EXP (2025 - Q4)

Release Date: May 20, 2025

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Impact Quotes

This year marks our fourth consecutive year of record financial results, having generated record fiscal year revenue of $2.3 billion and record earnings per share of $13.77.

Our strategy of steady investment through economic cycles and volatile market conditions positions us well to capture the benefits of these dynamics.

We have bogeys internal hurdle rates of 15% cash-on-cash after-tax type of returns for our projects.

We are on track to complete an upgrade of our wastewater treatment facility at our papermill this summer, reducing water consumption by approximately 50% and improving energy efficiency.

The Duke modernization project will cost about $330 million and start-up is scheduled for the second half of calendar 2027.

Capital spending in fiscal 2026 is expected to increase to a range of $475 million to $525 million, driven by Mountain Cement and Duke Wallboard projects.

We achieved our lowest total recordable injury rate in company history, coupled with a 25% increase in hazard observation reporting, showing our safety culture is well established and self-sustaining.

Operating cash flow in fiscal 2025 totaled $549 million, supporting investments and shareholder returns.

Key Insights:

  • Diluted earnings per share increased 1% to $13.77 for the full fiscal year, aided by a reduced share count from share repurchases.
  • Fiscal year 2025 revenue was a record $2.3 billion, slightly up from the prior year, driven by higher prices across all business lines but partially offset by lower cement, concrete, and aggregate sales volumes.
  • Fourth quarter diluted earnings per share declined 11%, impacted by adverse weather, maintenance costs, and acquisition accounting expenses; adjusted EPS was down 7%.
  • Fourth quarter revenue declined 1% to $470 million due to lower cement and gypsum wallboard sales volumes, partially offset by higher prices.
  • Heavy Materials sector revenue declined 2% to $1.4 billion with a 5% drop in cement sales volume but higher prices; operating earnings fell 11% to $311 million.
  • Light Materials sector revenue increased 3% to $969 million driven by higher wallboard prices and record recycled paperboard sales volume; operating earnings rose 3% to $389 million.
  • Net leverage ratio ended at 1.5 times with $20 million cash on hand and $560 million total liquidity, providing strong financial flexibility.
  • Operating cash flow totaled $549 million; capital spending increased to $195 million mainly due to Mountain Cement plant modernization.
  • Bipartisan support for infrastructure funding is expected to support cement consumption over the next several years.
  • Capital spending for fiscal 2026 is expected to increase to $475 million to $525 million, driven by Mountain Cement and Duke Wallboard modernization projects.
  • Cement volumes have started to improve in March and April after weather-related softness, with positive early signs for fiscal 2026.
  • Demand and supply dynamics in cement, wallboard, and aggregates remain favorable despite recent volume softness and adverse weather impacts.
  • Pricing in cement and wallboard is expected to continue improving, with price increases planned for wallboard in spring 2025.
  • Residential housing starts remain pressured by high mortgage rates and affordability but are expected to rebound eventually due to pent-up demand and housing needs.
  • Significant capacity constraints persist in cement and wallboard, supporting elevated utilization rates even with subdued volumes.
  • The Duke Wallboard modernization project will start construction in late 2025 with a $330 million investment and is expected to complete in the second half of calendar 2027.
  • Achieved the lowest total recordable injury rate (TRIR) in company history with a 25% increase in hazard observation reporting, reinforcing a strong safety culture.
  • Acquired two pure-play aggregate operations in Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania, increasing aggregate production capacity by 50%.
  • Commissioned alternative fuel feeder at Illinois Cement plant and expanded recycled tire use at Kosmos Cement to reduce environmental impact and costs.
  • Commissioned Texas Lehigh slag facility and progressing Mountain Cement plant expansion on time and budget, enhancing capacity and reducing CO2 intensity.
  • Completed a $22 million wastewater treatment upgrade at the papermill to reduce water consumption by 50% and improve energy efficiency.
  • Initiated $330 million modernization and expansion of Duke, Oklahoma gypsum wallboard facility to strengthen low-cost producer position and serve high-growth markets.
  • Launched Eagle Safe program to standardize company-wide safety best practices focusing on critical safety issues.
  • Returned $332 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases while investing in high-return projects and maintaining capital discipline.
  • CEO Michael Haack emphasized the importance of employee dedication and safety culture as foundational to company success.
