Compass Minerals International Inc (CMP) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Compass Minerals first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instruction)

您好，感謝您的支持。我的名字是 Regina，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Compass Minerals 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指令）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Brent Collins, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁兼財務主管 Brent Collins。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to the Compass Minerals fiscal 2025 first quarter earnings conference call. Today we will discuss our recent results and update our outlook for fiscal 2025. We will begin with prepared remarks from our President and CEO Edward Dowling and our CFO, Peter Fjellman.

謝謝您，接線生。早安，歡迎參加 Compass Minerals 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議。今天我們將討論我們最近的業績並更新我們對 2025 財年的展望。我們將首先聽取總裁兼執行長 Edward Dowling 和財務長 Peter Fjellman 的準備好的演講。

Joining in for the question-and-answer portion of the call will be Ben Nichols, our Chief Sales Officer, and Jenny Hood, chief supply chain officer. Before we get started, I will remind everyone that the remarks we make today reflect financial and operational outlooks as of today's date February 11, 2025.

我們的首席銷售官 Ben Nichols 和首席供應鏈官 Jenny Hood 將參加電話會議的問答部分。在我們開始之前，我要提醒大家，我們今天的言論反映了截至 2025 年 2 月 11 日的財務和營運前景。

These outlooks entail assumptions and expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially. The discussion of these risks can be found in our SEC filings located online at investors.compassminerals.com.

這些展望包含假設和預期，涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致公司的實際結果大不相同。有關這些風險的討論可以在我們位於 investor.compassminerals.com 的線上 SEC 文件中找到。

Our remarks today also include certain non-gap financial measures. You can find reconciliations of these items in our earnings release or in our presentation, both of which are also available online. I will now turn the call over to Ed.

我們今天的演講也涉及一些非缺口財務措施。您可以在我們的收益報告或簡報中找到這些項目的對帳表，兩者也可在線上查閱。現在我將電話轉給艾德。

Thank you, Brent. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call today.

謝謝你，布倫特。大家早安，感謝大家今天的電話會議。

Before I begin, I want to make a few comments about the senior leadership petitions we announced a couple of weeks ago. An important aspect of executing on our back to basic strategy is operational discipline and intense focus on continuous improvement.

在開始之前，我想就我們幾週前公佈的高層領導請願書發表一些評論。執行回歸基本策略的一個重要面向是操作紀律和對持續改善的高度關注。

The appointments of Pat Maron and Peter Feldman as COO and CFO respectively, bring two executives to Compass Minerals with proven track records of leading teams and building cultures focused on disciplined operational management. That will join the company officially in early March. Peter's been with the company a short time and is quickly getting up to speed. He's with us on the call today.

Pat Maron 和 Peter Feldman 分別被任命為營運長和財務官，這兩位高階主管為 Compass Minerals 帶來了領導團隊和建立注重規範營運管理的文化的良好記錄。將於3月初正式加入本公司。彼得在公司任職的時間不長，但很快就適應了公司的工作。他今天和我們一起參加了電話會議。

I am excited about these auditions and these two leaders to our core team and look forward to their contributions to the company. Peter is succeeding Jeff Cathy, who stepped down for personal reasons, though we will continue to benefit from his knowledge as he serves in a consulting room for the next several months. Jeff first served as a Chief Accounting Officer and then as CFO, and he was instrumental in leading the finance and accounting organization through a number of important matters. On behalf of Compass Minerals, I want to thank Jeff for his many contributions to the company, and I wish him well in his future endeavors.

我對這次試鏡以及這兩位領導者加入我們的核心團隊感到非常興奮，並期待他們為公司做出貢獻。彼得將接替因個人原因辭職的傑夫凱西 (Jeff Cathy)，但在接下來的幾個月裡，他將在諮詢室任職，我們將繼續受益於他的知識。Jeff 最初擔任首席會計官，後來擔任首席財務官，在領導財務和會計部門處理許多重要事務方面發揮了重要作用。我謹代表 Compass Minerals 感謝傑夫為公司做出的許多貢獻，並祝福他未來一切順利。

I'll start with making a few comments on the business, beginning with our salt business. Consistent with prior comments we've made, one important area of focus this year has been the flexibly manage the business and to reduce our absolute inventory levels of highway deicing salt. You'll recall that this was a key driver in a decision to curtail production at Godrich mine in 2024. Reducing inventory obviously has the benefit of freeing cash that is hung up in working capital. It also helps remove supply demand balance in the market that is long on supply following last year's weak winter. Salt is like any other commodity. When there's too much of it in the system, it will weigh on price, all things being equal.

