Greif Inc (GEF) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Greif first-quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Matt Leahy. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Greif 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在我想將會議交給您的發言人馬特·萊希 (Matt Leahy)。請繼續。

Thanks and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Leahyfiscal first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. This is Matt Leahy, Greif Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. And I'm joined by Ole Rosgaard, Greif President and Chief Executive Officer; and Larry Hilsheimer, Greif's Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝大家，早安。歡迎參加 Leahyfiscal 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。我是格瑞夫企業發展與投資者關係副總裁馬特‧萊希 (Matt Leahy)。 Greif 總裁兼執行長 Ole Rosgaard 也加入了我的行列。以及 Greif 財務長 Larry Hilsheimer。

We will take questions at the end of today's call and in accordance with regulation fair disclosure, please ask questions regarding issues you consider important because we are prohibited from discussing material non-public information with you on an individual basis.

我們將在今天的電話會議結束時回答問題，並根據公平披露的規定，請就您認為重要的問題提出問題，因為我們被禁止與您單獨討論重大非公開資訊。

Please turn to slide 2. As a reminder, during today's call, we will make forward-looking statements involving plans, expectations and beliefs related to future events. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed.

請翻到投影片 2。實際結果可能與討論的結果大不相同。

Additionally, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP metrics can be found in the appendix of today's presentation.

此外，我們將參考某些非公認會計原則財務指標，並與最直接可比較的公認會計原則指標進行調節，可以在今天簡報的附錄中找到。

And now I'd like to turn the presentation over to Ole, on slide 3.

現在我想將投影片 3 上的簡報交給 Ole。

Thank you, Matt, and good morning all.

謝謝你，馬特，大家早安。

And I'm covering our first quarter results. I would like to briefly recap our strategy and philosophy of how we lead and serve customers. At Greif, we are a purpose-driven company. We create packaging solutions for life's essentials.

我正在報道我們第一季的業績。我想簡單回顧一下我們如何領導和服務客戶的策略和理念。在格瑞夫，我們是一家以目標為導向的公司。我們為生活必需品創造包裝解決方案。

Our 13,000 colleagues around the world serve as a critical supply chain partner for our customers who are delivering the raw materials ingredients, foods, beverages, medicines and products that make the world work.

我們在世界各地的 13,000 名員工是客戶的重要供應鏈合作夥伴，為世界提供原料、食物、飲料、藥品和產品。

Our packaging helps our customers deliver the juice and ketchup on your table, paint on the walls, the oil in your car, the furniture in your home, the souls on your shoes, your Amazon boxes and the vitamins and meds that you takes. We help our customers to very important work.

我們的包裝幫助我們的客戶運送您桌子上的果汁和番茄醬、牆壁上的油漆、汽車上的油、家中的家具、鞋子上的靈魂、亞馬遜盒子以及您服用的維生素和藥物。我們幫助客戶完成非常重要的工作。

Our business last strategy is designed to help us be better stewards of our customers' goods. And our vision is to be the best in the world at customer service. The way we do that is through our four strategic missions, how we work and the principles, that guide, how we lead, support and serve our colleagues and customers.

我們的業務最後策略旨在幫助我們更好地管理客戶的貨物。我們的願景是成為世界上最好的客戶服務提供者。我們做到這一點的方式是透過我們的四個策略使命、我們的工作方式和原則，指導我們如何領導、支持和服務我們的同事和客戶。

We've built a powerful culture and business systems that drive that both serve as a flywheel to consistently improve our competitive positioning and track and retain great talents and create value as we grow the business.

我們建立了強大的文化和業務系統，作為飛輪，不斷提高我們的競爭地位，追蹤和留住優秀人才，並在業務發展的過程中創造價值。

Please turn to slide 4. We believe the future of global industrial packaging will be driven by a focus on sustainable packaging solutions, including recyclable resin-based products. We have aligned our strategy with these broader industry trends and through acquisition and organic investments, we are slowly transforming our portfolio.

請參閱投影片 4。我們已將我們的策略與這些更廣泛的行業趨勢結合起來，並透過收購和有機投資，我們正在慢慢改變我們的投資組合。

Five product groups shown on slide 4 are the same focus areas communicated at our Investor Day in 2022. And since then, we have made substantial progress on expanding in these verticals. We've executed three transactions and small plastics in the past year in lead Reliance and iPackChem and to build global scale in that important and growing markets.

