Enviva Inc (EVA) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Enviva Inc.'s First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

早上好，歡迎來到 Enviva Inc. 的 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。

(Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kate Walsh, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

（操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁凱特沃爾什。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Enviva's First Quarter of 2023 Earnings Conference Call. We appreciate your interest in and support of Enviva, and thank you for your participation today.

謝謝。大家早上好，歡迎來到 Enviva 的 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。感謝您對 Enviva 的關注和支持，感謝您今天的參與。

On this morning's call, we have John Keppler, Executive Chairman of the Board; Thomas Meth, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Shai Even, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our agenda will be for John, Thomas and Shai to discuss our financial and operating results and to provide an update on our current business outlook and operations. Then we will open up the call for questions.

在今天上午的電話會議上，我們有董事會執行主席 John Keppler；總裁兼首席執行官 Thomas Meth；執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Shai Even。我們的議程將由 John、Thomas 和 Shai 討論我們的財務和運營結果，並提供有關我們當前業務前景和運營的最新信息。然後我們將打開問題電話。

During the course of our remarks and the subsequent Q&A session, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are subject to a variety of risks. Information concerning the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements can be found in our earnings release as well as in our other SEC filings. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new or changed events or circumstances.

在我們的評論和隨後的問答環節中，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述會受到各種風險的影響。有關可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的前瞻性陳述中的結果存在重大差異的風險和不確定性的信息，可以在我們的收益發布以及我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的其他文件中找到。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述以反映新的或變化的事件或情況的義務。

In addition to presenting our financial results in accordance with GAAP, we will also be discussing adjusted EBITDA and certain other non-GAAP financial measures pertaining to completed reporting periods as well as our forecast. Information concerning the reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures and other relevant disclosures is included in our earnings release.

除了根據 GAAP 公佈我們的財務業績外，我們還將討論調整後的 EBITDA 和與已完成報告期相關的某些其他非 GAAP 財務指標以及我們的預測。我們的收益發布中包含有關這些非 GAAP 措施與其最直接可比的 GAAP 措施和其他相關披露的調節信息。

Our SEC reports, earnings release and most recent investor presentation, which contain reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures we use can be found on our website at envivabiomass.com.

我們的 SEC 報告、收益發布和最近的投資者介紹，其中包含我們使用的非 GAAP 財務措施的調節，可以在我們的網站 envivabiomass.com 上找到。

I would now like to turn the call over to John.

我現在想把電話轉給約翰。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. It's clear from our earnings release and 10-Q filed yesterday that the cost and productivity challenges of the first quarter that the team outlined a month ago are deeper and more significant than understood at the time. And that the positive effects of the improvement initiatives are taking longer than expected, with the benefits expected to be realized still ahead.

早上好。感謝您加入我們。從我們昨天提交的收益發布和 10-Q 中可以清楚地看出，該團隊一個月前概述的第一季度的成本和生產力挑戰比當時所理解的更深刻、更重要。並且改進計劃的積極影響所花費的時間比預期的要長，預計收益仍將在未來實現。

The poor operating performance at the end of last year, combined with limited progress in a very disappointing first quarter is a reality that the team has internalized. And as a result, the company is resetting guidance this morning. Thomas will walk through that guide given our revised expectations about what the company can accomplish in the near term, as well as highlight some important changes he has made to the operations leadership in the company to get the team better aligned on how to reliably deliver the productivity and cost position we have demonstrated possible.

去年年底糟糕的經營業績，加上令人非常失望的第一季度進展有限，是團隊已經內化的現實。因此，該公司今天早上正在重新設定指引。 Thomas 將根據我們對公司近期可以完成的目標的修改後的期望，詳細介紹該指南，並強調他對公司運營領導層所做的一些重要改變，以使團隊更好地協調如何可靠地交付我們已經證明了可能的生產力和成本地位。

With that reset and the quarterly guidance provided, you can expect the team to report on our progress clearly and consistently throughout the year, describing where we have engineered improvement and where we have more work to do. Also as part of this reset, our Board of Directors, in consultation with management undertook a process to reconsider Enviva's capital allocation policy. After a careful review of potential alternative uses of cash flow, the Board has decided to revise Enviva's capital allocation framework by eliminating the company's quarterly dividend, in order to prioritize maintaining strong liquidity and a conservative leverage profile, maintaining our investment plans to increase the efficiency and cost position of our existing plants, generating internal funding and timing flexibility for our current investment plans in new, fully contracted plant and port assets and authorizing an opportunistic share repurchase program.

通過重新設置和提供的季度指導，您可以期望團隊在全年清晰、一致地報告我們的進展，描述我們在哪些方面進行了工程改進，以及我們在哪些方面需要做更多的工作。同樣作為此次重組的一部分，我們的董事會在與管理層協商後，著手重新考慮 Enviva 的資本分配政策。在仔細審查現金流的潛在替代用途後，董事會決定通過取消公司的季度股息來修改 Enviva 的資本配置框架，以優先保持強勁的流動性和保守的槓桿配置，維持我們的投資計劃以提高效率我們現有工廠的成本狀況，為我們當前對新的、完全承包的工廠和港口資產的投資計劃產生內部資金和時間靈活性，並授權機會主義的股票回購計劃。

This shift in capital allocation also gives us flexibility to potentially accelerate organic and inorganic growth in the future, with less reliance on accessing the capital markets. We firmly believe this revision to our capital allocation framework is the best way to create durable value for all of Enviva shareholders. These changes reposition Enviva from a yield and growth company, to a pure-play growth company, something I think the market has been telling us for some time. And given the robust opportunity set in front of us, we are improving our ability to take full advantage of the highly visible long-term growth ahead.

這種資本配置的轉變也使我們能夠靈活地在未來加速有機和無機增長，同時減少對進入資本市場的依賴。我們堅信，對資本配置框架的修訂是為所有 Enviva 股東創造持久價值的最佳方式。這些變化將 Enviva 從一家收益和增長公司重新定位為一家純粹的增長公司，我認為市場已經告訴我們一段時間了。鑑於擺在我們面前的巨大機遇，我們正在提高充分利用未來高度可見的長期增長的能力。

As many of you know, I stepped down from Enviva last year to deal with some difficult medical issues. I'm very fortunate to have those largely behind me now. But I'm also privileged to have the opportunity to be back at Enviva in a different role than before, but no less committed to the company's success. And like the other members of the Board, no less convinced in our ability to return to the high levels of financial performance you have seen from us historically.

正如你們許多人所知，我去年從 Enviva 辭職，以處理一些棘手的醫療問題。我很幸運現在有那些人在我身後。但我也很榮幸有機會以與以前不同的角色回到 Enviva，但同樣致力於公司的成功。和董事會的其他成員一樣，同樣相信我們有能力恢復到您從我們這裡看到的歷史高水平的財務業績。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Thomas.

現在我想把電話轉給托馬斯。

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to take some time to walk through our first quarter results and our 2023 guidance update as it is a significant change to our expectations. Let's start with first quarter results. When we held our Investor Day discussions a little over a month ago, we knew we would have a soft first quarter, but it was only when we completed closing the March books and had a view on preliminary results for April that we fully understood the depth and extent of the softness.

