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spk01: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Origin Materials third quarter 2021 earnings call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ashish Gupta, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
spk04: Thank you and welcome everyone to Origin Materials' third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Joining the call today from Origin Materials are co-CEO Rich Riley, co-CEO and co-founder John Bissell, and CFO Nate Whaley. Ahead of this call, Origin issued its third quarter press release and presentation, which we will refer to today. These can be found on the investor relations section of our website at originmaterials.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today, should not be relied upon as representative about views as of any subsequent date, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings of the SEC, including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of origin materials performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. You'll find additional disclosures regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed on today's call, our press release issued this afternoon, and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our website. The webcast of this call will also be available on the investor relations section of our company website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rich.
spk11: Thank you, Ashish, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. For today's presentation, we will be referring to the slides that were posted to the investor relations section of our website earlier this afternoon. I will start by reviewing Q3 highlights, then discuss important industry announcements, and provide a commercial update. I will then turn it over to John, who will discuss construction progress on origin one and origin two. Nate will wrap up with a financial overview. We will begin on slide three. We continue to make steady progress against our strategic initiatives. First, we were pleased to complete installation of the key production modules at Origin 1, six months ahead of our plan announced in April 2021. In addition, we are reaffirming our expectations as to capital budget and production timelines for Origin 1 and Origin 2. Second, our customer demand has quadrupled since our announcement to become a public company in February, with offtake and capacity reservations increasing by over $700 million since the second quarter call in August. to $4.2 billion as of today. And third, we remain well capitalized with $459 million in cash and equivalents on hand. We reaffirm our expectation that the capital projects for Origin 1 and Origin 2 can be fully funded from our existing cash on hand and previously indicated traditional project financing sources. Now I'd like to give a brief overview on the company for those who are new to the story. Origin was founded with the mission to help solve climate change. by enabling the world's transition to sustainable materials. Our patented drop-in core technology, economics, and carbon impact have gained the support of a growing list of major global brands and investors, including Danone, Nestle Waters, PepsiCo, Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Cologne Industries, Primaloft, and Solvay. Cologne Industries is a new addition to our growing list of partnerships with major chemical companies, all of whom we view as potential partners and not competitors. The CPG companies mentioned have publicly disclosed their intent to migrate 100% of their current petroleum-based PET consumption to decarbonized and recycled materials. After extensively testing our technology, these market leaders have made significant financial contributions to Origin, both as investors and customers, demonstrating their environmental commitment and confidence in our technology. They have signed multi-year off-ticket contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. We continue to see strong, favorable tailwinds for our technology and business model. As evidenced by the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, the world continues to make commitments and take actions to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, a problem which Origin is uniquely positioned to address. According to a study by the Alan MacArthur Foundation, the carbon emissions from plastic are widely underestimated. The study finds that under a business as usual scenario, by 2040, plastics could account for 19% of the total emissions budget allowable if we are to remain below a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global warming. According to another report, plastic industry pollution is expected to overtake coal pollution in the United States by 2030. U.S. plastic production creates at least 232 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, according to the report, with another 55 million tons expected by 2025, if the 42 plants currently planned or under construction in the U.S. come online. It is beyond a doubt that with more than 99% of plastics made from fossil fuels, we need to dramatically transform the way the world produces and uses plastic as fast as possible. With our first product, Origin offers an entirely circular plastic solution, 100% recyclable PET, which the world's plastic recycling infrastructure is already designed to collect, sort, and reuse, with the critical added benefit of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. We believe that making PET plastic from sustainable wood residues is a unique and powerful solution that meets the most pressing environmental challenges of the day. With over one-fifth of the world's largest public companies committing to zero carbon mandates to help tackle climate change, we expect the strong demand environment to continue and remain well ahead of our projected supplies for the foreseeable future. Turning to slide four, we continue to make steady progress commercializing the business and have grown customer demand by more than $700 million since our second quarter earnings call. for a total of $4.2 billion of off-take agreements and capacity reservations, more than quadrupling over the last nine months. Moving to slide five, we recently announced a strategic partnership with Cologne Industries to industrialize