Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises - Q1 2023

Transcript

Nadia (Operator)

Hello everyone, welcome to the Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Nadia, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Sharyn Brooks, to begin. Sharyn, please go ahead.

Sharyn Brooks (Director of Communications)

Thank you, Nadia, and thanks to everyone for joining us on Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. I'm Sharyn Brooks, Director of Communications. Joining the call today are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Lou Salamone, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our first quarter results.

During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and also in our Form 10-Q that was filed today and our Form 10-K that is on file with the SEC and provide further detail about the risks related to our business. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain of our historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information should not be considered superior to or as a substitute for the comparable GAAP measures.

A reconciliation of historical Non-GAAP measures can be found in our first quarter earnings release published this morning and in our company overview presentation that was filed on Form 8-K this morning and posted on the investor relations section of our website at babcock.com. I will now turn the call over to Kenny.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Sharyn. Well, good morning everyone, and thanks for joining us today on our first quarter 2023 earnings call. We are pleased to report strong results for the first quarter of 2023, which exceeded our expectations and were highlighted by increases in revenues, bookings, and backlog on a year-over-year basis.

Our parts and service bookings across all of our segments were the highest in the past 7 years, despite continued supply chain challenges. Given our positive start to the year, growing customer demand across all of our segments and visibility for new booking opportunities, we believe we are well positioned for significantly improved full year performance in 2023. The revenues generated within our renewables and environmental business segments showed significant increases of 47% and 13%, respectively, as compared to the first quarter of 2022.

This growth was driven by higher volumes across both segments, which helped drive on our consolidated revenues and adjusted EBITDA above expectations. More specifically, revenues in the first quarter increased 26% compared to 2022, while our bookings and backlog increased 11% and 15% on a year-over-year basis, respectively.

Our strong start to the year also adds to our confidence in achieving our full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA targets. During the first quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $14.2 million, which was above our internal projections and compares to $12.5 million in the first quarter of 2022.

As always, I want to express my thanks and gratitude to our employees for their continued dedication to achieving the highest operational performance, for their high focus on safety across our project and manufacturing sites, and to thank them for driving innovation and advancing the world's transition towards sustainable and secure energy, which is central to B&W's mission.

Notably, the performance of our parts and services business across all of our segments was particularly strong in the quarter. Combined parts and service bookings for our thermal, renewable, and environmental segments were $114 million, which is the strongest quarter for parts and services we've had since 2016.

This was led by $67 million in bookings by our Thermal segment, which has seen increased demand as customers around the world look to improve performance and extend the useful life of their facilities. B&W's Renewable and Environmental segments also booked $40 million and $7 million in parts and services orders respectively as well. In total, we are recognizing a significant increase in customer demand stemming from the need for long-term energy security and clean technology solutions.

Looking back at the quarter, we were ecstatic with the progress our clean energy solutions have made, which have been bolstered by new Environmental and Renewable contracts in the first quarter of 2023 totaling $103 million. These projects not only demonstrate the increasing momentum in our customer adoption of our innovative technologies, but also the expanding interest in our expertise and solar projects.

Throughout the first quarter, we announced 4 environmental and 2 renewable contracts to supply various technologies and services for carbon capture, waste-to-energy, and solar installation projects. This includes our collaboration with Phillips 66 in which we will provide engineering and design services, equipment, and construction support for a carbon capture project in the U.K.

This project aims to reduce carbon emissions by capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from a refinery. As a company committed to promoting sustainability, we are proud to be a part of this critical effort to reduce carbon emissions and support the energy transition to a low carbon future. Our progress in the U.K. also includes a contract to provide engineering and advanced technology for a waste-to-energy plant. Our innovative combustion system will help convert waste into clean energy, further promoting sustainable practices.

Additionally, B&W has also secured contracts to provide highly efficient cooling systems for a few U.K. waste-to-energy plants as well. These cooling systems will help optimize the performance of the plants, ensuring they are able to operate efficiently and sustainably. Transitioning to our solar business, we were awarded contracts worth over $15 million by Summit Ridge Energy, or SRE, to construct 5 community solar power installation projects in Illinois.

