Participants

Tom Ciccone; VP and CFO; Broadwind, Inc.

Eric Blashford; President and CEO; Broadwind, Inc.

Eric Stine; Analyst; Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Sameer Joshi; Analyst; H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC

Justin Clare; Analyst; ROTH MKM

Jonathan Shafer; Analyst; Northland Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to Broadwing's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Tom Jacoby, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Tom Ciccone

Good morning and welcome to the Broadwind Fourth Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. Leading the call today is our CEO, Eric Blackford, and I'm Thompson County, the Company's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We issued a press release before the market opened today detailing our fourth quarter results. I would like to remind you that management's commentary and responses to questions on today's conference call may include forward-looking statements, which by their nature are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Although these forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, actual results may differ materially for a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to the Risk Factors section of our latest annual and quarterly filings with the SEC. Additionally, please note that you can find reconciliations of historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed during our call in the press release issued today. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Eric.

Eric Blashford

Thanks, Tom, and welcome to those joining us today. Robin delivered strong full year results, highlighted by record margin realization, net income, and adjusted EBITDA for 2023 was a transitional period for domestic onshore wind developments. We continue to drive organic sales growth within our core industrials, mining and energy markets through a combination of new contract wins together with increased customer demand for our proprietary pressure, reducing system or PRS. technology.
As we built momentum through our commercial strategy, our team has also continued to drive improved productivity and cost efficiency throughout the organization, consistent with an ongoing focus on sustained operational excellence, we delivered a strong fourth quarter performance as well as our revenue, operating income and profitability all increased meaningfully above prior year levels, driven by a combination of increased wind tower sales, together with solid demand across our diverse markets, our plants executed well during the quarter, allowing us to deliver strong results. We booked $20.2 million of orders in the fourth quarter as activity levels declined from the near record levels in the prior year period. However, order rates increased on a sequential basis across all three reporting periods, a trend which is continuing into this year.
Entering 2024, we continue to operate on plan at a commercial level for focus on expanding our product mix within higher margin adjacent markets. The release of the Broadlane clean fuels, L-70 low flow PRS units. The third model in this product family is on track for this year and will include a version designed to accommodate RNG or renewable natural gas for expanding our portfolio of industrial fabrications to include new products, have finalized our ICR registration and are pursuing an AS9100 quality certification to open more gearing opportunities in aerospace and defense.
Operationally, the lean operating principles, process controls and continuous improvement projects we've implemented at all locations are showing good results in asset utilization and productivity. For self-help savings totaling approximately $1.5 million in 2023. Our focus on team member safety, quality systems, and flexible skills training has allowed us to continually need the quality and delivery performance at varying volumes from a safety perspective, our recordable injuries and lost time incidents are trending favorably as we implemented our safety skills program across the Company. In fact, we're proud to have recently celebrated 16 years at our North Carolina facility with our lost time incidents.
For the full year 2023, we generated total revenue of $203 million with a record-setting adjusted EBITDA of $21.5 million as all divisions posted strong performances. For the fourth quarter, we generated total revenue of $47 million [as increases] in the heavy fabrications and Industrial Solutions segments offset a slight reduction in gear. We generated $4.4 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, an increase of more than $4 million versus the prior year period, continuing the strong performance we've seen this year so far.
Our total consolidated backlog at the end of Q4 was approximately $183 million, down from $297 million in the prior year period for the activity in our non-wind markets was stable in Q4. That has been robust so far in 2024 and we expect good order flow this year, notwithstanding softness in oil and gas gear market.
Within our Heavy Fabrications segment, Q4 revenue was $29.5 million, a 24% increase year over year, led by increases in wind tower sales, mining equipment in our PRS systems, offset by reductions in our construction and industrial markets. Gearing revenue was $11 million a 5% reduction year over year due to reduced customer activity in oil and gas and mining, partially offset by strength in the steel processing sector.
Industrial Solutions revenue was $6 billion, up 29% year over year, led by increases in new gas turbine content, continuing the positive trend for this business, which began in 2022.
In summary, I'm pleased with the operating performance of all divisions for the fourth quarter as we took quick cost actions in response to demand fluctuations in both our Heavy Fabrications and units to deliver favorable results for the quarter and for the full year 2023.
With that, I'll turn the call back over to Tom for a discussion of our fourth quarter financial performance.

