OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
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James M. Sheehan
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Analyst, Gabelli & Company
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Analyst, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.
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Ivan M. Marcuse
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Michael Joseph Harrison
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Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.
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Analyst, Seaport Global Securities LLC
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Dmitry Silversteyn
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Analyst, Longbow Research LLC
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MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION
Operator
: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like
to welcome everyone to Chemtura Corporation's Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to
prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
Thank you.
May I now present you the Director of Corporate Development
and Investor Relations, Mr. Matthew Sokol. You may begin your conference.
Matthew Sokol
Director, Investor Relations & Corporate
Development, Chemtura Corp.
Thank you, Eliza. Good morning everyone and thank you
for joining today. With me are Craig Rogerson, Chemtura's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stephen Forsyth,
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we will review summary highlights of our third quarter 2016
operating results. We will also provide our outlook for the remainder of 2016 and we'll give you an update regarding our recently
announced transaction with Lanxess.
Last night, we issued our earnings press release providing
our third quarter 2016 results and filed our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder,
some of the statements about the future performance of the company may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the federal securities laws. Please note the cautionary language about our forward-looking statements presented in our 10-Q.
That same language applies to this call. Reconciliations related to any non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call may
be found in previous filings and press releases, which are posted on our website.
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I note this call is
being broadcast and recorded and will be available for replay on our website. Your attendance on this conference call constitutes
your consent to the recording and broadcast of the call.
I will now turn the call over to Craig Rogerson. Craig?
Craig A. Rogerson
Chairman, President & Chief Executive
Officer, Chemtura Corp.
Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everyone, and thank you
for joining us. Before we discuss our third quarter performance, let me say a few words about our recently announced transaction
with Lanxess.
If you listened to our earnings calls or attended our
investor events over the last couple of years, you've heard me talk about our desire to accelerate value creation for our shareholders
through gaining scale as a result of a strategic transaction. We described this as an exploration of buy, sell, or merge opportunities,
as scale could be gained by becoming part of a larger enterprise or by adding a leg to Chemtura.
The strategic focus was framed by the successful completion
of our portfolio rationalization initiative that had transformed Chemtura into a focused portfolio of four premium industrial specialty
chemicals businesses. Through the execution of portfolio transformation and the use of the cash proceeds to repurchase our common
stock at attractive share prices, Chemtura had established a track record of significant value creation for its shareholders.
The question became: how do we create further value on
an accelerated basis? In our journey to find the right transformative deal for Chemtura, we evaluated a great number of potential
transactions. Our standards were high. We knew that after years of portfolio management we had created a company with a solid set
of assets and consistent earnings potential. Opportunities were measured against the value and earnings power of our base businesses
and needed to show clear superiority to our base plan in order to be considered.
I'm pleased to say that our sale to Lanxess ticked nearly
every box on its list of strategic objectives. Lanxess is a premier specialty chemical company with the scale, experience and expertise
to advance our businesses, and we are convinced that Lanxess is the right home for our businesses and our employees.
Lanxess' purchase price of $33.50 per share delivers
solid value to our investors. It represents a 19% premium to Chemtura's share price on the last trading day before we announced
the merger, a 20% premium to Chemtura's average closing price for the 90-day period prior to the announcement, a 21% premium to
Chemtura's average closing price for the one year period prior to the announcement and a 42% premium over our 52 week low.
When we exited our Chapter 11 reorganization six years
ago in November of 2010, our plan of reorganization valued Chemtura common stock at $13.45 per share. The Lanxess' purchase price
of $33.50 per share is about 2.5 times that value. In the intervening period, we received gross proceeds from divestitures of
approximately $1.5 billion and have returned approximately $1 billion of the after-tax cash proceeds from our portfolio rationalization
to our shareholders, reducing the share count from 100 million shares at emergence to 63 million shares today.
In any transaction of this magnitude, there is
a significant amount of work to be done to get the deal closed. This work is well underway. We're in the process of
drafting the shareholder proxy statement and we have begun the process of filing for our merger control approvals. We have
already filed under the Hart Scott Rodino Act for approval here in the U.S. and we expect to make filings in other
jurisdictions over the next several weeks.
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We have also started the process
of working with our colleagues from Lanxess on integration planning. In total, we expect all of these work streams to be completed
and for the closing to occur by mid-2017. In the meantime, we remain focused on operating our businesses and delivering on our
commitments to our shareholders.
Now, let me turn to our operating results. In the third
quarter, our net earnings on a GAAP basis were $25 million versus $31 million in the third quarter of 2015 and $34 million in the
second quarter of this year. Net earnings and operating income were lower in the third quarter compared to prior year and prior
quarter, primarily due to charges we incurred in the quarter specifically associated with the Lanxess transaction. Stephen will
go into those charges and how we account for them in more detail during his presentation.