我首先就業務發表一些評論，從我們的鹽業務開始。與我們先前的評論一致，今年的一個重要關注領域是靈活管理業務並降低高速公路除冰鹽的絕對庫存水準。您可能還記得，這是決定在 2024 年削減 Godrich 礦產量的關鍵驅動因素。減少庫存顯然有利於釋放營運資金中的現金。這也有助於消除去年冬季疲軟後市場供應過剩的供需平衡。鹽和其他商品一​​樣。當系統中存在過多這種物質時，在其他條件相同的情況下，它就會對價格造成壓力。

We're making good progress in reducing our inventory volumes with North American highway deicing inventory volume down approximately 10% year over year, and that is despite the fact that winter began slower than we'd hoped in October and November. We typically see both prefill activity and replenishment early. In the fiscal first quarter generated by early snow events. Unfortunately, we really didn't see any weather in our certain markets early in the quarter to drive our orders, given that large parts of our customer base had adequate inventory following last year's exceptionally mild winter.

我們在減少庫存量方面取得了良好進展，北美高速公路除冰劑庫存量同比下降約 10%，儘管 10 月和 11 月的冬季開始得比我們預期的要慢。我們通常會提前看到預填充活動和補充活動。第一財季因早期降雪事件而產生。不幸的是，由於去年冬天異常溫和，我們大部分客戶都擁有充足的庫存，因此本季初我們在某些​​市場確實沒有看到任何天氣來推動我們的訂單。

December saw an increase in winter weather that was consistent with the 10 year average in our sort of markets and it's significantly above what we saw last year. Looking outside the quarter, we saw winter weather further strengthened in January, which allowed us to claw back some of the shortfall from the first quarter. We'll see how the rest of winter deicing season progresses, and that will inform our production plans for the coming year.

12 月冬季天氣有所加劇，與我們這類市場 10 年的平均值一致，且明顯高於去年的水平。放眼本季之外，我們看到 1 月冬季天氣進一步加強，這使我們能夠彌補第一季的部分缺口。我們將觀察冬季剩餘除冰季節的進展情況，並為我們來年的生產計劃提供參考。

One new factor that could influence production plan is the tariff on Canadian imports that the US administration announced and then quickly paused last week. And the impact that this would have on both salt and SOP produced in Canada and sold in the US should the tariff eventually be implemented. There's obviously a lot of details to work through, but I'll share a few of our initial thoughts regarding our highway deicing business.

可能影響生產計劃的一個新因素是美國政府宣布並在上週迅速暫停的對加拿大進口產品徵收關稅。如果最終實施關稅，這將對加拿大生產並在美國銷售的鹽和硫酸鹽政策產生影響。顯然還有很多細節需要處理，但我將分享一些我們對高速公路除冰業務的初步想法。

We don't expect the tariff would materially impact the current year deicing season as the inventory is largely forward deployed and available for our customers. It does have the potential impact next year as we will need to produce and then move salt across our deep network. We're evaluating options to minimize the more immediate impacts such as tariffs could have on our CNI chemical, and yard served SOP business. As we see, this matter will likely be very dynamic for some time, and we'll continue to monitor it closely. As the situation continues to evolve and settle out, we will update the investment community as appropriate.

我們預計關稅不會對今年的除冰季節產生重大影響，因為庫存大部分已提前部署並可供我們的客戶使用。這確實會對明年產生潛在影響，因為我們需要生產鹽，然後將其運送到我們的深度網路中。我們正在評估各種方案，以盡量減少關稅等對我們的 CNI 化學品和堆場服務的 SOP 業務造成的直接影響。正如我們所見，此事在一段時間內可能會非常活躍，我們將繼續密切關注。隨著情勢的不斷發展與穩定，我們將及時向投資界通報最新情況。

In the plant nutrition business, we've talked in the past about the goal of restoring the pond complex at Ogden. This is a multi-year process that we engaged with for several years, and focus is improving consistency of the grade of SOP raw materials going to the plant. Acknowledging that this has not been a quick recovery process, there are beginning to see positive results from these efforts which are having an impact on our cost structure. The site has been focused on finding opportunities to improve operational efficiency.

在植物營養業務中，我們過去曾談到恢復奧格登池塘綜合體的目標。這是一個我們參與了多年的多年過程，重點是提高進入工廠的 SOP 原料等級的一致性。儘管我們承認這不是一個快速的恢復過程，但這些努力已開始產生積極成果，並對我們的成本結構產生了影響。該網站一直致力於尋找提高營運效率的機會。

While pricing in the quarter was a little weaker than expected. We had stronger sales volumes and lower costs that allowed us to exceed forecast. In this turns enabling us to increase guidance for this segment. At Ports, we continue to evaluate all options for the business, including ongoing discussions with the US Forest Service regarding the evaluation and testing of the company's conditionally qualified technical grade orthophosphate-based aerial fire-retardant cola.

但本季的定價略低於預期。我們的銷售量更高，成本更低，因此我們的業績超出預期。這反過來使我們能夠增加對這一部分的指導。在港口，我們繼續評估所有業務選擇，包括與美國森林服務局就該公司有條件合格的技術級正磷酸鹽航空阻燃可樂進行的評估和測試進行的持續討論。

With respect to guidance, we're moving the range for a total adjusted EBITDA down by roughly $15 million. The main driver of this change is a lighter start in sales and our salt business tribunal to the mild weather in October and November I mentioned earlier. Again, January came in better than forecast. We included some of that outperformance into our revised guidance.

