corrective actions. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved 640 basis points year-over-year to 11.3%. In addition, last 12 months EBITDA is up 39% highlighting our strong overall recovery.

價格保持相對穩定，年減 1%，反映了我們嚴謹的定價策略。這比我們在 2024 財年看到的中等個位數下降有了顯著改善。整體而言，特種添加劑銷售額下降 6% 至 1.15 億美元。除去我們投資組合優化行動帶來的 700 萬美元影響，銷售額與去年同期基本持平。調整後的 EBITDA 成長了一倍多，達到 1,300 萬美元，這主要歸因於與去年的庫存糾正措施相比產量增加。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率年增 640 個基點，達到 11.3%。此外，過去 12 個月的 EBITDA 成長了 39%，凸顯了我們整體強勁的復甦勢頭。

I will now turn the call back to Kevin. Kevin?

我現在將電話轉回給凱文。凱文？

Thanks, Dago. Please turn to slide 13. Ashland continues to have a strong financial position. As of the end of December, we had cash on hand of $219 million and $815 million in total available liquidity. Our net debt was $1.1 billion representing a leverage ratio of approximately 2.4 times. We have no floating rate debt, no long-term debt maturities for the next two years and all outstanding debt is subject to investment-grade style credit terms.

謝謝，Dago。請翻到第 13 張投影片。阿什蘭繼續保持強勁的財務狀況。截至 12 月底，我們手頭上的現金為 2.19 億美元，總可用流動資金為 8.15 億美元。我們的淨債務為 11 億美元，槓桿率約為 2.4 倍。我們沒有浮動利率債務，未來兩年沒有長期債務到期，所有未償債務均受投資等級信用條款的約束。

As Guillermo mentioned, we shifted several plant turnarounds into Q1, stabilizing sequential inventory and enhancing operational flexibility going forward. Reflecting typical Q1 earnings seasonality, ongoing free cash flow was negative $26 million. We remain committed to our free cash flow conversion target of greater than 50% for the full year. Our disciplined capital allocation has enabled $280 million in share repurchases over the last year and $1.3 billion over the last four years. We have $620 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization.

正如吉列爾莫所提到的，我們將幾家工廠的周轉轉移到第一季度，以穩定連續庫存並增強未來的營運靈活性。反映典型第一季獲利季節性，持續自由現金流為負 2,600 萬美元。我們仍致力於實現全年自由現金流轉換率超過50%的目標。我們嚴格的資本配置使我們在去年回購了 2.8 億美元的股票，在過去四年中回購了 13 億美元。我們目前的股票回購授權餘額為 6.2 億美元。

As demonstrated, we will opportunistically repurchase shares while investing in our business to drive organic growth. With certain growth projects now commissioned, Ashland anticipates fiscal 2025 capital expenditures to be around $120 million. We're also pursuing targeted bolt-on M&A opportunities in pharma, personal care and coatings. Our progressive dividend policy remains an important part of our capital allocation strategy. It reflects our confidence in the company's long-term profitable growth and cash flow generation outlook. We have increased our annual dividend every year for the last 15 years at a 17% compound annual growth rate.

如同所展示的，我們將在投資業務的同時適時回購股票，以推動有機成長。隨著某些成長項目的啟動，Ashland 預計 2025 財年的資本支出將達到 1.2 億美元左右。我們也在製藥、個人護理和塗料領域尋求有針對性的附加併購機會。我們的漸進式股利政策仍然是我們資本配置策略的重要組成部分。這反映了我們對公司長期獲利成長和現金流創造前景的信心。在過去 15 年裡，我們每年都以 17% 的複合年增長率增加年度股息。

Now I'll turn the call back over to Guillermo to discuss our strategic priorities and fiscal year 2025 outlook. Guillermo?

現在我將把電話轉回給吉列爾莫，討論我們的戰略重點和 2025 財年展望。吉列爾莫？

Thanks, Kevin, and please turn to slide 15. We I'll start by highlighting that we're nearing the end of our portfolio optimization journey. The Ashland team did a remarkable job reducing our exposure to the low return volatile, Pharmachem, CMC and MC businesses, positioning us for more stable and profitable growth. Our actions should deliver 200 basis points to 250 basis points of margin expansion when complete. By selling the Avoca business and fully implementing our $30 million restructuring program, we will finalize our strategic transformation and position ourselves for future growth.

謝謝凱文，請翻到第 15 張投影片。首先要強調的是，我們的投資組合優化之旅即將結束。亞什蘭團隊出色地完成了工作，幫助我們減少了對低迴報波動性、醫藥化學、CMC 和 MC 業務的投資，從而為我們實現了更穩定、更有利可圖的增長。我們的行動完成後將帶來 200 個基點至 250 個基點的利潤率擴大。透過出售 Avoca 業務並全面實施 3000 萬美元的重組計劃，我們將完成策略轉型並為未來成長做好準備。

Please turn to slide 16. Our execute, globalized, innovate and the best priorities continue to serve as a road map and guide to our actions. At our Strategy Update last month, we outlined clear financial commitments aligned with our strategic priorities. While some of these efforts will take time we believe regular transparent updates will demonstrate our commitment and progress on these important initiatives.

請翻到第 16 張投影片。我們的執行、全球化、創新和最佳優先事項將繼續作為我們行動的路線圖和指南。在上個月的策略更新中，我們概述了與我們的策略重點一致的明確的財務承諾。雖然其中一些努力需要時間，但我們相信定期透明的更新將表明我們對這些重要措施的承諾和進展。

Please turn to slide 17. Let's start with execute, which focuses on the controllable factors that will drive near-term performance. As mentioned, we recently signed the agreement to divest the Avoca business. This is a key step in exiting a noncore business line, improving our financial profile and fully unwinding the Pharmachem acquisition. In connection with the signing, we will recognize a noncash impairment that was a key item in the quarter. We repurchased shares in Q4 of last year to neutralize the ongoing EPS impact from the exit of Nutraceuticals and Avoca. We are now focusing on offsetting the EBITDA impact.

請翻到第 17 張投影片。讓我們從執行開始，它重點關注推動近期表現的可控因素。如上所述，我們最近簽署了剝離 Avoca 業務的協議。這是退出非核心業務線、改善財務狀況和全面解除 Pharmachem 收購的關鍵一步。結合簽署協議，我們將確認本季的一項關鍵非現金減損。我們在去年第四季度回購了股票，以抵消 Nutraceuticals 和 Avoca 退出對每股收益造成的持續影響。我們現在專注於抵消 EBITDA 的影響。

The highest priority is delivering on our $90 million cost saving target. First, our $30 million restructuring. Our efforts are well underway with $21 million of opportunities identified and $12 million annual run rate already achieved. We are confident this momentum will continue it, generating further restructuring savings in the upcoming months. Second is the $60 million of manufacturing optimization.

當務之急是實現我們 9,000 萬美元的成本節約目標。首先，我們進行了3000萬美元的重組。我們的努力正在順利進行，已發現了 2,100 萬美元的商機，並已實現 1,200 萬美元的年運行率。我們相信這一勢頭將會持續下去，並在未來幾個月產生進一步的重組節約。第二是6000萬美元的製造優化。

As a reminder, the majority of the focus is on strengthening HEC and VP&D. Initial focus has been on consolidation of manufacturing activities with process productivity improvements coming later. Ashland will be taken include the consolidation of some manufacturing operations from our Texas City plant to Calvert City. Executed initiatives have already generated $88 million of annual run rate EBITDA improvement. There's a timing element of the flow-through on productivity initiatives through fiscal 2025 and we will be communicating those as we have more data. Overall, we're on track to achieving at least $20 million in savings in fiscal year 2025.

