伊士曼化學 (EMN) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Third Quarter 2024 Eastman conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. This call is being broadcast live on the Eastman website, www.eastman.com. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 2024 年第三季 Eastman 電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製。本次電話會議正在伊士曼網站 www.eastman.com 上現場直播。 （操作員指令）

We will now turn the call over to Mr. Greg Riddle, Eastman Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我們將電話轉給伊士曼投資者關係部的 Greg Riddle 先生。先生，請繼續。

Okay. Thank you, Harry, and good morning, everyone, and thanks very much for joining us. On the call with me today are Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO; and Willie McLain, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Jake LaRoe and Emily Alexander from the Investor Relations team.

好的。謝謝你，哈利，大家早安，非常感謝你們加入我們。今天與我一起通話的有董事會主席兼執行長馬克‧科斯塔 (Mark Costa)；以及執行副總裁兼財務長威利麥克萊恩（Willie McLain）；以及投資者關係團隊的 Jake LaRoe 和 Emily Alexander。

Yesterday after market close, we posted our third quarter 2024 financial results news release and SEC 8-K filing, our slides and the related prepared remarks in the Investor Relations section of our website, eastman.com. Before we begin, I'll cover two items. First, during this presentation, you will hear certain forward-looking statements concerning our plans and expectations.

昨天收盤後，我們在我們網站 eastman.com 的投資者關係部分發布了 2024 年第三季財務業績新聞稿和 SEC 8-K 文件、我們的幻燈片和相關的準備好的評論。在我們開始之前，我將介紹兩件事。首先，在本次演示中，您將聽到有關我們的計劃和期望的一些前瞻性陳述。

Actual events or results could differ materially. Certain factors related to future expectations are or will be detailed in our third quarter 2024 financial results news release during this call, in the preceding slides and prepared remarks and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K filed for full year 2023 and the Form 10-Q to be filed for third quarter of 2024.

實際事件或結果可能有重大差異。與未來預期相關的某些因素已經或將在本次電話會議中的 2024 年第三季度財務業績新聞稿、前面的幻燈片和準備好的評論以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳細說明，包括 2023 年全年提交的 10-K 表和將於 2024 年第三季度提交的 10-Q 表。

Second, earnings referenced in this presentation exclude certain noncore and unusual items. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures, including a description of the excluded and adjusted items, are available in third quarter 2024 financial results news release. As we posted the slides and accompanying prepared remarks on our website last night, we will now go straight into Q&A.

其次，本報告中提到的收益不包括某些非核心項目和非常規項目。2024 年第三季財務業績新聞稿中提供了與最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的對帳以及其他相關揭露，包括排除和調整項目的描述。由於我們昨晚已在我們的網站上發布了幻燈片和隨附的準備好的發言，現在我們將直接進入問答環節。

Harry, please let's start with our first question.

哈利，請我們開始第一個問題。

David Begleiter, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Mark, on your '25 outlook, you mentioned modest underlying growth, but then you will have above-market growth driven by your innovation. So a little more detail, what can that mean for overall top volume growth for Eastman in 2025?

馬克，在談到你的 25 年展望時，你提到了適度的潛在成長，但在創新的推動下，你們將實現高於市場的成長。那麼更詳細地說，這對伊士曼 2025 年的整體銷售成長意味著什麼？

Thanks, David. It's a good question. We're obviously spending a lot of time focusing first on getting through this year and delivering earnings. But obviously, we're all now looking towards next year as well. The story for Eastman has always been, over the last several years, the sort of volume and mix story is our biggest driver of some of the challenges we face as well as the opportunity that's now in front of us. Eastman is clearly leveraged to an economic recovery, and we can accelerate it with our innovation.

謝謝，大衛。這是個好問題。顯然，我們首先要花很多時間專注於度過今年並實現盈利。但顯然，我們現在也都在展望明年。過去幾年來，伊士曼的故事始終是，產量和產品組合的故事是我們應對面臨的一些挑戰以及當前機會的最大驅動力。伊士曼顯然受益於經濟復甦，我們可以利用創新來加速經濟復甦。

When you think about just the last couple of years, we've had incredibly high inflation interest rates, as everyone knows, and we've been in a manufacturing recession that really started in the summer of '22. So we've had almost 2.5 years now of no improvement in end market demand, especially in the discretionary markets. And when you think about the area under that curve of low demand, if you will, there's a lot of pent-up demand that has not been served even when you consider some of the overstimulation in '21.

回想過去幾年，眾所周知，我們的通膨利率非常高，而且我們正處於製造業衰退之中，而這場衰退實際上始於22年夏天。因此，我們已經有近兩年半的時間沒有改善終端市場需求，特別是在非必需品市場。當您考慮低需求曲線下的區域時，您會發現，即使考慮到21年的過度刺激，仍有許多被壓抑的需求尚未滿足。

So the macro is clearly uncertain right now, we all know that. What we do know, I think at this point, is that the customer inventory destocking is over and we're sort of reconnected to primary demand. We can also say that in the sort of what we call our stable markets, things like personal care, aviation, water treatment, ag, those markets have all been sort of steadily growing at modest rates this year, and we expect that to continue into next year. So that, I think, will continue. And this year, that's about 60% of our revenue.

因此，宏觀經濟目前顯然不確定，我們都知道這一點。我認為，目前我們確實知道的是，客戶庫存去庫存化已經結束，我們已重新與主要需求連結。我們也可以說，在我們所謂的穩定市場中，例如個人護理、航空、水處理、農業等市場，今年都以適度的速度穩步增長，我們預計這種趨勢將持續到明年。所以我認為這種情況將會持續下去。今年，這約占我們收入的60％。

The discretionary market, which are auto, housing, consumer durables, that's where we see demand has not really improved very much. And this year, that's about 40% of our revenue. Normal would be closer to 50%, so a lot of upside here as we sort of return to normal. The lower interest rates are for sure going to help improve the affordability of cars, affordability of homes. When you think about the US home market right now, we're at 1995 levels, 30% below 2019, and Europe and China is also challenged. So when interest rates start to become more affordable, which we expect will happen through next year at some point, you're going to see that starting to improve and that will certainly drive upside for us.

我們發現，非必需消費品市場（包括汽車、住房和耐用消費品）的需求並沒有真正有太大改善。今年，這約占我們收入的40％。正常水平應該接近 50%，因此當我們恢復正常時，這裡有很多上行空間。較低的利率肯定有助於提高汽車和住房的可負擔性。想想目前的美國國內市場，我們處於 1995 年的水平，比 2019 年低 30%，歐洲和中國也面臨挑戰。因此，當利率開始變得更加實惠時（我們預計這將在明年的某個時候發生），你會看到情況開始改善，這肯定會為我們帶來行動力。

Same is true in auto where you'll see the lower interest rates helping affordability. And same thing, demand has not been very good for quite some time. On the consumer durables front, same thing, well below 2019 levels this year from an end market point of view, a lot of pent-up demand since the summer of '22. Recovery in housing will certainly help influence purchases. Less inflation pressure on everyday life will open up the opportunity for people to start replacing and upgrading consumer durable products are now starting to get pretty old.

在汽車產業也是如此，較低的利率有助於降低汽車購買力。同樣，需求在相當長一段時間內一直不太好。在耐用消費品方面，情況也是如此，從終端市場的角度來看，今年的耐用消費品價格遠低於 2019 年的水平，自 2022 年夏季以來，大量需求被壓抑。房屋市場的復甦肯定有助於影響購買。日常生活中通膨壓力的減輕將為人們提供機會開始更換和升級現在已經開始相當陳舊的耐用消費品。

So we see modest growth across all these markets. I don't want to oversell it. But what we expect and are going to plan for is a modest growth here along with the stable market. So clearly, that's going to help drive revenue and increase. And then you get to our programs to create our own growth. You've got the Kingsport methanolysis facility. Obviously, in three weeks, we'll give you a lot more detail about how we think that EBITDA will improve, but it will be a substantial improvement both on the revenue side as well as on a cost tailwind relative to this year.

因此，我們看到所有這些市場都實現了適度成長。我不想過度推銷它。但我們的預期和計劃是，在市場穩定的情況下，實現適度成長。顯然，這將有助於增加收入。然後您就可以進入我們的計劃來創造我們自己的成長。你們擁有金斯波特甲醇分解設施。顯然，三週後，我們會向您提供更多關於我們認為 EBITDA 將如何改善的詳細信息，但與今年相比，無論是在收入方面還是在成本順風方面，這都將是一個顯著的改善。

You've got the auto film business, the auto interlayer business, always creating their own growth, especially interlayers is doing quite well with their product portfolio right now. We've got a whole range of cellulosic products starting to deliver some innovation growth. Naia continues to grow. We already have commercial orders in Aventa and food applications and expect that to accelerate in a variety of other programs, which we'll also tell you about at the Deep Dive Day coming up.

你們的汽車薄膜業務、汽車夾層業務一直在創造自己的成長，特別是夾層業務，目前其產品組合表現相當不錯。我們的一系列纖維素產品開始實現一些創新成長。Naia 繼續成長。我們已經在 Aventa 和食品應用方面獲得了商業訂單，並期望在其他各種項目中加速這一進程，我們也將在即將到來的 Deep Dive Day 上向您介紹這些內容。

And then there's a variety of smaller but helpful innovation programs around semiconductors and coatings in the AFP segment. So overall, I'd say revenue is going to improve in a modest way from a market point of view, accelerated by innovation, giving us some good growth. And just to finish off the bridge, we do expect price to raw material costs to be relatively stable as we go into next year. On the specialty side, we think we'll have spread tailwind in olefins. And on cost structure, we are going to take a set of actions to drive costs lower than just offsetting inflation. So you'll have a tailwind there.

