L B Foster Co (FSTR) 2015 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Q4 2015 L.B. Foster Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ashley, and I will be your operator for today.

美好的一天，女士們先生們。歡迎來到 2015 年第四季 L.B.福斯特收益電話會議。我叫阿什利，今天我將擔任您的接線生。

(Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to your host for today, David Russo, Chief Financial Officer. Please proceed.

（操作員指示）我現在想將電話轉給今天的主持人，財務長 David Russo。請繼續。

Thank you, Ashley. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for L.B. Foster Company's earnings conference call to review the Company's fourth quarter 2015 operating results. My name is David Russo and I am the Chief Financial Officer of L.B. Foster.

謝謝你，阿什利。早安，女士們，先生們。感謝您加入我們的 L.B.福斯特公司召開財報電話會議，回顧公司2015年第四季的營運表現。我叫 David Russo，是 L.B. 的財務長。促進。

Hosting the call today is Mr. Robert Bauer, L.B. Foster's President and CEO.

今天主持電話會議的是 Robert Bauer 先生，L.B.福斯特公司總裁兼執行長。

We do have a fourth quarter presentation on our website under our Investor Relations tab for those that have online access.

我們確實在網站上的“投資者關係”選項卡下為那些可以在線訪問的人提供了第四季度的演示。

This morning, Bob will review the Company's fourth quarter performance and provide an update on significant business issues, as well as Company and market development. Afterward, I will review the Company's fourth quarter financial results, and then we will open up the session for questions.

今天早上，鮑伯將回顧公司第四季的業績，並提供有關重大業務問題以及公司和市場發展的最新情況。隨後，我將回顧公司第四季的財務業績，然後我們將開始提問。

During today's call, our commentary and responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements, including items such as the Company's outlook for our businesses and markets, cash flows, margins, operating costs, capital expenditures and other key business metrics, issues and projections.

在今天的電話會議中，我們對您問題的評論和答案可能包含前瞻性陳述，包括公司對業務和市場的前景、現金流量、利潤、營運成本、資本支出和其他關鍵業務指標、問題和預測等專案.

These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements we make today. These forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these statements in light of new information, except as required by securities laws.

這些陳述涉及許多風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們今天所做的陳述有重大差異。這些前瞻性陳述僅反映我們截至本簡報發布之日的觀點，我們不承擔根據新資訊修改或公開發布這些陳述的任何修改結果的義務，除非證券法要求。

All participants are encouraged to refer to L.B. Foster's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, as updated by any subsequent Form 10-Qs or other pertinent items filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information about L.B. Foster and to learn more about the risk factors that may affect our results. We do intend to file our form 10-K a little later today.

鼓勵所有參與者參考 L.B. Foster 公司截至 2014 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 10-K 表格年度報告，已透過任何後續 10-Q 表格或向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他相關項目進行更新，以了解有關 L.B. 的更多資訊。促進並更多地了解可能影響我們結果的風險因素。我們確實打算在今天稍後提交 10-K 表格。

In addition to the results provided in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, our commentary includes certain non-GAAP statements including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA as well as results that exclude certain non-recurring items including an impairment charge, charges related to the Union Pacific Railroad Warranty Claim and the gain on the sale of concrete tie assets in Tucson, Arizona. Reconciliations of U.S. GAAP to these non-GAAP measurements have been included within the Company's 8-K filing.

除了根據美國公認會計原則提供的結果外，我們的評論還包括某些非 GAAP 報表，包括 EBITDA、調整後 EBITDA 以及排除某些非經常性項目（包括減損費用、與聯盟相關的費用）的結果太平洋鐵路保固索賠以及出售亞利桑那州圖森混凝土繫帶資產的收益。美國公認會計準則與這些非公認會計準則衡量標準的調節已包含在公司的 8-K 備案中。

Statements referring to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted gross margins are considered non-GAAP measurements. And while they are not intended to replace the presentation of our financial results in accordance with GAAP, the Company believes that the presentation of these metrics provides additional meaningful information for investors to facilitate the comparison of past, present and forecasted operating results.

涉及 EBITDA、調整後 EBITDA、調整後毛利率的報表被視為非 GAAP 衡量標準。雖然它們無意取代我們根據公認會計原則呈現的財務業績，但公司相信這些指標的呈現為投資者提供了額外有意義的信息，以方便比較過去、現在和預測的經營業績。

With that we will commence our discussion and I'll turn it over to Bob Bauer.

接下來我們將開始討論，我會將其交給鮑勃鮑爾 (Bob Bauer)。

Thank you, Dave, and good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us. First, I want to let you know that my comments are going to go in the order of the exhibits that we put on our website, if you are following along with some of those.

謝謝你，戴夫，大家早安。感謝您加入我們。首先，我想讓您知道，如果您關注其中的一些內容，我的評論將按照我們在網站上放置的展品的順序進行。

The focus of my discussion is going to be aimed at our current business climate and the steps we are taking to adjusting to certain changing market conditions. I do want to start though by spending a moment just on a few of the facts for the full year, which are certainly key highlights for our business, the fact that we had a record year in sales at $625 million, held our adjusted gross profit margins flat at 21.6% in the face of some tough markets, lower sales volume, and declining steel prices through the year.

我討論的重點將針對我們當前的商業環境以及我們為適應某些不斷變化的市場條件而採取的步驟。不過，我確實想先花點時間介紹一下全年的一些事實，這無疑是我們業務的關鍵亮點，事實上，我們的年度銷售額達到創紀錄的 6.25 億美元，調整後的毛利保持不變面對一些嚴峻的市場、銷售下降以及全年鋼價下跌，利潤率持平於21.6%。

And our adjusted EBITDA of $59 million along with $56 million in operating cash flow for the year that led to debt reduction, was certainly for us a great way to finish the year.

我們調整後的 EBITDA 為 5,900 萬美元，加上當年的營運現金流為 5,600 萬美元，從而減少了債務，這對我們來說無疑是結束這一年的好方法。

These are a few of the highlights that represent some of our key accomplishments throughout the year, and a lot of credit goes to our management team for that. But, of course, the center of attention will be on our deteriorating markets through the course of 2015 and certain operations, which have been undergoing changes, as a result of the declining sales volume.

這些是代表我們全年取得的一些主要成就的一些亮點，這要歸功於我們的管理團隊。但是，當然，關注的焦點將是 2015 年不斷惡化的市場以及由於銷量下降而變化的某些業務。

It has been a year of transition, as we pointed out earlier in the year when we saw changing conditions, particularly in the freight rail industry in North America as well as a weakening rail market in Europe and the unfortunate loss of business from Union Pacific Railroad, all of which created a headwind for our Rail business that wasn't anticipated as the year started. We did expect 2015 to be a difficult year for our energy related businesses, although the outlook deteriorated throughout the year as the price of oil declined further and it stayed down longer, it became a source of market volatility. And as we decided to take on more exposure to this market, we did so with a forecast that anticipated a severe drop in market activity. But the forecast was short of the decline that actually took place. The severity of the weakness led to the impairment charge we took in the third quarter related to goodwill for Chemtec and the IOS acquisitions. And these charges are among the exceptions noted on our adjusted performance results.

正如我們在今年早些時候指出的那樣，這是過渡的一年，當時我們看到情況發生了變化，特別是北美貨運鐵路行業以及歐洲鐵路市場的疲軟以及聯合太平洋鐵路業務的不幸損失，所有這些都為我們的鐵路業務帶來了年初未曾預料到的逆風。我們確實預計2015年對我們的能源相關業務來說將是困難的一年，儘管全年前景因石油價格進一步下跌且持續下跌時間而惡化，成為市場波動的一個根源。當我們決定增加對這個市場的投資時，我們的預測是市場活動將會嚴重下降。但預測低於實際發生的下降。疲軟的嚴重程度導致我們在第三季提列了與 Chemtec 和 IOS 收購商譽相關的減損費用。這些費用是我們調整後的業績結果中所註明的例外情況。

As I mentioned during our last call, we might see the upstream operators preserve cash in Q4, taking dramatic steps to reduce inventory and idle operations that weren't profitable. Some of our significant customers did exactly that and our upstream test and inspection services business turned in the worst quarter of the year, that's our IOS business. And from time to time, I will refer to that as our test and inspection services business or inspection services to be brief.

正如我在上次電話會議中提到的，我們可能會看到上游營運商在第四季度保留現金，採取重大措施減少庫存和無利可圖的閒置業務。我們的一些重要客戶正是這樣做的，我們的上游測試和檢驗服務業務在今年最糟糕的季度出現了下滑，這就是我們的 IOS 業務。有時，我會稱之為我們的測試和檢驗服務業務或簡稱為檢驗服務。

The commodity cycles also had a substantial impact on steel prices. Steel factory utilization is expected to remain at depressed levels into 2016. There is enough global capacity that's sufficient to keep prices at very competitive levels, especially on pipe products.

大宗商品週期也對鋼材價格產生重大影響。預計 2016 年鋼廠利用率仍將維持在低迷水準。全球產能充足，足以將價格維持在極具競爭力的水平，尤其是管道產品。

So, let me go into the sales results and some of our segment discussions. I mentioned that full year sales were $625 million. The Company's full year overall results include $93 million in incremental sales from acquisitions. This helped offset the decline in our base business of 10% year-over-year due to a loss of revenue related to the items I just mentioned. So, our base business without acquisitions had a tough year. And as you will see, as I go through the segment discussions, there were pockets of weakness or other issues that really affected all three of our business segments.

那麼，讓我談談銷售業績和我們的一些細分市場討論。我提到全年銷售額為 6.25 億美元。該公司全年整體業績包括收購帶來的 9,300 萬美元的增量銷售額。這有助於抵消我們的基礎業務因我剛才提到的專案相關的收入損失而同比下降 10% 的情況。因此，我們在沒有收購的情況下的基礎業務度過了艱難的一年。正如您將看到的，當我進行各個部門的討論時，存在一些弱點或其他問題，這些問題確實影響了我們所有三個業務部門。

Our results in 2015 included a significant impact from acquisition, in both sales and the impact on profitability. We finished the year with our new companies contributing to earnings for the most part with the significant exception being IOS. The acquisitions changed our sales mix as well. The loss of volume in Rail coupled with the size of our Tubular and Energy acquisitions have changed their respective percentages the most, Rail declining to 53% and Tubular and Energy increasing to 19%.

