Scott Behrens: No, I think generally in our materials you know, we shared, our contracted 1,4 — that low 1,4 dioxane volumes are starting to ramp up as we complete the investments that’s going to benefit all of our customers across all tiers. And then Tier 2, Tier 3 has obviously been a big part of our growth strategy over the last two or three years. And we’ve been sharing in our materials, the acquisition of new customers, and that continues at a very robust pace. You know, the issue right now is the market demand. And all the destocking that’s happened in 2023 is offsetting a lot of the continued positive momentum we have in new customer acquisition.
Dave Storms: That’s perfect. Thank you very much. I’ll jump back in queue.
Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from David Silver with CL King and Associates. Your line is open.
David Silver: Yes, hi. Thank you very much. I’ll stipulate here. I did have to step away for a couple of minutes during your remarks, so I apologize if I make — apologize in advance if I make you repeat yourself. I did want to maybe just start with the Polyols segment. And in particular, I did want to talk about — ask you about the improvement in a couple of areas. So the per unit margins, I guess. So, sequentially — on a sequential basis, you had higher operating income and I think, kind of, flattish or slightly better shipment volumes. And then I did pick up on the comment about improvement from China, and assuming that these products are mainly used in the construction area. You know, I was kind of scratching my head and wondering if you could provide a little color. I mean, I wasn’t aware that the construction segment in China in general was especially robust now. So, just a couple comments there would be helpful. Thank you.
Scott Behrens: Yes. Good morning, David. Regarding unit margins in Polymers, so we have been reporting in the last couple of quarters, you know, we’ve had a significant raw material headwind. And as we continue to work through those raw material headwinds matching our pricing structure. You know, our margins, we believe, are now stabilized. And you can see the sequential volume growth between Q1 to Q2, and now Q3 — Q2 to Q3. We do believe that the stocking has run its course and we’re back on a positive trajectory towards more and more normal market demand in the Polymer space. As it relates to China, since that asset was fully commissioned three, four years ago, we’ve been on a diversification strategy of unused markets and applications. And I think what you’re seeing is the result of our team’s efforts in bringing a much broader diversification of markets and product technologies to that site.
Luis Rojo: Yes, remember, we use that site, it’s a different end market when you think about [coal] (ph) storage and all of that is not typical insulation that we do here in the U.S. or Europe. And on top of that, the team has done a fantastic job diversifying to other businesses, and using the assets in different end markets. And that is what is driving a very strong double-digit growth in Q3.
David Silver: Very good. Thank you. And I did just want to pick up on Scott’s comment about destocking being largely completed, I guess on the Polymers area. But I think, if I mess that with the comments in the press, I mean, you are still pointing to inventory liquidation and destocking into the fourth quarter, I believe. And I guess that would make maybe at least four, maybe five quarters where destocking has been in effect. And you know, from a big picture perspective, should the fourth quarter be, I don’t know, the bulk of having the destocking behind us. And I did notice you know, there’s customer destocking and then there’s your own inventory drawdowns. I was just wondering if you might be able to draw a contrast between the two?
Are the customers largely through it, but maybe there’s going to be a big reduction at the company level or how would you just characterize the overall progress in draining, I guess, this overall supply chain of excess product maybe built up during the pandemic and during some concerns over supply chain reliability. Thank you.
Luis Rojo: David, so what Scott was mentioning was destocking is almost done in the Polymers business. There is a pocket in the West Coast, due to rain and other activities where not all the construction activities were able to be executed. So there is a small piece there remaining, but most of the destocking in Polymers is already flushed through. What you see in Q4 in Polymers is the normal seasonality of the business, right. If you go back five, 10, 20 years, Q4 is our lowest quarter in term of demand, because of course, a lot of winter state don’t execute a lot of reroofing activities during the winter. So, that’s only seasonality. And then when you look at surfactants, we have — what we are seeing is destocking is mostly done in all the cleaning personal care markets. And what is remaining is ag. We believe ag will continue, the destocking in Q4 and we will have more perspective in February, how we see Q1 and Q2.
Scott Behrens: In the ag destocking, lagged the consumer and Polymer’s destocking activities by almost two quarters.
David Silver: Exactly.
Scott Behrens: As Luis mentioned earlier, we had a record Q1 in ag in 2023, and then Q2 is when we saw the destocking start in the agriculture. So it’s got probably another quarter at least to run its course.
David Silver: Okay, thank you for that. Last question, maybe for this round, I did want to ask maybe a couple of just to try to get a beat cash flow for next year, not so much this year. But if you could remind me, I mean, I do think CapEx is going to tail off quite a bit, but could you just point out where your absolute, kind of, bedrock sustainable level of CapEx, you know, spending might be thinking ahead to 2024? And then if I look at the trend in DDNA, I mean, should we continue to see a rise maybe to the $120 million level for full year 2024? Would those be kind of maybe some rough numbers to start with? That would be helpful. Thank you.
