Scott Sutton: Yes. Well, I would just say, Mike, that we expect 2024 to be better. There’s good signs to that. I think even though they are slowly maturing signs and 2025 looks even better than that. So it’s in that range.
Mike Sison: Thank you.
Scott Sutton: Yep.
Operator: Thank you. And the next question comes from Kevin McCarthy of Vertical Research Partners.
Kevin McCarthy: Yes, good morning. Scott, with regard to caustic soda, how much was your average price down in 2Q versus 1Q? In chlorine, it seems like you had a quite divergent experience versus consulting marks, so to speak. I’m curious as to any color you can provide in caustic as to where your own experience is perhaps differing or similar to outsiders views?
Scott Sutton: Yes. And so I won’t give a specific number on that. Our caustic was definitely down in second quarter versus first quarter. And we’re saying it’s going to go down in third. It’s not that far off from what you see in the trade publications, perhaps a little bit favorable to that. Of course, we had, just like you said, a different experience in merchant chlorine, trade publications say flat to down, we were able to lift merchant chlorine pricing in the second quarter relative to first quarter, and will lift merchant chlorine pricing in the third quarter relative to second quarter as well.
Kevin McCarthy: Okay. Then secondly, the financial question for you. If I look at your balance sheet, Olin’s inventory levels in the second quarter were up 14% year-over-year in dollar terms. My question is, how would you characterize your inventory in unit terms or tons? Are there product lines where you feel you have too much inventory and you need to draw it down or product lines where it might even be relatively lean? How would you characterize that?
Todd Slater: Hey, Kevin, this is Todd. Thanks for the question. Yes, – through the first half of the year, you have seen couple of $100 million working capital build from Olin. Ultimately, as you see in our cash flow forecast for the year, we think working capital actually be favorable. So you should expect to see working capital decline and turn into a source of cash in the back half of the year. Also, I think during Scott’s prepared comments, he commented about the expectation of reducing epoxy inventory during the third quarter.
Kevin McCarthy: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. And the next question comes from Michael Leithead with Barclays.
Michael Leithead: Great. Thanks. Good morning guys.
Scott Sutton: Good morning.
Michael Leithead: Morning. First question on epoxy. When you look at Asian exports and the prices they’re selling for in the market, is your sense that producers there are below cash breakeven levels? And if so, how, if at all, does that change your thinking about how Olin should approach, say, the epoxy value chain?
Scott Sutton: Yes. Thanks for the question. I would just say, yes. I mean you got to remember in China that they’ve been operating with favorability of negative chlorine values, right, at potentially negative hydrochloric acid values. So those key inputs, which is just one input, has gone into the epoxy chain with somebody paying the producers of epoxy to take it. That’s totally different than any other geography, and it has nothing to do with covering any kind of level of fixed cost and certainly no return on capital. So yes, I think that’s a real issue. We’re going to consider what we’re going to do about proposing duties in certain geographies as well because this really can’t go on.