我們 2015 年的業績包括收購對銷售額和獲利能力的重大影響。我們的新公司在這一年中貢獻了大部分收入，但 IOS 是一個重大例外。這些收購也改變了我們的銷售結構。鐵路銷售的損失加上我們管狀和能源收購的規模，使各自的百分比變化最大，鐵路下降至 53%，管狀和能源增加至 19%。

I specifically wanted to call attention to the Tubular and Energy segment, as the 19% of total sales is well within the percentage limit we wanted in this segment. As we added exposure to the energy markets, we wanted to keep the percent of sales below 30%. And within this segment, 70% primarily serves midstream, pipeline and other applications and 30% serves the upstream markets where the test and inspection services business is focused.

我特別想提請大家注意管狀和能源領域，因為總銷售額的 19% 完全在我們對該領域的預期百分比限制之內。隨著我們加大對能源市場的投入，我們希望將銷售額百分比維持在 30% 以下。在該細分市場中，70%主要服務於中游、管道和其他應用，30%服務於以測試和檢驗服務業務為主的上游市場。

So, let me turn into the -- turn to the Rail business segment results. I am going to start with the fourth quarter. The deterioration in the North American freight rail markets started about mid-year. The commodity cycle has really caught up to the freight rail market as low prices for commodities that led to industrial and energy market weakness has translated into reductions in freight volume along with a significant impact on crude by rail projects.

那麼，讓我談談鐵路業務部門的業績。我將從第四季開始。北美貨運鐵路市場的惡化始於年中左右。大宗商品週期確實趕上了貨運鐵路市場，因為導致工業和能源市場疲軟的大宗商品價格低廉已轉化為貨運量減少，同時鐵路項目對原油產生了重大影響。

Our Q4 sales revenue which declined 16.5% from prior year was driven by weakness in North America freight rail as well as a weak European market, and of course the loss from Union Pacific sales. So, let me give you a few specifics on this.

我們第四季的銷售收入比去年同期下降了 16.5%，這是由於北美貨運鐵路的疲軟以及歐洲市場的疲軟，當然還有聯合太平洋公司銷售的損失。那麼，讓我向您介紹一些具體情況。

If you look at the sales decline of 16.5%, it included $20 million of the decline that was partially offset by $5 million that came from the TEW Engineering acquisition. So, Union Pacific accounted for $9.7 million of the year-over-year decline and all other sales fell by $10.4 million, which is really more in line with the market softness. The North America freight rail had a big impact. Commodity carloads in the quarter were down 11.4%. Coal continues to decline. And in the fourth quarter, those carloads were off by more than 11% in the quarter. Petroleum was down 14%. And you could see this in the announcements made by the Class One railroads where some had significant declining volume and operating ratios announced with their fourth quarter results.

如果你看看 16.5% 的銷售額下降，其中包括 2000 萬美元的下降，但部分被 TEW Engineering 收購帶來的 500 萬美元抵消。因此，聯合太平洋公司的銷售額比去年同期下降了 970 萬美元，所有其他銷售額下降了 1,040 萬美元，這確實更符合市場疲軟的情況。北美貨運鐵路產生了巨大影響。本季商品車運量下降 11.4%。煤炭持續下降。而在第四季度，這些車輛的運載量下降了 11% 以上。石油下跌 14%。您可以在一級鐵路公司發布的公告中看到這一點，其中一些鐵路公司在第四季度業績中公佈的運量和營運比率顯著下降。

So, they began curtailing spending in the second half of 2015. And the spending that is getting priority among the freight rail operators is directed at safety improvement, operating efficiency and other cost reductions, which is where our Company continues to focus on new products and the solutions that we're bringing to market.

因此，他們從2015年下半年開始削減支出。貨運鐵路營運商優先考慮的支出是用於提高安全性、提高營運效率和降低其他成本，這也是我們公司繼續專注於推向市場的新產品和解決方案的領域。

Funding for transit rail projects in North America continued at a steady pace in 2015. We continue to believe the transit market will grow over the long run, although year-over-year sequential growth may not be as steady or consistent. We believe that the global transit market represents a good opportunity for the Company. And we now have proven capabilities, designing and building automation solutions for passenger transit systems through our TEW Engineering business, which includes innovative solutions that help transit system operators improve infrastructure and lower costs.

2015 年，北美交通鐵路計畫的融資持續保持穩定成長。我們仍然相信，從長遠來看，交通市場將會成長，儘管逐年連續成長可能不會那麼穩定或一致。我們相信全球交通市場對公司來說是一個很好的機會。現在，我們擁有經過驗證的能力，可以透過 TEW 工程業務為客運交通系統設計和建構自動化解決方案，其中包括幫助交通系統營運商改善基礎設施並降低成本的創新解決方案。

Looking at full year results, the full year sales for the Rail segment reflect the conditions and the comments I've just made. Because the market experienced weakness as the year progressed, our year-over-year declines in sales volume were less than those presented in Q4. The entire segment declined 12.2% with Union Pacific having an impact of over $26 million on sales, which fell to $15.2 million for the year. If you exclude acquisitions, the balance of the Rail segment business was down by 10.4% with TEW adding $15 million in sales from the acquisition, which occurred back in January of 2015.

縱觀全年業績，鐵路部門的全年銷售額反映了我剛剛發表的情況和評論。由於今年市場表現疲軟，我們的銷售量年減幅小於第四季。整個部門下降了 12.2%，其中聯合太平洋公司對銷售額的影響超過 2,600 萬美元，全年銷售額降至 1,520 萬美元。如果排除收購，鐵路部門業務的餘額下降了 10.4%，TEW 從 2015 年 1 月發生的收購中增加了 1500 萬美元的銷售額。

I'm really pleased with our gross margins for the Rail segment coming in at 23.2% for the year, 10 basis points better than prior year adjusted results. These results reflect substantial work that was done by our operating people to adjust to the lower volume in weak markets. The decline of steel prices were very well managed. And under the circumstances, I believe this was a great result for the year.

我對今年鐵路部門的毛利率達到 23.2% 感到非常滿意，比前一年調整後的結果高出 10 個基點。這些結果反映了我們的操作人員為適應疲軟市場的較低交易量所做的大量工作。鋼材價格的下跌得到了很好的控制。在這種情況下，我相信這是今年的一個很好的結果。

Our European operations within this had a tough year, as network rail delayed many projects. I expect TEW to have a very favorable impact going forward on the success of this business. Their talent for automation solutions is top flight. And I see them changing the content of value-added solutions across our entire Rail business.

我們的歐洲業務在這一年經歷了艱難的一年，因為網路鐵路推遲了許多項目。我預計 TEW 將對這項業務的成功產生非常有利的影響。他們在自動化解決方案方面的才華是一流的。我看到他們改變了我們整個鐵路業務的增值解決方案的內容。

So, turning now to Construction. The heavy civil construction markets have really held up fairly well through the year, although we have been faced with an environment of very low steel prices that has led to increasingly difficult circumstances for us in winning business for commodity piling products. The Company performed well in our core product areas of bridge decking intended largely for relocation projects and in sheet piling for railway, highway and port projects and also in our precast concrete buildings. Where the Company did not perform as well was in our non-sheet piling products such as pipe pile for heavy civil projects where they became very price competitive due to the declining steel prices.

所以，現在轉向建築。儘管我們面臨著鋼材價格極低的環境，導致我們在贏得商品樁產品業務方面變得越來越困難，但重型土木建築市場今年確實表現得相當不錯。公司在主要用於搬遷專案的橋面、鐵路、公路和港口專案的板樁以及預製混凝土建築的核心產品領域表現良好。公司表現不佳的是我們的非板樁產品，例如用於重型土木工程的管樁，由於鋼材價格下跌，這些產品變得非常具有價格競爭力。

So for the full year, Construction sales were only down $2.5 million. This is the result of our precast concrete buildings being up about $16 million offset by our piling business, which was down about $16 million. And the piling decline was significant in Q4, which is what drove the Construction decline in the quarter. The precast buildings division did extremely well and was a real bright spot in 2015. Our management team capitalized on new market opportunities that led to significant growth. This team has created some real momentum around new products and integration with our Carr Concrete acquisition. And this division is delivering some very nice results.

因此，全年建築銷售額僅下降了 250 萬美元。這是由於我們的預製混凝土建築增加了約 1,600 萬美元，而我們的打樁業務減少了約 1,600 萬美元。第四季的打樁量下降顯著，這也是該季度建築業下降的原因。預製建築部門表現非常出色，成為 2015 年的真正亮點。我們的管理團隊利用新的市場機會實現了顯著成長。該團隊圍繞著新產品以及與我們收購的 Carr Concrete 的整合創造了一些真正的動力。這個部門正在取得一些非常好的成果。

So, the Construction segment finished the fourth quarter with gross margins of 19.4%, up 170 basis points on down sales and with a tough pricing environment in a large segment of the business, which is a direct reflection on the margin improvement and success of the precast buildings business I just spoke of. But the bridge business also had a very good year on margins and has been executing very well as well.

因此，建築業務第四季度的毛利率為 19.4%，由於銷售下降和大部分業務的定價環境嚴峻，毛利率上升了 170 個基點，這直接反映了利潤率的改善和業務的成功。我剛剛談到的預製建築業務。但橋樑業務今年的利潤率也非常好，而且執行也非常好。

So now, I'm going turn to the Tubular and Energy Services business, the third and final segment. Overall growth was driven by acquisitions. Among our legacy businesses, threaded products has traditionally been a solid performer but saw sales slide as the Southeast region saw much lower activity due to wet conditions in the agricultural market this year. Coated products which had sales that were roughly flat, is continuing to see efficiency gains from new factory technology that we've invested in. But the real story in this segment, however, is related to how the test and inspection services business performed.

現在，我要談談管材和能源服務業務，這是第三個也是最後一個部分。整體成長是由收購推動的。在我們的傳統業務中，螺紋產品傳統上表現強勁，但由於今年農業市場潮濕，東南地區的活動大幅減少，因此銷售下滑。塗層產品的銷售額大致持平，但我們投資的新工廠技術持續提高效率。但該細分市場的真實情況與測試和檢驗服務業務的表現有關。

This segment faced some rapidly changing spending patterns, particularly in the upstream exploration and production market throughout the year, as the price of oil declined and forecast for recovery continued to be pushed out. Operators were making continuous adjustments to production plans, which we had to react to. Market conditions throughout 2015 deteriorated as end users focused more on cash flow and liquidity needs. This has really impacted the test and inspection services business, which has significant exposure to investment in drilling and hydraulic fracturing applications.

