Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE:CLH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jim Ricchiuti: Okay, thanks for that. And just with respect €“ Mike, to the comments that you made about industrial production. I mean typically, I guess, you do tend to lag some of that. But I’m wondering if you’re seeing any early changes in customer demand with respect to a slowing economy. I mean, it sounds like you actually have a pretty good pipeline. But I’m just wondering if you have seen any subtle changes in the market.

Mike Battles: Jim, we pulled the sales team yesterday, and the answer is no. The pipeline remains as robust and it’s strong as it was back in the fall.

Jim Ricchiuti: Got it. Thank you. Just last question, if I may. You mentioned pricing and how this also relates to customer behavior. As we go through this inflationary period, does it become any more challenging to put some of these increases across? Or is there just a better understanding and appreciation of the overall environment that allows you to continue to use price as a lever when appropriate.

Mike Battles: Jim, I’ve never had a conversation with the customer that they say kind of okay to price increases. It’s always a discussion with buildup of our costs, a thoughtful discussion on value. It’s a thoughtful discussion on customer service and timeliness and so all of that goes into the mix. I would say that we’ve been very successful and as you can see from the 2022 results, in particular, Q4 of driving those price increases, I think that continues into 2023. But it’s never an easy conversation. The fact that there’s still a fair amount of inflation has made that conversation easier. It gives us more evidence and support, but it’s never an easy conversation around pricing.

Alan McKim: I’d probably mention just one other thing. I mean, with the capacity constraints that we’ve had, both in assets like resources for equipment, personnel, there are some customers that we’ve had to walk away from when we’ve had those hard conversations and realize that we need to put our people and our equipment to work where we can kind of create the best value and we’re not going to giving those services away. And so I think that is some discipline, particularly on the industrial side that we have begun to put in place that I think will start paying off for us in the future years here.

Jim Ricchiuti: Got it. Thank you for that. And congratulations on the year.

Mike Battles: Thanks Jim.

Operator: Our next question is a follow-up from Michael Hoffman with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Hoffman: Hi, thank you for taking this. The one that probably should get asked, East Palestine, is there going to be a benefit from that after the fact that I know you didn’t participate in willingness of burning the chemicals, but is there a benefit after the fact?

Eric Gerstenberg: Michael, we participated in some of the emergency response, and we’ve provided some solutions to the regulatory authorities to and to Norfolk Southern on options. However, before we really manage or take any of that material, we’re being very transparent with the government agencies and the governments that we have our disposal facilities in. At this point, we don’t €“ we’re not €“ have not started to take any volumes there.

Michael Hoffman: Okay. And then everybody thinks PFAS is going to be this amazing opportunity. I’m in that camp kind of think about it like PCBs were in the 80s and early 90s but there’re things have to happen before it becomes that. Can we talk about those a little bit and share with the market? What does EPA have to do? And when do you expect them to do what they have to do? This is rule-making. And then the second part of the question is, am I correct that all of your incineration capacity, the way the permits work, bringing this volume in is incremental and doesn’t need a permit modification and you can still do all of the hazardous waste stuff that’s permitted but this can be incremental without having to modify permits.