Helen Xu
谢谢Jenny。女士们、先生们,早上好,也欢迎来自中国的各位听众。欢迎大家参加Gulf Resources 2023年第一季度财报电话会议。我是投资者关系总监Helen Xu。公司首席执行官刘晓斌先生今天也将参加本次电话会议。
我想提醒所有听众,在本次电话会议中,管理层的一些陈述将包含关于Gulf Resources Incorporation及其子公司业务和产品的前瞻性信息,这些信息符合1933年《证券法》第175条规则和1934年《证券交易法》第3b-6条规则的含义,并受这些规则创建的安全港条款保护。
实际结果可能与今天讨论的结果有所不同,需考虑多种风险因素,包括但不限于:中国的总体经济和商业状况;与COVID-19疫情相关的风险;未来产品开发和生产能力;向终端客户的发货;新老产品的市场接受度;溴素及其他油田和电力生产化学品领域现有和新增竞争;技术变化;未来溴素资产开发能力;以及公司无法控制的各种其他因素。所有前瞻性陈述均明确受到本警示声明以及公司向SEC提交报告中详述的风险因素的完整限定。Gulf Resources没有义务修订或更新任何前瞻性陈述以反映本次电话会议日期之后的事件或情况。
因此,公司认为这些前瞻性陈述中反映的预期是合理的,但不能保证这些预期将被证明是正确的。此外,任何关于公司未来业绩的提及均代表管理层截至2023年5月16日的估计。
对于此时无法收听完整电话会议的听众,公司网站将提供重播。电话会议也可通过网络广播收听,链接可通过我们网站获取。请查阅我们早些时候发布的新闻稿了解详情。
首先,我们将回顾本季度的业绩。然后,我将把电话会议交给刘先生进行评论。
股东们可能会看到我们的业绩并认为这是最糟糕的一个季度。但我们相信,本季度实际上展示了我们商业模式的实力以及公司的重大机遇。本季度,我们的化工厂和天然气设施仍然关闭。由于冬季停产,我们损失了一个月的生产时间。
溴素价格下跌幅度是我们记忆中最大的。粗盐价格也大幅下跌。情况几乎不能再糟糕了。然而,尽管存在这些问题,我们仅亏损了558,000美元。如果我们排除关闭工厂的成本和工厂停产期间的240万美元成本,我们实际上本应实现盈利。
我们产生了近500万美元现金,期末现金头寸接近1.16亿美元,即每股11.10美元。当溴素价格回升时(我们预计会回升),当我们的新化工厂开业时,当我们在四川开始生产天然气和卤水时(我们相信这会发生),我们相信投资者会对我们产生的回报类型感到非常满意。
随着我们发展化学品出口业务的计划,我们将拥有财务灵活性来采取措施增加股东价值。因此,我们期待这个激动人心的未来。
本季度收入约为930万美元,较2022年同期增长4%。净亏损约为557,000美元,而去年同期净亏损为119,900美元。每股收益为亏损0.05美元,而去年同期为亏损0.01美元。
现金流约为480万美元。期末现金为1.158亿美元。每股现金为11.10美元。每股净现金为9.09美元,每股股东权益为26.35美元。
现在让我们按业务板块来看。首先,看看我们的溴素和粗盐板块。截至2023年3月31日的三个月期间,溴素板块的净收入约为850万美元,而去年同期为810万美元。这一增长是由于销售量增加了101%,而平均销售价格下降了48%。毛利率为27%,而去年同期为52%。毛利率下降主要归因于溴素平均销售价格较低。
与去年同期相比,净收入成本约为610万美元,而去年同期为390万美元。运营亏损为409,700美元,而去年同期运营利润约为130万美元。
粗盐的净收入分别为748,700美元(2023年)和754,000美元(2022年)。粗盐净收入的增长是由于销售量增加了32%,而平均销售价格下降了25%。净收入成本约为620,000美元,而去年同期约为629,600美元。粗盐实现利润42,930美元,而去年同期亏损521,921美元。
2022年5月,我们分离了溴素和粗盐业务以符合政府规定。这种分离需要不同的成本分配。净影响是增加了溴素的成本分配,减少了粗盐的成本分配。
现在让我们看看化学品板块。化学品没有收入。截至2023年3月31日的三个月期间,我们化学品产品板块的运营亏损约为417,900美元,而去年同期运营亏损约为513,000美元。
天然气。我们的天然气板块没有生产收入,因为我们租赁了一些设备。因此,2023年第一季度天然气板块的运营收入约为12,700美元,而2022年同期运营亏损约为26,700美元。
现在让我们看看今年的业务和战略计划展望。首先,看看溴素和粗盐。本季度溴素价格大幅下跌。我们认为有三个主要原因。首先,由于经济关闭,国内需求急剧下滑,出口销售和下游产品也大幅下降。此外,由于COVID-19疫情期间更多人居家不工作,对消毒剂的需求减少。我们认为消毒剂制造企业没有预料到经济会关闭,因此库存过多。
我们认为溴素价格已经触底,可能会从当前水平上涨。供需关系仍然非常有利。一些工厂已永久关闭。经济正在改善,出口开始恢复正常。目前,我们无法预测价格反弹的时间和程度。然而,公司相信[indiscernible]溴矿将为其提供更强的机会。
公司对在2023年尝试重新开放两个关闭工厂中的一个保持乐观。公司目前正在与当地政府就相关问题进行合作。对于现有运营工厂,公司已完成大部分资本支出。2023年溴素和粗盐的资本支出将仅限于基本维护。
对于化学品板块,公司仍在等待定制机械,主要包括与环境问题相关的设备,如废气处理设备、固体废物处理设备和废水处理设备。其余设备将在[indiscernible]可用后尽快交付。这些设备预计将在2023年第二季度或第三季度交付。一旦这些设备交付,公司将通知股东并在其网站上发布照片。
公司相信,一旦所有设备交付,将需要三到四个月进行安装。然后再需要两到三个月进行测试。之后将能够申请环境安全批准。获得批准后,将需要四个月进行试生产。然后,我们可能开始商业生产。
对于这个化学品出口项目,我们的首席运营官兼董事苗乃辉先生已被任命为探索化学品出口机会的工作组主席。管理团队已开始研究哪些产品和市场提供最佳的出口机会。公司将尝试寻找这些出口机会,以便获得可能的更大财务灵活性来提升股东价值。
在选择具体产品和市场之前,我们还需要考虑哪些产品可以在新化工厂高质量生产。
对于四川省项目,正如我们已经披露的,公司计划在政府规划最终确定后,向相关政府部门提交天然气和卤水项目的批准申请,包括四川省的土地和资源规划。
由于这种复杂性,我们正在与大英县政府讨论成立合资企业提取溴水和相关产品的可能性。我们相信这样的合资企业可以帮助我们克服一些与政府相关的问题。我们将随时向投资者通报我们的进展。
现在让我把电话会议交还给刘先生,请他评论本季度的情况。[非英语]
Helen Xu
Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and good evening to all those of you who joining us from China. And we'd like to welcome all of you to Gulf Resources first quarter 2023 conference call. I'm Helen Xu, the IR Director. Our CEO of the company, Mr. Xiaobin Liu, will also join this call today. I'd like to remind you to all our listeners that in this call, certain management statements during the call will be -- contain forward-looking information about Gulf Resources Incorporation and its subsidiaries business and products within the meaning of the Rule 175 on the Securities Act of 1933 and the Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are subject to the Safe Harbor created by those rules. Actual results may differ from those discussed today, take into account a number of risk factors including, but not limited to, the general economic and business conditions in China. The risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, future product development and production capabilities, shipments to end customers, market acceptance of new and existing products, additional competition from existing and new competition from the bromine and the other oilfields and the power production chemicals, change in technology, the ability to make future bromine assets and the various other factors beyond its control. