Greetings! Welcome to the Materion Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, John Zaranec, Chief Accounting Officer. You may begin.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This is John Zaranec, Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin our remarks this morning, I would like to point out that we have posted materials on the company's website that we will reference as part of today's review of the quarterly results. You can also access the materials through the download feature on the earnings call webcast link. With me today is Jugal Vijayvargiya, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shelley Chadwick, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our format for today's conference call is as follows: Jugal will provide opening comments on the quarter, as well as an update on key strategic initiatives. Following Jugal, Shelley will review the detailed financial results for the quarter, in addition to discussing our expectations for the remainder of 2023.
We will then open up the call for questions. Let me remind investors that any forward-looking statements made in the presentation, including those in the outlook section and during the question-and-answer portion, are based on current expectations. The company's actual performance may materially differ from that contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. Those factors are listed in the earnings press release we issued this morning. Additionally, comments regarding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion, and amortization, net income, and earnings per share reflect the adjusted GAAP numbers shown in attachments four through eight in this morning's press release. The adjustments are made in the prior year for comparative purposes and remove special items, non-cash charges, and certain discrete income tax adjustments. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jugal for his comments.
Thanks, John. Welcome everyone. It's great to be with you today to discuss details for our record second quarter performance. I'm pleased to share that our team's relentless focus on delivering for our customers and driving operational excellence resulted in the 11th consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings growth for Materion. The second quarter also marked an important milestone for margin expansion. We outperformed our midterm target of 20% Adjusted EBITDA with a margin of 20.7% of Value-Added Sales. This achievement reflects the quality of our portfolio and our team's ability to respond quickly to changing macroeconomic conditions. More and more, customers are turning to Materion to help them solve their most technically demanding challenges, strengthening our portfolio of business even as we navigate mixed market conditions.
Our deep customer partnerships across diverse industries have allowed us to capitalize on opportunities aligned with compelling global megatrends, positioning Materion for long-term growth. Clean energy is one such exciting megatrend, driving new opportunities for us. In previous quarters, we have discussed our multiple clean energy partnerships, including the $50 million customer-funded investment to provide critical materials for power generation. Facility upgrades for this project are near completion. We have started to ship product to our customer. Today, we are pleased to announce two new exciting customer projects that are on the cutting edge of clean energy development. First, we have entered into an agreement with the Idaho National Laboratory to support the U.S. Department of Energy's new MARVEL nuclear microreactor project. We plan to start providing material this year. In addition, we have reached agreement to provide material for another promising next-generation clean energy program in Asia.
Both of these proof-of-concept programs could lead to larger opportunities for materials in the future. Materion is becoming a sought-after provider for materials in this exciting space, aligned with our targeted global megatrends. Focusing on our second quarter results, value-added sales were flat year-over-year, largely due to softness in the semiconductor market. When excluding semi, VA sales grew 14%, driven by growth in aerospace, defense, telecom, and data center, and the Precision Clad Strip project as we continue our track record of delivering strong organic growth. What I'm most encouraged by is that on roughly flat sales, we delivered 18% higher Adjusted EBITDA of $55.5 million, a 320 basis point expansion year-over-year and a second quarter record for our company.
This record performance included meaningful contribution from our Precision Clad Strip facility, where our teams are working diligently to meet our customers' needs while working on the phase two expansion, which is progressing well. As you know, we have increased our content across new aircraft builds by more than 25% since 2019, which, coupled with strong build rates, has supported our year-over-year growth in this market for nine consecutive quarters. The defense market was also a highlight for us, as the properties of our materials are well suited for highly technical applications that must perform in the most harsh and demanding conditions. Our expertise and track record serving this important market continue to create new sales opportunities, resulting in multiple new customer partnerships to develop next-generation defense applications.
