Titan America Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Keystone Acquisition Closes, Full-Year Outlook Reaffirmed Amid Inflationary Headwinds
Summary
Titan America delivered a resilient Q1 2026 performance, posting 1.5% revenue growth to $398 million and a 3.4% rise in adjusted EBITDA to $83 million, driven by pricing discipline and operating efficiency. The quarter was a study in contrasts, with Florida’s infrastructure-driven aggregates and concrete block volumes offsetting residential softness, while the Mid-Atlantic segment surprised to the upside despite harsh winter weather. The company closed its strategic acquisition of Keystone Cement Company, adding modern clinker capacity and expanding its East Coast footprint. Management emphasized that game-changing synergies from the deal, combined with alternative fuel adoption and digital optimization, will drive substantial margin expansion.
Despite a challenging macro backdrop marked by inflationary pressures from the Iran conflict and delayed residential market recovery, Titan America reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance for low single-digit revenue growth and modest EBITDA margin expansion. The balance sheet remains fortress-like with a leverage ratio of just 0.58 times, providing ample dry powder for strategic M&A and capital returns, highlighted by a new special dividend. The company is pivoting aggressively toward high-growth secular trends, leveraging its new Innovation Hub to supply AI-engineered concrete for data centers and sustainable materials for reshored manufacturing infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- Q1 Revenue grew 1.5% year-over-year to $398 million, while adjusted EBITDA rose 3.4% to $83 million, demonstrating pricing discipline and cost management in a volatile environment.
- Titan America closed its acquisition of Keystone Cement Company on May 1, 2026, adding approximately 990,000 short tons of clinker capacity and expanding its geographic reach into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, and Maryland.
- Management forecasts 'game-changing synergies' from the Keystone acquisition, targeting significant top-line growth and margin expansion through proprietary real-time optimizers, predictive maintenance, and alternative fuel adoption.
- Florida segment delivered robust results, with aggregates volumes up 1.8% and concrete block volumes surging 9.7%, driven by infrastructure spending and private non-residential construction demand.
- Mid-Atlantic segment posted a 16% year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA to $13 million, defying the sector norm by capturing strong demand from data centers and public infrastructure despite severe winter weather disruptions.
- Fly ash volumes jumped 12.3% year-over-year, benefiting from higher utility generation and increased commercial push, while ready-mix concrete volumes declined 2.1% due to delayed project starts in Florida.
- The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 outlook, anticipating low single-digit revenue growth and modest EBITDA margin expansion, explicitly noting that guidance excludes the initial contribution from Keystone.
- Balance sheet strength remains a core pillar, with net leverage ratio improving to 0.58 times trailing EBITDA and $228 million in cash, providing significant capacity to fund ongoing integration and future strategic moves.
- Titan America announced a special premium distribution of $0.04 per share, payable in July 2026, reflecting strong operating cash flow generation of $62 million and a commitment to shareholder returns.
- Management highlighted the grand opening of the Titan America Innovation Hub in Miami, signaling a strategic pivot toward high-margin, high-growth secular trends like AI-engineered concrete for data centers and circularity-focused construction materials.
- Pricing actions are accelerating, with sequential improvements across all product lines in Q1 and new price passes implemented in April to offset inflationary pressures, particularly in strong regional markets.
- Operational resilience is evident as the company navigates mixed demand trends and rising energy costs, with cement pricing flat year-over-year but aggregates and fly ash benefiting from mix and volume tailwinds.
Full Transcript
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I am Erica, your conference call operator. Welcome to Titan America’s first quarter 2026 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. The conference is being recorded. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. To register to ask a question at any time, please press the star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Bennett, Vice President of Investor Relations.
Michael Bennett, Vice President of Investor Relations, Titan America: Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone on the line. Thank you for joining us for Titan America’s first quarter 2026 conference call. I am joined by Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Titan America, and Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that yesterday afternoon we released Titan America’s first quarter 2026 results, which are available on our website at ir.titanamerica.com, along with today’s accompanying slide presentation. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be made available on our investor relations website. During the call, we will present both IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures. The most directly comparable IFRS measure and reconciliations for non-IFRS measures are available in today’s press release and accompanying slides. Certain statements on today’s call may be deemed to be forward-looking statements.