隨著石油價格下跌和復甦預測繼續被推遲，該細分市場面臨一些快速變化的支出模式，尤其是在上游勘探和生產市場。操作員不斷調整生產計劃，我們必須對此做出反應。由於最終用戶更加關注現金流和流動性需求，2015 年市場狀況持續惡化。這確實影響了測試和檢驗服務業務，該業務在鑽井和水力壓裂應用方面的投資曝險很大。

The precision measurement systems business was not affected nearly as much, although the business fell short of our forecast and did feel some impact from what was happening in the energy economy. Some of the pipeline operators got caught up in the concern for liquidity and some made changes to investments, as they witnessed cutbacks and changing plans by E&P firms. But we finished 2015 with a solid backlog for both, coated pipe and precision measurement systems, both aimed at pipeline applications. Both of these divisions have backlog that is close to capacity through the second quarter of 2016. We have had some nice success with partners and important operators in the midstream segment, helping us get off to a good start for this year.

精密測量系統業務並未受到太大影響，儘管該業務未達到我們的預測，並且確實感受到了能源經濟中發生的情況的一些影響。一些管道運營商陷入了對流動性的擔憂，一些管道運營商在目睹勘探生產公司削減開支和改變計劃後改變了投資。但我們在 2015 年結束時，針對管道應用的塗層管道和精密測量系統都積壓了大量訂單。截至 2016 年第二季度，這兩個部門的積壓訂單均已接近產能。我們與中游領域的合作夥伴和重要營運商取得了一些良好的成功，幫助我們在今年取得了良好的開端。

We have an order in-house for example, for a customer requiring over 500 miles of coated pipe, another project requiring coating on both the outside and inside diameter on the pipe, which we're uniquely suited to address with some of these investments that we've made in our facilities. And we also have a number of critical metering systems we're building this quarter, the majority of which are for customers that focus on midstream applications. So, we believe that there are widespread needs across the U.S. for pipeline infrastructure long-term and new demand that will be driven by already developed wells, the potential for future exporting and the transition from coal to natural gas plants, which is the same trend of coal to natural gas that's hurting our rail customers, which is helping us with pipeline customers.

例如，我們有一個內部訂單，客戶需要超過 500 英里的塗層管道，另一個項目需要在管道的外徑和內徑上進行塗層，我們非常適合通過其中一些投資來解決這個問題我們在我們的設施中製造了。本季我們也建立了許多關鍵計量系統，其中大部分是針對專注於中游應用的客戶。因此，我們認為，美國各地對管道基礎設施存在廣泛的長期需求，而新的需求將由已開發的油井、未來出口的潛力以及從煤炭到天然氣工廠的過渡所驅動，這是同樣的趨勢煤製天然氣的發展損害了我們的鐵路客戶，而這對我們的管道客戶有所幫助。

So gross margins finished the year at 18.9%, down from 21.8% in the prior year. More importantly, they dropped in Q4, as a result of the deteriorating performance of the test and inspection services business. So, at 11.8% in Q4, the results are an indication of the very depressed conditions of the upstream segment that this business depends on. As oil fell throughout the latter months of 2015 into the year-end, we saw substantial volume come out of this division and have suffered losses, as a result.

因此，全年毛利率為 18.9%，低於前一年的 21.8%。更重要的是，由於測試和檢驗服務業務的業績惡化，第四季度的業績有所下降。因此，第四季 11.8% 的業績表明該業務所依賴的上游部門的狀況非常低迷。隨著 2015 年最後幾個月至年底石油價格下跌，我們看到該部門的交易量很大，因此遭受了損失。

Let me talk about some of the restructuring going on there. It caused us to take numerous restructuring actions, which included consolidation of facilities and closures in markets that did not have sustainable demand. We temporarily closed or consolidated 10 service center operations. We've reduced regions and combined some of the region management. Headcount reductions have totaled close to 600 in the last 15 months. So, we've taken a lot of actions. While the business exited the year at a low point in sales, it has not had a quarterly sequential increase in sales yet. Therefore, Q4 sales, they are the lowest quarterly sales for 2015 with this business.

我先講一下那裡正在進行的一些重組。它導致我們採取了許多重組行動，其中包括整合設施和關閉沒有永續需求的市場。我們暫時關閉或合併了 10 個服務中心業務。我們減少了區域並合併了一些區域管理。過去 15 個月，裁員總數接近 600 人。所以，我們採取了很多行動。儘管該業務今年的銷售額處於低點，但銷售額尚未出現季度環比增長。因此，第四季的銷售額是該業務 2015 年最低的季度銷售額。

But I do want to point out that the inspection services sales are running at 5% of Company sales in Q4. And for the year, their sales are approximately 6% of Company sales. Because of this impact, we wanted to help you understand how it is affecting total Company results. So we broke out as we're looking at EPS and on some of the bridge schedules that you'll see. You'll see that using the adjusted results to reflect our true operational performance.

但我確實想指出，第四季檢查服務銷售額占公司銷售額的 5%。今年，他們的銷售額約占公司銷售額的 6%。由於這種影響，我們希望幫助您了解它如何影響公司的整體表現。因此，當我們查看 EPS 和您將看到的一些橋樑時間表時，我們爆發了。您將看到使用調整後的結果來反映我們真實的營運績效。

Inspection services results for Q4 included a loss of $0.25 per share. So, the remainder of the Company earned $0.44 for a combined total of $0.19 a share consolidated on an adjusted basis. And similarly, full year results show that IOS reported a $0.34 loss for the year, as the remainder of the Company reported an adjusted $2.15 per share for a combined $1.81 per share, again all non-GAAP results I'm quoting there.

第四季檢查服務結果包括每股虧損 0.25 美元。因此，該公司其餘部分的利潤為 0.44 美元，調整後合併後每股收益總計為 0.19 美元。同樣，全年業績顯示，IOS 報告今年虧損 0.34 美元，而公司其他公司報告調整後每股虧損 2.15 美元，合共每股 1.81 美元，這也是我引用的所有非 GAAP 業績。

So ,as you look at how Q4 wound up, both reported and adjusted, the reported results for the quarter include sales of $139 million, down $22 million from prior year. The reported EPS declined to $0.32. Our adjusted EPS in the quarter was $0.85 in prior year 2014, which I'll compared to the $0.19 for the fourth quarter of 2015 that just ended.

因此，當您查看第四季度的結果（包括報告和調整）時，您會發現該季度的報告結果包括銷售額 1.39 億美元，比去年同期減少 2,200 萬美元。報告的每股收益下降至 0.32 美元。2014 年上一季我們調整後的每股收益為 0.85 美元，我將其與剛結束的 2015 年第四季的 0.19 美元進行比較。

We provided a bridge schedule in this deck to point out the impact from the lost revenue in the year from Union Pacific as well as other market weakness that occurred that had a $0.45 impact on EPS. The acquisition performance was also responsible for the impact to EPS with IOS being the principal reason.

我們在此甲板上提供了一個橋樑時間表，以指出聯合太平洋公司今年收入損失以及其他市場疲軟對每股收益產生 0.45 美元影響的影響。收購業績也對 EPS 產生影響，其中 IOS 是主要原因。

Full year 2015 reported results reflect the loss reported that includes the impairment charges taken in the third quarter. The adjusted results will reflect 2015 EPS of $1.81 versus $3.02 last year. And in 2014, the results are adjusted primarily for charges related to concrete tie warranty. In 2015, there is also some concrete tie warranty charges but the adjustments are also related to the impairment charges and some gains from asset sales.

2015 年全年報告結果反映了報告的虧損，其中包括第三季的減損費​​用。調整後的業績將反映 2015 年每股收益 1.81 美元，去年為 3.02 美元。2014 年，結果主要針對與混凝土紮帶保固相關的費用進行了調整。2015年，還有一些具體的保固費用，但調整也與減損費用和一些資產出售收益有關。

So, if you look at to 2015 EPS bridge for the full year, the full year bridge shows the EPS impact from all business activity separate from the impact from acquisitions. Again, Union Pacific had the most significant impact followed by other market weakness and impact from issues related to steel pricing. The inspection services division had a $0.34 impact to the full year EPS, while the sum of the other acquired companies were accretive to the adjusted earnings results.

因此，如果您查看 2015 年全年 EPS 橋，全年橋會顯示所有業務活動對 EPS 的影響，與收購的影響分開。聯合太平洋再次受到最重大的影響，其次是其他市場疲軟以及鋼鐵定價相關問題的影響。檢查服務部門對全年每股收益產生了 0.34 美元的影響，而其他被收購公司的總和則增加了調整後的獲利結果。

So, our attention these days is very much focused on the programs intended to recover the lost earnings and restore profitability levels. Of course some market rebound would help but in the mean time we are working on growth programs that will drive sales to replace what was lost from Union Pacific as well as the other market weakness.

因此，我們現在的注意力主要集中在旨在恢復收入損失和恢復獲利水準的計劃上。當然，一些市場反彈會有所幫助，但同時，我們正在製定成長計劃，以推動銷售，以彌補聯合太平洋公司以及其他市場疲軟造成的損失。

We are going to look to our acquisitions for growth which were all intended to bring us better platforms for organic growth from new services to new markets we're entering to automation solutions that can help transit rail customers, also new products such as our ENDURA-JOINT for railroad crossing signals and new precast concrete products that we are launching, they are all getting very positive reviews.

我們將尋求成長的收購，這些收購都是為了為我們帶來更好的有機成長平台，從新服務到我們正在進入的新市場，到可以幫助交通鐵路客戶的自動化解決方案，以及我們的ENDURA等新產品我們推出的鐵路道口訊號 JOINT 和新型預製混凝土產品都獲得了非常正面的評價。

We will look to TEW Engineering to help us build scale and capability in Europe that will lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness there. And we have a lot of opportunity in gas measurement systems, where we are under penetrated compared to our position in liquids measurements.

我們將期待 TEW Engineering 幫助我們在歐洲建立規模和能力，從而提高歐洲的效率和效益。我們在氣體測量系統方面有很多機會，但與我們在液體測量方面的地位相比，我們在該領域的滲透率較低。

In addition to that, we are certainty going to be focusing on improving margins. The inspection services business will be a key focus of course but all the new companies have upside potential. And as we apply our long-term profit planning process and other lean initiatives, we expect that they will contribute to moderate improvement as well.

除此之外，我們肯定會專注於提高利潤率。檢驗服務業務當然將成為重點，但所有新公司都具有上升潛力。當我們應用長期利潤規劃流程和其他精實措施時，我們預期它們也將有助於適度的改善。

So, I am going to wrap up my comments on the quarter and the year with operating cash flow. Working capital performance in the fourth quarter helped us close the year with strong cash flow capping off another great year of cash flow performance. We finished Q4 with over $42 million in operating cash flow, which drove the full year results of $56.2 million for the year.

