RBC Bearings Inc (RBC) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for RBC Bearings Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I'm Josh Carroll, the Investor Relations team. With me on today's call are Dr. Hartnett, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Daniel Bergeron, Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Rob Sullivan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

早安，感謝各位參加 RBC Bearings 2026 財年第二季財報電話會議。我是投資者關係團隊的喬許·卡羅爾。今天與我一起參加電話會議的有：董事長、總裁兼執行長哈特內特博士；董事、副總裁兼營運長丹尼爾·伯傑龍；以及副總裁兼財務長羅布·沙利文。

As a reminder, some of the statements made today may be forward-looking and are under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to RBC Bearings' recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition. These factors are also listed in the press release, along with the reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information.

提醒各位，今天發表的一些聲明可能屬於前瞻性聲明，並受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的約束。由於多種因素的影響，實際結果可能與預測或暗示的結果有重大差異。有關可能影響公司未來營運績效和財務狀況的風險的更詳細討論，請參閱 RBC Bearings 最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。這些因素也在新聞稿中列出，同時也列出了 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務資訊之間的調整表。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Dr. Hartnett.

接下來，我將把電話交給哈特內特博士。

Good morning, and thank you. So good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As usual, I'm going to start today's call with a short review of our financial results with some comments, and I'll finish our outlook on the industry in fiscal 2026. Rob Sullivan will follow me with some more details on the results.

早安，謝謝。大家早安，感謝各位的收看。像往常一樣，我將首先簡要回顧我們的財務表現並做一些評論，然後我將總結我們對 2026 財年行業的展望。羅布·沙利文將隨後帶來更多關於結果的細節。

Second quarter net sales were $455.3 million, a 14.4% increase over last year, driven by continued strong performance in our Aerospace and Defense segment and steady performance from our industrial businesses. Consolidated gross margin for the quarter was 44.1% versus 43.7% for the same period last year, and adjusted EPS was $2.88 versus $2.29 last year. Clearly, our performance exceeded our expectations for the second quarter of fiscal '26, and the company is showing good momentum moving into the second half of RBC's year.

第二季淨銷售額為 4.553 億美元，比去年同期成長 14.4%，主要得益於航空航太和國防業務的持續強勁表現以及工業業務的穩定成長。本季綜合毛利率為 44.1%，去年同期為 43.7%；調整後每股收益為 2.88 美元，去年同期為 2.29 美元。顯然，我們在 2026 財年第二季的業績超出了預期，公司在進入 RBC 財年下半年之際展現了良好的發展勢頭。

Free cash flow for the period was a strong $71.7 million. 56% of our revenues were industrial sector and 44% Aerospace and Defense, with the Aerospace and Defense sector now racing to parity, we think, next year. Total A&D sales were up 38.8% year-on-year. Commercial aerospace expanded 21.6%. Defense expansion was 73.3%.

本期自由現金流強勁，達到 7,170 萬美元。在我們的收入中，56% 來自工業領域，44% 來自航空航太和國防領域，我們認為，航空航太和國防領域明年將迅速實現收入與工業領域持平。A&D 總銷售額年增 38.8%。商業航空航太業成長了21.6%。國防擴張率為 73.3%。

Organically, the performance looks like this. Commercial aerospace increased by 21.2%. Defense increased by 22.4%. Demand across the A&D sector is impressive and momentum is strong. Backlog is up to $1.6 billion today from $940 million in March and $860 million last year at this time.

從自然角度來看，表演效果如下。商業航空航太業成長了21.2%。國防開支增加了22.4%。航空航太與國防領域的需求十分強勁，發展勢頭良好。目前積壓訂單已達 16 億美元，而 3 月為 9.4 億美元，去年同期為 8.6 億美元。

We fully expect to approach $2 billion in backlog by year's end, which will be an amazing milestone, especially when you consider that more than half of our revenues preclude backlog production. Although revenues are currently capped by production capacity, we are working hard to expand manufacturing capacities in our marine and aircraft RBC plants, adding more capacity each quarter. Clearly, this will be impactful to margins.

我們完全有信心在年底前實現近 20 億美元的積壓訂單，這將是一個驚人的里程碑，尤其考慮到我們超過一半的收入還不包括積壓訂單的生產。儘管目前收入受到產能的限制，但我們正在努力擴大我們在船舶和飛機 RBC 工廠的生產能力，每個季度都會增加產能。顯然，這將對利潤率產生影響。

Primary drivers here are submarine aircraft and engine customers. Proprietary components are quiet valves and actuators for submarines, that is the Virginia and Columbia boats as well as MRO supplies for existing fleets. Both Sargent and VACCO are the RBC contributors here. On airframe and engines, as Boeing and Airbus and Embraer continue increasing build rates to unprecedented levels, production of our products, of course, must follow.

主要驅動因素是潛水艇飛機和引擎客戶。專有組件包括潛艇的靜音閥門和執行器，例如弗吉尼亞級和哥倫比亞級潛艇以及現有艦隊的 MRO 供應品。Sargent 和 VACCO 都是 RBC 的撰稿人。在機身和引擎方面，隨著波音、空中巴士和巴西航空工業公司不斷將生產速度提高到前所未有的水平，我們產品的生產當然也必須隨之提高。

As most of you know, we have substantial content in these airframes and engines, where we supply precision and line bearings as well as integrated structural components across aircraft and engine spectrum. And with Boeing's recent FAA approval to expand production rates, business is good and about to get better. It's important to understand that building rates of submarines and commercial aircraft are at levels not seen in over a generation since the early 1980s for submarines for reasons both good and bad.

