Sylvamo Corp (SLVM) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Sylvamo's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions)

早安，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Sylvamo 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

As a reminder, your conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Hans Bjorkman, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

提醒一下，您的會議正在錄製。現在我想將電話轉給投資人關係副總裁 Hans Bjorkman。先生，請您發言。

Thank you, Gina. Good morning, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2025 earnings call. Our speakers this morning are Jean-Michel Ribieras, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; John Sims, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer; and Don Devlin, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，吉娜。早安，感謝您參加我們的 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。今天早上的演講者是董事長兼執行長 Jean-Michel Ribieras、高級副總裁兼營運長 John Sims 和高級副總裁兼財務長 Don Devlin。

Slides 2 and 3 contain important information, including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-US GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of those figures to US GAAP financial measures are available in the appendix. Our website also contains copies of the earnings release as well as today's presentation.

第 2 張和第 3 張投影片包含重要訊息，包括某些法律免責聲明。例如，在本次電話會議中，我們將做出受風險和不確定性影響的前瞻性陳述。我們也將提供某些非美國公認會計準則的財務資訊。這些數據與美國 GAAP 財務指標的對帳表可在附錄中找到。我們的網站還包含收益報告以及今天的簡報的副本。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Jean-Michel.

說完這些，我想把電話轉給 Jean-Michel。

Thanks, Hans. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. I'll start on slide 4 with our second quarter highlights. Our teams are committed to the success of our customers and are partnering with them to be a supplier of choice every day. Our operational performance improved during the second quarter and the challenges we ran in the first quarter are now largely behind us. We completed the largest planned maintenance outage quarter we've had in over five years. Lastly, we returned nearly $40 million in cash to shareowners. We distributed $18 million via the second quarter dividend, and we repurchased $20 million in shares in the quarter.

謝謝，漢斯。早安，感謝您參加我們的電話會議。我將從幻燈片 4 開始介紹我們第二季的亮點。我們的團隊致力於客戶的成功，並每天與他們合作，成為他們首選的供應商。我們的營運表現在第二季度有所改善，我們在第一季遇到的挑戰現在基本上已經過去了。我們完成了五年來最大的計劃維護停機季度。最後，我們向股東返還了近4,000萬美元現金。我們透過第二季股利分配了 1,800 萬美元，並在本季回購了價值 2,000 萬美元的股票。

Let's move to the next slide. Slide 5 shows our second quarter key financial metrics. We earned adjusted EBITDA of $82 million with a margin of 10%, in line with our expectations. This reflects having almost $70 million of planned maintenance outages in the quarter, which is the largest in recent history. We now have almost 85% of our planned maintenance outage for the year behind us. We generated adjusted operating earnings of $0.37 per share. Free cash flow was negative $2 million. The variance to the second quarter last year is due to lower adjusted EBITDA and slightly higher capital spending. Keep in mind that our free cash flow is heavily weighted to the second half of the year. In the last two years, we generated almost 90% of free cash flow in the second half.

讓我們看下一張投影片。投影片 5 展示了我們第二季的關鍵財務指標。我們的調整後息稅折舊攤提前利潤為 8,200 萬美元，利潤率為 10%，符合我們的預期。這意味著本季計劃維護停工損失接近 7,000 萬美元，是近代史上最大的一次。目前，我們已完成今年計劃維護停機時間的近 85%。我們調整後的營業收益為每股 0.37 美元。自由現金流為負200萬美元。與去年第二季相比的差異是由於調整後的 EBITDA 較低且資本支出略高。請記住，我們的自由現金流很大程度上集中在下半年。在過去兩年中，我們在下半年產生了近90%的自由現金流。

Now I will turn it over to Don to review our performance in more detail.

現在我將把時間交給唐來更詳細地回顧我們的表現。

Thank you, Jean-Michel, and good morning, everyone. Slide 6 contains our second quarter earnings bridge versus the first quarter. The $82 million of adjusted EBITDA was in line with our outlook of $75 million to $95 million. Excluding the $13 million in FX headwinds in the quarter, we would have been at the high end of our outlook. Price and mix was favorable by $12 million, driven by better mix in North America and Latin America, with lower export sales from both regions. Volume decreased by $9 million, mostly in North America. About half is due to less volume from IP's Riverdale mill than planned. Over the last three quarters, they've only produced about 80% of their 27,000 ton per month plan, and we expected that to continue into the third quarter. The other half was partially due to our own operational challenges we experienced in the second quarter.