Excluding these charges, operating profitability increased
as we had expected. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the merger and integration costs among other items, was $78 million,
up $8 million or 11%, both sequentially and versus the same period last year. Last 12 months, our LTM-adjusted EBITDA increased
to $278 million, up 17% compared to adjusted EBITDA of $237 million for the 2015 calendar year, indicating that we're making great
progress towards meeting our adjusted goal of adjusted EBITDA growth in 2016.
Net cash provided by operating activities in the third
quarter was $43 million, compared to $48 million in the third quarter of last year. The reduction is due to a number of factors,
most notably, the merger and integration costs that were settled in the quarter. Nine months year-to-date, net cash provided by
operating activities are now $87 million. Excluding the $35 million cash contribution we made to our Qualified U.S. Pension Plan
in the first quarter of this year, net cash provided by operating activities for the first nine months is $122 million compared
to $117 million in the same period of 2015.
Let me turn to the performance for each of our operating
segments. Our IPP segment delivered higher operating income on overall lower sales compared to the prior year and the prior quarter.
Sales decreased as a result of lower sales prices, as we passed along lower raw material costs to certain of our customers. Lower
sales were also due to lower overall buying across most IPP product lines, together with unfavorable mix in our Petroleum Additives
product lines. Volume was particularly weak in our ester-based stock products and in our urethane products that serve the mining
and oil and gas industries.
IPP operating income increased by $4 million year-over-year
and $6 million sequentially, despite the lower volumes. Operating margins for IPP in the third quarter were 20%. Adjusted EBITDA
margins were 24%. Year - over-year operating income performance was driven by lower raw material costs, the benefit of which exceeded
the price concessions that we made to our customers which made our price-over-raw-material measure a net positive for the quarter.
IPP also experienced favorable distribution costs and
favorable inventory adjustments compared to the prior year, partially offset by higher SG&A costs. Sequentially, operating
income improved due to a favorable price -over-raw-material costs, favorable manufacturing variance and inventory adjustments and
due to the non-recurrence of a tax expense that we incurred in the second quarter.
Now turning to IEP. In our IEP segment, sales revenue
increased slightly compared to the third quarter of 2015, but was down 4% sequentially. Year-over-year sales were lifted by improved
sales of elemental bromine and polymerization co-catalyst products, offset by weaker sales of clear brine fluid products which
are sold into the beleaguered oil and gas market. Sequentially, clear brine fluid sales improved versus the prior quarter, but
were offset by lower sales for brominated flame-retardant products used in electronic applications and certain tin-based organometallic
products.
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IEP operating income improved by $3 million sequentially
and $4 million versus prior year. IEP operating income margins for the third quarter were 15%, with adjusted EBITDA margins at
21%. Year-over-year improvements in operating income were driven by lower raw material costs and favorable foreign currency translation.
Lower volumes and unfavorable mix for certain bromine derivative products was partially offset by higher volumes and favorable
mix for our polymerization co-catalyst products. In addition, we incurred a $2 million charge for an inventory adjustment for returned
product, which also impacted IEP's operating income.
Sequentially, IEP operating income improved due to lower
raw material and distribution costs and favorable foreign currency translation, offset by unfavorable manufacturing variances in
our Great Lakes Solutions business, slightly lower pricing for bromine and certain bromine derivatives, and the inventory charge
noted earlier.
Looking forward to our fourth quarter performance, we
anticipate sequentially lower sales and operating income as our customers' typical year-end order patterns impact our sequential
results. We do, however, expect fourth quarter performance to be in line with our previous expectations and that we will exceed
our fourth quarter 2015 results.
To summarize, we anticipate that we will achieve our
full year non-GAAP profitability goals that we described at our December 2015 Investor Day. Excluding the $35 million first quarter
cash contribution to our U.S. Qualified Pension Plan and the merger and integration expenses that have been settled, we remain
focused on generating $100 million or more in free cash flow for the 2016 calendar year. As a reminder, we define free cash flow
as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures.
Before I hand the call over to Stephen, let me address
our share buyback activity. In the third quarter, we repurchased 256,000 shares of our common stock at a cost of $6.5 million.
At the end of the third quarter, we had approximately $54 million remaining under our board authorized share repurchase program.
However, we do not currently anticipate undertaking further repurchases in light of our merger agreement with Lanxess.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to Stephen Forsyth. Stephen?
Stephen C. Forsyth
Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice
President, Chemtura Corp.
Thank you, Craig, and welcome, everyone. I'm going to
keep my comments brief this morning and will quickly discuss the merger and integration expenses, taxes and cash flow for the quarter.
As investors will have anticipated, during the quarter,
we incurred certain fees and expenses associated with the negotiation and the entry into the merger agreement with Lanxess. We
have amended our policies on non -GAAP financial metrics to exclude those merger and integration expenses from the computation
of adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP earnings or loss from continuing operations before and after income taxes, and non-GAAP earnings or
loss per share from continuing operations.