正如你們大多數人所知，我們在這些機身和發動機領域擁有大量產品，我們為飛機和發動機提供精密軸承、線路軸承以及整合結構部件。隨著波音公司最近獲得美國聯邦航空管理局批准擴大生產規模，其業務狀況良好，並且即將變得更好。需要注意的是，潛艇和商用飛機的建造速度已經達到了近幾十年來的最高水平，其中潛艇的建造速度達到了 80 年代初以來的最高水平，這其中既有好的方面，也有壞的方面。

We are -- we currently are booking some orders for deliveries into the 2030s. RBC is dead center in the middle of this effort today with a considerable number of proprietary sole and single-source products governed by multiyear contracts in the majority of cases.

我們正在——我們目前正在接受一些訂單，預計交貨時間將持續到 2030 年代。RBC 目前正處於這項努力的核心位置，擁有大量專有的獨家和單一來源產品，其中大多數產品都受多年合約約束。

Let's turn over to our industrial business now. Overall, our industrial business was up 0.7%. Industrial distribution was up 3.3%, while the OEM sector was off 4.7%. Continued weakness in the markets of oil, semiconductor machinery and European machine tools continue. Our industrial OEM business is a 70/30 split with 30% being the OEM component.

現在我們來談談工業業務。整體而言，我們的工業業務成長了0.7%。工業分銷業成長了 3.3%，而 OEM 產業下降了 4.7%。石油、半導體機械和歐洲工具機市場持續疲軟。我們的工業OEM業務組成是70/30，其中30%是OEM零件。

We are encouraged to see the continued demand in the industrial aftermarket across many of the markets that we monitor. These include aggregates, metals, grains, food and beverage, forest products, warehousing to name a few.

我們很高興地看到，在我們關注的許多市場中，工業售後市場的需求持續成長。其中包括骨材、金屬、穀物、食品和飲料、林產品、倉儲等等。

I'll now turn the call over to Rob Sullivan, who will give some color commentary on the financial treatments and the Q3 outlook.

現在我將把電話交給羅伯·沙利文，他將對財務處理和第三季展望進行一些評論。

Thank you, Mike. As Dr. Hartnett mentioned, this was another strong quarter for RBC. Net sales grew 14.4%, driving a 15.4% increase in gross margin. Gross margins were 44.1% for the quarter or 44.9% on an adjusted basis compared to 43.7% in the same period last year.

謝謝你，麥克。正如哈特內特博士所提到的那樣，這對紅血球銀行來說又是一個強勁的季度。淨銷售額成長14.4%，帶動毛利率成長15.4%。本季毛利率為 44.1%，經調整後為 44.9%，去年同期為 43.7%。

During the quarter, we delivered strong performance across our business segments, specifically within A&D, which has been seeing strong growth, as Dr. Hartnett previously noted. A&D gross margins during the quarter were 38.7% or 42.3% on an organic basis, and industrial margins were 48.2%. Included in the Aerospace results were $24.7 million of net sales from VACCO during the period, which was acquired on July 18, this quarter.

本季度，我們各個業務部門都取得了強勁的業績，特別是航空航天與國防領域，正如哈特內特博士之前指出的那樣，該領域實現了強勁增長。本季航空航太與國防業務的毛利率為 38.7%，以有機成長計算為 42.3%，工業業務的毛利率為 48.2%。本季度，航空航太業務的業績包含了 VACCO 在本季的 2,470 萬美元淨銷售額，VACCO 於本季 7 月 18 日被收購。

On the SG&A line, we had total costs of $77.4 million or 17% of net sales for the quarter. This ultimately resulted in an adjusted EBITDA of $145.3 million or 31.9% for the quarter. That represents an approximate 17.7% increase in EBITDA dollars compared to last year.

在銷售、一般及行政費用方面，本季總成本為 7,740 萬美元，佔淨銷售額的 17%。最終，該季度的調整後 EBITDA 為 1.453 億美元，佔 31.9%。與去年相比，這相當於 EBITDA 美元成長了約 17.7%。

Interest expense for the quarter was $13.4 million. This was down 14.1% year-over-year, reflecting the impact of debt payments made over the last 12 months and lower interest rates, partially offset by the impact of borrowing $200 million on the revolver in July to assist in paying for the acquisition of VACCO.

本季利息支出為1340萬美元。與去年同期相比下降了 14.1%，反映了過去 12 個月償還債務和利率下降的影響，但部分被 7 月從循環信貸中藉入 2 億美元以幫助支付收購 VACCO 的費用所抵消。

During the second quarter, we paid off $45 million on our term loan balance. We made an additional $40 million payment on September 30, which will be reflected in next quarter's results. Diluted earnings per share were $1.90 compared to $1.65 for the same period last year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $2.88, representing a 25.8% increase over $2.29 for the same period last year. The tax rate in our adjusted EPS calculation was 22% compared to last year's 22.1%.

第二季度，我們償還了 4500 萬美元的定期貸款餘額。我們在9月30日追加支付了4,000萬美元，這將在下一季的業績中反映出來。稀釋後每股收益為 1.90 美元，而去年同期為 1.65 美元。經過調整後的稀釋每股收益為 2.88 美元，比去年同期的 2.29 美元增長了 25.8%。我們調整後的每股盈餘計算中的稅率為 22%，而去年為 22.1%。

Free cash flow in the quarter came in at $71.7 million with conversion of 119.5% and compares to $26.8 million and 49.4% last year. The higher conversion rate was due to the increased earnings and working capital management during the quarter.

本季自由現金流為 7,170 萬美元，轉換率為 119.5%，而去年同期為 2,680 萬美元，轉換率為 49.4%。較高的轉換率是由於本季獲利增加和營運資金管理改善。

As we have previously noted, our capital allocation strategy going forward will remain focused on deleveraging by using the cash that we are generating to pay off the term loan and then the revolver balance. This week, we finalized an amendment to our credit facility, extending the revolver until 2030. We intend to pay the term loan off by November of 2026.