advanced carbon negative chemicals and materials. Cologne Industries, a global leader in chemicals and materials, signed a multi-year capacity reservation agreement to purchase sustainable carbon negative materials from origin. Those materials include novel polymers and drop-in solutions for select applications, with an initial focus on automotive applications. The partnership includes development work aimed at commercializing polyethylene furanoate, PEF, a polymer with an attractive combination of performance characteristics for packaging and other applications, including enhanced barrier properties when compared with polyethylene terephthalate, PET, degradability, and other qualities. Origin's technology platform is expected to produce cost-competitive sustainable carbon-negative FDCA, the primary precursor to PEF. Cologne Industries has deep expertise in novel FDCA-based polymers, including PEF. We are thrilled to work together to enable our shared vision for a net-zero material economy. Our partnership reflects both companies' commitment to sustainable innovation, including in the automotive sector. Additionally, last month we announced that we joined the DrivePlus platform, which is a group of 11 of the world's largest automotive manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Daimler, Ford, Stellantis, and Toyota Motor Europe, among others, aiming at further developing sustainability along the automotive supply chain. This partnership will allow us to collaborate with drive sustainability partners on raw material standards, carbon neutrality, and other key sustainability topics in the automotive supply chain. This DrivePlus partnership expands our existing strategic relationships within the automotive sectors, including Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, and Solvay. We expect our zero-carbon chemicals and materials platform to be deployed across a diverse array of mobility applications, including fabrics, plasticizers, seat foams, engineered polymers, tires, and hoses, to name a few. During the quarter, we also announced our partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which includes industry leaders across the plastics value chain. working toward a common goal of developing, deploying, and scaling solutions to help end plastic waste in the environment. In addition to exciting customer and partnership announcements, this quarter we announced that Origin Materials was awarded the Sustainability Leadership Award by the Business Intelligence Group's 2021 Sustainability Awards Program for our patented category-leading breakthrough technology built around converting low-cost, non-food feedstock into decarbonized, supply-chain-ready materials. With that, I would like to turn it over to John, who will provide an update on Origin 1 and Origin 2.
spk02: Thanks.
spk06: I'm going to begin on slide 6 and provide an update on Origin 1 and Origin 2. First, since selecting Worley as an engineering partner in Q3 2021, Origin has updated its payment schedule for Origin 1 after incorporating detailed feedback from equipment suppliers and contractors while reaffirming the total Origin 1 project budget and schedule. Additionally, Origin is reaffirming the previously disclosed capital budgets and production timelines for Origin 2. Capital budgets continue to include substantial contingencies for unforeseen events, as is appropriate for projects of this size and phase. We continue to monitor construction costs and timelines to assess the impact of macroeconomic movements, such as inflation and supply chain disruptions. And while we have seen the escalation of costs and extension of schedules for more commodity items, such as carbon steel vessels and electrical equipment, those escalations and extensions remain inside of our previously disclosed budget. and off of the critical path to the Origin 1 schedule. For Origin 1, we expect to incur capital costs later than our prior projections, but we continue to expect the construction of Origin 1 to be completed by the end of 2022. The lifting and installation of previously fabricated key production equipment modules was completed in October 2021, six months ahead of our plan announced in April 2021 and two months ahead of the accelerated schedule we announced last quarter. As such, we expect piping fabrication to begin by the end of Q1 2022 one quarter ahead of our prior schedule. For those that aren't deeply embroiled in building and operating plants during your day job, there's a significant amount of piping and electrical work that goes into construction plants of this sort. I like to think of it as the vascular system of the plant. And in that analogy, perhaps the pieces of the process equipment are the organs. Notably, the actions that will allow us to move that fabrication forward are a combination of our internal team and contractors in Sarnia, Canada, working together to identify and capitalize on an opportunity presented by getting the modules up early. This result comes from good engineering, good project management, and good craft folk all working together as a team. Additionally, the ENCON evaporator module installation is expected to be completed by the end of Q4 2021, more than three months ahead of schedule, as we previously expected to receive the ENCON modules by the end of Q1 2022. The ENCON evaporator module system, by the way, is used for recovery and regeneration of the aqueous phase of our processes, a standalone but important part of how we recycle water in the plant. As you can see, while we've made significant accelerated progress on Origin 1 by the installation of key production modules and moving ahead with certain key milestones, to be prudent, we are still maintaining our overall schedule for completion by the end of 2022. Similarly, Origin 2 remains on track for completion by mid-2025. We've appointed Worley as our FEL1 engineering partner. Further, we are working with Worley, Deloitte, and Fisher to select the site for Origin 2. which we expect to choose by the end of 2021 and announcing Q1 2022 in line with our prior forecast. We have shortlisted three finalists, and we are currently conducting our final diligence negotiations for these sites, one of which we have purchased an option on. And our diligence includes things such as environmental, engineering, and workforce studies