此外，AFP 領域也圍繞著半導體和塗層開展了各種規模較小但有用的創新項目。因此總體而言，我認為從市場角度來看，收入將會適度改善，在創新的推動下，這將為我們帶來良好的成長。最後，我們確實預計，進入明年，原物料成本價格將相對穩定。在專業方面，我們認為我們將在烯烴領域獲得順風。在成本結構方面，我們將採取一系列措施來降低成本，而不僅僅是抵消通貨膨脹。因此你會在那裡得到順風。

And then there'll be two sort of modest headwinds. We expect energy, natural gas prices to go up, and so there's always a lag in catching up to them, as well as some -- a bit lower volume in fibers as the markets adjust down in some inventory management. So when you put it all together, I think volume/mix is going to be a big driver. It's a combination of market and innovation on top of a structure that is favorable on cost. And when you net it together, I think that translates into a pretty substantial improvement in EPS over this year.

然後就會出現兩種溫和的逆風。我們預計能源、天然氣價格將會上漲，因此在跟上價格的過程中總會有一個滯後，而且隨著市場對一些庫存管理進行下調，纖維的銷量也會略有下降。所以，當你把所有這些放在一起時，我認為數量/組合將成為一個巨大的驅動因素。它是在有利於成本的結構基礎上的市場和創新的結合。當你把它們加在一起時，我認為這意味著今年的每股盈餘將有相當大的改善。

Very good. Mark, just on that cost issue. Where are you taking out costs that are driving the cost savings above productivity? And how material could that be in '25?

非常好。馬克，只是談成本問題。您從哪些方面削減了成本，使得成本節約超過了生產效率？那麼在 25 年這有多重要呢？

So David, what I would highlight is we're focused on improving the cost structure because we have continued to be in a challenging environment. Although as we look beyond, I'll call it, just the normal productivity, our success in innovation has driven some level of complexity in our operations, and we're optimizing that from a product and an operations standpoint so that we can maximize gross margin realization.

所以大衛，我想強調的是，我們專注於改善成本結構，因為我們一直處於充滿挑戰的環境中。儘管我們將其視為正常的生產力，但我們在創新方面的成功已經在一定程度上增加了我們營運的複雜性，並且我們正在從產品和營運的角度對其進行優化，以便最大限度地實現毛利率。

Additionally, as you think about -- we just announced here in the quarter, there are targeted opportunities to optimize our global asset base with the shutdown of our interlayers resin operations line at our Massachusetts facility. And then as we continue to decarbonize, we think driving energy efficiency in the face of some of the higher energy costs that Mark just talked about is another pathway that can lead us to driving, I'll call it, cost savings above and beyond our normal level of inflation, and we've talked about that being approximately $75 million in the past. So we'll be above that, and we'll finalize those plans and tell you more about that on our January call.

此外，正如您所想的 - 我們剛剛在本季度宣布，透過關閉我們位於馬薩諸塞州的工廠的夾層樹脂營運生產線，我們有針對性的機會來優化我們的全球資產基礎。然後，隨著我們繼續脫碳，我們認為，面對馬克剛才提到的一些較高的能源成本，提高能源效率是另一條途徑，可以引導我們實現所謂的超出正常通膨水平的成本節約，我們過去曾談到這個數字約為 7500 萬美元。因此，我們將高於這一水平，並最終確定這些計劃，並在 1 月的電話會議上告訴您更多相關資訊。

Patrick Cunningham, Citigroup.

花旗集團的 Patrick Cunningham。

With a slightly lower methanolysis guide here, I think you cited continued consumer weakness. How should we think about some of these challenges weighing on incremental EBITDA next year?

由於此處的甲醇分解指南略低，我認為您提到了消費者持續疲軟。我們該如何看待這些影響明年增量 EBITDA 的挑戰？

So when you think about companies and brands trying to drive growth, they always want to use innovation to drive growth. That's always the best way to win in the marketplace. But when the economies are incredibly weak and you're under a lot of pressure on inflation, the rate at which they're trying to launch new products versus just manage our cost structure is weighted towards managing the cost structure. So we're seeing that through this year.

因此，當你想到公司和品牌試圖推動成長時，他們總是希望利用創新來推動成長。這始終是在市場上獲勝的最佳方法。但當經濟極度疲軟，面臨巨大通膨壓力時，他們推出新產品的速度與管理成本結構的速度相比，就會更傾向於管理成本結構。所以我們今年會看到這一點。

As the markets stabilize, which I believe they have done, and interest rates also help improve affordability of a number of different things for the consumer, you're going to see some recovery and stability in demand, in that companies will start switching more to how do I use product differentiation on the shelf to sort of drive growth. So while certainly the product launches are a bit slower this year, and clearly in a normal seasonal decline in the fourth quarter, you're not going to have a lot of product launches, we expect and see customers staying highly engaged and thinking about what they want to do as they go through 2025.

隨著市場逐漸穩定（我相信已經穩定了），利率也有助於提高消費者對各種不同商品的承受能力，你將看到需求出現一定程度的復甦和穩定，企業將開始更多地轉向如何利用貨架上的產品差異化來推動成長。因此，儘管今年的產品發布速度肯定會慢一些，而且第四季度顯然屬於正常的季節性下滑，不會有很多產品發布，但我們預計並看到客戶將保持高度參與，並思考在 2025 年時他們想要做什麼。

So we think we're in the right place for that to recover and get better, but it's certainly not as strong as what we would have guessed in the beginning of this year relative to where we are today.

因此，我們認為我們正處於復甦和好轉的正確階段，但相對於現在的情況，它肯定不如我們在今年年初預測的那麼強勁。

Very helpful. And then it sounds like there are some softness on the Fibers business into next year. Have any of the recent capacity announcements in tow, started to weigh on some of your contract conversations? And is there any intention of repurposing any of those assets for the business near term?

非常有幫助。那麼聽起來明年纖維業務會有些疲軟。最近發布的產能公告是否開始對您的一些合約談判產生影響？近期是否有意將這些資產重新用於業務？

That's a good question. So first of all, we expect Fiber to stay stable over the next three years. We do see a bit of capacity coming online in China, which is primarily aimed at serving demand in China in a few countries that we don't serve. So in that sense, there is that dynamic. The industries had a lot of history around managing capacity to be aligned with serving the market. Eastman has been repurposing both our tow and slate capacity, as you mentioned, to support our Naia textile growth. And now we have the event of food packaging, which we'll tell you more about in three weeks.

這是個好問題。首先，我們預計 Fiber 在未來三年內將保持穩定。我們確實看到中國有一些產能上線，主要是為了滿足中國和一些我們沒有服務的國家的需求。從這個意義上來說，存在著這種動態。這些產業在管理產能與服務市場方面有著豐富的歷史。正如您所說，伊士曼一直在重新利用我們的拖曳和石板產能，以支持我們的 Naia 紡織業務成長。現在我們談論的是食品包裝事件，三週後我們將向大家詳細介紹。

We're just really excited. It's a huge volume market and a great opportunity in margins, a bit above company average. So we have opportunities to continue to run our assets pool that aren't directly dependent on tow, and we'll continue to drive that strategy, which I think is unique to us in this market space. The other competitors have rationalized some capacity. They have other high-cost assets. So we'll have to just see what they choose to do. But in the next few years, we're not really worried about that.

我們真的非常興奮。這是一個巨大的市場，利潤空間巨大，略高於公司平均。因此，我們有機會繼續經營不直接依賴拖車的資產池，並且我們將繼續推動該策略，我認為這對我們在這個市場領域來說是獨一無二的。其他競爭對手已對部分產能進行了合理化調整。他們擁有其他高成本資產。所以我們只需看看他們會選擇做什麼。但在接下來的幾年裡，我們並不擔心這一點。

We think that the customers are still very much focused on security of supply and reliability of supply. If they ever get shorted on product to serve the market, is that a huge cost to them, the cost of our tow as a percentage of the price of the cigarette is extremely small. So you have to be very careful about missing out on sales if you get short on supply. So in that sense, I think we're in good shape.

我們認為客戶仍然非常關注供應的安全性和供應的可靠性。如果他們因為市場供應不足而導致產品短缺，這對他們來說是不是一筆巨大的成本，而我們的拖車成本在香菸價格中所佔的比例卻非常小。因此，如果供應短缺，你必須非常小心，以免錯失銷售機會。所以從這個意義上來說，我認為我們的情況很好。

When we talked about the decline next year, that's really just about market decline, which we think is 1% to 2%. That's traditional cigarettes declining 2% to 3%, being offset by the heat not burns netting out to that kind of a number. And we do see a bit of inventory management going on with customers in the fourth quarter here, and expect that some of that will continue into next year.

當我們談到明年的下滑時，這實際上只是關於市場下滑，我們認為下滑幅度在 1% 到 2% 之間。這意味著傳統香菸的銷量下降了 2% 到 3%，但被熱量所抵消，因此出現了這樣的數字。我們確實看到第四季度客戶正在進行一些庫存管理，預計這種情況將持續到明年。

So we're putting a little bit of targeted inventory management and a few customers into what's going on this quarter as well as what we might expect next year. They've been holding a lot of security of supply, back to my point, and I think they're trying to look at how to optimize some of that inventory for cash purposes. So that's sort of how we look at it. So we'd expect the utilization rates to stay strong over the next three years.

因此，我們正在對一些有針對性的庫存管理以及一些客戶的情況進行研究，以了解本季的情況以及明年的預期。回到我的觀點，他們一直持有大量的供應保障，我認為他們正在試圖研究如何優化部分庫存以滿足現金目的。這就是我們看待這個問題的方式。因此，我們預計未來三年利用率將保持強勁。

Duffy Fisher, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的達菲費雪 (Duffy Fisher)。

For questions just around the Texas plant that you FID-ed. So I guess, main question would be what's going to be different about that? Lessons learned from Kingsport, how is this footprint going to be different? The capital cost, the timeline to build, how will that be different than what you did in Kingsport?

