Exco Technologies Limited

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ExoTechnologies Limited first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising you, your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please give the advice that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Darren Kirk, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Exco Technology's fiscal 2023 first quarter conference call. I will lead off with an operations overview. Matthew Posno, our CFO, will then review the financial aspects of the quarter before we open the call for questions. First, I'd like to make some comments about forward-looking information. In yesterday's news release and on page two of the presentations that we have posted to our website, you'll find cautionary notes in that regard. While I won't repeat the content, I want to emphasize that the cautionary notes apply to this discussion today. So, we again made great progress advancing our various growth initiatives during the quarter, which is evident in our very strong top-line results. We continue to see solid demand for our large and complex tooling and related solutions, as well as our assorted interior trim and accessory products. Importantly, key drivers here are the accelerating adoption of electric vehicles and the broader environmental sustainability movement, both of which are in early innings. We are more confident than ever that EXCO is entering into a multi-year period of heightened demand growth for which we are exceptionally well positioned. With regards to our specific investment plans, I'm pleased to report that Castool has essentially completed construction of its new facility in Mexico and delivery of machinery and equipment has commenced. We expect this plant to be operational in our third fiscal quarter providing much needed capacity and better positioning us competitively within Latin America and the Southern US. Installation of new equipment that will upgrade and enhance our heat treatment capabilities across the segment continues, and we expect these pieces will be fully operational by the end of our second quarter. This equipment will give us unmatched competitive advantages while significantly reducing our own carbon footprint. Elsewhere, Castool's plant in Morocco remains in a ramp-up phase and is making terrific progress, while the large mold group has completed the installation of all equipment in crane capacity to handle molds of extreme size. Lastly, our plant expansions within our automotive solutions group are complete and all equipment to support new programs are operational. At this time, we have no change to our prior CapEx guidance for the year of $47 million. Overall market conditions continued to improve during the quarter, with automotive industry volumes increasing modestly and production flows stabilizing in both North America and Europe. This positively impacted our own efficiency, particularly in our automotive solutions segment, which demonstrated continued recovery in both sales and margins. Consumer demand for new vehicles is holding up well despite the financial squeeze from inflationary pressures and rising interest rates. We have seen early signs that OEMs are responding to the changing environment by increasing incentives and in some cases reducing vehicle prices. This bodes well for automotive suppliers as these actions will help support sales volumes should economic conditions deteriorate further. Microchip supply is improving, though the industry is likely still months away from being fully recovered. Independent industry experts forecast a 5% increase in overall volumes for both North America and Europe through calendar 2023. We would expect our auto solution segment to generate higher sales growth than this as we continue to launch previously awarded programs. Looking out further, quoting activity is robust across the segment, which will support our growth over the longer term. With respect to our own input costs, we continue to see signs of slowing inflation or disinflation. In fact, in some aspects of our business, we have begun to see pockets of outright deflation, which is the case for certain transportation costs, steel, and some other commodities. Labor rates, however, remain a challenge, particularly in Mexico, which pushed through a 20% increase in minimum wage in December. With these factors in mind, we continue to take specific pricing action where possible in order to restore and protect our margins. We, of course, remain extremely focused on further improving our own efficiency, which is ultimately the clearest path to margin enhancement. Within our casting and extrusion segment, we saw strong demand for new die cast molds, while rebuild work is continuing to pick up. This is true for both powertrain and structural programs, and of course, our additive operations continue to gain meaningful traction. In fact, in January 2023, our large mold group recorded its highest ever level of monthly order intake, and our backlog to sales ratio is currently sitting at record levels. Demand for consumable extrusion tooling did begin to weaken during the quarter as extruders responded to softening global macro conditions. However, extrusion demand in a number of end markets, such as automotive, remains firm. As well, Castool's capital equipment sales within the extrusion end markets remain very strong, as does demand for its consumable die-cast tooling and systems, where we are clearly gaining significant market share. Margins in our casting and extrusion segment remain well below potential as we absorb startup losses at new operations, incur elevated levels of depreciation from recent CapEx activity, navigate through operational disruptions as we install new equipment, and continue to catch up from inflationary pressures. Difficult conditions in Europe also weighed on segment margins. However, more recent data points are encouraging, including a significant reduction in energy costs and realization of initial synergies within the extrusion tooling group. We are very optimistic our segment margins will see recovery from here through the remainder of the year. With regards to the cyber incident that affected our large mold groups three plants during the quarter, I will provide a few comments. First, I will say this was a very sophisticated attack on our network. I want to emphasize that EXCO is committed to data security and has taken this matter very seriously. Upon learning of the incident, we took immediate action to secure our systems and mitigate the impact to our data and operations. I'm pleased to report that our operations have now been fully restored and shipments to our customers have not and will not be materially interrupted. We are still fully assessing the financial impact of the situation, but at this time expect production downtime and other costs associated with the incident will reduce our earnings per share in Q2 of this fiscal year by between one to three cents net of expected insurance proceeds. We do not expect material additional implications for future quarters beyond Q2. I would like to thank our customers and partners for their patience as we remediated the situation, and of course our employees who worked tirelessly to restore our network and operations expeditiously. Lastly, I'm sure you noticed with last night's earnings release, our board of directors elected to maintain our quarterly dividend at 10.5 cents per share. The Board supported continuing our dividend at this level rather than increasing further, which EXCO has done 14 times in the past 13 consecutive years. I want to point out that continuance of the current dividend level in no way reflects a lack of confidence in EXCO's expectations of future profit growth. Rather, I would emphasize that we see significant growth opportunities in our core business and are motivated to preserve our capital to fund such growth. In that regard, we will prioritize the use of surplus near-term cash flow to reduce our current indebtedness. I will now pass the call over to Matthew to discuss the financial highlights of the quarter. Matthew?