提醒一下，主要的重點是加強 HEC 和 VP&D。最初的重點是整合製造活動，隨後再提高流程生產力。亞什蘭的收購將包括將部分製造業務從德州城工廠合併至卡爾弗城。已實施的措施已經產生了 8,800 萬美元的年度 EBITDA 改善。到 2025 財年，生產力計畫的實施有一個時間因素，我們將在獲得更多數據後通報這些資訊。總體而言，我們預計在 2025 財年實現至少 2,000 萬美元的節約。

Please turn to slide 18. At our Strategy Day, we introduced ambitious yet achievable revenue targets for our globalized and innovate initiatives. Each aiming to generate $100 million in additional revenue by fiscal 2027. This slide highlights the near-term growth trajectory and expectations for fiscal 2025. Starting with globalize, we are investing in assets, people and technology to accelerate growth.

請翻到第 18 張投影片。在我們的策略日，我們為全球化和創新措施制定了雄心勃勃且可實現的收入目標。每家公司都計劃在 2027 財年創造 1 億美元的額外收入。本投影片重點介紹了近期的成長軌跡和 2025 財年的預期。從全球化開始，我們投資資產、人才和技術以加速成長。

Our revenue targets translate to growing them by roughly 50% over the next few years. While [Microbio Protection], our largest globalized business had a slow start to the year, partially offsetting a strong start in injectables. We remain confident that these business lines -- given these business lines given their strategic progress and strong historic track record. The team is confident to achieve our fiscal 2025 goal of $20 million in higher sales.

我們的收入目標是在未來幾年內成長約 50%。而我們最大的全球化業務[Microbio Protection]今年開局緩慢，部分抵消了注射劑業務的強勁開局。我們仍然對這些業務線充滿信心——鑑於這些業務線的策略進展和強大的歷史記錄。該團隊有信心實現 2025 財年銷售額增加 2,000 萬美元的目標。

Now let's move to our most impactful long-term strategy, innovation. This initiative is predicted to generate $100 million in incremental sales by 2027 and significantly enhance our long-term growth trajectory. While growth and innovation takes time, we're targeting $10 million in incremental sales in fiscal 2025. As you heard last month, the team is incredibly enthusiastic about innovation.

現在讓我們來談談最具影響力的長期策略—創新。預計到 2027 年，該計劃將創造 1 億美元的增量銷售額，並顯著增強我們的長期成長軌跡。雖然成長和創新需要時間，但我們的目標是在 2025 財年實現 1000 萬美元的增量銷售額。正如您上個月所聽到的，該團隊對創新充滿熱情。

Our ambitious growth aspirations are supported by a robust 2025 platform launch plan, which includes seven new product introductions, up from three last year. I'll share more details at the upcoming months, and will likely host an innovation update in calendar year 2025 to bring this game-changing chemistry to life. In the meantime, our progress is in line with plans with $3 million in incremental sales during the quarter.

我們雄心勃勃的成長願望得到了強勁的 2025 年平台發布計劃的支持，該計劃包括推出七款新產品，而去年只有三種。我將在接下來的幾個月分享更多細節，並可能在 2025 年主持一次創新更新，以使這種改變遊戲規則的化學反應成為現實。同時，我們的進展符合計劃，本季銷售額增量為 300 萬美元。

Now let's please turn to slide 19. Now let's turn to our outlook for fiscal 2025. While we face a dynamic global landscape and uncertainty in China, Europe and policy transitions, we are committed to adopting and delivering on our commitments. Of course, the coming months will provide more clarity on the impact of policy transition and other macroeconomic factors. As noted in our press release yesterday, we are affirming our full year sales and adjusted EBITDA outlook. Several key factors are supporting this.

現在請翻到第 19 張投影片。現在讓我們來展望一下2025財年的前景。儘管我們面臨全球格局的動態變化以及中國、歐洲和政策轉型的不確定性，但我們致力於履行和兌現我們的承諾。當然，未來幾個月政策轉變和其他宏觀經濟因素的影響將更加明朗。正如我們昨天的新聞稿中所述，我們確認全年銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 前景。有幾個關鍵因素支持這一點。

While we saw pockets of weakness in the quarter, much of it was already contemplated in our full year guidance. As anticipated, increased competition from Chinese exports is impacting pricing, but largely in line with expectations. As Alessandra mentioned, the recent inventory adjustment by pharma customer is largely a Q1 dynamic. It's been mixed, but the overall raw material environment is expected to remain stable.

儘管我們發現本季存在一些疲軟跡象，但我們已將其中大部分因素納入全年指引之中。正如預期的那樣，來自中國出口的競爭加劇對定價產生了影響，但基本上符合預期。正如亞歷山德拉所提到的，製藥客戶最近的庫存調整主要是第一季的動態。雖然情況好壞參半，但預計整體原料環境將保持穩定。

We're also watching the FX markets, the dollar has strengthened considerably over the past three months. Our $500 million Eurobond provides a partial hedge, but it still impacts our EBITDA. Lastly, our strategic focus is threefold: first, selling the Avoca business this quarter; second, accelerating the restructuring and productivity initiatives to achieve at least $20 million of savings this year, and lastly that we maintain momentum in our growth catalyst initiatives for 2025 and for building our trajectory for the future. For the full fiscal year, we continue to expect sales in the range of $1.9 billion to $2.05 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $430 million to $470 million.

我們也關注外匯市場，美元在過去三個月大幅走強。我們的 5 億美元歐洲債券提供了部分對沖，但仍影響我們的 EBITDA。最後，我們的策略重點有三點：首先，本季出售 Avoca 業務；第二，加快重組和生產力計劃，今年實現至少 2000 萬美元的節約；最後，我們要保持 2025 年增長催化劑計劃的勢頭，並為未來發展奠定基礎。就整個財年而言，我們繼續預期銷售額在 19 億美元至 20.5 億美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 在 4.3 億美元至 4.7 億美元之間。

Please turn to slide 21. In closing, I want to restate the key takeaways from today. Our first quarter performance was generally in line with the expectations we shared at our Strategy Day. The signing of the Avoca divestiture agreement marks another milestone in Ashland's portfolio transformation. Fiscal year 2025 is expected to be a choppy year for the market, and we are focused on first delivering and accelerating our $90 million in cost savings initiatives, maintaining a balanced approach to managing our business, including pricing and market share, globalizing four high-quality business lines, advancing the commercialization of new technology platforms, ensuring operational excellence across our manufacturing facilities and maintaining disciplined capital allocation.

請翻到第 21 張投影片。最後，我想重申今天的要點。我們第一季的業績基本上符合我們在策略日所分享的預期。Avoca 資產剝離協議的簽署標誌著 Ashland 投資組合轉型的另一個里程碑。預計 2025 財年將是市場動盪的一年，我們首先專注於實現和加速 9,000 萬美元的成本節約計劃，保持平衡的業務管理方式，包括定價和市場份額，全球化四條高質量業務線，推進新技術平台的商業化，確保我們製造工廠的卓越運營並保持嚴格的資本配置。

Our healthy balance sheet and strong profitability provide us -- we have the flexibility to continue to invest in our long-term growth catalysts while proactively addressing the challenges of today. We remain committed to our fiscal 2025 goals and remain confident in the long-term growth potential of our business.

我們健康的資產負債表和強勁的獲利能力為我們提供了靈活性，可以繼續投資於我們的長期成長催化劑，同時積極應對當今的挑戰。我們將繼續致力於實現 2025 財年目標，並對我們業務的長期成長潛力充滿信心。

I want to thank the Ashland team once again for their leadership and proactive ownership of their businesses in a dynamic environment. Operator, let's go to Q&A.

