West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Paul Quinn: Okay. And then just lastly, I mean, I’ve been covering the company for 20 years, and it seems, when I first started Westridge at a pretty decent gap on competitors, it seems to be eroded over time. And just wondering, is that because the competitors have got a lot better, or what do you attribute that, I mean, you used to have a little bit of blue sky between, you and others and now it seems to be you’re right there neck and neck with the top ones. What’s the change?

Ray Ferris: Well. I’m not sure I’d 100% agree with that statement, Paul. But I will say, I don’t think anyone has grown more than West Fraser. We continue to operate in our Lumber side, three distinct areas, British Columbia, Alberta, and the U.S. South. And these are the tale of three cities. And so, I would say we’re very happy in some areas and not so happy in others and making the decisions with our portfolio and operating strategy to put ourselves in the position in the long term. But – and so those that don’t have to spend a lot of time in the more difficult areas, it’s – that can be helpful. But I really do. I think we – not me, but we very much think we have the right asset mix and are growing in the regions that we want to grow in and shrinking in the regions that we think we need to. And so it’s a long race. I guess we’ll see where we get to.

Paul Quinn: All right. Hey, congratulations on the retirement, Ray. Best of luck, Sean.

Ray Ferris: Thanks Paul.

Sean McLaren: Thank you, Paul.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next one is from Ketan Mamtora from BMO Capital Markets. Please ask your question.

Ketan Mamtora: Okay. Let’s try this again. Can you hear me?

Ray Ferris: We can hear you Ketan.

Ketan Mamtora: Can you hear me okay?

Ray Ferris: We can hear you Ketan.

Ketan Mamtora: Okay, perfect. Sorry about that earlier. Hey, Chris, maybe to start with, can you give us some sense of how you are thinking about CapEx for 2024? It certainly sounds like there is some carrying forward from 2023, particularly in this environment where there’s still quite a lot of uncertainty perhaps maybe even at a high level that would be helpful?

Chris Virostek: Sure. So I think when we consider kind of what’s happened the last couple years, is we’ve had fairly ambitious capital plans and we’ve been in particular the last couple years, a bit frustrated by the delays that have happened from a supply chain standpoint and have had spillover into the following year in that case in the last couple years. And it looks like 2023 to 2024 is not going to be any different in that front. In terms of the philosophy that and how we’re thinking about CapEx kind of relative to the market is we were quite careful through 2021 and 2022 to preserve liquidity to make sure that our allocation strategy could be durable, agnostic to market cycles. And so, we’ve got some great opportunities to invest capital as Sean and Ray indicated, that continues to take action in the portfolio where it makes sense to improve the asset quality over time.

And frankly, some of the best time to do that is in a weak market because the market will recover at some point in time. And we’d rather spend the capital now and make the improvements now. And that’s across everything. It’s not just about capacity, it’s grade, it’s recovery, it’s cost, all those elements. And to do that work now in a softer market, when there’s room to do it from a supply demand standpoint. And then when the market recovers, we’re ready to meet our customer’s demands and produce what they’re looking for and the quantities they’re looking for at that time. So I think with where we position the balance sheet, we don’t – we’re not contemplating major cuts to CapEx here over the next 12 months. And we do still have a lot of projects in flight that are spilling over.