Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp (GLDD) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2022 Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Earnings Conference 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 today, Tina Baginskis, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，謝謝你的支持。歡迎來到 2022 年第四季度 Great Lakes Dredge & Dock 收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）。請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我現在想把會議交給今天的演講者，投資者關係總監蒂娜·巴金斯基斯 (Tina Baginskis)。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter conference call. Joining me on the call this morning is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Lasse Petterson; and our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Kornblou. Lasse will provide an update on the events of the quarter and the year, then Scott will continue with an update on our financial results for the quarter and the year. Lasse will conclude with an update on the outlook for the business and market. Following their comments, there will be an opportunity for questions. During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements to help you understand our business. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in our earnings release and in filings with the SEC, including our 2021 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which are explained in the net income to adjusted EBITDA reconciliation attached to our earnings release and posted on our Investor Relations website, along with certain other operating data. With that, I will turn the call over to Lasse.

謝謝。早上好，歡迎來到我們的第四季度電話會議。今天早上和我一起參加電話會議的是我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Lasse Petterson；以及我們的首席財務官 Scott Kornblou。 Lasse 將提供本季度和年度事件的最新情況，然後 Scott 將繼續更新我們本季度和年度的財務業績。最後，Lasse 將更新業務和市場前景。在他們發表意見後，將有機會提問。在此次電話會議中，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，以幫助您了解我們的業務。這些陳述涉及許多風險、不確定性和其他因素，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期存在重大差異。我們業務中固有的某些風險因素在我們的收益發布和提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中有所闡述，包括我們的 2021 年 10-K 表格和後續文件。在本次電話會議中，我們還提到了某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括調整後的 EBITDA，這些指標在我們的收益發布所附的調整後 EBITDA 對賬淨收入中進行了解釋，並發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上，以及某些其他運營數據。有了這個，我會把電話轉給 Lasse。

Thank you, Tina. As seen in our financial results, 2022 turned out to be challenging. We entered the year with a good backlog, a solid cash position and our record U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' budget of $8.3 billion. We had high expectations to return to normal operations after overcoming the challenges from COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. Unfortunately, as the year progressed, we saw significant delays in the overall dredging bid market and specifically large capital and port deepening projects were delayed, with bid dates now moved into 2023. According to our records, the overall dredging bid market in the first 4.5 months of 2022 was less than 50% of previous year's averages, which severely impacted our fleet utilization in the second half of 2022 as a portion of our annual revenues rely on projects bid and executed within the year, which we call booking burn. And typically, the majority of these projects are beach renourishment projects or and coastal restoration projects, which carry higher margins. And overall, for 2022, the bid market for beach renourishment projects were about only at 73% of the 2021 levels and cost of restoration projects were at 57% of 2021 levels. To some extent, the lack of capital work was replaced by an increase in maintenance work. However, maintenance projects typically earn lower margins due to the nature of the work and the competitive landscape. As bidding picked up in the second half of the year, we won 47% of the bid volumes and ended the year with $375.5 million of dredging backlog and $584.7 million in open options and projects pending award. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' is the largest client. And during the year, we held numerous and constructive discussions with the core leadership on what was impacting the bid market and how to resolve the issues, and we have started to see positive developments for 2023. Color external issues also significantly impacted operations. High inflation impacted projects and drydocking costs and supply chain issues delayed drydocking completions. We experienced on seasonal and extreme weather conditions on some of our projects on the East Coast, and we experienced more than normal challenging soils and site conditions on projects. Claims related to these projects are still pending resolution and revenue and profit recognitions are impacted until these discussions are completed. The fourth quarter was impacted by the same issues as we have experienced this year. Specifically, we had significant weather impacts on the proton storms in the Northeast, the earlier than planned (inaudible) of the Terrapin Island dredge and both the Elaphiti and Padre Island had lengthy stays in drydock, which increased costs and delayed revenues into 2023. We have, through the year, been taking action to adjust to the current difficult market conditions as well as preparing for future years. We have temporarily cold-stacked 2 dredges and related support equipment, which will reduce operating costs. The cost factor just can easily be reactivated when we see the bid markets improve. In our fleet renewal and improvement program, the 20 and the 42-year-old (inaudible) Island, was scheduled for retirement following the delivery of the new (inaudible) mid-2023. For the mechanical issues or major mechanical issue, combined with a delayed mid-market led to our decision to retire (inaudible) in the fourth quarter of 2020. And correspondingly, we have during the year, been reducing our general and administration and overhead cost structure to reflect the current market conditions. Earlier this month, we had an additional 10% reduction in G&A and overhead staff, and we target a further 5% reduction in 2023 through natural attrition. As we adjust to the current market situation, we remain optimistic in the long-term outlook for both dredging and offshore wind markets. Our ambition is to continue to be the U.S. industry leader in our selected market segments and an important part of our strategy is to keep our fleet renewal program moving forward as planned. After decommissioned several our older stretches in 2017, we have invested in productivity upgrades to our best-performing vessels, and our new hopper dredge, the Galveston Island, is on budget and is expected to be operational in the middle of 2023. And our sister ship, the Amelia Island is expected to be delivered in 2025. Our U.S. (inaudible), second client incline profile for vessel for subsea rock installation is on budget and expected to be ready for operations in the first half of 2025 to start working on the Empire Wind I and II projects for Equinor and bp. And I will now turn the call over to Scott to further discuss the results of the quarter and the year, and then I will provide further commentary around the market and our business.

謝謝你，蒂娜。正如我們的財務業績所示，2022 年充滿挑戰。我們以良好的積壓、穩固的現金狀況和我們創紀錄的美國陸軍工程兵團 83 億美元的預算進入了這一年。在克服 2020 年和 2021 年 COVID-19 的挑戰後，我們對恢復正常運營抱有很高的期望。不幸的是，隨著時間的推移，我們看到整個疏浚投標市場出現重大延誤，特別是大型資本和港口深化項目被推遲，投標日期現已移至 2023 年。根據我們的記錄，2022 年前 4.5 個月的整體疏浚投標市場不到去年平均水平的 50%，這嚴重影響了我們 2022 年下半年的船隊利用率我們年收入的一部分依賴於當年投標和執行的項目，我們稱之為預訂燃燒。通常，這些項目中的大多數是海灘修復項目或沿海修復項目，這些項目的利潤率更高。總體而言，到 2022 年，海灘修復項目的投標市場僅為 2021 年水平的 73%，修復項目的成本為 2021 年水平的 57%。在某種程度上，資本工作的缺乏被維護工作的增加所取代。然而，由於工作性質和競爭格局，維護項目通常賺取較低的利潤。隨著今年下半年投標的回升，我們贏得了 47% 的投標量，並以 3.755 億美元的疏浚積壓和 5.847 億美元的未決期權和待授予項目結束了這一年。美國陸軍工程兵團是最大的客戶。在這一年中，我們與核心領導層就影響投標市場的因素以及如何解決這些問題進行了多次建設性討論，我們已經開始看到 2023 年的積極發展。顏色外部問題也對運營產生了重大影響。高通脹影響了項目和乾船塢成本和供應鏈問題，延遲了乾船塢的完成。我們在東海岸的一些項目中經歷了季節性和極端天氣條件，我們在項目中經歷了比正常情況更具挑戰性的土壤和場地條件。與這些項目相關的索賠仍在等待解決，在這些討論完成之前，收入和利潤確認會受到影響。第四季度受到與我們今年所經歷的相同問題的影響。具體來說，我們對東北部的質子風暴、Terrapin Island 疏浚比計劃提前（聽不清）以及 Elaphiti 和 Padre Island 都在幹船塢停留了很長時間產生了重大天氣影響，這增加了成本並將收入推遲到 2023 年。我們在過去的一年中，我們一直在採取行動以適應當前困難的市場狀況，並為未來幾年做準備。我們暫時冷堆了2艘挖泥船和相關配套設備，這將降低運營成本。當我們看到投標市場改善時，成本因素很容易被重新激活。在我們的機隊更新和改進計劃中，已有 20 年和 42 年曆史（聽不清）的 Island 計劃在 2023 年年中交付新的（聽不清）後退役。對於機械問題或主要機械問題，再加上延遲的中端市場導致我們決定在 2020 年第四季度退休（聽不清）。相應地，我們在這一年中一直在減少我們的一般和管理以及管理費用反映當前市場狀況的結構。本月早些時候，我們將 G&A 和日常管理人員額外減少了 10%，我們的目標是通過自然減員在 2023 年進一步減少 5%。在我們適應當前市場形勢的同時，我們對疏浚和海上風電市場的長期前景保持樂觀。我們的目標是繼續成為我們選定細分市場的美國行業領導者，我們戰略的一個重要部分是保持我們的機隊更新計劃按計劃向前推進。在 2017 年退役幾條較舊的航段後，我們投資了性能最佳船舶的生產力升級，我們的新挖泥船 Galveston Island 也在預算之內，預計將於 2023 年年中投入運營。我們的姊妹船船，Amelia Island 預計將於 2025 年交付。我們的美國（聽不清）第二個客戶對海底岩石安裝船的傾斜概況已在預算之內，預計將在 2025 年上半年準備好運營，以開始研究Equinor 和 bp 的 Empire Wind I 和 II 項目。我現在將把電話轉給斯科特，進一步討論本季度和本年度的結果，然後我將圍繞市場和我們的業務提供進一步的評論。