The project, scheduled to be completed in 2023, will total approximately 15 megawatts. B&W will manage subcontractors, site coordination and supervision, and electrical tie-ins to the grid. This is the second set of contracts awarded to B&W by SRE, which is 1 of the leading community solar companies in the United States.

The growing market for community solar projects in the U.S. has been attributed to the high demand for affordable, clean energy and state and federal incentives for renewable energy, including for solar power.

We are excited about the solar opportunities that we continue to see emerge over the coming quarters, especially with regards to community solar and small utility projects. Looking forward, we remain committed to further supporting sustainable energy projects that make a positive impact on the world. These recent award wins further strengthen our position as a leading provider of energy solutions.

We look ahead to exploring new opportunities to promote a cleaner, more sustainable future. We also are pleased with the significant traction our BrightLoop technology has received to date.

Most notably, we recently, excuse me, announced a commercial project with Black Hills Energy in which B&W's BrightLoop hydrogen generation technology was selected to produce hydrogen gas from coal and capture carbon dioxide emissions. Utilizing our technology, clean energy can be produced using a variety of fuels with complete CO2 retention, enhancing energy security and creating local clean energy jobs in the region.

This project not only highlights B&W's transformational technology, but also demonstrates utility market interest in our clean power production and carbon capture capabilities. We look forward to scaling this product offering and working in tandem with our customers to provide the solutions they need to enhance energy independence and deliver efficient energy to their customers while also combating climate change. I'll now turn the call over to Lou to discuss the financial details for first quarter of 2023.

Lou?

Lou Salamone (CFO)

Thanks, Kenny. I'm really pleased to review our first quarter results, and further details of which can be found in our 10-Q, which has been filed with the SEC. Our first quarter consolidated revenues were $257.2 million, which is a 26% improvement compared to the first quarter of 2022.

This is primarily attributable to higher volumes in our Renewable segment due to B&W Renewable Parts and Services and our project-based business, as well as higher overall volume in our Environmental segment and increased Thermal segment volume and a higher level of construction activity. Net operating income in the first quarter of 2023 was $1.4 million compared to an operating loss of $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Our adjusted EBITDA was $14.2 million as compared to $12.5 million in the first quarter of 2022, while bookings in the first quarter of 2023 were $206 million, an 11% increase compared to the first quarter bookings in 2022. Our ending backlog was $663 million, which was over a 15% increase compared to our backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2022. Our loss per share in the first quarter was $0.18 as compared to a loss per share of $0.14 in the first quarter of 2022. I'll now turn over to the first quarter segment results.

Within our Babcock & Wilcox Renewable segment, revenues were $100.1 million for the first quarter of 2023, which is a 47% increase compared to the $68 million in the first quarter of 2022. This increase in revenue is primarily due to the higher volume of new build projects and the increase in revenues associated with our renewable parts and services business.

The adjusted EBITDA in the quarter for this segment was $4.9 million compared to $2 million in the first quarter of 2022, and this was primarily due to the higher volume as described above, offset somewhat by increases in expenses to support the growth of this business. The higher revenue levels also increased shared overhead and SG&A allocations to the segment, which are based on revenue.

Within the Babcock & Wilcox Environmental segment, revenues were $39.4 million in the first quarter of 2023, which is a 13% increase compared to the $34.9 million in the first quarter of 2022. This increase is primarily driven again by higher overall volume of dry cooling technology projects across the environmental segment.

Our adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $1.9 million in the quarter as compared to $1.4 million in the same quarter last year. Primarily driven by the higher revenue volume described above and offset by higher levels of shared overhead and SG&A that's allocated to this segment.

Turning to our Babcock & Wilcox Thermal Segment, revenues were $119.2 million in the first quarter of 2023. This is a 17% increase compared to the $102 million in the first quarter of 2022. Again, this is primarily attributable to higher levels of volume on our construction projects business and the inclusion of Optimus Industries.

Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2023 was $13.7 million, which is a decrease of 3% compared to the $14.2 million in the first quarter, primarily attributable to higher expenses that we incurred, which are related to the growth of this business. I'll now turn to our balance sheet, cash flow, and liquidity.