謝謝你，讓·米歇爾，大家早安。投影片 6 包含我們第二季與第一季的獲利對比。調整後的 EBITDA 為 8,200 萬美元，與我們預期的 7,500 萬至 9,500 萬美元相符。如果不考慮本季 1,300 萬美元的外匯逆風，我們的預期將處於高端。價格和產品組合有利，成長了 1,200 萬美元，這得益於北美和拉丁美洲產品組合的改善，而這兩個地區的出口銷售額均有所下降。交易量減少了 900 萬美元，主要集中在北美。約有一半的原因是 IP 的 Riverdale 工廠產量低於計劃。在過去三個季度中，他們僅生產了每月 27,000 噸計劃的 80% 左右，我們預計這種情況將持續到第三季。另一半部分是由於我們在第二季遇到的自身營運挑戰。

Operations and other costs were favorable by $23 million, driven by $18 million in improved operational performance in North America and Europe. We continue to make progress in resolving the operational issues experienced in the first and second quarters.

營運和其他成本減少了 2,300 萬美元，這得益於北美和歐洲營運表現的 1,800 萬美元提升。我們在解決第一季和第二季遇到的營運問題方面繼續取得進展。

Other costs were also favorable by $18 million, primarily due to green energy credits in Europe, and lower overhead costs. This more than offset the unfavorable impact of $13 million from FX.

其他成本也降低了 1,800 萬美元，主要得益於歐洲的綠色能源信貸以及較低的管理費用。這足以抵消外匯造成的 1,300 萬美元的不利影響。

Planned maintenance outage costs increased by $39 million, largely as expected as we conducted complex outages in five of our mills. Input and transportation costs were favorable by $5 million primarily due to energy in North America.

計劃維護停機成本增加了 3900 萬美元，這基本上符合預期，因為我們在五家工廠進行了複雜的停機。主要由於北美的能源，投入和運輸成本有利 500 萬美元。

Let's move to slide 7. Looking at industry conditions for the first half of 2025 versus the first half of 2024. In Europe, demand remained sluggish and is down 8% year-over-year. Industry capacity was reduced by 7% after two uncoated freesheet machines closed late last year. Paper prices stabilized in the second quarter but are under pressure entering the seasonally slower third quarter. Pulp prices in Europe significantly decreased in the first half of this year contributing to uncoated freesheet pricing pressure.

讓我們翻到第 7 張投影片。比較 2025 年上半年與 2024 年上半年的產業狀況。在歐洲，需求依然低迷，年減 8%。去年年底兩台無塗層免費單張紙機關閉後，產業產能減少了 7%。紙張價格在第二季趨於穩定，但進入季節性放緩的第三季後面臨壓力。今年上半年，歐洲紙漿價格大幅下跌，對未塗佈免費紙張定價造成壓力。

In Latin America, demand is down 2% year-over-year with demand down 6% in other Latin American countries, However, Brazil was up 6% due to strong publishing demand.

在拉丁美洲，需求年減 2%，其他拉丁美洲國家的需求下降 6%，然而，由於出版需求強勁，巴西的需求增加了 6%。

Industry capacity across the region remains stable. In North America, reported apparent demand is stable year-over-year, driven by higher imports, which were up nearly 40%. Much of this increase in imports is in converting and printing roles, we believe that real demand will be down 3% to 4% this year. Industry supply was reduced by 10% after a few machines, including IP's Georgetown mill, closed in the second half of last year. In addition, Pixelle announced they will close their Chillicothe Ohio mill in August. This will further reduce uncoated freesheet capacity in North America by approximately 6%.

整個地區的工業產能保持穩定。在北美，據報道，表觀需求年增穩定，這得益於進口量增加（成長近 40%）。進口量的成長很大一部分來自於加工和印刷領域，我們認為今年實際需求將下降 3% 至 4%。去年下半年，包括IP喬治城工廠在內的幾台機器關閉後，產業供應量減少了10%。此外，Pixelle 宣布將於 8 月關閉位於俄亥俄州奇利科西的工廠。這將進一步減少北美地區未塗佈免費紙張產能約 6%。

Let's go to slide 8. We continue to monitor the US tariff situation and the potential challenges and opportunities that may unfold. In the first half of the year, we saw some shifts in uncoated freesheet and trade flows. This is one of the main reasons why imports into the US were up almost 40% through the first half. We're also keeping an eye on several cross-regional themes, for example, currency fluctuations with the US dollar devaluation against many currencies. Regarding our major capital spending plans for the year, the business cases for these projects included the possibility of higher tariff costs, which are not expected to be material at this point. We're staying close to our customers to understand their needs and opportunities to help them be successful, and we are focused on what we can control, improving productivity, reliability and leveraging our cost initiatives.

