Good day, and welcome to the Q1 2022 Cabot Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen- only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star then one on your touchtone telephone. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star then zero to reach an operator. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Steve Delahunt, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.
Thanks, Michelle, and good morning. I would like to welcome you to the Cabot Corporation Earnings Teleconference. With me today are Sean Keohane, CEO and President, and Erica McLaughlin, Senior Vice President and CFO. Last night, we released results for our Q1 of fiscal year 2022, copies of which are posted in the investor relations section of our website. The slide deck that accompanies this call is also available in the investor relations portion of our website and will be available in conjunction with the replay of the call. During this conference call, we will make forward-looking statements about our expected future operational and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements.
Additional information regarding these factors appears in the press release we issued last night and in our 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021, and in subsequent filings we make with the SEC, all of which are available on the company's website. In order to provide greater transparency regarding our operating performance, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that involve adjustments to GAAP results.
Any non-GAAP financial measure referenced on this call is reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in a table at the end of our earnings release issued last night and available in the investors section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Sean, who will discuss the Q1 highlights, provide an update on our strategy, and then discuss our progress in the areas of Battery Materials and ESG. Erica will review the company and business segment results along with some corporate financial details. Following this, Sean will provide closing comments and open the floor to questions. Sean?
Thank you, Steve. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our call today. I'm very pleased with results in the Q1 as we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.29, which is up 9% compared to the same quarter last year. Performance across our businesses was strong, and I'm very proud of our execution discipline across all facets of the company. Additionally, our discretionary free cash flow during the quarter was robust, and this supported the repurchase of shares and an increase to the dividend of 6%. Our team executed exceptionally well in the quarter, and this made the difference in successfully navigating a dynamic macro environment. The quarter was marked by strong progress against our key strategic objectives, and I would like to highlight a few noteworthy accomplishments.
We recently concluded our calendar year 2022 Reinforcement Materials customer agreements and are very pleased with the outcomes, having achieved substantial price increases in all regions. As we shared during Investor Day, the market environment remains supportive and Cabot's value proposition of supply reliability, quality, and global reach continues to resonate with customers. This is especially true in this period where supply chains are stressed and customers are increasingly looking to de-risk their operations through regionalization of the supply base. This plays very well to our strengths as a company as we can support our global customers with local supply in all regions. During the quarter, we also continued to build momentum in Battery Materials, and we advanced a number of ESG priorities. I will elaborate on both of these fronts, but before I do, I think it's important to connect our priorities to our strategy.
During our recent Investor Day, we launched our new Creating for Tomorrow strategy. This strategy is inspired by our purpose to create materials that improve daily life and enable a more sustainable future. As we execute our strategy, we will leverage our strengths to lead in performance and sustainability today and into the future. We will deliver on this strategy by advancing three key pillars, driving advantage growth, delivering innovative chemistry to enable a better future, and relentlessly pursuing continuous improvement in everything that we do. By pursuing our Creating for Tomorrow strategy, we will grow, transform, and reshape the valuation potential of the company. Our strategic outlook is underpinned by an expectation of a supportive market environment and the clear connection of our products to compelling macro trends.
As a result, our targets call for strong growth of adjusted earnings per share and robust discretionary free cash flow to fund growth and return capital to shareholders. Of our many compelling growth options, we are particularly excited about the momentum we are building in Battery Material. I'd like to transition now to give you an update on our progress in this critical growth vector. As one of our key growth vectors, along with Inkjet and E2C, Battery Materials is a key part of our Creating for Tomorrow strategy and is expected to be a major driver of our growth in reshaping the valuation of the company. The market size for conductive carbon additives in lithium-ion batteries is expected to be approximately $2 billion by 2025, with 30%+ growth expected through 2030.
Cabot is very well positioned given the breadth of our conductive carbon additive portfolio, our global footprint of assets, and our strong local commercial and technical support. The Cabot value proposition is resonating strongly with leading customers, as evidenced by our success in selling to six of the top eight battery producers, which represent approximately 90% of the market. During the Q1, volumes increased 58% year-over-year, and we were recently qualified in a new EV platform with a top five battery manufacturer, with sales expected to start in fiscal Q3. Given the strong demand outlook, we advanced important capacity projects in the quarter, including the announced acquisition of a plant in Tianjin, China. We expect to close this deal in the Q2 of this year, when we will start our upgrade and conversion of equipment to produce Battery Material products.