我要再次感謝亞什蘭團隊在動態環境中展現的領導力和對業務的積極主動負責精神。接線員，我們進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Michael Sison, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的麥可·西森。

I guess can you help us sort of think about the walk in EBITDA heading into 2Q, 3Q, 4Q, you do sort of need a big jump from the first quarter to get to your range of guidance.

我想您能否幫助我們思考一下第二季、第三季、第四季的 EBITDA 成長情況，您確實需要從第一季開始大幅成長才能達到您的指導範圍。

Mike, thanks for the question. I hope you're doing well. So remember, Q1 is our weakest quarter, so we don't read too much into the Q1 positive or negative and to how it's going to set for the year. The real volumes, given seasonality and just the historic patterns really start from March to September. So at this point in time, that's usually when we expect a lot more of the pickup I think you've been -- in your modeling, you continue to assume that, that pattern is normalizing. I think a lot of what we're seeing now is a lot of the what we've seen in the last few years of COVID and stocking, destocking, all that things are behind us. So things are normalizing a lot more.

麥克，謝謝你的提問。我希望你一切都好。所以請記住，第一季是我們最薄弱的季度，因此我們不會過多關注第一季的正面或負面結果，也不會過多關注它對全年的影響。考慮到季節性和歷史模式，實際產量實際上是從三月到九月。因此在此時，通常我們會期待更多的回升，我想您在建模中繼續假設這種模式正在正常化。我認為我們現在看到的許多情況和過去幾年新冠疫情以及囤貨、去庫存的情況一樣，所有這些都已經成為過去。事情正在逐漸正常化。

And as we said in the call, I think we'll see pharma and Personal Care market demand normalize even in a recessionary environment, they should behave more normal. We're hearing that from some of our customers. And in the -- and the coatings is going to be a mix by region. So we'll be talking more as we move forward. But really, in terms of changing our outlook and models, frankly, speaking, it's from now February till May, I think we're starting to see the new administration taking positions, things are going to play out. And I think that's where we're going to be updating our models.

正如我們在電話會議中所說，我認為即使在經濟衰退的環境下，製藥和個人護理市場的需求也會恢復正常，它們的表現也應該更加正常。我們從一些客戶那裡聽說了這一點。並且--塗料將根據地區進行混合。因此，我們會在今後的工作中討論更多。但實際上，就改變我們的觀點和模式而言，坦白說，從現在的二月到五月，我想我們開始看到新政府採取立場，事情將會發展。我認為這就是我們要更新模型的地方。

And then I think in Q1, you said organic volumes are down 1%. How do you think volumes sort of progress for the rest of the year? Did you see some positive organic volume growth? Or is the guidance sort of based on kind of this flattish-ish type of cadence?

然後我認為在第一季度，您說有機銷量下降了 1%。您認為今年剩餘時間的銷售進展如何？您是否看到了一些積極的有機銷售成長？或者這種指導是基於這種較平坦的節奏？

We'll hear and I'll maybe ask each GM to sort of comment high level on their specific segments. But in general, volumes we see them flattish to up. That's what we're hearing from our customers. It's not a market that's taking off in terms of volume, but it is starting to pick up depending on the business and the region. So it's much more positive.

我們會聽取意見，也許我會要求每位總經理就他們各自的特定領域發表高層評論。但總體而言，我們看到交易量持平或上升。這就是我們從客戶那裡聽到的。從規模上看，這不是一個正在起飛的市場，但根據業務和地區不同，其發展動能已開始回升。因此，這更加積極。

I think in Q1, it's our down season, but it's also the end of the fiscal year for a lot of our customers. So sometimes we -- depending on how the environment is, we see a lot more inventory actions that can move shift around orders between Q1 and Q2 so we'll start seeing that. If we look at our outlook right now in terms of orders for the second quarter, I would say, normal. There's nothing -- not -- no big surprises at this point in time. But Dago, do you want to comment maybe just walk through each of the regions in terms of demand outlook?

我認為第一季是我們的淡季，但對我們的許多客戶來說這也是財政年度的結束。因此，有時我們 - 根據環境情況，我們會看到更多的庫存活動可以在第一季和第二季之間轉移訂單，所以我們會開始看到這種情況。如果我們現在從第二季的訂單前景來看，我會說，正常。目前還沒有什麼大的意外。但是 Dago，您是否想評論一下，也許只是從需求前景的角度介紹每個地區？

Sure. Thank you, Guillermo and thank you for the question. So yes, so if I think about coatings and industrial in general, I think the story is pretty much by region. So what we're seeing in North America, we do expect a sequential improvement in volumes in North America. So we do expect the second quarter to be better than the first quarter, the third quarter to be better than the second quarter. Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, the new administration, et cetera. But I think that will be the expectation.

當然。謝謝你，吉列爾莫，謝謝你的提問。是的，如果我考慮塗料和工業整體情況，我認為故事基本上是按地區劃分的。因此，根據我們在北美看到的情況，我們確實預期北美的銷售將持續改善。因此，我們確實預期第二季的表現會好於第一季度，第三季的表現會比第二季好。當然，市場、新政府等方面都存在著許多不確定性。但我認為這是我們所期望的。

In the case of Europe, we have a very solid position, but we don't see a whole lot of activity going on in the market, especially in new construction, which drives coating sales. So we say for Europe, our position is a little bit more flat, I would say, moving forward. China is, and we've been consistently mentioned in China in the past, China continues to be, obviously, an area that is challenging to us.

就歐洲而言，我們擁有非常穩固的地位，但我們沒有看到市場上有大量的活動，特別是在推動塗料銷售的新建築領域。因此，對於歐洲而言，我想說，我們的立場在未來會更加穩定。中國是，而且我們過去也常提到中國，中國顯然仍然是我們面臨挑戰的地區。

That's included in our numbers. But we do not expect any recovery from China, I would say, this year. Kind of on the right side, I would say, Latin America, Latin America is actually doing better than expected. And last, I would say, Middle East, Africa, India, that's the area where we see volumes actually doing okay. Now the concern in that area is the excess capacity that we see from China that is making its way into other geographies. So we're monitoring that closely.

這已經包含在我們的數字中了。但我想說，我們預計今年中國不會出現復甦。我想說，從正確的角度來說，拉丁美洲的表現實際上比預期的要好。最後，我想說的是，中東、非洲、印度是我們看到的交易量其實還不錯的地區。現在該領域令人擔憂的是，我們看到中國的過剩產能正在蔓延至其他地區。因此我們正在密切監視。

So back to Guillermo's comment, I would say, overall, this is how we are -- we were expecting the year to play out. It's kind of playing out as we anticipated a few months back.

回到吉列爾莫的評論，我想說，總的來說，這就是我們的情況——我們期待今年的發展。事情正如我們幾個月前所預料的那樣。

Okay. Thank you, Dago. And Jim, do you want to do the same walk for Personal Care.

好的。謝謝你，達戈。吉姆，你想為個人護理做同樣的步行嗎？

Sure. Thanks, Guillermo, and thanks, Mike. So Mike, I think as we laid out at the Strategy Day, as we laid out at the Strategy Day last month, the algorithm for Personal Care, it's quite straightforward. Core additives, we're expecting to grow low to mid-single digits in 3% to 4%. And then our globalized businesses, bio functional microbial protection in double digit. And if we look at Q1, I would say Q1 came in line as we had anticipated. We saw mid-single-digit volumes up across most geographies. Europe is the one area that we highlighted that was not as robust as we had expected. And so that's something that we're monitoring now as we go into our second quarter, the recovery there.

