Westlake Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 20, 2024

There are 17 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to The Westlake Corporation 4th Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, February 20, 2024.

Operator

I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Holly, Westlake's Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Corporation conference call to discuss our Q4 and full year results for 2023. I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our President and CEO Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and other members of our management team. During the call, we will refer to our 2 reporting segments Performance and Essential Materials, which we refer to as PEM or Materials and Housing and Infrastructure Products, which we refer to as HIP or Products. Today's conference call will begin with Albert, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's performance.

Speaker 1

Steve will then discuss our financial and operating results, after which Albert will add a few concluding comments and we'll open the call up to questions. During the Q4 of 2023, we recorded a non cash impairment charge of $475,000,000 related to the company's epoxy business as well as a $150,000,000 charge to fully resolve certain liability claims that are currently not being covered by certain of our excess insurance carriers. We refer to these two charges as identified items in our earnings release and on this conference call. References to income from operations, EBITDA, net income and earnings per share on this call exclude the financial impact of the identified items. As such, comments made on this call will be in regard to our underlying business results using these non GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 1

A reconciliation of these non GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is provided in our earnings release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward looking information that is based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. These forward looking statements suggest predictions or expectations and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in Westlake's Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2022 and other SEC filings. We encourage you to learn more about these factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing these SEC filings, which are also available on our Investor Relations website.

Speaker 1

This morning, Westlake issued a press release with details of our Q4 and full year results. This document is available in the press release section of our website at westlake.com. We have also included an earnings presentation, which can be found in the Investor Relations section on our website. A replay of today's call will be available beginning today, 2 hours following the conclusion of this call. This replay may be accessed via Westlake's website.

Speaker 1

Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, February 20, 2024, and therefore, you are advised that time sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. Finally, I would advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an Internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at westlake.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Albert Shown. Albert?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our Q4 and full year 2023 results. Excluding the identified items, for the Q4 of 2023, we reported net income of $93,000,000 or $0.72 per share and EBITDA of $390,000,000 on sales of $2,800,000,000 While overall sales revenue was below the year ago period due to lower average sales prices in the PAM segment, we are pleased that our 4th quarter total sales volume increased 7% compared to the Q4 of 2022, with North American demand strength, partly offset by lower sales volumes in our international operations. Regionally, our volume and price declines 2023 were most impacted in our European operations, which were pressured by a weak macroeconomic backdrop and imports into Europe from Asia.

Speaker 2

The volume and price declines were most felt in our base epoxy business, driven by the very weak economic environment in Europe and China, along with significant new global epoxy capacity additions. These capacity additions, which were primarily in China, were met with weak regional demand, driving a significant increase in Asian exports Europe and other regions. These Asian export volumes were aggressively priced as some Asian competitors received energy subsidies to stimulate exports. At a time when European energy costs were still relatively high, in part due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. As a result of these factors, our European based epoxy resin business experienced a sharp and sudden decline in profitability.

Speaker 2

To reflect these market changes, along with our current outlook for global operating rates to remain under pressure, we recorded a non cash impairment charge in our base epoxy business in the Netherlands in the 4th quarter. We have begun to implement actions to reduce our costs and improve the profitability of our European businesses. The cost savings we're expecting across our company wide cost reduction programs are $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 in 2024 after achieving 2023 cost savings of $110,000,000 Before turning the call over to Steve to review our financial results in more detail, I want to take a few minutes to review our accomplishments in 2023. Our hip segment achieved record income from operations of $710,000,000 and a record EBITDA margin of 23%, as we further integrated and achieved synergies from the Borro, Lascaux and Dynex acquisitions. We are very pleased with the evolution of this segment, which produced back to back record results over the past 2 years.

Speaker 2

Even with the economic challenges in the residential building market. These record results provide stability to our overall earnings in 2023 with an asset light cash generative business model with leading positions in North America. Our constant focus on cash flow generation enabled Westlake to generate $2,300,000,000 of cash from operations and $1,300,000,000 of free cash flow after investing over $1,000,000,000 to maintain and improve our plants and equipment. The solid cash flow generation, strength of our business and confidence in the company's future allowed us to return approximately $250,000,000 to shareholders in 2023, including the increase of our quarterly dividends by 40% to $0.50 per share, which demonstrates our commitment to rewarding shareholders. We finished the year with a solid investment grade rated balance sheet, highlighted by $3,300,000,000 of cash and equivalents, providing flexibility to pursue opportunities as they present themselves.

Speaker 2

Finally, in conjunction with the publication of our 6th Annual Sustainability Report in October, we added 5 additional facility goals to our existing CO2 emissions intensity reduction target. These five new goals address water usage, health and safety, community engagement, diversity and inclusion and the circular economy and are important part of our overall approach towards stewardship of our environment and communities. Taken together, I'm very proud of our 2023 accomplishments given the challenging global economic environment. And I'd like to thank our nearly 16,000 team members for their hard work and dedication that enabled these achievements and record hip results. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve to provide more detail on our financial results for the Q4 and full year of 2023.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Albert, and good morning, everyone. As Albert discussed, our Q4 of 2023 financial results were reduced by $475,000,000 as we fully impaired the base epoxy resin business in the Netherlands to reflect a change in the fair value of these assets as a result of the rapid deterioration in global epoxy markets over the past year. Asian and European economies remain weak throughout 2023 and we saw a flood of Asian epoxy imports into European markets as large Asian epoxy capacity additions were completed at a time of persistently elevated power, energy and raw material cost in our European operations. Separately, as we previously disclosed, we reached settlements to resolve certain liability claims and we recognized a charge of $150,000,000 in the 4th quarter of 2023 to reflect a portion of the total settlement amount that is subject to dispute with some of our insurance carriers. We're pleased to have fully resolved these liability claims, while we work with our insurers to resolve the disputed portion of the settlement amount.

