Tronox Holdings plc — Call Transcript 2026

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tronox Holdings Q4 2025 Earnings Call. I note that all participants are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also, note that this call is being recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026. I would like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Guenther, Chief Sustainability Officer, Head of Investor Relations and External Affairs. Please go ahead. Thank you, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call and webcast. Turning to Slide 2, on our call today are John Romano, Chief Executive Officer, and John Srivisal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will be using slides as we move through today's call. You can access the presentation on our website at investor.tronox.com. Moving to Slide 3. A friendly reminder that comments made on this call and the information provided in our presentation and on our website include certain statements that are forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the specific factors summarized in our SEC filings. This information represents our best judgment based on what we know today. However, actual results may vary based on these risks and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. During the conference call, we will refer to certain non-U.S. GAAP financial terms that we use in the management of our business and believe are useful to investors in evaluating the company's performance. Reconciliations to their nearest U.S. GAAP terms are provided in our earnings release and in the appendix of the accompanying presentation. Additionally, please note that all financial comparisons made during the call are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to John Romano. John? Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. We'll begin this morning on Slide 4 with some key messages from the quarter and the full year. Tronox delivered a stronger finish to 2025 than anticipated by remaining focused on the things we can control and influence. Safety continues to be one of our core values and remains our number one priority across the company. In a year marked by challenges, volatility, and inevitable distractions, maintaining that focus has never been more important. Despite that environment, I'm pleased to report that in 2025, we delivered our best safety performance in more than a decade, achieving our lowest overall injury rate for the period. This is a reflection of our team's discipline, diligence, and unwavering commitment to keeping one another safe. From a financial perspective, we concluded the year with stronger volumes than anticipated and executed on actions to drive cash flow and improve our long-term cost position. TiO2 volumes in the fourth quarter reached their highest point of the year, a pattern that was previously only observed during the COVID period in 2020. This notable trend underscores how anti-dumping duties have positively influenced the relative markets. Our gains in India and other protected regions show increased market share and suggest a structural change in the global TiO2 trade flows. As anticipated, TiO2 prices were lower in the quarter, and mix was an incremental headwind due to higher sales in Asia. However, we are now implementing price increases that are beginning to show results in the first quarter. Early indications show positive momentum, and with a shift toward higher price regions, market dynamics are gradually moving in a favorable direction. Zircon volumes concluded the year positively, supported by customers restocking and resuming normal buying patterns. Zircon pricing was a headwind in the quarter, compounded by unfavorable mix. That being said, we've announced price increases and are optimistic that they will be implemented in the second quarter. From an operational standpoint, we maintained a disciplined approach to cash preservation and inventory management. While certain measures impacted EBITDA for the quarter, they reinforced working capital discipline, resulting in $53 million of free cash flow, a notable achievement given the challenging environment. We also executed on an opportunistic $400 million senior secured note offering in September, proactively increasing liquidity. In addition, we took the necessary actions on our footprint to position the business for the long term, including announcing the closures of two of our pigment plants. The decision to close the Fuzhou plant in China, as announced last month, was driven by prolonged market downturn, weak domestic demand, overcapacity, and unsustainable pricing levels in China. Combined with the Botlek closure, which we announced in March of last year, these actions streamline our footprint and improve our cost structure over the long term while ensuring we can continue to reliably serve customers through a more efficient global network. We thank our Botlek and Fuzhou teams for their unwavering commitment to safety and their contributions as they have made to Tronox over the years. Transitioning to our sustainable cost improvement program, we continued to make significant progress. We exited 2025 with more than $90 million of run rate savings, three times our original target, and we remained on pace for the high end of our $125 million-$175 million run rate target at the exit of 2026. We're now tracking more than 2,000 initiatives. More than 500 of them are already delivering savings, and another 250 are moving through the planning and execution stage. The largest benefits came from fixed cost reductions, including the workforce action across labor, contractors, and outside services, along with SG&A reductions that came in ahead of plan. These savings are helping us offset a number of headwinds this year and continue to structurally lower our costs for the long term. We also reached key milestones on our mining projects in South Africa last year. We commenced mining at Fairbreeze and began the commissioning of East OFS. We also advanced our rare earth strategy with the announcement in December of the conditional, non-binding financing with EFA and EXIM Bank for the building out of a cracking and leaching facility in Australia. We are progressing our work on definitive feasibility study and continue to evaluate adding refining capacity to the value chain. As we look ahead, we're cautiously optimistic, and that optimism is grounded in facts and execution. Market dynamics are starting to change. TiO2 prices are improving as a result of price increase announcements that are starting to take effect in the first quarter, and we expect favorable mix benefit from selling more into higher price regions. At the same time, our actions on inventory, cost, and portfolio rationalization are designed to counterbalance near-term headwinds and support cash generation. As pricing and costs improve from actions already underway, I expect free cash flow to be positive in 2026. Taken together, these developments position us for a step change in earnings power as market fundamentals continue to improve. I'll speak to 2026 in more detail later in the call, but for now, I'll turn the call over to John for a review of our financials from 2025 in more detail. John? Thank you, John. Turning to Slide 5. For the full-year 2025, we generated revenue of $2.9 billion. The year-over-year decline was driven by unfavorable pricing and mix, and lower volumes in both TiO2 and zircon. Loss from operations was $253 million, and net loss attributable to Tronox was $470 million. These results include $233 million of restructuring and other charges, net of taxes, primarily related to the closures of Botlek and Fuzhou. While our loss before tax was $458 million, our tax expense was $15 million, primarily driven by not recognizing tax benefits in jurisdictions with losses. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was a loss of $1.50. Adjusted EBITDA was $336 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.6%. Free cash flow for the year was a use of $281 million, including $341 million of capital expenditures. Since we covered our key fourth quarter figures in the January 26 pre-release, I won't spend time on the financial overview, but will instead move to the next slide to review the highlights on our commercial performance. As John mentioned, volumes were stronger than anticipated across both TiO2 and zircon, partially offset by continued pricing and mixed headwinds. Sequentially, TiO2 revenues increased 5%, driven by a 9% increase in volumes, partially offset by a 4% decline in price, including mix. Volumes exceeded our guidance of up 3%-5%, reflecting continued market share gains in India, Latin America, and the Middle East, supported by anti-dumping measures. North America and Europe were lower, consistent with normal fourth quarter demand patterns. Pricing was in line with expectations, down 2%, and mix accounted for an additional 2% headwind, primarily due to stronger growth in regions with lower margins and seasonally lower demand in our higher-margin markets. Zircon revenues increased 32% sequentially, driven by a 42% increase in volumes. This exceeded our guidance of 15%-20%. Zircon price was down 7% quarter to quarter, or 10% total, including mix. Revenue from other products increased 10% compared to the prior year, mainly driven by higher pig iron volumes. Sequentially, revenue from other products decreased 17% due to higher sales of heavy mineral concentrate tailings in the third quarter. Turning to the next slide, I will now review our operating performance for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA, $57 million, represented a 56% decline year-on-year as a result of unfavorable pricing, including mix, higher production costs and higher freight costs, partially offset by the increase in sales volumes, exchange rate tailwinds, and SG&A savings. Year-on-year production costs were higher by $39 million as a result of actions taken to improve cash generation. These actions were deliberate and temporary. Bringing forward maintenance, lower pigment and mining operating rates, idling assets, and additional downtime at Stallingborough drove unfavorable fixed cost absorption and higher idle and LCM charges. These were partially offset by savings from our cost improvement program, as John outlined earlier. Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA declined 23%. Unfavorable pricing, including mix, was partially offset by improved production costs, favorable sales volumes, and lower freight costs. Turning to the next slide. We ended the year with total debt of $3.2 billion and net debt of $3 billion. Our weighted average interest rate in Q4 was approximately 6%, and we maintained swaps such that approximately 77% of our interest rates are fixed through 2028. Importantly, our next significant debt maturity is not until 2029. We do not have any financial covenants on our term loans or bonds. We have one springing financial covenant on our U.S. revolver that we do not expect to trigger. Liquidity as of December 31st increased to $674 million, including $199 million in cash and cash equivalents that are well distributed across the globe, that we are able to move around with little to no frictional cost. Working capital was a use of approximately $26 million for the year, excluding $76 million of restructuring payments related to the closure of our Botlek site. Fourth quarter working capital was a source of $133 million, excluding $19 million of restructuring payments, exceeding our expectations. This was driven by targeted working capital initiatives, including reducing inventory levels. This discipline around working capital will continue into 2026. Our capital expenditures totaled $341 million for the year, with approximately 60% allocated to maintenance and safety, and 40% almost exclusively dedicated to the mining extensions in South Africa to sustain our integrated cost advantage. We returned $48 million to shareholders in the form of dividends paid in 2025. As a reminder, Q1 is typically a seasonal use of cash due to timing of payments and the seasonal build of working capital. However, I remain confident in our ability to generate positive free cash flow for the full-year 2026. With that, I'll hand it back to John to review our capital allocation priorities. John? Thanks, John. Turning to Slide 9. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged and focused on cash generation. We continue investing to maintain our assets, our vertical integration, and projects critical to furthering our strategy, including rare earths. With Fairbreeze and East OFS mining spend largely behind us, we're able to reduce our capital expenditures further in 2026. While we have some catch-up capital from delayed projects in 2025, we expect CapEx to be approximately $260 million in the year. We continue to focus on preserving liquidity, and we have plenty of liquidity to manage the business and endure market fluctuations. As the market recovers, we will resume debt paydown, targeting long-term net leverage of less than 3x. We will do that the same way we navigated this downturn, by staying focused on what we can control and influence, reinforcing the business through cost reduction and cash improvement actions. While prioritizing cash has been a near-term trade-off to EBITDA, these actions strengthen the foundation of the company. With that, I'd like to turn to our 2026 guidance and walk through the cash assumptions that will drive performance this year. Turning to Slide 10. For the first quarter of 2026, we expect TiO2 volumes to be relatively flat sequentially on the back of a very strong fourth quarter. We're experiencing growth in all regions with the exception of Asia, predominantly influenced by India, our second-largest market. This is due to customers shifting a portion of their volumes back to China following the temporary halt of the collection of duties in late December, following a court ruling. We expect this to be a short-term event, as we believe there will be a favorable resolution on duties in the coming weeks, which would shift volumes back to local and Western suppliers, including Tronox. We also expect TiO2 pricing to be up approximately 2%-4% sequentially. We're reflecting the price increases that went into effect at the beginning of the year and the continued shift in mix towards higher-value regions. We expect zircon volumes to mirror the solid performance we had in the fourth quarter. Zircon pricing has stabilized in Q1, and we are optimistic that the price increases we've announced for Q2 will be implemented. As we stated earlier, we are focused on generating cash while balancing the impact to EBITDA. We made decisions to keep the West Mine down and one of our furnaces down longer than originally planned, and we also dialed back some production in Australia on the mining side of our business. These decisions reduced near-term EBITDA, but they're focused on our goal of improving working capital and generating positive free cash flow. We are also managing FX volatility on the Australian dollar and South African rand. At the current rates, this translates to a $10 million headwind in Q1 versus Q4 average rates, which has been factored into our guide. As we've done in the past, we are actively evaluating opportunities to utilize financial hedges to manage that volatility. Partially offsetting these pressures are the savings from our sustainable cost improvement plan, which continues to gain traction and will build through the year. Taking all this into consideration, we expect Q1 2026 EBITDA to be in the range of $55 million-$65 million. Incorporated in our positive free cash flow guide for the year are the following assumptions on cash: net cash interest of approximately $185 million, net cash taxes of less than $10 million, capital expenditures of approximately $260 million, and we expect working capital to be a source of cash in excess of $100 million. Turning to Slide 11. From a broader perspective, our first quarter guidance does not fully reflect the underlying earnings potential of our business. In recent quarters, we've implemented several initiatives to enhance our cost structure, streamline operations, optimize mix, and enable improved pricing. As these measures are realized in our P&L, we will generate significant benefits and establish a solid foundation for earnings growth as the recovery progresses. We believe we are at an inflection point for both TiO2 and zircon price. Additionally, we've outlined a number of actions we've taken over the last year to prioritize cash generation that are temporarily reducing EBITDA. One notable example is how reduced asset utilization affects absorption. As these headwinds subside and as the market continues to recover, we will realize an improvement in our cost structure. As the most geographically diverse TiO2 producer, Tronox is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity created by the rebalancing of the market, evidenced by the effective anti-dumping duties and supply rationalizations in the industry. These factors establish the foundation for a meaningful step change in earnings potential. Turning to the next slide, I'll provide a brief update on our rare earths initiative. We continued to advance our rare earth strategy during the quarter, reflecting our objective to move further downstream into separated rare earth oxides over time while maintaining capital discipline. We made meaningful progress toward a definitive feasibility study and are evaluating development pathways to prioritize returns and limit incremental leverage on our balance sheet. Concurrently, we are engaging widely with stakeholders, including potential customers, partners, and funding sources, to identify the most viable and responsible path forward. Our approach remains dedicated to generating long-term shareholder value and balancing strategic opportunities with prudent financial management. We believe that our rare earths present a promising growth platform for Tronox, leveraging our existing mining footprint and expertise in hydrometalurgical and chemical operations. That will conclude the prepared remarks. I'll now move to the Q&A portion of the call, so I'll hand the call back over to the operator to facilitate. Operator? Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions at this time, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. And if you're on speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. Thank you. First question will be from Josh Spector at UBS. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, good morning, guys. So I wanted to ask, if I go through your free cash flow guidance, if to get to breakeven, you probably need about $350 million in EBITDA, roughly. I guess, one, is that how you're thinking about it? And, two, just given where you're starting in 1Q and some of the timing lags that it takes on some of the mining costs to flow through with the lower utilizations, how do you see yourself getting to that level from here? Yeah. So maybe, Josh, thanks for the question. I'll start and I'll let John add some color. So again, we provided a guide for the year. We haven't provided guidance for the full year. You can get to that math. So we're not providing a guide because there's still lots of variables with regards to how we're running the business. You know, our costs are gonna be large, a lot of our costs are gonna be dependent upon how long we keep the assets down. On the last call, I made reference that we were gonna keep our assets down and focus on cash until we got a couple of good quarters under our belt, and we felt confident that the recovery was underway. You know, we got another quarter, so we're still progressing in that direction. We have made some decisions to pull back on one of our furnaces a little bit longer. We've made some other decisions on mining. Again, we're targeting $100 million free of working capital improvement, and, John, you can add some more color on that. Yeah, no, I think, you know, obviously, we from looking at where we got in Q1 to the rest of the year, we do see, obviously, our EBITDA expanding, to get to that positive free cash flow, if not, more significant than that. Some of it will be driven by earnings. As John mentioned, we do see, you know, the sustainable cost improvement program, which we've only seen, you know, about $10 million or so in 2025 hitting, but that was a run rate at the end of the year of $90 million, so we would expect to see that, benefit flow throughout the year. Additionally, as you know, we did shut down Botlek and Fuzhou, and as we see our sites' volumes even being flat, we'll see that cost come through from a fixed cost leverage improvement throughout the year. And you know, obviously, we are focused on controlling our costs, you know, throughout the year as well. So we do see a path to higher earnings in the second half of the year. And obviously, a big driver of that is price. You know, as John mentioned, we are seeing an inflection point in both TiO2 and zircon Q1, Q2, so that will help us as we move across the year. And Josh, we referenced that, I think even in the last call. On the zircon side of the business, we had a lot of customers that were starting to get back to normal buying patterns, and we saw that, actually reflected in our sales, in the fourth quarter. We're seeing that in the first quarter of this year. We talked about a price increase there that we have some confidence in. But both on zircon and on TiO2, to get a price increase in the first quarter is, I'd say, not normal. So we're cautiously optimistic that the momentum we're seeing on price is gonna continue to translate into additional momentum next year. The price increases on TiO2, we've announced everywhere. So globally, there's been announcements made. And again, the implementation on those increases will be different in every region, but you know, we feel pretty confident right now with cautious optimism that we're starting to see that recovery that we talked about last quarter. Great. And if I could just follow up quickly, just on the cost side. So sequentially in fourth quarter, your production costs were actually a slight positive. I think in your answer then, you talked about taking down some additional furnaces. I guess if we look at your production cost bridge into first quarter, is that a positive because of some of the cost actions, or is that a negative because of some of the mining actions? What, what should we expect there? Let me make one quick comment, and then I'll let John answer that. So we didn't take down an additional furnace. We've made a decision to keep one of the furnaces down longer than what we had originally planned. So now we're planning to keep that furnace down until mid-year. And again, we've taken some other actions on the mining side of the business. We pulled back some of our mining production in Australia. The West Mine in South Africa is now down. So I just want to be clear, it's more mining, not necessarily on the smelting side. John? Yeah, no, but we, we do expect improvement in our operations from Q4 to Q1, a pretty significant improvement. As we mentioned, you know, Stallingborough was down in Q4. It's up, up and running pretty well in Q1, so we'll see some benefit. And just overall, see more efficiencies and improvements throughout our portfolio. I think the one thing, if you're looking at a Q4 to Q1 bridge item, we have, and we direct you to currency. So if you look at the average rates that were in Q4 versus Q1, as we mentioned, looking at spot rates, that's about a $10 million hurt from us Q4 to Q1. Okay, got it. Thank you both. Thank you. Next is from David Begleiter at Deutsche Bank. Thank you. Good morning. John and John, just to go back to the prior question, looking at the two of the key bridge elements for this year, sustainable cost improvement and the, mining costs, what are the tailwinds, the actual tailwinds you're expecting now in 2026 versus 2025 for those two bridge items for this year? Yes, so I'll start on the continuous cost improvement program. Again, John kind of gave some indication on, you know, how much of that continuous cost improvement actually resulted in EBITDA in 2025. But the run rate that we have starting in the year is significantly higher than that. $90 million when our target was $25 million-$35 million initially. And again, we've got very good visibility into the projects that we're working on to continue that work. A lot of it's been fixed costs, but there's a lot of work going on across the entire company, and we feel confident that this $125 million-$175 million target will be at the high end of that range. There are things that are continuing to, you know, I guess, be headwinds against that. John talked about, you know, the work that we're doing to actually offset some of the FX issues, right? So we will be looking at hedging, but right now that's a headwind in the first quarter. There's also, again, the cost associated with running the assets at lower rates that are a headwind. John, you want to add to that? Yeah. No, I think if, David, if you recall, we did shut down Botlek in the first part of the year, in the first quarter, as well as Fuzhou, which we've announced early this year. But, you know, by bringing down those plants, obviously, you know, our chain is pretty leverageable and integrated, and so we were able to ramp up our other facilities. And so that's providing a good cost improvement year-over-year from that fixed cost leverage. I'd say we made this comment last time, I think, on the call, when we start thinking about when does the industry typically start to get pricing leverage? Those two plants that are down, we've actually kept a lot of the customers from where we were selling them. So, you know, we're north of 85% capacity utilization now, and normally when the industry gets there, I can't speak to the industry, I can speak to where we are, you start to get leverage on price. So running our pigment business at lower rates—we've talked about what that impact is on EBITDA. It's not as significant on the mining side, and the pigment business is running at much higher rates. Understood. And just on rare earths, I know there have been some meetings over the last few weeks on establishing maybe a framework for some pricing support in the U.S. for these minerals, which would be what you need to move forward with refinery. What's happened from your perspective, and what's the potential for this pricing support going forward? Thank you. Yeah, look, that was a, I think, a very, positive result, right? It's not only the pricing support, but it's the, the bill that was announced, so the strategic stockpiling. There's still some work to be done on getting finalized on what that actually will look like, and that'll come with time. But we're also. I think, to be clear, we're working in multiple jurisdictions on our rare earth opportunity. We've got assets in Australia and the U.S., so we're working across a lot of, jurisdictions to try to come up with what is the best opportunity for Tronox. We're engaging with partners. We've talked about EXIM and EFA around the potential financing that work we could have to fund the acid leaching cracking facility in Australia. But we're making very good progress. I am not at liberty to talk about who those partners are at this particular stage because we've got non-disclosure agreements, but we're making good progress, we're staffing up that group, and we do feel that this is an opportunity that we're going to turn into another, I'd say, pillar of our strategy on the long term. Thank you. Next question will be from Duffy Fischer at Goldman Sachs. Yeah, good morning. You mentioned that your pigment level, your operating rates are north of 85%. What's the plan on the mining operations this year? What operating rate do you think you'll run at there? And then relative to the benefit that you get from purchasing, or you've always kind of talked about a couple of $100 there, how much lower will that be this year because of that lower operating rate in mining? Sure. So I'll start that one, Duffy. We've typically said $200-$400 a ton advantage of vertical integration on feedstock, and I'd say we're on the lower end of that range right now. We have four furnaces in South Africa. We're running three. The SR kiln that we have in Australia, we're continuing to run that at capacity. We've pulled back on our mining operations. Again, we don't need as much ilmenite to feed four furnaces when we're only running three. So we will make the decision to start the West Mine back up, increase our capacity in Australia again, when we feel confident that the positive momentum that we're seeing now turns into more of a solid recovery. And, yeah, I would say that from the standpoint of where we are as far as vertical integration, I think the power of the vertical integration is still something that we believe in, but our objective this year is to generate free cash flow. All the actions that we're taking right now are to bring our working capital down. You know, as the closer we get to capacity, on the TiO2 side, we're going to need some of that feedstock, but right now, what we're doing with the slag that we're producing is drawing down the inventory. We're drawing down the ilmenite inventory. We're drawing down zircon inventory. And quite frankly, on the zircon side of the equation, our inventory is getting to the point where it's tight. So, you know, as we start to think about how we're allocating volumes and we talk a little bit about price increase opportunities in zircon, a lot of that is being driven by the market, from our perspective, is starting to tighten up, and it's gonna give us an opportunity to have more confidence in those price increases in Q2. Great, thanks. And then maybe just two quick ones on cash flow. If you get to your positive free cash flow this year, how would that look first half versus second half? I'm assuming you'll eat capital, you know, or working capital in the first half and be free cash flow negative and then release it in the second half. But roughly how big a delta will that be, Q1 to Q2? And then what's the run rate spend on the rare earths project currently? Yeah, so if you look at our working capital and free cash flow progression across the quarters, we expect this year, Q1 to be roughly the size and scope of, you know, what we have done in the past several years, so pretty significant use of it. And then we do claw back, you know, going across the year. And so, you know, significant use, most of the use, if not all of the use in Q1, and then free cash flow positive for the rest of the year. And then on the rare earths, I mean, again, you look at our capital projection for this year, $260 million, which is significantly lower than it was last year. There is not a lot of CapEx at this particular stage that's in that forecast. So again, we're looking at a variety of different funding sources for that. We're working on the definitive feasibility study. We've added some people into that group to continue to progress that work forward. But as of right now, there's not a significant amount of capital on that rare earth piece yet. Great. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Next question is from Jeff Zekauskas at JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Thanks very much. Can you remind us what the volume change was in TiO2 for the year for Tronox? Were you down about 2%? And in that context, did the global TiO2 industry contract a little bit in 2025? And if it did, by how much, in your opinion? Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. Your estimates on volumes Q 2024 to 2025 are pretty close, and I would say probably the market was somewhat similar to that. Again, it was, I'd say, maybe a little bit more of a tale of, you know, what happened in the first and second quarter versus what happened in the third and fourth quarter. And again, the fourth quarter, we saw a significant increase. I think we were targeting 3%-5% increase in volumes. We were up 9%. A significant amount of that was actually coming from volumes that came in Asia, predominantly in India. And a lot of that came from a shift in market share as a result of the anti-dumping duties. So we picked up volume in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia. We picked up volume in Brazil, and we picked up volume in India. And I made reference on the call about, you know, the shift in the first quarter. So in the fourth quarter, they were-- The, the duties were stayed, but they were still being collected. In the middle of December, a court ruling came which eliminated the requirement for those duties to be collected. So now you've got a shift of customers in India that are starting to buy more from China. We're still selling in India, but the, the volume between Q4 and Q1 is down. But we would expect that the anti-dumping duties are going to be reinstated, and once that happens, we'll see that shift back to, you know, local producers, Western producers, including Tronox. Okay. You've spoken of TiO2 prices as being at an inflection point, and, you know, when you look at the global coatings industry in Europe and China and the United States, it doesn't seem as though there's much volume growth. You know, maybe it's up a tiny bit or down a tiny bit or flat. So what is it that makes us at an inflection point in TiO2, given a soft demand background? Well, I think one thing you've got to reference is that since 2023, you've had 1.1 million tons of capacity go away. So any movement towards a regular buying pattern where people were driving down inventories created a significant shift. Then you've got the anti-dumping duties, which are also helping that. So I wouldn't disagree with you that there hasn't been a significant move in demand. A lot of this has been structural shifts based on a lot of the proactive work that we've been doing as an industry to try to get the business in a profitable place. That being said, when we look into the first quarter, we're seeing volume growth in every region except Asia, specifically India, as I just mentioned, and we're starting to see, you know, coating season, which is normalized. And again, I made this point on the last call. If you think about the duty-affected areas at the peak of exports from China into those areas, so Europe, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia, that's about 800,000 tons of exports from China. And again, I made this comment last time, use the US as a proxy when the Trump 301 tariffs went into place back in 2018. You know, 900,000 ton per year market, where only 20,000 tons of TiO2 is being exported from China. So I'm not assuming it's gonna go to that, but if you think about. Let's just say that there's half of that volume, half of that eight hundred thousand dollars, 800,000 tons gets distributed to other suppliers. It's reasonable to assume that we would get at least 25% of that. That's 100,000 tons, and at that rate, we're sold out. We're selling more than we're making with our new footprint. And we've redistributed our products so that we can continue to service the customers that came out of Botlek. Probably not so much in China, because we exited that market because it just wasn't profitable. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next question will be John McNulty at BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning. This is Caleb on for John. So I have a couple quick follow-ups. So the I think it was Josh's question earlier on the production cost quarter-over-quarter. Do you expect that benefit to grow sequentially throughout the year? Or did I kind of, like, misconstrue what you were saying earlier? Yeah, I think it, so some of it related to, you know, some improvements in our operating sites, which were challenged in Q4, as we've mentioned, from a Stallingborough perspective. So we do see our sites operating at a decent clip in Q1, so shouldn't see a huge increase in from operating well or at higher rates. We are ramping up some plants a bit more, so you'll see some of that. But a big driver is the sustainable cost improvement program that we'll see get larger throughout the year. And so from Q4 to Q1, it had a lot to do with the higher costs rolling into, you know, our balance sheet from the outages that we had. But when you think about on a TiO2 basis, not gonna share our budget with you, but our costs were relatively flat throughout the year. With the forecast that we currently have with running our mining operations at lower rates in the first half of the year than we are in the second half of the year, if we start to ramp up in the second half of the year, costs will go down on the mining side of the business. Gotcha. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. And then what exactly are you thinking for, like, the base case for U.S. and the Chinese housing markets for this year? It's embedded in kind of your free cash flow guide for the year. Yeah, look, it's a great question, and I know a lot of the customers that we sell to are companies that you follow. I think a lot of it in the U.S. is gonna depend on interest rates. So, what I can say is that our volumes that we're forecasting right now for the year do not assume a significant swing up on the construction side of the business. Volumes are being driven a lot by the activities that were put in place for the structural shift on anti-dumping. There is some growth. We're seeing, you know, a seasonal improvement in Europe and in North America. This year is similar to what we saw last year in the first quarter. And last year in the first quarter, we had a pretty good bump up in our sales. The reason it's not bumping up this quarter is because we're coming off of a very strong fourth quarter. So, you know, it's, there's been a lot of investment in Germany. Germany is spending a lot of time trying to figure out how they can reengage that economy. So we're hopeful that the economy is gonna pick up, and we'll see a swing in the construction market, but we're not planning on that being a crutch to lean on all year long. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Thank you. Next question will be for Peter Osterland at Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. For TiO2, what are the dynamics around mix that you're expecting in the first quarter? On a year-over-year basis, is mix expected to be a headwind, and what are the major drivers there? Thank you. Well, Q4 to Q1 mix will be a tailwind on price. So as I mentioned, Asia was, we sold a lot more in Asia, and there's some lower margin sales in Asia in the fourth quarter. India sales in the first quarter are down for reasons that I explained, and we're seeing a seasonal build in Europe and in the U.S., which typically yields higher margins. So when I reference first quarter, we're implementing price increases. We estimate those price increases to be 2%-4%. That's a mix between actual price increases and the positive mix that we're getting from selling into higher price markets. Very helpful. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, on the potential for a higher zircon pricing beginning in the second quarter, could you just size approximately the price increase that you're targeting? And are you seeing market dynamics that are favorable enough to potentially support continued price recovery beyond the second quarter? So we're negotiating with a lot of different customers. I can't provide you with specifics on price, but I can say that I've got a high level of confidence based on what we're seeing right now, that the increases that we're working on for Q2 will start to be implemented. And if the market continues to be tight, and again, I made reference that our volumes or our inventory is getting lower. We had a strong fourth quarter. Again, first quarter is gonna be a mirror image of that. So I would expect that the industry is gonna continue to get tight. We're also starting to see buying patterns from customers where they had destocked. They're restocking, getting back to normal buying patterns, and we have seen-- I think on the last call, I said we'd started to see some positives on the zircon side of the business everywhere except China. Now we're starting to see some positive moves on the Chinese consumption. So it's a bit early for me to give you an annual guide, but I have confidence that, you know, for lots of reasons, price momentum will continue beyond Q2. But that's still a bit early to call that definitively. Great. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Next question will be from Frank Mitsch at Fermium Research. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, John. Listen, I mean, when I see something like 13% volume growth at the same time, the price is down 8%, you know, my macro 101 suggests that, you know, there's a price war breaking out, and people are using price to grab volumes. You know, you've been outlining why that's not the case, but what are you seeing on behalf of the industry as a whole? You're announcing price increases. It takes two to tango. Is there some resolve in the industry, you believe, and some price discipline, given that we're at, you know, pretty low profitability levels? Any color there would be very helpful. Yeah, it's a great question, Frank. Thanks. Again, I can't speak to everybody. What I can tell you is what I hear in the industry, and that's everybody's announcing price increases. So we aren't on an island. And again, for us to be getting traction on prices, others need to be pushing. China has made some announcements. The question is, will they implement those price increases? There's other things that are going on as well. I mean, we talk a lot about anti-dumping. I mean, there's some activity going on to try to increase those duties in Europe. But the reality is profitability in the industry, when you look at, you know, for a fourth quarter, EBITDA announcements by the publicly traded companies, there, there wasn't a lot of EBITDA there. Now, I can't presuppose what's going to happen when other announcements happen, but I think the industry needs to get back to a profitable place. So part of it has to do with profitability, but at the end of the day, there has to be, to your point, it does take two to tango, and you can't be on an island. I do believe that the industry is moving towards price increases. I can't speak to exactly what that will look like, but I do think that, based on what we're hearing, we're not the only one announcing increases. All right I'd say one contributing factor that with respect to our Chinese competitors, is sulfur prices have gone up significantly. If you take a look at where they were since mid-2025, they're up 70%. So they are facing a big headwind on raw material costs. Yeah, that's, I think it's a good point 'cause it's not just Chinese. It's anybody that makes TiO2 on the sulfate base. So it's all the European sulfate producers. And John made that point, it's up 70% since July of last year. Since the beginning of 2025, it's up 160%. And that's not sustainable. It has a lot to do with the Ukraine-Russia war, but there's lots of reasons why prices need to move. But the point you made is the most valid one, Frank, and that is, it all depends on, you know, how the competition work, and I can't speak exactly to that other than we're not the only one announcing increases. That's, that's very helpful color. And I appreciate the breakouts on Slide 6 and 7 in terms of, in terms of what drove sales and what drove EBITDA. What jumped out at me was volumes, sequentially increasing $56 million on the top line, but $2 million, on the bottom line, sequentially. I was wondering if you could speak to the, you know, incremental margins, on, on, on volume growth and what your expectations are there. Great question. And again, a lot of that has to do with a lot of the sales that we had or a lot of the sales growth we had in the fourth quarter. I would say the variance between the three to five guide that we had and the nine that we actually achieved had a lot to do with where we sold it, and a lot of that was in Asia, and the significant portion of it was in India. Again, we're still competing with the Chinese over there, so it had a lot to do with where we're selling. So when we think about the volume shifting in the first quarter, it's shifting away from those markets, and that's why part of our margin improvement in the first quarter is being driven by mix, and that's regional mix, in addition to price increases. Terrific. Thanks so much. Thank you, Frank. Next question will be from Vincent Andrews at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Good morning, this is Justin Pellegrino on for Vincent. I was just hoping you could describe the next process and kind of the anti-dumping duty story here. Now, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers for share that had originally been ceded to the Chinese? And then are there any other markets that you're watching for potential anti-dumping duty measures in the future? Thank you. Yeah, I'll start with the last question, and I would say anywhere where there's TiO2 production, there's probably work underway to look at anti-dumping. I can't go into any specifics, but, you know, this is a shifting tide. And as I mentioned before, in Asia, China's largely saturated that market, but there's other areas where TiO2 is produced, and, you know, there's work underway in every one of those regions on anti-dumping. Could you restate your first part of the question again, so I make sure I answered it? Yeah, absolutely. I was just kind of curious, you know, as we've seen these anti-dumping duties put in place, you know, now that they're largely in place. You know, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers that was originally share that was ceded to the Chinese? You know, is it largely a price dynamic, or are there other competitive actions that you can take to try and gain share? From other Western suppliers, I would say the majority of what we're doing with anti-dumping is actually taking share from China. So again, when we think about our marketing plan, there's areas that are strategic for us, and we'll continue to grow in those markets. But anti-dumping is largely going to be a structural shift where we're taking share that we basically lost to China as they were dumping. Not to say that we don't compete with all the other Western suppliers, we do, but anti-dumping isn't really driving an opportunity for us to go out and do anything other than recapture share that the Chinese actually had taken based off of very low dumping prices. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next question will be from Roger Spitz, Bank of America. Please go ahead. Thank you very much, and good morning. Maybe you said it and I missed it, but if you exclude for TiO2 price for Q4 on a year-over-year basis or sequential basis, if you exclude the regional mix, which was an adverse mix, what was TiO2 pricing? Was it essentially flat? It was down 2%, and that was we forecasted. Okay. Yeah. The other 2% was mix. Okay. And the Stallingborough downtime, did you provide an EBITDA impact in Q4 from that? About $11 million. Got it. And lastly, for me, have you or can you say what is the total fixed cost savings of having shut Botlek and Fuzhou on an annual basis? Yeah, so, you know, as we've for Botlek perspective, we've mentioned that, you know, longer term, our fixed cost leverage would be about $30 million of savings, and then Fuzhou would be about $15 million dollar savings. Just to be clear, maybe on that Stallingborough comment, that outage is behind us. Yes, got it. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Next question will be from John Roberts at Mizuho. Please go ahead. Please go ahead, Mr. Roberts. Sorry, I was on mute. Should we think about normal seasonal sequential volumes after the March quarter? You know, it's obviously been pretty volatile and unusual seasonality in the last couple of quarters, but is that so? In your mind, kind of when we normalize again? Yeah, I would say even in the fourth quarter, when you look—I mean, the first quarter, when we think about seasonal volumes, and I made a reference that you look at Europe and North America, the Q4 to Q1 growth is pretty similar to what we're seeing, what we saw last year, and that was an uptick. And we're forecasting normal seasonal growth. Now, to the extent we see, you know, more of a pickup in demand and it's not just a structural shift, then you could get a bit of a higher bump on that. But I think a lot of that's gonna depend on the housing market and what happens with interest rates. But short answer is yes, we'd see more of a normal shift in seasonal demand. Could you share any updated thoughts on the proposed China acquisition of the idled U.K. TiO2 plant? I can tell you that, you know, there's a lot of work going on there. There was an article that came out earlier this week. CMA is obviously investigating that. I think on the last call, we said that it's not a slam dunk, that still a work in progress, and I can't give you clear visibility on what's gonna happen there. But there's a lot of, let's say, activity going on around that acquisition, and there's been no decision on how that's gonna be concluded yet. Thank you. Next question comes from Aaron Rosenthal at JPMorgan Chase. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning. Thanks for the call. Is your definition of cash flows being referenced both on the call and in the slides, you know, defined as cash from ops plus CapEx, or is there an adjusted cash flow definition that we should think about? And, on that same front, what are your expected cash restructuring charges this year? Yeah. No, that's correct. It's free cash flow after-- It's basically before the dividend and other debt movements. And then from a restructuring charge perspective, we, you know, the mass majority of the Botlek restructuring charges were hit in 2025. So we do see a significant reduction, just about $6 million left there. And then China, you know, we expect about $15 million or so restructuring charges related to that. So overall, over a $50 million improvement on a cash basis year-over-year. Okay, great. And then just looking at liquidity and thinking about the cash flow bridge. So 1Q cash burn, that makes sense, 2Q, maybe flattish, and then an implied 2H, you know, cash generation. But as you think about effective liquidity, you know, pro forma at 3/31 or into the second quarter, it seems like it's gonna be very light, and with very little margin of error. Are you entertaining any additional sources of liquidity in the near term? Equity is up a lot secured bonds are par. The market loves chem. It seems like right now would be a very opportunistic time. Yeah, so we’ve ended the year with $674 million of liquidity. So we believe that is a strong and sufficient amount of liquidity to lever or to manage through any cycle. We’ve said in the past that, you know, we can operate as low as $200 million or so of liquidity. We like to go into Q1 with over $300 million, as, you know, that is the biggest use for us. So we’re more than double the position of even being comfortable at the, you know, at a reasonable range. So, we're just focused on running the business, managing, you know, pulling levers that we can, but, you know, as we expect to generate significant amount of free cash flow in the rest of the year after Q1, we think we're in a solid position. Great. If I could just sneak maybe one more in. I think beyond the, you know, the primary cash flow revolver, there's a handful of other smaller facilities. I think there's one that was up for renewal. I think it was maybe $50 or $60 million in 2026. Is the expectation that you are going to renew and extend that? Yes, we normally get those renewed every year. We have a couple facilities in the U.K. and Saudi that we get renewed. Great. Thank you. Next question will be from Hassan Ahmed at Alembic Global. Please go ahead. Morning, John. John, obviously, a lot of comments made about volume growth in 2026 year-on-year, and then obviously, you know, expecting a positive titanium dioxide sort of pricing inflection. So just wanted to sort of bring all of those factors together and, you know, seek some clarification. Look, I mean, my understanding is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you guys obviously had a very strong Q4 volume-wise, right? So, you know, even if the market does not demand-wise grow that much, you know, this year, just you know, for Tronox in particular, you know, the sort of market share gains from anti-dumping and the like should put you in a very decent position to show meaningful volume growth year-on-year. So, first part of that question is, is that fair to assume? With, you know. And then, you know, obviously, restocking and maybe growth in the market would just be gravy from a volume perspective. And then, you know, alongside that, on the pricing side of things, you know, it just seems that towards the end of last year, pricing got a bit sloppy. You know, you had a bankruptcy out in England. You know, there was this chatter about, you know, inventory being sold at below market pricing and the like. So a combination of maybe the absence of that and a lot of folks not making EBITDA, you know, you know, is that really what's driving your confidence in terms of getting pricing in Q1 and beyond? Yeah, thanks, Hassan. I think, I'll start with the first part of your question, and you're exactly right. We're not forecasting a tremendous amount of demand growth. This has a lot to do with the restructuring of the business. And again, I made that reference, if you know we only get if China keeps half the exports that they were exporting at the peak, and we get 25% of that 400,000 tons, it's 100,000 tons for us, and, you know, very quickly, we're sold out. To the extent market demand improves, then that's going to be additional volume for us. So we're not banking on a significant recovery, although, as I mentioned last quarter, the market will recover. I can't specify exactly, but we're starting to see seasonal trends that will lend itself towards supporting that. So I agree with everything you said from a demand perspective. On the pricing side of the equation, I would agree with you as well. You know, there were, there were a lot of reasons why pricing should not have gone down in the fourth quarter. It did. We're starting to not only announce increases, we're implementing them in the first quarter. And, you know, kind of going back off the question Frank had earlier, you can't do that if you're on an island. I tell you, you know, if we're the only one raising pricing and there's a, a supply-demand that's out of balance, then it's hard to do that. So I would agree with that. And again, you start to think about the recovery. The recovery is going to be an inflection that will be a bit different because there is a lot of Western supply that's just not there anymore because it's permanently closed. Every single Western supplier has closed plants. We've closed, too, and one supplier doesn't even exist anymore, and it wasn't like, you know, they weren't a good supplier. So I would agree with everything that you said. If the market picks up and interest rates start to move and housing moves in the right direction, that'll only be a catalyst for higher pricing. Very helpful. As a follow-up, obviously, you know, everything pointing towards, you know, 2026 certainly being a better year than 2025, and, you know, hopefully, you know, things cycling up thereafter. I mean, you know, with that said, where do we stand in terms of rationalization? I know you talked about it in prior calls, even on this call, that 1.1 million ton figure of sort of capacity shut down since 2023. You know, are you—I mean, with this sort of improving backdrop, I mean, what are your thoughts about further rationalizations, particularly as they pertain to China? You know, I keep sort of thinking through, you know, at least 20 facilities in China being less than 50,000 tons. How does the whole sort of anti-involution thing play in and further rationalization happen if indeed the environment is getting a bit better? Yeah, it's another good question. You know, the closure of our Fuzhou plant was not an easy decision, and it wasn't as if it was, you know, low on the profitability wheel in China. We don't get subsidized, but, you know, it's a great question. I would have thought capacity would have closed already, and to the extent these anti-dumping initiatives continue to expand, as we believe they will, outside the regions they're already implemented in, you're gonna have to see some kind of rationalization. And again, is it going to be in China? Will it be outside of China? I think there could be a mixture of both. I can't tell you how long sulfur prices are gonna be up, but that is a significant headwind in the industry right now. Price is up in 12 months, almost 160%. That's not sustainable. It takes about 1.3 million tons of sulfur to make a ton of pigment. So you do the math, it's a lot of money. So I would expect if the market continues to recover quickly, maybe you won't see as much. If it takes a bit longer to recover, you might see more rationalization. And China is still kind of an unknown. I would have expected more capacity to come out already. Very helpful, John. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer portion, as well as our conference call for today. We would like to thank you for attending and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Speaker 14: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tronox Holdings Q4 2025 Earnings Call. I note that all participants are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also, note that this call is being recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026. I would like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Guenther, Chief Sustainability Officer, Head of Investor Relations and External Affairs. Please go ahead. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tronox Holdings Q4 2025 Earnings Call. good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to tronox holdings q4 2025 earnings call I note that all participants are in the listen-only mode. i note that all participants are in the listen-only mode Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. following the presentation we will conduct a question-and-answer session If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. if at any time during this call you require immediate assistance please press star zero for the operator Also, note that this call is being recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026. also note that this call is being recorded on thursday february 19 2026 I would like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Guenther, Chief Sustainability Officer, Head of Investor Relations and External Affairs. i would like to turn the conference over to jennifer guenther chief sustainability officer head of investor relations and external affairs Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 8: Thank you, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call and webcast. Turning to Slide 2, on our call today are John Romano, Chief Executive Officer, and John Srivisal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will be using slides as we move through today's call. You can access the presentation on our website at investor.tronox.com. Moving to Slide 3. A friendly reminder that comments made on this call and the information provided in our presentation and on our website include certain statements that are forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the specific factors summarized in our SEC filings. This information represents our best judgment based on what we know today. However, actual results may vary based on these risks and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Thank you, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call and webcast. thank you and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call and webcast Turning to Slide 2, on our call today are John Romano, Chief Executive Officer, and John Srivisal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. turning to slide 2 on our call today are john romano chief executive officer and john srivisal senior vice president and chief financial officer We will be using slides as we move through today's call. we will be using slides as we move through today's call You can access the presentation on our website at investor.tronox.com. you can access the presentation on our website at investor.tronox.com Moving to Slide 3. moving to slide 3 A friendly reminder that comments made on this call and the information provided in our presentation and on our website include certain statements that are forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the specific factors summarized in our SEC filings. a friendly reminder that comments made on this call and the information provided in our presentation and on our website include certain statements that are forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties including but not limited to the specific factors summarized in our sec filings This information represents our best judgment based on what we know today. this information represents our best judgment based on what we know today However, actual results may vary based on these risks and uncertainties. however actual results may vary based on these risks and uncertainties The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements During the conference call, we will refer to certain non-U.S. GAAP financial terms that we use in the management of our business and believe are useful to investors in evaluating the company's performance. Reconciliations to their nearest U.S. GAAP terms are provided in our earnings release and in the appendix of the accompanying presentation. Additionally, please note that all financial comparisons made during the call are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to John Romano. John? During the conference call, we will refer to certain non-U.S. during the conference call we will refer to certain non-u.s GAAP financial terms that we use in the management of our business and believe are useful to investors in evaluating the company's performance. gaap financial terms that we use in the management of our business and believe are useful to investors in evaluating the company's performance Reconciliations to their nearest U.S. reconciliations to their nearest u.s GAAP terms are provided in our earnings release and in the appendix of the accompanying presentation. gaap terms are provided in our earnings release and in the appendix of the accompanying presentation Additionally, please note that all financial comparisons made during the call are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. additionally please note that all financial comparisons made during the call are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to John Romano. it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to john romano John? john