當然。謝謝，吉列爾莫，謝謝，麥克。所以麥克，我認為正如我們在上個月的戰略日上所闡述的那樣，個人護理的演算法非常簡單明了。對於核心添加劑，我們預計其成長率將在 3% 至 4% 之間，處於低至中等個位數之間。然後我們的全球化業務、生物功能微生物保護都達到了兩位數。如果我們看一下第一季度，我會說第一季的表現符合我們的預期。我們發現大多數地區的交易量都出現了中等個位數的成長。我們重點指出，歐洲是一個不如我們預期那麼強勁的地區。所以，這就是我們在進入第二季時正在關注的復甦情況。

And Alessandra, if you could comment focus on Life Science, which I guess is for everybody has the most questions.

亞歷山德拉，如果你能重點評論一下生命科學，我想這是每個人都有最多疑問的。

Sure. So in Life Science, we expect the second quarter sales volume to be flattish, and we expect to see growth in the third and fourth quarters, especially in Latin America and in Asia as we are leveraging our reputation with local and generic manufacturers, and we are seeing the growth momentum -- we're seeing the growth momentum in the cellulosics and injectables and film coatings as we mentioned.

當然。因此，在生命科學領域，我們預計第二季度的銷售量將持平，並預計第三季度和第四季度將出現增長，特別是在拉丁美洲和亞洲，因為我們正在利用我們在本地和仿製藥製造商中的聲譽，並且我們看到了增長勢頭 - 正如我們所提到的，我們看到了纖維素和注射劑以及薄膜塗層的增長勢頭。

Europe, I mean, we're talking about being soft in the first quarter, and that is the expectation for the second quarter. And then outside of FX will be a headwind and prices are also expected to be down, but that was in our plan.

我的意思是，歐洲第一季的經濟表現疲軟，這也是對第二季的預期。然後外匯之外將面臨阻力，價格預計也會下降，但那在我們的計畫之中。

I can hope that helps.

我希望這會有所幫助。

Christopher Parkinson, Wolfe Research.

克里斯多福·帕金森（Christopher Parkinson），沃爾夫研究公司。

Great. Just perhaps a little bit more of a longer-term question. But when you take a step back, just giving everything you've divested in Nutraceuticals, out of Life Sciences, the pricing dynamics, market share, everything that you've gone through over the last 18 months. At the end of the day, over the next, let's say, two fiscal years, do you still believe the Life Sciences segment and run rate around 30% plus EBITDA margins. Just how should we think about that kind of that longer-term line of sight into the margins of that segment?

偉大的。這或許是個比較長期的問題。但是，如果你退一步考慮，只考慮你在營養保健品、生命科學領域剝離的所有資產、定價動態、市場份額以及過去 18 個月經歷的一切。最終，在接下來的兩個財年裡，您是否仍然相信生命科學部門的運作率和 EBITDA 利潤率將在 30% 左右。我們究竟該如何看待這一領域邊緣的長期視線？

Nothing has changed in terms of our outlook on the core businesses. Obviously, the dynamics that we're seeing in VP&D is driven by two factors. And one of them is the same for HEC but of the two factors, it's a competitor, I mean back end that was out that caused some disruption. So that's normalized already. And it's a competitor that's been there for a long time. So I don't expect any difference from historic. I think what is creating the most noise for both the VP&D business and our HEC business is the overcapacity in China and impact on some of the export markets, especially those that are more price sensitive, and that's where we're seeing the impact.

我們對核心業務的看法沒有任何改變。顯然，我們在 VP&D 中看到的動態是由兩個因素所驅動的。其中一個因素對 HEC 來說是一樣的，但在兩個因素中，競爭對手（我的意思是後端）的出現造成了一些混亂。這已經正常化了。它是一個存在已久的競爭對手。所以我並不認為它會與歷史上有任何區別。我認為對 VP&D 業務和 HEC 業務造成最大影響的因素是中國的產能過剩及其對一些出口市場的影響，特別是那些對價格較為敏感的市場，這就是我們看到的影響。

But everything has stabilized, as Alessandra mentioned in her prepared comments, all the negotiations we've completed mostly. I think we just have very few left and everything came in line with pricing and volume expectations in our plan. I think the big area that we're not assuming life is staying normal. It's a competitive environment. It's all these actions that we're taking on the productivity side and with focus on VP&D, if you just applies $60 million is a lot of value for those businesses. So we think we can reinforce, either improved margins or if there's any changes in the market dynamics that we continue to have healthy margins.

但一切都已經穩定下來，正如亞歷山德拉在她準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們基本上已經完成了所有的談判。我認為我們剩下的已經不多了，而且所有產品都符合我們計劃中的定價和銷售預期。我認為，我們並沒有假設生活會保持正常。這是一個競爭的環境。我們在生產力方面採取的這些行動以及對 VP&D 的關注，如果您只應用 6000 萬美元，那麼對於這些企業來說將具有很大的價值。因此，我們認為我們可以鞏固，要么提高利潤率，要么如果市場動態發生任何變化，我們將繼續保持健康的利潤率。

The rest of the portfolio is doing well. And as a reminder, all our globalized initiatives are above average margins, above our company average, significantly above and all the innovations that we're working on, which impact all the businesses and are opening up significant markets. Albeit to your question, it might be beyond the two-year time frame. I think all of those will also be accretive to both margin and to cost because a lot of them use the same plants that we use today.

其餘投資組合表現良好。提醒一下，我們所有全球化計劃的利潤率均高於平均水平，高於公司平均水平，遠高於我們正在進行的所有創新，這些創新影響著所有業務並正在開拓重要的市場。儘管對於您的問題，它可能超出了兩年的時間範圍。我認為所有這些都將增加利潤和成本，因為其中許多都使用與我們今天相同的工廠。

Got it. And just a similar question on the Personal Care side. I mean, despite the fact that the market seems still pretty choppy based on some of your primary customers, market commentary, you are doing pretty well in Hair Care and Skin Care on a revenue basis. Is this -- are these trends kind of an initial reflection of potentially, let's say, higher content or some of your newer initiatives in the R&D targets beginning to pay off? And should we expect that momentum in terms of market outperformance to continue? Just if you could just give a couple of thoughts on that, that would also be very, very helpful.

知道了。關於個人護理方面也有一個類似的問題。我的意思是，儘管根據您的一些主要客戶和市場評論，市場似乎仍然相當不穩定，但從收入來看，您在護髮和護膚領域的表現相當不錯。這些趨勢是否初步反映了潛在的更高內容或您在研發目標中的一些較新舉措開始取得成效？我們是否應該預期市場表現優異的動能將會持續下去？如果您能對此發表一些想法，那也將非常非常有幫助。

On a high level, and I think what I'm going to say applies to all the businesses. We are completing our portfolio optimization. We -- the last step, assuming Avoca closes as planned is the $30 million. Once we finish that, I think most of the developments have been in line with plan. From that moment forward, it's really about executing our strategy. We need to get the momentum, what's going to change? It's the growth catalyst, the productivity to expand margins, strengthen our businesses and these growth catalysts.

從高層次來說，我認為我要說的話適用於所有企業。我們正在完成投資組合優化。我們 — — 最後一步，假設 Avoca 按計畫完成交易，那麼資金將達到 3,000 萬美元。一旦我們完成這項工作，我認為大部分進展都會按照計劃進行。從那一刻起，我們的重點就是執行策略。我們需要獲得動力，會發生什麼改變呢？它是成長的催化劑、擴大利潤率的生產力、增強我們的業務和這些成長催化劑。

At the current time, like most companies right now. If you don't have growth per catalyst, you are writing the market. When things get better in the market, we do better and when they get worse, and we have to explain ourselves. I think that's the part that we're trying to move. Now we are riding the market, market is improving.

