Matson, Inc. (NYSE:MATX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Joel Wine : Yes. I mean we’re going to continue to be steady buyers. And so if you — I would look at our last 12 months, 9 months through the course of the year, that’s probably a decent run rate for us on an annual basis. And there’ll be sometimes we’re up a little bit, down a little bit on that. So I wouldn’t read much into it. Other than just we’re encouraging all investors to take a long-term view, our view is long term, and we want to be steady on a long-term basis.

Jacob Lacks : Okay. And then one last one for me. I know you aren’t giving guidance today, but if the 2024 trade dynamic is similar to 2023, does that mean Matson’s earnings should be stable? Or are there some puts and takes for Matson specifically that you’re able to call out?

Matt Cox : We haven’t put all of our own thoughts yet together, frankly, on ’24. We did comment that we think that the Transpacific trade and one of our more important drivers of earnings is going to be look a lot like it did this year, which was, frankly, pretty good. We talked about the beginning of a normalization of SSAT or joint venture that will be up. There could be others that are down, but we’re saying we’ll have more to say. I don’t know, Joel, would you add anything to that?

Joel Wine : Yes. Exactly. There will be some pieces up and down a little bit. But overall, we’re saying it’s shaping up to be a year that looks similar to 2023. And we made that comment specific to operating income.

Operator: And our next question will come from Ben Nolan of Stifel.

Ben Nolan : I have a handful. I wanted to circle back on the China volumes. And Joel, I appreciate that it’s seasonal always is. But I think, Matt, you made a comment in the prepared remarks when referencing the CLX that there was greater capacity on it. I was curious if you could flesh that out a little bit in terms of, are you now — I don’t know — given the chartered in vessels or whatever, you’re now able to carry a little bit more than you had been able to?

Joel Wine : Ben, it’s Joel. It’s not — no, it’s not significantly different. What happens sometimes in any given quarter, when you have 12 or 13 sailings, you may have a couple of your larger ships that hit twice or even 3x versus the smaller ships. So from an overall quarter basis, we don’t expect it to be significantly different. Where we’re at today is we have 5 ships on charter today, 4 are similar size, one slightly larger of those 4, but then we have a fifth ship that’s a little bit smaller. So it oftentimes depends on how often that smaller ship hits in any given quarter. I’ll also note that we chartered a sixth ship that we’ll take on here in a few weeks to have an additional ship to maintain the highest level of on-time performance that we can. And that larger sixth ship will be similar size to the other 4. So I think any given quarter, the capacity is going to really blow down to how many times that smaller ship sales in a 12- or 13-week quarter.

Ben Nolan : Okay. So well, with that, two things, first of all, adding a sixth ship, I would assume if you’re not releasing one or even if the one that you’re chartering is a little bit bigger, should add capacity. So as long as there’s demand that [120 to 130] (Sic) [120,000 to 130,000] should have some upside. Is that fair? And then along those lines, how much of that Shanghai-based expedited market, do you think that you’ve captured right now? And is there room to go if you did have a little bit more capacity?