Our total debt at March 31, 2023 was $351.7 million, and the company had a cash equivalents, and restricted cash balance of $91.1 million. Finally, based on our strong bookings and backlog in the first quarter of 2023, we are reiterating our full year 2023 target of between $100 million and $120 million in adjusted EBITDA. I'll now turn the call back over to Kenny.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Lou, thanks. Well, in closing, I would like to emphasize the continued progress and growth that Babcock & Wilcox has achieved over the past several years. We have taken proactive steps to improve our operations and qualify additional suppliers, which has reinforced our own supply chain and positions us well to navigate challenging market conditions compared to our competitors.

Despite the ongoing market challenges we face, we have strong and growing customer demand across all of our segments, expanding our bookings and backlog while maintaining the highest operational and project performance across our global operations. Leveraging a strong balance sheet and our expanded pipeline of more than $8 billion in identified global opportunities, we are excited about our growth prospects and diversification initiatives within our renewable and environmental and thermal business segments.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2023, we are excited to continue enhancing our ClimateBright decarbonization platform and executing our BrightLoop commercialization strategy with the aim of deploying our transformative technology at scale. We are at the forefront of a global effort to combat climate change and are excited about the growing industry tailwinds that support our clean energy initiatives.

As the year unfolds, we anticipate announcing meaningful projects that align with the seasonality of the business and revenue ramp that is back-half weighted for the full year. Finally, we would like to thank our employees again and our customers for their continued efforts and dedication to the company, which ultimately has driven our success as an organization. Together, we're focused on driving innovation, supporting the global transition to sustainable energy solutions, and delivering strong, profitable growth for our shareholders.

I will now turn the call back over to Nadia, who will assist in taking your questions. Nadia?

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by 2. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question today goes to Aaron. Aaron, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

Yeah. Good morning, Kenny and Lou. Thanks for taking the questions.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, good morning. No problem.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

You know, first for me.

Lou Salamone (CFO)

Good morning.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

Morning. Yeah, you bet. You know, first maybe on Black Hills, you know, can you just kinda talk a little bit more about, you know, kind of that project, what it looks like, some of the next steps and timeline, anything on contribution? Then just you talked about scaling up. Can you just talk about confidence in the supply chain and kinda manufacturing as that progresses?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

The Black Hills project, the initial phase will be, you know, I guess as we described a BHE 15 on that project. The first phase of that, our approach there will be to fire the project up on natural gas, so creating hydrogen from natural gas on the initial aspect, we'll introduce the coal. The plan in that project specifically is the state of Wyoming wants to utilize PRB or coal that the coal is available actually very near the plant. Coal will be used in the BrightLoop system to produce hydrogen in this particular case.

The hydrogen will then be entered into the combined-cycle plant, the turbine that's, you know, the turbine that Black Hills will be putting in is will support up to 30% hydrogen and 70% natural gas involved in that.

The intent is obviously using the coal to create the hydrogen, and then in that particular case, we'll either sequester the CO2, although there we're having some conversations about, you know, potentially some other beneficial use of the CO2. Either way, it will be retained, captured, and not emitted into the atmosphere in the long run.

We're excited about that, all of those elements in that, you know, moving it into an early adopter in the utility sector, which we think is very exciting for us as well on that. In the long run, you know, Black Hills will need several hundred tons of hydrogen per day to feed the turbine to drive baseload generation. You know, they do have the capacity there from a feedstock standpoint to support that.

You know, that project would move into the next phase of it, which is a natural progression at that point in time. That's on 1. On the supply chain sustainability aspect, if you're specifically talking about BrightLoop or just in general? Sorry.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

Just really on the, on the BrightLoop as we think about, you know, how that ramps over the next couple of years.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. We'll begin ramping up, you know, the abilities to develop the particle. We, you know, we have limited aspects to capacity right now, but that'll be developed out to build up the particle aspects. The fabrication side of the modules, the reactors, is 1, you know, long pole in the tent, so to speak. I would say some of the others are in and around some of the air compression and other components and pieces that we need, you know, in that technology out there. Those are, you know, running 9-12 months typically in lead time. We...

Those are the areas that when we look at supply chain and BrightLoop, you know, in that regard, when we plan out the timing of the projects, we take all of that into consideration, you know, overall so that we're not too far over skis as it relates to the abilities to get the fabrication and the steel and the other components into the plant and the site.

