Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Chris Wellborn: Yes. I’ll comment on that. So specifically related to imports, the import prices have been declining, but also our production cost in the U.S. has been declining. As you look at the competitive situation, we have a broad offering for both Residential and Commercial. We participate in all price points of rigid and flexible LVT. Imports are declining and the U.S. material and energy costs are also falling. Our local costs are higher than imports, but we get a premium for better service versus supply chains that can be three months or longer. We’re improving our production and adding features like WetProtect that protects subfloors and antimicrobial to differentiate. And then lastly, our West Coast plant will — cost will continue to fall as that plant comes up. Operator Our next question comes from Truman Patterson from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Truman Patterson: I’ll just ask a multipart question and keep mine to one. But following up on some of the prior questions, clearly, nat gas was a large headwind for Ceramics throughout 2022. It’s clearly nosedived here recently, both in the U.S. and Europe. I know you all have that high -cost inventory you need to work through. You all were hedged partially in Europe in the fourth quarter. But any chance nat gas, ceramics — any chance you can help us think through some of the potential cost tailwinds as we move through the year and we get through some of these items? And do you primarily give these cost tailwinds back through pricing, trying to stimulate demand? Or are there any offsets that you all think you might be able to maintain pricing and kind of recapture that price cost?

Chris Wellborn: Well, let’s talk about the cost first. So as the — as we get in the back half of the year, our costs should be more in line with our competitors. We should be pretty much equal.

Jeff Lorberbaum: The European comment.

Chris Wellborn: Yes. European and then there will be — we do think there’s going to be volume pressure in the market. But as those energy costs continue to come down and wages go up, we think demand could be higher in Europe going forward. So it just depends on how that works out.

Jeff Lorberbaum: And then around the world, the energy prices are continuing to come down everywhere, and it will impact the cost. We’re going to have to see what happens with the competitive environment, given the slowing conditions around the world.

Truman Patterson: Okay. Should I extrapolate that for North America, U.S. as well?

Jeff Lorberbaum: Correct.

Truman Patterson: All right. Thank you, all.

Jeff Lorberbaum: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Dahl from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mike Dahl: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Sorry to beat the dead horse here on the price /cost stuff, but I’ll ask one more. On the pricing side, I guess, correct me if I’m wrong, but some of the pricing last year, we were under the assumption, it was almost kind of like surcharge pricing that layered in pretty quickly in relation to some of the energy cost increases on both product and maybe on some of the logistics also. So I guess the question is, to what extent is it more kind of quantitative or mathematic in terms of how much pricing comes off as some of those costs come down and maybe those surcharges roll off?

Jeff Lorberbaum: You’re correct that we did in different markets on different products have some of it is temporary surcharges. It was both on product and on freight, and most of those surcharges have now gone away, and they don’t exist anymore at this point. And the majority of the increases though were put through by price increases in the marketplace, and we’re having to — we’ll just have to manage those relative to the competition to stay competitive with the world changes.

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