Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.
Q3 2015 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 3 Nov 2015

[Operator:]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Martin Marietta third quarter 2015 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ward Nye, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Sir, you may begin.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Good afternoon and thank you for joining Martin Marietta's quarterly earnings call. With me today is Anne Lloyd, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. By any measure, this was an outstanding quarter for us. We recorded record net sales, gross profit, and net earnings. Our performance in the third quarter reflects some basic realities about today's Martin Marietta, namely the growing demand for construction materials, coupled with our operational excellence and synergy realization, has enabled us to generate net sales that exceeded $1 billion, a milestone for us, as well as achieve our stated incremental margin objective by delivering $0.77 of gross profit on each incremental dollar of net sales over the prior-year quarter. Further to that point, we believe that we're in the beginning stages of a construction-centric recovery that's taking place in our country and, most importantly for us, in those markets we serve. As a result, we see further opportunities to increase our sales, profits, and cash flow in the coming months and even years. The past quarter also saw us complete the sale of our California cement operations in a cash transaction for $420 million. In anticipation of the proceeds from the sale, we repurchased $158 million of our common stock during the third quarter, giving us the opportunity to further enhance shareholder value. We anticipate returning the remaining net proceeds to shareholders with additional stock repurchases throughout the remainder of the year. Before we discuss third quarter results further, please be reminded that today's teleconference may include forward-looking statements as defined by securities laws in connection with future events or future operating or financial performance. Like other businesses, we're subject to risks and uncertainties, including the impact of weather patterns, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Except as legally required, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether resulting from new information, future developments, or otherwise. We refer you to the legal disclaimers contained in our third quarter earnings release and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on both our own and the SEC websites. Also, any margin references in our discussion are based on net sales and exclude freight and delivery revenues. These and other non-GAAP measures are also explained in our SEC filings and on our website. In addition, to facilitate this discussion, we've made available during this webcast and on our website supplemental financial information. We believe this provides meaningful data to better analyze our third quarter performance. Let me briefly summarize the supplemental information. Slide 2 provides comparative net sales and gross profit, which helps illustrate our profit trajectory. Slides 3 and 4 provide product line volume and pricing metrics. We're pleased to report solid growth in each product line. Finally, slide 5 provides a roll-forward of our earnings from operations. Now let's delve into some of the underlying details that support these metrics. Aggregates product line shipments to the infrastructure end use market account for approximately 43% of total volumes and increased more than 5% compared with the prior-year quarter. We're encouraged to see states take increased responsibility for funding infrastructure investment. In fact, highway awards for the trailing 12 months through July were at their high levels since 2000, with major project activity continuing to accelerate in the Southeastern United States and Texas. Additionally, today, voters in Texas are expected to pass Proposition 7, a ballot initiative that would dedicate an additional $2.5 billion annually for non-toll road projects beginning in 2017. Last week, federal highway funding was extended to November 20, with the passage of the 35th short-term patch since 2008. The roughly three-week duration of this continuing resolution increases our optimism regarding the passage of a multiyear federal highway bill this year, a move that has bipartisan support in Congress and which the President has indicated his willingness to sign. To that effect on October 18, Congressman Bill Shuster, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, introduced the $325 billion Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act. This means that, together with the Senate's previously announced Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act, or DRIVE, for the first time in over a decade, both chambers of Congress are readying to advance multiyear federal highway bills. Should a federal highway bill be passed before the end of the year, any meaningful impact on our business would not be expected prior to the second half of 2016, but clearly its positive impact will be felt for several years thereafter. The nonresidential end use market is comprised of two components

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our first question comes from Kathryn Thompson of Thompson Research Group. Your line is open.

[Kathryn Ingram Thompson:]