Tom Ciccone

Thank you, Erik. Turning to Slide 5 for an overview of our fourth quarter performance. We had a strong fourth quarter. We experienced significant year-over-year growth in revenue, gross margin and EBITDA. In Q4, we generated $4.4 million of EBITDA compared to $0.2 million in the prior year fourth quarter. The greater than $4 million EBITDA increase and improved margin realization is due primarily to the benefits attributable to the advanced manufacturing production tax credits or AMP credits we have earned associated with our wind tower production together with improved throughput and improved operational execution. We generated net income of $1.1 million or $0.05 per diluted share in the fourth quarter compared to a loss of $2.9 million, or $0.14 per diluted share in the prior year.
Turning to Slide 6 for a discussion of our Heavy Fabrication segment, fourth quarter orders of $10 million are down sharply versus the prior year period as we entered into a significant supply agreement for wind tower purchases valued at $175 million in the prior year fourth quarter. This is not typical for us as we usually receive orders at more regular intervals.
Fourth quarter revenues were $29.5 million, up $5.8 million versus the prior year. We sold 132 tower sections in the fourth quarter versus 96 in the prior year quarter. Sequentially, tower sections sold decreased as we had less activity in our Manitowoc facility due to project timing, and we slowed Abilene production late in Q4 in response to customer demand.
During the fourth quarter, we recognized segment EBITDA of $3.7 million, an improvement of $3.4 million versus the prior year period, primarily driven by the increased tower sections sold and the AMP credits recognized in the current year period. It should be noted that while segment EBITDA was down sequentially, Q4 included $1.1 million of charges related to discounts and administrative fees recorded in December associated with the sale to monetize our 2023 AMP credits.
Turning to Slide 7. Gearing orders slowed in Q4 versus the prior year. Q4 orders totaled $3.6 million, an $11.5 million decrease. The majority of the decrease was attributable to the reduction in oil and gas demand given a decline in domestic development activity as producers are deploying relatively less capital for drilling. Segment revenue was $11.1 million, down $0.6 million compared to the prior year fourth quarter. But EBITDA increased $0.5 million to $1.3 million due to a more profitable mix of products sold and improved operational execution when compared to the prior year period.
Turning to Slide 8 for a discussion of our Industrial Solutions segment. Industrial Solutions had another strong quarter with revenue in excess of $6 million. This represents the third consecutive quarter with revenue total greater than $6 million, a quarterly revenue level only achieved once before 2023. Orders of $6.6 million were up both sequentially and versus the prior year fourth quarter. And our backlog of $16.1 million continues to remain at an elevated level and represents the third highest quarterly total since acquisition. We continue to see strong demand for our core natural gas turbine offerings.
Fourth quarter segment revenues benefited from the relatively strong backlog we've been carrying throughout 2023. EBITDA increased to $1 million from $0.7 million in the prior year period, consistent with the increased revenue when compared to the prior year.
Turning to Slide 9. At the end of 2023 we had cash and availability under our credit facility of nearly $23 million. As expected, we were able to deliver improved working capital efficiency during the fourth quarter with working capital declining $6.6 million sequentially. In December 2023, we sold approximately $15 million of AMP credits, less discounts, transaction fees and related expenses in conjunction with the tax credit transfer agreement made pursuant to Section 45 X of the Internal Revenue Code.
We recognized $6.5 million in cash proceeds from this initial sale on December 2023, and the remaining $7 million balance was collected in February. As part of the tax credit transfer agreement, we have sold all of the 2023 AMP credits and will sell our 2024 AMP credits as they're generated. We expect to sell earned AMP credits and collect more ratably throughout 2024. And as such, expect to see a corresponding decline in our AMP credit receivable in 2024 when compared to 2023.
Finally, with respect to our financial guidance today, we are introducing financial guidance for the first quarter 2024. Given current expectations and beliefs, we anticipate first quarter revenue to be in a range of $34 million to $38 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of $1 million to $2 million.
That concludes my remarks. I will turn the call back over to Eric to continue our discussion.