Speaker 3

As a reminder, my comments regarding income from operations, EBITDA, net income and earnings per share all exclude the financial impact of both the non cash impairment and the litigation settlement charges. Westlake reported net income of $93,000,000 or $0.72 per share in the 4th quarter on sales of $2,800,000,000 Net income for the Q4 of 2023 decreased $139,000,000 from the Q4 2022 as a result of lower average sales prices and margins in PEM, particularly for caustic soda and epoxy resin and $20,000,000 of restructuring cost as we optimized operations in our hip segment. When compared to the Q3 of 2023, net income decreased by $190,000,000 in the 4th quarter due to lower average sales prices in PIM, unfavorable sales mix changes in PIM and a typical seasonal decline in hip sales volume. For the Q4 of 2023, our utilization of the FIFO method of accounting resulted in an unfavorable pre tax impact of $35,000,000 compared to what earnings would have been reported on the LIFO method. This is only an estimate and has not been audited.

Speaker 3

For the full year of 2023, we reported net income of $1,100,000,000 and EBITDA of $2,600,000,000 on sales of $12,500,000,000 Compared to our record 2022 results, net income attributable to Westlake declined by $1,100,000,000 as growth in Hips income from operations more than offset by lower PEM earnings, primarily due to lower average sales prices and margins. Turning to our segment results, PEM EBITDA of $1,600,000,000 in 2023 was below our record 2022 results primarily due to lower global sales prices and margins as a result of softer demand created by weaker global economic conditions and customer destocking at a time when new global capacity additions for polyethylene and epoxy resin entered the market. However, after customer destocking ended as 2023 drew to a close, we saw signs of improvement in our sales volumes, which rose 6% year over year in the 4th quarter with improving signals in demand strength that have carried into the Q1 of 2024 for many of our PEM product categories. On a quarterly basis, PEM's 4th quarter EBITDA of $201,000,000 decreased by $138,000,000 from the 3rd quarter. The sequential decline in EBITDA was the result of lower average sales prices, particularly for cost of soda, which were driven by increased export demand and price changes that occurred from the Q3.

Speaker 3

With the lower sales prices, we saw an increase in demand led by caustic soda that drove a 4% sequential increase in our sales volume in contrast to the historic pattern of slower customer orders and sales into year end. While it is still early in 2024, we have recently seen signs of firming demand after sales prices from most of our major PEM products were relatively stable on a month to month basis within the 4th quarter. Moving to our Hips segment, dollars 710,000,000 of income from operations set a new annual record in 2023 despite lower revenue as the strong value of our brands allowed us to remain disciplined in pricing despite lower materials cost contributing to an improvement in EBITDA margin to 23% from 20% in 2022. These results are a testament to the strength of our brand and the importance of our products to our customers. The strong performance in 2023 illustrates the benefits of our vertical integration and diversification strategy as lower cost materials used by our HIP segment drove solid margins at a time when PEM segment margins were compressed due to lower sales prices.

Speaker 3

Shifting focus to the 4th quarter results, hip sales rose year over year as our penetration into markets drove an 11% increase in sales volumes that more than offset lower average sales prices. Volume growth was strongest in our pipe and fittings business, particularly for residential and infrastructure pipe with strong customer orders late in the quarter and continuing into early 2024. While average sales prices declined 10% year over year, this was generally less pronounced than the declines in our materials cost, contributing to the expansion of HIP's EBITDA margin to 18% from 14%, inclusive of the $20,000,000 restructuring cost in the Q4 of 2023 to optimize our manufacturing footprint. Margin improvement was also supported by the 11% year over year sales volume growth and the achievement of over $20,000,000 of additional cost synergies in 2023 from the Bora, Lasko and Dymex acquisitions. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flows.

Speaker 3

Westlake's cash generation reflects our continued focus on operational and financial discipline. For the full year of 2023, net cash provided by operating activities was $2,300,000,000 while capital expenditures were $1,000,000,000 resulting in strong free cash flow of $1,300,000,000 As of December 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents were $3,300,000,000 and total debt was $4,900,000,000 with our net leverage remaining below one turn of EBITDA. Westlake's debt is at an attractive average fixed rate of 3.2 percent at an average maturity of 16 years, which combined with $3,000,000,000 in cash and investment grade, graded balance sheet puts Westlake in a financially strong position at this stage of the business cycle. We will look to strategically deploy our balance sheet for value creating opportunities. Turning our attention to 2024, let me address some of your modeling questions and provide some guidance for the year ahead.

Speaker 3

Based on our current view of demand and prices, we expect 2024 revenue in our Housing and Infrastructure Products segment to be between $4,000,000,000 $4,400,000,000 with EBITDA margin around 20%. As Everett mentioned, we are targeting $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 of cost savings in 2024 even after our 2023 cost savings of $110,000,000 exceeding last year's target. We expect our total capital expenditures to be approximately $1,000,000,000 similar to our depreciation run rate. This includes cost for planned turnaround at our Petro-one ethylene unit scheduled to begin in the second half of the year that is projected to last approximately 60 days. For the full year of 2024, we expect our effective tax rate to be approximately 23%.

Speaker 3

We also expect cash interest expense to be approximately $160,000,000 Now I'd like to turn the call over to Albert to provide some current outlook of our business. Albert?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Steve. As we head into 2024, we are well positioned to respond to evolving market trends, while executing our strategies. In our hip segment, the breadth of North American footprint and our leading market positions with a broad product portfolio supported by strong brands has increased our penetration with the farthest growing segments of the market. Our exposure to this growing portion of the market should support future hip segment sales volume growth. Meanwhile, in our PEM segment, we are also a market leader in specialty polyethylene and chlorvinyls, which provides Westlake scale and capabilities to serve our customers' needs and support their growth plans.

