Materion Corp (MTRN) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to materials' Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode, a question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎參加 Materials 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於僅聽模式，正式演示之後將進行問答環節。（操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Carl Gallaher, Manager of Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在我將會議交給東道主投資者關係經理卡爾·加拉赫 (Carl Gallaher)。你可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This is Karl Kelliher, Manager, Investor Relations.

早安，感謝您參加我們的 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。我是卡爾凱利赫 (Karl Kelliher)，投資者關係經理。

Before we begin our remarks this morning, I would like to point out that we have posted materials on the company's website that we will reference as part of today's review of the quarterly results. You can also access materials through the download feature on the earnings call webcast link. With me today is TrueBlue VGFREA. President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shelly Chadwick, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

在我們今天早上開始發言之前，我想指出，我們已經在公司網站上發布了資料，我們將在今天的季度業績審查中引用這些資料。您也可以透過財報電話會議網路廣播連結上的下載功能存取資料。今天跟我一起的是 TrueBlue VGFREA。總裁兼首席執行官，以及副總裁兼首席財務官雪莉·查德威克。

Our format for today's conference call is as follows Hugo will provide opening comments on the quarter and full year as well as an update on key strategic initiatives. Following Jugal, Shelly will review the detailed financial results for the quarter and full year. In addition to discussing our expectations for 2024, we will then open up the call for questions.

我們今天電話會議的格式如下，雨果將提供有關本季度和全年的開場評論以及關鍵戰略舉措的最新情況。繼 Jugal 之後，Shelly 將審查本季和全年的詳細財務業績。除了討論我們對 2024 年的期望之外，我們還將開放提問。

Let me remind investors that any forward-looking statements made in the presentation, including those in the outlook section and during the question-and-answer portion are based on current expectations. The Company's actual performance may materially differ from that contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. Those factors are listed in the earnings press release we issued this morning. Additionally, comments regarding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion and amortization, net income and earnings per share reflect the adjusted GAAP numbers shown in attachments four through eight in this morning's press release. The adjustments are made in the prior year period for comparative purposes and remove special items, non-cash charges and certain discrete income tax adjustments.

讓我提醒投資者，簡報中所做的任何前瞻性陳述，包括展望部分和問答部分中的前瞻性陳述均基於當前預期。由於多種因素，公司的實際業績可能與前瞻性陳述中預期的業績有重大差異。這些因素列在我們今天早上發布的收益新聞稿中。此外，有關息稅前利潤、折舊、消耗和攤銷、淨利潤和每股收益的評論反映了今天上午新聞稿附件四至附件八中顯示的調整後的公認會計準則數據。這些調整是出於比較目的在上一年期間進行的，並刪除了特殊項目、非現金費用和某些離散所得稅調整。

And now I'll turn over the call to Hugo for his comments.

現在我將把電話轉給雨果徵求他的意見。

Thanks, Kyle, and welcome, everyone. It's great to be with you today to talk about our fourth quarter performance and our record results for full year 2023. I'm proud of our team's focus and resilience leading our company to another year of record sales and earnings. We overcame significant headwinds in some of our largest markets to deliver strong results, demonstrating the power of our balanced portfolio and the extraordinary potential of our unique customer partnerships. Our sharp focus on operational excellence led to continued meaningful margin expansion, structurally improving our profitability and preparing us to maximize performance as markets recover.

謝謝凱爾，歡迎大家。很高興今天能與您一起談論我們第四季度的業績以及 2023 年全年的創紀錄業績。我為我們團隊的專注和韌性感到自豪，他們帶領我們的公司再創銷售和獲利紀錄的一年。我們克服了一些最大市場的重大阻力，取得了強勁的業績，展示了我們平衡的產品組合的力量以及我們獨特的客戶合作夥伴關係的非凡潛力。我們對卓越營運的高度關注導致利潤率持續大幅增長，從結構上提高了我們的盈利能力，並為我們在市場復甦時實現業績最大化做好了準備。

And while we manage our cost closely adjusting to uncertain economic conditions, we continue to invest for the future seeding the pipeline for long-term organic outgrowth in the fourth quarter the diversity of our portfolio continued to be a highlight while several of our markets remain challenged. When excluding semiconductor, our largest market, which is experiencing significant market weakness, our sales were up slightly.

雖然我們根據不確定的經濟狀況密切調整成本，但我們繼續為未來進行投資，為第四季度的長期有機成長奠定基礎，儘管我們的幾個市場仍然面臨挑戰，但我們投資組合的多樣性仍然是一個亮點。當排除我們最大的市場半導體（正在經歷嚴重的市場疲軟）時，我們的銷售額略有成長。

Our aerospace and defense sales grew nearly 70% year over year, representing the 11th consecutive quarter of growth for this market. In addition to the benefits from significant organic wins in Space and Defense, we also saw the impact of continued increase in our content per play. On the other hand, our semiconductor and industrial end markets continued to show significant weakness in Q4. In semi, we saw our third consecutive quarter of meaningful year-on-year declines, but the order patterns are starting to show signs of stabilization. We are also seeing some positive indicators in the broader market and expect that the related increase in demand will positively impact us starting in the second.

我們的航空航太和國防銷售額年增近 70%，代表該市場連續 11 個季度成長。除了在太空和國防方面取得重大有機勝利所帶來的好處之外，我們還看到了每次遊戲內容持續增加的影響。另一方面，我們的半導體和工業終端市場在第四季度繼續表現出明顯疲軟。在半成品方面，我們連續第三個季度出現同比大幅下降，但訂單模式開始顯示出穩定的跡象。我們也看到更廣泛的市場出現了一些積極的指標，並預計相關的需求成長將從第二季開始對我們產生積極影響。

Our performance in the industrial space is impacted by our largest application later in the nonresidential and warehouse construction builds for the impacts of COVID on office space utilization, combined with higher interest rates, the demand for our beryllium nickel sprinkle material is seeing a significant inventory correction that will carry through the year. While our end market outlook remains mixed, we continue to make significant advancements on strategic initiatives that position us for long-term growth.

由於新冠疫情對辦公空間利用率的影響，我們在工業領域的表現受到後來在非住宅和倉庫建築中的最大應用的影響，加上利率上升，對我們的鈹鎳噴灑材料的需求正在出現重大庫存調整這將貫穿這一年。儘管我們的最終市場前景仍然喜憂參半，但我們繼續在策略舉措上取得重大進展，為我們的長期成長奠定了基礎。

Our organic growth projects aligned with compelling global megatrends have allowed us to win exciting new business and ensure that we continue our strong track record of outgrowing our underlying end markets. The emerging space market continues to be a source of new opportunities for us as illustrated by a recent Ford order to supply critical materials for space propulsion systems. These four important orders, along with several other organic wins in this market contributed approximately $90 million in new business orders during the year. We have positioned our company as a trusted partner, supplying critical materials into this exciting high-growth market.

我們的有機成長項目與引人注目的全球大趨勢一致，使我們能夠贏得令人興奮的新業務，並確保我們繼續保持超越潛在終端市場的良好記錄。新興的太空市場仍然是我們新機會的來源，最近福特公司為太空推進系統供應關鍵材料的訂單就說明了這一點。這四個重要訂單以及該市場的其他幾項有機勝利在這一年貢獻了約 9000 萬美元的新業務訂單。我們將公司定位為值得信賴的合作夥伴，為這個令人興奮的高成長市場提供關鍵材料。

Our technical expertise continues to lead to new R&D partnerships that will drive innovation and new opportunities in several of our key end markets. In November last year, we announced that we were awarded a $5 million contract with the United States Air Force spring project to develop additive manufacturing capabilities for burley materials. Today, we are pleased to announce a new $4 million award from another government agency to fund additive manufacturing for other advanced materials across the aerospace, defense and energy market.

我們的技術專長將繼續帶來新的研發合作關係，從而推動我們幾個關鍵終端市場的創新和新機會。去年11月，我們宣布獲得美國空軍彈簧計畫500萬美元的合同，開發白肋煙材料的積層製造能力。今天，我們很高興地宣布另一家政府機構提供了 400 萬美元的新獎項，用於資助航空航太、國防和能源市場上其他先進材料的積層製造。

These projects will enable us to better serve both new and existing customers for require more complex components for next-generation applications. We are preparing for the recovery in the semi market by expanding our capabilities. The proliferation of artificial intelligence or AI applications. Specifically generative AI tools will result in increased demand for hardware to power. That will mean greater worldwide need for chips, which we directly support with our highly engineered semiconductor materials chips used to drive built-in AI capabilities in devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs will be in highest demand by providing materials for both physical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition tool, important methods for the manufacture of these high-power semiconductor chips.

這些項目將使我們能夠更好地為新客戶和現有客戶提供服務，以滿足下一代應用程式需要更複雜的元件。我們正在透過擴大我們的能力來為半導體市場的復甦做好準備。人工智慧或人工智慧應用的激增。特別是生成式人工智慧工具將導致對硬體供電的需求增加。這將意味著全球對晶片的需求更大，我們透過高度工程化的半導體材料直接支援晶片，這些晶片用於驅動智慧型手機、平板電腦和個人電腦等設備的內建人工智慧功能，透過提供用於物理氣相沉積的材料，晶片的需求將達到最高和原子層沉積工具，是製造這些高功率半導體晶片的重要方法。

Materion is a vital part of the supply chain, enabling on-device AI functionality. We are pleased to announce. We've recently launched two new atomic layer deposition materials for advanced memory meeting the needs of our customers who are rapidly innovating to power these future applications. In addition, our Tesla materials are used to fabricate logic chips of power AI as well as high bandwidth memory chips employed and AI processing centers. We expect the market for those ships to significantly grow over the next five years and are making investments to ensure we are ready to support that demand.

