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spk06: Greetings. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Stepan Company Q4 Full Year 2021 Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we'll conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Thursday, February 17, 2022. And now I'd like to turn the conference over to Luis Rojo, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
spk01: Good morning, and thank you for joining Stepan Company's fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial review. Before we begin, please note that information in this conference call contains forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts. These statements involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including but not limited to prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions, and factors detailing our Security and Exchange Commission filings. Whether you're joining us online or over the phone, we encourage you to review the investor slide presentation, which we have made available at www.stepan.com under the investor section of our website. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings release is issued, and we hope that you find the perspective helpful. Now with that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Quinn Stepan, our chairman and chief executive officer.
spk02: Good morning. and thank you all for joining us today. 2021 was another difficult year for our world, our country, and our industry, as COVID-19 and weather events created employee, raw material, and transportation challenges that impacted global supply chains. At Steppen, our employees' commitment and our team's agility allowed us to mostly meet customer requirements and grow income while taking significant steps to build a better, stronger, more sustainable future. Our reported net income reached a record $138 million, or $5.92 per diluted share, while our adjusted net income was also a record at $143.5 million, or $6.16 per diluted share. These record results were achieved despite the challenges affecting our operations. The estimated negative impact of the supply chain disruptions in our operating income for the three business segments totaled $21 million during 2021. In addition, global demand decreased for cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash products versus the pandemic peak in 2020. This impact was partially offset by higher demand within the institutional cleaning and functional product end markets. Although our base polymer business was affected by supply chain disruptions, higher polymer results were driven by the INVISTA acquisition. Specialty product results were slightly ahead of those reported in 2020, but results were negatively impacted by raw material availability. Our board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on Steppen's common stock of 33 and a half cents per share payable on March 15th, 2022. Steppen has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years. During 2021, we returned $45 million to our shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. This represents an increase of 11% versus 2020. As previously communicated, our board of directors authorized another $150 million of share repurchases. We remain confident in the strength and diversity of our business and its ability to generate cash that will allow us to invest in our current business, pursue strategic M&A opportunities, and return cash to our shareholders. At this point, I would like Luis to walk through a few more details about our fourth quarter and full year results.
spk01: Thank you, Quinn. My comments will generally follow the slide presentation. Let's start with slide five to recap the quarter. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $22.5 million, or $0.97 per dilute share, a 32% decrease versus $33.1 million, for $1.42 per diluted shell in the fourth quarter of 2020. Because adjusted net income is a non-GAAP measure, we provide full reconciliations to the compatible GAAP measures, and this can be found in Appendix 2 of the presentation and Table 2 of the press release. Specifically, adjustment to reported net income this quarter excludes deferred compensation expense of $2.4 million. Additionally, it also excludes $3.1 million for business restructuring, the non-cash loss on the sale of a corporate building, and environmental remediation reserves. The deferred compensation numbers represent the net expense related to the company's deferred compensation plan, as well as cash settled stock appreciation rights for our employees. Because these liabilities change with the movement in the stock price, we exclude this item from our operational discussion. Slide 6 shows the total company earnings bridge for the fourth quarter compared to last year's fourth quarter and breaks down the decrease in adjusted net income. Because this is net income, the figures noted here are on an after-tax basis. We will cover each segment in more detail, but to summarize, turfactants