Of the $11 million in merger and integration expenses
we incurred in the third quarter, investors will note that $5 million of the total charge of $11 million related to the consideration
required to obtain a necessary modification of a non-compete agreement that we entered into in conjunction with a sale of our antioxidants
business to Addivant in 2013. In the period prior to the expected closing of the transaction, we'll continue to incur professional
fees and expenses as well as integration expenses relating to the integration or the planning of the integration of Chemtura into
Lanxess. Such expenses will be reported under the merger and integration expense caption each quarter.
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So now, might I turn
to taxes, which, this quarter, were again comparatively simple. Our GAAP tax rate was higher this quarter, in part due to a
portion of the – only a portion of the merger costs being tax deductible. Our non-GAAP tax rate, however, remained at the
28% you've seen for some time. In the third quarter 2016, cash income tax payments net of refunds were $13 million compared to
$12 million in the third quarter 2015.
September year-to-date, cash income tax payments net
of refunds have been $22 million compared to $32 million in the same period of 2015.
So now turning to cash flows. As Craig has already discussed
third quarter cash flow performance, I will not repeat his comments, but focus on some of the details. In his comments, Craig identified
two items that we will exclude in making year-on-year comparisons for year-to-date free cash flow, which, as a reminder, is net
cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures, as you can identify in our GAAP of – that is consolidated
statements of cash flows.
The first is the $35 million cash payment we made to
our U.S. Qualified Pension Plan to return its percentage funding to approximately the same levels as existed prior to the purchase
of the pension annuity contract. Second is the cash impact on merger and integration expenses. So when we look at the third quarter,
of the $11 million of expense that you see on the P&L, approximately $5 million of that was actually cash settled in the quarter,
and so we would exclude that $5 million and then we'll do a comparable practice in subsequent quarters.
Now, investors will recall that in the first quarter,
our cash flows included $49 million in total cash contributions to our pension and post-retirement plans, which included that
$35 million cash payment to which we've already referenced. At that time, we discussed how cash contributions in the remaining
quarters of 2016 would be at a much lower rate, and if in confirmation of that, in the third quarter they were just $4 million.
Net working capital, which we define as accounts receivable
plus inventory less accounts payable, in the third quarter was a net source of cash generating $6 million as increases in inventory
were offset by lower accounts receivable.
Free cash flow in the quarter was $19 million, being
the net cash provided by operating activities of $43 million, less capital expenditures of $24 million. Now, if we exclude the
cash merger and integration cos ts settled of $5 million in the quarter, it was $24 million. September year-to-date free cash flows
was $25 million, being net cash provided by operating activities of $87 million less capital expenditures of $62 million. However,
we add back the $35 million pension plan contribution and the $5 million of merger and integration costs, it stands at $65 million
year-to-date.
Our cash balance this quarter increased by $16 million
and stood at a total of $202 million as of September 30, 2016. Total debt increased by $3 million in the quarter to $479 million
as of September 30. The net result is that our balance sheet remained very strong. Our total leverage ratio, that being the ratio
of total debt to the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA, is approximately 1.7 times, below our long-term leverage target of two times
adjusted EBITDA. Net debt, being total debt less cash equivalents, is just around one times last 12 months adjusted EBITDA.
Well, I said it would be brief. So, operator, that completes
our prepared comments. I will now hand the call back to you so that you may assemble the roster of questions and commence the Q&A
portion of our call. Thank you.
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QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION
Operator
: Thank you. [Operator Instructions]
Your next question comes from the line of Rosemarie Morbelli of Gabelli & Company. Please ask your question.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
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Analyst, Gabelli & Company
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Thank you, and good morning, everyone.
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Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Good morning.
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Stephen C. Forsyth
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Chief Financial
Officer & Executive Vice President, Chemtura Corp.
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Good morning.
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Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
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Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
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Craig, I was wondering if you could give us a feel
regarding the acquisition of Lanxess? Is there any possibility that it could occur or you could close before the middle of 2017?
Why such a long timeframe?
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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I think, Rosemarie, I think there's a possibility. We're
trying to be as expeditious as we can in filing the proxy material and mailing out the proxy, but some of the long poles in the
tent are some of the regulatory approvals in some of the foreign jurisdictions, with China probably being, if you just look at
it from a typical basis, being that long pole and that can be four months to six months. So that gets you to sometime in the second
quarter. Now, if it's the shorter end of the four months to six months, it could be earlier than that. But, clearly, we don't expect
any problems. It's just the typical duration of some of these regulatory filings that we expect to be the pacing item.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
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Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
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Okay. Thanks. And then, look, could you give us a little
more detail on the bromine prices you talked about it having declined recently for some of your derivatives.
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Yeah. There's really two sides to it in the second quarter
– or in third quarter, excuse me, but overall, let me just make the point that the bromine pricing remained strong and solid.