We know that, we anticipate that, and that's, you know, just normal course. The good news is, I think, there's, you know, short of the particle here, there's not a lot of new tech, you know, that we talked about before that's going into this. When you think about the reactor, B&W's have been involved in reactors for, you know, many years.

you know, the pressurization, the heating aspect of that, inside the reactors, B&W has been involved in that for many years. The, you know, the other construct on all of the other feed handling systems, fuel handling systems, obviously coal in this case, you know, the abilities to pulverize the coal and everything you need to get done, all of that is very common to the core to B&W. The, you know, the newer piece here is really around the particle aspect on it. We're excited to get that going as well, too.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

Right. Good, good to hear. You know, maybe as a follow-up, you kind of touched on it a little bit, but just can you give a little more color on the solar business and, you know, what that business looks like this year, you know, versus maybe 2022, some of the initiatives and the pipeline? Are you starting to see the impact from the IRA and just anything on module availability?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. So far module availability is fairly good actually. We typically wouldn't get involved in a project if the owner operator didn't have access to the modules. That's, you know, kind of a red flag, if you will. Module availability seems to be very strong right now in the marketplace with all of the work and effort.

The number of projects both on utility and... I'm sorry, both on community solar and small scale utility are very significant, you know, in the marketplace in the U.S. A lot of that is being driven by the IRA credits. There's, you know, in Illinois, there's some state incentives that exist as well too, to support these community solar projects. You see a number, you know, more and more and more of these.

A lot of developers are out raising a tremendous amount of capital too, as well. Some of the companies we talk to position themselves in building out these solar projects that take place. The demand is clearly there. You know, for us, obviously, we're now entering kind of a growth phase of that from a B&W perspective.

We're, you know, as we continue to grow that particular business, you know, the advent of us self-performing more and more of that work will help improve the margins, you know, in the long run. The other aspect is, you know, we're hiring a number of different resources to come in from, you know, materials estimation, project management capabilities, to work not only in solar, but in our renewable energy sector.

We're very much in a hiring mode at this point in time, in that marketplace. As we bring on new resources and individuals, you know, we see nothing but more opportunities start to grow on the solar side. I, you know, in the U.S. alone, I don't know what, you know, the... I'd have to pull up the stats, I've got them somewhere, in the marketplace, but, you know, there are, $ billions of opportunities of solar being built, in the U.S., and the module are all available to support that kind of size of a marketplace. It's very significant right now.

Aaron Spychalla (Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking the questions. I'll turn it over.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Great. Thank you.

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. The next question goes to Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets. Rob, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Rob Brown (Founding Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good morning. Just wanted to follow up on the Black Hills Energy project. What's sort of the revenue opportunity in phase 1 and I guess phase 2 for that project? When sort of is the timeline for that to be awarded?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Phase 1 will be small, you know, on that project. I don't know if we put out, you know, exact numbers yet, but it, you know, it'll be small, under phase 1. The important piece is just, you know, is getting the commercial aspect of getting the obviously using the local feedstock and moving that forward. You know, in terms of moving it into the larger units out there, which would be, you know, 100, 200, you know, kind of approach, you know, in the marketplace.

I mean, just, you know, a rough range, broad range on that would be, you know, anywhere from, you know, $250 million-$300 million to, you know, $400 million-$500 million on a unit, depending on a, you know, number of different variables that will exist on that. Obviously, it's still TBD on that size of a unit, those locations.

You know, if you thought about them in terms of, if you're building new technology to support a power plant that's producing, you know, a few hundred million watts of power, you know, it's roughly in that kind of the similar category as far as size and revenues. That's just, you know, just some broad-scale thought process on it.

Rob Brown (Founding Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, great. Thank you. That's very helpful. Then on the kind of parts and services improvement in the business, I know there was some pent-up demand, but could you sort of give us some color on what's driving that improvement and how much? How should that continue, I guess?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

There is, you know, improvement in increased demand. I mean, it's really unique on the, if we divide it into 3 conversations here. On the thermal side, you know, we saw a little bit of a catch-up where people were catching up on parts and services from, you know, the past couple of years because we've always talked about the fact that the plants are running, you know, that was delayed. We're, you know, we're seeing a little of that.

