Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Roger Kearns: Yes. So, it’s Roger again. I mean, I think we do have certainly some pull-through on the PEM side through the housing materials construction piece. The second piece we have there that I would say it’s still early on is the impact on the infrastructure part of HIP from the infrastructure, the RRA because we expect still that there will be significant estimates in water systems throughout the U.S. And so, we’re still at the early stages of starting to see that through. So, I think those two pieces will continue to pull PVC through. An exact number, I don’t have an exact number in PEM on new construction, think about that.

Albert Chao: And this is Albert. As what I said earlier, the industry, whatever they cannot supply to domestic market, they will export.

Arun Viswanathan: Okay. Got it. And then just as a quick follow-up, the $1.2 billion closed acquisitions in ’22, would you expect a similar amount in ’23? Or what are your kind of preferences for cash at this point?

Steven Bender: So, Arun, I was chuckling. The answer is we look for value-added opportunities. And so, it’s hard to know exactly whether there’ll be an opportunity to transact in any particular year. But we’ll always look for opportunities that are going to be value added. And so, you’re right, over the last couple of years, it’s been a very busy period of time to really add businesses to the overall portfolio. But those were all businesses that we thought were really great additions to the portfolio that we had compelling synergies, as you could see from the numbers we’ve talked about earlier. So, there’s going to be an ongoing process as there always has been to look for opportunities, but it’s hard to know whether those will play out and materialize in ’23.

Arun Viswanathan: Great. Thanks.

Operator: And at this time, the Q&A session has ended. Are there any closing remarks?

Jeff Holy: Yes. Thank you again for participating in today’s call. We hope you’ll join us again for our next conference call to discuss our first quarter 2023 results. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for participating in today’s Westlake Corporation fourth quarter and full year earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call will be available replay beginning two hours after the call has ended. The replay can be accessed via Westlake’s website. Goodbye.