Scott Montross
Analyst · Henry Investment Trust. Please go ahead
Good afternoon, and welcome to Northwest Pipe Company's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. My name is Scott Montross, and I am President and CEO of the company. I'm joined today by Aaron Wilkins, our Chief Financial Officer. By now, all of you should have access to our earnings press release which was issued today, August 8, 2022, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Time. This call is being webcast, and it is available for replay. As we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the statements made on this call regarding our expectations for the future are forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our most recent Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and in our other SEC filings for a discussion of such risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Thank you all for joining us today. I'll begin with a review of our second quarter performance. Aaron will then walk you through our financials in greater detail. Consolidated net sales were $118.5 million, which included $24.2 million contribution for our newest acquisition ParkUSA. Revenue from our Steel Pressure Pipe segment increased 31.2% year-over-year to $77.1 million. The increase was primarily due to higher project pricing, driven by strong bidding in early 2022, as well as higher steel prices. These factors were partially offset by lower production volumes, primary related to product mix, as well as incoming steel quality issues that held up production and shipment of orders that were already in backlog. That said, our production volume is expected to steadily improve throughout the second half of 2022. Our Steel Pressure Pipe sales have to benefit from the stronger bidding environment we've been experiencing this year compared to 2021, which as a reminder was a very small bidding year, given a significant amount of bidding in project delays we experienced due in part to the pandemic. These delays push project bidding into 2022, which is why our backlog has remained in record territory throughout the first half of 2022. As of June 30th, our backlog including confirmed orders for the Steel Pressure Pipe segment was $338 million, which was down only slightly from our all-time record of $341 million as of March 31st, 2022, and compared to $234 million as of June 30th, 2021. As noted on our last call, we projected the first quarter would be the high watermark for our Steel Pressure Pipe backlog in 2022, given the robust bidding activity that we experienced at the onset of the year. That said, we continue to expect bidding should remain solid throughout the second half of 2022. And as a result, backlog level should also remain high compared to historical standards through the remainder of the year. We saw steel prices fall from highs we experienced late in 2021. Steel prices spiked again as the war in Ukraine put upward pressure on steel pricing in the March/April timeframe. Since then we've fallen steadily into the low to mid $800 per ton range. Steel prices are still fairly elevated by historical standards, but well off the $1,950 ton high point we saw on late 2021. In general, elevated steel prices are good for our Steel Pressure Pipe business. Sales from our Precast segment increased 175.2% year-over-year to $41.4 million, driven primarily by aforementioned $24.2 million contribution from ParkUSA, which we acquired on October 5th, 2021, along with an extremely strong $17.2 million revenue quarter from our preexisting Precast operations at the Geneva locations, which we acquired on January 31st, 2020. The second quarter of 2022 was a record quarter for both ParkUSA and Geneva. Geneva sales increased 14% year-over-year to primarily to higher selling prices resulting from improving demand for our high-quality Precast products along with increased raw material input costs. While demand remains strong, our production volume during the second quarter was hampered by major unplanned equipment outage at our key cement suppliers plants in Utah, which temporarily restricted availability of raw materials. That supplier has since returned to more normalized production levels. Overall, the extremely strong precast market has led to tight cement supply for some time. In addition, we experience extended lead times on certain engineered system components, such as pumps, valves, and meters that we purchase for the Park locations. The continued strength of the Precast related demand has dictated that we need to establish additional channels of raw material supply. And as such, we have been able to identify additional avenues of cement and component supply in the various regions. Our Precast related order book remains at all-time highs and totaled $74.5 million as of June 30th, 2022 compared to $65.5 million as of March 31st, 2022 and $23.7 million as of June 30th, 2021, which does not include ParkUSA. We anticipate our Precast order book will remain strong for the near-term. Our consolidated gross profit increased 152.5% year-over-year to $24.1 million, which resulted in a gross margin of 20.3%, up approximately 740 basis points from the second quarter of 2021, which as a reminder, was negatively impacted by COVID-related production delays and associated bidding pressure. As we expected