謝謝約翰，大家早上好。我將花一些時間來了解我們的第一季度業績和我們的 2023 年指導更新，因為這是對我們預期的重大改變。讓我們從第一季度的結果開始。當我們在一個多月前舉行投資者日討論時，我們知道第一季度會很疲軟，但只有當我們完成 3 月份賬簿的結賬並查看 4 月份的初步結果時，我們才完全了解深度和柔軟程度。

We reported $3.4 million of adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2023. This is a significant departure from our original expectations of approximately $40 million to $50 million. There are 4 main drivers of the difference between actual results and expectations. First, as we discussed at Investor Day, we have customer mix impacting our results. This is a straightforward shift of higher-priced deliveries with lower cost from the first quarter to the second half of this year but it accounts for about $16 million of that difference. Second, we had approximately $10 million of unplanned repairs and maintenance expenses during the quarter. This is very high.

我們報告了 2023 年第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 340 萬美元。這與我們最初預期的約 4000 萬至 5000 萬美元大相徑庭。實際結果與預期之間存在差異的主要驅動因素有 4 個。首先，正如我們在投資者日討論的那樣，我們的客戶組合會影響我們的結果。這是從今年第一季度到下半年以較低成本交付的價格較高的直接轉變，但它佔了其中約 1600 萬美元的差異。其次，本季度我們有大約 1000 萬美元的計劃外維修和維護費用。這是非常高的。

Unpacking this a bit in select plants, operations leadership and prioritized production over cost management, and we saw cost overages as a result. I call these tonnes at any cost and that isn't the way to run a plant. To address this, we're actively changing our culture, discipline and controls around cost management. And to that end, we have made some operational leadership changes exceeding 2 of our senior operations executives, elevating leaders and general managers in the company that have demonstrated strong commitments to both cost and operational discipline, especially safety.

在選定的工廠、運營領導和優先生產而不是成本管理中稍微分析一下，結果我們看到了成本超支。我不惜一切代價調用這些噸，這不是經營工廠的方式。為了解決這個問題，我們正在積極改變我們圍繞成本管理的文化、紀律和控制。為此，我們對超過 2 名高級運營主管的運營領導層進行了調整，提拔了公司的領導者和總經理，他們對成本和運營紀律，尤其是安全性表現出了堅定的承諾。

The third area of pressure on our results this quarter relates to approximately $5 million of costs incurred related to professional fees, some tied to plant optimization initiatives. We have one plant that is significantly underperforming our expectations, and we have a highly specialist firm engaged to help us turn it around. And those isolated costs are reported in the first quarter. We also incurred extra accounting and financing fees during the quarter, in part due to the complicated fourth quarter and year-end we went through.

本季度我們業績面臨的第三個壓力領域與約 500 萬美元的專業費用有關，其中一些與工廠優化計劃有關。我們有一家工廠的表現大大低於我們的預期，我們有一家高度專業的公司參與幫助我們扭轉局面。這些孤立的成本在第一季度報告。我們在本季度還產生了額外的會計和融資費用，部分原因是我們經歷了複雜的第四季度和年底。

Fourth and final, we did have some shipments that were subject to the deferred gross margin transactions accounting with similar treatment to what we saw at year-end. This accounted for approximately $4.6 million, and we expect the deferral to reverse in 2024 and 2025. All that adds up to a $36 million decrease from what we're expecting at the beginning of the year. It's a very difficult start to the year. And while production and costs in the first quarter are generally our seasonally most difficult. The improvement in cost and productivity are not materializing at the rate we expected when we enter 2023.

第四也是最後一點，我們確實有一些貨物受到遞延毛利率交易會計的影響，其處理方式與我們在年底看到的類似。這大約佔 460 萬美元，我們預計延期將在 2024 年和 2025 年逆轉。所有這些加起來比我們年初的預期減少了 3600 萬美元。今年的開局非常艱難。雖然第一季度的生產和成本通常是我們季節性最困難的。成本和生產力的改善並沒有以我們進入 2023 年時預期的速度實現。

Based on results from the first 4 months of the year, we've taken a more conservative view on what this business will deliver in the short term and we are reducing our adjusted EBITDA expectations for 2023 from $305 million to $335 million to $200 million to $250 million. Let me unpack the 2 main drivers of the step down in guidance.

根據今年前 4 個月的結果，我們對這項業務的短期交付持更保守的看法，我們將調整後的 2023 年 EBITDA 預期從 3.05 億美元下調至 3.35 億美元至 2 億美元至2.5億美元。讓我在指導中解開下台的 2 個主要驅動因素。

Approximately $30 million of the decrease between the previous guidance midpoint of $320 million and the revised midpoint of $225 million is related to the weakness in the first quarter of 2023. The remaining $65 million is related to shift in timing expectations as to when productivity and cost improvements are fully realized. To break down the revised guidance further, we are providing quarterly expectations for the next 3 quarters to improve transparency around our realistic expectations for the remainder of the year.

之前的指導中點 3.2 億美元與修訂後的中點 2.25 億美元之間的減少約 3000 萬美元與 2023 年第一季度的疲軟有關。其餘 6500 萬美元與時間預期的轉變有關，即生產力和成本何時改進得到充分實現。為了進一步細分修訂後的指引，我們將提供未來 3 個季度的季度預期，以提高我們對今年剩餘時間的現實預期的透明度。

For the second quarter, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $20 million to $30 million. For the third quarter, we're forecasting adjusted EBITDA of between $70 million to $90 million. For the fourth quarter of 2023, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA of between $110 million and $130 million. The ranges are primarily driven by our assumptions around production levels and our ability to drive costs out of the business.

對於第二季度，我們預測調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元之間。對於第三季度，我們預測調整後的 EBITDA 在 7000 萬至 9000 萬美元之間。對於 2023 年第四季度，我們預測調整後的 EBITDA 將在 1.1 億美元至 1.3 億美元之間。這些範圍主要取決於我們對生產水平的假設以及我們將成本從業務中剔除的能力。

I am personally overseeing our operations team now. I know there is a lot of ground we can make up in the near term to get back on track. And it's my responsibility to do just that. As I've said, we are making progress.

我現在親自監督我們的運營團隊。我知道我們可以在短期內彌補很多基礎以重回正軌。我有責任做到這一點。正如我所說，我們正在取得進展。

For instance, from December to March, we reduced the delivered cost of raw material to the company by approximately $3 per ton and drove fixed cost per tonne across our total plants down approximately $6 per ton. While it's clearly not been as fast as we expected. It's also not as hard as it sounds. It does, however, require diligent day-to-day management and alignment of the team in how we execute the strategy.

例如，從 12 月到 3 月，我們將向公司交付的原材料成本降低了每噸約 3 美元，並將整個工廠的每噸固定成本降低了約每噸 6 美元。雖然它顯然沒有我們預期的那麼快。它也不像聽起來那麼難。然而，它確實需要勤奮的日常管理和團隊在我們如何執行戰略方面的協調。

We have a portfolio of 10 plants, 3 of which those in Lucedale, Cottondale and Waycross are consistently capable of outperforming expectations on both volume and cost. They are also our largest plants. Four of our plants performed reliably, but in production rates or costs that are off from the demonstrated performance. 2 of our plants, Greenwood and South Hampton are what we call dryer limited meaning that we're either bottlenecked at the drive because of its inherent evaporative limitations to reduce the moisture content in the raw material, which is the case at Greenwood or on a reliability or operability basis which is the case at South Hampton, where the original [dry line] needs refurbishment.