投影片 4 中顯示的五個產品組與我們在 2022 年投資者日上傳達的重點領域相同。去年，我們在領先的 Reliance 和 iPackChem 中執行了三筆小型塑膠交易，並在這個重要且不斷成長的市場中建立了全球規模。

We intend to continue to build on our small plastics platform with high-quality, high-margin specialty businesses.

我們打算繼續在我們的小型塑膠平台上建立高品質、高利潤的特殊業務。

Our focus in IBCs send us on building scale regionally at both the manufacturing and the reconditioning level to offer our customers a full lifecycle solution of sustainable products and further our circularity mission. Our acquisition of Centurion Container has significantly increased our mix of washed, remodeled and condition on IBCs and all with a growing margin. This business improves both the environment and our economics, a powerful combination.

我們對中型散裝容器的關注促使我們在製造和修復層面上進行區域性規模化建設，為客戶提供可持續產品的全生命週期解決方案，並進一步推進我們的循環使命。我們對 Centurion Container 的收購顯著增加了 IBC 的清洗、改造和狀況組合，並且所有這些都具有不斷增長的利潤。這項業務既改善了環境，又改善了我們的經濟，這是一個強大的組合。

In our Paper Packaging business. Our growth is focused on unique, high-margin converting businesses that improve our downstream integration as well as our end-market exposures into more stable food, beverage and consumer markets.

在我們的紙包裝業務中。我們的成長重點是獨特的、高利潤的轉換業務，這些業務改善了我們的下游整合以及我們進入更穩定的食品、飲料和消費者市場的終端市場。

Our ColePak acquisition, Dallas Sheetfeeder and the Louisville Litholaminator investments all need this goal in paper. And while our closures business is predominantly internally focused, we see tremendous potential to grow beyond our current footprint, both organically and through acquisitions.

我們對 ColePak 的收購、Dallas Sheetfeeder 和 Louisville Litholaminator 的投資都需要在紙上實現這一目標。雖然我們的瓶蓋業務主要集中在內部，但我們看到了超越當前業務範圍的巨大潛力，無論是有機成長還是透過收購。

In summary, we see a long runway for growth in many of our businesses and intend to continue along this path of transforming our portfolio to meet the market needs and better serve our customers.

總而言之，我們看到許多業務都有很長的成長空間，並打算繼續沿著這條道路轉變我們的產品組合，以滿足市場需求並更好地服務我們的客戶。

Please turn to slide 5. Now, into the first quarter, volumes remain under pressure in most parts of the world through the quarter, consistent with our expectations and full-year guidance. Starting east to west, which is how we normally see volume trends emerge.

請翻到投影片 5。從東到西，這就是我們通常看到的成交量趨勢的出現方式。

Our APAC business saw some bright spots in the quarter as volumes in our China business improved slightly on both a sequential and year-on-year basis. China manufacturing PMI remained above 50 for all three months in the quarter. And lubricants, which are predominantly used by heavy manufacturing customers, were the primary improving end market in that region.

我們的亞太業務在本季出現了一些亮點，中國業務的銷售量較上季和年比均略有改善。本季中國製造業PMI連續三個月維持在50以上。主要由重型製造客戶使用的潤滑油是該地區主要改善的終端市場。

In EMEA, we also saw improving lubricants and end market demand reflective more of the low comparison versus an improving sequential trend as Eurozone PMI remained well below 50 through January. The agricultural and chemical markets are still working through some of the year end 2023 destocking, and we expect those businesses to improve throughout the year.

在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，我們也看到潤滑油和終端市場需求的改善更反映了較低的比較與連續趨勢的改善，因為歐元區 PMI 到 1 月仍遠低於 50。農業和化學市場仍在進行 2023 年底的部分去庫存工作，我們預計這些業務全年都會有所改善。

Our LATAM business primarily serves the agrochemical, juice and beverage industries and is impacted by planting yields and consumer demand dynamics in those markets. Volumes in that region remain weaker and we do not at present see any material volume inflections.