On the connectivity front, the substantial global growth of 5G has driven up demand for connectors and undersea cables, which is a segment of the market that has been a core competency for us for years. Growth in these markets has helped offset significant softness in semiconductor, which continued over the course of the quarter, particularly in logic and communication-based devices, where we are seeing meaningful inventory correction. We are encouraged by a number of positive signs we've seen in the broader semi market, and expect that the second quarter was likely the bottom for the chip manufacturers. Given these positive signs and our position in the supply chain, we believe we will start to see gradual improvement in the fourth quarter of this year. As you know, semi cycles can lead to strong upturns, and we're ready to support that volume as it materializes.
Key to our continued strong performance is an unwavering focus on operational excellence, ensuring we deliver strong results despite the macro environment. We continue to look for ways to run our company more efficiently and to focus our resources on growth areas. In response to the recent macro softness, our teams have executed a number of targeted cost improvement initiatives. These actions have been well planned and aim to strengthen our company while protecting our ability to deliver the strong output you've come to expect from Materion. With accelerating contributions from our organic pipeline, a gradual semiconductor recovery on the horizon, and the benefit of our targeted cost improvement initiatives, we remain confident in our ability to execute and deliver another year of record results. With that, we are affirming our full year guidance for 2023.
Now, let me turn the call over to Shelley to cover more details on the financials.
Thanks, Jugal. Good morning, everyone. During my comments, I will reference the slides posted on our website this morning, starting on slide nine. As Jugal outlined in his opening remarks, we delivered a record second quarter for Adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share. Value-added sales, which exclude the impact of pass-through precious metal costs, were $268.3 million for the quarter, roughly flat with prior year. Excluding the expected softness in semiconductor, the remainder of the business was up approximately 14%. This growth was driven mainly by strong demand across the aerospace, defense, telecom, and data center end markets, along with meaningful contribution from Precision Clad Strip. We delivered adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share in the second quarter, up 8% as compared to the prior year, despite roughly $0.12 of interest expense headwinds.
Moving to Slide 10, Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $55.5 million, or 20.7% of Value-Added Sales, up 18% from the prior year, with margin expansion of 320 basis points. This significant increase was driven by favorable price mix and strong operational performance, offset by a slight decrease in volume. Our targeted cost improvement initiatives contributed to this significant step in earnings, outperforming the previously shared midterm EBITDA target margin of 20%. Moving to Slide 11, let me review second quarter performance by business segment. Starting with our Performance Materials business, Value-Added Sales were $165.6 million, up 24% compared to prior year. Strong results in aerospace, telecom and data center, and precision clad strip drove the increase.
EBITDA, excluding special items, was $45.9 million, or 27.7% of Value-Added Sales, up 69% compared to $27.2 million in the 2Q 2022, with 740 basis points of margin expansion. This growth was primarily due to increased volume from our outgrowth initiatives, favorable price mix, and strong operational performance. The second quarter also included the benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act's Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit. Moving to the outlook, we expect a strong second half, led by aerospace, defense, and telecom, and data center. We also expect continued strength from several of our organic initiatives. Next, turning to Electronic Materials on Slide 12. Value-Added Sales were $77.6 million, down 27% compared to the prior year, as a result of the slowdown within the semiconductor market, causing significant inventory correction across logic and communication devices.
EBITDA, excluding special items, was $14.6 million, or 18.8% of Value-Added Sales in the quarter. Targeted cost reduction initiatives worked to partially offset the soft demand. Despite this year-over-year decline, we did see a sequential margin improvement of 500 basis points, resulting from strong operational excellence and targeted cost actions. As we look forward to the remainder of the year, we expect the semiconductor market to gradually rebound starting in Q4 as inventory levels normalize. Finally, turning to the Precision Optics segment on Slide 13, Value-Added Sales were $25.1 million, down 15% compared to prior year. This decrease was mainly driven by reduced PCR filter demand, the discontinued product application, and softening in the consumer electronics market, slightly offset by strength in aerospace and defense.