Speaker 2

Furthermore, our globally advantaged energy and feedstock position in North America provides our Penn segment with the flexibility of export sales opportunities. A key component of our business strategy is to reduce volatility in earnings and cash flow, while maximizing earnings growth potential. The integration of our PAM and Hip segments demonstrates the strength of our strategy to capture the value of the cycle, whether it moves more to the upstream or downstream portion of the value chain. In 2024, we will continue to deliver on all of our priorities, including the safe, reliable operational plans, allocating capital to expand our business portfolio, generating value added returns and providing top tier shareholder returns, while maintaining a strong investment grade rated balance sheet. At the same time, we will continue to provide our customers with innovative products that provides a path to achieving their long term sustainability goals.

Speaker 2

Sustainability remains critical to our global strategy, not only because it's the right things to do for the environment, but also because provides increasingly profitable market growth opportunities. We continue to look for ways to further integrate our businesses to capture this market growth. As a recent example, our Global Compounds and Dynamics businesses have paired their respective expertise in PVC Compounding and Recycling to process the Westlake Global Compound's waste materials, including grinding, shredding, blending and compounding, utilizing Dynex's processing services. As 2024 progresses, we will continue to look for more opportunities to leverage diverse materials technology and industrial know how of our portfolio of businesses to reduce our and our customers' waste material to further sustainability goals. Before we open the call for your questions, I want to provide some closing thoughts on 2023 and our current outlook.

Speaker 2

The benefits of our diversification strategy were apparent once again in the Q4 and the year as a whole, as record earnings in hip provided stability to our overall results at a time when PAM sales prices and margin were at a trough at this stage of the cycle. While the macroeconomic backdrop remains uncertain, I'm more confident in our near term outlook for a few key reasons. 1st, customer inventories are at much lower levels following a prolonged period of destocking activity. As a result, we believe that customers' orders in 2024 will better reflect demand in our end markets with potential upside as our customers begin to restock as demand improves. 2nd, in part due to these low customer inventory levels, we exited 2023 and began 2024 with solid sales volume momentum.

Speaker 2

4th quarter sales volume in our hip segment rose 11% year over year. The dialogue we are having with our hip customers support the momentum we have as we enter into 2024. Meanwhile, 4th quarter sales volume for our patent segment rose 6% year over year and 4% sequentially, which was counter to the normal seasonal decline that we typically see towards year end. 3rd, the solid sales volume momentum is continuing into 2024, supporting price momentum for most of our products in our pet segment. Recent disruptions in global trade routes from tensions in the Middle East and lower water levels at the Panama Canal also have the potential to disrupt imports and support our pricing initiatives.

Speaker 2

Finally, the Federal Reserve has paused a series of interest rate hikes that depress demand and business confidence in 2023. While the future path of interest rate policy is uncertain, the pause and potential for eventual cuts could create a more favorable macroeconomic backdrop for our businesses in 2024, particularly those portions of our business where demand is more sensitive to interest rates, such as housing, construction, energy and autos. Thank you very much for listening to our Q4 earnings call. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Albert. Before we begin taking questions, I'd like to remind listeners that our earnings presentation, which provides additional clarity into our results, is available on our website and a replay of this teleconference will be available 2 hours after the call has ended. We'll provide that information again at the end of the call. Jonathan, we'll now take questions.

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham from Citi. Your question please. Patrick, you might have your phone on mute.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Can you hear me now?

Operator

Yes.

Speaker 3

Yes, we can.

Speaker 4

All right. Good morning, everyone. So just on the sales and margin guide for the hip segment, I'm just trying to square what your volume outlook might be given we have some uncertainty around rate cuts, but you cited pretty solid momentum in that business. So do you expect volumes to grow next year and maybe margin decline is more from continued price declines and stabilizing PVC costs?

Speaker 3

So Patrick, it's a good question and we've seen good momentum at this stage as we enter the first portion of 2024. Certainly depending on the outlook, whether you're looking at some of the recent statistics by the U. S. Census Bureau on housing starts and permits or those published by NEHB or John Burns Real Estate, JBRE. The outlook remains, I think, constructive in terms of growth and demand.

Speaker 3

We indicated on our prepared remarks, we're continuing to see good volume pull in the 1st few months of 2024. It's hard to project the entire year of 2024 at this stage, but I would say that we remain optimistic given the volume and volume pull that we've seen at this stage.

Speaker 4

Got it. That's helpful. And then I was hoping you could elaborate on the manufacturing footprint optimization for hip. So how many assets have you closed and how many maybe are you planning to close in 2024? And what sort of level of run rate savings should we expect and the contribution within that $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 that's specifically coming from HIP?

Speaker 3

So the restructuring of $20,000,000 we took in '23 in the Q4 of 'twenty three really relates to optimizing some of our assets in the exterior building products business. And so while we've taken steps in whether it be in our stone or other business applications, certainly we do look to further optimize that over the course of 2024. And the exact plan will be somewhat a function of how the market develops. Certainly, we're looking to really optimize those that footprint based on where the market demand is. And if you think of that smile from the both coast along the Southeast and Southwest, we're well positioned in that marketplace and we're looking to make sure that our assets are positioned to be able to meet that market demand.

Speaker 3

So we don't have any specific plans that we're ready to announce for 2024, but I would say we're prepared to address those needs depending on market conditions.

Speaker 2

Yes, we don't want to add some of those cost savings as a result of the rationalization we've done in 2023 and we see the benefit in 2024.

Speaker 4

Yes, that makes sense. Thank you.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Frank Mitsch from Fermium Research. Your question please.

Speaker 5

Good morning. Thank you. I do want to come back to the hip margin question. I appreciate your comments regarding volumes, etcetera. But you reported pretty record margins in the Q3.

Speaker 5

So maybe there's an expectation that that doesn't continue. Is that playing a big role as to why you're thinking your margins in 2024 will be roughly 300 bps lower than in 2023? Yes.