目前，就像現在大多數公司一樣。如果沒有催化劑的成長，那麼市場就無法正常運作。當市場狀況好轉時，我們會做得更好；當市場狀況惡化時，我們必須解釋自己。我認為這就是我們試圖改變的部分。現在我們正在順應市場，市場正在改善。

We want to make sure that we have discipline and I think this productivity options and other things we're doing as we reinforce, we're strengthening our business units, adding new talent, upgrading manufacturing process capabilities, all these things strengthening our core so that we can ride the market better, we can get share, we can price, we can do the day-to-day activities. That's what's going to be the most impactful in the next two years. That's why we're putting a lot of emphasis on the $90 million. That is core-core to what we need to do.

我們要確保我們有紀律，我認為這種生產力選擇和我們正在做的其他事情是我們在加強，我們正在加強我們的業務部門，增加新的人才，升級製造工藝能力，所有這些事情都加強了我們的核心，以便我們能夠更好地駕馭市場，我們可以獲得份額，我們可以定價，我們可以開展日常活動。這將會是未來兩年最有影響力的事。這就是我們如此重視這 9,000 萬美元的原因。這才是我們需要做的核心工作。

What we're excited about is we do have catalyst, and that is what we're focusing on changing the game for us. We're -- in the near term, we're putting $100 million in the next three years, but really the markets that we're going after are much bigger than that. And that's really where we start transforming not just growth rates, but we really start transforming the mix of our portfolio. We're enriching it with newer technologies with more differentiated technologies and with higher-margin technology. So there's a clear road map for the next one, three and five, 10 years that we're playing to and game on, this is now 100% of our attention at this point in time.

讓我們興奮的是，我們確實擁有催化劑，這就是我們致力於改變遊戲規則的原因。我們近期將在未來三年投入 1 億美元，但實際上我們所追求的市場要大得多。這就是我們真正開始改變的，不僅是成長率，也是我們真正開始改變投資組合結構的地方。我們正在利用更新的技術、更具差異化的技術和更高利潤的技術來豐富它。所以，我們對未來一年、三年、五年、十年都有明確的路線圖，我們正在按照這個路線圖進行行動，這是我們目前 100% 的注意力所在。

Thank you for the color.

謝謝你的顏色。

John Roberts, Mizuho.

瑞穗的約翰羅伯茲。

One of the reasons you pulled forward maintenance was to have optionality if customers change their trade patterns. Have you seen any adjustments being planned by customers?

提前維護的原因之一是，如果客戶改變其貿易模式，則可以有選擇權。您是否看過客戶計畫做出任何調整？

We're not seeing changes to our expectations. But we're seeing the stability that I think the stability that we're seeing is sort of a testament to people being careful. As an example, North America, Europe, although we're seeing lower-priced imports from China hitting some markets. In other markets, people are being much more stable in the decision making that they're doing because depending on trade, depending on a lot of things, it could put them in a difficult situation. We are a major supplier to all these players and I think that stability is a signal of people being careful in terms of a choppy market in an uncertain market.

我們的預期沒有改變。但我們看到了穩定，我認為我們看到的穩定在某種程度上證明人們很謹慎。舉例來說，北美、歐洲，儘管我們看到來自中國的低價進口產品進入了一些市場。在其他市場，人們在做決策時穩定得多，因為依賴貿易，依賴許多因素，這可能會讓他們陷入困境。我們是所有這些參與者的主要供應商，我認為穩定性表明人們對不確定的市場中的波動市場保持謹慎。

We have -- we have in our -- besides the turnarounds, we have moved inventory into certain regions. We're looking at as part of the productivity, even if we don't change our footprint, can we make some of the products in more regions, our cellulosic is a good example, just looking at our product mix. So we're doing a lot of things, and we're working with our customers because they want to understand how we stand.

除了周轉之外，我們還將庫存轉移到了某些地區。我們正在將其視為生產力的一部分，即使我們不改變我們的足跡，我們是否可以在更多地區生產某些產品，我們的纖維素就是一個很好的例子，只需看看我們的產品組合。因此，我們做了很多事情，我們正在與客戶合作，因為他們想了解我們的立場。

I would say, as an example, I mean, we're critical to the [PINK] guys to the Personal Care, but pharma, risk management is a critical part of our customers' DNA and how they manage inventories is very critical. The actions, for example, they might be taking in Europe aren't necessarily what they're doing in other regions because they're looking at region by region.

我想說，舉個例子，我的意思是，我們對個人護理領域的 [PINK] 員工來說至關重要，但對於製藥業來說，風險管理是我們客戶 DNA 的重要組成部分，而他們如何管理庫存也非常關鍵。例如，他們在歐洲採取的行動不一定與他們在其他地區採取的行動相同，因為他們是針對每個地區進行研究的。

And then you called out currency as a risk factor, but I think you only reported $1 million of impact from currency in the quarter. Does it get much more material going into the March quarter?

然後您指出貨幣是一個風險因素，但我認為您在本季度只報告了 100 萬美元的貨幣影響。進入三月季度後，它是否會獲得更多的材料？

Kevin, why don't you take that?

凱文，你為什麼不接受這個？

Yeah, sure. We saw primarily the euro, but also China's yuan and Brazilian real depreciated in the quarter, but they depreciated throughout the quarter to the levels where they have more or less bounced around to where they are right now. And really, the comment is around if those currencies stay weak against the dollar at their current levels, it will be a headwind for the remainder of the fiscal year. The way to think about that from a quantum perspective is probably in the neighborhood of $7 million to $8 million of EBITDA impact. If we see those three currencies in particular, stay where they are pretty much right now.

是的，當然。我們主要看到歐元、人民幣和巴西雷亞爾在本季貶值，但它們在整個季度貶值到了目前的水平。而實際上，該評論的重點是，如果這些貨幣兌美元的匯率維持在當前水平，那麼本財年剩餘時間的走勢將會面臨阻力。從量子角度考慮，EBITDA 的影響可能在 700 萬至 800 萬美元左右。如果我們特別關注這三種貨幣，那麼它們現在的水平就會基本保持不變。

David Begleiter, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Guillermo, looking at Q2, consensus EBITDA is roughly 125. Is that a point do you think? Or could that be either a bit too high or maybe a bit too low?

吉列爾莫，從第二季來看，預期 EBITDA 約為 125。您認為這一點正確嗎？或者說這個數字可能有點太高或有點太低了？

So David, we're commenting on the full year. We're not giving specific guidance on indeed in Q2. I'm sure William will be following up with you with providing color on specifics so you can do your modeling. But we do expect a bigger pickup, which is normal in the year. Just a reminder, as I said earlier, March, really March on is really where we start seeing the pickup. I think January is turning up to be a normal-ish month. we'll see of February, we don't -- at this point in time, unless some trade issue or something that starts changing quickly, at this time, we don't see any changes.

大衛，我們正在對全年進行評論。我們確實沒有在第二季給出具體的指導。我相信威廉會跟進你並提供具體細節，以便你可以進行建模。但我們確實預計會有更大的成長，這在今年是正常的。只是提醒一下，正如我之前所說的，三月，實際上是三月，我們才真正開始看到回暖。我認為一月將會是一個正常的月份。我們將在二月看到，目前為止，除非出現某些貿易問題或某些事情開始迅速變化，否則目前為止，我們看不到任何變化。

So we are -- we do expect to see a good pickup. Our plants, we've done all the turnarounds are running normally. We're trying to run in some areas a little bit stronger to recover the absorption impact of the turnarounds in the Q1. So those things will drive a little bit more strength. But we'll provide you more specific details as we do some of the follow-up calls that we'll share with everyone.

所以我們確實期待看到好的回升。我們工廠的所有檢修工作均正常進行。我們正嘗試在某些領域加強運營，以恢復第一季復甦帶來的影響。所以這些因素會增強一點力量。但我們會在進行一些後續電話會議時向您提供更具體的細節，並與大家分享。

Very good. And just on the Chinese export competition Guillermo, which products, in particular, are you seeing that? Any reason would get better or worse going forward?

