TPI Composites, Inc.

Stand by, we're about to begin. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the TPI Composite second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and you may withdraw yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. Also, today's call is being recorded, and if you should need any assistance during the call today, please press star zero. And now at this time, I would like to turn things over to Jason Wegman, Investor Relations for TPI Composites. Mr. Wegman, please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. I would like to welcome everyone to TPI Composites' second quarter 2024 earnings call. We will be making forward-looking statements during this call that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. A detailed discussion of applicable risks is included in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on our website, tpicomposites.com. Today's presentation will include references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. In addition, please note that our financial statements now report our former automotive business as discontinued operation. In June, we divested the automotive business to Clear Creek Investments LLC. Accordingly, the historical results of our automotive business have been presented as discontinued operations in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and condensed consolidated balance sheets. As we discuss the year-over-year comparisons, please note we will refer to continuing operations only. With that, let me turn the call over to Bill Cywick, PPI Composites President and CEO.

Thanks, Jason. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. In addition to Jason, I am here with Ryan Miller, our CFO. Please turn to slide five. We knew coming into the year that it would be a tale of two halves. As we've been discussing for some time, the first half of the year will be heavily impacted by startups and transitions, with the back half benefiting from the exit of the Nordex Metamorris facility, the disposition of our automotive business, and increased utilization at our plants as we complete the transitions and startups. The year is playing out largely as expected, and we are on track to have a profitable second half of the year after a challenging first half. Sales in adjusted EBITDA were lower than expectations in Q2 due to a couple of factors. First, the heightened emphasis on quality related to new blade models slowed our startup and transition timelines at two of our facilities, impacting our sales by about $20 million in the quarter. However, we do anticipate a recovery of most of this volume in the second half of the year and set this up nicely to enter 2025 at full speed. Second, Nordex unexpectedly canceled purchase orders for the Matamoros facility and requested that we wind down the factory and cease production prior to quarter end. As a result, Q2 revenue and adjusted EBITDA from this plant fell short of our expectations. While Nordex ultimately funded all the severance related to the shutdown early in the third quarter, we were burdened with significantly less volume than expected and the inefficiencies of hastily shutting down a factory while maintaining our contractual commitments to deliver blades to Nordex. The good news is that we now have the losses from this plant in the rearview mirror. The $24.9 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the second quarter included $20.7 million in startup and transition costs and $21.9 million in losses from the now-closed Nordex Matamoros facility. Excluding these amounts, our adjusted EBITDA was nearly 5%. With the losses from the Nordex Matamoros plant and the automotive business behind us, and as lines in startup and transition reach serial production, and we make up most of the lost volume from the first half of the year, we anticipate at least mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins in Q3 and Q4, as well as positive free cash flow as factory utilization approaches 90%. Please turn to slide six. Our blade facilities in India and Turkey continue to be profitable, delivering 257 blade sets, representing 1.2 gigawatts of capacity during the quarter, while our Mexico plans are beginning to show performance improvement driven by the renewed focus on lean and quality initiatives implemented over the past year. We expect all regions to be profitable in the second half, including Mexico, as the lines in transition and startup as well as lean and quality initiatives mature. We believe we are truly at a pivotal point in time for TPI, and our second half will serve as a great launching point for 2025, where we plan to achieve at least $100 million of adjusted EBITDA and generate free cash flow for the year. Our supply chain continues to operate efficiently, with costs remaining steady. Raw material prices have declined year over year and are expected to be stable to slightly down as Chinese manufacturing capacity surpasses demand. While logistics expenses have seen a modest increase recently, our management strategies have mitigated any operational or financial impact. With respect to the wind market, we remain optimistic about the long-term recovery of onshore wind energy, though we remain cautious about the exact timing for the overall market. The structural foundation for sustained growth in onshore wind is in place and robust, and global demand for clean energy continues to rise. driven by factors such as the growing power needs for data centers, semiconductor chip manufacturers, the adoption of electric vehicles, and the electrification of just about everything. Global onshore wind installations, excluding China, are expected to bottom out in 2024 before beginning to accelerate in 2025. Wood McKenzie forecasts U.S. onshore wind installations to reach 6 gigawatts in 2024 and nearly 15 gigawatts annually by the end of the decade. Although there are very promising long-term prospects driven by supportive policies in the US and EU, we expect significant growth within our key markets to likely be pushed to the back half of 25 or into 2026. Challenges such as high interest rates, inflation, capital constraints, permitting issues, grid access, and uncertainties in the US around the upcoming election are hindering certain project timelines. With that said, given the strong position of our primary customers, We do anticipate volume growth for TPI in the U S in 2025. This growth will be supported by blade lines that will be in full production throughout the year, including the four new lines for GE that are in startup today, along with being bolstered by the guidance from the U S treasury and IRS on the inflation reduction acts, domestic content bonus, supporting the competitiveness of our Mexico plants. Our U S growth will be partially offset by a modest decline in demand. for our blades in the EU as we work with our customers on future blade models and optimization of our blade footprint to cost-effectively serve the EU as market demand and wider Europe recovers. Before I turn it over to Ryan, our financial outlook for the full year remains unchanged with 2024 being a year of transition. With the loss-making operations wrapped up, lines in transition and startup maturing, and operational improvements implemented, we are looking forward to a strong second half of 2024 and putting us on track for our targeted EBITDA of at least $100 million in 2025. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ryan to review our financial results.

