I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Malpass, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome to everyone on the call. Here with me today is Richard Smyth, our Steel & Tube CFO. We'll start with a quick summary of our first half of the 2024 financial year, and an update on strategic progress, and then move into more detail on the results before taking any questions and answers. We've delivered a solid result in a more challenging environment, with normalized EBIT and EBITDA both above our December 2023 guidance. Pleasingly, normalized EBIT of NZD 11.3 million was ahead of the second half of the 2023 financial year, despite continuing economic headwinds. Our inventory was further reduced, down to NZD 128.6 million, and we ended the period with no bank debt and a strong cash balance of NZD 26.3 million.
The financial results have been driven by a focus on customer service, initiatives supporting sales activity, tight management of cash flows, and our cost out program, which has offset inflation increases, which has meant that we've been able to keep costs below prior year levels. Now, the macro trends that we've seen in the second half of the 2023 financial year continued. The economic recovery took longer than we anticipated. Inflation remains high, as do interest rates, and that has put pressure on customer demand, resulting in subdued trading and volumes remaining under pressure. Activity has also been softer ahead of the 2023 general election in October, and while business confidence has increased, investment intentions remain flat.
We've seen some easing in the labor markets, but do not expect an overall improvement in the economy until at least the fourth quarter of our financial year, so that's sometime middle calendar year this year. We've remained focused on our strategy, providing high levels of customer service and really controlling the controllables. Strategic investments into high-value products, services, and acquisitions continue to perform strongly, and we see plenty of opportunity to build on our track record in this area. Organic growth is also an opportunity, and we have invested into new equipment that either expands what we can offer or allows us to operate more efficiently. We've seen some positive market share growth in the key categories that we've been chasing, and continue to generate strong margins.
The cost out program is progressing well, with costs offsetting inflationary pressure in the first half of 2024, with costs being below prior period. We're actively managing market challenges. We have seen significant operating leverage, so when we do see activity start to pick up, we will capture that in earnings benefits. As has been well-publicized, both residential and non-residential building consents are down, and manufacturing is fairly subdued. The infrastructure pipeline remains strong, with multiple long-term projects underway. We are looking forward to more clarification from the coalition government on both longer term and mega projects. We're pleased to have maintained our interim dividend at NZ$0.04 per share. This is the same level as last year, despite this being significantly above our dividend payout range of 60%-80% of adjusted NPAT.
This provides a gross dividend yield of 10.3% based on the 31 December 2023 share price, and demonstrates the board's confidence in our performance and our outlook. Our dual pathway strategy is continuing to drive our performance as we focus on strengthening the core and investing in high-value products and services. Continuing to strengthen the core involves building on business foundations that are now in place with a focus on best-in-class customer experience, leveraging our breadth, breadth and scale to cross-sell a wider range of products and services, and driving improvement in gross margin dollar per ton, along with operational efficiencies. Current initiatives in this area include the NZD 5 million cost out program I mentioned, Project Strong, which is focused on maximizing returns from our Auckland palletized operations, and our continued investment into digital platform, which underpins our customer service and data analytics.
I'll talk further about our investment to high-value products and services on the next chart. Organic growth is obviously important to us, and in the last six months, we've invested into new plate processing equipment, a new purlin machine, automated stacking system, and new mesh straightening equipment. We've also continued to invest in the aluminum range of products. Our M&A strategy has also proven successful with Kiwi Pipe & Fittings and Fasteners NZ, now fully integrated and part of our operating business platform. Most recently, we have signed an exclusive supply agreement with RoadBoss, which is a business that provides safer and faster flexible steel and road barriers across Australia and New Zealand. As part of this, we will provide a loan facility with an option to take equity in the business if we wish.
Our long-term aim is to operate the business in a way that is financially rewarding for our shareholders and positive for our people and our customers and planet. Our key metrics remain positive, with continuing improvement in customer satisfaction and employee safety. Employee satisfaction remains well above industry averages. Sustainability is integrated into our strategy and is a key part of our decision-making across the group. The increase in carbon emissions per ton is due to the lower volumes I mentioned. However, when you look at total carbon emissions, they have reduced year on year. I'll now hand over to Richard Smyth to talk through the financials in more detail.
