Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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But people are sitting there saying, “I have it. You need it. It’s $80 today. It might be $200 another day or it might be another price another day.” So we are not basing the pricing from our products based on return. We are basing it on what we can get out of the market because there is significant value that we bring to the market for the investor. Right now, if you have deep blue hydrogen that you can give to somebody where they can make renewable diesel to sell it in California, there is a significant premium for that. So that’s how we look at it.

Samir Serhan: And if you allow me, Seifi, I just wanted to highlight, today, we already have 3 major on-site blue hydrogen contracts for 15-plus years with a premium for the blue product.

Seifi Ghasemi: Right. Obviously, we haven’t disclosed some of that yet. But we know what is going on in the marketplace and our goal is to get the maximum return for our investors, not to sit down. And if it was just a matter of saying, “This is my investment and this is a 10% return and this is the price [ph].” Then you don’t need to pay somebody $15 million to be CEO of Air Products. Then anybody can do that.

Operator: We’ll go next to John Roberts with Mizuho.

John Roberts: Seifi, did you say 15 years from now, Air Products will not have any SMRs running? Did you mean not running without carbon capture? Or — can you talk about the average useful life left on the SMRs?

Seifi Ghasemi: Yes. I very much appreciate you bringing up the point. I should have mentioned that we will not have any SMRs running without carbon capture. That is correct. I’m glad you clarified that.

John Roberts: On the lower natural gas feedstock cost for hydrogen, besides the pass-through impact on margin, I think you also get to key the benefit of efficiency improvements. And those efficiency improvements, I guess, are worth a lot less when gas is low. Is that a meaningful headwind? Or is that immaterial right now?

Seifi Ghasemi: Well, I wouldn’t want to say it’s meaningful but it is a hit and I really appreciate you picking up on that. That is exactly right. When natural gas price is at $12 a 1,000 cubic feet, those bonuses are significant. Now the natural gas is $3, $2.5, the bonus has become a lot smaller.

Operator: At this time, there are no additional questions in queue. I’d like to turn the call back over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.

Seifi Ghasemi: Well, thank you very much. I would like to again thank everyone for joining our call today. We appreciate your interest in Air Products and we look forward to discussing our results with you again next quarter. Please stay safe and healthy and all the best. And thank you for your very good questions today, everybody. We really appreciate that.

Operator: Thank you. That will conclude today’s call. We appreciate your participation.

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