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84a111279cf8f73896b1ca31e501a3b9
So first one in North American fuel prices. So we're still seeing lead times quite elevated in the U.S. especially. And we have been seeing virtually no volumes on the spot market. So I was just wondering if you can share with us your expectations on how long do you really think that prices can be sustained at current ...
First question, North American prices, and clearly, I mean, prices continued to increase. And we are seeing that every day. I remember in the last conference call, we talked about prices, we said that we see that they are continuing to improve. But we thought that in the second quarter, they were going to start, not de...
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B
3ebd6b5354fb9ce8db0b8b099e6a1eca
With the fourth quarter -- on the third quarter call, you had said that EBITDA margins could get to as much as $200 per ton. So it did and I know that we -- you anticipate higher pricing, especially because of the lagged effect into the next couple of quarters. So can that margin be sustained and grow? I mean, are you ...
Okay. So you're right, we were expecting a decrease in EBITDA margins we like to look at our numbers. And that is reflected an increase in the EBITDA return to higher than $200 per ton. Clearly, we are expecting an increase in that number for the first quarter of the year and take into consideration, the big picture th...
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B
b2319a68cf2b38e83b65675b44770a0c
Just two quick questions from me, a follow-up on the capital allocation. You always mentioned dividends and capex. Obviously, you're very cash generative at the moment. And obviously, your expansion in Mexico has kind of come to an end, any thoughts about being a potential share buyback at this point in time? That is t...
Okay, well, let me take the first one, you know that we always look at different alternatives to increase our share price, the issue with the share buyback is that the level of floating that we have, so we will consider everything together in analyzing this type of transactions. So it's difficult for Ternium to move ah...
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A
dac4dca8cc2edf5921dbe43a28130a17
2 questions on my side, the first one on the slab market. Could you comment on the dynamics there supply and demand? We are seeing pretty pressured prices, if you expect this to hold for longer? And the second question on the demand side in Mexico, what are the sectors that you're seeing, the most positive demand momen...
Yes, thank you, Thiago. For the third one being production lost north of it. I mean, there's not much else, there's some part of that we purchase natural gas a little bit higher, but the main impact is production lost in a facility that it's a full capacity. So if we lost production with shipments, we cannot recover to...
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bdabff1199d6d9459f4682a0f4d31296
Hi, good morning, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to return back to capital allocation. So, Maximo, you mentioned you have a few different things under study at the moment. I'm just wondering, sort of how does M&A fit into that. Is that something you're also looking at or are there any othe...
Thank you, Jon. Capital allocation, organic or M&A? I think, I mean, we always look to both to be honest. We analyze both and you see there was, for record, I mean, we have made M&A acquisitions. And part of our growth, our history was through M&A. So that is possible. If you said, well, you have something concrete, no...
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3263588f8bc686d1487942f17ce99828
Before I jump into questions, could you just touch on the next steps to complete the recapitalization next month?
Yeah Nelson and thanks for the thanks. The next step is to get the final court order, which will happen on the 2nd, and then we expect the transaction to close in September -- mid to late September, the contingencies within that are regular -- regulatory approval.
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A
bca8b99fb81b27528715abada2b4596e
Okay. And then my first question just relates to the guidance for the year. So Q1 was pretty good and I believe Q1 is usually the weakest -- seasonally weakest quarter. So I'm just wondering whether you're being very conservative on your guidance for the year or do you expect to see some headwinds going forward?
And just to clarify on the prior question, the 2nd with the court approval, we will be seeking court approval on the 2nd, just to make that more clear than what I said before. You know, Nelson when it comes to our guidance, I don't think that necessarily being conservative is a bad thing. We wanted to set the tone with...
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B
eb5c36a921bf8d0781b101972d34506e
Okay, thanks. And then just moving on, I think in some of the commentary, the optimization of weather hedge costs were like that was one factor and contributing to some of the strong results. Could you just give a bit more color on the optimization of weather hedges, like has there been a change in your approach to hed...
No, no, we still are sticking to the fundamentals of our hedging program. Yeah, the way our program works is basically we've got base layer of hedges of blocks that are the underlying hedge for the load. We have hedges which addresses the shape and then the part you're talking about with respect to the weather hedges i...
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A
0daf9ce866d150ab5cc1e16ca28f4865
Okay. Thanks, Jim. And then just moving to customer additions, I think Scott touched on it a bit on your prepared remarks that with some states reopening. Can you just give a bit more details on which sales channels are open, close and reopening?
Yes. So throughout the COVID-19 difficulties our digital and telesales channel has been opened and growing, and we see that as a -- as potentially the most significant sales channel for the company going forward. But especially in the COVID-19 environment because the sales are taking place online or over the phone, we'...
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c8021566cb0db6d0c2f33b0bcdb836ae
Okay because I think there was roughly three quarters reduction in customer additions this past quarter. So the bulk of those customer additions were on the digital and telesales side. Is that -- that's fair to assume?
That is correct.
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A
0698eada0a0ec25f13e8c29511442866
Okay, got it. And then just moving over to bad debt expense. There was a large improvement on the consumer side, but on the commercial side, which is obviously a smaller part of the bad extent -- bad debt expense, there was actually an increase from roughly CAD1.1 million last year, up to CAD3.5 million this year. I'm ...
Yeah, the bulk of that increase is one customer. We had a customer that -- that defaulted. We are in collections. We do believe we will be able to collect it but it is the customer that was slow paid us and then stopped paying. So commercial, if you were to look at the part of our business that's most impacted, it's de...
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23f862e6fd86676acf0e27b0309f2405
Okay and then just one last question. There was a -- I think CAD21.5 million share swap payout during the quarter. Can you give a bit more detail on what that financial instrument is?
