Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Crutchfield: No, I would say, in Ontario, snow, year to date, has been, been pretty average. In Quebec, it’s actually been a little bit below average, that’s an area where typically has strong weather. You’ve noted that it was particularly good. There were a good couple of weeks in January for sure. But you have to look at the entire portfolio and the mix of weather across all of it. So that’s always going to cause some volatility. Like I said, it was particularly strong year to date in the southern — along the Mississippi generally, the western Ohio, even the Tennessee River. So our southern markets have had a bit more weather than normal. And so those sales commitments are higher. Canada, in general, is pretty close to average, a little bit below with Ontario kind of right on average sales commitments.

Chris Shaw: And then just turning to Fortress for a sec also. You characterized the profit market or the profit potential there, the whole market’s 90 to 100. Is that including — I know you’ll be selling mag chloride to them. Is there — does that include sort of that estimate of the market including what you could do sell or the profits you would get from selling more mag chloride, or will you not be selling more mag chloride, you’re just redirecting it from another customers?

Kevin Crutchfield: No, we have mag chloride capacity at Ogden, so it would be supplemental or incremental to that. And I don’t want you to read too much into the profit pool, because you’re talking about a competitor’s margins, et cetera. So don’t imply that our cost structure would be the same as our competitors. So we’re just trying to provide sort of a scope of the size of the price in terms of revenues, gallons and what the profit pool is. But I think when you look at our cost structure relative to our competitors, we would expect our profit margins to be pretty healthy as well.

Chris Shaw: Just specifically about the mag chloride though, like if you were to get half the market, I mean, is that a significant amount of mag chloride you’re selling relative to what you sell now? I don’t know what the sort of volumes are.

Kevin Crutchfield: I mean, at half, if we were to achieve half market share, it represents less than 10% of the mag chloride that were currently produced at Ogden. So it’s not difficult for us to be able to handle that kind incremental capacity.

Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. So I will now turn the call back to Mr. Kevin Crutchfield for any additional or closing remarks.

Kevin Crutchfield: We appreciate everyone’s interest in Compass Minerals. We look forward to keeping you updated, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to Brent in the interim if you have questions. Thank you so much for attending today.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.