Materion 是供應鏈的重要組成部分，支援設備上的人工智慧功能。我們很高興地宣布。我們最近推出了兩種用於先進記憶體的新型原子層沉積材料，以滿足正在快速創新以推動這些未來應用的客戶的需求。此外，我們的特斯拉材料也用於製造動力人工智慧的邏輯晶片以及所使用的高頻寬儲存晶片和人工智慧處理中心。我們預計這些船舶的市場將在未來五年內顯著成長，並正在進行投資以確保我們準備好支持這一需求。

Our semiconductor capabilities will also be critical to the continued evolution of the automotive industry as the shift toward electric and autonomous vehicles continues to advance. As a reminder, these vehicles require to that 10 times more chips per vehicle transition and advanced mobility supporting growth for our precision optics business, which is seeing an increase in demand for optical components. We are pleased to share that we've secured another customer contract to supply optical components or LiDAR technologies for autonomous vehicles.

隨著向電動和自動駕駛汽車的轉變不斷推進，我們的半導體能力對於汽車產業的持續發展也至關重要。需要提醒的是，這些車輛每輛車的轉換需要 10 倍以上的晶片，並且需要先進的移動性來支援我們精密光學業務的成長，該業務對光學元件的需求不斷增加。我們很高興地宣布，我們已獲得另一份客戶合同，為自動駕駛汽車提供光學元件或雷射雷達技術。

Our materials are in LiDAR modules at six vehicle OEMs currently, and we are actively providing prototypes to expand further. We have positioned ourselves to the critical technical partner in these exciting next-generation products and are looking forward to additional opportunities to serve this emerging market. We're building a strong pipeline of opportunities to support the clean energy transition with the successful development of two clean energy opportunities last year. We have also continued our work with Kairos power and will be supplying additional material in support of their molten salt nuclear reactor projects.

目前，我們的材料已應用於六家汽車原始設備製造商的 LiDAR 模組中，我們正在積極提供原型以進一步擴展。我們已將自己定位為這些令人興奮的下一代產品的關鍵技術合作夥伴，並期待有更多機會來服務這個新興市場。去年，我們成功開發了兩個清潔能源機會，正在建立強大的機會管道來支持清潔能源轉型。我們也繼續與 Kairos power 合作，並將提供更多材料以支援他們的熔鹽核反應器專案。

In addition, we successfully completed the facility upgrades required to support a customer funded $15 million investment to provide critical materials for power generation. Our shipments to the customer remain ahead of schedule. Our precision platform facility is now fully ramped and contributing meaningfully to our performance. We remain on track with our capacity expansion, which we expect to start production at the end of this year.

此外，我們還成功完成了支援客戶資助的 1500 萬美元投資所需的設施升級，以提供用於發電的關鍵材料。我們向客戶發貨的時間仍然提前。我們的精密平台設施現已全面投入使用，並對我們的業績做出了有意義的貢獻。我們的產能擴張仍按計畫進行，預計今年底開始生產。

We have also secured a record $60 million in new defense orders in '23 as we continued to strengthen relationships with our key partners. Our materials are critical to the performance of leading-edge defense applications. The advancements of outlined underscore the significance of our outgrowth initiatives that continue to create momentum and give us confidence as we move forward.

隨著我們繼續加強與主要合作夥伴的關係，我們還在 23 年獲得了創紀錄的 6,000 萬美元新國防訂單。我們的材料對於前沿國防應用的性能至關重要。上述進展凸顯了我們的成長舉措的重要性，這些舉措繼續創造動力，並在我們前進的過程中給我們信心。

As we shared during the year, we have been focused on making targeted adjustments to improve our cost structure in order to improve the efficiency and performance of our business. This approach has been a key enabler as we expanded margins by 170 basis points last year, reaching 19.3% of sales nearing our midterm target of 20%.

正如我們在這一年中所分享的，我們一直致力於進行有針對性的調整，以改善我們的成本結構，以提高我們的業務效率和績效。這種方法是一個關鍵推動因素，去年我們將利潤率擴大了 170 個基點，佔銷售額的 19.3%，接近我們 20% 的中期目標。

We'll continue to focus on operational excellence as we head into 2024 to manage through market softness and maximize our performance as markets gradually recover in the second half of the year. Our performance in 23 strengthen the confidence we have in our strategy as we delivered another record year despite volatile market conditions. I'm very proud of our team's hard work and relentless focus on delivering results and creating value for all of our stakeholders. The advances we made in 23 are paving the way for another year of record results this year.

進入 2024 年，我們將繼續專注於卓越運營，以應對市場疲軟的情況，並隨著下半年市場逐漸復甦，最大限度地提高我們的業績。23 年的業績增強了我們對策略的信心，儘管市場環境動盪，但我們仍創造了另一個創紀錄的年份。我對我們團隊的辛勤工作和不懈專注於為所有利益相關者交付成果和創造價值感到非常自豪。我們在 23 年取得的進步正在為今年再創紀錄的業績鋪平道路。

Now let me turn the call over to Shelly to cover more details on the financials.

現在讓我把電話轉給雪莉，介紹更多有關財務的細節。

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. During my comments, I will reference the slides posted on our website this morning.

謝謝你，比爾，大家早安。在我的評論中，我將參考今天早上在我們網站上發布的幻燈片。

Starting on Slide 13. In the fourth quarter, value-added sales, which exclude the impact of pass-through precious metal costs, were $289.7 million, down slightly from prior year, but up 7% sequentially. Despite strength in aerospace and defense. Semiconductor and industrial remained challenged as Joel outlined. When looking at the earnings per share, we delivered adjusted earnings of $1.41 in the fourth quarter, down slightly from prior year.

從投影片 13 開始。第四季的加值銷售額（不包括轉嫁貴金屬成本的影響）為 2.897 億美元，比去年同期略有下降，但季增 7%。儘管在航空航太和國防領域實力雄厚。正如喬爾所概述的那樣，半導體和工業仍然面臨挑戰。從每股收益來看，我們第四季的調整後收益為 1.41 美元，比去年同期略有下降。

Moving to slide 14, adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $53.3 million or 18.4% of value-added sales, down 4% from the prior year, with margin expansion of 10 basis points This year-over-year decrease is mainly due to the volume decline, but strong price mix and operational performance, including the targeted cost improvement initiatives are contributing to the increase in margins. These results also included a year-to-date adjustment to the expected manufacturer's production credit benefit as we announced earlier this year.

轉向幻燈片 14，本季調整後 EBITDA 為 5,330 萬美元，佔增值銷售額的 18.4%，比上年下降 4%，利潤率擴大 10 個基點 這一同比下降主要是由於銷量下降，但強勁的價格組合和營運績效，包括有針對性的成本改進舉措，正在推動利潤率的成長。正如我們今年稍早宣布的那樣，這些結果還包括對預期製造商生產信貸收益的年初至今的調整。

Moving to slide 15, let me now review fourth quarter performance by business segments. Starting with Performance Materials. Value-added sales were $186 million, up 5% compared to prior year and up 10% sequentially. This record quarter and year over year increase was driven by strength across the aerospace and defense end markets, including meaningful contributions from space applications.

轉到投影片 15，現在讓我按業務部門回顧第四季的業績。從高性能材料開始。增值銷售額為 1.86 億美元，比上年增長 5%，比上一季增長 10%。這項創紀錄的季度和年增長是由航空航天和國防終端市場的實力推動的，其中包括太空應用的有意義的貢獻。

EBITDA, excluding special items, was $46 million or 24.7% of value-added sales, up 4% compared to $44.3 million in the fourth quarter of '22. This growth was primarily due to higher volume, favorable price mix and strong operational performance despite the unfavorable year-to-date adjustment to the manufacturer's production credits.

扣除特殊項目的 EBITDA 為 4,600 萬美元，佔增值銷售額的 24.7%，比 2022 年第四季的 4,430 萬美元成長了 4%。儘管年初至今對製造商的生產信貸進行了不利的調整，但這種成長主要是由於銷售增加、有利的價格組合和強勁的營運表現。

Moving to the outlook, we expect aerospace and defense to remain strong in 2024 and we remain on track with the expansion of our precision clad strip facility, which is expected to ramp in the latter part of 2024. Despite these growth drivers, we expect the industrial and automotive end markets to remain challenged while they see continued inventory corrections.

展望未來，我們預計航空航太和國防領域將在 2024 年保持強勁，並且我們的精密複合帶材工廠的擴建仍將保持在正軌上，預計該工廠將在 2024 年下半年實現產能擴張。儘管有這些成長動力，我們預期工業和汽車終端市場仍將面臨挑戰，同時庫存將持續調整。

Next, turning to Electronic Materials on Slide 16. The added sales were $77.7 million, down 21% compared to the prior year as a result of the significant weakness in the semiconductor market. EBITDA, excluding special items, was $11 million or 14.2% of value-added sales in the quarter despite the sizable volume decline, targeted cost improvement initiatives help to mitigate the semiconductor market.

接下來，轉向投影片 16 上的電子材料。由於半導體市場顯著疲軟，新增銷售額為 7,770 萬美元，比上年下降 21%。儘管銷售量大幅下降，但不包括特殊項目的 EBITDA 為 1,100 萬美元，佔本季增值銷售額的 14.2%，有針對性的成本改善措施有助於緩解半導體市場的壓力。

As we look forward to 2024, we expect semiconductor to remain challenged through the first half of the year with a gradual recovery starting in the second half as we saw a delay in the market downturns impact on material and we will experience a similar delay with the overall market upturn.

展望 2024 年，我們預計半導體在上半年仍將面臨挑戰，下半年將開始逐步復甦，因為我們看到市場低迷對材料的影響有所延遲，並且我們將經歷類似的延遲市場整體回暖。

Based on our position in the inventory chain, the first quarter of 2023 was among the strongest in the Company's history for semi with the decline beginning in Q2 and well, we manage to the end of the downturn, we expect to see continued benefit from our operational excellence initiatives.

