Wayne Rancourt
Analyst · the factors that may actual results to differ from results anticipated, please refer to Boise Cascade's recent filings with the SEC. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you Wayne Rancourt, Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, Boise Cascade. Mr. Rancourt, you may begin your conference
Thank you, Nate. Wood Products sales in the fourth quarter, including sales to our distribution segment, were $296 million, down 4% from the fourth quarter of 2018. As Nate mentioned, Wood Products reported segment income of $8.1 million in the fourth quarter compared to a segment loss of $86.6 million in the prior year quarter. Reported EBITDA for the business was $22.7 million, up from negative EBITDA of $15.3 million reported in the year ago quarter. When excluding the impact of the Roxboro, Moncure related losses in fourth quarter 2018, Wood Products segment income increased approximately $13 million due to improved EWP volumes and prices, favorable input costs for OSB and logs and lower per unit conversion costs. These improvements were offset partially by lower plywood prices. BMD sales in the quarter were $987 million, up 7% from fourth quarter 2018. Sales volumes were up 11%, while sales prices declined 4%. Excluding the impact of the acquisitions made during 2018 and 2019, the sales increase in the quarter for BMD would have been approximately 4%. The business reported segment income of $26.3 million or EBITDA of $31.6 million in the fourth quarter. This compares to segment income of $8.9 million and EBITDA of $13.8 million in the prior year quarter. The increase in income was driven primarily by gross margin increase of $27.3 million, resulting from improved gross margins on commodity products and higher sales of general line products in EWP compared with fourth quarter 2018. The increase in gross margin during the fourth quarter was offset partially by an $8.4 million increase in selling and distribution expenses. Gross margins on commodity products in the prior year quarter were negatively impacted by sharply falling prices. The amounts for unallocated corporate costs and other items impacting our reported adjusted EBITDA can be found in the tables of our earnings release. The net of those items was negative $9.0 million in the fourth quarter compared with negative $7.5 million in fourth quarter 2018. Turning to slide five. Our fourth quarter sales volumes for LVL and I-joist were up 21% and 20%, respectively, compared with fourth quarter 2018. As a reminder, EWP consumption is influenced not only by total housing starts but also by the mix of single-family and multifamily starts, median single-family home size as well as the home foundation type. Our full year 2019 LVL volume increase on 1%, trended closely with single-family starts, while our I-joist volumes declined modestly at 4%. We believe the decline in our I-joist sales is due in part to decreases in median home size and an increasing proportion of slab on grade new home construction. According to APA, industry I-joist production dropped approximately 10% in 2018. Pricing in the fourth quarter for I-joist was up 4% and LVL pricing was down 1% compared with fourth quarter 2018. Turning to slide six. Our fourth quarter plywood sales volume in wood products was 315 million feet compared to 326 million feet in the fourth quarter of 2018. The lower volume for plywood sales reflects the sale of the Moncure plywood facility during first quarter 2019. Also we continue to work to optimize veneer into EWP production and to limit production of plywood where it results in cash losses. The $251 average plywood net sales price in fourth quarter was down 18% from fourth quarter 2018. Plywood pricing, as we entered 2020, was modestly below our fourth quarter average pricing and more than 15% below first quarter 2019. In the last few weeks, plywood pricing has improved as seasonal buying has accelerated and some of the overhang from very weak OSB pricing has subsided. Moving to slide seven. BMD's fourth quarter sales were $987 million, up 7% from fourth quarter 2018. By product area, BMD's commodity sales decreased 3%, general line product sales increased 14%, and EWP sales increased 19%. The gross margin percentage for BMD in the fourth quarter was 13%, up 210 basis points from the 10.9% reported in the fourth quarter 2018. The gross margin increase resulted from more normalized gross margins on commodity products and higher sales of general line products in EWP compared to fourth quarter 2018. The prior year quarter was negatively impacted by sharply following commodity wood products prices. As a reminder, general line products in EWP that we service through our branches tend to have higher gross margins but also higher associated sales and handling costs. BMD's EBIDTA margin was 3.2% for the quarter, up from 1.5% reported in the year ago quarter. On slide eight, we have set out the key elements of our working capital. Company net working capital, excluding cash, income tax items and accrued interest, decreased $16.4 million during the fourth quarter. Accounts receivable and accounts payable decreased with the seasonal deceleration of sales and purchases. The statistical information filed as Exhibit 99.2 to our 8-K has the receivables inventory and accounts payable data broken down by segment for those that are interested in more detail. I'm now on slide nine. We finished fourth quarter with $285 million of cash. Our total available liquidity at December 31 was approximately $622 million, which reflects our cash and the availability under our credit bank line. I'm pleased to note that we returned $54 million in regular and supplemental dividends to shareholders during 2019, including $43 million in the fourth quarter. Our capital spending, excluding acquisitions, is expected to be between $85 million and $95 million this year, which includes spending to improve the efficiency of our veneer production at our Florien, Louisiana facility. We expect our effective book tax rate to be approximately 27% this year. I will now turn the call back over to Nate to discuss the outlook.