Titan International Inc (TWI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Titan International Inc. Fourth Quarter 202 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Alan Snyder, Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis for Titan. Mr. Snyder, the floor is yours.

女士們先生們，早上好，歡迎來到 Titan International Inc. 第四季度 202 財年電話會議。 （操作員說明）現在我很高興將發言權交給 Titan 財務規劃和分析副總裁 Alan Snyder。 Snyder 先生，請發言。

Thank you, Forum. Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to Titan's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. On the call with me today are Paul Reitz, Titan's President and CEO; and David Martin, Titan's Senior Vice President and CFO. I will begin with a reminder that the results we are about to review were presented in the earnings release issued yesterday, along with our Form 10-K, which was also filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder, during this call, we will be discussing certain forward-looking information, including the company's plans and projections for the future that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information. Additional information concerning factors that either individually or in the aggregate could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements can be found within the safe harbor statement included in the earnings release attached to the company's Form 8-K filed earlier as well as our latest Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q, all of which have been filed with the SEC.

謝謝論壇。早上好。歡迎大家參加 Titan 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。今天與我通電話的是 Titan 總裁兼首席執行官 Paul Reitz； Titan 的高級副總裁兼首席財務官 David Martin。首先，我想提醒一下，我們即將審查的結果已在昨天發布的收益報告中與我們的 10-K 表格一起提交，該表格也已提交給美國證券交易委員會。提醒一下，在本次電話會議期間，我們將討論某些前瞻性信息，包括公司對未來的計劃和預測，這些信息涉及風險、不確定性和假設，可能導致我們的實際結果與前瞻性信息存在重大差異。有關單獨或匯總可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的更多信息，請參見公司早些時候提交的 8-K 表格所附收益發布中的安全港聲明以及我們最新的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格，所有這些都已提交給美國證券交易委員會。

In addition, today's remarks may refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which are intended to supplement, but not be a substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release, which accompanies today's call contains financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today as well as the reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. The Q4 earnings release is available on the company's website. A replay of this presentation, a copy of today's transcript and the company's latest quarterly investor presentation will all be available soon after the call on Titan's website. I would now like to turn the call over to Paul.

此外，今天的評論可能涉及非 GAAP 財務指標，旨在補充而非替代最直接可比的 GAAP 指標。伴隨今天電話會議發布的收益發布包含今天要討論的財務和其他定量信息，以及非 GAAP 措施與最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的調節。第四季度收益發布可在公司網站上獲取。此演示文稿的重播、今天的文字記錄副本和公司最新的季度投資者演示文稿都將在 Titan 網站上的電話會議後不久提供。我現在想把電話轉給保羅。

Thanks, Alan, and good morning, everyone. The Titan team closed out 2022 in excellent fashion with fourth quarter results that push us up over the top for record performance in terms of sales, profitability and cash flow. How did we get to this point? It really comes from our global One Titan team that continues to be energized by working relentlessly to engineer and manufacture our market-leading products that simply make off-road equipment perform better. Really, our vision and strategy as a company is formed by that premise, and it serves as our guiding light throughout our organization. A core concept of achieving on our vision and meeting the needs of our customers is through our strong technical connection to end users of off-road equipment, especially in agriculture. At Titan, we have a culture here that is centered around living and learning by playing in the sandbox with end users and really understanding their needs and then bringing that information back into our organization. With that important knowledge, we then let our product and technical engineers run fast to develop and also our operational teams manufacturer, these market-leading products, and that really creates a cool place for an exciting place to work. This entrepreneurial culture, this is at the root of our company's foundation and has been for decades. When combined with our strong technical and manufacturing know-how this flows vigorously throughout our day-to-day activities and is the backbone of the company that we are today.

謝謝，艾倫，大家早上好。 Titan 團隊以出色的方式結束了 2022 年，第四季度的業績推動我們在銷售、盈利能力和現金流方面創下了創紀錄的業績。我們是怎麼走到這一步的？它真正來自我們的全球 One Titan 團隊，他們通過不懈努力設計和製造我們市場領先的產品，使越野設備性能更好，從而繼續充滿活力。事實上，我們作為一家公司的願景和戰略就是在這個前提下形成的，它是我們整個組織的指路明燈。實現我們的願景和滿足客戶需求的核心理念是通過我們與越野設備（尤其是農業設備）最終用戶的強大技術聯繫。在 Titan，我們的文化以生活和學習為中心，通過與最終用戶在沙盒中玩耍並真正了解他們的需求，然後將這些信息帶回我們的組織。有了這些重要的知識，然後我們讓我們的產品和技術工程師快速開發，並讓我們的運營團隊製造這些市場領先的產品，這確實為令人興奮的工作場所創造了一個酷的地方。這種創業文化是我們公司成立的根基，已經存在了幾十年。與我們強大的技術和製造專業知識相結合，這在我們的日常活動中充滿活力，是我們今天公司的支柱。

Moving over to our financial results. We simply had an exceptional year. Our revenue reached $2.17 billion, 22% higher than last year, but actually 27% higher if you exclude FX in our Australian divestiture. Along with strong demand in our end markets, this demonstrates our team's ability to recruit, train and retain people to grow volumes in a difficult labor market. Our 2022 gross profit hit 16.6%. That led to an adjusted EBITDA of $253 million, which is a record year for Titan. We managed our cost structure effectively as well with our SG&A coming in a little over 7% of sales and only $2.5 million higher than last year in this inflationary environment that we live in. Looking at the fourth quarter, we closed the year out well with $510 million in revenue. That's up 4.5% and also the first time we have ever surpassed $500 million in Q4. As a reminder, this quarter is a period that is always impacted by holidays and plant maintenance shutdowns. So it's good to see our team get through that noise effectively to record gross margin of 15%, which compares to 12.8% last year. That led to our Q4 EBITDA of $53 million, which is our best fourth quarter in history. So overall, from nearly every angle you can look at, all of our business units had an excellent 2022. And I would personally and sincerely like to thank our global team for their efforts in recent years to achieve these accomplishments that I just had the honor of highlighting.

