Algoma Steel Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTL) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Michael Garcia: Yes. I’ll start, David. If you think of maybe the bottom €“ finding the bottom of the market in November, in November, the business we were booking at that time, the majority of it would have shifted in January. So I think that would kind of agree with what you’re picking up and what you mentioned earlier. Rajat, do you have any other?

Rajat Marwah: Yes, sure. So I think the expectation is definitely to come down to some extent. For us, it’s slightly different. We do have advantage of our quarterly contracts and monthly contracts, most on the quarterly contract side, which gives us some advantage. The other big portion for us definitely will be on the plate side. We will be having higher plate volume coming into our €“ coming into this quarter versus last quarter. So, when you factor all of this in, we should see some decline, less so than what others would have faced.

David Gagliano: Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you. And then just shifting to the cost side, I know there has been obviously clearly commentary here. And I believe mentioned was expectations for cost of goods sold per ton to improve largely due to the €“ obviously to the improved volumes, although somewhat offset by these higher priced, for example, merchant coke and the other input cost. Can you frame the net result of those two in terms of the quarter-over-quarter expectations on cost of goods sold per ton?

Rajat Marwah: So, I think what €“ I will try and see if I can provide some more clarity. But what we said is that there is $100 per ton one-time impact that was in the cost last time, which should go away. And then we should see further improvements coming because of volume, because of lower cost of some of the input items primarily on the iron ore side as we always see five months to six months lag when the iron ore hits our cost versus where the index was. So, we will see some advantages and some benefits coming from that side. On the other major cost items, whether it’s coking coal, coke, we should see probably very similar impacts quarter-over-quarter from a cost perspective. So, it will be €“ the trajectory will be down. The cost will come down $100 plus, and that’s because of some of the input material as well as the high production.

David Gagliano: Okay. That’s helpful. So and then just to wrap up the same line of question here, this will be my last question. When we started to the mix, I mean at least from my view, it looks like it will be a positive EBITDA per ton quarter. I just want to confirm based on the moving parts that we just talked about, is that a reasonable expectation that EBITDA turns positive on a per ton basis?

Rajat Marwah: Yes, that’s reasonable.

David Gagliano: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Anoop Prihar with Eight Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Anoop Prihar: Yes. Good morning. I just want to ask a couple of questions on the plate mill if I could. I noticed in the MD&A, you talked about the CapEx there being $135 million. Has that number increased from the $120 million you were using previously?

Rajat Marwah: Yes. I think we disclosed it last quarter that the number went up just because of the delays during COVID and the other pressure that we had on it with some changes that was coming. So, yes, it went up from $120 million to $135 million.

Anoop Prihar: And can you give us an idea of how much is left to spend there on Phase 2?