根據我們在庫存鏈中的地位，2023 年第一季是公司歷史上半導體行業表現最強勁的季度之一，從第二季度開始出現下滑，而且我們設法結束了低迷期，我們預計將繼續受益於我們的半導體產品卓越營運措施。

Finally, turning to Precision Optics segment on Slide 17. Value-added sales were $26 million, down 6% compared to the prior year. This decrease was mainly driven by reduced PCR filter demand and general softening in the consumer electronics market, partially offset by strength in defense. EBITDA, excluding special items, was $3.8 million or 14.7% of value-added sales. The decrease in volume was a meaningful driver of this year-over-year decline, offset by positive price mix and the benefit of targeted cost improvement initiatives. From a sequential standpoint, we saw another quarter of EBITDA growth along with 170 basis points of margin expansion.

最後，轉向幻燈片 17 上的精密光學部分。增值銷售額為 2,600 萬美元，較上年下降 6%。這一下降主要是由於 PCR 過濾器需求減少和消費性電子市場普遍疲軟所致，部分被國防實力所抵消。扣除特殊項目的 EBITDA 為 380 萬美元，佔增值銷售額的 14.7%。銷售下降是今年同比下降的一個重要驅動因素，但積極的價格組合和有針對性的成本改善舉措的好處抵消了這一影響。從環比來看，我們看到 EBITDA 又成長了一個季度，利潤率也擴大了 170 個基點。

Looking out to 2024, we expect defense space and automotive to drive top line growth and expect a continued benefit from the cost improvement initiatives.

展望 2024 年，我們預期國防航太和汽車領域將推動營收成長，並預期成本改善計畫將持續受益。

Moving to slide 18, let me comment on the full year. We delivered our third consecutive year of record value-added sales, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share. Value-added sales reached an all-time high of $1.1 billion, up about 1% from the prior year. This year-over-year increase was mainly attributed to strength in aerospace and defense and precision clad strip, offset by the significant semiconductor market weakness.

前往投影片 18，讓我對全年進行評論。我們連續第三年創造了創紀錄的增值銷售額、調整後 EBITDA 和調整後每股盈餘。增值銷售額創歷史新高，達到 11 億美元，比上年成長約 1%。這一同比增長主要歸因於航空航天、國防和精密複合帶材的強勁增長，但被半導體市場的顯著疲軟所抵消。

Adjusted EBITDA for the year was $217.7 million or 19.3% of value-added sales, up 11% from the prior year with margin expansion of 170 basis points. Significant margin performance was largely driven by favorable price mix, strong operational performance, including the targeted cost improvement initiatives and the benefit from the manufacturers' production payments. We delivered $5.64 in adjusted earnings per share for the year, up 7% as compared to the prior year despite a $0.40 interest expense headwind. 2023 did provide a favorable tax rate at 13.3% from the impact of the nontaxable production credit and an outsized benefit from foreign earnings.

本年度調整後 EBITDA 為 2.177 億美元，佔增值銷售額的 19.3%，比上年增長 11%，利潤率擴大 170 個基點。顯著的利潤率表現主要是由有利的價格組合、強勁的營運績效（包括有針對性的成本改進措施以及製造商生產付款的好處）所推動的。儘管利息費用為 0.40 美元，但我們今年的調整後每股收益為 5.64 美元，比上年增長 7%。受免稅生產信貸和海外收入帶來的巨大收益的影響，2023 年確實提供了 13.3% 的優惠稅率。

Moving now to cash debt and liquidity on Slide 19. We ended the quarter with a net debt position of approximately $413 million and approximately $180 million of available capacity on the company's existing credit facility. Our leverage at 1.9 times remained at slightly below the midpoint of our target range.

現在轉向幻燈片 19 上的現金債務和流動性。截至本季末，我們的淨債務部位約為 4.13 億美元，公司現有信貸額度的可用能力約為 1.8 億美元。我們的槓桿率為 1.9 倍，仍略低於目標範圍的中點。

Lastly, let me transition to Slide 20 and address the full year outlook. While we expect some of our key end markets to remain challenged in the near term due to macro economic conditions. We expect another year of record results driven by our organic pipeline and close customer partnerships. These growth drivers, along with continued operational excellence and the impact of our targeted cost initiatives will help drive earnings growth in 2024.

最後，讓我轉到投影片 20 來闡述全年展望。儘管我們預計由於宏觀經濟狀況，我們的一些主要終端市場在短期內仍將面臨挑戰。我們預計，在我們的有機管道和密切的客戶合作夥伴關係的推動下，將創下創紀錄的業績。這些成長動力，加上持續的卓越營運以及我們目標成本計畫的影響，將有助於推動 2024 年的獲利成長。

With this, we are guiding to the range of $6.10 to $6.50 adjusted earnings per share, a 12% increase from the midpoint versus the prior year. We expect Q1 to be comparable to last year, but we'll see sequential improvement each quarter thereafter.

據此，我們預計調整後每股收益為 6.10 美元至 6.50 美元，比上年中位數成長 12%。我們預計第一季將與去年相當，但此後每季我們都會看到連續改善。

In closing, despite some market headwinds, 2024 is shaping up to be another exciting year of market outgrowth and strong execution from materials leading to yet another year of record results.

最後，儘管存在一些市場阻力，2024 年仍將成為市場成長和材料強勁執行力的另一個令人興奮的一年，從而帶來另一個創紀錄業績的一年。

This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the line for questions.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。我們現在將開通提問熱線。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Daniel Moore, CJS Securities.

謝謝。（操作員指示）Daniel Moore，CJS 證券。

Thank you. Good morning to have more than Shelly. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe start with the outlook, and I appreciate all the color. Just give us a sense for what level of value-added sales growth is associated with your guide for '24 and maybe just talk to the cadence a little bit given a much tougher comp in Q1, as you described are embedded within those assumptions?

謝謝。早安，比雪莉還要多。感謝您提出問題。也許從外觀開始，我欣賞所有的顏色。請讓我們了解您的 24 年指南與什麼水平的增值銷售成長相關，也許只是談論節奏，因為第一季的競爭更加激烈，正如您所描述的嵌入在這些假設中？

Yes. Then you look at our deck that we provided. You know, we did share some of the end market profile works between the various markets that we serve. We see a couple of markets on the positive favorable side, I'd say more than that 3% type of a growth, particularly aerospace, defense and then more of the space segment of aerospace with the new business wins that we've had I would say, low single digits on several of our markets and a couple of markets that we frankly see contracting.

是的。然後你看看我們提供的牌組。您知道，我們確實在我們服務的各個市場之間分享了一些最終市場概況工作。我們看到了一些積極有利的市場，我想說超過 3% 的成長，特別是航空航太、國防，然後是更多的航空航太領域，我們已經贏得了新的業務。可以說，我們的幾個市場和一些我們坦率地看到收縮的市場的成長率都較低。

So when we look at our overall growth for year over year, I would say mid-single digits. It's probably reasonable for the full year. However, I would see that skewed to the back half of the year. I think the first half of the year, especially with our Q1 comps. Semi, as Shelly noted, was a very, very strong quarter for us last year in Q1, one of the strongest I think in the Company's history as the semi slowdown had not caught up to us, whereas now, of course, we're in the full semi slowdown mode and it'll it'll start to show the signs of recovery here in the second half of the year. So I would expect, you know, just slight growth in the first half of the year, but a much more robust growth in the back half of the year, led by semi, but then also other markets as well as well as new business activities. And so I could see a roughly a mid-single digit overall for the year.

因此，當我們查看同比的整體成長時，我會說是中個位數。對於全年來說，這可能是合理的。然而，我認為這會偏向今年下半年。我認為今年上半年，尤其是我們第一季的比較。正如雪莉指出的那樣，去年第一季對我們來說是一個非常非常強勁的季度，我認為這是該公司歷史上最強勁的季度之一，因為半成品的放緩還沒有趕上我們，而現在，當然，我們在完全半減速模式下，下半年它將開始顯示出復甦的跡象。因此，我預計上半年只會出現小幅成長，但下半年會出現更強勁的成長，其中以半成品為主導，但其他市場以及新業務活動也將帶動成長。因此，我可以看到今年的整體成長率約為中個位數。

And as you heard in my comments, you know, first quarter is going to look a lot like Q1 last year. So when I think about the year from an earnings perspective, I'm expecting maybe a 45%, 55% weighting first half to second half.

正如您在我的評論中聽到的，您知道，第一季看起來很像去年第一季。因此，當我從獲利角度考慮這一年時，我預計上半年和下半年的權重可能為 45%、55%。

Very helpful. Makes perfect sense. And then shifting gears a little bit longer term. I appreciate all the commentary on the semi side beyond the market growth, how should we think about the opportunity for content gains driven by higher powered logic chips, some of that, some of those which you described, you will in your prepared remarks, looking out over the next three to five years and that's out there. Has that outlook changed at all?

很有幫助。很有道理。然後從長遠來看，換檔。我很欣賞除了市場成長之外對半成品方面的所有評論，我們應該如何考慮由更高功率的邏輯晶片驅動的內容增益的機會，其中一些，您所描述的一些，您將在準備好的評論中，尋找未來三到五年內就會出現，那就是了。這種看法有改變嗎？

Frankly, the outlook has not changed at all for us for a longer-term semis, our largest market, it's one that we're very, very excited about, and we continue to be very excited about where things are headed in the next three to five years. We are continuing to invest in the semi space. For example, we just mentioned that today that we're launching two new ALD materials. These are atomic layer deposition materials that are going to be used for advanced memory and AI applications. We all are hearing what's going on in the AI upfront.