Thank you, Darren. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Consolidated sales for the first quarter ended December 31st were $139.1 million. an increase of $38 million, or 38%. Over the quarter, the consolidated impact of exchange rate movements increased sales by $6 million. Adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange, first quarter sales at our automotive solution segment increased $11.6 million, or 21%, and the casting and extrusion group sales were up $20.4 million, or 45%. Consolidated net income for the first quarter was $4.5 million, or earnings of 12 cents per share, compared to $2.7 million or $0.07 per share in the same quarter last year, a 67% increase in net income. The effective income tax rate for the quarter was 21% compared to 26% the prior year period. The change in income tax rate in the current year quarter was impacted by geographic distribution and form rate differentials. The automotive solutions segment experienced a 27% increase in sales in the first quarter or an increase of $15 million to $70.3 million from $55 million. The sales increase was driven by higher vehicle production volumes and fewer program launch delays as supply chain disruptions eased in the quarter. North American industry vehicle production was up 8% compared to a year ago, and European industry vehicle production was up 4%. Sales increased at all four of the segment's operations, and we continued ramp up in our new programs. First quarter pre-tax earnings in the automotive solutions segment totaled $7.2 million, which is an increase of $3.8 million, or 112%, over the same quarter last year. The segment's higher pre-tax profit is due to the 27% increase in sales and improved overhead absorption, partially offset by continued pressure on wages, materials, and transportation costs compared to the prior year period. The cashing and extrusion segment recorded sales of $68.8 million in the first quarter compared to $45.8 million last year, an increase of $23 million. Paylock sales were $11.6 million. These results were impacted by December holidays, the Russian conflict in Ukraine, and weakening economic conditions in Europe. Demand for extrusion tooling and associated capital equipment outside of Europe remained relatively strong due to both industry growth and ongoing market share gains. However, signs of slowing market activity exist through the quarter. In the die-cast market, demand continues to improve as industry vehicle production recovers, new electric vehicles and more efficient internal combustion engine slash transmission platforms are launched, and customer inventory levels increased. EXCO's additive 3D printed tooling continues its strong contribution as customers focus on greater efficiency with the size and complexity of the die-cast tooling continuing to increase. Sales in the quarter were also aided by price increases, which were implemented in order to protect margins from higher input costs. Pre-tax earnings in the casting and extrusion segment of $1.9 million declined modestly compared to the prior year quarter. The decline was driven by $1.9 million higher depreciation, startup costs at Castiel's heat treat operations and new market, continued outsourcing heat treat costs in our extrusion tooling group, while new equipment was being installed and higher raw material, energy, freight, and labor costs due to inflation, particularly in Europe. EXCO generated cash from operating activities of $10.8 million during the quarter and $5.6 million of free cash flow after $3.4 million of maintenance fixed asset expenditures. This free cash flow together with the company's cash balances was used to fund fixed assets for growth initiatives of $4 million and $4.1 million of dividends. EXCO ended the quarter with $18 million in cash, $110.7 million in bank and long-term debt, and $41.9 million available in its credit facility. EXCO's financial position remains strong. As such, the company's balance sheet and availability under the existing credit facility provides continued support for our strategic initiatives. Our strong financial position, combined with our free cash flow, provides a foundation for management to pursue high-value growth capital expenditures, dividends, and other opportunities that may arise. That concludes my comments. Michelle, we can now transition to the Q&A portion of the call.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.