詢問有關您最終投資決定的德克薩斯工廠的問題。所以我想，主要的問題是這有什麼不同嗎？從金斯波特學到的教訓是，這個足跡會有什麼不同？資本成本、建設時間表與您在金斯波特所做的有何不同？

Well, certainly, the Texas plant will incorporate all the learnings we've had on the Kingsport project, both in how to construct it more effectively, as well as how they started up better than what we've this year and reliably. So there's all types of improvements and insights we've had that we're factoring into this and certainly feel very confident that we -- with a better construction approach and a great large partner that we have we will be able to construct the project in the -- also part of this project at a much lower cost than what we spent on in Kingsport. So that, I think, is pretty clear and well engineered and we feel confident about it.

當然，德州工廠將吸收我們在金斯波特項目上獲得的所有經驗，包括如何更有效地建造它，以及如何比今年更好、更可靠地啟動它。因此，我們將各種改進和見解都考慮在內，並且非常有信心，憑藉更好的施工方法和強大的合作夥伴，我們將能夠以比在金斯波特花費的成本低得多的成本建造該項目的一部分。所以，我認為這是非常清晰和精心設計的，我們對此充滿信心。

The project is different, though, in that it has a lot more scope to it than just building a methanolysis plant, because while we're leveraging a brownfield site in our Longview, Texas site, we are still having to build another a new polymer line that goes with this. We'll have infrastructure around this facility that already existed in Kingsport that we need to create, the tanks, pipe bridges, et cetera, that go with supporting this overall plant. So you've got more infrastructure involved. And we have an investment that's being supported by the DOE of a much lower decarbonization plan.

但該項目有所不同，因為它的範圍遠不止於建造一個甲醇分解工廠，因為雖然我們利用了德克薩斯州朗維尤工廠的一個棕地，但我們仍然必須建造另一條與之配套的新聚合物生產線。我們將圍繞這個設施建設金斯波特現有的基礎設施，我們需要建造儲罐、管道橋等來支持整個工廠。因此你需要涉及更多的基礎設施。我們的一項低碳計劃的投資得到了美國能源部的支持。

So the use of a thermal battery and solar to sort of drive it is another capital cost that is different than where we are today. It does get us down in our carbon emissions by 90%. So it's a very compelling project from a carbon emission, not just a waste management recycling point of view. So worthwhile investment.

因此，使用熱電池和太陽能來驅動是另一種不同於我們今天情況的資本成本。它確實使我們的碳排放量減少了 90%。因此，從碳排放的角度來看，這是一個非常引人注目的項目，而不僅僅是從廢棄物管理的回收角度來看。所以值得投資。

The good news is, unlike Kingsport, we have support from the federal government. So we've got $375 million of funding coming in from the DOE, another $70 million of tax breaks coming in from the state of Texas. And we've got all of that factoring in to help manage some of the inflation we're facing as well as supporting this decarbonization aspect of the project. So overall, it's a bigger capital program being supported by these incentives and still has an attractive return around 12% as we aimed at achieving from the beginning of this platform.

好消息是，與金斯波特不同，我們得到了聯邦政府的支持。因此，我們從能源部獲得了 3.75 億美元的資金，並從德克薩斯州獲得了 7000 萬美元的稅收減免。我們將所有這些因素都考慮在內，以幫助管理我們面臨的通貨膨脹，並支持該專案的脫碳方面。因此總體而言，這是一個更大的資本計劃，得到了這些激勵措施的支持，並且仍然具有約 12% 的可觀回報率，正如我們從該平台一開始就設定的目標一樣。

Great. And then just if you could, volume/mix was strong in both AM and AFP. Could you break out how much of that was volume? How much of that was mix in each of those segments?

偉大的。如果你可以的話，AM 和 AFP 的成交量/混合都很強勁。您能算出其中的體積是多少嗎？每個部分的混合比例是多少？

Duffy, this is Greg. We do not have a breakout of volume versus mix. But in both of those cases, mix is a contributor as it always has been for Eastman. So I don't have a breakout for you today, but certainly, mix was a contributor.

達菲，這是格雷格。我們沒有發現成交量與產品組合的突破。但在這兩種情況下，mix 對 Eastman 來說一直都是貢獻者。所以今天我沒有為你帶來突破，但可以肯定的是，混合是一個貢獻者。

What I would say though, Duffy, is if you think about leverage to economic recovery, the discretionary markets, which are more challenged, obviously, than the stable markets, those are our highest margin markets. So as you think about the recovery in homes, cars and consumer durables, that's a large mix lift going forward into next year and the years to come as we drive a lot of innovation in that space.

不過，達菲，我想說的是，如果你考慮經濟復甦的槓桿作用，那麼非必需消費品市場顯然比穩定市場面臨更大的挑戰，而非必需消費品市場正是我們利潤率最高的市場。因此，當您考慮住房、汽車和耐用消費品的復甦時，這將是明年及未來幾年的巨大增長，因為我們將在該領域推動大量創新。

Frank Mitsch, Fermium Research.

米奇 (Frank Mitsch)，鋤研究機構。

Congrats on the World Series, Mr. Riddle. Mark, you mentioned on the fiber side that you're looking at applications, I believe, you said in food packaging, that sounds new to me. Can you expand upon that, please?

恭喜您贏得世界大賽冠軍，里德爾先生。馬克，你提到，在纖維方面，你正在研究應用，我相信，你說過在食品包裝方面，這對我來說聽起來很新鮮。能進一步詳細說明一下嗎？

Sure. Aventa, it's not sitting in fibers at the moment, just to be clear, it's actually sitting in Corporate Other. But it's a new innovation program that we're launching in food service. Basically, our cellulosic acetate, which is what we do use to make the tow fibers or eyewear and additives for coatings, et cetera, that core cellulosic platform that we have. One feature about it that we don't -- didn't talk a lot about into the last few years, is it's also very biodegradable, and you can tune the rate of biodegradability of it as well, depending on how you make that polymer.

當然。Aventa，現在它還沒有位於光纖中，需要明確的是，它實際上位於 Corporate Other 中。但這是我們在食品服務領域推出的新創新計畫。基本上，我們用醋酸纖維素來製造絲束纖維或眼鏡以及塗料添加劑等，這是我們擁有的核心纖維素平台。它的一個特點是我們過去幾年沒有過多談論的，那就是它也具有很好的生物降解性，而且還可以根據製造該聚合物的方式調整它的生物降解率。

So a huge opportunity in food service is there's a lot of packaging that cannot be recycled, it ends up in landfill. For example, those expanded polystyrene foam trays that your chicken and pork and beef sit on in the grocery, or the clamshells or straws for that matter. And what we figured out is we're making an excellent straw that's already going national here with one large company that is completely home and industrial compostable.

因此，食品服務業的一個巨大機會就是有很多包裝無法回收，最終被填埋。例如，雜貨店裡用來盛裝雞肉、豬肉和牛肉的發泡聚苯乙烯托盤，或是蛤殼或吸管。我們發現，我們正在製造一種優質的吸管，這種吸管已在全國範圍內銷售，並且與一家大公司合作，這種吸管完全可以在家庭和工業上堆肥。

We also figured out how to foam it, so we can actually replace polystyrene and it's a drop in replacement to the current equipment. And all of those foam trades can now be made out of our Aventa cellulose acetate product and is completely biodegradable.

我們還研究瞭如何使其發泡，這樣我們實際上可以替代聚苯乙烯，而且它是當前設備的直接替代品。現在，所有這些泡沫材料都可以用我們的 Aventa 醋酸纖維素產品製成，而且完全可生物降解。

And even the microplastics that might originate from it will not persist in the environment, that's been certified in Europe. So it's a great platform. It's a huge amount of volume. Margins are good. And it's another exciting way to sort of keep asset utilization high and start turning the cellulosic stream into that growth across the company. And we'll tell you more about that when we get to the Deep Dive.

甚至可能源自其中的微塑膠也不會在環境中殘留，這一點已在歐洲得到認證。所以這是一個很棒的平台。其數量非常龐大。利潤很好。這是保持高資產利用率並開始將纖維素流轉化為整個公司的成長的另一種令人興奮的方式。當我們深入探討時，我們會告訴你更多關於這一點的資訊。

So the Deep Dive is going to focus on polyester and the methanolysis facility. But we're also going to spend time on all these different cellulosic products that are launching right now that we're really excited about.

因此，深入探討將重點放在聚酯和甲醇分解設施上。但我們也會花時間研究目前正在推出的所有這些讓我們感到非常興奮的不同纖維素產品。

That sounds -- yes, looking forward to that. And the company reported 4% higher sequential volume/mix in 3Q. Can you talk about where are you seeing that in terms of end markets and geographies? And -- that would be great.

聽起來是的——是的，期待這一點。該公司報告第三季銷量/產品組合較上季成長 4%。您能談談從終端市場和地理角度來看這一點嗎？而且——那將會非常棒。

Yes. So very happy to see the improvement on the volume mix. AFP had a strong performance. Some of that was heat transfer fluids into some different projects, and that was sort of around the world. Those are more sort of LNG-oriented projects, not specifically tied to China. And then we also had some improvement in coatings. Again, shipments around the world in some of our high-value coating additives that sort of were the biggest drivers of that improvement.

是的。非常高興看到音量混合的改進。法新社表現強勁。其中一些是將傳熱流體應用到不同的專案中，這些專案遍布世界各地。這些項目更像是以液化天然氣為導向的項目，並非專門與中國有關。我們在塗層方面也取得了一些進展。再次，我們的一些高價值塗料添加劑在世界各地的出貨量是這種改善的最大推動力。

In AM, we were about flat. Inside that, we had great performance in the interlayer business driving some of that volume/mix improvement. I would say that the performance film business was sort of in line with the market. And the Specialty Plastics side, things were relatively stable. And then on CI, we just sold more volume as we had more volume to sell as we came out of some of those planned shutdown constraint on volume in Q2. And that was mostly North America.