Thanks, Mark. As Mark has said, we have delivered a solid six-month result despite the more challenging environment. While revenues were lower due to reduced volumes, we're pleased to continue growing margin dollars per ton. Our cost out program is mitigating inflationary pressure, and we ended the year with a cash balance of NZD 26.3 million. We started the half year with a strong balance sheet and have strengthened this even further, reducing inventory and increasing our cash. We have maintained tight control over debtors with minimal bad debts. We have an undrawn NZD 100 million facility in place, which, along with strong cash flows, will fund our growth and other strategic initiatives. There was a limited reduction in volumes and revenue from second half 2023, which was a good result in the challenging economy.
Volumes were down 5%, while revenues of NZD 261.8 million were down 4.4%. There has been continued demand for a range of steel products and solutions, supported by our focus on greater customer service. Gross margin dollars per ton continues to grow, with an improvement in gross margin percentage compared to second half 2023. This is mainly as a result of effective product mix, pricing discipline, and cost control. Our strategic focus on high-value products and services is also driving an increase in gross margin. Steel & Tube's distribution business is more susceptible to economic headwinds, particularly with the construction slowdown. However, our sector diversity is an advantage, and we are not reliant on any one sector. This has helped the distribution business deliver a solid performance.
This division has significant operating leverage, and we expect margins to improve as the economy recovers. Infrastructure is generally longer-term projects. The reinforcing business continued its turnaround with a strong performance. We are continuing to move away from solely being a commodity provider by offering innovative, high-value solutions and services, such as prefabrication. We are focusing on supply-only projects and have a solid pipeline of work from new tenders. Inflationary pressures remain, although with some easing in some areas, such as labor costs. We commenced our NZD 5 million cost out program in May 2023 to offset inflationary pressures, and this has continued and will continue into the second half of 2024. As well as the cost benefits, continued efficiencies have resulted in in network leverage and led to a year-on-year reduction in total carbon emissions. Normalized EBIT was at the top of our guidance.
The benefit of improved pricing disciplines and cost management have been offset by increased costs and lower volumes. We have been steadily decreasing our inventory since building it up in 2022 in response to the previous supply chain issues. Inventory normalized at the end of FY 2023 and has been further reduced in line with activity and optimizations. Inventory covers remain within our target ranges. Active stewardship and detailed analytical tools are being used to ensure investments are made in high-value products, with a reduction in lower-value products held in inventory. Debtor management has been a priority in the current environment, and our cash collections remain high. Cash has been freed up as inventory has reduced. Major cash outflows in the first half were dividends, CapEx, tax, and lease payments.
We continue to manage our CapEx carefully, with priority allocation to business improvement and growth projects, as well as continued support for our digital initiatives. CapEx in the first half was NZD 4.4 million, and we expect a similar spend in the second half. Thank you for your ongoing interest. I'll now pass you back to Mark.
Thanks, Richard. So as you know, Steel & Tube is well-diversified, and we see opportunities for growth across a range of sectors. Manufacturing is expected to remain subdued in the short to medium term, along with residential and commercial construction. However, longer term, these sectors are supported by positive macro trends, which will support a rebound in activity as the economy recovers. The infrastructure sector is more immune to short-term economic trends. There's been significant underinvestment for many years, and there is a massive demand across almost every area of this category, from water services, healthcare infrastructure, land transport, renewable energy, tourism infrastructure, climate resilience, and rebuilding following weather events. While some large mega projects have been delayed, canceled, or are being reviewed, the new coalition government is supportive of and understands the need for investment.
Steel is an essential and a sustainable building product. For many construction applications, steel is the only choice, and it offers a number of advantages in the future, where climate change and extreme weather events are likely to become more common. Steel & Tube is well recognized as a leading quality provider of steel, delivering innovative solutions on time and on spec. We are a preferred partner with significant experience and expertise across infrastructure projects. Looking forward to the second half of the financial year, the economic cycle is expected to remain challenging, with some easing anticipated by mid this calendar year, which will be, you know, later in the fourth quarter of our financial year. We note also that there are six fewer trading days in the second half of the financial year compared to the first half.