to inform our final decision. Additionally, we remain focused on adding engineers and capital projects personnel as the planning and construction of Project 2 proceeds. On flight seven, as you can see, there's a before and after image of the concrete pad and the completed module installation. We had the concrete pad present for our last earnings call, but we've now taken the modules, which were on a different part of the site, brought them over, lifted, and placed the modules on the foundation and bolted them down. You can see there are 14 vertical modules in two rows of seven, two horizontal modules, which you can see end on, and a 17th module that is quite a bit smaller sitting next to the two horizontal modules. You'll note the spaces between the modules. There are a few connecting beams which provide shear support, but there isn't much connecting module to module. That's where the piping and additional interconnecting steel and walking platforms will go. The second thing to look for will be the piping connecting the modules to the tank farm, the process building, and the rest of the site. Steam, electricity, and cooling water will be supplied to the Arlanxio site infrastructure, so we'll be connecting all of that to the pipe racks that you can see behind the modules. I'll also take a moment to point out a few other aspects of the site that have changed. On slide eight, you can see that we've put in place the foundations for the tank farm. Tank farms are the fluid storage for the site and will contain solvent, intermediate materials, and of course, final product. We've also included a 3D model of the tank farm and an overlay to give you a sense of what it will look like once it's finished. On slide nine, you can see progress on the process building, which houses a few process pieces that aren't in the production modules. And again, you can see that we have poured foundation and we've also included models and an overlay. What this all means is that we are significantly out of the ground, which is very important in the Canadian winter. Unsurprisingly, frozen ground is a lot more challenging to work in, and consequently, we can get through the winter much more productively than we'd originally expected. On slide 10, you can see one of the module lifts. These were all incredibly impressive, which is ideally synonymous with boring. The crew used a 500-ton main crane and 150-ton tailing crane in tandem. The 500-ton crane is in the back, rigged up to hold the majority of the module weight, but if you want the transition from horizontal to vertical to be controlled, that's where the second crane comes in. This is all a great example of slow is smooth, smooth is fast. And it was an extremely well-trained crew doing a well-planned lift safely in time coordination. They were moving modules over, getting them rigged up, lifting them, setting them down. It was like butter all the way through. People in Sarnia really know what they're doing. I can't say enough good stuff about the engineers, the local contractors in Sarnia, the tradesmen, and, of course, our project construction management team. They set the standard for what good is supposed to look like. On slide 11, you can see what happens as the modules are positioned before final placement. Here, the module is held up by the crane, and as they're coming into final position, you can see these craftsmen positioning the module by hand over the anchor bolts. Generally speaking, the tolerance for the module placement is about a half-inch across between 16 and 24 bolts. Each of these modules weighs about 70 tons, plus, minus, and as a consequence, there's a lot of work and planning that goes into this. Measure lots of times, cut once. On slide 12, you can see all the modules up and some of the cranes we used in module placement as well. All together, we had an incredibly successful module installation about six months ahead of our plans announced in April 2021, and we can continue to expect the construction of Origin 1 to be completed by the end of 2022. And with that, I'll turn it over to Nate to discuss some of the financial details.
spk09: Thanks, John. I'll begin with some commentary on our third quarter results, provide a financing update for Origin 2, and finish with our 2021 outlook. Speaking to slide 16, third quarter operating expenses were $7.1 million compared to $2 million during the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $5.7 million for the third quarter compared to a loss of $1.9 million in the prior period. And finally, net income was $27.9 million for the third quarter compared to a net loss of $3.1 million in the same period in the prior year. Turning to our balance sheet, Origin ended the third quarter with $459 million in cash and cash equivalents. We are pleased to reaffirm our expectation of fully funding the construction of both plans using our existing balance sheet cash and cash equivalents and previously indicated traditional financing sources. Leading financial institutions that have expertise in financing similarly sized capital projects continue to confirm that our financing assumptions for Origin 2 are reasonable and executable. As discussed previously, we anticipate having approximately $100 million of excess cash beyond the capital budget for Origin 1 and Origin 2 for any unforeseen contingencies in addition to contingencies already included in our capital project budgets. Finally, we have received many questions on inflationary pressures. As John mentioned earlier, we are continually updating our cost estimates in real time, and based on the current inputs we've received from vendors and suppliers, I'm pleased to report projected construction costs are still within the overall capital budget. Wrapping up with our full year 2021 outlook, we continue to expect an adjusted EBITDA loss of up to $25 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $45 million, which is less than our prior outlook due to payment schedule refinements since selecting an engineering partner. That said, consistent with John's overview and update on our construction progress of Origin 1 and Origin 2, I would reiterate the refinement of our payment schedule has no impact on the total capital expenditures and the pace of construction progress is on schedule. With that, I'll turn it back to Rich for closing remarks.