Thank you, Lasse, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by walking through our fourth quarter results, which include a noncash $8.1 million write-down for the retirement of the Terrapin Island. For the fourth quarter of 2022, revenues were $146.7 million, net loss was $31.2 million and adjusted EBITDA was negative $24.2 million. Revenue of $146.7 million in the fourth quarter decreased $63.3 million from the prior year fourth quarter, mostly as a result of lower capital revenue, which was driven by a substantial decrease in the Army Corps capital projects in 2022 and lower coastal protection dredging revenue, partially offset by higher maintenance project revenue. Fourth quarter 2022 revenue came in lower than expected, primarily due to longer-than-expected dry docking of the Ellis Island and Padre Island, the unexpected early retirement of the Terrapin Island, production issues on a few jobs and significant downtime due to weather. Current quarter gross profit and gross profit margins were negative $16.2 million and negative 11% respectively, compared to $53 million and 25.2% respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2021. Similar to revenue, gross margin was impacted by the unexpected dry docking scope increases, which resulted in additional cost and delays for the dredges, the Ellis Island and the Padre Island, the earlier expected -- earlier than expected retirement of the Terrapin Island and production issues on a few projects. The mix of projects also negatively impacted gross margin as we had less than half the capital revenue in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to the same quarter of 2021, driven by the slow and unusual 2022 bid market. In addition, weather along the Northeast Coast continues to severely impact those jobs. During the quarter, we were working 3 major Northeast projects. Collectively, these jobs had over 40% downtime in the quarter due to inclement weather. We also work several other smaller jobs along the East Coast that were similarly impacted. Operating loss for the current quarter of $36.7 million decreased from prior year quarter's operating income of $36.5 million. The decrease is a result of the lower gross margin and the onetime noncash $8 million charge due to the retirement of the Terrapin, partially offset by lower general iterative expenses compared to the prior year fourth quarter. Fourth quarter 2022 G&A of $12.4 million is $4 million lower than the same quarter last year due to our continued efforts on cost reduction. Net interest expense of $3.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 came in as expected and was down from $4.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, primarily due to additional capitalized interest on the new builds. Fourth quarter 2022 income tax benefit of $8.4 million compared to income tax expense of $8 million from the same quarter of 2021 was driven by the lower current quarter income. Rounding out the P&L, net loss for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $31.2 million, down from $24.7 million of net income in the prior quarter. Turning now to our full year results. Revenue for 2022 was $648.8 million, net loss was $34.1 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $17 million. These results represent a $77.4 million decrease in year-over-year revenue, a decrease in net income of $83.5 million and a decrease of $110.5 million in adjusted EBITDA. 2022 results were greatly hindered by rapid inflation, supply chain delays, less higher-margin capital projects, significant weather delays, production issues, unplanned maintenance and a high number of different site conditions on projects in addition to the slow bid market, which left us with more than expected idle time during the year. During 2022, we also had regulatory drydocking on 5 dredges, including the Liberty Island and the Ellis Island; two of our largest and most productive dredges. In addition, we performed emission upgrades to the Carolina. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended 2022 with $6.5 million in cash and nothing drawn on our $300 million revolver. 2022 capital expenditures were $144.7 million, which included $42.9 million for the Galveston Island, $42.4 million for maintenance CapEx and emission upgrades, $27.2 million for the construction of new scales and multicast, $16.8 million for the design and build of the subsea rock installation vessel and $15.4 million for the build of our second new hopper dredge, the Amelia Island. I'll conclude with some commentary on the upcoming year and quarter. We are entering the year with $377 million of backlog. However, because of the unusual 2022 bid market, only $148 million of the backlog is made up of high-margin capital work. This is 39% of the prior 4-year average of $379 million of capital work in backlog entering the year. Because of this, margins will be lower than historical levels during the first 2 to 3 quarters of the year. The path to normal margins returning in the fourth quarter of 2023 is contingent on the large port deepening and widening projects bidding in the first half of the year. Moving to the fleet, as Lasse mentioned earlier, we currently have 2 vessels cold-stacked with no crews and minimal cost. If follow-on work does not materialize for a couple of other currently working older dredges, we will take similar cold-stacking actions on them to take out costs. When the bid market picks up, we can quickly and efficiently reactivate these vessels. We have other cost-cutting initiatives ongoing, including the recent headcount reductions, further rationalization of support equipment and a greatly reduced operating expense budget. 2023 will be a lighter drydocking year than 2022. Currently, the Ohio is in the shipyard for her regulatory drydocking. Two other dredges are scheduled to go with the drydock this year, one in the second quarter and one in the third quarter. Timing of drydockings are estimates and (inaudible) the left or right, depending on scheduling. Turning to capital expenditures, we expect 2023 CapEx to be around $175 million, comprised of approximately $85 million for the SRI wind vessel, $35 million and $20 million respectively, for the Amelia Island and Galveston Island new builds, $10 million to finish construction of the multicast and $25 million for maintenance CapEx. So far this year, we have drawn $65 million on our revolver to help fund the progress payments that were due and plan to continue utilizing the revolver and operating cash flow to support the new build program. However, in January of this year, we applied with the Maritime Administration or MARAD, which is a unit of the Department of Transportation for Title XI financing, which typically comes with very attractive terms. MARAD announced in 2022 that they want to facilitate more offshore wind construction and have designated vessels like our subsea rock installation shift as vessels of national interest, which will prioritize our application for review and funding through Title XI. While we work with MARAD on the process, which can take up to 9 months, we will continue to explore other sources of capital. Moving to the first quarter of 2023, utilization looks solid as most of the available vessels have worked for the majority of the quarter. Both the Ellis Island and Padre Island are currently working following their drydockings. The Ohio should complete her regulatory drydocking towards the end of the first quarter and will go straight from the yard to a job. So utilization is strong, the first quarter will be negatively impacted by some remaining drag on prior year projects that are still ongoing. In addition, weather continues to be a problem of multiple projects in the Northeast. Finally, the projects we are working in Q1 consist of a high volume of lower-margin maintenance work. With that, I will turn the call back over to Lasse for his remarks on the outlook moving forward.