Yeah, sure, Nelson. That was online of a swap associated with a hedge that's been on with the company for many, many years. I think you'll see a similar online, I think it was -- I can't remember what quarter last year, but last year as well. But it's that -- it's come to the end of its term and we unwound that. It did...
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51269384faaa4f4e48a383a953106f02
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Maybe just walk through COVID benefits in the quarter from work from home, obviously you guys have a higher residential mix. Maybe just -- anyway to quantify what that might be and then given the inability to sell face-to-face, how much of a lag we might see from that drop in customer co...
Yes, so on the -- on the work from home benefit on the consumer residential side of our business, we've seen around an 8% increase in load on the residential side and our -- at its low point which has improved since the low point. Our commercial business, the load was down somewhere between 15% and 20%. That has improv...
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7c3b89e3eebfba57a0ea8d32419db5c1
Any way to put a dollar value around that or percentage impact on gross margin on a consolidated basis?
Yeah, it's single-digit millions shift between one to the other. I will mention that we are seeing a little bit of in there, we know that difference too, as the pandemic started, we saw a stark increase in residential load and commercial load in the opposite direction. That seems to be narrowing as time goes on. That w...
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0b47a5f52b248a7f793eb5d7892b01d8
And then, any thoughts on whether or not there is a lag from that decline in customers or that delaying especially the C&I customer signing given especially the early stage of the pandemic, as you kind of worked through the current quarter or are you -- how do you see it's going to manifest and how the results are goin...
Well, you know, there's two dynamics to that. One is the fact that commercial customers do tend to buy quite a way down in the future. So there is a delay in the impact, but we also feel like there is going to be a -- and we saw a little bit of this in Canada over the last quarter, a resurgence of buying as there is --...
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36cf9743ef1d8b8c1f749885768e4b60
Certainly, to follow up on that. So is there a target in mind of sort of optimal customer mix between consumer and commercial. It seems like gross margins is about maybe 75%, 80% coming from residential now, where do you think you'd like to see that mix shake over the next couple of years.
We don't -- we don't target a -- necessarily a mix between commercial and residential. We -- our supply chain optimizes for the total supply load, but we don't really have an optimal mix between residential, commercial, I mean from our perspective, the commercial market is contestable, it is very competitive. We try to...
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6d824bef63171b381bb58e564f5f7b2f
Okay. And then, this question is for Jim, but longer term debt target is obviously pretty big impact from the recapitalization and bringing down leverage and just where do you think as you've gone through some of this pain in our last year to work through that longer-term target, steady state where you think leverage s...
Yeah, no, I mean obviously the recapitalization was a monumental step in reducing leverage for the company and under the plan, we'll be paying down the credit facility by $70 million on a calendar year basis. So you know, we still feel like our leverage is a little above the average for the sector. So we'll be working ...
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B
c95131e842e7482fb2cefde887924fb8
Okay. And then maybe my last question before I jump in the queue. Just here on the comment that obviously a real focus on bringing back to the core business here and as mentioned that you guys would still consider some sale of non-core assets, including the value added products, how do you guys define core today relati...
So core -- I'll touch on core products and core product remains power and gas. Certain markets selling both power and gas to customers is critical to supporting the sales channel. In other words, there's not enough margin in just power for a customer or in just gas. But the combination of the two makes it profitable. S...
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B
24456e1012e8ca0789e0ce312f1d2677
So really just comes down to some of the sort of my peripheral value added stuff whether it's HVAC things and like just electrical efficiency that kind of stuff is where you guys would be thinking to -- to maybe shed a little bit some.
We're looking at all the options for those -- those activities, but you know, in terms of what we view as core that we are attempting to grow, it's going to be gas, power and renewable product in the regions where we sell those things.
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0962dabca4f6a476d8da866fa867de7e
You talked about a writedown of an unregulated and electric and gas, can you give us some details on that?
Yeah. Thanks for the question, Chris. Back in 2014, the company or the utility became a minority investor in an unregulated energy related business in the Bakken. We invested about $2 million recently in looking at the activity at that -- with that investment. We determined that the fair value was zero. So we actually ...
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A
a701ef139062af257b5c1565422362e3
Do you have any split?
Yeah. Thanks, Dave. So, Chris, there is about 1.2 in the electric segment with the remaining in gas.
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9ce5a6bd80a81222aef32ec7917bcc18
Have you got any kind of color in terms of weather impact for the quarter?
Yeah, so in the gas business -- if you look at our volumes, essentially, we are up a quarter-over-quarter. And if you recall, Chris, really, we are largely with the exception of Idaho and Montana. But we did see -- I would say colder than last year's weather in both of those states. So when you look at what's driving t...
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A
050596e606c004e19c2567052c3c898d
It looks like the revenue guidance increase would be roughly enough to give you that $0.5 increase in the guidance range. Is that principally what you guys were thinking in revising the guidance?
Yeah, I think when we looked at the guidance Chris, we look at it from an overall business perspective, not specific to construction or the regulated side of the business. So as we were all that together, given the start to the year that we've seen so far, I mean, increased the bottom end of our range as you remember i...
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a64b532c485fd7080cacb3d1fe4273ad
So my question is kind of a more bigger picture question. So I mean, you guys have done really a sensational job over the last few years operating the company, and this year is a good testament to that as you raised guidance, I guess kind of twice, right? You raised the low end first and now kind of this raise of every...
Perfect question. Thanks for that one Andrew. So as I think about the organization it's all about execution within the businesses. And as you pointed out about, I'll use your phrase outstanding business performance particularly this last quarter, I think that's actually reflective in what we're seeing in the market res...