我們來看第 8 張投影片。我們將繼續關注美國關稅情況以及可能出現的潛在挑戰和機會。今年上半年，我們看到未塗佈免費紙張和貿易流量發生了一些變化。這是美國上半年進口量成長近40%的主要原因之一。我們也密切關注幾個跨區域主題，例如美元對多種貨幣貶值的貨幣波動。關於我們今年的主要資本支出計劃，這些項目的商業案例包括更高的關稅成本的可能性，但目前預計這還不會成為現實。我們與客戶保持密切聯繫，了解他們的需求和機會，以幫助他們取得成功，並且我們專注於我們能夠控制的事情，提高生產力、可靠性並利用我們的成本計劃。

Let's move to slide 9. Looking ahead, we expect to deliver third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $145 million to $165 million. We project price and mix to be unfavorable by $15 million to $20 million, this is primarily due to paper and pulp prices in Europe. We expect volume to be favorable by $15 million to $20 million. This is primarily due to stronger seasonality in both Latin America and North America.

讓我們翻到第 9 張投影片。展望未來，我們預計第三季調整後的 EBITDA 將達到 1.45 億美元至 1.65 億美元。我們預計價格和組合將不利 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元，這主要是由於歐洲的紙張和紙漿價格。我們預計交易量將達到 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元。這主要是由於拉丁美洲和北美的季節性較強。

Operations and other costs are projected to be favorable, up to $5 million due to improved operational performance. We expect input and transportation costs to be stable. Planned maintenance outages will improve by $66 million as we have no outages planned in the quarter. We expect a significantly better adjusted EBITDA performance in the second half, this is due to much lower planned maintenance outage expenses, improving volumes and better operations.

由於營運績效的提高，預計營運和其他成本將有利，最高可達 500 萬美元。我們預計投入和運輸成本將保持穩定。由於本季我們沒有計劃停機，因此計劃維護停機費用將減少 6,600 萬美元。我們預計下半年調整後的 EBITDA 表現將顯著改善，這是由於計劃維護停機費用大幅降低、產量增加以及營運狀況改善。

Now I'll turn it over to John to talk about our capital allocation plans.

現在我將讓約翰來談談我們的資本配置計畫。

Thank you, Don, and good morning, everyone. I'll pick up on slide 10. Our long-term capital allocation strategy drives share owner value. We are focused on maintaining a strong financial position, reinvesting in our business, and returning cash to share owners. This allows us to stay focused on our customers, helping them win through commercial excellence efforts. It enables reinvesting in our business, enhancing our reliability, productivity and improving our service through operational excellence initiatives. And our healthy financial position preserves the flexibility to return cash to shareowners. We'll continue to evaluate opportunities to repurchase shares at attractive prices with the $42 million available on our current share repurchase authorization.

謝謝你，唐，大家早安。我將從第 10 張投影片開始。我們的長期資本配置策略推動股東價值。我們專注於保持強勁的財務狀況、對我們的業務進行再投資以及向股東返還現金。這使我們能夠專注於我們的客戶，幫助他們透過卓越的商業努力贏得勝利。它使我們能夠對業務進行再投資，透過卓越營運計劃提高我們的可靠性和生產力並改善我們的服務。我們健康的財務狀況保留了向股東返還現金的靈活性。我們將繼續評估以有吸引力的價格回購股票的機會，目前的股票回購授權中有 4,200 萬美元可用。

Let's move to slide 11. This slide shows how the deleveraging of our balance sheet has enhanced our financial position. We have reduced our debt by about half, including more than $150 million last year, which we did in anticipation of the potential uncertainties in 2025. Our net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA now stands at 1.3x. We have no major maturities due until 2027, plus, we have almost $400 million available on our revolver. Our strong balance sheet and available cash on hand provides us with the ability to focus on our customers, run our business and invest in our future throughout the cycle.

讓我們翻到第 11 張投影片。這張投影片展示了我們的資產負債表去槓桿如何改善了我們的財務狀況。我們的債務減少了約一半，其中包括去年的 1.5 億多美元，我們這樣做是為了回應 2025 年可能出現的不確定性。我們的淨債務與調整後EBITDA比率目前為1.3倍。 2027年前我們沒有重大債務到期，而且我們的循環信貸額度接近4億美元。我們強大的資產負債表和可用的現金使我們能夠在整個週期中專注於我們的客戶、經營我們的業務並投資我們的未來。

Let's go to slide 12. Our teams continue to develop our high-return project pipeline with returns greater than 20%. We're investing in high-return projects to generate earnings and cash flow. We want to take this opportunity to highlight our 2026 and 2027 capital spending outlook. The purple shaded bars on this chart show our high-return investments. The light purple is for our Eastover investments and the dark prop is for all other high-return projects.

我們來看第 12 張投影片。我們的團隊持續開發高回報專案管道，回報率超過 20%。我們正在投資高回報項目以產生收益和現金流。我們想藉此機會強調我們對 2026 年和 2027 年資本支出的展望。這張圖表中的紫色陰影條顯示了我們的高回報投資。淺紫色代表我們的 Eastover 投資，深色支柱代表所有其他高回報項目。

As disclosed on our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call back in February, we are investing $145 million in strategic projects at our flagship mill in Eastover South Carolina. These investments will be spent from 2025 through 2027 with the majority of spending taking place next year. Overall capital spending is increasing in 2026, but then dropping back down to prior levels in 2027. This outlook should provide you with a good sense of our capital spending for the next few years, and we will continue to update you as we refine our plan.