One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from the line of David. Ocampo with Cormark.

Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning. Darren, you talked a bit about casting extrusion margins improving throughout the year, especially as some of these one-time costs are eliminated and inflationary pressures ease. But when you take a look at your backlog, maybe excluding HALICS, is the margin profile in the backlog getting closer to your long-term target of 20% or How should we be thinking about getting the bridge back up to 20% here?

Yeah, sure.

Thanks for the question, David. And so the backlog that I'm addressing there is really in the large mold group. And I will say that there is a good recovery underway in pricing, the pricing environment for that business. It's been a very difficult time for the past year several years. But the backlog that we have to date is at much firmer pricing, and we expect it's going to go a long way to restoring the margins toward our target of 20% for the segment.

And do you expect the pace of improvements to be pretty even, or is it going to be more front-end loaded than back-end loaded?

You know, so that, it's probably going to be more back-end loaded, but that's just one feature that's going to help restore the margins. I mean, there's been a drag on the margins from the very difficult conditions in Europe. We are seeing signs of easing there. I don't think you should expect the margins to pop back up in that isolated regard, but it should certainly demonstrate some good improvement in our Q2. We do still have some front-end startup losses in our new plant, and we've had a tremendous amount of inefficiency from replacing all of this heat treatment equipment within the group and having to outsource. That has implications for lead times and sales. you know, downplay the impact that all of these things have contributed together. And so it's, you know, given the number of moving parts, I'm not going to, you know, give you a roadmap for the end of the year, but rather I just refer to what I said during my script and that we expect that the margin is going to have improvement from here through the year.

Now, that's helpful. And then large mold, you touched on it. briefly there about the backlog, especially with the good tailwinds from EV. But when you look at the backlog, is there anything in there that's related to the extremely large molds that you've alluded to in the past, especially as you're installing new machinery and crane work there? Yeah.

Installing that new equipment and the upgraded crane capacity has been a significant part of our strategy there. There certainly is a lot of activity in that backlog that is going to take use of that capability. So, yes, we are seeing demand already, and we expect that demand will grow strongly over the next several years.

Yeah. And then maybe competition in that area. I mean, it does seem like an area that has above average demand. growth relative to the sector. So are you seeing more of your competitors invest in this equipment or is this something that you guys are doing kind of on a sole basis?

I would say that the very few competitors have this capability. I'm not aware of what other competitors are specifically doing to upgrade their capabilities to match the standards that we have. I think it's going to be very difficult for them to do. There's a lot of capital that's required in order to compete at this level, and your customers demand a a supplier like us that is extremely high quality. So, you know, as things get larger and more complex, it all plays to our strengths. And so we expect that will increasingly be evident over the next several years.