We saw a little bit of a dip in elemental bromine prices in the third quarter versus the second quarter, as you kind of expect
in the summer months, a little bit of a dip, and I'm talking relatively minor, but it's sequentially a little bit of a dip in the
Tetrabrom pricing for electronics. It's a supply/demand issue. Market's a little weaker and there are Chinese suppliers as well
as the big three that supply into that market.
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Q3 2016 Earnings Call
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01-Nov-2016
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On the other hand, Emerald 3000 pricing was stronger in the third quarter than it was in the second quarter,
and as important as that is in our overall mix, that's generally an offset to these other slight declines. So pricing in the third
quarter remained relatively strong, but again a sequential – certainly versus the same period last year, a little bit of
a dip in those two areas that I mentioned specifically in the third quarter versus the s econd quarter. And as we go into the fourth
quarter now, pricing has remained solid. So pricing seems to be holding well in bromine.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
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Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
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Okay. And if you could also touch on the Petroleum Additive and
the weakness there?
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Yeah. We continue to see some solid performance in our
inhibitor area, some of the additives areas, where we saw some margin improvement due to the value selling, and we've got a little
bit of a benefit because of some of the issues in China with some of the suppliers. Continued challenges in high-viscosity PAO,
as we've been talking about quarter-over-quarter due to the fact that we were constrained in our ability to supply due to that
raw material issue last year, and while that's behind us, we've had to gain business back. And we're continuing to work on that
and making progress, but as I spoke at the end of the second quarter, we're gaining pieces of business back that are relatively
smaller pieces, so we have to get more of those to offset the hole that was established because of the inability to supply last
year.
But generally, again, IPP overall,
both in Urethanes and in Petroleum Additives on the bottom line had a relatively strong quarter and we're working on filling some
of those holes we talked about to use our extra capacity that we put in place as we go into the fourth quarter and more importantly,
into 2017.
Operator
: Your next question comes from the line of Tyler
Frank [Baird]. Please ask your question.
Q
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. As you look
forward into 2017, can you comment on what your expectations are for clear brine fluid demand? Are you guys seeing project cancellations
or push-outs at this point? And then as much as you do have visibility, how does the bromine market for other products seem to
be shaping up?
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Relative to clear brine fluid, our assumption going into
next year is no real recovery. We're just assuming kind of a repeat of 2016, which just generally, if you look at where we are
and where we expect Q4 to be is down versus what was a very good year for us last year, you know as we talked, kind of surprisingly
good, down about 25% to 35% this year versus 2015. The third quarter was a little bit better sequentially than the second quarter,
but, again, we're talking off of a low base and it's soft. We saw the decline a little later than some of the others because of
where we play, in the deep and ultra deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. So our expectation is that we'll see the recovery when that
occurs, a little later than some of the others as well. So as I said, we don't have built into our plan for next year, any significant
volume recovery in clear brine fluid.
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Q3 2016 Earnings Call
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Relative to bromine pricing in the general markets, again,
in the insulation foam, our Emerald 3000 product line, pricing is good and we expect it to continue to be strong into 2017. Tetrabrom,
the electronics market, I think, again, it's good. If you look on a relative basis, it was down a little bit in the third quarter
versus the second quarter, and we expect the average price in 2017 to be like it is this year. Bromine is – elemental bromine
has kind of moved around up and down and, typically, you see a little bit of a dip from whatever the base is in the summer months,
because production is higher in China, and that's where a lot of the elemental bromine goes. So we weren't surprised by that. Things
should, if that's the case, be a little bit stronger in the fourth quarter and as we go into 2017.
But our assumptions for pricing, I think, in general,
for bromine and brominated derivatives are relatively the same as the average price 2017 versus 2016, maybe with the exception
of Emerald Innovation 3000, where we've kind of moved up and maybe earned a new base and should continue that for the full year
next year. But our expectation is, pricing remains strong in the bromine and bromine derivative markets into 2017.
Operator
: Our next question comes from the line of Ivan
Marcuse of KeyBanc. Please ask your question.
Ivan M. Marcuse
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Q
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Analyst, KeyBanc
Capital Markets, Inc.
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Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. The first question
I have is, looking out to 2017, understanding that sort of this raw material benefit's going away in Petroleum Additives and the
moving parts that you just went over in bromine, can your businesses in this growth environment continue to grow? And how would
you – I guess, what are the puts and takes in order to see that growth?
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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The challenge has been the last couple years, and would
expect – and we expect as we put our plan together into 2017 that top-line growth will be challenging. We think that we've
hit troughs in things like oil and gas and in mining that have impacted Urethanes and Great Lakes and don't see a big – don't
expect a recovery in those areas in 2017.