對於指引，我們將總調整後 EBITDA 範圍下調約 1500 萬美元。造成這項變化的主要原因是銷售起步較慢，以及我們鹽業法庭認為的 10 月和 11 月氣候溫和。一月份的表現再次優於預期。我們將部分優異表現納入了修訂後的指引中。

Plant nutrition is up by about $4 million based on the factors previously mentioned. Corporate even is even unchanged from what we guided in December. To offset this reduction in adjusted EBITDA, the company is reducing the range of capital gains by approximately $25 million.

根據前面提到的因素，植物營養價格上漲了約 400 萬美元。公司業績甚至與我們 12 月預期的持平。為了抵​​銷調整後 EBITDA 的減少，該公司將資本利得範圍減少約 2,500 萬美元。

When we laid out our guidance for the year in the last earnings call, we noted that we had sculpted the CapEx program such that we could modify our spend to adjust to how the deicing season shaped up, and we're pulling that lever as a vision. I'll note that the operational initiatives are underway to improve reliability and lower costs, which will have a positive impact on CapEx over time. We're already seeing benefits for some of that work.

當我們在上次收益電話會議上提出今年的指導方針時，我們指出，我們已經調整了資本支出計劃，以便我們可以根據除冰季節的情況調整支出，並且我們將這一槓桿作為一種願景。我要指出的是，目前正在實施的營運措施旨在提高可靠性和降低成本，這將對資本支出產生長期正面影響。我們已經看到了其中部分工作的效益。

Respect to the balance sheet, our plan remains to refinance our debt stack this year with the intention of restructuring in a way that better aligns with our current strategy. We believe that we'll be able to move forward with a structure that provides more flexibility around our covenants.

就資產負債表而言，我們的計劃仍然是今年對我們的債務進行再融資，目的是以更符合我們當前策略的方式進行重組。我們相信，我們將能夠推進一個為我們的契約提供更多靈活性的結構。

Our vision for compost minerals remains unchanged. To build a company that generates free cash flow, even mild winters, strong free cash flow during normal winters and outstanding cash flow and strong winners. We have more work to do to get there, but the company's made important strides over the past several quarters for improving areas that we have the most ability to influence. So differently, we're doing a better job at controlling the controllables. I'll expect our progress on this front to continue and accelerate with the arrival of Pat and Peter.

我們對堆肥礦物的願景始終沒有改變。打造一家能夠產生自由現金流的公司，即使在溫和的冬天，在正常的冬天也能產生強勁的自由現金流，並且成為出色的現金流和強勁的贏家。要實現這一目標我們還有很多工作要做，但過去幾季公司在改善我們最有能力影響的領域方面取得了重要進展。因此，不同的是，我們在控制可控因素方面做得更好。我希望隨著帕特和彼得的到來，我們在這方面的進展能夠繼續並加速。

Remain focused on delivering on our back to basic strategy. I'm excited about the progress we're making in the organization to execute on that goal. With that, I'll turn the call over to Peter.

繼續集中精力實施我們的基本策略。我對我們組織在實現該目標方面所取得的進展感到非常興奮。說完這些，我會把電話轉給彼得。

Thanks, Ed. Good morning to everyone. I'm extremely excited to be joining Compass Minerals and working with the team here. My background and skill set align well with the back to basic strategy that the company has embarked on. I want to echo the sentiments shared by Ed earlier about Jeff. He's been incredibly helpful and generous with his time and knowledge as we transition the role.

謝謝，埃德。大家早安。我非常高興能夠加入 Compass Minerals 並與這裡的團隊一起工作。我的背景和技能與公司實施的回歸基礎策略非常契合。我想附和艾德之前對傑夫的看法。在我們轉變角色的過程中，祂給了我們極大的幫助，並慷慨地奉獻自己的時間和知識。

I'll comment briefly on the financial results for the quarter before turning the call over for Q&A.

在進行問答環節之前，我將簡要評論一下本季的財務表現。

For the first quarter, consolidated revenue was $307 million down 10% year over year. It's important to remember that the fiscal first quarter of 2024 included contribution related to Fortress from the US Forest Service contract we had in that year.

第一季度，綜合營收為 3.07 億美元，年減 10%。重要的是要記住，2024 財年第一季包括我們當年與美國森林服務局簽訂的合約中與 Fortress 相關的貢獻。

From an operating earnings perspective, we essentially broke even in the current quarter. Consolidated net loss was $24 million and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $32 million for the quarter.

從營業收入的角度來看，我們本季基本上達到收支平衡。本季綜合淨虧損為 2,400 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 約 3,200 萬美元。

Drilling down into the segment results in the salt business, revenue in the first quarter was $242 million compared to $274 million a year ago. Pricing was up 1% year over year to approximately $97 per ton, with volumes down 13% compared to the prior year period.