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4f2a879c974aa9cb8d2038179893cf2e
But, in all due respect, that's not really, I mean you've been hitting the numbers, but if you kind of look at the mix of the businesses they don't really belong together and ultimately you look at like your analyst coverage. There's very little analyst coverage. I think if one by -- and the market system kind of takin...
I think it is key to operations, Andrew. As we think about, we are an infrastructure company. We talk about that being beyond pipes and wires, but also the transportation sector and certainly in the services area as well. And so, I think continued performance there will be reflective in our share price as we think abou...
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20f3138ff0fae88ec20a2686b05fc2a7
Wanted to ask a few questions on your ag and ready-mix volumes, can you comment on the -- there's been an obviously rapid growth in that business. What portion of the growth this quarter is due to third-party acquisitions? And then, on the same note, the backlog has grown pretty substantially as well. Could you comment...
Hey, Ryan. Yeah. Big portion probably about 40% of our revenue growth on ag and ready-mix. I think it's about 40% revenue growth on the ag and ready-mix is from acquisitions. But we do have some markets that are up from last year, we are seeing some strong growth in other markets besides where we've had acquisitions. A...
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194b60c006d9f0e16c44af09bbbaa097
Has the backlog mixed evolved with the growth, should we still consider maybe Q2, an appropriate run rate for the split between the different components of the materials business?
No. I would say that run rate is going to continue and improve as we go through the years to this year especially with the M&A and acquisitions we've added. I would expect to keep it that run rate or improve.
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051e302dddd3de397f99b86f582cb9b5
Okay. And then, switching gears to the construction and service businesses, what area of the workload increase and what is limitation for future workload increase?
Okay. Thanks for the question. This is Jeff. We saw an increase in the Las Vegas market. We've got four exceptional companies there are mechanical, electrical, fire protection and also underground excavation and utilities. They made a strong contributions to our increased backlog. And in addition to our other backlog i...
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87b4188b3a74b5f360f83c0d0c57f1f4
Okay, great. And then, in terms of the limitations for future workload increases, what are the biggest bottlenecks to achieving more upset?
All these resources and we're at a record employment level of over 6500 people and we have to make sure that we can deliver and execute on the work that we have. So, we spend more time on training, increase planning, and even more thorough scheduling, making sure that we're not over promising. Some of our projects get ...
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869955fc7df7ef14d9c3a8dd8072d9f4
Okay. And then, last question for me, what is the impact of weather to construction materials business for the quarter? Were you seeing any impact in the quarter that may spill over to the next quarter?
This is Dave. Good morning, Ryan. Weather was favorable in almost all our regions in the second quarter. We had a few areas that impact us in small ways, but the overall the weather was very cooperative in the second quarter.
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48d009f5c3fb8ae40c7bb4f57832d1e9
Couple of more things. Just a clarification, I think the press release notes that construction services was a record second quarter, but is it not a record all-time backlog for construction services?
Actually, I think our record all-time was when we put out that release relative to Resorts World here not so long ago. I think that was maybe a decimal point higher or something like that. So, it's a record second quarter. Just slightly off from an all-time record.
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a661c9f91e28449fc65796b2fbcde0c0
Okay. But it's a record for end of a quarter?
It is. It is.
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622feff854dc4f837f7f1a80d1f1e906
All right. Jeff, if I look at the margins and I'm talking sort of net margins sort of year-to-date, it looks like you're on a pace to be up, but your guidance is for sort of similar margins. Are you guys just being a little conservative at this point of the year, or are you expecting something in the second half of the...
So we look at the risk and the opportunity and it's all about execution. So our margins are comparable and if you take a look at some of our project mix and timing you look at how we're procuring or being awarded our projects really on our expertise with our people. So we're getting on board earlier in a design assist ...
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edaaacf3f54a285fafd79e6c32dcdf5c
Okay. And one last thing. I think somewhere in the press release you mentioned you're seeing some strengthening in the economy and it looks like the Fed is taking an insurance policy today on what the market is geared to be a weakening economy. Could you just sort of give us some clarity on what you're seeing in the ec...
Yeah. Okay. This is Jeff. Our transmission and distribution work is keeping us very busy in all the regions where we work. Our equipment rental and supply company continues to provide. I think the best wire stringing equipment in the industry and we're able to provide that for our utility customers and our contractor c...
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be8d9daa11c84fb9f0e31d15f64e6127
It's nice to hear that you really haven't seen any credit issues or defaults at this point. I wanted to dive in a little bit more into the bad debt expense. So can you give us a little bit more color how you determine essentially the appropriate amount to set aside in this environment? And what are some of the assumpti...
Yes, Mike. I mean, that was the question we were all expecting, and it's certainly our focus at the moment. I think we are working with all the big shipping lines in this world. And it's a reality that they don't always comply fully with their payment terms. They have some small variations and therefore, we are sometim...
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Got it. So your top two customers represent approximately 33% of your lease income. Can you specifically address how you're feeling about those customers? Specifically, it sounds like you're in discussions with your customers very closely, I'm sure even more now than typical. So can you speak to how you're feeling abou...
Yes. The answer in a nutshell is we're feeling good. As Michael said, we haven't seen any slippage in payments so far. I think we are comforted by the general environment, although pretty dire and with a very high level of uncertainty, we are seeing a market where shipping line, those two in particular, but I mean, the...
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7ff3d7f7f63071685de333262809a8a3
Great. Appreciate the color. So I guess where we sit today, how is Textainer really thinking about credit and how it could perform in this downturn versus the financial crisis? Is it potentially similar? And I guess if you could also compare it to what we saw in the 2015 and 2016 time frame, that would be helpful as we...