因此，我將以營運現金流來總結我對本季度和本年度的評論。第四季的營運資本表現幫助我們以強勁的現金流結束了這一年，為另一個現金流表現出色的一年畫上了句號。在第四季結束時，我們的營運現金流超過 4,200 萬美元，這推動全年業績達到 5,620 萬美元。

Our inventory results finished the year strong, as we struggled through the middle part of the year making adjustments, as we experienced declining volume. We finished the year with only $1.3 million more in inventory than the prior year-end. So, I think we did a pretty good job with that.

我們的庫存結果在今年表現強勁，因為我們在今年中期艱難地進行了調整，因為我們的銷售量下降了。今年結束時，我們的庫存僅比去年末增加了 130 萬美元。所以，我認為我們在這方面做得很好。

We also made adjustments to capital spending as weakness arrived, taking spending down from prior year levels. And we are making further adjustments in this area to take capital spending down further, as we look into 2016.

隨著經濟疲軟的到來，我們也對資本支出進行了調整，使支出較去年水準下降。展望 2016 年，我們正在該領域進行進一步調整，以進一步減少資本支出。

So, I will -- let me turn to the outlook now for 2016. I am going to begin with the Rail segment. Spending in 2016 by the freight rail operators in North America is expected to decline. The Class One carriers have already announced reductions in capital spending for 2016 that will be in the area of about 15% below the 2015 levels. And this is often a good proxy for regional railroad spending as well, which we depend on.

所以，我現在談談 2016 年的展望。我將從鐵路部分開始。2016 年北美貨運鐵路營運商的支出預計將下降。一級業者已經宣布 2016 年的資本支出將比 2015 年的水準減少約 15%。這通常也是我們所依賴的地區鐵路支出的一個很好的指標。

The European market, which was weak in 2015, has a better outlook. The outlook for network Rail in the UK market is expected to be more favorable for 2016, based on the announcements that we follow, and we're already beginning to see this backlog build. Taking these market factors into consideration and remembering that we have about $50 million of Union Pacific sales to replace from 2015, we've put our Rail segment sales for 2016 in the range of flat to down 5% for the year.

2015年疲軟的歐洲市場前景較好。根據我們後續發布的公告，預計 2016 年英國網路鐵路市場的前景更為樂觀，並且我們已經開始看到積壓的情況。考慮到這些市場因素，並記住我們有大約 5,000 萬美元的聯合太平洋公司銷售額需要從 2015 年開始替代，我們將 2016 年鐵路部門的銷售額確定為持平到下降 5%。

Looking at the Construction segment sales, our forecast is to be in the range of flat to up 5%, as we believe we will see good market conditions for our precast concrete products. We also forecast good market conditions for heavy civil construction spending, and recent announcements support that including the announcements for the transportation bill. Our bridge business has a decent backlog to start the year. And piling products finished 2015 at a low level from which I think we can build on in 2016, even if the pricing environment remains challenging.

看看建築部門的銷售，我們的預測是持平到成長 5%，因為我們相信我們的預製混凝土產品將看到良好的市場狀況。我們也預測大量土木建築支出的市場狀況良好，最近的公告（包括交通法案的公告）也支持了這一點。今年年初，我們的橋樑業務積壓了大量訂單。2015 年的打樁產品處於較低水平，我認為我們可以在 2016 年繼續前進，即使定價環境仍然充滿挑戰。

And our third segment, the Tubular and Energy Services segment, is really all about whether we see strength in the upstream E&P segment as operators react to the price of oil. We did break out the inspection services business from the balance of the business group to highlight the fact that our backlog coupled with spending outlook for our other divisions is expected to lead the way with sales growth in the range of 5% to 15%. But the inspection services business could be in the range of either up 10% depending on the direction several of our customers take. (Technical Difficulty).

我們的第三個細分市場，管材和能源服務細分市場，實際上是關於我們是否看到上游勘探與生產細分市場的實力，因為營運商對石油價格做出了反應。我們確實將檢查服務業務從業務集團的平衡中分離出來，以強調我們的積壓訂單以及其他部門的支出前景預計將引領銷售成長 5% 至 15% 的事實。但檢驗服務業務可能會成長 10%，具體取決於我們的部分客戶採取的方向。（技術難度）。

So, totaling that all up, our guidance on total sales for the year is coming in, in the range of $610 to $640 million. With that EBITDA is expected to be between $48 million and $52 million and EPS in the range of $1 to $1.40. This takes into consideration a weak start to the year in our first quarter that is still being impacted by energy market weakness. So, if you look at our first quarter guidance, we expect Q1 to have sales of approximately $130 million with EBITDA of around $7 million and EPS is forecast to be a loss of between $0.05 and $0.10. And our inspection services business with that is currently operating in the low end of our guidance range.

因此，總而言之，我們對今年總銷售額的指導將在 610 美元至 6.4 億美元之間。預計 EBITDA 為 4,800 萬至 5,200 萬美元，每股收益為 1 至 1.40 美元。這考慮到今年第一季開局疲軟，仍受到能源市場疲軟的影響。因此，如果你看看我們第一季的指導，我們預計第一季的銷售額約為 1.3 億美元，EBITDA 約為 700 萬美元，每股收益預計虧損 0.05 至 0.10 美元。我們的檢驗服務業務目前處於我們指導範圍的低端。

So, I'm going to close with this comment about the fact that our management team intends to stay focused on execution of our plans and ways to streamline products and plant efficiency along with those recovery programs that I mentioned. And supporting this effort as well is our plan to go live with our new ERP system in the second quarter here that will start with operations from two Rail divisions. Our long-term objective is to bring modernization needed to the overall Company and develop a platform from which we can grow and leverage best-in-class business processes. And we believe that the things that we are doing with this new ERP system are clearly going to take us in that direction.

因此，我將以這樣的評論作為結束語，即我們的管理團隊打算繼續專注於我們的計劃的執行以及簡化產品和工廠效率的方法以及我提到的恢復計劃。為了支持這項努力，我們計劃在第二季啟用新的 ERP 系統，該系統將從兩個鐵路部門的營運開始。我們的長期目標是為整個公司帶來所需的現代化，並開發一個平台，讓我們能夠發展和利用一流的業務流程。我們相信，我們正在使用這個新 ERP 系統所做的事情顯然將引導我們朝這個方向發展。

So, I'm going to stop there and I'm going to turn it back over to Dave, who is going to go through a few other numbers and results discussion with you. And we will take some questions as soon as he's finished.

因此，我將就此停止並將其轉回給戴夫，他將與您討論其他一些數字和結果。他講完後我們會立即回答一些問題。

Thank you, Bob. As disclosed in our earnings release, L.B. Foster's fourth quarter 2015 operating results did include a $2.3 million pretax gain related to the sale of certain assets at our Tucson, Arizona concrete tie facility, which were sold during the fourth quarter. This gain favorably impacted EPS by approximately $0.13 per diluted share and was included in other income and expense.

謝謝你，鮑伯。正如我們在財報中披露的那樣，L.B. Foster 2015 年第四季的營運業績確實包括與出售亞利桑那州圖森市混凝土拉桿工廠某些資產相關的 230 萬美元稅前收益，這些資產在第四季度出售。這項收益對攤薄後每股收益產生了約 0.13 美元的正面影響，併計入其他收入和支出。

Similar to Bob, the order of my comments will follow the slide presentation that is on our website. So, we will start with the comparative P&L for the fourth quarter. Net sales for the fourth quarter 2015 were $139.1 million compared to $161.1 million in the prior year, a $22 million or 13.7% decline. Gross profit margin was 21.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to 19.6% last year. Last year, of course includes concrete tie warranty charges of about $4.8 million. As a percentage of sales, SG&A increased to 17.6% as a result of the lack of leverage from lower sales at our IOS test and inspection services business. Amortization expense increased by $2.1 million due to the acquisitions transacted since the fourth quarter of 2014.

與鮑伯類似，我的評論順序將遵循我們網站上的幻燈片簡報。因此，我們將從第四季的比較損益開始。2015 年第四季的淨銷售額為 1.391 億美元，與前一年的 1.611 億美元相比，下降了 2,200 萬美元，成長 13.7%。2015年第四季毛利率為21.5%，去年同期為19.6%。去年，當然包括約 480 萬美元的混凝土紮帶保固費用。由於我們的 IOS 測試和檢驗服務業務的銷售下降缺乏槓桿作用，SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比增加至 17.6%。由於自 2014 年第四季以來進行的收購交易，攤銷費用增加了 210 萬美元。

Interest expense increased due to increased borrowings. Due to the acquisitions that we've transacted recently, our revolving credit agreement is a $335 million facility, currently bearing interest at approximately 2% per annum. Other income expense was a favorable $4.3 million in the fourth quarter, principally due to a number of items, largely the $2.3 million gain on the sale of the concrete tie assets in Tucson, foreign exchange gains of approximately $600,000, proceeds from a steel price fixing settlement of $400,000. So there's a few items in there that tally up to that $4.3 million which certainly is favorable compared to the prior year.

由於借款增加，利息支出增加。由於我們最近的收購，我們的循環信貸協議金額為 3.35 億美元，目前年利率約為 2%。第四季的其他收入支出為有利的 430 萬美元，主要是由於許多項目，主要是出售圖森混凝土連接資產的 230 萬美元收益、約 60 萬美元的外匯收益、鋼鐵價格固定收益和解金額為400,000美元。因此，其中有一些項目的總金額高達 430 萬美元，與前一年相比，這無疑是有利的。

The next slide we look at our results on at an adjusted basis. So, it does exclude the gain from the sale of the Tucson assets in 2015 and warranty charges, high warranty charges from 2014. Excluding the warranty costs from the fourth quarter '14, adjusted gross margin in the current quarter declined by approximately 110 basis points compared to the prior year. The decline is partially due to lower Tubular and Rail segment GP margins partially offset by an increase in Construction segment margins.