and polymers are down, mainly driven by the one-time benefits recorded in Q4 2020, specifically the Millsdale insurance payment and the Chinese government reimbursement. Excluding those two items, our results are basically flat versus last year. Corporate expenses and all others were lower during the quarter due to lower acquisition-related expenses and incentive-based compensation expenses. The company effective tax rate was 20% in 2021 compared to 25% in 2020. This year-over-year decrease was primarily attributable to favorable one-time tax benefits. Slide 7 focuses on surfactant segment results for the quarter. Surfactant net sales were $420 million, a 17% increase versus the prior year. Pricing increased 27%, primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs, as well as improved product and customer mix. Volume was down 9% versus last year. Most of this decrease reflects lower volume sold into the North America consumer product and market, as demand for cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash products dropped from the peak of the pandemic. This was partially offset by very strong growth in our functional product and market, and solid growth in the industrial and institutional cleaning market. The effect of foreign currency translation positively impacted sales by 1%. The fact that operating income for the quarter decreased $10.9 million, primarily due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, higher planning, maintenance expenses, as well as the one-time Miltdale insurance payment of $3 million recognized in the fourth quarter of 2020. We estimated that supply chain disruption had a negative impact on operating income of approximately $3 million during the quarter. We implemented additional price increases to continue recovering our margins. Europe results were mainly flat from prior year due to decreased consumer product demand, which was partially offset by increased demand in functional products. Latin America operating results were slightly up from last year due to strong volume growth in the functional product and markets. Now, turning to polymers on slide eight. Net sales were $174 million, up 49% from the prior year, selling prices increased 39%, primarily due to the path through of higher raw material costs. Volume grew 12% in the quarter, driven by 13% growth in global rigid polio. This volume growth is mostly related to the InVista acquisition. Higher demand within the specialty polio business also contributed to the volume growth. Polymer operating income decreased $10 million. This decrease primarily reflects supply chain disruptions and the non-recurrency of two fourth quarter 2020 events. First, a $10 million insurance recovery related to the 2020 meal sale event. And second, a $1.4 million settlement received from the Chinese government. We estimate the supply chain disruption had a negative impact on operating income of approximately $3 million during the quarter. Euro results increased driven by the investor acquisition. Turning to slide nine. Despite significant challenges during the year, including the global pandemic and unprecedented supply chain disruptions, the company delivered record full-year results. Just the net income was a record $143.5 million, or $6.16 per diluted share, an increase of 9% versus $132 million, or $5.68 per diluted share in the prior year. The surfactant segment operating income was $166 million, down slightly from 2020. Global volume was down by 5% as a result of lower demand for cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash products versus the pandemic peak in 2020. This was partially offset by higher demand for products sold into institutional cleaning and functional product end markets. The polymer segment delivered $74 million of operating income, of 8 percent versus last year. Global polymer volume grew 29 percent per result of the Invista polio acquisition. Specialty product operating income was $14.2 million, basically flat versus prior year. Lastly, the estimated negative impact of the supply chain disruption in our operating income was $21 million during 2021. The impact was $12 million Polymers, $8 million, and specialty products, $1 million. Slide 10 shows the total company earnings bridge for the full year of 2021 compared to 2020 and breaks down the increase in adjusted net income. Because this is net income, the figure is not here on an after-tax basis. Turfactant was slightly down, fully offset by polymers, and one-time tax benefits. We expect the effective tax rate for 2022 to be in the range of 24% to 26%. Moving on to slide 11, our balance sheet remains strong, and we have ample liquidity to invest in the business. Our leverage and interest coverage ratios continues at very healthy levels. The company has full-year capital expenditures of $195 million as we ramp up our investment in Pasadena and low 1.4 dioxin projects. Beginning on slide 12, Scott will now update you on our 2022 strategic priorities. Thank you, Luis.