深入研究鹽業務分部的業績，第一季的營收為 2.42 億美元，去年同期為 2.74 億美元。價格年增 1% 至每噸約 97 美元，而銷量與去年同期相比下降 13%。

Net revenue per ton, which accounts for distribution costs, increased 3% to over $68. On a per ton basis, operating earnings came in lower year over year at $11.79 per ton, down 34%. While adjusted EBITDA per ton decreased 17% to $19.17. The decrease in margin reflects the increase in production cost per ton due to the curtailment of production at Goddard's mine last year. In the plant nutrition business, revenue for the first quarter was $61 million which is up 24% year over year from $50 million.

扣除分銷成本的每噸淨收入成長 3%，達到 68 美元以上。以每噸計算，營業利潤年減 34% 至每噸 11.79 美元。調整後每噸 EBITDA 下降 17% 至 19.17 美元。利潤率的下降反映了去年戈達德礦山產量減少導致每噸生產成本的增加。在植物營養業務方面，第一季的營收為 6,100 萬美元，較去年同期的 5,000 萬美元成長 24%。

Sales volumes were up 36% from prior year periods while pricing was down 9%. Distribution costs per ton decreased 2% to around $91.50 per ton, and all in production costs per ton decreased 10%. At quarter end, we had liquidity of $126 million comprised of $46 million of cash and a revolver capacity of around $80 million. At quarter end, the consolidated net leverage ratio was 5.9 times within the company's net leverage covenant of 6.5 times. Last week, the company had approximately $195 million of liquidity with $65 million of cash and $130 million of revolver capacity.

銷售量較去年同期成長了 36%，但價格卻下降了 9%。每噸分銷成本下降 2% 至每噸約 91.50 美元，每噸全部生產成本下降 10%。截至季末，我們的流動資金為 1.26 億美元，其中包括 4,600 萬美元的現金和約 8,000 萬美元的循環信貸容量。截至季末，合併淨槓桿率為 5.9 倍，且符合公司淨槓桿承諾 6.5 倍的要求。上週，該公司擁有約 1.95 億美元的流動資金，其中包括 6,500 萬美元的現金和 1.3 億美元的循環信貸容量。

With that, I'll turn the call over for questions.

說完這些，我會把電話轉交給大家提問。

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We kindly ask that you limit your questions to one and one follow up. We'll take our first question from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

此時，如果您想提問，請按電話鍵盤上的星號，然後按數字 1。我們懇請您將問題限制為一個，並進行一次後續跟進。我們的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning. Ed, given the recent, winter weather activity, can you kind of frame the outlook for highway the icing volumes, in both Q2 as well as the full year?

謝謝。早安.艾德，考慮到最近的冬季天氣狀況，您能否預測一下第二季以及全年高速公路結冰量的情況？

Well, we're in the February now. January was, I mean, as we said, October, November were not good months for us. The winter really didn't materialize in our sort of markets. December was a really solid month for us, really being relatively equal to our 10 year average.

嗯，現在已經二月了。正如我們所說，一月、十月和十一月對我們來說都不是好月份。在我們的市場中，寒冬確實沒有到來。十二月對我們來說是一個非常穩健的月份，與我們 10 年的平均水平基本持平。

January was really great and A really mainly in our southern markets, the storm tracks, largely in the south, and of course now what we've been seeing more recently, the storm tracks are really into our core serve markets and you know we hope that sort of continues. The, we'll see, so February is looking pretty good so far. We'll have to see how March, lays out and we'll, and have that effect on inventory. We'll do our production planning, based on really how we sort of wrap up the season kind of at the end of.

一月份的情況真的很棒，主要是在我們的南方市場，風暴軌跡主要在南方，當然，我們最近看到的是，風暴軌跡確實進入了我們的核心服務市場，你知道，我們希望這種情況能夠持續下去。我們會看到，二月到目前為止看起來相當不錯。我們必須觀察三月的佈局情況以及這對庫存的影響。我們將根據本季結束的收官情況來制定生產計劃。

March.

行進。

Very good. And just on fortress, when you say conditionally qualified, what does that actually Mean?

非常好。就堡壘而言，當您說有條件合格時，這實際上是什麼意思？

There is several steps that the Forest Service uses to prove products. The first step is sort of a lab-based product to conditionally qualify it. There's several, really things that go into that. Once that is conditionally qualified, which it is, then you take it into the field through what's called the operational field evaluation OFE and that's what we're talking to the [forest] right now. Jenny, you want to add anything to that?

林務局採用幾個步驟來驗證產品。第一步是對基於實驗室的產品進行有條件的鑑定。確實，這裡面涉及很多因素。一旦有條件地合格，那麼你就可以透過所謂的現場作業評估 OFE 將其帶到現場，這就是我們現在與[森林]談論的內容。珍妮，你還有什麼要補充嗎？

I'll just as part of the field evaluation, the OFE [that just mentioned] during that process, they'll also be doing integration testing with the legacy retardants that are in the market. Thanks.