our Steel Pressure Pipe margins improved into the mid-teens in the second quarter, as we began to work through the newer, higher quality projects and backlog. For the third quarter of 2022, our underlying Steel Pressure Pipe business is on track to generate similar revenue and improving gross margins. However, recent severe weather events in late July and early August forced to shut down both our Adelanto, California plant and our St. Louis Missouri plant due to flooding, which may result in adverse impact to our results if the shutdowns become extended. As such, we are currently anticipating third quarter SPP revenue could be slightly down from the second quarter of 2022 with margins that are flat to up modestly. Once again, our Precast margin significantly bolstered our consolidated gross margin in the second quarter. Aside from the sizeable contribution from the acquired ParkUSA locations, we've benefited from improved pricing at our preexisting precast operations. Current economic inflationary pressures have driven increasing costs for raw materials and transportation. And therefore, we've been very focused on staying ahead of those costs with our price increases, partially offsetting the pricing increases were the aforementioned supply chain issues pertaining to cement availability during the second quarter, which affected precast production levels. Despite current economic headwinds, including rising interest rates and potential impact on commercial and residential construction, we are cautiously optimistic the Precast business will remain strong for the near-term. Next, I would like to turn to a discussion of our two-prong growth strategy in which we are striving to better diversify and balance our business to be more resilient through economic cycles. First and foremost, we are focused on driving growth in the precast related space. The integration of ParkUSA is on schedule. We have recently been working to complete the last major piece of our integration effort with the ERP implementation. And we are continuing to refine both operational and commercial KPIs. Organic growth product spread strategy is now underway, and we've been making good progress. As a reminder, by product spread we are referring to our initiative to add the production of Park products to our legacy Northwest Pipe plants. And in some cases add products from existing Northwest Pipe facilities to Park facilities in order to expand our production and maximize overall efficiencies. During the second quarter, we continue to make progress in building out more capacity at our Park plants in Texas. In addition, our bookings outside of Texas are up nearly 40% year-over-year. We are progressing through the first phase of the product spread initiative. As we approach our next phase, we'll be highly focused on training to share knowledge and best practices from ParkUSA with our employees at our preexisting Geneva Precast operations. We remain very excited about the potential of this acquisition and in conjunction with the Park integration work, we're working toward expanding and automating our Geneva operations to increase our production capabilities and capacity to satisfy the growing market demand for our concrete products. As previously announced, we have committed over $18 million in new capital improvement projects on this front, which includes a new RCP manhole facility at the Salt Lake City, Utah plant on which we've spent $4.4 million so far this year, and a new batch plant in our St. George, Utah location. All of which remain on track for a completion in the first half of 2023. Our goal remains for the precast related business to grow to a similar size as our steel pressure pipe business within three years, supported by increasing infrastructure needs in the United States. Second prong of our growth strategy is to maximize our steel pressure pipe water transmission business to drive enhanced shareholder value. We'll do this by continuing to focus on margin over volume, lean manufacturing, and cost reductions. These elements by now have been ingrained into our culture and serve as guiding principles to drive efficiencies at all levels of the company. We will continue to explore potential investment projects that help us reduce cost and maximize margins. Before I conclude, I'd like to discuss progress on some current and upcoming water transmission projects that are bidding in the steel pressure pipe market. The H.R. 3684 infrastructure investment in Jobs Act has been signed into law, adding $55 billion in Federal funding for relevant water infrastructure projects over the next five years. In the Eastern market, the ongoing multi-year, multi-agency Houston Surface Water program is expected to bid multiple segments in 2022, representing 15,000 tons of pipe for the West and North Harris County Regional Water Authorities. We anticipate both authorities having additional projects representing 5,500 tons beyond this year. The next new reservoir to be built in Texas is Lake Ralph Hall for the upper Trinity Regional Water District. This is another major program currently in design, that includes a dam and pipeline to move water into the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The pipeline represents 17,000 tons of pipe. Construction on the dam began this year and the pipeline is expected