  • CFO Craig Kesler detailed disciplined capital allocation with internal hurdle rates of 15% cash-on-cash after-tax returns for projects.
  • Haack highlighted steady investment through economic cycles as key to navigating uncertainty and positioning for future growth.
  • Management expects continued margin improvement in cement driven by volume recovery and stable energy costs, with cautious optimism on wallboard margins tied to housing market recovery.
  • Management remains confident in the underlying fundamentals of the heavy materials sector despite short-term volume softness and weather disruptions.
  • Management views alternative fuel projects as both environmental and economic benefits, providing fuel flexibility and CO2 reduction.
  • The board was strengthened by appointing David Rush, retired CEO of Builders FirstSource, bringing valuable industry and management experience.
  • The company prioritizes investing in assets and markets they know, focusing on high-return projects that add customer value.
  • Acquisition accounting and depreciation impacted concrete and aggregates segment earnings in Q4; EBITDA basis shows positive positioning.
  • Alternative fuels used include tire chips and multiple products via alternative fuel feeders, aiming for CO2 benefits and fuel cost flexibility.
  • Capital deployment philosophy focuses on investing in known assets and markets with strong financial returns, targeting 15%+ cash-on-cash after-tax returns.
  • Cement volumes showed improvement in March and April after weather-related softness; infrastructure spending slow but expected to benefit future demand.
  • Duke Wallboard modernization will not disrupt existing production lines until new line completion; construction to start late 2025.
  • Management continues to evaluate aggregate acquisition opportunities that fit strategic and financial criteria.
  • Private non-residential cement demand remains steady with large multi-year projects across diverse subcategories and geographies.
  • Wallboard pricing saw a slight sequential decline due to higher freight costs; price increases are planned for spring 2025.
  • Wallboard volume held up better than industry averages despite muted housing starts; demand expected to remain range-bound until affordability improves.
  • Liquidity stands at approximately $560 million with no significant near-term debt maturities, supporting financial flexibility.
  • Share repurchase program remains active with 4.7 million shares authorized for repurchase.
  • Tariffs on cement imports are low impact due to shipping costs and relatively small tariff amounts per ton.
  • The company benefits from being a 100% U.S. domestic manufacturer, mitigating tariff risks on imports from Mexico and Canada.
  • The company continues to invest in sustainability projects that also drive economic benefits and operational efficiencies.
  • The company maintains a strong balance sheet with net debt-to-capital at 46% and net debt-to-EBITDA at 1.5 times.
  • Homebuilding demand is constrained by affordability and interest rates but is expected to rebound eventually due to underbuilding and pent-up demand.
  • Management expects capital spending to peak in fiscal 2026 with major projects and then taper off in fiscal 2027 as projects complete.
  • The company’s steady investment approach enables it to outperform through varied economic cycles and market volatility.
  • The Duke Wallboard facility modernization leverages natural gypsum reserves and state-of-the-art technology to enhance competitive advantage.
  • The Mountain Cement plant modernization will improve energy efficiency by approximately 25% and increase capacity by 50%.
  • Wallboard shipments have been around 28 billion square feet annually for the last four years, below historical highs of 36 billion square feet.
