伊頓 (ETN) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Eaton Corporation fourth quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

女士們先生們，感謝您的支持並歡迎參加伊頓公司第四季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）作為提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Yan Jin. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議轉交給我們的東道主投資者關係高級副總裁嚴進先生。請繼續。

Good morning, everyone. I'm Yan Jin, Eaton's Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you all for joining us for Eaton's Fourth Quarter 2021 Earning Call. With me today are Craig Arnold, our Chairman and CEO; and Tom Okray, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our agenda today, including the opening remarks by Craig, highlighting the company's performance in the fourth quarter. We'll be taking questions at the end of Craig's comments.

大家，早安。我是伊頓投資者關係高級副總裁嚴進。感謝大家參加伊頓 2021 年第四季度財報電話會議。今天和我在一起的是我們的董事長兼首席執行官 Craig Arnold；和執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Tom Okray。我們今天的議程，包括克雷格的開場白，重點介紹了公司第四季度的業績。我們將在克雷格的評論結束時提出問題。

The press release and the presentation we'll go through today have been posted on our website. This presentation includes the adjusted earnings per share, adjusted free cash flow and other non-GAAP measures that's reconciled in the appendix. A webcast of this call is accessible on our website and will be available for replay.

我們今天將通過的新聞稿和演示文稿已發佈在我們的網站上。本演示文稿包括調整後的每股收益、調整後的自由現金流和其他在附錄中核對的非公認會計原則指標。可在我們的網站上收聽此次電話會議的網絡廣播，並可進行重播。

I will remind you that our comments today will include statements related to the expected future results of the company and are therefore forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from our forecasted projection due to a wide range of risks and uncertainties as outlined in our presentation release and the presentation.

我會提醒您，我們今天的評論將包括與公司預期未來業績相關的陳述，因此是前瞻性陳述。由於我們的演示文稿和演示文稿中概述的廣泛風險和不確定性，我們的實際結果可能與我們的預測預測存在重大差異。

With that, I will turn it over to Craig.

有了這個，我會把它交給克雷格。

Okay. Thanks, Yan. Let's start on Page 3 with a few highlights of the quarter, and I'll begin by saying that, and despite what's now very well publicized and ongoing supply chain issues, our team delivered solid results in the quarter and a record performance for the year. And in Q4, we generated adjusted EPS of $1.72, a fourth quarter record.

好的。謝謝，嚴。讓我們從第 3 頁開始，介紹本季度的一些亮點，我首先要說的是，儘管現在已經廣為人知並且存在持續的供應鏈問題，但我們的團隊在本季度取得了可觀的業績，並在今年創造了創紀錄的業績.在第四季度，我們產生了 1.72 美元的調整後每股收益，這是第四季度的記錄。

Our sales of $4.8 billion, up 6% organically. And I'd say here, we had particular strength in residential, data centers and in industrial markets. And I'd say also our aftermarket businesses in both commercial aerospace and vehicle continued to deliver strong growth. We were certainly impacted by supply chain constraints, which had an impact on our revenue, and I'd say especially in our Electrical Americas and our Vehicle segment.

我們的銷售額為 48 億美元，有機增長 6%。我在這裡要說的是，我們在住宅、數據中心和工業市場具有特別的優勢。我還要說，我們在商業航空航天和汽車領域的售後市場業務繼續實現強勁增長。我們當然受到供應鏈限制的影響，這對我們的收入產生了影響，尤其是在我們的美國電氣和汽車部門。

The good news is the markets remained strong. Order growth accelerated in the quarter, and we ended the year with a record backlog. For our combined Electrical business, orders were up 21% on a rolling 12-month basis, and our backlog was up 56%. Our Aerospace business also had a significant increase in orders, up 19% on a rolling 12-month basis, and the backlog was up 16%.

好消息是市場依然強勁。本季度訂單增長加速，我們在今年結束時積壓了創紀錄的訂單。對於我們合併的電氣業務，訂單在連續 12 個月的基礎上增長了 21%，我們的積壓訂單增長了 56%。我們的航空航天業務訂單也有顯著增長，連續 12 個月增長 19%，積壓訂單增長 16%。

We also continue to post strong segment margins, 19.3% in the quarter and a Q4 record. And I'd say here, the actions that we've taken to mitigate inflation, our portfolio changes and the restructuring savings are all contributing to the strong incremental margin performances. I'd also note that we benefited from favorable mix in the quarter. And I'd say that our portfolio changes continue to be an important part of our strategy.

我們還繼續保持強勁的細分市場利潤率，本季度為 19.3%，創第四季度記錄。我在這裡要說的是，我們為緩解通脹而採取的行動、我們的投資組合變化和重組儲蓄都有助於強勁的增量利潤率表現。我還要指出，我們受益於本季度的有利組合。我想說的是，我們的投資組合變化仍然是我們戰略的重要組成部分。

We're pleased to have completed the Royal Power Solutions transaction a few weeks ago. And the addition of Royal Power will allow us to accelerate our growth in eMobility, and actually in the broader electrical market as the economy continues to adopt more electric solutions. So I'd say, I think you'd agree that we're not sitting still. We're managing the things that we control operationally, while continuing to advance our strategic agenda.

我們很高興在幾週前完成了 Royal Power Solutions 的交易。隨著經濟繼續採用更多的電動解決方案，皇家電力的加入將使我們能夠加速我們在電動汽車領域的增長，實際上是在更廣泛的電氣市場中。所以我會說，我想你會同意我們並沒有坐以待斃。我們正在管理我們在運營上控制的事情，同時繼續推進我們的戰略議程。

Moving to Page 4. I'll highlight a few additional points on our quarterly results. First, total revenues of up 2%. We increased operating profit by 14%. So continue to demonstrate strong operating leverage. Second, acquisitions increased revenues by 7%, which was more than offset by the sale of Hydraulics, which was a 10% headwind. And while not complete, we're certainly pleased with our progress on the portfolio. We continue to drive changes to support our overall goals of creating a company with higher growth, higher margins and more earnings consistency.

轉到第 4 頁。我將在我們的季度業績中強調一些額外的要點。一是總收入增長2%。我們將營業利潤提高了 14%。因此，繼續展示強大的經營槓桿。其次，收購增加了 7% 的收入，這被出售液壓系統所抵消，這是 10% 的逆風。雖然不完整，但我們當然對我們在投資組合上的進展感到滿意。我們將繼續推動變革，以支持我們創建一家具有更高增長、更高利潤率和更高盈利一致性的公司的總體目標。

Third, I'd just point out that our margins of 19.3%, as I noted, were above the guidance range of 18.8% to 19.2% and I think a good indicator of our team's ability to execute operationally while once again, managing the things that are in our control. And lastly, we noted both adjusted EPS of $1.72, and second, margins of 19.3% were Q4 records in the face of these significant supply chain constraints that we've been dealing with.

第三，我只想指出，正如我所指出的，我們 19.3% 的利潤率高於 18.8% 至 19.2% 的指導範圍，我認為這是我們團隊執行運營能力的一個很好的指標，同時再次管理事情這在我們的控制之下。最後，我們注意到調整後的每股收益均為 1.72 美元，其次，面對我們一直在處理的這些重大供應鏈限制，第四季度的利潤率為 19.3%。

Next, on Page 5, we show the financial results of our Electrical Americas segment. Revenues were up 13%, 5% organic and 8% from the Tripp Lite acquisition. The organic sales growth was really driven by strength in residential, industrial and data center markets. And on a sequential basis, our organic growth did step up from 1% in Q3 to 5%. So we're making progress but still, as I noted, continue to be impacted by supply chain constraints. In some cases, our ability to meet demand was also impacted by labor availability as we had the spike in the Omicron version, certainly at the end of the year.

接下來，在第 5 頁，我們展示了美國電氣部門的財務業績。收購 Tripp Lite 的收入分別增長了 13%、5% 和 8%。有機銷售增長實際上是由住宅、工業和數據中心市場的強勁推動的。在連續的基礎上，我們的有機增長確實從第三季度的 1% 上升到了 5%。因此，我們正在取得進展，但正如我所指出的，我們仍然繼續受到供應鏈限制的影響。在某些情況下，我們滿足需求的能力也受到勞動力可用性的影響，因為我們在 Omicron 版本中出現了高峰，當然是在年底。

Operating margins of 19.2% were down 190 basis points year-over-year, and the decline was driven really by higher input costs, labor and supply chain inefficiencies and disruptions in our facilities. And on price recovery, we're making good progress. We made good progress in the quarter, but certainly not fast enough to prevent some margin erosion on the net between inflation and price and the way that plays through to operating margins.

營業利潤率為 19.2%，同比下降 190 個基點，下降的真正原因是投入成本上升、勞動力和供應鏈效率低下以及我們設施的中斷。在價格回升方面，我們正在取得良好進展。我們在本季度取得了良好進展，但速度肯定不足以防止通貨膨脹和價格之間的淨利潤率以及對營業利潤率的影響。

And as noted in my opening remarks, market demand remained strong, which was reflected in orders and the growth in our backlog. On a rolling 12-month basis, orders were up some 20%, accelerating from up 17% in Q3 and 13% in Q2. And our backlog reached another record, up 57% from last year, and that's 7% higher than it was in Q3. The strongest markets continue to be residential and data centers. And I'd say here also beyond orders, we also have strong momentum in our negotiation pipeline, which was up some 11% in the quarter.

正如我在開場白中指出的那樣，市場需求依然強勁，這反映在訂單和我們積壓訂單的增長上。在連續 12 個月的基礎上，訂單增長了約 20%，高於第三季度的 17% 和第二季度的 13%。我們的積壓訂單再創紀錄，比去年增加 57%，比第三季度高出 7%。最強勁的市場仍然是住宅和數據中心。我想說的是，除了訂單之外，我們的談判渠道也有強勁的勢頭，本季度增長了約 11%。

Turning to Page 6. We summarize our Electrical Global segment. And as you can see, we delivered really strong results in this segment. Organic growth was 15% with strength in all regions and particular strength in commercial data center and industrial markets. We also delivered significant operating leverage with operating margins of 19.5% and incremental margins of 40%. We did have a little bit of favorable mix here from our exposure to industrial end markets, but we do expect this to continue.

轉到第 6 頁。我們總結了我們的電氣全球部門。如您所見，我們在這一領域取得了非常強勁的成果。有機增長為 15%，在所有地區都表現強勁，在商業數據中心和工業市場尤為強勁。我們還提供了顯著的經營槓桿，營業利潤率為 19.5%，增量利潤率為 40%。從我們接觸工業終端市場的角度來看，我們確實有一些有利的組合，但我們確實預計這種情況會持續下去。

Like the Americas, orders remained strong, a 22% increase on a rolling 12-month basis and a step-up from the 17% number we posted in Q3. And our growth -- and our backlog remained above 50%. In this segment, the order strength was especially strong in data centers, residential and utility markets. Yes, so I'd say overall, I'd say that our Electrical Global business had a very strong quarter on top of a strong year and is really carrying a lot of strong momentum into 2022.

