Clearwater Paper Corporation (CLW) Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to today's Clearwater Paper Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to turn the call over to Cheri Ellison with Investor Relations. Cheri, please go ahead.

Thank you, Tracy. Good afternoon, and welcome to Clearwater Paper's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Arsen Kitch, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sherri Baker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our third quarter results were released after today's market close, along with the filing of our 10-Q. Supplemental materials, including our current outlook, are available on the Investor Relations page of our website. Today's discussion includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release and supplemental materials. Please also refer to the forward-looking statement disclosure on Slide 2 of the supplemental materials, which we incorporate into these remarks by reference. With that, I'll turn the call over to Arsen.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with an overview of our third quarter results, provide some perspectives on industry conditions and discuss actions that we're taking to improve performance and broaden our product portfolio. I'll then turn the call over to Sherri to review our financial results in more detail, discuss our recent refinancing and provide our fourth quarter outlook. Turning now to our third quarter performance. Our adjusted EBITDA was at $24 million, which was within our guidance range of $20 million to $30 million. Results were driven by benefits from our previously announced price increase and no major maintenance outages during the quarter. Partly offsetting that were incremental costs due to the conflict in the Middle East and operational issues at our Augusta mill. While revenue decreased by 4% versus the third quarter of last year, primarily due to lower market-driven pricing, we're now beginning to realize the benefits of our announced price increases. Average selling price was $34 per ton higher than in the second quarter, contributing nearly $8 million to our quarterly results. We have fully implemented our first announced price increase of $60 per ton and are making progress implementing our second $60 an ounce increase. Our shipment volumes and production were impacted by significant operational disruptions at our Augusta mill. This was largely offset by a portion of the representation and warranty insurance settlements that we received. On that subject, we received our fourth and final representation and warranty insurance payment of $17.5 million during the quarter for a total of $73 million. As a reminder, these recoveries are related to our August acquisition, where we believe certain representations and warranties made to us were either incomplete or inaccurate. Finally and most importantly, we completed our debt refinancing, significantly extending maturities by 5 years to 2031. This simplifies our capital structure and provides sufficient liquidity to operate our business. Let me address the operational disruptions at our Augusta mill during the quarter. In late September and into October, the mill experienced several electrical and mechanical failures in the pulp power and recovery areas of the operation. Due to the interconnected nature of a craft pulp mill and the continuous flow of our manufacturing process, these failures have significant downstream impacts. For those of you familiar with these processes, you will understand how challenging and time-consuming it is to recover from these types of events. We continue to work through the impact of these failures, but we will recover and return the mill back to its normal production capability. Looking ahead, we will need to invest additional capital dollars in the mill to address asset conditions that were not easily identifiable through a typical diligence process and were not accurately represented to us during the sale. As a result of these disruptions, we were unable to complete some of our planned maintenance work at the Augusta mill in October. We're planning on executing a maintenance outage in January of 2027 with an estimated cost of $12 million to $15 million. We will likely have to take additional downtime in Augusta in Q2 or Q3 of 2027 and to perform maintenance work, with that cost estimated at $7 million to $10 million. Let me now turn to industry conditions. We are seeing signs of recovery in SBS with year-to-date shipments up 6% through the second quarter compared with declines of 2% to 3% in CUK and CRB. We believe SBS' attractive pricing on a per square foot basis, other with its strength and print characteristics as supporting substitution. On the supply side, based on publicly available information, we estimate annualized production has decreased by around 800,000 tons since the end of last year. This is a combination of a permanent paper machine closure earlier in the year and temporary curtailments by several industry participants. Based on these assumptions, we estimate that industry operating rates should be above 90% by year-end for current operating capacity. In terms of industry pricing, RISI has reported a $60 per ton price increase in folding carton and cup grades in July and August. We have fully implemented our first announced $60 price increase and are making good progress implementing our second increase. We see particular strength in our cup grades with customer demand exceeding our capacity. As a reminder, nearly 50% of our total volume is tied to RISI, and it generally takes us a couple of quarters to fully implement index-driven pricing. In total, our first $60 price increase is expected to result in more than $70 million in annual benefit, which started flowing through our financial results during the third quarter. Let me now turn to imports. Total bleached imports declined by 1% year-to-date through August. We're seeing unexpected resilience in imports from Europe, even with tariffs, higher transportation costs and higher energy and chemical costs. It is likely that European competitors are facing their own supply and demand challenges in their home markets and see the North American market as an outlook for their excess capacity. Let me summarize my industry comments. The green shoots that we mentioned in previous calls are starting to show up in our financial performance. Pricing is improving, demand and backlogs remain strong and industry operating rates are increasing. RISI SBS price index has already reflected a $60 per ton price increase, with an additional $100 per ton forecasted in folding carton grades by the end of 2027. If all these increases materialize across all our tons, we would expect our adjusted EBITDA run rate to improve by nearly $200 million, helping us get back to our target cross-cycle margins of 13% to 14%. Lastly, I would like to provide an update on our strategy to broaden our product offering to be able to deliver a full range of paperboard options for independent converter customers. In July of this year, we launched Circa, our CRB offering in partnership with Greenpaper. We're trialing the product with several of our customers and initial feedback has been positive. Given domestic CRB overcapacity, our progress will likely be gradual. As a reminder, our CRB launch required no capital investment and we will take our time developing the right mix of strategic customer relationships versus selling spot tons. We're continuing to make good progress on developing a CUK product offering from our Cypress Bend mill. We believe that we've developed a highly competitive folding carton grade that we're now trialing with several of our customers. Interest has been strong, and we're planning to formally launch a new CUK product line by the end of the year. As a reminder, we have engineered a capital solution that would enable us to swing the entire Cypress Bend mill this [indiscernible]. The full capital solution has an estimated cost of approximately $60 million. We're pursuing a lower cost capital alternative of approximately $3 million to $5 million. This alternative should provide us with sufficient capacity to establish a meaningful position with independent converter customers. We believe that addressable CUK demand is approximately 300,000 to 400,000 tons, and we're targeting to capture 20% to 30% at demand. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sherri to discuss our third quarter financial results in more detail and provide our outlook for the fourth quarter.