Eric Blashford

Thanks, Tom. Now allow me to provide some thoughts entering 2024, beginning with our Heavy Fabrication segment, domestic onshore wind development and activity is expected to gradually accelerate beginning in the second half of 2020 for even still a higher interest rate environment. And raw materials inflation have impacted project economics for some developers, leading them to temporarily delay or defer the timing of their investments in the interim, we've aligned our cost structure to reflect a period of lower production volumes at our tower facilities, while repurposing available capacity towards non-wind demand across our diverse end markets. We remain highly constructive on the long-term economics of wind, particularly with the decade-long tax credit visibility afforded by the IRA of which we remain a key beneficiary.
As mentioned in my earlier comments, we are expanding our position with several of our industrial fabrications customers to support multiple product lines for them. We requested and received our federal eye chart registration, which stands for International Traffic in Arms Regulations from the Department of State, which opens new opportunities in the defense industry for us in industry, we are well suited to support with a deep water port access we have at our Wisconsin facility and allowing us to deliver very large projects by barge in our Gearing segment efforts to broaden our sales mix into less cyclical markets remain ongoing, positioning us to realize a more balanced, stable revenue profile moving forward.
In Q4, we took cost action to align overhead expenses with demand and upgraded our commercial team to include stronger representation in our central and western regions. Following recent process improvement and TI. actions implemented in 2023, we've been able to respond to new market opportunities more quickly to that. And our customer response times improved by more than 50% in the fourth quarter. And we expect an additional 25% improvement in this metric by midyear 2020.
For Industrial Solutions, we are pleased to be expanding our share of market in the gas turbine sector, notably in the aftermarket where quick responses, especially vital to our customers as they deal with outages in the field, both planned and unplanned. We've upgraded our in-house engineering capabilities, added CNC machining capabilities, plasma cutting and packaging automation to improve throughput and reduce costs. We've also optimized our facility to accommodate our expected growth in the wind, repowering and solar markets.
In summary, I am pleased with the strong operational performance from our team this year, including the strong results we achieved in Q4, we were able to effectively pivot our cost structure during a transitional period for domestic onshore wind demand while continuing to retain our highly skilled workforce. We continue to build a firm foundation for steady, profitable growth, serving the energy transition, other key markets and look forward to capitalizing on improved demand in the years ahead.
With that said, I'll turn the call back over to the moderator for the Q&A session.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum. Please proceed with your question.

Eric Stine

So maybe just could we start with the Q1 outlook and maybe just talk about some of the puts and takes you did talk about on your expected utilization in wind. I would presume that you expect some weakness in gearing, it seems as if Industrial Solutions is actually trending positively. So I'm just trying to kind of match up that commentary with whether it's comparing it to last year's Q1 or Q4, however, you'd like to do it. That would be helpful.

Eric Blashford

Yes, you're spot on, Eric. We ended 2022 with a pretty strong backlog in those divisions, both in both in industrial fabrication product line and in gearing, our bookings late in the year 2023, some were soft. And so we're entering this year with us with a softer backlog in in gearing in industrial fabrication. So that's changing because as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, things are looking up sequentially and actually in this year. But that's what you're seeing in Q1 versus last year, Q1.

Eric Stine

Okay. All right. That's helpful. And then you saw it's helpful that you gave 25% utilization for wind in Q one. Any thoughts. I mean, I know a lot of factors go into this, but thoughts as to what that looks like you're kind of trending throughout the year. And I know that a big portion of that will be what is the timing of the kind of step back up in the big order that you gave us for jointly delayed? Maybe I don't know if that's something that you're able to do some, but just maybe what that looks like throughout the year?

Eric Blashford

Yes. Well, as I indicated, that's a nice ratable order for the remainder of that specific order as ratable through '24 and '25, we certainly have capacity that we can fill and we're actively looking to fill that with other with other customers but as a reminder, we also have capacity using those same plants to do other industrial fabrications, which is why this higher quoting activity is going to benefit manifest itself in the higher utilization for those plants. The 25% I mentioned is just the tower capacity utilization, which is typical what you analysts are interested in, but the actual capacity utilization of those plants is a bit higher than that.

Eric Stine

Got it. And then just maybe last one for me and just to follow up, it's still sort of wind. I mean, 25%. I would assume that that is made up of this large contract and it's radical execution.

Eric Blashford

Correct.

Eric Stine

And so you would think then that Q2 there's not a whole lot of time to. And so maybe Q2 looks similar. And then Q3 and Q4, it really comes down to do the conversations you're having to fill that capacity, do those come to fruition to turn into orders? Is that a fair way to think about it?

Eric Blashford

You're correct, and that's why we said that we believe our earnings profile is going to increase throughout the year. So second half will be will be strong in the first half, not because of what I mentioned about wind or what you discussed about wind, but because of the other, the other businesses that we have that have such strong quoting.
Now what I will say is what's not included in that we don't guide on it, it would be adapter projects and those those would be wind. But typically, when I'm talking about wind power capacity, that's what we're talking about with the 25%.