我們擁有 10 家工廠的投資組合，其中 3 家位於 Lucedale、Cottondale 和 Waycross 的工廠在數量和成本方面始終能夠超出預期。它們也是我們最大的工廠。我們的四家工廠表現可靠，但生產率或成本與展示的表現不符。我們的 2 家工廠，Greenwood 和 South Hampton 是我們所說的烘乾機受限，這意味著我們要么在驅動器上遇到瓶頸，因為其固有的蒸發限制會降低原材料中的水分含量，Greenwood 或可靠性或可操作性基礎，南漢普頓就是這種情況，那裡的原始 [幹線] 需要翻新。

With plans in place for each of these challenges and opportunities built around the general management philosophy of staff in our facilities with well-trained operators who skillfully and safely deliver reliable output, continuously improved over time, led by effective managers within [duly] understood and controlled cost position. It's manufacturing 101, the blocking and tackling of standard work, known and managed equipment set points and eliminating unplanned downtime.

針對這些挑戰和機遇中的每一個都制定了計劃，這些計劃圍繞我們設施中員工的一般管理理念而製定，訓練有素的操作員熟練而安全地提供可靠的輸出，隨著時間的推移不斷改進，由有效的管理人員[適當]理解和領導控製成本地位。它是製造 101，阻止和處理標準工作、已知和管理的設備設定點並消除計劃外停機。

This is what we call operational discipline. We have that in spades at Waycross, Cottondale and Lucedale and have much of that in place at each of our other facilities. The exception is South Hampton, where in addition to the technical challenges with staffing and turnover issues that are also staining in the way of progress. That's also a big reason why we have brought in a third-party operational improvement consultant to assist. When we successfully execute this year and make up the lost ground like I know we can. We will exit this year roughly at the run rate we expected when we started 2023.

這就是我們所說的操作紀律。我們在 Waycross、Cottondale 和 Lucedale 都有這樣的設施，並且在我們的每個其他設施中都有很多這樣的設施。南漢普頓是個例外，那裡除了人員配備和人員流動問題等技術挑戰外，也阻礙了進步。這也是我們引入第三方運營改進顧問協助的一個重要原因。當我們今年成功執行並像我知道的那樣彌補失地時。今年我們將大致按照 2023 年開始時的預期運行速度退出。

I'll now turn it over to Shai to take us through a deeper dive of our finances.

現在我將把它交給 Shai，讓我們更深入地了解我們的財務狀況。

Thank you, Thomas, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with first quarter results. We generated net revenue of $269.1 million for the first quarter of 2023, as compared to $233 million for the first quarter of 2022. Net loss for the first quarter of 2023 was $116.9 million, as compared to a net loss of $45.3 million for the first quarter 2022. Net loss for the first quarter of 2023 included noncash interest expense associated with the deferred gross margin transaction of $40.4 million.

謝謝你，Thomas，大家早上好。讓我們從第一季度的結果開始。我們在 2023 年第一季度的淨收入為 2.691 億美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 2.33 億美元。2023 年第一季度的淨虧損為 1.169 億美元，而第一季度為淨虧損 4530 萬美元2022 年季度。2023 年第一季度的淨虧損包括與遞延毛利率交易相關的非現金利息支出 4040 萬美元。

Adjusted gross margin for first quarter 2023 was $21.3 million as compared to $50.7 million for the first quarter 2022. The decrease year-over-year is attributable to the cost and volume challenges Thomas discussed earlier. Adjusted gross margin per metric ton was $17.93 for the first quarter 2023 compared to $46.27 for first quarter 2022.

2023 年第一季度的調整後毛利率為 2130 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 5070 萬美元。同比下降的原因是 Thomas 之前討論的成本和數量挑戰。 2023 年第一季度調整後的每公噸毛利率為 17.93 美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 46.27 美元。

Adjusted EBITDA for first quarter 2023, was $3.4 million as compared to $36.6 million for first quarter 2022. Enviva's liquidity, as of March 31, 2023, was $634.4 million, which includes cash on hand, including cash generally restricted to funding a portion of the cost of our Epes, Alabama plant and Bond, Mississippi plant and availability under our senior secured revolving credit facility.

2023 年第一季度的調整後 EBITDA 為 340 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 3660 萬美元。截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日，Enviva 的流動資金為 6.344 億美元，其中包括手頭現金，包括通常僅限於為部分業務提供資金的現金我們阿拉巴馬州埃佩斯工廠和密西西比州邦德工廠的成本以及我們高級擔保循環信貸額度下的可用性。

Our growth plan for 2023 is not changed and we expect to invest in total capital expenditures in the range of $365 million to $415 million, with the majority of the spend on our greenfield developments. We expect to invest approximately $310 million at the midpoint of our expectation in the build-out of our apps and bond plans with approximately $60 million being invested in projects across our fleet to improve volume and cost profiles, primarily directed to our underperforming plans.

我們 2023 年的增長計劃沒有改變，我們預計總資本支出將在 3.65 億美元至 4.15 億美元之間，其中大部分支出用於綠地開發。我們預計將在我們預期的中點投資約 3.1 億美元用於構建我們的應用程序和債券計劃，其中約 6000 萬美元用於我們整個機隊的項目以改善數量和成本狀況，主要針對我們表現不佳的計劃。

Similar to prior years, our CapEx spend is scheduled to be back-end weighted. We continue to expect to spend approximately $20 million during 2023 and on maintenance CapEx. Our commitment to conservatively managing Enviva's balance sheet remains unchanged, and we continue to target a leverage ratio of 3.5x to 4x as defined in our credit agreement. We expect to exit 2023 a little above that, but it will be temporary, and we expect to get back to our target range early in 2024. As a reminder, our covenant threshold under the credit agreement is 5.75x.

與往年類似，我們的資本支出計劃按後端加權。我們繼續預計在 2023 年期間將花費大約 2000 萬美元用於維護資本支出。我們對保守管理 Enviva 資產負債表的承諾保持不變，我們繼續將槓桿率目標定為信貸協議中定義的 3.5 倍至 4 倍。我們預計 2023 年會略高於該水平，但這只是暫時的，我們預計會在 2024 年初回到我們的目標範圍。提醒一下，我們在信貸協議下的契約門檻是 5.75 倍。

With that, I would now like to turn it back to Thomas.

有了這個，我現在想把它轉回托馬斯。

Thank you, Shai. Look, disappointing start to the year, no question. March and April is certainly starting to look better, but improvements are not as fast as we needed and as we expected. Our short-term focus has to be on improving productivity and reducing costs as quickly and durably as we can. Although our near-term outlook has changed, the long-term growth profile of our business and industry, it has never been stronger.

謝謝你，夏伊。毫無疑問，今年開局令人失望。 3 月和 4 月的情況肯定開始好轉，但改善速度沒有我們需要和預期的那麼快。我們的短期重點必須放在盡可能快速和持久地提高生產力和降低成本上。儘管我們的近期前景發生了變化，但我們企業和行業的長期增長前景從未如此強勁。

Worldwide demand for our product continues unabated. Yesterday, we announced a new sizable take-or-pay contract with an existing Japanese customer for 300,000 metric tons per year with deliveries starting in tandem with the new capacity we have coming online. In Europe, the European Union will finalize the text related to its Renewable Energy Directive, 3 over the next month which we expect will continue to provide demand tailwinds to woody biomass, given how important this renewable resource is to the net-zero targets of the EU member nations.

全球對我們產品的需求有增無減。昨天，我們宣布與現有日本客戶簽訂一份新的規模龐大的照付不議合同，每年 300,000 公噸，交付量與我們上線的新產能同步開始。在歐洲，歐盟將在下個月完成與其可再生能源指令 3 相關的文本，我們預計該指令將繼續為木質生物質提供需求順風，因為這種可再生資源對於實現淨零排放目標非常重要。歐盟成員國。

Our industry continues to be persistently, structurally short supply. So signing new contracts like the one we just announced, means new production capacity must get built. And therefore, these new contracts are underwriting our large-scale fully contracted capacity expansions.