我們的拉丁美洲業務主要服務於農化、果汁和飲料產業，並受到這些市場種植產量和消費者需求動態的影響。該地區的成交量仍然疲軟，我們目前沒有看到任何實質的成交量變化。

North America still our largest and most diverse region with both richards and paper packaging remained our weakest market globally in the first quarter. US manufacturing PMIs remained in contraction territory through January, the 14 consecutive month at or below 50.

北美仍然是我們最大、最多樣化的地區，理查和紙包裝仍然是我們第一季全球最弱的市場。整個 1 月美國製造業 PMI 仍處於收縮區間，連續 14 個月處於或低於 50。

This continued low level of industrial activity has driven GIP volumes, down 19% in the quarter and 36% over two year periods. This a truly historic period for our GIP business and makes good results from that team over the past year to have even more impressive. We are excited by the prospects when volume trends in Flex. Our PBS. business saw a mix of volume trends with containerboard clearly improving and our boxboard business still trending down slightly.

工業活動持續低迷導致 GIP 交易量在本季下降 19%，兩年內下降 36%。對於我們的 GIP 業務來說，這是一個真正具有歷史意義的時期，過去一年團隊的良好成績更加令人印象深刻。我們對 Flex 銷售趨勢的前景感到興奮。我們的公共廣播公司。業務量呈現多種趨勢，箱板紙明顯改善，而我們的箱板紙業務仍呈現小幅下降趨勢。

Overall, it is clear we remain in a difficult point in the cycle, and our teams are doing an excellent job controlling what we can control and focusing on serving our customers. I'm proud of our work this quarter and our continued resilience and commitments as we navigate a tough environments.

總體而言，很明顯我們仍處於週期中的困難點，我們的團隊在控制我們可以控制的事情並專注於為客戶服務方面做得非常出色。我對我們本季的工作以及我們在艱難的環境中持續保持的韌性和承諾感到自豪。

I'll now turn it over to Larry to walk through our detailed financial results.

現在我將把它交給拉里來詳細介紹我們的財務結果。

Thank you, Ole. And good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，奧萊。大家早安。

Turning to slide 6. Greif's first-quarter results came in line with our expectations with $128 million of adjusted EBITDA use of free cash flow of $48 million. While our team's execution remains solid, the combined effect of extended slow demand and a significant negative price cost dynamic in our paper business led to a decrease in year-over-year performance. We remain focused on execution, leaning on our value over volume, price discipline and cost management with continued focus on cash and working capital.

轉向幻燈片 6。雖然我們團隊的執行力仍然穩固，但需求持續放緩和造紙業務顯著的負價格成本動態的綜合影響導致同比業績下降。我們仍然專注於執行，依靠我們的價值而不是數量、價格紀律和成本管理，並繼續關注現金和營運資本。

As Ole covered in his opening remarks. While we are managing through the short-term volume trends, we continue to focus on investments that will help us build a better business long term.

正如奧萊在開場白中所說的。在我們應對短期銷售趨勢的同時，我們繼續專注於有助於我們建立更好的長期業務的投資。

One of those investments is our recently launched pilot project with IonKraft, a German-based start-up that has developed a unique chemical, cleaner and fully recyclable barrier technology for plastic containers. This partnership is representative of our commitment to innovation and packaging that meets the growing sustainability demands of the marketplace and will enable us to better serve our customers in many end markets, including agrochemicals and food and beverage, combined with Lee, Reliance, iPackChem.

其中一項投資是我們最近與 IonKraft 啟動的試點項目，IonKraft 是一家德國新創公司，為塑膠容器開發了一種獨特的化學、清潔且完全可回收的阻隔技術。這項合作關係代表了我們對創新和包裝的承諾，以滿足市場日益增長的可持續發展需求，並使我們能夠與Lee、Reliance 和iPackChem 合作，更好地為許多終端市場的客戶提供服務，包括農業化學品以及食品和飲料。

We think a successful outcome with IonKraft will offer our customers a full suite of custom packaging and barrier options and provide multiple growth levers for growth for years to come.

我們認為，IonKraft 的成功將為我們的客戶提供全套客製化包裝和阻隔選項，並為未來幾年的成長提供多種成長槓桿。

Let's turn to segment results starting on slide 7. Our GIP business has continued to trend consistent with the previous few quarters with a sustained low level of demand, offset by strong execution on price and costs. Volumes remain under pressure in most regions throughout the world and order patterns remain tight as customers face limited visibility to demand improvement.

