Unidentified Analyst: Good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Last quarter, you all gave us a little color on sort of the various areas of end market demand. I think you pointed to on the soda ash business that is, I think you pointed to some weakness in consumer related. Can you give us a little more color on what you’re seeing on that front?
Grant Sims: Yes. I said a little bit of the consumer is pulling in discretionary expenditures under the circumstances, for the first time, we’re seeing a decline in demand for container glass. Maybe people are drinking less or whatever that’s indicative of perhaps, obviously, a little bit of a slowdown in general construction spending, and that’s really what’s the main driver in the weakening or the less than robust the recovery in the Chinese economy is the real-estate sector and construction sector is lagging behind given uncertainties and other things. So that’s really where the pressure points are, if you will, on the demand side and generally speaking. But again, somewhat tempering that is — and that’s not unique to China.
I mean other economies are slowing down a little bit, but a little bit of the offset that is happening is the dramatic increase in demand for soda ash for the construction of solar panels. And certainly, you read a bunch of the headlines about lithium production and a number of lift even here in the US as well as internationally increased lithium production to meet the demand for electric vehicles, all of which requires soda ash in usually in one form or another. So that’s kind of where the — where it is, because definitely, as we said in the remarks and in the release that it’s a dynamic situation, and there’s — it’s a much more balanced market than it was in 2022. But it’s a cyclical market and we’re very comfortable with where we’re at.
Unidentified Analyst: Wonderful. Thank you. That’s very helpful. Just switching gears a little bit. I’m wondering if you might be able to remind us or refresh us of, I guess, capital allocation plans as you look out the next couple of years, you’ve got obviously a big falloff in spending next year and the year after. Maybe if you could bracket for us timing, what your capital allocation priorities are? And what do you think ultimately you might start thinking about increased shareholder returns in one way, shape or form? That’s all I’ve got. Thank you.
Grant Sims: Yeah, it’s a good question. I mean, I think that — it’s going to be — and we are very excited, as we said, have the high-class problem with what do we do with $200 million, $300 million, $400 million a year, no matter how you slice and dice it, discretionary cash flow. I think, first and foremost, we’re committed to maintaining a leverage ratio consistent with how our banks look at the world, which is the only covenant that we have in our capital structure around four times. And then with that, then we have the flexibility to either simplifying the capital structure in terms of perhaps calling them or redeeming some of the existing convertible preferred and/or look at returning capital to the common equity holders, so all while maintaining that targeted leverage ratio.
So I can’t sit here today. It’s something that the Board will consider as we go forward. But is certainly we have a lot of flexibility to return capital to everyone in the structure and all while maintaining a very conservative debt profile for the company.
Unidentified Analyst: Awesome. Thank you very much.
Grant Sims: Thank you.
Operator: All right. Next up, we are going to Michael Blum. [Operator Instructions] And next up we have Michael Blum. Your line is now open.
Michael Blum: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Wanted to just one point of clarification for the balance of 2023 on soda ash, so have you now effectively locked in prices for the balance of the year? Is there still some potential movement this year?