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and the risk factors detailed with the company's reports filed with the SEC. Gulf Resources assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. Accordingly, our company believes expectations reflecting in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, and there can be no assurance of such will prove to be correct. In addition, any reference to the company's future performance represents the management's estimates as of today, the 16 of May 2023. For those of you unable to listen to the entire call at this time, a replay will be available at the company's website. The call is also accessible through the webcast and the link is accessible through our website. So please locate our press release issued earlier for the details. So first of all, we will review the results for this quarter. And then I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Liu for his comments. So it would be easy for shareholders to look at our results and think this was a best quarter. But we believe this quarter actually shows the strength of our business model and the significant opportunities for our company. In this quarter, our chemical factory and Natural Gas facilities were still closed. Because of the winter shutdown we lost one month of production. Bromine prices plunged by the highest percentage we can remember. Crude salt prices were also down sharply. Things could not get much worse. Yet despite these problems, we only lost $558,000. If we exclude the cost of our closed factories and costs during the plant shutdown of $2.4 million. We would have actually earned a profit. We generated almost $5 million cash and ended up with a cash position of almost $116 million or $11.10 per share. When bromine prices go back up, which we expect they will, when our new chemical factory opens and when we begin to produce natural gas and brine in Sichuan, which we believe will happen, we believe investors will be very pleased with the type of returns, we generate. With our plans to develop export businesses in chemicals we will have the financial flexibility to take actions to increase our shareholder value. So we look for this exciting future. So the revenues for this quarter, which is almost approximately $9.3 million, representing an increase of 4% over the same period of year 2022. The net loss was approximately $557,000 as compared to a net loss of $119,900 for the same period of last year. Earnings per share were a loss of $0.05 versus a loss of $0.01 for same period last year. Cash flow was approximately $4.8 million. Ending cash was $115.8 million. Cash per share was $11.10. Net-net cash was $9.09 per share, and shareholders' equity were $26.35 per share. So now let's look at our business by segment. So first of all, let's look at our bromine and crude salt segment. For the three month period ended by March 31, 2023, the net revenue for the bromine segment was approximately $8.5 million compared to $8.1 [ph] million for the same period in the same previous year. This increase was due to 101% increase in tonnes sold and a 48 percentage decrease in average selling price. The gross profit margin of 27% compared to 52% for the same period last year. The decrease in the gross profit margin was primarily attributable to the lower average selling price of bromine. As compared for the same period last year, cost of net revenue were approximately $6.1 million compared to $3.9 million. The loss from operation was $409,700 compared to a profit of approximately $1.3 million for the same period last year. The net revenue for the crude salt was $748,700 and $754,000 for the same period of 2023 and 2022, respectively. This increase in the net revenue for the crude salt was due to a 32 percentage increase in tonnes sold and a 25 percentage decrease in the average selling price. The cost of net revenue was approximately $620,000 compared to $629,600 for the same period last year approximately. Crude salt earned a profit of $42,930 compared to loss of $521,921 for the same period in the previous year. In May 2022, we separated bromine and crude salt business to confirm with the government regulation. This separation required different allocation of costs. The net impact was to increase the cost allocation to bromine and between the crude salt. So now let's look at the chemical segment. There