Yes. Maybe I'll let Michael speak a little bit on this as well. If I can go back, Mike, even a little bit further and go back to 2008 and 2009, during that financial crisis, we saw trade really collapse. But the actual container trade dropped by about 10%, which is I think why quite often in our environment today, peop...
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OK. And I just wanted to change gears a little bit. It sounds like in this environment that just given kind of where we were going into this and kind of how production of this has been kind of more rational than in previous cycles. I guess, how do you expect utilization rates to perform? I saw this quarter, yours staye...
Yes, I think we're very happy with the very limited decline in utilization rates. As I stated earlier on, we expect this to continue, and possibly to be very slightly higher. Still, we don't expect the utilization rate decline to be that drastic as the ones you're referring to. So we kind of see an environment where sh...
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b7d7a7c8e678e27000395790d7469517
OK. Great. Maybe just one more for me. I've noticed that a lot of companies have really been kind of turning off their buybacks to serve some liquidity or maybe sit on a little bit higher cash. You guys have been very active in the first quarter, bought back at some very attractive levels. But I guess, given the fact t...
Thanks, Mike. As you mentioned, we've been buying opportunistically. And I think that's always been our focus, and that will continue to be our focus. We will buy back share if we think that we can buy them very opportunistically within the trading limitation and restrictions that are in place. But the fundamental aspe...
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Hi, Larry. This is actually Mike on for Tim. So my first question have you seen any impact on RPL or NPL supply, given the spike in forbearances and the impacts CECL is having on the banks? Just wondering if you're able to acquire any assets at more attractive yields than you were, I guess, in the fourth quarter.
The answer is yes, yes, and yes. We're clearly seeing a lot of supply of loans right now. A big chunk of that -- it's not come from the banks yet, but it will -- a big chunk of it has come from people as it relates to margin calls, and we're seeing it from dealers who've been asked to find buyers for loans. Number two,...
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6b75d4c8aad93ae52cb0d5e3e4427001
Thank you. That's very helpful. And kind of just given the deterioration in residential credit, the expectations for that, what's the sentiment toward -- or demand like from your JV partners? Has it improved or how has it changed since February, the first half of March? Are they cautious or has the volatility created o...
Sure. I would say from March 5th -- or about March 25th to about April 15th, it was in suspended animation. Since about April 15th or 20th, it is go find me as many loans as you can find. So very different. There's like a 20- or 25-day period where there was just structure illiquidity, and I think a lot of people saw t...
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0ca59e6b85bbbc9a310165a680832806
Thank you. That's helpful. And just one more from me, so subsequent to quarter-end, you did the $80 million private placement. I'm just curious how much of this capital has been deployed? And then, as a follow-up to that, is the dividend set at a level that reflects earnings power as you redeploy proceeds from the pref...
The dividend -- well, I'll answer the dividend question first. The dividend question is it's set based on an expectation of kind of taxable income, assuming only a small amount of the money is put to work. That being said, taxable income in an environment like this is pretty hard to predict. We don't want to bet on put...
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3ccb8bfd563454e3d74eead5bda61e2f
Gotcha. That's helpful. And then any idea just how much of that capital has been deployed?
Only a small amount thus far.
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c4863afe8a0c2b0efcf843fba537836f
Thank you. Good evening. Good afternoon. Just a follow up on some of his comments about being patient and put capital to work. I mean, do you feel like the market has come back too quickly, just given spread tightening that we saw and where the underlying credit would justify some of those prices?
I think in certain subsegments of the market, it's come back. I mean, some of it -- I mean, we're nowhere near where we were, say, in February, but it is improved to some extent since late March, I would say, by maybe a third of where it got to in late March. That being said, we -- I think there's still potentially sig...
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Right. And then, just to follow up on your comments about prepay speeds picking up and then slowing down, and then you're not sure what's going to happen there. I mean, maybe could you pickup in prepay speed actually be a good thing in the near-term as it increases your cash, and it allows you to eventually put that ca...
Yes, I think that's right. We do expect that prepay speeds will increase pretty materially, given where mortgage rates are and given, so far, the stability. In fact, home prices on average are probably up a little bit in the last few months rather than down. So we do think prepayment speeds, those will pick up material...
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OK. OK. And then, given what you're seeing in some of the respective markets that you mentioned, would you expect recovery values on deposit loans be fairly resilient or are you fully expecting some significant declines of recovery values, just given the economic softness we're seeing out there?
So, in the reserve we took, we built in some economic decline in the recovery values. That being said, we've not seen it in actuality in any material aspect thus far. We've actually seen, to some extent, the opposite in terms of the liquidity in homes as well as increase in prices. What we have built in in that reserve...
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OK. And then, obviously, you're acting almost like a special servicer on a large portion of your loans. Have you -- how have deferrals, or maybe forbearance, have changed from where your baseline was and where it is now?
Well, it's interesting, because we bought these loans, on average, where only 13% of them had made 12 consecutive payments. And we got it up to 76%, and it's 74% now. And so, I would say we probably didn't expect it to get to 76% when we bought them with only 13% 12 for 12. So far, the requests for forbearance have bee...
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So how does the 5% compare to your baseline typical forbearance rate?
We built in that that 76% number will decline by about 25%.
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First question, I saw in the release, you talked about the pay loss ratio being 51.9. Do you guys have offhand what last years was, feels awfully good?
I do with the full year for 2019 was 55.2.
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Okay. Okay, so it's lower. And so, I guess, Rob, you've been telling us pretty loud and clear that, there's uncertainty about whether the recent frequency dip kind of comes back to normal levels in 2021. And severity has been a big part of the problem for the industry. Just curious, is severity currently or in 2020, is...