謝謝你，Lasse，大家早上好。讓我首先介紹一下我們的第四季度業績，其中包括因 Terrapin Island 退役而減記的 810 萬美元非現金資產。 2022 年第四季度，收入為 1.467 億美元，淨虧損為 3120 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 為負 2420 萬美元。第四季度收入為 1.467 億美元，比去年第四季度減少 6330 萬美元，這主要是由於資本收入減少，這是由於 2022 年陸軍部隊資本項目大幅減少和海岸保護疏浚收入減少，部分被較高的維護項目收入所抵消。 2022 年第四季度的收入低於預期，這主要是由於埃利斯島和帕德里島的干船塢比預期的時間長、龜島意外提前退役、一些工作的生產問題以及因天氣導致的大量停工。本季度毛利潤和毛利率分別為負 1,620 萬美元和負 11%，而 2021 年第四季度分別為 5,300 萬美元和 25.2%。與收入類似，毛利率受到意外幹塢範圍增加的影響，這導致了挖泥船、埃利斯島和帕德雷島的額外成本和延誤，這是早於預期的——比預期更早的 Terrapin 島退役和一些項目的生產問題。項目組合也對毛利率產生了負面影響，因為我們在 2022 年第四季度的資本收入不到 2021 年同期的一半，這是受 2022 年投標市場緩慢且不尋常的推動。此外，東北海岸的天氣繼續嚴重影響這些工作。本季度，我們正在開展 3 個主要的東北項目。總的來說，由於惡劣天氣，這些工作在本季度有超過 40% 的停機時間。我們還在東海岸開展其他幾個同樣受到類似影響的小型工作。本季度的營業虧損為 3670 萬美元，低於去年同期的營業收入 3650 萬美元。減少的原因是毛利率較低，以及因 Terrapin 退役而產生的一次性 800 萬美元非現金費用，部分被與去年第四季度相比較低的一般迭代費用所抵消。由於我們不斷努力降低成本，2022 年第四季度的 G&A 為 1240 萬美元，比去年同期減少 400 萬美元。 2022 年第四季度的淨利息支出為 320 萬美元，低於 2021 年第四季度的 420 萬美元，這主要是由於新建築的額外資本化利息。 2022 年第四季度的所得稅收益為 840 萬美元，而 2021 年同期的所得稅費用為 800 萬美元，這是由於本季度收入較低所致。將損益表四捨五入後，2022 年第四季度的淨虧損為 3120 萬美元，低於上一季度的 2470 萬美元淨收入。現在轉向我們的全年業績。 2022 年收入為 6.488 億美元，淨虧損為 3410 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1700 萬美元。這些結果表明收入同比減少 7740 萬美元，淨收入減少 8350 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 減少 1.105 億美元。 2022 年的業績受到快速通貨膨脹、供應鏈延誤、利潤率較高的資本項目減少、嚴重的天氣延誤、生產問題、計劃外維護以及項目的大量不同現場條件以及緩慢的投標市場的嚴重阻礙，這讓我們年內閒置時間超過預期。 2022 年期間，我們還對 5 艘挖泥船進行了監管幹塢，包括自由島和埃利斯島；我們最大和最高產的兩艘挖泥船。此外，我們對 Carolina 進行了排放升級。談到我們的資產負債表，我們在 2022 年結束時擁有 650 萬美元的現金，而我們的 3 億美元左輪手槍沒有動用任何資金。 2022 年的資本支出為 1.447 億美元，其中包括用於加爾維斯頓島的 4290 萬美元、用於維護資本支出和排放升級的 4240 萬美元、用於建造新秤和多播器的 2720 萬美元、用於設計和建造海底岩石安裝船的 1680 萬美元以及1540 萬美元用於建造我們的第二艘新漏斗挖泥船 Amelia Island。最後，我將對即將到來的一年和一個季度發表一些評論。我們帶著 3.77 億美元的積壓進入了這一年。然而，由於 2022 年的投標市場不尋常，只有 1.48 億美元的積壓訂單由高利潤的資本工作構成。這是今年前 4 年平均 3.79 億美元的積壓資本工作的 39%。因此，今年前 2 至 3 個季度的利潤率將低於歷史水平。 2023 年第四季度利潤率能否恢復正常取決於上半年大型港口深化拓寬項目的招標情況。轉向船隊，正如 Lasse 之前提到的，我們目前有 2 艘冷堆船，沒有船員，成本最低。如果其他幾艘目前正在工作的舊挖泥船沒有進行後續工作，我們將對它們採取類似的冷堆放行動以降低成本。當投標市場回暖時，我們可以快速有效地重新激活這些船隻。我們正在進行其他削減成本的舉措，包括最近的裁員、支持設備的進一步合理化以及運營費用預算的大幅減少。 2023 年將是比 2022 年更輕的干船塢年。目前，俄亥俄號正在造船廠進行監管幹船塢。今年還有兩艘挖泥船計劃與乾船塢一起使用，一艘在第二季度，一艘在第三季度。幹船塢的時間是估計的，並且（聽不清）左側或右側，具體取決於日程安排。談到資本支出，我們預計 2023 年的資本支出約為 1.75 億美元，其中包括約 8500 萬美元用於 SRI 風力發電設備，分別為 3500 萬美元和 2000 萬美元用於 Amelia Island 和 Galveston Island 新建項目，1000 萬美元用於完成建造組播和 2500 萬美元用於維護資本支出。今年到目前為止，我們已經從我們的左輪手槍中提取了 6500 萬美元，以幫助為到期的進度付款提供資金，併計劃繼續利用左輪手槍和運營現金流來支持新的建設計劃。然而，在今年 1 月，我們向海事管理局或 MARAD 申請了 Title XI 融資，這是交通部的一個部門，通常附帶非常有吸引力的條款。 MARAD 在 2022 年宣布，他們希望促進更多的海上風電建設，並將我們的海底岩石安裝轉移等船隻指定為國家利益船隻，這將優先考慮我們通過 Title XI 申請審查和資助。在我們與 MARAD 合作完成這一過程（可能需要長達 9 個月）的同時，我們將繼續探索其他資金來源。轉到 2023 年第一季度，由於大多數可用船隻在本季度的大部分時間都在工作，利用率看起來很穩定。 Ellis Island 和 Padre Island 目前都在完成乾船塢作業。俄亥俄號應該在第一季度末完成她的監管幹船塢，並將直接從船廠開工。因此利用率很高，第一季度將受到去年仍在進行的項目的一些剩餘拖累的負面影響。此外，天氣仍然是東北多個項目的問題。最後，我們在第一季度開展的項目包括大量利潤率較低的維護工作。有了這個，我將把電話轉回給 Lasse，聽取他對未來前景的評論。

Thank you, Scott. We continue to see strong support from the Marine Administration and Congress for the dredging industry. And then as you saw in December of 2022, the (inaudible) of preparation bill for fiscal year 2023 was passed, which included another record budget of $8.7 billion for the U.S. Army Corps Engineers' Works program, of which $2.3 billion is provided for the harbor maintenance trust fund to maintain and modernize our nation's waterways. In addition, the disaster relief supplemental appropriations act for fiscal year 2023 was approved, which includes an additional $1.5 billion for the core to make necessary repairs to infrastructure impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters and to initiate beach renourishment projects that will increase coastal resiliency. We anticipate bids for new phases for larger port deepening projects previously planned to be bid in 2022, we bid in the first half of 2023. Expected port deepening bids include the ports of Sabine, Freeport, Mobile, Danon, Houston, Corpus Christi and additional phases of Norfolk. Included in a low base spending are two liquid natural gas projects that has been awaiting notice to proceed from our clients. Several North American LNG export projects have been delayed in the past couple of years during the pandemic, but these LNG projects appear to be gaining momentum and are targeting final investment decisions in 2023. Our expectation is that we will contract at least one of these major trending projects this year. The increased budget and additional funding combined with expected bids for the delayed port deepening projects and LNG projects supports our expectation for a strong 2023 bid market. At the end of the year, the Water Resources Development Act of 2022 or WRDA of 2022, was approved by Congress and signed into law by the President. WRDA is on a 2-year renewal cycle that includes legislation that authorizes the financing of course projects for flood and hurricane protection, dredging, ecosystem restoration and other construction projects over the next 5 years. The Vote22 features among other things authorization for the New York and New Jersey shipping channel to be deep into 55 feet estimated at $6 billion as well as the coastal Texas program estimated at $30 billion. Finally, a few comments around offshore wind. In 2021, the current administration announced the ambitious goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, and provided $3 billion in total loan guarantees for offshore wind projects. As stated previously, Equinor and bp has already awarded great lengths, the rock installation contract for the Empire Wind I and II prospects. We have tendered and are in discussions with several other offshore wind farm developers book projects commencing Rocklatan in 2025 and beyond, which supports our plan to have a full work schedule for the FRI vessels as we start operation in 2025. In conclusion, we have been managing through a very unusual and difficult environment in 2022. And we are starting 2023, we look forward to an improved bid market and dredging work volumes in second half of the year and onwards. Combined with delivery of the Galveston Island and the cost reduction and operational improvement initiatives we have in place, we are confident to manage through the current difficult market situation and deliver improved results in 2020 and beyond. And with that, I'll turn the call over for questions.