非常好。吉列爾莫，就中國出口競爭而言，您特別看到了哪些產品的競爭？任何理由在未來都會變得更好或更壞嗎？

Yeah. I think we're -- the HEC, I think, as Dago mentioned, is the bigger one, and it's mostly in Middle East and Africa that we're seeing -- seeing that a little bit in India. But I would say that's not the highest one. On VP&D less so, the players are known, you got to have much more regulated to a more regulated environment. So there's a little bit more noise.

是的。我認為，正如 Dago 提到的那樣，HEC 是規模較大的一個，我們看到的主要是中東和非洲——在印度也看到了一點。但我想說這不是最高的。在 VP&D 上情況就沒那麼好了，參與者都是知名的，你必須在更規範的環境中接受更多的監管。因此噪音會更大一些。

I would say in the VP&D, we're seeing more -- I mean we have -- our big market in pharma is the OSD, the pill markets, but we participate in some VP&D markets in membranes for blood or in disinfections, iodine based PVPs, those are a little bit -- those are lower-margin areas, and we see a little bit more. That's probably where we see the pressure. But in the core OSD, it's been a little bit more stable.

我想說的是，在 VP&D 領域，我們看到更多——我的意思是我們有——我們在製藥領域的大市場是 OSD，即藥丸市場，但我們也參與了一些 VP&D 市場，包括血液膜或消毒劑、碘基 PVP，這些都是利潤較低的領域，我們看到的更多。這或許就是我們看到壓力的地方。但在核心 OSD 中，它已經更穩定一些。

Jeff Zekauskas, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas。

Can you can you remind me what the turnaround costs were in the first quarter and what they were in each segment?

您能否提醒我第一季的周轉成本是多少以及每個部門的周轉成本是多少？

We didn't share by segment because they're plants and they service everybody. But we said at the Investor Day was that we had moved forward and our planning was around $20 million and we had about $5 million of extra costs. So for now, I'll put the comment. And of the $5 million, I would say, 50% of it was higher expenses in the maintenance. These turnarounds, you do them every two, three years, when you open up things, you got to want to be fine. So we did find things in our utilities, electrical systems, things that took a little bit of time and kept the tire plants down a little bit longer. So that was about half of the $5 million, and the other half is just absorption because the plants were down a little bit lower than expected.

我們沒有按部門分享，因為它們是工廠，為所有人提供服務。但我們在投資者日上說過，我們已經向前邁進了一步，我們的計劃是 2000 萬美元左右，額外成本約為 500 萬美元。所以現在，我將發表評論。我想說，在這 500 萬美元中，有 50% 是維修的高額費用。這些轉變，你每兩三年就會發生一次，當你開放事物時，你必須希望一切順利。因此，我們確實在公用設施、電力系統中發現了一些問題，這些問題需要花費一些時間，並使輪胎廠停工的時間延長一段時間。所以這大約是 500 萬美元的一半，另一半只是吸收，因為工廠的產量比預期的低一點。

We would actually expect to recover the lost absorption piece of that $5 million throughout the course of the year.

我們實際上期望在全年收回這 500 萬美元的損失部分。

And we're trying to push on, as I said, on the cost reductions, accelerate things because for the year, anything extra will cover other costs, and it still will be an incremental for the full year next year in the sense that the maintenance costs will go away and year-on-year call.

正如我所說，我們正在努力推動成本削減，加快進程，因為就今年而言，任何額外的收入都可以覆蓋其他成本，而且從維護成本將會消失和逐年上升的意義上來說，這仍將是明年全年的增量。

So in terms of the $20 million in turnarounds, is there any segment that was affected disproportionately?

那麼，就 2,000 萬美元的扭虧為盈而言，是否有哪個部分受到的影響尤其嚴重？

Yeah. It was mostly VP&D, the two big plants in Texas City and Convert City were the bigger hits. I think in the other plants, they ran pretty much the turnaround impacted, but they had they didn't have as move as many extensions or anything met. The other ones, I think we're positive. So it was really those two VP&D plants, VP&D and Intermediates.

是的。主要是VP&D，德克薩斯城和Convert City的兩家大工廠最受歡迎。我認為在其他工廠中，他們的運作幾乎受到了周轉影響，但他們並沒有採取盡可能多的擴展措施或滿足任何要求。對於其他問題，我認為我們持積極態度。所以實際上是這兩個 VP&D 工廠，VP&D 和中間體。

And Jeff, those get split between Life Sciences and Personal Care primarily. There are some other impacts business unit-wise. But the VP&D impacts mostly go to Life Sciences and Personal Care.

傑夫，這些主要分為生命科學和個人護理。從業務部門角度來看，還存在一些其他影響。但 VP&D 的影響主要集中在生命科學和個人護理領域。

And in Intermediates and Solvents from what you can see, are prices remaining stable? Or are they a little bit under pressure? And is that a business where the trajectory of EBITDA for the remainder of the year? Or is it more flat or down as a base case?

從您看到的情況來看，中間體和溶劑的價格是否保持穩定？或者他們面臨一些壓力？那麼，今年剩餘時間的 EBITDA 走勢如何呢？或者作為基本情況，它更加平坦或下降？

The prices have been stable overall, I think most of the impact we saw was more in the Q3, Q4 for most of our businesses, Intermediates is not that different. I think it's more of a two things: volume, the big areas we're focusing a lot on US, Europe. So in the US, it's NMP, it's the battery market, the semiconductor market, Ag and pharma active ingredient production. So those, as they pick up, the battery has probably been the one that a lot of the projects are delayed. So the upswing is a little bit lower.

價格整體比較穩定，我認為我們看到的大部分影響主要集中在第三季、第四季度，對於我們的大多數業務來說，中間體並沒有太大的不同。我認為這主要與兩點有關：數量，以及我們重點關注的地區——美國和歐洲。在美國，它是 NMP，它是電池市場、半導體市場、農業和製藥活性成分的生產。因此，隨著他們開始行動，電池可能是導致許多項目被推遲的原因之一。因此上漲幅度稍微低一些。

I think the bigger pressure we've seen is in Europe, where again, more of the Asia, China exports are impacting. We are hearing of some of the European players starting antidumping and doing some other actions. So we're tracking that to see how those events change. So we're going to see more of noise that we're one, get our costs. We're making a lot of the changes that we're making and the productivity we're calling a VP&D but will also impact intermediate so that we think we can get much more competitive in those areas. And two is the mix that we can do some spot sales here and there to move product. The margins are great so that could create a little bit of noise. But overall, most of the business is pretty stable at this point in time.

我認為我們看到的更大壓力在歐洲，同時亞洲和中國的出口也受到了更大的影響。我們聽說一些歐洲國家開始採取反傾銷和其它行動。因此我們正在追蹤這一情況，並觀察這些事件如何變化。因此，我們將會看到更多的噪音，我們是一個整體，得到我們的成本。我們正在進行許多變革，提高生產力，我們稱之為 VP&D，但也會影響中間體，因此我們認為我們可以在這些領域變得更具競爭力。二是我們可以在這裡或那裡進行一些現貨銷售來銷售產品。利潤率很大，因此可能會產生一點噪音。但整體而言，目前大部分業務都相當穩定。

And lastly, you've got various stranded costs and you've got a cost-cutting program. As far as you can see for 2025, are the cost cuts larger than the stranded cost or the stranded costs larger than the cost cuts? And by how much?