上午，我們的表現基本持平。其中，我們在中間層業務方面表現出色，推動了部分產量/產品組合的改善。我想說表演電影業務在某種程度上是與市場相符的。而特種塑膠方面，情況相對穩定。然後在 CI 方面，我們銷售了更多的量，因為我們擺脫了第二季度計劃中的一些停產限制，所以我們有更多的量可以銷售。其中大部分是北美地區。

Vincent Andrews, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的文森安德魯斯。

On the chemical recycling, if you can just give us some dimensions around -- you're now looking for $20 million to $30 million this year of EBITDA. I think the original number was around $75 million. So that walk from $75 million to $20 million to $30 million, how much of it was from just sort of ramping the plant and having some teething issues that you're ultimately going to get to the other side of versus how much of it was just that the consumer offtake is maybe not as robust because of the macro? Maybe we could start there.

關於化學回收，請您給我們一些具體數據，您預計今年的 EBITDA 為 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元。我認為最初的數字是7500萬美元左右。那麼從 7500 萬美元到 2000 萬美元再到 3000 萬美元的變化，其中有多少是由於工廠的擴張和一些最終會解決的初期問題，又有多少是由於宏觀因素導致消費者的購買力可能不那麼強勁？也許我們可以從那裡開始。

Yes. So the walk, as you described it, between sort of the lower uptime that we had in the start-up process of the plant versus sort of the ramp-up of sales, I'd say two-third of it is around the costs and one-third around the volume. Just to address the cost side of it, when you look at the year, we're obviously a bit optimistic around how quickly the plant would start up. So we've sort of learned from that.

是的。所以，正如您所描述的，在工廠啟動過程中較低的正常運行時間與銷售額的增長之間的對比中，我認為三分之二是關於成本，三分之一是關於銷售。僅從成本方面來看，當你回顧這一年時，我們顯然對工廠的啟動速度有些樂觀。我們從中學到了一些東西。

I mean the construction environment was obviously very challenging, as you all know, that led to also a lot of construction quality issues and vendor equipment issues. And we lost about four months through the spring into May just dealing with all those sort of mechanical integrity issues around the construction of the plant. And then once we got to the feedstock ramp up and running at higher rates with that, we knew we were going to have complicated challenges in feedstock. We're using waste as feedstock. And we have always been using hard to recycle material from the very beginning.

我的意思是，眾所周知，施工環境顯然非常具有挑戰性，這也導致了許多施工品質問題和供應商設備問題。從春季到五月，我們花了大約四個月的時間來處理工廠建設過程中的所有機械完整性問題。一旦我們開始提高原料產量並以更高的速度運行，我們就知道我們將在原料方面面臨複雜的挑戰。我們正在利用廢棄物作為原料。而且我們從一開始就一直在使用難以回收的材料。

So we've always been using challenging material. And the great news about that material is the process chemistry has worked incredibly well from the beginning. So as the plant runs, it's making on-spec material that's going into food-grade product with high clarity. It's just really exciting to see that process chemistry work so well and produce such a high-quality product. But as we told you in the second quarter call, we did run into some feedstock preparation issues impacting how the first part of the plant runs, and that was sort of causing us uptime problems, and how the feedstocks sort of led into the plant.

因此我們一直在使用具有挑戰性的材料。關於這種材料的好消息是，從一開始，化學過程就進展得非常好。因此，工廠在運作過程中會生產出符合規格的材料，用於生產高透明度的食品級產品。看到工藝化學反應如此順利並生產出如此高品質的產品確實令人興奮。但正如我們在第二季電話會議上所說的那樣，我們確實遇到了一些原料準備問題，影響了工廠第一部分的運行，這給我們帶來了正常運行時間問題，以及原料如何進入工廠的問題。

And we had a plan to fix it. It just took us longer to fix some of those issues and make the improvements necessary. So we had a lot more downtime through August than we had planned on. The good news is we got into September with those improvements in place and ran well through September with much higher uptime.

我們有一個解決這個問題的計劃。我們只是花了更長的時間來解決其中一些問題並做出必要的改進。因此，我們八月的停工時間比計劃的要多得多。好消息是，進入 9 月後，這些改進措施已經到位，並且整個 9 月運行良好，正常運行時間大大提高。

And so we feel good about how we entered our planned shutdown. And we had a planned shutdown for this facility that's aligned with the shutdown of all of our polymer lines for the Specialty Plastics business. And so in that, we also made a few additional improvements that we needed to be down to do.

因此，我們對於如何進入計劃停工狀態感到非常滿意。我們計劃關閉該工廠，這與我們特種塑膠業務的所有聚合物生產線的關閉一致。因此，我們也做了一些需要進一步改進的地方。

So we feel good about that. We're at start-up of the plant and the final steps of that sort of start-up process. and looking forward to sort of running as we lead up to the Deep Dive day on the 21st of November. So those cost issues, which is predominantly a downtime related issue of how the plant was running due to these sort of issues on the front end, caused the cost to come to be higher as opposed to inventory and flows out of inventory.

因此我們對此感到很高興。我們正處於工廠的啟動階段，並且正處於啟動過程的最後階段。並期待在 11 月 21 日深度潛水日之前進行各種活動。因此，這些成本問題（主要是由於前端的這些問題導致工廠運行停機相關問題）導致成本高於庫存和庫存流出。

And then I already addressed the volume question in prior point, which is when the economy is really weak, the rate at which people are launching new products is slower. But we're still in very high engagement from customers. We haven't lost -- actually, I think we've only lost one customer, now that I think about it, when it comes to sort of wanting to move forward. It's just the pace at which you're moving forward has moderated.

然後，我在前一點已經回答了數量問題，也就是當經濟確實疲軟時，人們推出新產品的速度就會變慢。但我們的顧客參與度仍然非常高。我們並沒有失去——實際上，現在想想，當談到向前邁進時，我認為我們只是失去了一個客戶。只是你前進的步伐慢了下來。

Okay. And then just on the Texas plant, can you let us know the mechanics of how that DOE grant works in terms of is it like a project finance where you draw it down and then you have to pay it back over time? I assume the $70 million from the state of Texas requires pretax income from that plant to get the credit? Or are you able to use any income from Texas in the meantime?

好的。然後就德州的工廠而言，您能否向我們介紹一下能源部撥款的具體運作機制？ 它是否像專案融資一樣，您可以先提取一部分資金，然後隨著時間的推移再償還？我假設德州提供的 7000 萬美元需要該工廠的稅前收入才能獲得抵免？或者您目前可以使用來自德克薩斯州的任何收入嗎？

Vincent, on the DOE grant, you can think about -- we've gotten the first phase approved and we're going to be receiving the cash as we make progress on the investment and on the project overall. So the $375 million will match the capital outlay over the time horizon, and we'll talk more specifically at the Deep Dive around the capital level. You are correct on the state of Texas, it is on the -- I'll call it, the income, but the income will be initiated as we build the project.

文森特，關於能源部撥款，你可以想一想——我們已經獲得了第一階段的批准，隨著投資和整個項目的進展，我們將收到現金。因此，3.75 億美元將與時間範圍內的資本支出相匹配，我們將在深入探討資本層面時更具體地討論。您對德克薩斯州的看法是正確的，它是——我稱之為收入，但收入將在我們建造項目時開始。

Michael Leithead, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的麥可‧萊特黑德 (Michael Leithead)。

Great. What's the latest status update on the France methanolysis project?

偉大的。法國甲醇分解計畫的最新進展如何？

So the France project, as we've discussed in the first and second quarter, is on a slower path of development. We've made phenomenally good progress on many dimensions of the project. So we've -- as we've discussed before, we got over 70% of feedstock sourced. We have great progress on permitting. In fact, we have a permit. We've made great progress on the incentives and have those secured. We're almost complete on the engineering work. So all of that's on track.

因此，正如我們在第一季和第二季討論的那樣，法國專案的發展速度較慢。我們在該計畫的許多方面都取得了顯著的進展。正如我們之前討論過的，我們已經獲得了超過 70% 的原料來源。我們在許可方面取得了很大進展。事實上，我們有許可證。我們在激勵措施方面取得了很大進展並已得到落實。我們的工程工作已基本完成。所有一切都在按計劃進行。

The one thing we have not succeeded in getting is the customer contracts for the packaging side of this project. And that's really been a delay due to sort of policy in the EU. So as I mentioned before, at the last moment in the spring of this year, they made a change to the policy. The policy was always written to drive high recycling rates, high recyclability of products within the union, and aiming to try and get that recycling of local waste out of the environment and not being incinerated, which is the primary thing that they do with waste in Europe, which also violates our CO2 policies of getting climate down.

我們唯一未能獲得的是該專案包裝方面的客戶合約。這確實是由於歐盟的某種政策而導致的延遲。所以正如我之前提到的，在今年春天的最後一刻，他們對政策做出了改變。該政策的製定目的始終是推動高回收率、歐盟內產品的高可回收性，並力圖將當地垃圾回收後排放到環境中而不是焚燒，這是歐洲處理垃圾的主要方式，這也違反了我們降低氣候排放的二氧化碳政策。

But they came with some WTO concerns and said that imports needed to be allowed into the mix of what counts as recycled content. Obviously, imports replacing local demand for recycling doesn't make a lot of sense if you're trying to get waste and reduce incineration. And in fact, what will happen with all this import materials that will end up being incinerated and increased carbon footprint for the Union. So while there's a trade issue that needs to be sorted out, it doesn't really make any sense for recycling policy.

但他們提出了一些世貿組織的擔憂，並表示需要允許進口到回收材料的混合中。顯然，如果你想要獲取垃圾並減少焚燒，那麼用進口來取代當地的回收需求並沒有多大意義。事實上，所有這些進口材料最終都會被焚燒，增加聯盟的碳足跡。因此，雖然存在需要解決的貿易問題，但這對回收政策來說實際上沒有任何意義。

So I think that -- and there's a number of efforts going on to try and address this issue. But with that uncertainty or the ability to use waste from other countries, that's caused a sort of slowdown in the customer discussions as they're trying to think through their sourcing strategy.