Such statements can be identified by terms such as expect, believe, intend, anticipate, and may, among others, or by the use of the future tense. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements we make today. For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, please refer to the press release we issued today, as well as the risks and uncertainties described in our SEC filings. I would now like to turn the call over to Bill. Please go ahead.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Michael, good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Titan America’s 1st quarter 2026 financial results call. Yesterday, we announced our financial results for the 1st quarter. I would like to begin on slide 4 by highlighting a few key messages. The 1st quarter is usually the weakest quarter of the year. It was a quarter that started slowly, affected by continued softness in the residential market and harsh winter weather in our Mid-Atlantic region. In March, the conflict in Iran exacerbated the geopolitical uncertainty, triggered inflationary pressures with increasing fuel and energy costs.
Against this backdrop, Titan America once again delivered a solid first-quarter performance with year-over-year improvement in our results, showcasing once again the resilience of our vertically integrated business model, the benefits from our ongoing strategic initiatives, and the agility of our teams to execute in a challenging environment of mixed and market demand trends and increased uncertainty. First quarter revenue increased by 1.5%, while adjusted EBITDA was 3.4% higher than the same quarter of last year. In the first quarter, our Florida segment delivered robust performance underpinned by strong participation in infrastructure and private non-residential construction. We saw meaningful volume growth in aggregates, concrete block, and fly ash that was partially offset by softer demand for cement and ready-mix concrete in the residential sector. Prices in Florida were modestly higher sequentially when compared to the fourth quarter of last year.
The Mid-Atlantic region delivered strong year-over-year improvement in the first quarter, trimmed down by the impact of adverse winter weather on demand in the region. We are encouraged by the strong performance, which was partly driven by the start of substantial projects in the region, including data centers and public infrastructure. In addition, the quarter included benefits from both year-over-year and sequential growth in cement and ready-mix concrete pricing, as well as operating efficiencies that drove adjusted EBITDA margins higher. On May first, we completed the acquisition of the Keystone Cement Company. This investment represents an important milestone in our growth strategy, and we are very pleased to welcome the Keystone team to the Titan America family. Despite the challenges following our first-quarter results and taking into consideration our current visibility for the year, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 outlook.
We’ll discuss our guidance at the end of the presentation. Let’s move now to slide 5. As communicated, as of May 1, we have concluded the acquisition of the Keystone Cement Company. We have now expanded our geographic reach in the markets of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, and Maryland. In combination with our existing assets, we have strengthened our vertically integrated footprint in this region and are better positioned to capitalize on the strong secular trends. As a reminder, Keystone is a modern cement facility with approximately 990,000 short tons of current clinkers capacity and serves a greater than 6 million short ton addressable market. In 2025, Keystone generated revenue of approximately $97 million with an EBITDA margin of approximately 10%. We believe that we can deliver game-changing synergies for the acquired Keystone assets that will substantially grow both its top line and its margins.
We expect to grow the output of the assets by significantly improving reliability with our proprietary real-time optimizers and predictive maintenance capabilities. We will drive strong benefits from raw material cost optimization, more efficient energy consumption, and increased use of alternative fuels. In parallel, we expect to target the infrastructure segment in the region by capitalizing on the high-quality aggregates of Keystone. Our integration team is already on site working together with experienced and knowledgeable Keystone colleagues. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the future. Let’s move now to slide 6 to discuss a recent exciting development for Titan America. In April, we announced the grand opening of the Titan America Innovation Hub in Miami. This collaborative center is designed to accelerate the development and scale-up of advanced materials, digital technologies, and construction solutions, bringing together the most creative minds in construction, design, academics, and sustainability.
