Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Steve Oswald: Sure. And Jason thanks for calling in, to be with you. So look, we’re close to Spirit. We were composed to Tom, the CEO, and I know things have changed and no Patrick’s in there now. We obviously are expecting a new sort of level of energy there. And I think we’re going to see that. I think they’re doing some smart things early on. So we’re encouraged. As far as program gain, I mean, I talk about these skins for the fuselage, right, which is going to be a big deal for us. But we’re still working on the tooling and we’re going to hopefully get that moving towards the end of the year where we’re going to get things approved. And we’re going to start building more program share for the MAX, which we already have a pretty good share.

But I think that the real labor issue, as we all know, I know they just did some things on the capital side. And I think, hopefully, we’re through these quality issues because we’re VOI person there at Spirit. So we’re right in the middle of the operation. They’re pulling our products. We’re certainly making sure we have the inventory there in the factory. We have, again, a strong relationship. I’m absolutely positive about it. I mean, unless we see something that and got to bid another quality problem, which really sets everybody back and uses a lot of time for people to do this. So I think thumbs up for Spirit. I think it’s still going to be sort of a flattish first three months. It’s a big operation, right? But I think you’re going to see better things in 2024, and we’re certainly counting on it.

Jason Gursky: All right. Okay. Great. And then on the wide-body side, did this — these ramping volumes come as a surprise to you all? I’m just trying to get a sense of whether there was something is coming in better than expectations on that side of things and if you could just offer a little bit more fidelity on where you’re seeing that strength. That would be helpful. Thanks.

Steve Oswald: Yeah. So certainly, we’re 787 players. So we did see some tick up in that. We think it’s going to be much, much better in 2024, once they don’t talk about it, that we’re on the A330, believe it or not. We have a pretty good position on A330. And year-over-year, that really popped, okay? As far as we know that’s not the biggest priority in the Airbus lineup for their products, but we’re a player on that all through our Titanium operations. So that was a positive. And sometimes, you’re just going to get spares and other things. And believe it or not, we got some good news year-over-year on 747. So those are the kind of things. But we’re counting on the 87, because we not only provide Titanium or things in this, we provide engineered products. We provide the FUSION lighting, The Fusion Systems for the 787 at very high margins. So we’re all in on the 87 going forward.

Jason Gursky: Okay. Great. Thank you very much.

Steve Oswald: Thanks, Jason. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. I’m showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Mr. Steve Oswald, for closing remarks.

Steve Oswald: Okay. Thank you, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today. I appreciate you listening and hanging in there. I thought again, we had an excellent quarter. I want to thank everyone for their support, certainly coming out of a couple of tough years with COVID and starting to move forward with a lot of good things for shareholders and for our team here. So again, thank you. I just want to say one last thing. I want to just thank our veterans as we move up to Veterans Day on Saturday. Thank you for your service and to the families that support them. We are proud to be a part of helping the War-fighter. Thank you. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. And have a good day. And you may now disconnect.

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