所以我認為——我們正在做出許多努力來嘗試解決這個問題。但由於這種不確定性或利用其他國家廢物的能力，當客戶試圖思考其採購策略時，這導致討論速度有所放緩。

So we don't yet have those customer contracts. And to be very clear, as we have been from the beginning, with our principles about the contracting model for packaging, if we don't have commitments from customers that give us a long-term commitment with stable margins and the pricing structure at the appropriate levels, we're not going to proceed forward with this project.

所以我們還沒有那些客戶合約。需要明確的是，我們從一開始就堅持包裝承包模式的原則，如果我們沒有客戶的承諾，沒有長期穩定的利潤率和適當水準的定價結構，我們就不會繼續推進這個專案。

So until we get these issues resolved with the customers as they look at what they want their sourcing strategy to be, we'll have to sort of hold on this project. But it's shovel ready. So if we have the contracts we can move forward. The government -- French government is extremely supportive in doing everything they can to help us on this. And we'll tell you more about this also at the Deep Dive in a couple of weeks.

因此，在我們與客戶解決這些問題（他們了解他們想要的採購策略）之前，我們必須暫停這個專案。但它已經準備好了。所以如果我們有合約我們就可以繼續前進。政府—法國政府非常支持我們，盡一切努力幫助我們。我們將在幾週後的 Deep Dive 中向您詳細介紹這一點。

Great. Looking forward to it. And then on the Kingsport methanolysis unit, I think in the last question, you talked about very good uptime in September after getting through some of those teething issues. What's been the steady-state utilization rate from this facility when the site has been running well during those periods?

偉大的。非常期待。然後關於金斯波特甲醇分解裝置，我想在最後一個問題中，您談到了在解決了一些初期問題之後，9 月份的正常運行時間非常好。當該站點在這些時期運作良好時，該設施的穩定狀態使用率是多少？

So I'm going to hold off on answering that question because we have a lot of exciting things to show you around the plant and it's running. And we have been running at a reasonably good rates. We've told you in the past, we've been able to run that 65%, 70% range. And I'd say that's consistent. The issue hasn't been being able to run at good rates, the issue is just downtime to deal with some of these feedstock preparation issues. So -- and we've rate-tested every part of the plant at a very high rate. So we'll tell you a lot more about that in a lot more detail around sort of how we're going, and you can see the plant yourself.

因此我將暫時不回答這個問題，因為我們有很多令人興奮的東西可以展示給你們參觀工廠及其運作情況。我們的營運速度一直相當不錯。我們過去曾告訴過您，我們已經能夠運行 65% 到 70% 的範圍。我想說這是一致的。問題不在於無法以良好的速度運行，而是停機來處理一些原料準備問題。所以 — — 我們以非常高的速度對工廠的每個部分進行了速率測試。所以我們會更詳細地告訴你我們的進展情況，你可以親自去看看這棵植物。

Josh Spector, UBS.

瑞銀的喬希·斯佩克特（Josh Spector）

Wonder if I could try again on PRT and just specifically '25. I understand you want to save some things for a few weeks from now, but you guys have been pretty clear about kind of the bridge of earnings from that this year into next year. So can we at least frame how we're thinking about the contribution to '25 at this point?

我不知道我是否可以在 PRT 上再次嘗試，特別是‘25。我知道你們想為接下來幾週節省一些東西，但你們已經非常清楚今年到明年的獲利橋樑是如何形成的。那麼，我們至少可以概括一下我們現在如何考慮對 25 年的貢獻嗎？

Sure. So one, I'm not taking the bait, so I'm not going to give you a number, but we will be sharing our thoughts with you in three weeks when we have more time to actually provide the proper context. But there will be two drivers of the economics as you go from '24 to '25. The very low uptime we've had in the first eight months of this project this year, obviously, will be much better next year. So we have a pretty high cost per unit going into the inventory this year, that's a headwind in the economics this year.

當然。首先，我不會上當，所以我不會給你一個數字，但我們將在三週後與你分享我們的想法，那時我們將有更多時間來提供適當的背景資訊。但從24年到25年，經濟將有兩個驅動因素。今年該計畫前八個月的正常運作時間非常低，顯然，明年的情況會好得多。因此，今年我們的單位庫存成本相當高，這對今年的經濟來說是一個阻力。

So as you start ramping up, that cost per unit goes down pretty dramatically from where we are right now, and so you're going to have a pretty meaningful cost tailwind relative to this year and running the plant. The second is that's just pure operating leverage and utilization difference.

因此，當你開始加大生產時，單位成本會比現在大幅下降，因此與今年和營運工廠相比，你將獲得相當顯著的成本順風。第二，這只是純粹的經營槓桿和利用率差異。

And then the second part, of course, is ramping up on the revenue side, and we'll spend some more time. But both will be meaningful contributors to how you get to a better EBITDA next year versus this year. And it will be a key contributor to growth over this year, even in a challenged economic environment.

第二部分當然是增加收入，我們會花更多時間。但兩者都將對您明年實現比今年更好的 EBITDA 做出有意義的貢獻。即使在充滿挑戰的經濟環境下，它仍將成為今年經濟成長的主要動力。

All right. Had to try. On free cash flow, I want to ask -- some interesting commentary on inventory build or strategic inventory build being a driver for the $100 million reduction. Can you just talk about that? That seems to contrast a little bit with some of the weaker or slower demand commentary. So where do you see that opportunity and why?

好的。不得不嘗試。關於自由現金流，我想問一下——關於庫存增加或戰略庫存增加是導致 1 億美元減少的原因的一些有趣評論。你能就此談談嗎？這似乎與一些較弱或較慢的需求評論形成了一點對比。那您認為這個機會在哪裡？

So there's a couple of items I would highlight. One is in the polyester space and the other is in the cellulosics, which both Mark has touched on. So we have made selective choices in the specialty product lines. One was to manage shutdowns with here in September and October. So we'll get some of that back in the fourth quarter. But as we think about 2025 and being prepared for growth, in our polyester space, you've heard us talk about the flexibility of our polyesters. And we have a Tritan facility coming online in late fall of next year.

因此我想強調幾點。一個領域是聚酯纖維領域，另一個領域是纖維素纖維領域，馬克都曾提到這兩個領域。因此，我們在特色產品線上做出了精心的選擇。一是管理九月和十月的停工。因此，我們將在第四季收回部分損失。但是，當我們思考2025年並為聚酯領域的成長做好準備時，您已經聽到我們談論聚酯的靈活性。我們的 Tritan 工廠將於明年秋末投入使用。

So what we're looking at doing is exhibiting that flexibility here in the early part of '25 by switching those polyester lines back to copolyesters as well as PET production. And we're building the inventory to enable us to do that now so that we can make those transitions and leverage the assets that we have on that front.

因此，我們計劃在 25 年初透過將這些聚酯生產線重新切換回共聚酯以及 PET 生產來展示這種靈活性。我們正在建立庫存，以便我們現在能夠做到這一點，以便我們能夠進行這些轉變，並利用我們在這方面的資產。

As we also saw, we continue to have capital discipline on our CapEx and we can reduce that to $625 million for this year. Well, on the cellulosic side, we are leveraging that to build inventory for products like Aventa, and so that we have those market adoption rates, et cetera, as we make plans to debottleneck those assets and are leveraging the inventory versus the capital here in the front end. So well positioned to provide growth and to be capital efficient as well between CapEx and working capital.

我們也看到，我們繼續對資本支出進行資本約束，今年我們可以將其減少到 6.25 億美元。嗯，在纖維素方面，我們正在利用它來為 Aventa 等產品建立庫存，這樣我們就有了那些市場採用率等等，因為我們計劃消除這些資產的瓶頸，並在前端利用庫存而不是資本。因此，我們能夠很好地實現成長，並且在資本支出和營運資本之間實現資本效率。

Jeff Zekauskas, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas。

What's the EBIT drag from the methanolysis plant in 2024?

2024 年甲醇分解廠的息稅前利潤拖累是多少？

So Jeff, obviously, as we've dropped down the EBITDA expectations, the incremental EBIT on a year-over-year basis is neutral. So there's no incremental EBIT on a year-over-year basis. And as we've talked about previously, the cost of the preproduction, et cetera, was fully reflected in our other segment in 2023.

因此，傑夫，顯然，由於我們降低了 EBITDA 預期，因此與去年同期相比，EBIT 的增量是中性的。因此，與去年同期相比，息稅前利潤並沒有增加。正如我們之前談到的，前期製作等的成本已充分反映在我們 2023 年的其他部門。

And for my follow-up, is the price of the methanolysis product very different from your non-methanolysis copolyesters? Or how does it compare to Tritan? And what seems to be the primary applications? Who's buying it and why? And is it a wide variety of customers or is it very concentrated? Can you give us a sense of who wants the product and why?

我想問一下，甲醇分解產品的價格與你們的非甲醇分解共聚酯的價格差異很大嗎？或者它與 Tritan 相比如何？主要的應用是什麼？誰會購買它以及為什麼？客戶種類是否廣泛，還是非常集中？您能告訴我們誰想要這個產品以及為什麼嗎？

Sure. So first of all, the premiums we're getting for renewed content, the recycled content in the products, is a premium on any of the existing products. Whether it's Tritan or copolyester, PET, there's a premium above all of those different products. Obviously, the amount of premium varies based on the pricing of the underlying product and the value that it's creating in the application is going into. But there's a good return on that. It's also driving a lot of new market growth.

當然。首先，我們從更新內容（產品中的再生內容）中獲得的溢價比任何現有產品都要高。無論是Tritan、共聚酯還是PET，其價格都比所有這些不同產品高出一籌。顯然，保費金額取決於基礎產品的定價以及它在應用中創造的價值。但這會帶來豐厚的回報。這也推動了許多新的市場成長。

So answer your question, the applications we're going into are a wide spectrum of applications. This is a very fragmented market today that we serve in the business and will be fragmented, spread across a variety of markets. So we can range anywhere from cycle content going into usable water bottles with now and Camelbak in those kind of applications that are very obvious where you'd want to have a recycled bottle going into making a reasonable water bottle. You've got all the applications in the appliance world, whether it's blenders or and things like those kind of products that want to have a better sustainability footprint.