轉到我們的財務結果。我們度過了非凡的一年。我們的收入達到 21.7 億美元，比去年增長 22%，但如果在我們的澳大利亞資產剝離中排除外匯，實際上增長了 27%。加上我們終端市場的強勁需求，這表明我們團隊有能力招聘、培訓和留住人才，以在困難的勞動力市場中擴大規模。我們 2022 年的毛利潤達到 16.6%。這導致調整後的 EBITDA 達到 2.53 億美元，這是 Titan 創紀錄的一年。我們還有效地管理了我們的成本結構，我們的 SG&A 佔銷售額的 7% 多一點，在我們所處的這種通貨膨脹環境下僅比去年高出 250 萬美元。回顧第四季度，我們以以下方式結束了這一年收入 5.1 億美元。這增長了 4.5%，也是我們在第四季度首次超過 5 億美元。提醒一下，本季度是一個總是受到假期和工廠維護停工影響的時期。因此，很高興看到我們的團隊有效地克服了噪音，毛利率達到 15%，而去年為 12.8%。這導致我們第四季度的 EBITDA 達到 5300 萬美元，這是我們歷史上最好的第四季度。因此，總的來說，從幾乎所有角度來看，我們所有的業務部門都在 2022 年取得了出色的成績。我個人真誠地感謝我們的全球團隊近年來為取得這些成就所做的努力，我有幸取得這些成就突出顯示。

I want to move over to our balance sheet now and spend a few minutes on the critical process -- progress we've made there. A few years ago, David and I spoke quite a bit that one of our top priorities was to fortify our balance sheet. And the 2 of us and the rest of our team really did a good job getting our management team around the world focused on that objective. And over the past few years, we've done what we set out to accomplish. In 2022, Titan generated $114 million in free cash flow. That's enabled us to achieve net debt leverage of 1.1x. If you look back a few years ago, our working capital was around 27% of sales. Our Board, I do recall those days where our Board put in an objective in front of us to get below 20%, and we've done that for the past couple of years now. Most importantly, over the past few years of fortifying our balance sheet, we never stopped investing in product development and innovation, as I noted earlier. This is the part of the culture that what makes us tick, and we do not take our foot off that pedal. Therefore, by being strategic with our investments, exiting and improving unprofitable businesses and by having a motivated workforce moving in the same direction, over the past few years, we have executed at a high level to take care of our customers during these challenging times, and we've propelled our financial results to new levels, and we've also accomplished our crucial goal of fortifying our balance sheet.

我現在想轉到我們的資產負債表，花幾分鐘討論關鍵流程——我們在那裡取得的進展。幾年前，大衛和我多次談到我們的首要任務之一是加強我們的資產負債表。我們兩個人和我們團隊的其他成員確實做得很好，讓我們在世界各地的管理團隊專注於該目標。在過去的幾年裡，我們已經完成了我們設定的目標。 2022 年，Titan 產生了 1.14 億美元的自由現金流。這使我們能夠實現 1.1 倍的淨債務槓桿。如果回顧幾年前，我們的營運資金約佔銷售額的 27%。我們的董事會，我確實記得那些日子，我們的董事會在我們面前提出了一個低於 20% 的目標，我們在過去幾年裡已經做到了這一點。最重要的是，正如我之前提到的，在過去幾年鞏固我們資產負債表的過程中，我們從未停止對產品開發和創新的投資。這是讓我們打勾的文化的一部分，我們不會把腳從那個踏板上移開。因此，通過我們的投資戰略、退出和改善無利可圖的業務以及讓積極的員工朝著同一個方向前進，在過去幾年中，我們在這些充滿挑戰的時期以高水平執行以照顧我們的客戶，我們已將財務業績推向新的水平，我們還實現了強化資產負債表的關鍵目標。

So now looking towards 2023, it is reasonable to say the overall business climate kicks out a fair amount of noise at the macro level these days. However, when you look at our primary end markets, we are encouraged and believe they are still standing on firmer ground, especially the large Ag segment. The recent USDA report illustrates that corn and soybean supply demand factors along with low stocks, will bring good pricing levels into 2024 at a minimum. That will play a positive role in farmers' decisions about purchasing equipment, especially when they're going to get their hands on the latest precision ag technologies and not to mention getting their hands on our LSWs. The strong farmer income for recent years combined with that pent-up large equipment demand from -- is really still lingering from that supply chain and labor disruptions over the past couple of years. This, along with continuing low levels of available used equipment, all continues to bode very well for 2023 large ag demand. Flipping over and looking at small ag, it appears that inventory is starting to normalize to pre-COVID levels, along with the effects of some inflation, slowing down demand in smaller horsepower ranges. These factors, along with OEM is drawing down their internal inventory leads us to seeing a tapering of small lag demand in 2023. But again, it's still a good strong segment for our company.

因此，現在展望 2023 年，可以說整體商業環境最近在宏觀層面上發出了相當多的噪音。然而，當您查看我們的主要終端市場時，我們感到鼓舞並相信他們仍然站在更堅實的基礎上，尤其是大型 Ag 細分市場。美國農業部最近的報告表明，玉米和大豆供需因素以及低庫存至少會在 2024 年帶來良好的價格水平。這將在農民購買設備的決策中發揮積極作用，尤其是當他們打算接觸最新的精準農業技術時，更不用說接觸我們的 LSW 了。近年來農民收入強勁，加上被壓抑的大型設備需求——在過去幾年中，供應鍊和勞動力中斷確實仍在揮之不去。這一點，連同可用二手設備的持續低水平，都預示著 2023 年大型農業需求的增長。翻過頭來看小型 ag，庫存似乎開始正常化到 COVID 之前的水平，以及一些通貨膨脹的影響，減緩了較小馬力範圍內的需求。這些因素，加上 OEM 正在減少其內部庫存，使我們看到 2023 年的小滯後需求逐漸減少。但同樣，這對我們公司來說仍然是一個很好的強勁細分市場。

Moving over to Earthmoving and Construction. Our businesses in this segment finished the year really strong. In fact, ITM, our undercarriage business had the best quarter in its long history. We see earthmoving and construction in a good position to start 2023 with mining aftermarket poised for good growth with solid commodity prices in place and the construction market having the backdrop of some infrastructure support kicking in at points throughout this year. So we look at this as, again, a continuation of a strong 2022 to start off 2023. So if you circle back again to 2022 is an exceptional year for the Titan team and the customers we proudly serve. As we turn that page in the -- into this year, we expect our financial performance to remain at a high level based on the overall healthy market conditions in our end markets. Farmers will continue to be supported by strong income levels and have cash to spend on equipment and tires. Weather conditions have been unpredictable and that bodes very well for our LSWs that continue to be the perfect solution for farmers looking to battle through those tough conditions or simply looking to make their equipment perform better and more efficient. Therefore, we do see our aftermarket demand continuing to remain robust. We also expect to see certain OEMs drawing down their internal inventory levels. That will make for a bit of a wild ride.

轉到土方工程和建築。我們在這一領域的業務在這一年結束時非常強勁。事實上，ITM，我們的起落架業務在其悠久的歷史中表現最好。我們認為土方工程和建築業在 2023 年開局處於有利地位，採礦售後市場有望實現良好增長，大宗商品價格堅挺，建築市場在今年全年的一些基礎設施支持背景下發揮作用。因此，我們再次將此視為強勁的 2022 年的延續，從 2023 年開始。因此，如果您再次回到 2022 年，那麼對於 Titan 團隊和我們自豪地服務的客戶來說，這是非凡的一年。當我們將這一頁翻到今年時，我們預計我們的財務業績將根據我們終端市場整體健康的市場狀況保持在高水平。農民將繼續得到強勁收入水平的支持，並有現金購買設備和輪胎。天氣狀況變幻莫測，這對我們的 LSW 來說是個好兆頭，對於希望在這些惡劣條件下戰鬥或只是希望讓他們的設備性能更好、更高效的農民來說，它們仍然是完美的解決方案。因此，我們確實看到我們的售後市場需求繼續保持強勁。我們還預計某些原始設備製造商會降低其內部庫存水平。這將帶來一些瘋狂的旅程。

So coming off a record 2022, we see '23 as another strong year for Titan. And as the year progresses, we're looking to provide more information about our forecasted performance, but we're not going to provide a broad range of expectations on today's call. In closing, it's really cool to see the quality and innovative products we build around the world every day. It makes for a fun and exciting place to work and b, as I mentioned earlier, we also really, as a company, strive on the fact that our products play an important role in meeting the evolving needs of our customers and more specifically the end users. Along with that, we have a strong footprint of manufacturing locations that are able to mitigate the supply chain risks that exist in today's complicated world. We continue to believe the key elements are in place to drive continued positive momentum for Titan. So with that, I'd like to turn the call over to David now.