No. At least from my perspective, and I'm using a very broad brush here. So there are going to be pockets that would not fit under this response. But generally speaking, when we look at 2020, we think severity continues to be an issue, this whole sort of topic of social inflation, we think, remains very real. And hone...
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And switching gears to one of your comments earlier about the top line growth lagging, pricing. I guess, I had thought one of the main reasons was, when you're giving the pricing figure it includes comp, but it doesn't include comp, which is more flattish to negative pricing. But I guess my real question was, you talk...
I don't have those numbers, and can perhaps follow-up with whatever we are able to share. But what I can tell you is this, for policies that were written during 2019 that we're providing coverage during 2020 or policies that were written early in 2020, obviously, the expectation that many of those insureds had was that...
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Of the COVID -- sorry, the COVID-19 charges you've taken in 2020, what percentage are sitting in IBNR, roughly?
The total amount that we have put up somewhere between 45% and 50% is still sitting in IBNR.
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A
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My first question is around the severity trend. Robert, I just want to clarify on your comment that it continues to take off like a rocket ship after COVID. Are you expecting further deterioration in the trend once COVID normalizes?
It is my view that social inflation is a moving target. And that it continues to tick along. And I think that there are some people that have underestimated that. And we have worked very hard as an organization not to get caught behind. But -- so my view is that, when I say a rocketship, I think that there are a lot o...
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But it's not necessarily that this trend gets worse, it's just that others may have been slow to wake to this realization.
I think the others may be slow to wake up to it. And I think in addition to that, that it continues and you get a compounding effect. And if you haven't been keeping up with it, you will continue to fall farther behind.
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Got it. And then my second question is, so, for a company that has recognized this trend early and has also shown duration on the asset side, is there the opportunity to perhaps take the foot off of the rate pedal, in order to take market share and what is potentially much more accretive business today, considering tha...
So we look at each product line by operating unit and try and strike the balance between rate versus growth. And there certainly are parts of the business where we are very satisfied with the margin. And we are actively growing policy count. And then there are other parts of the business where given where rates have go...
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So I guess my question is, just it looks like in the insurance segment, the past three quarters have been underlying loss ratio, pretty steady, kind of 59.5 to 60. It doesn't look like we're really seeing that much positive margin impact from this relationship between rate and loss trend. I was just hoping maybe, if yo...
So I'm trying to think about how I can answer it. Our margins, we believe, the impact of rate increases will become more visible in 2021. I would suggest to you over the past several quarters, obviously, we have had an impact associated with COVID-19, as both Rich and I have discussed, and that has been disproportionat...
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d589f2a2a4359ebec5687315ef68bf82
So Rob in your mind, what impact has COVID had on the attritional loss ratio in insurance in 2020?
Well, when you say attritional loss ratio, we view COVID as a cat.
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Okay. I'm sorry, I meant how about on the ex-cat loss ratio in terms of things in our direct losses. But, whether it's lower frequency of various things versus...
By and large, as far as benefits stemming from COVID on the frequency front, we have been very reluctant to come off of our loss picks. Yes, maybe we've gotten a little bit of benefit on the physical damage front of auto. But other than that, we are thinking that one needs to be very cautious around reaching a conclusi...
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Rob, another one may be on, I guess my question gets to the heart of your need for continued rate versus the industries. And when you say some will be shocked with frequency and severity takes off, you won't be shocked and you've already contemplated that you said a lot here with social inflation and your concerns so y...
Yes. We share your observation that we think we're in a good place. And we have been pushing for rate for a while, which is one of the reasons why we probably have a little bit -- we don't have to catch up the way some others do. And as far as our positioning, we think we're in a good place because we don't have the l...
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Okay. I guess, when I read your commentary on the press release and you talk about the need for additional rate, I assume you're saying they're more for your peers than for you, is that right?
I think the marketplace needs additional rate, and certainly to the extent that rate is available, we will be taking the rate.
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3818efb7a0fa3a263e0e3dd7d0e7b196
Okay. Thanks. Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, thank you. I guess it's unrelated question. With the new administration in place, anything you want to share on how you might want to manage potential changes in tax with maybe something in Bermuda or whatever else, anything, you can share on how you thinking about managing tha...
Obviously, we are conscious that the new administration has likely to be raising taxes in any way it possibly can and corporate taxes are likely a piece of that. We are conscious of that and trying to analyze it appropriately.
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b83e0153b646896a25956e651cb353f4
Rob, if you can go back to your comments on the difference between rates and premium growth. You mentioned, I guess that exposure units are down, does that itself have any impact on your underwriting results?
So just to make sure that we're clear, what I'm suggesting is that the exposure unit may be down, if you will, but the number of policies is up and the rate is up, and does that have an impact on -- an impact on what?
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And so when you've got that decline in exposure unit or a smaller increase? Does that itself have any impact on any elements of the combined ratio?
Well, certainly when we calculate our rate, we think about the number -- the exposure to come up with the rate that we're achieving, right? So it impacts how we think about our loss ratio.
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8ffcdeab5d8c6d3e31d7551d76e242e4
Okay. Understood. The second question, I guess, now that we've gone through at least January 1. Is it reasonable to expect growth in reinsurance, either for property casualty to be in line with the growth that we saw in 2020? This is on the reinsurance side?
None of us know exactly what tomorrow will bring. I think there's clearly more discipline in the reinsurance marketplace than there has been in an extended period of time. Kudos to our colleagues that run our reinsurance businesses for exercising tremendous discipline, which came undoubtedly at great frustration and pa...
