Kyle Ramachandran: Yes. Look, our R&D effort is ongoing, and we’re continuing to evaluate stuff. And I think at times, we’ll seize the opportunity when we find a product line that really seems to work like this, and we’ll continue to try to innovate and find better ways to improve our customers’ operations.
Luke Lemoine: Okay. Perfect. Thanks for the time.
Kyle Ramachandran: Thanks, Luke.
Operator: Our next question will come from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. You may now go ahead.
Stephen Gengaro: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. I think the first question, and you talked a little bit, Kyle, about the fourth quarter. What do you — you guys, I think, tend to get a little bit of an early look into frac fleet going back to work. What are you seeing just kind of in the market right now as far as pressure pumping activity potentially increasing. I mean, we’ve heard some frac guys talk about a little bit of — maybe even a little bit improvement in the fourth quarter and kind of recovery in ’24. What are you guys seeing like over the next few months as far as deployments? I know you’ve built some seasonality into your guidance, but as far as actual assets going back to work, what do you — what can you add?
Kyle Ramachandran: Yes. Obviously, commodity prices have been very supportive on a relative basis. So that’s certainly making everybody feel pretty positive. On the frac side, obviously, there’s been tremendous consolidation. And I think as you’re starting to see some earnings come out, there are sort of the bifurcation developing in the space. So those that maybe had a lower activity third quarter may have opportunities to pick up some of the spot work. But we’re definitely seeing sort of differentiation there. One of the themes that we continue to see is just pure efficiencies, so people doing more less. So that theme, I think, ultimately has a little bit of downward pressure on the total demand for capital equipment, not necessarily throughput.
So we’re not forecasting any sort of significant increase in ’24. We do think it is modest from an overall activity standpoint, but we’re cautious as to the overall market outlook. What we’ve been able to demonstrate, I think, is an ability to grow in a market that just doesn’t have a ton of organic growth from capital equipment. We’ve been able to capture more tower accounts, more share through the new technology. And one of the things that’s happened over the last 12 months in our business is our last mile business has declined just from an overall volume standpoint. So that’s a pretty big piece of leverage or torque that we do have. We don’t see it increasing here in the fourth quarter significantly. But as we look back 12 months ago, that was a pretty significant driver in our business that’s not here today.
To grow there doesn’t require capital for the business outside of working capital, get the team in place to make that happen, and they’ve been very successful in providing high quality service to our customers. So that’s an opportunity we’re excited about as well.
Stephen Gengaro: Thanks. Are you — if I sort of dissect it into frac fleet followed and sort of total fully utilized systems because of the penetration of the new technologies, are you thinking that in the fourth quarter — because what I was thinking was you would have some increased penetration of the AutoBlend in top fills, but your guidance would suggest that the frac fleets followed actually comes down again, which seems counterintuitive to what I’m hearing as far as a little more frac activity. That’s what I’m trying to triangulate.
Kyle Ramachandran: Yes. I think you hit on that. So the guidance implies a slight modest activity reduction, but offset by the new technologies as we continue to show.