EBITDA, excluding special items, was $2.6 million, or 10.4% of Value-Added Sales. The decrease in volume was a meaningful driver of this year-over-year decline, offset by positive mix and the benefit of meaningful cost improvement initiatives. Looking out to the back half of the year, we expect improvement to the top and the bottom line, supported by improved order rates in defense, space, and automotive, coupled with the continued benefit of cost improvement activities. Moving now to cash, debt, and liquidity on Slide 14. We ended the quarter with a net debt position of approximately $424 million and $169 million of available capacity on the company's existing credit facility. Our leverage at 2x remains slightly below the midpoint of our target range. Lastly, let me transition to Slide 15 to address the full year outlook.
With accelerating contribution from our organic pipeline, a gradual semiconductor recovery starting in the fourth quarter, and the benefit of our targeted cost improvement initiatives, we remain confident in our ability to deliver another record year. With that, we are affirming our previously shared adjusted EPS range at $5.60-$6 per share, representing a 10% increase from 2022 at the midpoint. In closing, we are excited for the second half of 2023, as we expect continued market outgrowth and the early phases of semiconductor rebound, along with the benefit of an improved cost structure, will contribute to another year of record results and long-term sustainable value creation for our stakeholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the line for questions.
At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question is coming from Philip Gibbs from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning.
Hey, good morning, Phil.
Hello.
Just chief question is just on a broader, broader base on the consumer business and semis and consumer electronics. I know you're pointing to a fourth quarter, a rebound in, in some of these, some of these businesses, but is 3Q going to show signs that the revenues start to stabilize, or do we have another quarter where we see sequential declines?
Yeah, Phil, as you know, in the semi market, if you look at the last eight quarters or so, or even 10 quarters, you know, our business has done exceptionally well, compared to the market. You know, we've had a great portfolio that I think has supported the number of different markets in the semi area. You know, Q2, we had seen actually deceleration of our orders, you know, in the March timeframe that continued. We were expecting Q2 to be the bottom, and I would say probably is the bottom. How we probably see it is maybe an equivalent, you know, Q3 and then recovery in Q4.
I, I'm not sure I would necessarily see a decline, but some sort of a stabilization and then recovery in Q4. I think overall, you know, our semi business, like I indicated, I think, has done really well over the last 10 quarters. You know, we're a little later in the cycle when it comes to the declines, and so we were expecting, you know, our Q2 to be this way, and it'll just continue on a little bit in Q3 and recover in Q4. I think we're well positioned for the recovery.
The pickup in margins and Electronic Materials in the second quarter, was that more so due to cost reductions, or was that due to the tantalum misalignment going away, or was it a little bit of both?
I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, you know, the our cost improvement actions were weighted towards Electronic Materials and our Precision Optics business, you know, because of the market conditions impacting those businesses. Certainly, the cost improvement actions were a factor, but other operational improvements, such as the tantalum, you know, were a factor as well.
Just lastly for me, any update on what you're anticipating from net working capital in the second half of the year, and then anything that you could share on the, on the clad phase 2 commissioning? I, I've missed your prepared remarks on that, if you made them. Thanks.
Hey, Phil. On working capital, you know, you've, you've seen we're, you know, generating cash from ARR and AP, but inventory's still been a bit of a drag. You know, there's organic reasons for that. Some of that is clad strip, where we're trying to actually build some inventory while we're serving the customer. That's a natural and expected build. If you'll recall, the space propulsion system opportunity that we've talked about, we have to do a little bit of raw material build there as well. We haven't seen the opportunity to really bring down inventory meaningfully. I don't expect it's going to be a burn, a cash burn the rest of the year, but not a, not a huge cash generator either.
On the clad strip phase two, you know, that expansion is going quite well, and as we expected, you know, the, the equipment is, is in. It's, you know, everything's on order and in, and, and in the process of being set up. I think that's moving along as expected.