Complete Transcript:
EXP:2025 - Q4
Operator:
Good day, everyone, and welcome to Eagle Materials Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. And at this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Eagle's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Haack. Mr. Haack, please go ahead, sir. Michael
Michael Haack:
Thank you, Jamie, and welcome, everyone. Joining me today are Craig Kesler, our Chief Financial Officer; and Alex Haddock, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Strategy and Corporate Development. There will be a slide presentation made in connection with this call. To access it, please go to eaglematerials.com and click on the link to the webcast. While you're accessing the slides, please note that the first slide covers our cautionary disclosure regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ from those discussed during the call. For further information, please refer to this disclosure, which is also included at the end of our press release. As our fiscal year ends, it allows me some time to look back on our performance and reflect on the year in totality. There is no question that this year has had its challenges. The true measure of an individual or a company is how they respond to those challenges. I'm extremely grateful to lead a company that has dedicated employees that have made this company stronger. Without this dedication, Eagle would not have been successful. So I want to thank every Eagle employee for making Eagle a better company. I also want to spend a few minutes highlighting what Eagle was able to accomplish this past fiscal year. I want to start these comments with a topic that is Eagle's top priority, employee health and safety. You have heard me state in the past that we are proud of our industry-leading safety record. But this year, I am more impressed that we were able to achieve our lowest total recordable injury rate or TRIR in company history. This was coupled with a 25% increase in our hazard observation or near miss reporting, showing that our safety culture is well established and self-sustaining. Over this next year, we will continue to progress our safety culture with the rollout of a program called Eagle Safe, a series of standardized company-wide best practices and procedures to focus our efforts on critical safety issues. I'm a true believer that if you have diligence around safety, then you have a culture that strives for diligence around every other aspect in the business, leading to improved results holistically. This is the case for Eagle, where I am proud to say that this year marks our fourth consecutive year of record financial results, having generated record fiscal year revenue of $2.3 billion and record earnings per share of $13.77. This was accomplished with day-to-day headline noise surrounding the economy, but with focus, our businesses have continued to perform well and operate efficiently. Next, I want to talk about the efforts we have made with regards to sustainability. You will see a lot of information on the projects we have in process or that are completed in our sustainability report that will be published this summer. For now, let me share a few highlights. We are on track to complete an upgrade of our wastewater treatment facility at our papermill this summer. This $22 million project, when completed, will reduce our water consumption by approximately 50% through a more closed-loop system. It will also allow us to return water that is already heated to the process, hence, reducing our energy consumption and improving our efficiency. In our Cement business, we completed our Illinois Cement plant's alternative fuel feeder that will enable the plant to run more alternative fuels. We are also nearing completion of a project at Kosmos Cement facility to expand the use of recycled tires that would otherwise be landfilled. All our environmental projects are similar to these examples. They have meaningful economic benefits, driving efficiency and lowering costs as we reduce usage of water, solid fuels and other raw materials. Additionally, our deployment of capital in fiscal 2025 allowed us to strategically expand our ability to serve our customers across our geographic footprint. These investments are both acquisitions and organic investments. I will highlight a few of these. Within Aggregates, a key growth area for us, we acquired two pure-play aggregate operations, one in Kentucky and the other in Western Pennsylvania, enhancing our ability to serve these markets, which are complementary to our existing heavy side footprint. Integration of both operations is going well, and both businesses are already contributing to Eagle. These two additions will increase Eagle's aggregate production capacity by 50%. In Cement, we completed commissioning of our Texas Lehigh slag facility this winter, and production will ramp up throughout this upcoming fiscal year, providing additional cementitious tons to the Texas market. In Northern Colorado area, our Mountain Cement plant expansion continues to be on time and on budget. This next fiscal year, we'll see a major ramp-up in construction efforts and capital expenditure. Like the other projects I mentioned above, the Mountain Cement modernization will have meaningful economic benefits as well as environmental benefits, utilizing alternative fuels and lowering our CO2 intensity per ton. Lastly, we announced last week, we have initiated a project to modernize and expand our Duke, Oklahoma gypsum wallboard facility. The modernized plant takes advantage of our decades-long natural gypsum position at Duke and upgrades the facility with state-of-the-art technology, enhancing Eagle's low-cost producer position and strengthening our competitive advantage as the rest of the industry continues to struggle to source synthetic gypsum. Duke is advantaged geographically, allowing the plant to serve customers throughout the high-growth South and Southeast markets. The project is expected to cost about $330 million and start-up is scheduled for the second half of calendar 2027. Our ability to execute on these investment opportunities is underpinned by our capital allocation principles and our balance sheet strength. In fiscal 2025, we completed over $175 million