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efc4edce08df7a6a12c2078efe3bec6c
Hi. Couple of follow up questions. I guess one, can you maybe talk about the sources of COVID losses this quarter?
The lion's share of our COVID loss activity as a group has stemmed from event cancellation.
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A
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Okay. And in this quarter specifically, I'm assuming thatâs from policies that have yet to be renewed in the COVID environment?
It is from exposures, so it's a -- a whole mishmash. But the biggest piece of what we saw in the quarter related to COVID was, we are constantly looking at the exposure. And as we and one -- the big assessment is, how long is it going to go on for, how severe is it going to be? And to what extent are people going to co...
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46424b465b05ac1a9375118faa1bcdc3
Got it. And then, my second question. I know it's in the insurance segment, there's a bit of an increase in ceded premiums. Is that just a function of change in business mix or are you actually purchasing more reinsurance dollar for dollar?
It's primarily a shift in business mix. And to a certain extent, some reinsurance pricing has gone up. I think one of the things you may likely see as the year goes on, and quite frankly, the reinsurance pricing is firming further, you may see us revisiting what our net retentions are and perhaps keeping more net.
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Hey, Rob. Quick question for you. So if I take a look back at kind of the 2000 through 2004 time period for you all, you had 24 points of this attritional call it combined ratio improvement and just as much on a kind of reported. Can you maybe compare and contrast a little bit, today's market versus, back then granted,...
Yes. So my take on it, and then, maybe our Chairman, they have a view. But my take on it is that, it's not nearly -- it's ugly right now. And it may prove to be uglier than we even realize. But it's not in all likelihood, as ugly as it was in 1999, 2000 and 2001. And there's a general rule of thumb that the farther the...
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3880ec0ceed4eb7b08deaaf001ae3016
So wanted to follow up a little bit on these strong outperformance in the first quarter. Was that mainly driven by the secular ad especially with a low base last year or are we actually seeing we are gaining market share in terms of the app that your allocation from the advertisers? Any color that management could prov...
So, first of all, thank you very much for the question. Let's just be very brief. So, first of all, we have been seeing that in Q1, we had a big growth and part of the reason was due to the kind of year-over-year base, like low base number of the last quarter on -- Q1 of last year, but that was only partially the reaso...
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6eb69f74431766cbe54e8233c8d30c40
So I would like to ask about your strategy focus in the user products. So, what will be your key initiatives to increase the user engagement with in terms of your product design and operations? And would you like to share any specific targets for some of them?
Okay. So, thank you for this question. First of all, since Q4 of last year and also in Q1, this quarterly report, we have already been mentioning some of the works and efforts focusing on the user engagement enhancement. And also, for example, the first is that, we are trying to get access to those low frequency users ...
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17fa58e2f60a81d880b4a9357d4dc940
I just have a couple of questions relating to the cost side. Given that we are going to invest more in content to drive user growth and engagement, can you share about our spending budget for this year together with the trend in R&D, and sales and marketing.
All right. So, first of all, let's give you the answer in relation to the content part. So, since this year, we are talking about a kind of competitive landscape here and also we are going to focus more on the investment to the content. But, of course, this particular fashion of doing the investment is quite much diffe...
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So like to get a sense of like the recent fan economy, like the regulatory headwind or like the crackdown, would that have like any impacts on like any operational or financial impact on our business fundamentals?
And also, talking about this question, first of all, I have to say that this is not a very good question for Weibo to comment, but rather by Baidu IT should comment on this. But, however, let me just share you some of my opinion. So, I think that we are talking about the two levels of regulation. The first one is that,...
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Dr. Paul the book-to-bill remains pretty high and the backlog is increasing. Can you let us know what steps you're taking to mitigate any double ordering? How do you filter that out? And what steps are you taking to counteract that?
Honestly and I said this before in situations like that there is practically no way to filter out double ordering. But on the other hand given the situation of today with this high backlog, the problem of that is very low. We have to accept it. It happens. And honestly there's not much to be done unfortunately.
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Can I ask you on the capex? I think you raised your guidance for this year's capex to $225 million. Can you give us some details on which regions and which product lines you're adding capacity? And when do you think that will be fully utilized?
These are always the same lines really. It's going to the MOSFETs to the diodes to the power inductors to resistor chips to power wirewound. And we invest -- continue to invest in the Opto set. And also it means that power -- that means in power film capacitors. As a matter of fact this will be available in steps of co...
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Can I ask you about, the priorities for cash in this environment? Do you see any opportunities for inorganic growth either on the passive side or the active side? And then, how should we think about buybacks and any dividend increases, just your thoughts on prioritizing use of cash.
Well, as a matter of fact, we are looking for acquisitions always. We just acquired a specialty company. You know that ATP. We are looking always for further opportunities. And of course, we completely look at further opportunities also. And of course, I can say, and I think, I reconfirmed that, we have considerations ...
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Given the record bookings, is your outlook for June fully booked today? Or will the June quarter require turns business? And I was hoping, you could provide, your view on which end-markets are seeing the most extended lead times at distribution.
Well, first of all, I don't check it on a daily basis but don't be worried. There's always some turns business required, but the back -- the short-term backlog is quite overwhelming. What really is important in the quarter is how much we can manufacture. That is the -- the emphasis will be on manufacturing the challeng...
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6a5f1db19cdf57d2c3318c906b872e34
I'd like to hear your perspective on, where you think we are in the semis cycle. Your outlook for June implies a record level of sales. Distributor inventories are low. Pricing pressure is easing. At the same time, we are increasing capex by 10% this year. So I guess given the fact -- given these factors, what are your...
