Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Frank Mitch: Thank you. And good morning. And Howard, thank you so much for giving us the mathematical average for 6% to 12% and 7% to 13%. I was having difficulty crunching that number. I want to come back to the cost savings, the $1 billion. You mentioned that in the first quarter, you can take a charge of $550 million plus. And I was wondering how much of that is cash versus non-cash? And then also on that slide, you mentioned that you’re going to be reducing turnaround spending in ’23 versus ’22. And I’m curious if you could order — give us an order of magnitude there? And does that suggest perhaps that 2024 will see an above average spend on turnarounds?

Jim Fitterling: Howard, do you want to take it?

Howard Ungerleider: Yes, Frank, you’re welcome. I just — that really — my answer on the previous question was really targeted, all The Nets and The Jets fans out there. I just want to let you know that, make sure that you can do that math. Just a joke. Look, the $1 billion as we look at the end of the year run rate exiting into 2024, that $1 billion should become about $1.4 billion. We haven’t set the turnaround budget for 2024 yet, obviously. But I could imagine if we just revert to a normalized turnaround and that could be — the turnarounds could be potentially $150 million or maybe $200 million higher in 2024 than 2023 if we do one more cracker turnaround. So that would be the order of magnitude that I would expect. But still improving — overall, the cost improving versus 2023.

Frank Mitch: And how much was the cash charge on that?

Howard Ungerleider: Oh, the cash — we expect the cash outlay over the course of 2023 and 2024 to be roughly $800 million to $1 billion, in that range, about half this year probably and then the balance the other half in 2024.

Pankaj Gupta: I think that’s all the time we have for today. For your reference, a copy of our transcript will be posted on Dow’s website within approximately 48 hours. This concludes our call. Thanks, everyone, for your time this morning.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.