Yeah, we would expect that, you know, to continue, as, as Shelley's indicated. You know, as we've noted, you know, we would probably see a small start in the end of 2024 and then really, you know, pick up in 2025, full run rate in 2025, and that's still our, that's still our plan. The team's doing a great job.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Michael Harrison from Seaport Research Partners.
Hi, good morning.
Hey, Mike.
Hey, good morning, Mike.
You noted this inventory correction in logic and communication applications within semiconductor. I think up to this point, we've mostly been viewing the destocking as more of a memory-specific issue. I was just hoping you could give us a little more color on what you're expecting with some of those volume trends in semiconductor as we get into the second half. I, I guess, specifically differentiating between logic and communication and, and what you're seeing in memory.
Mike, you know, we did see a decrease in memory as well, just not to the level that we saw for logic and communication. Really, you know, from logic and communication, I think there's a couple of our customers that happen to have some inventory that they needed to work through. So that's why we see it as just an inventory correction that happened here in Q2. Yeah, I think it'll carry over, you know, a little bit into Q3, and then, and then we should be fine, you know, going into, going into Q4. You know, a, a, a big part of our business, frankly, is in the logic area and, and communication area.
We're very, we're very glad, you know, that we have a very diversified portfolio within semi, between logic, power, communication, you know, memory, et cetera. You know, I think that's one of the reasons that we have not been impacted to the level that I would say the broader semi market has been impacted over the last couple of years. You know, as, as the, as the increase happened, and then I guess, the decrease over the last year or so, because of the diversified portfolio that we have. We did experience a slowdown in memory, but more of an inventory correction, I think, from a couple of customers, you know, on logic and, and communication.
All right. That's, that's very helpful. Then, just curious on the precision clad strip business, I, I believe you have some legacy operations there. Are, are those gonna be shut down at some point as you, kind of, you know, ramp up the, the first and second phase of the new plant? If so, what impact does that have on, on sales and on costs as we think about the P&L impact?
Yeah. We, we do. We have that legacy plant where we had started lower volume production. Then, of course, we have the new facility that has picked up and ramped up on the higher volume. At this stage, that is still both facilities are continuing. You know, the way we've operated with the customer is that, you know, if, if, if we have the orders, we'll continue to operate. If we if they feel that the transition to the new facility will, will give them everything that they're looking for, then, you know, we'll go ahead and stop producing from our existing legacy facility and then reallocate that capacity to other businesses. I think in total, we wouldn't necessarily see a decrease in sales.
In fact, what I would just see is maybe more of a shift in sales at, at any point, whenever we think the legacy facility would need to be shut down for this particular product. As of right now, the customers continue to order, and we'll continue to build.
All right. Last question I have is on the automotive market. You noted a decline in that business. It sounds like that was kind of order timing driven. I believe that just from a production standpoint, Q3 is kind of a tougher comp against the prior year. Maybe discuss and give us a little bit of color on how you expect automotive to trend in the second half.
Yeah. Well, first of all, you know, when you look at our automotive business, the first half of the year, we're up 6%, you know, year-over-year. Q1 was our second highest quarter for automotive sales since we've been tracking automotive. Really, you know, there was a sequential decline, and I think, like you noted, it was a timing. And when you look at the overall first half, you know, we're up 6%, and I think we'd expect that trend to continue into the second half. There is a, to your point, you know, production challenges that happen in the third quarter just based on holidays and, and things like that.
We don't expect, our order timing, the way it works, I, I don't think we would expect any type of a negative hit based on that. I think, we'd expect second half to be, you know, equivalent to about our, our overall first half.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Daniel Moore from CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Morning. Thanks for taking questions. Just wanted to, to go back again and, and touch on the margins. Obviously, you know, really impressive, particularly in, in Performance Materials. I think you called out Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit. Just talk about, you know, any maybe non-recurring items that, that might have been in there and just the sustainability of margins in that segment as we think about the, the balance of the year and, and moving forward.