因此，在創紀錄的 2022 年之後，我們將 23 年視為 Titan 又一個強勁的一年。隨著時間的推移，我們希望提供更多關於我們預測業績的信息，但我們不會在今天的電話會議上提供廣泛的預期。最後，看到我們每天在世界各地打造的優質創新產品真的很酷。它創造了一個有趣和令人興奮的工作場所，而且 b，正如我之前提到的，作為一家公司，我們也確實致力於這樣一個事實，即我們的產品在滿足客戶不斷變化的需求方面發揮著重要作用，更具體地說是在終端用戶。除此之外，我們擁有強大的製造基地足跡，能夠減輕當今復雜世界中存在的供應鏈風險。我們仍然相信關鍵因素已經到位，可以為 Titan 帶來持續的積極勢頭。因此，我現在想把電話轉給大衛。

Thank you, Paul, and good morning to everyone that's on the call with us today. While we're now closing the book on 2022, and it was quite the ride for Titan. It's truly gratifying to see the success after all the hard work our One Titan team has put into moving the company forward. Financial success is just one aspect of those accomplishments of 2022. Our team has established new standards for operations planning, financial forecasting and most importantly, discipline and focus in the midst of a tremendous volatility over the last number of years. Now let's walk through some of the key highlights for Q4 and our 2022 full year performance. Q4 sales continued to expand with our organic growth of almost 10% from Q4 last year after excluding the FX and the sale of Australia, which occurred in the early part of 2022. Our full year organic growth, excluding those same factors, was 27%. Q4 adjusted EBITDA grew by $17 million or 46% from Q4 last year and it capped off a record year for our earnings, as Paul said earlier. Our full year adjusted EBITDA was $253 million, representing growth of 87%. Our earnings per share growth was also very impressive on both reported and adjusted basis. Adjusted EPS jumped from $0.14 in Q4 2021 to $0.44 in Q4 2022 and went from $0.60 per share in the full year of 2021 to $2.20 per share for 2022.

謝謝你，保羅，早上好所有今天和我們一起打電話的人。雖然我們現在要在 2022 年結束這本書，但這對 Titan 來說是一段相當不錯的旅程。在我們的 One Titan 團隊為推動公司前進而付出的所有辛勤工作之後，看到成功真是令人欣慰。財務上的成功只是 2022 年這些成就的一個方面。在過去幾年的巨大動盪中，我們的團隊為運營規劃、財務預測以及最重要的紀律和專注建立了新標準。現在讓我們來看看第四季度的一些主要亮點和我們 2022 年全年的表現。第四季度的銷售額繼續擴大，我們的有機增長比去年第四季度增長了近 10%，這不包括 2022 年初發生的外彙和澳大利亞的銷售。我們全年的有機增長，不包括這些相同的因素，是 27% .正如保羅早些時候所說，第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 比去年第四季度增長了 1700 萬美元或 46%，並為我們的收入創造了創紀錄的一年。我們全年調整後的 EBITDA 為 2.53 億美元，增長 87%。我們的每股收益增長在報告和調整後的基礎上也非常可觀。調整後每股收益從 2021 年第四季度的 0.14 美元躍升至 2022 年第四季度的 0.44 美元，並從 2021 年全年的每股 0.60 美元躍升至 2022 年的每股 2.20 美元。

Our cash balances increased by $43 million from Q3 on the strength of these earnings and the solid working capital management. And last, we paid down debt by $36 million in 2022 and grew cash by $61 million, driving down net debt to $286 million. Our debt leverage now stands at 1.1x. In Q4, we experienced more traditional ordering patterns in our plant maintenance by customers and fewer production hours for our plants, particularly in the Ag segment. It's normal seasonality, and it was in line with what we expected. At the same time, it is important to see the continued expansion of top and bottom line relative to last year in Q4, which was a solid result by the team. But now let's look into the performance at the segment level starting with agriculture. Agricultural segment net sales were $275 million, an increase of $10 million or 4% from Q4 last year. Excluding FX and the lack of Australian sales, this growth was 7%. Volume and mix were fairly stable when comparing to last year, and pricing was a big part of the growth. This primarily stemmed from increased cost of raw materials and other inflationary factors present in 2022.

由於這些收益和穩健的營運資金管理，我們的現金餘額比第三季度增加了 4300 萬美元。最後，我們在 2022 年償還了 3600 萬美元的債務，增加了 6100 萬美元的現金，將淨債務降至 2.86 億美元。我們的債務槓桿現在為 1.1 倍。在第四季度，我們在客戶的工廠維護中經歷了更多傳統的訂購模式，並且我們工廠的生產時間減少了，尤其是在 Ag 部門。這是正常的季節性，符合我們的預期。與此同時，重要的是要看到第四季度收入和利潤相對於去年的持續擴張，這是該團隊的一個可靠結果。但現在讓我們從農業開始研究細分市場的表現。農業部門淨銷售額為 2.75 億美元，比去年第四季度增加 1000 萬美元或 4%。排除外彙和缺乏澳大利亞銷售額，這一增長率為 7%。與去年相比，銷量和產品組合相當穩定，價格是增長的重要組成部分。這主要是由於原材料成本增加和 2022 年出現的其他通貨膨脹因素所致。

Again, we saw a return to normal seasonality across this segment of the business, and we also took advantage to prepare our plants for the needed production levels as we see increased demand in the first part of 2023. Full year organic growth for ag in 2022 was 30% compared to the prior year. Agricultural segment gross profit for the fourth quarter was $38 million, which was level with the result that we saw last year, while there was some negative impact from FX in Australia. The gross margin continued to be solid at 14%, similar to last year. Our Earthmoving and Construction segment experienced a very strong quarter. Overall, net sales for the E&C segment grew by $12 million or 7% from Q4 last year. Excluding those same factors I've been describing from last year or from this year, we were just short of a growth of $30 million or 16%. The majority of the growth for the segment was driven by increased volume, while there was increased pricing relative to raw materials and other cost inflation, most notably energy costs in Europe. Our growth came from all aspects of the global business, while ITM had one of its strongest quarters ever in Q4.