Through the Innovation Hub, we continue to innovate and expand product offerings focused on meeting the evolving needs of our customers for sustainable high-performance products, services, and solutions. There are major transformational themes in our industry, such as resilient urbanization, digitalization, the need for smart materials, novel construction technologies, and circularity. These trends create new value pools of high growth and high margins. As part of our strategy, we invest in innovation in order to tap these high-growth, high-value pools. Consider, for example, data centers. As someone said, the cloud is built of concrete, and we serve Virginia’s Data Center Alley, the largest concentration of data centers in the world. We do this with our proprietary AI-engineered concrete mixes, incorporating and enabling new levels of performance and sustainability. We capitalize on industrial reshoring by providing smart materials to enable fast-track construction for the next generation of manufacturing and logistics infrastructure.
We incorporate circularity in our offerings, including expanded use of valuable supplementary cementitious materials like fly ash, beneficiated with our proprietary electrostatic technology. We also offer ultra-durable marine-grade concrete and supply innovative blue-gray solutions inspired by nature, such as patented 3D-printed concrete for the next generation of sea walls and reefs. Our hub is already operational, and you are welcome to visit and learn more about our innovative products and solutions. You can find more about the hub also on our website. I will now turn it over to Larry, who will provide a more detailed breakdown of our first quarter financial results and business segment performance. Larry?
Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Moving to slide 7, let me share an overview of our first quarter 2026 financial highlights. The first quarter saw a mixed operating environment. Winter weather disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region weighed on volumes during the quarter, while the macroeconomic backdrop introduced incremental uncertainty as the quarter progressed. Against that backdrop, we were pleased to deliver solid financial performance with year-over-year improvement in revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and operating cash flow. For the quarter, we delivered revenue of $398 million, an increase of 1.5% compared to $392 million in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $83 million compared to $80 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of 3.4%.
Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.7%, an improvement of 40 basis points compared to 20.3% in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the benefits of our vertically integrated model, pricing discipline, and ongoing cost management efforts. Net income for the quarter was $33 million, consistent with the prior year quarter, with earnings per share reflecting the impact of incremental shares outstanding from our 2025 initial public offering. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $62 million compared to $35 million in the prior year quarter, having benefited from lower levels of working capital and lower income tax payments. Free cash flow was $30 million in Q1 2026, reflecting the improvement in operating cash flow and steady year-over-year CapEx investments.
Finally, our leverage ratio further improved to 0.58 times at the end of Q1 2026. Turning to slide eight, let me walk you through our sales volume performance by product line. Total cement volumes, including external sales and internal consumption, were broadly stable, down less than 1% year-over-year, with winter weather-related impacts in the Mid-Atlantic region and persistent softness in the residential sector generally offset by continued demand strength from infrastructure and private non-residential construction. Total aggregates volumes grew 1.8% in the quarter, benefiting from the expanded production capacity in Florida, the strength of which was partially offset by lower volumes from our Mid-Atlantic sand sources.
Total fly ash volumes were up 12.3% compared to the prior year quarter on higher utility generation and increased commercial push, while ready-mix concrete volumes decreased 2.1% year-over-year, with delays in project starts in Florida only partially offset by sustained volumes from data center construction in the Mid-Atlantic. concrete block volumes increased 9.7% compared to Q1 2025, driven higher by improved contribution from remodeling and renovation channels, as well as shell contractor demand in select regional markets. Turning to slide 9, external pricing improved sequentially from Q4 2025 across all product lines. On a year-over-year basis, cement pricing was flat, while aggregates and fly ash pricing, which were impacted by product and regional mix, declined by 0.6% and 2.4% respectively. ready-mix concrete prices improved year-over-year, benefiting from a larger proportion of value-added product sales.
On a year-over-year basis, concrete block pricing declined 2.1%, reflecting customer and end market mix, as well as the softness experienced in residential demand during 2025. Turning to slide 10, let me focus your attention on our Q1 business segment performance. In Florida, we delivered strong results in a challenging market. Florida’s external revenue was $253 million in the first quarter, essentially flat compared to the first quarter of 2025, as revenue growth from aggregates, concrete block, and cement were offset by a lower contribution from ready-mix concrete. Adjusted EBITDA for the Florida segment was $73 million, an increase of 2.5% compared to $71 million in the prior year quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 28.6% in Q1 2026, up from 27.9% in the first quarter of 2025, as cost discipline offset headwinds from higher energy costs and tariffs. In the Mid-Atlantic, we delivered meaningful year-over-year improvement during the quarter. Consistent with the constructive 2026 outlook we communicated during our fourth quarter call. Despite winter weather that brought disruptions and suppressed volumes in the Mid-Atlantic region in January and February, our team executed well and delivered strong financial results as improved pricing in ready-mix concrete and cement were amplified by operating efficiencies which more than offset the impact of tariffs and higher import costs. Mid-Atlantic external revenue was $145 million in the first quarter, an increase of 4.2% compared to $139 million in the first quarter of 2025.