Eric Stine

Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

Sameer Joshi

Thanks. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a little bit of clarification on the second half activity that you're expecting on the wind front, is this a are you expecting some kind of quoting activity and receiving orders at that time or do you X do you see initial discussions about new dollars are new in our plans coming up and then subsequently you getting orders for 2025 and beyond?

Eric Blashford

Yes, I would think the industry in general considers 2024 a transitional year as it heads and ramps up into ['25, '26 and '27]. And that's indicated by the graph we have on our in our in our presentation and also supported by just general industry beliefs.
So your question I would love to have orders received in 2024 that we could still produce in 2024. But I think the more likely scenario is we're receiving orders in 2024 which we would begin to build in 2025 and beyond, with the exception, as I mentioned earlier of adapters, which we can respond a lot faster to adapt orders because of the length of the lead time length is shorter.

Sameer Joshi

Understood. The switching gears, the PRS. system that you have, can you can you give us some sort of a qualitative, but like how is it being received? And what is the demand over the next couple of years for this our contribution to your revenues from this?

Tom Ciccone

Yes, what I can tell you is we anticipate PRS is becoming a bigger part of our overall volume mix, we were just over about $10 million in '23. We anticipate that being closer to $20 million for '24. So that's our goal for '24. It does provide a nice strong margins for us in that we it is a growing part of our business.

Sameer Joshi

Understood. And then the last one from me on the AMP credits that were sold have you disclosed what kind of a discount was was given and now that you are going to do it on an ongoing basis as we receive those credits? Or do you expect any discounting there? Or how should we look at the accounting for that?

Tom Ciccone

Sure. Yes, we've disclosed it and you'll see that in the 10-K it comes out later today we are the direct discount that we sold it for was 6.5% when you factor in all the other administrative fees that we incurred, it's a little bit. It's almost 8% is what we've the overall discount factor. So we took we took a December Q4 charge of $1.1 million, which represents the discount on all of the all of the '23 credits that we've earned as part of our agreement. We've also sold all of the '24 credits, and we'll be monetizing those on a ratable basis in '24. So that discount will remain the same throughout the balance of 2024. So after '24, we do not have an agreement to sell those assets yet. So that will be something we look into midyear.

Sameer Joshi

And so the [$7 million and the $6.5 million] are sort of part of the same agreement. It's just that you see [$6.5 million last year at $7 million] in February.

Tom Ciccone

Yeah, that's just how the timing worked out in terms of the cash settlement. Yeah

Sameer Joshi

Okay.

Eric Blashford

Sameer, if I if I could go back to if I could ask add some color to your question about the PRSU. did Tom talked about on revenue and profitability, but you asked about the acceptance has been very well, very well accepted in the marketplace. That's why we're coming up with these multiple models to thought the family, which supports different flow rates and different different applications. So we're very excited about that. And I think that market we estimate to between of for just the PRS is to be between $100 million, $150 million, part of a larger $700 million market in the overall compressed natural gas virtual pipelines. So we do see room to grow there. And it's really been very well received so far, which is why we're expanding the line.

Sameer Joshi

Yes. No, it was great to see that industrial solution that you're offering is able to replace existing solutions so quickly, I think that just speaks to the PRS and technology quality of that technology.

Tom Ciccone

Yes. Thank you.

Sameer Joshi

Thanks.

Tom Ciccone

Thanks, Sameer.

Eric Blashford

Thanks, experience.

Operator

Our next question is from Justin Clare with Roth MKM. Please proceed with your question.

Justin Clare

If I and thanks for taking our questions here.

Eric Blashford

Hi Justin.

Justin Clare

So first, I just wanted to start on the visibility you have into 2025, just based on the conversations you're having with wind tower customers are they planning for a significant increase in demand in 2025 relative to 2024? And are you seeing preparations for that? And what's the potential that they could look to secure capacity, some potentially in a near term here so that they're prepared for 2025.

Eric Blashford

While the I'd say that the customers that we're speaking to are are bullish they're cautious, but they're bullish on '24 and '25 versus '24 and [six] beyond that. So I think there are there active discussions. They are planning some of the capacity has been secured in long-term agreements like and like we have with our customers, but others, but those those long-term agreements can certainly be expanded and added to. And those are the discussions that are active.