to begin late in 2022 or early 2023. The Alliance Regional Water Authority program in Central Texas is another multi-agency regional water program. This program includes a large pipeline pump stations and treatment facilities and represents 4,000 tons of pipe on the remaining segments. Construction started in 2021 and appears to be holding to the forecasted timeline. In North Dakota, progress continues on the 140 mile 87,000 ton Red River Valley Water Supply project. The first two segments were awarded to Northwest Pipe and installation is currently underway. We are closely tracking the outcome of further budget approval for future segment construction. In the Western markets, California Prop 1 $7.5 billion to water infrastructure has created much needed funding for projects within the state. The following Prop 1 projects are expected to start construction in the next five years. The sites reservoir is a water storage program that will involve over 30 miles of 144-inch pipeline. Harvest Water is a program intended to provide recycled wastewater for agricultural use in Sacramento area. This program includes nearly 25 miles of 30-inch to 66-inch pipeline. The Los Vaqueros reservoir expansion program provides a substantial capacity improvement to the existing reservoir and conveyance facilities in Northern California. The program includes approximately 22 miles of 48-to-96-inch pipe. Willows Springs Water Bank will create 500,000 acre feet of underground water storage in the Antelope Valley. The project includes approximately 16 miles of 30-to-84-inch pipe. Water reuse programs have generated new opportunities in California market on which we expect to see bidding activity continue for the foreseeable future. MWD is heading a regional reuse pilot project in conjunction with the LA Sanitation District. This reuse program will treat and recycle water from one of the largest reclamation facilities in Southern California and involves 60-plus miles of large diameter pipe. The current demonstration facility has been operating for almost two years. Preliminary design and permitting is ongoing in construction of the full-scale treatment and conveyance facilities will begin as early as 2025. MWD secured a $224 million WIFIA loan in October of 2021, which will fund nearly 50% of the anticipated construction cost. Southern Nevada Water Authority, a Las Vegas water wholesaler in Colorado River water user has also pledged significant financial support for this program. The MWD PCCP rehabilitation program will result in about 5,000 tons annually over the next 10 to 15 years. This program includes 81 miles of pipe from 75 to 120 inches in diameter. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has begun moving forward in earnest with the expansion of the Southern part of their water delivery system. This program, which is recently started preliminary design activity will include approximately 25 miles of 78-inch steel pipe with construction tentatively scheduled for 2024. In Utah, design and permitting continues on the 150 mile 69-inch Lake Powell pipeline. This pipeline will provide an alternative source of water for Southern Utah. Construction is proceeding in earnest in New Mexico, on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Navajo-Gallup supply project. The final major phase of pipeline construction for this program is expected to bid toward the end of this year and include 4,700 tons of steel pipe. New Mexico Governor Grisham recently announced $160 million in the IIJA funding for the Eastern New Mexico rural water system. This 20,000 ton program will convey water via steel pipe from the Ute Reservoir in Northern New Mexico south to water users in the greater Clovis area. In summary, we are very pleased with our second quarter performance resulting from outstanding execution in our precast business that led to a record precast quarter, along with ongoing strength in steel pressure pipe bidding activity that led to improving results for the steel pressure pipe business. We are maintaining a positive outlook for the second half of 2022. While our third quarter steel pressure pipe revenue is expected to be down slightly as a result of Adelanto and St. Louis plant flood related shutdowns, we expect our margins to be flat to up modestly as the underlying business remains fundamentally solid, supported by strength in our SPP backlog, as well as our precast order book, both of which are expected to continue for the near-term. We continue to estimate that steel pressure pipe bidding activity could be approximately 50% higher for 2022 compared to 2021 levels. Looking ahead, we will remain focused on our top priority of taking every precaution to keep our employees safe through the ongoing pandemic. Two, integrating ParkUSA as quickly and efficiently as possible; three, a persistent focus on margin over volume; four, continuing to implement cost reductions and efficiencies at all levels of the company; and number five, continuing to identify strategic opportunities to grow the company once we've completed the integration work with ParkUSA. Thank you to all of our Northwest Pipe employees for your strong performance during the quarter and your commitment to working safely. I will now turn the call over to Aaron who will walk through our financial results in greater detail.