spk07: As we wrap up 2021, and despite the supply chain challenges that we experienced together with our customers, we managed to deliver record net income. Our team delivered once again. Although cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash volumes declined last year versus the 2020 pandemic peak, Consumer habits have changed, which has led to a sustained higher level of demand versus pre-pandemic levels. Published data shows consumers are spending up to 20% more time in their homes. Our diversification strategy in the functional products continues to be a key priority for STEPN. Our global agricultural volumes increased strong double digits in 2021. High commodity prices for corn and soybeans coupled with more planted acreage in the year drove a strong season for crop protection products in North America. In Latin America, crop prices and a favorable exchange rate had a positive impact on exports, driving higher planted acreage in Brazil. Oil field chemicals experienced record sequential volume growth as the price of oil increased 68% last year. We remain optimistic about future opportunities in this business as oil prices remain high and we continue to promote our new cost-effective product solutions that will improve oil field operator return on investment and protect their wells. We increased our biocide capacity last year and are investing to increase capacity and capability in certain product lines, including sulfates, amphoterics, and alkoxylates to ensure we can meet higher requirements from our customers. As discussed previously, We are increasing North American capability and capacity to produce sulfates that meet new limits on 1,4-Dioxane by the January 2023 regulatory deadline. 1,4-Dioxane is a minor byproduct generated in the manufacture of ether sulfate surfactants, which are key cleaning and foaming ingredients used in consumer product formulations. Through a combination of process optimization and additional manufacturing equipment, Steppen will be prepared to supply customers ethosulfates that meet the new regulatory requirements. This project, along with our previous announcement of an alkoxylation production facility at our Pasadena, Texas site, are the primary drivers of the forecasted $350 to $375 million in 2022 capital spending. We expect to break ground in Pasadena next month and estimate plant startup by the end of 2023. We are excited about the capability and the future growth that these investment projects will deliver to STEP and company. Tier 2 and Tier 3 customers continue to be a focus of our surfactant growth strategy. We added 1,400 new customers during 2021, and we will continue serving the strategic market for us. We continue to invest in enhancing our digital customer interface and capabilities to reach these customers around the world. We made good progress last year in our fermentation program, which is focused on the development and commercialization of romnolipids. We are excited about the level of market interest in bio-based materials, including surfactants. We expect to complete process development work this year and begin engineering design on modifications required to produce romnolipids at our commercial-scale fermentation plant located in Louisiana, which we acquired last year. This program is in line with our commitment to a more sustainable future. As we continue to advance sustainability initiatives, we were pleased that in 2020, the Wall Street Journal recognized Steppen Company within the top 100 most sustainably managed companies in the world. And in 2021, we were successful in improving our Ecovados rating from silver to gold. Our consulting work at Millsdale is complete, and we are now focused on implementing the recommended changes. We accelerated investments in both expense and CapEx in 2021 to improve productivity and to increase capacity. We expect to see these benefits of our efforts in the following years. Polymers had a good performance during the year despite significant supply chain disruption and challenges. The integration of the business acquired from Invista was well done by our team, and we delivered more than $20 million of EBITDA in 2021. The acquisition was accretive to both EPS and EBITDA margins. We are investing at both of the legacy Invista production sites to de-bottleneck capacity and to add capabilities to produce a broader range of Steppen's product portfolio. Given the strength of our balance sheet, we plan to continue to identify and pursue acquisition opportunities that align with our growth and diversification strategy, including the addition of new platform chemistries that can broaden our portfolio of sustainable offerings for our customers. I will now turn the call back to Quinn for closing comments.