讓我們轉向從幻燈片 7 開始的部門業績。全球大多數地區的銷售仍然面臨壓力，由於客戶對需求改善的了解有限，訂單模式仍然緊張。

APAC and EMEA volume showed some signs of life on better petro chemical and lubricant demand as manufacturing activity improved in those regions. While North America remains weak. The GIP team posted solid results given this backdrop with improving gross profit and flat EBITDA margins on lower sales year-over-year.

隨著這些地區製造業活動的改善，亞太地區和歐洲、中東和非洲地區的石化和潤滑油需求有所改善，銷售出現了一些復甦跡象。而北美地區依然疲軟。在此背景下，GIP 團隊取得了穩健的業績，毛利有所提高，而 EBITDA 利潤率持平，但銷售額則是年減。

Our teams combined pricing discipline and cost management in GIP in partnership with our global operations and supply chain teams drove another quarter of solid margin performance in our seasonably slow first-quarter. I want to thank our global GIP colleagues for another quarter of excellent execution in a very tough environment.

我們的團隊與我們的全球營運和供應鏈團隊合作，將 GIP 中的定價規則和成本管理結合起來，在季節性放緩的第一季推動了另一個季度的穩健利潤表現。我要感謝我們的全球 GIP 同事在非常艱難的環境中又一個季度表現出色。

Please turn to slide 8. Our PPS business executed well in the quarter with improving volume trends in containerboard, offset by weaker boxboard demand. Corrugated converting volumes were up 3% and container board mill volumes were up above that level year-over-year as converting customers began to reorder paper and rebuild low inventory positions as they saw the demand outlook improving in late 2023 and early 2024.

請參閱投影片 8。瓦楞紙加工量成長了 3%，貨櫃紙板廠的產量年增超過這一水平，因為加工客戶看到 2023 年底和 2024 年初需求前景有所改善，開始重新訂購紙張並重建低庫存狀況。

Our Tube and Core volumes remain stable sequentially through the quarter, but are still down 4% year-over-year. A reminder that the largest end market for Tube and Core is the paper industry.

我們的管材和芯材銷量在整個季度保持穩定，但仍比去年同期下降 4%。提醒您，管材和芯材的最大終端市場是造紙工業。

So we expect that rising mill volumes in containerboard and elsewhere, if they continue will lift volumes in our URB and Tube and Core business as well.

因此，我們預計，如果箱板紙和其他產品的工廠產量持續增加，我們的 URB 以及管材和芯材業務的產量也會隨之增加。

On the margin side, our PPS business was challenged in Q1 with a price cost squeeze driven by delayed recognition of our announced price increases, combined with rising OCC costs, which rose by $55 per ton or nearly 160% year-over-year for the quarter,

On the margin side, our PPS business was challenged in Q1 with a price cost squeeze driven by delayed recognition of our announced price increases, combined with rising OCC costs, which rose by $55 per ton or nearly 160% year-over-year for the四分之一,

January published risky index prices in both containerboard and boxboard were not at all in sync with what we experienced in the market. This is largely due to what we see as a flawed methodology of industry price tracking by the publication.

一月公佈的箱板紙和箱板紙風險指數價格與我們在市場上的經驗根本不同步。這主要是由於我們認為該出版物追蹤行業價格的方法有缺陷。

RISI survey-based approach of a small and shrinking third party independent market does not reflect what we see real time in our businesses or with our customers. In a time of the increased use of data and analytics and the ability to track market information using automation or artificial intelligence tools, we struggle to find relevance in a survey based method with such a small non representative sample size.

基於 RISI 調查的小型且不斷萎縮的第三方獨立市場方法並不能反映我們在業務或客戶中即時看到的情況。在數據和分析的使用越來越多，以及使用自動化或人工智慧工具追蹤市場資訊的能力不斷增加的時代，我們很難在如此小的非代表性樣本量的基於調查的方法中找到相關性。

Nonetheless, the lack of paper price recognition, coupled with significant cost inflation, resulted in a 540-basis point margin squeeze in Q1, which we anticipate will largely recur in Q2, but then improve in the second half as we see indices better reflect market prices.