We have no reason to doubt that. Talking to our customers there's ongoing optimism. And of course the quarters have a certain history. Some quarters are not as -- do not have as many working days, as others. But principally speaking, I see at this point in time, no change of the trend, which at a point in time as it al...
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I wanted to ask about the strong distribution point of sales or sell-through that you talked about up 23% quarter-on-quarter. Are you getting a sense -- well number one is that the traditional distribution customer are you starting to see your OEM and EMS customers who traditionally buy more direct are also using distr...
Matt, we are here since a long time. Sooner or later there will be again the pipeline will be filled. But at this point in time there's really tangible facts that inventories go up in the supply chain. I'm not aware of any. Of course, we don't know everything. And you can ask whether OEMs for instance build some invent...
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I mean are you starting to see your direct customers maybe can't get part? Are they going -- are they using distribution more than normal, which we've seen in prior cycles?
I cannot exclude it, but this is not a driving thing I believe. I don't -- sorry, it can happen of course. And these times speak -- it can happen especially in such times, but I don't see a momentum here no.
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bcf29af0eb8ae665f82c954dffebc34f
In the release this morning you talked about the long-term drivers of content growth for Vishay, including 5G EV and other. Could you be maybe more specific about in terms of the content growth what the content opportunity is in EV versus traditional combustible engine and then 5G other examples that we can get comfort...
Yes. Especially on EV side, I have a number even ready. Normally we -- the electrical content electronic content in a normal car is about $200 opportunity for us. In an electro vehicle this is $700 according to what we analyzed and this does not include the charging stations. So just to give you that example we are qui...
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dde298241d99f4275678c3fc353e8e8a
In terms of the guidance for up sequentially does that contemplate some inventory build at distribution? And does that also factor in ASP increases?
Both there will be some -- the inventory at distribution is low, especially, in Asia. So we would -- I would expect some increases of inventory at distribution, which would be healthy at this point in time. Also some first impacts of price increases are included.
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967dc2e45da1ef60599a685acd3ac69e
On the team's outlook for higher growth rates over the next few years on rising dollar content and electrification, how should we think about the target growth rate relative to your prior view of 3% to 6% revenue growth and 10% to 20% net income growth?
Where do you take the 6% from? I mean 6% is -- the market itself grows by about 2% to 3% historically. We indeed believe now and this can be doubled. That is true.
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1c5fa0b31ed926dc1478a82d11239169
And on that topic of contribution margins, and I asked this question last quarter too, but your -- the team is still below the 46% level that you guys were driving back in 2018. And you're pretty close to 45%, it feels like in Q1 and Q2, but still slightly below that. So given the continued pricing improvements, would ...
I believe what we are going to see is the impact of some price increases. I can hardly speculate on logistics costs, which holds us back at this point in time, not only us, also others. You would assume that with improving situation of the pandemic, there will be more flights and the freight rates will go down again. S...
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Given the strong backlog and I'm assuming lead times are still extending so, it feels like you guys have very good visibility for the second half. And I assume that given the demand environment that second half is shaping up to grow over the first half. Number one is that fair? And given your manufacturing capacity exp...
Yes, principally it can. But you may remember last session, when I called our machine capacity, the max capacity at 3.2. And at the moment, we are in process to add. But of course, we have -- the faster we add the more sales we can bring home, no question, at least during such a period like today. We will do our best, ...
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1ec246122ac59d0cb6a501689373542f
Start with really solid results, obviously, start with the 17% jump in revenue for Q1. Just how much of that was pricing reflecting pass-through of raw materials and kind of similar question for the increase in revenue guide for the year?
I'd say, as a general statement, most of the increase in revenue was really related to increased demand and volume. Pricing started to play a role toward the end of the quarter and will likely play a role along with the raw material increases going forward through the year. But in Q1, it was mostly volume.
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1ce61ba95dfb4bff7968515b903028ee
Scott, I think you said a number for the increase in medical claims for the quarter. I missed it. If you said it, can you repeat it? And what are the expectations kind of on a full-year basis?
Medical first quarter year over year is $1.6 million higher. What we're forecasting is kind of a return to what we would call somewhat normalized. So if you take 2019 and average that with 2020, obviously, 2020 was a lot lower due to the COVID restriction. We're expecting somewhere in the middle there.
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8d09161693658c90ff6dcc56b22d18ea
George, you gave a lot of great color. Just in terms of EU demand, obviously, remarkably strong and continues to be. Just if you had to rank order those factors that you described in terms of what's driving the underlying growth, is it COVID restrictions? Is it interest rates remaining low? The efficiency, the standard...
I think, Daniel, what we're seeing is really a balance between the two of the main items. One, the infrastructure is old. And the need to replace windows from the R&R side continues to be there. And the fact that across all of Europe, there are some very strict regulations as to energy efficiency requirements when you ...
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99eb80700f971659f23785dd5d16004d
Hey, I just wanted to ask a follow-up to that last question about the demand drivers in Europe. You called out kind of improved consumer demand for renovation because there's less kind of just less spend on travel and economic recovery, increasing vaccination rates. But just trying to help me think about the difference...
I think they do. I think the big difference between Europe and North America is that in North America, the new construction activity is -- competes with R&R in terms of installation labor. Whereas in U.K. and Europe, it's much more focused on R&R. So the European growth model is building into that fact. We tend to be h...
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5fc55775e93d8a2e2ffcb7b52fdc2d41
OK. I guess, on your cabinet segment, you saw some good margin improvement there, I think, 330 basis points. Can you maybe try to quantify the benefits of the new assets? And how much that benefited the margin versus volume leverage? And also, when do you anniversary those new assets?