所以回答你的問題，我們要涉及的應用程式範圍非常廣泛。今天，我們所服務的市場已經非常分散，並且將會分散到各種各樣的市場中。因此，我們可以將循環內容物製成可用的水瓶，例如 Camelbak 的那些應用，這些應用非常明顯，人們希望用回收的瓶子來製作合理的水瓶。您擁有家電領域中的所有應用，無論是攪拌機還是其他希望具有更好的永續性足跡的產品。

You've got new applications that it's opened up to us, like the housings for drills. We've told you the story around Black & Decker in the past. You've got large appliances also looking at these opportunities. A lot of that is Tritan. We've got a lot of cosmetic packaging, which has very aggressive sustainability goals that are converting over to recycled content where they're trying to get to 100% recycled content. And a lot of that cosmetic packaging. And that's a lot of our copolyesters, you've got packaging, consumer packaging opportunities.

它為我們開闢了新的應用領域，例如鑽頭外殼。我們以前曾向您講述過有關 Black & Decker 的故事。大型家電也關注這些機會。其中很多都是Tritan。我們有許多化妝品包裝，它們都有非常積極的永續發展目標，即轉化為可回收材料，並努力實現 100％ 可回收材料。還有許多化妝品包裝。我們的許多共聚酯都具有包裝和消費者包裝的機會。

It's really across the spectrum of end markets where we see the opportunity to create new growth and win applications that we didn't currently have, which is very profitable when it's opening up an entirely new market to valuing up markets that we're currently in. So we'll share a lot more about that with you also in three weeks, but it's a broad spectrum.

事實上，在終端市場的各個領域，我們都看到了創造新成長和贏得當前尚未有過的應用的機會，當它開闢一個全新的市場來評估我們目前所處的市場時，這是非常有利可圖的。因此，我們還將在三週內與您分享更多有關這方面的內容，但內容範圍很廣。

Aleksey Yefremov, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

KeyBanc 資本市場公司的 Aleksey Yefremov。

Mark, could you maybe provide some detail around Advanced Materials' key product categories, auto films, interlayers fragments, et cetera. What's been happening with demand in margins in Q3 and heading into Q4?

馬克，您能否詳細介紹先進材料的主要產品類別、汽車薄膜、夾層碎片等。第三季和第四季的利潤需求情況如何？

Sure. So first of all, I mean, all the end markets, excluding autos, which is a bit of a different story, but all the other markets obviously went through a pretty steep destocking cycle in the end of '22 through '23. And so what we saw in '24 was most of that being completely over and a lot of volume improvement, it was just that lack of destocking. And then you've got some modest growth occurring in markets across the space.

當然。首先，我的意思是，所有終端市場（不包括汽車市場）的情況有點不同，但所有其他市場顯然在 22 年底至 23 年間經歷了相當急劇的去庫存週期。因此，我們在 24 年看到，大部分這種情況已經完全結束，而且交易量有很大改善，只是缺乏去庫存。然後你會發現整個領域的市場都出現了適度的成長。

So in the automotive side of things, the automotive underlying market is clearly one that's getting a lot of attention right now. It's been a bit weak. So I'd say our view is consistent with the other views out there, where the overall underlying market is probably down 2%. Roughly in that, our interlayer business has had high single-digit volume mix growth. So significantly outperforming the business. So it's been exciting to see that happen and a lot of drivers behind that. But there's just a lot of design trends helping us on two dimensions and why we're doing well.

因此，從汽車方面來看，汽車基礎市場顯然是目前廣受關注的市場之一。感覺有點弱了。因此，我認為我們的觀點與其他人的觀點一致，即整體基礎市場可能下跌 2%。大致而言，我們的中間層業務的銷售組合實現了高個位數成長。其表現遠優於其他業務。看到這樣的事情發生並且背後有很多推動力，我很興奮。但是有很多設計趨勢在兩個方面幫助了我們，這也是我們做得好的原因。

And not just EVs, which we're highly levered to, but also in ICE cars. We're just getting more territory per car, right, whether it's an ICE car or an EV. Side windows are now being laminated. It's actually moving at a pace of almost 4 times to 5 times, the rate of builds in how they're adopting side windows, that usually include acoustic management as well. You've got larger sunroofs, significantly larger on an EV, but even on ICE cars, they're bigger. And with EVs, when you put it all together, in particular, you're 3x square meters of an ICE car.

而且我們不僅在電動車方面投入了大量資金，在內燃機汽車方面也是如此。我們只是讓每輛車佔據更多的地盤，對吧，不管是內燃機汽車還是電動車。側窗現在正在進行層壓處理。實際上，它正以幾乎 4 到 5 倍的速度發展，側窗的採用速度也通常包括聲學管理。您擁有更大的天窗，電動車的天窗明顯更大，但即使在內燃機車上，天窗也更大。而對於電動車，當你把它們全部放在一起時，其面積就是內燃機汽車的 3 倍。

But even the ICE cars are trending in a very favorable way for using more laminated glass. And the products have a lot more value in them. So the heads-up display that's been growing double digits. They have solar rejection. Color matching, especially on the sunroofs, et cetera. So a lot of trends helping us grow better this year than the underlying market in a pretty meaningful way. And those trends will continue into next year. And if you combine it with modest growth in the underlying auto market, that's a good story.

但即使是內燃機汽車也傾向於使用更多的夾層玻璃。而且產品本身的價值也更高。平視顯示器的成長率一直達到兩位數。它們會排斥太陽光。顏色匹配，尤其是天窗等等。因此，許多趨勢以相當有意義的方式幫助我們今年實現了比基礎市場更好的成長。這些趨勢將持續到明年。如果將其與基礎汽車市場的適度成長結合起來，這將是一個好消息。

Performance films, that's an accessory aftermarket, if you will. So it's the window films and paint protection films. It's not growing as fast this year in this economically challenged environment as people manage their pricing. It's still growing. Still growing a little bit better than underlying markets, but not the same story as interlayers. So that's on the performance films side, which is holding in reasonably well for the market that we're in.

性能電影，如果你願意的話，這是一個配件售後市場。因此它是窗戶保護膜和油漆保護膜。由於人們控制定價，在這種經濟困難的環境下，今年的成長速度沒有那麼快。它還在增長。其成長速度仍比基礎市場好一點，但與夾層市場的情況不同。就性能電影方面而言，這對於我們所在的市場來說表現​​相當不錯。

And then on the Specialty Plastics side, I think that a lot of the volume growth this year is a lack of destocking, a little bit of modest growth in some of the stable markets that they're in. And that's sort of where we sit. So again, it's all about innovation. It's all about a little stability and underlying market growth that helps accelerate that innovation and adoption with the brands as they look to create growth in a more stable environment. So combined to help growth in next year.

然後就特種塑膠方面而言，我認為今年的銷售成長很大程度上是由於缺乏去庫存，以及其所在的一些穩定市場略有適度的成長。這就是我們現在的處境。所以，再說一遍，這一切都是為了創新。這一切都關乎一點穩定性和潛在的市場成長，這有助於加速品牌的創新和採用，因為他們希望在更穩定的環境中實現成長。如此結合將有助於明年的成長。

And your coatings customers have been pretty vocal about how they feel regarding negotiating position with their suppliers. How do you think about preserving your margins in the coatings business in 2025?

您的塗料客戶一直直言不諱地表達他們對與供應商談判立場的感受。您認為如何在2025年維持塗料業務的利潤率？

Look, I think that every customer, including us, is negotiating as hard as we can to get the best price as possible for what we're buying in a weak economic environment. You're obviously going to do that. In the end, if you've got a specialty business, you have differentiated value in the products that you supply to your customers and you can maintain price discipline, which I think we demonstrated extremely well. So in an increasing environment, like '21 and the beginning of '22, you saw us very successfully raised prices in that environment to stay up with hyperinflation in our raw materials.

看，我認為包括我們在內的每個客戶都在盡可能地進行談判，以便在疲軟的經濟環境下為我們的購買產品獲得盡可能好的價格。你顯然會這麼做。最後，如果你擁有專業企業，那麼你向客戶提供的產品就有差異化的價值，而且你可以保持價格紀律，我認為我們在這方面表現得非常好。因此，在 21 年和 22 年初這樣的不斷上漲的環境中，您會看到我們非常成功地提高了價格，以應對原材料的惡性通貨膨脹。

And you've seen since then us maintaining very good discipline on pricing for the value of our products. There's always a little bit of sharing that you do with raw material declines and that happens. We've always been clear about that. There's a bit of a lag on the way up, and there's a bit of a lag on the way down. But we're confident that we can maintain stability in our price raw material costs, which we've done this year and we'll continue to manage that way as we go into next year.

從那時起您就會看到我們對產品價值的定價保持著非常好的紀律。當原物料價格下跌時，總是會有一些分享，這種情況也會發生。我們一直都很清楚這一點。上升過程中有一點滯後，下降過程中也有一點滯後。但我們有信心能夠維持原物料成本價格的穩定，今年我們已經做到了這一點，進入明年，我們將繼續保持這種穩定。

I think the only exception of that is a bit of energy increase on our side. So if the natural gas prices go up a lot, like the forward curve implies relative to this year, there will be a bit of a lag in our pricing and how it goes up relative to those costs. That will be a bit of a headwind. But we intend to manage the pricing and value of our products as we always have.

我認為唯一的例外就是我們這邊的能量增加。因此，如果天然氣價格大幅上漲，就像遠期曲線相對於今年所暗示的那樣，我們的定價以及相對於成本的上漲將會有些滯後。這將會是一個小小的阻力。但我們打算像往常一樣管理我們產品的定價和價值。

Mike Sison, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的麥克·西森。

Mark, you've been running volume/mix here, mid-single digits for the last couple of quarters. It looks like you'll probably hit that for the full year in, as you described, not a great environment. So if things don't improve in 2025, a lot of competitors said the first half could be similar to the second half of '24. Is that a good base case because a lot of the new products and innovation that you've done heading into 2025? And if demand does get better, let's hope, would you be better than that?