spk02: Thank you, Scott. The company delivered record earnings in 2021. Looking ahead to 2022, we believe demand for our products will remain strong, but the company will continue to face many of the same challenges that impacted our operations in 2021. In terms of segments, we are cautiously optimistic about the consumption of cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash products within surfactants. We believe volumes will not return to the pandemic peak levels of 2020, but will grow versus 2021. We expect industrial and institutional cleaning volumes to increase as economies open. Survectant demand within the agricultural and oil field markets should continue to grow due to higher commodity prices and new step in technologies. The long-term prospects for our polymer business remain attractive. We expect stronger demand linked to energy conservation efforts and more stringent building codes. Additionally, we believe that the new U.S. infrastructure bill should provide tailwinds for the insulation industry. However, in January, we experienced production challenges in our polymer unit at Millsdale, and unfortunately, we had to declare force majeure. At Millsdale, we are producing polymers at reduced rates, and we are using our global network, including the acquired Invista Wilmington, North Carolina site, to deliver products to our customers, albeit at higher cost. We expect to resume full production in early March. We anticipate our specialty product business results will improve slightly year over year. Despite continued raw materials sourcing issues and higher prices, as well as our higher first quarter polymer supply chain costs, we believe underlying market demand across most segments remains strong, and we are optimistic about delivering another good year. Finally, today we are announcing my retirement from Shep & Company, effective April 25, 2022. I am extremely pleased that Scott will be our next CEO. No one is better suited to lead us into the future. Under his leadership, the business has diversified its market presence, delivered innovative, sustainable technologies, and completed multiple acquisitions which have contributed to record results. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as the third founding family CEO of Steppen Company. I am proud not only of the value that we have created for employees, customers, and you, our shareholders, but how we have delivered those results. I am grateful to the Steppen employees around the world whose unwavering commitment to our mission has allowed us to grow and will ensure our future success. This concludes our prepared remarks. At this time, we would like to turn the call over for questions. Scott, can you please review the instructions for the question portion of today's call?
spk06: Thank you. If you'd like to register a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3. And if you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before entering your request. Once again, that's 1-4 to register for a question. One brief moment for the first question. We do have a question from Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead, your line's open.
spk03: Hi, good morning, and congratulations to Scott on the promotion and to Quinn on the retirement announcements.
spk02: Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike. We're both looking forward to that.
spk03: Understood. I was wondering if you can give a little bit more color on the inflationary and supply chain disruption impacts across the different segments. I think a little bit what we're trying to understand, you gave the $7 million total impact from disruption in the fourth quarter. Trying to understand how much of that is price-cost lag, how much of it is maybe related to limited raw material availability or some other production inefficiencies. And are those issues getting better as we get into Q1 and Q2, or could they actually worsen in the first half of the year?
spk01: Thanks, Mike, for the question. This is Chris. Look, I'm not going to get into all the specific details. As you can imagine, this is a broader number on the impact of Q4 and, more importantly, on the impact for total 2021. So, as I mentioned in my remarks, all the supply chain disruption that we saw in the marketplace because of raw material availability, because logistics, lack of availability was in total around $21 million in operating income. So on a pre-tax basis, and I gave the numbers by business unit. So it's a sizable impact that prevented us to grow even further our business. So if you look at, let me give you a little bit more perspective on the inflation and pricing. But If you look at our numbers, cost of goods sold are up 31%, right, when volume is up 2%. So we are seeing significant inflation in raw materials, north of 30%, in logistics, north of 25%. And as you have seen in our numbers, we have done a very good job managing our pricing and our mix. So we closed the year with 22% price mix, but with gradual improvements quarter after quarter, right? 13% in Q1, 20% in Q2, 28% in Q3, 29% in Q4. So you always have a lag between cost and pricing, but the team has done a very good job of trying to recover all the inflation that we're seeing today. with pricing and mix. The 22%, as you can do the math, is $400 million in pricing and mix. So we're pleased with the performance from the team, and we will continue working on productivity and working on pricing and working on mix to gradually improve our margins.
spk02: And if I could kind of just touch on the raw material, availability. Raw materials within our surfactant business are generally significantly improved. There are still some issues with regard to propylene oxide and fatty acid availability that we're still dealing with, that this whole supply chain is dealing with, but the other raw materials are present. The issue that we're still facing that is problematic is transportation availability. And that is a kind of a universal issue in the United States today. And I would say there's some gradual improvement in there, but it is still a big issue. And talking with our suppliers and our customers, we anticipate that that'll be with us through the first half of the year.
spk03: All right. I appreciate all the color there, Luis. I guess I would just ask as a follow-up, you guys run on FIFO inventory, so I guess I'm asking, have we already seen peak raw materials run through to the P&L in Q4, or is Q1 going to be the peak for raw material costs?