正如我們 2 月在 2024 年第四季財報電話會議上所披露的那樣，我們將在位於南卡羅來納州伊斯特奧弗的旗艦工廠投資 1.45 億美元用於戰略項目。這些投資將從 2025 年持續到 2027 年，其中大部分將在明年進行。2026 年總體資本支出將會增加，但 2027 年將回落至之前的水準。這項展望應該能讓您很好地了解我們未來幾年的資本支出，我們將在完善計劃的同時繼續向您通報最新情況。

Let's go to slide 13. We feel the importance of the strategic investments that our Eastover mill warrants a quick refresh of our exciting plans. We have three high-return projects that will reduce costs while improving efficiency and mix of the most competitive uncoated freesheet mill in North America. First, we are investing to optimize one of our two paper machines. The enhancements will allow us to reduce costs while improving our product mix across both paper machines. This investment should result in an incremental 60,000 tons of uncoated freesheet capacity.

我們來看第 13 張投影片。我們感受到策略性投資的重要性，我們的 Eastover 工廠值得我們快速更新令人興奮的計劃。我們有三個高回報項目，這些項目將在降低成本的同時提高北美最具競爭力的無塗層免費片材廠的效率和產品組合。首先，我們正在投資優化我們的兩台造紙機中的一台。這些改進將使我們能夠降低成本，同時改善兩台造紙機的產品組合。此項投資將使未塗佈免費紙張產能增加 60,000 噸。

Second, we are replacing existing cut size sheet with a brand-new state-of-the-art sheeter. This will lower our sheeting cost up to 15%, reduced waste by maximizing paper machine trim while providing incremental cut size capacity. This sheeter will allow us to provide improved reliability and additional flexibility to better service our customers. Detailed engineering work continues and many of the orders for the parts and the equipment have already been placed. All plans are on track. Once completed, these combined investments to create incremental adjusted EBITDA of more than $50 million per year, resulting in additional cash flows and the internal rate of return of greater than 30%.

其次，我們正在用全新的最先進的切紙機替換現有的切紙機。這將使我們的片材成本降低高達 15%，透過最大限度地利用造紙機邊角料來減少浪費，同時提供增量切割尺寸能力。這台切紙機將使我們能夠提供更高的可靠性和更大的靈活性，從而更好地為客戶服務。詳細的工程工作仍在繼續，許多零件和設備的訂單已經下達。一切計劃都在按計劃進行。一旦完成，這些綜合投資將創造每年超過 5,000 萬美元的增量調整後 EBITDA，從而產生額外的現金流量和超過 30% 的內部收益率。

Lastly, we are partnering with the price companies, an industry leader in wood yard operations to modernize our woodyard and improve our efficiency. This will result in more efficient, reliable and cost-effective wood processing operations and allow us to avoid about $75 million in capital over the next five years. This woodyard modernization project is progressing as planned and remains on schedule to begin the startup in early 2026 and will be completed by the end of 2026.

最後，我們正在與木材場營運行業領先的價格公司合作，以實現木材場的現代化並提高我們的效率。這將使木材加工業務更加高效、可靠和具有成本效益，並使我們在未來五年內節省約 7,500 萬美元的資本。該木材場現代化工程正在按計劃進行，預計將於 2026 年初啟動，2026 年底完工。

Let's go to slide 14. Our strategy is to be simply focused on uncoated freesheet paper because we believe uncoated freesheet will be needed for a long, long time. Uncoated freesheet remains the largest and most resilient segment in the graphic paper space, and we view uncoated freesheet industry landscape as an opportunity. We're investing to strengthen our competitive advantages to generate earnings and cash flow. We view these investments as high return and low risk as we are staying in our core product lines of uncoated freesheet and reinforcing our position as supplier of choice for our customers. We will leverage our strength to our talented teams, iconic brands, strategic channel partnerships and low-cost mills that drive high returns on invested capital.

我們來看第 14 張投影片。我們的策略是只專注於無塗層免費紙張，因為我們相信無塗層免費紙張在很長一段時間內都會被需要。無塗層免費紙張仍然是圖形紙張領域中規模最大、最具彈性的細分市場，我們將無塗層免費紙張產業格局視為一個機會。我們正在投資以增強我們的競爭優勢，從而創造收益和現金流。我們認為這些投資回報高、風險低，因為我們將繼續保持未塗佈免費紙張的核心產品線，並鞏固我們作為客戶首選供應商的地位。我們將充分利用我們優秀的團隊、標誌性品牌、策略通路合作夥伴和低成本工廠的優勢，以實現投資資本的高回報。

I'll now turn it back over to Jean-Michel.