正如我們之前提到的，我們未來的資本配置策略將繼續專注於去槓桿化，利用我們產生的現金償還定期貸款，然後償還循環貸款餘額。本週，我們最終敲定了信貸安排的修訂案，將循環信貸期限延長至 2030 年。我們計劃在 2026 年 11 月之前還清定期貸款。

Looking into the third quarter, we are guiding revenues of $454 million to $462 million, representing year-over-year growth of 15.1% to 17.1%. This guidance embeds an operating environment that's been fairly similar to what we have been seeing over the past few quarters with the additional benefit of owning VACCO for a full quarter.

展望第三季度，我們預計營收為 4.54 億美元至 4.62 億美元，年增 15.1% 至 17.1%。此指導意見所體現的營運環境與我們過去幾季所看到的非常相似，此外，還享有持有 VACCO 一整季的額外好處。

On an organic basis, net sales are expected to increase 7.4% to 9.5%. On the margin side, we are projecting adjusted gross margins of 44% to 44.25% for the quarter and SG&A as a percentage of sales to be between 17% and 17.25% for the period. We continue to remain well positioned to achieve our objectives and drive sustainable growth, leveraging our core strengths in engineering excellence, operational efficiency and innovative product development.

以有機成長計算，淨銷售額預計將成長 7.4% 至 9.5%。在利潤率方面，我們預期本季調整後的毛利率為 44% 至 44.25%，銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的百分比為 17% 至 17.25%。我們憑藉在工程技術卓越性、營運效率和創新產品開發方面的核心優勢，繼續保持良好的發展前景，實現我們的目標並推動永續成長。

Looking ahead, our focus will remain squarely on executing on our organic growth strategy, further integrating VACCO, driving operational efficiencies and delivering strong free cash flow conversion that will create long-term value for all our stakeholders.

展望未來，我們將繼續專注於執行我們的有機成長策略，進一步整合 VACCO，提高營運效率，並實現強勁的自由現金流轉化，為我們所有的利害關係人創造長期價值。

With that, operator, please open the call for Q&A.

操作員，請開啟問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Kristine Liwag, Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指示）Kristine Liwag，摩根士丹利。

Maybe following up on the backlog. You had a very strong backlog growth of 60% in the quarter. Can you provide any color regarding how much of that was just from the VACCO acquisition? And also what were the key drivers of that increase?

或許是在處理積壓的工作。本季你們的積壓訂單成長非常強勁，達到了 60%。您能否透露一下，其中有多少資金只是來自對 VACCO 的收購？那麼，推動這項成長的關鍵因素是什麼？

And then also, you alluded to actually -- you actually said a $2 billion backlog by the end of your fiscal year. That's a significant step-up from where we are today. Any sort of color on what you're seeing there would be helpful.

而且，你還暗示——你實際上說過，到本財年結束時，積壓訂單將達到 20 億美元。這比我們目前的狀況有了顯著的進步。任何能描述你所看到內容的顏色的資訊都會很有幫助。

Yes. So approximately $500 million of that increase is due to the VACCO acquisition. And then the remainder of the business is up more than 20% from this time last year. We're seeing extraordinarily strong growth in the A&D side of the business. Approximately 90% plus of our backlog is really all A&D. The industrial side has a much smaller component when you look at our backlog, and we expect that to continue through the rest of the year.

是的。因此，這其中約有 5 億美元的成長是由於收購 VACCO 所致。其餘業務也比去年同期成長了 20% 以上。我們看到航空航太與國防業務方面出現了異常強勁的成長。我們積壓訂單中大約 90% 以上實際上都是航空航太和國防項目。從我們的積壓訂單來看，工業方面的佔比要小得多，我們預計這種情況將持續到今年年底。

Yes, Kristine, we're currently negotiating contracts with -- and we're very far along. They're very mature in the negotiations, and we expect to conclude those within the month, which should kind of round the whole thing up to that $2 billion level, at least that neighborhood. Maybe it's $100 million less, maybe it's $100 million more, something like that. But it's -- to some extent, we've had rollover of aircraft contracts, which all begin sort of next year. And there's still several marine contracts that we're working our way through and really, for the most part, have worked our way through it, and we're waiting for the conclusion of the signatures.

是的，克里斯汀，我們目前正在與對方洽談合約——而且進展非常順利。他們在談判中表現得非常成熟，我們預計在一個月內完成談判，這將使整個交易金額至少達到 20 億美元左右。或許少了 1 億美元，或許多了 1 億美元，大概就是這樣。但在某種程度上，我們已經有一些飛機合約延期，這些合約都將於明年開始生效。我們還有幾份海事合約正在處理中，實際上大部分已經處理完畢，現在正在等待最終的簽字。

Great. Super helpful. And then I think Dr. Hartnett, last time when we talked, it seems like Boeing production rates are starting to move up to the right. And from Boeing's earnings this quarter, it seems like that's really truly materializing. Can you just remind us regarding your production rates? What's the utilization of your aerospace plants?

偉大的。非常有用。然後我想哈特內特博士，上次我們談話時，波音的生產力似乎開始向右移動。從波音公司本季的收益來看，這似乎真的正在成為現實。能否提醒一下貴公司的生產力？你們的航空航太工廠利用率如何？

And when we think about this volume finally coming through, how should we think about incremental operating margins, especially with the changes in contract that you've had and of course, the inflation that's gone through the business in the past few years?

當我們考慮這部分銷售最終到貨時，我們應該如何看待增量營業利潤率，尤其是在合約發生變化以及過去幾年行業面臨的通貨膨脹的情況下？

Well, I mean, it's -- right now, in terms of capacity utilization for the airframe business, we're pretty much at 100% everywhere. And so we're adding capacity. We're adding shifts. We're adding manpower, and we're adding some capital to continue -- and we're going to be stepping up capacity every quarter going forward in several of the plants. Demand is strong. There's -- so you're going to see, obviously, when you add -- when you add shifts, you get better absorption of the overheads. And so you get some margin expansion there. So the outlook for margin expansion overall is -- it just couldn't be more positive.

