Algoma Steel Group Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Algoma Steel Group Inc. 4th Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn this conference over to your host, Mr. Michael Moraka, Treasurer and Investor Relations Officer. Thank you, sir. You may begin your presentation at this time.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Algoma Steel Group Inc.' 's fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. Leading today's call are Michael McQuaid, our former Chief Executive Officer and current board member, Michael Garcia, our new Chief Executive Officer, and Rajat Marwa, our Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay later today in the Investors section of Algoma Steel's corporate website at www.algoma.com. I would like to remind you that comments made on today's call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws which involve assumptions and inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from statements made today. In addition, our statements are prepared in accordance with IFRS, which differs from U.S. GAAP, and our discussion today includes references to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Last evening, we posted an earnings presentation to accompany today's prepared marks. The slides for today's call can be found in the Investors section of our corporate website. With that in mind, I would ask everyone on today's call to read the legal disclaimers on slides 2 of the accompanying earnings presentation. and to also refer to the risks and assumptions outlined in Algoma Steel's fourth quarter fiscal 2022 management's discussion and analysis. Please note that our financial statements are prepared in the US dollar as our functional currency and the Canadian dollar as our presentation currency. Our fiscal year runs from April 1st to March 31st, and our financial statements have been prepared for the three and 12 months ended March 31st, 2022. Please note, all amounts referred to on today's call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Following our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to our former Chief Executive Officer and current board member, Michael McQuaid. Mike?

Thank you, Mike. Good morning. Welcome, and thank you for joining Algoma Steel's earnings call for our fourth fiscal quarter and full year-ended March 31, 2022. I will start my comments, as we always do, by addressing what truly matters most to us, the safety of our employees. At Algoma, we believe in safety without compromise, and our continued focus has resulted in substantial improvement over the last decade in our lost time injury frequency rate. I'm proud to say that our fiscal year 2022 was Algoma's safest year ever. The safety of our employees is our top priority at Algoma, and I commend our entire team for their collective success and continued diligence as we relentlessly pursue our goal of achieving zero workplace injuries. Before getting into my specific comments, I'd like to express my gratitude to the entire Algoma family and all of our stakeholders for their trust and support during my tenure as CEO over the last three and a half years. Transformational milestones we achieved will chart a new course for Algoma Steel, and while they certainly did not come without challenges, these years have been some of the most rewarding of my career. As I move into the next phase of my life, I am leaving with a tremendous amount of confidence as I hand the reins to Mike Garcia, and I know he will be a great steward of this company. Algoma's future has never been brighter, and I look forward to continued participation via my role on the board. Our fiscal 2022 marked a time of profound change for the company and for the industry, and our outstanding results during that period put us in an enviable position of having options on capital allocation. We told you last quarter that prudent financial management means focusing on the cash that we have, not cash that we expect to realize at some point in the future. We have put an exceptional amount of work into achieving the enviable balance sheet we have today. We remain laser-focused on creating long-term value for our shareholders through a combination of prudent financial management, transformative capital investment, and safe and efficient operations of our facilities. Steel markets are cyclical and pricing can be highly volatile, as evidenced by what we've seen over the last several quarters. which is why I am particularly proud of the foundational building blocks we have put in place that will make us successful throughout the steel cycle. Relentless execution by the entire Algoma team drove the strong results we achieved in our fiscal year. Those results, including shipments of 2.3 million tons, revenues of $3.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion, and cash generated by operating activities of $1.2 billion have positioned us to drive long-term value creation on two fronts simultaneously. On the capital return side, last night we announced a new 400 million U.S. Substantial Issuer Bid, or SIB, that is over and above our existing normal course issuer bid and our regular quarterly dividend. The SIB has the potential to represent share repurchases of approximately one-third of our current market cap. We are proud of our continued commitment to return capital to shareholders as our results warrant, all against the backdrop of advancing and completing our transformative EAF project. On that front, construction is advancing as expected with regard to time and budget. Subsequent to quarter end, the Province of Ontario announced the Northern Ontario Energy Advantage Program. This program supports industrial electricity customers in Northern Ontario and gives security and visibility into their long-term needs and was significant in our decision to pursue electric arc furnace steelmaking. Ontario's clean energy grid is known as one of the lowest carbon-emitting power supplies across North America. When combined with our transition to EAF, we intend to become one of the leading producers of green steel in North America. Given how major a milestone it is in the life of our company, I'd like to give you a quick reminder of why we're so excited about the EAF project. The project entails dual furnaces that are designed for a combined annual raw steel production throughput of 3.7 million tons, matching our downstream finishing capacity. It will lower our carbon emissions by approximately 70% when fully operational. The two AAFs are expected to come online in 2024, followed by a continued transition away from blast furnace steel production as increased power supply becomes available from the grid with the support of the provincial government. This project will fundamentally transform who we are and how we operate, positioning the company as a next-generation steelmaker focused on sustainability and poised to be successful. across all phases of the steel market cycle. It's a testament to the execution by our team during unprecedented times that we are able to operate our existing portfolio of assets normally without being operationally impacted by the construction of a transformational project, all while being able to return meaningful capital to shareholders. As I said before, it's an exciting time and a bright future for Algoma. Now, I'll pass the call over to Raja to go over the strong financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year before our new CEO, Mike Garcia, closes out our prepared remarks. Raja?