Speaker 3

So Frank, we're exiting obviously the end of 2023 with lower price points in some of those discrete products. And certainly, we see rising raw materials cost as we mentioned and see some guidance in some of those PIM products. And so this is why we've kind of guided to potentially seeing lower margins in the hip business simply is because of the exit rate of prices at the end of 'twenty three and the potential, and we're seeing some traction on materials cost in that flow into that business.

Speaker 5

Got you. And sticking with the raw materials and inputs and so forth, obviously, we've seen a material collapse in natural gas and ethane for that matter. But on the other side, we've seen propane moving up. How do you think about the from an overall Westlake perspective, the recent movements in NGLs and in nat gas?

Speaker 2

Yes. Every dollar of gas price dropped 1,000 cubic feet as well over $100,000,000 of benefit. And it's to say not only that our energy costs going down, but when natural gas price going down, ethane price going down, so our ethylene manufacturing costs has come down a lot.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. So that's a bit of a tailwind as we sit here in 1Q, correct?

Speaker 6

Correct. Yes.

Speaker 5

Thank you so much.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Thank

Operator

you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Aleksey Yefremov from KeyBanc Capital. Your question please.

Speaker 6

Thanks and good morning everyone. This is Ryan on for Aleksey. So my first question, I want to dig in a little bit on the volumes in PEM. So obviously, volumes rose about, I think, 6% year over year and 4% sequentially. Is this purely a market based recovery or were there some market share gains in there?

Speaker 6

And then so far during 1Q, have you seen any aggressive pricing from competitors or like across the industry that may kind of hinder your volumes here too? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. At PEM business, there are several in polyethylene PVC or price announcements, and we got a $0.05 upon price increase in polyethylene in January and further price announcements being made and the price announcement made in PVC as well. So as you know, also, the springtime is a construction period and with warm weather, a lot of activities are going on. And as we said, we are seeing momentum with our hit customers are placing orders. So the momentum in the Q4 is carrying into the Q1.

Speaker 6

Great. That's helpful. And then just as you think about running your chlor alkali facilities here in 1Q, what do you think operating rates are going to be? And then when you think about it for the balance of the year, anything you can quantify there would be helpful? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you. From some of the consultant study that 4th quarter operating rates, chlor alkali in the U. S. Is about 76% and people are projecting well, it's down from 82% in Q3, but people are projecting 2024 chlor alkali running rates in the high 70s.

Speaker 2

So we're seeing some improvement. I think about half of the chlorine go to PDC. So the PDC really drives the running rates for chlor alkaline running rates.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Duffy Fischer from Goldman Sachs. Your question please.

Speaker 7

Yes, good morning

Speaker 8

guys. First question is just around epoxy. When was the point of maximum pressure from Chinese imports into Europe last year? Has that stabilized? And do you think you need to do anything with your physical footprint in Europe?

Speaker 8

Or is just the non cash write down going to be sufficient?

Speaker 3

So Duffy, we saw that really begin to build in the second half of last year, that pressure. And that's really as we saw the imports continue to ramp up and put pressure on the European markets and that really is what drove the impairment.

Speaker 2

And we are seeing that maybe partially because of the Suez Canal freight rates and everything else is that the import is reducing volume. And as a result, also European liquid epoxy resin prices start moving up.

Speaker 3

And we're taking certain certainly you could see from our prepared remarks Duffy that we're taking actions to manage our costs and become competitive in that marketplace. So that while we understand that the market needs to balance itself out given the still weakness in Asia and European markets from a demand perspective, we're certainly being proactive in reducing our cost and being really focused to remaining competitive in that epoxy space.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you. And then maybe just to go back to the 6% volume number from Q4, can you break that out or at least tell us if some of the products within PEM were meaningfully different than that 6%? And how much of that was driven by domestic versus export volume?

Speaker 3

Yes, there was a bigger move in some of the exports. And so in my comments, we talked about some of the product shift and that product shift was really moving some of that PVC and caustic into the export markets. And certainly the netbacks of those because of shipping duties and such, those netbacks are lower, but still attractive. And that's the volume pickup we saw was in caustic and PVC in PEM.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next questions. And our next question comes from the line of Salvator Tiano from Bank of America. Your question please.

Speaker 7

Yes. Thank you very much. So I wanted to come back to the folks and trying to see if you can a little bit quantify what has been the impact versus when you gave some numbers a couple of years ago with your major acquisition, how much of that earnings power has been lost here? And also what's kind of your view of Epoxy earnings either quantitatively or at least directionally in 2024 versus 20 2023? And also, are you seeing kind of an epoxy upward price pressure that some trade publishers are reporting in Europe?

Speaker 3

I was going to comment, as Albert noted earlier in his comments, certainly some of the trade flows because of the hostilities in the Middle East, Red Sea and the Panama Canal certainly have given some buoyancy to pricing that we've seen across the product spectrum because of the higher cost. And certainly as I mentioned earlier, we've seen some buoyancy in overall pricing. So certainly the markets here in the United States are stronger than they are in Europe because of the strength in the overall economies.

Speaker 7

Okay. And if I may ask a little bit on the heap guidance for 2024. I know that in your adjusted EBITDA, you've not actually had some of the restructuring items such as the $20,000,000 you incurred in Q4. I'm wondering, do you have any substantial restructuring charges baked in the 20% EBITDA margin for 2024?

Speaker 3

None at this stage. And so as I mentioned, the range of $4,000,000,000 to $4,400,000,000 revenue and the 20% margin that we've guided to is not reflective of any assumed changes in restructuring costs that would flow through in 2024. As I mentioned to an earlier question, the lower margin is purely a function of that we exited 2023 with lower prices in our building products set and we're seeing rising prices some of those inputs such as in PVC. So we'll see how that plays through. But given the fact that we're seeing an exit at lower price points and rising input costs such as in PVC that could put some pressure on

Speaker 9

margins. Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker 4

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Mike Leithead from Barclays. Your question please. Mike, you might have your phone on mute.