謝謝你，斯科特。我們繼續看到海洋管理局和國會對疏浚業的大力支持。然後正如您在 2022 年 12 月看到的那樣，2023 財年的（聽不清）準備法案獲得通過，其中包括美國陸軍工程兵工程計劃的另一項創紀錄的 87 億美元預算，其中 23 億美元用於港口維護信託基金，用於維護和現代化我們國家的水道。此外，還批准了 2023 財年的救災補充撥款法案，其中包括為核心部門追加 15 億美元，用於對受颶風和其他自然災害影響的基礎設施進行必要的修復，並啟動海灘修復項目，以提高沿海的恢復能力。我們預計之前計劃在 2022 年投標的大型港口深化項目的新階段投標，我們在 2023 年上半年投標。預計港口深化投標包括 Sabine、Freeport、Mobile、Danon、Houston、Corpus Christi 等港口諾福克的階段。低基礎支出中包括兩個液化天然氣項目，它們一直在等待我們客戶的通知。過去幾年，在大流行期間，幾個北美液化天然氣出口項目被推遲，但這些液化天然氣項目似乎正在獲得動力，並以 2023 年的最終投資決定為目標。我們預計，我們將至少簽約其中一個主要項目今年的熱門項目。增加的預算和額外資金，加上對延遲的港口深化項目和液化天然氣項目的預期投標，支持我們對 2023 年投標市場強勁的預期。年底，2022 年水資源開發法案或 2022 年 WRDA 獲得國會批准，並由總統簽署成為法律。 WRDA 的更新周期為 2 年，其中包括授權在未來 5 年內為洪水和颶風保護、疏浚、生態系統恢復和其他建設項目的課程項目提供資金的立法。除其他事項外，Vote22 還授權紐約和新澤西航道深達 55 英尺，估計耗資 60 億美元，德克薩斯州沿海項目估計耗資 300 億美元。最後，關於海上風電的一些評論。 2021年，本屆政府宣布了到2030年實現30吉瓦海上風電的宏偉目標，並為海上風電項目提供了總額為30億美元的貸款擔保。如前所述，Equinor 和 bp 已經為 Empire Wind I 和 II 前景授予了巨大的岩石安裝合同。我們已經投標並正在與其他幾家海上風電場開發商進行討論，預定 2025 年及以後開始 Rocklatan 的項目，這支持我們在 2025 年開始運營時為 FRI 船制定完整工作時間表的計劃。總而言之，我們一直在 2022 年度過一個非常不尋常和困難的環境。我們從 2023 年開始，我們期待在今年下半年及以後改善投標市場和疏浚工作量。結合加爾維斯頓島的交付以及我們已實施的成本削減和運營改進計劃，我們有信心應對當前困難的市場形勢，並在 2020 年及以後取得更好的成果。有了這個，我會把電話轉過來提問。

Thank you. We appreciate the support of our shareholders, employees and business partners. And we thank you for joining us in this discussion about the important developments and initiatives in our business. We look forward to speaking with you during our next earnings discussion.

謝謝。我們感謝股東、員工和業務合作夥伴的支持。我們感謝您與我們一起討論我們業務中的重要發展和舉措。我們期待在下一次收益討論中與您交談。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。大家，祝你有美好的一天。

Our first question will come from the line of Adam Thalhimer from Thompson Davis.

我們的第一個問題將來自 Thompson Davis 的 Adam Thalhimer。

Can you give a little bit more details on what you're currently seeing from the core in terms of bidding? And then what's your confidence that the bidding will improve as we move through this year?

您能否提供更多關於您目前在競標方面看到的核心內容的詳細信息？那麼，隨著我們今年的推進，您對投標會有所改善有何信心？

Yes, I can comment on that. The last year's activity in the mid-market was really the change of mix from capital works to maintenance dredging works. And we see this -- the projects that were delayed from 2022 to '23 has fairly, let's say, declined biddings. So we are optimistic to see these capital projects and now being bid and executed through 2023. The LNG projects will take some time before the dredging works picks up in large volumes. But that will -- we see that start happening towards the end of the year.

是的，我可以對此發表評論。去年中端市場的活動實際上是從基本工程到維護疏浚工程的組合變化。我們看到了這一點——從 2022 年推遲到 23 年的項目已經公平地拒絕了投標。因此，我們樂觀地看到這些資本項目正在投標和執行到 2023 年。液化天然氣項目將需要一些時間才能大量進行疏浚工程。但這將 - 我們看到這將在今年年底開始發生。

Okay. But your -- on the larger capital projects loss, your teams are working on those now? Or you're still waiting for formal notification from the core?

好的。但是你的 - 關於更大的資本項目損失，你的團隊現在正在處理這些項目嗎？還是還在等待核心的正式通知？

Well, what we are waiting for on the port deepening projects is for the bids to be issued to the market. And these bids for the ports that I mentioned, the port deepening that I mentioned, seems to have firm bid dates. And then from the time that we -- the bids issued until dredging started, as we have said before, is typically some 6 to 8 weeks.

那麼我們在港口深化項目上等待的是向市場發布標書。我提到的港口的這些投標，我提到的港口深化，似乎都有確定的投標日期。然後，正如我們之前所說，從我們發出投標到疏浚開始，通常需要 6 到 8 週的時間。

Perfect. Okay. Very helpful. And then, Scott, are you willing to kind of help level set? And I think you gave a good way to think about margins for 2023, but just for Q1 specifically, I'm curious if margins for Q1, we should expect at least on the gross margin line, a positive result?

完美的。好的。很有幫助。然後，Scott，你願意提供幫助嗎？而且我認為您提供了一個很好的方式來考慮 2023 年的利潤率，但僅針對第一季度，我很好奇第一季度的利潤率，我們是否應該至少在毛利率線上期待一個積極的結果？

Yes. So Adam, I'm not going to give that kind of granularity. I will kind of this quarter, like I did, we'll continue to give updates on how we see the fleet in terms of which vessels will be working, how utilization is shaping up, drydocking, if there's any challenges we're facing like we are, the weather this year and on the bid market, utilization is strong this quarter. The vessels that are not cold-stacked and drydocked have -- are working the majority or all of the quarter, but we do have the drag that I've talked about. Just with all the macro drivers that do influence results quarter-to-quarter. I'm going to shy away from guidance, but I want to -- I will give a commentary on how we see it shaping up. To answer your question, do I expect to see margins higher than Q4? Well, the obvious answer is yes, but that's not saying with how Q4 would. But so far, Q1 is shaping up as expected. We have not seen any surprises except for the weather.

是的。所以亞當，我不會給出那種粒度。我會在這個季度，就像我所做的那樣，我們將繼續更新我們對船隊的看法，包括哪些船隻將在工作，利用率如何形成，幹船塢，如果我們面臨任何挑戰，比如我們是，今年的天氣和投標市場，本季度的利用率很高。沒有冷堆和乾船塢的船隻 - 在本季度的大部分時間或整個季度都在工作，但我們確實遇到了我所說的阻力。只是所有影響季度結果的宏觀驅動因素。我將迴避指導，但我想——我將就我們如何看待它的形成發表評論。要回答您的問題，我是否期望看到比第四季度更高的利潤率？好吧，顯而易見的答案是肯定的，但這並不是說第四季度會怎樣。但到目前為止，第一季度正在按預期發展。除了天氣，我們沒有看到任何驚喜。

Good. Okay. Last one and then I'll turn it over. The differing site conditions, are you still in discussions with customers on potential compensation on those?

好的。好的。最後一個然後我會把它翻過來。不同的現場條件，您是否仍在與客戶討論潛在的補償？

Yes. So I mean we called out the 3 claims last quarter. Those have not settled. They are in various stages of discussions right now. Two of those have been submitted, and the third one of the job is wrapping up and should be done this quarter. The reason we pointed this out last year is unusual to have 3 large claims hit in one period. So we wanted to have visibility on that. The good news is we haven't seen any other major different site conditions. We had said it was an anormaly, and it's proven out to be. As I previously mentioned, 2 of these claims are with clients that we have a very long-standing relationship with and we may have good conversations going on and expect those to settle in the next quarter or so. The third one is a smaller different government entity that we said all along, this one will take longer to resolve. So nothing has changed on that, but these are progressing as they normally do. They just take some time.

是的。所以我的意思是我們上個季度提出了 3 項索賠。那些還沒有解決。他們現在正處於不同的討論階段。其中兩項已提交，第三項工作即將結束，應該在本季度完成。我們去年指出這一點的原因是不尋常的，在一個時期內有 3 起大額索賠。所以我們希望對此有所了解。好消息是我們還沒有看到任何其他主要的不同場地條件。我們曾說過這是一種異常現象，事實證明確實如此。正如我之前提到的，其中 2 項索賠與我們有長期合作關係的客戶有關，我們可能會進行良好的對話，並預計這些會在下個季度左右解決。第三個是我們一直說的較小的不同政府實體，這個需要更長的時間來解決。所以這方面沒有任何改變，但這些都像往常一樣取得進展。他們只是需要一些時間。

Okay. Good color. Good luck in Q1.