Thanks, Bill. Please turn to slide eight. In the second quarter of 2024, net sales were 309.8 million compared to 374 million for the same period in 2023, a decrease of 17%. Set sales of blade tooling and other wind-related sales decreased 58.4 million, or 16.1%, to $304.3 million. This decrease was driven by a 28% decrease in the number of wind blades produced due to the number and pace of startups and transitions, expected volume declines based on market activity levels, canceled orders for the Nordex Matamoros facility, and unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations. These decreases were partially offset by higher average sales prices of wind blades due to the changes in the mix of wind blade models produced, the startup of production at one of our previously idle facilities in Juarez, Mexico, and an increase in tooling sales in preparation for manufacturing line startups and transitions. Field services revenue declined by $5.8 million in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This was primarily due to a reduction in technicians deployed to revenue-generating projects due to an increase in time spent on non-revenue generating inspection and repair activities. We expect the transition back to revenue generating activity in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024 was a loss of $24.9 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $33.3 million during the same period in 2023. The decrease is primarily driven by the absence of a $32.7 million warranted charge recorded in the prior year. Favorable foreign currency fluctuations and cost savings initiatives partially offset by lower sales, higher startup and transition costs, higher losses from the Nordic's Matamoros plant, higher wages, and overall inflation. Moving to slide nine, we ended the quarter with $102 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and $554 million of net debt. Free cash flow was a negative $44 million in the second quarter of 2024 compared to free cash flow of $6.2 million in the same period in 2023. The net use of cash in the second quarter of 2024 was primarily due to our EBITDA losses, capital expenditures related to the transitions and startups, interest and tax payments. While the shutdown of the Nordic's amount of Morris plant has put some unplanned pressure on our cash resources, we have had much success improving the efficiency of our balance sheet over the past couple quarters and we will remain focused on preserving cash and optimizing working capital to ensure we have resources to execute key initiatives moving forward. A summary of our financial guidance for 2024 can be found on slide 10. We are reaffirming our full-year 2024 guidance, but narrowing our adjusted EBITDA guidance to the lower end of the range. This adjustment reflects the higher-than-expected losses from the Nordic Matamoros plant, which was shut down on June 30th of this year, as well as some foreign currency headwinds from the Turkish lira compared to expectations of its rate of devaluation at the time we set our plan for the year. We anticipate sales from continuing operations in the range of $1.3 to $1.4 billion. We believe we are well-positioned to return TPI to profitability in the second half of the year and drive positive free cash flow, particularly in the fourth quarter. As Bill stated earlier, we expect our adjusted EBITDA margin to improve to at least mid-single digits in the second half as we have now shed the losses from both the Nordex Mattamoros plant and the automotive business. In addition, as the lines that we have been in startup and transition achieve serial production rates, we expect to drive utilization to near 90% over the second half of the year. It is for these reasons we are confident we are on a path to recovery. And finally, for the full year, we anticipate capital expenditures of $25 to $30 million. These investments are driven by our continued focus on achieving our long-term growth targets and restarting our idle lines. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Bill.

Thanks, Ryan. Please turn to slide 12. The long-term market prospects remain promising, with a solid structural foundation in place for sustained onshore growth. We will continue to work with our customers to efficiently and profitably provide the market with high-quality, cost-effective blades. We are confident that we are on the path to profitability, given the operational progress we have made over the last several quarters. The process of startups and transitions is progressing well, and we are confident in our expected full-year financial guidance as we are planning a return to at least mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins and positive cash flow in the second half of 2024. We believe our long-term prospects remain strong and are well-positioned to achieve adjusted EBITDA of at least $100 million in 2025. Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to all our TPI associates for their continued commitment and dedication to TPI, and our mission to decarbonize and electrify the world. I'll now turn it back to the operator to open the call for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Cybeck. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing star 2. Once again, star 1, please, for questions. We'll go first this afternoon to Eric Stein of Craig Hallam. Hi, Bill. Hi, Ryan.

Hey, Eric. How are you doing? Hey, doing all right. Thanks. So maybe just on fiscal 25, so clearly you're pretty confident about that $100 million EBITDA level. But I also know your commentary was about uncertainty on timing of a meaningful recovery in wind markets. So I'm just trying to kind of square the two things up. I mean, do you think $100 million is a realistic goal without a meaningful recovery, or is a meaningful recovery needed and this could be more back half loaded?

Yeah, we wouldn't put out the 100 if we weren't confident we would get there. But with that said, there's really two components here, Eric. Number one is when I talk about the markets, I'm talking about kind of in general the U.S. market, and then I was pretty specific about TPI's volumes in 2025. So notwithstanding the fact that we may not see as robust a recovery of the U.S. market in 2025 from a TPI perspective, our volumes will be up year over year from 24 to 25, and our customers are looking for everything we can deliver. So overall market, probably not recovering as fast. We're pushing to the right a little bit. From a TPI perspective, we're full out.

Okay, that's great, Connor. Great to hear. And maybe just can you remind me on that idle facility in Juarez that you're starting up? Is that something that has been discussed and I'm just spacing on it, or is that a new development and how does that figure into your outlook for 24 and 25?

Yeah, no, we announced it, I think, last year. We started it up for GE. So it's a four-line facility, and we started that early in the year. So we've been really in startup for the first two quarters of the year. So it does have a meaningful impact this year and will certainly have a meaningful impact next year.