Speaker 10

Can you hear me now?

Operator

Now we can. Yes.

Speaker 3

Yes, we can.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning guys. Just on the litigation charge in the quarter, can you help clarify what this was related to? And is there an expected cash outlay associated with this charge at some point?

Speaker 3

Yes, Mike. It was related to Louisiana and so we've disclosed this in our 8 ks earlier this quarter as well as our 10 Q filings earlier last year. I do expect the outlays to be in the first half of this year.

Speaker 6

Great. Thank you. And then just second briefly, I wanted to ask on Westlake Partners. Obviously, the distribution the share price has been relatively flattish for some time where we now have a bit of higher interest rates and the like. Can you just talk about how the MLP fits within the overall Westlake strategy here going forward?

Speaker 3

Sure, Mike. So the strategy here was always to raise capital at a valued proposition that was greater than that of Westlake Corporation and we've done that. We've raised about $500,000,000 of capital, equity capital in that manner. And so certainly as we've seen the markets in the MLP space have been challenged and certainly in a structure as we have with higher interest rates, the MLP has yielded a higher yield. If we do see lower interest rates begin to materialize with the Federal Reserve potentially cutting rates later this year, I would expect that yield to decline and prices to rise.

Speaker 3

So we'll see how the Federal Reserve acts later this year, but certainly that opportunity does exist.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. Your question please.

Speaker 9

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Good morning. So just trying to think about profitability, I guess, as you move forward into Q1. So when you look at the $390,000,000 or so of EBITDA that was reported in Q4, how much of that declined sequentially from 3Q to Q4 would you attribute to seasonality?

Speaker 9

And are there any other discrete items in there that may reverse since you move into Q1?

Speaker 3

So Arun, we've seen prices almost across the spectrum on the chemical side of our business somewhat decline over the course of the from the end of Q3 into Q4. But if you think about the price nominations that are out in the marketplace, whether the $0.05 that was settled for polyethylene in January, we've got additional announcements for prices out for later this quarter. PVC has price nominations out and we've seen some traction with prices that were nominated in Q4 going into effect in caustic for the Q1. So when you think of the momentum we've seen in pricing initiatives, when you think of the volume because of the low inventory levels we see with our customer base and the exiting as you could see our guidance in terms of exiting 23 with increases in volume on the PEM side, which is counter to the typical seasonal behavior we see. Those are all positive and constructive directions.

Speaker 3

On the building product side on hip, we certainly also saw what I would characterize as a typical seasonal decline in volumes. And you see the guidance that we're providing for hip in 2024. So we remain constructive for the look forward into 2024.

Speaker 9

Okay. And then just a quick question on kind of integration levels. Would you characterize these opportunities set in front of you? How much do you think you still have in front of as far as debottlenecking or maybe other opportunities to increase your integration levels? And I guess, where would you find that most as far as whether it be ethylene or maybe on the chlor alkali side?

Speaker 2

Yes, it's a good question. We have smart engineers and they always find ways to improve and debottleneck and sometimes the debottleneck can be a bit more than debottleneck. So we're currently looking at what opportunity would have, what the cost, what the benefit depending on the cycle or part of the cycle, whether it's good time to expand now, expand a bit later. That happens in PAM and also in hip, we're looking at some of the rationalization is excuse me, we have moved equipments from one region that's a slower growth to a region that's higher growth. So we are doing all this stuff to optimize our footprint in the hip side as well.

Speaker 9

And if I could just ask a similar follow-up on that. Just do you think just given the utilization rates, I guess, and chlor alkali that there's more high cost capacity within your own system that could be rationalized or maybe some peers? I know there's been some rationalization from the largest peer in the

Speaker 2

Yes, that's a good question. We constantly look at the positivity and cost position of our plants and where that is necessary, we should take actions. But one thing is that, as you have heard from our discussions, Westlake benefits from the integration from chlor alkali to PVC to the hip businesses. And those integration really helps to, as we said, when the upstream is better, we benefit from upstream and we can take the products of downstream and vice versa. When downstream is better, we take benefit on downstream and we still keep upstream running.

Speaker 2

So those interactions are different from some other competitors of ours. And we're able by looking at the whole totality and not just at a unit by itself.

Speaker 9

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Josh Spector from UBS. Your question please.

Speaker 11

Yes. Hi, good morning. First, I wanted to follow-up on hip pricing. So when you talk about the lower exit rate into 2024, pricing in the quarter sequentially was actually a bit better than what we expected. So was there a reset in December that would mean that we see a couple percent lower?

Speaker 11

And when you talk about rising costs, PVC, etcetera, are you past a window where you think you can get additional pricing to offset that for next year?

Speaker 3

No, Josh, I think if you think about the year over year change in prices, we certainly saw probably about a 10% reduction year over year in sales prices in hip. And certainly at the end of the year prices were basically flat. And so I'm really comparing the average price of 23 to the exiting price at the end of 2023 when I talk about the exiting price and really thinking about the average price as we go forward. Certainly, we have not got ourselves in a position where we're locked up for the year from a pricing perspective. So if we see continued good strength in volume growth, Certainly, as I mentioned, we're seeing increased nominations and prices for inputs such as PVC.

Speaker 3

We do have the opportunity given the demand picture to be able to raise those prices. It will be a function of really do we continue to see the strength in demand over the course of 2024 that we're seeing in the early stages here of 2024. If we do, obviously, we'll be able to take price action accordingly.