下一張投影片我們將在調整後的基礎上查看我們的結果。因此，它確實不包括 2015 年出售圖森資產的收益和保固費以及 2014 年的高額保固費。不包括 2014 年第四季的保固成本，本季調整後的毛利率比前一年下降了約 110 個基點。下降的部分原因是管材和鐵路部門毛利率下降，但部分被建築部門利潤率的成長所抵銷。

The decline in Tubular margins was due to the impact of the acquisitions, while our Rail segment GP margins were negatively affected by lower concrete tie margins in 2015 along with lower margins from our rail distribution business, partially due to declining steel prices and the impact of inventory pricing adjustments in the quarter. Partially offsetting these declines in margin was an improvement due to the strong performance from our precast concrete buildings business and our bridge -- our fabricated bridge products along with a favorable LIFO adjustment driven by the declining steel prices.

管材利潤率下降是由於收購的影響，而我們的鐵路部門 GP 利潤率受到 2015 年混凝土枕木利潤率下降以及鐵路分銷業務利潤率下降的負面影響，部分原因是鋼材價格下跌和本季庫存定價調整。由於我們的預製混凝土建築業務和橋樑（我們的組裝式橋樑產品）的強勁表現以及鋼材價格下跌推動的有利的後進先出調整，部分抵消了利潤率下降的影響。

Fourth quarter adjusted pretax income which excludes the gain on Tucson was $2.9 million or 2.1% of sales compared to $14.1 million or 8.7% of sales in the prior year. The $11.2 million reduction in pretax income was due principally to the dilutive impact of the test and inspection services acquisition as well as the interest and amortization costs, and a reduction in Rail segment revenues and related profitability due principally to lost Union Pacific Railroad revenues as well as weaker freight sales. The effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of '15 was 35.2% compared to 37.5% in the fourth quarter last year. The Company's effective income tax rate compares favorably to the prior year quarter, principally due to decreased non-deductible expenses and rate reductions in foreign jurisdictions.

第四季調整後的稅前收入（不包括圖森的收益）為 290 萬美元，佔銷售額的 2.1%，而去年同期為 1,410 萬美元，佔銷售額的 8.7%。稅前收入減少 1,120 萬美元，主要是由於測試和檢驗服務收購以及利息和攤銷成本的攤薄影響，以及鐵路部門收入和相關盈利能力的減少，主要是由於聯合太平洋鐵路收入的損失由於貨運銷售疲軟。2015 年第四季的有效稅率為 35.2%，而去年第四季為 37.5%。公司的有效所得稅率與去年同期相比有利，主要是由於不可扣除費用的減少和外國司法管轄區的稅率降低。

Adjusted fourth quarter net income was $1.9 million or $0.19 per diluted share in '15 compared to $8.8 million or $0.85 in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $11.2 million in the fourth quarter compared to $17.4 million last year, a decrease of 36%.

2015 年第四季調整後淨利為 190 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.19 美元，而前一年為 880 萬美元，即稀釋每股收益 0.85 美元。第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 1,120 萬美元，較去年同期的 1,740 萬美元下降 36%。

Sales by segment: Net sales for the fourth quarter of '15 were $139 million compared to $161 million or 13.7% decline. The decline was due to a 22% reduction in Rail sales and a 35.6% decline in Construction segment sales partially offset by a 3.8% increase in Tubulars and Energy Services sales. Acquisitions added $19 million to sales for the fourth quarter. And the Tubular and Energy Services (technical difficulty) sales increase was due to an increase in our pipe coating services sales and that was partially offset by a decline in credit product sales. The Construction Products sales decline in the fourth quarter was primarily due to a 54% decline in piling product sales, reflecting challenging market conditions due to declining steel pricing, making us less competitive in the pipe piling and H beam categories.

按部門劃分的銷售額：2015 年第四季的淨銷售額為 1.39 億美元，而去年同期為 1.61 億美元，下降了 13.7%。下降的原因是鐵路銷售下降 22%，建築部門銷售下降 35.6%，部分被管材和能源服務銷售成長 3.8% 所抵銷。收購使第四季度的銷售額增加了 1,900 萬美元。管材和能源服務（技術難度）銷售額的成長是由於我們的管道塗層服務銷售額的成長，但部分被信貸產品銷售額的下降所抵消。第四季建築產品銷售下降主要是由於打樁產品銷售額下降 54%，反映出鋼材價格下跌導致的市場環境充滿挑戰，導致我們在管樁和 H 型鋼類別的競爭力下降。

The decline in rail products and services was due to lower sales of all product categories, except for transit products. These declines were due to a number of factors including a $9.7 million reduction in UP sales compared to the prior year period, unfavorable foreign currency conversion rates and market related sales reductions to freight rail customers due to lower fourth quarter capital expenditures. As a percentage of fourth quarter sales, Rail accounted for 55%, Construction was 28% and Tubular was 17% of sales.

鐵路產品和服務的下降是由於除交通產品外所有產品類別的銷售額下降所致。這些下降是由於多種因素造成的，包括與去年同期相比，UP 銷售額減少 970 萬美元、不利的外幣兌換率以及由於第四季度資本支出減少而導致貨運鐵路客戶的市場相關銷售額減少。從第四季銷售額的百分比來看，鐵路佔銷售額的 55%，建築佔 28%，管材佔 17%。

Moving on to expenses, consolidated selling and administrative expenses increased by $3 million to $24.5 million or 13.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 due to the costs of businesses acquired after the fourth quarter of '14. Excluding the S&A of acquired companies selling and administrative expenses declined by $0.6 million or 2.8%.

說到費用，由於 2014 年第四季後收購的業務成本增加，2015 年第四季綜合銷售和管理費用增加了 300 萬美元，達到 2,450 萬美元，即 13.8%。不包括被收購公司的銷售和管理費用，銷售和管理費用下降了 60 萬美元，即 2.8%。

For the full year, net sales for the full year of '15 were $624.5 million, an increase of 2.9% over the prior year. The sales increase was due to a 121.8% increase in Tubular partially offset by a 12.2% decline in Rail segment sales and a 1.4% decline in Construction segment sales. Gross profit margin was 21.4% in 2015 compared to 20% in '14. Concrete tie warranty costs of $1.1 million and $9.4 million were included in the 2015 and 2014 results, respectively.

就全年而言，15 年全年淨銷售額為 6.245 億美元，比上年增長 2.9%。銷售額成長的原因是管材部門銷售額成長 121.8%，部分抵銷了鐵路部門銷售額下降 12.2% 和建築部門銷售額下降 1.4% 的影響。2015 年毛利率為 21.4%，而 14 年毛利率為 20%。2015 年和 2014 年業績中分別包含 110 萬美元和 940 萬美元的混凝土拉桿保固成本。

The full year, as reported income statement shows the $80.3 million impairment charge that was recorded in third quarter which wrote down the good will of the IOS inspection and testing acquisition by $69.9 million and the Chemtec precision measurement systems business by $10.4 million.

全年損益表顯示，第三季記錄了 8,030 萬美元的減損費用，其中 IOS 檢查和測試收購的商譽減記了 6,990 萬美元，Chemtec 精密測量系統業務減記了 1,040 萬美元。

The as adjusted results for the year -- adjusted 2015 results for concrete tie warranty charges, the impairment charge we just discussed as well as the gain on the sale of Tucson concrete tie assets. 2014 was adjusted for concrete tie warranty charges of $9.4 million. So, on an as adjusted basis, gross profit margins were flat at 21.6% for both years. Adjusted gross profit margin for our Rail segment was 23.2% in 2015 compared to 23.1% in '14, so basically flat, an increase of 10 basis points, largely due to product mix related improvements in our Rail Technologies GP margin.

本年度調整後的績效－調整後的 2015 年混凝土繫帶保固費用、我們剛才討論的減損費用以及出售圖森混凝土繫帶資產的收益。2014 年混凝土拉桿保固費用調整為 940 萬美元。因此，在調整後的基礎上，兩年的毛利率持平於 21.6%。2015 年我們鐵路部門的調整後毛利率為 23.2%，而 14 年為 23.1%，因此基本持平，增加了 10 個基點，這主要是由於與產品組合相關的鐵路技術毛利率的改善。

Gross profit margin for our Construction segment was 19.4% this year compared to 18.1% last year, an improvement of approximately 130 basis points. This improvement was primarily due to strong performance for our concrete buildings business due to high volumes which resulted in plant efficiencies in 2015, along with another strong performance by our fabricated bridge products business this year, which was helped along by production efficiencies and new business with our roll form business

今年建築業務的毛利率為 19.4%，與去年的 18.1% 相比，提高了約 130 個基點。這項改善主要是由於我們的混凝土建築業務表現強勁，因為產量高，導致 2015 年工廠效率提高，同時我們的裝配式橋樑產品業務今年也表現強勁，這得益於生產效率和新業務的幫助我們的捲材業務

Gross profit margin for our Tubular and Energy Services segment was 18.9% in this year compared to 21.8% in 2014. This decline is attributable to the impact of the test and inspection services acquisition, which was challenged by competitive pricing pressure and swiftly declining sales volume that negatively impacted gross profit margin performance in 2015. Additionally gross profit margin for our threaded products business declined over 400 basis points this year due to a decline in volumes in 2015 coupled with declining steel prices.

今年管材和能源服務部門的毛利率為 18.9%，而 2014 年為 21.8%。這一下降歸因於測試和檢驗服務收購的影響，該收購受到競爭性定價壓力和銷售迅速下降的挑戰，對2015年的毛利率表現產生了負面影響。此外，由於 2015 年銷量下降以及鋼材價格下跌，今年我們螺紋產品業務的毛利率下降了 400 個基點以上。

On a year-to-date basis, adjusted EBITDA was $59 million compared to $60.3 million last year, a decline of $1.3 million or 2.1%. While the adjusted EBITDA reduction is 2.1%, the net income variance is 40% which is largely due to the increase in interest expense and amortization expense caused by recent acquisition activity.

年初至今，調整後 EBITDA 為 5,900 萬美元，而去年為 6,030 萬美元，下降了 130 萬美元，或 2.1%。雖然調整後的 EBITDA 減少了 2.1%，但淨利潤差異為 40%，這主要是由於近期收購活動導致的利息費用和攤銷費用增加。

Year-to-date sales by segment, excluding acquisitions Tubular and Energy Services declined by $6.5 million or 12.2% this year compared to 2014 due to a 26.2% sales decline in our threaded products business, which was adversely impacted by heavy rainfall and flooding conditions in the early parts of this year in the Southeastern United States, which reduced demand for our products, where our primary market is irrigation and agriculture related. Coating services sales also declined by about 4.7%.