In a recessionary environment, the most important thing that we can do is ensure a strong balance sheet, and we tightly manage costs. We're well positioned to benefit from increasing activity and demand when the economy does recover, with a strong balance sheet and healthy cash flows. We have a solid pipeline of work in place, particularly in that infrastructure space. We remain focused on our strategy and our growth through organic expansion and M&A. There are a number of opportunities to add value to our business, including some that will present themselves as a redirect result of the economic environment, and we're well positioned to take advantage of these. Steel & Tube is well managed and well governed, and a stable and a consistent performer.
Our positive track record over the last six years since implementation of Project Strive turnaround program in 2018 demonstrates our resilience and agility through the economic cycle. The value of our dual pathway strategy is also now becoming clear, and this remains the framework for our actions as we continue to strengthen our core and build that high growth products and services. Thank you for listening. I'll now hand back to the operator to manage any questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phones, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the ask a question box. Your first question comes from Ryan Li with Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, Ryan.
Hey, congrats on delivering on your guidance in a tough market. First question is on your outlook. Appreciate in the outlook statement that you expect economic condition will remain challenging in the near term, but can you just provide a bit more color around what you are hearing from your customers for both distribution and infrastructure divisions?
Yeah, yeah, look, I mean, it's not a straightforward answer across our various sectors, 'cause they're all functioning at different speeds. You know, manufacturing is about a third of our revenues, and you've seen the PMI fairly soft through, certainly the last quarter of the calendar year last year, and then it's had a fairly slow start into January and February, although that is picking back up again, I think, in the sort of 47s, which is an improvement on where we were in December, January. So we do see it subdued at the moment in that manufacturing space, but all are showing signs of life, which is great.
On the commercial construction side, really, we're actually pricing still quite a lot of projects into the areas such as reinforcing steel, you know, infrastructure, commercial, similar number of projects to prior period, but what we're seeing is the weight of steel going into those projects increase, which kind of indicates that there's more infrastructure projects coming on stream. Although we're still waiting for those mega projects to be, you know, reignited, really it's dependent on coalition government for a number of those. But we do see that there's primed up, you know, infrastructure demand, and we're starting to see some reasonably big, you know, water projects starting to come online. We've got specialist expertise in those areas. You know, a lot of seismic work, strengthening type work.
So there's, you know, definitely signs of life there. Of course, residential, although still running at a, you know, annualized 37,000 consents, which is probably not too far off capacity, is still fairly busy for our roofing businesses, fasteners businesses, that type of thing, but not quite what it was. So hopefully that gives you a bit of a overview, Ryan.
Yeah, that's very helpful. Thanks. And then secondly, just on infrastructure, obviously that's a standout for the result. So can we expect gross margin for that business to be around that level going forward?
Yeah, I think it's probably sustainable about where it is. You know, we've made a number of structural changes in our infrastructure business units that have really taken place over several years, and we're now seeing the benefits of those flowing through those gross margin dollars that you're seeing.
Yeah, great. On page three, so you've mentioned that the timing of commissioning for a few machinery investments. Can you just talk about what kind of margin improvement you're expecting from those investments?
Look, they all meet our IRR and NPV payback return requirements. We're starting to see some streaming of, for example, plate processing up, and now it's in commissioning phases down in Christchurch. We'll see some purlin machines and things like that arriving later in the year, early next year. So they're all on track with, in terms of their investment plans. I'm not gonna comment on specific gross margin improvements out of those investments, but as you've seen with our other both organic and M&A investments, we've provided fairly good visibility on an ongoing basis as to how they've been tracking versus return requirements. Have you anything to add, Richard?
The only thing I'll add to that-
Lastly,
... I was gonna say, the only thing I'd add to that is, you don't turn these on and have them producing margin at the level that we want on day one. There is a little bit of a ramp up on these, which is what we planned for, so as expected, and I would expect to see that continue with any of these new additions to our plan.
Okay, thanks. And then lastly, what's your expectation for your inventory position in the second half? Obviously, you've managed to reduce that quite a bit in the first half, which was good to see.
... Look, yeah, thank you, Ryan. I think in terms of inventory, we've done a reasonably good job of getting our cover bands, you know, on a tons basis. So, you know, between the 3.5-4 times, which is really where, as you know, we've been targeting and are pleased to be at. So really, that inventory very much depends on ton, you know, consumption as the business goes forward. We're not, as I mentioned earlier, you know, some more activity to start flowing through until later in that fourth quarter of our financial year. So given that, we can expect inventory levels to stay fairly flat.