But we do have some innovative new products. We do have
some of the work we've been undergoing to expand applications for products like the Urethanes business. And we think we can continue
to make progress in growing volumes in high-viscosity PAO by getting some of these more regional players as we have throughout
2016. As I mentioned, pricing is relatively stable with a couple of exceptions, the biggest one being we believe that at the higher
price point where we are in the second half of this year versus the first half in Emerald Innovation 3000, we can carry that into
the full year.
So volume growth, again, in a view of a world market
that's not growing is challenging. We have specific areas where we think we can grow because of differentiation that we have. We
think pricing will be solid. So I would say relatively modest top-line growth, but we think we can grow the bottom line, again,
through some of this margin expansion.
If raw material costs due to oil starts to move and it
moves, as I've spoken in the past, kind of modestly, not it going from $50 to $80 in a spike on oil, but it goes gradually and
stays in that band of, let's say, sub -$65, we believe we can maintain the margins we have by passing that through. So I would
say while we've grown 20% or so bottom line this year on an EBITDA basis, that would be challenging, but I don't think low double
digits is out of the question and certainly that would be within our expectations for 2017 on the bottom line.
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Ivan M. Marcuse
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Q
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Analyst, KeyBanc
Capital Markets, Inc.
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Great. Thanks for that detail. And then I think
Lanxess has been talking about a pretty big slug of synergies, and I imagine one coming out of purchasing similar raw materials
would, I guess, would be one; and the other would be cutting SG&A. But you guys have been taking out a lot of costs. Can you
sort of comment on where these opportunities are, where you see the synergies between the two companies, and the size of these
opportunities?
Craig A. Rogerson
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Well, Matt's here and he's very much involved in the
integration planning, but let me make a couple of comments. You're right that I think that there will be opportunities for synergies
in the procurement area, just because of larger volumes and leveraging that larger volume. The synergies around corporate infrastructure,
because we're a publicly traded company in the U.S., and clearly that won't have to be supported separately in the new organization.
You're right that we're also relatively lean as we've taken these cost reductions to eliminate stranded costs through the various
divestitures, but I don't know if that's a big part of the synergy play anyway because a lot of the businesses are very complementary.
There's not a lot of overlap in the businesses. So the €100 million of synergies that Lanxess has talked about, I think, are
– clearly, we believe and we support are achievable. But I don't think a lot of it is within the businesses themselves and
again, with that setup, see if Matt can try to add some color or contradict me.
Matthew Sokol
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A
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Director, Investor
Relations & Corporate Development, Chemtura Corp.
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No. And I think that's right. I would say that the categories
are kind of spread across a multiple set of areas where they're going to derive the synergy, so – and Craig addressed most
of them. But Lanxess is going through its process of identifying those and they're being very deliberate and methodical about it.
So we are kind of working together, but I would say it'll probably be wrong to assume there's a concentration in any one bucket.
There's probably four or five from which they'll come, and I think they're reasonable. But because of the complementary nature
of the businesses, they're certainly going to be achievable.
Ivan M. Marcuse
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Q
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Analyst, KeyBanc
Capital Markets, Inc.
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Great. And then a quick follow-up. If – or two
quick follow-ups. How much is public company costs for Chemtura? So how much of that sort of goes away real quick? And then the
second question, which is different, is that, I think you commented on electronics market pricing. I understand that. But did volumes
decline sequentially second quarter to third quarter? And isn't third quarter typically seasonally stronger? And why would that
have declined in electronics? Thanks.
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Sequentially, I don't believe it declined, maybe a little
bit versus prior year. The issue is we're trying to maintain pricing, and so we don't react to some of the pricing pressures due
to the relatively sluggish demand in electronics in China. And so in some cases, we didn't get business we could have gotten if
we cut price and that's the balancing act. So as we look quarter-to-quarter, things move and, generally, I'd say we've been playing
that fairly well. There are some cases where maybe we could have been a little bit more aggressive on the margin on pricing and
gotten a little more volume, but, again, I think that balance we played pretty well. So if you look at the
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
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Corrected Transcript
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Q3 2016 Earnings Call
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01-Nov-2016
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bottom line, operating income derived from the Tetrabrom,
we were still very solid in third quarter. It's just whether those levers of volume and price, which ones we pulled at any given
quarter.
Ivan M. Marcuse
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Q
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Analyst, KeyBanc
Capital Markets, Inc.
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|
Great.
Operator
: Your next question comes from the line
of Dmitry Silversteyn of Longbow Research. Please ask your question.
Dmitry Silversteyn
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Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
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Good morning, guys. A couple of things.
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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Good morning, Dmitry.
Dmitry Silversteyn
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Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
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First of all, can you talk a little bit about the –
in the IEP segment, the Organometallics, that business seems to be doing a little bit better on both margin and top line. It was
a little bit weaker than we expected in the quarter. So can you talk about what's going on in that market and in your business
specifically?