In terms of the asset, it's hard to break it down because of plant by plant. It gets rolled into general operational improvements. There are three or four assets that we put into our rough mills that are showing yield improvements. So we haven't split that kind of detail out. So I think it would be inappropriate. And I...
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c4acc106b3a2249726c7203e9d377c0c
Sure. If you benefited from not just volume leverage in this quarter, but also improvement on your manufacturing capabilities, when did you put that in place last year? Just trying to think about when you anniversary that.
That was -- those assets were more back half. So we'll see full year of benefit, probably end of third into our fourth quarter. They were end-of-year asset installations.
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A
a004c90b7ab9d5a416853331ade7e1bf
OK. And I guess, just my last one is a little more broad. Just you called out some labor constraints in terms of your company. But I've always thought about labor constraints is also helping your company, right, on the -- from your customer base because I would think increased labor tightness drives additional demand f...
No, you're absolutely correct. That the labor constraints are also a driver of increased share and demand for us. So it's a balance that we're trying to fight and create. As I said, it's not a problem unique to Quanex. So it is creating opportunities. But at the same time, we're fighting availability of labor as they c...
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I guess, I wanted to continue on the labor constraints and maybe more how it impacts you guys. How much did labor constraints, maybe did it reduce sales, even though demand was higher for you guys in Q1? And if that was the case, what segments or products is -- are the labor constraints impacting you the most?
So I think where you would see the biggest impact for us is really on our labor cost and significant increases in overtime usage. I don't think -- in very rare circumstances, has it impacted a reduction in shipments. The area that currently is most impacted would probably be our cabinet components plants, primarily up ...
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OK, great. And then, maybe I missed this in the prepared remarks, but how much then is our automation investments of focus right now for capex? Maybe if there are automation investments are being stepped up, is that in North America cabinets or other segments? And then, maybe if this is a meaningful portion of the cape...
Capex automation has been a focus for us for multiple years, and it will continue to be so. We have active projects in place to try to reduce labor and ease that burden of our labor demand. The problem that we have and everyone will have in capex is that most of the equipment suppliers for automation have long lead tim...
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Maybe if we could talk about the -- so we've heard ocean freight and just transportation, in general, I guess, globally has become increasingly an issue. Are you guys finding that -- I know this last year, you got some benefit from some of the cabinet manufacturers looking to do in-source production. Are you guys findi...
No, it's still -- we still see it as a -- that is a tailwind for us. Internationally sourced freight, the ability to find containers and the surcharges being applied to containers is a significant cost to those that heavily rely on importing of products. So that is an opportunity for us. Our challenge will be, as you k...
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fbf7e3276fe1a028f50ff42f8194e0aa
OK. And then, in North American fenestration, obviously, a big quarter there and the outlook is very strong. I mean, is there any way to gauge -- I think you guys have been doing well on the top line with some of your initiatives like screens, for example. But is there any way to gauge what the, I guess, the market's g...
Let me take the first part of that on the US versus market in North America fenestration. So as you know, we track a few different sources and Ducker is one that we track for window shipments. And I think their latest forecast showed an expectation of about 6% growth this year. Obviously, with the revised guidance that...
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663f7eea4f4ff72889bfe33c934469ed
OK. And then, if I could sneak one more in. Any updates or anything new on the energy efficiency front? I know that you guys, your spacers are efficient and would benefit from any kind of new regulation from the administration? Have you heard or have any updates there?
No, I think it's too early into the new administration. I mean, we anticipate, over everything that we're seeing, that it will be, at some point, have a renewed focus that we tend to be behind the Europeans in that realm. And we anticipate it will be addressed, but it hasn't at this point, and we haven't heard anything...
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Oh, what a quarter. Let's see here. I'm just looking at your January presentation, 55% thereabout, North American fenestration. Can you just update us on the mix of your three businesses there? Is it about a third, a third, a third still, would you say, for IG screens and profiles?
I think really based on some of the comments we made on screens and accessories. That piece is probably growing to a little bit more than a third. IG is doing well, too. And I would say, vinyl is probably on the lower end of the three.
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a617c3c3d1bd8657c38ceaebfd0e45ff
Right. So would you say the share gains you're seeing in screens is really a function of your strategy to help manufacturers improve their businesses? Is that a new function that we're seeing in '21? Or was that kind of evident in the back half of '20 or '19? Is this a new event is what I'm getting at because it's real...
Yeah. I would say the success on the screen side is really working with our customers to show the benefit of outsourcing that process. And allowing them to focus on using their labor to manufacture and sell windows. The other thing that it's starting to see, and if you remember, we opened up a new plant at the very end...
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B
70486c46a3781f6e1764c59fa0556435
OK. So when you're saying underserved, just to explore this because I think about these businesses all different. Underserved, I mean, so you opened up a new plant and I could Google this, I guess, but you're opening up a plant next to an existing customer or new customer, basically. So it's actually a greater share of...
Yeah. As we said in the past, the screen product line and if you look on our investor presentation and see our footprint, the screens are, in terms of weight very light, and they can be easily damaged. So the location of a plant is really based upon a freight radius. We know our optimal radius to be able to ship a scre...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
76f3dbe234da16ff2bd50ab3fbb408b4
Excellent. Really appreciate that. So going back to the other piece, if you guys don't mind this question because fenestration is the fascinating industry. Your profiles, would you say your profile shipments have been in line with the industry growth rate? Or are there kind of share gains that we're seeing in your guid...
Yeah, that is correct. I would say, in general, our growth has been in line with what we're seeing in terms of the market. As we've said in the past, we've been very focused on understanding what we do and do well. So as we've quoted and gone after and retain specific pieces of the business, it's based on SKUs that we ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B