Justin Clare

Okay. Got it. And then you mentioned some of the factors that are impacting the demand for wind here, high rates inflation. Wondering if you're seeing cancellations or is this just delays? And then wondering what it takes for many of these projects to kind of get back on track or are PPAs needing to be amended and renegotiated higher for the economics to make sense? And then also, are we waiting for treasury guidance here? Is that a key factor that is potentially holding projects back on me just share a little bit about that?

Eric Blashford

Sure. We haven't had wins in speaking with our customers. We haven't we haven't heard that, that final 10% that bonus you think you're talking about Justin, with the RA has had any impact on the timing or at least we haven't heard that if it has. It certainly hasn't risen to the conversations we've had. But the customers are pretty open when it talks about of inflation pressures, interest pressures in infrastructure, interconnection queues, those tend to delay projects that we haven't had any cancellations, but I know that there are some been some projects. Our customer projects have been pushed to the right, because I think the customers are waiting for their potentially evaluating one project site over a different project site because of interconnection to the timing thereof. So I answered your question. I still feel that customers are bullish. We're all excited about the IRA and the impact. But again in an inflationary environment with interest rates still high or higher than they'd be desired. I think that's causing the pause or temporary pause in some projects.

Justin Clare

Got it. Okay. Okay. And then you did mention sort of earnings profile for 2024 expected to be more back half weighted. And it sounds like that's actually not the wind business that's expected to pick up, but you're your other our businesses here. So gearing, industrial fabrications. I was wondering if you just speak to that a little bit more what end markets are driving the anticipated uptick in orders? And is that really across heavy fabrications, gearing, Industrial Solutions? And then maybe you could just speak to oil and gas. Is that part of it? You see the oil and gas on order flow picking up here?

Eric Blashford

Yes, good question. Thank you. Regarding let's start with gearing. Steel is strong coal pulverized. There's a strong cement is strong the industrial, the core industrials material handling our strong oil and gas is predicted to remain soft at least through 2024. We think we're seeing some green shoots, some customer orders are coming through and some quotes are coming through, but we're cautious on that. So we think the demand from gearing is going to come from these other markets. And we're also getting into other markets that are not gearing that are more machining. I mentioned this 9100 new quality certification we're going after, which will allow us to get into aerospace and defense. That's a market we think is untapped certainly for us, and we think it's attractive for us because we have the capabilities that's exciting.
Regarding industrial fabrications, we're seeing more demand in material handling, more customers are coming to us for increased material handling and some infrastructure fits with regard to industrial solutions. That's power-generation, that's global. We've seen or the market has seen more utility scale, a combined-cycle plants be put up around the world, which is very good for us. Our content in that is increasing and the market is increasing for Industrial Solutions, plus we're starting to tap into the solar market in terms of inverter skids, which we provide under that under that space and even wind repowering, we provide internals for the adapter projects we do from that division. So a lot of our diverse markets are up and wind to wind is stable, which is why I said the growth that we have, Justin is going to be in those non-wind markets if wind picks up sooner than we think that would be a benefit.

Justin Clare

Okay, got it. Thanks for the color.

Eric Blashford

Thank you.

Operator

[Jonathan Shafer, Northland Capital Markets].

Jonathan Shafer

Hi, guys. I have a question kind of a follow-up to Justin's question about the oil and gas segment. I know you said you expected it to be pretty flat in 2024. And I'm curious because on the kind of like how much of that is being driven by I know there's been a bit of a downtick in CapEx spending by the upstream oil and gas and the drillers at the same time, I think if I'm going after information, the rig count peaked just a little over a year ago and then kind of has trended down direct. But the volume of production is that is kind of still like a record high level.

Eric Blashford

Correct.

Jonathan Shafer

And a lot of cases, yes, they talk about a lot of that is being driven by efficiency gains and so and is that is there some sort of secular element here? I'm going to kind of separate the two things out there. Is there a change in either like the completion rate and actually don't know the answer I will follow this closely like had they are they pumping less when they're doing completions in a way? Or I know they've gone to longer laterals, but that doesn't affect your gearings and pressure pumping equipment. So has there been a change just from like a design or an approach standpoint that puts less wear and tear and lowers the demand on that gearing.