嗯，我的意思是，就目前飛機機身業務的產能利用率而言，我們幾乎所有地方的產能利用率都達到了 100%。因此，我們正在增加產能。我們正在增加班次。我們正在增加人手，並投入一些資金繼續發展——而且我們將在幾個工廠中逐步提高每個季度的產能。需求強勁。所以很明顯，當你增加班次時，就能更好地吸收間接費用。這樣就能獲得一定的利潤空間。因此，利潤率擴張的整體前景——簡直不能更樂觀了。

Yes, that's very exciting to hear.

是的，聽到這個消息真是令人興奮。

Michael Ciarmoli, Truist Securities.

Michael Ciarmoli，Truist Securities。

Nice results. Maybe just housekeeping. I think I may have missed it, Rob. What was the Aero OEM growth in the quarter and the Aero distribution growth in the quarter?

結果不錯。或許只是客房服務。羅布，我想我可能錯過了。本季航空OEM業務成長了多​​少？航空分銷業務本季成長了多少？

So the Aero OEM -- you talking commercial or are you talking about the whole segment?

所以，航空OEM廠商－您指的是商業領域還是整個細分市場？

Just commercial. Sorry.

僅供商業用途。對不起。

So commercial OEM grew 27.9% this quarter. And commercial distribution was basically flat. It's actually down 2%, but more or less flat.

因此，本季商業OEM業務成長了27.9%。商業發行基本持平。實際上下降了2%，但基本持平。

Okay. Okay. Got it. And then just looking at industrial distribution, it looks like it was -- I think you had it up 3.3%, but down 8% sequentially. Anything happening there? Was that any sort of seasonality, lumpy orders? I know it's usually down a little bit sequentially on a seasonal basis. But anything jump out with that industrial distribution side?

好的。好的。知道了。然後，僅從工業分佈來看，情況似乎是——我認為你們說它增長了 3.3%，但環比下降了 8%。那邊發生什麼事了嗎？訂單量出現波動是季節性因素造成的嗎？我知道它通常會隨著季節變化而略有下降。但工業分銷方面有特別突出的地方嗎？

We had some really relatively strong performance in the industrial distribution business in the first quarter, some really strong orders on that end. So the fact is it's still growing. It's just probably quarter-over-quarter, that's what you're seeing there.

第一季度，我們在工業分銷業務方面取得了相對強勁的業績，該業務獲得了一些非常強勁的訂單。所以事實是它仍在成長。這可能只是季度環比變化，你看到的就是這樣。

Okay. Got it. And then I think you guys called out the dilution from VACCO roughly 360 basis points or so. Can you give us any sense as to how we should think about the VACCO margins expanding? I know you kind of just answered Kristine's question with -- couldn't be more positive on the outlook for margin expansion. But how do we think about that maybe VACCO drag dissipating and getting those margins up to and in line of historic RBC margins?

好的。知道了。然後，我認為你們指出了 VACCO 的股價稀釋了大約 360 個基點左右。您能否就我們應該如何看待VACCO利潤率的擴大給出一些看法？我知道你剛才已經回答了 Kristine 的問題——對利潤率擴張的前景非常樂觀。但是，我們如何看待 VACCO 拖累因素的消散，以及利潤率如何上升並達到 RBC 歷史利潤率水準？

Yes. So look, they're running in the mid-20s at this point on an adjusted basis, that's their normal run rate. It's going to take some time, but we think there's tremendous capacity for some operational synergy there over time to get those margins looking like the rest of the RBC business. That's what we picked up on when we were doing diligence. And that's kind of the internal objectives. But these projects do take time.

是的。所以你看，他們目前的勝率是20多分（經過調整後），這是他們正常的勝率。這需要一些時間，但我們認為隨著時間的推移，這方面存在巨大的營運協同效應潛力，可以使這些利潤率看起來與 RBC 其他業務的利潤率一樣好。這是我們進行盡職調查時發現的問題。這就是我們的內部目標。但這些項目確實需要時間。

Yes, Michael, I would say on that, too, that we -- as far as VACCO is concerned, we're still in the getting to know you phase and very encouraged by what we see and lots of manufacturing synergy with Southern California plants, which is needed because VACCO needs to substantially kick up production rates. And those rates will -- that manufacturing production will be done in the West Coast plants that have the floor space, and they'll need some added capacity. So we're working on that right now. So that's going to be very positive to margin absorption on the West Coast. So -- and I think the -- right now, we're looking at some of the existing space contracts and renegotiating terms and conditions that are more aligned with RBC policies. And so we're just working through that one at a time, and that's part of the process. So we expect next year to VACCO to be a star player in our lineup.

是的，邁克爾，關於這一點，我也想說，就 VACCO 而言，我們仍處於相互了解的階段，我們對所看到的以及與南加州工廠的許多生產協同效應感到非常鼓舞，這是必要的，因為 VACCO 需要大幅提高生產率。這些生產率將會提高——製造業生產將在擁有足夠廠房面積的西海岸工廠進行，而這些工廠需要增加一些產能。所以我們現在正在努力解決這個問題。所以這對西海岸的利潤吸收來說將是一個非常積極的信號。所以——而且我認為——目前，我們正在審視一些現有的太空合同，並重新談判條款和條件，使其更符合加拿大皇家銀行的政策。所以我們只能一個一個解決，這也是過程的一部分。因此，我們預計明年 VACCO 將成為我們陣容中的明星球員。

Steve Barger, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

史蒂夫·巴格爾，KeyBanc Capital Markets。

You talked about adding capacity to support all these aerospace and defense programs. And I'm sure planning for that growth is a moving target, but what revenue level did you direct the team to plan for?

您提到要增加產能來支援所有這些航空航太和國防項目。我知道，規劃成長目標是一個不斷變化的目標，但您指示團隊規劃的收入水準是多少？

For that group?

對於那個群體來說？

For -- yes, let's start with A&D and then maybe talk about the whole company.

——是的，我們先從A&D開始，然後再談談整個公司。

Why don't we just e-mail you our five-year business plan, Steve?