of M&A transactions and increased our capital expenditure for the Mountain Cement project while ending the year with a net leverage ratio of 1.5 times. And even while investing our excess free cash flow in these high-return projects, we continue to return capital to shareholders, distributing $332 million of cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. In summary, FY 2025 was a good year for Eagle. We held to our strategy that has always served us well and demonstrates that in periods of uncertainty like we're facing today, Eagle's steady focus on investing through cycles, not just for a point in the cycle, enables us to navigate through turbulence, continue to perform well and position ourselves for the future. In fact, as a 100% U.S. domestic manufacturer, we feel well equipped to weather the variety of potential tariff outcomes and the uncertainty it has created for the U.S. economy more broadly. Let me now give some color on our fourth quarter performance and outlook. Our fourth quarter results reflect the impact of adverse weather on our Cement and Concrete and Aggregates businesses, which was severe enough to cause production interruptions at some of our facilities. We made the decision to constructively use the downtime caused by the poor weather to pull forward the annual maintenance outage at our Texas Lehigh Cement facility. Despite the recent choppiness in our Heavy Materials financial performance, we believe the underlying fundamentals in the sector remain solid. Demand and supply dynamics remain favorable across all of our business lines, and we are positioned to benefit from these dynamics. In the cement sector, we have seen no material disruption in award funding for public infrastructure projects. Our customers report healthy bidding activities and are anticipating a rebound from the softer 2023 and 2024 demand realization. Looking out further, there's continued bipartisan support for infrastructure funding, which should be additive to cement consumption for the next several years. Turning to the residential outlook, which is a primary end market driver for our wallboard businesses. In many ways, we are in a similar place to where we've been for the last several years. While high mortgage rates and housing affordability challenges continue to exert downward pressure on single-family housing starts, this pressure is mitigated somewhat by the clear need for new housing and overall pent-up buyer demand. Ultimately, new home construction will be needed to address the affordability issue. Thus, we believe it's a matter of when, not if single-family housing starts will rebound. Turning to supply. We believe the outlook in both cement and Wallboard is unlikely to change in the medium term. Significant capacity constraints persist in both cement and wallboard. As a result, even in an environment like last year, where cement volumes were down and wallboard volumes remain subdued versus historical figures, both sectors continue to see relatively elevated utilization rates. As we look forward three to five years and beyond, we believe both the demand and supply dynamics will continue to support our business. Our strategy of steady investment through economic cycles and volatile market conditions positions us well to capture the benefits of these dynamics. We are committed to health, safety, sustainability, investing in every one of our plants to maintain our reserves position and keep them in like new condition, expanding our geographic and customer footprint through compelling organic and M&A investments and maintaining capital allocation discipline. Those are just some of the reasons why we've been able to outperform and provide value for our shareholders through varied economic cycles and why we continue to do so. Lastly, before I turn it over to Craig, I want to highlight a governance-related announcement we made earlier this month. On May 15, we announced the appointment of David Rush to our Board of Directors. Dave is the retired CEO of Builders FirstSource. And prior to being CEO at Builders, he held a variety of senior executive roles over his nearly 30-year career there. Dave brings a wealth of valuable industry and management experience, and we are thrilled to add him to the Board. With that, I'll turn it over to Craig.
Craig Kesler:
Thank you, Michael. Fiscal year 2025 revenue was a record $2.3 billion, up slightly from the prior year. The increase primarily reflects higher prices across all of our business lines, partially offset by lower cement and concrete and aggregate sales volume. Revenue for the fourth quarter was down 1% to $470 million, primarily reflecting lower cement and gypsum wallboard sales volumes, partially offset by higher cement and aggregate prices. Diluted earnings per share for the full fiscal year increased 1% to $13.77. The increase was due to the reduced share count resulting from our share repurchase program, which more than offset the net earnings decline. Fully diluted shares were down 4% from the prior year and are down 20% in the last five years. Fourth quarter earnings per share was down 11%, largely because of heavy materials results in the quarter when the Cement and Concrete and Aggregates businesses were affected by adverse weather and maintenance costs in the cement business increased. Our quarterly results were also affected by approximately $3.4 million of acquisition accounting and related expenses. Adjusting for these items, fourth quarter diluted earnings per share were down 7%. Turning now to segment performance highlighted on the next slide. In our Heavy Materials sector, which includes our Cement and Concrete and Aggregates segments, annual revenue declined 2% to $1.4 billion. The decline reflects lower cement sales volume, which was down 5% and was partially offset by higher sales prices. The two aggregates businesses acquired during the year contributed approximately $12 million to annual revenue. Annual operating earnings in the heavy materials sector declined 11% to $311 million, again, reflecting lower sales volume, partially offset by higher cement prices. During the fourth quarter, Heavy Materials operating earnings declined 50% to $18.3 million. As Michael mentioned, adverse weather conditions during