spk11: Thank you, Nate. I would like to close by thanking our customers for their commitment to Origin, our team, and construction and engineering partners for their contributions to our company's success, and our shareholders for their continuous support. And with that, thank you, everyone. We appreciate your time today. I would like to ask the operator to open the line for questions.
spk01: We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question is from Frank Mitch from Fermium Research. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hey, good morning, folks, and congrats on the progress on Origin 1. Really enjoyed looking at the pictures. And also was struck by the site selection on Origin, too. You noted that you're down to three. Can you talk about, you know, just in generalities, what sort of tax incentives you may have received in that process?
spk02: Sure.
spk09: Frank, this is Nate Whaley. First, just remember, the The tax incentives and state and local government support all comes typically during site selection and once the site has ultimately been selected. So we don't have anything to concretely report at this point, but look forward to continuing to update everybody as we make it through site selection.
spk07: But investors should anticipate that you are getting a fair amount of government support, I would imagine.
spk09: Absolutely. Absolutely.
spk07: Okay. All right. Terrific. And, yeah, look forward to more there. And, you know, obviously congrats on the upsizing of the contracts up to over $4 billion. And you announced the venture with Cologne Industries. And one of the areas that you're looking at is getting to PEF. I was just wondering if you have a timeline or just in generalities, you know, how do you envision that partnership going forward?
spk11: Yeah, thanks, Frank. This is Rich. I'll start and maybe John can add, but I'm very excited to partner with Cologne, a leading Korean chemicals and materials company, for those that may not be familiar with it. And it's a meaningful partnership in terms of, you know, contract to buy materials, but also, as you mentioned, to do development work aimed at commercializing PEF, which is a polymer with a very attractive combination of performance characteristics for packaging and other applications. enhanced barrier properties, degradability, and other qualities. And we really think of it as a next-generation PET. And Cologne has very deep expertise in novel FDCA-based polymers, including PEF. So we are excited to partner with them on this next-generation material.
spk07: Great. I mean, is this something – sorry, go ahead, John. Sorry.
spk06: Oh, yeah, no problem. I was just going to say, you know, Frank, I think from our perspective, that PEF is an incredibly interesting polymer. And the key with PEF is that it's just had too much cost baked into the process of producing it. And our view is that with our platform, we can not only bring the carbon footprint down for a polymer like PEF as we can just like with PET, but we can also bring the cost of producing PEF way down by supplying our intermediates into that process.
spk07: Gotcha. Well, impressive progress, folks. Keep up the good work. Thanks.
spk02: Thank you.
spk01: The next question is from Steve Barn from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk10: Yes, I was interested in the 4.2 billion of capacity reservations and so forth. Can you talk any more about is that over a certain number of years? Is that CMF based? How much of it is based on tolling all the way to PET? Can you provide a little more color on exactly what is that?
spk11: Sure. Thanks, Steve. This is Rich. I'll take that one. So the $4.2 billion is really an apples-to-apples number with the $3.5 billion that we announced in August and the $1 billion we had back in February. And so it's the cumulative value of our contracts that include capacity reservations and offtake agreements. Capacity reservations, for those who haven't heard us explain it before, are really letters of intent that include the product, the quantity, the price, the duration. They're approved at the highest levels of our customers and frequently issue joint press releases. And that then gives us time to convert that capacity reservation into a take-or-pay contract, which is a much longer document and is primarily to support the project lending on the plant. But at this time, we're not providing more details in terms of how the $4.2 billion is allocated across plants or products.
spk10: And the facility you're building in Origin 1 will produce CMF. Am I correct on that? And can you give an update on the selection of a toller that can convert that all the way to paraxylene and or to PET?