史蒂夫，我們為什麼不直接把五年商業計劃寄email給你呢？

Well, you're talking about needing to substantially ramp production across multiple programs. I'm just wondering, do you think that you need to be able to support $1.2 billion, $1.5 billion? I'm just talking A&D now. Or is this going to be a $3 billion capacity plan? Or is this going to be a situation where you're just continually kind of tacking it on and chasing that capacity as those programs evolve?

嗯，你指的是需要大幅提高多個專案的產量。我只是想知道，你認為你需要有能力支撐 12 億美元、15 億美元嗎？我現在只談航空航天與國防。或者這將是一項耗資 30 億美元的產能計畫？或者，這種情況會是，隨著這些項目的不斷發展，你只能不斷地添加新功能，並努力提升自身能力？

Well, I think that's a good question. There's -- we're doing it sort of business by business, and I haven't rolled it all up into what the final number is going to be. And a lot of that depends upon how quickly we can add the capacity and get the throughput.

嗯，我覺得這是個好問題。我們現在是逐一業務進行，我還沒有把所有數據匯總起來，得出最終的數字。而這很大程度上取決於我們能夠以多快的速度增加產能並提高吞吐量。

But if you look at one of our businesses on the marine side of Sargent, I think two years ago, we're in the mid-30s in terms of annual revenue out of that marine program. And we need to be well over $100 million as quickly as we can get there. And so it's a matter of how quickly can we get there. So that's kind of what's going on in Tucson.

但如果你看看我們 Sargent 公司海洋業務方面的一項業務，我認為兩年前，我們海洋計畫的年收入在 30 萬美元左右。我們需要盡快達到1億美元以上的目標。所以問題在於我們能以多快的速度到達那裡。這就是圖森目前的情況。

And when we look at VACCO, we're still trying to figure out what the mature steady-state production rate needs to be in order to keep the MRO business and the shipbuilders happy with the hardware output. So we haven't -- we have differences of opinion on what that number is right now, so I can't really be more specific about it, but it's much bigger than where they are.

當我們審視 VACCO 時，我們仍在努力弄清楚成熟的穩定狀態生產力需要達到多少，才能讓 MRO 業務和造船商對硬體產量感到滿意。所以，我們目前對這個數字有分歧，所以我無法給出更具體的數字，但它比他們現在的規模大得多。

So yes, we're going to see substantial improvement in both airframe, air engine and marine over the next couple of years. There's almost no way to avoid it if they keep building airplanes and they keep building submarines. It's just -- there's no way to avoid it.

所以，是的，未來幾年，我們將在飛機機身、航空發動機和船舶領域看到實質的改進。如果他們繼續造飛機和造潛艇，幾乎沒有辦法避免這種情況。就是這樣——根本無法避免。

Right. No, I guess that's the key takeaway here is that RBC has the potential to have a pretty significant [top] plan based on the fleet of opportunity you see in front of you.

正確的。不，我想關鍵在於，RBC 有可能根據你眼前看到的眾多機會制定一個相當重要的[頂級]計劃。

Correct. That's how we see it.

正確的。我們是這麼看的。

And when you look at those programs and opportunities out there, do you have enough engineering staff to support underwater ground-based aircraft space? Like is that a capacity constraint as well on the engineering side?

當你審視那些專案和機會時，你是否有足夠的工程人員來支援水下陸基飛機空間？這是否也構成工程方面的產能限制？

Well, you never have enough engineers, and you certainly never have enough good engineers. I don't think it's a capacity constraint. I think the design engineering work and the testing engineering work for the most part, is done. And so there's probably incremental staff increases needed, although when we acquired VACCO, we got quite a few very capable engineering team. So that's going to be helpful.

工程師永遠不會太多，優秀的工程師更是永遠不會太多。我不認為這是產能限制。我認為設計工程工作和測試工程工作大部分已經完成。因此，可能需要逐步增加人員配備，儘管當我們收購 VACCO 時，我們得到了一支非常有能力的工程團隊。那會很有幫助。

I think on the production side, we have our MET program where we hire college engineering graduates every year and put them into our plants into a two-year training program. And we've been doing this for years.

我認為在生產方面，我們有MET項目，每年都會招募大學工程專業的畢業生，並將他們安排到我們的工廠進行為期兩年的培訓。我們多年來一直這樣做。

And I think the last time I looked at the numbers, the number of people that were in the two-year training program, it was probably 100 folks. So I mean, we've been salting engineering talent into the company for years. So we have a very deep bench of expertise. And we're actually looking at that yesterday at who's in the 10- to 15-year group with us and because that's the emerging management of the company, and it's quite salty.

我記得上次查看數據時，參加兩年培訓計畫的人數大概是 100 人。我的意思是，多年來我們一直在向公司輸送工程人才。所以我們擁有非常雄厚的專業人才儲備。昨天我們確實在關注公司裡那些與我們共事 10 到 15 年的人，因為那是公司正在崛起的管理階層，而且情況相當複雜。

That's good to hear. I don't remember ever hearing an AI-related question on one of your earnings calls, so I'm happy to be first. Are you leaning into AI from the engineering side or anywhere else in the organization to try and help optimize manufacturing or engineering or anything else?

聽到這個消息真好。我印像中從未在你們的財報電話會議上聽過與人工智慧相關的問題，所以我很高興成為第一個提問的人。您是否正在從工程方面或組織的其他任何方面著手應用人工智慧，以幫助優化製造、工程或其他任何環節？

I think AI is something you almost can't avoid using, right? It's just -- you get too many good answers quickly when you go to Chat or you go to Grok or one of the suppliers. And I personally -- I mean, I ask my five questions every day. I never subscribe to ChatGPT, but they do give me five questions every day, and I use them up every day.