Speaker 10: Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. We'll begin this morning on Slide 4 with some key messages from the quarter and the full year. Tronox delivered a stronger finish to 2025 than anticipated by remaining focused on the things we can control and influence. Safety continues to be one of our core values and remains our number one priority across the company. In a year marked by challenges, volatility, and inevitable distractions, maintaining that focus has never been more important. Despite that environment, I'm pleased to report that in 2025, we delivered our best safety performance in more than a decade, achieving our lowest overall injury rate for the period. This is a reflection of our team's discipline, diligence, and unwavering commitment to keeping one another safe. Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. thanks jennifer and good morning everyone We'll begin this morning on Slide 4 with some key messages from the quarter and the full year. we'll begin this morning on slide 4 with some key messages from the quarter and the full year Tronox delivered a stronger finish to 2025 than anticipated by remaining focused on the things we can control and influence. tronox delivered a stronger finish to 2025 than anticipated by remaining focused on the things we can control and influence Safety continues to be one of our core values and remains our number one priority across the company. safety continues to be one of our core values and remains our number one priority across the company In a year marked by challenges, volatility, and inevitable distractions, maintaining that focus has never been more important. in a year marked by challenges volatility and inevitable distractions maintaining that focus has never been more important Despite that environment, I'm pleased to report that in 2025, we delivered our best safety performance in more than a decade, achieving our lowest overall injury rate for the period. despite that environment i'm pleased to report that in 2025 we delivered our best safety performance in more than a decade achieving our lowest overall injury rate for the period This is a reflection of our team's discipline, diligence, and unwavering commitment to keeping one another safe. this is a reflection of our team's discipline diligence and unwavering commitment to keeping one another safe From a financial perspective, we concluded the year with stronger volumes than anticipated and executed on actions to drive cash flow and improve our long-term cost position. TiO2 volumes in the fourth quarter reached their highest point of the year, a pattern that was previously only observed during the COVID period in 2020. This notable trend underscores how anti-dumping duties have positively influenced the relative markets. Our gains in India and other protected regions show increased market share and suggest a structural change in the global TiO2 trade flows. As anticipated, TiO2 prices were lower in the quarter, and mix was an incremental headwind due to higher sales in Asia. However, we are now implementing price increases that are beginning to show results in the first quarter. From a financial perspective, we concluded the year with stronger volumes than anticipated and executed on actions to drive cash flow and improve our long-term cost position. from a financial perspective we concluded the year with stronger volumes than anticipated and executed on actions to drive cash flow and improve our long-term cost position TiO2 volumes in the fourth quarter reached their highest point of the year, a pattern that was previously only observed during the COVID period in 2020. tio2 volumes in the fourth quarter reached their highest point of the year a pattern that was previously only observed during the covid period in 2020 This notable trend underscores how anti-dumping duties have positively influenced the relative markets. this notable trend underscores how anti-dumping duties have positively influenced the relative markets Our gains in India and other protected regions show increased market share and suggest a structural change in the global TiO2 trade flows. our gains in india and other protected regions show increased market share and suggest a structural change in the global tio2 trade flows As anticipated, TiO2 prices were lower in the quarter, and mix was an incremental headwind due to higher sales in Asia. as anticipated tio2 prices were lower in the quarter and mix was an incremental headwind due to higher sales in asia However, we are now implementing price increases that are beginning to show results in the first quarter. however we are now implementing price increases that are beginning to show results in the first quarter Early indications show positive momentum, and with a shift toward higher price regions, market dynamics are gradually moving in a favorable direction. Zircon volumes concluded the year positively, supported by customers restocking and resuming normal buying patterns. Zircon pricing was a headwind in the quarter, compounded by unfavorable mix. That being said, we've announced price increases and are optimistic that they will be implemented in the second quarter. From an operational standpoint, we maintained a disciplined approach to cash preservation and inventory management. While certain measures impacted EBITDA for the quarter, they reinforced working capital discipline, resulting in $53 million of free cash flow, a notable achievement given the challenging environment. We also executed on an opportunistic $400 million senior secured note offering in September, proactively increasing liquidity. Early indications show positive momentum, and with a shift toward higher price regions, market dynamics are gradually moving in a favorable direction. early indications show positive momentum and with a shift toward higher price regions market dynamics are gradually moving in a favorable direction Zircon volumes concluded the year positively, supported by customers restocking and resuming normal buying patterns. zircon volumes concluded the year positively supported by customers restocking and resuming normal buying patterns Zircon pricing was a headwind in the quarter, compounded by unfavorable mix. zircon pricing was a headwind in the quarter compounded by unfavorable mix That being said, we've announced price increases and are optimistic that they will be implemented in the second quarter. that being said we've announced price increases and are optimistic that they will be implemented in the second quarter From an operational standpoint, we maintained a disciplined approach to cash preservation and inventory management. from an operational standpoint we maintained a disciplined approach to cash preservation and inventory management While certain measures impacted EBITDA for the quarter, they reinforced working capital discipline, resulting in $53 million of free cash flow, a notable achievement given the challenging environment. while certain measures impacted ebitda for the quarter they reinforced working capital discipline resulting in $53 million of free cash flow a notable achievement given the challenging environment We also executed on an opportunistic $400 million senior secured note offering in September, proactively increasing liquidity. we also executed on an opportunistic $400 million senior secured note offering in september proactively increasing liquidity In addition, we took the necessary actions on our footprint to position the business for the long term, including announcing the closures of two of our pigment plants. The decision to close the Fuzhou plant in China, as announced last month, was driven by prolonged market downturn, weak domestic demand, overcapacity, and unsustainable pricing levels in China. Combined with the Botlek closure, which we announced in March of last year, these actions streamline our footprint and improve our cost structure over the long term while ensuring we can continue to reliably serve customers through a more efficient global network. We thank our Botlek and Fuzhou teams for their unwavering commitment to safety and their contributions as they have made to Tronox over the years. Transitioning to our sustainable cost improvement program, we continued to make significant progress. In addition, we took the necessary actions on our footprint to position the business for the long term, including announcing the closures of two of our pigment plants. in addition we took the necessary actions on our footprint to position the business for the long term including announcing the closures of two of our pigment plants The decision to close the Fuzhou plant in China, as announced last month, was driven by prolonged market downturn, weak domestic demand, overcapacity, and unsustainable pricing levels in China. the decision to close the fuzhou plant in china as announced last month was driven by prolonged market downturn weak domestic demand overcapacity and unsustainable pricing levels in china Combined with the Botlek closure, which we announced in March of last year, these actions streamline our footprint and improve our cost structure over the long term while ensuring we can continue to reliably serve customers through a more efficient global network. combined with the botlek closure which we announced in march of last year these actions streamline our footprint and improve our cost structure over the long term while ensuring we can continue to reliably serve customers through a more efficient global network We thank our Botlek and Fuzhou teams for their unwavering commitment to safety and their contributions as they have made to Tronox over the years. we thank our botlek and fuzhou teams for their unwavering commitment to safety and their contributions as they have made to tronox over the years Transitioning to our sustainable cost improvement program, we continued to make significant progress. transitioning to our sustainable cost improvement program we continued to make significant progress We exited 2025 with more than $90 million of run rate savings, three times our original target, and we remained on pace for the high end of our $125 million-$175 million run rate target at the exit of 2026. We're now tracking more than 2,000 initiatives. More than 500 of them are already delivering savings, and another 250 are moving through the planning and execution stage. The largest benefits came from fixed cost reductions, including the workforce action across labor, contractors, and outside services, along with SG&A reductions that came in ahead of plan. These savings are helping us offset a number of headwinds this year and continue to structurally lower our costs for the long term. We also reached key milestones on our mining projects in South Africa last year. We exited 2025 with more than $90 million of run rate savings, three times our original target, and we remained on pace for the high end of our $125 million-$175 million run rate target at the exit of 2026. we exited 2025 with more than $90 million of run rate savings three times our original target and we remained on pace for the high end of our $125 million-$175 million run rate target at the exit of 2026 We're now tracking more than 2,000 initiatives. we're now tracking more than 2,000 initiatives More than 500 of them are already delivering savings, and another 250 are moving through the planning and execution stage. more than 500 of them are already delivering savings and another 250 are moving through the planning and execution stage The largest benefits came from fixed cost reductions, including the workforce action across labor, contractors, and outside services, along with SG&A reductions that came in ahead of plan. the largest benefits came from fixed cost reductions including the workforce action across labor contractors and outside services along with sg&a reductions that came in ahead of plan These savings are helping us offset a number of headwinds this year and continue to structurally lower our costs for the long term. these savings are helping us offset a number of headwinds this year and continue to structurally lower our costs for the long term We also reached key milestones on our mining projects in South Africa last year. we also reached key milestones on our mining projects in south africa last year We commenced mining at Fairbreeze and began the commissioning of East OFS. We also advanced our rare earth strategy with the announcement in December of the conditional, non-binding financing with EFA and EXIM Bank for the building out of a cracking and leaching facility in Australia. We are progressing our work on definitive feasibility study and continue to evaluate adding refining capacity to the value chain. As we look ahead, we're cautiously optimistic, and that optimism is grounded in facts and execution. Market dynamics are starting to change. TiO2 prices are improving as a result of price increase announcements that are starting to take effect in the first quarter, and we expect favorable mix benefit from selling more into higher price regions. At the same time, our actions on inventory, cost, and portfolio rationalization are designed to counterbalance near-term headwinds and support cash generation. We commenced mining at Fairbreeze and began the commissioning of East OFS. we commenced mining at fairbreeze and began the commissioning of east ofs We also advanced our rare earth strategy with the announcement in December of the conditional, non-binding financing with EFA and EXIM Bank for the building out of a cracking and leaching facility in Australia. we also advanced our rare earth strategy with the announcement in december of the conditional non-binding financing with efa and exim bank for the building out of a cracking and leaching facility in australia We are progressing our work on definitive feasibility study and continue to evaluate adding refining capacity to the value chain. we are progressing our work on definitive feasibility study and continue to evaluate adding refining capacity to the value chain As we look ahead, we're cautiously optimistic, and that optimism is grounded in facts and execution. as we look ahead we're cautiously optimistic and that optimism is grounded in facts and execution Market dynamics are starting to change. market dynamics are starting to change TiO2 prices are improving as a result of price increase announcements that are starting to take effect in the first quarter, and we expect favorable mix benefit from selling more into higher price regions. tio2 prices are improving as a result of price increase announcements that are starting to take effect in the first quarter and we expect favorable mix benefit from selling more into higher price regions At the same time, our actions on inventory, cost, and portfolio rationalization are designed to counterbalance near-term headwinds and support cash generation. at the same time our actions on inventory cost and portfolio rationalization are designed to counterbalance near-term headwinds and support cash generation As pricing and costs improve from actions already underway, I expect free cash flow to be positive in 2026. Taken together, these developments position us for a step change in earnings power as market fundamentals continue to improve. I'll speak to 2026 in more detail later in the call, but for now, I'll turn the call over to John for a review of our financials from 2025 in more detail. John? As pricing and costs improve from actions already underway, I expect free cash flow to be positive in 2026. as pricing and costs improve from actions already underway i expect free cash flow to be positive in 2026 Taken together, these developments position us for a step change in earnings power as market fundamentals continue to improve. taken together these developments position us for a step change in earnings power as market fundamentals continue to improve I'll speak to 2026 in more detail later in the call, but for now, I'll turn the call over to John for a review of our financials from 2025 in more detail. i'll speak to 2026 in more detail later in the call but for now i'll turn the call over to john for a review of our financials from 2025 in more detail John? john