坦白說，我們對於長期半決賽（我們最大的市場）的前景根本沒有改變，這是我們非常非常興奮的一個，而且我們仍然對未來三年的發展方向感到非常興奮至五年。我們將繼續投資半空間。例如，我們剛剛提到今天我們將推出兩種新的 ALD 材料。這些是原子層沉積材料，將用於先進的記憶體和人工智慧應用。我們都在提前了解人工智慧的發展。

And I think we're really, really well prepared for both advanced memory as well as advanced logic with our tantalum portfolio as well as the number of other raw materials that we have. In addition to that, I think I think when you look at the overall semi investments on the capacity side, we're putting the right investments in the capacity side some feel for the short-term uptake, but also be able to capture the.

我認為我們已經為先進記憶體和先進邏輯做好了充分準備，我們的鉭產品組合以及我們擁有的其他原材料數量。除此之外，我認為當您查看產能的整體半投資時，我們在產能方面進行了正確的投資，有些感覺是短期吸收，但也能夠抓住。

Yes, the long term, Bob long-term growth. So I think I think on the on the semi side, we remain excited. I would say we probably even more so than we were earlier because of the uptick that's going to happen here in the near term, but then continued growth in the three to five years, our portfolio is really well positioned.

是的，從長遠來看，鮑勃是長期成長的。所以我認為在半決賽方面，我們仍然很興奮。我想說，我們可能比之前更是如此，因為短期內將會出現上漲，但隨著三到五年的持續成長，我們的投資組合確實處於有利位置。

Last comment, I think on the power side, as you know, power semiconductor is a is an important part of our portfolio. We see the applications for power semiconductor continuing to increase, whether it's our EV applications or other industrial applications. And our from our positioning with the portfolio of the product portfolio that we have. But also I would say just equally as important, the customer portfolio that we have on the power semi is extremely, extremely strong. So we're very -- feeling very confident, I think, in our in our ability to grow both short term and long term for the semi market.

最後一點，我認為在功率方面，如您所知，功率半導體是我們產品組合的重要組成部分。我們看到功率半導體的應用不斷增加，無論是我們的電動車應用還是其他工業應用。以及我們對我們擁有的產品組合的定位。但我想說同樣重要的是，我們在功率半導體方面擁有的客戶組合非常非常強大。因此，我認為，我們對半成品市場短期和長期成長的能力非常有信心。

Perfect. Last one and I'll jump out is the guide implies closing in on that 20% EBITDA margin goal. Just wondering maybe not necessarily providing an updated goal today, but talk about the operating leverage ability of the business beyond and we know the what you've already generated over the last two to three years.

完美的。我要跳出的最後一項是該指南暗示即將實現 20% 的 EBITDA 利潤率目標。只是想知道也許不一定要提供今天的更新目標，但請談談業務的營運槓桿能力，我們知道您在過去兩到三年中已經產生了什麼。

Thanks. Yes. So let me just comment a little bit. You know, first of all, on '23, right? Two of the two of the four quarters, we delivered a 20% margins. And I've said this a number of times that we'd like to go to see that on a more consistent basis. And I feel that we're positioning ourselves more and more to be able to deliver that on a consistent basis and I would not be not be surprised if 24 represents a much more consistent basis for that 20% margin delivery.

謝謝。是的。所以讓我稍微評論一下。你知道，首先是 23 年，對吧？在四個季度中的兩個季度，我們實現了 20% 的利潤率。我已經多次說過，我們希望在更一致的基礎上看到這一點。我覺得我們越來越定位自己，以便能夠在一致的基礎上實現這一點，如果 24 代表 20% 保證金交付的更一致的基礎，我不會感到驚訝。

And then clearly, you know that that's not the end for us. As you know, we continue to challenge ourselves more and more and we will be setting up an objective that I'm sure we'll be talking to you at some point that defines what we think we can be in three to five years from now. And that's up something we're looking forward to and perhaps having that discussion during 2024.

很明顯，你知道這不是我們的終點。如您所知，我們將繼續越來越多地挑戰自己，我們將設定一個目標，我相信我們會在某個時候與您交談，該目標定義了我們認為從現在起三到五年後我們可以實現的目標。這是我們期待的事情，也許會在 2024 年進行討論。

Mike Harrison, Seaport Research Partners.

麥克·哈里森，海港研究夥伴。

Hi, good morning. Jugal, I was wondering if you could maybe I'm just I'm looking at slide 7 here that shows your end market performance. It's kind of striking that of your you know, seven key end markets that you call out, five of them are showing dramatic declines, right? The double digit decline. Is this an indication of what's going on in the underlying market? Or is there some destocking going on or timing issues? Maybe just give us a little bit more color. I think we understand what's going on in semiconductor. But if you could talk in a little more detail about industrial energy, automotive by gas size, those three and what's driving those big declines in the fourth quarter?

早安.Jugal，我想知道您是否可以，也許我只是在看幻燈片 7，它顯示了您的終端市場表現。你知道，你提到的七個關鍵終端市場，其中五個市場出現了急劇下降，這有點令人震驚，對吧？呈兩位數下降。這是否顯示基礎市場正在發生什麼？或者是否存在一些去庫存或時間問題？也許只是給我們多一點色彩。我認為我們了解半導體領域正在發生的事情。但是，您能否更詳細地談談工業能源、汽車（按天然氣規模）這三者以及是什麼推動了第四季度的大幅下滑？

Yes, I think, Mike, it's important to note and you highlighted as being the key word, I think is clear, which is the fourth quarter. If you look at, of course of the full year. The numbers are the numbers are much less rate declines on a full year basis, but much higher declines in the fourth quarter. And I can tell you that it is the underlying market slash destocking and going on in these in these markets, you know, we've done extensive reviews with our teams on where are we in terms of share share growth and new business wins. And we we know that we have a good growth and good business wins to be able to have confidence that 24 as the markets turn around we will have the right growth in 24 and 25. So this is clearly this is really clearly a market slash destocking. And I can kind of walk through each market, of course, be able to help them understand that and help talk through that.

是的，我認為，麥克，重要的是要注意，你強調了作為關鍵字，我認為很清楚，那就是第四季。如果你看的話，當然是全年。這些數字是全年利率下降幅度要小得多，但第四季下降幅度要大得多。我可以告訴你，這是潛在的市場大幅去庫存，並且在這些市場中正在進行，你知道，我們已經與我們的團隊就我們在份額增長和新業務贏得方面的進展進行了廣泛的審查。我們知道，我們擁有良好的成長和良好的業務勝利，因此我們有信心在 24 年市場好轉時，我們將在 24 和 25 年實現正確的成長。所以這顯然是一次市場大幅去庫存。當然，我可以走遍每個市場，幫助他們理解這一點並幫助他們討論。

As we look at as we look at 24 on, I would say the industrial market. I think we do have one sort of special things going on in the industrial market, and that's related to our beryllium nickel sprinkler systems or the spring that we provide for those in there. I see that as more of a one-time correction. I think that's going to happen probably during the 24 timeframe. But other than that, I really do see this as a market situation and just destocking and would expect. But during 24, these markets are turning around for us.

當我們觀察 24 小時時，我會說工業市場。我認為工業市場上確實發生了一種特殊的事情，這與我們的鈹鎳灑水系統或我們為那裡提供的彈簧有關。我認為這更多的是一次性修正。我認為這可能會在 24 小時內發生。但除此之外，我確實認為這是一種市場情況，只是去庫存，並且是預期的。但24小時期間，這些市場正為我們扭轉局面。

The one thing that I'll note is, despite these reductions in Q4. You see our performance as the team has done a fantastic job of driving performance across the company, whether it's price, whether it's mix related improvements, operational performance in the plants that, you know, our SG&A costs and total targeted cost actions, all those things that Dan, that we should be doing. The team has done a really a fantastic job of driving those.

我要注意的一件事是，儘管第四季度出現了這些減少。你會看到我們的表現，因為團隊在推動整個公司的績效方面做得非常出色，無論是價格、與混合相關的改進、工廠的營運績效，你知道，我們的SG&A 成本和總目標成本行動，所有這些丹，我們應該要做的事情。該團隊在推動這些方面做得非常出色。

So to me, this is a I think this is a temporary situation that we would see a turning around. As we indicated earlier, that we expect about a mid mid-single digit growth, really heavily weighted towards the back half of the year.

所以對我來說，這是一個暫時的情況，我們會看到好轉。正如我們之前指出的，我們預計成長率將達到中個位數，尤其是今年下半年的成長。

Alright. Thanks for that. And maybe on a brighter note, the aerospace and defense market has been extremely strong here. You noted the $60 million of additional orders that you've secured. I know that that defense market in particular can have some lumpiness to it. So I'm just curious if some of the strength that you're seeing, just timing related, or are you optimistic that you're seeing a sustained pickup in opportunities and applications within that market?

好吧。感謝那。也許更光明的一面是，這裡的航空航太和國防市場一直非常強勁。您注意到您已獲得 6000 萬美元的額外訂單。我知道國防市場尤其可能存在一些波動。所以我只是好奇您所看到的一些優勢是否只是與時間相關，或者您是否樂觀地看到該市場中的機會和應用程式持續增加？

Yes. Well, first of all, let's take that market and just peel it a little bit. And then there's three major components. I would say that we should talk about. One is the commercial aerospace market. The other one is the defense market. And then the third is the emerging space market. Let me start with that emerging space market. That's been a fantastic market for us, we indicated about $90 million of new business orders. Today we announced the fourth order of $36 million, supplying for space propulsion systems. This is the fourth order.