Okay, now you jogged my memory. Sorry about that. All right, I'll turn it over. Thanks.

Great. Thanks, Eric.

Thank you. We go next now to Mark Strauss of JPMorgan.

Yeah, good afternoon. It's Drew on for Mark. Thank you for taking our questions. I guess just firstly, start with the Iowa facility and what's the latest there from GE and what the potential timing could be there. And also just on that, once they give you the go-ahead, how long until you can really start ramping volumes there?

Yeah, so really nothing has changed from last quarter at this point. We're still probably best case looking at early 2025 would be my best estimate at this point. Still working through some scenarios. And if that were to happen, we'd have to start ramping it relatively soon. I mean, with the tight employment market in the Midwest, especially in Iowa, I think that'll be the biggest challenge is hiring the people the associates that we need to run that facility. So it's probably a six month process to hire and get rolling again.

Okay, okay, that's helpful, thank you. And then I guess just transitioning, looking at the cash generation comments. I mean, it sounds like it's positive for the second half, but any more detailed commentary on what you think of how the timing looks like that for 3Q versus 4Q? I'm sorry if I miss this in the prepared remarks, but do you still think 2Q is going to be the low watermark for cash for the year, or is there any risk to cash coming in lower in the third quarter?

Yeah, you know, as we look at cash over the balance of the year, I think our fourth quarter is going to be, we're going to generate more cash in the fourth quarter than we will the third. I think we're kind of right now bouncing along the bottom edge of where cash is going to be. I think you'll continue to see that in Q3, probably at a similar level. And the reason is, is we're continuing to have some CapEx investments. We'll liquidate some advanced payments. And then with interest and taxes, probably be kind of a flattish type of quarter in the third quarter with most of our cash that we bring in will happen in the fourth quarter.

Okay, great. Thanks, Ryan. I'll pass it on. Thanks.

Thank you. Just a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, star one, please, for any questions this afternoon. We go next now to Pavel Molchanov at Raymond James.

Thanks for taking the question. You referenced in the press release the fact that unit pricing on the blades was kind of on the high side and that indeed shows up in the top line. Is that a sustainable run rate or was there something, you know, very kind of specific in Q2 to explain that?

Yeah, Pavel, we had a pretty big mix impact in the quarter. And so you saw that rate of $208,000 a blade It will come down. The biggest impact is a lot of these new blades are ramping up. They come with a lot higher price. They're longer, heavier blades that are more expensive. But a couple dynamics occurred in the quarter. For example, in one of our Juarez facilities where we make the shorter GE blade, we diverted a good share of that workforce to help with the startup on the longer blade, on GE's workhorse blades. And so the volumes on those lower-priced blades were down in the second quarter. We will start ramping those back up, and there'll be a higher percentage of the mix as we move forward. And then a couple other factories, too, just the timing of some of the shorter versus longer blades impacted mix as well. So this will probably be the peak of ASPs, and you'll see that work its way down as some of the shorter blades ramp up in production over the second half of the year.

Okay. We don't talk a whole lot about the field services business, but obviously with the lack of EV sales in the future, that will be, I suppose, a little bit more meaningful in the revenue mix. How is that portion of the revenue mix contributing to EBITDA? I guess you don't really break it out in the financials.

Yeah, well, right now, Pavel, we're still working through the inspection and repair campaign that we started last year. So we've had a fairly significant number of our field service techs on that as opposed to revenue generating work, and therefore has been very minimal contribution to EBITDA. As we get through those campaigns, which you'll start to see the impact of that in the second half of this year, Then you'll start to see a much more significant impact. The margins are clearly better in the field service business. And once we get our techs back on the revenue generating work, you'll start to see that. It doesn't move the needle significantly yet just because from a size perspective, it's still relatively small. But that's an area we anticipate investing more in and growing both in the U.S. and in the E.U.

Last question. Offshore wind has been in the headlines of late, I suppose. You guys have never really played in that slice of the pie. Any interest in getting into the offshore segment on either side of the Atlantic?

Yeah, I mean, it's clearly interesting, Pavel. I mean, it The growth, especially in Europe, is fairly significant. It's a much more mature supply chain there. So I think it's quite a ways beyond where the U.S. market is today. With that said, is there interest? Yes, today, not really, but over time, potentially.

Got it. Thanks very much. Yep, thank you.

Thank you.

We go next now to Jeff Osborne with TD Callen.

Thank you, Bill. Just two questions. One is you made a comment in the prepared remarks about a $20 million hit with a greater focus on quality. Was that in post-production or pre-production? And did that tie up the service staff?

No, nothing to do with the service staff, Jeff. This was just as we're working with our customers building the initial blades, working through the design, unique characteristics of the design, and just making sure that we get the process right so that when we do get to serial production, we don't have any issues with blades escaping the plant. So it was really just slowing things down a little bit from what we would normally do, but nothing to do with the field service stuff. These blades won't have any issues as it relates to field service. It was just slowing down the process making sure we've got it right before we get to serial production.

And just to follow up on that, have you remediated those problems at those two sites so that you're entering 3Q with, you know, heading to ground running, or is there like an overhang in the third quarter?

Yeah, there was nothing to remediate. We slowed the process down to make sure with our customers that we were comfortable with the serial production quality of the blade. So, Yeah, we feel like we've got great processes. We've got great collaboration with our customers. And, you know, we'll see in the third and fourth quarter our utilization rates get up close to 90%. So we'll be in good shape in the back half.