The revenue improvement was primarily driven by strong ready-mix concrete participation in regional commercial construction projects, including data centers. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $13 million compared to $11 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of 16%, and segment-adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 8.7% from 7.8% in the prior year quarter. As a reminder, the first quarter in the Mid-Atlantic segment included the impact of our Roanoke Cement plant’s annual major maintenance campaign in both 2026 and 2025. Now turning to our balance sheet and cash flows on slides 11 and 12. As of March 31st, 2026, we had $228 million of cash and cash equivalents and total debt of $455 million.
Our net debt position was $227 million, representing a leverage ratio of 0.58 times trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA, a further improvement from 0.64 times at the end of 2025. Our strong leverage profile provides significant balance sheet capacity to pursue strategic growth opportunities, such as the recent Keystone acquisition, while maintaining our commitment to returning capital to shareholders. With respect to Keystone, the acquisition was funded with a combination of cash on hand and a new term loan issued in April 2026 with a maturity date of February 2031. Slide 13 shows our capital expenditure profile for the first quarter of 2026. Net capital expenditures in the first quarter were approximately $32 million and remain focused on our previously communicated strategic objectives.
These include increasing our domestic cement and aggregates capacity, improving the efficiency of our logistics networks, and further enhancing our strong positions in select downstream channels to market. On slide 14, I will remind you of our capital allocation strategy. As mentioned in our previous calls, we are focused on 3 key priorities: investing in the business, including organic growth opportunities, pursuing strategic M&A, and providing returns to shareholders, all while maintaining a healthy net leverage profile. During our fourth quarter conference call, I discussed our organic growth priorities for 2026. These remain unchanged. Now that we’ve closed the Keystone acquisition, we expect to make further investment to deliver operational, commercial, and logistics synergies as we incorporate the Keystone assets into our Mid-Atlantic network.
With respect to shareholder returns, I would also like to announce that yesterday our board of directors approved an issue premium distribution of $0.04 per share, payable on July 7, 2026 to shareholders of record on June 18, 2026. With that, I’ll turn it back to Bill for his closing remarks.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Larry. In conclusion, the first quarter demonstrated the resilience and quality of Titan America’s business model in a stubbornly challenging operating environment. Despite winter weather headwinds, macroeconomic uncertainty, and continued softness in the residential sector, we grew revenue and adjusted EBITDA, expanded margins, and generated substantially stronger operating and free cash flow compared to the prior year period. The underlying fundamentals of our key markets remain constructive. Turning now to our 2026 outlook on slide 15. As we mentioned during our fourth quarter financial results call, the recent surge in oil and energy prices due to the conflict in Iran has introduced additional risks in an already complex and uncertain economic backdrop. We expect softness in the residential sector to continue through the remainder of the year, with a much-anticipated inflection point potentially delayed to 2027.
Despite the challenges, following our first quarter results and taking into consideration our current visibility for the year, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 outlook. On a like-for-like basis, we continue to anticipate low single-digit revenue growth compared to last year, with modest expansion in our adjusted EBITDA margins. This outlook reflects our confidence in the underlying demand trends in our markets, especially as we move into the seasonally stronger middle part of the year, as well as our ability to execute and deliver benefits from our previous and ongoing strategic initiatives. It is worth noting that this guidance does not include the contribution from Keystone as we focus on integrating the acquisition and building out its full commercial potential.
Before we open the call for questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of our Titan America team members and extend a warm welcome to our new colleagues from the Keystone Cement Company, whom we are proud to have now as part of the Titan America family. With that, I’ll turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session. Operator?