Yeah. Hey, Dan, good question. obviously, we are taking the benefit of that Production Credit. As you know, we're waiting for kind of further guidance as we fine-tune that number, but we're still going with kind of the same estimate that we came up with at the beginning of the year. That is a nice benefit for Performance Materials. They did have a nice mix in the quarter as well. We, you know, had some beryllium hydroxide, which is a rich mix, and some other items that, you know, kind of beefed up those margins a bit. When we talk about the targeted cost actions, certainly there was nothing meaningful in Performance Materials, as that business does not have the demand issues. We did do, you know, a couple of things to kind of tighten things up.
The plants are running well. You know, we're seeing great operational excellence, a little bit of, of cost action, the benefit of the Production Credit, and then a nice mix.
Yeah, Dan, you know, I just would note, I think this is our third consecutive quarter, where this business has delivered, you know, greater than 25% margins. It has, it has done well, and, you know, we're very, very proud of what I think the teams have accomplished in this business, both from a top-line standpoint and I think executing, you know, the clad strip program, for example, and then, and then all the other things that are involved. Our expectation is that this business, you know, continues to deliver around that 25% EBITDA level.
Really helpful. Then shifting gears, clean energy, you called out, any sense for the size of the opportunities you mentioned in Idaho as well as new project in Asia? Just more generally, are you seeing kind of an inflection point in terms of these new types of, you know, emerging technology opportunities?
Yeah, e-energy, as you know, has been a very, very important market for us, for a long time, right. And has a number of different, items in it. Clearly, the oil and gas, business that we have, which is a very strong business for us, both on the ToughMet, material that we have, the beryllium copper material that we have. It's, it's a very, very strong and, business, and we continue to have that, you know, be, be strong going forward. I think at the same time, we're really focused on making sure that we're aligning to the mega trends, as you know, in general, and clean energy is certainly a mega trend that we're aligning to. We've talked about a couple of, good partnerships in the past.
Kairos is one partnership that we've talked about, where we have a beryllium-based material that is being used for a sort of a proof of concept type of a program. We announced this program where we have a $15 million customer funded, 100% customer funded, I might add, you know, for clean materials for power generation. We announced that a couple of quarters ago. These two, you know, a proof of concept partnerships that we are engaged in. You know, what I'm really excited about is, you know, one is in North America, one is in Asia. You know, they're relatively small, so I'd say $ few million, you know, between the two items.
There are fantastic opportunities here to get into the, you know, a ground floor and, and get into the proof of concept phase so that if these things are successful, we would end up being, you know, benefiting from the larger, larger opportunities down the road. I think it is something that is getting a lot more attention. I mean, we're seeing that, I think, in, on the, on the macro and on the mega trend side, and our materials are extremely well suited for this market.
We're making sure our teams understand that, and then they're really out, you know, knocking on doors and trying to figure out how we can, how we can have opportunities for this, you know, exciting, exciting space, in addition to the solid, solid base, you know, that we have on the oil and gas side.
Just, just one more for me, I'll jump out. Just talk about the backlog and pipeline of opportunities in Precision Optics. We don't talk quite as much about it. You know, and, and do you expect to return to growth by fiscal 2024? How quickly can we get back to sort of mid-teens, you know, margins, in that business? Thanks again.
Yeah, I, I, I think 2024, I mean, you indicated 2024, you know, for growth as well as the margins. I absolutely would expect that. You know, I, I think that we should expect a, you know, incremental improvement in the back half of this year, both on the top line and the, and the bottom line, as we continue to have more success, particularly in the space segment, the automotive segment, and the defense segment. We would expect, you know, continued improvement into 2024, so that the business is growing on a sustainable basis, as well as delivering the margins that, you know, we have expected and you all have expected from this business. I would expect that in 2024, yes.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from David Silver, from C.L. King. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thank you.
Good morning, David.