是的。好吧，首先，讓我們把這個市場稍微剝離一下。然後是三個主要組成部分。我想說我們應該談談。一是商業航太市場。另一個是國防市場。第三個是新興的太空市場。讓我從新興的太空市場開始。這對我們來說是一個絕佳的市場，我們表示新業務訂單價值約為 9,000 萬美元。今天，我們宣布了第四筆 3,600 萬美元的訂單，為太空推進系統供貨。這是第四令。

If you kind of look at what's happened over the last year or so and look at the first three orders at that office, roughly about $70 million above orders, just in the space market combined that with our ToughMet that business in the space market, our Optical Systems business in this space market, and we're looking at roughly about $90 million. So very good, strong market for us in 23, growing accelerating market for us in 24. And we would hope that that can continue beyond that.

如果你看看過去一年左右發生的事情，看看該辦公室的前三個訂單，大約比訂單高出 7000 萬美元左右，只是在太空市場，再加上我們在太空市場的 ToughMet 業務，我們的這個太空市場中的光學系統業務，我們預計價值約9000 萬美元。23 年我們的市場非常好、強勁，24 年我們的市場正在加速成長。我們希望這種情況能夠持續下去。

In the aerospace market. The commercial aerospace market, we've gained content, 25% more content on on on average, on planes now versus pre-pandemic just in the last few years, both at the Boeing side as well as the Airbus side. So some good content growth as well as, as you know, the build rates continue to increase temporary situation on the Boeing side as we all are aware of. But but in general, the build rates continue to increase from airplanes. So we would expect our material content to continue to increase.

在航空航太市場。在商業航空航太市場，我們已經獲得了內容，與過去幾年大流行前相比，現在飛機上的內容平均增加了 25%，無論是波音方面還是空中巴士方面。因此，正如我們所知，一些良好的內容增長以及構建率繼續增加波音方面的臨時情況。但總的來說，飛機的建造率持續增加。因此，我們預計我們的材料含量將繼續增加。

And on the defense side, the team has done a fantastic job getting our materials more and more ingrained into the defense applications. And I would expect that even though there's lumpiness and I agree with you completely that there's lumpiness on the defense orders, we would expect a good market and good growth for defense overall for the year. So adding all three components of the aerospace and defense market, we feel really good about for 24 and positioning well for 25 and beyond.

在國防方面，該團隊做得非常出色，使我們的材料越來越深入地融入國防應用中。我預計，儘管存在波動，而且我完全同意你的觀點，即國防訂單存在波動，但我們預計今年整體國防市場將呈現良好的成長勢頭。因此，加上航空航太和國防市場的所有三個組成部分，我們對 24 小時感到非常滿意，並且對 25 歲及以後的市場定位也很好。

All right. Very helpful. And then just a couple of quick ones. The Electronic Materials business in the margin or EBITDA commentary, you'd mentioned some one-time unfavorable items hitting that business. Can you give a little more color on what those items were and maybe how we should think about the EBITDA margin progression in 2024 in that EM business?

好的。很有幫助。然後只是幾個快速的。在利潤率或 EBITDA 評論中的電子材料業務中，您提到了一些對該業務不利的一次性項目。您能否詳細說明這些項目是什麼，以及我們應該如何考慮該新興市場業務 2024 年 EBITDA 利潤率的進展？

Yes, thanks for that question. And they did see some items, but there were onetime items there was nothing that was really big that stood out a couple of accrual adjustments, a couple of expenses that just came in at the end of the year, and we do expect that from a quarter on quarter, we will see a positive a positive move in the margins as we enter into 24. So we think Q4 was a bit impacted just by those two one-time items, and then we'll see things kind of picked up in 24.

是的，謝謝你提出這個問題。他們確實看到了一些項目，但有一些一次性項目，沒有什麼真正大的項目能夠突出一些應計調整，一些在年底剛剛出現的費用，我們確實希望從隨著進入24 季度，我們將看到利潤率出現正面的正面變化。因此，我們認為第四季度只是受到這兩個一次性項目的影響，然後我們將看到情況在 24 月有所回升。

Yes. And Mike, to add to that, if you look at our Q2 and Q3 results. You know, we were around 17%, 18% EBITDA margins in the Q2, Q3 timeframe. Certainly a Q4. We had the impact of the one-time items that Charlie mentioned, but also there was a significant impact based on the mix for memory devices. And, you know, you know what's happened to the memory side that particularly in the last year.

是的。麥克，補充一下，如果你看看我們第二季和第三季的結果。你知道，我們在第二季、第三季的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 17%、18%。當然是Q4。我們受到查理提到的一次性項目的影響，但基於儲存設備的組合也產生了重大影響。而且，你知道，你知道內存方面發生了什麼，特別是去年。

And so that was a that was a mix hit for us. But we would expect and we see this, I think, happening during the year as initially indicated that those one-time items are behind us and we would expect continued progression back towards the Q2, Q3 type margins and then pushing those forward after that.

所以這對我們來說是一個混合打擊。但我們預計並看到這種情況會在今年發生，因為最初表明這些一次性項目已經過去，我們預計將繼續朝第二季、第三季類型的利潤率邁進，然後再將其向前推進。

All right. And then last one for me is you called out [$5.6] million worth of startup costs and scrap costs for the second phase of this precision clad strip project or is that all the startup costs or is that just the portion that you guys considered unusual? I guess I'm just looking for a little more clarity on how we should be modeling those start-up costs through late 2024? If you could provide some more detail there.

好的。最後一個問題是，你們為這個精密複合帶材計畫的第二階段提出了價值 [560 萬美元] 的啟動成本和報廢成本，或者這是所有的啟動成本，還是只是你們認為不尋常的部分？我想我只是想更清楚地了解我們應該如何對 2024 年末之前的啟動成本進行建模？如果您可以在那裡提供更多詳細資訊。

Yes, sure thing. Thanks for that. As you probably know, as we when we were working through the initial phases of the ramp of the clad strip facility. We did not special out any of those ramp costs. We took them to the P&L and we discussed and disclosed what they were once we were at kind of full run rate in that facility. And we had some process tweaks and some formulation tweaks that we were working on with the customer. We did incur some additional charges that we would assume are what we would call unusual. And we didn't want that to mask the performance of the business that we called them out and with special those charges in 22.

是的，當然可以。感謝那。正如您可能知道的那樣，正如我們在複合帶鋼設施坡道的初始階段工作時一樣。我們沒有特別指出任何這些坡道成本。我們把它們帶到了損益表中，我們討論並披露了當我們在該設施中達到滿載運行時的情況。我們正在與客戶一起進行一些製程調整和配方調整。我們確實產生了一些我們認為不尋常的額外費用。我們不想讓這掩蓋我們在 22 中指出的業務表現以及特別收費。

Similarly, we're doing a little of that again, and we did that in Q4 where we had some process runs and things that were for qualifications that needed to be scrapped. And so a lot of it is there in addition to some resources that we've brought in, just to make sure the ramp goes well. So now that we're really fully running, we don't want to have the business results skewed by up and down on those start-up costs. So if we have unusual costs, we will continue to special them so that you don't have to worry about, hey, is that margin going to come down come up during the year?

同樣，我們又做了一些這樣的事情，我們在第四季度就這樣做了，我們進行了一些流程運行以及需要取消的資格認證。因此，除了我們引入的一些資源之外，還有很多資源，只是為了確保斜坡順利進行。因此，現在我們已經真正全面運營，我們不希望業務成果因啟動成本的上下波動而出現偏差。因此，如果我們有不尋常的成本，我們將繼續對它們進行特殊處理，這樣您就不必擔心，嘿，這一年的利潤率會下降嗎？

So I guess as we're thinking about the Performance Materials business on an adjusted basis going forward, we should assume that there's not start-up costs in there that those are going to be special about or are there still going to be some some headwinds like assets as that's ramping?

因此，我想，當我們在調整的基礎上考慮未來的高性能材料業務時，我們應該假設其中不存在特別的啟動成本，或者仍然存在一些阻力就像資產一樣在增加？

Yes. Usually --

是的。通常--

On an adjusted basis.

在調整的基礎上。

Yes. On an adjusted basis, you should assume that those will be special doubt. And as we've talked about, the ramp of that will start late in 24 of the sales related to that.

是的。在調整的基礎上，你應該假設那些會是特別的疑問。正如我們所討論的，這種增長將在與之相關的銷售的 24 年後開始。

David Silver, C.L. King.

大衛‧西爾弗，C.L.國王。

Okay. Thank you. Good morning. Wondering Yes, I apologize if some going to make you repeat yourself, but I wanted to maybe just talk about the softness on the Electronic Materials side initially. So And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think maybe last quarter or so from go, I think your commentary was the fourth quarter. We would see an inflection point or reach an inflection point at some point in the fourth quarter on the Electronic Materials side, and I think the tone of it and, you know, I guess the stabilization that you have been maybe indicating that got pushed out to the right a little bit. I know there's a number of issues that have been pressuring that group for many quarters, but was there something in particular that maybe, you know, has led you to delay maybe the the upturn, your expectations of an upturn in that group maybe by two, three quarters?

好的。謝謝。早安.想知道是的，如果有人讓您重複的話，我很抱歉，但我想也許最初只是談談電子材料方面的柔軟性。所以，如果我錯了，請糾正我，但我認為也許是上個季度左右，我認為你的評論是第四季。在電子材料方面，我們會在第四季度的某個時候看到一個拐點或達到一個拐點，我認為它的基調，你知道，我猜你可能已經表明的穩定被推出了向右一點。我知道很多季度以來，有很多問題一直給該群體帶來壓力，但是有沒有什麼特別的事情可能導致你推遲經濟好轉，你對該群體經濟好轉的預期可能推遲了兩倍， 四分之三？

Yes, David, if we actually go back a couple of quarters I think you highlighted Q4, I think the world was thinking and we were thinking that this market opportunity market was going to bottom out in Q2 and start to see an uptick in two three. And then as we noticed from all the major semi companies, the recovery got a bit delayed, but delayed but delayed. And now the most recent information is that in our Q1 is expected to be the low point and then and then slight recovery in Q2, but then really more of the recovery happening in the back half of this year.