儘管如此，缺乏對紙張價格的認可，加上成本大幅上漲，導致第一季利潤率縮水540 個基點，我們預計這種情況將在第二季度再次出現，但下半年會有所改善，因為我們看到指數更好地反映了市場情況價格。

Please turn to slide 9 for our updated guidance and outlook. And now given our lack of any compelling demand inflection, but accounting for the RISI recognized price increase and other modest improvements, we are raising our low end EBITDA guidance by $25 million to $610 million and maintaining our adjusted free cash flow guidance of $200 million, which is reflective of increased CapEx and working capital expectations for the full year.

請參閱投影片 9 以了解我們更新的指導和展望。現在，鑑於我們缺乏任何令人​​信服的需求變化，但考慮到RISI 認可的價格上漲和其他適度的改善，我們將低端EBITDA 指導提高2500 萬美元，達到6.1 億美元，並維持調整後的自由現金流指引為2 億美元，這反映了全年資本支出和營運資本預期的增加。

Our full year 2024 assumptions remain consistent with our guidance from the fourth quarter, namely our expectation for a continuation of current demand trends, no improvement in RISI published index prices from the recent February publication and no contribution from APAC chem, which is expected to close in our fiscal Q2.

我們對2024 年全年的假設與我們第四季度的指導保持一致，即我們對當前需求趨勢持續的預期，RISI 公佈的指數價格較最近2 月份公佈的價格沒有改善，並且APAC chem 沒有貢獻，預計將於在我們的第二財季。

As a reminder, we present our guidance based only on a factual evidence available to us at the date we report. We think it makes sense to stick with low end guidance at this time, and we'll revisit and share our updated view, including possibly introducing a broader guidance range during our next quarter call.

提醒一下，我們僅根據我們在報告之日掌握的事實證據來提出我們的指導。我們認為目前堅持低端指導是有意義的，我們將重新審視並分享我們的最新觀點，包括可能在下個季度電話會議期間引入更廣泛的指導範圍。

With that, I'll turn things back to Ole for a brief close.

至此，我將把事情轉回給奧萊做一個簡短的結束。

Thanks Larry.

謝謝拉里。

I will close by simply stating that we continue to demonstrate our ability to control what we can control and drive the business doing a down cycle. The investments we are making on the Build to Last to grow and improve all aspects of our business will position us well to better serve our customers and achieve breakout performance when demand returns.

最後，我只想指出，我們將繼續展示我們控制我們可以控制的事情並推動業務進入下行週期的能力。我們在基業長青上進行的投資，旨在發展和改善我們業務的各個方面，將使我們能夠更好地服務客戶，並在需求回歸時實現突破性的業績。

I'm proud of the dedication, commitment and resilience from our global Greif teams and excited for what we are building together. We will plan to discuss our business and future in greater detail at an upcoming Investor Day on December 11. Details will be forthcoming, but please make a note your Calibre, December 11.

我為格瑞夫全球團隊的奉獻精神、承諾和韌性感到自豪，並對我們共同建立的事業感到興奮。我們計劃在即將到來的 12 月 11 日投資者日上更詳細地討論我們的業務和未來。

Before we start the Q&A session, I have an important update for our Investors. Matt Leahy is moving into a new position to oversee our Asia Pacific operations and build an offio, was played a key role in developing financial planning and analysis and data analytic, at drive for nine years will now take charge of our Investor Relations. This is part of their professional growth plans, and I want to thank Matt for his leadership as our Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for the past several years and welcome Bill to the new role.

在我們開始問答環節之前，我有一個重要的更新要向我們的投資者介紹。馬特·萊希(Matt Leahy) 即將調任新職位，負責監督我們的亞太區業務並建立辦公室，在製定財務規劃、分析和數據分析方面發揮了關鍵作用，已任職九年，現在將負責我們的投資者關係。這是他們職業發展計劃的一部分，我要感謝馬特過去幾年作為我們企業發展和投資者關係主管的領導，並歡迎比爾擔任新職位。

With that, I'd like to thank you once more for dialing in today, and we will now open the lines for Q&A.

在此，我要再次感謝您今天撥通電話，我們現在將開通問答線。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Ghansham Panjabi, Baird.