現在我將把發言權交還給 Jean-Michel。

Thanks, John. I'll conclude my remarks on slide 15. We create shareowner's value by partnering with customers, so we remain the supplier of choice, maintaining a strong financial position to provide flexibility and reinvesting in our business through a great pipeline of high-return capital projects, enabling us to grow our earnings and cash flow. Sylvamo is creating shareowner's value through strong cash generation and disciplined capital allocation, including share repurchases at prices well below our interest in value. And we are progressing well with our CEO and CFO transitions with John and Don as we prepare for my retirement at the end of the year. We are confident in our future and motivated by the opportunities that lie ahead.

謝謝，約翰。我將在第 15 張投影片上結束我的演講。我們透過與客戶合作來創造股東價值，因此我們仍然是首選供應商，保持強大的財務狀況以提供靈活性，並透過大量高回報資本項目對我們的業務進行再投資，使我們能夠增加收益和現金流。Sylvamo 透過強勁的現金創造和嚴格的資本配置來創造股東價值，包括以遠低於我們價值利益的價格回購股票。我們與約翰和唐的執行長和財務長的過渡工作進展順利，我們正在為年底我的退休做準備。我們對未來充滿信心，並對未來的機會充滿動力。

With that, I'll turn the call back to Hans.

說完這些，我就把電話轉回給漢斯。

Thank you, Jean-Michel. John and Dan. Okay. Regina, we're ready to take questions.

謝謝你，讓·米歇爾。約翰和丹。好的。里賈納，我們準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) George Staphos, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）美國銀行喬治‧斯塔福斯 (George Staphos)。

I guess question I had for you, can you talk a little bit about what the outlook is for South America in the third quarter, to the extent that you can talk about EBITDA and how things are trending, that would be helpful.

我想問您的問題是，您能否稍微談談南美第三季度的前景，如果您能談談 EBITDA 和情況趨勢，那將會很有幫助。

And the second question would be, I remember from last quarter, I seem to remember that you were expecting North and South America on a combined basis to be up in EBITDA versus '24. Is that still the outlook and what are the puts and takes there?

第二個問題是，我記得上個季度，我似乎記得您預計北美和南美的合併 EBITDA 將比 24 年上升。這仍然是前景嗎？那裡的利弊是什麼？

George. So for our outlook for third quarter on Lat Am, we're expecting that you'll see continued improvement. First of all, we have seasonally increasing shipments and we think that typically, and we expect that again to occur this year, and you'll see that in the third quarter. Second, of course, we don't have any outages. We had two significant major outages in the second quarter down in Latin America. And so that is behind us. Our shipments were slightly lower than what we expected in the second quarter because we were slow to come out in both of those outages that cost us about 10,000 tons, but that -- of course, that's behind us, we'll be moving forward with that.

喬治。因此，對於拉丁美洲第三季的展望，我們預計您將看到持續的改善。首先，我們的出貨量隨著季節變化而增加，我們認為這是正常的，我們預計今年這種情況會再次出現，您會在第三季看到這一點。其次，當然，我們沒有任何停電。第二季度，拉丁美洲發生了兩起重大停電事件。這些都已經過去了。我們第二季的出貨量略低於預期，因為我們在兩次停產中都進展緩慢，導致我們損失了約 10,000 噸，但當然，這已經過去了，我們將繼續努力。

The Second question you had was around the combined earnings. And in general, it is -- we don't give a full year outlook, as you know. And these current market conditions with the tariff provides a lot of uncertainty. But right now, we believe that the combined earnings of both North America and Latin America could be slightly less than what they were last year. And this is mostly due to kind of a change in position because of some of the weakness that we've seen in other Latin American markets pricing, and that's really driven by the impact of the tariffs and increased imports into those markets and also weaker demand.

您的第二個問題是關於綜合收益的。總的來說，正如你所知，我們不會給出全年的展望。而當前的市場條件和關稅帶來了許多不確定性。但目前，我們認為北美和拉丁美洲的總收益可能略低於去年的水平。這主要是由於我們在其他拉丁美洲市場看到定價疲軟而導致的立場變化，而這實際上是受到關稅和這些市場進口增加以及需求疲軟的影響。

So in particular, in some of our Latin American markets, as we talked about, other than Brazil, Brazil is up 6%. Demand is strong there. And the other Latin American market demand generally is down 6%, and that's mostly driven by really Mexico. Now we don't ship into Mexico because of the tariffs that they implemented against Brazil there, but it does have a knock-on impact to the other regions.