Speaker 11: Thank you, John. Turning to Slide 5. For the full-year 2025, we generated revenue of $2.9 billion. The year-over-year decline was driven by unfavorable pricing and mix, and lower volumes in both TiO2 and zircon. Loss from operations was $253 million, and net loss attributable to Tronox was $470 million. These results include $233 million of restructuring and other charges, net of taxes, primarily related to the closures of Botlek and Fuzhou. While our loss before tax was $458 million, our tax expense was $15 million, primarily driven by not recognizing tax benefits in jurisdictions with losses. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was a loss of $1.50. Adjusted EBITDA was $336 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.6%. Thank you, John. thank you john Turning to Slide 5. turning to slide 5 For the full- year 2025, we generated revenue of $2.9 billion. for the full- year 2025 we generated revenue of $2.9 billion The year-over-year decline was driven by unfavorable pricing and mix, and lower volumes in both TiO2 and zircon. the year-over-year decline was driven by unfavorable pricing and mix and lower volumes in both tio2 and zircon Loss from operations was $253 million, and net loss attributable to Tronox was $470 million. loss from operations was $253 million and net loss attributable to tronox was $470 million These results include $233 million of restructuring and other charges, net of taxes, primarily related to the closures of Botlek and Fuzhou. these results include $233 million of restructuring and other charges net of taxes primarily related to the closures of botlek and fuzhou While our loss before tax was $458 million, our tax expense was $15 million, primarily driven by not recognizing tax benefits in jurisdictions with losses. while our loss before tax was $458 million our tax expense was $15 million primarily driven by not recognizing tax benefits in jurisdictions with losses Adjusted diluted earnings per share was a loss of $1.50. adjusted diluted earnings per share was a loss of $1.50 Adjusted EBITDA was $336 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.6%. adjusted ebitda was $336 million and our adjusted ebitda margin was 11.6% Free cash flow for the year was a use of $281 million, including $341 million of capital expenditures. Since we covered our key fourth quarter figures in the January 26 pre-release, I won't spend time on the financial overview, but will instead move to the next slide to review the highlights on our commercial performance. As John mentioned, volumes were stronger than anticipated across both TiO2 and zircon, partially offset by continued pricing and mixed headwinds. Sequentially, TiO2 revenues increased 5%, driven by a 9% increase in volumes, partially offset by a 4% decline in price, including mix. Volumes exceeded our guidance of up 3%-5%, reflecting continued market share gains in India, Latin America, and the Middle East, supported by anti-dumping measures. North America and Europe were lower, consistent with normal fourth quarter demand patterns. Free cash flow for the year was a use of $281 million, including $341 million of capital expenditures. free cash flow for the year was a use of $281 million including $341 million of capital expenditures Since we covered our key fourth quarter figures in the January 26 pre-release, I won't spend time on the financial overview, but will instead move to the next slide to review the highlights on our commercial performance. since we covered our key fourth quarter figures in the january 26 pre-release i won't spend time on the financial overview but will instead move to the next slide to review the highlights on our commercial performance As John mentioned, volumes were stronger than anticipated across both TiO2 and zircon, partially offset by continued pricing and mixed headwinds. as john mentioned volumes were stronger than anticipated across both tio2 and zircon partially offset by continued pricing and mixed headwinds Sequentially, TiO2 revenues increased 5%, driven by a 9% increase in volumes, partially offset by a 4% decline in price, including mix. sequentially tio2 revenues increased 5% driven by a 9% increase in volumes partially offset by a 4% decline in price including mix Volumes exceeded our guidance of up 3%-5%, reflecting continued market share gains in India, Latin America, and the Middle East, supported by anti-dumping measures. volumes exceeded our guidance of up 3%-5% reflecting continued market share gains in india latin america and the middle east supported by anti-dumping measures North America and Europe were lower, consistent with normal fourth quarter demand patterns. north america and europe were lower consistent with normal fourth quarter demand patterns Pricing was in line with expectations, down 2%, and mix accounted for an additional 2% headwind, primarily due to stronger growth in regions with lower margins and seasonally lower demand in our higher-margin markets. Zircon revenues increased 32% sequentially, driven by a 42% increase in volumes. This exceeded our guidance of 15%-20%. Zircon price was down 7% quarter to quarter, or 10% total, including mix. Revenue from other products increased 10% compared to the prior year, mainly driven by higher pig iron volumes. Sequentially, revenue from other products decreased 17% due to higher sales of heavy mineral concentrate tailings in the third quarter. Turning to the next slide, I will now review our operating performance for the quarter. Pricing was in line with expectations, down 2%, and mix accounted for an additional 2% headwind, primarily due to stronger growth in regions with lower margins and seasonally lower demand in our higher-margin markets. pricing was in line with expectations down 2% and mix accounted for an additional 2% headwind primarily due to stronger growth in regions with lower margins and seasonally lower demand in our higher-margin markets Zircon revenues increased 32% sequentially, driven by a 42% increase in volumes. zircon revenues increased 32% sequentially driven by a 42% increase in volumes This exceeded our guidance of 15%-20%. this exceeded our guidance of 15%-20% Zircon price was down 7% quarter to quarter, or 10% total, including mix. zircon price was down 7% quarter to quarter or 10% total including mix Revenue from other products increased 10% compared to the prior year, mainly driven by higher pig iron volumes. revenue from other products increased 10% compared to the prior year mainly driven by higher pig iron volumes Sequentially, revenue from other products decreased 17% due to higher sales of heavy mineral concentrate tailings in the third quarter. sequentially revenue from other products decreased 17% due to higher sales of heavy mineral concentrate tailings in the third quarter Turning to the next slide, I will now review our operating performance for the quarter. turning to the next slide i will now review our operating performance for the quarter Our adjusted EBITDA, $57 million, represented a 56% decline year-on-year as a result of unfavorable pricing, including mix, higher production costs and higher freight costs, partially offset by the increase in sales volumes, exchange rate tailwinds, and SG&A savings. Year-on-year production costs were higher by $39 million as a result of actions taken to improve cash generation. These actions were deliberate and temporary. Bringing forward maintenance, lower pigment and mining operating rates, idling assets, and additional downtime at Stallingborough drove unfavorable fixed cost absorption and higher idle and LCM charges. These were partially offset by savings from our cost improvement program, as John outlined earlier. Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA declined 23%. Unfavorable pricing, including mix, was partially offset by improved production costs, favorable sales volumes, and lower freight costs. Turning to the next slide. Our adjusted EBITDA, $57 million, represented a 56% decline year-on-year as a result of unfavorable pricing, including mix, higher production costs and higher freight costs, partially offset by the increase in sales volumes, exchange rate tailwinds, and SG&A savings. our adjusted ebitda $57 million represented a 56% decline year-on-year as a result of unfavorable pricing including mix higher production costs and higher freight costs partially offset by the increase in sales volumes exchange rate tailwinds and sg&a savings Year-on-year production costs were higher by $39 million as a result of actions taken to improve cash generation. year-on-year production costs were higher by $39 million as a result of actions taken to improve cash generation These actions were deliberate and temporary. these actions were deliberate and temporary Bringing forward maintenance, lower pigment and mining operating rates, idling assets, and additional downtime at Stallingborough drove unfavorable fixed cost absorption and higher idle and LCM charges. bringing forward maintenance lower pigment and mining operating rates idling assets and additional downtime at stallingborough drove unfavorable fixed cost absorption and higher idle and lcm charges These were partially offset by savings from our cost improvement program, as John outlined earlier. these were partially offset by savings from our cost improvement program as john outlined earlier Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA declined 23%. sequentially adjusted ebitda declined 23% Unfavorable pricing, including mix, was partially offset by improved production costs, favorable sales volumes, and lower freight costs. unfavorable pricing including mix was partially offset by improved production costs favorable sales volumes and lower freight costs Turning to the next slide. turning to the next slide We ended the year with total debt of $3.2 billion and net debt of $3 billion. Our weighted average interest rate in Q4 was approximately 6%, and we maintained swaps such that approximately 77% of our interest rates are fixed through 2028. Importantly, our next significant debt maturity is not until 2029. We do not have any financial covenants on our term loans or bonds. We have one springing financial covenant on our U.S. revolver that we do not expect to trigger. Liquidity as of December 31st increased to $674 million, including $199 million in cash and cash equivalents that are well distributed across the globe, that we are able to move around with little to no frictional cost. We ended the year with total debt of $3.2 billion and net debt of $3 billion. we ended the year with total debt of $3.2 billion and net debt of $3 billion Our weighted average interest rate in Q4 was approximately 6%, and we maintained swaps such that approximately 77% of our interest rates are fixed through 2028. our weighted average interest rate in q4 was approximately 6% and we maintained swaps such that approximately 77% of our interest rates are fixed through 2028 Importantly, our next significant debt maturity is not until 2029. importantly our next significant debt maturity is not until 2029 We do not have any financial covenants on our term loans or bonds. we do not have any financial covenants on our term loans or bonds We have one springing financial covenant on our U.S. revolver that we do not expect to trigger. we have one springing financial covenant on our u.s revolver that we do not expect to trigger Liquidity as of December 31st increased to $674 million, including $199 million in cash and cash equivalents that are well distributed across the globe, that we are able to move around with little to no frictional cost. liquidity as of december 31st increased to $674 million including $199 million in cash and cash equivalents that are well distributed across the globe that we are able to move around with little to no frictional cost Working capital was a use of approximately $26 million for the year, excluding $76 million of restructuring payments related to the closure of our Botlek site. Fourth quarter working capital was a source of $133 million, excluding $19 million of restructuring payments, exceeding our expectations. This was driven by targeted working capital initiatives, including reducing inventory levels. This discipline around working capital will continue into 2026. Our capital expenditures totaled $341 million for the year, with approximately 60% allocated to maintenance and safety, and 40% almost exclusively dedicated to the mining extensions in South Africa to sustain our integrated cost advantage. We returned $48 million to shareholders in the form of dividends paid in 2025. Working capital was a use of approximately $26 million for the year, excluding $76 million of restructuring payments related to the closure of our Botlek site. working capital was a use of approximately $26 million for the year excluding $76 million of restructuring payments related to the closure of our botlek site Fourth quarter working capital was a source of $133 million, excluding $19 million of restructuring payments, exceeding our expectations. fourth quarter working capital was a source of $133 million excluding $19 million of restructuring payments exceeding our expectations This was driven by targeted working capital initiatives, including reducing inventory levels. this was driven by targeted working capital initiatives including reducing inventory levels This discipline around working capital will continue into 2026. this discipline around working capital will continue into 2026 Our capital expenditures totaled $341 million for the year, with approximately 60% allocated to maintenance and safety, and 40% almost exclusively dedicated to the mining extensions in South Africa to sustain our integrated cost advantage. our capital expenditures totaled $341 million for the year with approximately 60% allocated to maintenance and safety and 40% almost exclusively dedicated to the mining extensions in south africa to sustain our integrated cost advantage We returned $48 million to shareholders in the form of dividends paid in 2025. we returned $48 million to shareholders in the form of dividends paid in 2025 As a reminder, Q1 is typically a seasonal use of cash due to timing of payments and the seasonal build of working capital. However, I remain confident in our ability to generate positive free cash flow for the full-year 2026. With that, I'll hand it back to John to review our capital allocation priorities. John? As a reminder, Q1 is typically a seasonal use of cash due to timing of payments and the seasonal build of working capital. as a reminder q1 is typically a seasonal use of cash due to timing of payments and the seasonal build of working capital However, I remain confident in our ability to generate positive free cash flow for the full- year 2026. however i remain confident in our ability to generate positive free cash flow for the full- year 2026 With that, I'll hand it back to John to review our capital allocation priorities. with that i'll hand it back to john to review our capital allocation priorities John? john