Also, we are on schedule to start up our Specialty Carbon plant in Suzhou, China, which is expected to free up additional Battery Material capacity in other parts of our network. Given this strong momentum, we expect our fiscal year 2022 full-year EBITDA to be in the range of $25 million-$35 million. The lithium-ion battery application holds great promise for Cabot, and we are both capable and determined to realize its full potential. Sustainability is integrated into everything we do at Cabot, and we advanced a number of important ESG priorities in the quarter. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact while supporting our customers with innovative materials to help them achieve their sustainability goals. We recently announced that we are joining other leading companies to align our sustainability agenda with the Paris Climate Agreement to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
For many years, we have focused on reducing our environmental impact, and our net zero ambition is a natural progression in our sustainability journey. Aligned with this ambition, we recently completed an assessment according to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, and published our Risk and Opportunity Matrix. This matrix is posted on our website. Our continued leadership in ESG was also further recognized with two notable achievements. First, we were recognized by Newsweek as one of America's Most Responsible Companies.
This is the third consecutive year that we have been included on Newsweek's list, and we are very proud of this recognition. Second, we were named by Investor's Business Daily as one of their 100 Best ESG Companies in 2021. Bringing the power of innovative chemistry to solve our customers' sustainability challenges and reduce our impact is what motivates us, and it's essential to our purpose. I look forward to updating you on further developments as we progress on our journey. I will now turn the call over to Erica to discuss the financial results of the quarter in more detail. Erica?
Thanks, Sean. I'll start with discussing results for the company and then review the segment results. We reported another strong quarter with adjusted EPS for the Q1 of $1.29, up 9% compared to the Q1 of fiscal 2021, and up 16% sequentially, with better-than-expected results in both the Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals segments. Discretionary Free Cash Flow in the quarter was $72 million, driven by strong EBITDA, and we ended the quarter with $179 million of cash. CapEx in the quarter was $30 million, and we expect full-year CapEx to be in the range of $250 million-$275 million.
This is an increase from our range last quarter, largely due to higher growth investments expected for Battery Materials in relation to the acquisition and conversion of the new plant in Tianjin, China. The balance sheet remains strong, with total liquidity of $1.2 billion and net debt to EBITDA of 1.8x as of December 31st. Our operating tax rate was 27% for the quarter, and we anticipate the fiscal year rate will be between 27% and 28%. Now moving to Reinforcement Materials. During the Q1, EBIT for Reinforcement Materials decreased by $3 million as compared to the same period in the prior year. The decrease was principally due to higher costs associated with utilities and maintenance, largely offset by higher volumes and margins.
Globally, volumes were up 4% in the Q1 as compared to the same period of the prior year due to 13% growth in Asia, flat volumes in the Americas, and a 10% decrease in Europe. Higher volumes in Asia were driven by strong demand for replacement and off-the-road tires. Higher margins were driven by the benefit of higher energy prices on our energy center and yield investments. Looking to the Q2 of fiscal 2022, we expect the Reinforcement Materials EBIT to improve due to the outcome of our calendar year 2022 customer agreements. We expect volumes will remain solid with sequential improvement expected in Europe and the Americas, and the normal seasonal pattern in China related to the Lunar New Year. Now turning to Performance Chemicals.
EBIT decreased by $2 million in the first fiscal quarter as compared to the same period in fiscal 2021, primarily due to lower volumes. Year-over-year volumes in the first fiscal quarter decreased by 3% in Performance Additives due to plant downtime of a fenceline partner in our fumed metal oxide product line, and 20% in Formulated Solutions due to the continued plant outage at our Belgian specialty compound site. While overall sales segment volume declined, we delivered impressive volume growth of 58%, as Sean noted, in products sold to Battery Materials applications as we continue to see growth driven by higher EV demand. Partially offsetting impact, we delivered higher unit margins from favorable product mix in both our Specialty Carbon and fumed metal oxide product lines, and strong pricing in our fumed metal oxide product line.
Looking ahead to the Q2 of fiscal 2022, we expect to step up in sequential volumes as our specialty compounds and fumed metal oxide plants come back online and as we achieve continued momentum in our Battery Materials and inkjet growth sectors. We expect to continue to successfully implement price increases to offset rising input and operating costs across the segment. Moving to the next slide, as we talked about at Investor Day in December, we are making capital allocation decisions that align with and support our Creating for Tomorrow strategy.