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our first question from Philip Ding with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Philip Ding, Analyst, Jefferies: Hey, guys. Congrats on a really strong quarter in a choppy environment. Great execution from the team. Bill, to kind of kick things off, the Keystone acquisition, quite exciting. 10% EBITDA margins would certainly be much lower than I would have thought. Best-in-class cement assets I think are probably closer to 30% EBITDA margins. I suspect your business is probably not too far from that. What needs to happen to kind of get that? I mean, 1, is there anything structural with the asset or the market, or this is just we need to deploy the Titan America playbook in terms of capital deployment and bringing that business in-house?
Just kind of give us, you know, some color in terms of what that profit profile could look like and if there’s anything structural with the business.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Absolutely. I think that element represents also the reason why we say that we’re gonna implement game-changing synergies in this asset, bringing the profitability up to norm for how we perform overall with our own assets. As we have explained, this is a value-accretive opportunity for Titan America. It’s expanding and strengthening our geographic reach and our leadership position in the East Coast, adding important geographies like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland. We will expand and extend our integrated model. Very important is to think that it’s an acquisition of important aggregate assets, both for production of clinker, but also of infrastructure grade aggregate. It is a very important level.
Last, in relation to your question, we see game-changing synergies, as we said, in relation to optimizing and improving the margins, of course, by reducing the cost, improving overall logistics, energy consumption, and bringing all the digitalization and elements of operational excellence that Titan America has been delivering for years. A great opportunity for us, starting from that point that you mentioned.
Philip Ding, Analyst, Jefferies: Bill, like how quickly can you get this to a good margin profile? Is the assumption based on what you just said, you can get this asset to something that Titan we’re accustomed to for the legacy Titan Cement assets from a profitability standpoint?
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thanks, Phil. Good question. Let me just say that we have our integration team working already from the phase that we were doing the due diligence. As soon as we signed the SPA, and we were ready to move in and start cooperating with our new colleagues at Keystone from day one. Our teams are very implementing already the synergies. In relation to specifics, if you allow me, we’d like really to be there for a couple of months. We anticipate that in our upcoming second quarter analyst call, we’re gonna give you details in relation to synergies that we intend to implement and provide the necessary details that you need also for your models.
Philip Ding, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. That’s helpful. Question for Larry. Impressed if you reiterate the guidance, particularly margin expansion in a pretty inflationary backdrop. Can you remind us, you know, what are some of the inflation that you could see that could be impactful? I believe you got pass-throughs for freight, which is helpful. Certainly on the pricing side, any update that you have out there in terms of the cement price increases, the ready-mix price increases, the aggregates price increase that’s out there for April? Do you need those price increases to kinda offset the inflation and drive the margin expansion you’re calling for?
Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer, Titan America: Okay. I think we operate in a year where we’re gonna have some mixed environments, Phil. If you look at what we put into our own internal thinking on this, there’ll be some zip code, area, differences on these kind of things. We do see opportunities on both price and volume, depending on where we are. Beginning in April, in those markets where the markets were stronger beginning in April, we began to pass through some of those prices that we’re talking about. You mentioned pass-throughs on the cost side, when you talk about pricing, for example, so the cost element of that on the energy side. Those, those, as you recall, are not as significant for us as you might imagine.
They’re 8% of our total cost of sales. With that, we have fuel flexibility when we talk about energy costs at our cement plants. I think we’ve described that a couple of times in terms of the multiple fuels that we are able to burn there and the increased use of alternative fuels through those same facilities. We have implemented some capital projects. I think I described that in the last call as well, coming out of Q1, out of the outage in Roanoke. We have a different and more flexible burner system there. In Florida, we’ve got an alternative fuels project that will enable us to bring further alternative fuels and bring down the cost in the further period. Beginning in Q2, Q3, for example.