Okay, that's perfect. That's it for me. Thanks, guys. Thanks, David.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you. And one moment for our next question.

And our next question comes from the line of Sharad Deer with BMO. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So in the earnings remarks, you mentioned that you've seen some market activity slowing down while at the same time your inventory levels have increased. So can you please help us understand which part of the market is experiencing a slowdown and why it's not impacting a strong demand also?

So just to clarify, and you're right, there were some comments. We've seen some markets slowing down and some picking up. So the large mold and die cast production areas have certainly been heating up. And within the extrusion area, we are seeing a little bit of cooling down in the market in certain sectors that we supply. So I think that kind of covers what your question was. Aaron, did you?

Yeah, I would just add to that. Building and construction, as you would expect, is significantly influenced by the rising interest rates. And we're starting to see some slowdown there. But that business is highly, highly diverse. And while building and construction, which is a large end market, is is perhaps down a bit. Automotive and many other transportation and green energy sub-segments are showing strength. So altogether, we've seen total demand kind of back off a little bit, but I will also say that things are pretty temperamental in that business. it's difficult to get a good read where we are seasonally. December is typically a relatively soft month, and we are seeing things come back actually quite a bit stronger toward the end of January. So we'll see where it goes, but that's some kind of color around what's happening in the extrusion part of the business. I would also add that Castool, kind of sells a number of consumable components to extruders, but also a lot of capital equipment, which have a longer lead time and time focus. And that capital equipment business is continuing to remain very strong. And further, you know, looking beyond the immediate timeframe, there are a number of new enlarged presses extrusion presses going in globally. And that kind of gives you a good indication of where things will go on a longer time basis.

Got it. And then you just slightly test upon a weaker, like the first quarter and the fourth quarter, it's generally weaker with you. Like we can understand during COVID that this pattern wasn't, you know, as prominent, but like going forward,

these two you got the first and the fourth quarter will be weaker going forward from now so you know it's hard to say what a regular cyclicality of our quarters is uh as you know with between code and the semiconductor supply chain issues i mean traditionally our fourth quarter uh there are summer shutdowns especially in europe and less so in north america but in north america And then our first quarter, you know, Christmas and the December holidays, I'll call it, have certainly impacted. So I'd say that's normal, but I don't know what normal is nowadays. But, you know, that's kind of typically shipping days and so on.

Yeah, but seasonally speaking, Q3 is typically, you know, slower than our Q3. Yeah. Okay.

I'll just find you on... You know, how much of the margin pressure in the casting and screening segment is attributable to the input cost and inflation that you're seeing?

You know, quantifying that is difficult. It's got a number of moving pieces, and, you know, to some extent, it's offset by price. And it is a sizable component, to be sure. And then, you know, you've got to work hard to further improve efficiency in order to recapture that lost margin. And then price increases have to be part of the equation. And then hopefully we see a continuation of the certain deflation trends that are, you know, becoming evident. The price of steel is starting to go down, and the price of some of our energy sources is also going down, and some other commodity input costs are seeing certainly disinflation, but even some deflation. So, I mean, I can't give you, unfortunately, a specific margin percentage, but I could say it's a material impact at the front end here. Got it.

And just an additional question on that one. So you said you put forward some price increases. Does that reflect in this quarter, or are we going to see some margin improvement because of price improvement in the next quarter?

Sorry, the line was a little jarbled there. Could you ask again?

Yeah. You mentioned that you put forward some price increases. So my question was, Does that price increase, is that price increase reflected in this quarter, or we can see some margin improvement because of the price increase in the next quarter?

Yeah, I mean, you'll see that some of that price increase, it was evident in the current quarter, but you'll see continued improvement from that regard in subsequent quarters as well.

Okay, that's it from me. Thank you so much. Great.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

And again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Darren Kirk for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks, Michelle. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to discussing our Q2 results in another 90 days or so. Talk to you then.

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect. you Bye.

Thank you. Bye. Thank you. you

Good day and thank you for standing by.