馬克，在過去幾個季度裡，你的銷售/產品組合一直保持在個位數的中等水平。看起來你可能會在全年都達到這個目標，就像你所描述的那樣，環境並不好。因此，許多競爭對手錶示，如果 2025 年情況沒有改善，上半年可能會與 24 年下半年類似。這是否是一個很好的基準情況，因為你們將在 2025 年推出許多新產品並進行創新？如果需求確實好轉，我們希望，你會比這更好嗎？

So I think that sort of, again, depends on the market. There's no sort of uniform answer to that, Mike. In the stable markets, I think we've been seeing some steady modest growth this year, and that continues through next year. That's not back half loaded. So whether it's personal care, aviation -- medical destocking, by the way, is mostly over, so we'll get back to having growth in medical. Packaging, consumer packaging actually was a bit down this year, as you can see from all those companies that are in that space. And we do believe that will sort of swing from a low base to some positive growth next year.

所以我認為這又取決於市場。對此沒有統一的答案，麥克。在穩定的市場中，我認為今年我們已經看到了一些穩定且適度的成長，而且這種成長將持續到明年。那不是半載的。因此，無論是個人護理、航空或醫療領域的去庫存化，都已基本結束，因此我們將恢復醫療領域的成長。包裝、消費品包裝今年的銷量實際上略有下降，這一點從所有從事該領域的公司中都可以看出來。我們確實相信，明年，經濟將從低基數轉為正成長。

So I think those are all going to happen through the year. The ones you're really talking about that are back half loaded, they're the more interest rate sensitive markets, like housing and auto, where it's a little unclear exactly when interest rates get to a point that encourages people to start selling their existing homes, or how affordability works on autos between interest rates and just the pricing the car companies are choosing to pursue. They've increased prices a lot over the last three years. So how they sort of manage that pricing. I expect it will start to come off a little bit.

所以我認為這些都會在今年發生。你真正談論的是那些半載的市場，它們是對利率更敏感的市場，例如住房和汽車，目前還不清楚利率究竟何時會達到鼓勵人們開始出售現有房屋的水平，或者在利率和汽車公司選擇的定價之間，汽車的負擔能力如何發揮作用。在過去三年裡，他們大幅提高了價格。那麼他們如何管理定價呢？我預計它會開始下降。

So those kind of markets are probably going to be a little bit more back-end loaded than front-end loaded. Consumer durables probably in between those two stories and the rate at which it grows. So I don't think we're waiting for the end -- the back half to be strong. I think we'll have decent growth. But it's really early to say right now. There's a lot of uncertainty in the macro economy. You got an election coming up. You have instability in the Middle East.

因此，這類市場可能後端負載比前端負載大一些。耐用消費品的情況可能介於上述兩種情況及其成長速度之間。所以我不認為我們會等待結束——後半部分會變得強大。我認為我們將實現良好的成長。但現在說這些還太早。宏觀經濟存在著許多不確定性。你們即將迎來一場選舉。中東局勢不穩定。

Without a doubt, we see it in the fourth quarter, brands and retailers are being cautious right now and they're uncertain about where the economy is headed, and so they're being a little bit careful, which is understandable in the context. And so I think we need to get to January past the election and some of these other sort of uncertainties right now and see how the economy looks and we'll obviously provide you a good update on the quarter call.

毫無疑問，我們在第四季度看到，品牌和零售商現在都很謹慎，他們不確定經濟的走向，所以他們有點謹慎，這在當前背景下是可以理解的。因此，我認為我們需要等到大選結束後的 1 月份，並解決目前的一些其他不確定因素，看看經濟狀況如何，我們顯然會在季度電話會議上為您提供良好的更新資訊。

Got it. And then one quick follow-up on the methanolysis demand for 2025. Do you have a base load of sort of orders heading into 2025? And is there any impact from the election on that, do you think, if one way it goes the other, it could either kick start demand or maybe keep demand a little bit tepid?

知道了。然後快速跟進 2025 年甲醇分解的需求。您有 2025 年基本訂單量嗎？您認為選舉會對此產生什麼影響嗎？

Well, I'm definitely not taking the election bait.

好吧，我絕對不會上選舉的當。

On both sides.

兩邊都有。

Yes. I think that there is a lot of uncertainty that -- in an election that holds people up, and you could debate the pros and cons of what Trump or Harris would do. So I think we just need to wait five days and see what happens. But when I think that -- when you talk about these uncertainties, I think that they're not going to have a direct impact on what we do right now in any significant way. I think the markets are stable. I don't think the policy changes that could be made right now would have a significant impact on were way or other.

是的。我認為，在一場阻礙人們前進的選舉中存在著許多不確定性，你可以爭論川普或哈里斯的做法的利弊。所以我認為我們只需要等待五天，看看會發生什麼。但是當我認為——當你談論這些不確定性時，我認為它們不會對我們現在所做的事情產生任何重大的直接影響。我認為市場是穩定的。我認為現在做出的政策改變不會對我們產生重大影響。

Kevin McCarthy, VRP.

凱文·麥卡錫，VRP。

Yes. Mark, your Additives & Functional Products business wound up doing quite a bit better than you would have thought three months ago. And so can you talk through what drove that? It sounded like heat transfer fluids was part of the equation there. Cognizant, I believe anyway, you were expanding capacity in that product line in Alabama. Is that done and did it help your business? Or is it unrelated and really you garnered the upside from other factors? Maybe you could just help with a forward trajectory there as well.

是的。馬克，你的添加劑和功能產品業務的最終表現比你三個月前想像的要好得多。那麼您能談談造成這種情況的原因嗎？聽起來傳熱流體是其中方程式的一部分。無論如何，我相信，Cognizant 正在擴大阿拉巴馬州該產品線的產能。這樣做了嗎？或者兩者毫無關聯，而您實際上是從其他因素中獲得了好處？或許你也可以在那裡幫忙制定前進的軌跡。

So as the Additives & Functional Products has done well because it's just an excellent execution on every dimension of running the business. I wouldn't aside into any one thing. Without a doubt, fluids came in a little bit better than we expected. But when you add it up for the year and even for Q3, it was great execution in getting volume in coatings. It was great execution in growing the care chemicals business. It was great execution in minimizing the decline in ag that normally happens as you go from Q2 to Q3 was not quite as much as we expected.

添加劑和功能產品業務之所以表現良好，是因為其在業務運營的各個方面都執行得非常出色。我不會偏向任何一件事。毫無疑問，液體的流入比我們預期的要好一些。但當你把全年甚至第三季的數據加起來時，你會發現我們在塗料銷售方面取得了很大的進步。在發展護理化學品業務方面，這是一個很好的表現。這項執行非常出色，最大限度地減少了農業產量通常出現的下滑，因為從第二季度到第三季度，農業產量的下滑幅度並不像我們預期的那麼大。

So it was lots of little wins that added up to delivering excellent performance. It's great commercial excellence in managing pricing back to the question a moment ago and defending the value of our products across our portfolio and improving and maintaining spread. So I would give credit to the whole team on how there is delivering really good performance in a soft environment.

所以，很多小勝利加起來才帶來了出色的表現。它在管理定價方面表現出了卓越的商業成就，回到剛才的問題上，捍衛了我們整個產品組合中的產品價值，改善並維持了利差。因此，我要讚揚整個團隊在軟環境下所取得的出色表現。

Okay. And then as a follow-up, perhaps for Willie, can you comment on your capital expenditures for 2025 relative to the diminished level of $625 million this year? And how does the ramp in Texas factor into next year's budget?

好的。然後作為後續問題，也許對於威利來說，您能否評論一下您 2025 年的資本支出相對於今年 6.25 億美元的減少水準？那麼德州的成長對明年的預算有何影響呢？

Thanks for the question. Just as a reminder, our, I'll call it, base load maintenance capital is about $350 million. This year, we're going to come in around the $625 million. We're still setting our capital plan on the velocity as we look at, I'll call it, the startup of the Longview, Texas facility. But you can expect it to potentially be around where we started this year, which was around that $800 million mark. But we'll talk more about at the Deep Dive and here in three weeks as well as on the Q4 call as we finalize plans.

謝謝你的提問。需要提醒的是，我們所謂的基本負載維護資本約為 3.5 億美元。今年我們的營收將達到 6.25 億美元左右。我們仍在根據速度製定資本計劃，我稱之為德克薩斯州朗維尤工廠的啟動。但你可以預期，它的金額可能會與我們今年年初的水準差不多，也就是 8 億美元左右。但我們將在三週後的 Deep Dive 會議上以及在最終確定計劃的第四季度電話會議上進一步討論。

John Roberts, Mizuho.

瑞穗的約翰羅伯茲。

Is the methanolysis unit running at full rates today?

甲醇分解裝置今天全速運轉嗎？

No, John, I mentioned earlier, we're still in the start-up. So it was a month-long planned shutdown. We shut down all of our polymer lines for an annual planned maintenance every year in this time frame. And this plant shutdown in alignment with it, otherwise, we would have nowhere to go with the monomers coming out of the plant. So it's not yet started up, but we're in the final days of start-up right now.

不，約翰，我之前提到過，我們還處於初創階段。因此這是一項為期一個月的計劃停工。每年的這段時間內，我們都會關閉所有聚合物生產線，進行年度計畫維護。該工廠也將隨之關閉，否則，工廠產出的單體將無處可去。因此它尚未啟動，但我們現在正處於啟動的最後階段。

Okay. And then I think you mentioned that Aventa is in Corporate & Other. When does it move to the -- it will move to the Advanced Materials segment? Or will it move to Fibers because it's cellulosic? And when do you make that move?