同樣，我們看到該業務部門恢復了正常的季節性，並且我們還利用我們的工廠為所需的生產水平做好準備，因為我們看到 2023 年上半年的需求增加。2022 年農業的全年有機增長與上年相比增長了 30%。第四季度農業部門毛利潤為 3800 萬美元，與我們去年看到的結果持平，但澳大利亞的外匯產生了一些負面影響。毛利率繼續穩定在 14%，與去年相似。我們的土方工程和建築部門經歷了一個非常強勁的季度。總體而言，E&C 部門的淨銷售額比去年第四季度增長了 1200 萬美元或 7%。排除我在去年或今年描述的那些相同因素，我們僅差 3000 萬美元或 16% 的增長。該細分市場的大部分增長是由銷量增加推動的，同時相對於原材料和其他成本通脹的價格上漲，最顯著的是歐洲的能源成本。我們的增長來自全球業務的各個方面，而 ITM 在第四季度是有史以來最強勁的季度之一。

For the full year, organic sales growth in the EMC segment was 24%. Gross profit within the EMC segment for the fourth quarter was $33 million, which represents an improvement of almost $13 million or 62% from gross profit last year. The gross profit margin in the EMC segment was significantly better at 17% versus the prior year at just 11%. Again, the largest driver of our increased profitability came from the increase in sales in the ITM undercarriage business, while growth occurred across all of our businesses in the geographies from last year, reflecting stronger demand in the global construction markets and solid market conditions in mining. The Consumer segment's Q4 net sales were slightly down in Q4 compared to last year. Sales from the Latin American utility truck tire sales were lower, reflecting some tightening of customer inventories in the quarter. Like the rest of the year, our specialty product growth initiatives in the U.S. are taking off, most notably our custom mixing of rubber stock, which partially offset some of this decline. For the full year, the Consumer segment experienced organic growth of 24%. This segment's gross profit for the fourth quarter was solid at $5.8 million and gross margins were 15%, improving nicely from Q4 last year.

全年，EMC 部門的有機銷售額增長了 24%。 EMC 部門第四季度的毛利潤為 3300 萬美元，比去年的毛利潤增加近 1300 萬美元或 62%。 EMC 部門的毛利率明顯好於去年的 11%，為 17%。同樣，我們盈利能力增加的最大推動力來自 ITM 底盤系統業務的銷售額增長，而我們所有地區的業務都比去年有所增長，反映出全球建築市場的強勁需求和採礦業穩健的市場狀況.與去年同期相比，第四季度消費者部門的第四季度淨銷售額略有下降。拉丁美洲多用途卡車輪胎的銷售額較低，反映出本季度客戶庫存有所收緊。與今年餘下時間一樣，我們在美國的特種產品增長計劃正在起飛，最顯著的是我們的橡膠庫存定制混合，這部分抵消了這一下降。全年，消費者業務實現了 24% 的有機增長。該部門第四季度的毛利潤穩定在 580 萬美元，毛利率為 15%，較去年第四季度有顯著改善。

This improvement in dollars and margin are primarily reflective of positive mix of products, again, most notably growth from specialty products in the U.S. Our SG&A and R&D expenses were $33 million in the Q4, which represented 6.5% of net sales, in line with previous quarter's performance and the full year. For the full year, our SG&A and R&D costs rose less than 1% compared to the prior year. With our growth in sales, this provided very solid leverage on our overall improved profitability and our margin. This was an interesting quarter for our reported taxes on income with a benefit of $16 million. During the fourth quarter, we were able to release valuation allowances of nearly $29 million for U.S. and federal state taxes related primarily to prior net operating losses. Due to the strong performance over the last several years and the company's projected performance ahead, we are now in a position to utilize these net operating losses. When you exclude the impact of the valuation allowance release that we did in the fourth quarter, income taxes as a percent of pre-tax profits were 25.7%.

美元和利潤率的這種改善主要反映了產品的積極組合，同樣，最顯著的是美國特種產品的增長。我們的 SG&A 和研發費用在第四季度為 3300 萬美元，占淨銷售額的 6.5%，與之前的一致季度業績和全年業績。全年，我們的 SG&A 和研發成本與上一年相比上漲不到 1%。隨著我們銷售額的增長，這為我們整體提高的盈利能力和利潤率提供了非常穩固的槓桿作用。這是一個有趣的季度，我們報告的所得稅收益為 1600 萬美元。在第四季度，我們能夠為主要與之前的淨運營虧損相關的美國和聯邦州稅收發放近 2900 萬美元的估值津貼。由於過去幾年的強勁表現以及公司未來的預期業績，我們現在可以利用這些淨運營虧損。當你排除我們在第四季度所做的估值津貼釋放的影響時，所得稅佔稅前利潤的百分比為 25.7%。

Our cash taxes for '22 were approximately $24 million for the full year. While earnings has been spectacular, it has translated into exceptional cash flow performance. Free cash flow topped $44 million in Q4 and a tremendous number of $114 million for all of 2022, which is well above any year in our history. We also exceeded our previous guidance of $100 million coming from improved working capital management in the quarter. This drove our overall cash balance to $160 million at the end of the year. Our capital expenditures for '22 were $47 million, and it was in the middle of our guidance range for the year. Our focus has been on ongoing maintenance in our various plants, along with investments to bring about increased efficiencies and selective capacity expansion, along with tooling related to product innovation and other improvements, particularly in large ag. As I mentioned at the outset, our net debt leverage at the end of December improved to 1.1x trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA, down from 1.4x at the end of Q3 and 2.9x last year at the end of the year.

我們 22 年全年的現金稅約為 2400 萬美元。雖然收益非常可觀，但它已轉化為出色的現金流量表現。第四季度的自由現金流量超過 4400 萬美元，2022 年全年的自由現金流量高達 1.14 億美元，遠高於我們歷史上的任何一年。我們還超過了我們之前的 1 億美元指導，該指導來自本季度改善的營運資本管理。這使我們年底的總現金餘額達到 1.6 億美元。我們 22 年的資本支出為 4700 萬美元，處於我們當年指導範圍的中間。我們的重點一直是我們各個工廠的持續維護，以及為提高效率和選擇性產能擴張而進行的投資，以及與產品創新和其他改進相關的工具，特別是在大型 ag 中。正如我在一開始提到的，我們在 12 月底的淨債務槓桿率從第三季度末的 1.4 倍和去年年底的 2.9 倍下降至 1.1 倍的過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA。

Now moving broadly to our outlook for fiscal 2023. We're coming off a record performance in 2022, and I truly believe that the underlying and mid and long-term demand drivers of our business remain very solid. As you heard today from Paul's comments, the business environment remains somewhat uneven in the near term. We do expect our performance to remain at a high level, supported by overall healthy market conditions in all of our end markets. We also expect to see stability in gross margins, and we will continue to control our operating costs, and that should translate into, again, very strong free cash flow performance for this year. Our working capital should also remain stable, and our capital expenditures should be in the range of $55 million to $60 million. This increase in CapEx reflects multiyear capital programs in place to manage the maintenance that, as I talked about earlier, in a very organized way and to improve the efficiencies with continued selective capacity expansion of our global production facilities and continuing tooling improvements from product development.