Welcome to the ExoTechnologies Limited first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising you, your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Darren Kirk, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Exco Technology's fiscal 2023 first quarter conference call. I will lead off with an operations overview. Matthew Posno, our CFO, will then review the financial aspects of the quarter before we open the call for questions. First, I'd like to make some comments about forward-looking information. In yesterday's news release and on page two of the presentation that we have posted to our website, you'll find cautionary notes in that regard. While I won't repeat the content, I want to emphasize that the cautionary notes apply to this discussion today. So, we again made great progress advancing our various growth initiatives during the quarter, which is evident in our very strong top-line results. We continue to see solid demand for our large and complex tooling and related solutions, as well as our assorted interior trim and accessory products. Importantly, key drivers here are the accelerating adoption of electric vehicles and the broader environmental sustainability movement, both of which are in early innings. We are more confident than ever that EXCO is entering into a multi-year period of heightened demand growth for which we are exceptionally well positioned. With regards to our specific investment plans, I'm pleased to report that Castool has essentially completed construction of its new facility in Mexico and delivery of machinery and equipment has commenced. We expect this plant to be operational in our third fiscal quarter providing much needed capacity and better positioning us competitively within Latin America and the southern U.S. Installation of new equipment that will upgrade and enhance our heat treatment capabilities across the segment continues, and we expect these pieces will be fully operational by the end of our second quarter. This equipment will give us unmatched competitive advantages while significantly reducing our own carbon footprint. Elsewhere, Castool's plant in Morocco remains in a ramp-up phase and is making terrific progress, while the large mold group has completed the installation of all equipment in crane capacity to handle molds of extreme size. Lastly, our plant expansions within our automotive solutions group are complete and all equipment to support new programs are operational. At this time, we have no change to our prior CapEx guidance for the year of $47 million. Overall market conditions continued to improve during the quarter, with automotive industry volumes increasing modestly and production flows stabilizing in both North America and Europe. This positively impacted our own efficiency, particularly in our automotive solutions segment, which demonstrated continued recovery in both sales and margins. Consumer demand for new vehicles is holding up well despite the financial squeeze from inflationary pressures and rising interest rates. We have seen early signs that OEMs are responding to the changing environment by increasing incentives and in some cases reducing vehicle prices. This bodes well for automotive suppliers as these actions will help support sales volumes should economic conditions deteriorate further. Microchip supply is improving, though the industry is likely still months away from being fully recovered. Independent industry experts forecast a 5% increase in overall volumes for both North America and Europe through calendar 2023. We would expect our auto solution segment to generate higher sales growth than this as we continue to launch previously awarded programs. Looking out further, quoting activity is robust across the segment, which will support our growth over the longer term. With respect to our own input costs, we continue to see signs of slowing inflation or disinflation. In fact, in some aspects of our business, we have begun to see pockets of outright deflation, which is the case for certain transportation costs, steel, and some other commodities. Labor rates, however, remain a challenge, particularly in Mexico, which pushed through a 20% increase in minimum wage in December. With these factors in mind, we continue to take specific pricing action where possible in order to restore and protect our margins. We, of course, remain extremely focused on further improving our own efficiency, which is ultimately the clearest path to margin enhancement. Within our casting and extrusion segment, we saw strong demand for new die cast molds while rebuild work is continuing to pick up. This is true for both powertrain and structural programs, and of course, our additive operations continue to gain meaningful traction. In fact, in January 2023, our large mold group recorded its highest ever level of monthly order intake, and our backlog to sales ratio is currently sitting at record levels. Demand for consumable extrusion tooling did begin to weaken during the quarter as extruders responded to softening global macro conditions. However, extrusion demand in a number of end markets such as automotive remains firm. As well, Castool's capital equipment sales within the extrusion end markets remain very strong, as does demand for its consumable die-cast tooling and systems, where we are clearly gaining significant market share. Margins in our casting and extrusion segment remain well below potential as we absorb startup losses at new operations, incur elevated levels of depreciation from recent CapEx activity, navigate through operational disruptions as we install new equipment, and continue to catch up from inflationary pressures. Difficult conditions in Europe also weighed on segment margins. However, more recent data points are encouraging, including a significant reduction in energy costs and realization of initial synergies within the extrusion tooling group. We are very optimistic our segment margins will see recovery from here through the remainder of the year. With regards to the cyber incident that affected our large mold groups three plants during the quarter, I will provide a few comments. First, I will say this was a very sophisticated attack on our network. I want to emphasize that EXCO is committed to data security and has taken this matter very seriously. Upon learning of the incident, we took immediate action to secure our systems and mitigate the impact to our data and operations. I'm pleased to report that our operations have now been fully restored and shipments to our customers have not and will not be materially interrupted. We are still fully assessing the financial impact of the situation, but at this time expect production downtime and other costs associated with the incident will reduce our earnings per share in Q2 of this fiscal year by between one to three cents net of expected insurance proceeds. We do not expect material additional implications for future quarters beyond Q2. I would like to thank our customers and partners for their patience as we remediated the situation, and of course our employees who worked tirelessly to restore our network and operations expeditiously. Lastly, I'm sure you noticed with last night's earnings release, our board of directors elected to maintain our quarterly dividend at 10.5 cents per share. The Board supported continuing our dividend at this level rather than increasing further, which EXCO has done 14 times in the past 13 consecutive years. I want to point out that continuance of the current dividend level in no way reflects a lack of confidence in EXCO's expectations of future profit growth. Rather, I would emphasize that we see significant growth opportunities in our core business and are motivated to preserve our capital to fund such growth. In that regard, we will prioritize the use of surplus near-term cash flow to reduce our current indebtedness. I will now pass the call over to Matthew to discuss the financial highlights of the quarter. Matthew?