Thank you for taking my questions today. I guess, first wanted to focus on your outlook by end market in 2016. And that outlook is a little bit more muted, I think, than we and others had expected. How should we think about margins, in particular incremental gross margins, on a go-forward basis, given the strong incrementals you reported in the quarter and against the backdrop of maybe a little bit more muted end market growth in 2016? Thank you.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Sure, Kathryn. Let's talk about it in two different ways. Let's talk about the outlook; then let's talk about really what margins are going to look like, because we're all talking about growth. We're is talking about how much growth there's going to be. Because as I'm sitting here looking at what I think next year looks like, I think it's some of the best outlook we've seen in years. We have broad-based state DOT initiatives that are in place. We have residential reacceleration under way. We see good private sector, nonresidential work. There're some huge non-building projects, and what I think will be continued great pricing dynamics. But here's the way that I would encourage you to think about margin, Kathryn. Here's a great way, I think, to think of it. If we look at the margins that we kicked out in our business – incremental 77% across the business; you see what we did on the Aggregate space all by itself – here's a way to think of it. For the quarter – I'm looking at heritage tonnage right now. For the quarter, our heritage aggregates tonnage was 42.8 million. Last year, for the similar quarter, 40.6 million. So a couple million tons. Let's look at it through nine months. 106.5 million versus 104.3 million. Any way you look at it, it's about 2 million tons. Let's put that in context, and I think it helps with the margin. 2 million tons is about the size of what I would think is a really good quarry. One quarry. Here's the difference. That profit increased for the quarter – from those 2 million tons – for the quarter was $30 million. The profit increase through the nine months for those 2 million tons was $85 million. Remember what my comments were at the end of the commentary

[Kathryn Ingram Thompson:]

That's helpful. Toward the end, you were just – I wanted to tag onto that regional focus. What are you seeing in terms of demand, either on a state-by-state or, broadly speaking, region-by-region basis? And if there are any differences in – maybe you could focus a little bit more on the nonres end market and bifurcate between what's really more heavy industrial versus just traditional light commercial. Thank you.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Thank you, Kathryn. Let me approach it this way. Let's look at each side of the Mississippi River for a second and just think through. And let's start in Colorado, which has been a great and important state to us for the last several years. I really look at Colorado as a front-running state right now with a lot of room ahead of it. The employment picture in Colorado is very good. Denver's ranked 23rd nationally. There's a private sector that's really very strong. It's ranked 11th in housing starts. Their DOT program remains remarkably attractive. That's up 9% for the trailing 12 months. And, again, what we're seeing there in downstream pricing continues to be very good. I think what our team in that marketplace has done with the ready mixed business is really impressive. If we come farther south and take a look at what's going on in Texas, remember, it's third in employment. It's up almost 900,000 jobs over the last 36 months. We've got I-35 in North Texas, going – DFW and – Dallas and Fort Worth, and obviously, the Grand Parkway in Houston. And then we've got what we believe is going to be the coming of the $2.5 billion really hitting in 2017 coming from Proposition 7. Another state or two to think about, as long as we're still west of the Mississippi, are both Iowa and Nebraska. And Iowa has been a remarkably consistent performer for us. But here's the pop we're going to see in Iowa

[Kathryn Ingram Thompson:]

Yep, you did. Thank you very much for answering my questions today. I'll hop back in the queue.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Thank you, Kathryn.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Todd Vencil of Sterne Agee. Your line is open.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

Thanks. Afternoon, Ward and Anne.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Hello, Todd.

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Hi, Todd.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

I want to circle back on that last question and that last answer, Ward, because I hear you on the amount of work that there is on the heavy side. This is specifically with regard to nonres ...

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

...and on the fact that you're seeing the lighter nonres kind of follow through and certainly a good performance in 3Q. But, I mean, that is where you trimmed the guidance for the year, and the preliminary outlook for next year has kind of a slower pace of growth implied than what you've seen this year in nonres, going from sort of – we were at high single digits, now we're at low to mid single digits. I can't remember exactly. And then you're talking about sort of slight growth next year. So what's the disconnect? I mean, why are we seeing a deceleration there?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. I think you're just talking about what we're looking at relative to new projects. If you're looking at what's there and the volumes that we're likely to see on existing projects, again, that are multiyear, Todd, I think you're going to see a host of very strong multiyear projects that are already on the books. So really what I would tell you is this

[L. Todd Vencil:]

Well, that's – so thanks for that, and that is very interesting and leads us in interesting places. So if you're saying that you're going to basically see a handoff from growth in the West toward growth in the East, remind me, your margins and your average prices on aggregates are much higher in the East in general than they are in the West. Is that still true?