The capital investments and the acquisition announced this quarter are to support our growth agenda. In addition to these growth investments, we are also focused on providing an attractive return of cash to shareholders. During the quarter, we increased our dividend 6% and returned $40 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We are able to make these growth investments and return cash to shareholders while maintaining a healthy balance sheet with $1.2 billion in liquidity and net debt to EBITDA of 1.8x. We were able to do it all while retaining an investment-grade credit rating. I will now turn the call back over to Sean.
Thank you, Erica. I'll close out my prepared comments today by talking about our outlook for the remainder of the year. We are very pleased with the momentum coming out of the Q1, and we feel very good about how the rest of the year is shaping up. Based on our Q1 results and the outlook across our businesses, we are raising our guidance for adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.50-$5.90 for the fiscal year. We expect demand to remain strong due to the resilience of the replacement tire market and our diversified application portfolio in Performance Chemicals. As I mentioned earlier, we are very pleased with the outcome of our calendar year 2022 Reinforcement Materials customer agreements and expect to see a corresponding step-up in earnings starting in the Q2.
We are also seeing strength across our Performance Chemicals segment with strong volumes, robust margins and product mix, and disciplined pricing execution. The Q2 results are expected to improve on a sequential and year-over-year basis, with adjusted EPS increasing as we move through the year. This profile is expected as we continue to build momentum in Battery Materials and as demand increases in inkjet for packaging applications. Additionally, our Specialty Carbon plant is expected to come online in the second half of fiscal 2022. Overall, I'm very excited about where we are as a company and where we are going.
The long-term fundamentals of our businesses are strong. Our end markets remain robust, and we continue to execute at a high level. Looking ahead, we believe we have a winning formula, a talented team, an excellent portfolio of businesses set for growth, and a strong balance sheet, all of which position us to deliver on our strategic objectives and continue to grow and lead in our industry. Thank you very much for joining us today, and I will now turn the call back over for our question and answer session.
As a reminder to ask a question, please press star then one. If your question has been answered and you wish to remove yourself from the queue, press the pound key. Our first question comes from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Hi, this is David Huang here for Dave. I guess first, can you quantify the benefits from higher unit margins due to higher energy prices? I guess what's the new oil price assumption that you baked in your new guidance? Is there kind of a sensitivity you can provide on oil prices in your energy center and yield investment earnings?
Sure. Let me turn it over to Erica to try to provide a little color on that question.
Sure. In terms of Reinforcement Materials, I think you are asking about higher margins and the quantification. The increase in margins was $5 million year-over-year in the quarter. As we do each quarter, when we forecast, we use the forward curve of oil. We would have used the latest forward curve, just recently in terms of what the oil price impact would be for the remaining of the year.
Thank you. Just on demand, can you talk about your visibility for demand? I guess for your end markets, where are you seeing any restocking happening? Are you seeing any destocking at your auto OEM customers?
You know, the demand profile remains pretty robust. Across Reinforcement Materials, given the resilience of the replacement tire market, as well as some real strength in the OTR, off-the-road market, you know, that is definitely providing good demand support in the business. Somewhere in the 75%-80% of the tire market is replacement, and that tends to be more resilient, more stable, more durable. In Performance Chemicals, it's a more diverse portfolio of applications, but there's real strength across these applications due to a combination of factors.
Infrastructure related applications continue to grow very nicely and emerging applications like batteries, given the growth in EVs, you know, continues to be quite strong. In terms of restocking, I think in general, inventory levels remain pretty tight across most value chains. We're not really seeing any level of restocking. In fact, I would say that probably inventory levels for most customers in the various value chains we serve are thinner than they would like them to be. That's sort of a general comment, but on a restocking point.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Mike Leithead with Barclays. Your line is open.
Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Hi.
First question for Sean. I was hoping you could flesh out a bit more what's driving the higher EPS outlook. Obviously, Q1 was ahead, but it looks like the remaining three quarters are now expected to be incrementally better than you thought a few months ago. I was hoping you could just unpack a bit more, what's driving that better outlook.
