Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ben Gliklich: Thanks, David. So the business in China had a tough year in 2023. It was down in the double digits from a percentage perspective. That was driven partially by the electronics market, where there is quite a bit of business in the circuit board market in particular, and also in the industrial market, where the industrial economy was soft. As we look to next year with the electronics market ramping, we see growth in China in 2024. The industrial business we expect to be, I’d call it modestly better, not a great deal better. The circuit board market is very strong in China and will remain so. There aren’t trade restrictions on the circuit board market and we remain a significant participant in that market. And we do see growth, as we said, we see growth from the Chinese OEMs in electric vehicles.

As I mentioned earlier, we opened an applications lab for power electronics there. We see a lot of opportunity associated with that. And even in our industrial surface treatment business, we’ve been investing in that market. Our share there is lower than it is outside of China, and we see a big opportunity for share gain and are getting traction supporting customers with equipment packages and other innovations, particularly with an environmental lens on them, because of the scrutiny on environmental discharges in that market. So we do see it as a growth market for us coming off of a pretty soft year. There’s a compelling case for several years of growth from here, even in a reasonably tepid industrial economy in China should that play out.

David Silver: Okay. I’m going to stop there. Thank you very much.

Ben Gliklich: Thank you, David.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I’ll turn the call to Ben for closing remarks.

Ben Gliklich: Thank you, Sarah, and thank you, everybody for joining. We look forward to seeing many of you in the days and weeks to come. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.