我只是將其作為現場評估的一部分，在此過程中，OFE [剛才提到的] 他們還將與市場上現有的傳統阻燃劑進行整合測試。謝謝。

And is this, does this mean you've solved the corrosion issues you highlighted last year, what they highlighted Last year?

這是否意味著您已經解決了去年強調的腐蝕問題，他們去年強調的問題？

It's a different base chemistry, initially the chemistry was a magnesium chloride based chemistry, and that's where, we were all surprised about this time last year to learn when we were very close to having a contract that inspection of the airplanes found the corrosion. That investigation's still going on, we can't comment on it because it's going on within the [NTSB]. What we're talking about with [Quela], it is a different chemistry based on a phosphate type chemistry, and it's been through the testing and evaluation, which is obviously getting a lot more scrutiny given where we ended up last year. So, Jenny anything you want to add to that?

這是一種不同的基礎化學，最初的化學是基於氯化鎂的化學，這就是我們在去年這個時候感到驚訝的地方，當時我們即將簽訂合同，對飛機的檢查發現了腐蝕。調查仍在進行中，我們無法發表評論，因為它是在[美國國家運輸安全委員會]我們正在討論的 [Quela] 是一種基於磷酸鹽型化學的不同化學物質，並且已經過測試和評估，考慮到我們去年的最終結果，它顯然受到了更嚴格的審查。那麼，珍妮，你還有什麼要補充嗎？

No, thanks Ed.

不，謝謝艾德。

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

非常感謝。我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的喬爾傑克森。請繼續。

Hi, good morning. I'm fixing a call head and team.

嗨，早安。我正在安排呼叫主管和團隊。

First question Surprised that you lowered your full year of volume guidance, and it is snowing a fair bit. I live in Toronto, as I'm shopping a lot. We're all hoping a lot and talking about it. American rock salts have issue with production, right? It seems like there's some shortages in western New York. Understand that we started light the beginning of the winter in December, but I'm surprised that you lowered your volume guidance considering everything going on. Can you talk about that?

第一個問題很驚訝你們下調了全年的銷售預期，而且現在雪下得還挺大的。我住在多倫多，因為我經常購物。我們都對此抱持著很大希望並熱議。美國岩鹽的生產有問題吧？看起來紐約西部存在一些短缺。我們了解到，從 12 月冬天開始我們就已經開始放鬆警惕，但考慮到目前發生的一切，我很驚訝你們降低了銷售預期。你能談談這個嗎？

Well, it's just what we've done is, we're not weather forecasters and can't project going forward. What we're doing, in the past, you'll recall we were using more of a distributed approach to guidance. What we're doing is, as we have talked about in the past, a little different approach to it now where we're given the shortfall in the first quarter.

嗯，我們不是天氣預報員，無法預測未來的情況。您會記得，我們​​過去所做的是採用分散式方法進行指導。正如我們過去談到的那樣，我們現在採取的方法略有不同，因為我們考慮到了第一季的缺口。

We're really, we've taken that, we have added a little bit back in January, and that's kind of what we're saying right now. Now, if we have knock out February and knockout March, we'll probably adjust it back up. But we're just being careful.

我們確實已經接受了這一點，我們在一月份增加了一點，這就是我們現在所說的。現在，如果我們已經淘汰了二月和三月，我們可能會將其重新調整。但我們只是小心一點。

About it.

關於它。

Okay, my second question can be two parts. The first part we following up on that, but you gave guidance in the middle of December, and it's only snowed very strongly since then. That's why I'm surprised you lowered your volume, guide.

好的，我的第二個問題可以分成兩個部分。我們正在跟進第一部分，但您在 12 月中旬給出了指導，從那時起就只下了很大的雪。這就是為什麼我很驚訝你降低了音量，導遊。

And the second question is, Ed, talk about what you're doing on [SGNA] because that's been a big focus of yours when you came in about a year or 15 months ago, and [SGNA] in the first quarter was extremely flat with [SGNA]and fiscal quarter of 2024. So what progress are you making and can you make on [SGNA]?

第二個問題是，艾德，談談你在 [SGNA] 上所做的工作，因為這是你大約一年或 15 個月前上任時關注的重點，第一季的 [SGNA] 與 2024 財年第一季度的 [SGNA] 表現極為持平。那麼你取得了什麼進展？[SGNA]？

Yeah, we are, we have made progress at [SGNA], if you think about the sort of the headcount, we're down, probably about 80% running with a team of about 80% of the number of people that we had here not too distant past. The what's been offsetting us are things. Like legal costs associated with some of the class action lawsuits and things like that has been all setting sort of [SGNA]. It remains a really important focus for. It's a very active discussion going on with management as we speak.