Yeah. You know, demand remains, you know, quite robust, Mike, but overall, it's really strong execution on pricing. Let me try to give you a bit of color there. In Reinforcement Materials, you know, we realized better than expected outcomes for the 2022 tire customer agreements, and that definitely contributed to the raise in outlook for that business. In Performance Chemicals, you know, while input factors are rising pretty much everywhere, and you know, the chemical industry is having to address that like everyone else. Our efforts to recover those rising input costs through pricing actions has been. It's been very successful, and the execution of our teams has exceeded our previous outlook.
You know, you'll remember in Performance Chemicals, it tends to be more spot-oriented rather than you know, contractual. Sometimes in a period of rising inputs, we may be chasing it a little bit. The team's really done a fantastic job in executing really well. That strength and timeliness of pricing action is contributing. Finally, I'd say continued confidence in how the businesses are performing in terms of our growth vectors, in particular Battery Materials, but across a number of the growth areas that we spent some time on during Investor Day. Continued confidence building in those is also a factor here. Those would be the primary drivers, Mike.
Great. That's super helpful. Second question for Erica, maybe two quick things on cash flow this quarter. First, working capital was a $143 million use of cash. Is that a function of higher oil, or is there something else lumpy in there? Second, I think if I look at the press release, the change in other assets line was a $36 million use of operating cash, and the other financing line was a $27 million use of cash. Is there any lumpy items in there that you flag as well?
Sure. The first question, which is the working capital, it is mainly the higher oil prices. The increase you can see is driven by higher inventory and receivable balances. That the inventory balance is largely driven by the oil flow through within those balances, and some planned inventory builds heading into Q2. The higher receivables is driven by the higher sales price, largely from the pricing we passed on to recover the higher input cost. I would not say there's anything unusual in the working capital. The view going forward obviously depends on oil prices. If we assume that the global feedstock prices remain in line with current levels, then we would expect a level off of the use of cash for working capital.
We will see higher receivables balances as the higher pricing in the Reinforcement Materials contract flows through in Q2, but then the oil impact should start to moderate, assuming we have flat, flattish oil going forward. In terms of the cash flow, in terms of those other operating items, I'd say the only notable items flowing through there are impacts from, as we're restoring our plant in Belgium, there are impacts in there in terms of repairing the site, and then the insurance proceeds that come through that should pretty much offset that over time. It is a bit lumpy in terms of what we receive in a given quarter, from what we're spending versus what insurance is coming back.
Great. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Josh Spector with UBS. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on a really strong quarter and outlook. Just wanna ask broadly on China. Given you guys have a leading position there's definitely increased focus around what's going on in China, demand and, you know, COVID impacts, et cetera. Curious if you could share what you saw in the quarter and how Cabot's operations and your customers' operations ran. If you have any thoughts about if China shifts their COVID policy management to kinda from a tight control to perhaps more of managing an endemic type situation, does that create any risk to your outlook at all? I mean, I'd say generally your comments seem to be kind of business as usual, so just making sure that we're thinking about that right. Thanks.
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Josh, for the comments and the question. We're certainly very pleased with the performance and the outlook. You know, first in terms of China, what we saw in the quarter was quite strong performance. In Reinforcement Materials across Asia Pac, you know, volumes were up strongly. China's a big piece of that. Our performance in China continued to go quite well in the quarter. As we elaborated during the recent Investor Day, we really consider ourselves a great operator in China. I think that continued to show through in the quarter where plants ran well.
While, you know, the situation is at times dynamic, we're well able to manage that. You know, as we go forward here, our expectation is for a fairly stable economic environment in China through the balance of 2022. I think the government there has recently adopted some new policies related to this power shortage issue that was, you know, well discussed in the early fall autumn period. They're now allowing electricity prices to float up, which is then, you know, stimulating power producers to produce more energy. There were some issues related to policies there that I think have improved the situation, and so we don't expect any material disruption going forward.
The government is also, you know, in an effort to balance economic growth along with their other priorities, you know, has been looking to stimulate the economy in certain ways, reducing interest rates and accelerating some spending in infrastructure in some of these areas that are helpful. I think they're sort of keenly focused on trying to balance this. Now, you know, on the COVID front, they've definitely managed, in terms of at least reported cases, to a much lower level than anywhere else in the world and have had this zero COVID policy. I think ultimately, sustaining that policy will probably prove to be challenging.