好的。然後我想您提到過 Aventa 屬於企業及其他領域。它什麼時候會轉移到——它會轉移到高級材料部門嗎？或者因為它是纖維素，所以它會轉移到纖維中嗎？那你什麼時候採取這項行動？

CFO was looking at me to answer that question, because we're still debating it. We're excited about getting it -- ramping up. We haven't made a final decision about where it's going to land inside the company. So we'll let you know once we decide. We'll probably have a point of view on that by the time we get to January.

財務長正在看著我回答這個問題，因為我們仍在討論這個問題。我們很興奮能夠得到它 — — 正在加速發展。我們還沒有就它在公司內部的定位做出最終決定。一旦我們做出決定，就會通知您。到一月份的時候我們可能就會對此有一個看法。

But do you have a time frame when it moves to out of Corporate?

但是，當它脫離公司時，您有一個時間框架嗎？

I think it will move next year, we just haven't decided which segment yet. There's good logic for both segments, as you just mentioned. So we're just working through the final decision.

我認為它會在明年推出，只是我們還沒決定要推出哪個部分。正如您剛才提到的，這兩個部分都有很好的邏輯。所以我們只是在做出最終決定。

Laurence Alexander, Jefferies.

勞倫斯·亞歷山大（Laurence Alexander），傑富瑞（Jefferies）。

Two questions. First, on your comments about degradable microplastics as a side effect or a consequence of your new products. Where are you seeing demand pull, if anywhere, related to that as a concern? And then secondly, we spoke quite a bit over the last couple of years about the amount of innovation around the automobile that helps you grow faster than the market. Can you just walk through where you're seeing a similar demand plus driver in either construction or appliances, durable -- those types of durable goods? Just to get a sense for what your operating leverage might be on a cyclical recovery and like how much faster you might grow relative to what the multiplier effect might be.

兩個問題。首先，關於你們所說的可降解微塑膠是您們新產品的副作用或結果。您認為哪裡存在需求拉動，與此相關且值得擔憂的地方？其次，過去幾年我們多次討論過汽車領域的創新如何幫助我們超越市場實現更快的成長。您能否介紹一下在建築、家電和耐久財領域中，哪些領域有類似的需求和驅動因素？只是為了了解您的經營槓桿在週期性復甦中可能有多大，以及相對於乘數效應您的成長速度可能有多快。

So I'm sorry, you just broke up a little bit on the first question. What was the first part of your question again?

所以很抱歉，您在第一個問題上就有點分手了。你的問題的第一部分是什麼？

So around the microplastics comments you made, it was a very quick side comment. But just if you can unpack it, where you're seeing it actually be relevant to demand pull?

因此，圍繞您提出的有關微塑膠的評論，這是一個非常簡短的附帶評論。但如果您能解開它，您認為它實際上與需求拉動有關嗎？

Yes. So when it comes to plastic waste, people don't want it going to landfill, they don't want it to be incinerated and they certainly want to going into the environment. And a lot of things, a lot of consumer packaging, like most PET packaging, is very recyclable and should be captured and recycled in some combination of mechanical, as well as what we're doing in chemical recycling. So that's great. But there are applications where you just can't do that.

是的。因此，當談到塑膠垃圾時，人們不希望它被填埋，也不希望它被焚燒，他們當然希望它進入環境。很多東西，很多消費品包裝，例如大多數 PET 包裝，都是可回收的，應該透過機械回收和化學回收相結合的方式進行捕獲和回收。這太棒了。但有些應用程式卻無法做到這一點。

So a meat tray that's got a bunch of bloods that sort of into it, it's not something that's getting recycled and a lot of other food waste containers. So it just ends up in landfill and there needs to be a solution. And so the whole point here is we don't want staying in landfill and we certainly don't want it breaking down to small parts and becoming microplastics. So -- and the good news about our cellulosics is they -- in any form or fashion, they will not persist in the environment as a microplastic, and that's been sort of certified in Europe by their sort of regulatory process and testing as well as compostable.

因此，有大量血液的肉盤是不能回收的，其他食物垃圾容器也是一樣。所以它最終只能被填埋，需要找到解決方案。所以這裡的重點是，我們不想讓它留在垃圾掩埋場，我們當然也不希望它分解成小塊並變成微塑膠。因此，關於我們的纖維素材料的好消息是，無論以何種形式或方式，它們都不會以微塑膠的形式存在於環境中，而且這已通過歐洲的監管流程和測試認證，並且可以堆肥。

So we have a great solution. It's primarily driven by I don't want waste in my environment. And there are policies in several states that are banning polystyrene in food packaging where they have to go to something else. And this is, by far, the best solution one the marketplace as far as we can tell. So it's sort of all connected back to that plastic waste thing and in these specific applications.

所以我們有一個很好的解決方案。這主要是因為我不希望我的環境中出現浪費。而且一些州已經出台政策，禁止在食品包裝中使用聚苯乙烯，因此他們不得不改用其他材料。據我們所知，這是迄今為止市場上最好的解決方案。所以這一切都與塑膠廢物以及這些特定的應用有關。

On your second question in regards to do we have underlying trends driving above-market growth. Certainly, in the Specialty Plastics business, that's been true for, well, two decades, but certainly in the last decade. So Tritan has grown because it's a better product in many applications than polycarbonate functionally, but also because it's BPA-free. So you've got lots of growth happening across specialty plastics, where we're growing because we have a better performing product or a safer product happening.

關於你的第二個問題，我們是否有推動高於市場成長的潛在趨勢。當然，在特種塑膠產業，這種情況已經持續了二十年，但在過去十年尤其如此。Tritan 之所以能發展壯大，不僅是因為其在許多應用領域中功能性上比聚碳酸酯更出色，還因為它不含 BPA。因此，特種塑膠領域取得了長足的發展，我們之所以發展是因為我們擁有性能更佳或更安全的產品。

In Coatings, we have the same opportunities. Tetrashield, which is the coating version of Tritan, you've got growth happening in those markets and underlying growth to be BPA-free PFAS-free. So we have a lot of different places where markets are being accelerated.

在塗料領域，我們擁有同樣的機會。Tetrashield 是 Tritan 的塗層版本，這些市場正在實現成長，而潛在的成長在於不含 BPA 和 PFAS。所以，我們有很多不同地方的市場正在加速發展。

Let's make the next question, the last one, please.

讓我們問下一個問題，也就是最後一個問題。

Salvator Tiano, Bank of America.

美國銀行的薩爾瓦多‧蒂亞諾 (Salvator Tiano)。

Firstly, I wanted to ask a little bit on the Longview FID. So I know you had a major anchor customer there before, but you were still waiting for a lot other things, including potentially more customers. So I guess what changed that you decided to approve the plant at this point? Did you get any more any more customer leads, for example?

首先，我想問一些有關 Longview FID 的問題。所以我知道你之前在那裡有一個重要的主力客戶，但你仍在等待很多其他事情，包括潛在的更多客戶。那麼，我猜是什麼改變了你，讓你決定在此時批准工廠呢？例如，您是否獲得了更多客戶線索？

So the decision to move forward on the Texas project. One, we already have a very large customer, Pepsi, that baseloads the plant, which we don't yet have for the French project as a contrast. So we feel very good about that side of it. This plant is going to be designed to include flexibility for serving specialties. So the combination of Pepsi and the confidence we have around serving some of the specialty markets, makes us feel good about that. And we got the DOE funding as we talked about earlier, that obviously supports the economics. And the engineering work is pointing at a capital cost that has an attractive return.

因此決定繼續推進德克薩斯州的計畫。首先，我們已經有一個非常大的客戶百事可樂，它為我們的工廠提供了基礎負荷，而作為對比，法國計畫我們還沒有這個客戶。因此，我們對這方面感到非常滿意。該工廠的設計將具有靈活性，可以提供特色菜餚。因此，百事可樂和我們服務於一些專業市場的信心相結合，讓我們對此感到很滿意。正如我們之前提到的，我們獲得了能源部的資助，這顯然為經濟發展提供了支持。而且工程工作顯示資本成本將帶來頗具吸引力的回報。

But that engineering work, by the way, is still underway and needs to be completed. But everything came together in the sense that we had clarity about this and that. Clarity and commitment is important for continuing to sort of sign up new customers at this stage as well as I get some of the inside work done.

但順便說一句，這項工程仍在進行中，需要完成。但一切都匯集在一起，因為我們對這事那事都有了清晰的認識。清晰度和承諾對於在此階段繼續簽約新客戶以及完成一些內部工作非常重要。

Perfect. And just wanted to clarify a little bit. This year, you also had a big earnings benefit from higher operating leverage from operating higher rates. How should we think about that next year? Is it going to be an improvement? Or have reached the -- their normal run rate at this point?

完美的。我只是想澄清一下。今年，您也透過更高的營業利率帶來的更高營業槓桿獲得了巨大的獲利收益。明年我們該如何考慮這個問題？這會帶來進步嗎？或已經達到－此時的正常運作率？

Yes. So we have seen the benefit that we highlighted earlier this year with the operating leverage across the company and specifically in Advanced Materials. We will have further operating leverage in 2025, as Mark has highlighted, with the Kingsport methanolysis as we have, I'll call it, stable operations and have the uptime behind it. So look to have other leverage in 2025, and we'll give an update on guidance on our Q4 call.

是的。因此，我們已經看到了今年稍早強調的整個公司、特別是先進材料領域的經營槓桿帶來的好處。正如馬克所強調的那樣，到 2025 年，我們將擁有進一步的營運槓桿，憑藉金斯波特甲醇分解，我們可以實現穩定的運營，並擁有正常運行時間。因此，期待在 2025 年擁有其他影響力，我們將在第四季電話會議上更新指引。

Thanks again, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate your time and your interest in Eastman. I hope you have a great day and a great weekend. And I just want to end with let's go Dodgers. Thank you very much.

再次感謝大家今天的參與。我們感謝您的時間和對 Eastman 的關注。祝您有個愉快的一天和愉快的週末。最後我只想說“道奇隊加油！”非常感謝。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。