the fourth quarter, most notably in February, caused disruption to not only cement sales opportunities, but also to cement operations. We estimate the operational impact from equipment downtime to be $4 million to $5 million. In addition, we pulled forward our annual maintenance outage at the joint venture to March versus April in the prior year, and the joint venture started up its new slag cement facility in Houston. The combined impact on joint venture results from the timing change of the annual outage and the commissioning cost for the new facility was approximately $4 million. Our fourth quarter cement price was up 2%. Moving to the Light Materials sector on the next slide. Annual revenue in our Light Materials sector increased 3% to $969 million, driven by higher wallboard sales prices and record recycled paperboard sales volume. Annual operating earnings increased 3% to $389 million, also because of higher wallboard sales prices and record paperboard sales volume, plus lower energy and freight costs. Looking now at our cash flow. We continue to generate healthy cash flow and allocate capital in line with our strategic priorities and rigorous financial return criteria. Operating cash flow in fiscal 2025 totaled $549 million. Capital spending increased to $195 million as we continue to invest in and improve our operations. Most of the increase in capital spending was associated with the modernization and expansion of our Mountain Cement plant, which began construction in July. As a reminder, the plant is being upgraded from the existing two long dry kilns to a single modern pre-calciner kiln line, which will significantly improve energy efficiency and simplify maintenance programs, resulting in cost savings of approximately 25%. The project will also increase plant capacity by 50%, enhancing our ability to serve the growing Northern Colorado market. And as Michael mentioned, last week, we announced plans to modernize our Oklahoma Wallboard plant, which will further improve its competitive position. The total investment is $330 million and construction is expected to start later this year. Considering these two projects as well as our sustaining capital spending, we expect total company capital spending in fiscal 2026 to increase to a range of $475 million to $525 million. During fiscal 2025, we acquired two aggregates businesses for approximately $175 million. The previously announced acquisition of Bullskin Stone & Lime was completed in early January and was funded with cash on hand and borrowings under our bank credit facility. Also during the year, we paid $34 million in dividends and repurchased approximately 1.2 million shares of our common stock or 4% of the outstanding for $298 million. We have 4.7 million shares remaining under our current repurchase authorization. Finally, a look at our capital structure, which continues to give us significant financial flexibility. At March 31, 2025, our net debt-to-cap ratio was 46%, and our net debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio was 1.5 times. We ended the year with $20 million of cash on hand. Total liquidity at the end of the fiscal year was approximately $560 million, and we have no meaningful near-term debt maturities, giving us substantial financial flexibility. Thank you for attending today's call. Jamie, we will now move to the question-and-answer session.
Operator:
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Trey Grooms. Actually it comes from Brian Brophy from Stifel. Please go ahead with your question.
Brian Brophy:
Yes. Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Appreciate you taking the question. So just at a high level, you guys have had a number of large modernization expansion efforts here recently. Can you remind us how you philosophically think about deploying capital into these projects? How do you think about return on capital hurdles, payback periods or anything else we should keep in mind? Thanks.
Michael Haack:
Yes, I'll answer part of that, and Craig will probably jump in with some is, we've always been pretty open on how we look at our operations and how we keep them in as good a condition as possible and in favorable markets. We've run strategies on basically every single one of our facilities, and these two have just shown themselves as great investments for us. We like to invest in assets we know and markets we know, and we think both of these are high-return projects that will add significant value to our customers.
Craig Kesler:
Yes. And Brian, look, I'd add to that. Yes, these are two significant projects, good returns. We have bogeys internal hurdle rates of 15% cash-on-cash after-tax type of returns. And these are projects, and we've done similar projects in our history that have been fantastic return projects for us, really improving the competitive position of both of these facilities in really good returning markets -- growing markets. And then last but not least, given where the balance sheet sits today, right around 1.5 times, that also does -- these projects don't preclude us from continuing to explore M&A opportunities and continuing to return capital. So we positioned ourselves really well here.
Brian Brophy:
Thanks. Yes, that's really helpful. And then in the deck, you talked about and in your comments you talked about some expansion to utilize alternative fuels on the cement side of the business. Can you add any more color here? What type of alternative fuels are you able to utilize? And how should we be thinking about that impacting your ability to manage costs on the energy side? Thanks.
Michael Haack:
Yes. So we look at all of our facilities for what we're burning as fuels. The two that mentioned today are really using tires at our Kosmos cement facility and an alternative fuel feeder at Illinois Cement. That feeder will allow us to burn multiple different products. Right now, we're burning tire chips at that facility with it. How we view these projects is for a CO2 benefit and also for flexibility in the fuel source themselves that we could switch from one fuel source to another opportunistically as the pricing looks beneficial for us at the facilities. We will continue to look for other alternative fuel source projects across our cement plants.