On balance, I actually consider it to be a positive as it relates to our businesses. Because when there are COVID outbreaks, they tend to take you know fairly draconian actions which can cause disruptions. I think if it over time transitions to more of a managing COVID approach, then there probably will be a little more stability, and that will on balance be, I think, a good thing. That's how I see it, but I think that they probably will have to make a transition at some point here from what has been a very tight COVID policy.
Thanks. No, I appreciate those thoughts. Just quickly on performance volumes, I mean, you're talking about a lot of things kind of flowing through perhaps later this year. You know, obviously, I think you get past some of the plant shutdowns. Curious just how high volumes could be year-over-year in the second half in performance?
Yeah. We definitely have been impacted in the Q1 with some plant-related impacts. We're pleased that this quarter the Belgian masterbatch plant will be coming back online, so that's positive. Some of the impacts from our FMO fenceline partners' disruptions should work themselves out here as well. I think we'll see a more normal volume profile as we move forward. I think the best way to think about the portfolio. First of all, it's a diverse portfolio across Performance Chemicals of applications.
You know, on balance, these grow at, you know, somewhere 1.5x to 2x GDP, with, of course, differences by. And so I think that's still the best way to think about it. Pretty solid growth. Now, there are some areas where we are outperforming and expect to continue to outperform and go, you know, well above those numbers. The best example there, of course, are our efforts in batteries where we're expecting to grow at a very high rate above the market growth rate for that business. We feel pretty good about the volume outlook in this business. As we bring on some new capacity later in the year, particularly Specialty Carbon, that will continue to support the volume growth, both for our sort of Specialty Carbon applications, but also, we'll have some capacity support for batteries.
Okay, thanks. Congrats again.
Thanks, Josh.
Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Good morning. It's Dan for Laurence. How are you?
Hey, Dan. How are you?
I think you mentioned that the battery market is gonna grow 30% a year starting in 2025, and that you, I think, just said you're gonna outpace that. I was wondering what kind of capacity expansions are gonna be needed to kinda keep up with that growth, not necessarily over the next two years, but say over the next, I don't know, eight to 10 years.
Yeah. The market, just to recap, Dan. The market for lithium-ion batteries is growing at, you know, 30-ish, 30+% , based on a number of, you know, reported, you know, market studies. That's something that's happening right now, and we project that to go for, you know, out through the end of the decade through 2030. Now, as we had shared during our Investor Day, and we have expectations to outpace that. Over the next three years, we're expecting to grow this business at 50+%.
I think that's really a function of the Cabot value proposition here, in terms of the breadth of our conductive carbon additive portfolio, our global footprint of assets, and the fact that we've got application technology labs and technical and commercial teams, you know, all over the world. This is really, I think, a real strength of Cabot, and I think that resonates with customers. Now, on the capacity front, for sure, there will be capacity adds that are required here. A number of them have been underway over the last couple years to meet the growth that we're already putting up in this business. There'll be further adds that will be required here, as our plant in Suzhou, China comes on for Specialty Carbon.
That'll unlock some capacity elsewhere in our network to support batteries. Then the Tianjin announcement that we just made, where we'll convert and upgrade that facility, will provide then further runway for these high-value conductive carbons. On the carbon nanotube front, we also have capacity expansions underway there. If you think about over the next three years, you know, there's somewhere on the order of you know, $100 million of CapEx that we'll be spending across the conductive carbon black and carbon nanotube footprint to build capacity to keep fueling this growth here. You know, we've got a good line of sight on it. We're building great momentum, and we're putting the plans in place to continue to have the capacity to meet the needs of this market. Again, I think it holds great promise, and we're certainly determined in our efforts here.
Okay. Thank you for the color on that. I think you said that dual control in China is easing, but I was wondering, has it affected you guys really, or your customers that much at all? It doesn't seem like it's been a headwind as highlighted by others within the chemical world.
Yeah. It hasn't had a material impact on us. As I said, I think you know there were some actions taken by China a few months ago that have eased some of the power shortages there. I think that's good in the short term, and China will obviously have to continue to balance you know how it supports economic growth and how it transitions to you know continue to reduce the environmental impact. You know in terms of Cabot's operations, we've not had any material impact. We've been operating really well. I'm very pleased with that.