Speaker 11

Thanks. I appreciate that. And then just within PEM, when you talked about some of the volume strength, I mean, you keep alluding to more exports. So can you share roughly where your export mix was at PVC and caustic versus normal Q4 and how you expect that to trend over the next couple of quarters? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. Q4, they usually demand lower in the PVC side. We export more than the Q3. As a result, the average sales price has come down. But I think the ACC reported that PVC exports is about 37% in January.

Speaker 2

And I think 35% to 40% is the range that PVC industry has been exporting.

Speaker 11

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 4

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next

Speaker 9

Good morning, Matthew. Good morning, Matthew. Albert,

Speaker 12

looking at this $3,300,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet, could you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the M and A market? Is deal flow picking up? And if you do a deal, are you more focused on the opportunities in hip than in PEM?

Speaker 2

Yes, that's a good question. Yes, we are seeing more ideas, deals from banks, even though the deal flows had not really picked up. We're seeing some industry announcements people buying assets or companies in hip business. And suddenly for Westlake, we'll look at both sides what makes the best economic return for Westlake through our synergies. So whether it's in Penn side or hip side, we constantly look at deals and on a global basis, not just in the U.

Speaker 2

S. And when you add economic value to us, we'll take a hard look at those deals.

Speaker 12

Sounds good. And then some of the consultants are showing PVC, global PVC capacity growth this year around 3%. Does that match up with your expectations? And would you expect global PVC demand growth to be stronger than 3% this year?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think we believe capacity additions is really not that great. People talk about China, especially with the carbide process being on the moratorium of new build and some ethylene based PVC plants starting in China, but cost is a lot higher from either put own produced ethylene or imported EDC. So I think global demand, that's the key question. And some of this is political, macroeconomic related and the other one is interest rate related.

Speaker 2

So we are blessed that the U. S. Has by far the lowest cost position from low cost ethane, ethylene and low cost power to make chlor alkali. So we are able to export, as we mentioned in our talk earlier, they're able to capture any opportunities that comes up for export. If the U.

Speaker 2

S. Demand is up there or not enough, so that's why we mentioned in the Q4, we did more export than 2nd and third quarter, and we can still capture good cash contributions.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan. Your question

Speaker 13

please. Thanks very much. Did epoxy profits meaningfully decrease sequentially?

Speaker 3

Yes, Jeff. It's Steve. Yes. And when you think of the profit contributions, they were continuing to decline over the second half of twenty twenty three. So sequentially from 3Q to 4Q, they certainly declined and they declined from 2Q into 3Q.

Speaker 3

So there was a sequential decline over the course of the second half of the year.

Speaker 13

Okay. And then in your earlier remarks, you highlighted the sequential decline in PEM as the result of lower caustic soda prices. So if that was the largest component like order of magnitude, were they lower by $100 a ton in the quarter sequentially?

Speaker 2

Yes, I would think combination of caustic and as well as some PVC price drop. But you're right, I think caustic last year, they dropped materially over, I think, dollars 300 for the whole year last year. That's right. I think every month, it dropped, except I think in January or February now, we are seeing the first price increase. I think looking at according to CMA reported $5 a term price increase in February and that's the first time for 14 months that caustic price has not dropped, actually went up.

Speaker 13

Okay. And then in housing and infrastructure products, year over year in the Q4, was that $53,000,000 increase

Speaker 2

really

Speaker 13

fittings and pipes related? Or was it related more to the other parts of the hips business?

Speaker 3

Yes. So Jeff, the contribution from both the pipe and fittings business and frankly our siding and trim business were strong in that period. So it's both pipe and fittings and siding and trim business.

Speaker 13

And then lastly, you talked about raw material cost inflation in hips. I don't think there's any raw material cost inflation in PVC. So where is the raw material cost inflation coming from in hips for 20 24?

Speaker 3

Yes. So Jeff, I'm speaking to the PVC price nominations that we see that are out in February by all the producers at this stage. So Westlake and all the others have price nominations out for February. And so certainly as we look forward given the volume demand we're seeing in our downstream building products businesses. And we mentioned the strength that we're seeing as we exited 2023 into 2024 in the building products side of our business, seeing the pull on those products, which should pull on the PVC resin.

Speaker 3

And this is why we're seeing that pull and why we've seen price nominations by all the producers in the marketplace.

Speaker 13

But you're in so what you're saying is that the margins because you transfer at market from PEM, the margins in hips will be pushed down and the margins in PEM will be pushed up, all things being equal. Is that right? Correct.

Speaker 6

Yes. Correct.

Speaker 13

Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Richard Gucciaccino from Wells Fargo. Your question please.

Speaker 3

Great. Thanks for taking the question. First on the hip segment, just wondering about the competitive landscape, the 11% year over year volume growth. Does that reflect any market share gains within the product lines? And where are you seeing the strongest increases?

Speaker 3

So we've seen some good traction really with our customer base. You've seen us make many references to the portfolio and the brands that are associated with that portfolio. And so having a nationwide footprint and a strong and strong product offering allowed us to really make good contributions in market share gains and certainly building relationships with many of these distributors who are servicing many of the nationwide homebuilders is really where we're seeing good traction. Okay, great. And then on the pricing side, are you seeing a more competitive pricing landscape?

Speaker 3

Or is that just pricing pressure given lower housing starts and weaker macro outlook year over year? I would say we've been able to really maintain, you saw this in the Q4 relative to the Q3, pricing was relatively flat in hip. And so I would say that we were able to maintain pricing sequentially from 3 to 4Q. As we pull into the Q1 of 2024 continuing to see good volume and certainly trying to then be the beneficiary of that volume pull. My guidance and we've talked about this in a couple of the other questions that we do have some price nominations out for PVC resin.

Speaker 3

And so certainly if we see strength in PVC demand related products, siding trim, shutters and other applications, we will certainly try to not pass those higher prices, certainly try to pass those higher prices through and not get caught in a margin compression, but we'll see how the market demand wise plays through.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Vincent Andrews from Morgan Stanley. Your question please.