Brian Brophy:
That's really helpful. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Operator:
And our next question comes from Trey Grooms from Stephens. Please go ahead with your question.
Trey Grooms:
Hey, good morning, Craig and Michael. Thanks for taking my questions. So if we could maybe dive into the wallboard pricing down a few dollars sequentially in the quarter. You mentioned increased freight costs. And clearly, your wallboard prices reported net of freight, so that makes sense. But how did the like-for-like wallboard pricing trend through the quarter and maybe thus far through your fiscal 1Q? And should this higher kind of freight costs in the quarter, should that continue here?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. Look, Trey, I would tell you the kind of exit price was not that far off of what the quarterly average was. And we are moving forward on a price increase in Wallboard here this spring. And so I really won't talk much about kind of post the quarter pricing until we get to the next call in July where we can talk about the realization of that. But look, it's interesting. The freight cost being higher, that's at least half of the sequential decline. We've seen that in a couple of markets where things are a little busier than I think people expected, at least on the trucking side. So that was the majority of the change there.
Trey Grooms:
Yes. Okay. Got it. Makes sense. And then on that note with wallboard volume held in well in the quarter, maybe a little better than some of the industry numbers may have suggested through the quarter. Can you talk about maybe your expectations around volume here as we move into the seasonally busier season. Should it continue at this kind of level of change? Or should there be any shifts there? Or kind of what -- anything -- any update on kind of what you're seeing on the demand front?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. Trey, as we've said for years, I think we are well positioned geographically in better-than-average markets. So we look at the performance of our business, not just quarterly but over a trailing 12-month basis. And I think our markets maybe outperform slightly, but pretty much in line with the marketplace. Look, as it comes to the overall demand picture, it's been interesting. Homebuilding, which has been pretty tepid for the last three or four years and annual consumption of wallboard in the U.S. has been pretty flat for several years now. Sitting here today, our outlook is homebuilding to kind of remain in the same level. Michael mentioned it, and we've talked a lot about interest rates and the sensitivities around homebuilding affordability. The demand is there. It's just how do you have people being able to afford getting to these homes. But the -- we're underbuilt in the U.S., and we've been underbuilt for quite some time. But until you can fix the interest rate and affordability issue, I think you're range bound here for a while.
Trey Grooms:
Okay. All right. That makes sense. Thanks, Craig. I’ll pass it on.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Anthony Pettinari from Citigroup. Please go ahead with you question.
Asher Sohnen:
Hi. This is Asher Sohnen on for Anthony. Thank for taking my question. I think you mentioned that there wasn't really any impact on like public demand from macro uncertainty. But I was wondering what that might look like for your private non-res or commercial end markets and what you're seeing there right now quarter-to-date?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. And good question. It really is a bigger driver on the cement side. Private non-res is not a big driver for wallboard, but it's probably, call it, 25% or so for the cement demand. And the private non-res has so many different subcategories, including data centers and warehouses and large manufacturing facilities in addition to hospitals and commercial office buildings and the like. So very different. And then geographically, the answer can be very different. But as we look at the overall picture, there's a large number of big projects that are multi years in length. So again, it's been a growing market for us for a while. I think it remains a pretty steady business for us and especially in our geographic markets.
Asher Sohnen:
Got it. That's helpful. And then just switching gears, and forgive me if I missed this, but how should we think about the cadence of spending for the Duke modernization.
Craig Kesler:
As we said, we should start up construction sometime later this year, late summer, fall time frame. And the cadence will be pretty heavy here in fiscal 2026 in the $475 million to $525 million level for total company capital spending. Obviously, that includes Mountain Cement plus the Duke Wallboard facility and our sustaining capital. And then I would expect to see that start to trail off a little bit into fiscal 2027 as the Mountain Cement project will complete late calendar 2026 or late fiscal 2027.
Asher Sohnen:
Okay. That’s very helpful. I’ll turn it over.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Jerry Revich from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.
Jerry Revich:
Yes. Hi, good morning, everyone. I'm wondering if you could just talk about in cement, obviously, the cadence of pricing for the industry is slowing a bit. Can you folks just talk about based on the pricing and cost visibility that you see over the next three to six months, do you expect pricing to be ahead of inflation? I know we've got moving pieces in terms of maintenance timing, et cetera. But conceptually, how do you feel about price cost in cement over the next three to six months?