We're seeing price forecasting forward, analysts that we use to, you know, to understand what's happening in global steel pricing, are all indicating, when you convert back into New Zealand dollars, that pricing for most products will remain fairly flat for the foreseeable sort of medium term. So that kind of leads you to, similar, levels of inventory in terms of dollar terms. Yeah.
Great. Thank you. That's all from me.
Your next question comes from Rohan Koreman-Smit with Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Congratulations on delivering a pretty solid first half, and, you know, trying times. First of all, I just wanna look at this improvement in gross profit dollars per ton. I was just wondering if you could kind of give me a bit of a breakdown on the different products, you know, fasteners, rebar, longs, flats, et cetera, and then aluminum. I'm just trying to get an idea of what, what's like for like, and then what is actually you having better pricing disciplines or just, you know, higher aluminum sales or, you know, those products that have a higher gross profit dollar per ton.
Yeah, no, that's—they're good questions, Rohan. We're probably not gonna go down to split individual product categories , but to give you some sort of general guidance, I mean, certainly aluminum is one of our highest margin categories. You know, you know, we're, and we're certainly doing quite well in that area. You know, now selling anywhere between NZD 500,000-NZD 1 million a month, which is something that we only started organically back in April last year. So we're quite pleased with that. We also have invested in a number of other areas that we've talked about in terms of high value products and services, so things like Kiwi Pipe & Fittings.
That business is performing extremely well for us on relatively high margins, you know, in that fire water articulation area. We've been able to take what was an Auckland-based business and expand it through most parts, there's certainly five large geographies, through our other site locations in the country, which has been exactly what we intended to do with that acquisition. We're also seeing similar things in the, excuse me, in the fastening space and other areas where we've got good margin growth. And to Ryan's question earlier around, you know, the infrastructure businesses as well, we have seen that you will be familiar with the reinforcing steel and some of the other businesses in that segment.
We've been working pretty hard to drive new disciplines in those area in terms of how we go to market, so really leveraging our sector expertise, working with clients on value engineering for projects. And what that's meant is that we're now seen as a key provider into those infrastructure and commercial construction markets. And of course, with that, we're able to capture a premium. For example, we're doing, you know, prefabricated engineered products rather than just working on site in situ, which has made it a lot easier for our clients. We're using BIM spec digital 3D modeling for clients to help, you know, just manage intersection points on projects, make their lives a lot easier.
And so those types of programs are now being specified and now being almost demanded by some of the key infrastructure horizontal players. And what that's meaning is now, of course, we're able to get in early with those projects and work very closely in a collaborative fashion. And so there is margin growth, of course, that comes with that. So overall... And I guess the last and most important thing is just straight out price discipline. You know, we have very regular meetings just around pricing, ensuring that we're capturing trading gains. And so I'm not, you know, for a second, claiming all of these are structural improvements, but certainly a lot of it is.
And in terms of trading gains, we're working, you know, every angle on a weekly basis, and I think, that's one of the other areas that's led through to, improvements in those margins. And of course, managing inventory very tightly to ensure that we're looking at our... You know, we look at our products on a return on inventory basis, and we look at the top 10, bottom 10 constantly to try and replenish growth into those higher value products and services, which is where we know that we will continue to, you know, achieve margin growth from. Richard, did you have anything?
Yeah. The other thing I would add to that, Rohan, is that our cost focus is not just on OpEx, so we are also applying that to every part of our business. So there's nothing too small for us to look at when it comes to cost management. So we're looking at things like freight recovery, for example. We look at all of those indirect labor costs. We're making sure that direct is flexing with volumes. And so we have just a constant, constant focus on both revenue and the cost element to maximize margin.
Thanks. Thanks for the very fulsome answer. Next question. Yeah, you talked service levels as well. Can you give us some of your service level metrics, you know, stock availability and, and DIFOT?
... Yeah, well, DIFOT, we, you know, we look at really very closely, and we're running up above 97% on DIFOT. I don't know whether we've got it in the package there, Richard, but that's a standard metric for us that we watch on a plant-by-plant basis, and obviously availability by key product lines, flanges and with that, we have our, you know, different A line categories, and B, Cs, and Ds, and we're watching those on a weekly basis. So yeah, hopefully that helps answer your question there, Rohan. Mark and I have a weekly meeting. Yeah, Mark and I have a weekly meeting, where we review inventory positions, and we're not just looking at how we reduce inventory.