Perfect. And the last one is just you also made reference in the prepared remarks about Europe and working with your customers on new designs and potentially a ton of like new sites. Would that be an expansion of Turkey, or would you evaluate building a facility in another low-cost country and region there?

Yeah, I think the EU is an important market for us. Serving it cost-effectively is important. Turkey has been very cost-effective for a long period of time, but we will continue to look at options, whether they be in Turkey or somewhere else, either in the EU or in wider Europe. to continue to support our customers where they need us to be from a total delivered cost standpoint.

And just to follow up on that, any sense on what the CapEx obligation for such a facility would be, just given the debt that's due next year?

Yeah, we don't have any debt due next year, but other than the turkey stuff, which is just evergreen revolver stuff. But no, it would depend really Jeff, it varies by country, whether, you know, land costs are very different. Sometimes land is free. Sometimes it's not. So it would vary pretty significantly. But from our perspective, our rule of thumb has always been $6 to $7 million per line. From a CapEx perspective, that's what it would be. So you can kind of take that times the number of lines, and that's the CapEx requirement it would be for us.

Perfect. Yep.

Thank you. We go next now to Greg Wasikowski at Weber Research.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. I just want to ask this as diplomatically as possible, but could you speak to your ongoing relationship with Nordex following the Matamoros exit?

Yeah, obviously that was a difficult period for both of us, for both Nordex and TPI, but I've had a number of conversations with their CEO since and during, and I think the relationship is fine. I'll see him again in the next month or two in Europe. I do believe we'll have a good opportunity to participate in their U.S. blade, the new design for the U.S. market. So I would say the relationship, notwithstanding the strains of a tough situation like we had in Matamoros, is actually in a pretty good place.

Got it. Okay. Appreciate the color. And then for the next two quick ones, apologize if I missed it. Just got a couple balls in the air right now. Can you give us a sense of timing on field service and kind of getting that back into maybe normalizing it back to normal revenue production and less QC? Okay.

You know, I think as we get into what's kind of the busy season right now in the summer, you know, we've already started to see some of the techs migrate over to more revenue producing. So, I think you'll see a more robust third quarter from us. Notwithstanding, you know, we're having utilized so many technicians on our own internal campaigns, it will take a little bit to build up, you know, a backlog of external campaigns to be revenue producing. So, While I think you'll see improved numbers in Q3, still got a little work to do to build it back up to where it was before and grow it beyond that.

Okay, great. That's good to hear. And then lastly, just from a modeling perspective, it's always helpful to have a recap of dedicated manufacturing lines and manufacturing lines installed and the cadence to close out this year and into 2025. If you have that handy, that'd be great.

Yeah. Did you want to, did you want to just go through kind of inventory of all our lines there? I mean, so we're going to have 34 lines, uh, that will be operating at the end of this year throughout the balance of this year. Uh, there are, uh, all the lines in Iowa right now are obviously idle. Uh, and then we currently have, uh, two, two lines in India that have molten it, that have been idled and then two more lines of capacity in India. But outside of that right now, all of our lines are filled up. So, um, It's really Iowa and India where we have capacity that we'll look to fill in in 2025.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. What's your updated plan for operating lines in 2025, maybe the second half of 2025?

The second half of 2025? Yeah, we certainly have plans, but we haven't provided that, and we're not prepared to provide that just yet.

Got it. Okay. That's fair. All right, guys. That's it for me. Thanks.

Great. Thanks, Greg.

Thank you. We go next now to Justin Clare with Roth Capital Partners.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. So I just wanted to follow up on a comment you made. So you were saying that really your customers are looking for all the capacity that you can provide into 2025 here. I was wondering if that's in reference to really U.S. customers and that market, or does that also include Europe? Basically, are you fully booked across the facilities? I know you mentioned you do have the open lines in India. but just want to get a sense for kind of the demand, you know, U.S. versus Europe and whether you have open capacity.

Yeah, thanks, Justin, for the question. My comment with being kind of full sold out is U.S. related, so it's for the U.S. market. To your point, we do have some capacity available in India, and that is we're still – We're still working with our customers on what the ultimate volumes required will be next year from our turkey plants as well as from our India plants. A lot of what we build in India comes to the U.S. as well. But we're much more certain right now in volumes for the U.S. than we are for EU.

Got it. Got it. Okay. And then just given the strength of the U.S. market, is it fair to assume that it's unlikely – to see transitions at the facilities that are serving the U.S. next year, given that customers are looking for all the capacity you can get, so a transition would reduce the amount of volume that you can supply. Is that a reasonable expectation?

Yeah, I'd say that's reasonable. We will have a couple lines transitioning late this year that will leak into next year. But again, it's to get to the right blade model for a customer. But, yeah, I think in the U.S. we'll have very few transitions, if any, next year other than those two. Okay.

Got it. That's it for me. Thank you. Yep. Thank you.

And, gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions this afternoon. Mr. Cywick, I'd like to turn things back to you, sir, for any closing comments.

Yep. Again, thank you, everybody, for your time and for the questions, of course, and your continued interest, and look forward to our next discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Silek. Again, ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude the TPI Composite second quarter earnings call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone, and we wish you all a great remainder of your day. Goodbye.