與美洲一樣，訂單依然強勁，連續 12 個月增長 22%，比我們在第三季度公佈的 17% 數字有所上升。而我們的增長——我們的積壓工作仍然保持在 50% 以上。在這一領域，數據中心、住宅和公用事業市場的訂單實力尤為強勁。是的，所以我會說總體而言，我會說我們的電氣全球業務在強勁的一年之外還有一個非常強勁的季度，並且到 2022 年確實具有很大的強勁勢頭。

Moving to Page 7, we summarize the results for our Aerospace segment. As you can see, we had a strong quarter. The industry recovery has certainly begun. Revenues increased 40%, 4% organic, 37% from the acquisition of Cobham Mission Systems. And currency had a 1% negative impact.

轉到第 7 頁，我們總結了航空航天部門的結果。正如你所看到的，我們有一個強勁的季度。行業復甦當然已經開始。通過收購 Cobham Mission Systems，收入增長了 40%、4%、37%。貨幣產生了 1% 的負面影響。

Aftermarket and biz jet. This was partially offset by weakness in military markets. Operating margins were 24.9%, an all-time record and up 660 basis points from prior year. In the quarter, we had solid incremental margins of more than 40%, which were helped by favorable mix, particularly the growth in aftermarket and by our portfolio actions.

售後市場和商務噴氣機。這被軍事市場的疲軟部分抵消。營業利潤率為 24.9%，創歷史新高，比上年增長 660 個基點。在本季度，由於有利的組合，特別是售後市場的增長和我們的投資組合行動，我們的利潤率實現了超過 40% 的穩健增量。

Another bright spot in the quarter was the growth in orders in backlog. On a rolling 12-month basis, orders turned positive in Q3 and were up 19% in Q4 with particular strength in commercial markets. Commercial transport, biz jets and commercial aftermarket were all up significantly. And lastly, our backlog was up 16% from last year.

本季度的另一個亮點是積壓訂單的增長。在連續 12 個月的基礎上，訂單在第三季度轉為正數，第四季度增長 19%，其中商業市場尤為強勁。商業運輸、商務噴氣機和商業售後市場均顯著增長。最後，我們的積壓訂單比去年增加了 16%。

Next, on Page 8, we show the financial results of our vehicle business. Revenue was down 2%: 1% organic, 1% from currency. We had strong organic growth in North America truck and in our South America business, which was offset by weakness in global light vehicle markets. As you're aware, we had certainly significant supply chain constraints in this segment, including a number of customer shutdowns that impacted our revenue. We do have -- we think the worst is behind us here, and we'll see improvement in supply chain-related disruptions this year. Overall, I think our team executed well, delivering solid margins of 16.4% and decremental margins of 30%.

接下來，在第 8 頁，我們展示了我們汽車業務的財務業績。收入下降了 2%：1% 有機收入，1% 來自貨幣。我們在北美卡車和南美業務實現了強勁的有機增長，這被全球輕型汽車市場的疲軟所抵消。如您所知，我們在這一領域肯定存在嚴重的供應鏈限制，包括一些影響我們收入的客戶關閉。我們確實有——我們認為最糟糕的情況已經過去，今年我們將看到與供應鏈相關的中斷有所改善。總體而言，我認為我們的團隊執行得很好，實現了 16.4% 的穩定利潤率和 30% 的遞減利潤率。

Turning to Page 9. We have the results for our eMobility business. Revenues were up 4% with growth in North America and Asia, partly offset by weakness in Europe. Like our vehicle business, we experienced significant supply chain constraints and customer shutdowns in this segment. And operating margins were a negative 9.1% as we continued to invest heavily in R&D and start-up costs associated with new program wins.

翻到第 9 頁。我們的 eMobility 業務取得了成果。隨著北美和亞洲的增長，收入增長了 4%，部分被歐洲的疲軟所抵消。與我們的汽車業務一樣，我們在該領域經歷了嚴重的供應鏈限制和客戶關閉。由於我們繼續大力投資於與新項目獲勝相關的研發和啟動成本，因此營業利潤率為負 9.1%。

As I mentioned earlier, we acquired Royal Power Solutions in January, and it will be reported within the eMobility segment. This is an important acquisition. It's part of our strategy to improve the long-term growth rate of Eaton. First, it expands our addressable market for eMobility with a portfolio of highly engineered terminal connectors for electrical applications.

正如我之前提到的，我們在一月份收購了 Royal Power Solutions，並將在 eMobility 部門進行報告。這是一項重要的收購。這是我們提高伊頓長期增長率戰略的一部分。首先，它通過一系列用於電氣應用的高度工程化終端連接器擴展了我們的電動汽車目標市場。

Second, Royal Power has a strong track record of profitable growth and will continue to grow as the electrical content in vehicles continue to expand. And third, Royal will allow us to offer a more complete customer solution as we bundle their products with our own power protection and power conversion products that we're selling in eMobility markets.

其次，皇家電力擁有強勁的盈利增長記錄，並將隨著車輛中電氣含量的不斷擴大而繼續增長。第三，皇家將允許我們提供更完整的客戶解決方案，因為我們將他們的產品與我們在電動汽車市場銷售的我們自己的電源保護和電源轉換產品捆綁在一起。

And I'd say here, with organic growth momentum, the completion of Royal Power acquisition, we're well positioned to realize our long-term objective here, which is building a new $2 billion to $4 billion eMobility business inside of Eaton. And our cumulative new program wins are now at $800 million of material revenue when you include the impact of new wins from Royal Power.

我想說的是，憑藉有機增長勢頭，完成對 Royal Power 的收購，我們已經準備好實現我們的長期目標，即在伊頓內部建立一個新的 20 億至 40 億美元的電動汽車業務。如果將 Royal Power 新項目的影響包括在內，我們的累計新項目收入現在為 8 億美元。

Moving to Page 10. I'll just take a minute to recap 2021 performance before we turn our focus to 2022. First, we delivered strong organic growth for the year, up 10%, with significant strength in our Electrical Global segment, up 15%; Vehicle, up 21%; and eMobility, up 16%. And I'm especially proud of the team for delivering record segment margins of 18.9%, a 250 basis point improvement over 2020 despite the challenging supply chain environment. Our team executed at a high level and delivered incremental margins of 43%.

轉到第 10 頁。在我們將重點轉向 2022 年之前，我將花一分鐘時間回顧一下 2021 年的業績。首先，我們實現了強勁的有機增長，增長了 10%，我們的電氣全球部門實力強勁，增長了 15 %;車輛，增長 21%；和電動汽車，增長 16%。儘管供應鏈環境充滿挑戰，但我為該團隊提供創紀錄的 18.9% 的細分市場利潤率感到特別自豪，比 2020 年提高了 250 個基點。我們的團隊執行高水平，並實現了 43% 的增量利潤率。

We also had one of the most transformative years in the history of the company when you think about the portfolio. We completed $8 billion of portfolio actions towards our goal of building this high-growth, higher-margin company with more earnings consistency. And we're off to a good start in 2022 with another value-enhancing acquisition in Royal Power.

當您考慮投資組合時，我們也經歷了公司歷史上最具變革性的一年。我們完成了 80 億美元的投資組合行動，以實現我們打造這家高增長、高利潤、盈利一致性更高的公司的目標。我們在 2022 年有了一個良好的開端，對 Royal Power 進行了另一次增值收購。

The result of our disciplined execution, the transformative portfolio of actions allowed us to deliver 35% growth in adjusted EPS. And importantly, our shareholders were well rewarded for their commitment to Eaton with a total shareholder return of 47% for the year. Our 2021 results certainly set a high bar for what we expect of ourselves and I'm sure what you expect of others of us as well. But we're up for the challenge, and we think the best years are still in front of us.

我們嚴格執行的結果，變革性的行動組合使我們能夠實現調整後每股收益 35% 的增長。重要的是，我們的股東因對伊頓的承諾而獲得了豐厚的回報，全年股東總回報率為 47%。我們 2021 年的結果無疑為我們對自己的期望設定了很高的標準，我相信您對我們其他人的期望也是如此。但我們已準備好迎接挑戰，我們認為最好的歲月仍在我們面前。

So let's just turn our focus to 2022. On Page 11, we show organic growth and margin guidance by segment. Overall, we expect organic growth to be 7% to 9%. Starting with our Electrical businesses. Americas and Global are both expected to grow 7% to 9%, and we expect these businesses to see growth really across all end markets, with particular strength continuing in data centers, distributed IT and industrial markets.

因此，讓我們將注意力轉向 2022 年。在第 11 頁，我們按細分市場展示了有機增長和利潤率指導。總體而言，我們預計有機增長將達到 7% 至 9%。從我們的電氣業務開始。美洲和全球預計都將增長 7% 至 9%，我們預計這些業務將在所有終端市場上實現真正的增長，特別是在數據中心、分佈式 IT 和工業市場中繼續保持優勢。

In Aerospace, we expect organic growth of 10% to 12% with strong growth in both commercial OE and aftermarket channels. Our base assumption here is that travel continues to expand from the COVID impact the downturns without any significant new variant. And we expect low single-digit growth in military markets. For Vehicle, we're anticipating organic growth of 7.5% to 9.5% with strength in both light motor vehicles and truck markets. And in eMobility, we're expecting organic growth to be 11% to 13% driven by the continued strength in electric vehicles.

在航空航天領域，我們預計有機增長 10% 至 12%，商業 OE 和售後渠道均實現強勁增長。我們在這裡的基本假設是，在沒有任何重大新變化的情況下，旅行繼續從 COVID 影響經濟衰退中擴大。我們預計軍事市場將出現低個位數增長。對於車輛，我們預計有機增長 7.5% 至 9.5%，輕型汽車和卡車市場均表現強勁。在電動汽車方面，我們預計在電動汽車持續強勁的推動下，有機增長將達到 11% 至 13%。

And just turning to segment margins. We expect Eaton to be between 19.9% and 20.3%. At the midpoint, this is a 120 basis point improvement over our record margins that we delivered in 2021. And we expect to see margin expansion in all of our segments.