Thank you, Darren. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Consolidated sales for the first quarter ended December 31st were $139.1 million, an increase of $38 million or 38%. Over the quarter, the consolidated impact of exchange rate movements increased sales by $6 million. Adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange, first quarter sales at our automotive solution segment increased $11.6 million or 21%, and the casting and extrusion group sales were up $20.4 million or 45%. Consolidated net income for the first quarter was $4.5 million or earnings of $0.12 per share compared to $2.7 million or $0.07 per share in the same quarter last year, a 67% increase in net income. The effective income tax rate for the quarter was 21% compared to 26% the prior year period. The change in income tax rate in the current year quarter was impacted by geographic distribution and form rate differentials. The automobile solution segment experienced a 27% increase in sales in the first quarter, or an increase of $15 million to $70.3 million from $55 million. The sales increase was driven by higher vehicle production volumes and fewer program launch delays as supply chain disruptions eased in the quarter. North American industry vehicle production was up 8% compared to a year ago, and European industry vehicle production was up 4%. Sales increased at all four of the segment's operations, and we continued ramp up in our new programs. First quarter pre-tax earnings in the automotive solutions segment totaled $7.2 million, which is an increase of $3.8 million, or 112%, over the same quarter last year. The segment's higher pre-tax profit is due to the 27% increase in sales and improved overhead absorption, partially offset by continued pressure on wages, materials, and transportation costs compared to the prior year period. The cash-in extrusion segment recorded sales of $68.8 million in the first quarter compared to $45.8 million last year, an increase of $23 million. K-Lux sales were $11.6 million. These results were impacted by December holidays, the Russian conflict in Ukraine, and weakening economic conditions in Europe. Demand for extrusion tooling and associated capital equipment outside of Europe remained relatively strong due to both industry growth and ongoing market share gains. However, signs of slowing market activity exist through the quarter. In the die-cast market, demand continues to improve as industry vehicle production recovers, new electric vehicles and more efficient internal combustion engine slash transmission platforms are launched, and customer inventory levels increased. EXCO's additive 3D printed tooling continues its strong contribution as customers focus on greater efficiency with the size and complexity of the die-cast tooling continuing to increase. Sales in the quarter were also aided by price increases, which were implemented in order to protect margins from higher input costs. Pre-tax earnings in the casting and extrusion segment of $1.9 million declined modestly compared to the prior year quarter. The decline was driven by $1.9 million higher depreciation, startup costs at Castiel's heat treat operations and new market, continued outsourcing heat treat costs in our extrusion tooling group, while new equipment was being installed and higher raw material, energy, freight, and labor costs due to inflation, particularly in Europe. EXCO generated cash from operating activities of $10.8 million during the quarter and $5.6 million of free cash flow after $3.4 million of maintenance fixed asset expenditures. This free cash flow together with the company's cash balances was used to fund fixed assets for growth initiatives of $4 million and $4.1 million of dividends EXCO ended the quarter with $18 million in cash, $110.7 million in bank and long-term debt, and $41.9 million available in its credit facility. EXCO's financial position remains strong. As such, the company's balance sheet and availability under the existing credit facility provides continued support for our strategic initiatives. Our strong financial position, combined with our free cash flow, provides a foundation for management to pursue high-value growth capital expenditures, dividends, and other opportunities that may arise. That concludes my comments. Michelle, we can now transition to the Q&A portion of the call.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.