© transcript Emily Beynon Bye. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the TPI Composites second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and you may withdraw yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. Also, today's call is being recorded, and if you should need any assistance during the call today, please press star zero. And now at this time, I would like to turn things over to Jason Wegman, Investor Relations for TPI Composites. Mr. Wegman, please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. I would like to welcome everyone to TPI Composites' second quarter 2024 earnings call. We will be making forward-looking statements during this call that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. A detailed discussion of applicable risks is included in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on our website, tpicomposites.com. Today's presentation will include references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. In addition, please note that our financial statements now report our former automotive business as discontinued operation. In June, we divested the automotive business to Clear Creek Investments LLC. Accordingly, the historical results of our automotive business have been presented as discontinued operations in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and condensed consolidated balance sheets. As we discuss the year-over-year comparisons, please note we will refer to continuing operations only. With that, let me turn the call over to Bill Cywick, PPI Composites President and CEO.

Thanks, Jason. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. In addition to Jason, I am here with Ryan Miller, our CFO. Please turn to slide five. We knew coming into the year that it would be a tale of two halves. As we've been discussing for some time, the first half of the year will be heavily impacted by startups and transitions, with the back half benefiting from the exit of the Nordex Metamorris facility, the disposition of our automotive business, and increased utilization at our plants as we complete the transitions and startups. The year is playing out largely as expected, and we are on track to have a profitable second half of the year after a challenging first half. Sales in adjusted EBITDA were lower than expectations in Q2 due to a couple of factors. First, the heightened emphasis on quality related to new blade models slowed our startup and transition timelines at two of our facilities, impacting our sales by about $20 million in the quarter. However, we do anticipate a recovery of most of this volume in the second half of the year and set this up nicely to enter 2025 at full speed. Second, Nordex unexpectedly canceled purchase orders for the Matamoros facility and requested that we wind down the factory and siege production prior to quarter end. As a result, Q2 revenue and adjusted EBITDA from this plant fell short of our expectations. While Nordex ultimately funded all the severance related to the shutdown early in the third quarter, we were burdened with significantly less volume than expected and the inefficiencies of hastily shutting down a factory while maintaining our contractual commitments to deliver blades to Nordex. The good news is that we now have the losses from this plant in the rearview mirror. The $24.9 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the second quarter included $20.7 million in startup and transition costs and $21.9 million in losses from the now closed Nordex Matamoros facility. Excluding these amounts, our adjusted EBITDA was nearly 5%. With the losses from the Nordex Matamoros plant and the automotive business behind us, and as lines in startup and transition reach serial production, and we make up most of the lost volume from the first half of the year, we anticipate at least mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins in Q3 and Q4, as well as positive free cash flow as factory utilization approaches 90%. Please turn to slide six. Our blade facilities in India and Turkey continue to be profitable, delivering 257 blade sets, representing 1.2 gigawatts of capacity during the quarter, while our Mexico plans are beginning to show performance improvement driven by the renewed focus on lean and quality initiatives implemented over the past year. We expect all regions to be profitable in the second half, including Mexico, as the lines in transition and startup as well as lean and quality initiatives mature. We believe we are truly at a pivotal point in time for TPI, and our second half will serve as a great launching point for 2025, where we plan to achieve at least $100 million of adjusted EBITDA and generate free cash flow for the year. Our supply chain continues to operate efficiently, with costs remaining steady. Raw material prices have declined year over year and are expected to be stable to slightly down as Chinese manufacturing capacity surpasses demand. While logistics expenses have seen a modest increase recently, our management strategies have mitigated any operational or financial impact. With respect to the wind market, we remain optimistic about the long-term recovery of onshore wind energy, though we remain cautious about the exact timing for the overall market. The structural foundation for sustained growth in onshore wind is in place and robust, and global demand for clean energy continues to rise. driven by factors such as the growing power needs for data centers, semiconductor chip manufacturers, the adoption of electric vehicles, and the electrification of just about everything. Global onshore wind installations, excluding China, are expected to bottom out in 2024 before beginning to accelerate in 2025. Wood McKenzie forecasts U.S. onshore wind installations to reach 6 gigawatts in 2024 and nearly 15 gigawatts annually by the end of the decade. Although there are very promising long-term prospects driven by supportive policies in the US and EU, we expect significant growth within our key markets to likely be pushed to the back half of 25 or into 2026. Challenges such as high interest rates, inflation, capital constraints, permitting issues, grid access, and uncertainties in the US around the upcoming election are hindering certain project timelines. With that said, given the strong position of our primary customers, We do anticipate volume growth for TPI in the US in 2025. This growth will be supported by blade lines that will be in full production throughout the year, including the four new lines for GE that are in startup today, along with being bolstered by the guidance from the US Treasury and IRS on the Inflation Reduction Act's domestic content bonus, supporting the competitiveness of our Mexico plants. Our US growth will be partially offset by a modest decline in demand for our blades in the EU as we work with our customers on future blade models and optimization of our blade footprint to cost-effectively serve the EU as market demand and wider Europe recovers. Before I turn it over to Ryan, our financial outlook for the full year remains unchanged with 2024 being a year of transition. With the loss-making operations wrapped up, lines in transition and startup maturing, and operational improvements implemented, we are looking forward to a strong second half of 2024 and putting us on track for our targeted EBITDA of at least $100 million in 2025. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ryan to review our financial results.

