ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Luca Savi: So when I look at the 3 different businesses, they are facing a little bit of a different challenges, Jeff. In terms of IP, we have a very good momentum there, and we are taking to the next level. We need to invest. We need to invest there and keep on investing in this business. But we need also to keep a very close eye because you have a short cycle business that is slowing and a long cycle with big projects that is really hard. So you really need to wait and decide properly where to invest. So good momentum, keep an eye on what is going out there in the industrial. When you look at Motion Technologies, is working like crazy on the operational efficiency while sticking on the pricing and negotiate as well as you can on the pricing.

So that there is still quite a lot of work to do, and it’s quite difficult because you are dealing with automotive with a very difficult market scenario. When it comes to CCT, CCT has got plenty of opportunities and in terms of — because of the aerospace that is growing. But at the same time, what we experienced in CCT in Q4 was challenged on the supply chain that were higher than expected. So if we look at Q4, probably we were not able to deliver roughly $10 million, $20 million of revenue just because of supply chain issues and labor shortages and CCT is probably where we need to pay more attention because of those kind of issues.

Emmanuel Caprais: So Jeff, in terms of margin trajectory, I think that if you think about IP and CCT, as Luca mentioning, they are in a different dynamic than MT, where if you think about IT, we probably closed from a sustainable margin performance in IP at around 18% in 2022. And so we’re going to drive roughly 100 basis points higher in 2023 than that. CCT is going is also going to drive significant margin expansion a little less than 100 basis points compared to the 18 — roughly 18% in 2022. So really good momentum there. In MT, we’re clawing our way back into the high teens. And so I think you’re going to see a nice improvement, but still very much affected, as we mentioned, by material cost inflation that still remains pretty big.

Jeff Hammond : Okay. That’s very good color. Maybe I guess, within MT and maybe broader just — you talked about particular, I think, aftermarket weakness in Europe in the front half, production slowdown in auto in the back half in Europe. Maybe just dial in a little more on how you’re thinking about North America and China? And just more broadly, what’s your expectation for kind of rate of recovery here? We hear a lot of different things on China in general and just want to understand what’s kind of built into your guidance?

Luca Savi: Okay. So when we look at the market for 2023, I said, we said 0 to 2 the market, 2% growth, we will outperform that. And then Europe, probably we estimated flat also China and low single-digit growth for North America. That is our expectation. And we expect — our forecast and we expect to outperform that, as I said. When it comes to the second point in terms of China, from an economy point of view, I think it’s going to — China is going to do fine. If I think about the difficulties that we had in Q4 in December, 75% of all our people got COVID, never heard of. And guess what? They’re all back in right now and they’re all working. So my view on China is actually a positive one.