特別是在我們談到的一些拉丁美洲市場，除巴西外，巴西的銷售額成長了 6%。那裡的需求很強勁。其他拉丁美洲市場的需求普遍下降了 6%，這主要是受墨西哥的影響。現在，由於墨西哥對巴西徵收了關稅，我們不再向墨西哥發貨，但這確實對其他地區產生了連鎖影響。

Daniel Harriman, Sidoti.

丹尼爾·哈里曼，西多蒂。

First, I just wanted to start with Europe. And in the last quarter, you spent quite a bit of time talking about the changes that were made there. Obviously, the region continues to suffer from soft demand and lower pulp prices. And I'm just wondering if you could update us on what needs to happen either commercially or operationally to kind of stabilize performance there heading into 2026?

首先，我只想從歐洲開始。在上個季度，您花了相當多的時間討論那裡所做的改變。顯然，該地區繼續受到需求疲軟和紙漿價格下跌的影響。我只是想知道您是否可以告訴我們，在 2026 年之前，需要在商業或營運方面採取哪些措施來穩定業績？

Yes, Daniel, the Europe is a difficult market conditions. This is also driven a lot by the tariff impact, particularly the impact it's had on market pulp, the weak demand in China, as you know market pulp prices were going up in the first quarter, but then significantly decreased in the second quarter, and pulp pricing is a driver of uncoated freesheet prices and Europe because of the level of nonintegrated capacity that is there. So we're seeing weakness in both pulp and uncoated freesheet pricing in there.

是的，丹尼爾，歐洲的市場狀況很艱難。這也在很大程度上受到關稅的影響，特別是它對市場紙漿的影響，中國的需求疲軟，正如你所知，市場紙漿價格在第一季度上漲，但在第二季度大幅下降，而紙漿定價是未塗佈免費紙張價格的驅動因素，而歐洲則因為那裡的非整合產能水平而受到影響。因此，我們看到紙漿和未塗佈免費紙張的價格都處於疲軟狀態。

Certainly, we need the market conditions to improve with pulp going up would be part of stabilization for the pricing there. So what we're really focused on, we talked about, it is the factor that we can control, and that's improving our competitive cost position. So we're focused on in Saillat around mix improvement as well as fixed cost reduction in our New Mouland mill is reducing wood cost and improving our operations there. Those are the things that we're focused on. We've got -- we believe, the right leader driving that. We've got talented teams that are focused on that, and that's what the team is working on.

當然，我們需要改善市場條件，紙漿價格上漲將成為穩定價格的一部分。因此，我們真正關注的是，我們談論的是，我們可以控制的因素，那就是提高我們的競爭成本地位。因此，我們在 Saillat 的重點是改進混合物以及降低新 Mouland 工廠的固定成本，以降低木材成本並改善我們在那裡的運作。這些就是我們關注的重點。我們相信，我們有合適的領導者來推動這項進程。我們擁有專注於此的優秀團隊，這也是團隊正在努力的方向。

Matthew McKellar, RBC Capital Markets.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Markets) 的馬修麥凱勒 (Matthew McKellar)。

You mentioned shifting trade flows in uncoated freesheet through the first half of the year. Can you maybe just give us a sense of what the latest is that you're seeing on that front and how trends through the past couple of months into August have looked in particular. What are you seeing by market?

您提到了今年上半年未塗佈免費報紙的貿易流向變化。您能否向我們介紹一下您在這方面看到的最新情況，以及過去幾個月（尤其是 8 月）的趨勢如何。您看到了什麼市場？

Yes, Matthew. So relative to the first half of this year, we've seen a significant increase in trade -- roles mainly coming into North America. And we believe it's in advance of the tariff uncertainties. And so it's had an impact in creating -- making more supply available in North America, primarily roles.

是的，馬修。因此，相較於今年上半年，我們看到貿易量顯著成長——主要流入北美。我們認為這是關稅不確定性的先兆。因此，它對創造產生了影響——為北美提供了更多的供應，主要是職位。

Okay. And are you seeing any, I guess, changes in trends in Europe at this point?

好的。我想，您現在是否看到歐洲趨勢發生了任何變化？

We've seen some pressure also from importers trying to get into the European market. Where we see it is some which have anticipated to have new access to US or difficult access with tariffs trying to go to OLA. John was mentioning to you, prices in OLA were under pressure, and partially is because of some countries trying to import at very low prices to OLA and we didn't have that before. So OLA is other Latin America to be sure, what I mean by OLA. So we've seen it, as we said, in North America, especially in the first half, and we're seeing it a lot in OLA and Middle East. So some of the traditional people who were used to sell to the US will today try to find other avenues. And this is where we go with the flows impact.