[C. Howard Nye:]

That would still be true.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

So that, going back to Kathryn's original question, would imply a bit of a, all else equal, a bit of a tailwind on price and margin and things like that next year, if in fact that's happening.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Todd, I think that's true. I mean, the pricing in the East has always been higher than it's been in the West. And, look, do we want to see as much volume go as possible? We absolutely do. The primary thing we really want to do is make sure that we continue to make more money and deliver more value for our shareholders. And what I would suggest to you, I think the results from the quarter are spectacular. I think what we're having this year is an outstanding year. I think we're going to have a better year next year, and I think the parts of the country, to your point, that have historically been our most profitable parts of the country are continuing to get better. And I think the level at which they're getting better is starting to outpace other parts of the country. And by the way, they're overdue. That's not a surprise.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

Excellent. Thanks for that. Second question, we've heard some other companies and private companies – I've asked this question a couple times today – talk about bottlenecks in parts of their business from labor generally at their customers, whether it's concrete finishing crews or framing crews or what have you. Is that something that you are seeing in your business?

[C. Howard Nye:]

No, Todd, it absolutely, positively is. And probably the parts of the country where you have less labor issues than others might be in parts of South Texas, where you have some of the people who are directly involved in energy not necessarily directly involved in some of that work. But if we're in Colorado, it's tight. If we're in Iowa, it's tight. If we're here in the Carolinas and Georgia and South Carolina and increasingly in Florida, it's tight. And that's one of the reasons that when we were talking about how much volume we could recover in half 2 relative to those torrential rains that occurred in half 1 in the United States or in Texas, in particular, we had some concerns about that. It's still a concern in markets like DFW and North Texas, in particular. Because, again, that economy, we talked about the fact that's the best single-family housing market in the United States. So you can imagine the type of activity that can be there. So the supply chain, the ability to deliver, et cetera, is challenged in those marketplaces. No question, Todd.

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

And, Todd, I think if there was one uniform message that – as you know, our planning process has us travel around country. The one uniform message that we had, really, from almost every part of the geographies, was dealing with labor, and that impact on the supply chain.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

And just to be clear, Anne, labor at your operations or labor at your customers?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Customers.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Customers. Downstream, Todd.

[L. Todd Vencil:]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Garik Shmois of Longbow Research. Your line is open.

[Garik S. Shmois:]

Hi. Thank you. First question is on aggregates pricing. You reiterated your guidance, but we are seeing some, I guess, deceleration in the reported growth in heritage aggregates pricing. Given the context of your volume outlook for 2016, I'm just wondering how maybe we should start thinking about the rate of price growth as we look out to next year.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Sure, Garik. We've actually always been pretty consistent on that, and that is, in a circumstance where you believe you have more muted growth than others, meaning really sub-5%, then pricing as a percent and volume as a percent have – end up being relatively tied to each other, particularly as you go up the ladder right now. So what I would say is, if I'm looking at pricing across our group right now, you saw the up 5%, at the same time, if I'm looking at it on a group-by-group basis, not surprisingly, we're seeing bigger price increases on a percentage basis in the Western United States, in large part because there's room for that in the West because it's been lower. But what I would suggest, Garik, is the view that we've shared really for the last couple of years on pricing has not materially changed.

[Garik S. Shmois:]

Okay. Thanks. I guess just shifting to cement, couple pricing questions. You indicated that fourth quarter should be likely the last quarter that you'll see some of the low-priced TXI projects come through. And as then they roll off, you should benefit from higher pricing. Just wondering if you can maybe provide some sequential guidance on cement pricing, how we should think about those low-priced projects rolling off? And then secondly, you indicated some supply that has come onto the market in Texas. You also indicated 4% expected volume growth next year -

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah.

[Garik S. Shmois:]