We’re optimistic on that front. The pass-through, as you described, you’re right. We have for the diesel fuel that we consume within our business, about 2/3 of that is used in the delivery of ready-mix concrete. About 1/3 is used within the facilities themselves. 1 obviously has a direct opportunity for pass-through in the fuel surcharge. The other is reliant on price improvement to cover that to the extent that it continues. You know, every day brings different news. You saw today’s news. Things, you know, may not be as grim as we had feared they may be in terms of the longevity. We’ll take it day by day, but that’s what’s in our guidance.
Philip Ding, Analyst, Jefferies: Oh, that’s helpful, Larry. Really appreciate it, guys.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Phil.
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Anna Shoemaker with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Anna Shoemaker, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Hi, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I have two. Firstly, on aggregates. How significant are your aggregates ambitions, and what makes Titan the partner of choice in this industry? Secondly, on, again, on cement. Has there been any change in the cement import situation this year? Are they still disruptive in either of your markets? If you can share your pricing expectations for 26, that would be great. Thanks.
Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer, Titan America: Yeah. I think on the aggregates question, you know, you’ll see, obviously in our public documents, we are a well-positioned aggregate producer in some of our markets. We have ambitions to be bigger in some of our markets as well. When you look at Florida, we are a good participant down there with good cost structure in our facility in the Pennsuco location, for example, and in Corkscrew is the one over on the West Coast for us. We see good opportunity for there. On the other calls, Anna, we may have described, maybe perhaps you didn’t have a chance to listen in.
On some of the other calls, we’ve described some of the additional opportunities that we have, taking advantage of newer mining technologies to bring some product up liberated from what was remnant mining in effect, from periods gone by. That’s a good opportunity ahead for us. We’re investing to be able to do that. I think with respect to cement imports, just as a, you know, follow-up comment here on Keystone as well. We have good opportunities in Keystone, as Bill was describing before, going into that new market, but our teams are just getting oriented around that location this week.
Now when we go back to the cement imports you described, if your question was around patterns of cement imports, I think one of the challenges we are going to face is some of the ocean freight, perhaps some of the war impact has had some delays on some of the loading of ships at some of the location points. Some of that disruption perhaps coming in and the volatility perhaps in ocean freights is something that we have on our radar screen. We are looking at that. Generally, the imports strategy is no different than it was in the past.
We have a flexible import model, where we combine this local production that we have, combined with the imports to give us the channels to market through our internal and external customers. That’s the plan.
Anna Shoemaker, Analyst, BNP Paribas: That’s great. Thank you.
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Wesley Brooks with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Wesley Brooks, Analyst, HSBC: Morning. Hi, Bill. Hi, Larry.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Hi, Wesley. We cannot hear you very well.
Wesley Brooks, Analyst, HSBC: Sorry, I’ll try to talk louder. Yeah, a couple questions from me. I guess first one, just coming back to Keystone. You know, just looking at that revenue number, you know, $97 million in revenue on almost 1 million tons of clinker. It just seems like a very low realized price. I wondered if, you know, is this because they just sell the clinker? I’m interested to understand that. I mean, you know, you’re making about $160 a ton in your Mid-Atlantic region. You know, can you help us understand what’s going on there? Is that a big part of the opportunity that they’re just not doing something well there?
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: The key issue here, Wesley, is not really the clinker capacity is one thing. The important element is the reliability at which these assets are being run, and also certain limitations that reduce capacity utilization. That’s a great opportunity for us to improve capacity utilization and therefore have a bigger output and a more reliable output, which will allow us to increase top line. Of course, on the other side, as we mentioned, address unit cost and improve margins. The roughly 1 million tons in capacity of clinker that we mentioned doesn’t mean that actually this plant operates at this rate.
Wesley Brooks, Analyst, HSBC: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. I guess, yeah, my next question here, following up again on the energy cost. As you say, you have alternative options for fuel, but the broader market, I think, has a higher exposure to energy costs, you know, in cement production. I’m wondering, you know, is this something that you think could be an impetus for further pricing actions that maybe are more sustainable? I mean, if we think of what happened during the pandemic, you know, we had a lot of cost inflation. I mean, that was really a positive for the market and for margins for cement players for longer term. Is this something that could be similar, or do you think the market is broadly looking at, you know, more short term, as you say, kind of surcharges and things like that?