好的。好顏色。祝你在第一季度好運。

Our next question comes from the line of Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 CJS 證券的 Jon Tanwanteng。

Scott, I was wondering if you could break out the headwinds that you faced in Q4 between weather slight issues, unexpected inflation, the drydocks and the retirements, could you just tell us what's the relative size of those were in the buckets and kind of how much you've budgeted for each of those leaking into Q1, whether it's weather inflation or other stuff?

斯科特，我想知道你是否可以打破你在第四季度面臨的天氣小問題、意外通貨膨脹、幹船塢和退休之間的逆風，你能告訴我們這些在桶中的相對大小是多少嗎？你為每個洩漏到第一季度的人都做了多少預算，無論是天氣通貨膨脹還是其他因素？

Yes. I'm not going to quantify, I will, however, talk in kind of degree of severity on what impacted us. And obviously, the $8 million write-off of the Terrapin and we can kind of normalized it from that. We did, though, lose about half the quarter of projected Terraoin margin as well in addition to the write-offs. So that was just lost work. The drydocking scope increases, again, at the double (inaudible) there were some increased costs. But I think more relevant, especially for the Elliss was that delay did not allow her to earn margin. And as you noted, she is right at the top of the margins of other vessels. So that was pretty impactful. The weather, I talked about that having 3 major jobs with 40% downtime. I mean 40% of the time it was not working. And then even when it is working in higher fees, it does impact production. We were able to work that 40% was actually 0 down days. Those were really the big drivers that had, I would say, the largest impact. Inflation was not as impactful as we had seen in the past. I told you we were going to make adjustments to the way we did the project. A lot of these projects that we started working in Q4 was that $390 million of work that we did win in Q3. So we did make adjustments there. So we did not see a huge impact of that. It was really weather production that dried off and then the Terrapin missed opportunity and write-down.

是的。我不打算量化，但是，我會以某種嚴重程度談論影響我們的因素。顯然，Terrapin 的 800 萬美元註銷，我們可以從中將其標準化。不過，除了註銷之外，我們確實損失了大約四分之一的預計 Terraoin 利潤率。所以那隻是失去了工作。幹船塢範圍再次增加，在兩倍（聽不清）的情況下，成本增加了一些。但我認為更重要的是，尤其是對 Elliss 來說，延遲不允許她賺取利潤。正如你所指出的，她就在其他船隻邊緣的頂部。所以這很有影響力。天氣，我談到有 3 個主要工作和 40% 的停機時間。我的意思是 40% 的時間它不工作。然後即使它以更高的費用工作，它確實會影響生產。我們能夠做到 40% 實際上是 0 停機天數。我想說，這些確實是影響最大的重要驅動因素。通貨膨脹不像我們過去看到的那樣具有影響力。我告訴過你我們要調整我們做項目的方式。我們在第四季度開始的很多項目都是我們在第三季度贏得的 3.9 億美元的工作。所以我們確實在那裡做了調整。所以我們沒有看到它的巨大影響。確實是天氣變乾了，然後 Terrapin 錯失了機會並減記。

Okay. Great. How much of an impact has weather been in Q1 so far?

好的。偉大的。到目前為止，天氣對第一季度的影響有多大？

So it's been -- Q1 -- I mean, January, in particular, it did just kind of follow on to December. When we made our adjustments at the end of the year, when you kind of estimate remaining job, we did up our weather impact, it has turned out to be pretty severe. The expectation is that we won't have as much of an impact because we adjusted the estimates at year-end, but January was still pretty nasty. So it will have some impact, but my expectation is not as big of an impact as it had in Q4.

所以它一直是 - Q1 - 我的意思是，特別是 1 月，它確實只是在 12 月之後。當我們在年底進行調整時，當你估計剩餘工作時，我們計算了天氣影響，結果證明它非常嚴重。預計我們不會產生太大的影響，因為我們在年底調整了估計，但 1 月份仍然非常糟糕。所以它會產生一些影響，但我預計影響不會像第四季度那樣大。

Okay. Do you have a scheduled liquidation of backlog for the quarter? And is that adjusted for weather?

好的。您是否計劃清算本季度的積壓訂單？那是根據天氣調整的嗎？

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

對不起，你能再說一遍嗎？

Do you have a backlog liquidation schedule for this quarter and is weather factoring into that?

您是否有本季度的積壓清算時間表，天氣因素是否會影響到這一點？

It is. It is. It's also an adjusted based on our best estimate after we saw the December weather issues that we have.

這是。這是。在我們看到 12 月的天氣問題後，它也是根據我們的最佳估計進行調整的。

Okay. You frequently provided that number to investors, would you care to do that today?

好的。你經常向投資者提供這個數字，你今天願意這樣做嗎？

Well, I gave the quantity as far as how many days were down, the impact I'm not going to quantify. I can tell you, it was well above the way that we had estimated the weather on these jobs when we first put in the bid, 40% downtime on these jobs is unusual.

好吧，我給出了停機天數的數量，我不打算量化影響。我可以告訴你，這遠遠高於我們最初投標時對這些工作的天氣預估方式，這些工作 40% 的停機時間是不尋常的。

I'm sorry, I meant the revenue you expect to generate in the quarter from backlog that's the number you're looking for.

對不起，我的意思是您希望在本季度從積壓訂單中產生的收入，這就是您要尋找的數字。

Yes. So all -- we don't have any -- if where you're going with it, we're not assuming any additional revenue on top of what we have in backlog for Q1. So -- but again, I'm not going to give a revenue number for this quarter or going forward.

是的。所以所有 - 我們沒有任何 - 如果你要去哪裡，我們不會在第一季度積壓的訂單之上假設任何額外收入。所以 - 但同樣，我不會給出本季度或未來的收入數字。

Okay. Understood. Second, I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on how you expect your revolver draw to progress through the year just based on your expectations for margin and obviously, what's in background and the early schedule. How much can we expect to see just in terms of drawdown at the worst as you start funding these ships? And is there a schedule for CapEx that makes any one quarter worse than any other?

好的。明白了。其次，我只是想知道您是否可以根據您對保證金的預期以及顯然的背景和早期時間表，給我們更多關於您期望左輪手槍抽籤在這一年中取得進展的顏色。當您開始為這些船隻提供資金時，我們預計在最壞的情況下會看到多少縮編？是否有一個資本支出時間表使任何一個季度都比其他季度差？

Yes. So again, I'm not going to give what my expected draw is going to be. I will, however, kind of give you a cadence of the way the CapEx is slowing. Q1 is the heaviest CapEx quarter by a long shot. You saw that our full year 2022 CapEx was under what we were expecting, and that's because some of the Q4 payment got pushed into Q1. So of that $175 million that I guided to for the full year, I think $70 million to $75 million. Again, these are fluid, they can move left or right, but you will see the largest amount then. Q2 is fairly light. And then the remaining balance kind of gets split equally between Q3 and Q4.

是的。因此，我不會給出我預期的平局結果。然而，我會給你一個資本支出放緩方式的節奏。從長遠來看，第一季度是資本支出最重的一個季度。你看到我們 2022 年全年的資本支出低於我們的預期，這是因為第四季度的一些付款被推到了第一季度。因此，在我指導全年的 1.75 億美元中，我認為是 7000 萬到 7500 萬美元。同樣，它們是流動的，它們可以向左或向右移動，但那時你會看到最大的數量。 Q2相當輕。然後剩餘餘額在 Q3 和 Q4 之間平分。

Okay. Great. Lastly, do you have an expected bid market for this year? Last year was obviously a lot lower than expected. What one -- do you have a forecast for that in -- what's your confidence level in that being hit?