– and there's an announced price increase in the market for the spring. As you look out, clearly a couple months away, from the price increase being implemented next year, can you talk about some of the puts and takes around supply-demand in Texas and your level of confidence of securing pricing next year, given some of the supply-demand balancing?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. Sure, we'll try to do that. I mean, here's the way that I would think about it, first of all. Let's talk about some of the dynamic that simply occurs because we're not going to be in cement in California anymore. So let's start with that and talk about the picture that you saw for the quarter, because I think that's important to really understand and have context around. So 70% of the volume decline for the quarter was attributable to Riverside in California. So what you had immediately is when the deal's announced, you had certain customers who were seeing a change in that marketplace, who were seeing a non-vertically integrated player, ourselves, going away, and the downstream customers realigning themselves. So that was what we really saw in the quarter. If we back away from that, really, you're looking at cement volumes down 4%. Our quick snapshot is of the 4%, about 2% of that is cement that's no longer finding its way to oil or the oil patch or others, trying to find a home for some of that. And the other, I think, is directly to your point, Garik, and that is you do have a new importer right now in South Texas, and there has been some share that's gone there. What I think we're focused on is value right now. To your point, we're looking at a $12-a-ton price increase in April. We are the market leader in Texas, and we have a lot of conviction around that. As I look at what Texas capacity is and look at what Texas demand is, both in 2016 and 2017, I'm seeing something in 2016 that's going to be close to 2.8 million tons of deficit. I'm seeing what people are projecting to be about a 3.2 million ton deficit as we go into 2017. So, as we're sitting here with what I feel like are very attractive and efficient plants, both in North Texas and Central Texas, I mean, here's what I'll tell you. What we have done relative to the efficiencies at Midlothian and Hunter during the time that we've been there, I think, is impressive. We can run plants in Texas as efficiently as anybody. If we want to go and get share, we can go and get share. That's not how I think we're going to put value for our shareholders today, and we're resilient on making sure that we're getting the price in that marketplace. I'm confident that we can. And the fact is, at certain levels, and I think this is where we are, price is more valuable than volume. So if you come back and take a look at what our performance was in the quarter, remember what I said in my comments. Our cement results were impressive, and we believe that. And I believe we've got a very good team. I think we've got superb locations. I think we've got great operations. And I think given the dynamic in that marketplace, I feel pretty good about it, if you can't tell.

[Garik S. Shmois:]

Okay. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Keith Hughes of SunTrust. Your line is open.

[Keith Hughes:]

Thank you. Just building on the last discussion on Texas and cement, could we talk about aggregates in Texas? What kind of volume pricing did upi see in the quarter?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. I mean, if we're just looking at – we'll talk about the West Group for a second, because what we're really seeing if we look at the West Group is we saw tonnage – 15 million tons versus 14 million in the prior year. One thing to remember is North Troy tonnage is in there for last year, so that's going to throw that off pretty markedly. Frankly, if we look at what we see in Texas for next year, I think that's probably what you're pretty interested in, too. And I got to tell you I feel pretty good about it. I mean, if we break it down and look at it this way, Keith, I mean, North Texas, I think the market there next year is better than it is this year, in large part driven by very large projects. The Horseshoe Project in downtown Dallas, as well as I-35 E and W are both going to be under way in North Texas, in the metroplex. State Highway 183 is very much under way. Even when we move farther south to Houston, part of what I look at is not just what we have awarded – and by the way, that's I-69 and Farm Market Roads 1488 and 1774, and some of the work that we have at Freeport LNG, but really what's coming – and I'm seeing good work relative to the Harris County Tollway Authority, good TxDOT work, good work also at Bush Airport. And then when we come down to South Texas, and we're looking at the large energy and infrastructure projects that really, in my view, support a good business in 2016 and beyond at Chenier at the pipe plants, Harbor Bridge, and otherwise, the volume that I think we're going to see in Texas on these long-lived projects is really attractive. The other thing that I'm moved by in Texas right now is TxDOT already has a big budget, but if you spoke to the people at TxDOT, what they would tell you is it looks good, backlogs are good, going forward with work it looks attractive. And by the way, when we start putting this Prop 7 money to it, it's going to feel like it's some degree of steroids. So, again, you're talking big numbers in a state that already has big numbers, but what it gives me a sense of, Keith, is it's likely to be healthy there for a good while going forward. Did you need more? I'm happy to talk more about Texas, I want to make sure I'm answering you.

[Keith Hughes:]

Well, it's a lot of information, and without context it doesn't mean a lot. Basically my question was you saw cement volume down, effectively 4% that you were saying earlier in the call. I assume aggregates would go along with that. Was that the case in the -

[C. Howard Nye:]

No, that was not the case. So if I'm looking across our Southwest division, I'm seeing aggregate volumes up in almost every district that I'm seeing, and many of them at or close to double digits. And I'm seeing price up without exception in every district, just to be granular on that.

[Keith Hughes:]

Got it. And the second quarter, we had the torrential rains there. And of course it got better here in the third. Looks like we had, I guess, a little pickup in aggregates there, not in cement. What's the deviation there?

[C. Howard Nye:]

I just think you've got some of the supply chain issues with ready mix and otherwise that we were actually talking to previously on the call with Todd. Actually I think in North Texas it was pretty good. I think the issue that we discussed is really some of the import and other issues more focused on Houston right now. And as I said, did we give up a little bit of share in that part of Texas? Absolutely we did. Do I regret it? No, I don't. Do I think price is more valuable? I do.

