Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Barbara Smith: Happy New Year, Timna. Thank you for the question. We have seasonality in the bidding activity in €“ on the fabrication side of the business. And normally, as we move towards the end of the year because there’s lower construction activity through the winter months, we tend to see some changes in lower activity during that time frame and then it ramps up when you get past the first of the year. The other thing I would say is we’re seeing a little bit more lumpy activity in bidding and booking in fab because of these very large jobs that I spoke of, like the semiconductor and some of those, they’re out there and they’re in the pipeline, but there can be a job that we anticipate booking and it just happens to miss one quarter and fall over into the next quarter.

So we’ve had some very large jobs that just it’s all about the timing. Overall, we are monitoring it carefully because we’re all familiar with all of the economic concerns. And we continue to see a very, very strong pipeline of bidding and confidence in the owners of these projects that they’re going to move forward, the industrial projects in particular, balance sheets are really strong. Companies have the cash. They’re not dependent upon financing to move those projects forward. And those types of projects, once they get booked and they’re funded, they will get completed. So we are not seeing an increased activity in rebids. We are not seeing increased activity in cancellations, and we remain quite encouraged going forward.

Timna Tanners: Okay. That’s helpful and makes sense. I guess as a follow-up, if I could. Can you talk a little bit to the cadence of ramp-up of Arizona 2? I know it’s supposed to ramp up in the calendar year, but just thinking about where we should be a year from now and the cadence? And then similarly, any cadence comments on what you’re seeing in terms of any infrastructure stimulus timing would be great? Thanks.

Barbara Smith: Yes. Thank you. The best I can point you to, Timna, on AZ 2 is to go back and look at the ramp in Oklahoma. This is our third micro mill. And while this one’s more complex because we’re adding merchant to the product mix. We are, by design, starting with rebar because that’s something that we’re supremely familiar with. And so I would expect the ramp to be very similar to what we experienced at Oklahoma. I don’t have that exact ramp in front of me, but it was quick within three, four quarters. We were at three crews and building the fourth crew. And I would anticipate a similar situation here and the merchant will follow and be layered in and enhance the productive capability. And so I would just point you back to the trajectory that we saw for Oklahoma.

As it relates to the Infrastructure Bill, it was very encouraging and eye-opening to see the trend in the preplanning and design phase numbers that I believe I quoted Dodge reports those. And there has just been a massive increase year-over-year in infrastructure, preplanning and then moving into the design phase. And once it’s into the design phase, then, of course, it moves into active projects and bidding and then orders for steel. The exact timing, Timna, is hard is to predict. But if you look at the magnitude of that increase and you use kind of those historical references as it takes 12 to 24 months for those projects to translate into activity on the ground. We think the back half of 2023, those are going to start moving into the backlog and starting to come to fruition and then build from there.

Timna Tanners: Okay, excellent. Thanks very much.

Barbara Smith: Thank you, Timna.

Operator: And our next question will come from Lawson Winder with Bank of America. Please go ahead.