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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|
Yeah. It's still in the volume products that we sell
in Organometallics, TEA being a great example, clearly, pricing is still a challenge. So our strategy has been to utilize our assets
as fully as we can, choose through segmentation of customers where we sell and focusing on those products where we can make significant
margin. That takes some time as we move products around and move customers and been successful at this point in fil ling up those
assets. And so in the third quarter you saw some benefit of that. We have, in the base business in Bergkamen, the large plant,
we had relatively good operating rates in the second quarter as we went into the third quarter so we had decent costs and we had
good sales volume.
And again, an example of that, we sell TEA more in Europe
or in the Gulf of Mexico region where we can be successful because of our supply chain versus trying to sell it in Middle East
or China to another extent. So that, I think, that strategy is starting to play out and so that resulted in a significantly better
and from our perspective kind of near where we expected quarter in Q3. The challenge is quarter-after-quarter because, again, we
manage cash flow as well and we have shutdowns and things like that and those carry forward. So our expectation is, while we'll
have I think a good quarter on a relative basis in the fourth quarter, it may not be quite as good as the third quarter. But if
you look at 2017 versus 2016, and look at the second half of this year, our expectations are that we could annualize that number
which would be a significant upside to IEP in 2017 versus 2016. So we've kind of turned the corner.
The other piece of that business is the DayStar business in Korea...
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
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Corrected Transcript
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Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
Dmitry Silversteyn
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Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
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|
Yeah.
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
...and under the same strategy that we've been working
to qualify key customers in Asia, the full portfolio of products, we're at the final stages of that. But in the meantime we've
been running those assets hard and are seeing some of the same benefits from a cost perspective, and again, as we choose customers
or actually, remember our goal on that plant this year, as we're trying to ramp up was, do no harm. So come to a zero on an EBITDA
basis, and we may do a little bit better than that, which sets us up well for an improvement, again, in 2017. So I think both of
those together are what's kind of turning the corner for Organometallics as we go into 2017.
Dmitry Silversteyn
|
Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
|
|
Okay. Great. Thanks for the detail. To continue the conversation
on bromine, I just want to make sure I understood correctly. You mentioned that the flame retardants for electronics were down
a little bit year-over-year. That was basically your decision not to match pricing more so than the market overall being down?
Is that correct?
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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|
Yeah. I mean, I think that the overall volume of Tetrabrom
usage was softer in China. But yeah, for us particularly, it's a balance of selling all the volume you want to sell versus the
price, and we try to optimize the bottom line performance. And so, yeah, we could have sold more at a lower price but we chose
to do what we did in the third quarter. We look at it each quarter. It's an opportunity to reset every quarter. So yeah, that's
what we did in Q3. Correct.
Dmitry Silversteyn
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Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
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|
But the overall demand for electronic flame retardants was down
in China a little bit year-over-year?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
A little bit. But, again, it's not the driver, but I think a
little bit, yeah.
Dmitry Silversteyn
|
Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
|
|
Yeah. Okay. Fine. With respect to drilling fluids, I
guess, basically the same question. This 25% to 35% decline, is that what you're seeing? Or is that what the drilling fluid business,
or market overall is seeing?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
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|
Well, that's what we're seeing.
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
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Corrected Transcript
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Q3 2016 Earnings Call
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01-Nov-2016
|
Dmitry Silversteyn
|
Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
|
|
Okay.
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
I think that the market clearly is down. I don't know
if it's down to 25% to 35%. You know, you hear some rumblings of some improvement bouncing off the bottom. We haven't seen that
and again I don't think we will see that for a while because of the lag. We saw a lag in the downturn, we'll see a lag I would
expect on our particular piece of the business in the recovery as well. But that was – those were our numbers.
Dmitry Silversteyn
|
Q
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Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
|
|
Got it. Got it. Okay. And then final question
on raw materials in the engineered plastics segment. You talked about them being up a little bit for you, providing a little bit
of a headwind to margins. Was that basically just chlorine into the bromine market? Or was there something around Organometallics
or some other raw materials? What, sort of what buckets gave you the issues in the quarter?
Matthew Sokol
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A
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Director, Investor
Relations & Corporate Development, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Hey, Dmitry, it's Matt. I think the – in that business
there's usually, unlike in the IPP side, there's a variety of raw materials. So chlorine is one for sure, but there are, there
are probably half a dozen to a dozen other ones of smaller quantities that in the aggregate were lower cost, and they're relatively
less commoditized, more specialty. So there's not one I can point to, it's kind of the host that in the aggregate led to lower
raw material costs.
Dmitry Silversteyn
|
Q
|
Analyst, Longbow
Research LLC
|
|
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Craig A. Rogerson
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A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Thanks.
Operator
: Your next question comes from the line of James
Sheehan of SunTrust. Please ask your questions.