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

And, Keith, if you think about it, Keith, there is still overhang from weather in the second quarter. You'll recall we talked about the fact that the clinker barns are full, the silos are full. So you have that, coupled with some new capacity, particularly coming into that South Texas area. That, to us, is really some of the dislocation during that period.

[Keith Hughes:]

And – thank you for that. I guess final question. It was talked about in the initial question on the call, the delta between your commentary on nonresidential and the growth – the forecast in the press release of low single digits or modest growth, whatever you want to call it.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah.

[Keith Hughes:]

I guess Texas trajectory, is that the difference there versus what I think many would've expected you to say about nonresidential, or were there other -

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. Yeah, I think it probably is. I think when you go back – and I think it's trajectory and multiyear nature of it. I think that's probably what people are reading or not reading into it, because if the sense is that we feel like nonres is going off a cliff in Texas, that's not what we're seeing. I think it's the bigger issue is what kind of pop are you going to see east of the Mississippi? I think there's going to be one. I think the question is we're going to quibble over how much and when, and at some point we'll all look at it in our rearview mirrors and be right.

[Keith Hughes:]

Okay. Thanks very much.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Okay.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question is from Ted Grace of Susquehanna. Your line is open.

[Ted Grace:]

Good afternoon.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Hi, Ted.

[Ted Grace:]

Ward, just as a point of clarity, you framed your outlook for 2016. You mentioned that it was done in conjunction with McGraw-Hill's forecasts, and I very much interpret it to be Martin's outlook for those end markets. But obviously McGraw-Hill kind of models stuff nationally.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah.

[Ted Grace:]

Is there a very specific Martin overlay so that those are very specific to your markets? And really the gist of the question is, is there potential for you to outgrow the markets, or should we very much interpret those as your volume guidance at this point in time?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Again, this is very, very preliminary guidance, Ted. So we'll obviously come back in February and give you what we feel like is a much more detailed snapshot of it. I mean, what we do as we go through a budgeting process is we're going to use basically Dodge and we're going to use PCA as markers that we'll have, and then we'll come back and say, let's talk about what form of deviation we may or may not see from that in any given market. Because if you've got a lot of bridge work in a market, that from a dollar perspective could pop a market pretty considerably. So we use those as markers and then we use what we're seeing in the field as something to really adjust and tune that a little bit with. Does that help?

[Ted Grace:]

Yeah. That's very helpful. On the Texas cement topic, I know you talked about the markets running in deficit of about 3 million tons in 2016 and 2017 -

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah.

[Ted Grace:]

– based off the most current analysis. I guess, what's the clearing mechanism for the market? I mean, is this a scenario where new imports find themselves into Texas to kind of clear the market? Is it demand destruction because pricing goes up? I mean, just – I think – we've gotten a lot of question on, I think, people's concerns that there will be more imports into Texas. So it'd be helpful just to get your guys' kind of perspective on that issue, and if you think that's a likely source of incremental supply.

[C. Howard Nye:]

I guess, my sense is – obviously Argos is coming into South Texas right now with probably – let's call it a half a million tons of cement. I do think that's a tough move for a lot of people to make simply because of logistics. Clearly, that's not something that's going to have any significant impact, for example, on a Dallas-Fort Worth type market. I think you need to remember, too, that the vast majority of players who are in that market are also domestic producers. So the short answer is unless some cement comes in, you simply can't meet the market demand. That said, I think the plants that are in that state are good, efficient plants. I think in large part the need for much advanced imports in that state will not be particularly acute. I'd be surprised if we saw that. So I don't see a marked change coming in that marketplace, Ted, at least from a logistics and a practical perspective.

[Ted Grace:]

Okay. Thanks. And then the last question's for Anne. Anne, slide 5 of your deck, you outline a $10 million headwind from net cost increases. You talked about energy being an $11 million tailwind in the quarter, I think. Can you just bridge us on the key components of that cost increase, just so we appreciate what they are?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Yeah, Ted. You're looking at some increased repair and maintenance costs, some increased overtime costs of your employees as you ramp that up versus adding a lot of new heads. Those are probably the two principal drivers.

[Ted Grace:]

So net think about those being about $20 million of headwind, offset by roughly $10 million of diesel benefit?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Round numbers, yeah.