我們也看到進口商試圖進入歐洲市場時面臨的一些壓力。我們看到，一些公司預計將獲得進入美國的新管道，或試圖透過關稅進入美國，難以進入 OLA。約翰向您提到，OLA 的價格面臨壓力，部分原因是一些國家試圖以非常低的價格進口到 OLA，而我們以前從未遇到過這種情況。所以 OLA 肯定是另一個拉丁美洲，我所說的 OLA 就是這個意思。正如我們所說，我們在北美看到了這種情況，尤其是在上半年，而且我們在 OLA 和中東也經常看到這種情況。因此，一些過去一直向美國銷售產品的人今天會嘗試尋找其他途徑。這就是我們要考慮的流量影響。

Okay. Next for you, zoom me out a bit here. What is your outlook for how uncoated freesheet demand in Latin America evolves over the next couple of years?

好的。接下來，請將我在這裡縮小一點。您如何看待未來幾年拉丁美洲無塗佈免費紙張需求的變化？

We think that Latin America will continue to be maybe flat or slightly down. I think what we're seeing today -- if you look at it, Brazil is up 6%. So that's in -- Brazil demand year-to-date is up 6%. It's other Latin America markets that are down. And that's really, as I said earlier, is being driven by Mexico, and that's being driven mostly, we think, because of the tariff uncertainty that's occurring just driving through the economy in Mexico. We also see it in a couple of the other countries, in Brazil. But in general, we believe -- I'm sorry, Brazil, but in other Latin American market. So in general, we believe the long-term trend will be flat to slightly down in the whole Latin American market.

我們認為拉丁美洲可能會繼續保持平穩或略有下降。我認為我們今天看到的是——如果你看一下，巴西上漲了 6%。因此，今年迄今巴西的需求成長了 6%。其他拉丁美洲市場則出現下滑。正如我之前所說，這實際上是由墨西哥推動的，我們認為，這主要是因為關稅的不確定性正在影響墨西哥的經濟。我們在巴西等其他幾個國家也看到了這種情況。但總的來說，我們相信——抱歉，是巴西，而是其他拉丁美洲市場。因此總體而言，我們認為整個拉丁美洲市場的長期趨勢將持平或略有下降。

And if I could just sneak one last one in here. I recognize that Eastover spending will be ramping into '26. But how do you think about the opportunity to lead into share repurchases with where the share price is at particularly with the balance sheet in good shape in the second half of '25 likely to be stronger from a free cash perspective.

如果我能偷偷地把最後一個放進去就好了。我認識到 Eastover 的支出將在 26 年大幅增加。但是，您如何看待在股價處於當前水平、特別是 25 年下半年資產負債表狀況良好的情況下進行股票回購的機會，從自由現金的角度來看，股價可能會更加強勁。

Yes. I think it's clear, we have a pretty strong balance sheet. So we have a lot of capacity to take advantage and opportunistically buy back our shares when they are significantly undervalued. We have a little bit of $40 million still authorized from the Board of Directors. And so we think we have plenty of capacity to take advantage of repurchasing our shares.

是的。我認為很明顯，我們的資產負債表相當強勁。因此，當我們的股票被嚴重低估時，我們有很大能力利用機會回購它們。我們還有董事會授權的 4000 萬美元。因此我們認為我們有足夠的能力利用回購股票的優勢。

(Operator Instructions) George Staphos, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）美國銀行喬治‧斯塔福斯 (George Staphos)。

Could you talk about the green energy credits that you received in 2Q? What was the amount? Are they nonrecurring? And then to the extent that you can comment, the fact you're seeing so much in the way of imports into North America, is that affecting any of your tactics and for that matter, the behavior of producers in the region vis-a-vis their margin efforts? And then I guess relatedly, you're saying imports, I believe, into Europe as well from what I heard from Jean-Michel, I recognize it's slow, but is it changing behavior at all? And how are you contending with that?

您能談談您在第二季獲得的綠色能源信用額嗎？金額是多少？它們是非經常性的嗎？然後，就您可以評論的程度而言，事實上，您看到北美進口量如此之大，這是否影響了您的任何策略，以及該地區生產商在利潤努力方面的行為？然後我想，與此相關的是，您說的是進口，我相信，從讓·米歇爾那裡聽到的，進口到歐洲也是如此，我承認進口速度很慢，但它會改變行為嗎？您如何應對這個問題？

George, this is Don. So your first question relative to the green credits in Q2, they were $8 million.

喬治，這是唐。所以你的第一個問題與第二季的綠色信貸有關，它們是 800 萬美元。

And this is [the current].

這是[當前]。

Yes. It is Something that recurs throughout the year.

是的。這是一年四季都會重複發生的事。

Okay. Got it. And (inaudible) your behavior and what's going on?

好的。知道了。還有（聽不清楚）你的行為以及發生了什麼事？

Well, with the import situation in the US, just our view with that, a lot of that in the first quarter was due to anticipation of the tariffs being implemented. Given where we stand today with the tariff, we're expecting imports to decrease into US because of the high level of tariffs that being implied, particularly on those countries that -- where those imports will be coming into. So in general, we believe in North America, that with the closure of the Chillicothe mill and the reduction in imports, operating rates are going to improve, probably to be in the mid-90s in the second half of the year.