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: As we mentioned, our margin expansion and our results incorporate both our strong execution in the marketplace, capitalizing on positive trends in infrastructure and private commercial like data centers, logistic infrastructure, manufacturing reshoring, power assets, hospitals, water systems, elements like this. Also, a good part was our operational excellence and our ability to manage costs, including energy and fuels. To your broad question, whether this is an opportunity. Clearly, the industry is faced with tremendous inflationary pressure, which clearly necessitate a price increase in the market in order to face these pressures, independent of what we do internally in order to manage it. You’re right. This environment, this backdrop against which we operate, necessitates price increases.
That’s why Larry mentioned that, we coming into the high season now as of April, we implement price increases that were delayed in the first quarter, especially in the areas where we see growth momentum. In the other areas, of course, trying to capitalize on the supply and demand situation.
Wesley Brooks, Analyst, HSBC: Thanks very much, guys. Yeah, congrats on a good quarter and a rough month. Yeah.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Wesley. All the best.
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Brian Brophy with BofA Securities.
Brian Brophy, Analyst, BofA Securities: Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the question. Just thoughts or intentions you guys have on potentially building out downstream assets around Keystone. Any color there? Thanks.
Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer, Titan America: Okay. I think what we’ve said, Brian, is we have existing assets in the area. If you look at our broader business in the Mid-Atlantic, we have the fly ash businesses, where some of the same customers are called upon by our current fly ash business as is Keystone serving on the cement side. We have now this ability to integrate and provide this, you know, bookended sourcing points that we described for the Mid-Atlantic and Florida, the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and Florida, with the Essex Import Terminal providing backstop reliability for Keystone as well, right? This is a nice additional synergy that we get there.
I think the thing that we, you know, we said in the document is we have nearby to this plant just as close it is to Toronto, our Northern Virginia ready-mix business, which is a big part of our ready-mix portfolio in the Mid-Atlantic. That integrates nicely by itself with the acquisition that we have. Now, I think we’ve said we’ll integrate where we think it makes sense. This is something that would be considered over time.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: It’s a good question, Brian. I mean, like Larry mentioned, of course, we’re gonna capitalize and serve most likely from Keystone because it’s better logistics, and therefore a better opportunity to serve our customers in North Virginia and Washington, D.C. from that side. There’s gonna be an immediate integrated model served from Keystone. We have strong positions with downstream customers in New York and New Jersey. Our Keystone colleagues have built strong relationships in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We have also positions there with our fly ash.
Our first priority will be to capitalize on our upstream integration with now cement aggregates and fly ash, a different type of offering as compared to Keystone alone, and capitalize on this virtual integration as we have with long-term relationships from our Keystone colleagues with downstream customers. Our first step will be to enhance our relationship with these customers to offer them more products and more solutions and create as a first step this virtual integration.
Brian Brophy, Analyst, BofA Securities: Yeah. Thanks. That’s really helpful. Just as kind of a follow-up, do you guys have any sense yet for how much CapEx is needed to execute on the synergies discussed for Keystone? Or do you just have a general sense for the capital intensity of executing on some of these? Thanks.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: We have a good understanding that we developed through the due diligence and also the phase between the SPA and finally closing and detailed plans. As I mentioned, we will come with more details in our second quarter call so that you have more granularity. We wanna take advantage of this and the next month to go deeper in our plans and provide more details. I can say that as a general comment, that we don’t expect a high capital intensity in relation to our investments. We have the ways and the combination between the existing assets that we have and the assets from Keystone to synergize. We don’t expect high capital investments in order to deliver the synergies.
Brian Brophy, Analyst, BofA Securities: Understood. That’s very helpful. I’ll pass it on. Thank you.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Great, Brian. Thank you so much. Enjoy your good day. Erica?
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Yes. At this time, we have no further questions. I’d like to turn it back over to Bill Zarkalis for any closing remarks.
Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Titan America: Thank you, Erica. Thank you all for your time today. We appreciate your interest in Titan America and look forward to updating you on our progress on our second quarter call. Thank you for joining, and have a great day ahead. All the best.
Erica, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. This brings us to the end of today’s meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.