Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Lasse Petterson: Yes, the short answer is yes. We have seen some uncertainty in the market, particularly with Orsted, who canceled their Ocean Wind I and II for New Jersey. The article was citing cost and inflation and also shortage of installation vessel capacity for the project, which tells me that once Acadia is out there, there will be a good demand for it. And also the new rounds for the PPA bidding that — happened in October, sets up the installation windows in 2028 and onwards. And some of the projects that was slated for 2024, 2025 installation is slipping into 2025-2026. It’s a bit of a fluid situation at this point in time. But I’m optimistic that we have a backlog to execute on when Acadia comes out of construction. There is also an international market that we can address. And as you have seen, the European market is very strong for offshore wind installations going towards 2030, and it far outpaces what we do here in the US.

Joe Gomes: Okay. One more, if I may. Scott, you get this question every quarter. So, last year, we had the site [ph] condition. You had talked about — you thought one of the issues would be resolved in the third quarter, one in the fourth quarter. Just maybe give us an update on where those stand today?

Scott Kornblau: Yes. So, I actually get to give you a different answer than I have for the last four quarters. We have settled two of those during the quarter. And it was — if you remember, we had kind of a small and medium and large and it was the medium to large that got settled. The smaller of the two that we settled did get fully booked in the quarter, and it is now resolved. The larger one now fully resolved and settled just the way the accounting works. About half of that has been booked and the other half will mostly be Q4 and maybe a little stub piece into Q1. So, for this quarter, we were able to book about mid-single-digit millions of revenue and the total settlement came in as we’ve kind of previously guided to the low double digits.

Joe Gomes: Okay, great. Thanks. I’ll get back in queue.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Adam Thalhimer of Thompson, Davis. Your line is open.

Adam Thalhimer: Hey, good morning guys. Congrats on the record backlog.

Lasse Petterson: Thank you.

Adam Thalhimer: Scott, can you comment on kind of how we should be thinking about Q4 sales? I’m just curious if you see the potential for growth year-over-year.

Scott Kornblau: Yes, Q4 is now we’re going to start seeing the fruits of some of the backlog that we had won earlier this year. I mentioned in my prepared remarks that most of the non-cold stacked vessels are fully utilized for the quarter and expect the hydraulics, which I mentioned were definitely stressed in the Q3. Those are not completely booked, but a lot more full than they were in the third quarter and the rest of the fleet is — should be pretty busy during the quarter. And we will now start, I think, seeing the shift of having more capital projects in revenue than we had for the first nine months of the year. So, yes, I’m expecting very similar to how we laid out at the beginning of the year, we’ll start seeing the fruits of this fantastic bid market starting to come to bear.

Adam Thalhimer: Okay, great. And then Lasse, I’m trying to — let’s see, you talked about some of the larger projects that are currently in backlog, significant dredging begins in Q2 of 2024. Was that just for Rio Grande or is that really a comment on the capital backlog in general?

Lasse Petterson: No, it was really a comment on the two LNG projects. As Scott has been saying, the cutter market or the hydraulic market has been challenged over — all of 2023. And we are, with the Port Arthur and with the Brownsville project, we are putting those assets back in full operation, which is really generating some good revenues once they are active.