was no revenue in chemicals. Loss from operations from our chemical products segment worth approximately $417,900 for the three month period ended March 31, 2023, compared to a loss from operations of approximately $513,000 in the same period. Natural gas. Our natural gas segment had no revenue from production because we did lease some of equipment. So as a result, income from operations from our natural gas segment was approximately $12,700 for the same period for the first quarter of 2023, compared to a loss of approximately $26,700 in the same period of year 2022. So now let's look at our business and strategic plan outlook for this year. First, we look at the bromine and crude salt. The price of bromine has dropped substantially this quarter. We believe there are three major reasons. Firstly, because the economy closed. There was a sharp downturn in domestic demand and a sharp drop off in export sales and downstream products as well. So in addition, because more people were home and not working during COVID-19 pandemic, there was less need for disinfectants. We believe that companies manufacturing disinfectants did not expect the economy to close and thus had too much inventory. We believe prices of bromine has bottomed and may rise from current levels. The supply and demand equation is still very advantageous. Some factories have been permanently closed. The economy is improving and exports are starting to return to normal. At this time, we are not in a position to project the timing or extent of the rebound in prices. However, the company believes that [indiscernible] bromine mine will offer it with stronger opportunities. The company remains optimistic about the ability to try to open one of its two closed factories in year 2023. The company is currently working with the local government on the related issues. For the existing operating factories, the company has completed substantial of its capital expenditures. Capital expenditures for bromine and crude salt in 2023 will be limited to basic maintenance. So for chemicals segment, the company is still waiting for the customized machinery majorly includes that related to environmental issues, such as the waste gas treatment equipment, solid waste treatment equipment, and wastewater treatment equipment. The remaining equipment will be delivered as soon as the [indiscernible] available. This equipment is expected to be delivered by the second quarter or three quarter of 2023. Once this equipment is delivered, the company will inform shareholders and post photos on its website. The company believes that once all of the equipment is delivered, it will take three to four months to get them installed. And then take another two to three months for testing. And the -- which will be in a position to apply for the environmental and safety approval. After the approval, it will take four months to conduct trial production. And then, we may start commercial production. So for all this chemical export project, Mr. Naihui Miao, our COO and Director has been named as the Chairman of our task force to explore export opportunities for chemicals. Management team began to research which products and the markets offer the best opportunities to export. The company will try to find this export opportunities, so we can gain the possible and greater financial flexibility to enhance shareholder value. Before selecting the specific products and the markets, we will also have to consider which of the products can be produced in the high quality by all this new chemical factory. So for Sichuan Province project, as we have disclosed the company plans to proceed with its applications for the natural gas and brine project approvals with related government department, until after government planning has been finalized, land and resource planning for the Sichuan Province. Because of this complexity, we are discussing the possibility of a joint venture with the government of Daying County for the extraction of bromine water and related products. We believe such a joint venture could help us to overcome some of the government-related issues. We will keep investors informed of our progress. So now let me turn the call back to Mr. Liu for his comments on this quarter. [Non-English]