只是轉向細分利潤。我們預計伊頓將在 19.9% 至 20.3% 之間。在中點，這比我們在 2021 年實現的創紀錄利潤率提高了 120 個基點。我們預計所有細分市場的利潤率都將擴大。

Turning to Page 12, we cover the balance of our 2022 guidance. Organic growth, as we noted, is expected to be 7% to 9%, with acquisitions and divestitures subtracting 3.5%, and currency is expected to be flat. We're also forecasting cost to be flat and our tax rate to be between 16% and 17%. Adjusted EPS is projected to be in a range of $7.30 to $7.70, at the midpoint of $7.50, a 13% increase. Operating cash flow is expected to be between $3 billion and $3.2 billion, and CapEx will be approximately $650 million.

轉到第 12 頁，我們將介紹 2022 年指南的其餘部分。正如我們所指出的，有機增長預計為 7% 至 9%，收購和資產剝離減少 3.5%，貨幣預計將持平。我們還預測成本將持平，我們的稅率將在 16% 至 17% 之間。調整後的每股收益預計在 7.30 美元至 7.70 美元之間，中點為 7.50 美元，增長 13%。運營現金流預計在 30 億美元至 32 億美元之間，資本支出約為 6.5 億美元。

At the midpoint, our operating cash flow is expected to increase 15% versus last year. Our free cash flow is expected to be between $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion (sic - see slide 12, "$2.35 billion and $2.55 billion") and at the midpoint of $2.5 billion, also a 15% increase. This represents free cash flow to sales of approximately 12% and free cash flow to net income of approximately 100%. And we expect share repurchases to be between $200 million and $300 million, and this really reflects our pivot to what we think is going to be a higher priority on tuck-in acquisitions.

在中點，我們的經營現金流預計將比去年增加 15%。我們的自由現金流預計在 24 億美元和 26 億美元之間（原文如此 - 參見幻燈片 12，“23.5 億美元和 25.5 億美元”），中間值為 25 億美元，增長 15%。這代表銷售的自由現金流約為 12%，淨收入的自由現金流約為 100%。我們預計股票回購將在 2 億美元至 3 億美元之間，這確實反映了我們轉向我們認為將成為收購收購的更高優先級的重點。

And lastly, our Q1 guidance is as follows. We expect adjusted EPS to be between $1.55 and $1.65, organic revenue growth to be up 7% to 9%, segment margins to come in between 18.4% and 18.8%, and we expect our tax rate to be between 15% and 16%.

最後，我們的第一季度指導如下。我們預計調整後的每股收益將在 1.55 美元至 1.65 美元之間，有機收入增長將增長 7% 至 9%，分部利潤率將在 18.4% 至 18.8% 之間，我們預計我們的稅率將在 15% 至 16% 之間。

And if you'd just allow me for a moment, if I could just close with, once again, Page 13, which is a brief summary on how we think you should think about the company. I'd say, first, our top line is supported by strong secular growth trends. And I'd say of note, most of this growth impact is just beginning to show up in our revenue. So most of it's still out in front of us.

如果您允許我稍等片刻，請我再次以第 13 頁作為結束，這是關於我們認為您應該如何看待公司的簡短摘要。我想說，首先，我們的收入受到強勁的長期增長趨勢的支持。我要說的是，這種增長影響的大部分才剛剛開始體現在我們的收入中。所以大部分還在我們面前。

We've proven that we know how to expand margins and are comfortable with our ability to deliver 11% to 13% EPS growth over our planning horizon. We also have clear capital allocation priorities and a disciplined approach to M&A, which we think is paying off. As a result, I'd say we're a different company today. We've transformed our portfolio. We're now a company that will deliver higher growth, better margins, more earnings consistency. And I'd say, once again, we're not done.

我們已經證明，我們知道如何擴大利潤率，並且對我們在計劃範圍內實現 11% 到 13% 的每股收益增長的能力感到滿意。我們也有明確的資本配置優先事項和有紀律的併購方法，我們認為這正在取得成效。因此，我想說我們今天是一家不同的公司。我們已經改變了我們的投資組合。我們現在是一家將實現更高增長、更高利潤率、更高盈利一致性的公司。我要再說一次，我們還沒有完成。

We also have a long-standing commitment to ESG. It remains at the forefront of what we do every day. In fact, the sustainability for us is really a part of how we drive growth in the company. Many of you have gotten to know our Chief Sustainability Officer, Harold Jones, and you'll be hearing more from him at our investor meeting next month.

我們還長期致力於 ESG。它仍然是我們每天所做工作的最前沿。事實上，對我們而言，可持續性確實是我們推動公司增長的一部分。你們中的許多人已經認識了我們的首席可持續發展官 Harold Jones，在下個月的投資者會議上，你們將聽到更多關於他的消息。

In the short term, you can count on us to continue to manage through these operating challenges as a result of COVID, the supply chain disruptions and labor shortages by managing the things we can control. 2021, we think, was an important proof point on our journey to transform the company, and we're proud of our results. More importantly, we're ready to do it again this year.

在短期內，您可以指望我們通過管理我們可以控制的事情來繼續應對由於 COVID、供應鏈中斷和勞動力短缺而帶來的這些運營挑戰。我們認為，2021 年是我們公司轉型之旅的一個重要證明點，我們為我們的成果感到自豪。更重要的是，我們準備在今年再次這樣做。

Now I'll turn it back to Yan, and we'll be happy to address your questions.

現在我將把它轉回給 Yan，我們很樂意解決您的問題。

Thank you, Craig. (Operator Instructions) Thank you, once again, for your cooperation. With that, I will turn it over to the operator to give you guys the instructions.

謝謝你，克雷格。 （操作員說明）再次感謝您的合作。有了這個，我會把它交給運營商給你們指導。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from the line of Josh Pokrzywinski with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的 Josh Pokrzywinski。

I always know if there's a pause it has to be coming to me, so I can start unmuting. So a couple of questions here. I guess first on free cash flow conversion.

我總是知道如果有一個暫停，它必須來找我，所以我可以開始取消靜音。所以這裡有幾個問題。我想首先是自由現金流轉換。

How should we think about some of the moving pieces around there, working capital or otherwise? And what -- when do you think we start to get back to kind of more historical conversion rates?

我們應該如何考慮周圍的一些變動因素，營運資金或其他方面？什麼 - 你認為我們什麼時候開始恢復到歷史轉化率？

So thanks for the question, Josh. Appreciate it. We intentionally used GAAP earnings in our prepared remarks when we said we were close to 100% in our free cash flow conversion. And the reason we did this is it's important to look at GAAP earnings when you're going through multiyear restructurings and doing a lot of M&A.

所以謝謝你的問題，喬希。欣賞它。當我們說我們的自由現金流轉換接近 100% 時，我們在準備好的評論中故意使用了 GAAP 收益。我們這樣做的原因是，當您進行多年重組並進行大量併購時，查看 GAAP 收益非常重要。

So there's really 4 main items that you need to think about as it relates free cash flow conversion. One is acquisition, integration and divestiture costs, which are going to generate cash requirements for us in 2022. The other one is the multiyear restructuring program. Now while we're at the tail end of that, we will have cash requirements, which will also be in 2022.

因此，您確實需要考慮 4 個主要項目，因為它與自由現金流轉換有關。一個是收購、整合和剝離成本，這些成本將在 2022 年為我們帶來現金需求。另一個是多年重組計劃。現在，雖然我們處於最後階段，但我們將有現金需求，這也將在 2022 年實現。

Another element is CapEx. As you probably noted for our guide, we're up $75 million in CapEx investing to grow. And then the final one is a smaller one, but it's relevant, the CARES Act. We still have 50% which is due, which we'll pay in 2022. So if you're using adjusted earnings, you likely got in the low 80s, mid-80s. If you adjust for those 4 items, you're going to be well into the mid-90s. So I don't think it's a departure between what we've done historically. I think it's consistent.

另一個要素是資本支出。正如您可能在我們的指南中指出的那樣，我們的資本支出投資增加了 7500 萬美元以實現增長。最後一個是較小的，但它是相關的，即 CARES 法案。我們還有 50% 的應付款項，我們將在 2022 年支付。因此，如果您使用調整後的收入，您可能會處於 80 年代中期、80 年代中期。如果您針對這 4 項進行調整，那麼您將進入 90 年代中期。所以我不認為這與我們在歷史上所做的事情有什麼不同。我認為是一致的。

The other thing I would note is we're also growing operating cash flow by $400 million in the year, which is significant.

我要指出的另一件事是，我們今年的運營現金流也增加了 4 億美元，這非常重要。

And I'd just add, in addition to that, Josh, I mean we're obviously not through a number of these supply chain-related challenges. And so we're certainly, as we think about today, how do we protect customers? How do we get out in front of some of these supply chain constraints? We're still sitting on a fairly large pile of working capital, specifically in inventory, as we're dealing with some of these supply chain-related issues.

我只想補充一點，除此之外，喬希，我的意思是我們顯然沒有通過這些與供應鏈相關的挑戰。因此，正如我們今天所想的那樣，我們當然是如何保護客戶的？我們如何擺脫這些供應鏈限制？由於我們正在處理其中一些與供應鏈相關的問題，我們仍然擁有相當多的營運資金，特別是在庫存方面。

Got it. That's helpful. And then I guess just speaking of supply chain, probably the volume output here is held back. We can see that in the 1Q guide, I guess, specifically in Electrical. But if order rates hold, what sort of volume growth are you guys thinking about as kind of in second half or exit rate? Or as some of these supply chain issues abate, how do you guys think about that in the guide here?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我想只是談到供應鏈，這裡的產量可能會受到抑制。我猜我們可以在 1Q 指南中看到這一點，特別是在電氣方面。但是，如果訂單率保持不變，你們認為下半年或退出率會有什麼樣的銷量增長？或者隨著其中一些供應鏈問題的緩解，你們如何看待這裡的指南？

Yes. I mean it's certainly a tough question to really address, I mean, that you can appreciate. We and others have got this thing wrong in terms of how long these supply chain constraints would be with us. But certainly, the underlying order growth in the businesses is a good proxy for where the real demand is.

是的。我的意思是，這肯定是一個很難真正解決的問題，我的意思是，你可以欣賞。我們和其他人在這些供應鏈限制對我們存在多長時間方面都搞錯了。但可以肯定的是，企業的潛在訂單增長很好地代表了實際需求在哪裡。

And I'm sure the question that sits just behind this one is that, to what extent do you believe there's over ordering taking place, restocking in the channel? And I can tell you, as we continue to test for that, we're not seeing it. And our distributors are certainly today calling for more inventory than we're currently able to deliver to them. So much of our business is project-driven. And so on projects, you're not over-ordering on a project. A project is a project.