甘沙姆‧潘嘉比 (Ghansham Panjabi)，貝爾德 (Baird)。

Hey, guys. Good morning and congrats to you, Matt, and good luck in the future.

大家好。早安，恭喜你，馬特，祝你未來好運。

I guess first off, maybe you can give us a sense as to how volumes during the first quarter compare to your initial plan and how things are looking so far in February, there are some of recent indications on ISM etc, on a global basis seem a little bit better. Just wondering if you're seeing any green shoots associated with that?

我想首先，也許您可以讓我們了解第一季的銷量與您最初的計劃相比如何，以及 2 月份到目前為止的情況，ISM 等方面的一些最新跡象，在全球範圍內似乎好一點了。只是想知道您是否看到了與此相關的任何萌芽？

So as I said, Ghansham, we throughout January, no volume has been depressed and we had seen some sequential improvements, but it's not really enough to signal and inflection. We spoke a little bit about APAC and in Europe where we have seen a little bit of green shoes, but instead of on a spot by spot basis. But I would say that when we speak to our customers, they seem much more positive. It's positive that they have been for a long time, although we haven't seen that materialize into volume.

正如我所說，Ghansham，我們整個一月都沒有出現成交量下降的情況，而且我們看到了一些連續的改善，但這還不足以發出信號和變化。我們談到了一些關於亞太地區和歐洲的情況，在那裡我們看到了一些綠鞋，但不是逐點進行的。但我想說，當我們與客戶交談時，他們似乎更加積極。積極的一面是，它們已經存在很長時間了，儘管我們還沒有看到這種情況具體化。

Got it. And then in terms of the EBITDA differential, the $25 million between the previous low end versus now. Is that is that just purely containerboard pricing?

知道了。然後就 EBITDA 差異而言，之前的低端與現在之間相差 2500 萬美元。這只是純粹的箱板定價嗎？

Predominantly, that Ghansham, but we also the teams have done some good job. So we're lowering our estimate of SGA for the rest of the year, about $6 million in our closures business has actually turned up or we mentioned a little bit about that in our comments. That's another five of lift. And then just some other items, $3 million, so you had about $11 million of price costs across both businesses have left and then they SG&A $6 million, closures $5 million and another $3 million in miscellaneous currency and other stuff.

主要是甘沙姆，但我們的團隊也做了一些不錯的工作。因此，我們降低了今年剩餘時間的 SGA 的估計，我們的閉包業務實際上已經實現了約 600 萬美元，或者我們在評論中提到了一點。這又是五倍的升力。然後還有一些其他項目，300 萬美元，所以兩家公司的價格成本約為 1100 萬美元，然後他們的 SG&A 600 萬美元，關閉費用 500 萬美元，另外 300 萬美元的雜項貨幣和其他東西。

Okay. Got it. Thanks so much.

好的。知道了。非常感謝。

Michael Hoffman, Stifel.

邁克爾·霍夫曼，斯蒂菲爾。

Hey Matt, congratulations. And Ole, I always respect companies who treat Matt's position as a strategic role. So good luck to Bill too. - On the Q&A side of it, can we dig a little bit. And if you picked end market customers that, if that individually are two or three of them that if they make a change here in North America, this is going to shift the momentum. It's not 20 elements. It's two or three end markets. Maybe it's only one or two. Who will be watching at this point to shift their demand outlook

嘿馬特，恭喜你。還有索爾斯克亞，我一直很尊敬將馬特的職位視為策略角色的公司。祝比爾也好運。 - 在問答方面，我們可以挖掘一下嗎？如果你選擇了終端市場客戶，如果他們中有兩三個，如果他們在北美做出改變，這將改變勢頭。它不是 20 個元素。這是兩個或三個終端市場。也許只有一兩個。此時誰會注意並改變他們的需求前景

And our really focus on the chemical customers or the chemical end segments, both in the biggest segment is the bulk and commodity chemical, and that has been significantly down and then the next one is speciality chemicals. Those are the really two big ones. And then the third one would be a Lube and petrol lube and oils.

我們真正關注的是化學品客戶或化學品終端細分市場，最大的細分市場是大宗化學品和大宗化學品，並且已經大幅下降，然後下一個是特種化學品。這才是真正的兩個大人物。第三種是潤滑油和汽油潤滑油和油。

So the Lube market seems to have corrected their end market oversupply all the finished goods. The destocking. So is there early green shoots there?