[Ted Grace:]

Okay. All right. Super. I'll leave it there. I know there are other people in the queue. Good luck this quarter, guys.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Thank you, Ted.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Trey Grooms of Stephens. Your line is open.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Hey. Good afternoon.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Hi, Trey.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

So, a quick – I guess this would be a follow-up to Ted's question. As we look into next year, can you talk about – Anne, can you talk about some cost headwinds or tailwinds that you may be facing, outside of diesel, looking into 2016? So any other raw materials or SG&A or pension or just anything that we could kind of be aware of and watch as we enter next year?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

I think we'll start with pension, because that one is really what's going to be – the corporate AA bond rate at the end of 2015 will set whatever that pension cost is going to be. So you can look at the sensitivity that we have disclosed for 25 basis points movements there to tell you whether or not there should be anything that happens on the pension side. I think we will see – I don't think that we'll have big general wage inflation. I do think we'll potentially see some increase in overtime. I think as we continue to invest in our rolling stock, we should see maintenance and repair stabilize. I would also expect that for some what I would call energy derivative consumables, we consume a lot of rubber, we consume a lot of lubricants and other types of energy derivative costs, explosives. I would expect that the benefit we've seen from diesel in 2015 begin to carry its way through those types of products as we move into 2016.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Okay. Good. That's helpful. And then switching gears to the legacy TXI cement contracts that are rolling off this year, where are we in that process of these contracts rolling off? I guess, how much more do we have as we're going here and going through the 4Q?

[C. Howard Nye:]

I mean, Ted, they'll be substantially gone by the end of the year. I mean – Ted, I'm sorry, Trey. They'll be substantially gone by year-end.

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Yeah.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

And it was – as far as kind of how they rolled off, was 3Q a big chunk of it and then less in 4Q, or how do we measure that?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. Yes. The bigger chunk was in Q3.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Okay. And then my last question is, I just want to make sure I understand some of the discussion around maintenance expense on the cement side.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Sure.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Am I accurate in taking that you guys have lowered your maintenance expense a little bit for the – I guess, taking into account 3Q and then 4Q? Because I think the guidance was $6 million in 3Q, $14 million in 4Q, and I think you did just under that and expect that to double. So maybe it's a few million less in the 4Q than you originally expected. Is that accurate?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Yes. That's correct.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Yeah. That is accurate. Yes.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Okay. Thanks a lot. I'll jump back in queue. I know there's more. Thanks.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Thanks a lot, Trey.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Bibb of CJS Securities. Your line is open.

[Craig Bibb:]

Hi. And I hope not to hammer on the same point too much, but I guess I'm trying to really understand what changed from the second quarter to the third quarter. The first half, you had lots of rain that was suppressing volumes. And you have a lot less rain in the third quarter, but volume growth slowed, price growth slowed. From what I've heard so far, it sounds like energy volumes in Texas is a chunk of that, or what am I missing here?

[C. Howard Nye:]

I think in large part, what – I'm not sure you're missing anything per se, Craig. I think a lot of it goes back to how much can the market absorb right now, given logistics and other downstream constraints that I think the market is just generally faced with as we speak. And I think a lot of the makeup – if you can give me a good sense of how long weather will at least be warm and dry into Q4, honestly, I think that's your big swing factor. So what I'm more focused on is when I come back and take a look at pricing for the quarter, I'm not disappointed on pricing in the quarter. And again, I think pricing next year is going to be a very good story. And if we can run effectively through Thanksgiving, you can have a Q4 that could make up some of that volume. That's really your swing factor, Craig. I don't think we ever anticipated Q3 was going to be a period of time where you'd see a lot of makeup on that.

[Craig Bibb:]

Okay. And when you're looking at nonresidential, your forecast of a slight or modest growth in 2016, is that based more on your bottoms-up process or the external data that you're using?

[C. Howard Nye:]

No, it's pretty broadly macro with a dash of what we're seeing, again, very preliminarily relative to some of the local markets. I mean, obviously, we're going to come back when we get in Q1 and we roll up the full year and give you a sense of how we feel like all of that's going to roll up. But the fact is, if you look at the way that we've done it over the years, I think what you're going to find, Craig, is we tend to be relatively conservative in the way that we roll that up. And I think that's one of the reasons that we're good on costs as well. I think good, slow, steady growth helps us relative to how we spend our dollars, how we hire people, and how we plan. So I think if there's a bias there built in, in Martin Marietta, it's one toward conservatism.

