Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

D.J. Monagle: Certainly. So David, thanks for the question. Look, as we’ve been saying that our penetration or growth story for Asia on the paper side is penetration and the introduction of new products. So, what you’re seeing in this quarter’s results is good growth on the sales good growth on the volumes, good growth and that contributing on the overall income. On top of that, as we look at the immediate trajectory, we’ve been sharing with everyone our growth plans and just this last quarter, we did start up one of the new satellites in India. And then next quarter even as I speak, we’re ramping up a couple of satellites in China. Included in those satellites. One is major, major piece that goes into packaging. It’s a new product offering GCC.

So, that’s just coming online. Now, we talked last quarter about the fact that one of those satellites, one in India was also the new yield offering. Then on top of that, as we go into the next quarter, we’ve got early part 2024, we’ve got yet another new satellite coming on in China. So we are — the growth you’re seeing is all about the penetration that we’ve been working up to. And there’s more growth to come from just that penetration and the introduction of new products. So, we’re in pretty good spot in Asia.

Doug Dietrich: And Brett, want to talk about the foundry market?

Brett Argirakis: Sure, Doug, Hi, David. Look, historically, green sand bonds have been split about 50-50, between Asia and in North America. And of course, in Asia, China makes up the bulk of that, as the China market continues to recover. Our green sand bond business has shown continuous improvement quarter-on-quarter. In fact, we’re probably 7% or 8%, we’ve seen 7% or 8% growth year-on-year. But it does have a bit more room to go to hit its peak levels from 2021. We do expect the fourth quarter to remain similar with maybe a little bit more growth. So, we definitely have some room. And we’re also, we’re working on the 2024 plan now. So, also expect to see some modest improvement for next year too. So, I think we’re in a good position that we definitely have growth potential, especially in China.

David Silver: Okay, great. Yeah, no, thank you for the color up from both, I appreciate it. Doug, this is more of a question may be about pricing. So, over the past year or two, your company’s been pushing for price, maybe to offset higher costs and costs inflation in general and some special situations. But, I’m guessing, but I’m thinking that we’re kind of in a slightly different environment right now. And I’m going to quote you here, but you always talk about pricing for value. And, I guess without the tailwind as much of a tailwind in a cost inflationary environment. How important would you say incrementally getting price is to hitting those 2025 targets? And then, in particular, what are the prospects, for your portfolio? Or if you want to call out one or two areas, but what would you say are the prospects for getting incremental pricing? Even on your, best valued products, best value proposition products in, let’s say, the current kind of mixed environment?

Doug Dietrich: You took my answer off the table, you say we price on value, so no, but David, I guess, there’s still room to go. And I think there always has been, I don’t, I guess I’ll go back and say, we’ve always had price increases, we’ve always looked to price our products appropriately to the value that they deliver, and that the that our products, get the fair share of that value with our customers. And I think, over the long term and with our relations with customers that that gets to a really good spot. And I think some of the products that we’re developing and designing deserve higher margins, they will be higher margins out there in the marketplace. So, we’ve always gotten pricing for our products, it just looked like the only reason we were pricing in the past two years is to catch up on inflation.