I think it's again a function of all of the things that we've built over the years, and why we're a great operator. There's certainly a lot of experience in our 30+ years, you know, really strong joint venture partners, where you know, together we can manage through these things. The way we operate, run our plants, the level of environmental performance that we deliver, I think is appreciated by the Chinese regulatory authorities. We're able to manage it. You know, it's always a fairly dynamic situation in China. Again, it comes down to good management, I think.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Chris Kapsch with Loop Capital. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. One question I had was in the context of your revised guidance. You characterized the better expected pricing realization from the contract negotiations as a key or maybe the key driver. Just wondering if there's any way you could quantify that benefit, either in terms of carbon black prices on a year-over-year basis or perhaps in terms of gross profit metrics for the segment, all else equal.
Yeah, sure. Chris, just as a recap, I think a few things driving the upward revision on guidance. Certainly the outcomes from the tire customer agreements, and I'll comment on that a bit more. Also, I think really strong execution on pricing and Performance Chemicals and really, you know, real timely pass through there. The continued momentum in these growth vectors of Battery Materials, but also inkjet. So those are really the three drivers. You know, on the agreements, the tire customer agreements, we're definitely overall very pleased with the outcome.
I think you know the supply chain situation impacting the world really you know placed a lot of value on Cabot as a reliable global supplier. We're pleased with that, resulted in you know some fairly substantial price increases, but also you know volumes that we expect to be in line with the regional demand. Again, overall, a pretty strong result. Now you know the net impact of all of this, probably the best way to think about it is maybe you know somewhere in the order of $15 million per quarter, net of rising costs around the world.
You know, these contract outcomes included factors like cost-based prices, but also factors to recover rising costs like higher natural gas costs or, in certain parts of the world if there are CO2 costs, we've been able to negotiate the recovery of those. Important to understand that point. Net of those rising costs, which we've recovered, the net impact, you know, is somewhere in that $15 million per quarter range. That's probably the best way to think about it.
That's helpful. You alluded to the follow-up, but just the spike in gas and energy prices in Europe. Were you simply able to mitigate that through DCAs or other actions, or was there conversely, I guess, any benefit from your, you know, energy center cogen operations from what's going on over there?
Yeah. Certainly as energy prices are higher, then that benefits in terms of the energy center contributions for sure. As energy prices are higher, then some of the you know technology and yield work that we do is more valuable. That's long been the case and that's the case now. You know, with respect to higher natural gas costs, certainly they've shot up in Europe, but you know, we've been able to largely offset that through a combination of a DCA adjustment flow throughs and on the more spot side of the business, whether it's in reinforcement or Specialty Carbon through spot market action. Certainly a dynamic situation, but pleased with the way the team has been able to manage it.
Great. Thanks. I could just sneak in one more. In the Battery Materials business, you've talked about that market growing, and I get it, 30%-35% a year through the decade, and you guys outperforming that. How do you gauge that outperformance? Or is it, do you have visibility on a customer by customer basis from the specifications where you get qualified that you're sort of getting an outsized benefit from, you know, relative to the market growth? Or any way to, you know, just comment on how you're validating that outperformance relative to the market. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Chris. I think a couple of ways. One is certainly, you know, our volume growth, and that's a backward-looking indicator. In the quarter, our volumes in this business grew at 58%, so certainly that's well above the market growth and an indicator of our strong performance here. Again, that's a bit more of a backward-looking one. In terms of forward-looking, we do have pretty good visibility. The market is fairly concentrated. I think I've commented in the past that the top eight producers represent about 90% of the market. Now, that can move around a little bit, and certainly there's a long tail after the top eight. You know, it's a fairly concentrated group of big battery producers.
We certainly know how we're connected into various programs and how our qualification efforts are progressing. That gives a certain measure of visibility. What is difficult to project is exactly who will win and at what rate. That's something that is, you know, always a little bit of a moving target. Our participation's pretty broad here. We're currently serving six of those top eight with development programs with the others in process here. The ultimate winners and losers, if I could state it that way, is somewhat less of an issue because we're able to participate broadly here. Hopefully that gives you a little bit of color on how we try to look at things both from a backward-looking, are we achieving our objectives, and then the forward look.
Thanks for the color. I appreciate it.
There are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Sean Keohane.
Great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Michelle. Thank you all for joining today. We look forward to engaging with you again next quarter. Thank you for your support of Cabot. Have a great day.
This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.