Speaker 10: Thanks, John. Turning to Slide 9. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged and focused on cash generation. We continue investing to maintain our assets, our vertical integration, and projects critical to furthering our strategy, including rare earths. With Fairbreeze and East OFS mining spend largely behind us, we're able to reduce our capital expenditures further in 2026. While we have some catch-up capital from delayed projects in 2025, we expect CapEx to be approximately $260 million in the year. We continue to focus on preserving liquidity, and we have plenty of liquidity to manage the business and endure market fluctuations. As the market recovers, we will resume debt paydown, targeting long-term net leverage of less than 3x. Thanks, John. thanks john Turning to Slide 9. turning to slide 9 Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged and focused on cash generation. our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged and focused on cash generation We continue investing to maintain our assets, our vertical integration, and projects critical to furthering our strategy, including rare earths. we continue investing to maintain our assets our vertical integration and projects critical to furthering our strategy including rare earths With Fairbreeze and East OFS mining spend largely behind us, we're able to reduce our capital expenditures further in 2026. with fairbreeze and east ofs mining spend largely behind us we're able to reduce our capital expenditures further in 2026 While we have some catch-up capital from delayed projects in 2025, we expect CapEx to be approximately $260 million in the year. while we have some catch-up capital from delayed projects in 2025 we expect capex to be approximately $260 million in the year We continue to focus on preserving liquidity, and we have plenty of liquidity to manage the business and endure market fluctuations. we continue to focus on preserving liquidity and we have plenty of liquidity to manage the business and endure market fluctuations As the market recovers, we will resume debt paydown, targeting long-term net leverage of less than 3x . as the market recovers we will resume debt paydown targeting long-term net leverage of less than 3x We will do that the same way we navigated this downturn, by staying focused on what we can control and influence, reinforcing the business through cost reduction and cash improvement actions. While prioritizing cash has been a near-term trade-off to EBITDA, these actions strengthen the foundation of the company. With that, I'd like to turn to our 2026 guidance and walk through the cash assumptions that will drive performance this year. Turning to Slide 10. For the first quarter of 2026, we expect TiO2 volumes to be relatively flat sequentially on the back of a very strong fourth quarter. We're experiencing growth in all regions with the exception of Asia, predominantly influenced by India, our second-largest market. We will do that the same way we navigated this downturn, by staying focused on what we can control and influence, reinforcing the business through cost reduction and cash improvement actions. we will do that the same way we navigated this downturn by staying focused on what we can control and influence reinforcing the business through cost reduction and cash improvement actions While prioritizing cash has been a near-term trade-off to EBITDA, these actions strengthen the foundation of the company. while prioritizing cash has been a near-term trade-off to ebitda these actions strengthen the foundation of the company With that, I'd like to turn to our 2026 guidance and walk through the cash assumptions that will drive performance this year. with that i'd like to turn to our 2026 guidance and walk through the cash assumptions that will drive performance this year Turning to Slide 10. turning to slide 10 For the first quarter of 2026, we expect TiO2 volumes to be relatively flat sequentially on the back of a very strong fourth quarter. for the first quarter of 2026 we expect tio2 volumes to be relatively flat sequentially on the back of a very strong fourth quarter We're experiencing growth in all regions with the exception of Asia, predominantly influenced by India, our second-largest market. we're experiencing growth in all regions with the exception of asia predominantly influenced by india our second-largest market This is due to customers shifting a portion of their volumes back to China following the temporary halt of the collection of duties in late December, following a court ruling. We expect this to be a short-term event, as we believe there will be a favorable resolution on duties in the coming weeks, which would shift volumes back to local and Western suppliers, including Tronox. We also expect TiO2 pricing to be up approximately 2%-4% sequentially. We're reflecting the price increases that went into effect at the beginning of the year and the continued shift in mix towards higher-value regions. We expect zircon volumes to mirror the solid performance we had in the fourth quarter. Zircon pricing has stabilized in Q1, and we are optimistic that the price increases we've announced for Q2 will be implemented. This is due to customers shifting a portion of their volumes back to China following the temporary halt of the collection of duties in late December, following a court ruling. this is due to customers shifting a portion of their volumes back to china following the temporary halt of the collection of duties in late december following a court ruling We expect this to be a short-term event, as we believe there will be a favorable resolution on duties in the coming weeks, which would shift volumes back to local and Western suppliers, including Tronox. we expect this to be a short-term event as we believe there will be a favorable resolution on duties in the coming weeks which would shift volumes back to local and western suppliers including tronox We also expect TiO2 pricing to be up approximately 2%-4% sequentially. we also expect tio2 pricing to be up approximately 2%-4% sequentially We're reflecting the price increases that went into effect at the beginning of the year and the continued shift in mix towards higher-value regions. we're reflecting the price increases that went into effect at the beginning of the year and the continued shift in mix towards higher-value regions We expect zircon volumes to mirror the solid performance we had in the fourth quarter. we expect zircon volumes to mirror the solid performance we had in the fourth quarter Zircon pricing has stabilized in Q1, and we are optimistic that the price increases we've announced for Q2 will be implemented. zircon pricing has stabilized in q1 and we are optimistic that the price increases we've announced for q2 will be implemented As we stated earlier, we are focused on generating cash while balancing the impact to EBITDA. We made decisions to keep the West Mine down and one of our furnaces down longer than originally planned, and we also dialed back some production in Australia on the mining side of our business. These decisions reduced near-term EBITDA, but they're focused on our goal of improving working capital and generating positive free cash flow. We are also managing FX volatility on the Australian dollar and South African rand. At the current rates, this translates to a $10 million headwind in Q1 versus Q4 average rates, which has been factored into our guide. As we've done in the past, we are actively evaluating opportunities to utilize financial hedges to manage that volatility. As we stated earlier, we are focused on generating cash while balancing the impact to EBITDA. as we stated earlier we are focused on generating cash while balancing the impact to ebitda We made decisions to keep the West Mine down and one of our furnaces down longer than originally planned, and we also dialed back some production in Australia on the mining side of our business. we made decisions to keep the west mine down and one of our furnaces down longer than originally planned and we also dialed back some production in australia on the mining side of our business These decisions reduced near-term EBITDA, but they're focused on our goal of improving working capital and generating positive free cash flow. these decisions reduced near-term ebitda but they're focused on our goal of improving working capital and generating positive free cash flow We are also managing FX volatility on the Australian dollar and South African rand. we are also managing fx volatility on the australian dollar and south african rand At the current rates, this translates to a $10 million headwind in Q1 versus Q4 average rates, which has been factored into our guide. at the current rates this translates to a $10 million headwind in q1 versus q4 average rates which has been factored into our guide As we've done in the past, we are actively evaluating opportunities to utilize financial hedges to manage that volatility. as we've done in the past we are actively evaluating opportunities to utilize financial hedges to manage that volatility Partially offsetting these pressures are the savings from our sustainable cost improvement plan, which continues to gain traction and will build through the year. Taking all this into consideration, we expect Q1 2026 EBITDA to be in the range of $55 million-$65 million. Incorporated in our positive free cash flow guide for the year are the following assumptions on cash: net cash interest of approximately $185 million, net cash taxes of less than $10 million, capital expenditures of approximately $260 million, and we expect working capital to be a source of cash in excess of $100 million. Turning to Slide 11. From a broader perspective, our first quarter guidance does not fully reflect the underlying earnings potential of our business. Partially offsetting these pressures are the savings from our sustainable cost improvement plan, which continues to gain traction and will build through the year. partially offsetting these pressures are the savings from our sustainable cost improvement plan which continues to gain traction and will build through the year Taking all this into consideration, we expect Q1 2026 EBITDA to be in the range of $55 million-$65 million. taking all this into consideration we expect q1 2026 ebitda to be in the range of $55 million-$65 million Incorporated in our positive free cash flow guide for the year are the following assumptions on cash: net cash interest of approximately $185 million, net cash taxes of less than $10 million, capital expenditures of approximately $260 million, and we expect working capital to be a source of cash in excess of $100 million. incorporated in our positive free cash flow guide for the year are the following assumptions on cash net cash interest of approximately $185 million net cash taxes of less than $10 million capital expenditures of approximately $260 million and we expect working capital to be a source of cash in excess of $100 million Turning to Slide 11. turning to slide 11 From a broader perspective, our first quarter guidance does not fully reflect the underlying earnings potential of our business. from a broader perspective our first quarter guidance does not fully reflect the underlying earnings potential of our business In recent quarters, we've implemented several initiatives to enhance our cost structure, streamline operations, optimize mix, and enable improved pricing. As these measures are realized in our P&L, we will generate significant benefits and establish a solid foundation for earnings growth as the recovery progresses. We believe we are at an inflection point for both TiO2 and zircon price. Additionally, we've outlined a number of actions we've taken over the last year to prioritize cash generation that are temporarily reducing EBITDA. One notable example is how reduced asset utilization affects absorption. As these headwinds subside and as the market continues to recover, we will realize an improvement in our cost structure. As the most geographically diverse TiO2 producer, Tronox is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity created by the rebalancing of the market, evidenced by the effective anti-dumping duties and supply rationalizations in the industry. In recent quarters, we've implemented several initiatives to enhance our cost structure, streamline operations, optimize mix, and enable improved pricing. in recent quarters we've implemented several initiatives to enhance our cost structure streamline operations optimize mix and enable improved pricing As these measures are realized in our P&L, we will generate significant benefits and establish a solid foundation for earnings growth as the recovery progresses. as these measures are realized in our p&l we will generate significant benefits and establish a solid foundation for earnings growth as the recovery progresses We believe we are at an inflection point for both TiO2 and zircon price. we believe we are at an inflection point for both tio2 and zircon price Additionally, we've outlined a number of actions we've taken over the last year to prioritize cash generation that are temporarily reducing EBITDA. additionally we've outlined a number of actions we've taken over the last year to prioritize cash generation that are temporarily reducing ebitda One notable example is how reduced asset utilization affects absorption. one notable example is how reduced asset utilization affects absorption As these headwinds subside and as the market continues to recover, we will realize an improvement in our cost structure. as these headwinds subside and as the market continues to recover we will realize an improvement in our cost structure As the most geographically diverse TiO2 producer, Tronox is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity created by the rebalancing of the market, evidenced by the effective anti-dumping duties and supply rationalizations in the industry. as the most geographically diverse tio2 producer tronox is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity created by the rebalancing of the market evidenced by the effective anti-dumping duties and supply rationalizations in the industry These factors establish the foundation for a meaningful step change in earnings potential. Turning to the next slide, I'll provide a brief update on our rare earths initiative. We continued to advance our rare earth strategy during the quarter, reflecting our objective to move further downstream into separated rare earth oxides over time while maintaining capital discipline. We made meaningful progress toward a definitive feasibility study and are evaluating development pathways to prioritize returns and limit incremental leverage on our balance sheet. Concurrently, we are engaging widely with stakeholders, including potential customers, partners, and funding sources, to identify the most viable and responsible path forward. Our approach remains dedicated to generating long-term shareholder value and balancing strategic opportunities with prudent financial management. We believe that our rare earths present a promising growth platform for Tronox, leveraging our existing mining footprint and expertise in hydrometalurgical and chemical operations. These factors establish the foundation for a meaningful step change in earnings potential. these factors establish the foundation for a meaningful step change in earnings potential Turning to the next slide, I'll provide a brief update on our rare earths initiative. turning to the next slide i'll provide a brief update on our rare earths initiative We continued to advance our rare earth strategy during the quarter, reflecting our objective to move further downstream into separated rare earth oxides over time while maintaining capital discipline. we continued to advance our rare earth strategy during the quarter reflecting our objective to move further downstream into separated rare earth oxides over time while maintaining capital discipline We made meaningful progress toward a definitive feasibility study and are evaluating development pathways to prioritize returns and limit incremental leverage on our balance sheet. we made meaningful progress toward a definitive feasibility study and are evaluating development pathways to prioritize returns and limit incremental leverage on our balance sheet Concurrently, we are engaging widely with stakeholders, including potential customers, partners, and funding sources, to identify the most viable and responsible path forward. concurrently we are engaging widely with stakeholders including potential customers partners and funding sources to identify the most viable and responsible path forward Our approach remains dedicated to generating long-term shareholder value and balancing strategic opportunities with prudent financial management. our approach remains dedicated to generating long-term shareholder value and balancing strategic opportunities with prudent financial management We believe that our rare earths present a promising growth platform for Tronox, leveraging our existing mining footprint and expertise in hydrometalurgical and chemical operations. we believe that our rare earths present a promising growth platform for tronox leveraging our existing mining footprint and expertise in hydrometalurgical and chemical operations That will conclude the prepared remarks. I'll now move to the Q&A portion of the call, so I'll hand the call back over to the operator to facilitate. Operator? That will conclude the prepared remarks. that will conclude the prepared remarks I'll now move to the Q&A portion of the call, so I'll hand the call back over to the operator to facilitate. i'll now move to the q&a portion of the call so i'll hand the call back over to the operator to facilitate Operator? operator

