Compass Minerals International Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning. Ed, given the recent, winter weather activity, can you kind of frame the outlook for highway the icing volumes, in both Q2 as well as the full year?

Question: David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Very good. And just on fortress, when you say conditionally qualified, what does that actually Mean?

Question: David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : And is this, does this mean you've solved the corrosion issues you highlighted last year, what they highlighted Last year? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 2:30PM, CMP.N - Q1 2025 Compass Minerals International Inc Earnings Call

Question: Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Hi, good morning. I'm fixing a call head and team. First question Surprised that you lowered your full year of volume guidance, and it is snowing a fair bit. I live in Toronto, as I'm shopping a lot. We're all hoping a lot and talking about it. American rock salts have issue with production, right? It seems like there's some shortages in western New York. Understand that we started light the beginning of the winter in December, but I'm surprised that you lowered your volume guidance considering everything going on. Can you talk about that?

Question: Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay, my second question can be two parts. The first part we following up on that, but you gave guidance in the middle of December, and it's only snowed very strongly since then. That's why I'm surprised you lowered your volume, guide. And the second question is, Ed, talk about what you're doing on [SGNA] because that's been a big focus of yours when you came in about a year or 15 months ago, and [SGNA] in the first quarter was extremely flat with [SGNA]and fiscal quarter of 2024. So what progress are you making and can you make on [SGNA]? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 2:30PM, CMP.N - Q1 2025 Compass Minerals International Inc Earnings Call

Question: Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : And just (Multiple speakers)

Question: Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay, thank you.

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : Thanks very much. Can you talk about what's going on in your accounts receivable line? And you know where you expect that to go? And likewise, do you have targets for where you want to bring your inventories down to?

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : Yes, we continue to run Godrich at the curtailed rate. And we won't ramp it back up until we've got a better, level on our inventory. You want to talk to AR.

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : Okay, and then it looks like you're I don't know if you're deferring $25 million in CapEx or canceling $25million in CapEx. Okay, can you talk about what it is that you're not spending and whether You will see that in the Future

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : Great. Thank you.

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : How much is that?

Question: Jeff Zajkowski - JPMorgan - Analyst : Okay, thanks.

Question: David C. Silver - C.L. King & Associates - Analyst : Yeah, hi, thank you. I do have a couple of questions. So, the first one would be about your managing your salt business through the balance of the winter season. In reading through the Press release a couple of words that I don't usually see their toggle and tariffs. And when I think about it, I'm guessing officially the tariffs would not kick in until, I don't know, March 3rd or 4th in a worst-case scenario. And in the meantime, I'm guessing that you are leveraging, the code blanche production to kind of meet the needs in your target market area, marketing radius to the greatest extent possible, but could you just kind of talk through, why would the tariffs, at least for this winter. Be an issue in kind of a worst-case scenario. In other words, between now and March 4th, you can produce and position and then you can run code blanche or toggle, I guess running code blanche a little harder and moving product up the river, but between the toggles and the tariffs, what is kind of a, what do you fear, I guess, at least in terms of The current winter season, through March 31st or April, my assumption is you should be able to get through unscathed, but is there kind of a worst case scenario there? Thank you.

Question: David C. Silver - C.L. King & Associates - Analyst : Okay, thank you for that. Next question would be, maybe a follow up to on a certain extent to the CapEx question, but then also, about your SOP business in particular so. The wording in the press release indicated that I don't know, remediation or repair efforts, and I apologize, I forget the exact term, but you're doing things with the SOP ponds and what not that are, generating some better results. You also talked about, optimizing the use of KCL. So, I'm kind of scratching my head, but within the context of knocking or taking $25 million out of the CapEx budget. I mean, are the efforts or are the steps you're taking at Ogden on the SOP business, are those capital projects or is the spending that you're doing there actually flowing through the income statement by quarter? So just, maybe a comment on what most recently you've done at Ogden and the SOP ponds that are generating better results and then how does that kind of play into the capital budget that you've established, as of this quarter.