Steve Hedlund: Yes, Mig, I think you summarized it well. As we look at the automation business, we expect continued growth based on the activity we see in the market today. So that would be above the guidance for the overall business. So obviously, there’s parts of the business that are lagging. What are those parts? It’s early innings in terms of seeing a turn in the macroeconomic indicators, particularly in Europe. So we’re cautious on Europe. We’re cautious on things that are consumer facing. So the Harris portion of our business that is retail and HVAC focused we’re cautious on that. And then, as you pointed out, there are some large end users that are themselves being cautious about their outlook for 2024. And so that that just tempers our overall conservatism approach to it.
There’s still a lot of pressure on our people and our teams to outperform our conservatism. And so we hope that as the global economy starts to accelerate that that we’ll see our business improve as well.
Mig Dobre: Fair enough. Nobody asked the fast charger question yet, and I’m surprised, so I’m going to be the guy to ask it. We are yet to see sort of a quantifiable update from you in terms of how this opportunity is evolving. So what should our expectations be in 2024? At what point in time are you going to be in a position where you can provide maybe a little more clarity on this and maybe your thoughts on it?
Steve Hedlund: Yes, Mig, we’re still in the commercialization process for this product. We’re a new entrant into the market. I think we’ve done a very good job of cutting through the clutter and a lot of the vaporware that’s out in the industry. We are engaged with dozens of large potential customers, all of whom you’d recognize we’re talking to the right people. We’re working through their testing and validation protocols. It’s a long selling cycle based on the capital spend that they need to make and the potential risk to them of making a wrong decision. So I expect that we’ll take the balance of the first half of the year to get through that process, and then we should be able to provide you more clarity on how we think that will ramp up in the second half.
Mig Dobre: All right. Thank you.
Gabe Bruno: Thanks, Mig.
Operator: Chris Dankert from Loop Capital has the next question.
Chris Dankert: Hey, morning, guys. I guess, first off, nice execution on higher standards, so I’m glad you highlighted that. I guess just the one spot that still needs some work international margin. How much volume do we really need to get that additional 200, 300 basis points? Or how much of this is still kind of inside a Lincoln control, excluding volume here?
Gabe Bruno: Well, Chris, I would point to that we executed at 14% in this fourth quarter on the international side. So we’re looking to more consistency. So for the full year 2023, we were in the range. So while we point to in the slide deck that on average we’re at just over 10% with current volumes, we’re within the range. So improvements in volumes as we continue to shape our business just gives us more confidence that we’ll be on the higher end of the range. And as we continue to navigate and think through the longer 2030 strategy that we’ve spent some time thinking about, we just continue to see improvement in shaping our model. So we’re very much comfortable that with existing volumes, we’re within that range.
Chris Dankert: Understood. I guess the concern I had here too was when you cited some of the concerns around Europe and maybe just update us on the other international trends kind of year-to-date here. Has India and the Middle East held up kind of with what we saw in the fourth quarter?
Gabe Bruno: Yes. Chris, what we’ve seen is strength, continued strength. And India, Middle East and Energy sectors there just continue to drive strength in the demand profile.
Chris Dankert: Understood. Thanks so much, guys.
Gabe Bruno: Thanks, Chris.
Operator: We’ll take the next question from Nathan Jones from Stifel.
Nathan Jones: Good morning, everyone.
Gabe Bruno: Good Morning, Nathan.
Steve Hedlund: Good morning.
Nathan Jones: I’ve got a follow-up on the EV charger stuff. You said in response to Mig’s question that working through the testing procedures in the first half, potentially could see some ramp up in the second half of 2024. Did I also hear you say that you’ve included none of that ramp up in the guidance in 2024?
Steve Hedlund: Yes, that’s correct.
Nathan Jones: And maybe you guys have previously stated that you have $600 million of capacity to sell those EV charges. Is there any expectation of when you might be at that kind of level? Are we looking at like 2025, 2026, 2027, any kind of expectation for when you think you can get that capacity filled?
Steve Hedlund: It’s really hard for us to forecast that for you, Nathan, in particular, because there are so many factors outside our control and so many factors outside even our prospective customers control in terms of grid connections and civil construction and permitting and their own capital deployment plans. So it’s really premature for us to be able to give you a ramp up horizon, really. I expect that we would know more after the end of the first half as we work our way through this process. We’re also fortunate that a lot of these prospective customers are enthusiastic about our value proposition, have asked for us to execute NDAs with them, so they can share with us in more detail their capital spending plan. So I’m hoping we will have more visibility later in the year. I just don’t have that visibility to share with you now.