因此，潤滑油市場似乎已經糾正了終端市場所有成品供應過剩的問題。去庫存。那麼那裡是否已經出現了早期的綠芽呢？

As I said, we've seen pockets sort of sporadic progress, but there's still not enough to say that, its permanence. We still see a little bit of destocking, but again, it's very sporadic, depending on what end segment we're looking at. --I'd say it's too early to signal that scenario and inflection points.

正如我所說，我們已經看到了一些零星的進步，但還不足以說明它的持久性。我們仍然看到一些庫存減少，但同樣，這種情況非常零星，這取決於我們所關注的終端細分市場。 ——我想說，現在就預示這種情況和轉折點還為時過早。

Okay. And then on the paper side, there's a whole bunch of new capacity coming online in North America and Latin America, how is that factored into virgin capacity to be making paper? Has that factored into your outlook?

好的。然後在造紙方面，北美和拉丁美洲有大量新產能上線，如何計入造紙的原始產能？這是否影響了您的看法？

We have continued to see some just demand being weak, but like we said, we did see some turn up in containerboard demand through the end of the first quarter and the new capacity this is the one Mike will talked about often over the years that every years since I've been here Armageddon coming next week in this business.

我們繼續看到一些需求疲軟，但正如我們所說，到第一季度末，我們確實看到箱板紙需求有所上升，而新產能是邁克多年來經常談論的話題自從我來到這裡已經很多年了，下週這個行業的世界末日即將到來。

And yet I think that the industry has managed to work its way through it and understand that you are focusing on serving the customers and retaining them by providing excellent service, helps combat that in terms of lost customer.

但我認為該行業已經成功地度過了難關，並了解您正在專注於為客戶提供服務並透過提供優質服務來留住他們，這有助於解決客戶流失問題。

So and it's like I said, we adjusted our guidance up for the price that was recognized by a RISI in January. But again, I'll repeat what I said. It's stunned me that we are still dealing with some survey-based process de-recognized price in this industry when everybody else in the world has moved on to data and analytics and fact,

所以就像我說的，我們根據 RISI 1 月認可的價格調整了我們的指導。但我會再重複我所說的話。令我震驚的是，當世界上其他人都轉向數據、分析和事實時，我們仍在處理這個行業中一些基於調查的流程被取消認可的價格，

Because what we were seeing out on the street was no big pushback on the price. Everybody knew cost driven, factors justified the price and yet it didn't get recognized. So that's the biggest factor in our containerboard business.

因為我們在街上看到的價格並沒有大幅下降。每個人都知道成本驅動，因素證明了價格的合理性，但它並沒有被認可。所以這是我們箱板紙業務的最大因素。

Right. Okay. And then when you think about, sort of where you would like to sort of the next incremental M&A to fill in the white space in the model, what's the sort of key place that you're watching there today?

正確的。好的。然後，當您想到您希望在哪裡進行下一個增量併購以填補模型中的空白時，您今天正在關注的關鍵位置是什麼？

Well, as we said that our focus on M&A is in the resin resin based products with high margins and papper converting products with high margins and paper, you find that in niche markets.

好吧，正如我們所說，我們的併購重點是高利潤率的樹脂產品和高利潤率的紙加工產品和紙張，你會在利基市場中發現這一點。

Right. Thank you very much.

正確的。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Gabe Hajde, Wells Fargo.

加布·哈吉德，富國銀行。

Ole, Larry good morning. Matt, congrats. On slide four, you mentioned it briefly about some of the recent acquisitions and sometimes the pushback, though, that we all here is on sometimes companies do acquisitions to mask some weakness in the underlying business or something like that. We would contend, hey, look, if you guys can deploy capital on M&A in a period of depressed demand, maybe you can pick up the deal here and there.

奧萊，拉里早安。馬特，恭喜。在第四張投影片上，您簡要地提到了最近的一些收購，有時也提到了阻力，但我們大家都認為，有時公司進行收購是為了掩蓋基礎業務或類似業務的一些弱點。我們會爭辯說，嘿，看，如果你們能夠在需求低迷的時期將資金用於併購，也許你們可以到處完成交易。

I'm just curious if you could give us any specifics as it relates to the couple of deals that you guys have now integrated. And in terms of key learnings, number one and number two, these deals are kind of hitting underlying or economics that run the underpinning those acquisitions?