是的，大衛，如果我們實際上回顧幾個季度，我認為您強調了第四季度，我認為全世界都在思考，我們認為這個市場機會市場將在第二季度觸底，並開始在兩三個季度內出現上升。然後，正如我們從所有主要半導體公司注意到的那樣，復甦有點延遲，但延遲，但延遲。現在最新的資訊是，我們預計第一季將是低點，然後第二季將略有復甦，但更多的復甦將在今年下半年發生。

So that's just a combination of you saved around the world as well as the inventory destocking that was happening at all of the semi companies. So I think that clearly impacts us as we are a key supplier into that value chain. That recovery for us will be slightly later than what the semi companies will recover just because based on the cycle and kind of where we fit in the value chain. But we'll follow that. We'll follow that recovery, you know, as it happens.

因此，這只是您在世界各地節省的成本以及所有半導體公司正在進行的庫存削減的組合。因此，我認為這顯然對我們產生了影響，因為我們是該價值鏈的關鍵供應商。我們的復甦將略晚於半導體公司的復甦，因為基於週期和我們在價值鏈中的位置。但我們會遵循這一點。你知道，我們將追蹤復甦情況。

So I think really it's a very much David, associated with sort of the market dynamics and what we've been what we were hearing from the various some various SME, our producers, the one item that was more specific, I think to us, which again is a market dependent item is the and the memory mix issue that I that I mentioned where we did have some specific product portfolio which we count on, you know, every quarter and we had a significant and drop just based on inventory correction that our customers are going through. And as a result that created a negative, a heavy negative mix for us for the quarter, but we would expect that to start to recover in Q1 and into Q2 and so on. So I think we're I think we're lined up extremely well to be able to hit the ground running as the as the semi producers start to start to produce more and get the get the recovery going.

所以我認為這確實是一個非常大衛，與市場動態以及我們從各種中小企業、我們的生產商那裡聽到的情況有關，我認為對我們來說，一個更具體的項目，這又是一個依賴市場的項目，是我提到的內存組合問題，我們確實有一些特定的產品組合，我們每個季度都依賴這些產品組合，並且僅基於庫存修正，我們就有了顯著的下降我們的客戶正在經歷。結果，本季給我們帶來了負面的、嚴重的負面影響，但我們預計這種情況將在第一季和第二季開始恢復，依此類推。因此，我認為，隨著半成品生產商開始生產更多產品並開始復甦，我們的陣容非常好，能夠立即投入運作。

Okay. Very good. Nate, I'm going to ask you to parse one comment you made in your opening remarks. But Doug, again on electronic materials, I believe you indicated that the order book that you're seeing is kind of indicating maybe early signs of stabilization, I think, was your wording and when I think about an order book in electronic, but your electronic materials business, I kind of think, well, are the orders that you're seeing? Are they reflective of maybe legacy products, in which case, you know, maybe it's indicating the customer inventory liquidation is nearing an end or alternatively, is it, you know, for more leading edge or newer applications, which kind of points to, you know, the rollout or the ramp up of new customer facilities. Is there some way you could maybe parse it out the order books that you're seeing and maybe read the tea leaves there a little bit?

好的。非常好。內特，我要請你解析一下你在開場白中發表的評論。但是道格，再次在電子材料方面，我相信您指出，您所看到的訂單簿可能表明了穩定的早期跡象，我認為，這是您的措辭，當我考慮電子訂單簿時，但是您的訂單簿電子材料業務，我想，你看到的是訂單嗎？它們是否反映了可能是遺留產品，在這種情況下，你知道，也許這表明客戶庫存清算即將結束，或者，你知道，對於更前沿或更新的應用程序，這表明，你知道，新客戶設施的推出或增加。有什麼方法可以讓您從您所看到的訂單簿中解析出來，並且可以稍微閱讀一下那裡的茶葉嗎？

Yes, I think it's a combination from what you just indicated. So for example, when you talk about the leading edge, we indicated that we launched two new ALD materials for these advanced memory applications and AI applications. We're starting to as we're having discussions with our customers and we're starting to feel that they are going to start to put orders in that then will translate into sales in the in the Q2 Q3 timeframe. So I think that's an example of where there's newer products that we believe are going to contribute to a sales uptick and at the same time, I think on the legacy products and as you know, we have a lot of precious metals business, non-precious metal business.

是的，我認為這是您剛才指出的組合。例如，當您談論前沿時，我們表示我們為這些先進的記憶體應用和人工智慧應用推出了兩種新的 ALD 材料。我們開始與客戶進行討論，我們開始感覺到他們將開始下訂單，然後將在第二季第三季的時間範圍內轉化為銷售額。因此，我認為這是一個例子，我們認為新產品將有助於銷售成長，同時，我認為在傳統產品上，正如你所知，我們有很多貴金屬業務，非-貴金屬業務。

We're watching the inventory levels very closely with our customers. And then from what we can see, you know, the last few weeks, I mean the orders have had that there has not been a decline. Let's put it that way. It also. So we feel good about I think the fact that Okay maybe were or bottoming out and we would we would expect to see over the next few weeks, a slight uptick in the order rate for those legacy products. So that's kind of really where our commentaries coming from. And that's where we feel that there will be a there will be a slight uptick in Q2, but really a bigger uptick in Q3, Q4. And I think we're hearing that right also from the various other earnings calls or other announcements that the semi producers are making as well.

我們正在與客戶密切關注庫存水準。然後從我們所看到的情況來看，過去幾週，我的意思是訂單沒有下降。這麼說吧。它也是。因此，我們感覺很好，我認為 Ok 可能已經觸底，我們預計在接下來的幾週內，這些傳統產品的訂單率會略有上升。這就是我們的評論的來源。這就是我們認為第二季會有小幅上升的地方，但第三季、第四季確實會出現更大的上升。我認為我們也從半導體製造商發布的各種其他財報電話會議或其他公告中聽到了這一點。

Okay. And then you did mention the two new ALD materials and please don't tell me anything. You know, you shouldn't tell me, but should I assume that the new materials are tantalum related, the new ALD materials? Or is this kind of new new materials, something something you know and beyond kind of use the tantalum the activity -- products and activities development activities that you're you're you have ongoing.

好的。然後你確實提到了兩種新的 ALD 材料，請不要告訴我任何事情。你知道，你不應該告訴我，但我是否應該假設新材料與鉭相關，即新的 ALD 材料？或者是這種新的新材料，一些你知道的東西，超越了使用鉭的活動——產品和活動的開發活動，你是你是你，你是你正在進行的活動。

Yes. So our ALD portfolio that we have is not a tantalum based on ALD portfolio. It is not something that we created. And, you know, as part of the acquisition that we made from H.C. Starck ALD, something that we've been working on for a number of years. It's organic activity that we started to invest in when we started to see that this is a new emerging area. And so over the last four or five years, we've been developing and we're now up to a total of five materials.

是的。因此，我們擁有的 ALD 產品組合並不是基於 ALD 產品組合的鉭。它不是我們創造的。而且，你知道，作為我們從 H.C. 收購的一部分。 Starck ALD，這是我們多年來一直致力於的事情。當我們開始看到這是一個新興領域時，我們就開始投資這項有機活動。在過去的四、五年裡，我們一直在開發，現在總共有五種材料。

And so really advanced chemicals is what the category is that we put it in internal to the Company, but they're so they're not stand-alone related. Are there really that really are much more advanced materials that, as I said, end up in the next generation memory applications, which then it will end up in the in the various AI applications that we would that we would see.

因此，真正先進的化學品是我們將其放在公司內部的類別，但它們並不是獨立相關的。正如我所說，真的有更先進的材料最終出現在下一代記憶體應用中，然後它將出現在我們希望看到的各種人工智慧應用中。

Very interesting. So sounds like Milwaukee not to not Newton. So thank you for that. Okay. I just wanted to switchover, maybe we don't really talk too much about your optical segment, but you've done a lot of restructuring work there and done. I'm just wondering if you maybe have an outlook for 2024 for that segment. I mean, is this, you know the time when that that group finally presumes organic growth? And if so, what would you say would be kind of the one or two of the leading sources of that, that turnaround?

很有意思。聽起來密爾瓦基不是牛頓。非常感謝你的幫忙。好的。我只是想切換，也許我們並沒有真正談論太多關於您的光學部分，但您已經在那裡做了很多重組工作並完成了。我只是想知道您是否對該細分市場有 2024 年的展望。我的意思是，你知道這個群體最終實現有機成長的時間嗎？如果是這樣，您認為這種轉變的一兩個主要來源是什麼？

Yes, I think first of all, that business, you don't despite the sales drop that happened, has done a really nice job of managing the performance and the cost to cost management of that business of various cost control activities that we put in, we've now had it three consecutive quarters of a three quarters, I should say, Q2, Q3, Q4 where we've had our EBITDA improvement. It's our expectation that we'll continue to drive improvement in that business and the bottom line throughout 24.

是的，我認為首先，儘管發生了銷售額下降，但該業務在管理我們投入的各種成本控制活動的績效和成本成本管理方面做得非常好，我們現在已經連續三個季度，我應該說，第二季、第三季、第四季，我們的EBITDA 有所改善。我們期望在 24 小時內繼續推動該業務和盈利的改善。

And then on the top line, if you look at the last time that we did, our earnings call, which was the Q3 earnings call. We talked about space and defense related orders in the optics space. And today we're talking about contract in the LiDAR technology for autonomous vehicles. And so I think those are the type of areas that are going to contribute.