年初至今，按部門劃分的銷售額（不包括收購管材和能源服務）與2014 年相比，今年下降了650 萬美元，即12.2%，原因是我們的螺紋產品業務銷售額下降了26.2%，受到強降雨和洪水條件的不利影響今年早些時候，美國東南部的情況減少了對我們產品的需求，我們的主要市場是灌溉和農業相關產品。塗料服務銷售額也下降了約 4.7%。

The Construction Products segment sales decline was primarily due to a decline in piling product sales partially offset by strong year from our precast buildings business which increased sales by almost 43% this year and that was driven by strong demand in the southwestern United States and across all market segments whether they be federal, state or municipal, along with the impact from a full year of sales of our Carr Concrete business which was acquired in July of 2014.

建築產品部門銷售額下降主要是由於打樁產品銷售額下降，部分被我們的預製建築業務強勁的一年所抵消，該業務今年的銷售額增長了近43%，而這是由美國西南部和全球各地的強勁需求推動的細分市場（無論是聯邦、州還是市），以及 2014 年 7 月收購的卡爾混凝土業務全年銷售的影響。

The decline in rail products and services sales was due to lower sales of all product categories as in the quarter except for transit products. In the Rail segment sales decline this year were once again due to the Union Pacific Railroad where the sales decline was $26 million for the full year, unfavorable foreign currency rates impacting us by a little over $5 million and just overall sales reductions to freight rail customers due to lower volumes, as we know that freight rail CapEx was down and impacted negatively by a decline in car loading this year.

鐵路產品和服務銷售額下降的原因是除交通產品外，本季所有產品類別的銷售額均下降。在鐵路部門，今年的銷售額再次下降，因為聯合太平洋鐵路公司全年銷售額下降了2,600 萬美元，不利的外幣匯率對我們的影響略高於500 萬美元，而且貨運鐵路客戶的整體銷售額減少由於運量減少，我們知道貨運鐵路資本支出下降，並受到今年汽車裝載量下降的負面影響。

Year-to-date SG&A consolidated selling and admin expenses increased by $12.8 million to $92.6 million due to the costs of businesses acquired during 2014 and '15. Excluding those acquired companies selling and administrative declined by $0.8 million or 1%.

由於 2014 年和 15 年期間收購的業務成本，年初至今的 SG&A 綜合銷售和管理費用增加了 1,280 萬美元，達到 9,260 萬美元。不包括那些被收購的公司，銷售和管理費用下降了 80 萬美元，即 1%。

Turning to the balance sheet, working capital net of cash declined by $38.5 million compared to the third quarter. Accounts receivable decreased by $32.4 million during the fourth quarter. Our core business DSO did increase to 53 days at the end of December compared to 50 days of September, largely driven by the sales reductions. Consolidated DSO was 56 days as compared to 53 at September. And our inventory actually decreased by $2.4 million during the fourth quarter as accounts payable and deferred revenue increased by $0.4 million. Other notable items on the balance sheet reflect increases in property, plant and equipment, other intangible assets as well as long-term debt.

就資產負債表而言，扣除現金後的營運資本較第三季下降了 3,850 萬美元。第四季應收帳款減少了 3,240 萬美元。我們的核心業務 DSO 確實從 9 月的 50 天增加到 12 月底的 53 天，這主要是由於銷售額減少。綜合 DSO 為 56 天，而 9 月為 53 天。第四季我們的庫存實際上減少了​​ 240 萬美元，因為應付帳款和遞延收入增加了 40 萬美元。資產負債表上其他值得注意的項目反映了不動產、廠房和設備、其他無形資產以及長期債務的增加。

Moving on to cash flow, cash provided by operating activities in the fourth quarter was $42.5 million compared to $17 million last year. Capital expenditures were $3.3 million compared to $5.5 million in the prior year. And we are obviously very pleased that we achieved a significant reduction in debt during the fourth quarter. For the full year, cash provided by operating activities was $56.2 million this year compared to $66.7 last year.

說到現金流，第四季經營活動提供的現金為 4,250 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,700 萬美元。資本支出為 330 萬美元，而前一年為 550 萬美元。我們顯然非常高興我們在第四季度實現了債務的大幅減少。全年經營活動提供的現金為 5,620 萬美元，去年為 66.7 美元。

These two years of back to back cash generation is certainly a record for the Company and is the result of a lot of hard work by everyone in the organization. While we are not projecting another year as strong as the prior two, we do expect to generate solid free cash flow in 2016, as the working capital initiatives are continuing, and we expect to cut capital spending to the range of $6 million to $8 million this year.

這兩年連續不斷的現金產生無疑是公司的記錄，也是組織中每個人辛勤工作的結果。雖然我們預計明年不會像前兩年那樣強勁，但隨著營運資本計畫的持續進行，我們確實預計 2016 年將產生穩定的自由現金流，並且我們預計將資本支出削減至 600 萬至 800 萬美元今年。

Capital expenditures for 2015 were $14.9 million compared to $17.1 million last year. The 2015 capital programs have been in all three business segments along with significant expenditures for our new ERP system. Our capital investments are focused at providing new and expanded manufacturing capabilities, improving service and product availability to our customers and increasing our operating efficiency in future periods that we believe will improve shareholder value on a longer-term basis.

2015 年的資本支出為 1,490 萬美元，而去年為 1,710 萬美元。2015 年的資本計畫涉及所有三個業務部門，同時也為我們的新 ERP 系統投入了大量資金。我們的資本投資重點是提供新的和擴展的製造能力，改善客戶的服務和產品可用性，並提高未來時期的營運效率，我們相信這將在長期基礎上提高股東價值。

While our capital allocation protocols have been solid, potential returns on projects in softer markets become less attractive and much easier to cancel or defer except for a couple of capital programs that we expect will have swift paybacks due to their correlation to business already secured or driven by longer term strategic growth. Otherwise, we look to keep capital in check this year, save for these projects and some necessary maintenance items. We anticipate the cash generated from operating activities in 2016 will exceed our capital expenditures, debt service payments, dividends and share repurchases, thereby allowing us to continue to delever.

儘管我們的資本配置協議一直很穩固，但市場疲軟的項目的潛在回報變得不那麼有吸引力，而且更容易取消或推遲，但我們預計由於與已獲得或推動的業務相關而將迅速獲得回報的幾個資本計劃除外透過長期策略成長。否則，我們希望今年控制資本，除了這些項目和一些必要的維護項目。我們預計2016年經營活動產生的現金將超過我們的資本支出、償債支付、股利和股票回購，使我們能夠繼續去槓桿化。

As mentioned in our earnings release, our fourth quarter 2015 bookings were $114.7 million, a decline of 0.3% compared to last year due to a significant contribution from our acquisitions, as bookings would have been about 22% lower without acquisitions. Full year bookings were $586.7 million, a decline for $12.2 million or 2% from 2014.

正如我們在財報中提到的，我們2015 年第四季的預訂量為1.147 億美元，比去年下降0.3%，這要歸功於我們的收購的重大貢獻，因為如果沒有收購，預訂量會減少約22%。全年預訂額為 5.867 億美元，比 2014 年下降 1,220 萬美元，或 2%。

Annual orders for the Rail segment were weaker than 2014 due to lower volumes and decreased pricing due to declining steel prices. Decreased bookings for other track products and rail technologies was due to reduced activity with the Union Pacific Railroad as well as softness in the freight rail market. Our piling and fab business, bookings declined due principally due to declining steel prices where we remained a little less competitive in certain commodity pricing dependent piling products.

由於鋼價下跌導致銷售減少和定價下降，鐵路部門的年度訂單弱於 2014 年。其他軌道產品和鐵路技術的預訂量減少是由於聯合太平洋鐵路的活動減少以及貨運鐵路市場的疲軟。我們的打樁和晶圓廠業務的預訂量下降，主要是由於鋼材價格下跌，我們在某些​​依賴商品定價的打樁產品方面的競爭力仍然稍弱。

Our order backlog stood at $164.7 million at the end of the year, down $19.7 million or 10.7% from 2014. The decrease was principally due to reductions in rail distribution, our transit business and piling products partially offset by increased backlog from the acquisitions as well as our pipe focused services business.

截至年底，我們的積壓訂單為 1.647 億美元，比 2014 年減少 1,970 萬美元，即 10.7%。下降的主要原因是鐵路配送、運輸業務和打樁產品的減少，但部分被收購以及管道服務業務積壓的增加所抵消。

So, we did not repurchase any stock in the fourth quarter of 2015. However, that is something we will continue to watch. Debt at the end of the December was $168.8 million compared to $218.2 million at the end of March, a reduction of $49.4 million. Debt at December 31, 2014 was $26.4 million and that was of course before the March test and inspection services acquisition.

因此，我們在2015年第四季沒有回購任何股票。然而，我們將繼續關注這一點。12 月底的債務為 1.688 億美元，較 3 月底的 2.182 億美元減少了 4,940 萬美元。截至 2014 年 12 月 31 日的債務為 2,640 萬美元，這當然是在 3 月收購測試和檢驗服務之前。

Maximizing free cash flow this year will continue to be a primary focus of this management team. Our primary use of capital will be to delever the Company, although we will consider alternative uses of capital as leverage continues to decline.

今年最大化自由現金流將繼續是該管理團隊的主要關注點。我們對資本的主要用途將是去槓桿化公司，儘管隨著槓桿率持續下降，我們將考慮資本的其他用途。

And that concludes my comments on the fourth quarter of 2015 and I'll now send it back to Ashley and open up the session for questions.

我對 2015 年第四季的評論就到此結束，現在我將其發回給 Ashley，並開始提問環節。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Brent Thielman of Davidson. Please proceed.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自戴維森的布倫特·蒂爾曼（Brent Thielman）。請繼續。

I want to spend a minute on cash flow here, obviously great finish to the year. It sounds like, Dave, I think I heard $6 million to $8 million in CapEx in '16, obviously below depreciation. Can you expand on that a little bit, why or how you can take it so low relative to the depreciation here in '16?

我想在這裡花一點時間談談現金流，顯然今年的收官很好。聽起來，戴夫，我想我聽說 16 年的資本支出為 600 萬至 800 萬美元，顯然低於折舊。您能否詳細說明一下，相對於 16 年的折舊率，為什麼或如何能夠將其降得如此之低？

Well, the 6 to 8, Brent, is still well above maintenance CapEx. So that has a couple of projects in it, certainly the continuation of our ERP implementation. It's got a project in there for our coated pipe facility where we are completing an improvement program, so that we can much more efficiently and with better quality coat the inner dimension of pipe for large projects.