最後，你有各種擱淺成本，並且你有一個成本削減計劃。就您看來，對於 2025 年來說，成本削減幅度是否大於擱淺成本，還是擱淺成本大於成本削減幅度？增加多少？

So we were trying to offset stranded costs and lost -- I mean, we have neutralized, just to be very clear, the Nutraceutical sales, we've neutralized the EPS, the earnings and EPS impact -- the EPS impact on that sale. We want to offset the EBITDA. So the biggest issue of the $30 million is not stranded cost, its gross profit loss with the sale. So we want our cake and eat it too. We want to make sure that this action is EBITDA neutral. So the $30 million offset around $20 million. We had said that business was about $100 million, 20% gross profit that we want to offset that, and the rest is stranded cost.

因此，我們試圖抵消擱淺成本和損失 - 我的意思是，我們已經中和了，非常清楚，營養保健品的銷售，我們已經中和了每股收益、收益和每股收益的影響 - 每股收益對該銷售的影響。我們想要抵消 EBITDA。因此，3000 萬美元的最大問題不是擱淺成本，而是銷售帶來的毛利損失。所以，我們既想魚與熊掌兼得。我們希望確保這項舉措對 EBITDA 來說是中性的。因此 3000 萬美元抵消了約 2000 萬美元。我們曾說過，業務規模約 1 億美元，我們希望用 20% 的毛利來抵銷這一損失，其餘部分則是擱淺成本。

So -- we're in -- as we said in our prepared remarks and in the slides, we're well underway to get to the $30 million. I think we'll probably be able to do a little bit more than that. But the most important thing for us is how can we accelerate it to hit our target. We split it 15 this year, 15 next year. Obviously, to hit the run rate, we want to make sure that by midyear, we get most of it done.

所以 — — 正如我們在準備好的演講和幻燈片中所說的那樣，我們正在順利地實現 3000 萬美元的目標。我認為我們或許能夠做得更多。但對我們來說最重要的是如何加速實現我們的目標。今年我們分成 15 份，明年分成 15 份。顯然，為了達到運行率，我們要確保在年中之前完成大部分工作。

Mike Harrison, Seaport Research Partners.

麥克‧哈里森（Mike Harrison），海港研究夥伴。

I was wondering if you could go into a little bit more detail about the trade policy impact that you are concerned about or citing as maybe an area of potential uncertainty going forward. Is what you're concerned about related more to the direct impacts of potential input cost effects? Or is it more of the indirect effects that you could see from trade policies on trade flows and other things that you might be watching?

我想知道您是否可以更詳細地談談您所擔心的貿易政策影響，或者可能指出未來可能存在的不確定領域。您所擔心的問題是否與潛在投入成本效應的直接影響更相關？或者您看到的更多的是貿易政策對貿易流量和您可能關注的其他事物的間接影響？

I think the bigger impact for us is trade flows. I mean, we buy some raw materials in China, but it's not a significant part of our portfolio. So that is not going to be the biggest driver. So for us, it's really more how does that impact supply, the duties are putting in, if you got issues in shipping from certain production countries to customers that's really where we're looking at.

我認為對我們影響更大的是貿易流動。我的意思是，我們在中國購買一些原材料，但這並不是我們投資組合的重要組成部分。所以這不會成為最大的驅動因素。因此對我們來說，更重要的是這對供應有何影響，關稅是如何徵收的，如果從某些生產國到客戶的運輸過程中出現問題，這才是我們真正關注的地方。

So if you look at our portfolio right now, obviously, HEC is the most global. So we have in every region so that gives us a lot of flexibility. US already has duties. Are they going to increase them or not? We'll monitor that obviously. Europe does not and I think that's where we're seeing some movement from a lot of local producers on trying to get some level of protection given the overcapacity and the pricing that they're seeing from China.

因此，如果你現在看看我們的投資組合，顯然 HEC 是最全球化的。因此，我們在每個地區都有業務，這給了我們很大的靈活性。美國已經徵收關稅。他們會增加嗎？我們顯然會監控這一點。歐洲卻不是這樣，我認為我們看到很多當地生產商在產能過剩和中國定價的情況​​下試圖獲得一定程度的保護。

So I think those are the issues that will probably change things around. We make things in the US. We're selling them in China. We're looking at our footprint on what things we can change so that we have the optimal sourcing depending on the scenario that evolves. But it's a platform of scenario planning.

所以我認為這些問題可能會改變現狀。我們在美國生產產品。我們在中國銷售它們。我們正在研究可以改變哪些事物的足跡，以便根據不斷發展的情景獲得最佳的採購。但它是一個情境規劃的平台。

Right. I guess just following up on that, we've heard from some companies that there have been some increased December purchasing activity, customers may be trying to get out ahead of potential tariff impact. Did you see any demand during your first quarter here that would suggest that you were seeing some prebuying volumes?

正確的。我想，只是就此進行跟進，我們從一些公司那裡聽說，12 月份的購買活動有所增加，客戶可能想避免潛在的關稅影響。您在第一季是否看到了一些需求，這表明您看到了一些預購量？

Not really. I don't think we can make that statement and at least for our portfolio. On the contrary, we saw a little bit of inventory controls in Europe but the rest has been more normal.

並不真地。我認為我們不能做出這樣的聲明，至少對我們的投資組合來說是這樣。相反，我們看到歐洲有一些庫存控制，但其他地方則比較正常。

All right. And then last one for me is just as it relates to winter weather, I think the last time we had a meaningful freeze in the South, you guys had some plant disruptions. Any issues with some of the snow or maybe more adverse weather this winter impacting your plans so far in the second quarter?

好的。對我來說最後一個問題與冬季天氣有關，我認為上次我們在南方遭遇嚴重霜凍時，你們的一些植物受到了乾擾。今年冬天的降雪或其他惡劣天氣是否會對您第二季的計劃產生影響？

We did Texas and Houston bond, Texas City was down two days, just in the freeze boiler. So we had a little bit of an impact, but we're planning to offset that just with production, we have plenty capacity where this is one of the areas that we're making a lot of changes anyway in terms of production. We're shifting in our productivity, we're shifting a lot of our intermediate production to Calvert City to maximize our loading of our plants, improve our cost. So we're doing a lot of other changes. So it had an impact, not as big, but we expect to recover. But that's it, the rest was fine.

我們發行了德州和休士頓債券，德州城停擺了兩天，就處於凍結狀態。因此，我們受到了一點影響，但我們計劃透過生產來抵消這一影響，我們有足夠的產能，這是我們在生產方面進行大量變革的領域之一。我們正在轉變生產力，將大量中間生產轉移到卡爾弗城，以最大限度地提高工廠的負荷，降低成本。所以我們正在進行很多其他的改變。因此它會產生影響，雖然影響不是很大，但我們預計會恢復。但就這樣了，其餘的都很好。

John McNulty, BMO Capital Markets.

BMO資本市場部的約翰·麥克納爾蒂 (John McNulty) 說。

This is (inaudible) for John. In your press release, you noted pricing impacts as moderating, how did pricing move sequentially in the first quarter versus the fourth? I'm curious if you expect to see positive pricing power this year? Or what are you building it to the guide?

這是（聽不清楚）給約翰的。在您的新聞稿中，您指出價格影響正在緩和，第一季與第四季相比，價格較上季變化如何？我很好奇，您是否預計今年會看到積極的定價權？或者您正在根據指南構建什麼？

No. In our outlook, we captured most of the pricing is rollover. As we said, the contracts came in per our expectations. So I think we're not forecasting an improvement in pricing, and we've already captured a lot of the erosion. So there is a year-on-year -- that's probably our biggest year-on-year headwind, but that's factored into our plans.