spk01: Look, the situation, I mean, we have a broad basket, of course, of raw materials, and some are going up, some are starting to stabilize. But look, oil is already at $93. So I don't think we are in the peak yet. Now, the slope of increase has significantly changed, right? I mean, the slope of increases that we saw in Q2, Q3, and Q4, And for the average of the 30% plus in 2021, that slope is significantly lower now. But with oil above $90, I don't think we are in the big yet.
spk03: All right. I appreciate that. And then in terms of the Millsdale facility, you mentioned – some disruption there and declaring force majeure. How much lower is production now or operating rate now versus 100% or where you would expect to be? And can you also talk about the changes that are being recommended and implemented at that facility based on your work with consultants?
spk07: Yeah, thanks. So we experienced the power disruption in early January that subsequently caused damage to our polymer plant, which we're in the process of getting back online. And as Quinn mentioned earlier, getting back to full production rates by March 1st. Today, we're running at about half capacity at the site, but are supplementing supply from our global networks, as Quinn mentioned earlier. So once we get the units back to full production rates in early March, we have a long list of items that we will be working on to get that reliability up so we can handle the power blips in the future. And that work will commence starting in Q2. Thank you. There's a $5 to $7 million impact is what we think we'll be seeing in Q1.
spk01: In Q1-22, the $5 to $7 million that Scott just mentioned is on a pre-tax basis.
spk03: Perfect. That's very helpful. And then a couple of quick questions. First of all, Luis, on the tax rate, your guidance is quite a bit higher than the 20% you saw in 2021. What causes the variability in the tax rate? It seems like it's jumped around the past few years.
spk01: Yeah, great question, Mike. We have had the opportunity to deliver some one-time tax projects in the last few years and especially in 2021. If you look at the tax rate in the U.S., the 21 plus the state is an average tax rate for many companies of around, you know, 24, 25%. And if you look at our country mix outside of the U.S., you get to an average tax rate of 26%. So roughly between 25, 26. That's our normal tax rate. We had the opportunity last year as we worked on tax projects. We did the merge in Brazil. of our Tebras acquisition that we did a few years ago. If you know the law in Brazil, you can amortize the goodwill for tax purposes. So that provided a nice one-time help in 2021. So we are not expecting, we don't have any of those type of projects in 2022. We will continue looking for opportunities, but at this point, we don't envision any critical project that is going to reduce our normal tax rate, which is between 24% and 26%. All right.
spk03: And then I was also curious on the fourth quarter revenue contribution from Invista. I know you said about $120 million in revenue for the full year, but what did it do in Q4? And maybe give you a chance to comment on how that business is performing relative to your expectations roughly a year since you acquired it. Thank you.
spk01: Yeah, we provided a 120. And as you know, we had the business for 11 months in 2021. So you can easily see that it's around $10 million per month. But you know that this business has seasonality, right? I mean, Q4 is typically the lowest quarter of the year of the seasonality. So I'm not going to give you the exact number. You can imagine that it's below $30 million and below the normal average.
spk02: And I would say we were very pleased with the integration effort by our employees around the world. The volumes increased as a result of the underlying market growth and the efficiency of which we integrated that into our supply chain work. We were able to improve the margins on a European basis, and we're very pleased with the overall contribution of the business, and it's right at early start. It's ahead of our plan. The business generated in excess of $20 million of EBITDA in 2021.
spk01: Yeah, that put us basically ahead of our target, like two years, right? We promised you guys six and a half to seven and a half multiple after two years. We are basically delivering that in the first year.
spk03: All right. Thanks very much. Thanks, Mike.
spk06: Our next question is from Vincent Anderson with Stiefel. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk05: Yeah, thanks. Can you hear me okay? Yes.
spk01: Good morning.