我們的行業繼續持續存在結構性供應短缺。因此，像我們剛剛宣布的那樣簽署新合同，意味著必須建立新的生產能力。因此，這些新合同正在承保我們大規模的完全合同產能擴張。

As a reminder, our new capacity is modeled of the Lucedale, Cottondale and Waycross, which are, as I've said, our best performing plants. Currently, our Epes, Alabama plant is under construction and progressing well. Epes is expected to be operational mid-2024. For our Bond, Mississippi plant, we're moving forward with partnering with an EPC firm, which will help provide cost and construction certainty, and we plan to construct at least 2 new greenfield plants of the Bond under this approach as well.

提醒一下，我們的新產能以 Lucedale、Cottondale 和 Waycross 為藍本，正如我所說，它們是我們表現最好的工廠。目前，我們位於阿拉巴馬州埃佩斯的工廠正在建設中，進展順利。 Epes 預計將於 2024 年中期投入運營。對於我們位於密西西比州邦德的工廠，我們正在與一家 EPC 公司合作，這將有助於提供成本和建設確定性，我們還計劃根據這種方法在邦德建造至少 2 個新的綠地工廠。

Before we open the call for questions, I'll give a quick recap of what we've discussed this morning. To start off, our results this quarter were much softer than we expected, mainly driven by cost position that is not acceptable, but we believe it can be remedied in the short term. We do know what the problems are, and we're taking the necessary steps to fix them, but we are recalibrating our forecast as to when we will realize the full benefits of our actions and that has led us to reduce our 2023 guidance expectations.

在我們開始提問之前，我將快速回顧一下我們今天上午討論的內容。首先，我們本季度的業績比我們預期的要疲軟，這主要是由於成本狀況不可接受，但我們相信短期內可以糾正。我們確實知道問題是什麼，我們正在採取必要的措施來解決這些問題，但我們正在重新調整我們的預測，以了解我們何時才能實現我們行動的全部好處，這導致我們降低了 2023 年的指導預期。

We also have taken a very hard look at our capital allocation priorities and in lieu of maintaining a dividend. We have revised our policies to focus first and foremost on liquidity and leverage with improving our operating cost position and asset productivity, a very close second priority. Our third priority is to opportunistically return capital to shareholders through share repurchases. And fourth, to the extent it is appropriate, we will accelerate our greenfield developments.

我們還非常認真地審視了我們的資本配置優先事項，而不是維持股息。我們修改了我們的政策，首先關注流動性和槓桿，改善我們的運營成本狀況和資產生產率，這是非常接近的第二個優先事項。我們的第三個優先事項是通過股票回購機會主義地向股東返還資本。四是適時加快綠地建設。

We have a lot of work to do to rebuild the strength of this company and regain the ground we have lost. We know what needs to be done. And those fixes are exactly what you will see us execute over the coming months and quarters.

要重建這家公司的實力並收復失地，我們還有很多工作要做。我們知道需要做什麼。這些修復正是您將在未來幾個月和幾個季度看到我們執行的。

Now let's open the call for questions.

現在讓我們開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Elvira Scotto with RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Elvira Scotto。

Thanks for the detail that you provided. But I guess I have a few questions. First, I mean, what -- maybe a little more detail here on what changed materially from the Analyst Day on April 3 when your first quarter was already done, and you kind of affirm the guidance and now to cause such a big downward revision to EBITDA? And then you mentioned that you believe you can remedy these issues, but why do you believe you can remedy these issues in the short term?

感謝您提供的詳細信息。但我想我有幾個問題。首先，我的意思是，也許在這裡更詳細地說明從 4 月 3 日的分析師日開始發生的重大變化，當時你的第一季度已經完成，你有點肯定了指導意見，現在導致如此大的向下修正EBITDA？然後你提到你相信你可以解決這些問題，但你為什麼認為你可以在短期內解決這些問題？

Elvira, great question. Let me walk you back a little bit to how we got to where we are. As we prepare the plan for 2023, we were benefiting from the productivity and cost profile of September and November -- October -- September, October, November. And we made great progress. The plants were running well, cost position was good. That gives us a lot of confidence for where we're going into 2023.

埃爾維拉，好問題。讓我帶你回顧一下我們是如何到達現在的位置的。在我們制定 2023 年計劃時，我們受益於 9 月和 11 月——10 月——9 月、10 月、11 月的生產力和成本概況。我們取得了很大進步。工廠運行良好，成本狀況良好。這讓我們對 2023 年的發展充滿信心。

We -- and as we then moved into December, as we previously thought -- talked about, polar vortex set us back and created certainly a little bit of noise into Q1. When we went to Investor Day, we thought they were behind us. Volumes had recovered. We do not have March results or April results yet. And what we realized was that January and February that the polar vortex (inaudible) our operational challenges.

我們——當我們進入 12 月時，正如我們之前所想的那樣——談到，極地渦旋讓我們退縮，並給第一季度帶來了一些噪音。當我們去參加投資者日時，我們以為他們在我們身後。卷已經恢復。我們還沒有 3 月或 4 月的結果。我們意識到，在 1 月和 2 月，極地渦旋（聽不清）給我們的運營帶來了挑戰。

The cost position that we then realized in March and April, was substantially higher than we had thought. We thought we were going to be $20 lower than we ended up. We drove some costs out, but certainly nowhere near what we actually expected. And so all in all, when we were at the Investor Day, we knew we had pressure of about $15 million in our cost position, but it ended up being closer to $30 million in that cost position. And so when you think about what that left us in April, still challenging better again than March, but again, not where we need to be. And so with that in mind, we have to reset expectations here and just provide a much more realistic cost profile.

我們隨後在 3 月和 4 月實現的成本狀況大大高於我們的預期。我們認為我們會比最終價格低 20 美元。我們削減了一些成本，但肯定遠不及我們的實際預期。總而言之，當我們在投資者日時，我們知道我們在成本頭寸上承受了大約 1500 萬美元的壓力，但最終在成本頭寸上接近 3000 萬美元。因此，當您考慮 4 月份給我們留下的影響時，仍然比 3 月份更具挑戰性，但同樣，我們需要達到的水平。因此，考慮到這一點，我們必須在這裡重新設定預期，只提供一個更現實的成本概況。

So your second question is how do we drive cost down, right? We've actually made really good progress on the volume, still not quite where we wanted volume to be in February, March, but we never made more tons as an enterprise than in February and March. And so it's really primarily a cost position issue.

所以你的第二個問題是我們如何降低成本，對嗎？實際上，我們在數量上取得了很好的進展，但仍未達到我們希望在 2 月、3 月達到的數量，但作為一家企業，我們從未在 2 月和 3 月製造過更多噸。所以這實際上主要是一個成本定位問題。

Our R&M, repairs and maintenance costs, way exceeded our expectations. But we know how to manage that on an ongoing basis. Our contract labor was way higher. We just lack discipline there. And then as we talked about in the prepared remarks, throughout the last couple of weeks, we took a deep dive into the South Hampton plant that was really disappointing. And we realized that it's going to take us just more time and more effort to get that plant to the potential that it is going to have.