然後在最重要的方面，如果你看看我們上次所做的，我們的財報電話會議，即第三季的財報電話會議。我們討論了光學領域與太空和國防相關的訂單。今天我們討論的是自動駕駛汽車光達技術的合約。所以我認為這些領域將會做出貢獻。

So automotive is going to be a it's going to be a contributor in this thing, defense space, the space market is going to be a contributor, I think, to the growth here in 24 and then, of course, longer it term as well in 25 and 26. So our expectation is that this business is going to be a top line contributor in 20 or as well as continued bottom line contributor as it has done over the last couple of quarters.

因此，汽車將成為國防航太、航太市場這件事的貢獻者，我認為，我認為，這將成為 24 年來成長的貢獻者，當然，從長遠來看也是如此25和26。因此，我們的預期是，該業務將在 20 年內成為營收貢獻者，或像過去幾季一樣持續成為利潤貢獻者。

Okay.

好的。

And then just last one for me, not the biggest issue, but there was a commentary, a comment or two regarding share your share repurchase authorization and whatnot. And this is just my opinion, but I I don't necessarily think your typical investor is demanding, you know, that kind of activity on your part, but just remind me, I mean, is your authorization there to offset dilution? Is it for handling them, you know, options related issuance, I mean, but how do you anticipate the -- your share repurchase activity fitting into your overall capital structure and cash deployment strategy?

然後對我來說最後一個，不是最大的問題，但有一個評論，一兩個關於分享你的股票回購授權之類的評論。這只是我的觀點，但我不一定認為你的典型投資者要求你進行此類活動，但請提醒我，我的意思是，你的授權是否可以抵消稀釋？我的意思是，是為了處理它們，你知道，與期權相關的發行，但是你如何預期你的股票回購活動適合你的整體資本結構和現金部署策略？

Yes, I'll take that one face. And we think a lot about capital allocation and where we want to invest our money. We do have the $8 million available on the share repurchase program that was left authorized, but we haven't had any activity on that in a couple of years. And really the reason is because we're more focused on that organic growth. So deploying our capital to our organic growth is more important to us right now than kind of offsetting dilution or bringing that share count down. And we think we're delivering really well that returns are very good. So we've got that lever there should we choose to use it, but right now it's something we're not very active on.

是的，我會接受那張臉。我們對資本配置和資金投資方向進行了許多思考。我們確實有 800 萬美元的股票回購計劃可用，並已獲得授權，但我們已經有幾年沒有在這方面採取任何行動了。真正的原因是我們更關注有機成長。因此，目前對我們來說，將資本用於有機成長比抵消稀釋或減少股票數量更重要。我們認為我們的交付非常好，回報也非常好。所以我們已經有了這個槓桿，我們應該選擇使用它，但現在我們對此還不太積極。

Samuel McKinney, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

塞繆爾·麥金尼，KeyBanc 資本市場。

It's Phil Gibbs. Thanks for talking about the aerospace and defense and space market and thinking about those buckets, kind of leads me into the question that I had, how much is space. And right now as a percentage of that of that total bucket, I would think that includes satellites and commercial space?

我是菲爾·吉布斯。感謝您談論航空航太、國防和太空市場，並思考這些桶，這讓我想到了一個問題：太空有多少。現在，就佔總桶的百分比而言，我認為這包括衛星和商業空間？

Yes. Well, it's becoming a much larger part, right, as as you know, Phil, right, you've been following our company for quite a while and space was relatively small component of our business out of more related to government type activity or just larger projects such as the James Webb or something like that. And now you know, space has become a much larger part of our component defenses continue to grow. The commercial aerospace has continue to grow. But I would say I'd say it's probably we're looking at maybe about a quarter or two to a little less than a third is probably the space component. But I would expect to continue to see growth in that in that business.

是的。嗯，它正在成為一個更大的部分，對，正如你所知，菲爾，對，你已經關注我們公司很長一段時間了，空間在我們業務中相對較小的組成部分，因為與政府類型的活動更相關，或只是更大的項目，例如詹姆斯韋伯或類似的項目。現在你知道了，太空已經成為我們防禦系統不斷增長的重要組成部分。商業航空航天持續成長。但我想說的是，我們可能正在考慮大約四分之一或兩個到略少於三分之一的空間部分。但我預計該業務將繼續成長。

Thank you. And then a lot of questions on margins on a lot of electronic materials, but hoping that just simplify it a little bit. Obviously, the mix wasn't wasn't ideal in the quarter, and it sounds like you're down shipping under your production rates, which impacts absorption greatly. When you think about that type of business, if you were shipping in line with your on production rates and if your mix was, let's just call it on average four or something more ideal, where should margins have been?

謝謝。然後在很多電子材料上提出了很多關於邊距的問題，但希望能稍微簡化一下。顯然，本季的組合並不理想，聽起來您的生產力正在下降，這極大地影響了吸收。當你考慮這種類型的業務時，如果你按照你的生產力進行運輸，並且如果你的組合是，讓我們將其稱為平均四或更理想的數字，那麼利潤率應該在哪裡？

But I look, I mean, we've said all along that, that we need this business to be contributing positively to our goal of 20% EBITDA margins for the company. So I expect this business to be able to deliver those types of margins. I mean, you we saw what this business was able to do in Q2 and Q3 when it when it had a decent mix even though we had a little bit of a sales challenge in Q2 and Q3. So I expect this business to be able to deliver, you know, favorably towards our 20% EBITDA targets there.

但我認為，我的意思是，我們一直在說，我們需要這項業務為公司 20% EBITDA 利潤率的目標做出積極貢獻。因此，我預計該業務能夠提供這些類型的利潤。我的意思是，我們看到了該業務在第二季和第三季的表現，儘管我們在第二季和第三季遇到了一些銷售挑戰，但當它有一個不錯的組合時。因此，我預計該業務能夠順利實現我們 20% 的 EBITDA 目標。

And then last one for me on the H.C. Starck acquisition from late 21, there was a little sliver in that business that was non tantalum based, I think some of that was going to be directed toward clean energy. Any thoughts or comments that you can make along those lines?

然後是我在 H.C. 的最後一篇。從 21 年底開始收購 Starck，該業務中有一小部分不是基於鉭的，我認為其中一些將直接用於清潔能源。您有什麼想法或評論嗎？

Yes, you're actually right and your memory is correct. I mean, we did and I can tell you that that business is doing extremely well from both the tantalum side, by the way of non semi application LC as well as non Tantalum business and where we have pursued other markets and have grown in other markets. So I can tell you that that business has done extremely well over the last year-and-a-half or so with our team, and I expect continued growth in that business over the next over the next few years. Thanks. Best of luck.

是的，你確實是對的，你的記憶也是正確的。我的意思是，我們做到了，我可以告訴您，透過非半應用 LC 和非鉭業務，鉭方面的業務都表現得非常好，我們已經開拓了其他市場並在其他市場取得了成長。所以我可以告訴你，我們團隊在過去一年半左右的時間裡，該業務做得非常好，我預計這項業務在未來幾年將持續成長。謝謝。祝你好運。

Dave Storms, Stonegate.

戴夫·斯托姆斯，石門。

Good morning, Moray, appreciate you taking the question.

早安，莫里，感謝你提出這個問題。

Just I kind of want to start looking at that general market this year, 1st last year, kind of what is the general customer acquisition and contracting environment look like?

只是我想從去年開始關註今年的一般市場，一般的客戶獲取和簽約環境是什麼樣的？

Yes, I think the I think the acquisition and contracting environment has been a good even though the markets the actual sales in 23 were challenged in some of the markets, as we've talked about a new business activity and new product development activity has continued to be strong. And as a result, we're seeing some of those things already convert into new business wins, but we would expect more of that to happen during 24. So I think what's been positive is that customers did not really slowdown new development of new R&D activity, therefore, working with us. And so we would look for those to materialize and contribute to our towards our one to three year sales window.

是的，我認為收購和承包環境一直都很好，儘管 23 個市場的實際銷售在某些市場受到挑戰，因為我們已經討論了新的業務活動，並且新產品開發活動仍在繼續保持強大。因此，我們看到其中一些事情已經轉化為新的業務勝利，但我們預計更多的事情會在 24 小時內發生。因此，我認為積極的一點是，客戶並沒有真正放慢新研發活動的開發速度，因此與我們合作。因此，我們將尋找那些能夠實現並為我們的一到三年銷售窗口做出貢獻的人。

That's perfect. Great color. And just kind of sticking with those business wins obviously, as we've discussed, we're very well aligned with some really cutting-edge technologies in the lighter lighter than a clean energy. Are there any of these technologies that you see as having like a particularly strong potential to take a leap and scale up over the next, you know, 18 to 36 months?

那很完美。顏色很棒。正如我們所討論的，顯然，堅持這些業務勝利，我們與一些比清潔能源更輕的真正尖端技術非常一致。您認為這些技術中是否有任何一種具有特別強大的潛力，可以在接下來的 18 到 36 個月內實現飛躍和擴大規模？

Well, there's a number of things I would say that have contributed, and I expect them to continue. For example, the space activity that we have talked about, I just indicated to fulfill that we used to be just a small player in the space market, mostly government, some of the larger projects. And here we are, you know, talking about $90 million of new business orders, for example, in space, you know, in the '23 calendar year, that's an incredible level of growth that we've been able to drive. That when you look at, for example, the semi market we have a number of things going on, ALD being one of them. And so we do look for ALD and those materials are adopted more and more as more and more advanced chips come out as more and more AI applications happen. We expect that to to grow.