Thank you, Arsen, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to our third quarter financial performance. We reported a net loss from continuing operations of $2 million or $0.10 per diluted share, including $17.5 million of insurance proceeds. Net sales were $385 million, with shipments down 1% and a 4% decline in pricing compared with the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $24 million towards the midpoint of our guidance range of $20 million to $30 million. As Arsen mentioned earlier, operational disruptions at Augusta were mostly offset by a representation and warranty insurance reimbursement received in 2026. SG&A was at 5.2% of net sales, down from 6.2% in the third quarter of 2025, reflecting our continued focus on cost discipline. Year-to-date, we reduced net debt by $56 million, supported by $29 million in cash tax refunds, $50 million in insurance proceeds and working capital initiatives. Let me now provide a brief update on our debt refinancing. We closed the transaction in September with our partners in the Farm Credit System. The transaction extends our maturity profile to 2031 and reduces refinancing risk, simplifies our capital structure, provides us with adequate liquidity and establishes a stable foundation to execute our long-term strategy. We used proceeds from a new $275 million term loan to redeem our 2020 notes, which were redeemed on October 3. We also replaced both the ABL and term revolver with a new $200 million revolving facility, with $15 million outstanding at quarter end. The revolver includes a $100 million accordion option that may be exercised after we file our 2027 Annual Report, subject to agreement from our Farm Credit partners. Pricing is determined by a tiered gross leverage framework measured quarterly. As of the third quarter, our effective interest rate was 8.25% with a fixed base rate for a 1-year term. Let me also provide an update on our recovery efforts related to representation and warranty insurance. We received a fourth and final settlement payment of $17.5 million in Q3. Year-to-date, we have recovered nearly $50 million, bringing total recoveries since the fourth quarter of 2025 to $73 million against the $105 million policy limit. Turning to input cost inflation and tariffs. We continue to face higher cost and transportation and chemicals driven by the conflict in the Middle East. Oil-derived chemicals, particularly polyethylene have experienced increased price volatility. Transportation and wood costs have also been affected by significantly higher diesel prices. In the third quarter, we incurred approximately $12 million in higher costs related to the conflict versus last year. We expect these costs to increase by another $1 million to $2 million in the fourth quarter and continue into 2027. Our total impact from the conflict is approaching $30 million this year. As we look at today [indiscernible] tariffs, we ship approximately 50,000 to 60,000 tons of paperboard into Canada annually. We also procure some of our inputs from Canada, particularly chemicals. At this point, both our imports and exports are largely exempt from various tariffs. Turning now to our outlook. For the fourth quarter, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $10 million to $20 million. We expect paperboard shipments and production to decline sequentially with normal seasonality and continued operational challenges at our Augusta mill in October. We expect our announced price increases to contribute $8 million to $12 million in the quarter sequentially. Our planned major maintenance outage at Cypress Bend is expected to result in direct expenses of $5 million to $7 million. Finally, we expect roughly $4 million of seasonal energy cost increases and [ $1 million to $2 million ] in incremental conflict-related costs, primarily in transportation and wood. For the full year 2026, our assumptions include revenue of roughly $1.5 billion -- flat to slightly higher shipment volumes. We continue to expect approximately $70 million of carryover pricing pressure from 2025 price decreases, partially offset by $15 million to $20 million of benefit from the July and August price increases. Our productivity and restructuring efforts are expected to mostly offset higher cost including a full year conflict-related impact of $28 million to $32 million. We expect direct major maintenance outage costs of $27 million to $29 million this year, driven by Lewiston and Cypress Bend. Augusta's annual outage is now planned for January of 2021, with direct costs estimated at $12 million to $15 million. We will likely need to have an additional outage in Augusta in the second or third quarter of 2027 at a cost of $7 million to $10 million to complete necessary work. In addition to the Augusta outage in January, Lewiston [indiscernible] is scheduled for Q2 of 2027, while Cypress Bend is scheduled for Q4 of 2027. In terms of cash flows, we now expect to finish the year generating positive free cash flows. This is due to a combination of positive EBITDA, $50 million in insurance recoveries, $25 million to $30 million reduction in net working capital and tax refunds. Offsetting that are capital expenditures, which we are now projected to be in the $55 million to $60 million range for the year. SG&A expected to be well below our target range of 6% to 7% of net sales as we continue to focus on managing our cost structure. Let me now turn the call over to Arsen for closing remarks.