現在廣泛轉向我們對 2023 財年的展望。我們將在 2022 年取得創紀錄的業績，我真的相信我們業務的潛在和中長期需求驅動因素仍然非常穩固。正如您今天從 Paul 的評論中聽到的那樣，短期內的商業環境仍然有些不平衡。我們確實希望在我們所有終端市場整體健康的市場狀況的支持下，我們的業績將保持在高水平。我們還預計毛利率將保持穩定，我們將繼續控制運營成本，這將再次轉化為今年非常強勁的自由現金流表現。我們的營運資金也應該保持穩定，我們的資本支出應該在 5500 萬到 6000 萬美元之間。資本支出的增加反映了多年的資本計劃，以管理維護，正如我之前談到的，以一種非常有組織的方式，並通過我們全球生產設施的持續選擇性產能擴張和產品開發的持續工具改進來提高效率。

With this expectation for continued strong cash flow, we expect that our credit statistics to improve. We will be in a strong position to enact our strategic initiatives for growth and improving returns. This will include potential stock repurchases, which will be focused on supporting the stock when we need to. It has also potentially -- could include focused core acquisitions and joint ventures as they present themselves. We will be proactive in this area while remaining focused on building on the strength that has been maintained with our performance. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to forum, our operator, for the Q&A session.

鑑於對持續強勁現金流的預期，我們預計我們的信用統計數據將會改善。我們將處於有利地位來製定我們的增長和提高回報的戰略舉措。這將包括潛在的股票回購，這將在我們需要時專注於支持股票。它還可能 - 可能包括集中的核心收購和合資企業。我們將在這一領域積極主動，同時繼續專注於鞏固我們的業績所保持的實力。現在我想把電話轉回論壇，我們的接線員，進行問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Stephen Ferazani with Sidoti.Â

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Stephen Ferazani 與 Sidoti 的對話。

I appreciate all the detail on the call. You cited seasonality typical maintenance worked around some of your plants and typical holiday shutdowns, but EMC ran really hot this quarter. You can see, given that it was Europe, that the ITM was the factor. Why didn't we see any of that impact to that particular business? Is that just because it hasn't ramped up as fast so far?

我感謝電話中的所有細節。您引用了季節性典型維護工作圍繞您的一些工廠和典型的假期停工，但 EMC 本季度運行非常火爆。你可以看到，考慮到它是歐洲，ITM 是一個因素。為什麼我們沒有看到對特定業務的任何影響？這僅僅是因為它到目前為止還沒有那麼快地上升嗎？

Yes. You'll note that during the year, it's continued to ramp. It's been a little bit different in the seasonality that the ag side of our business did. Earlier in the year, it was kind of a slower as we were coming out of the the prior year, it was a little bit weaker as well. So it's been a momentum thing for the business as well. And again, high-level production, really solid pricing in place to manage a lot of volatility and so we not only see the top line growth, but we're seeing the margin expansion as well. Ag has been running hot, as we know through 2021, and we saw it all the way through the first half of 2022. And you started to see a little bit more return on the seasonality front as we headed into the end of the year.

是的。您會注意到，在這一年中，它繼續上升。我們業務的農業方面的季節性有所不同。今年早些時候，隨著我們從前一年出來，它有點慢，它也有點弱。所以這對企業來說也是一個勢頭。再一次，高水平的生產，真正穩固的定價來管理大量的波動，所以我們不僅看到了收入增長，而且我們也看到了利潤率的增長。正如我們所知，從 2021 年到 2021 年，銀一直很熱，我們一直看到它一直持續到 2022 年上半年。隨著我們進入年底，你開始看到季節性方面的回報有所增加。

 Yes. One thing to keep in mind, Steve, I mean during the pandemic, our Ag-related businesses were deemed critical infrastructure around the world. So North America, South America, we had to keep running hard like David alluded to. And we've reached a point operationally where we needed to pull some days out and get focused on some maintenance so we would be prepared to start '23 in a good position.

是的。要記住一件事，史蒂夫，我的意思是在大流行期間，我們與 Ag 相關的業務被認為是全球的關鍵基礎設施。所以北美、南美，我們必須像大衛提到的那樣努力奔跑。而且我們在運營上已經達到了一個點，我們需要抽出幾天時間並專注於一些維護工作，這樣我們才能準備好以良好的狀態開始 23 年。

Makes sense. When we heard from some of your large customers through this earnings season, they certainly noted continued supply chain issues, component shortages that you don't have. Are you running ahead of your customers? Is that turning into a bit of an issue as we see the cycle extend, but clearly, some of your larger customers are continuing to have supply chain issues.

說得通。當我們在這個財報季聽到你們的一些大客戶的消息時，他們肯定注意到了持續的供應鏈問題，你們沒有的組件短缺。你跑在客戶前面了嗎？當我們看到週期延長時，這會變成一個問題嗎，但很明顯，你的一些大客戶繼續存在供應鏈問題。

Yes, Steve. I mean that's -- you kind of led into a pretty good explanation for why at this point, we feel that putting out a broad range of guidance just isn't the way to approach things. I mean we have a strong internal forecast, like you said, the market has a great backdrop. The OEMs all confirm that over the past couple of weeks. But to your point, one of the things we're seeing is that their supply chains are starting to get caught up. So what does that mean for us? The OEMs have a lot of partially finished equipment that is on their lots in their inventory. And what I have heard and what we've seen is that Titan has done a very good job in '22 and even going back before that but specifically, we've done a good job throughout '22. That means that partially finished equipment already has wheels and tires on it. So as they work to get their supply chain caught up in other aspects of components that those deliveries are starting to come in, it's creating this murkiness in our forecast. I mean we have customers. And when I say murkiness in our forecast, it's wheels and tires, assemblies, it's North America, South America. So this is a broad range perspective. This is not a micro issue related to Titan. This is a bigger picture. What we're seeing is they got inventory that they need to move. They're going to move. It's already got wheels and tires. They got some inventories of wheels and tires and they need to get the 2 more imbalanced. And so we're seeing some forecasts that are moving all the time.

是的，史蒂夫。我的意思是——你很好地解釋了為什麼在這一點上，我們認為提供廣泛的指導並不是解決問題的方法。我的意思是我們有一個強有力的內部預測，就像你說的，市場有一個很好的背景。原始設備製造商在過去幾週都證實了這一點。但就你的觀點而言，我們看到的一件事是他們的供應鏈開始陷入困境。那麼這對我們意味著什麼？原始設備製造商在他們的庫存中有很多部分完成的設備。我所聽到的和我們所看到的是，泰坦在 22 年的表現非常出色，甚至可以追溯到之前，但具體來說，我們在整個 22 年都做得很好。這意味著部分完成的設備已經安裝了輪子和輪胎。因此，當他們努力讓他們的供應鏈陷入那些交付開始進入的組件的其他方面時，它在我們的預測中造成了這種模糊。我的意思是我們有客戶。當我在我們的預測中說模糊時，它是車輪和輪胎、組件，它是北美、南美。所以這是一個廣泛的視角。這不是與 Titan 相關的微觀問題。這是一個更大的圖景。我們看到的是他們有需要移動的庫存。他們要搬家了。它已經有了輪子和輪胎。他們有一些車輪和輪胎的庫存，他們需要使這兩個輪胎更加不平衡。因此，我們看到一些預測一直在變化。