spk06: Yep. Steve, thanks for the question. Yes, you're right. The facility that we're building for OM1 is really principally producing CMF. And the intent there, as I think, you know, we've talked about before, but it bears repeating, is, you know, the intent with Origin 1 is really to produce CMF at Quantity has enabled us to go develop applications other than PET. So it's really going to that variety of applications that are sort of performance-improved applications. So that's everything from, you know, and we've listed some of these sort of illustrative areas in our presentations before, but, you know, things like surfactants, you know, other polymers. There are lots of different areas here. And so, as a consequence, it's not really one tolling facility. At least that's the way we think about it right now with the way that the applications are working out. It's not really one single tolling facility that is the critical tolling facility because, you know, if you're making surfactants, for example, that's a different sort of structure of tolling and equipment that's required in order to process CMS into surfactants than it would be to make a polymer of some sort, depending on the polymer, of course. And so there's sort of a network of these, you know, obviously we have some intent with the initial material that's being made. We're not going to try to boil the ocean right off the bat. So we have, you know, strong intent there. We aren't at the point that we're starting to disclose sort of that supply chain specifically. But we do have a really, really good idea of exactly how we would like to do that. And we have active relationships with the parties in that supply chain. that we think will provide the first products coming out of O1. So it's quite well developed. It's just not something we're disclosing yet.
spk10: And any additional color on the contracted demand for HTC that you have coming out of Origin 1? Any new uses for that product that are being explored?
spk11: Yes, Steve, great question about our HTC product. As I mentioned, we're not breaking out the 4.2 billion into its constituent products and plants, but I will say we continue to make great progress with HTC in working with partners across various applications that we've talked about in the past, including as a fuel source, as a carbon black replacement, and those kind of applications. So we continue to make good progress and feel good about our HTC product.
spk02: Okay, thank you. Thank you.
spk01: As a reminder, it is Star 1 to ask a question. The next question is from Eric Stein from Craig Hallam. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions.
spk10: Eric?
spk08: So, Kenny, so if we are thinking about the capacity reservations, you know, just curious, obviously the offtake agreements, as you said, much larger documents, but capacity reservations, you know, are also pretty involved. Is there anything, and I don't know if you can give a blanket statement on this or not, but is there anything that would trigger that move from a capacity reservation to an offtake, whether it's, you know, you get you get a certain amount closer to whether it's origin one or origin two coming online or just anything that might help that move from one category to the other.
spk11: Yeah, great question. So there's a few catalysts, but certainly to really secure the materials. And so to take that letter of intent into a firm take-or-pay contract is the ultimate way the customer has – you know, we'll be receiving those materials. And as our plants continue to sell rapidly and we continue to believe that we'll be sold out by the end of next year on both plants, there's a real catalyst for customers to convert those contracts.
spk02: Got it. Okay, that's helpful.
spk08: And you mentioned that, you know, you think you'll be by the end of next year sold out. Even in advance of that, as some of your customers clearly are global, any thoughts? I mean, are you to the point where you're potentially starting to fill up plant three and plant four?
spk11: So what I can tell you about that is that we are and have been for a while now taking orders on origin three. And... And we'll certainly, you know, we have full intentions to build origins, you know, three, four, five plus. So we will keep entering into contracts with customers as they have demand for our products and as the pricing, you know, meets or exceeds our financial forecasts. And that's our game plan.
spk08: Gotcha. Maybe last one for me, and this is just kind of something for me to clarify, but I mean, is your goal, or does it make any sense to keep any of these plants, some of the volumes open for spot sales, or is that just not how this industry works and you would really want to have everything under contract?
spk11: Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, the primary thing we think about when we say sold out is sold out to support project financing. And so... There can frequently be, you know, call it 10 to 20% of a plant that would be still available and still somewhat flexible. But what we're focused on is selling out the vast majority of the plants, support the project financing on the construction schedule, and to keep doing that.
spk02: Okay, thank you. Thank you.
spk03: The next question is from Bob Court from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
spk00: Hi, this is Emily Keck on for Bob. The first question I wanted to ask is, in which end markets does Origin see the most room for future growth opportunities right now?
