TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jim Ricchiuti: Got it. Thanks very much.

Thomas Edman: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question from Mike Crawford with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Mike Crawford: Thank you. Also, in defense, I know that you’re breaking out space separately now at 7% of A&D revenue and I know you’re chasing commercial space opportunities. There are a lot of commercial space players out there. Are there some are way bigger than others? Are there any of that like SpaceX that is just vertically integrated and you’re not pursuing? Are you talking to everyone? Or is anyone more promising than others?

Thomas Edman: Okay Mike, how are you doing? So, on commercial space in particular, there are interesting developments going on there. I would say that we talk to most of the major players in commercial space. Some of those players are intent more on cost reduction than supply chain resiliency. When that becomes the case, where that’s business that we may not pursue when they’re looking at quality requirements and/or supply chain resiliency requirements that we can service out of North America or in the future out of Malaysia, that’s when there’s a decent fit. And so certainly heightened interest there from the customer base in terms of supply chain resiliency. As you may know, today, Taiwan is the main source of supply, the commercial satellite area.

And some of the customers are comfortable with that. Some of the customers are concerned that, that really isn’t a long-term supply chain resiliency strategy and are looking at moving some business. So, we’re going to continue to try to build the connections overall. And the last thing I’d highlight, Mike, is we — and I mentioned this last quarter, we have now two business units within our aerospace and defense business, which is over $1 billion now. One is focused on RADAR. The other is really focused on C4ISR plus space. And that business really is working on developing that commercial satellite and defense space business. So definitely an area that we’re focused on.

Mike Crawford: Okay, thank you. Just one more. You’ve had this customer engagement side for a long time and it shows time from concept to prototype to pilots and production with AMD being the longest, but aren’t you seeing those cycles shorten given the Department of Defense’s attempted shift to improve cycle-times and move to more rapid iterative deployments particularly with the Space Force, but other parts of the DoD as well.

Thomas Edman: So, definitely, that’s the intent of the DoD to start to shorten. I talked about that 18 months, sometimes 24 months in terms of how long it takes for a given program to work its way through. There is a definitely a heightened sense of urgency coming out of the Pentagon. I would say, Mike, that, that has yet to really translate into a concrete activity or changes in process. So, certainly, I know our customers are focused on this. The primes are focused on this. They’re working with the Department of Defense. I think that would be a really positive development in defense. And certainly, the intent is there. So, again, that’s going to take some decisions, some critical process-related decisions, and we’ll see how that all unfolds. But so far, it hasn’t happened, but good positive signals that it may in the future.

Mike Crawford: Okay. Thank you very much.

Thomas Edman: Thanks Mike.

Operator: Our next question comes from William Stein with Truist Securities. Your line is open.

William Stein: Great, thanks for taking my question. I’d like to ask for an update on supply chain conditions, in particular, in the aerospace defense part of the business. As I recall, this has created very long lead times for you to deliver? And I wonder if there’s been any change in that or any anticipated change in the near future?