我敢肯定，這個問題背後的問題是，您認為在多大程度上會發生過度訂購和渠道補貨？我可以告訴你，隨著我們繼續對此進行測試，我們沒有看到它。今天，我們的分銷商肯定需要比我們目前能夠交付給他們的更多的庫存。我們的很多業務都是由項目驅動的。等等項目，你不會在一個項目上過度訂購。一個項目就是一個項目。

And so if you just look at the order levels that we're seeing in our business, I mean orders and sales at some point converge to the extent that there isn't a bunch of over-ordering taking place. And so we feel really good about the underlying strength in our markets. We see this tremendous growth in our backlog. And eventually, this stuff is converted to sales.

因此，如果您僅查看我們在業務中看到的訂單水平，我的意思是訂單和銷售在某個時候會收斂到沒有發生大量過度訂購的程度。因此，我們對市場的潛在實力感覺非常好。我們在積壓中看到了這種巨大的增長。最終，這些東西轉化為銷售。

And so we're talking about our guidance of 7% to 9%, which is well below the underlying order rate that we've seen in our Electrical business. And so at some point, those 2 things converge.

因此，我們談論的是 7% 到 9% 的指導，這遠低於我們在電氣業務中看到的基本訂單率。所以在某些時候，這兩件事會匯合。

Yes. I guess for perspective, Josh, we estimated in Q4, just in the Americas, we probably lost about $100 million in sales related to supplier disruption.

是的。喬希，我想從角度來看，我們在第四季度估計，僅在美洲，我們可能會因供應商中斷而損失約 1 億美元的銷售額。

Yes. Right. Timing. We didn't -- so we think that's one thing those revenues are pushed into 2022 if you just went into the backlog.

是的。正確的。定時。我們沒有——所以我們認為，如果你只是積壓的話，這些收入會被推到 2022 年。

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Obin with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Andrew Obin。

Just a question on backlog. How much visibility do you currently have from your project backlog? And how does the margin profile of those projects look relative to the current input costs? Because sort of mixed message from various folks as to how that's going to play out in '22.

只是關於積壓的問題。您目前從項目積壓中獲得多少可見性？這些項目的利潤率相對於當前的投入成本如何？因為來自各種人的混合信息，關於這將如何在 22 年發揮作用。

Yes. I'd say that we're not -- we're sitting on a lot more visibility today than we have ever in the history of the business. When you think about this 57% -- 56% growth in the backlog for our Global Electrical businesses. And so we have much better visibility today than we would have going into almost any year in the history of the company.

是的。我會說我們不是——我們今天的知名度比我們在業務歷史上的任何時候都要高。當您考慮到我們全球電氣業務的積壓訂單增長了 57% - 56% 時。因此，與公司歷史上幾乎任何一年相比，我們今天的知名度要高得多。

And I'd say with respect to pricing in the backlog, I mean, we've naturally have seen this inflation trend coming for some time now. We certainly have had the ability to anticipate where it was going as well with respect to commodity inflation. And so we're very comfortable today with pricing in our backlog, and that's certainly reflected in the guidance that we have. But we don't expect, like perhaps you've heard from some others, to have a margin impact as a result of a backlog that's not reflective of today's commodity prices.

我想說的是，關於積壓的定價，我的意思是，我們自然已經看到這種通脹趨勢已經有一段時間了。我們當然有能力預測商品通脹的走向。因此，我們今天對積壓訂單中的定價感到非常滿意，這肯定反映在我們的指導中。但我們不希望，就像您從其他一些人那裡聽到的那樣，由於未反映當今商品價格的積壓導致利潤率影響。

Excellent. And just maybe to build on the previous question. So you are highlighting that sort of the underlying free cash flow conversion is close to 100%. But look, I think cash flow is one of the factors here. As we sort of enter this growth, what looks like an industrial growth period, how generally do you think about sort of investments needed in capacity, working capital, supply chain to keep up with demand in the longer term? And how do you see managing it? And what kind of impact do you foresee it having on margins, free cash flow conversions, return on capital, et cetera? Just big-picture question.

優秀。也許只是建立在上一個問題的基礎上。所以你強調的是那種基本的自由現金流轉換接近 100%。但是看，我認為現金流是這裡的因素之一。當我們進入這種增長期時，看起來像是一個工業增長期，您一般如何看待產能、營運資金、供應鏈所需的投資以跟上長期需求？您如何看待管理它？您預計它會對利潤率、自由現金流轉換、資本回報率等產生什麼樣的影響？只是宏觀問題。

Yes. I'd say if you think about -- we talk about these important secular growth trends and the fact that we do expect our business as we look forward to be a much faster-growing business than we have historically. And we have had to, and we've talked about some examples before, make some fairly sizable investments in new capacity to deal with some of this growth that we're going to be -- that we're booking today and will be coming into the future.

是的。我會說，如果您考慮一下 - 我們談論這些重要的長期增長趨勢以及我們確實期望我們的業務，因為我們期待成為一個比歷史上增長更快的業務。我們必須，而且我們之前已經討論過一些例子，對新產能進行一些相當大的投資，以應對我們將要實現的一些增長——我們今天預訂並將即將到來進入未來。

And so I would say as you look into the future, certainly with respect to investments in capacity to support demand, we would expect to see a bit of a tick-up in capital spending requirements. Revenue is going to be growing as well. And so if you think about CapEx as a percentage of sales, it probably won't be a material change, but there'll probably be a bit of a tick-up.

所以我想說，當你展望未來時，當然在支持需求的能力投資方面，我們預計資本支出要求會有所上升。收入也將增長。因此，如果您將資本支出視為銷售額的百分比，它可能不會發生重大變化，但可能會有一點點上升。

On the working capital side, I'd say today, we still have opportunities. We are sitting today on record investments in inventory as we try to protect our customers and protect our sites so that they can keep running. And so I would say I would not anticipate today a large investment in working capital. Once we get through some of the supply chain specific-driven transitory items, I would hope that at some point, it will be a source of cash even as we continue to grow the business. And we literally have built that much inventory inside of the company to really try to protect customers.

在營運資金方面，我今天想說，我們仍然有機會。今天，當我們試圖保護我們的客戶並保護我們的網站以便他們能夠繼續運行時，我們對庫存進行了創紀錄的投資。所以我會說我不會預料到今天會有大量的營運資金投資。一旦我們通過了一些供應鏈特定驅動的臨時項目，我希望在某個時候，即使我們繼續發展業務，它也會成為現金來源。我們確實在公司內部建立了這麼多庫存，以真正努力保護客戶。

But on the working capital -- on the -- excuse me, on the CapEx side, we would anticipate continuing to make investments in capacity in our facilities in resiliency to ensure that we have the ability to support the growth that we see coming.

但在營運資金方面——對不起，在資本支出方面，我們預計將繼續對我們設施的產能進行投資，以確保我們有能力支持我們看到的未來增長。

Andrew, I think it's also important to note is we're not walking away from our objective of 100% free cash flow conversion and 14% free cash flow as a percentage of sales. That remains something that we're focused on.

安德魯，我認為還需要注意的是，我們並沒有放棄 100% 的自由現金流轉換和 14% 的自由現金流佔銷售額的目標。這仍然是我們關注的重點。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Vertical Research 的 Jeff Sprague。

If we could just kind of peel the price/cost apart a little bit further. I just wonder, specifically on price, if you can give us some sense of what the realization was in the quarter and what is embedded in your guide. And also as part of that, Craig, you just kind of mentioned you didn't expect price/cost to be a margin headwind. So are we -- it sounds like we're probably positive on a dollar rate, perhaps? Maybe you could confirm that and just clarify the margin impact, if you will.

如果我們可以進一步剝離價格/成本。我只是想知道，特別是在價格方面，您是否可以讓我們了解本季度的實現情況以及您的指南中包含的內容。作為其中的一部分，克雷格，你剛剛提到你並不認為價格/成本會成為利潤逆風。我們也是 - 聽起來我們可能對美元匯率持積極態度，也許？如果您願意，也許您可以確認這一點並澄清利潤率影響。

Yes. Appreciate the question, Jeff, and this is obviously one that we're spending a lot of time internally on ensuring that we're recovering all of the commodity inflation that we're seeing in our business. And so my comment -- my opening commentary, I talked about the fact that we saw a margin impact in our Electrical Americas business, specifically as it relates to price and cost, largely because we are, in fact, recovering the dollars, but we're not getting a margin -- at least in the fourth quarter, we did not get a margin on top of the recovery. And so it obviously had a dilutive impact on the margin rate.

是的。傑夫，感謝這個問題，這顯然是我們在內部花費大量時間來確保我們正在恢復我們在業務中看到的所有商品通脹的問題。所以我的評論——我的開場評論，我談到了這樣一個事實，即我們看到美國電氣業務的利潤率受到影響，特別是與價格和成本有關的情況，主要是因為我們實際上正在收回美元，但我們'沒有得到利潤——至少在第四季度，我們沒有在復甦的基礎上得到利潤。因此，它顯然對保證金率產生了攤薄影響。

As we look forward, we do expect that we'll be slightly positive in price/cost, we think about 2022, and that will just continue to build from this point forward. So 2022 will be a better year. It will be less of a headwind for sure than we experienced in 2021. And we certainly would expect from an EPS standpoint that it will be positive to our EPS earnings.

正如我們展望的那樣，我們確實預計我們的價格/成本會略微樂觀，我們考慮到 2022 年，並且從這一點開始，這種情況將繼續增長。所以2022年會是更好的一年。肯定會比我們在 2021 年經歷的逆風要小。從每股收益的角度來看，我們當然會期望這將對我們的每股收益產生積極影響。

On the specific question on what the dollar percentage, Jeff, as we talked about on the last earnings call, and I know it's a number that everybody is looking for, and I can understand why. But we're in so many different businesses, and we have very different inflation rates. When you think about something in Crouse-Hinds, which has a really heavy content of steel versus something that's in one of our other businesses, and so the inflation rates are quite variable. And so we have chosen not to provide that number so as not to confuse customers around prices they're seeing versus what we're talking about on our earnings call.

關於美元百分比的具體問題，傑夫，正如我們在上次財報電話會議上談到的那樣，我知道這是每個人都在尋找的數字，我能理解為什麼。但是我們從事許多不同的業務，而且我們的通貨膨脹率也大不相同。當您考慮 Crouse-Hinds 中的某些東西時，與我們其他業務中的某些東西相比，它的鋼材含量非常高，因此通貨膨脹率變化很大。因此，我們選擇不提供該數字，以免客戶混淆他們看到的價格與我們在財報電話會議上談論的價格。

Since you mentioned steel, maybe I'll go there with my follow-up. Obviously, the futures are pointing a lot lower. Perhaps you could just give us an update on the likely lag effects of perhaps deflation on steel coming through the system. You do have some big backlogs to work through.