Thanks, Bill. Please turn to slide eight. In the second quarter of 2024, net sales were $309.8 million compared to $374 million for the same period in 2023, a decrease of 17%. Set sales of blade tooling and other wind-related sales decreased 58.4 million, or 16.1%, to $304.3 million. This decrease was driven by a 28% decrease in the number of wind blades produced due to the number and pace of startups and transitions, expected volume declines based on market activity levels, canceled orders for the Nordex Matamoros facility, and unfavorable foreign currency fluctuation. These decreases were partially offset by higher average sales prices of wind blades due to the changes in the mix of wind blade models produced, the startup of production at one of our previously idle facilities in Juarez, Mexico, and an increase in tooling sales in preparation for manufacturing line startups and transitions. Field services revenue declined by $5.8 million in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This was primarily due to a reduction in technicians deployed to revenue-generating projects due to an increase in time spent on non-revenue generating inspection and repair activities. We expect the transition back to revenue generating activity in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024 was a loss of $24.9 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $33.3 million during the same period in 2023. The decrease is primarily driven by the absence of a $32.7 million warranted charge recorded in the prior year. favorable foreign currency fluctuations, and cost savings initiatives partially offset by lower sales, higher startup and transition costs, higher losses from the Nordic's Matamoros plant, higher wages, and overall inflation. Moving to slide nine, we ended the quarter with $102 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and $554 million of net debt. Free cash flow was a negative $44 million in the second quarter of 2024 compared to free cash flow of $6.2 million in the same period in 2023. The net use of cash in the second quarter of 2024 was primarily due to our EBITDA losses, capital expenditures related to the transitions and startups, interest and tax payments. While the shutdown of the Nordic's amount of Morris plant has put some unplanned pressure on our cash resources, we have had much success improving the efficiency of our balance sheet over the past couple quarters and we will remain focused on preserving cash and optimizing working capital to ensure we have resources to execute key initiatives moving forward. A summary of our financial guidance for 2024 can be found on slide 10. We are reaffirming our full-year 2024 guidance, but narrowing our adjusted EBITDA guidance to the lower end of the range. This adjustment reflects the higher-than-expected losses from the Nordic Matamoros plant, which was shut down on June 30th of this year, as well as some foreign currency headwinds from the Turkish lira compared to expectations of its rate of devaluation at the time we set our plan for the year. We anticipate sales from continuing operations in the range of $1.3 to $1.4 billion. We believe we are well-positioned to return TPI to profitability in the second half of the year and drive positive free cash flow, particularly in the fourth quarter. As Bill stated earlier, we expect our adjusted EBITDA margin to improve to at least mid-single digits in the second half as we have now shed the losses from both the Nordex Mattamores plant and the automotive business. In addition, as the lines that we have been in startup and transition achieve serial production rates, we expect to drive utilization to near 90% over the second half of the year. It is for these reasons we are confident we are on a path to recovery. And finally, for the full year, we anticipate capital expenditures of $25 to $30 million. These investments are driven by our continued focus on achieving our long-term growth targets and restarting our idle line. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Bill.

Thanks, Ryan. Please turn to slide 12. The long-term market prospects remain promising, with a solid structural foundation in place for sustained onshore growth. We will continue to work with our customers to efficiently and profitably provide the market with high-quality, cost-effective blades. We are confident that we are on the path to profitability, given the operational progress we have made over the last several quarters. The process of startups and transitions is progressing well, and we are confident in our expected full-year financial guidance as we are planning a return to at least mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins and positive cash flow in the second half of 2024. We believe our long-term prospects remain strong and are well-positioned to achieve adjusted EBITDA of at least $100 million in 2025. Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to all our TPI associates for the continued commitment and dedication to TPI and and our mission to decarbonize and electrify the world. I'll now turn it back to the operator to open the call for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Cybeck. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing star 2. Once again, star 1, please, for questions. We'll go first this afternoon to Eric Stein of Craig Hallam. Hi, Bill. Hi, Ryan.

Hey, Eric. How are you doing? Hey, doing all right. Thanks. So maybe just on fiscal 25, so clearly you're pretty confident about that $100 million EBITDA level. But I also know your commentary was about uncertainty on timing of a meaningful recovery in wind markets. So I'm just trying to kind of square the two things up. I mean, do you think $100 million is a realistic goal without a meaningful recovery, or is a meaningful recovery needed and this could be more back half loaded?

Yeah, we wouldn't put out the 100 if we weren't confident we would get there. But with that said, there's really two components here, Eric. Number one is when I talk about the markets, I'm talking about kind of in general the U.S. market, and then I was pretty specific about TPI's volumes in 2025. So notwithstanding the fact that we may not see as robust a recovery of the U.S. market in 2025 from a TPI perspective, our volumes will be up year over year from 24 to 25, and our customers are looking for everything we can deliver. So overall market, probably not recovering as fast. We're pushing to the right a little bit. From a TPI perspective, we're full out.

Okay, that's great, Connor. Great to hear. And maybe just can you remind me on the idle facility in Juarez that you're starting up? Is that something that has been discussed and I'm just spacing on it, or is that a new development and how does that figure into your outlook for 24 and 25?

Yeah, no, we announced it, I think, last year. We started it up for GE. So it's a four-line facility, and we started that early in the year. So we've been really in startup for the first two quarters of the year. So it does have a meaningful impact this year and will certainly have a meaningful impact next year.