Good morning. So I have a few questions. I apologize, this will probably be a little scattershot. The first thing, I, I would like to go back to, you know, the outstanding margin performance this quarter. As others have noted on this call, I mean, it seems to be, you know, concentrated in your Performance Materials segment, where you called out the precision clad strip project. I'm just wondering, not, not, not so much from the per unit basis, but was this a quarter where there was an unusually high, you know, shipment rate on the precision clad strip project?
In other words, was the contribution to earnings and, and especially, EBITDA margin in the Performance Materials segment, was that kind of unduly influenced, I guess, by maybe a temporary or, or a timing element in terms of, you know, the shipment rate during the quarter on the, on the clad strip project, I guess I'm thinking in particular. Thank you.
Yeah. David, you know, first of all, I think on the overall margin for the company, as you know, we've continued to state that our objective midterm, you know, is to be north of 20% EBITDA margins. I'm extremely proud of the team to deliver that north of 20%, you know, in this time frame, in this Q2. Now, of course, it's one data point, so you know, we've got to be able to do that for several quarters in a row to be able to call it a trend, we're very much looking forward to, you know, doing that in the midterm, in the midterm time frame.
I think the other thing that I would note is that Performance Materials certainly delivered, you know, these good margins that we've talked about. We also had, you know, on our Electronic Materials business, you know, 500 basis point sequential improvement from Q1- Q2. You know, Performance Materials was definitely a positive, but I think the Electronic Materials segment has come through as well and delivered a really, really good performance, you know, margin-wise, here in the second quarter. When it comes to the precision clad business, you know, that business continues to perform well. It did not have like, like I would say, an unusual quarter, both from a top line or a bottom line standpoint.
It's, it's, it's pretty much in line with, you know, kind of the things that we've expected. I, I would not say that it had a, a, a, artificial boost or a one-time boost from any type of a, any type of really a, a single project or single program, benefit.
Okay, thank you. My next question actually would be about the balance sheet. Okay. When I look at the inventory levels, in particular in the second quarter, it seems like they've risen, you know, quite a bit in the first half of this year, and they are at record levels, I think, at least according to my models. I'm just trying to align or, you know, put together the thinking with, you know, maybe a meaningful boost in your inventory levels at the same time that maybe your, you know, your sales or your shipment volumes are, are moderating a little bit. You know, given your outlook, you're reaffirming the outlook for the second half.
I mean, I'm, I'm just kind of wondering if, if sales are not really reacting strongly just yet, overall for your company, why, why would, you know, why would you be building inventory? Is there a strategic element to that or timing? Just how should we think about that, that record inventory level, you know, when your sales growth seems to be a little bit less, you know, declining a little bit relative to, you know, the strong double-digit growth you've been reporting in previous quarters?
Yeah, David, let me take that one. You know, there's, there's a few things, and we talked about, you know, the precision clad strip business. You know, we need to build some inventory. We've agreed with the customer, we will hold some inventory, you know, as part of our arrangement with them. We've been working to build up some inventory just for that business. That is a piece of it. You know, also with the space propulsion systems, as I mentioned, we needed to add some new raw materials. We've been adding that, building that up. You know, that's sort of one piece that's organic growth focused. You know, the other item to think about is our Performance Materials business.
You know, that inventory chain, really, with the backward integration nature of it, is not something that's quick to adjust inventory levels. You know, it goes through several phases of production. You know, we don't normally kind of shut down quickly or start up quickly. It runs, you know, pretty consistently, so you don't see big swings. Yeah, so that-that's been a driver. Then, you know, I wouldn't say that we are building inventory where volumes are down.
Okay. It's maybe for the next year or two, your business is just gonna naturally become more inventory intensive, I guess, or the inventory to sales ratio will shift to reflect, you know, the new business opportunities you're working on. Is that, is that a fair surmise of what you're outlining?
