Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin McCarthy: That’s very helpful. And then secondly, Scott, I’d welcome your view on the epoxy market heading into the fourth quarter. Part of the reason I ask is one of your competitors has reportedly implemented some sales control related to a Shell force majeure declaration on phenol and acetone, as I understand it. Are you seeing any encouraging signs that epoxy may begin to firm up at this juncture?

Scott Sutton: Yes. Well, I’ll just say that we have already announced price increase in both North America and Europe, and we did that over the last week or so. Additionally, the other good sign that we see there is that, the contribution from our systems business exceeds the contribution from our resins business. And really, that’s the first time that has happened. I’ll just caution you a little bit. It’s still really sloppy in those markets, no doubt about it. And we still have some inventory to clean up. And those impacts are still going to hunt us a little bit in the fourth quarter and even into the first quarter as well.

Kevin McCarthy: Thanks very much.

Scott Sutton: Sure.

Operator: The next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Jeff Zekauskas: Thanks, very much. Can you talk about the state of domestic chlorine demand? At what rate did it grow, say, in 2022? At what rate is it growing today and why?

Scott Sutton: Yes, hey Jeff. Yes, I mean, look, it’s not good. I mean this is why we’re running this value acceleration initiative because the chlorine side of the ECU has returned to be in the weaker side. Those markets are very, very weak. And so we’re not — we’re just not going to participate in those weak markets because it’s a chase down into the mud, and that’s not where we’re going to play. And you can see that in our results in the third quarter as our merchant chlorine price did not decline like may have been published in some of the trade publications. So no, it’s not good, but it’s not getting worse is what I would say. So we’re timing this activation at a point where we can see a future inflection point. The inflection point that we saw was probably three quarters out at least. And this whole activation is about pulling that inflection point forward in terms of ECU values.

Jeff Zekauskas: Okay. And of the $100 million penalty in the fourth quarter, is it best to understand that penalty as all volume, or is there a certain component of a certain amount of money which has to do with the actual shutdown of the assets?

Scott Sutton: Yes. No, it’s not associated with the asset shutdown. I mean, it is 100% nearly just not participating in poor markets. That’s it. So it’s — those volumes are out, out of our system for that quarter.

Jeff Zekauskas: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Josh Spector from UBS. Please go ahead.

Josh Spector: Yeah. Hi. Thanks. Just curious, as you take down your volumes more as you guys have been hedged on gas cost for most of this year, does this extend the roll-through of some of that higher cost? I guess, is that more of a volume-related hedge or time-related? And just any early thoughts on how that impacts 2024? Thanks.

Todd Slater: Yes. Thanks for the question, Josh. This is Todd. We are hedged for the fourth quarter. We do expect to see sequential improvement in our cost structure just like we saw that in the third quarter sequentially from the second quarter because of our hedge positions.

Josh Spector: Okay. Thanks. And just as your volumes have pulled back, I mean, obviously, you’re deselecting from a lot of different markets. How do you think about what you’re selling into your Epoxy business? I guess, are you taking volumes down there in tandem, or are you parlaying that kind of purchase to other regions?