我只是好奇您能否向我們提供任何具體細節，因為它與您現在已經整合的幾筆交易有關。就重要經驗而言，第一和第二，這些交易是否會打擊支撐這些收購的基礎或經濟？

I would say, so far, we're extremely pleased. On all of these a big factor for us was cultural fit. And the Lee acquisition has been particularly incredible from that perspective. I mean it. It has gone extremely well. As you know, they're and you adjust their deal with the same kind of a demand challenges that the entire industry is, but we sort of knew that going in. I mean, it's a broader economic thing, but the results that they are delivering are in line with what we were expecting the integration has gone extremely well.

我想說，到目前為止，我們非常高興。在所有這些方面，對我們來說一個重要因素是文化契合度。從這個角度來看，李的收購尤其令人難以置信。我是認真的。進展非常順利。如你所知，他們和你調整他們的交易，以應對整個行業面臨的同樣的需求挑戰，但我們有點知道這一點。交付符合我們的預期，整合進展非常順利。

Reliance is a pretty small one plant kind of thing. It's going very well, too. You know, they're adapting to our safety culture. Our focus on our people and that will end up being successful. But it's tiny.

依賴是一種非常小的植物類型的東西。進展也非常順利。你知道，他們正在適應我們的安全文化。我們對員工的關注最終會成功。但它很小。

The iPackChem transaction even though it hasn't closed yet. Our integration activities are well down the path and as soon as that closes, we expect that to hit the ground running that the cultural fit it again seems extremely strong.

iPackChem 交易儘管尚未結束。我們的整合活動正在順利進行，一旦整合結束，我們期望能夠立即開始運作，文化再次適應它似乎非常強大。

And then in we couldn't be more pleased with ColePack. I mean, ColePackis just I mean, it's a it's almost like they were part of growth for the last 30 years or so. And these aren't masking anything there, obviously, along the strategic plan that we delivered. And in all of these, we're seeing actually volumes better than our legacy business.

然後我們對 ColePack 非常滿意。我的意思是，ColePack 就是我的意思，這幾乎就像他們是過去 30 年左右成長的一部分。顯然，這些並沒有掩蓋我們交付的策略計劃中的任何內容。在所有這些方面，我們看到的銷售實際上比我們的傳統業務更好。

So we're really pleased and gives us to the comment you made about masking the strategy we have we developed three years ago. We announced it to the investment community two years ago. And what you have seen is that we are just executing on the strategy, we presented to the investment community. So it's a very intentional.

因此，我們非常高興並向我們提供了您關於掩蓋我們三年前製定的策略的評論。兩年前我們向投資界宣布了這一點。你所看到的是，我們只是執行我們向投資界提出的策略。所以這是非常有意的。

Appreciate that only another one on, I guess, organic investment and what you guys are doing internally, if memory serves, I think the Louisville Litholaminator was up and running and the sheet feeder was sort of underway. Are you guys commercializing that at this point or it's gone. This update, where you're at with the sheet feeder?

我想，只有另一項關於有機投資和你們在內部所做的事情，如果沒記錯的話，我認為路易斯維爾 Litholaminator 已經啟動並運行，並且送紙器正在進行中。你們現在是否正在將其商業化，否則它就消失了。這次更新，您對送紙器的使用情況如何？

With sheet feeder, we may in the final phases of getting a permanent solid, five solid, and that's holding and we will be operational by end of May of this year and will serve the first customer on June 1.

有了送紙器，我們可能會在獲得永久固體、五個固體的最後階段，並且這將保持不變，我們將於今年5 月底投入運營，並將於6 月1 日為第一個客戶提供服務。

Louisville Litholaminator up and operating and actually even one. Yes, it's going very, very well.

路易斯維爾 Litholaminator 已啟動並投入運行，甚至還有一台。是的，一切都進展得非常非常順利。

Thank you.

謝謝。

I would now like to turn the conference back to Matt Leahy for closing remarks.

現在我想請馬特·萊希（Matt Leahy）致閉幕詞。

Thank you all again for joining. Have a great day.

再次感謝大家的加入。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。

Goodbye.

再見。