嗯，我想說有很多事情做出了貢獻，我希望它們能夠繼續下去。例如，我們談到的太空活動，我只是表明我們過去只是太空市場中的一個小參與者，主要是政府，一些較大的項目。你知道，我們在這裡談論的是 9000 萬美元的新業務訂單，例如在太空領域，你知道，在 23 日曆年，這是我們能夠推動的令人難以置信的增長水平。例如，當你觀察半成品市場時，我們會發現很多事情正在發生，ALD 就是其中之一。因此，我們確實在尋找 ALD，隨著越來越多的先進晶片的出現以及越來越多的人工智慧應用的出現，這些材料被越來越多地採用。我們預計這一數字將會成長。

When I look at LiDAR, autonomous vehicles, a lot of other different levels of autonomous vehicles. But as we see more and more autonomous vehicles come out that have LiDAR technology, we'd expect that business to continue to then grow. So I think we are excited about the the the megatrends that are out there. And I think our alignment to those mega trends with our with our portfolio. And as you know, we love talking about that in these clubs and other venues.

當我看到光達、自動駕駛汽車以及許多其他不同等級的自動駕駛汽車時。但隨著我們看到越來越多配備光達技術的自動駕駛汽車問世，我們預計該業務將繼續成長。所以我認為我們對現有的大趨勢感到興奮。我認為我們的產品組合與這些大趨勢保持一致。如您所知，我們喜歡在這些俱樂部和其他地方談論這一點。

That's perfect. Thank you. And then just one more for me, if I could. Shelly, I know you just mentioned that you're very focused on organic growth curious as to how you see this in relation to any M&A activity that you should think about for your growth?

那很完美。謝謝。如果可以的話，然後再給我一份。雪莉，我知道您剛剛提到您非常關注有機增長，想知道您如何看待這一點與您應該考慮促進增長的任何併購活動的關係？

Yes, sure. So organic has been our focus, as you know, since we did our last acquisition at the end of '21, which Jugal just referred to. And on the main Tantalum business, we are always open for business, if you will looking at opportunities to expand our portfolio, expand our geographic footprint, but the opportunities that we have that are more near term and certainly have been coming up to be organic. So we love the returns on organic projects. We're continuing to focus there, but we're not closed off to the idea of of M&A should the right thing come along.

是的，當然。如你所知，自從我們在 21 年底進行最後一次收購以來，有機食品一直是我們的重點，Jugal 剛剛提到了這一點。在主要的鉭業務上，如果您想尋找擴大我們的產品組合、擴大我們的地理足跡的機會，我們始終對業務開放，但我們擁有的機會是近期的，而且肯定會成為有機的。 。所以我們喜歡有機項目的回報。我們將繼續關注這一點，但如果出現正確的事情，我們不會放棄併購的想法。

David Silver, CL.

大衛·西爾弗，CL.

Thank you for that. Just one more question and I'll stipulate this might be a little unfair but done. I had a question maybe about your view of the industrial economy. So and it is a meaningful end market and other than electronics related to end markets, it was kind of the weakest in 2023. And then I'll just say like over the last 24 hours, I guess both Japan, which might be a proxy for Asia, Japan, their economy contracted in the fourth quarter and this morning that UK announced a their economy contracted in the fourth quarter as well. So maybe a sign for continued weakness in Europe.

謝謝你。還有一個問題，我會規定這可能有點不公平，但已經完成了。我想問一下您對工業經濟的看法。因此，這是一個有意義的終端市場，除了與終端市場相關的電子產品之外，它是 2023 年最弱的市場。然後我會說，在過去 24 小時內，我想日本（可能是亞洲的代表）日本的經濟在第四季度出現收縮，今天早上英國也宣布其經濟在第四季度出現收縮以及。因此，這可能是歐洲持續疲軟的跡象。

But from your perspective, I mean, what are you hearing from your industrial customers in terms of end market demand and maybe Are things still declining there? Or are there some signs of stabilization? And then more to the point in your fiscal year 2024 full year guidance, what kind of improvement or what kind of change in the industrial end markets you serve is kind of built in there. Thank you.

但從您的角度來看，我的意思是，您從工業客戶那裡聽到了終端市場需求方面的情況，也許那裡的情況仍在下降？還是有一些穩定的跡象？然後更重要的是，在您的 2024 財年全年指導中，您所服務的工業終端市場有什麼樣的改進或什麼樣的變化。謝謝。

Yes, David, that's a great question because that is a it is a large market for us and one that as you can imagine, we're very focused on if you look at just the general industrial market. And one metric that we look at, for example, is PMI. Last time PMI was north of [50%] was September of '22. So long time ago and that and since then, it's below it's below 50, which implies that there's contraction.

是的，大衛，這是一個很好的問題，因為這對我們來說是一個很大的市場，正如你可以想像的那樣，如果你只看一般工業市場，我們非常關注這個市場。例如，我們關注的一項指標是 PMI。上次 PMI 高於 [50%] 是在 2022 年 9 月。很久以前，從那時起，它就低於 50，這意味著存在收縮。

When you look at when you look at our slide 10 and kind of what we have indicated for our industrial market. We believe the industrial market will continue to be a challenged market in the 24 time frame. And that's why we sort of indicate that it's less than 0%. Now in our case, as I indicated earlier, we have a specific product that also is impacted and that's related to nonresidential construction with our Berlin nickel product. But setting that aside, which is really a one-time, it's a specific item. We expect industrial market to continue to be challenged throughout 2014.

當你看我們的投影片 10 時，你會看到我們為工業市場指出的內容。我們相信工業市場在 24 小時內仍將是一個充滿挑戰的市場。這就是為什麼我們表示該比例低於 0%。現在，在我們的案例中，正如我之前指出的，我們有一種特定產品也受到了影響，該產品與我們的柏林鎳產品的非住宅建築有關。但拋開它不談，這實際上是一次性的，它是一個特定的項目。我們預計 2014 年工業市場將繼續面臨挑戰。

What's great about I think our company is we're very well diversified. So clearly, industrial, we expect to be a challenged market. But we've got if you look at Chart 10, we've got all of our markets showing positive except automotive and industrial. So and that's why we're able to, I think say that we would have, you know, about a mid single digit and year-over-year growth led by semi led by aerospace, commercial space and defense and some of the other, some of the other things that we have going on as well.

我認為我們公司的偉大之處在於我們非常多元化。很明顯，我們預期工業市場將會是一個充滿挑戰的市場。但如果你看一下圖 10，我們就會發現，除了汽車和工業市場之外，我們所有的市場都表現出正面的一面。因此，這就是為什麼我們能夠，我認為，我們將實現約中個位數的同比增長，由航空航天、商業航太和國防以及其他一些領域主導，我們還正在進行其他一些事情。

So so I think so I think we're kind of excited about where we're headed despite the fact that we have these headwinds for industrial PMI index being being below 50 for a long time and not sure when that's going to turn and kind of cross 50, again, the organic growth projects that we continue to drive. We highlighted a number of them on our Slide 6, and we'll continue to we'll continue to make sure that we're staying above about market on and all the areas that we're playing in.

所以我認為我們對我們的發展方向感到有點興奮，儘管事實上我們面臨著工業 PMI 指數長期低於 50 的不利因素，並且不確定這種情況何時會發生轉變。再次，跨50 週年，這是我們繼續推動的有機成長項目。我們在投影片 6 中強調了其中的一些內容，我們將繼續確保我們始終關注市場和我們正在參與的所有領域。

Okay.

好的。

And I'm going to just finish with an observation. So this was a record year for your company. I wanted to say, Kyle, I think set a record this quarter with the most pages in the quarterly earnings slide deck. So there's a lot to go through here, maybe send it out a little earlier. My brain doesn't work that fast in the morning, but annually a lot lot of good information here, but another record, another record set, another record setting element to the quarter. Thanks very much. I appreciate that.

我將以一個觀察結束。因此，今年對貴公司來說是創紀錄的一年。我想說，凱爾，我認為本季創下了季度收益幻燈片頁數最多的記錄。所以這裡有很多事情要處理，也許早點發出來。我的大腦在早上工作得不那麼快，但每年這裡都會有很多好信息，但另一個記錄，另一個記錄集，另一個創紀錄的元素到了季度。非常感謝。我很感激。

I think, well, I know it was a comment, but I'll just add to that that this is our 3rd year in a row of record sales, record EBITDA, record margin. So -- and record EPS, '21, '22 and '23. Our team has done just a fantastic job of delivering both on the top line and the bottom line, even during challenging times, which we experienced still in '23. And I think we're extremely well positioned to continue that into '24 and have '24 be another record year for us.

我想，嗯，我知道這是一個評論，但我只想補充一點，這是我們連續第三年創下銷售記錄、創紀錄的 EBITDA 和創紀錄的利潤率。所以 - 並記錄 EPS，'21，'22 和'23。我們的團隊在實現收入和利潤方面都做得非常出色，即使在充滿挑戰的時期，我們在 23 年也經歷過這種情況。我認為我們處於非常有利的位置，可以將這種情況延續到 24 年，並讓 24 年成為我們另一個創紀錄的一年。

Thank you. And this does conclude today's question and answer session. I have no, I would now like to hand the call over to Kim Callahan for closing remark.

謝謝。今天的問答環節到此結束。我沒有，我現在想將會議轉交給金·卡拉漢 (Kim Callahan) 致閉幕詞。

Thank you. This concludes our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call and recorded playback of this call will be available on the company's website, materion.com.

謝謝。我們的 2023 年第四季財報電話會議到此結束，本次電話會議的錄音回放將在公司網站 materion.com 上提供。

I'd like to thank you for participating on this call and your interest in Materion will be available for any follow-up questions. My number is two one six three eight three four nine three one. Thank you again.

我要感謝您參加本次電話會議，如果您對 Materion 感興趣，我們將隨時解答您的任何後續問題。我的號碼是二一六三八三四九三一。再次感謝你。

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。