One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from the line of David.

Ocampo with Cormark. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning. Darren, you talked a bit about casting extrusion margins improving throughout the year, especially as some of these one-time costs are eliminated and inflationary pressures ease. But when you take a look at your backlog, maybe excluding HALICS, is the margin profile in the backlog getting closer to your long-term target of 20% or How should we be thinking about getting the bridge back up to 20% here?

Yeah, sure.

Thanks for the question, David. And so the backlog that I'm addressing there is really in the large mold group. And I will say that there is a good recovery underway in pricing, the pricing environment for that business. It's been a very difficult time for the past year several years. But the backlog that we have to date is at much firmer pricing, and we expect it's going to go a long way to restoring the margins toward our target of 20% for the segment.

And do you expect the pace of improvements to be pretty even, or is it going to be more front-end loaded than back-end loaded?

You know, so that it's probably going to be more back-end loaded, but that's just one feature that's going to help restore the margins. I mean, there's been a drag on the margins from the very difficult conditions in Europe. We are seeing signs of easing there. I don't think you should expect the margins to pop back up in that isolated regard, but it should certainly demonstrate some good improvement in our Q2. We do still have some front-end startup losses in our new plant, and we've had a tremendous amount of inefficiency from replacing all of this heat treatment equipment within the group and having to outsource. That has implications for lead times and sales. you know, downplay the impact that all of these things have contributed together. And so it's, you know, given the number of moving parts, I'm not going to, you know, give you a roadmap for the end of the year, but rather I just refer to what I said during my script and that we expect that the margin is going to have improvement from here through the year.

Now, that's helpful. Then large mold, you touched on it. briefly there about the backlog, especially with the good tailwinds from EV. But when you look at the backlog, is there anything in there that's related to the extremely large molds that you've alluded to in the past, especially as you're installing new machinery and crane work there?

Yeah. Installing that new equipment and the upgraded crane capacity has been a significant part of our strategy there. There certainly is a lot of activity in that backlog that is going to take use of that capability. So, yes, we are seeing demand already, and we expect that demand will grow strongly over the next several years.

Yeah. And then maybe competition in that area. I mean, it does seem like an area that has above average demand. growth relative to the sector. So are you seeing more of your competitors invest in this equipment or is this something that you guys are doing kind of on a sole basis?

I would say that the very few competitors have this capability. I'm not aware of what other competitors are specifically doing to upgrade their capabilities to match the standards that we have. I think it's going to be very difficult for them to do. There's a lot of capital that's required in order to compete at this level, and your customers demand a a supplier like us that is extremely high quality. So, you know, as things get larger and more complex, it all plays to our strengths. And so we expect that will increasingly be evident over the next several years.