We're, we're always focusing on the other end as well, and to make sure that we have the right products. So we are looking... We, we do focus on that, that availability quite closely.
Perfect. Um-
Sorry.
Yeah, just thinking about your inventory reductions and the context of a potential cyclical rebound, and kinda how you think you're positioned there. But also, maybe you could give some color on that in terms of, you know, how trading finished last year, obviously pretty weak, and have you seen any incremental improvements that you can kind of point to for the first almost two months of the year?
Yeah. Look, I mean, on the first part of your question on inventory positions, yeah, we do. We, we've actually, been steadily building high value, inventory, because we know that, you know, as the recovery comes through, we wanna be in a position to take advantage of that, and we've done that, in prior periods, where, you know, I think you've made that observation, where we've been positioned well. So we've been quick to offload, inventory probably, a year ago now that we started that process. I mean, we're down almost NZD 47 million of inventory on a year-on-year basis. And that's just that, kind of active management, if you like, of inventory, and making sure that we've built strong positions on products that move.
In terms of trading, yeah, I mean, the second half, the first half, excuse me, you know, December, January are both 15-day months, so very short. I think we saw in January, where it was fairly well traversed by other companies that, you know, I think many of our contractors took advantage of actually having the summer that got stolen last year. So I think we've certainly seen a lot of, you know, kind of softer activity through that January month. February is, you know, back in the game.
I think we're probably all seeing it just on the roads around Auckland here, but, you know, we're seeing activity has picked back up again, and, you know, certainly indicator businesses like roofing, things like that, we're starting to see some fairly good activity come back as, as contractors and the, and the industry start to get going. Hopefully, also some positive messaging coming from the coalition government there may be helping as well.
Thanks. I'll let someone else have a go.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone or type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your next question comes from Luan Nguyen with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hi, Mark. Hi, Richard. Can you hear me?
Thanks, Luan. Yes.
Yeah, good result. Thanks for the update. So my first question is referring to slide number 16. So I understand you have a cost program, NZD 5 million. So the slide says you have a cost saving of NZD 2.9 million in the first half, if I read correctly, so should I... should we expect another 2.9 in the second half, and you know, you're, you're exceeding your NZD 5 million cost saving goal?
Yeah, I wouldn't exactly double it. We are-
We have six days.
There are six days left, Mark has reminded me. But we are very comfortable with the NZD 5 million, and we're not stopping there by any means, but I wouldn't necessarily take a simple doubling of that number.
Yes. Thanks. Could you give us a bit of more color on the loan agreement size for RoadBoss and, you know, how big that, you know, how big-
Your question was the size of RoadBoss?
Yeah, the size and, you know, what that loan agreement looks like.
Yeah, sure. Look, it's a startup business. In fact, they've just won their first job down in Nelson that we're supplying some steel into. It's a roading barriers business, you know, starting initially in New Zealand, and they have plans to move into Australia and further afield. It's, you know, all those W-beams and wire rope type stuff that you see on the motorways at the moment. Sorry, there's some typing there that's hard to hear. So, there's effectively a replacement for the wire rope type business and introducing a, you know, a new competitor, so we've been working with RoadBoss for a little while.
We have an option at our right to exercise a swap for that loan for equity if we want, anytime, but it's a really good partnership. We always see an opportunity to have exclusive supplier to steel.
Yep. Thanks. So just final question from me. So your interim dividend was, you know, being paid out at the top end of your policy range, and, you know, you noted that you're confident about the future of the business, but H2 actually is going to be challenging, so what's your view on your final dividend? You're gonna stay at the top of the range, or you're gonna be more cautious?
It's obviously, obviously a board decision, Luan, so, you know, it's something that will be, you know, pondered on at the February meeting. But I think we, we, we sort of... As, as I mentioned earlier, with the response to Ryan's question on the outlook, I'm not expecting, you know, our cash flows to get worse, so that probably gives you an indication of how we're thinking about dividend at this point in time. Obviously, there's, there's a lot of water to flow under the bridge, but we'll, we'll see how trading performs.