Craig Kesler:
Yes, Jerry, I think I would tell you rather than looking at just the next three to six months because our primary outage season is April and May. So the June quarter always has quite a bit of costs associated with that program. But as you look at the year, on the cost side, energy prices or costs have been pretty flat here for a little while. Electricity costs are up slightly. But on the balance, I think as we look across our network, we think we can continue to improve margins from here. The exact cadence of that over the next year or two years to be determined. And obviously, a lot of that is going to be driven by the volume outlook as well. The incrementals on additional volume is important. And whereas we've come off of two years in a row with lower volume across the country for the U.S. Cement business. So a rebound in volumes would also go a long way towards improving the margins of the business.
Jerry Revich:
And then in terms of the Wallboard business in Texas, there's a significant importer of wallboard from Mexico. Can you just talk about what impact you're seeing on pricing from tariffs in wallboard? And then in cement, can you just talk about what benefits you could [Multiple Speakers]
Michael Haack:
Jerry, when we look at it for both Mexico and Canada, wallboard and cement are both excluded. So there is no tariff impact to any imports coming in from either of those countries. So really, the tariffs are very low impact to us as a domestic manufacturer, and there's not really a lot of other imports other than the cement side. When you look at the tariffs on cement, most of the countries right now are at a 10% tariff for their product. That's off of the -- really the cost loaded into the ship. So when you're looking at a large component of a cement ton landing in the United States is the shipping cost. So when you back that out, a lot of the cement coming into the U.S. only has a $4 to $5, maybe $6 tariff associated with it. So it's not a substantial impact to the business one way or the other.
Jerry Revich:
Appreciate it. And then lastly, can I ask in terms of wallboard really attractive margins considering we're sitting at just north of 1.3 million starts. As you folks think about price cost in that business over the next, call it, three to six months, can you just talk about the ebbs and flows? And how do you expect margins to play out on a year-over-year basis. You've got some tough comps coming up in the June quarter.
Craig Kesler:
Yes. Look, similar, Jerry, I would say looking at it over a longer time period, I think we're very well positioned as an overall business, given the certainty that we have around our raw material reserves, notably on the gypsum side. And so I think that is well positioned for us as homebuilding, when it does recover in a more meaningful way to continue to see some margin expansion from here. But I mean, look, in the immediate term, homebuilding, a lot of uncertainty, again, back around interest rates. And so the question is when does homebuilding recover? And that's when the real big opportunity to move pricing and therefore, margins. On the shorter end of the curve, natural gas has come down here recently. OCC prices are down recently. So those are all favorable from that perspective. But we're more focused on the longer term and when does homebuilding actually turn in our favor and therefore, wallboard demand really meaningfully move higher. I'd point out, Jerry, we've shipped in this country 36 billion square feet of product before, and we're shipping at an annual pace for the last four years around 28 billion square feet, plus or minus a couple of percent. So we're well off historical type of higher levels of shipments.
Jerry Revich:
That’s clear. Thank you.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Adam Thalhimer from Thompson Davis. Please go ahead with your question.
Adam Thalhimer:
Thank you. Good morning, guys. Craig, the operating loss in concrete and aggregates in Q4, are you looking at that basically as a one-off?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. Good question, Adam. Look, we had an acquisition that closed during the fourth quarter. As I mentioned, you've got some purchase accounting that added some incremental additional costs there. Not to mention, you've got a full quarter of depreciation and amortization related to that business. So I would tell you, really look at the Concrete and Aggregates business on an EBITDA basis. And again, a lot of noise in this fourth quarter given the acquisition closing. But more broadly, look at it as a -- on an EBITDA basis. And once you peel through that, actually, we're pretty happy with where we are positioned with the aggregates business. And we've increased the production capacity there by 50% with these two acquisitions this year. So it's starting to really move the needle.
Adam Thalhimer:
Okay. And then at the cement joint venture, are you looking at fiscal year 2026 as a nice recovery year for that business?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. We certainly put some investments into that business over the last 12 to 18 months. If you recall, we had a pretty large clinker cooler work done in the fall. We started up the slag business during the winter. That's been a drag on earnings as that business really starts to improve here with the paving season this summer, we would expect to see a meaningful improvement there.