既然你提到了鋼鐵，也許我會帶著我的後續行動去那裡。顯然，期貨指向低很多。也許您可以向我們提供有關通貨緊縮對通過該系統的鋼鐵可能產生的滯後影響的最新信息。你確實有一些大的積壓工作要解決。

So certainly, I would suspect it's going to take a couple of quarters. But any color there on steel, specifically? Or just the other key commodity inputs that we're all keeping an eye on here?

所以當然，我懷疑這需要幾個季度。但是鋼上有什麼顏色，特別是？或者只是我們都在這里關注的其他關鍵商品輸入？

Yes. We appreciate the question as well. And like you mentioned, we are, in fact, seeing steel prices kind of retrench a little bit versus where they were last year and certainly where they were in the fourth quarter. And the typical lag time on that can be anywhere from 30 days to 90 days, depending upon which segment of the business and what type of agreement we have with our suppliers.

是的。我們也很欣賞這個問題。就像你提到的那樣，事實上，我們看到鋼鐵價格與去年的水平相比略有下降，當然在第四季度也是如此。典型的滯後時間可能從 30 天到 90 天不等，具體取決於業務的哪個部分以及我們與供應商達成的協議類型。

But I would say with respect to commodities overall is that we're really not seeing commodities overall essentially improve. Copper is up. Resin costs are still high. The cost of semiconductors, if you can get them, are up dramatically. And so we are still living in this inflationary environment. And we would anticipate for much of 2022 that we continue to operate in this elevated environment of input costs.

但我想說的是，就大宗商品整體而言，我們真的沒有看到大宗商品整體出現實質性改善。銅漲了。樹脂成本仍然很高。半導體的成本，如果你能買到的話，會大幅上漲。所以我們仍然生活在這種通貨膨脹的環境中。我們預計，在 2022 年的大部分時間裡，我們將繼續在這種投入成本高企的環境中運營。

Steel is the one kind of good guy right now, but there are more than enough other bad guys out there in terms of where we're still seeing inflation that are offsetting the benefits that we're going to see from steel.

鋼鐵目前是一種好人，但就我們仍然看到的通貨膨脹而言，還有很多其他壞人正在抵消我們將從鋼鐵中看到的好處。

Our next question comes from the line of Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Nicole DeBlase。

I just kind of want to go back to the free cash flow and working capital discussion. So completely understand that this is an area of opportunity, and that's kind of been reflected over a lot of companies that we've heard from over the past few weeks. But I guess when we think about your 2022 guidance, have you embedded continued working capital build? Or are you anticipating that it will be a source of cash for this year?

我只是想回到自由現金流和營運資金的討論。所以完全理解這是一個機會領域，在過去幾週我們聽到的很多公司都反映了這一點。但我想當我們考慮你的 2022 年指導時，你是否嵌入了持續的營運資金建設？或者您是否預計它將成為今年的現金來源？

I think what's embedded -- correct me if I'm wrong, Tom, but I think it's a slight positive what's embedded in our forecast.

我認為嵌入的內容 - 如果我錯了，請糾正我，湯姆，但我認為我們的預測中嵌入的內容有點積極。

We're looking at some net working capital improvement, primarily as it relates to inventory.

我們正在考慮一些淨營運資金的改善，主要是因為它與庫存有關。

Right. So it's not a big needle mover for us in 2022. It is a slight positive is what I'd say. And once again, it could be an area of opportunity. If we get through some of these supply chain-related challenges more quickly than we're currently anticipating, it certainly could be an opportunity to generate stronger free cash flow.

正確的。因此，到 2022 年，這對我們來說並不是一個大的推動因素。我想說的是，這是一個輕微的積極因素。再一次，這可能是一個機會領域。如果我們以比我們目前預期的更快的速度克服其中一些與供應鏈相關的挑戰，那當然可能是一個產生更強勁自由現金流的機會。

Of course. Got it. And then I guess, just kind of following up and finishing up the price/cost discussion. Craig, you specifically called out Americas, which makes sense. Are you having price/cost headwinds at the margin line in any of your other segments? Or is this just really isolated as predominantly an Americas issue?

當然。知道了。然後我想，只是跟進並完成價格/成本討論。克雷格，你特別提到了美洲，這是有道理的。您是否在其他任何細分市場的邊際線處遇到價格/成本逆風？還是這只是一個主要是美洲問題的孤立問題？

I'd say we're having price/cost headwinds in all of our businesses for the most part. It is just most acute in the Americas. And so I'd say we haven't -- we just -- if you think about today what's going on, and it's kind of interesting what's going on around the world, it's really the U.S. businesses in general that have had the biggest challenges around price/cost, and that's largely on the input side. The inflation that we've experienced in our Americas businesses and our U.S.-based businesses has been significantly higher than what we've seen in other markets around the world. But we're having, let's say, inflationary pressures every place. It's just most acute in the U.S.-based businesses.

我想說的是，我們所有的業務大部分都面臨價格/成本逆風。它在美洲最為嚴重。所以我想說我們沒有——我們只是——如果你想想今天發生了什麼，世界各地正在發生的事情很有趣，總的來說，美國企業確實面臨著最大的挑戰圍繞價格/成本，這主要是在投入方面。我們在美洲業務和美國業務中經歷的通貨膨脹明顯高於我們在世界其他市場看到的通貨膨脹。但是，比方說，我們每個地方都面臨著通脹壓力。這在美國企業中最為嚴重。

Our next question comes from the line of John Walsh with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的約翰沃爾什。

Maybe the first one, can you give us a little more detail on what you're seeing in the data center market globally and if you are actually booking out now to 2023 on some of those projects?

也許是第一個，您能否詳細介紹一下您在全球數據中心市場上看到的情況，以及您是否真的在 2023 年之前預訂了其中一些項目？

Yes. John, the data center market has been extraordinarily strong for us during the course of the year and on the back of really what's been a multiyear trend of really strong market. And whether we're looking at hyperscale, whether we're looking at colocations, whether we look at even on-prem, each of those markets have been extremely strong and as has been the IT channel in general.

是的。約翰，數據中心市場在這一年中對我們來說非常強勁，而且在多年的強勁市場趨勢的支持下。無論我們是在看超大規模，還是在看主機託管，甚至是在本地，這些市場中的每一個都非常強大，而且整個 IT 渠道也是如此。

And so I'd say today, if we think about where we're challenged around our ability to really service customer demand to these really strong markets of data centers and residential that certainly have built very large backlogs. And today, we're struggling to keep up with demand. And quite frankly, we think that market, those stay strong for a very long period of time.

所以我今天要說的是，如果我們考慮一下我們在真正滿足客戶需求的能力方面面臨的挑戰，這些真正強大的數據中心和住宅市場肯定已經建立了非常大的積壓訂單。而今天，我們正在努力跟上需求。坦率地說，我們認為這個市場會在很長一段時間內保持強勁。

And you link it back to some of the earlier conversations of where are you're going to need to make some capital investments to really deal with some of these longer-term growth trends, it's going to be in markets like data centers, which we think is going to be strong for a very long period of time as the world continues, so as I've said before, generate, consume, process, store just increasing amounts of data.

並且你將它與之前的一些對話聯繫起來，即你將需要在哪裡進行一些資本投資以真正應對這些長期增長趨勢，它將出現在數據中心等市場，我們隨著世界的繼續發展，think 會在很長一段時間內保持強大，所以正如我之前所說，生成、消費、處理、存儲越來越多的數據。

And so I -- and we're sitting on kind of the verge of another big growth wave when we think about 5G, when you think about autonomous vehicles. And so we think that market is going to be strong for a very long time, and we're going to have to continue to invest to keep up with the growth.

所以我 - 當我們想到 5G 時，當你想到自動駕駛汽車時，我們正處於另一個大增長浪潮的邊緣。因此，我們認為市場將在很長一段時間內保持強勁，我們將不得不繼續投資以跟上增長的步伐。

Great. And then maybe one on Aerospace margins. If I did the math right, it looks like there's a little pressure on the conversion. Obviously, absolute numbers, a nice improvement. Is that mix? Or is there something else happening there?

偉大的。然後可能是航空航天利潤。如果我做對了，看起來轉換會有一點壓力。顯然，絕對數字，一個不錯的改進。是混合嗎？還是那裡發生了其他事情？

So when you say pressure on conversion, you're talking about incremental margins in the quarter?

因此，當您說轉換壓力時，您指的是本季度的增量利潤率？

Yes. The incremental margins, maybe that's just mix with OE growing faster or something happening, commercial, military. I'm calculating something in like the upper 20s -- mid- to upper 20s.

是的。增量利潤，也許這只是與 OE 增長更快或正在發生的事情，商業，軍事相結合。我正在計算類似於 20 多歲的東西——20 多歲的中上。

The incremental margins for Aerospace business was 40%, 4-0.

航空航天業務的增量利潤率為 40%，4-0。

Oh, I'm saying in the guide, sorry, in the forward look for 2022.

哦，我在指南中說，對不起，在展望 2022 年。

Why don't you let us get back to you on that in terms of the incremental margins in the guidance? I think you have an acquisition impact on that as well. So -- and I'm not sure what you're assuming in terms of stripping out acquisitions, which obviously don't come at a normal incremental. They come at the underlying margin rate of the business. So why don't you let us get back to you on that one and maybe deal with that off-line.

您為什麼不讓我們就指導中的增量利潤率回复您？我認為您對此也有收購影響。所以 - 我不確定你在剝離收購方面的假設，這顯然不是正常的增量。它們以企業的基本利潤率計算。那麼，您為什麼不讓我們就該問題與您聯繫，也許可以離線處理該問題。

Sure.

當然。

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬·里奇。

So Craig, look, interesting dynamic occurring in the market right now on the inventory side. And saw you guys build inventories this quarter, which makes a ton of sense, obviously, to be able to supply the market. But I kind of want to try to square the comments on distributor inventories being lean. Clearly, no inventories if you're doing a project.

所以克雷格，看，現在市場上庫存方面發生了有趣的動態。並且看到你們在本季度建立了庫存，顯然，這很有意義，能夠供應市場。但我有點想嘗試糾正關於分銷商庫存稀少的評論。顯然，如果你正在做一個項目，就沒有庫存。

What's your sense on the OEMs? Because we are hearing from some of our companies that they are building inventories, but everybody is also saying that the market is still very lean out there.

您對 OEM 有何看法？因為我們從我們的一些公司那裡聽到他們正在建立庫存，但每個人也都說市場仍然非常貧乏。

Yes. And I'd say that -- I mean, I think it's fair to say everybody would like to build inventory, and we're getting lots of requests to get back to historical levels of inventory with our distributors. And where OEs carry inventory, many of them don't, some of them do. But keep in mind, so much of what we do today is project business in our electrical. And projects, you typically are not finding, obviously, any inventory build there.