好吧，6 至 8 號布蘭特原油仍然遠高於維護資本支出。其中有幾個項目，當然是我們 ERP 實施的延續。我們的塗層管道設施有一個項目，我們正在完成一項改進計劃，以便我們能夠更有效、更優質地對大型項目的管道內部尺寸進行塗層。

So that's certainly within our wheelhouse to bring CapEx that low or lower should we desire to but we still are looking at opportunities that are out there, for example the pipe coating business. So, we're still investing where there's pretty quick and good returns.

因此，我們當然可以將資本支出降低到我們希望的那麼低或更低，但我們仍在尋找現有的機會，例如管道塗層業務。因此，我們仍在投資那些能快速獲得良好回報的領域。

I would add to that Brent, that we spent quite a bit in the last two years, so we made a number of investments here in facilities and some programs. So that's one of the ways that we're able to bring it down as well.

我想補充一點，布蘭特原油，我們在過去兩年花了相當多的錢，所以我們在設施和一些項目上進行了大量投資。所以這也是我們能夠降低它的方法之一。

OK. So, the $6 million to $8 million in essence, without a lot of growth projects, could be kind of a reocurring level going forward. Is that fair?

好的。因此，在沒有大量成長項目的情況下，600 萬至 800 萬美元本質上可能是未來的重複水準。這樣公平嗎？

It's probably fair, if you're trying to say that could we stay in that range, if we didn't have a lot of growth investments. I think on one hand I would say that I think we are going to have some of those, probably not to the extent we had in the past. But I'd probably broaden that range of maybe 6 to 10 that I think is probably a range we can stay in unless we have some other big facility investments, and we do have one that we're thinking about on the horizon but it's uncertain right now, as to when we'll pull the trigger on that.

如果你想說的是，如果我們沒有大量的成長投資，我們能否保持在這個範圍內，這可能是公平的。我認為一方面我會說我認為我們將擁有其中一些，但可能不會達到我們過去的程度。但我可能會將這個範圍擴大到 6 到 10，我認為這可能是我們可以保持的範圍，除非我們有其他一些大型設施投資，而且我們確實有一個我們正在考慮的項目，但它是不確定的現在，我們什麼時候會扣下板機。

And then as far as using that cash, do you have specific targets for debt or levels of leverage you feel the Company should be operating at in this environment?

然後，就使用這些現金而言，您是否有具體的債務目標或您認為公司在這種環境下運作應達到的槓桿水平？

Yes, I mean we do have. We had internal targets last year, we exceeded them. We have targets this year too. We're not prepared at this point in time to come out with debt targets or free cash flow goals for the year but once again, more than paying for all of our debt service, CapEx, things like that and still delevering adequately, we believe.

是的，我的意思是我們確實有。去年我們設定了內部目標，我們超額完成了目標。今年我們也有目標。我們目前還沒有準備好制定今年的債務目標或自由現金流目標，但我們相信，我們相信，這不僅僅是支付我們所有的債務還本付息、資本支出等，而且仍然充分去槓桿化。 。

And then moving to rail, can you comment on some successes and I guess your ability to kind of find new customers and help offset some of the loss of business from UNP, particularly thinking about how 2016 develops there?

然後轉向鐵路，您能否評論一下一些成功的事情，我想您有能力尋找新客戶並幫助抵消 UNP 的部分業務損失，特別是考慮一下 2016 年在那裡的發展情況？

Well, I would say that you're going to find that in a couple of areas. One will be in some of the programs we have underway with similar type Class One carriers in the freight rail industry in North America. We have a few programs underway on new products that are going fairly well. Our friction management business continues to grow and we've got a couple of new products in that area. And we have a few things that I can't talk about right now, with some of them specifically that we think is going to improve penetration at a few of those accounts.

嗯，我想說你會在幾個領域發現這一點。其中之一將出現在我們與北美貨運鐵路行業類似的一級承運商正在進行的一些項目中。我們正在進行一些新產品項目，進展相當順利。我們的摩擦管理業務持續成長，並且在該領域推出了一些新產品。我們現在有一些事情無法談論，其中一些具體我們認為將提高其中一些帳戶的滲透率。

I would then turn to the transit rail market, both in the U.S. -- or North America as well as in Europe. We have added focus on transit rail for U.S. projects, we've made some investments in selling activity there, and we think that's going to help us here in our home area. But in addition to that two things going on in Europe.

然後我會轉向美國或北美以及歐洲的交通鐵路市場。我們增加了對美國項目的交通鐵路的關注，我們在當地的銷售活動上進行了一些投資，我們認為這將對我們的家鄉有所幫助。但除此之外，歐洲還發生了兩件事。

One, the focus on transit rail over there but coupled with our TEW Engineering acquisition, we now have these capabilities related to automation solutions for the rail industry, most of which is directed at transit where we're bringing automation into a variety of different applications that can help transit rail carriers run more efficiently and reduce costs. So, those are a couple of the things that we're going after there.

第一，重點是那裡的交通鐵路，但加上我們收購了 TEW Engineering，我們現在擁有與鐵路行業自動化解決方案相關的能力，其中大部分針對交通運輸，我們將自動化引入各種不同的應用中這可以幫助鐵路運輸公司更有效率地運作並降低成本。所以，這些是我們正在追求的一些事情。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Brady Cox with Stifel. Please proceed.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Brady Cox 和 Stifel 的線路。請繼續。

Thanks guys. I just wanted to follow up quickly on that rail question, I guess just to see, A, considering the CapEx outlook from the Class Ones being down about 15% and the 5% headwind still going this year from UP, we would have thought that maybe that revenue outlook for 2016 might have been a little bit lower. I know you said transit's maybe a little better, Europe's a little better and there's some new products maybe on the freight side, but can you just help us bridge the gap between sort the Class One CapEx outlook and the 5% UP headwind and revenue maybe up -- or revenue maybe being flat in 2016?

多謝你們。我只是想快速跟進這個鐵路問題，我想只是為了看看，A，考慮到 Class One 的資本支出前景下降了約 15%，而 UP 今年仍面臨 5% 的逆風，我們會認為也許2016 年的收入前景可能會稍微低一些。我知道你說過運輸可能會好一點，歐洲會好一點，貨運方面可能會有一些新產品，但你能幫助我們彌合一級資本支出前景與 5% 的逆風和收入之間的差距嗎？2016年收入是否成長？或可能持平？

Well, we provided the flat to down 5%. And of course when you take 5% off of our total Rail business, you get a pretty sizable number. So, I think the low end is certainly taking into -- well, all of -- both of them are taking into consideration what you just said about $15 million of UP business we've got to replace. We think that the market is going to be pretty strong right now in Europe. So, our plans at the moment have a nice increase there. We also are looking to the transit market in the U.S. with a plan that looks pretty good. So, there are some improvements that are coming from those couple of areas that we think are -- they are definitely on the positive side for the year.

好吧，我們提供了 5% 的平價。當然，當你從我們的鐵路總業務中扣除 5% 的折扣時，你得到的數字相當可觀。所以，我認為低端肯定會考慮——好吧，所有的——他們都在考慮你剛才所說的我們必須取代的 1500 萬美元的 UP 業務。我們認為歐洲市場目前將非常強勁。所以，我們目前的計劃有一個很好的成長。我們也正在尋找美國的交通市場，並制定了一個看起來相當不錯的計劃。因此，我們認為這幾個領域出現了一些改進——它們對今年來說肯定是積極的。

Rail distribution is probably the one business that we do have to watch through the year and we've got to keep our eye on where steel pricing goes with that and how that might affect the top line. But we believe we are already operating at a low point coming out of Q4 here. And while we'll still see some pressure on steel prices into 2016, we believe we've taken that into consideration as well. But keep in mind that capital spending that we talk about is Class Ones, it is a proxy we use for market strength, but that's only about a third of our total Rail business sales. We've got some nice programs going on with the short lines. And we get a fair amount of maintenance spending. So, it doesn't have to just come from capital type projects. We are in that space where when the volume declines in the industry, they can spend a bit more time in maintenance and we get business from the maintenance budgets. So, all of those things we're taking in the consideration with that forecast.

鐵路分銷可能是我們全年必須關注的一項業務，我們必須密切關注鋼鐵價格的走勢以及這可能如何影響營收。但我們相信我們已經處於第四季的低點。儘管到 2016 年我們仍會看到鋼材價格面臨一些壓力，但我們相信我們也已經考慮到了這一點。但請記住，我們談論的資本支出是一級資本支出，它是我們用來衡量市場實力的指標，但這只占我們鐵路業務總銷售額的三分之一左右。我們有一些不錯的短線節目正在上演。我們得到了相當數量的維護支出。因此，它不一定只來自資本類型的項目。我們所處的領域是，當行業銷售下降時，他們可以花更多的時間進行維護，而我們可以從維護預算中獲得業務。因此，我們在預測時考慮了所有這些因素。

OK, thanks for the detail. And can you just remind us about how much of your rail business is transit oriented?

好的，謝謝你的詳細資料。您能否提醒我們，您的鐵路業務中有多少是面向交通的？

That number -- it's about a third.

這個數字——大約是三分之一。

It varies, but it's about 30% most years, Brady.

情況有所不同，但大多數年份約為 30%，Brady。

OK, perfect. And then next, I wanted to go I guess into the test and inspection business. I think in the press release, you talked about there being maybe some recovery in the second half of the year. Can you talk a little bit about what gives you confidence in the market improving in the second half? And if there is maybe sort of a price per barrel threshold baked into that assumption, so say if oil stays in the $30 to $35 per barrel range, would you still expect it to improve in the second half?

好的，完美。接下來，我想我想進入測試和檢驗業務。我想您在新聞稿中談到下半年可能會出現一些復甦。您能談談是什麼讓您對下半年市場好轉充滿信心嗎？如果該假設中可能存在某種每桶價格門檻，也就是說，如果石油保持在每桶 30 至 35 美元的範圍內，您是否仍預計下半年油價會有所改善？

Well, we keep our eye more on production than we do the price of oil. Of course, those two are going to be related but we are watching rig counts and we are watching production levels. There may not be as close a correlation between price and those numbers going into 2016 as production rolls over, and it has been rolling over meaning that it is on the decline now in the U.S. And at some point, while there's excess supply in the market and pretty high inventories, there is a point at which you've got to start the production -- the exploration and production activity again with new wells or that production is going to be on the decline.