But at this point in time, we think we're probably, you know, kind of past the worst of the market, and that we are, you know, moving into a phase of growth at some stage in the next, you know, 3-6 months.
Look, Luan, can I just add just one clarification on your question? We're not at the top end of our normal range for dividends. We actually been above that range significantly because we are and the board is confident in the future of this company.
Thanks. Luan, just to go back, clarify on your question on OpEx. I mean, you know, it is extremely difficult to offset inflation in this environment. And, it will be interesting watching other entities just to see how that has gone, because as Richard said, this is from everything to, you know, operational efficiencies, you know, our teams and the plants, through to business travel. Every little thing we do is being, you know, kind of checked and seeing how we can offset this inflation. To offset, you know, close to 3, you know, NZD 3 million there in that first half has been difficult, necessary, to be able to hold up our earnings.
But I think, you know, it is just critical for us to be able to go forward to achieve that NZD 5 million full year, so that we can ideally land the year with a flat real kind of cost with prior periods, so that we've eaten inflation, and that's our goal, right, of any good businesses, to be able to eat inflation every year, grow your cash reserves, and hopefully improve ROFE. So that should flow behind that. So that, that's the view for good.
Yep. Good result. Thanks, Dave.
Cheers.
There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand back to address any webcast questions.
Thank you. We've got a couple of questions online. First one, would like to know if you are currently looking at any businesses to possibly purchase this year? Yes, we are. We've got, you know, at least a half a dozen businesses that we're looking at in any one time.
I guess as we, you know, I think anyone who's been involved in the M&A type processes will know that there's a quite a staged process that you work through here from the initial, sort of dating arrangements, you know, through to, figuring out whether there's a good fit and then, you know, getting to a sort of a, once you commit resources to investigating things, then an NBIO or a non-binding indicative offer, and then from there, moving into, you know, sort of due diligence and potentially, contracting a transaction. So we're fairly optimistic that the M&A environment is improving. We're seeing more and more deal flows, if you like, coming to the table of different businesses that, ideally are needing a trade buyer.
We, you know, we would normally try and grow organically wherever we can, but where we see an opportunity to improve our capability or our reach in that higher value products and services, then, you know, M&A is the right way to do it. And so we're reviewing at any one time, at least half a dozen businesses. We have a team of a couple of people that are dedicated just around those activities. We've got a very robust process that involves regular stewardship with the board as well. Thank you. The next question: with the reduced inventory, how quickly can the company respond in an upturn?
Yeah, it's a good question, and with, as part of that weekly process Richard talked about, we look very closely at forward demand, and we've, you know, we've worked shipping arrangements throughout the Asia Pacific. We have 11 laneways locked in at very favorable shipping rates. We have preferred arrangements with, you know, 40-odd mills throughout Asia that we've had Lloyd's Register test, and we are working, you know, very closely with them around demand forecasting. So as we see opportunities, we're able to move very quickly, you know, through that combined logistics, shipping, freight arrangements that we have in place. We have an excellent hub-and-spoke model in New Zealand, where we have four very large locations spread out through the country that act as kind of mother centers to to feed our regional and child branches.
And so that model is a model that's been developed and evolved over the last 5 or 6 years and is working very well to enable us to keep inventories in that 3.5-4 times cover band, but also take advantage of opportunities as they come through. Last question online: there's a backlog of residential consents from 2022. Do you think these projects will get built or will many be canceled or deferred? That's a good question. I can't offer that, an answer with a lot of granularity, but there is a sort of a back of a wave flowing through at the moment of residential consents that have been put in place.
You are still seeing, as I mentioned earlier, you know, sort of last month, we still saw 37,000, on an annualized basis, consents coming through. The composition of those is a lot more multi-dwelling rather than single-dwelling consents, but there is still fairly strong, even in the non-residential sectors. When you look at floor area year-over-year, it's still fairly flat. So, you know, there is still reasonable demand in that residential space. We also have a relationship with Kāinga Ora, where we have a maintenance contract for all of their reroofing, and that has been a fairly busy activity pipeline for us, as well as their new builds that we're servicing a lot of the industry on that as well.
So the social housing element, I guess, of the residential market is fairly strong for Steel & Tube as well. Thank you. That's all the online questions. I hand back to the operator.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Thanks for listening.