我們的 R&M、維修和維護成本超出了我們的預期。但我們知道如何持續管理它。我們的合同工要高得多。我們只是缺乏紀律。然後正如我們在準備好的評論中所說的那樣，在過去的幾周里，我們深入研究了南漢普頓的工廠，這真是令人失望。我們意識到，要使該工廠發揮其將要擁有的潛力，我們將花費更多的時間和更多的精力。

So when you think about what does that mean for the guidance going forward, right? We're going to drive another $10 out of our cost position in the second quarter. But compared to where we thought we were going to be, it's not -- again, it's not a revenue question. It's a cost question. We do think we're going to be about $30 million below what we thought coming into this year. But from March to June, $10, $12 will come out of the cost tower.

因此，當您考慮這對未來的指導意味著什麼時，對嗎？我們將在第二季度從我們的成本頭寸中再減少 10 美元。但與我們認為我們將要達到的位置相比，這不是 - 再一次，這不是收入問題。這是一個成本問題。我們確實認為我們將比我們今年的預期低約 3000 萬美元。但從 3 月到 6 月，10 美元、12 美元會從成本塔中出來。

One of the things that we see as a real tailwind at the moment is the cost of delivered wood has come down substantially. What we've bought the last couple of weeks is lower than any wood we've bought over the course of 2022. So making really good progress there. And the cost discipline that we have now very aggressively instilled with the changes in operational leadership will show substantial improvement in debt discipline and contract labor, repairs and maintenance because the plants don't need to spend some of those cost pockets, it's a matter of discipline.

我們目前認為真正有利的事情之一是交付木材的成本大幅下降。過去幾週我們購買的木材數量低於我們在 2022 年期間購買的任何木材。因此在這方面取得了非常好的進展。我們現在非常積極地灌輸運營領導層變化的成本紀律將顯示債務紀律和合同工、維修和維護方面的顯著改善，因為工廠不需要花費其中的一些成本口袋，這是一個問題紀律。

As I've said, I am much closer to the plants now than I've ever been. I'm personally managing the operational -- from an operational leadership perspective, what we need to do. Some of the plants run exceptionally well, day in and day out. Lucedale, Waycross, Cottondale are prime examples of what we can do. We have certainly elevated the leadership of those plants in our operations to make sure that all plants adhere to the discipline to get to the reliability, the volumes, the cost position that we know we do every day at some of our best-performing plants.

正如我所說，我現在比以往任何時候都更接近植物。我親自管理運營——從運營領導的角度來看，我們需要做什麼。有些工廠日復一日地運行得非常好。 Lucedale、Waycross、Cottondale 是我們能做的最好的例子。我們當然已經提升了這些工廠在我們運營中的領導地位，以確保所有工廠都遵守紀律，以達到我們知道我們每天在一些表現最佳的工廠所做的可靠性、產量和成本定位。

Let me just add one last piece before I'll let you ask more questions if you want. All of our plants have proven that they can hit the volumes and the cost position. This is not something that you have to believe that we're going to step change into something that we have not seen before.

如果你願意的話，讓我先添加最後一篇，然後我會讓你問更多問題。我們所有的工廠都證明了它們可以達到產量和成本定位。這不是你必須相信的東西，我們將逐步改變成我們以前從未見過的東西。

We have seen this before. At every single one of our plant, both from a volume perspective and from a cost perspective and the discipline that we're instilling personally led by me, will get us back on track. It's going to take us a little bit longer than we had thought. And so with that, we felt it's just prudent to provide a more conservative view that we know we can achieve.

我們以前見過這個。在我們工廠的每一個工廠，無論是從數量角度還是從成本角度以及我們在我個人領導下灌輸的紀律，都會讓我們重回正軌。這將花費我們比我們想像的更長的時間。因此，我們認為提供一個我們知道我們可以實現的更保守的觀點是謹慎的。

Okay. So I guess, just as a follow-up to that, if I look at your 2023 guidance, it's a pretty wide range between the low end and the high end of your EBITDA guidance. I guess maybe talk a little bit about what drives the low end versus the high end? And then I guess the bigger question is, what's the potential that you don't make the low end? Like what would have you actually even missed the low end of your guidance?

好的。所以我想，作為後續行動，如果我看看你的 2023 年指導，它在你的 EBITDA 指導的低端和高端之間有一個相當大的範圍。我想也許可以談談驅動低端與高端的因素是什麼？然後我想更大的問題是，你不做低端產品的潛力是什麼？就像您實際上什至錯過了指導的低端是什麼？

So Elvira, I'll go back to -- we wanted to provide a guidance that is conservative (inaudible). We don't have to -- I believe a whole lot. But it comes down to cost position. And the guidance range comes down to how fast can we drive costs down, right? If we actually increase the reliability faster than the midpoint of the range and create more reliability faster, we're certainly going to come out at the higher end of the range, right? None of that is dependent on spot markets or revenue lift. This is all around how fast can we reduce our cost per ton? Will we maintain the cost improvement that we have seen in the wood fiber, the fundamentals, the macroeconomic fundamentals, which certainly suggests that we're on a very good path there. And when we see the weekly cost of the wood costs that are running over our scale, that gives us good confidence that we're on a very good track.

所以 Elvira，我會回到——我們想提供一個保守的指導（聽不清）。我們不必——我相信很多。但這歸結為成本地位。指導範圍歸結為我們能以多快的速度降低成本，對嗎？如果我們實際上比範圍的中點更快地增加可靠性並更快地創造更多的可靠性，我們肯定會出現在範圍的高端，對嗎？這些都不依賴於現貨市場或收入提升。這就是我們能以多快的速度降低每噸成本？我們是否會保持我們在木纖維、基本面、宏觀經濟基本面中看到的成本改善，這無疑表明我們正走在一條非常好的道路上。當我們看到木材成本的每周成本超過我們的規模時，這讓我們充滿信心，我們正處於一個非常好的軌道上。

The cost discipline that we've reimplemented will certainly drive to the range. And so I feel very confident that this is a conservative estimate. If we increase volume like we had anticipated initially, a little faster than our conservative view, we certainly have a shot at getting to the higher end of the range.

我們重新實施的成本紀律肯定會達到這個範圍。所以我非常有信心這是一個保守的估計。如果我們像最初預期的那樣增加交易量，比我們的保守觀點快一點，我們當然有機會達到該範圍的高端。

Okay. Got it. And then I guess just my final question here. I appreciate like how difficult it was for you to eliminate the dividend. I do think from a financial perspective, it does appear to be the prudent thing to do. But given that, and what's going on, what's the rationale for announcing a buyback authorization at this time?

好的。知道了。然後我想這是我的最後一個問題。我很欣賞你消除股息有多困難。我確實認為，從財務角度來看，這似乎是謹慎的做法。但鑑於此，以及正在發生的事情，此時宣布回購授權的理由是什麼？

No. Thank you, Elvira. I appreciate your comment, that is a prudent thing. Look, I mean, we've thought for a long time that our share price is on the -- I mean, our company is undervalued. And certainly, where we are today, it is certainly -- when you rethink capital allocation, at share price that we see today, it's certainly an obvious way to create total shareholder value here by creating a share-backed buyback program. And so it's certainly to -- as part of -- even before today, we thought our valuation was way too low. And so that is just a logical consequence of that, that the Board considered and has given us the authorization.