好的。偉大的。最後，您對今年的投標市場有預期嗎？去年明顯低於預期。哪一個——你對此有預測——你對被擊中的信心水平是多少？

Yes, the overall bid market for last year came out somewhat less than what we had in '21. What really was the impact on us was the lateness of the bidding. There was very little bit issued for 4.5 months in addition to the 2 last months of 2021, but there was no bid issued. So that delayed the whole, let's say, revenue stream for us on book and burn. There was a lot of bids issued in June and July, and then it tapered off again. And the big impact was really the change of the mix. The capital projects for port deepenings that we thought was already teed up by the core to be issued, did not happen, and they were delayed into 2023. So the core has now a very good budget for the year. We have the additional appropriation source that was done, which will fund beach restoration in the Southeast. So I have very high confidence actually on the bid market for 2023 based upon those facts. There's nothing certain as well, but it certainly looks as we're going to have a good bit market capital projects. I think the LNG projects, 1 or 2 of those will go to FID. So I'm optimistic.

是的，去年的整體投標市場比我們 21 年的要少一些。真正對我們產生影響的是投標的延遲。除了 2021 年的最後 2 個月外，還有 4.5 個月的發行量很少，但沒有出價。因此，這延遲了我們的整體收入流。 6 月和 7 月出價很多，然後又逐漸減少。最大的影響確實是組合的改變。我們認為核心已經準備好要發行的港口深化資本項目沒有發生，它們被推遲到 2023 年。所以核心現在有一個非常好的年度預算。我們有額外的撥款來源，這將資助東南部的海灘恢復。因此，基於這些事實，我實際上對 2023 年的投標市場充滿信心。也沒有什麼確定的，但看起來我們肯定會有一個很好的市場資本項目。我認為液化天然氣項目，其中 1 或 2 個將進入 FID。所以我很樂觀。

And John, let me just add a little more color on that. We talked about the slowness at the beginning, but I think loss is right. It was really this mix. If you look at the core capital budget in 2022 -- or I'm sorry, the bid in 2022 on a capital project of the core compared to 2021, 2022 was 38% of the levels in 2021. Now again, the good news is these jobs didn't go anywhere. They are just pushing into this first half of the year. But it was pretty severe on that mix of projects from what we were expecting.

約翰，讓我再添加一點色彩。我們一開始談到了緩慢，但我認為損失是對的。真的是這種混合。如果你看看 2022 年的核心資本預算——對不起，2022 年核心資本項目的投標與 2021 年相比，2022 年是 2021 年水平的 38%。好消息是這些工作沒有去任何地方。他們剛剛進入今年上半年。但與我們預期的項目組合相比，情況非常嚴峻。

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Gomes from Noble Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 Noble Capital 的 Joe Gomes。

So just one of the things we had talked about previously, and I think you touched about it a little bit, but maybe we can get some more color with Hurricane Ian and the impact, and you had talked about how quickly some of those replenishment and jobs might come out. I mean how are you seeing those today? Are you seeing a fair number of opportunities to help restore the beaches that were impacted by the hurricane?

所以這只是我們之前討論過的事情之一，我想你稍微提到了一點，但也許我們可以從颶風伊恩及其影響中獲得更多色彩，你已經談到了其中一些補給和補給的速度有多快工作可能會出來。我的意思是你今天怎麼看這些？您是否看到了很多幫助恢復受颶風影響的海灘的機會？

Yes. I think on the last call, we commented that there would be a flurry of projects for the Southeast coming to bid here in mid this year, mid-2023, and that is then funded by the additional upward billion that was put through Congress. So I expect these beach renourishment and coastal protection projects to come to the bid market, let's call it, to midyear and then come to execution during Q3 and Q4 and onwards into '20.

是的。我想在上次電話會議上，我們評論說，今年年中，即 2023 年年中，東南部將有一系列項目來這裡競標，然後由國會通過的額外 10 億美元資助。因此，我預計這些海灘修復和海岸保護項目將進入投標市場，我們稱之為年中，然後在第三季度和第四季度開始執行，並一直持續到 20 年。

Okay. I've been reading a number of articles here on offshore wind. And they've been quoting that some poor economics and the technology has really negatively impacted people in here, Siemens stating that really need a lot more government action and subsidies to start or to continue some of these projects, GE supposedly reporting a big loss on its wind turbine business, supposedly, somebody looking to try and get out of a project in New Hampshire. So just trying to get a better feel of what you see as kind of the status right now in the offshore wind. And are we starting to see maybe some obstacles come up that had not been anticipated previously?

好的。我在這裡閱讀了許多關於海上風電的文章。他們一直在引用一些糟糕的經濟狀況和技術確實對這裡的人們產生了負面影響，西門子表示確實需要更多的政府行動和補貼來啟動或繼續其中的一些項目，據稱通用電氣報告了重大損失它的風力渦輪機業務，據說，有人想嘗試退出新罕布什爾州的一個項目。所以只是想更好地了解你現在在海上風中看到的那種狀態。我們是否開始看到可能會出現一些以前沒有預料到的障礙？

Yes. I don't want to comment on our plans for their projects. But I can comment on the activity that we see in the market. And as you know, we already have one firm contract with Equinor and bp. I have not seen any diminishing activity in the request for estimates and bidding and also requirements for reservation agreements for our vessel, so the activity in the market does not really -- I don't see the, let say, any delay impacting what we do with our investment and the bids that we are involved in. Yes, you are correct, the turbine manufacturers are suffering from low margins. And also, there are some supply chain issues, which leads to delays. But the projects that we have been addressing seems to be moving forward.

是的。我不想評論我們對他們項目的計劃。但我可以評論我們在市場上看到的活動。如您所知，我們已經與 Equinor 和 bp 簽訂了一份確定的合同。我沒有看到估算和投標請求以及我們船隻的預訂協議要求有任何減少的活動，所以市場活動並沒有真正 - 我沒有看到任何延遲影響我們的東西處理我們的投資和我們參與的投標。是的，你是對的，渦輪機製造商的利潤率很低。而且，還有一些供應鏈問題，導致延誤。但我們一直在處理的項目似乎正在向前推進。

Okay. Great. That's some good news. And then just given the drawdown or what you're expecting to draw down on the credit line, Scott, any -- can you give us any kind of indication of where you see interest expense kind of how that's going to play out for this year?

好的。偉大的。這是個好消息。然後，考慮到縮減額度或您期望在信貸額度上縮減額度，斯科特，您能給我們任何類型的指示，說明您在哪裡看到利息支出以及今年將如何發揮作用嗎？ ？

Yes. I mean, Joe, that would give you over the draw. But I'll tell you that the beginning part, the first half of the year will be higher draw in the first quarter in particular because of the way that the CapEx is weighted and then it will trickle down. So I mentioned the draw that we have don't extrapolate or strapline that for the rest of the year. That's not how we're seeing it. It was going to be very heavy in Q1 and then definitely diminishing down. As you recall, we did upsize the revolver last year. So there is ample availability on there right now. We also did it at a time we were able to get very favorable terms we're still borrowing today at sub 6%. So it's very manageable, the way we kind of see the cadence of the drag this year and the interest burden that will come from it.

是的。我的意思是，喬，那會讓你勝過平局。但我會告訴你，開始部分，今年上半年，第一季度的吸引力會更高，特別是因為資本支出的加權方式，然後會逐漸下降。所以我提到了我們在今年剩餘時間裡沒有推斷或標語的平局。這不是我們所看到的。第一季度它會非常沉重，然後肯定會減少。您還記得，去年我們確實加大了左輪手槍的尺寸。所以現在那裡有充足的可用性。我們也是在當時能夠獲得非常優惠的條款的時候這樣做的，我們今天仍在以低於 6% 的利率借款。所以這是非常易於管理的，就像我們看到今年拖累的節奏以及由此帶來的利息負擔一樣。

Our next question will come from the line of DeForest Hinman.

我們的下一個問題將來自 DeForest Hinman。

Can you just help us understand where we stand with our lenders as it relates to the covenants? Just give us an update there in terms of what covenants we're dealing with. And based on the commentary you gave us, it seems like we're going to need some help to kind of bridge us through some lower levels of profitability over the course of 2023. And then I have some follow-ups.

您能否幫助我們了解我們與貸方在契約方面的立場？就我們正在處理的契約向我們提供最新情況。根據你給我們的評論，我們似乎需要一些幫助，才能在 2023 年期間通過較低的盈利水平來彌補我們的不足。然後我有一些後續行動。

Yes. So on the notes that are due in 2029, there are no covenants. It's an unsecured 5.25%. So that was by the revolver, also it has no hard covenant. It does have a springing covenant that springs when availability on the revolver is less than 12.5%. It's a fixed charge coverage ratio that with the new build program, we likely won't meet for the next couple of years. If availability becomes less than 12.5%, we do that test, if we don't pass the test, it caps the availability at the 87.5%. That's the only covenant we have in either one of them.