James M. Sheehan
|
Q
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Analyst, SunTrust
Robinson Humphrey, Inc.
|
|
Good morning. Could you guys comment on
the 2017 demand outlook for flame retardants into consumer electronics? Do you expect that to be up, down or roughly the same,
given the puts and takes from various end markets there including smartphones and automotive?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
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Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Yeah. I mean, the bottom line answer to your question
is we go through our assumptions for 2017, we presume flat. Again, we don't see a recovery, and I could say that's probably a statement
for most markets that we're in, a
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Copyright © 2001-2016 FactSet CallStreet, LLC
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
|
Corrected Transcript
|
Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
relatively flat versus
the tepid demand that we've seen in 2016 and 2015. So our assumption is that if we're going to get a bottom line improvement,
it's got to be through margin and self-help, not through some kind of recovery in volume. But we don't expect it to turn down,
either.
There's this continued
demand improvement and increases in things like automotive and in server farms and things like that, appliances where you see
more and more electronics. The handheld devices and personal computing, desktop stuff, really any kind of miniaturization, that
really doesn't affect us too much anymore. We've been, we being the bromine – brominated flame retardants, not significantly
in those markets for a number of years. You go back almost to when I got here, so, in 2008, 2009, 2010. So, again, overall sluggish
demand, some improvement in some specific applications, automotive probably being a highlight, but with all that and the puts
and takes, we look at 2017 with global demand being where it is and no significant recovery globally to be relatively the same
as 2016.
James M. Sheehan
|
Q
|
Analyst, SunTrust
Robinson Humphrey, Inc.
|
|
Great. And on the mercury control demands, what was your activity
like in the fourth quarter? And do you expect any material improvement in 2017?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Again, just like the other market, we expect it to remain
relatively the same. We saw – we expected to see improvement after the implementation of MATS in the spring; we didn't, and
to go back and rationalize or investigate on why that is, clearly, coal-fired utility utilization continues to decline. There is
some learning going around as they apply this technology, so you can get by with less the bromine products, the – our GeoBrom
product and service the mercury control application, and there is some substitution. So we had kind of expected some of that, and
there is some of that. So, we look forward; we see our mercury application or mercury control application, again, being relatively
flat year-over-year. We don't expect to see any big bump. There'll be puts and takes, but relatively flat in 2017 versus 2016.
James M. Sheehan
|
Q
|
Analyst, SunTrust
Robinson Humphrey, Inc.
|
|
Thank you.
Operator
: Your next question comes from the line
of Mike Harrison of Seaport Global. Please ask your questions.
Michael Joseph Harrison
|
Q
|
Analyst, Seaport
Global Securities LLC
|
|
Hi. Good morning.
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Good morning.
Stephen C. Forsyth
|
A
|
Chief Financial
Officer & Executive Vice President, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Good morning.
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Copyright © 2001-2016 FactSet CallStreet, LLC
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
|
Corrected Transcript
|
Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
Michael Joseph Harrison
|
Q
|
Analyst, Seaport
Global Securities LLC
|
|
Craig, I was wondering if you could give a little bit
of detail on how the deal with Lanxess came together. Can you talk also about whether there were other opportunities over the course
of the past several quarters, as you've been going through this buy, sell, merge process? Opportunities that you've walked away
from? And maybe what was deficient about any other bids or opportunities that you looked at.
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
I'll give you some general comments, but it's
– but when the proxy's out, you'll see the very detail. I can say that we, over the last year-and-a-half, have looked
at a multitude of options that range through the full gamut of what I had talked about -- buy, sell, merge, so from
acquisitions to MOEs, to Reverse Morris Trusts, to divestitures, some being very complex as we were talking a year ago with
multiple parties, some being more simple as the Lanxess one ended up being. So, yeah, there's been lot going on and it went
on all the way through to the end, when the board made the decision based on our recommendation to accept Lanxess's offer.
So, yeah, there's been a lot going on, and a lot going on through that whole, I don't know, six quarter to eight quarter
period. But the specific details I can't give you, and again, will become apparent when you see the proxy, which we hope to
get out, I hope, by the end of the month if everything goes smoothly.
Michael Joseph Harrison
|
Q
|
Analyst, Seaport
Global Securities LLC
|
|
All right. Understood. And then in terms of the Emerald
Innovation product, where are we in the process of customers changing their processes to use the new flame retardant product? And
I know that that's been primarily a European market. Are you seeing that start to take hold in North America as well, or any other
regions at this point?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Yeah, I think that's part of the growth potential. So
you're right. In Europe, it's the replacement of HBCD is well, well along the way. There is some in other parts of Asia where that's
happening, like Japan. I would say that the next market that is starting to transition is North America, and then China will follow
that. And the timing on China seems to be a little bit moved up, I mean, closer, maybe if it was five years, maybe it's three years,
we'll see out, so it's moving up. And so we have great expectations.
One of the big benefits that allow me to – or feel
– give me some comfort in saying we can grow overall Chemtura bottom line again low-double digits next year, is the continued
growth in products like Emerald 3000, which is a good example of one, at relatively good pricing. And it's not so much substitution,
just substitution for HBCD in Europe now that's driving it, it's growth into other markets and other regions, like North America
as you mentioned. So that's really the challenge.