spk05: Good morning. And I'll echo Mike's sincere congratulations to Quinn and Scott both. Quinn, I'm not sure when we can expect your artisanal line of skin and hair care products as you enter the next phase of your career, but I can't imagine you're just going to walk away completely. So, sorry, maybe a bit more granularity on where destocking was most concentrated between your Tier 1 and Tier 2, Tier 3 customers, and then how that might be impacting your broader expectations for mixed impact on margins and surfactants next year, or this year, I should say.
spk07: Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Vincent. This is Scott. You know, the destocking that we experienced in 2021 was really centered around biocides used in – disinfection products both for home and in industrial applications. I'd say the other area was in liquid hand soaps. I think as we've all witnessed in 2020 and 2021, the myriad of products that were available in the market on the store shelves did cause, I think, a fat spot in the supply chain, which had to be worked through in 2021. And I would say that impacted both Tier 1 and Tier 2, Tier 3 customers equally. You know, where we see ourselves in 2022, we're hopeful that most of that inventory has been flushed through the system and that we will see more normalized demand going forward. And to Quinn's earlier point, you know, we believe that will be above pre-pandemic levels, but not as high as the volumes we saw in 2020. Okay.
spk05: That's helpful. Thanks. And maybe switching over to functional surfactants. You know, just given the inherent volatility of those end markets, I was curious how you measure your own performance in areas like ag and oil field, and if there are any kind of broad targets that you'd be willing to share with us, you know, heading into 2022.
spk07: No, you hit it on the head, Vincent. These markets are volatile. I'd say oil field, obviously, more volatile than ag. You know, you do have a a good underlining trend tailwind in the crop production market with the need to feed the planet and with renewable fuels taking a larger stage going forward, you know, there's really bullish undertones for continued demand for crop protection products. Oil field, obviously, is more volatile. I think that's, you know, in terms of how we look at it in forecasts going forward, it's... It's not a science by any means.
spk02: What I would say is one of the key metrics for us in terms of our R&D efforts within the ag space, we're tracking fairly closely our wins at the customer interface in terms of helping them formulate the next generation pesticide products for the marketplace. And generally there's registration lag that is two to three years after those products are fully developed. So one of the key internal metrics that we track is our anticipated product or customers anticipated product launches. And we do have a window in terms of how our business is going to be impacted by those launches over the next couple of years. And what I would tell you is that we remain optimistic about our growth in the crop protection segment as a result of those previous R&D activities and wins.
spk05: That's great. And actually, that was kind of leading into my next point, which was I do recall you reporting a couple of pretty, you know, for the ag business substantial wins a couple years ago. Are you saying that you're pretty confident that we should be reaching the end of that registration window as we head into 2022?
spk02: Vincent, I'm not sure exactly where we dropped off, but I think it was as I was saying that we believe we have some items left in our pipeline. Did you have another question?
spk05: Yeah. Can you still hear me?
spk02: Yes.
spk05: Perfect. All right. Well, yeah, that does answer the last question. And so for the last one for me, this was a bit more anecdotal, but I've been noticing lot more of these consumer cleaning products that are being sold in dry form and either rehydrated at home like surface cleaners or used directly in dry form like these laundry detergent strips they are all over my house right now and the whole sales pitch appears to revolve around a more attractive environmental footprint by not having to ship water and you know, have any of these products come up on your radar yet? And if so, do they represent any meaningful change in their surfactants requirements?
spk07: Yeah, so great question, Vincent. And I would say, you know, this is obviously from a sustainability push. You know, there is a lot of water shipped around the world today and a lot of consumer products. So getting concentrated you know, formulations to the end-use consumer is a great way to have reduction in Scope 3 emissions around product use. Stephan, we have a product line within surfactants that are solid surfactants and highly concentrated surfactants. So, we are working with the consumer product companies and, you know, to help their journey towards a more sustainable product portfolio on the store shelf.
spk05: That's helpful. If I could just ask a caveat, though, I mean, we used to use powdered laundry detergent, and we determined that that was not optimal for our water supply. Are we going back to kind of the old-school sulfonates in this process, or is this just a completely new product line that still facilitates dry formulations?