Okay, now you jogged my memory. Sorry about that. All right, I'll turn it over. Thanks.

Great. Thanks, Eric.

Thank you. We go next now to Mark Strauss of JPMorgan.

Yeah, good afternoon. It's Drew on for Mark. Thank you for taking our questions. I guess just firstly, start with the Iowa facility and what's the latest there from GE and what the potential timing could be there. And also just on that, once they give you the go-ahead, how long until you can really start ramping volumes there?

Yeah, so really nothing has changed from last quarter at this point. We're still probably best case looking at early 2025 would be my best estimate at this point. Still working through some scenarios. And if that were to happen, we'd have to start ramping it relatively soon. I mean, with the tight employment market in the Midwest, especially in Iowa, I think that'll be the biggest challenge is hiring the people the associates that we need to run that facility. So it's probably a six month process to hire and get rolling again.

Okay, okay, that's helpful, thank you. And then I guess just transitioning, looking at the cash generation comments. I mean, it sounds like it's positive for the second half, but any more detailed commentary on what you think of how the timing looks like that for 3Q versus 4Q? I'm sorry if I miss this in the prepared remarks, but do you still think 2Q is going to be the low watermark for cash for the year, or is there any risk to cash coming in lower in the third quarter?

Yeah, you know, as we look at cash over the balance of the year, I think our fourth quarter is going to be, we're going to generate more cash in the fourth quarter than we will the third. I think we're kind of right now bouncing along the bottom edge of where cash is going to be. I think you'll continue to see that in Q3, probably at a similar level. And the reason is, is we're continuing to have some CapEx investments. We'll liquidate some advanced payments. And then with interest and taxes, probably be kind of a flattish type of quarter in the third quarter with most of our cash that we bring in will happen in the fourth quarter.

Okay, great.

Thanks, Ryan. I'll pass it on. Thanks.

Thank you. Just a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, star one, please, for any questions this afternoon. We go next now to Pavel Molchanov at Raymond James.

Thanks for taking the question. You referenced in the press release the fact that unit pricing on the blades was kind of on the high side and that indeed shows up in the top line. Is that a sustainable run rate or was there something, you know, very kind of specific in Q2 to explain that?

Yeah, Pavel, we had a pretty big mix impact in the quarter. And so you saw that rate of $208,000 a blade It will come down. The biggest impact is a lot of these new blades are ramping up. They come with a lot higher price. They're longer, heavier blades that are more expensive. But a couple dynamics occurred in the quarter. For example, in one of our Juarez facilities where we make the shorter GE blade, we diverted a good share of that workforce to help with the startup on the longer blade, on GE's workhorse blades. And so the volumes on those lower-priced blades were down in the second quarter. We will start ramping those back up, and there will be a higher percentage of the mix as we move forward. And then a couple other factors, too, just the timing of some of the shorter versus longer blades impacted mix as well. So this will probably be the peak of ASPs, and you'll see that work its way down as some of the shorter blades ramp up in production over the second half of the year.

Okay. We don't talk a whole lot about the field services business, but obviously with the lack of EV sales in the future, that will be, I suppose, a little bit more meaningful in the revenue mix. How is that portion of the revenue mix contributing to EBITDA? I guess you don't really break it out in the financials.

Yeah, well, right now, Pavel, we're still working through the inspection and repair campaign that we started last year. So we've had a fairly significant number of our field service techs on that as opposed to revenue generating work, and therefore has been very minimal contribution to EBITDA. As we get through those campaigns, which you'll start to see the impact of that in the second half of this year, Then you'll start to see a much more significant impact. The margins are clearly better in the field service business. And once we get our techs back on the revenue generating work, you'll start to see that. It doesn't move the needle significantly yet just because from a size perspective, it's still relatively small. But that's an area we anticipate investing more in and growing both in the U.S. and in the E.U.

Last question. Offshore wind has been in the headlines of late, I suppose. You guys have never really played in that slice of the pie. Any interest in getting into the offshore segment on either side of the Atlantic?

Yeah, I mean, it's clearly interesting, Pavel. I mean, it The growth, especially in Europe, is fairly significant. It's a much more mature supply chain there. So I think it's quite a ways beyond where the U.S. market is today. With that said, is there interest? Yes, today, not really, but over time, potentially.

Got it. Thanks very much. Yep, thank you.

Thank you. We go next now to Jeff Osborne with TD calendar.

Thank you, Bill. Just two questions. One is you made a comment in the prepared remarks about a $20 million hit with a greater focus on quality. Was that in post-production or pre-production? And did that tie up the service staff?

No, that has nothing to do with the service staff, Jeff. This was just as we're, as we're working with our customers, building the initial blades, working through the design, unique characteristics of the design, and just making sure that we get the process right so that when we do get to serial production, we don't have any issues with blades escaping the plant. So it was really just slowing things down a little bit from what we would normally do, but nothing to do with the field service stuff. These blades won't have any issues as it relates to field service. It was just slowing down the process making sure we've got it right before we get to serial production.

And just to follow up on that, have you remediated those problems at those two sites so that you're entering 3Q with, you know, heading to ground running, or is there like an overhang in the third quarter?

Yeah, there was nothing to remediate. We slowed the process down to make sure with our customers that we were comfortable with the serial production quality of the blade. So, Yeah, we feel like we've got great processes. We've got great collaboration with our customers. And, you know, we'll see in the third and fourth quarter our utilization rates get up close to 90%. So we'll be in good shape in the back half.