Well, certainly, you know, I'm always focused on trying to optimize those levels. It's, you know, it's always a relationship with the business units to, you know, the CFO wants the cash, and the businesses need to serve the customer. You know, we work at being more efficient, and we will continue to do so. Higher sales volumes do naturally improve those ratios. You know, we do have the inventory levels that we need.
Okay, great. Last question would be on the Electronic Materials side of things, and in particular, maybe your, you know, your development programs in Newton and Milwaukee. We're in kind of a slower patch, and I think, you know, people who may have hoped that the inventory liquidation would have run its course, hopefully by, you know, the middle of the year. I think most companies that have exposure to that, that I've, you know, that have reported, they've kind of, you know, are pushing out to the right a little bit when, you know, inventory conditions there may return to normal. You know, I'm just, you know, my, my assumption is the cycles here are very short, and you made a comment, you know, I think when things turn up, it's gonna turn up abruptly.
In thinking about, you know, the timing of your expansion programs and, you know, being ready for when the market shifts, I mean, has anything changed in your thinking time-wise, timing-wise, or, you know, anything according to that maybe that, that in aligning with your customers' wishes? I mean, anything that's maybe pushed out those, those development programs, any, any change in your thinking about what you need to have in place when?
Yeah, David, I would say that our expansion plans and our growth plans are intact. We are, we are continuing, both in our Milwaukee facility as well as in our Newton facility, with our growth plans. We have good relationships with our customers, so we understand kind of where things are with those particular projects that are, that are engaged in those growth plans. We wanna make sure that we're fully ready. Like you said, you know, the cycles are very short, and we wanna make sure that we can support the customers as the uptick happens, which is not too far away, right? As we indicated, you know, we would start to see an uptick here in Q4. No, we are, we are moving ahead.
We're moving ahead really at the same pace that we were moving at, before. You know, we're not letting this, this inventory correction or let's say, a bit of a slowdown here, you know, hold us back. We wanna make sure we can support our customers in a very good way, you know, as soon as the recovery starts to happen.
Okay, that's great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Dave Storms from Stonegate. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning.
Morning, Dave.
Good morning.
Appreciate you taking my call. Just hoping we could touch on capital allocation real quick. It's been a couple quarters since you've done any buybacks. Your debt's been in range. Just wondering if you could speak about your capital allocation priorities and compare that to any M&A activity you're seeing in the market?
Yeah, sure. I'll, I'll take that one. You know, we are very excited about our organic pipeline, and as you know, we've been really prioritizing our investments for growth. CapEx has really been our number one priority. You know, we did a very large deal from an M&A perspective at the end of 2021, which is, you know, been fully integrated, and we love what that business is doing for us. You know, we're certainly open and looking at M&A opportunities, but it's not something that we are, you know, out frantically searching for to drive growth because of the nature of the organic opportunities that we have in front of us. From a buyback perspective, that's really not a priority. You know, we have the authorization.
It's a tool out there that we could use opportunistically, but, but it's not, it's not a priority for us at this time.
Very helpful. Thank you. Then just one more for me. There's been a lot of great conversation about Precision coming back online, hopefully in 2024. You know, semi's obviously expected to come back in 4Q. Is it too early to start talking about what your expectations might be for 2024 overall? Any thoughts there?
Yeah, I mean, typically, you know, for our 2024, you know, we go through a process internal to the company in, let's say, back half of Q3, you know, first half of Q4, to kind of understand and put, put our thoughts around it, and then we communicate, our, our view, in the February, call. That is still, you know, our plan, and that's what we expect to do.
Very helpful. Thank you for the time.
Okay, thank you.
We have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I will now turn the call over to John Zaranec, Chief Accounting Officer, for closing remarks.
Thank you. This concludes our second quarter of 2023 earnings call. A recorded playback of this call will be available on the company's website, materion.com. I'd like to thank you for participating on this call and your interest in Materion. I will be available for any follow-up questions. My number is 2163834010. Thanks again.
This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.