是的，我們在 [SGNA] 取得了進展，如果你想想員工人數，我們已經減少了大約 80%，團隊人數大約是不久前我們的人數的 80%。一直抵消我們的是一些事物。就像一些集體訴訟相關的法律費用之類的事情都已經設定好了[新加坡網路協會]。這仍然是一個非常重要的焦點。我們正在與管理層進行非常積極的討論。

And just

而且只是

(Multiple speakers)

（多位發言者）

Yeah, I was just going to say in the middle of December to kind of follow up on that, we really was, we did that in mid-December, we would only closed in October.

是的，我本來想說會在 12 月中旬跟進此事，但我們確實是在 12 月中旬就這麼做了，直到 10 月才會結束。

Before that, right?

在此之前，對吧？

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Zajkaowshi with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Jeff Zajkaowshi。請繼續。

Thanks very much. Can you talk about what's going on in your accounts receivable line?

非常感謝。能談談您的應收帳款狀況嗎？

And you know where you expect that to go?

您知道您期望它發生什麼嗎？

And likewise, do you have targets for where you want to bring your inventories down to?

同樣，您是否有降低庫存的目標？

Yeah, well, we can tell you that we talked inventories a lot. We are bringing them down, we'll bring them down to lower than historical norms, that liberate the casts associated with that. Brent, you want to add anything to that?

是的，我們可以告訴你，我們討論了很多庫存問題。我們正在降低它們，將其降低到低於歷史標準的水平，以解放與之相關的演員。布倫特，你還有什麼要補充嗎？

I think that's right Ed, just where the winner is tracking all things being equal and if you kind of take the midpoint of our guidance, you know that's relative to last year, that's roughly half million tons alone on the demand profile.

我認為這是正確的，艾德，贏家追蹤的是所有條件相同的情況下的情況，如果你取我們指導的中間值，你知道這是相對於去年而言的，僅需求情況就約為 50 萬噸。

So, we're also taking actions at the mine that you've seen published and we anticipate to draw the inventories down.

因此，我們也在您所看到的礦井採取了行動，我們預計將減少庫存。

Significantly.

顯著地。

Yes, we continue to run Godrich at the curtailed rate. And we won't ramp it back up until we've got a better, level on our inventory.

是的，我們將繼續以縮減後的價格營運 Godrich 航線。在我們的庫存達到更好的水平之前，我們不會再次增加產量。

You want to talk to AR.

您想與 AR 交談。

Yeah, Jeffrey. So, AR that's just sales. So, as we talked about in the remarks, October and November were pretty light, but December was a strong month. So that's just the cash conversion cycle of things coming out of inventory, going up into accounts receivable, and then we'll start collecting that here in the 2nd quarter.

是的，傑弗裡。所以，AR 只是銷售。因此，正如我們在評論中談到的那樣，十月和十一月的業績相當清淡，但十二月的業績卻強勁。這只是現金轉換週期，從庫存中出來，進入應收帳款，然後我們將在第二季開始收集這些款項。

Okay, and then it looks like you're I don't know if you're deferring $25 million in CapEx or canceling $25million in CapEx. Okay, can you talk about what it is that you're not spending and whether You will see that in the Future

好的，然後看起來我不知道你是否推遲了 2500 萬美元的資本支出或取消了 2500 萬美元的資本支出。好的，你能談談你沒有花的錢是什麼嗎？

The, let me remind everybody that we last year we installed a more disciplined approach to capital where we rank projects based on really the risk associated with kind of not doing the project and we're not going to cut environmental health or safety. Let's just say that.

讓我提醒大家，去年我們採用了一種更嚴謹的資本方法，我們根據不進行專案所帶來的風險對專案進行排名，我們不會削減環境健康或安全。我們就這麼說吧。

And we do get emergency capital requests that come through that we have to have a provision for. What we're talking about are projects that we've ranked from kind of higher risk to lower risk that are in the capital plan for 2025. And what we're planning at this point is not doing about $25 million worth of that with the lower end of those projects which would have scored lower in terms of that risk profile.

我們確實收到了一些緊急資本請求，必須為此做好準備。我們所討論的是 2025 年資本計畫中按風險從高到低排序的項目。我們目前的計劃是，不將其中價值約 2500 萬美元的資金用於那些風險狀況得分較低的低端項目。

Now they'll probably show back up in 2026 and we'll go through that process again. So, we put the process in place last year, what we've done this year is organize our capital plan so that we could ramp it up or ramp it down depending on how the year went. Given the first quarter was behind plan, we have ramped it down accordingly.

現在他們可能會在 2026 年再次出現，我們將再次經歷這個過程。因此，我們去年就開始實施這項流程，今年我們所做的就是組織我們的資本計劃，以便我們可以根據今年的進展增加或減少資本計劃。鑑於第一季的進度落後於計劃，我們已相應減少了計劃。

Great.