是的。因此，在 2029 年到期的票據上，沒有契約。這是一個無抵押的 5.25%。所以那是左輪手槍，也沒有硬性契約。當左輪手槍的可用性低於 12.5% 時，它確實有一個彈跳契約。這是一個固定的費用覆蓋率，對於新的構建計劃，我們可能在未來幾年內不會見面。如果可用性低於 12.5%，我們進行測試，如果我們沒有通過測試，它將可用性限制在 87.5%。這是我們在其中任何一個中擁有的唯一盟約。

Okay. And then can you give us a little bit more color on the DOT financing? I think this was something that was discussed previously, maybe a couple of quarters ago. What type of rate we'll be looking at on that type of financing, what kind of term would we be thinking about?

好的。然後你能給我們更多關於 DOT 融資的顏色嗎？我認為這是之前討論過的事情，也許是幾個季度前。我們會考慮那種類型的融資的利率類型，我們會考慮什麼樣的條款？

Yeah. And what we had talked about last year was actually a different program. It was through the DOE. This is different through MARAD. Earlier in the year, June, July or so of last year is when they deemed the offshore wind industry and the vessel like ours as a vessel of national interest. But it's really then became very attractive. If you go out to their website and play around, it does show that they are quoting rates at 10-year treasury plus 37.5 basis points. It tenders up to 25 years, that is what our application had asked for, and it's very low to no amortization. So again, very attractive backed by the government and as they're trying to really encourage investment in this. The application was submitted a few weeks ago. As I said, this will take some time. It's Q3-Q4 point that I think we know, but we are having, what I would call, very good dialogue with them already after we put in their application, and we'll continue to work on it (inaudible).

是的。而我們去年談到的實際上是一個不同的項目。這是通過美國能源部。這與 MARAD 不同。今年早些時候，也就是去年的 6 月、7 月左右，他們將海上風電行業和像我們這樣的船隻視為符合國家利益的船隻。但它真的變得非常有吸引力。如果您訪問他們的網站並四處遊玩，就會發現他們的報價是 10 年期國債利率加 37.5 個基點。它的投標期限長達 25 年，這正是我們的申請所要求的，而且它的攤銷成本非常低，甚至沒有。因此，再次受到政府的支持非常有吸引力，因為他們正試圖真正鼓勵對此進行投資。申請是幾週前提交的。正如我所說，這需要一些時間。我認為我們知道這是 Q3-Q4 點，但是在我們提交他們的申請後，我們已經與他們進行了非常好的對話，我們將繼續努力（聽不清）。

And given how we've already started spending on the Rock vessel, would we be able to take money that we've already spent for progress payments and put that on that loan or would only work on a go-forward basis?

考慮到我們已經開始在 Rock 船上花錢，我們是否能夠將已經花在進度付款上的錢用於貸款，或者只能在前進的基礎上工作？

No. It's up to 87.5% of the full value of the vessel is the loan that you can put in for, and that's what we put in for.

不，您可以申請的貸款高達船舶總價值的 87.5%，這就是我們提供的貸款。

Okay. And then just kind of taking a 10,000-foot view of things just as it relates to the Army Corps on the bids being released, I mean it just seems kind of odd that -- and I've covered the stock for a very long time. You would give a loss of -- and I think even the previous management team that was there would kind of give an expectation for the amount of bidding that would occur for the year. Most of it will get put out and we win a certain percentage of it. And 2022 didn't really seem to be the case in, can you give us any more color as to why that happened? And it strikes me as odd too, because you also had a situation where the funding was there, there was -- you kind of said the same script last year that you said this year in terms of appropriations, budget was high, and then the money never was let out, was there leadership transition issues there? Was there key people that were lost within the Army Corps? Like why did that happen? And I guess, what gives us confidence that it's not going to happen again this year because it's proving to be highly problematic and you're having to lay off workers, which you probably voiced that to them as a result of this.

好的。然後只是從 10,000 英尺的角度看待事物，就像它與陸軍軍團有關的投標被發布一樣，我的意思是這看起來有點奇怪——而且我已經覆蓋了很長時間的股票.你會失去 - 我認為即使是以前的管理團隊也會對今年的投標數量有所期望。大部分都會被淘汰，我們會贏得一定比例的。而 2022 年似乎並非如此，你能給我們更多關於為什麼會這樣的顏色嗎？這也讓我覺得很奇怪，因為你也遇到了資金在那裡的情況，你去年說了同樣的劇本，你今年在撥款方面說了同樣的話，預算很高，然後錢從未流出，是否存在領導層交接問題？陸軍軍團中是否有關鍵人物丟失了？比如為什麼會這樣？我想，是什麼讓我們相信今年不會再發生這種情況，因為它被證明是非常有問題的，你不得不解僱工人，你可能因此向他們表達了這一點。

Yes. As I started my commentary about was that we -- at the beginning of the year, we thought that we were in a good position, good backlog. The core and their budgets, and we will pass the pandemic issues. And unfortunately, what happened was, as I said in the first 4.5 months of the year, there was a very big worth below us being bid and put up into the bid market. And the work that was being put out was the majority was maintenance work, which carries to margins, and there's a different competitive environment around those projects compared to the larger capital projects. We have had and we always have a very good dialogue with the Army Core Engineers. I have numerous meetings with them. And one of the reasons that they are giving is that there was a continued resolution in place for the first half of the year. So under a continued resolution, the core is limited in funding new projects. They can continue to fund ongoing projects. So that is one reason they gave. We are not under a continued resolution this year, so the (inaudible) was passed, and the core has the money for this year. So that's a similar situation. And then the core is short of personnel and also the catal agencies are partially back in the office. As a company, we have been back in our office for the last year because we saw that it's very difficult to do larger projects than not being together as a team. And we've seen improvements in that during the year in the quarter. So I think we have a good dialogue. I think the setup for 2023 is different from what we experienced in 2022, and that gives me that confidence to believe that the bid market will recover and also the mix will go back to more capital projects.

是的。當我開始評論時，我們 - 在今年年初，我們認為我們處於有利地位，積壓良好。核心和他們的預算，我們將通過大流行問題。不幸的是，正如我在今年的前 4.5 個月所說的那樣，我們被競價並投入競價市場的價值非常大。正在進行的工作大部分是維護工作，這帶來了利潤，與大型資本項目相比，這些項目的競爭環境不同。我們已經並且一直與陸軍核心工程師進行非常良好的對話。我和他們有過無數次會面。他們給出的原因之一是今年上半年有一個持續的決議。因此，根據一項持續的決議，核心在資助新項目方面受到限制。他們可以繼續資助正在進行的項目。所以這是他們給出的原因之一。我們今年沒有繼續決議，所以（聽不清）通過了，核心有今年的錢。所以這是一個類似的情況。然後核心人員短缺，而且催化機構部分回到辦公室。作為一家公司，我們去年一直回到我們的辦公室，因為我們看到做更大的項目比不作為一個團隊在一起要困難得多。我們在本季度看到了這一年的改善。所以我認為我們的對話很好。我認為 2023 年的設置與我們在 2022 年所經歷的不同，這讓我有信心相信投標市場將會復蘇，而且這種組合將回歸更多的資本項目。

Okay. And then just the last question, a couple of announcements over the last month or so, Qatar doing some pretty seemingly sizable long-term LNG contracts with China. We haven't really been too involved in international dredging for a while now. Is that something that there's a revenue opportunity there, potentially redeploying some assets to the Middle East? Or is that not an opportunity?

好的。然後是最後一個問題，在過去一個月左右的時間裡發布了一些公告，卡塔爾與中國簽訂了一些看似相當大的長期液化天然氣合同。我們已經有一段時間沒有真正參與國際疏浚了。這是否意味著那裡有收入機會，有可能將一些資產重新部署到中東？或者這不是一個機會？

The short answer is there're over the next couple of years, there's not an opportunity. I do see the domestic bid market here to recover. I do see the need for our capacity here in the U.S. So we are not actively addressing and bidding international work. We are following the development. But that international dredging market is competitive. And in order to address that market, we would have to have competitive and modern equipment to go to that market with. And at this moment, our investments are going into the U.S. and offshore wind. That's where we see the best opportunities.