Speaker 10

Hi. This is Turner Henricks on for Vincent. I'm wondering if you could provide an update on what you're seeing for inventory levels among customers and where you're expecting tailwinds from restocking mentioned in your prepared remarks.

Speaker 2

Yes. Talking about PAM customers or hip customers?

Speaker 10

In particular, whichever channels we're seeing the restocking mentioned, but PEM would be of interest in particular.

Speaker 2

Yes. I think as you can tell, when prices came down and demand came down last year, customers tend to be have low inventory levels and they order only order when they need products. And so over year end also they don't need to carry inventories. So as we come into January, February of this year, customers are starting to order to their demand. And so we are seeing the order going up.

Speaker 2

But I think inventory still customer very cautious. They are still keeping relatively low to medium levels of inventory. And that's true also for the hip side. And but as you know, this is the good in material construction starting usually starting from March is the season people start increasing construction. And with the warmer weather, people start a bit earlier.

Speaker 2

So I think they are just ordering to meet the demand, make sure they have good they have the products, because if you miss one item, the house is not complete. So they will make sure they have all the items delivered to the site that they can put the house together better too quickly.

Speaker 3

Great, great. Thanks for all the detail there.

Speaker 10

I'm also wondering if you could provide a little additional color on your outlook for the caustic soda industry and prices during 2024. I was wondering specifically also whether or what you're expecting in the Q1 in terms of price and volume and whether the increase you saw caustic soda prices was driven by trade and freight dynamics from your perspective or underlying supply and demand?

Speaker 2

Yes, I think supply demand has improved. I think we see some pulp and paper plants running harder and they're ordering caustic and chlorine. Now as mentioned earlier, the CMA's forecast for operating rates for clockwise in the U. S. Are running in the high 70s, which is okay, but not great.

Speaker 2

So this is their forecast now. Now things could change. But I think also export prices has stopped moving up. And again, the consultants, CMA looking at $5 increase in February April is 10 and May is 5. Now the industry that we have announced price increase and other companies announced price increase more than what CMA has announced and time will tell how much of our industry announcement will get put in place.

Speaker 2

But it's a substantially higher price increase announced by the industry.

Speaker 9

Okay, great. Thank you.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Kevin McCarthy from Vertical Research Partners. Your question please.

Speaker 14

Yes. Thank you and good morning. With regard to your PVC production in 2023, I was wondering if you might be willing to split it into 3 buckets. Those would be the amount or percentage that you used internally in hip versus U. S.

Speaker 14

Domestic sales versus export sales. How would you size each of those?

Speaker 3

Yes, Kevin, it's Steve. Because we're using a lot of that PVC resin really in our building products business, roughly a quarter of that is going into the building products business into the hip business and the remaining 75% of that is sold either domestic or international because we are selling so much of that 25% domestically, our mix relative to industries therefore is going to be a lower mix of exports relative to the industry average. So obviously to the extent that we see the strong markets domestically, we'd rather sell it domestically versus export and that really that percentage is always going to be lower than industry average because of that domestic that internal sale. But I would say we certainly focus on the domestic market as much as we can and pivot to the export markets when there's seasonal elements at play such as in the Q4 because exports tend to be higher. And certainly, it's also a function of how strong the domestic market is.

Speaker 3

So it's hard to give you a hard and fast percentage of domestic or export per se.

Speaker 14

And then just coming back to the caustic soda discussion, would you expect your average selling prices in the Q1 relative to the Q4 of 2023 to be higher or lower or roughly the same?

Speaker 3

You were asking about the average selling price 2023?

Speaker 14

Yes, that's correct. 1Q is obviously more than halfway done. So just kind of curious if you look at your order books for the next 6 weeks or so, you referenced some of the uptick in caustic prices in February. So one could argue perhaps we're coming off the bottom a little bit. But if I just think about that sequential move from 4Q into 1Q,

Speaker 2

do you

Speaker 14

think the result might be materially different in terms of your realized price for caustic?

Speaker 2

Well, according to CMA, Q4 last year 2023, caustic price domestically dropped by $60 a ton. And I said earlier, CMA looking at $5 increase in February and then $10 in April. So Yes.

Speaker 3

So the average price will go lower in 1Q. I just want to make sure you were talking about 4Q versus 1Q 2024. Clearly, with the decline in price we've seen through 2023, the average price in 2024 will be lower than the 4th quarter average price in 2023. Got it.

Speaker 14

Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of David Begleiter from Deutsche Bank. Your question please.

Speaker 15

Thank you. Albert, how do you expect ethylene chain margins to progress through 2024?

Speaker 2

That's a good question. As I said earlier, there are price increase we have $0.05 a pound price increase achieved in January and there are price increase announced for February and 1 industry participant announced the price increase for March. And so we are seeing some improvements in export price. So we believe that some part of the price increase will go through, but in the Q1, a lot depending on global economy supply demand, macroeconomics and also the Red Sea, Suez Canal issues and Panama Canal, when will it all be settled or subside issues. So all these have to will come into play in terms of our pricings and volumes moving international trade.

Speaker 2

As you know, in polyethylene, the U. S. Exports a large quantity, I think, close to about 50% plus or minus of total U. S. P.

Speaker 2

Produced exported. So export has a big component of it. So all these dynamics, it's difficult to forecast what's going to happen. But we believe at least domestically in the Q1, things should be better. And we mentioned earlier that with lower price of natural gas and ethane, the ethane based production cost should be low.

Speaker 2

If you have polyethylene price increase, the margin should improve.

Speaker 9

Got it.

Speaker 15

And just seeing your cost savings in 2023 and 2024, how much will come from epoxy?

Speaker 2

Epoxy is not a big part of Westlink's business And we're talking about the problem was the Pernis, the Netherland plant epoxy that we have problem with. And you heard also, we are doing substantial cost reduction programs to make the system better, but still Asian export to Europe is a big issue of keeping prices low. But epoxy as a whole is a small part of the waste of this business.