不，謝謝你，Elvira。我很欣賞你的評論，這是一個謹慎的事情。看，我的意思是，我們長期以來一直認為我們的股價處於 - 我的意思是，我們公司被低估了。當然，我們今天所處的位置，當然是——當你重新考慮資本配置時，以我們今天看到的股價，這肯定是通過創建股票支持回購計劃來創造股東總價值的明顯方式。所以它肯定 - 作為一部分 - 甚至在今天之前，我們認為我們的估值太低了。因此，這只是一個合乎邏輯的結果，董事會考慮並授權了我們。

Our next question comes from Mark Strouse with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Mark Strouse。

Kind of following up on Elvira's comments there -- questions there. The headwinds that you mentioned, can you go into a bit more detail as far as how much of that is within your control? I think you mentioned just now that the contract labor being too high, you lack discipline there. Just a bit more color on that or how to think about that just a more structurally higher labor cost across the world. And then the wood input costs coming down over the past few weeks that you mentioned, how is that being reflected in guidance? Are you assuming that, that stays there? Or what level are you baking in?

有點跟進 Elvira 那裡的評論 -- 那裡的問題。您提到的逆風，您能否更詳細地說明其中有多少是您可以控制的？我想你剛才提到合同工太高了，你那裡缺乏紀律。只是對此有更多的色彩，或者如何考慮這只是全球結構性更高的勞動力成本。然後你提到的過去幾周木材投入成本下降，這如何反映在指導中？你是否假設，那會留在那裡？或者你在烤什麼水平？

So I'll start with your second question. So our guidance certainly assumes that wood costs are staying and to your first -- staying where we've seen them now land. So I think that's certainly one part. But more importantly, Contract labor is a classic example of being entirely within our control, right? We are fully staffed now. We've told -- we're fully staffed. We had a history of using contract labor where we were not fully staffed, and we lost the discipline to get contract labor out at a time when we were fully staffed. It's entirely in our control. It's completely unacceptable that we haven't done this at the speed that we need to -- and so it's a very good example that when you're fully staffed, you don't need to have the same levels over time. You don't need to have the same levels of contract labor. And that will certainly be a big part of driving our cost position down.

所以我將從你的第二個問題開始。因此，我們的指南當然假設木材成本保持不變，並且首先是保持在我們現在看到的土地上。所以我認為這肯定是一方面。但更重要的是，合同工是完全在我們控制範圍內的典型例子，對吧？我們現在人手充足。我們已經告訴過——我們人手充足。我們有在人手不足的情況下使用合同工的歷史，而在我們人手充足的時候，我們失去了將合同工解僱的紀律。這完全在我們的控制之中。我們沒有以我們需要的速度完成這件事是完全不能接受的——所以這是一個很好的例子，當你的人員配備齊全時，你不需要隨著時間的推移保持相同的水平。您不需要具有相同級別的合同工。這肯定會成為推動我們降低成本的重要組成部分。

Okay. Okay. And then just a quick follow-up. The stock is down obviously pretty significantly since the peak last year. I know that's not exactly your cost of capital. Can you talk just generally about your cost of capital, including project level debt what that looks like and any impact that, that might have on your willingness or ability to add more production and sign more long-term contracts?

好的。好的。然後只是快速跟進。自去年的峰值以來，該股顯然大幅下跌。我知道這不完全是你的資本成本。您能否籠統地談談您的資本成本，包括項目級債務，以及它可能對您增加產量和簽署更多長期合同的意願或能力產生的任何影響？

Thank you, Mark. Thank you for the question. So as we mentioned during the Investor Day, Epes is fully funded and during Investor Day, we mentioned that what -- to get like Bond to position that is fully funded, we mentioned about $275 million of regional debt is needed. And definitely, with the change in capital allocation that amount will be now lower. So we don't see any reason not to believe that we're now with the change in the -- in our capital allocation in the prioritization of our capital allocation to see any reason not to continue with our growth program, with the potential to even further accelerate that as part of the prioritization.

謝謝你，馬克。感謝你的提問。因此，正如我們在投資者日提到的那樣，Epes 的資金充足，在投資者日期間，我們提到——要像邦德一樣獲得資金充足的頭寸，我們提到需要大約 2.75 億美元的區域債務。當然，隨著資本配置的變化，這個數額現在會更低。因此，我們看不出有任何理由不相信我們現在正在改變我們的資本分配優先順序中的資本分配，以看到有任何理由不繼續我們的增長計劃，有可能作為優先順序的一部分，甚至進一步加快這一進程。

Our next question comes from Ryan Levine with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Ryan Levine。

(inaudible) is relatively simply. But if the customer contracts are take-or-pay, can you give us color as to why contracted volumes are delayed into the back half of the year in your prepared comments?

（聽不清）相對簡單。但是，如果客戶合同是照付不議，您能否在您準備好的評論中說明為什麼合同數量延遲到今年下半年？

Yes. No, absolutely. So the contracts are take-or-pay. And when a customer has an operational challenge, for example, they will ask us on the basis of, hey, if you can help us we will absolutely take the volume, right? It's always the premise, right? This requires us to actually agree to a change.

是的。不，絕對。所以合同是照付不議。例如，當客戶遇到運營挑戰時，他們會問我們，嘿，如果你能幫助我們，我們絕對會接受，對吧？它始終是前提，對嗎？這需要我們真正同意更改。

When do we agree to a change? When it's accretive to us. And when we get a premium for that change, which in this case we did get. And so and it's going to come back with a premium in the second half of the year. We -- again, we only do these kind of things when we get rewarded for it financially. We have almost 200 ships on the water a year. And many of those ships provide an opportunity to create a little bit of extra margin through the commercial services business.

我們什麼時候同意改變？當它對我們有利時。當我們為這種變化獲得溢價時，在這種情況下我們確實得到了。因此，它將在今年下半年以溢價回歸。我們 - 再次重申，我們只有在獲得經濟回報時才會做這些事情。我們每年有近 200 艘船在水上航行。其中許多船隻提供了通過商業服務業務創造一點額外利潤的機會。

We have said previously that's about 15% to 20% of our overall EBITDA. That continues to flow through our guidance that we have outlined today. That has not changed. And as part of that 15% to 20%, you can -- we call that premium that we received from the customer to move the $16 million into a different period.

我們之前曾說過，這大約占我們整體 EBITDA 的 15% 到 20%。這將繼續貫穿我們今天概述的指南。那沒有改變。作為這 15% 到 20% 的一部分，您可以 - 我們稱我們從客戶那裡收到的溢價將 1600 萬美元轉移到不同的時期。

Given the implications to the capital structure of those decisions, do you have the ability to force them to take the volumes and receive the cash flow to preserve the capital structure?

考慮到這些決策對資本結構的影響，您是否有能力迫使他們接受交易量並獲得現金流以維持資本結構？

Yes, absolutely. We can -- it's a take-or-pay contract. We could tell the customer, sorry, we don't really find an opportunity Unfortunately, we can't help you. We didn't do this in this case, but we could.

是的，一點沒錯。我們可以——這是照付不議的合同。我們可以告訴客戶，對不起，我們真的找不到機會，很遺憾，我們幫不了你。在這種情況下我們沒有這樣做，但我們可以。

Right. And then in terms of the guidance, so you think in your comments, you mentioned that you knew about $15 million cost decline at the time of the Analyst Day when the guidance was reaffirmed. Can you give us a little color as to what new information you are in, since then? And I guess on that (inaudible), just so we understand some of the numbers, in the transcript or the press release, you highlighted a $50 million shortfall to management expectations on adjusted EBITDA versus a $30 million shortfall to company guidance.