我認為人工智慧幾乎是無法避免使用的，對吧？就是——當你去聊天室、Grok 或某個供應商那裡時，你會很快得到很多很好的答案。我個人每天都會問自己五個問題。我從不訂閱 ChatGPT，但他們每天都會給我五個問題，而且我每天都會用完。

And I think there's many, many of us that subscribe and use it productively. So yes, it's having an impact to measure -- how to measure exactly what that impact is right now. We don't have that -- we don't have a good grip on that. But the other day, we were talking about designing a component that was failing in our tests. And so I personally asked AI, what kind of tribological coupling did beryllium copper make on steel?

我認為我們當中有很多人訂閱了該服務，並且能夠有效地使用它。所以，是的，它確實產生了影響，但如何衡量這種影響呢？目前該如何準確衡量這種影響呢？我們沒有那種能力——我們對此沒有很好的掌控。但前幾天，我們還在討論設計一個在測試中失敗的元件。因此，我親自詢問人工智慧，鈹銅與鋼之間形成了什麼樣的摩擦學耦合？

And how would I improve that coupling through design. In 30 seconds, I got a report that would have taken me a week to get from one of my engineering teams, that was excellent. And we actually debated using some of those recommendations within the hour. So that's how -- that's the impact it's having here.

我該如何透過設計來改善這種耦合效果？30 秒內，我就得到了一份報告，如果我從我的工程團隊那裡獲取這份報告，則需要一周的時間，這太棒了。事實上，我們在一個小時內就討論並採納了其中的一些建議。這就是它在這裡產生的影響。

That's interesting detail.

這是一個有趣的細節。

Scott Deuschle, Deutsche Bank.

史考特‧德施勒，德意志銀行。

Rob, when you restrike the Boeing and Airbus contracts, do we see the full benefit of that hit in the calendar first quarter? Or do you have to honor some pre-existing backlog ordered at lower prices such that it takes a few quarters for that benefit to show up in gross margins?

羅布，當你重新簽訂波音和空中巴士的合約時，我們能否在第一季看到這項打擊帶來的全部好處？或者，您是否必須履行一些先前以較低價格訂購的積壓訂單，以至於需要幾個季度才能在毛利率中體現出這種收益？

We should see most, if not all of that, right away on the shipments that start after January 1.

我們應該會在 1 月 1 日之後開始的發貨中立即看到大部分（如果不是全部）產品。

Okay. And in terms of what you all have been targeting to get out of those renegotiations, are you generally tracking to what you hoped for in terms of your ask? Or is there any just general update as it relates to the status of those negotiations you can offer?

好的。至於你們希望透過這些重新談判達成的目標，你們的訴求總體上是否達到了預期？或者，您能否提供一些關於這些談判進展的整體更新資訊？

Well, you never get what you asked. I mean, it's -- the airframe people are very tough negotiators. So let's just put it this way. We negotiated with them for two solid years. And that negotiation was scheduled every week for two solid years.

唉，你永遠也得不到你想要的。我的意思是，飛機製造部門的人都是非常強硬的談判者。我們就這麼說吧。我們與他們進行了整整兩年的談判。而且，那次談判連續兩年每週都舉行一次。

Got it. Okay. Go ahead.

知道了。好的。前進。

And we were reasonably -- I think neither side was completely happy with the results, but we weren't disappointed.

我們雙方都比較滿意——我認為雙方對結果都不是完全滿意，但我們並沒有失望。

Okay. And then just following up on the prior question on AI. Caterpillar reported results earlier this week. They have an Investor Day next week. A big topic of conversation is the demand on the smaller and midsized power generators. I don't think on the large combined cycle generators, you have much content, correct me if I'm wrong. But on the smaller and midsized reciprocating engines, is that at all an area that RBC plays in?

好的。然後，我想就之前關於人工智慧的問題做個後續討論。卡特彼勒公司本週稍早公佈了業績報告。他們下週將舉辦投資者日活動。目前討論的熱門話題之一是中小型發電機的需求情況。我認為關於大型聯合循環發電機，你們的內容不多，如果我錯了請指正。但是，在小型和中型往復式引擎領域，RBC 是否涉足其中？

No,. No, we're not in that area at all.

不，。不，我們根本不在那個區域。

Okay. And then last question for you, Dr. Hartnett. There's now a publicly traded company out there that's generating 30% EBITDA margins in their fasteners business. And the industry appears to have some supply constraints. And I believe you'll have some capabilities here. You got through Sargent and shear pin. So just curious, like is that an area of strategic interest for you as you think about organic investment in the business, just given the margin potential others in the industry are demonstrating?

好的。最後一個問題，哈特內特博士。現在有一家上市公司，其緊固件業務的 EBITDA 利潤率達到了 30%。該行業似乎存在一些供應限制。我相信你在這裡會展現出一些能力。你通過了薩金特和剪切銷的考驗。所以我很好奇，考慮到業內其他公司所展現出的利潤潛力，在您考慮對業務進行有機投資時，這是否是您關注的策略領域？

We've looked at fasteners many times. And yes, we have a business that sort of overlaps that market. And it's -- we don't see it as productive market in terms of proprietary protection and -- and what our current capitalization is tool to produce is let's put it this way. There's more interesting markets that we pursued.

我們已經多次研究過緊固件。是的，我們的業務與該市場有些重疊。而且——我們認為它在專有保護方面不是一個高效的市場——而我們目前的資本是用來生產……這麼說吧。還有一些更有趣的市場值得我們去探索。

Pete Skibitski, Alembic Global.

Pete Skibitski，Alembic Global。

Nice quarter. In defense, just with this government shutdown, we're about a month into your third quarter. Just wondering if you guys are seeing any headwinds on order flow from the shutdown.

不錯的街區。就國防方面而言，僅僅因為這次政府停擺，我們已經進入了你們的第三季度大約一個月的時間。想問你們是否也遇到了疫情停工而導致的訂單量下降問題。

None, none.

沒有，沒有。

None. Subs are pretty protected. Okay. And then just on the 777X delay ship to the right, Mike, I know you guys have a lot of content there. Any meaningful impact to your prior plan over the next few quarters from that delay?