We're also seeing, you know, the fact that a lot of these fossil fuel plants are now gearing up to run a little bit longer than maybe the public announcements were or are as it relates to when those might be shutting down.

We have a number of customers that are, you know, in Europe, for example, trying to recommission some of those facilities and plants and, you know, that will add a little bit to the volume in that particular area. You kind of have a, you know, 2fold, 1, a little bit of catch-up.

You have a little bit of where these plants have to run longer than they normally had planned for them to do, you know, which is a good thing for us from a parts and services standpoint. You're seeing a few of these plants reemerge in Europe. We, you know, as we talked about in the past, we keep expanding our international presence in Asia-Pac and other markets.

You know, you see a little bit of a gravitation and more adoption of parts and services coming, you know, from Middle East and the Asia-Pac region as well, too. You know, in overall, we think, you know, the levels of activity are, you know, back to, you know, rough order of magnitude back to where they were before COVID.

At this point in time, you know, we still have those supply chain challenges where things take longer to get in than they did before, but, you know, it's now part of the new norm, and we've kind of caught up with that cycle, you know, within the Thermal segment.

The other part of the growth on the parts and services within the company, you know, we've seen an increase because we've actually been putting in cooling towers over the past couple of years. A lot of that embedded base of customers out there now are getting past the warranty period. We're starting to see parts and services come from our environmental business in that regard.

The other piece is we, you know, obviously with intent, but invested in a small company in Europe that was a strong parts and services company in waste-to-energy. We've seen that expand as well, and grow with in that base. You know, all of those are combinations and elements on the parts and services aspect.

You know, we're excited about where it is. You know, overall, we see, you know, we don't see anything out there that says, "Hey, this is a one-time clip, and then we go back down." You know, we have to deal with quarter by quarter, obviously, on all these things, but the outlook's pretty strong.

Rob Brown (Founding Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. The next question goes to Alex Rygiel of B. Riley. Alex, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Good morning, Kenny and Lou. Thank you for taking my questions. A couple of quick ones here. First, can you comment on your confidence and guidance and maybe talk about the variables that would lead to either the low end or the high end of that EBITDA guidance for 2023?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Sure. Well, the low end is always typically, you know, around 2 things. 1 is if there are customer delays or delays, you know, on projects or, you know, other things that were unanticipated or, you know, beyond our control.

You know, I would say the other aspect that always is the start date of a project. If the customer was supposed to start a project, let's say, in July, but it flips to the start date now is in, let's say, September, or yeah, or October, you know, we miss the quarter on that revenue. You know, even going from the last month's quarter to the next first month of the new quarter, we miss a quarter of revenue on that.

That's always the challenging piece for us. If there's, you know, lower end aspects, it typically comes from those kinds of pieces, components. The upside is also kind of the opposite of that. If projects start a little earlier than you know, we anticipate in our planning cycle that there's upside opportunities there.

You know, if the energy security thing keeps going on the clip it's going and we're actually driving more parts and services from the thermal aspect, that could give upside too, because that's obviously high margin revenues for us as well in the long run. And then, you know, it's just new bookings, and getting those in and executing on those across the board.

Most of the new booking upside will be in renewables, so either coming from solar or biomass or waste-to-energy technologies, that would be the bigger driver of the upside aspects. They're clearly out there. You know, we have to get them booked and obviously execute or start doing the work this year in order to gain that particular piece.

You know, those they're all out there on that regard. It's just we wouldn't, at this point, right off Q1, change anything as it relates to our target guidance we put out. There are, you know, those upsides that exist.

Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Any update on the Fidelis project?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. Fidelis, they're working through their final funding on the power plant for the fuel aspect. Hopefully, that gets announced relatively soon, and, you know, we'll begin working towards the other, the other pieces of that, both the biomass plant that we talked about, and also for the BrightLoop facility and, at that location.

There's a lot of discussions on that. You know, we're back and forth in looking at as they evolve their power needs a little bit, some, we look at adjusting, you know, certain things here and there as it relates to the 2 projects.

You know, overall, the chain of events is waiting for them to get their final funding completed, and then, you know, things will then start to move forward from there. You know, I don't hate to put a timeline out publicly on that, but, you know, do anticipate that they are able to get stuff done here in the next, you know, 1 to 2 months, but we'll see how that shakes out.

Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

It's very helpful. Nice quarter. Thank you.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Alex.

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. The next question goes to Brent Thielman of D.A. Davidson. Brent?

Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Yeah. Thanks. Hey, good morning.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Hi. Good morning.

Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

I guess Kenny or Lou, you all made several references to the parts and services backlog and bookings strength. I guess, just wanted to take a step back. Maybe you could just share some views on, you know, sort of why this is such a relevant metric for us to be focused on. What does it say about your customers' position right now, maybe how it informs your view of guidance for the year from here?

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Well, I think the, you know, the number 1 aspect on parts and services for us is that, you know, overall, it's a very high margin part, right. New project builds are, by definition, in the marketplace, usually a little lower in margins.

The parts and services that come following those, though, you know, are obviously come following that, are much higher margins. I think we've talked publicly, you know, our parts and services business is between 35% and 40% gross margins overall in the company.

If we, you know, we can see improvements there on that, you know, above and beyond our plans, then, you know, that helps to accelerate and pull in, you know, margin in the outer months, you know, once those parts and services are shipped and billed.

The importance of it is really around that, right? The, that a healthy parts and services platform is very strong cash flows for us due to the high margin nature of it. You know, more or less, which we talked about in the past, normally it's a short book and bill. You know, it's roughly about 60 days now-ish in the marketplace, you know, where it used to be 30, but, you know, with the new supply chain, it's extended out there a little bit. That's, that's kind of the way that we think about it in terms of that.

I think the other, just from a company strategy perspective, the important piece here is that, by expanding parts and services beyond thermal and in renewable, and environmental is very much a positive for us because that was part of our strategic plan, was to increase our presence in parts and services in those groups, which again, same kind of high margins, and margin activity, but we needed a broader presence. We're seeing the benefit of that because it's, you know, it's been a very strong quarter for our, renewable sector, in particular on parts and services.

Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Thanks for that, Kenny. All 3 business segments looks like they saw pretty good improvement in volume, I guess, by the commentary, where I think you're getting the benefits of better operating leverage here. I guess I just wanted to better understand how, you know, these supply chain issues or anything else may be holding your margins back, whether it's, you know, comments by segment, Kenny, or just the company overall.

Kenny Young (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. No, it's a, it's a give and take. You know, each quarter we in some cases, you know, we're allowed to pass along the cost increases. If the supply chain aspect and overall goes up in price. Obviously, we're dealing with thousands of objects here, so you know, it's hard to.

I don't know the exact % but when parts and services go up, for the most part, in most cases, we're allowed to pass that increase on to our customer. There's occasionally a, you know, a project or 2 where we have to absorb it for an initial period of time. You know, in a quarter or 2 later, we're able to increase price, you know, at that point in time, right?

There's an ebb and flow in as it relates to that in our parts business and, you know, depending on who the customer is and who the parts are. If you thought about it in terms of, at this, at this point, I think our supply chain pricing is fairly stable.

There's a few things still going up. We've seen some stuff come down a little bit, you know, on that. The bigger impact that we still probably overall in the business then, you know, we adjusted our targets accordingly, is just the length of getting certain items in. You know, it's interesting if you go back to the solar side, talk about that.

You know, when you think about a solar site, obviously 1 of the first things we do is qualify whether or not the customer's got the panels on hand, because if they don't, that's a long lead time item. Secondly, if they have transformers, you know, on the supply aspect or, you know, who's responsible for the transformer side of it, because those are, again, a very much a long lead time item out in the marketplace.

That's, you know, there's some extra caveats and things that we go through when we try to qualify opportunities to make sure that that's all available. Those are, you know, the longer lead time items in the parts services aspect are, we've kind of baked in that timeframe in our in our targets. If that improves, that's great.

We haven't seen it, you know, I would say over the past 6 months, I guess at this point, something like that, we haven't seen it get worse. I think that's an important consideration. You know, it's almost like we're operating kinda in a new norm, and that's what it feels like anyway.

Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. We have no further questions. I'll now hand back to Sharyn for any closing comments.

Sharyn Brooks (Director of Communications)

Thank you for joining us. That concludes our conference call. A replay will be available for a limited time on our website today.

Nadia (Operator)

Thank you. This now concludes today's call. Thank you so much for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.