是的。我會這麼說 - 我的意思是，我認為可以公平地說每個人都想建立庫存，並且我們收到很多要求與我們的分銷商一起恢復庫存歷史水平的請求。在 OE 有庫存的地方，他們中的許多人沒有，其中一些人有。但請記住，我們今天所做的很多事情都是我們的電氣項目業務。而項目，顯然你通常不會在那裡找到任何庫存。

And so I'd say that this is one that -- is certainly been one that we've been concerned about. We've been watching. We've been testing for in terms of whether or not there is over-inventory in the system, whether or not there's double ordering in the system. And I can just tell you, having talked with and been engaged with a number of our teams and our distributors, that's not what we're hearing or seeing. They would like more inventory, and their inventory levels today are below where they'd like them to be given their forward look on revenue growth.

所以我會說這是一個 - 肯定是我們一直關注的一個。我們一直在關注。我們一直在測試系統中是否存在庫存過剩，系統中是否存在雙重訂購。我可以告訴你，在與我們的一些團隊和經銷商進行過交談和接觸後，這不是我們所聽到或看到的。他們想要更多的庫存，而他們今天的庫存水平低於他們希望他們對收入增長具有前瞻性的水平。

Yes. That makes sense, Craig. I appreciate the comments there. I guess my one follow-on question, I guess, would be more around like Electrical Americas margins. And clearly understand the pressures that you're feeling this quarter. I think lots of other companies were feeling the same.

是的。這是有道理的，克雷格。我很欣賞那裡的評論。我想我的一個後續問題會更像是美國電氣公司的利潤。並清楚地了解您在本季度感受到的壓力。我想很多其他公司也有同樣的感覺。

How do you think -- I know that you guys have pretty healthy margin expansion baked in to 2022. At what point does that start to turn positive year-over-year? And then -- and maybe just perhaps providing a little bit more color on the cadence would be helpful.

你怎麼看——我知道你們的利潤率在 2022 年實現了相當健康的增長。什麼時候開始同比增長？然後 - 也許只是在節奏上提供更多的顏色會有所幫助。

So when do margins turn positive year-over-year? I mean, what quarter do the margins turn positive?

那麼利潤率何時會同比轉正呢？我的意思是，利潤率在哪個季度變為正數？

Yes. Just cadence around like the puts and takes on margins as we progress through 2022 in Electrical Americas?

是的。隨著我們在 2022 年在美國電氣行業的進展，就像看跌期權一樣調整節奏並獲得利潤？

Yes. I'd say that certainly, by the time we hit Q2, we would expect that our margins would turn positive. I mean, obviously, we're dealing with a number of factors right now in the business. And obviously, what's getting a lot of attention right now is supply chain-related issues.

是的。我肯定會說，到第二季度時，我們預計我們的利潤率會轉為正數。我的意思是，顯然，我們現在正在處理業務中的許多因素。顯然，現在引起很多關注的是與供應鏈相關的問題。

But I could tell you also a part of the challenge, as I mentioned in my speaking -- opening commentary that we're seeing significant labor-related issues and inefficiencies at our plants, too. We had pretty large absenteeism in a number of our facilities at the end of last year, the beginning part of this year as a result of COVID.

但我也可以告訴你挑戰的一部分，正如我在演講中提到的那樣——開場評論說，我們在工廠也看到了與勞工相關的重大問題和效率低下。去年年底，今年年初，由於新冠疫情，我們的一些設施出現了相當大的缺勤率。

Our suppliers are seeing the same thing. And so it's not just supply chain and we can't get parts. And in many cases, we were challenged to get labor and to run our factories efficiently. And so all of these inefficiencies today are kind of built into the results in Q4, and to a certain extent, in Q1 as well.

我們的供應商也看到了同樣的情況。因此，不僅僅是供應鏈，我們無法獲得零件。在許多情況下，我們面臨著獲得勞動力和高效運營工廠的挑戰。因此，今天所有這些低效率都在某種程度上內置於第四季度的結果中，並且在一定程度上，在第一季度也是如此。

So I think it's really Q2 by the time we really get beyond some of the labor inefficiencies. We do think that supply chain continues to get better every quarter. But in some cases, we think we're going to be dealing with supply chain challenges for the entire year when you think about components like semiconductors. But other components, whether that's copper, steel or resins, we do think those things continue to get better every quarter.

所以我認為當我們真正克服一些勞動力效率低下的問題時，這真的是第二季度了。我們確實認為供應鏈每個季度都會繼續變得更好。但在某些情況下，當您考慮半導體等組件時，我們認為我們將應對全年的供應鏈挑戰。但其他組件，無論是銅、鋼還是樹脂，我們確實認為這些東西每個季度都會變得更好。

It's important to note at the midpoint, which you saw in our prepared remarks, we're 90 bps above the prior year margins in Electrical Americas. So that reflects bullishness that we feel about things correcting throughout the year.

重要的是要注意中點，正如您在我們準備好的評論中看到的那樣，我們在電氣美洲的前一年利潤率高出 90 個基點。因此，這反映了我們對全年糾正的樂觀情緒。

Our next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Julian Mitchell。

One starting point perhaps was just within the Electrical Americas business. I just wanted to try and understand sort of on the residential side of that, how much was residential as a whole as a proportion of that business today? And how strongly was the business up last year? And when you're thinking about this year ahead, are you dialing in any kind of slowdown there? I think people are obviously pretty cautious about a number of other resi-facing product categories in multi-industry right now.

一個起點可能只是在美國電氣業務中。我只是想嘗試在住宅方面了解一下，今天整個住宅佔該業務的比例是多少？去年的業務增長有多強勁？當您考慮未來的一年時，您是否正在考慮那裡的任何放緩？我認為人們現在顯然對多行業中許多其他面向 resi 的產品類別非常謹慎。

Sure. Appreciate the question. I mean resi today, I think we'd say 18% roughly of our business would go into residential markets. And that market did grow strongly during the course of 2021. I'd say that business was probably up double digit...

當然。欣賞這個問題。我的意思是今天的 resi，我想我們會說大約 18% 的業務將進入住宅市場。這個市場在 2021 年期間確實增長強勁。我想說的是，業務可能增長了兩位數……

It's around 10%, yes, around 10%.

大約是 10%，是的，大約 10%。

Double digit, yes. So -- and we're clearly expecting that market to see somewhat of a slowdown, which is baked into our guidance for 2022. Still growth in the market, but not at the heavy levels that we experienced on the course of 2021.

兩位數，是的。所以——我們顯然預計該市場會出現一定程度的放緩，這已納入我們對 2022 年的指導。市場仍在增長，但不會達到我們在 2021 年經歷的高水平。

Now the other thing I think it's important, though, as you think about residential markets to keep in mind, as you really think about this market over the near and the longer term is that it's not just the growth in the housing stock. It really is also the growth in the electrical content in buildings, residential buildings, multifamily buildings. As they adopt the new electrical codes, it requires additional electrical content.

不過，現在我認為重要的另一件事是，當您考慮住宅市場時，請記住，當您真正考慮近期和長期的市場時，它不僅僅是住房存量的增長。這也確實是建築物、住宅建築、多戶建築中電氣含量的增長。當他們採用新的電氣規範時，它需要額外的電氣內容。

And as we really start moving seriously into energy transition, we think the opportunities continue to grow at a really attractive rate. As consumers have put electric cars in their garages and they have to change their electrical infrastructure support the electric vehicles, as consumers continue to look at things to improve their resiliency, whether that's solar, the ability to island the home, the ability to sell energy back to the grid, all of these things, all of these kind of secular growth trends that are taking place more broadly in the economy are going to also have an impact on residential.

隨著我們真正開始認真進入能源轉型，我們認為機會繼續以非常有吸引力的速度增長。隨著消費者將電動汽車放在車庫裡，他們必須改變他們的電氣基礎設施來支持電動汽車，因為消費者繼續著眼於提高他們的彈性，無論是太陽能、使房屋孤島的能力、銷售能源的能力回到電網，所有這些事情，所有這些在經濟中更廣泛地發生的長期增長趨勢也將對住宅產生影響。

And even though, let's say, the housing numbers are not going to grow dramatically, the electrical content we think is going to grow at some multiple of that. That's what we've seen over the last, let's say, 10 to 15 years. And that really didn't even have the impact of some of these energy transition-related trends that we're talking about.

即使，假設住房數量不會顯著增長，我們認為電氣含量會增長一些倍數。這就是我們在過去（比如說，10 到 15 年）中看到的情況。這甚至沒有我們正在談論的一些與能源轉型相關的趨勢的影響。

Now resi for us, we think, continues to be a really attractive market. We have great position in residential, and it's one we'll continue to invest in.

我們認為，現在對我們來說，resi 仍然是一個非常有吸引力的市場。我們在住宅領域處於有利地位，我們將繼續投資。

And then my second question, I guess, is touching on what Joe had mentioned earlier about inventories. Because I guess if I look at -- say, automotive is one area or light vehicles where we've heard about all the constraints. But there was a very large OEM earlier this week who said wholesale volumes are up 20% plus in 2022, and they could liquidate inventory early in the year.

然後我想我的第二個問題涉及喬之前提到的關於庫存的內容。因為我想如果我看一下——比如說，汽車是我們聽說過所有限制的一個領域或輕型車輛。但本週早些時候有一家非常大的 OEM 表示，到 2022 年批發量將增長 20% 以上，他們可能會在年初結清庫存。

So that I thought was interesting because it suggests that's a massive OEM who feels like they have enough goods on hand to satisfy double-digit growth this year. And so I just want to sort of push a little bit on that point and ask, are there any areas when you look across different regions or different markets where your salespeople or your channel partners may think, maybe there has been a good amount of inventory built up? I don't know if there's any kind of broad views you had on end markets that had more or less inventory relative to norms as you look today.

所以我認為這很有趣，因為它表明這是一個龐大的 OEM，他們覺得他們手頭有足夠的商品來滿足今年兩位數的增長。所以我只是想在這一點上稍微推一下，問一下，當您查看不同地區或不同市場時，您的銷售人員或渠道合作夥伴可能會認為，是否存在大量庫存建立？我不知道您是否對終端市場有任何廣泛的看法，即您今天所看到的庫存相對於標準而言或多或少。

I'm sure they're out there, some place, Julian. I can tell you that if they're out there, their voices are being drowned out by probably 100 to 1 on the other side of customers asking us for more. And specifically, as it relates to automotive inventory levels, I mean the inventory levels today continue to run at record-low levels.