spk07: I think there's a balance. I don't see us going back to powdered products. detergents from an environmental footprint perspective, that technology and that processing is not as attractive as other new alternative processing technologies that consumer product companies have for producing highly concentrated and or some other alternative forms of solid detergent.
spk02: Yeah, so the active ingredient in traditional powders was very low, quite frankly. And in today's pods or strips that you're talking about, it's much more actively formulated.
spk05: Okay. All right. Thanks very much. And again, best of luck to Quinn and Scott.
spk07: Thank you.
spk06: And we have a question from Marco Rodriguez with Stonegate Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line's open.
spk04: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. I had a quick follow-up first off. On the supply chain issue disruptions that you guys saw, you obviously – called out transportation issues. I was wondering if you could maybe provide a little bit more color in regard to that. Is that a function of not being able to find trucks, the trucks just being too expensive? And then if you can, I don't know if I missed this, but can you comment on any sort of labor availability impacts you may have seen there as well?
spk07: Yeah, thanks, Marco. With regards to transportation, The largest lever that's impacting the disruption is the availability of drivers for these hazardous shipments, especially chemical industry, hazardous transportation. So there is a significant driver shortage. That number's been published at greater than 80,000 across the North American or the U.S. marketplace. And the ability to close that gap is gonna take longer than I think anyone initially anticipated.
spk02: Marco, can you hear us? Yes.
spk07: Okay. So it's not an equipment availability, it's a driver issue. In terms of Steppen's impact from labor, we're not impacted from a labor perspective ourselves. You know, our attrition rates have remained relatively low throughout the pandemic and is not impacting our ability to produce and service our customers.
spk04: Got it. And then in terms of the price increases that you've been pushing through to your end customers, can you comment a little bit about, I mean, obviously there's a lag, which you've mentioned before in the past, When is it do you think you can recover the margin from this last quarter? And then obviously with the expectation that raw material prices are continuing to kind of go up, how are you kind of thinking about those potential prices increases in the future?
spk01: Marco, this is Luis. What I would say is that the business model have pricing built into it in both situations, when raw materials goes up and when raw material goes down. So we have a good track record of adjusting our prices depending on the environment. As I mentioned before, I don't think we are in the peak yet, and that will require more diligence on pricing in 2022. But we believe the slope of both raw material and pricing are going to be significantly lower than 2021. So we monitor this on a weekly basis, all raw material prices, and adjust and talk with our customers. And we will continue doing the right thing and having the right balance between pricing and margins, right? I mean, we want to continue Pricing volume. Pricing volume, exactly. So we will continue making sure that we deliver the maximum return at the end, looking at all those variables.
spk04: Understood. And then last quick question for me. I was just wondering if you can maybe provide a little bit more color on your commentary surrounding cleaning and disinfecting. You provided guidance where your expectations that the consumer side might see some growth in this new fiscal year, but you're somewhat cautiously optimistic and the expectation is obviously the institutional cleaning side is also expected to continue to see growth. Can you maybe just talk about what is sort of driving those expectations and your level of confidence there? Yeah.
spk07: would say first and foremost you know we do expect raw material availability to improve throughout the year we believe outside of I would say bio size and liquid hand soaps and across the market in general you know inventory levels are probably below where most companies would want them at this point in time so we think the underlining demand is there and If we can get through and see the improvement in raw material availability and can reduce some of the transportation shortages, hopefully, you know, in the second half of the year, we think that demand could be there.
spk04: Understood. Thank you guys very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, Marco.
spk06: Once again, if you'd like to register for a question, please press 1-4 on your telephone. And there are no further questions at this time.
spk02: Okay. Well, thank you very much for joining us on today's call. This is my last investor call. Scott is ready. The team is ready. I am confident that your company is in good hands and that the best is yet to come for Step & Company. Thank you, and have a great day.
spk06: That concludes the call for today. We thank you for your participation.
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