Thank you, Sherri. Let me close with a few thoughts on where we stand today. We have successfully refinanced our debt with our long-term partners in the Farm Credit System, establishing a strong foundation as we navigate challenging industry conditions and execute our strategy. We have continued our focus on managing costs and have been able to largely offset some of the cost headwinds that we faced this year. We're implementing our second announced price increase and are close to launching a new CUK product line. We remain confident that the industry cycle will recover. We will return to our cross-cycle target of adjusted EBITDA margins of 13% to 14% with more than $100 million of annual free cash flow. Let me wrap up our remarks with an organizational announcement that was included in today's filing. Sherri will be leaving us in a few weeks for a new opportunity. She joined us more than 3 years ago and has been an important part of our journey. She played a key role in our strategic transformation in 2024, including securing financing for our Augusta transaction as well as in refinancing our debt last quarter. Sherri has also led the finance function through significant changes and helped us achieve our cost reduction targets over the last few years. On behalf of our Board and the rest of our organization, I would like to thank Sherri for her contributions and wish her nothing but the best in this next chapter for...

Thank you, Arsen. I want to thank everyone at Clearwater for the opportunity to be part of this organization over the past 3 years. I feel very fortunate to have worked alongside such a talented team of Clearwater enters its next chapter. My new opportunity will bring me back to my home state of Texas, both to family and friends, and I am grateful for this opportunity. I remain confident in Clearwater's ability to execute a strategy for growth and value creation, and I look forward to following the company's progress in the years ahead. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of journey. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Sean Steuart with TD Cowen. Let's move to the next caller. Your next call comes from the line of Mike Roxland with Truist Securities.

Sherri, wishing you the best of luck in your new role.

Thank you, Mike.

Arsen, my first question is you mentioned CUK adding tons by end of the year, somewhere in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 tons. I mean how big do you expect to CUK to ultimately be for you? And what's the timing in terms of trying to achieve that?

Good question. Thanks, Mike. So as we mentioned previously, CUK is going to go into our Cypress Bend facility. If you recall, we've reduced production across our system, particularly in Cypress Bend. So this will help us fill out the Cypress Bend mill and it will become a swing mill for us between SBS and CUK. Until we launch the product, and we're in the market, it's hard to tell what the ramp is going to look like and what ultimately we're going to sell. But reception so far has been very positive. And I think independent converters are looking forward to having an independent -- a third independent supplier in the space offering the CUK.