Perfect. And the last one is just you also made reference in the prepared remarks about Europe and working with your customers on new designs and potentially a ton of like new sites. Would that be an expansion of Turkey, or would you evaluate building a facility in another low-cost country and region there?

Yeah, I think the EU is an important market for us. Serving it cost-effectively is important. Turkey has been very cost-effective for a long period of time, but we will continue to look at options, whether they be in Turkey or somewhere else, either in the EU or in wider Europe. to continue to support our customers where they need us to be from a total delivered cost standpoint.

And just to follow up on that, any sense on what the CapEx obligation for such a facility would be, just given the debt that's due next year?

Yeah, we don't have any debt due next year, but other than the turkey stuff, which is just evergreen revolver stuff. But no, it would depend really Jeff, it varies by country, whether, you know, land costs are very different. Sometimes land is free. Sometimes it's not. So it would vary pretty significantly. But from our perspective, our rule of thumb has always been $6 to $7 million per line. From a CapEx perspective, that's what it would be. So you can kind of take that times the number of lines, and that's the CapEx requirement it would be for us.

Perfect. Yep.

Thank you. We go next now to Greg Wasikowski at Weber Research.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. I just want to ask this as diplomatically as possible, but could you speak to your ongoing relationship with Nordex following the Matamoros exit?

Yeah, obviously that was a difficult period for both of us, for both Nordex and TPI, but I've had a number of conversations with their CEO since and during, and I think the relationship is fine. I'll see him again in the next month or two in Europe. You know, I do believe we'll have a good opportunity to participate in their U.S. blade, the new design for the U.S. market. So I would say the relationship, notwithstanding, you know, the strains of a tough situation like we had in Matamoros, is actually in a pretty good place.

Got it. Okay. Appreciate the color. And then for the next two quick ones, apologize if I missed it. Just got a couple balls in the air right now. Can you give us a sense of timing on the field service and kind of getting that back into maybe normalizing it back to normal revenue production and less QC? Okay.

You know, I think as we get into what's kind of the busy season right now in the summer, you know, we've already started to see some of the techs migrate over to more revenue producing. So, I think you'll see a more robust third quarter from us. Notwithstanding, you know, we're having utilized so many technicians on our own internal campaigns, it will take a little bit to build up, you know, a backlog of external campaigns to be revenue producing. So, While I think you'll see improved numbers in Q3, still got a little work to do to build it back up to where it was before and grow it beyond that.

Okay, great. That's good to hear. And then lastly, just from a modeling perspective, it's always helpful to have a recap of dedicated manufacturing lines and manufacturing lines installed and the cadence to close out this year and into 2025. If you have that handy, that'd be great.

Yeah. Did you want to, did you want to just go through kind of inventory of all our lines there? I mean, so we're going to have 34 lines, uh, that will be operating at the end of this year throughout the balance of this year. Uh, there are, uh, all the lines in Iowa right now are obviously idle. Uh, and then we currently have, uh, two, two lines in India that have molten it, that have been idled and then two more lines of capacity in India. But outside of that right now, all of our lines are filled up. So, um, It's really Iowa and India where we have capacity that we'll look to fill in in 2025.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. What's your updated plan for operating lines in 2025, maybe the second half of 2025?

The second half of 2025? Yeah, we certainly have plans, but we haven't provided that, and we're not prepared to provide that just yet.

Got it. Okay. That's fair. All right, guys. That's it for me. Thanks.

Great. Thanks, Greg.

Thank you. We go next now to Justin Clare with Roth Capital Partners.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. So I just wanted to follow up on a comment you made. So you were saying that really your customers are looking for all the capacity that you can provide into 2025 here. I was wondering if that's in reference to really U.S. customers and that market, or does that also include Europe? Basically, are you fully booked across the facilities? I know you mentioned you do have the open lines in India. but just want to get a sense for kind of the demand, you know, U.S. versus Europe and whether you have open capacity.

Yeah, thanks, Justin, for the question. My comment with being kind of full sold out is U.S. related, so it's for the U.S. market. To your point, we do have some capacity available in India, and that is we're still – We're still working with our customers on what the ultimate volumes required will be next year from our turkey plants as well as from our India plants. A lot of what we build in India comes to the U.S. as well. But we're much more certain right now in volumes for the U.S. than we are for EU.

Got it. Got it. Okay. And then just given the strength of the U.S. market, is it fair to assume that it's unlikely – to see transitions at the facilities that are serving the U.S. next year, given that customers are looking for all the capacity you can get, so a transition would reduce the amount of volume that you can supply. Is that a reasonable expectation?

Yeah, I'd say that's reasonable. We will have a couple lines transitioning late this year that will leak into next year. But again, it's to get to the right blade model for a customer. But, yeah, I think in the U.S. we'll have very few transitions, if any, next year other than those two.

Okay. Got it. That's it for me. Thank you. Yep. Thank you.

And, gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions this afternoon. Mr. Silek, I'd like to turn things back to you, sir, for any closing comments.

Yep. Again, thank you, everybody, for your time and for the questions, of course, and your continued interest, and look forward to our next discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Silek. Again, ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude the TPI Composite second quarter earnings call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone, and we wish you all a great remainder of your day. Goodbye.