Again, this is broad, big picture, North, South America, and we just need some time to work with our customers, get those forecasts in line, get them stabilized. We will be able to adjust our operations accordingly, but we are going through a number of revisions of those forecasts, and some of them just don't make sense, Steve. I mean it's the hard part, as we look to the second quarter, we're seeing some forecasts that just don't make sense, and we're working with the customers that say, well, look, let's take a look at it and work together to moderate some of these fluctuations that you're building into your forecast. And so literally, every day, we're seeing changes to it, but a lot of it is driven by what you said. I mean these supply chains are very complicated at the OEMs as they've kind of turned the calendar to '23. They've been focused on getting the supply chain caught up. They're focused on getting that partially built inventory off their lots, drawing down some of their inventory. And so you throw that all together, I mean, we believe '23 is in a good position at starting the year off strong. But at this point, we're going to let the inventory situation settle down, and then we'll provide some updated information as those customer forecasts become clear.

同樣，這是廣闊的大局，北美、南美，我們只需要一些時間與我們的客戶合作，讓這些預測符合要求，讓他們穩定下來。我們將能夠相應地調整我們的運營，但我們正在對這些預測進行多次修訂，其中一些只是沒有意義，史蒂夫。我的意思是這是困難的部分，當我們展望第二季度時，我們看到了一些沒有意義的預測，我們正在與客戶合作，他們說，好吧，讓我們來看看吧並共同努力緩和您在預測中建立的一些波動。所以從字面上看，我們每天都在看到它的變化，但其中很多是由你所說的驅動的。我的意思是這些供應鏈在原始設備製造商那裡非常複雜，因為他們已經將日曆轉到了 23 年。他們一直專注於讓供應鏈跟上。他們專注於從他們的地塊中取出部分建造的庫存，減少他們的一些庫存。所以你把所有這些放在一起，我的意思是，我們相信 23 年處於一個良好的開局狀態。但在這一點上，我們將讓庫存情況穩定下來，然後隨著客戶預測變得清晰，我們將提供一些更新信息。

Sure. That makes sense. Can you give us a peek on how Q1 is playing out since we're 2 months in?

當然。這就說得通了。自從我們進入 2 個月以來，您能否讓我們了解一下第一季度的表現？

Yes, it's a pretty good start. We've had a very good January in February across the business. And so yes, we're -- I can't say a whole lot more than that obviously at this point, but it's a very solid start.

是的，這是一個很好的開始。我們在 2 月的整個業務中度過了一個非常好的 1 月。所以是的，我們是——我現在不能說太多，但這是一個非常堅實的開始。

Okay. And then on another really strong free cash flow quarter. You didn't pay down debt. Obviously, you have over $150 million on the balance sheet now. CapEx up a little bit. But as you noted, you still should be looking at a pretty strong cash flow year. Anything you want to offer in terms of capital allocation?

好的。然後是另一個非常強勁的自由現金流季度。你沒有還清債務。顯然，您現在的資產負債表上有超過 1.5 億美元。資本支出增加了一點。但正如您所指出的，您仍然應該關註一個相當強勁的現金流年度。您想在資本配置方面提供什麼？

Well, what I said in my remarks earlier was that we'll be looking at opportunistic acquisitions, joint ventures, things like that, things that can continue to grow our business in our core markets. Again, these things don't always come at the times that I can't really give you any strong forecast for exactly what that is. But being a market leader that we are, we have opportunities and we will continue to pursue those things that make sense for us. We will be supportive of the stock on the stock repurchase program as we need to. It's not like we're going to be in the market every day buying stock. But as we need to support the stock, we will do so with that. And so we will continue to be building cash in the meantime and be looking at ways to improve our returns very proactively.

好吧，我之前在發言中所說的是，我們將考慮機會主義收購、合資企業等類似的事情，這些事情可以繼續發展我們在核心市場的業務。再一次，這些事情並不總是在我無法真正給你任何強有力的預測的時候出現。但作為市場領導者，我們有機會，我們將繼續追求對我們有意義的事情。我們將根據需要支持股票回購計劃中的股票。這不像我們每天都要在市場上購買股票。但由於我們需要支持股票，我們將這樣做。因此，與此同時，我們將繼續積累現金，並非常積極地尋找提高回報的方法。

Our next question comes from the line of Larry De Maria with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 Larry De Maria 和 William Blair 的台詞。

A follow up on the last question. I mean, from where we stand now, 2 months through 1Q, will we anticipate 1Q to be up, down, flat from a sales and EBITDA perspective. I would imagine we have some visibility on that.

跟進最後一個問題。我的意思是，從我們現在的立場來看，到第 1 季度還有 2 個月，從銷售和 EBITDA 的角度來看，我們預計第 1 季度會上升、下降還是持平。我想我們對此有一些了解。

 Well, I will say that we still have March to go here, but we're off to a solid start comparatively to last year. So -- I can't give you a specific number yet. But it is -- from the -- all the critical numbers, we are continuing to grow.

嗯，我會說我們還有 3 月才到這裡，但與去年相比，我們有了一個堅實的開端。所以 - 我還不能給你一個具體的數字。但它 - 從 - 所有關鍵數字來看，我們正在繼續增長。

 Okay. That's good to hear. And secondly, I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks, when you talking about CapEx and capacity expansion. Can you just maybe delve into that a little bit more because, obviously, we're talking about some mixed signals in the market and then some global capacity expansion. So can you just sort of go into that a little bit more?

好的。聽起來還不錯。其次，我想你在準備好的發言中提到了資本支出和產能擴張。你能不能再深入研究一下，因為很明顯，我們正在談論市場上的一些混合信號，然後是一些全球產能擴張。那麼你能再深入一點嗎？

Yes, Larry, I'll take that and I'll let Paul chime in if he needs to. But when we talk about selective capacity improvements, it's really surrounding large ag in large radial. And so we will -- we focus our efforts on making sure that we have the capacity to run LSW, particularly here in the U.S. and Latin America. So we're very focused on that and -- because we see demand continuing to rise with respect to that sector of the market. And so over the last couple of years, we've put in programs that have been in place, and we continue to follow that program. So it's pretty simple.

是的，拉里，我會接受的，如果他需要的話，我會讓保羅插話。但是，當我們談論選擇性容量改進時，它實際上是在大型徑向圍繞大型 ag。因此，我們將——我們將集中精力確保我們有能力運行 LSW，尤其是在美國和拉丁美洲。因此，我們非常關注這一點，而且——因為我們看到該市場領域的需求持續上升。因此，在過去的幾年中，我們已經實施了一些計劃，並且我們將繼續遵循該計劃。所以這很簡單。

Yes... And going back to some of the comments I made earlier, I mean the culture of who we are is we're going to adjust to the changing needs of our customer base, and we're good at understanding the needs of the end users that our customers serve and we do not stop with product development. So some of that capacity increase is just really looking at our product portfolio and finding out where we can make that portfolio stronger. And we've consistently been doing that, and we will continue to do that going further along with, like David said, expansion in large radio.