[Craig Bibb:]

Okay. Well, I guess the disconnect is we kind of – we entered the year and – expecting to be on the cusp of an upturn in the construction cycle, and I think people are surprised to see volume growth expectations tapering down at this point.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Oh, yeah, I think the important thing to remember is we're talking about volume growth expectations, and I think the other thing to keep in mind is what we're doing with those volume growth expectations is putting some very serious money on the bottom line. So if you're looking at the performance of this business and what our people do, if there's anything in the performance of the business that's disappointing to people, I'm at a loss on what that can be. We can control a lot of things at Raleigh, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, other places. Volume isn't necessarily one of them, but when it comes our way, we can make money with it. And that's very much what we're doing. And, again, we're talking about growth. We're only quibbling over what the amount of growth is going to look like. And, again, if we're tending toward conservatism and we have downstream markets that are tough to take increased volume simply because you've got trucking and other issues that are under some degree of duress, I'm not sure that that's a fair view of a problem with the market, because we don't see that right now.

[Craig Bibb:]

Okay. And could there be other issues in the fourth quarter related to weather from South Carolina or any -

[C. Howard Nye:]

Well, I mean, look, weather has been a challenge. I mean very candidly, we've got a quarry north of Columbia, South Carolina, that has 4 billion gallons in it. I mean, the Broad River came out of its banks and filled it up. And we'll pump it out, and we'll put it right back in the Broad River. The quarry happens to be a rail-connected quarry. And as you'll recall, Craig, we've got the largest rail-connected quarry system in the United States in the Aggregates business. So we can go into the marketplaces that can now not be served by north Columbia by rail from other quarries, and we can equally come into markets by boat. So from a market service perspective, I don't think we're going to be that affected by it. From an efficiency perspective, can we be affected by it? Yeah. And I guess the other thing that I would say is insurance in circumstances like that is pretty difficult to have. So you, in large part, tend to be relatively self-insured. And so what I would tell you is there's going to be some capital that's going to be utilized in that as we go forward. And the other thing, just in fairness, we did experience over the weekend pretty considerable rain events in Central and South Texas as well. And at our Webberville facility outside of Austin, we got a lot more water there than we typically would. And at Garwood Sand & Gravel which is typically a wet operation, we've had more water there than usual. Again, do I view these as material? No, I don't. Are they issues that can affect pure efficiencies in some markets? Sure. But, as we said in the commentary, relative to Q4, weather is the single most important variable on the way that quarter's going to play out.

[Craig Bibb:]

And you'll have the water back in the river by the end of the fourth quarter?

[C. Howard Nye:]

No, we will not. I mean, when you've got a quarry that's got several billion gallons – and that's what it has, several billion gallons of water in it – you can expect that to take the better part of half a year as opposed to a matter of weeks or months.

[Craig Bibb:]

Okay. Well, thanks a lot, guys.

[C. Howard Nye:]

You're welcome. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Trey Grooms of Stephens. Your line is open.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Hey, thanks for sneaking me in again here at the very end. I just wanted to get some color on the net proceeds. Can you remind us what were the net proceeds of the sale of Oro Grande?

[C. Howard Nye:]

Well, we sold OG for $420 million. We've got basically the $25 million that we referenced relative to some environmental indemnities and some inventory write-downs. So there's your quick math, Trey.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

All rights, so that's it, there wasn't anything else. Okay. And you bought back $158 million of stock in the quarter, and I think you mentioned using the net proceeds from the sale to repurchase stock. This sale didn't occur until the end of the quarter, so how should we think about that net roughly – just call it rough numbers, $400 million? Is that still incremental, or was that $158 million kind of – should we take that out as we look forward, just as purely as the net as it relates to the proceeds from the sale of Oro Grande?

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

Yeah. Trey, as we indicated, in anticipation of the sale, we went ahead and accelerated the purchase against that $420 million.

[C. Howard Nye:]

So just net it out, Trey.

[Anne H. Lloyd:]

So you should net it out, and it will have the expectations that we should complete the balance of that.

[Trey H. Grooms:]

Okay. Perfect. Thanks a lot for clearing that up.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Absolutely, Trey.

[Operator:]

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions. I would like to turn the call back to Ward Nye for closing remarks.

[C. Howard Nye:]

Thanks again for joining our third quarter earnings call. We're enthusiastic about the opportunities to generate strong cash flow and return value to shareholders through our dividend and the repurchase program that we were just discussing. We look forward to talking with you more about our fourth quarter and full-year results with you in February. Thanks for your time today and your continued support of our company.

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.