Worthington Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WOR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Martin Englert: What are you hearing from your customers in the Euro footprint for that business? And I understand there’s a strong seasonality on a sequential basis that you just highlighted coming up here. But what are you hearing, what are you seeing anticipating, maybe thinking of I’d also like the current quarter fiscal 1Q relative to last year, like the demand level of activity. Is this something that’s going to be, slightly down or comparable, or is that it’s starting to pivot and kind of come up off the bottom even?

Tim Adams : Yeah, I think with SES, I mean, the conversations that we have with customers, Martin on a regular basis are further out than that. These are our plans, this is what we hope to be able to accomplish in the next three or four years. We ultimately believe the inflection point for that industry is still several years away from that kind of hockey stick. And so we’re going to continue to participate, help innovate and drive some of those conversations forward. But ultimately, we feel really good about the investments we’ve already made, that will have us as a key part of that supply chain. But the market still has to grow. And when there’s an ongoing war, and all of the disruption that you have, everybody’s plans get kind of thrown out. And then you have to think a little bit more about what’s in front of you, then the European economy has reflected that the last year and a half and we see that continuing.

Martin Englert: Okay, excellent. One last one, any budgeted tax rate for fiscal ’24?

Tim Adams : No reason that thank you to be materially different than it was this year?

Martin Englert: Okay, excellent. Congratulations on the results. Thank you.

Tim Adams : Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Phil Gibbs withKeybanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Phil Gibbs : Hey, good morning.

Joe Hayek : Good morning, Phil.

Phil Gibbs : On the site at WAVE profits are up nicely, year-over-year. Was that largely driven by spreads or volume? Or do we have a little bit of a mix of both?

Andy Rose : Yeah, I mean, I think as you know, Phil, this business kind of goes in cycles around what steel pricing is doing. And so this quarter, we saw a little bit of margin expansion from the business. Their end market, while it’s remained pretty steady, you heard Joe’s comments earlier, we were kind of waiting to see some volume softness there. We haven’t seen a ton of that yet. But, commercial construction, most people anticipate either the back half of this year or early in ’24, that you’re going to see some softness there. But for the time being their businesses is pretty good. And, margins are pretty good.

Phil Gibbs : Thanks, Andy. And then more for the steel folks. But automotive, kind of a lot of mixed signals there. I think a lot of it seemingly like couple steps forward, couple of steps back changes, and next that sort of thing. But what are you all seeing in your automotive business in terms of polls and expectations and/or any model changes that you’re focused on? Just kind of an update on the broader mosaic?