Okay, that's perfect. That's it for me. Thanks, guys. Thanks, David.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

And one moment for our next question.

And our next question comes from the line of Sharad Deer with BMO. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So in the earlier remarks, you mentioned that you've seen some market activity slowing down while at the same time your inventory levels have increased. So can you please help us understand which part of the market is experiencing a slowdown and why it's not impacting a strong demand also?

So just to clarify, and you're right, there were some comments. We've seen some markets slowing down and some picking up. So the large mold and die cast production areas have certainly been heating up. And within the extrusion area, we are seeing a little bit of cooling down in the market in certain sectors that we supply. So I think that kind of covers what your question was, Aaron, did you?

Yeah, I would just add to that. Building and construction, as you would expect, is significantly influenced by the rising interest rates. And we're starting to see some slowdown there. But that business is highly, highly diverse. And while building and construction, which is a large end market, is is perhaps down a bit. Automotive and many other transportation and green energy sub-segments are showing strength. So altogether, we've seen total demand kind of back off a little bit, but I will also say that things are pretty temperamental in that business. it's difficult to get a good read where we are seasonally. December is typically a relatively soft month, and we are seeing things come back actually quite a bit stronger toward the end of January. So we'll see where it goes, but that's some kind of color around what's happening in the extrusion part of the business. I would also add that Castool, kind of sells a number of consumable components to extruders, but also a lot of capital equipment, which have a longer lead time and time focus. And that capital equipment business is continuing to remain very strong. And further, you know, looking beyond the immediate timeframe, there are a number of new enlarged presses extrusion presses going in globally. And that kind of gives you a good indication of where things will go on a longer time basis.

Got it. And then you just slightly touched upon a weaker, like the first quarter and the fourth quarter, it's generally weaker with you. Like we can understand during COVID that this pattern wasn't, you know, as prominent, but like going forward, Do you see that the first and the fourth quarter will be weaker going forward from now?

So, you know, it's hard to say what a regular cyclicality of our quarters is, as you know, between COVID and the semiconductor supply chain issues. I mean, traditionally, our fourth quarter, there are summer shutdowns, especially in Europe, and less so in North America, but in North America. And then our first quarter, you know, Christmas and the December holidays, I'll call it, have certainly impacted. So I'd say that's normal, but I don't know what normal is nowadays. But, you know, that's kind of typically shipping days and so on.

Yeah, but seasonally speaking, Q3 is typically, you know, slower than our Q3. Yeah. Okay.

And just finally on... You know, how much of the margin pressure in the casting and screening segment is attributable to the input cost and inflation that you're seeing?

You know, quantifying that is difficult. It's got a number of moving pieces, and, you know, to some extent, it's offset by price. And it is a sizable component, to be sure. And then, you know, you've got to work hard to further improve efficiency in order to recapture that lost margin. And then price increases have to be part of the equation. And then hopefully we see a continuation of the certain deflation trends that are, you know, becoming evident. The price of steel is starting to go down, and the price of some of our energy sources is also going down, and some other commodity input costs are seeing certainly disinflation, but even some deflation. So, I mean, I can't give you, unfortunately, a specific margin percentage, but I could say it's a material impact at the front end here. Got it.

And just an additional question on that one. So you said you put forward some price increases. Does that reflect in this quarter, or are we going to see some margin improvement because of the price improvement in the next quarter?

Sorry, the line was a little jarbled there. Could you ask again?

Yeah. You mentioned that you put forward some price increases. So my question was, Does that price increase is reflected in this quarter, or we can see some margin improvement because of the price increase in the next quarter?

Yeah, I mean, you'll see that some of that price increase, it was evident in the current quarter, but you'll see continued improvement from that regard in subsequent quarters as well.

Okay, that's it from me. Thank you so much.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

And again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone.

I would now like to hand the conference back over to Darren Kirk for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks, Michelle. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to discussing our Q2 results in another 90 days or so. Talk to you then.

this concludes today's conference thank you for participating you may now disconnect