spk11: Hi, Emily. It's Rich. Great question. Just to give everybody some context for the end market journey that we've been on, back in February, our billion dollars of orders were entirely in the packaging space. And today, with 4.2 billion and we have customers in the apparel space and in the automotive space and in the industrial space. And our pipeline goes well beyond that. So I can tell you that we continue to think that the apparel and textile space is very promising for us. The automotive space is also an incredible one for us. We announced our Drive Plus partnership. This quarter, we announced our partnership with Cologne and our previous partnerships with Ford and Solvay, which are automotive focused. And, you know, the automotive industry tries to decarbonize, transition to sustainable materials and remove weight from their vehicles. There's just an incredible opportunity for us there. But our pipeline includes, you know, cosmetic companies and toy companies and, you know, companies from really across a wide range of industries that we continue to see a lot of engagement from.
spk00: Okay, great. And one more question from me. Are there any scenarios that you can see right now where OriginOne could actually start up ahead of schedule?
spk02: Yeah, thanks, Emily. This is John.
spk06: I think, you know, what we're looking at is even though we've hit a couple of milestones early, right? We've got the modules lifted and in place early. We're anticipating, you know, continue to push through the winter, right? I think we're making really good progress on that project. We want to be prudent. And at this time, you know, I don't think we're ready to say that we're going to be delivering early on Origin 1. But we really do feel like by getting some of these milestones out of the way, it just takes a lot of risk off of it, right? It just lets us feel really comfortable that we're going to deliver that pretty easily on time, I think.
spk03: That's helpful. Thank you. The next question is from Pavel Mokhanov from Raymond James.
spk01: Please go ahead.
spk05: Thanks for taking the question. You referenced the commodity inflationary pressure with regard to, you know, steel and the other construction aspects. If we kind of flip that around to think about the commodity inflation across the petrochemical value chain, but at the same time, you know, bio-based feedstocks as well, when you kind of net those things out, are you seeing more appetite purely from an economic perspective from the, you know, food and beverage manufacturers, for example?
spk02: Yeah, Bob, this is Rich.
spk11: I would say the customer demand we feel feels like it's on sort of a fairly steady and increase in terms of demand. And it actually, it feels in many ways more macro than recent changes in inflation or supply chain disruptions or stuff like that. It really feels driven by these companies' commitments to reach net zero in 2030, 2040, and to transition their materials from fossil-based feedstocks to sustainable ones. And so we're really working with them to solve these sort of big challenges that they have. And it feels like the urgency keeps getting more urgent and the willingness to engage and work on this. But it doesn't really feel sort of directly connected with recent changes in inflation or supply chain or things like that.
spk05: Okay. Yes, that's very clear. Build back better. Is there anything in there that is relevant to Origin, either from you know, the advanced manufacturing tax credit perspective or, you know, on the demand side of the equation in terms of the actual product?
spk11: Yeah, it's a good question. Maybe I'll zoom out and just talk about our regulatory efforts overall. So, we don't have any specific insights on legislation to share at the moment, but we've been very encouraged that the growing wave of legislation, Build Back Better and others, at the federal, state, local levels here in the U.S. and around the world. And we are becoming more sort of active in this area, and so we're closely tracking the relevant legislation initiatives around the world. And, you know, many of them do include substantial investment in production tax credits, grants, subsidies. There are also some that include excise taxes imposed on fossil-based plastics and, you know, other various regulatory schemes that would drive people towards our carbon-negative non-fossil technology. So we are optimistic that the Build Back Better legislation will be beneficial for us, as well as the REDUCE Act, which is a legislation that would impose a 20-cent per pound tax on certain virgin fossil-based plastics.
spk05: Okay. Last question. One of the things that's happened since The call three months ago is the reelection of the Labour or Liberal government in Canada, where, of course, Origin One is located. Is there anything from Trudeau's post-election agenda that is, again, kind of of direct relevance to your operations there?
spk02: Yeah, it's a good question.
spk06: We haven't seen something that is, you know, directly relevant to our Canadian operations at this point. You know, generally speaking, I'd say the Canadian government has had a pretty consistent, it may not always, you know, I won't comment on whether it looks consistent from the outside or different perspectives, but from our perspective, it has always felt like a pretty consistent push for, you know, renewable technologies, and I'd say it's been a friendly environment for us through multiple, many years of operations there. So we're pretty pleased with both the local, state, and the federal government behavior, let's say, and interactions with us and our operations in Canada.
spk02: Thank you very much. Thank you.
spk01: This concludes the question and answer session as well as today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines now. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
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