So for us, the challenge has been production, and we've
made some great st rides in the facility that we run. That plant that was – it's been a challenge to get up to rate; we did
that earlier this year and now we're above name plate rates on that and we have expectations and in our assumptions, plans for
continued debottlenecking a call of that line so we can sell more in 2017. And that supports the margins on that product and the
value that product delivers a significant piece of the growth, especially in Great Lakes in 2017.
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
|
Corrected Transcript
|
Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
Michael Joseph Harrison
|
Q
|
Analyst, Seaport
Global Securities LLC
|
|
And do you think you'll have to add any capacity over the next
three to four quarters?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
I don't think in the next three quarters to four
quarters, but we'll have to make a decision, I would expect, to put in the next line in the next three quarters to four
quarters and if things go as we expect. And some of that timing depends on how successful we are in continue to debottleneck
the existing facility, and we have some ideas how we can incrementally do that again. But, at some point, yeah, somebody will
have to put in another line, and our expectation is, since we are the leaders in both timing and now in utilization of the
asset we have, it'll be us. So, again, I think that decision is a 2017 decision. When we have to make it is dependent on how
successful we are with this current line.
Michael Joseph Harrison
|
Q
|
Analyst, Seaport
Global Securities LLC
|
|
All right. Thank you very much.
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Sure.
Operator
: [Operator Instructions] . Your next
question comes from Rosemarie Morbelli. Please ask your question.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
|
Q
|
Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
|
|
Thank you. Craig, you talked about the Urethane showing
some improvement in the mining – for mining applications. Is that your offering of a new product that is being accepted by
the market? Or are you seeing an actual improvement in the mining environment itself?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
No, we haven't seen any improvement in mining itself,
and in fact, in that application, we really haven't seen any volume improvement. That's continued to be a soft spot. I think that's
what I mentioned in the script, and we expect it to continue to be soft in 2017. Where we are seeing – but we are seeing
a little bit improvement in our AV business, the gassable urethanes business, in the Urethanes area. Some of it is because of timing.
We had some of our bigger customers order. They order couple of times, three times a year, and they ordered it in the third quarter.
Some of it though is, as you said, we've got some new applications for some modestly modified products that we have a portfolio,
and this is a systems business, so we meet specific needs by selling these two - part systems to basically deliver certain properties.
And especially in Asia, we've been successful in new applications where we substitute some of these urethane products for other
engineered plastics and so – or rubbers. And so that's been growing.
And one of the challenges we've had, when we had these
new applications, in some cases new products that have been introduced, they've been offset – I mean not apparent because
the bottom of the foundation of the
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Copyright © 2001-2016 FactSet CallStreet, LLC
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Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
|
Corrected Transcript
|
Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
business, primarily the mining and oil and gas has been
eroding away. We've been working hard, pedaling hard to maintain neutral. In the third quarter we started to see, because we're
not seeing a continued deterioration of the bottom foundation. Started to see some lift by some of these new applications, and
that's really what we need to continue to have, and again will be another part of the growth in specific areas that I talked about
that are more self-help in 2017.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
|
Q
|
Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
|
|
Okay. Thanks. And then lastly, the price to raw material
was positive in the third quarter. Do you anticipate that to be the case in 2017?
Craig A. Rogerson
|
A
|
Chairman,
President & Chief Executive Officer, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
The assumption relative to 2017 is relatively neutral.
So with an assumption around where oil's going to go, again if it stays in that range of $40 to $65, as I've said before, we think
we can pass it through. And so the margins, with a few exceptions like Emerald 3000, where the full year effect of the higher pricing
in the second half, generally, the assumption is that the margins on most of the products stay relatively flat. So if there's a
little bit of a bump in oil prices that move raw materials up, we could pass that through and don't expect a lot more margin improvement
on some of the base products in 2017.
Rosemarie Jeanne Morbelli
|
Q
|
Analyst, Gabelli
& Company
|
|
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
: There are no further questions at this time.
Please continue.
Matthew Sokol
|
|
Director, Investor
Relations & Corporate Development, Chemtura Corp.
|
|
Thank you. Well, I want to thank everyone for joining
the call today, and we look forward to having you on our fourth quarter 2016 earnings conference call in late February. One final
comment; in light of the Lanxess transaction, it'll be no surprise to learn that we will not be hosting our annual Investor Day
this December, so please enjoy your holidays and we'll speak again next year. Thank you.
Operator
: This concludes today's conference call. You
may now disconnect. Thank you.
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Copyright © 2001-2016 FactSet CallStreet, LLC
|
Chemtura Corp.
(
CHMT)
|
Corrected Transcript
|
Q3 2016 Earnings Call
|
01-Nov-2016
|
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