正確的。然後就指導而言，所以你在評論中認為，你提到在分析師日重申指導時你知道大約 1500 萬美元的成本下降。從那時起，你能給我們一些關於你所掌握的新信息的顏色嗎？我猜想（聽不清），只是為了讓我們了解一些數字，在成績單或新聞稿中，你強調了管理層對調整後 EBITDA 的預期有 5000 萬美元的缺口，而公司指導有 3000 萬美元的缺口。

Can you help us kind of understand what the differences between some of these numbers?

你能幫我們理解其中一些數字之間的區別嗎？

So at Investor Day, we're certainly -- we thought we might be -- we would be trending towards the low end of the original guidance range, but we absolutely thought we were within the guidance range and we thought it was still possible. And the improvements that we -- that were underway did not materialize. And as we close the books in April, March cost -- the March cost position was significantly higher than what we had anticipated. And then as we don't have the final numbers for April, but clearly, we know that April was lower than certainly we saw at the beginning of the year, but we have not seen the cost reductions that we anticipated. And with that, the outlook for the rest of the year changed as we drive cost out of the business, we're certainly starting at a higher cost base. And so that's why we had to acknowledge that with a reasonably conservative view, Q2 will be about $30 million in EBITDA lower than we had thought. And the remaining $35 million will be divided over Q3 and Q4.

因此，在投資者日，我們肯定——我們認為我們可能會——我們將趨向於原始指導範圍的低端，但我們絕對認為我們在指導範圍內，我們認為這仍然是可能的。我們正在進行的改進並未實現。當我們在 4 月份結帳時，3 月份的成本——3 月份的成本狀況明顯高於我們的預期。然後，由於我們沒有 4 月份的最終數字，但很明顯，我們知道 4 月份的數據肯定比我們年初看到的要低，但我們沒有看到我們預期的成本下降。因此，隨著我們將成本從業務中剔除，今年剩餘時間的前景發生了變化，我們肯定會從更高的成本基礎開始。因此，這就是為什麼我們不得不承認，以合理保守的觀點來看，第二季度的 EBITDA 將比我們原先想像的低約 3000 萬美元。剩下的 3500 萬美元將在第三季度和第四季度分配。

Again, we believe we can drive costs out of the organization exactly like we anticipated from a goal perspective, but it's going to take us longer to really drive that out of the cost position and with that, we're -- it's just shifting a little bit to the right. The other piece of information is that over the last couple of weeks, our deep dive in South Hampton clearly indicated that it's going to take us longer to rebuild that drive that we've outlined. And that's another reason that's setting us back.

同樣，我們相信我們可以完全按照我們從目標的角度預期的那樣將成本從組織中剔除，但是我們需要更長的時間才能真正將其從成本位置中剔除，並且我們 - 它只是轉移了一個向右一點點。另一條信息是，在過去的幾周里，我們在南漢普頓的深入研究清楚地表明，我們將需要更長的時間來重建我們概述的動力。這是讓我們退縮的另一個原因。

Okay. And then just a follow-up on the $50 million shortfall versus management expectations versus a $30 million shortfall versus company guidance? What's the difference?

好的。然後只是跟進 5000 萬美元的缺口與管理層的預期以及 3000 萬美元的缺口與公司指導？有什麼不同？

We didn't really -- Ryan, for the first quarter, we didn't really provide guidance for the first quarter. So I think that like a -- we can take this.

我們真的沒有——瑞安，對於第一季度，我們並沒有真正為第一季度提供指導。所以我認為這就像 - 我們可以接受這個。

No, so we moved $16 million into the different period. And $30 million is the miss on the cost bases compared to our original budget, right? And so that's why we print it, if you take this together, $16 million and $30 million. We printed $4 million, and we had $4.6 million of incremental DGMT.

不，所以我們將 1600 萬美元轉移到了不同的時期。與我們最初的預算相比，成本基礎上少了 3000 萬美元，對嗎？這就是我們打印它的原因，如果你把它加在一起，1600 萬美元和 3000 萬美元。我們印刷了 400 萬美元，我們有 460 萬美元的增量 DGMT。

Next question comes from Pavel Molchanov with Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Pavel Molchanov 和 Raymond James。

A month ago, you obviously were sticking with the $0.905 dividend and today you zeroed it out. What was the thinking in doing a full dividend suspension instead of a cut, 50% or even 75% preserving some kind of income for the investor.

一個月前，您顯然堅持 0.905 美元的股息，而今天您將其歸零。完全暫停派息而不是削減 50% 甚至 75% 的股息為投資者保留某種收入的想法是什麼。

Pavel, great question. So the Board evaluated and found more accretive value for our shareholders and shoring up our balance sheet and an investment in our current fleet clearly necessary and future assets growth. And of course, the return of capital through the share buyback was certainly another consideration that -- from an accretion perspective and for total shareholder return. And -- when you think about the priorities that we've outlined: first, liquidity and leverage; secondly, investing in our existing asset fleet; third, the share buyback program; and fourth, under the right circumstances, moving up some of our investments in new plants. All this together led us to believe that a complete elimination of the dividend was a better new capital allocation strategy than any of the alternatives.

帕維爾，好問題。因此，董事會評估並發現為我們的股東帶來更多的增值，並支撐我們的資產負債表和對我們現有機隊的投資顯然是必要的，並且未來的資產增長。當然，從增值和股東總回報的角度來看，通過股票回購返還資本肯定是另一個考慮因素。並且 - 當您考慮我們概述的優先事項時：首先是流動性和槓桿；其次，投資於我們現有的資產船隊；三、股份回購計劃；第四，在適當的情況下，增加我們對新工廠的一些投資。所有這些共同使我們相信，完全取消股息是比任何其他選擇都更好的新資本配置策略。

Will you ever consider restoring the dividend? And if so, under what circumstances?

你會考慮恢復股息嗎？如果是這樣，在什麼情況下？

So absolutely, Pavel. We have not moved away from our growth program here. We believe in 2026, we're going to hit $500 million in EBITDA. That has certainly not changed. And we believe we're going to build -- that requires 2 more plants to get to $500 million in EBITDA and restoring our cost structure.

所以絕對，帕維爾。我們沒有離開這裡的增長計劃。我們相信到 2026 年，我們的 EBITDA 將達到 5 億美元。這當然沒有改變。我們相信我們要建造——這需要另外 2 家工廠才能達到 5 億美元的 EBITDA 並恢復我們的成本結構。

Those are the 2 key elements that we need. And then beyond that, we can certainly generate more growth, but we are getting to a point where we're certainly going to be able to consider going back to paying a dividend without in any sort of form limiting our growth potential. But the one thing that's clear is that when we look at our opportunities and our potential, the focus on growth is certainly a key part of our strategy. And the tailwinds from RED III that we just talked about a couple of weeks ago, are certainly materialize.

這些是我們需要的兩個關鍵要素。然後除此之外，我們當然可以產生更多的增長，但我們已經到了一個地步，我們肯定能夠考慮重新支付股息，而不會以任何形式限制我們的增長潛力。但有一點很清楚，當我們審視我們的機會和潛力時，對增長的關注無疑是我們戰略的關鍵部分。幾週前我們剛剛談到的 RED III 的順風肯定會實現。

Japan, we just evidenced the growth potential in Japan by signing another contract with a Japanese customer, right? So growth is certainly the focus of this company in the medium term. And as part of that growth profile, we're going to generate cash that will allow us eventually to revisit our capital allocation program.

日本，我們剛剛通過與日本客戶簽訂另一份合同證明了日本的增長潛力，對嗎？因此，增長肯定是這家公司中期的重點。作為增長概況的一部分，我們將產生現金，使我們最終能夠重新審視我們的資本配置計劃。

And lastly, can we get an update on older fields?