是的......回到我之前發表的一些評論，我的意思是我們的文化是我們將適應客戶群不斷變化的需求，我們善於理解客戶的需求我們的客戶服務的最終用戶，我們不會停止產品開發。因此，部分產能增加只是真正關注我們的產品組合，並找出我們可以在哪些方面使該產品組合更強大。我們一直在這樣做，我們將繼續這樣做，就像大衛說的那樣，擴大大型廣播。

 Okay. Makes sense. And then last thing. Obviously, there's a -- I just wanted to get your color on international broadly from your Russian business, maybe a reset there and what's going on? And then secondly, how important is this really a letter on the Indian imports and Russian oil, obviously. Could you just give us some discussion around how important Indian imports have become? And then secondly, just an update on your own Russian business.

好的。說得通。然後是最後一件事。顯然，有一個 - 我只是想從你的俄羅斯業務中廣泛了解你的國際色彩，也許在那裡重新設置，發生了什麼？其次，這封關於印度進口和俄羅斯石油的信件顯然有多重要。您能否就印度進口產品的重要性與我們進行一些討論？其次，只是更新您自己的俄羅斯業務。

 Yes. I mean the Indian imports were -- is really the similar situation that we've been talking about in the marketplace as seen for a number of years. We go to Washington D.C. this week, and we have the sunset review on the case that we put in front of the ITC 5, 6 years ago. We did get a positive confirmation from the ITC when this case was initially filed 5 years ago, and now it's up for that sunset review this week. And again, we feel that the facts and circumstances that we presented 5 years ago are very much still the case, along with the additional information that we put out in the press release yesterday pertaining to the use of Russian petroleum products in tires that are produced in India that then are exported into the U.S. And so really, what that letter that we released is addressing is a case, again, Larry, that's been out there for 5 years and goes back to the original filing that we made in front of the ITC. So it's not a new situation with India that's changed. But again, as we stated in that press release, I mean, they are taking Russian oil, which has been sanctioned by President Biden. They're binded at a discount as their economic minister has stood in front of the entire world and said they're going to do what's best for their citizens.

是的。我的意思是印度進口是 - 確實是我們多年來一直在市場上談論的類似情況。我們本週前往華盛頓特區，我們對 5、6 年前提交給 ITC 的案件進行了日落審查。 5 年前最初提交此案時，我們確實得到了 ITC 的肯定確認，現在該案件將在本週進行日落審查。再一次，我們認為我們 5 年前提出的事實和情況仍然如此，以及我們在昨天的新聞稿中發布的關於在生產的輪胎中使用俄羅斯石油產品的額外信息在印度，然後出口到美國 所以真的，我們發布的那封信是針對一個案例，拉里，它已經存在了 5 年，可以追溯到我們在國貿中心。因此，改變的並不是印度的新情況。但是，正如我們在那份新聞稿中所說的那樣，我的意思是，他們正在拿走拜登總統批准的俄羅斯石油。他們受到折扣的約束，因為他們的經濟部長已經站在全世界面前說他們將做對他們的公民最有利的事情。

They do not care about any sanctions that are in place and you look at the amount of oil they have been purchasing, it's gone up nearly 10x in the past year. And as we all know, oil byproducts are a big part of what goes into a tire in the form of Carbon Black and synthetic rubber. So therefore, those tires as they're converting those Russian oil byproducts into tires, they're importing into the U.S. And so again, it's a combination of the case that we previously filed with the ITC regarding Indian imports, and we're victorious than that 5 years ago. And you combine that again with what we feel is complete bypassing and going around the presidential stations that have been put in place. And so nothing's really changed other than the fact that, again, we got to go do that sunset review this week, and we feel that it's even more the case that there operating unfairly with bypassing the presidential sanctions. And we do have the support, as you saw in the letter from the USW, I think that's the most important thing, Larry, that I want to hit on, is that the folks that build our tires at Titan are represented by the USW and then it's an exceptional group of people. They're highly trained. They work their tail off and they're good at what they do. And so from our perspective, in the USW, when you are bypassing the presidential sanctions, you're hurting American jobs. And if you go back 2 years ago, I mean, one of the big mantras of the current administration was that they were going to product industrial jobs in the union. And so again, we have worked with the union and the head of the union and we feel that our message there is pretty clear. It's completely bypassing the presidential sanction.

他們不關心任何制裁，你看看他們購買的石油數量，在過去一年裡增加了近 10 倍。眾所周知，石油副產品是以炭黑和合成橡膠的形式進入輪胎的重要組成部分。因此，當這些輪胎將俄羅斯的石油副產品轉化為輪胎時，它們正在進口到美國。因此，這又是我們之前向 ITC 提交的關於印度進口的案件的結合，我們取得了勝利比5年前。你再把它與我們認為完全繞過和繞過已經到位的總統站的事情結合起來。因此，除了本週我們必須再次進行日落審查這一事實之外，沒有什麼真正改變，而且我們認為，繞過總統制裁的做法更加不公平。我們確實得到了支持，正如你在 USW 的信中看到的那樣，我認為這是最重要的事情，Larry，我想強調的是，在 Titan 製造輪胎的人由 USW 和那麼這是一群特殊的人。他們訓練有素。他們努力工作，並且擅長於自己的工作。因此，從我們的角度來看，在美國南威爾士州，當你繞過總統制裁時，你正在損害美國的就業機會。如果你回到 2 年前，我的意思是，現任政府的一大口頭禪是他們將在工會中創造工業就業機會。因此，我們再次與工會和工會負責人合作，我們認為我們的信息非常明確。它完全繞過了總統的製裁。

So with that, our Russian operations, we do operate within all the sanctions that are put in place. We have been from the onset. We continue to do that. The plant is operational. We do not export from that plant. We do not -- into markets that are bypassing sanctions, like I mentioned with India. We do not supply the military. There is no cash going in, no cash going out. And at the same time, that business serves a critical need of the global supply chain of food and agriculture. So really nothing has changed with that business, but we do continue to operate and follow all sanctions that are in place.

因此，我們的俄羅斯業務確實在所有實施的製裁範圍內運作。我們從一開始就是。我們繼續這樣做。該工廠已投入運營。我們不從該工廠出口。我們不會進入繞過制裁的市場，就像我在印度提到的那樣。我們不供應軍隊。沒有現金流入，也沒有現金流出。同時，該業務滿足全球食品和農業供應鏈的關鍵需求。因此，該業務實際上沒有任何變化，但我們確實繼續運營並遵守所有現行製裁措施。

Our next question comes from the line of Kirk Ludtke with Imperial Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 Imperial Capital 的 Kirk Ludtke。

Just a follow-up on the Indian tire imports. Do you know offhand how -- what percentage of the U.S. market, these Indian tire imports have?