Adam Thalhimer:
And then just lastly, for modeling purposes, is there anything more to come from purchase accounting. So an impact there in the first half of 2026? And then how much is left in the ERP costs you called out?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. From a purchase accounting perspective, no, that was all contained really in our fourth quarter. And then on the IT side with our ERP system implementation, that will continue here into fiscal 2026. So I would model the corporate SG&A at the same level.
Adam Thalhimer:
Perfect. Thanks, Craig.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Philip Ng from Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.
Philip Ng:
Hi, guys. Cement volumes have been pretty muted the last few quarters, and part of that is weather related. So any update and color in terms of what activity you're seeing right now? Have you seen demand kind of bounce back with weather clearing out? Any color on orders, backlogs. Helpful to kind of get a little perspective on how demand is shaping up thus far on your heavy material side of things? Thanks.
Craig Kesler:
Yes. No, you're right, Phil. It's been a slog for a couple of years, quite frankly, on the U.S. cement side. Some of it's certainly weather, but there's no doubt, infrastructure spending has been very slow to materialize. We spent not quite even 35% of the infrastructure bill at this point. That's several years old. We would have expected those dollars to have benefited the business well before now. But encouragingly, as the weather has improved here in March and April, we've seen volumes start to improve. So that's been very encouraging from our perspective.
Philip Ng:
Okay. So you're seeing positive year volumes at this point in April and March, correct?
Craig Kesler:
That's right.
Philip Ng:
Okay. Super. And then on the cement price increases, I believe you guys had some in the marketplace in April. Any update on how that has progressed? I know weather has been a little choppy. Cement is very regional in nature. So any color on how that's kind of shaping up across your portfolio?
Craig Kesler:
Yes. Most of those were slated for the April time frame. We try not to talk too much forward-looking around pricing. So we'll certainly give you that update as we get into -- on our July call as we talk about our first fiscal quarter.
Philip Ng:
Okay. Helpful. And then from a wallboard demand standpoint, volumes were certainly down, call it, 3 points in the fourth quarter. Spring selling season has been pretty muted. Are you seeing choppy orders from your distributors? And any color on how we should think about inventory in the channel because we cover some other housing-related sectors like insulation, for example, order patterns do seem to be very choppy there. So curious if you're seeing any of that as well.
Craig Kesler:
Yes, Phil, I'd tell you, it's been choppy for a couple of years, just with a very muted single-family housing environment here in the U.S. And so not a lot of visibility. As you said, though, volumes have hung in there reasonably well in the grand scheme of things. So I would tell you, inventory in the channel, not as big of a thing in wallboard given that it's a perishable product, so you're not going to store it outside. And so not a lot of inventory in the grand scheme of things within the channel, either at the manufacturer level or even at the distributor level. But look, I think we're all waiting for the turnaround of affordability and interest rates to kind of move the needle.
Philip Ng:
Okay. Thank you. Appreciate all the great color.
Operator:
And our next question comes from Jonathan Bettenhausen from Truist. Please go ahead with your question.
Jonathan Bettenhausen:
Hi, guys. I'm on for Keith Hughes this morning. Thanks for taking my question. What kind of production downtimes, if any, do you expect from the existing lines at the Duke Wallboard facility while you work on that plant?
Craig Kesler:
The existing lines will continue to operate as they have until the new line is complete. So very similar to the Mountain Cement project.
Jonathan Bettenhausen:
Okay. Got it. And then what are your thoughts on the Aggregates deal pipeline? Are you guys going to target to do more of those acquisitions here in fiscal 2026?
Michael Haack:
Yes. So we always look at aggregate deals when they come around with it. The pipeline is pretty cyclical. We get a few every now and then that comes through. From our past history, you can see that we are a buyer in that space with it if it meets our criteria, which we will not stray from our criteria. We like them that tie into our network, have -- we feel we can get a great financial return from and that our entire network could benefit from those. So as they come available, we will continue to look in that space along with the other spaces we look in.
Jonathan Bettenhausen:
Great. Thanks.
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll be concluding today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Michael Haack for any closing comments.
Michael Haack:
Thank you, Jamie, and thanks to all of you for joining the call today. Before we conclude, I want to acknowledge the hard work of our dedicated team members. It's their daily focus on operational excellence, safety and incremental efficiency gains that enables us to perform steadily in economic cycles. Regardless of the day-to-day and noise around us, we will continue to invest wisely in our businesses and capitalize on high value-enhancing opportunities in the year ahead and beyond. We look forward to talking to you in the summer.
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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