Eric Blashford

So there's a couple of dynamics, these you mentioned and complete their completions. There's this concept called docks or drilled but uncompleted wells, those funds like a bank account that then they're already drilled. And as they want to start pumping, the oil companies can tap that without having a drill drill new wells, and we participate mostly in gearing in the new wells. So that's one that's one dynamic as they get more efficient in the and they bring these uncompleted wells online they're going to eventually need to drill more. So that's why I'm saying I think this is a temporary lull, but oil and gas tends to have very cyclical. And when it's down, it's down maybe 18 months and then it picks back up again with regards to the efficiency of the wells and drilling the the strength that we've seen over the last couple of years is because our customers through through breadth would have designed more powerful, stronger rigs, so gearboxes. And so the horsepower of those is increasing. The efficiency of those is increasing. Now I'd say as CapEx is topped off, what's happening is they'll eventually start to wear out these rigs. And so we'll start to see repairs increase, which we are seeing some spare parts increase, which we've seen and eventually the love to replace will gearboxes. And that's when we'll see the lion's share of the revenue come back in that particular market.

Jonathan Shafer

So that seems like actually my mistake and I had by you did gearboxes for the pressure pumping trucks, do the fracking, but actually it's more on the rigs themselves. Is that correct?

Eric Blashford

You're correct. And it hits the fracking, Mr. fracking is the fracking.

Jonathan Shafer

Okay. Okay.

Eric Blashford

Right.

Jonathan Shafer

And then another question. So you mentioned the inverter skids, which is something that Intersolar in January and came across companies doing some similar types of activities. And it seemed like there was an uptick in that activity for domestic manufacturers being driven in part by on the desire to meet domestic content requirements in the US. Is that something having an impact shifting towards more activity there versus say before the inflation reduction act before the domestic content stuff? Or is that the one thing you were doing before and it's just steady?

Eric Blashford

So, Jonathan, I think I think this I think what you're what you're saying is having is having a desired impact because our customers want to have more domestic content, whether or not they're trying to meet a certain a certain percentage. I think they want continuity continuity of supply chain and a person that's going to have a tough, a supplier willing to work with them to help design and optimize their design. And that's what we're offering to our customers because we're local and their local and we can collaborate on designs to make it very efficient and quick to deploy in the field.

Jonathan Shafer

Okay. Okay. And then my last question. This is this could be I mean, I kind of pride myself perhaps too much in sometimes asking questions or trying to find things that that could be material and could be overlooked, but the risk of that is sometimes it ends up being a totally irrelevant question. So this one is on the with the wind market and balsa wood is used in a lot of the wind blades. And I can't remember which portion but and it's significant it can matter. There are substitutes and alternatives to balsa wood.
So I know there are some I think petrochemical device. I derive sort of the phones or compounds or something that can be used instead. But with balsa wood specifically, your Ecuador becomes like the major Check Point because it produces more than 90% of balsa wood globally. And so it just a comment attention when there when there is an increasing like gang violence and I think there is some precedent as tapes.
And just kind of it looks like that country has erupted into some chaos and some martial law things and so forth. So the first question is just on in general, like at a very general level, do balsa balsa wood prices get really high or anything, does that flow through into wind and eventually maybe it takes a year or two, but does that eventually does that become a material headwind or not with wind deployment so that it could be worth paying attention to? And or if it's you know that, yes, if it can be material, then are you seeing anything in this specific case currently? (multiple speakers) so what it doesn't have the material and then subject here we can see a lot.

Eric Blashford

What I would say is in the general supply chain from our customers are trying to make sure that they optimize their inventory and their cash flow and have been intending to have to have the towers nacelles and the blades really come to site as near one another as they can. So any kind of delay or disruption could could have could have an issue. That's not something I follow because I'm not a blade guy up on the tower person, my follow steel. So I would say I would say I haven't heard that TPIC is another public company that their blades. So maybe they could shed some light on that for you. But I have not heard that although and this is a global supply chain. And like I said, the turbine OEMs are trying very hard to make sure they optimize their supply chain and optimize our inventories, and this could have an impact, but it's not something that I've heard of site. I can only help you there, Dan.

Jonathan Shafer

Okay. Yes, I'd add from the TPIC., I know that they have the capability to pay that. I just can't remember a housing and medical crisis situation. There's an ability to the aged care member, what the timing is on that if it takes a while.

Eric Blashford

And that's something, I guess something I can I can help with.

Jonathan Shafer

Sure. Appreciate that. All right. Thanks, guys. I'll take the rest of my questions.

Eric Blashford

Thanks, Dan.

Tom Ciccone

Thanks, Dan.

Operator

We've reached the end of the question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Eric lash for closing comments.

Eric Blashford

Well, thanks, everyone, for listening today. We're pleased with our 2023 results and look forward to a great 2024 together and presenting our results to you. Our next conference call and thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.