沒有任何。替補隊員受到相當程度的保護。好的。然後，就在右邊的 777X 延遲船上，Mike，我知道你們那裡有很多內容。此次延誤是否會對您未來幾季的原計劃產生任何實質影響？

No, it hasn't been part of our plan at all just because the uncertainty of when that ship is going to be produced. So we just -- if it's produced sooner, it's -- we'd call that plan insurance.

不，這根本不在我們的計畫之內，因為那艘船何時能建造出來還存在不確定性。所以，如果它能更快生產出來，我們就稱之為保險。

Okay. Last one for me, just on, Mike, your bullish comments earlier about gross margin expansion. Are you still within the framework of the kind of your typical 50 to 100 basis point annual goal? Or are you moving kind of beyond that organically and/or with the VACCO opportunity there? What's the right way to think about that?

好的。最後，麥克，我想問你之前關於毛利率擴張的樂觀評論。您是否仍在設定典型的每年 50 到 100 個基點的目標範圍內？或者，您是否正在透過自身發展和/或 VACCO 的機會，逐步超越這種現狀？對此正確的思考方式是什麼？

Well, we ended last year at about 44.4% for the full year. Our first two quarters this year, 45.4%, 44.9%. Obviously, VACCO is a little bit lower than the rest. So that will impact the second half of the year to a certain degree. But organically, we're right in line with that level of expansion. And even with VACCO, I think we're still going to be able to expand our margins year-over-year. So I think we're very pleased with where we are.

去年全年我們的轉換率約為 44.4%。今年前兩季分別為 45.4% 和 44.9%。顯然，VACCO 比其他幾家略低。因此，這將在一定程度上影響下半年的情況。但從有機成長的角度來看，我們目前的擴張水準與這個水準完全吻合。即使有了 VACCO，我認為我們仍然能夠逐年擴大利潤率。所以我覺得我們對目前的狀況很滿意。

Ron Epstein, Bank of America.

羅恩愛潑斯坦，美國銀行。

Has there been any impact from critical minerals, rare earths on what you guys do? And if there is, how are you mitigating it?

關鍵礦物和稀土元素對你們的事業有影響嗎？如果有這種風險，你們是如何緩解的？

No, we see no impact at all. I think we're -- our products don't use it. We saw more of an impact from the availability of the more exotic stainless steels, which that problem seems to have corrected itself, but that was a problem 12 months ago, that was a bigger problem.

不，我們完全沒有看到任何影響。我認為我們—我們的產品不使用它。我們看到，一些較稀有的不銹鋼的供應情況對市場造成了更大的影響，這個問題似乎已經自行解決，但那是 12 個月前的一個問題，當時是一個更大的問題。

Got you. All right. Good to know. And then if I could follow up on that AI question. I found your answer fascinating, being an engineer myself, you get that answer from Grok or whatever. What do you have to do to review it to actually trust it? I mean like -- and then when you get to a point where you can trust it, does this have an implication on the number of engineers that you're going to need? Or you mean it's just -- how do you get confident that the AI is giving you something that's useful?

抓到你了。好的。知道了。然後，我能否就那個人工智慧問題進行後續探討？身為工程師，我覺得你的回答很有意思，因為你可以從 Grok 之類的軟體裡得到這樣的答案。要怎麼樣才能真正信任它呢？我的意思是——當你達到可以信任它的程度時，這是否會對你需要的工程師數量產生影響？或者你的意思是──如何才能確信人工智慧給予的資訊是有用的？

Well, I think when we -- if we use that -- the answer that I got for that tribological coupling, it came out with suggestions that, that if we were thinking about it, we would come up with those answers. But it really -- it sort of gave us a reminder that said, hey, you could do it this way, you could do it that way. There's three or four different ways to improve it. And did you think of these? And those were all sort of known and comfortable solutions for us. So it sort of centered us a little bit and stimulated our thinking on the subject. So that was -- I think it's a place you start. It's sort of like when you're researching a company, you pull out a value line, and that's always the place you start. And then from that, you say, well, that's an interesting company. Maybe I should dig a little further. So that's how we're using AI right now.

嗯，我認為當我們——如果我們使用——我得到的關於摩擦耦合的答案，它提出了一些建議，如果我們思考一下，我們就會得出這些答案。但它實際上——它提醒我們，嘿，你可以這樣做，你也可以那樣做。有三、四種不同的方法可以改進它。你有沒有想到這些？這些都是我們熟知且感到舒適的解決方案。所以它讓我們稍微理清了思路，並激發了我們對這個問題的思考。所以，我認為這是個起點。這就像你在研究一家公司時，會找出它的價值觀，而這總是你研究的起點。然後，你會說，嗯，這是一家很有趣的公司。或許我應該再深入挖掘一下。這就是我們目前使用人工智慧的方式。

Yes. Interesting, interesting. I mean, can you imagine a world where it's doing more than that for you? Or is that just -- just kind of how it goes?

是的。有意思，有意思。我的意思是，你能想像一個它能為你做的遠不止這些嗎？或者，事情就是這樣？

Yes. Well, it's funny because when we have our operations meetings, we'll have 30 people in the room, and we'll be asked -- sometimes they get into how do we solve this problem, how do we solve that problem? And everybody is going to AI and coming up with suggestions on -- and so it sort of feeds on itself. So you have three or four engineers that are using their phone to figure out how to solve a problem. All of a sudden, you've got suggestions on the table that you wouldn't have had -- you wouldn't have thought about it that quickly. And so the old days of driving up to the university to go through the library, I mean, that's over.

是的。這很有趣，因為當我們召開營運會議時，房間裡會有 30 個人，我們會被問到——有時他們會問我們如何解決這個問題，我們如何解決那個問題？每個人都在向人工智慧尋求建議——因此它在某種程度上是自我發展的。所以，有三、四個工程師正在用手機想辦法解決問題。突然間，擺在你面前的建議是你原本不會想到的──你不可能這麼快就想到這些。所以，以前開車去大學圖書館的日子一去不復返了。

Kristine Liwag, Morgan Stanley.