偉大的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Hey, Jeff, this is Brent. I did want to clarify one thing on the accounts receivable that I was, I think about. So, on the product recall that we announced that was disclosed last quarter, the way the accounting for that works is that you, we expect that to be covered by insurance.

嘿，傑夫，我是布倫特。我確實想澄清一些有關應收帳款的事情，我想。因此，對於我們上個季度披露的產品召回，其會計處理方式是，我們預計這將由保險承保。

The way that you have to handle that from an accounting perspective is you have to do a gross-up of the claim and then the receivable. So that could be something that you're seeing there is that there's just a gross up on the balance sheet to reflect that.

從會計角度來看，處理該問題的方法是先對索賠進行總計，然後再對應收帳款進行總計。所以，您可能看到的情況是，資產負債表上的總額增加了，以反映這一點。

How much is that?

那多少錢？

$35 million grossed up

淨利 3500 萬美元

Okay, thanks.

好的，謝謝。

Our final question will come from the line of David C. Silver with C.L. King & Associates. Please go ahead.

我們的最後一個問題來自 C.L. 的 David C. Silver。金及其同事。請繼續。

Yeah, hi, thank you. I do have a couple of questions.

是的，你好，謝謝你。我確實有幾個問題。

So, the first one would be about your managing your salt business through the balance of the winter season. In reading through the Press release a couple of words that I don't usually see their toggle and tariffs.

因此，第一個問題是如何在整個冬季管理你的鹽生意。在閱讀新聞稿時，我通常不會看到幾個與切換和關稅有關的單字。

And when I think about it, I'm guessing officially the tariffs would not kick in until, I don't know, March 3rd or 4th in a worst-case scenario.

當我考慮這個問題時，我猜測正式的關稅要到最壞的情況下，也就是 3 月 3 日或 4 日才會生效。

And in the meantime, I'm guessing that you are leveraging, the code blanche production to kind of meet the needs in your target market area, marketing radius to the greatest extent possible, but could you just kind of talk through, why would the tariffs, at least for this winter. Be an issue in kind of a worst-case scenario.

同時，我猜你們正在利用程式碼布蘭奇生產來最大限度地滿足目標市場區域和行銷半徑的需求，但你能否詳細講講為什麼要徵收關稅，至少在今年冬天。在最壞的情況下會成為一個問題。

In other words, between now and March 4th, you can produce and position and then you can run code blanche or toggle, I guess running code blanche a little harder and moving product up the river, but between the toggles and the tariffs, what is kind of a, what do you fear, I guess, at least in terms of The current winter season, through March 31st or April, my assumption is you should be able to get through unscathed, but is there kind of a worst case scenario there?

換句話說，從現在到 3 月 4 日，您可以進行生產和定位，然後您可以運行代碼 blanche 或 toggle，我想運行代碼 blanche 會稍微困難一些，並將產品運送到上游，但是在 toggle 和關稅之間，我想，您擔心的是什麼，至少就當前的冬季而言，毫髮無損的情況？

Thank you.

謝謝。

Yeah, thanks.

是的，謝謝。

David C, in terms of the highway day icing, we don't really see much risk associated with tariffs for this fiscal year. As we said, most of our inventory is already forward, from Godrich in Canada, is already forward deployed so that the customers can access it this year. We're going to have to see what happens with an [N and F] the tariffs are reinstated here in a month or so you need to be prepared for that. You mentioned one potential contingency, and this would be really more for next year, not this year, but some flexibility associated with Cote blanche to serve some of our historical markets.

David C，就高速公路結冰而言，我們確實認為本財年的關稅不會帶來太大風險。正如我們所說，我們的大部分庫存已經從加拿大戈德里奇運送，並且已經預先部署，以便客戶今年可以使用。我們將不得不看看[N 和 F] 會發生什麼情況，關稅將在大約一個月後恢復，你需要為此做好準備。您提到了一種潛在的意外情況，這實際上更多是發生在明年，而不是今年，而是與 Cote blanche 相關的一些靈活性，以服務我們的一些歷史市場。

And but there would be over time a reordering that would happen within the serve markets for all the salt producers. We just have to see what happens and there's many potential scenarios that come out of that. We did mention that products made from like our SOP product and and CNI product made in Canada and imported into the US. Could be affected through tariffs this year and there's scenarios where that could be both negative, obviously, but it could, ironically it could end up being positive for SOP produced in Utah. So we'll just have to see how it goes.

但隨著時間的推移，所有鹽生產商的服務市場都會重新排序。我們只是要看看會發生什麼，並且會發現很多潛在的情況。我們確實提到過，我們的 SOP 產品和 CNI 產品等產品是在加拿大製造並進口到美國的。可能會受到今年關稅的影響，而且顯然在某些情況下這可能會產生負面影響，但諷刺的是，這最終可能會對猶他州生產的 SOP 產生積極影響。所以我們只需要看看事情進展如何。

Okay, thank you for that.

好的，謝謝你。

Next question would be, maybe a follow up to on a certain extent to the CapEx question, but then also, about your SOP business in particular so.