不。在我們的展望中，我們捕獲到大部分定價都是展期。正如我們所說，合約符合我們的預期。因此我認為我們不會預測價格會上漲，而且我們已經捕獲了很多侵蝕。因此，這可能是我們同比最大的阻力，但這已考慮到我們的計劃中。

Got it. And then in Life Sciences, pharma, apologies if I missed it. Did you quantify the EBITDA impact from your customer inventory control actions? And would you say all of these actions are behind us at this point?

知道了。然後是生命科學、藥學領域，如果我錯過了，請諒解。您是否量化了客戶庫存控制措施對 EBITDA 的影響？您是否認為現在所有這些行動都已成為過去了？

Most of it -- the Q1 is where we saw most of it. I mean there could be a little bit of stragglers or whatever in general (inaudible) it is done, but the majority is done. I think of the gap pricing year-on-year comparison, pricing to be simplistic on it, one-third pricing, one-third volume, weaker demand in Europe and that inventory and another one-third is just business issues, like I was saying share shifting or actions in some of these other pharma non-OSD markets like in the iodine, the disinfections, the membranes, those are a little bit more competitive markets that we see that change. So simplistically, one-third.

大部分——我們在 Q1 中看到了大部分。我的意思是可能會有一點點落後或什麼的，總的來說（聽不清楚）它已經完成了，但大多數已經完成了。我認為與去年同期相比，差距定價，定價過於簡單，三分之一的定價，三分之一的銷量，歐洲需求較弱，庫存，另外三分之一隻是商業問題，就像我說的份額轉移或一些其他製藥非OSD市場的行動，比如碘、消毒劑、膜，這些都是競爭更激烈的市場，我們看到了這種變化。所以簡單地說，三分之一。

But we can't -- it's hard to say what a softer market, what was inventory control in terms of specific customers. We're just going by what they are telling us that they are controlling inventory, they're bringing it down and when they expect to start increasing the order levels moving forward, which is a lot of it is in the Q2.

但我們不能——很難說什麼是疲軟的市場，什麼是特定客戶的庫存控制。我們只是按照他們告訴我們的去做，他們正在控制庫存，他們正在降低庫存，以及他們預計何時開始增加訂單水平，其中很多是在第二季度。

Josh Spector, UBS.

瑞銀的喬希·斯佩克特（Josh Spector）

First, I wanted to clarify just on what you're seeing in terms of orders. I think in December, when you gave the update and said that the first quarter would be slightly bigger. You hedged that a bit and said you thought order rates were looking more positive into the second quarter for you guys. Now you're kind of talking, we're not sure we need to wait until March, see what that looks like. Is that the right interpretation that, that visibility has declined? Or is that not the right read on what you're trying to say?

首先，我想澄清一下您所看到的訂單情況。我想是在 12 月，當時您發布了最新消息，並表示第一季的業績會略有成長。您對此進行了一些規避，並表示您認為第二季的訂單率對您來說會更加積極。現在你正在談論，我們不確定我們是否需要等到三月，看看情況會是什麼樣子。能見度下降是不是正確的解釋？還是這不是您想要表達的正確解讀？

That's not the right read on what I'm trying to say. What I was saying is March to September are when the high, high volumes are for our business. So that's really what I'm looking for, for the full year outlook is what's happening in March through September. And I think what we said we'll have visibility between now and May, a lot of these policy things that are just starting being lobbed over the fence, one side other, how and what actually is going to happen, we'll need to see how that plays out before we change that part of the outlook.

這不是對我想要表達的意思的正確解讀。我說的是三月到九月是我們業務量最大的時期。所以這確實就是我所期待的，因為全年展望是三月到九月發生的情況。我認為，正如我們所說，從現在到 5 月份，我們將能看到許多剛開始被提出的政策，一方面，我們需要觀察這些政策將如何實施以及究竟會發生什麼，然後才能改變這部分前景。

For Q2, which is mostly January and February, we haven't seen any major changes in our outlook.

對於第二季（主要是一月和二月），我們沒有看到我們的展望有任何重大變化。

Okay. And just thinking about the full year, and I guess it more comes down to the back half is a lot of conversations about share gains. I mean that hasn't changed from last quarter. But I guess now, I mean, that's one to two quarters out. I think particularly in pharma, and we think about your products is more specified into applications. So is that something you have visibility to? Do you know you've won share in Latin America and Asia with local regional generic customers? Or is that still a toss-up that we're not uncertain of?

好的。而只要想想全年，我想更多的是下半年會有很多關於股價上漲的討論。我的意思是這與上一季相比沒有什麼變化。但我想現在，我的意思是，那是一到兩個季度之後的事情了。我認為特別是在製藥業，我們認為您的產品在應用方面更加具體。那麼這是您能看到的東西嗎？您知道您已經贏得了拉丁美洲和亞洲當地區域仿製藥客戶的市場份額嗎？或者這仍然是一個尚不確定的問題？

Okay. Alessandra, you want to take this one?

好的。亞歷珊卓，你想拿這個嗎？

Yeah, sure. So first of all, as Guillermo mentioned, right, the contract negotiations have been mostly finalized, and that was in line with our expectations. So specifically, as we are regaining business in Asia and Latin America, yes, that's happening so we are seeing that. And of course, as that happens, I mean customers have to work on the inventory of the existing product and then the ramp-up with the new wins. But that's happening and also the share gains in cellulosics that we see that happening across the globe.

是的，當然。首先，正如吉列爾莫所提到的，合約談判已經基本完成，這符合我們的預期。具體來說，當我們在亞洲和拉丁美洲重新獲得業務時，是的，這正在發生，所以我們看到了這一點。當然，當這種情況發生時，我的意思是客戶必須處理現有產品的庫存，然後利用新產品增加。但這種情況正在發生，我們也看到全球纖維素材料的市場份額正在增加。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn it back to Guillermo Novo for closing remarks.

我目前沒有其他問題。我想請吉列爾莫·諾沃作最後發言。

Well, I want to thank everyone for participation. I think the big headlines for every take away is no big new news. Things are playing out as we expected. The only issue that we've seen is a little bit more softness in Q1 in Europe. Other than that, everything is in line with our plans and expectations.

好吧，我想感謝大家的參與。我認為每次外賣的頭條新聞都不算什麼大新聞。事情正如我們預期的那樣發展。我們看到的唯一問題是歐洲第一季的經濟略顯疲軟。除此之外，一切都符合我們的計劃和預期。

As we said, number two, the next few months, we'll start seeing what, if any, impact trade or macroeconomic actions have on demand, and we'll update, I think the next call will be an important one, if there's any changes to update. But the big message is, look, we are now behind in our -- in finalizing our portfolio optimization. Our strategy, I hope, is clear.

正如我們所說的第二點，接下來的幾個月，我們將開始觀察貿易或宏觀經濟行動對需求有何影響（如果有的話），如果有任何變化需要更新，我們將進行更新，我認為下一次電話會議將是重要的。但最重要的訊息是，你看，我們現在在完成投資組合優化方面已經落後了。我希望我們的策略是明確的。

Our priorities are very clear to everybody. This is really now about executing in a difficult uncertain market, and I think we're doing that, the teams are doing that well but more importantly, positioning ourselves for the future. And I think we're very excited, we have growth catalysts, margin expansion catalysts that are significant for a company like Ashland and we're totally committed in driving them for the coming years.

我們的優先事項每個人都非常清楚。現在這實際上是為了在一個困難且不確定的市場中執行，我認為我們正在這樣做，團隊也做得很好，但更重要的是，為未來做好準備。我認為我們非常興奮，我們擁有成長催化劑、利潤擴張催化劑，這些對像 Ashland 這樣的公司來說都非常重要，我們完全致力於在未來幾年推動它們。

So thank you for your attention and participation, and we look forward to talking to you in the coming weeks.

感謝您的關注和參與，我們期待在接下來的幾週與您交談。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

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。