簡短的回答是在接下來的幾年裡，沒有機會。我確實看到這裡的國內投標市場正在復蘇。我確實看到了我們在美國這裡的能力需求。因此我們沒有積極處理和競標國際工作。我們正在關注事態發展。但國際疏浚市場競爭激烈。為了解決這個市場，我們必須擁有有競爭力的現代設備才能進入那個市場。此時此刻，我們的投資正在進入美國和海上風電領域。這就是我們看到最好機會的地方。

Okay. And then just -- I guess this will be my last question. How do you guys define cold stack? How long does it take to get a vessel out of cold stack? And how long does it take to recrew that vessel?

好的。然後 - 我想這將是我的最後一個問題。你們如何定義冷堆棧？將容器從冷堆中取出需要多長時間？重新僱用該船需要多長時間？

Well, it's difficult to give exact estimates. But once you have the cold-stack, the vessel, what you need to do is to get it back up and running again. And depending on the type of bridge, this will be different. And then you need to find the crews. From we bid the work until we actually have to mobilize out on the field, but we have a couple of months, and that should be sufficient to get the dredge up and running and get the crew back on board.

好吧，很難給出準確的估計。但是一旦你有了冷堆，容器，你需要做的就是讓它重新啟動並再次運行。根據橋的類型，這會有所不同。然後你需要找到工作人員。從我們投標工作到我們實際上必須在現場動員起來，但我們有幾個月的時間，這應該足以讓挖泥機啟動並運行並讓船員回到船上。

Next, we have a follow-up from the line of Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities.

接下來，我們有來自 CJS 證券的 Jon Tanwanteng 的跟進。

Just a question on the bidding environment. I would have to assume that your competitors are hurting as well just given the amount of bids and then work that's out there. Is there any change to the competitiveness of how you're bidding? Obviously, everyone has to deal with inflation and other prices and things like that, but obviously, weather has been an issue. Are you seeing pressure on pricing? Or are you seeing a little bit more rationality just in terms of being able to price these things in that have affected the entire market?

只是關於投標環境的問題。鑑於出價的數量，我不得不假設你的競爭對手也受到了傷害，然後就在那里工作。您的出價方式的競爭力是否有任何變化？顯然，每個人都必須應對通貨膨脹和其他價格之類的問題，但顯然，天氣一直是個問題。您是否看到定價壓力？還是您認為能夠為影響整個市場的這些東西定價，您是否看到了更多的理性？

Yes. I think you can from a big marker is changing you can assume that there is pressure on the end of the market. Currently, but I -- the target market that we have is these larger capital projects where we are the leading contractor and I think best suited to execute those projects. So there have been some additional capacity added by competitors. We have addressed that on earlier calls. We have seen a couple of opportunities come to the market and some new cutter dredger. Our fleet, as we have it at this point in time, we have a very modern and efficient hopper dredge fleet. Our current address fleet has been rationalized and also upgraded for productivity over the last years. So we have a solid color fleet and the mechanical fleet is really a complementary equipment to be used on larger projects in combination with the cutters or hoppers. And we have two of the most efficient mechanical dredges in the U.S. So I think our competitive situation is strong and good going forward.

是的。我認為你可以從一個大的標記正在變化，你可以假設市場結束時有壓力。目前，但我 - 我們擁有的目標市場是這些大型資本項目，我們是領先的承包商，我認為最適合執行這些項目。因此，競爭對手增加了一些額外的產能。我們已經在之前的電話會議上解決了這個問題。我們已經看到市場上出現了一些機會和一些新的絞刀式挖泥船。我們的船隊，正如我們目前所擁有的那樣，我們擁有一支非常現代化和高效的料斗挖泥船隊。在過去幾年中，我們當前的地址隊列已經過合理化和升級以提高生產力。所以我們有一個純色車隊，而機械車隊實際上是一種補充設備，可與切割機或料斗結合用於大型項目。我們在美國擁有兩艘最高效的機械挖泥船，所以我認為我們的競爭形勢很強勁，未來發展良好。

Okay. Great. Is the Galveston capacity spoken for when it comes to work for the rest of the year? Or do you still have scheduled to fill on that particular dredger? And maybe the same question for the Ellis as well, just given those would be the 2 biggest sources of earnings for you this year?

好的。偉大的。在今年餘下時間的工作中，加爾維斯頓的能力是否得到了體現？或者您是否仍計劃填充該特定挖泥船？也許埃利斯也有同樣的問題，考慮到這些將是你今年最大的兩個收入來源？

Yes. The answer is yes. So we have backlog to put her to when she comes out.

是的。答案是肯定的。所以當她出來時，我們有積壓的工作要做。

Okay, great. Okay, great. And the Ellis?

好的，太好了。好的，太好了。埃利斯呢？

Yes, the Ellis came out and it's working right now, and we have backlog on her already for the majority of the year. Still some fulfill and on the tail end but Ellis is in a good position right now with backlog.

是的，Ellis 出來了，它現在正在工作，我們已經在今年的大部分時間裡積壓了她。仍有一些完成並處於尾部，但 Ellis 現在處於積壓的良好位置。

Okay. Great. Just a question on the wind market, a follow-up. Do you have any expected timing for when one of the next couple of major projects will be released there and go to wind projects award?

好的。偉大的。只是一個風行市場的問題，一個跟進。您是否預計接下來的幾個主要項目中的一個將在那裡發布並獲得風能項目獎？

Can you repeat that?

你可以再說一遍嗎？

Do you have any sense of timing for when you will be announced in the next wind project awards?

您是否知道何時會在下一次風能項目獎中宣布您的時間？

Well, I'm very hopeful we can do that during the year.

好吧，我非常希望我們能在這一年裡做到這一點。

Any sense of whether it be earlier or later in the year?

有什麼感覺是今年早些時候還是晚些時候？

Well, midyear to third quarter. But this -- the way that these projects are being developed, the developer is going to sell the power and secure the power sales agreements. And that determines the timing of when we are being awarded our contracts. But the way it looks currently, I'm very hopeful that we can secure one additional contracts here, call it mid-year of 2023.

嗯，從年中到第三季度。但是，按照這些項目的開發方式，開發商將出售電力並確保電力銷售協議。這決定了我們獲得合同的時間。但目前看來，我非常希望我們能在這裡獲得一份額外的合同，稱之為 2023 年年中。

Yes. And John, the bids have come out, we have submitted it. Now we're at their timing on when they're going to do the award. So it's not when are the bids are going to come out. It's when are they going to award based on the bids that are already outstanding.

是的。約翰，出價已經出來，我們已經提交了。現在我們到了他們頒獎的時間。所以不是什麼時候出價。他們什麼時候會根據已經完成的出價進行授標。

Understood. Scott, the G&A run rate you had in Q4, should we expect that to keep coming down with the cost savings that you're planning? Or is that the right run rate to be using?

明白了。斯科特，你在第四季度的 G&A 運行率，我們是否應該期望它會隨著你計劃的成本節約而持續下降？或者這是要使用的正確運行率？

Yes. I mean it's normalized for incentives, I think that is comparable just to the run rate. There's always some Q4 adjustments, as you're aware. So it's not quite. But I think if you kind of look at maybe Q3 and Q4 together, that's kind of how we're trending.

是的。我的意思是它已針對激勵措施進行了標準化，我認為這僅與運行率相當。如您所知，第四季度總會有一些調整。所以不完全是。但我認為，如果你同時看一下第三季度和第四季度，那就是我們的趨勢。

Okay. Great. And then last one for last. When you return those shifts from cold storage, are there any costs associated with getting them back up that would be unusual?

好的。偉大的。然後最後一個。當您從冷庫中退回這些班次時，是否有任何與將它們備份相關的成本是不尋常的？

Yes, there will be some costs to start off the vessel again. I don't see that as a major outlay for us and any additional costs that we need to put into the vessels to get the models that will be included for in the bids that we are putting in. If not, we will not take them out of cold stack.

是的，重新啟動船舶會產生一些費用。我認為這不是我們的主要支出，也不是我們需要投入船隻以獲得模型的任何額外成本，這些模型將包含在我們的投標中。如果不是，我們不會接受它們出冷堆棧。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Not any further questions in the queue. I'd like to turn the call back over to Tina for any closing remarks.

隊列中沒有任何其他問題。我想將電話轉回給蒂娜，聽取任何結束語。