Boise Cascade Company (NYSE:BCC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Michael Roxland: Got it. Very helpful. Good luck in 4Q.

Nate Jorgensen: Thank you, Nate.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from George Staphos of Bank of America Securities, Inc. Your line is open.

George Staphos: Thanks. Hi, gentlemen. How are you? Sorry, joining late, so you may have covered some of this in your discussion. I’ll try to keep it quick. One, some of your peers have talked about extend the lead times for their EWP business. Have you seen a similar phenomenon and related point, and I think you might have covered this already, in terms of some of the price erosion that you’re seeing in the EWP. At this juncture, Mike, would you see that as just seasonal? Or is there something else that we need to be looking to? And then last question for me, just – and perhaps you discussed this already, where you’re seeing momentum in terms of Open Web Trusses versus I-joist or for that matter, laminated lumber in single-family construction. Are you seeing any further share erosion there? Or is your EWP gaining back share? Thank you guys. Good luck on the quarter.

Mike Brown: Yes. Thanks for the questions there, George. Let me have a stab at these. Maybe there’ll be additional comments from my colleagues here. So our lead times, I’d say, moved out just a relatively small amount over the – over the building season. And that was primarily due to the way we positioned ourselves coming into the building season. And so we had a lot of inventory on the ground, and we kept people employed. And we had good operating rates. And so we were able to meet the upswing in demand, I’ll say, as well or better than anybody else in this particular sector. So we didn’t see the extensions that maybe you are referring to from other manufacturers. And we’re still in a good position. So I think all in all, our strategy worked quite well and continues to work very well. You had a question around price erosion and the seasonality or not of this?

George Staphos: Yes.

Mike Brown: So I don’t really think it’s a seasonal issue per se. I think it’s more like specific locations require attention at certain times when there is a opportunity that presents itself, and we have discussions in specific markets around what market-related pricing is. But as I’m sure you’re aware, EWP doesn’t really have the seasonality that commodity does because BMD certainly doesn’t borrow that that’s sort of a cyclical nature. So I think to Kelly’s point, yes, we might see very, very modest low single-digit movement going forward, but we certainly don’t see that as sort of anything more than that. The Open Web Trusses question. So I think it would be fair to say that some of the momentum that Open Web Trusses saw was due to a lack of availability of EWP, specifically I-joist, okay.

And so again, I’m sure you’re aware, we are a very large producer of I-joist and we continue to produce large quantities and we have it available. So if anything, I think the opportunity for us to garner additional sales is actually quite positive at the moment because we have the availability. We’re nationally orientated in terms of our capacity, and so I don’t see Open Web Trusses is being any more of a threat than they were six months ago. In fact, maybe less when I think about it.

George Staphos: And Mike, one last one quickly, and I’ll turn it over. Did you comment on the call at all on when you expect the pricing in EWP to start inflecting higher? And if you haven’t, no worries, but just wanted to make sure we got that on the record?

Kelly Hibbs: Yes. We didn’t comment forward beyond what we expect sequentially in the fourth quarter, George, which is modest price erosion.

George Staphos: Thank you, guys. Thanks Kelly. Talk to you in a bit.

Kelly Hibbs: Thanks George.

Nate Jorgensen: Thanks George.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And we have a follow-up from Kurt Yinger of D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.

Kurt Yinger: Great. Thanks. Just two quick ones on capital allocation. First, Kelly, can you remind us what kind of go-forward maintenance CapEx is at this stage versus the more discretionary component within the $200 million guide for this year?