最後，我們可以獲取舊字段的更新嗎？

Pavel, the sustainable aviation fuel space, in general, is still going very, very strongly. We continue to work with many counterparties in that space. All of them are asking the same question, where is the wood fuel coming from? And whether it's in the boardrooms or whether it's in their financing questions, and we are providing a key solution for that. And we're one of the only ones who can provide that solution. That is something we're working on with Alder. But it's not limited to Alder. Alder is progressing, and we believe that they, as -- like many other companies, are going to successfully deploy capital to build plants to generate sustainable aviation fuels. And so one of our great partners, and we have many more that we're working with.

Pavel，總體而言，可持續航空燃料領域仍然非常非常強勁。我們繼續與該領域的許多交易對手合作。他們都在問同一個問題，木材燃料從哪裡來？無論是在董事會中還是在他們的融資問題中，我們都為此提供了一個關鍵的解決方案。我們是唯一能夠提供該解決方案的公司之一。這是我們正在與 Alder 合作的事情。但這不僅限於榿木。 Alder 正在取得進步，我們相信，與許多其他公司一樣，他們將成功部署資本來建造工廠，以生產可持續的航空燃料。因此，我們的偉大合作夥伴之一，我們還有更多合作夥伴。

Our next question comes from Jordan Levy with Truist Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jordan Levy。

Thomas, maybe start out with you. I wanted to see if I could get a sense of how you all have historically looked to evaluate productivity and cost profile on a plant level basis. And how you're thinking about that potential changes there as we go forward.

托馬斯，也許從你開始。我想看看我是否能了解你們在歷史上是如何看待在工廠層面評估生產力和成本概況的。隨著我們的前進，您如何看待那裡的潛在變化。

So when you go back to 2020, 2021, we had a strong sense of cost control. Our cost position was predictable. And then as we went into 2022, cost position certainly went up, right? We initially thought it was more temporal through the war in Ukraine and inflationary pressures. We really struggled through the first quarter with pandemic-related issues. And it certainly turned out that -- and we had expansions that we did at many of the plants. And so what we've seen in September, October, November is that these expansions were starting to really flow through on a daily basis. And where we have struggled a little bit is certainly on the reliability of those new plants.

所以當你回到 2020 年、2021 年時，我們有很強的成本控制意識。我們的成本狀況是可以預見的。然後當我們進入 2022 年時，成本狀況肯定會上升，對吧？我們最初認為這是暫時的，因為烏克蘭戰爭和通脹壓力。我們在第一季度確實在與流行病相關的問題上苦苦掙扎。事實證明，我們在許多工廠都進行了擴建。因此，我們在 9 月、10 月、11 月看到的是，這些擴張開始真正每天都在流動。我們遇到困難的地方肯定是這些新工廠的可靠性。

We have certainly struggled a little bit with third-party cost management, and we have struggled with turnover, right? And particularly those elements are -- the good news is many of these, if not all of them, are actually within our control. And so we believe we can get the cost down like we've said. We're certainly working very hard to train people. The issue with turnover is not that you can't replace people, but it takes 6 months for these people to be the necessary operators that they can actually problem solve independently in a (inaudible), for example, in a plant.

我們當然在第三方成本管理方面遇到了一些困難，我們也在營業額方面遇到過困難，對吧？特別是那些元素——好消息是其中的許多，如果不是全部，實際上都在我們的控制之下。因此，我們相信我們可以像我們所說的那樣降低成本。我們當然非常努力地培訓人員。營業額的問題不是你不能更換人，而是這些人需要 6 個月的時間才能成為必要的操作員，他們實際上可以在（聽不清）中獨立解決問題，例如在工廠中。

We've made good progress there. but not as fast as we thought. And so we know what needs to be done. We have the skilled labor in place and the retention plans and productivity is driven by uptime of the plants, in addition to cost management. And the uptime of the plants is not -- in some plants, it's not quite where it needs to be. It's a core focus of ours. I think we're making progress.

我們在那裡取得了很好的進展。但沒有我們想像的那麼快。所以我們知道需要做什麼。除了成本管理外，我們擁有熟練的勞動力，保留計劃和生產力由工廠的正常運行時間驅動。而且工廠的正常運行時間不是——在一些工廠中，它不是它需要的地方。這是我們的核心重點。我認為我們正在取得進展。

As I've said, and the trajectory will show. We'll report out on this -- on the progress. So we'll provide on a go-forward basis, given that this, in the short term, is our #1 key initiative. We'll provide more detail as we go forward that the analyst community as well as our investors can measure progress.

正如我所說，軌跡將會顯示出來。我們將就此報告進展情況。因此，我們將在前進的基礎上提供，因為在短期內，這是我們的第一大關鍵舉措。隨著我們前進，我們將提供更多細節，以便分析師社區以及我們的投資者可以衡量進展。

I appreciate that. And maybe shifting over to the contract side. As we go through '23 and into '24, you have a large portion of the mix starts to shift over to Japan contracts. I'm just curious if that acts as another headwind in terms of cost, given higher shipping costs and if you all have addressed that in your [thinking?].

我很感激。也許轉移到合同方。隨著我們經歷 23 年和 24 年，你有很大一部分組合開始轉向日本合同。我只是很好奇，考慮到更高的運輸成本，這是否會成為成本方面的另一個不利因素，以及你們是否都在 [思考？] 中解決了這個問題。

Absolutely. It's a great question. So no, this will not have any negative implications. In fact, we, of course, received a headline price that accounted for higher shipping costs. And so a lot of these contracts that we have in Japan should provide the same or better margins like we've seen historically. I will also say that the contracting environment right now is certainly providing us with an opportunity to enter into contract at a substantially higher contract price than we've seen historically.

絕對地。這是一個很好的問題。所以不，這不會產生任何負面影響。事實上，我們當然收到了導致更高運輸成本的標題價格。因此，我們在日本擁有的許多這些合同應該提供與我們歷史上看到的相同或更好的利潤率。我還要說的是，現在的合同環境肯定為我們提供了一個機會，以比我們歷史上看到的高得多的合同價格簽訂合同。

Certainly, pricing is up 20% compared to what we've seen historically. And so that will start to roll through. That actually will start to roll through already in the second half of this year. That's why revenue number for Q1 was $219, on average, it's going to be $234 this year. And certainly, as contracts roll through, you'll see revenue per ton increase.

當然，與我們以往看到的價格相比，價格上漲了 20%。所以這將開始滾動。這實際上將在今年下半年開始實施。這就是為什麼第一季度的平均收入為 219 美元，今年將達到 234 美元。當然，隨著合同的簽訂，您會看到每噸收入增加。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back to Thomas Meth for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回 Thomas Meth，聽取任何閉幕詞。

Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us today. We've outlined today that -- in the short term, #1 priority is cost reductions. Our revenues are like as expected, our cost position is not. But we will fix that. We have that in our control, and we'll report out on our progress.

感謝大家今天抽出時間加入我們。我們今天概述了——在短期內，第一要務是降低成本。我們的收入符合預期，但我們的成本狀況卻並非如此。但我們會解決這個問題。我們可以控制它，我們會報告我們的進展。

And we look forward to providing progress updates on that and our business throughout the coming months as we execute that improvement plan, and deliver much better quarterly results going forward. Thank you for joining us today.

我們期待在接下來的幾個月中提供有關該改進計劃和我們業務的進展更新，並在未來提供更好的季度業績。感謝您今天加入我們。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。