Speaker 14: Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions at this time, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. And if you're on speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. Thank you. First question will be from Josh Spector at UBS. Please go ahead. Thank you, sir. thank you sir Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions at this time, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. ladies and gentlemen if you do have any questions at this time please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. you will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. if you wish to withdraw your question please press star followed by two And if you're on speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. and if you're on speakerphone you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions Thank you. thank you First question will be from Josh Spector at UBS. first question will be from josh spector at ubs Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 12: Yeah. Hi, good morning, guys. So I wanted to ask, if I go through your free cash flow guidance, if to get to breakeven, you probably need about $350 million in EBITDA, roughly. I guess, one, is that how you're thinking about it? And, two, just given where you're starting in 1Q and some of the timing lags that it takes on some of the mining costs to flow through with the lower utilizations, how do you see yourself getting to that level from here? Yeah. yeah Hi, good morning, guys. hi good morning guys So I wanted to ask, if I go through your free cash flow guidance, if to get to breakeven, you probably need about $350 million in EBITDA, roughly. so i wanted to ask if i go through your free cash flow guidance if to get to breakeven you probably need about $350 million in ebitda roughly I guess, one, is that how you're thinking about it? i guess one is that how you're thinking about it And, two, just given where you're starting in 1Q and some of the timing lags that it takes on some of the mining costs to flow through with the lower utilizations, how do you see yourself getting to that level from here? and two just given where you're starting in 1q and some of the timing lags that it takes on some of the mining costs to flow through with the lower utilizations how do you see yourself getting to that level from here

Speaker 10: Yeah. So maybe, Josh, thanks for the question. I'll start and I'll let John add some color. So again, we provided a guide for the year. We haven't provided guidance for the full year. You can get to that math. So we're not providing a guide because there's still lots of variables with regards to how we're running the business. You know, our costs are gonna be large, a lot of our costs are gonna be dependent upon how long we keep the assets down. On the last call, I made reference that we were gonna keep our assets down and focus on cash until we got a couple of good quarters under our belt, and we felt confident that the recovery was underway. Yeah. yeah So maybe, Josh, thanks for the question. so maybe josh thanks for the question I'll start and I'll let John add some color. i'll start and i'll let john add some color So again, we provided a guide for the year. so again we provided a guide for the year We haven't provided guidance for the full year. we haven't provided guidance for the full year You can get to that math. you can get to that math So we're not providing a guide because there's still lots of variables with regards to how we're running the business. so we're not providing a guide because there's still lots of variables with regards to how we're running the business You know, our costs are gonna be large, a lot of our costs are gonna be dependent upon how long we keep the assets down. you know our costs are gonna be large a lot of our costs are gonna be dependent upon how long we keep the assets down On the last call, I made reference that we were gonna keep our assets down and focus on cash until we got a couple of good quarters under our belt, and we felt confident that the recovery was underway. on the last call i made reference that we were gonna keep our assets down and focus on cash until we got a couple of good quarters under our belt and we felt confident that the recovery was underway You know, we got another quarter, so we're still progressing in that direction. We have made some decisions to pull back on one of our furnaces a little bit longer. We've made some other decisions on mining. Again, we're targeting $100 million free of working capital improvement, and, John, you can add some more color on that. You know, we got another quarter, so we're still progressing in that direction. you know we got another quarter so we're still progressing in that direction We have made some decisions to pull back on one of our furnaces a little bit longer. we have made some decisions to pull back on one of our furnaces a little bit longer We've made some other decisions on mining. we've made some other decisions on mining Again, we're targeting $100 million free of working capital improvement, and, John, you can add some more color on that. again we're targeting $100 million free of working capital improvement and john you can add some more color on that

Speaker 11: Yeah, no, I think, you know, obviously, we from looking at where we got in Q1 to the rest of the year, we do see, obviously, our EBITDA expanding, to get to that positive free cash flow, if not, more significant than that. Some of it will be driven by earnings. As John mentioned, we do see, you know, the sustainable cost improvement program, which we've only seen, you know, about $10 million or so in 2025 hitting, but that was a run rate at the end of the year of $90 million, so we would expect to see that, benefit flow throughout the year. Yeah, no, I think, you know, obviously, we from looking at where we got in Q1 to the rest of the year, we do see, obviously, our EBITDA expanding, to get to that positive free cash flow, if not, more significant than that. yeah no i think you know obviously we from looking at where we got in q1 to the rest of the year we do see obviously our ebitda expanding to get to that positive free cash flow if not more significant than that Some of it will be driven by earnings. some of it will be driven by earnings As John mentioned, we do see, you know, the sustainable cost improvement program, which we've only seen, you know, about $10 million or so in 2025 hitting, but that was a run rate at the end of the year of $90 million, so we would expect to see that, benefit flow throughout the year. as john mentioned we do see you know the sustainable cost improvement program which we've only seen you know about $10 million or so in 2025 hitting but that was a run rate at the end of the year of $90 million so we would expect to see that benefit flow throughout the year Additionally, as you know, we did shut down Botlek and Fuzhou, and as we see our sites' volumes even being flat, we'll see that cost come through from a fixed cost leverage improvement throughout the year. And you know, obviously, we are focused on controlling our costs, you know, throughout the year as well. So we do see a path to higher earnings in the second half of the year. And obviously, a big driver of that is price. You know, as John mentioned, we are seeing an inflection point in both TiO2 and zircon Q1, Q2, so that will help us as we move across the year. Additionally, as you know, we did shut down Botlek and Fuzhou, and as we see our sites' volumes even being flat, we'll see that cost come through from a fixed cost leverage improvement throughout the year. additionally as you know we did shut down botlek and fuzhou and as we see our sites' volumes even being flat we'll see that cost come through from a fixed cost leverage improvement throughout the year And you know, obviously, we are focused on controlling our costs, you know, throughout the year as well. and you know obviously we are focused on controlling our costs you know throughout the year as well So we do see a path to higher earnings in the second half of the year. so we do see a path to higher earnings in the second half of the year And obviously, a big driver of that is price. and obviously a big driver of that is price You know, as John mentioned, we are seeing an inflection point in both TiO2 and zircon Q1, Q2, so that will help us as we move across the year. you know as john mentioned we are seeing an inflection point in both tio2 and zircon q1 q2 so that will help us as we move across the year

Speaker 10: And Josh, we referenced that, I think even in the last call. On the zircon side of the business, we had a lot of customers that were starting to get back to normal buying patterns, and we saw that, actually reflected in our sales, in the fourth quarter. We're seeing that in the first quarter of this year. We talked about a price increase there that we have some confidence in. But both on zircon and on TiO2, to get a price increase in the first quarter is, I'd say, not normal. So we're cautiously optimistic that the momentum we're seeing on price is gonna continue to translate into additional momentum next year. And Josh, we referenced that, I think even in the last call. and josh we referenced that i think even in the last call On the zircon side of the business, we had a lot of customers that were starting to get back to normal buying patterns, and we saw that, actually reflected in our sales, in the fourth quarter. on the zircon side of the business we had a lot of customers that were starting to get back to normal buying patterns and we saw that actually reflected in our sales in the fourth quarter We're seeing that in the first quarter of this year. we're seeing that in the first quarter of this year We talked about a price increase there that we have some confidence in. we talked about a price increase there that we have some confidence in But both on zircon and on TiO2, to get a price increase in the first quarter is, I'd say, not normal. but both on zircon and on tio2 to get a price increase in the first quarter is i'd say not normal So we're cautiously optimistic that the momentum we're seeing on price is gonna continue to translate into additional momentum next year. so we're cautiously optimistic that the momentum we're seeing on price is gonna continue to translate into additional momentum next year The price increases on TiO2, we've announced everywhere. So globally, there's been announcements made. And again, the implementation on those increases will be different in every region, but you know, we feel pretty confident right now with cautious optimism that we're starting to see that recovery that we talked about last quarter. The price increases on TiO2, we've announced everywhere. the price increases on tio2 we've announced everywhere So globally, there's been announcements made. so globally there's been announcements made And again, the implementation on those increases will be different in every region, but you know, we feel pretty confident right now with cautious optimism that we're starting to see that recovery that we talked about last quarter. and again the implementation on those increases will be different in every region but you know we feel pretty confident right now with cautious optimism that we're starting to see that recovery that we talked about last quarter

Speaker 12: Great. And if I could just follow up quickly, just on the cost side. So sequentially in fourth quarter, your production costs were actually a slight positive. I think in your answer then, you talked about taking down some additional furnaces. I guess if we look at your production cost bridge into first quarter, is that a positive because of some of the cost actions, or is that a negative because of some of the mining actions? What, what should we expect there? Great. great And if I could just follow up quickly, just on the cost side. and if i could just follow up quickly just on the cost side So sequentially in fourth quarter, your production costs were actually a slight positive. so sequentially in fourth quarter your production costs were actually a slight positive I think in your answer then, you talked about taking down some additional furnaces. i think in your answer then you talked about taking down some additional furnaces I guess if we look at your production cost bridge into first quarter, is that a positive because of some of the cost actions, or is that a negative because of some of the mining actions? i guess if we look at your production cost bridge into first quarter is that a positive because of some of the cost actions or is that a negative because of some of the mining actions What, what should we expect there? what what should we expect there

Speaker 10: Let me make one quick comment, and then I'll let John answer that. So we didn't take down an additional furnace. We've made a decision to keep one of the furnaces down longer than what we had originally planned. So now we're planning to keep that furnace down until mid-year. And again, we've taken some other actions on the mining side of the business. We pulled back some of our mining production in Australia. The West Mine in South Africa is now down. So I just want to be clear, it's more mining, not necessarily on the smelting side. John? Let me make one quick comment, and then I'll let John answer that. let me make one quick comment and then i'll let john answer that So we didn't take down an additional furnace. so we didn't take down an additional furnace We've made a decision to keep one of the furnaces down longer than what we had originally planned. we've made a decision to keep one of the furnaces down longer than what we had originally planned So now we're planning to keep that furnace down until mid-year. so now we're planning to keep that furnace down until mid-year And again, we've taken some other actions on the mining side of the business. and again we've taken some other actions on the mining side of the business We pulled back some of our mining production in Australia. we pulled back some of our mining production in australia The West Mine in South Africa is now down. the west mine in south africa is now down So I just want to be clear, it's more mining, not necessarily on the smelting side. so i just want to be clear it's more mining not necessarily on the smelting side John? john

Speaker 11: Yeah, no, but we, we do expect improvement in our operations from Q4 to Q1, a pretty significant improvement. As we mentioned, you know, Stallingborough was down in Q4. It's up, up and running pretty well in Q1, so we'll see some benefit. And just overall, see more efficiencies and improvements throughout our portfolio. I think the one thing, if you're looking at a Q4 to Q1 bridge item, we have, and we direct you to currency. So if you look at the average rates that were in Q4 versus Q1, as we mentioned, looking at spot rates, that's about a $10 million hurt from us Q4 to Q1. Yeah, no, but we, we do expect improvement in our operations from Q4 to Q1, a pretty significant improvement. yeah no but we we do expect improvement in our operations from q4 to q1 a pretty significant improvement As we mentioned, you know, Stallingborough was down in Q4. as we mentioned you know stallingborough was down in q4 It's up, up and running pretty well in Q1, so we'll see some benefit. it's up up and running pretty well in q1 so we'll see some benefit And just overall, see more efficiencies and improvements throughout our portfolio. and just overall see more efficiencies and improvements throughout our portfolio I think the one thing, if you're looking at a Q4 to Q1 bridge item, we have, and we direct you to currency. i think the one thing if you're looking at a q4 to q1 bridge item we have and we direct you to currency So if you look at the average rates that were in Q4 versus Q1, as we mentioned, looking at spot rates, that's about a $10 million hurt from us Q4 to Q1. so if you look at the average rates that were in q4 versus q1 as we mentioned looking at spot rates that's about a $10 million hurt from us q4 to q1

Speaker 12: Okay, got it. Thank you both. Okay, got it. okay got it Thank you both. thank you both

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next is from David Begleiter at Deutsche Bank. Next is from David Begleiter at Deutsche Bank. next is from david begleiter at deutsche bank