嗯，我們更關注產量而不是石油價格。當然，這兩者是相關的，但我們正在關注鑽機數量和生產水平。隨著產量的滾動，價格與 2016 年這些數字之間的相關性可能不會那麼密切，而產量一直在滾動，這意味著美國現在的產量正在下降，並且在某個時候，儘管市場上供應過剩而且庫存相當高，到了某個點就必須開始生產——透過新井再次進行勘探和生產活動，否則產量將會下降。

So, the forecasting in this business is very difficult at the moment. It is why we put such a wide range on it. I know if you look in the marketplace, you can find about as many people who think that the price has to be up substantially going out of the end of 2016 in the $40 to $50, even up near $60 a barrel range and there are people that think that the price is going to be depressed for quite a long time. So, we are going to avoid putting specifics out there that is tied to a certain price. We actually build the forecast from talking to certain customers and some assumptions that we make on production levels and prove that that we come up with our forecast.

所以，目前這個產業的預測是非常困難的。這就是為什麼我們對其設定如此廣泛的範圍。我知道，如果你看看市場，你會發現有很多人認為價格必須在 2016 年底之後大幅上漲，達到每桶 40 至 50 美元，甚至接近每桶 60 美元，而且有人認為價格將在相當長一段時間內處於低迷狀態。因此，我們將避免發布與特定價格相關的細節。實際上，我們透過與某些客戶的交談以及我們對生產水準所做的一些假設來建立預測，並證明我們提出了我們的預測。

I would tell you that my personal view is that I think the logic I see on the forecast, it says that there will be some pick up in the second half of 2016, seems to be the most reasonable. But there have been a lot of forecast that have been incorrect over the last 12 months. And it's clearly an environment that's disruptive and difficult to forecast at the moment.

我想告訴你，我個人的觀點是，我認為我在預測中看到的邏輯，即2016年下半年會有一些回升，似乎是最合理的。但過去 12 個月裡有很多預測都是錯的。顯然，目前的環境具有破壞性且難以預測。

And as part of that maybe there is some sort of testing requirements that can only be delayed so long or is that not a big piece of it?

作為其中的一部分，也許有某種測試要求只能推遲這麼長時間，或者這不是其中很大一部分嗎？

No. The better way to think about that is that we provide testing and inspection of drill pipe, casing pipe, all sorts of tubulars that are used in that E&P process that are needed all the time for those particular tubulars. There just happens to be an excess supply of inventory that the customers now have as a result of the fact that there is a lot less drilling activity. So, the need for the test and inspection doesn't go away. It's just down because of rig counts being down and drilling activity associated with that's being down and inventory [brought] as a result.

不。更好的思考方式是，我們提供鑽桿、套管以及勘探和生產過程中使用的各種管材的測試和檢查，這些特定管材始終需要這些管材。由於鑽井活動大幅減少，客戶現在的庫存供應恰好過剩。因此，測試和檢查的需要並沒有消失。它之所以下降，是因為鑽機數量減少以及與之相關的鑽井活動減少，從而導致庫存增加。

And then maybe my last question here, I guess in the fourth quarter relative to at least where we had our numbers that one of the sort variances was SG&A being up a little bit from the third quarter level. Can you guys just talk about sort of what level of SG&A you are contemplating for 2016 or if there's much in that cost structure that can be decreased in sort of the lower revenue environment?

也許我的最後一個問題是，我想在第四季度，至少相對於我們的數據，其中一個差異是 SG&A 比第三季度的水平略有上升。你們能否談談你們正在考慮的 2016 年 SG&A 水平，或者在收入較低的環境中，成本結構中是否有很多可以降低的地方？

Well, we are doing a lot to hold the line on increases. Part of the increase in that business when I look at it year-over-year has come from the fact that we had a loss of our base business that was replaced by acquired sales that came with higher SG&A, particularly when you put the interest and amortization costs with it.

嗯，我們正在做很多事情來控製成長。當我逐年審視該業務時，該業務成長的部分原因在於我們失去了基礎業務，而這些業務被收購的銷售所取代，而收購的銷售帶來了更高的SG&A，特別是當你把利息和攤銷成本。

In Q4, we always deleverage on SG&A because our sales fall seasonally. And our SG&A doesn't change seasonally like sales does. So, you are always going to see the some of that impact in there. But I would tell you that generally speaking we are paying extremely close attention to where that level is. We -- given our business conditions as you can imagine, we are not bringing new people into the Company at this time and we are looking for new ERP system and the number of other efficiency programs that we have to try to work that number down a little further.

在第四季度，我們總是對SG&A進行去槓桿化，因為我們的銷售額季節性下降。而且我們的銷售、管理費用不會像銷售額那樣隨季節變動。所以，你總是會看到其中的一些影響。但我想告訴你，一般來說，我們非常密切地關注這個水平。考慮到您可以想像到的我們的業務狀況，我們目前不會向公司引入新人員，我​​們正在尋找新的 ERP 系統和其他效率計劃的數量，我們必須嘗試將這個數字降低到一個新的水平。稍遠一點。

I would also add that two things are having an impact on SG&A that are of note for 2016. The ERP program and long with it comes amortization of the software that we purchased last year; that's not insignificant. And the other item are the legal expenses that we are incurring due to the litigations with UP. So that one, one day I expect to go away. I'd like to have that sooner rather than later, but that's there right now. But the added amortization with software system is a headwind that we are going to see from here going forward.

我還想補充一點，有兩件事對 SG&A 產生影響，這在 2016 年值得注意。ERP 專案以及隨之而來的我們去年購買的軟體的攤提；這並非微不足道。另一項是我們因與 UP 訴訟而產生的法律費用。所以，有一天我希望能夠離開。我希望早點擁有它，但現在就在那裡。但軟體系統的附加攤銷是我們今後將看到的一個阻力。

Your next question comes from the line of Beth Lilly of Gabelli Investors. Please proceed.

您的下一個問題來自 Gabelli Investors 的 Beth Lilly。請繼續。

I have two questions. One is, can you even say much on the call about the UP and status of the ongoing litigation? Can you give us any update on where things are at?

我有兩個問題。一是，您能否在電話會議上詳細介紹 UP 和正在進行的訴訟的狀態？您能給我們提供有關情況的最新情況嗎？

We didn't provide any additional information on that because there really wasn't anything of material information to present since our last call. The dispute continues to be in a litigation process. And so that processed is moving forward, as we attempt to resolve the issue. But there is nothing really to report that we can report on that subject.

我們沒有提供任何額外的信息，因為自上次通話以來確實沒有任何重要信息可提供。該糾紛仍在訴訟程序中。因此，當我們試圖解決問題時，處理工作正在向前邁進。但關於這個主題，我們確實沒有什麼好報告的。

What about the costs in the quarter that were incurred to legal expenses and such? Could you break that out?

本季因法律費用等產生的費用怎麼樣？你能把它打破嗎？

Well, we didn't break out the legal. Let me make sure, I understand what detail. Ask the question again.

好吧，我們沒有違反法律。讓我確定一下，我了解哪些細節。再問一下問題。

How much -- the legal expenses paid and then were there any other expense -- was there anything in the income statement related to the UP besides legal expenses?

支付的法律費用是多少，還有其他費用嗎？損益表中除了法律費用之外還有與 UP 相關的任何內容嗎？

Nothing beside -- well we have some G&A that relates to the ongoing litigation thus, whether it's some legal fees and/or consulting fees, all rolling up in the G&A. But we have not disclosed that. In the past, we've given -- we actually had a sort of a delta quarter-over-quarter when this was ramping up. But what we can tell you is that the fourth quarter was around $450,000. And I think our estimates for 2016 are in the $1.2 million to $1.4 million range.

除此之外，我們有一些與正在進行的訴訟相關的一般管理費用，無論是一些法律費用和/或諮詢費，都在一般管理費用中匯總。但我們還沒有透露這一點。過去，當這一數字上升時，我們實際上已經實現了季度環比的增量。但我們可以告訴您的是，第四季約為 45 萬美元。我認為我們對 2016 年的預估在 120 萬美元到 140 萬美元之間。

1.2 to 1.4 you said?

你說的是1.2到1.4？

Yes.

是的。

OK, got it. And then, can you talk about the addition of Brad Vizi to the board, and what do you think he brings to the board and what qualifications and why you decided to add him?

好的，我知道了。然後，您能談談布拉德維茲（Brad Vizi）加入董事會的情況嗎？您認為他會為董事會帶來什麼，有什麼資格以及為什麼決定增加他？

Well, Brad is associated with Legion Partners and together they have taken a position in the Company now that's put them as our largest shareholder. And in recognition of that and his perspective on shareholders view of the Company along with his understanding of capital market and investments in companies like ours, he has been investing in small cap companies and analyzing companies like ours for a number of years. The board recognizing that we had a retirement that was also taking place with one of our directors, it's been around 10 years, have decided to add Brad to the board, even before this retirement occurs.

嗯，布拉德與 Legion Partners 有聯繫，他們現在一起在公司佔有一席之地，這使他們成為我們最大的股東。認識到這一點以及他對公司股東看法的看法，以及他對資本市場和對我們這樣的公司的投資的理解，他多年來一直投資於小型公司並分析我們這樣的公司。董事會認識到我們的一位董事也已經退休，已經過去了大約 10 年，因此決定將布拉德加入董事會，甚至在這次退休發生之前。

But to really get a good perspective on the shareholders point of view of things as well as again his understanding of looking at companies like ours and how we can create value, in addition to the things we know how to work on, day to day in our operations and design of new products and those sorts of things, there's certainly an important element of understanding efficient uses of capital and looking at other means to create shareholder value that we believe Brad has some good ideas on and we have welcomed his participation on the board.

但是，要真正了解股東對事物的看法，以及他對像我們這樣的公司的理解，以及我們如何創造價值，除了我們知道如何日常工作的事情之外，我們的運營和新產品的設計以及諸如此類的事情，當然有一個重要的因素，那就是理解資本的有效利用，並尋找其他方式來創造股東價值，我們相信布拉德有一些好主意，我們歡迎他參與木板。

There are no more questions at this time, I will now turn the call back over to Robert Bauer, CEO.

目前沒有其他問題了，我現在將把電話轉回給執行長羅伯特·鮑爾 (Robert Bauer)。

Well thanks to everyone. I know we're a little long winded this time due to the fact that not only do we have the quarter but the close of the year and so many different things that were moving around in 2015. But, we appreciate your attention and joining us on the call. And we look forward to talking with you next quarter. Thank you very much.

嗯，謝謝大家。我知道這次我們有點囉嗦，因為我們不僅有季度，還有年末，以及 2015 年發生的許多不同的事情。但是，我們感謝您的關注並加入我們的通話。我們期待下個季度與您交談。非常感謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。演示到此結束。