Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Michael R. Haack: Yes. So we look at everything as we say. We are also very disciplined in what we will buy, how it fits into our network. You could see during the past quarters where we have done transactions, where we’ve extended our distribution footprint, it’s — right now, we would look at anything that comes to the market. It’s just when businesses are in sold-out positions, there’s not as much on the market. So you can see where we pivoted to the logistics side, like I said, with the Nashville acquisition. We bought aggregates positions in the Denver market. Those are things we look at continuously, and we will continue to look at anything that comes to the market that makes sense for Eagle. It just has to meet our strategic criteria.

Stanley Elliott: Perfect guys, thank you very much and best of luck.

Operator: The next question comes from Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis. Please go ahead.

Adam Thalhimer: Hey, good morning guys. Hey Craig, I wanted to follow up on something, I think you said it about non-res and particularly like large projects, large non-res projects. Are you seeing that in specific regions or are you seeing that everywhere?

Craig Kesler: Yes, pretty broad-based, Adam. Whether it’s the semiconductor facilities, the battery facilities, it’s those types of very large on-shoring of manufacturing that we’ve seen in our markets. And again, pretty broad-based.

Adam Thalhimer: Okay. And then Michael, you made some comments about the lack of new capacity entering the Wallboard market going into this a little bit of a soft patch. Are you — what’s the implication of that, do you actually see pricing even if volumes decline a little bit do you see pricing kind of staying flattish?

Michael R. Haack: When you look at everything, it’s all on the supply and demand criteria with it. And when you — one of the inputs into that is how much board is going into the market. So I know there’s been debates both with analysts and us when we look at different markets on what the capacity of the Wallboard industry is today with it. And we just don’t see — in previous years, we’ve seen or previous cycles, I should say, not years, we have seen where there’s been capacity expansion added, and we are not seeing that capacity expansion added. We also have a Wallboard industry that’s much different today than it was in the past with a lot of consolidation that happened since the last cycle with it. So I do see a different animal this time than in previous cycles.

Adam Thalhimer: And then lastly, your Wallboard cost per unit went down a little bit sequentially in Q3. Do you think that trend can continue with gas prices coming down?

Craig Kesler: Yes, very driven , Adam. Yes. On a sequential basis, we did see energy prices come down, and that was a good sign. Natural gas has certainly been under pressure here over the last couple of months and more importantly here in the last few weeks. So — and look, I’ll also tell you at a freight level, we saw freight tick down just slightly. That doesn’t happen very often. So yes, we saw again some of those would have been headwinds this year starting to turn around.

Adam Thalhimer: Okay, thanks guys. Perfect.

Operator: The next question comes from Philip Ng with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Philip Ng: Hey guys. Well, Michael, it’s great to hear that in the medium term, you don’t expect volumes to be down in Cement. Any color on how to think about Wallboard in the near term, call it, calendar year 2023, just given the tougher housing backdrop? At least what we’re hearing is maybe backlogs will carry the industry through the early parts of the calendar year. But any color here on how you’re thinking about the shape of the year in terms of Wallboard demand?