Speaker 3: Thank you. Good morning. John and John, just to go back to the prior question, looking at the two of the key bridge elements for this year, sustainable cost improvement and the, mining costs, what are the tailwinds, the actual tailwinds you're expecting now in 2026 versus 2025 for those two bridge items for this year? Thank you. thank you Good morning. good morning John and John, just to go back to the prior question, looking at the two of the key bridge elements for this year, sustainable cost improvement and the, mining costs, what are the tailwinds, the actual tailwinds you're expecting now in 2026 versus 2025 for those two bridge items for this year? john and john just to go back to the prior question looking at the two of the key bridge elements for this year sustainable cost improvement and the mining costs what are the tailwinds the actual tailwinds you're expecting now in 2026 versus 2025 for those two bridge items for this year

Speaker 10: Yes, so I'll start on the continuous cost improvement program. Again, John kind of gave some indication on, you know, how much of that continuous cost improvement actually resulted in EBITDA in 2025. But the run rate that we have starting in the year is significantly higher than that. $90 million when our target was $25 million-$35 million initially. And again, we've got very good visibility into the projects that we're working on to continue that work. A lot of it's been fixed costs, but there's a lot of work going on across the entire company, and we feel confident that this $125 million-$175 million target will be at the high end of that range. There are things that are continuing to, you know, I guess, be headwinds against that. Yes, so I'll start on the continuous cost improvement program. yes so i'll start on the continuous cost improvement program Again, John kind of gave some indication on, you know, how much of that continuous cost improvement actually resulted in EBITDA in 2025. again john kind of gave some indication on you know how much of that continuous cost improvement actually resulted in ebitda in 2025 But the run rate that we have starting in the year is significantly higher than that. $90 million when our target was $25 million-$35 million initially. but the run rate that we have starting in the year is significantly higher than that $90 million when our target was $25 million-$35 million initially And again, we've got very good visibility into the projects that we're working on to continue that work. and again we've got very good visibility into the projects that we're working on to continue that work A lot of it's been fixed costs, but there's a lot of work going on across the entire company, and we feel confident that this $125 million-$175 million target will be at the high end of that range. a lot of it's been fixed costs but there's a lot of work going on across the entire company and we feel confident that this $125 million-$175 million target will be at the high end of that range There are things that are continuing to, you know, I guess, be headwinds against that. there are things that are continuing to you know i guess be headwinds against that John talked about, you know, the work that we're doing to actually offset some of the FX issues, right? So we will be looking at hedging, but right now that's a headwind in the first quarter. There's also, again, the cost associated with running the assets at lower rates that are a headwind. John, you want to add to that? John talked about, you know, the work that we're doing to actually offset some of the FX issues, right? john talked about you know the work that we're doing to actually offset some of the fx issues right So we will be looking at hedging, but right now that's a headwind in the first quarter. so we will be looking at hedging but right now that's a headwind in the first quarter There's also, again, the cost associated with running the assets at lower rates that are a headwind. there's also again the cost associated with running the assets at lower rates that are a headwind John, you want to add to that? john you want to add to that

Speaker 11: Yeah. No, I think if, David, if you recall, we did shut down Botlek in the first part of the year, in the first quarter, as well as Fuzhou, which we've announced early this year. But, you know, by bringing down those plants, obviously, you know, our chain is pretty leverageable and integrated, and so we were able to ramp up our other facilities. And so that's providing a good cost improvement year-over-year from that fixed cost leverage. Yeah. yeah No, I think if, David, if you recall, we did shut down Botlek in the first part of the year, in the first quarter, as well as Fuzhou, which we've announced early this year. no i think if david if you recall we did shut down botlek in the first part of the year in the first quarter as well as fuzhou which we've announced early this year But, you know, by bringing down those plants, obviously, you know, our chain is pretty leverageable and integrated, and so we were able to ramp up our other facilities. but you know by bringing down those plants obviously you know our chain is pretty leverageable and integrated and so we were able to ramp up our other facilities And so that's providing a good cost improvement year-over-year from that fixed cost leverage. and so that's providing a good cost improvement year-over-year from that fixed cost leverage

Speaker 10: I'd say we made this comment last time, I think, on the call, when we start thinking about when does the industry typically start to get pricing leverage? Those two plants that are down, we've actually kept a lot of the customers from where we were selling them. So, you know, we're north of 85% capacity utilization now, and normally when the industry gets there, I can't speak to the industry, I can speak to where we are, you start to get leverage on price. So running our pigment business at lower rates—we've talked about what that impact is on EBITDA. It's not as significant on the mining side, and the pigment business is running at much higher rates. I'd say we made this comment last time, I think, on the call, when we start thinking about when does the industry typically start to get pricing leverage? i'd say we made this comment last time i think on the call when we start thinking about when does the industry typically start to get pricing leverage Those two plants that are down, we've actually kept a lot of the customers from where we were selling them. those two plants that are down we've actually kept a lot of the customers from where we were selling them So, you know, we're north of 85% capacity utilization now, and normally when the industry gets there, I can't speak to the industry, I can speak to where we are, you start to get leverage on price. so you know we're north of 85% capacity utilization now and normally when the industry gets there i can't speak to the industry i can speak to where we are you start to get leverage on price So running our pigment business at lower rates—we've talked about what that impact is on EBITDA. so running our pigment business at lower rates—we've talked about what that impact is on ebitda It's not as significant on the mining side, and the pigment business is running at much higher rates. it's not as significant on the mining side and the pigment business is running at much higher rates

Speaker 3: Understood. And just on rare earths, I know there have been some meetings over the last few weeks on establishing maybe a framework for some pricing support in the U.S. for these minerals, which would be what you need to move forward with refinery. What's happened from your perspective, and what's the potential for this pricing support going forward? Thank you. Understood. understood And just on rare earths, I know there have been some meetings over the last few weeks on establishing maybe a framework for some pricing support in the U.S. for these minerals, which would be what you need to move forward with refinery. and just on rare earths i know there have been some meetings over the last few weeks on establishing maybe a framework for some pricing support in the u.s for these minerals which would be what you need to move forward with refinery What's happened from your perspective, and what's the potential for this pricing support going forward? what's happened from your perspective and what's the potential for this pricing support going forward Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Yeah, look, that was a, I think, a very, positive result, right? It's not only the pricing support, but it's the, the bill that was announced, so the strategic stockpiling. There's still some work to be done on getting finalized on what that actually will look like, and that'll come with time. But we're also. I think, to be clear, we're working in multiple jurisdictions on our rare earth opportunity. We've got assets in Australia and the U.S., so we're working across a lot of, jurisdictions to try to come up with what is the best opportunity for Tronox. We're engaging with partners. We've talked about EXIM and EFA around the potential financing that work we could have to fund the acid leaching cracking facility in Australia. But we're making very good progress. Yeah, look, that was a, I think, a very, positive result, right? yeah look that was a i think a very positive result right It's not only the pricing support, but it's the, the bill that was announced, so the strategic stockpiling. it's not only the pricing support but it's the the bill that was announced so the strategic stockpiling There's still some work to be done on getting finalized on what that actually will look like, and that'll come with time. there's still some work to be done on getting finalized on what that actually will look like and that'll come with time But we're also. but we're also I think, to be clear, we're working in multiple jurisdictions on our rare earth opportunity. i think to be clear we're working in multiple jurisdictions on our rare earth opportunity We've got assets in Australia and the U.S., so we're working across a lot of, jurisdictions to try to come up with what is the best opportunity for Tronox. we've got assets in australia and the u.s so we're working across a lot of jurisdictions to try to come up with what is the best opportunity for tronox We're engaging with partners. we're engaging with partners We've talked about EXIM and EFA around the potential financing that work we could have to fund the acid leaching cracking facility in Australia. we've talked about exim and efa around the potential financing that work we could have to fund the acid leaching cracking facility in australia But we're making very good progress. but we're making very good progress I am not at liberty to talk about who those partners are at this particular stage because we've got non-disclosure agreements, but we're making good progress, we're staffing up that group, and we do feel that this is an opportunity that we're going to turn into another, I'd say, pillar of our strategy on the long term. I am not at liberty to talk about who those partners are at this particular stage because we've got non-disclosure agreements, but we're making good progress, we're staffing up that group, and we do feel that this is an opportunity that we're going to turn into another, I'd say, pillar of our strategy on the long term. i am not at liberty to talk about who those partners are at this particular stage because we've got non-disclosure agreements but we're making good progress we're staffing up that group and we do feel that this is an opportunity that we're going to turn into another i'd say pillar of our strategy on the long term

Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be from Duffy Fischer at Goldman Sachs. Next question will be from Duffy Fischer at Goldman Sachs. next question will be from duffy fischer at goldman sachs

Speaker 4: Yeah, good morning. You mentioned that your pigment level, your operating rates are north of 85%. What's the plan on the mining operations this year? What operating rate do you think you'll run at there? And then relative to the benefit that you get from purchasing, or you've always kind of talked about a couple of $100 there, how much lower will that be this year because of that lower operating rate in mining? Yeah, good morning. yeah good morning You mentioned that your pigment level, your operating rates are north of 85%. you mentioned that your pigment level your operating rates are north of 85% What's the plan on the mining operations this year? what's the plan on the mining operations this year What operating rate do you think you'll run at there? what operating rate do you think you'll run at there And then relative to the benefit that you get from purchasing, or you've always kind of talked about a couple of $100 there, how much lower will that be this year because of that lower operating rate in mining? and then relative to the benefit that you get from purchasing or you've always kind of talked about a couple of $100 there how much lower will that be this year because of that lower operating rate in mining

Speaker 10: Sure. So I'll start that one, Duffy. We've typically said $200-$400 a ton advantage of vertical integration on feedstock, and I'd say we're on the lower end of that range right now. We have four furnaces in South Africa. We're running three. The SR kiln that we have in Australia, we're continuing to run that at capacity. We've pulled back on our mining operations. Again, we don't need as much ilmenite to feed four furnaces when we're only running three. So we will make the decision to start the West Mine back up, increase our capacity in Australia again, when we feel confident that the positive momentum that we're seeing now turns into more of a solid recovery. Sure. sure So I'll start that one, Duffy. so i'll start that one duffy We've typically said $200-$400 a ton advantage of vertical integration on feedstock, and I'd say we're on the lower end of that range right now. we've typically said $200-$400 a ton advantage of vertical integration on feedstock and i'd say we're on the lower end of that range right now We have four furnaces in South Africa. we have four furnaces in south africa We're running three. we're running three The SR kiln that we have in Australia, we're continuing to run that at capacity. the sr kiln that we have in australia we're continuing to run that at capacity We've pulled back on our mining operations. we've pulled back on our mining operations Again, we don't need as much ilmenite to feed four furnaces when we're only running three. again we don't need as much ilmenite to feed four furnaces when we're only running three So we will make the decision to start the West Mine back up, increase our capacity in Australia again, when we feel confident that the positive momentum that we're seeing now turns into more of a solid recovery. so we will make the decision to start the west mine back up increase our capacity in australia again when we feel confident that the positive momentum that we're seeing now turns into more of a solid recovery And, yeah, I would say that from the standpoint of where we are as far as vertical integration, I think the power of the vertical integration is still something that we believe in, but our objective this year is to generate free cash flow. All the actions that we're taking right now are to bring our working capital down. You know, as the closer we get to capacity, on the TiO2 side, we're going to need some of that feedstock, but right now, what we're doing with the slag that we're producing is drawing down the inventory. We're drawing down the ilmenite inventory. We're drawing down zircon inventory. And quite frankly, on the zircon side of the equation, our inventory is getting to the point where it's tight. And, yeah, I would say that from the standpoint of where we are as far as vertical integration, I think the power of the vertical integration is still something that we believe in, but our objective this year is to generate free cash flow. and yeah i would say that from the standpoint of where we are as far as vertical integration i think the power of the vertical integration is still something that we believe in but our objective this year is to generate free cash flow All the actions that we're taking right now are to bring our working capital down. all the actions that we're taking right now are to bring our working capital down You know, as the closer we get to capacity, on the TiO2 side, we're going to need some of that feedstock, but right now, what we're doing with the slag that we're producing is drawing down the inventory. you know as the closer we get to capacity on the tio2 side we're going to need some of that feedstock but right now what we're doing with the slag that we're producing is drawing down the inventory We're drawing down the ilmenite inventory. we're drawing down the ilmenite inventory We're drawing down zircon inventory. we're drawing down zircon inventory And quite frankly, on the zircon side of the equation, our inventory is getting to the point where it's tight. and quite frankly on the zircon side of the equation our inventory is getting to the point where it's tight So, you know, as we start to think about how we're allocating volumes and we talk a little bit about price increase opportunities in zircon, a lot of that is being driven by the market, from our perspective, is starting to tighten up, and it's gonna give us an opportunity to have more confidence in those price increases in Q2. So, you know, as we start to think about how we're allocating volumes and we talk a little bit about price increase opportunities in zircon, a lot of that is being driven by the market, from our perspective, is starting to tighten up, and it's gonna give us an opportunity to have more confidence in those price increases in Q2. so you know as we start to think about how we're allocating volumes and we talk a little bit about price increase opportunities in zircon a lot of that is being driven by the market from our perspective is starting to tighten up and it's gonna give us an opportunity to have more confidence in those price increases in q2

Speaker 4: Great, thanks. And then maybe just two quick ones on cash flow. If you get to your positive free cash flow this year, how would that look first half versus second half? I'm assuming you'll eat capital, you know, or working capital in the first half and be free cash flow negative and then release it in the second half. But roughly how big a delta will that be, Q1 to Q2? And then what's the run rate spend on the rare earths project currently? Great, thanks. great thanks And then maybe just two quick ones on cash flow. and then maybe just two quick ones on cash flow If you get to your positive free cash flow this year, how would that look first half versus second half? if you get to your positive free cash flow this year how would that look first half versus second half I'm assuming you'll eat capital, you know, or working capital in the first half and be free cash flow negative and then release it in the second half. i'm assuming you'll eat capital you know or working capital in the first half and be free cash flow negative and then release it in the second half But roughly how big a delta will that be, Q1 to Q2? but roughly how big a delta will that be q1 to q2 And then what's the run rate spend on the rare earths project currently? and then what's the run rate spend on the rare earths project currently

Speaker 11: Yeah, so if you look at our working capital and free cash flow progression across the quarters, we expect this year, Q1 to be roughly the size and scope of, you know, what we have done in the past several years, so pretty significant use of it. And then we do claw back, you know, going across the year. And so, you know, significant use, most of the use, if not all of the use in Q1, and then free cash flow positive for the rest of the year. Yeah, so if you look at our working capital and free cash flow progression across the quarters, we expect this year, Q1 to be roughly the size and scope of, you know, what we have done in the past several years, so pretty significant use of it. yeah so if you look at our working capital and free cash flow progression across the quarters we expect this year q1 to be roughly the size and scope of you know what we have done in the past several years so pretty significant use of it And then we do claw back, you know, going across the year. and then we do claw back you know going across the year And so, you know, significant use, most of the use, if not all of the use in Q1, and then free cash flow positive for the rest of the year. and so you know significant use most of the use if not all of the use in q1 and then free cash flow positive for the rest of the year