下一個問題可能是在一定程度上跟進資本支出問題，但同時也特別涉及您的 SOP 業務。

The wording in the press release indicated that I don't know, remediation or repair efforts, and I apologize, I forget the exact term, but you're doing things with the SOP ponds and what not that are, generating some better results. You also talked about, optimizing the use of KCL. So, I'm kind of scratching my head, but within the context of knocking or taking $25 million out of the CapEx budget.

新聞稿中的措辭表明我不知道補救或修復工作，我很抱歉，我忘記了確切的術語，但你正在使用 SOP 池和其他東西做一些事情，產生一些更好的結果。您也談到了優化 KCL 的使用。所以，我有點摸不著頭腦，但在從資本支出預算中削減或拿走 2500 萬美元的背景下。

I mean, are the efforts or are the steps you're taking at Ogden on the SOP business, are those capital projects or is the spending that you're doing there actually flowing through the income statement by quarter? So just, maybe a comment on what most recently you've done at Ogden and the SOP ponds that are generating better results and then how does that kind of play into the capital budget that you've established, as of this quarter.

我的意思是，您在奧格登針對 SOP 業務所做的努力或採取的措施是資本項目嗎？所以，也許您可以評論一下您最近在奧格登 (Ogden) 和 SOP 池塘所做的事情，這些事情產生了更好的結果，然後這對您在本季度製定的資本預算有何影響。

[Jake], thanks for the question.

[傑克]，謝謝你的提問。

We've been working for some time to restore the, that's the word we're using, restore the health of the ponds that we mine, basically scrape up the material and to really control the brine chemistry more properly, along with a prudent use of KCL which does help that restoration. That's really the first step in terms of restoring this business to its historical level of business performance. And what we're really pointing out is after a year of work, and of course remember this is a multi-year cycle, we're seeing the benefits of that. What we're seeing is what we expected to see is higher grade SOP in the material that we mine and send to the plant.

我們一直在努力恢復，這就是我們所用的詞，恢復我們開采的池塘的健康，基本上是刮掉物質，並真正更正確地控制鹽水化學，以及謹慎使用氯化鉀，這確實有助於恢復。這實際上是恢復該業務歷史經營水準的第一步。我們真正要指出的是，經過一年的工作，當然請記住這是一個多年的周期，我們看到了它的好處。正如我們所期望的那樣，我們所看到的是我們開採並送往工廠的材料中 SOP 等級更高。

Now there's two plants. There's a wet plant, where we separate SOP from magnesium chloride. Then the SOP then goes over to the dry plant. There will be some capital projects in that dry plant in the future to get the water, really the moisture in the SOP right for compaction when operating that plant for some period of time in a less than optimal a process in terms of the moisture feeding compaction.

現在有兩家工廠。我們有一個濕法工廠，在這裡將 SOP 與氯化鎂分開。然後 SOP 轉到乾燥工廠。未來該乾燥工廠將會有一些資本項目來獲取水分，實際上當該工廠在水分供給壓縮方面處於不太理想的狀態時，SOP 中的水分才會適合壓縮。

And we suffer losses associated with that. So, we are seeing benefits now, the operating costs just by managing our business better. That's more just operating costs. In the future, we will have capital costs, and this is not something that we want to defer. There are really two really critical sort of business projects that we want to do on the capital side.

我們因此遭受了損失。因此，我們現在看到了好處，只要更好地管理我們的業務，就可以降低營運成本。這僅僅是營運成本。將來，我們將有資本成本，這不是我們想要推遲的事情。在資本方面，我們確實想開展兩種非常重要的商業項目。

One, as I mentioned, the dry plant at Ogden, which will help us reduce our costs even more. The second, which is really a sustainability project, is the relocation at Godrich mine, which will occur probably in 2027. So, we're preparing to do those projects, doing the engineering right and We are spending capital on those, but those projects themselves will be coming in the future.

第一，正如我所提到的，位於奧格登的乾燥工廠，它將幫助我們進一步降低成本。第二個項目實際上是一個可持續發展項目，即戈德里奇礦的搬遷，大概會在 2027 年進行。所以，我們正在準備做這些項目，做好工程設計，我們正在為這些項目投入資金，但這些項目本身將在未來實現。

And that will conclude our question-and-answer session and with that I'll turn the call back over to Ed Dowling for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束，之後我將把電話轉回給 Ed Dowling 作結束語。

Okay, thank you for your interest in Compass Minerals. Please don't hesitate to reach out to Brent if you have any follow up questions. We look forward to speaking to you.

好的，感謝您對 Compass Minerals 的關注。如果您有任何後續問題，請隨時聯繫布倫特。我們期待與您交談。

In the next quarter. Thanks very much.

在下個季度。非常感謝。

That will conclude today's call.

今天的電話會議到此結束。

Thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect.

感謝大家加入，現在可以斷開連線。