克莉絲汀‧利瓦格，摩根士丹利。

I mean, I guess with that comment, Dr. Hartnett, it sounds like you should pay for ChatGPT and just stop doing the free stuff for now.

我的意思是，哈特內特博士，聽你這麼說，感覺你應該付費使用 ChatGPT，暫時停止使用免費功能了。

Well, I guess I tipped you off on how we manage expenses at RBC.

看來我已經向你透露了我們在加拿大皇家銀行是如何管理開支的。

Well, great. So with that, I mean, look, I think there's some pretty interesting themes going around in this with AI and then you've got this whole theme of embodied AI. And so I wanted to ask you a more, I don't know, a different question. We haven't really discussed before. Like have you guys -- how do you think about humanoids? You're starting to see some pretty interesting machines out there, but right, bearings are to machines as elbows and joints are to humans. How do you think of that world? Do you think that's a commoditized bearing? Or do you think that you have a role in something like that?

太好了。所以，我的意思是，你看，我認為人工智慧領域有一些非常有趣的主題，然後就有了具身人工智慧這個主題。所以我想問你一個，嗯，不太一樣的問題。我們之前並沒有真正討論過這個問題。你們有沒有想過──你們對人形機器人有什麼看法？你開始看到一些非常有趣的機器，但是，軸承之於機器，就像肘關節之於人體一樣。你如何看待那個世界？你認為那是普通的軸承嗎？還是你認為自己在這類事情中扮演某種角色？

Well, I think if you've been through some of our plants, and there's a healthy amount of robotics that are sort of co-robots with working beside a person who's doing work, right? So as that technology proves itself, we will adopt it. There's no question about it. And so I think ultimately, there'll be humanoids in the RBC plants doing what, I'm not sure. But it will be -- it will show up as a capital requisition at one of our ops meetings in the not-too-distant future, and that's how it will begin. Right now, we use -- we're making use of literally of robotic and noncontact measurement technologies.

我想，如果你參觀過我們的一些工廠，你會發現那裡有很多機器人，它們是與人協同工作的協作機器人，對吧？所以，一旦這項技術被證明是可行的，我們就會採用它。這點毋庸置疑。所以我認為最終，RBC 工廠裡會出現人形生物，至於它們會做什麼，我也不確定。但這種情況將會發生──在不久的將來，它會在我們某次營運會議上以資金需求的形式出現，事情就是這樣開始的。目前，我們正在使用中——我們正在充分利用機器人和非接觸式測量技術。

I see. Super helpful. So you see yourself more as a user. But I guess my question is more as a supplier to that industry, similar to as you're a supplier for a lot of those robotic systems. Is this a potential business opportunity for you as a supplier if that industry matures? Because I can imagine if you are using it for those kinds of industrial use cases, then quality and making sure the humanoid doesn't break down is going to be similar to the value that you add for other industrial applications where you're a small dollar amount, but a critical portion for functionality.

我懂了。非常有用。所以你更把自己看成一個用戶。但我想問的更多是作為該行業的供應商，就像您是許多機器人系統的供應商一樣。如果該行業發展成熟，這對您作為供應商來說是否是一個潛在的商機？因為我可以想像，如果你把它用於這類工業用途，那麼品質以及確保人形機器人不會發生故障，就和你在其他工業應用中增加的價值類似，雖然投入的資金不多，但卻是功能的關鍵部分。

Yes. I think today, we supply bearings for robotics that are in some pretty sophisticated applications where there's either high temperature or vacuum or a little bit of both producing computer chips. And the way this always starts is somebody that's designing a robot, doesn't have any production volume and we'll go to one of our distributors and buy one of our bearings and use it in their prototype. And once it proves out and they start getting into production, they'll continue to use that distributor until production gets to a certain rate and then they'll trace back to the manufacturer or we'll find out about it from our distributor that this is an OEM that's using considerable amount of volume. And that's how all of these -- every one of these markets is developed.

是的。我認為，如今我們為機器人提供軸承，這些軸承應用於一些非常複雜的領域，例如電腦晶片的生產，這些領域要么存在高溫，要么存在真空，或者兩者兼而有之。事情的起因總是這樣的：有人在設計機器人，但還沒有量產計劃，我們會去找我們的經銷商，購買我們的軸承，並將它們用在他們的原型機上。一旦驗證成功並開始量產，他們就會繼續使用該分銷商，直到產量達到一定水平，然後他們會追溯到製造商，或者我們會從分銷商那裡得知，這是一個使用大量產品的原始設備製造商 (OEM)。所有這些市場都是這樣發展起來的。

And do you see this as an exciting market?

你認為這是一個令人興奮的市場嗎？

I really haven't thought that much about it. I think Elon Musk thinks it's an exciting market because he thinks cars are less of an exciting market, right? So he's going to turn Tesla into a humanoid robot machine. And I guess that works.

我真的沒怎麼想過這個問題。我認為伊隆馬斯克認為這是一個令人興奮的市場，因為他認為汽車市場不如汽車市場那麼令人興奮，對嗎？所以他打算把特斯拉改造成人形機器人。我想這樣應該可行。

Great. Maybe we'll spend another time talking more about that.

偉大的。或許我們以後會找時間詳細討論這個問題。

At this time, we've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to management for closing remarks.

至此，我們的問答環節到此結束。我將把發言權交還給管理階層，請他們作總結發言。

Okay. Well, I think that ends our conference call for today. I think I'd like to thank everybody for their participation. And I guess our job now is to go back to work and make the third quarter happen. So thanks again.

好的。好了，今天的電話會議就到此結束了。我想感謝大家的參與。我想我們現在的任務就是回去工作，確保第三季順利完成。再次感謝。

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。您可以在此時斷開線路。感謝您的參與，祝您有美好的一天。