Got it. Okay. In terms of CRB, obviously, it sounds like you made some headway there in terms of new partnership. What are you seeing with respect to CRB demand the weakness there? And at what price spread to SBS do you think the weakness in CRB could normalize?

Yes, it's a good question. So we've started working with our customers and trialing the product. We think the independent market is in that few hundred thousand ton range in CRB. So kind of remains to be seen how big that business becomes for us. Meaning it's important to note this was a no capital solution where we're essentially private labeling green papers, CRB and offering our services along with it. I don't want to comment on pricing and spreads at this point between CRB and SBS. What I would tell you is on a per square foot basis. SBS has been more attractive than CRB because it takes a heavier weight CRB to replicate the performance of SBS customers typically buy by area, not by weight, which is why I think SBS has been competitive and which is why I think you've seen SBS growth here this year while the other substrates have been flat or declining.

Got it. And one just quickly, you mentioned with respect to Augusta that RWI issues that you incurred were due to reports that were not available, that were maybe you were most led on when you -- for the purchase. Can you comment on what those reps and warranties were as it relates to the electrical issues you experienced in the quarter and post quarter end? And then second question is for Sherri, how much debt do you currently have outstanding? Is it -- and then really how much interest expense should we expect on an annual basis?

All right. Let me start with RWI. So we borrowed WI as part of the Augusta acquisition. So the limit on the policy is about $105 million. During an M&A process, the seller makes representations and warranties on assets on customer contracts and so on and forth. So as we -- after we acquired Augusta, it became clear to us that some of those representations and warranties work either incomplete or inaccurate and they deal with both customer agreements, commercial agreements, as well as assets. So in Q3, the events that occurred, the failures that occurred we were able to allocate $9.5 million of our RWI recoveries to offset the losses that we experienced in Q3 from the operational disruptions.

And then to answer your question on interest. So you should expect probably in the range of, call it, $25 million on an annual basis, you'll see something smaller than that in '26 just because of the lower interest rates that we had on the notes for the predominant amount of the year. But as you think about going forward, I'd probably use an estimate in the range of $25 million.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean Steuart with TD Cowen.

Apologies for the technical problems beforehand. Congratulations, Sherri, best wishes going forward. I want to start with what's the CapEx plans. So $55 million to $60 million this year, it sounds like on the capital side, you would plan to spend more next year for Augusta. Maybe confirm that's the case? And if not, you guys have talked about $70 million to $80 million being normalized maintenance level. How long can you spend under that level before you're worried about as those other productivity issues creeping into the mix for the company?

Sean, I think part of the $55 million to $60 million this year versus our original estimate is pushing out the Augusta outage into 2027. A lot of work -- capital work takes place during those outages. I think delaying the outage pushed some capital into 2027. So we'll spend that capital in 2027. At this point, we're not going to forecast or project capital into next year, but it will certainly be higher than this year, whether it's higher than the $70 million to $80 million that we said we'd spend across the cycle remains to be seen. But we do think there will be some additional investments in Augusta next year to take care of some of the liabilities that we've uncovered. Just don't know exactly what that's going to be yet.

Okay. And then you connected some of the dots on the maintenance schedule for next year. Is there any guide? I think we have the quarterly cadence down. But overall, maintenance expense guide for next year? Can you connect some of the dots for that number?

Yes. Yes. So I think we said Augusta will be $12 million to $15 million in Q1 and another $7 million to $10 million Q2 or Q3. So that's somewhere in the low $20 million range, low to mid-20s in Augusta. Lewiston, I mean, I think there'll probably be something similar to what we spent this year, which was somewhere in that low $20 million range. And Cypress Bend will be -- I think we're spending $6 million, maybe it will be a little bit higher next year, maybe $7 million or $8 million. But I would expect we're probably somewhere in the $50-ish million range for next year.

Okay. And then, Sherri, just on the interest expense question again. I think you said $25 million for this year. And I think you said similar next year, and I'm hoping you can square that up. I think with the [indiscernible] and being based off the SOFR rate, it looked like the effect of interest expense is going to be up a few points. Maybe if you can reconcile the comments you made before on expected interest expense next year.