Speaker 9

Thank you.

Speaker 3

David, just maybe to give you a broader understanding of that savings over the course of 'twenty four, I would guide probably 3 quarters or so of that would probably be on the PIM side of the business and the other 25% probably be on the hip side of the business. So you have an understanding of the relative expected mix of that savings of $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 that we expect to benefit from?

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Hassan Abhin from Alembic Global Advisors. Your question please.

Speaker 16

Good morning, Albert and Steve. Good morning. A question around the chlor alkali markets. Over the last couple of years, I mean, certainly since the end of 2020, the virtue of sort of the chlor alkali story had been a high degree of discipline, particularly in the North American markets, right? And obviously, that resulted in decent sort of pricing growth, margin growth and the like.

Speaker 16

And then obviously we started seeing destocking over the course of the last couple of quarters and some pricing and margin erosion, right? And we all talked about sort of operating rates in North America being relatively depressed, but demand beginning to pick up. Now one of your larger competitors out there has been pretty vocal about potentially ramping up utilization rates February onwards. So my question to you is, what gives you confidence that the industry will continue to remain disciplined, particularly keeping in mind operating rates that I think you alluded to them being around 70% and you holding on to pricing or maybe even gaining some?

Speaker 2

Yes, very good question. And I think a big part was export price. When export prices was high, then U. S. Enjoyed also high domestic price, but export price start to decline pretty sharply 2023.

Speaker 2

And so U. S. Domestic market has to respond. And we are seeing sign that the export price stabilize, it's not moving up a little bit. So I think it's the economics have whether it's going to the alumina business or pulp and paper.

Speaker 2

And as I said earlier, we see some sign of improvement and demand is increasing international caustic market. There's not huge amount of capacity added globally. It's really demand issue, not a supply issue. And hopefully, as economics improves globally and also China's economy improves, we are hearing that the government in China is trying to again stimulate its construction business after the New Year is over or time will tell what kind of initiatives they will have. If the global economy stabilizes and continue to recover and grow at lower interest rate, it will help caustic.

Speaker 2

Caustic is such a broad industrial chemical is used. It goes into many, many segments of our economy, consumer, industrial, investment, all that. So it's a bellwether of the global economy. And we hope this year things will bottom out or last year bottomed out and getting better. So we are optimally cautiously optimistic of caustic market, but a lot of things could happen.

Speaker 16

Fair enough. And as a follow-up on the PVC side of things, you touched on China earlier. I mean, let's assume for a second that there is no stimulus in China. Obviously, barring that, I'd like to think that the Chinese market is quite long PVC. So what are you guys seeing in terms of trade flows out of China on the PVC side in particular?

Speaker 16

And barring a stimulus, could that be a risk maybe potentially even to domestic U. S. Pricing if China ramps up exports?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think as I said earlier, China's ex PVC 80% is on the carbide based, it's not welcomed maybe on Southeast Asia, maybe or South Asia, but you don't have car like PVC going to Europe or going to North America. So and there's a moratorium on new build. So really, it's existing demand and existing capacity. That's the problem in China.

Speaker 2

As Chinese infrastructure and residential improves, then the demand PVC will improve. But we've seen last year's Chinese PVC exports, as I said, to South Asia and South Asia. But we are seeing a bit slowdown because the Chinese government are trying to really reduce carbon emissions and pollutions and the double control from GDP thermal emissions per GDP by cities and provinces are really people are watching carefully. And so we don't expect that Chinese PVC be flooding the market. And then also that still have high costs, yes, energy is still higher cost in the U.

Speaker 2

S.

Speaker 16

Fair enough. And since I have you one last one, if I could squeeze it in. Just you talked about sort of lower margins Q3 to Q4, primarily on sort of higher export demand in PVC and caustic. And obviously, that coincided with all the sort of shipping related cost escalation that had happened on the back of the Red Sea. I mean, did that play a material role in some of the margin squeeze that you guys saw in those two product areas in particular?

Speaker 2

Yes, you're absolutely right. The shipping freight rates we heard increased by $300 to $400 to $300 a ton, it could be even higher and also delayed route arrival. It's really impacted global trade and since we're talking about Asia exports to Europe and some to the U. S, it has stopped or slowed down a lot of that. And I think that helped also supporting price increase as we said in our remarks going up.

Speaker 16

Very helpful, Albert. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Salvator Tiano from Bank of America. Your question please.

Speaker 7

Thank you very much for taking my follow-up. Just wanted to check. So essentially, you're pretty much saying that your hip guidance, the 20 percent EBITDA margin is contingent on the $0.05 per pound PVC price increase. So I'm wondering if that doesn't go through or if price overall for the year don't increase as much, how much would that benefit hip earnings at the expense of PEM earnings?

Speaker 3

So as I indicated, I think that the guidance that we provided is reflective of our outlook today. Certainly, if we don't see that strength in PVC that raise that price, we haven't seen reductions in building products prices at the end of the year. You saw that they were relatively flat. So the contribution really to the hip side of the business should continue to be constructive. Obviously, we're more heavily weighted on the PVC side.

Speaker 3

So obviously, while there is benefit of having lower input costs, we have more heavily weighted volume in PVC than we do in the building products using that PVC. So it would be more constructive to get that price nomination of PVC through for the when you think of the whole loaf of the Westlake.

Speaker 9

Yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Jeff for any further remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Thanks again for participating in today's call. We hope you'll join us again for our next conference call to discuss our Q1 2024 results.

Operator

Thank you for participating in today's Westlake Corporation 4th Quarter and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call will be available for replay beginning 2 hours after the call has ended. The replay can be accessed via Westlake website. Goodbye.

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Westlake Q4 2023
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