IP - International Paper Company (IP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-04-25 14:37:09 ET

International Paper Company (IP)

Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call

April 25, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Mark Nellessen - VP, IR

Mark Sutton - Chairman & CEO

Timothy Nicholls - SVP & CFO

Thomas Hamic - SVP, North American Container and Chief Commercial Officer

James P. Royalty - SVP, Containerboard and Recycling

Conference Call Participants

Matthew McKellar - RBC Capital Markets

Mark Weintraub - Seaport Research Partners

Charlie Muir-Sands - BNP Paribas

Michael Roxland - Truist Securities

Gabrial Hajde - Wells Fargo Securities

Philip Ng - Jefferies

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's International Paper's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mark Nellessen, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Mark Nellessen

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, and thank you for joining International Paper's first quarter earnings call. Our speakers this morning are Mark Sutton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Nicholls, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

There is important information at the beginning of our presentation including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-U.S. GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of those figures to U.S. GAAP financial measures is available on our website. Our website also contains copies of the first quarter earnings press release and today's presentation slides.

I'll now turn the call over to Mark Sutton.

Mark Sutton

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. We will begin our discussion on Slide 4, where I will highlight our results. Starting off the year, our teams across International Paper executed well with intense focus on taking care of our customers while accelerating our commercial and mill optimization strategies. We're also encouraged to see positive market momentum as we continue to see signs of demand recovery. Additionally, sales price index has improved across our portfolio, and the majority of the benefits will flow through our contracts and future quarters.

Our first quarter earnings were generally in line with our outlook and represent a trough based on seasonally low volumes, higher OCC costs and the majority impact from the 2023 sales price index declines. Earnings were also unfavorably impacted by approximately $38 million from the January winter freeze, and approximately $14 million from a significant fire that consumed our Box plant in Ixtac, Mexico. Fortunately, no one was injured, and our teams remain focused on taking care of our employees and customers as we manage through this incident....

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