只是對印度輪胎進口的跟進。您是否知道這些印度輪胎進口在美國市場中所佔的百分比是多少？

Not off the top of my head, no. It's really hard to get that clear data. I know there's a publication, industrial publication that puts out tire data. We have not participated in that since I think 2014, we found some inaccuracies in the data that was being compiled there. So no, we don't have accurate information on that. Other countries, I know in Europe and Brazil, we were able to kind of use some government statistics to pull that together. But in the U.S. not specifically able to give you an answer on that. If we come across it maybe this week, we might come across with our ITC review, but I don't have it off the top of my head right now.

不是我的頭頂，不。真的很難得到那麼清晰的數據。我知道有一份發布輪胎數據的工業刊物。自從我認為是 2014 年以來，我們就沒有參與過，我們發現在那裡編制的數據存在一些不准確之處。所以不，我們沒有這方面的準確信息。其他國家，我知道在歐洲和巴西，我們能夠使用一些政府統計數據將其整合在一起。但在美國並不能具體地給你一個答案。如果我們可能在本週遇到它，我們可能會遇到我們的 ITC 審查，但我現在還沒有想過它。

Okay. That's fine. Yes, I can imagine it can -- tires can originate in India and go through any number of countries before they get here. So it's probably pretty tough to pin down. With respect to input costs, I noticed a pretty big spike in hot-rolled coil in the last week. And I know that over time, you've talked about your ability to pass through input cost increases on to customers. And that seems -- it seems like you're making some progress there. Can you maybe talk a little bit about how your contract protection has changed if it has with respect to passing steel on? Steel price increases on.

好的。沒關係。是的，我可以想像它可以——輪胎可以起源於印度，並在到達這里之前經過許多國家。所以可能很難確定。關於投入成本，我注意到上週熱軋卷材出現了相當大的飆升。而且我知道隨著時間的推移，您已經談到了將投入成本增加轉嫁給客戶的能力。這似乎——你似乎在這方面取得了一些進展。你能不能談談你的合同保護在傳遞鋼鐵方面發生了怎樣的變化？鋼價上調。

Yes, Kirk. I'll take that a couple of different angles. One is we carry less inventory than we used to from a raw material perspective. And we also have tightened up our contracts with our suppliers with respect to trying to make sure that we're not hitting spikes in peaks and valleys with respect to steel because you know it's been very volatile over the last couple of years. And so first of all, we've tightened up the supply side to prevent any major movement one way or another. And then that's enabled us also to work with our customers to tighten it up on the pricing end so that we have, again, less volatility overall. We do have contracts that are in place and we have the -- they're changing typically either every 90 days and sometimes there's lags on how that index is used for purposes of pricing. So we got any number of ways to combat volatility. As we know, as we went through 2022, we were seeing a very strong drop in pricing on hot-rolled coil as well. So if you think about that in the U.S., it's been pretty volatile, and we were able to manage it through 2022, and we fully expect with the actions that we've taken that we'll be able to lessen the volatility with respect to how it flows through our production.

是的，柯克。我會採取幾個不同的角度。一是從原材料的角度來看，我們的庫存比過去少。我們還加強了與供應商的合同，以確保我們不會在鋼鐵方面出現高峰和低谷，因為你知道它在過去幾年中非常不穩定。因此，首先，我們已經收緊了供應方，以防止以任何方式出現任何重大變動。然後這使我們也能夠與我們的客戶合作，在定價端收緊它，這樣我們又一次減少了整體波動。我們確實有合同，而且我們有 - 它們通常每 90 天更改一次，有時該指數用於定價目的的方式存在滯後。所以我們有很多方法來對抗波動性。正如我們所知，隨著 2022 年的到來，我們也看到熱軋卷材的價格大幅下跌。因此，如果你考慮一下美國的情況，它一直非常不穩定，我們能夠在 2022 年之前對其進行管理，我們完全期望通過我們採取的行動，我們將能夠減少波動性它如何流經我們的生產。

So I guess input costs were a tailwind in '22. Is that safe to say?

所以我猜投入成本是 22 年的順風。這樣說安全嗎？

Well, not on the tire side. We've had elevated costs throughout 2022 that we're able to manage. And you can see that our margins have been pretty solid with all that. I would say right now, it's become more stable as we enter 2023 than it was throughout 2022. And then our assurance of supply is actually getting a little bit better as well. So I think as we look forward, I think we're in really good shape with how we're going to be able to manage those input costs. At the same time, we do face inflation on things such as labor and other areas as well that we're trying to manage as well. But as far as raw materials themselves, we think -- again, the actions we've taken to manage both on the supply side and the pricing side have lessened our -- the amount of volatility that we could see from that.

好吧，不是在輪胎方面。整個 2022 年，我們的成本都在增加，而我們能夠管理這些成本。你可以看到我們的利潤率非常穩固。我現在要說的是，隨著我們進入 2023 年，它變得比整個 2022 年更加穩定。然後我們的供應保證實際上也變得更好了。所以我認為，當我們展望未來時，我認為我們在如何管理這些投入成本方面處於非常好的狀態。與此同時，我們確實面臨著勞動力和其他領域的通貨膨脹，我們也在努力應對這些問題。但就原材料本身而言，我們認為——再次，我們在供應方面和定價方面採取的管理行動減少了我們——我們可以從中看到的波動量。

Got it. And then lastly, on the capital -- back to the capital allocation question just for a second. One follow-up. You mentioned opportunistic acquisitions or JVs and/or JVs, which side of the business are you -- where are you seeing the opportunities?

知道了。最後，關於資本——暫時回到資本配置問題。一個跟進。你提到了機會主義收購或合資企業和/或合資企業，你是業務的哪一方 - 你在哪裡看到機會？

I think we're in a good position where it could be in a number of different areas across the spectrum of customers and products that we produce and the Ag, mining or construction. But it will stay within our core. So we'll be able to leverage that in a way that will be beneficial. We are not looking to reach and expand in ways that, again, don't fit in from a -- and it's not just a cost synergy, but it's our ability to better serve the marketplace and take care of our customers. That's -- those are the synergies that we would expect to get and where we're looking.

我認為我們處於一個有利的位置，它可以在我們生產的客戶和產品以及農業、採礦或建築領域的許多不同領域。但它將留在我們的核心。因此，我們將能夠以有益的方式利用它。我們不希望以不適合的方式達到和擴展——這不僅是成本協同效應，而且是我們更好地服務市場和照顧客戶的能力。那就是 - 這些是我們期望獲得的協同作用以及我們正在尋找的地方。

So it would be focused on improving the range of product?

那麼它會專注於改善產品範圍嗎？

 Range of products and/or distribution to those products, correct.

產品範圍和/或這些產品的分銷，正確。

Okay. Got it. I appreciate it. Congratulations on a fantastic year.

好的。知道了。我很感激。祝賀你度過了美好的一年。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Reitz for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回 Reitz 先生作閉幕詞。

 I just want to thank everybody for your participation in today's call and really look forward to giving you an update at the end of our first quarter results. Thank you. Have a good day.

我只想感謝大家參與今天的電話會議，並非常期待在我們第一季度末的業績報告中向您通報最新情況。謝謝。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you for attending today's presentation. The conference call has now concluded.

感謝您參加今天的演講。電話會議現已結束。