我確定他們就在外面，某個地方，朱利安。我可以告訴你，如果他們在外面，他們的聲音可能會被 100 比 1 的客戶淹沒在另一邊，他們要求我們提供更多。具體而言，由於它與汽車庫存水平有關，我的意思是今天的庫存水平繼續以創紀錄的低水平運行。

I mean you think about an industry in the U.S. that has typically run 75 days of inventory has been running under 30 days of inventory. And so I'm surprised that any automotive OEM would say that they're comfortable with the levels of inventories. We're not hearing that from any of our customers. And so that, I think, is a bit of an outlier.

我的意思是你想想美國一個通常有 75 天庫存的行業一直在運行 30 天的庫存。因此，令我感到驚訝的是，任何汽車 OEM 都會說他們對庫存水平感到滿意。我們沒有從任何客戶那裡聽到這一點。所以，我認為，有點離群。

Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Nigel Coe。

You did 9% growth across Electrical in '21. You're forecasting 7% to 9% in '22. Your long-term target is 4% to 6%. So I don't want to get too far ahead of March -- the March Investor Day, but how are you thinking about growth beyond '22 in Electrical? I'm assuming it might be above 4% to 6%.

21 年，您在電氣領域實現了 9% 的增長。您預測 22 年將達到 7% 到 9%。你的長期目標是 4% 到 6%。因此，我不想在 3 月的投資者日之前走得太遠，但是您如何看待電氣行業 22 年之後的增長？我假設它可能高於 4% 到 6%。

But -- and then kind of allied to that is you're highlighting utility, data center, resi. A little bit surprised you're not highlighting industrial and commercial institutional turning around because we are seeing some strength in orders there. So just wondering what you're seeing in those 2 specific end markets.

但是 - 然後與此相關的是，您正在突出實用程序、數據中心、resi。有點驚訝你沒有強調工業和商業機構的好轉，因為我們看到那裡的訂單有些強勁。所以只是想知道你在這兩個特定的終端市場中看到了什麼。

Yes. I mean, first of all, appreciate your question around the longer-term growth outlook in our Electrical businesses. And to your point, we will be addressing that at our Investor Day next month. And I do think it's reasonable to assume that we've seen certainly more strength than we anticipated, and it would be fair to -- we anticipate that, that number is going to move up slightly.

是的。我的意思是，首先，感謝您就我們電氣業務的長期增長前景提出的問題。就您而言，我們將在下個月的投資者日討論這個問題。而且我確實認為可以合理地假設我們看到的實力肯定比我們預期的要大，而且公平地 - 我們預計，這個數字會略有上升。

With respect to the end markets, and I'd say for us, certainly, we talked about industrial. Industrial markets are doing well. And we talked about that as being one of the strong markets for us in general. And so we are seeing the strength in industrial. We're certainly seeing the strength in utility, resi, data centers.

關於終端市場，我想說的是，當然，我們談到了工業。工業市場表現良好。我們將其視為總體上對我們來說強大的市場之一。因此，我們看到了工業領域的實力。我們當然看到了公用事業、resi、數據中心的實力。

Even in commercial, I'd say, if you think about commercial, we've talked about this before. We're still seeing growth in office, low single-digit growth. It's not huge there, but we're still seeing positive growth in the office segment. And -- but also what goes into commercial is things like warehouses.

即使在商業方面，我想說，如果你考慮商業，我們之前已經討論過這個問題。我們仍然看到辦公室的增長，低個位數的增長。那裡並不大，但我們仍然看到辦公領域的正增長。而且——而且商業化的還有倉庫之類的東西。

And as you think about the continued expansion of the Amazons of the world and the warehouse segments that have much higher, once again, electrical intensity than an office building or a retail store, we continue to think that there's going to be positive mix associated with -- as we continue to move more and more of our retail activity online.

當您考慮到世界亞馬遜地區的持續擴張以及電力強度再次遠高於辦公樓或零售店的倉庫部分時，我們繼續認為與相關的積極組合- 隨著我們繼續將越來越多的零售活動轉移到網上。

And so as we said, we think all of the markets are going to be growing next year. But we will see some -- what we think would be outsized strength in data centers, in industrial markets, in utility markets. But every market, we would anticipate would see positive growth.

正如我們所說，我們認為明年所有市場都會增長。但我們會看到一些——我們認為在數據中心、工業市場、公用事業市場中的巨大優勢。但我們預計，每個市場都會出現正增長。

I mean to Craig's point, commercial and institutional, we saw high single digit this year growth in the overall market. And for industrial, we saw mid-teens growth. So very strong.

我的意思是克雷格的觀點，商業和機構，今年我們看到整個市場的高個位數增長。對於工業，我們看到了十幾歲的增長。所以非常強大。

That's great. That's great color. And then a follow-on for Tom on free cash conversion. Sorry to go back to this one. But the 4 things you called out make total sense. I see $0.25 or $0.30 coming orders on restructuring charges and also kind of acquisition charge of the things, what you call it, in the GAAP to headline earnings.

那太棒了。這顏色真好。然後是湯姆關於自由現金轉換的後續行動。很抱歉回到這個。但是你所說的四件事完全有道理。我看到 0.25 美元或 0.30 美元的重組費用訂單以及你所說的東西的收購費用，在 GAAP 中作為標題收益。

But is there stuff wrapped up in purchase accounting on the balance sheet that's going to have cash outflows this year? Is this more of a purchase accounting issue?

但是，資產負債表上的採購會計中是否包含今年將出現現金流出的東西？這更像是一個採購會計問題嗎？

No. No, it's really the 4 things that I described: the acquisition, integration and divestiture; the multiyear restructuring; the CapEx; and the CARES Act. And I think you're probably alluding to pension funding and those types of things. Nothing extraordinary there.

不，不，這真的是我描述的四件事：收購、整合和剝離；多年重組；資本支出；和 CARES 法案。而且我認為您可能是在暗示退休金和那些類型的事情。那裡沒有什麼特別的。

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Davis with Melius Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Scott Davis 與 Melius Research 的觀點。

Most of my questions have been asked, but I'm kind of curious, it's been a while since we had an up cycle in Crouse-Hinds. Is -- how -- what's your order book look like in that part of the world? And I would imagine you've probably taken some costs out of that business since the last peak. And perhaps you can just give us a little bit of color on that specific business.

我的大部分問題都被問到了，但我有點好奇，我們已經有一段時間沒有在 Crouse-Hinds 有一個上升週期了。是——如何——你的訂單在世界那個地方是什麼樣子的？而且我想你可能已經從上一個高峰以來從該業務中扣除了一些成本。也許您可以就該特定業務給我們一些色彩。

Yes. Appreciate the question, Scott. And for those of you who follow Crouse-Hinds over the year know that, that business that we acquired many years ago from Cooper was a very profitable business, went through a cyclical industry downturn. But when we think about industrial, when you talk about industrial strengthening, that's where a lot of the Crouse-Hinds business goes.

是的。欣賞這個問題，斯科特。對於那些一年來關注 Crouse-Hinds 的人來說，我們多年前從 Cooper 那裡收購的那項業務是一項非常有利可圖的業務，經歷了周期性的行業低迷。但是當我們考慮工業時，當你談論工業強化時，這就是很多 Crouse-Hinds 業務的發展方向。

I mean many of you think about it as an oil and gas business, but a lot of what they do today goes into industrial markets. And that business is, in fact, growing. And so we are clearly seeing a rebound in the Crouse-Hinds business. A lot of the industrial markets that they support and serve are growing nicely. And so we certainly think we're at the, once again, the front end of what should be a pretty attractive recovery in those markets.

我的意思是你們中的許多人認為它是一項石油和天然氣業務，但他們今天所做的很多事情都進入了工業市場。事實上，這項業務正在增長。因此，我們清楚地看到了 Crouse-Hinds 業務的反彈。他們支持和服務的許多工業市場發展良好。因此，我們當然認為我們再次處於這些市場應該是相當有吸引力的複甦的前端。

Okay. Good. And then as a follow-on, just thinking in terms of the projects that are out there that you're bidding on, has -- are there less people bidding on projects today than perhaps a couple of years ago just given the reality that everybody's kind of sold out? Or is the competitive dynamic not really changed much?

好的。好的。然後作為後續，考慮到你正在競標的項目，現在競標項目的人是否比幾年前少，只是考慮到每個人的現實有點賣光了？或者競爭動態並沒有真正發生太大變化？

I would say that the fact that everybody sold out means that I think everybody is being more selective around the projects that they take, and it obviously changes the price dynamic in the marketplace. And so I'd say that I can't necessarily say that we're seeing less competition on projects. Lead times are being pushed out for lots of companies.

我想說的是，每個人都售罄的事實意味著我認為每個人都對他們所接受的項目更加挑剔，這顯然會改變市場的價格動態。所以我想說我不能說我們在項目上看到的競爭減少了。許多公司的交貨時間都被推遲了。

And like I said, it's never easy to recover inflation, but we're in an environment today where, given how well-known the issue is and how public and visible it is, it's probably as easy as it's ever been in my professional career because everybody kind of understands what we're dealing with.

就像我說的，恢復通脹絕非易事，但我們今天所處的環境，考慮到這個問題的廣為人知以及它的公開程度和可見度，它可能像我職業生涯中以往一樣容易因為每個人都明白我們在處理什麼。

But I'd say I can't really speak to whether or not we're seeing fewer bidders on projects. But I think every company, ourselves included, have the ability to be a bit more selective today given the fact that there's more demand than there is capacity.

但我想說我真的不能說我們是否看到項目的投標人減少了。但我認為，考慮到需求多於產能這一事實，每家公司，包括我們自己在內，都有能力在今天更具選擇性。

Our next question comes from the line of Brett Linzey with Mizuho America.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞穗美國公司的 Brett Linzey。

I wanted to come back to capital deployment. This is probably the lowest share repo guide we've seen in a number of years, and you mentioned a focus on bolt-ons. Could you just spend a moment and talk about the actionability of the pipeline, some of the sizes you're shopping? And just trying to understand where you're looking within the portfolio.

我想回到資本部署。這可能是我們多年來看到的最低的股票回購指南，您提到了對附加組件的關注。您能否花點時間談談管道的可操作性，以及您購買的一些尺寸？並且只是試圖了解您在投資組合中尋找的位置。

Yes. Appreciate the question. I mean you've probably observed over the course of the last 24 months, we've done quite a bit of portfolio transformation, selling businesses, Lighting, Hydraulics. And we've done a number of acquisitions. And we continue to prioritize our Electrical business and certainly making investments in Electrical that are really tied to these big secular growth trends that we've talked about of electrification, digitalization, energy transition. And we'll continue to look for things in that space.