嗯，就美國的進口情況而言，我們認為，第一季的進口量很大程度上是由於對實施關稅的預期。考慮到我們目前的關稅狀況​​，我們預計美國的進口量將會減少，因為這將導致高額關稅，特別是對那些進口產品將進入的國家。因此，總體而言，我們相信，在北美，隨著奇利科西工廠的關閉和進口量的減少，開工率將會提高，到今年下半年可能會達到 90 年代中期。

In terms of our tactics, no, I mean I think that our strategy continues to be, as we said, to be focused on uncoated freesheet. We want to be the supplier of choice for our customers, we're continuously working to improve our cost position, our competitive advantages, and value of our brands and what we provide to the customers. This is why it's so important for us, we believe, to debottleneck the Eastover mill so that we can produce more uncoated freesheet. And the timing is going to look, we believe, pretty good on that, given where we think that the operating rates, where we think the import situation is going to be near term and also longer term.

就我們的策略而言，不，我的意思是，我認為我們的策略仍然像我們所說的那樣，專注於無塗層免費紙張。我們希望成為客戶的首選供應商，我們不斷努力提高我們的成本地位、競爭優勢以及我們的品牌和我們為客戶提供的產品的價值。我們認為，這就是為什麼消除 Eastover 工廠的瓶頸對我們如此重要，這樣我們才能生產更多未塗佈的免費紙張。我們認為，考慮到營運率、進口情況的短期和長期情況，時機看起來非常好。

I mean John, I appreciate that. Have you seen looking at 2Q and to-date 3Q, recognize you can't comment on a forward basis. Did the fact that you had more supply perhaps from imports change any of the competitive activity on pricing? Was a little bit more intense on pricing than you would expected? I think from your waterfall, it's a little bit worse than your way expected. So if you can talk a little bit about that across the regions.

我的意思是約翰，我很感激這一點。您是否看過第二季度和迄今為止的第三季度，並認識到您無法進行前瞻性評論。你們可能從進口中獲得了更多的供應，這一事實是否改變了定價方面的競爭活動？定價是否比您預期的更嚴格一些？我認為從你的瀑布來看，情況比你預期的要糟糕一些。所以你能不能談談各地區的情況。

Yes. I mean, I think the candid answer is we put a price increase announcement to our customers in the first part of this year, and we realized much less than what we expected. And that was driven -- attributed to the increase in the imports and also the fact that with the announced closure of the Chillicothe, there was an effort by them to sell their inventory at very low prices, which impacted our ability to get the price increase that we would have expected. And so yes, that did impact us in the short term.

是的。我的意思是，我認為坦率的回答是，我們在今年上半年向客戶發布了漲價公告，但我們實現的漲價幅度遠低於我們的預期。這是由於進口量的增加，以及隨著奇利科西宣布關閉，他們試圖以極低的價格出售庫存，這影響了我們獲得預期價格上漲的能力。是的，這確實在短期內對我們產生了影響。

I'll now turn the call back over to Hans Bjorkman for any closing comments.

現在我將把電話轉回給漢斯·比約克曼 (Hans Bjorkman)，請他發表最後評論。

All right. Thank you. I'm going to let John-Michel, do a quick wrap up.

好的。謝謝。我要讓約翰·米歇爾 (John-Michel) 做一個快速總結。

So thank you, first of all, for all joining our call. We understand we're facing some difficult industry conditions, but we've faced them before. So we have a very strong position financially and we think we can continue to perform very strongly through the cycles. We're committed to a long-term strategy of reinvesting in our business to increase our competitive advantages and returning cash to shareholders. We're in the process of executing a seamless CEO and CFO transition plan with John and Don, as we prepare for my retirement. Our long-term strategy investment thesis remain intact. So we're really confident in our ability to generate strong earnings and cash flow through the cycle. Thank you for joining again.

首先感謝大家參加我們的電話會議。我們知道我們正面臨一些困難的行業狀況，但我們以前也遇到過這種情況。因此，我們的財務狀況非常強勁，我們認為我們可以在整個週期中繼續保持強勁表現。我們致力於長期策略，對我們的業務進行再投資，以增強我們的競爭優勢並向股東返還現金。我們正在與約翰和唐一起執行無縫的執行長和財務長過渡計劃，為我的退休做準備。我們的長期策略投資論點保持不變。因此，我們對自己在整個週期中創造強勁盈利和現金流的能力充滿信心。感謝您再次加入。

Once again, we would like to thank you for participating in Sylvamo's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.

再次感謝您參加 Sylvamo 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。您現在可以斷開連線。