是的。欣賞這個問題。我的意思是您可能在過去 24 個月中觀察到，我們已經完成了相當多的投資組合轉型、銷售業務、照明、液壓。我們已經完成了一些收購。我們將繼續優先考慮我們的電氣業務，並且肯定會在電氣方面進行投資，這些投資與我們談到的電氣化、數字化、能源轉型這些長期增長趨勢密切相關。我們將繼續在該領域尋找東西。

You saw us acquire this company called Green Motion last year, which is a play into electric vehicle charging infrastructure. You've seen us do a number of transactions in the Asia Pacific region to really participate in a very fast-growing Chinese market and participate in what we call the Tier 3, Tier 2 market, where we historically have not played. So you're going to see us do things geographically that allow us to penetrate underserved markets.

你看到我們去年收購了這家名為 Green Motion 的公司，這是對電動汽車充電基礎設施的一次嘗試。您已經看到我們在亞太地區進行了許多交易，以真正參與到一個非常快速增長的中國市場，並參與我們所謂的三級、二級市場，我們歷史上沒有參與過。因此，您將看到我們在地理上做的事情使我們能夠進入服務不足的市場。

You've seen us do the Tripp Lite acquisition, which is obviously an important play into data centers in the IT channel. And so I think what you can expect as we move forward is for us to continue to do transactions in this kind of size and scale and really focus on kind of these really important aspects of where we think the future growth is going to.

您已經看到我們收購了 Tripp Lite，這顯然是對 IT 渠道中數據中心的重要影響。因此，我認為隨著我們的前進，您可以期待我們繼續以這種規模和規模進行交易，並真正專注於我們認為未來增長將走向的這些非常重要的方面。

We said that Aerospace continues to be a priority, and we've done a number of important acquisitions in Aerospace. We like the composition of Aerospace businesses. These are technology, highly-differentiated businesses. You get paid for your technology. They have very strong aftermarkets. We want to make sure that we're on growth platforms, and that was essentially the play with Cobham.

我們說過航空航天仍然是一個優先事項，我們已經在航空航天領域進行了許多重要的收購。我們喜歡航空航天業務的組成。這些是技術，高度差異化的業務。你會因為你的技術而獲得報酬。他們有非常強大的售後市場。我們希望確保我們處於增長平台上，而這本質上是與 Cobham 的合作。

They're sole-sourced on virtually every platform that they're on. They have a growth outlook for that business that takes it from $700 million to $1 billion based upon programs that they've already won. And it's a very profitable business with a strong aftermarket.

他們幾乎在他們所在的每個平台上都是獨家採購的。根據他們已經贏得的項目，他們對該業務的增長前景從 7 億美元增加到 10 億美元。這是一項非常有利可圖的業務，擁有強大的售後市場。

And so you can count on us to continue to look for acquisitions that are very much consistent with what you've seen us do over the last few years. And I'd say the pipeline today is better than it's been in a while. We're looking at a number of opportunities to really buttress our capabilities in and around some of these spaces that we talked about.

因此，您可以指望我們繼續尋找與您在過去幾年中看到的我們所做的非常一致的收購。而且我會說今天的管道比一段時間內要好。我們正在尋找一些機會來真正支持我們在我們談到的一些空間內和周圍的能力。

Obviously, we're not in a position to talk about anything or to announce anything, but what you're seeing from us is a pivot towards as we think about how do we deploy our capital and how we can create the most value for shareholders, we think that we can find value-creating acquisitions, pay a fair price for them and generate more value today incrementally than perhaps buying back our stock.

顯然，我們無法談論任何事情或宣布任何事情，但是您從我們那裡看到的是一個支點，因為我們考慮如何部署資本以及如何為股東創造最大價值，我們認為我們可以找到創造價值的收購，為它們支付公平的價格，並在今天逐步產生更多的價值，而不是回購我們的股票。

But having said that, we said before, we're not going to let cash build up on the balance sheet. If we can't get deals done, we will go back into the market and buy our stock back. And so we're just always just trading off. How do we create the most value for shareholders? Either through M&A or stock buyback or similar way of returning capital to shareholders.

但是話雖如此，我們之前說過，我們不會讓現金在資產負債表上積累。如果我們無法完成交易，我們將重返市場並回購我們的股票。所以我們總是只是在權衡取捨。我們如何為股東創造最大價值？通過併購或股票回購或向股東返還資本的類似方式。

But it has been a great time I've seen from us, and we like what we're looking at in front of us. And we would hope to be able to deploy more capital towards value-creating M&A.

但這是我從我們那裡看到的一段美好時光，我們喜歡我們眼前所看到的。我們希望能夠將更多資金用於創造價值的併購。

And the only thing I would add is that secular trends give us some really exciting opportunities, such as Royal Power that we can leverage across eMobility, Aerospace and our Electrical sectors. So it's exciting, and we're seeing read across.

我唯一要補充的是，長期趨勢為我們提供了一些真正令人興奮的機會，例如我們可以在電動汽車、航空航天和我們的電氣領域利用的皇家電力。所以這很令人興奮，而且我們正在閱讀。

That's great. And then just one last one for me on utility T&D. You noted as a driver of the order activity within international. It didn't get a call-out in the Americas business. So I'm just curious, what are you hearing from customers around CapEx? Any change in tone there at all?

那太棒了。然後是我在公用事業 T&D 上的最後一個。您指出作為國際訂單活動的推動者。它在美洲業務中沒有得到認可。所以我很好奇，你從資本支出的客戶那裡聽到了什麼？那裡的基調有什麼變化嗎？

Yes. I'd say that the T&D market continues to be an attractive market. I think as you think about a place where it's in desperate need of some significant investments in aging infrastructure on the one hand, but also, once again, the changing nature of the grid, which is also driving the need and requirement for some fairly significant investments and upgrades in the grid and grid resiliency.

是的。我想說的是輸配電市場仍然是一個有吸引力的市場。我認為當你想到一個地方，一方面它迫切需要對老化的基礎設施進行一些重大投資，而且，再一次，電網的不斷變化的性質，這也推動了對一些相當重要的需求和需求電網和電網彈性方面的投資和升級。

And so yes, we think that in the Americas as well continues to be a really positive story for some years to come.

所以，是的，我們認為在未來幾年裡，美洲也將繼續是一個非常積極的故事。

Grew mid-single digits last year. We expect it to grow the same in 2022.

去年增長了中個位數。我們預計它在 2022 年將保持同樣的增長。

And our final question today will come from the line of Markus Mittermaier with UBS.

我們今天的最後一個問題將來自瑞銀的 Markus Mittermaier。

Craig, you mentioned in your opening remarks that in the Electrical Americas, your negotiation pipeline is up 11%, if I remember the number right. Is there anything already in there on some of the semiconductor activity that we see? We've heard from some machine builders that there's some early activity there. Just wanted to check if that's already part of that pipeline.

克雷格，你在開場白中提到，如果我沒記錯的話，在美國電氣公司，你的談判渠道增加了 11%。我們看到的一些半導體活動是否已經存在？我們從一些機器製造商那裡聽說那裡有一些早期活動。只是想檢查這是否已經是該管道的一部分。

Yes. I mean I appreciate the question. I don't -- it's a question I can't really answer. I don't have that information on my fingertips right now in terms of where the additional negotiations are coming from -- down to that level of specificity. But maybe, Yan -- we'll ask Yan Jin to follow up with you on that question to give you the color on the composition of where those negotiations are coming from.

是的。我的意思是我很欣賞這個問題。我不——這是一個我無法真正回答的問題。就額外談判的來源而言，我現在沒有指尖上的信息——具體到那種程度。但也許，Yan - 我們會請 Yan Jin 就該問題與您跟進，以便您了解這些談判的來源。

Absolutely. But the semiconductor opportunity obviously still remains sort of an interesting one.

絕對地。但半導體機會顯然仍然是一個有趣的機會。

There's no question. I mean to the extent that you end up with a fairly sizable infrastructure, build-out, reshoring and semiconductors and the like, those are all markets that need our electrical switch gear. And so they certainly create great growth opportunities for us.

沒有問題。我的意思是，如果你最終擁有相當大的基礎設施、擴建、回流和半導體等，這些都是需要我們的電氣開關設備的市場。因此，它們無疑為我們創造了巨大的增長機會。

Great. And then just maybe a very quick one on Electrical Global. You mentioned on Crouse-Hinds earlier the strong growth, obviously, that you see there. Should I interpret the very strong margin profile largely as an effect of Crouse-Hinds? Or is it more broad-based inside of Electrical Global here in the quarter?

偉大的。然後可能只是一個非常快速的關於電氣全球的。您早些時候在 Crouse-Hinds 上提到了強勁的增長，顯然，您在那裡看到。我是否應該將非常強勁的利潤曲線主要解釋為 Crouse-Hinds 的影響？還是本季度在電氣全球內部的基礎更廣泛？

It's definitely broad-based, yes. Crouse-Hinds is helping, but our Electrical Europe business and Electrical is doing a great job of expanding margins. And so we're seeing it both in the, let's call it, the traditional Electrical business, and we're seeing it in Crouse-Hinds as well.

它絕對是廣泛的，是的。 Crouse-Hinds 正在提供幫助，但我們的電氣歐洲業務和電氣在擴大利潤方面做得很好。所以我們在傳統的電氣業務中都看到了它，我們稱之為傳統的電氣業務，我們也在 Crouse-Hinds 中看到了它。

The 19.5% margins in the quarter, I mean, which is an all-time record for our Global and it's really contributions from them and, quite frankly, contributions from our Asia team as well, I mean, our Asia business as well. Dramatic improvement in profitability over the last number of years.

我的意思是，本季度 19.5% 的利潤率是我們全球業務的歷史記錄，這確實是他們的貢獻，坦率地說，也是我們亞洲團隊的貢獻，我的意思是，我們的亞洲業務也是如此。在過去幾年中，盈利能力顯著提高。

Since we're really seeing it, if you think about what makes up Global, it is what we do regionally in Asia, what we do regionally in Europe and then it's the global Crouse-Hinds business that these tend to be global businesses. But all 3 of those businesses saw a significant improvement in profitability during the course of 2021.

既然我們真的看到了，如果你想想是什麼構成了全球，那就是我們在亞洲區域所做的事情，我們在歐洲區域所做的事情，然後是全球 Crouse-Hinds 業務，這些業務往往是全球業務。但在 2021 年期間，所有這 3 家企業的盈利能力都顯著提高。

Good. Thanks, guys. As always, Chip and I will be available to address your follow-up questions. Have a good day. Thanks.

好的。多謝你們。與往常一樣，Chip 和我將隨時為您解答後續問題。祝你有美好的一天。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. We thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Conferencing Service. You may now disconnect.

女士們先生們，今天的會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與和使用 AT&T 會議服務。您現在可以斷開連接。