Speaker 10: And then on the rare earths, I mean, again, you look at our capital projection for this year, $260 million, which is significantly lower than it was last year. There is not a lot of CapEx at this particular stage that's in that forecast. So again, we're looking at a variety of different funding sources for that. We're working on the definitive feasibility study. We've added some people into that group to continue to progress that work forward. But as of right now, there's not a significant amount of capital on that rare earth piece yet. And then on the rare earths, I mean, again, you look at our capital projection for this year, $260 million, which is significantly lower than it was last year. and then on the rare earths i mean again you look at our capital projection for this year $260 million which is significantly lower than it was last year There is not a lot of CapEx at this particular stage that's in that forecast. there is not a lot of capex at this particular stage that's in that forecast So again, we're looking at a variety of different funding sources for that. so again we're looking at a variety of different funding sources for that We're working on the definitive feasibility study. we're working on the definitive feasibility study We've added some people into that group to continue to progress that work forward. we've added some people into that group to continue to progress that work forward But as of right now, there's not a significant amount of capital on that rare earth piece yet. but as of right now there's not a significant amount of capital on that rare earth piece yet

Speaker 4: Great. Thank you, guys. Great. great Thank you, guys. thank you guys

Speaker 14: Thank you. Next question is from Jeff Zekauskas at JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Thank you. thank you Next question is from Jeff Zekauskas at JP Morgan. next question is from jeff zekauskas at jp morgan Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 7: Thanks very much. Can you remind us what the volume change was in TiO2 for the year for Tronox? Were you down about 2%? And in that context, did the global TiO2 industry contract a little bit in 2025? And if it did, by how much, in your opinion? Thanks very much. thanks very much Can you remind us what the volume change was in TiO2 for the year for Tronox? can you remind us what the volume change was in tio2 for the year for tronox Were you down about 2%? were you down about 2% And in that context, did the global TiO2 industry contract a little bit in 2025? and in that context did the global tio2 industry contract a little bit in 2025 And if it did, by how much, in your opinion? and if it did by how much in your opinion

Speaker 10: Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. Your estimates on volumes Q 2024 to 2025 are pretty close, and I would say probably the market was somewhat similar to that. Again, it was, I'd say, maybe a little bit more of a tale of, you know, what happened in the first and second quarter versus what happened in the third and fourth quarter. And again, the fourth quarter, we saw a significant increase. I think we were targeting 3%-5% increase in volumes. We were up 9%. A significant amount of that was actually coming from volumes that came in Asia, predominantly in India. And a lot of that came from a shift in market share as a result of the anti-dumping duties. So we picked up volume in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. yeah Thanks, Jeff. thanks jeff Your estimates on volumes Q 2024 to 2025 are pretty close, and I would say probably the market was somewhat similar to that. your estimates on volumes q 2024 to 2025 are pretty close and i would say probably the market was somewhat similar to that Again, it was, I'd say, maybe a little bit more of a tale of, you know, what happened in the first and second quarter versus what happened in the third and fourth quarter. again it was i'd say maybe a little bit more of a tale of you know what happened in the first and second quarter versus what happened in the third and fourth quarter And again, the fourth quarter, we saw a significant increase. and again the fourth quarter we saw a significant increase I think we were targeting 3%-5% increase in volumes. i think we were targeting 3%-5% increase in volumes We were up 9%. we were up 9% A significant amount of that was actually coming from volumes that came in Asia, predominantly in India. a significant amount of that was actually coming from volumes that came in asia predominantly in india And a lot of that came from a shift in market share as a result of the anti-dumping duties. and a lot of that came from a shift in market share as a result of the anti-dumping duties So we picked up volume in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia. so we picked up volume in the middle east specifically in saudi arabia We picked up volume in Brazil, and we picked up volume in India. And I made reference on the call about, you know, the shift in the first quarter. So in the fourth quarter, they were-- The, the duties were stayed, but they were still being collected. In the middle of December, a court ruling came which eliminated the requirement for those duties to be collected. So now you've got a shift of customers in India that are starting to buy more from China. We're still selling in India, but the, the volume between Q4 and Q1 is down. But we would expect that the anti-dumping duties are going to be reinstated, and once that happens, we'll see that shift back to, you know, local producers, Western producers, including Tronox. We picked up volume in Brazil, and we picked up volume in India. we picked up volume in brazil and we picked up volume in india And I made reference on the call about, you know, the shift in the first quarter. and i made reference on the call about you know the shift in the first quarter So in the fourth quarter, they were-- The, the duties were stayed, but they were still being collected. so in the fourth quarter they were-- the the duties were stayed but they were still being collected In the middle of December, a court ruling came which eliminated the requirement for those duties to be collected. in the middle of december a court ruling came which eliminated the requirement for those duties to be collected So now you've got a shift of customers in India that are starting to buy more from China. so now you've got a shift of customers in india that are starting to buy more from china We're still selling in India, but the, the volume between Q4 and Q1 is down. we're still selling in india but the the volume between q4 and q1 is down But we would expect that the anti-dumping duties are going to be reinstated, and once that happens, we'll see that shift back to, you know, local producers, Western producers, including Tronox. but we would expect that the anti-dumping duties are going to be reinstated and once that happens we'll see that shift back to you know local producers western producers including tronox

Speaker 7: Okay. You've spoken of TiO2 prices as being at an inflection point, and, you know, when you look at the global coatings industry in Europe and China and the United States, it doesn't seem as though there's much volume growth. You know, maybe it's up a tiny bit or down a tiny bit or flat. So what is it that makes us at an inflection point in TiO2, given a soft demand background? Okay. okay You've spoken of TiO2 prices as being at an inflection point, and, you know, when you look at the global coatings industry in Europe and China and the United States, it doesn't seem as though there's much volume growth. you've spoken of tio2 prices as being at an inflection point and you know when you look at the global coatings industry in europe and china and the united states it doesn't seem as though there's much volume growth You know, maybe it's up a tiny bit or down a tiny bit or flat. you know maybe it's up a tiny bit or down a tiny bit or flat So what is it that makes us at an inflection point in TiO2, given a soft demand background? so what is it that makes us at an inflection point in tio2 given a soft demand background

Speaker 10: Well, I think one thing you've got to reference is that since 2023, you've had 1.1 million tons of capacity go away. So any movement towards a regular buying pattern where people were driving down inventories created a significant shift. Then you've got the anti-dumping duties, which are also helping that. So I wouldn't disagree with you that there hasn't been a significant move in demand. A lot of this has been structural shifts based on a lot of the proactive work that we've been doing as an industry to try to get the business in a profitable place. That being said, when we look into the first quarter, we're seeing volume growth in every region except Asia, specifically India, as I just mentioned, and we're starting to see, you know, coating season, which is normalized. Well, I think one thing you've got to reference is that since 2023, you've had 1.1 million tons of capacity go away. well i think one thing you've got to reference is that since 2023 you've had 1.1 million tons of capacity go away So any movement towards a regular buying pattern where people were driving down inventories created a significant shift. so any movement towards a regular buying pattern where people were driving down inventories created a significant shift Then you've got the anti-dumping duties, which are also helping that. then you've got the anti-dumping duties which are also helping that So I wouldn't disagree with you that there hasn't been a significant move in demand. so i wouldn't disagree with you that there hasn't been a significant move in demand A lot of this has been structural shifts based on a lot of the proactive work that we've been doing as an industry to try to get the business in a profitable place. a lot of this has been structural shifts based on a lot of the proactive work that we've been doing as an industry to try to get the business in a profitable place That being said, when we look into the first quarter, we're seeing volume growth in every region except Asia, specifically India, as I just mentioned, and we're starting to see, you know, coating season, which is normalized. that being said when we look into the first quarter we're seeing volume growth in every region except asia specifically india as i just mentioned and we're starting to see you know coating season which is normalized And again, I made this point on the last call. If you think about the duty-affected areas at the peak of exports from China into those areas, so Europe, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia, that's about 800,000 tons of exports from China. And again, I made this comment last time, use the US as a proxy when the Trump 301 tariffs went into place back in 2018. You know, 900,000 ton per year market, where only 20,000 tons of TiO2 is being exported from China. So I'm not assuming it's gonna go to that, but if you think about. Let's just say that there's half of that volume, half of that eight hundred thousand dollars, 800,000 tons gets distributed to other suppliers. And again, I made this point on the last call. and again i made this point on the last call If you think about the duty-affected areas at the peak of exports from China into those areas, so Europe, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia, that's about 800,000 tons of exports from China. if you think about the duty-affected areas at the peak of exports from china into those areas so europe brazil india and saudi arabia that's about 800,000 tons of exports from china And again, I made this comment last time, use the US as a proxy when the Trump 301 tariffs went into place back in 2018. and again i made this comment last time use the us as a proxy when the trump 301 tariffs went into place back in 2018 You know, 900,000 ton per year market, where only 20,000 tons of TiO2 is being exported from China. you know 900,000 ton per year market where only 20,000 tons of tio2 is being exported from china So I'm not assuming it's gonna go to that, but if you think about. so i'm not assuming it's gonna go to that but if you think about Let's just say that there's half of that volume, half of that eight hundred thousand dollars, 800,000 tons gets distributed to other suppliers. let's just say that there's half of that volume half of that eight hundred thousand dollars 800,000 tons gets distributed to other suppliers It's reasonable to assume that we would get at least 25% of that. That's 100,000 tons, and at that rate, we're sold out. We're selling more than we're making with our new footprint. And we've redistributed our products so that we can continue to service the customers that came out of Botlek. Probably not so much in China, because we exited that market because it just wasn't profitable. It's reasonable to assume that we would get at least 25% of that. it's reasonable to assume that we would get at least 25% of that That's 100,000 tons, and at that rate, we're sold out. that's 100,000 tons and at that rate we're sold out We're selling more than we're making with our new footprint. we're selling more than we're making with our new footprint And we've redistributed our products so that we can continue to service the customers that came out of Botlek. and we've redistributed our products so that we can continue to service the customers that came out of botlek Probably not so much in China, because we exited that market because it just wasn't profitable. probably not so much in china because we exited that market because it just wasn't profitable

Speaker 7: Okay, great. Thank you very much. Okay, great. okay great Thank you very much. thank you very much

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be John McNulty at BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Next question will be John McNulty at BMO Capital Markets. next question will be john mcnulty at bmo capital markets Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 2: Hey, good morning. This is Caleb on for John. So I have a couple quick follow-ups. So the I think it was Josh's question earlier on the production cost quarter-over-quarter. Do you expect that benefit to grow sequentially throughout the year? Or did I kind of, like, misconstrue what you were saying earlier? Hey, good morning. hey good morning This is Caleb on for John. this is caleb on for john So I have a couple quick follow-ups. so i have a couple quick follow-ups So the I think it was Josh's question earlier on the production cost quarter-over-quarter. so the i think it was josh's question earlier on the production cost quarter-over-quarter Do you expect that benefit to grow sequentially throughout the year? do you expect that benefit to grow sequentially throughout the year Or did I kind of, like, misconstrue what you were saying earlier? or did i kind of like misconstrue what you were saying earlier

Speaker 11: Yeah, I think it, so some of it related to, you know, some improvements in our operating sites, which were challenged in Q4, as we've mentioned, from a Stallingborough perspective. So we do see our sites operating at a decent clip in Q1, so shouldn't see a huge increase in from operating well or at higher rates. We are ramping up some plants a bit more, so you'll see some of that. But a big driver is the sustainable cost improvement program that we'll see get larger throughout the year. Yeah, I think it, so some of it related to, you know, some improvements in our operating sites, which were challenged in Q4, as we've mentioned, from a Stallingborough perspective. yeah i think it so some of it related to you know some improvements in our operating sites which were challenged in q4 as we've mentioned from a stallingborough perspective So we do see our sites operating at a decent clip in Q1, so shouldn't see a huge increase in from operating well or at higher rates. so we do see our sites operating at a decent clip in q1 so shouldn't see a huge increase in from operating well or at higher rates We are ramping up some plants a bit more, so you'll see some of that. we are ramping up some plants a bit more so you'll see some of that But a big driver is the sustainable cost improvement program that we'll see get larger throughout the year. but a big driver is the sustainable cost improvement program that we'll see get larger throughout the year

Speaker 10: And so from Q4 to Q1, it had a lot to do with the higher costs rolling into, you know, our balance sheet from the outages that we had. But when you think about on a TiO2 basis, not gonna share our budget with you, but our costs were relatively flat throughout the year. With the forecast that we currently have with running our mining operations at lower rates in the first half of the year than we are in the second half of the year, if we start to ramp up in the second half of the year, costs will go down on the mining side of the business. And so from Q4 to Q1, it had a lot to do with the higher costs rolling into, you know, our balance sheet from the outages that we had. and so from q4 to q1 it had a lot to do with the higher costs rolling into you know our balance sheet from the outages that we had But when you think about on a TiO2 basis, not gonna share our budget with you, but our costs were relatively flat throughout the year. but when you think about on a tio2 basis not gonna share our budget with you but our costs were relatively flat throughout the year With the forecast that we currently have with running our mining operations at lower rates in the first half of the year than we are in the second half of the year, if we start to ramp up in the second half of the year, costs will go down on the mining side of the business. with the forecast that we currently have with running our mining operations at lower rates in the first half of the year than we are in the second half of the year if we start to ramp up in the second half of the year costs will go down on the mining side of the business

Speaker 2: Gotcha. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. And then what exactly are you thinking for, like, the base case for U.S. and the Chinese housing markets for this year? It's embedded in kind of your free cash flow guide for the year. Gotcha. gotcha Okay, thank you. okay thank you That's helpful. that's helpful And then what exactly are you thinking for, like, the base case for U.S. and the Chinese housing markets for this year? and then what exactly are you thinking for like the base case for u.s and the chinese housing markets for this year It's embedded in kind of your free cash flow guide for the year. it's embedded in kind of your free cash flow guide for the year

Speaker 10: Yeah, look, it's a great question, and I know a lot of the customers that we sell to are companies that you follow. I think a lot of it in the U.S. is gonna depend on interest rates. So, what I can say is that our volumes that we're forecasting right now for the year do not assume a significant swing up on the construction side of the business. Volumes are being driven a lot by the activities that were put in place for the structural shift on anti-dumping. There is some growth. We're seeing, you know, a seasonal improvement in Europe and in North America. This year is similar to what we saw last year in the first quarter. And last year in the first quarter, we had a pretty good bump up in our sales. Yeah, look, it's a great question, and I know a lot of the customers that we sell to are companies that you follow. yeah look it's a great question and i know a lot of the customers that we sell to are companies that you follow I think a lot of it in the U.S. is gonna depend on interest rates. i think a lot of it in the u.s is gonna depend on interest rates So, what I can say is that our volumes that we're forecasting right now for the year do not assume a significant swing up on the construction side of the business. so what i can say is that our volumes that we're forecasting right now for the year do not assume a significant swing up on the construction side of the business Volumes are being driven a lot by the activities that were put in place for the structural shift on anti-dumping. volumes are being driven a lot by the activities that were put in place for the structural shift on anti-dumping There is some growth. there is some growth We're seeing, you know, a seasonal improvement in Europe and in North America. we're seeing you know a seasonal improvement in europe and in north america This year is similar to what we saw last year in the first quarter. this year is similar to what we saw last year in the first quarter And last year in the first quarter, we had a pretty good bump up in our sales. and last year in the first quarter we had a pretty good bump up in our sales The reason it's not bumping up this quarter is because we're coming off of a very strong fourth quarter. So, you know, it's, there's been a lot of investment in Germany. Germany is spending a lot of time trying to figure out how they can reengage that economy. So we're hopeful that the economy is gonna pick up, and we'll see a swing in the construction market, but we're not planning on that being a crutch to lean on all year long. The reason it's not bumping up this quarter is because we're coming off of a very strong fourth quarter. the reason it's not bumping up this quarter is because we're coming off of a very strong fourth quarter So, you know, it's, there's been a lot of investment in Germany. so you know it's there's been a lot of investment in germany Germany is spending a lot of time trying to figure out how they can reengage that economy. germany is spending a lot of time trying to figure out how they can reengage that economy So we're hopeful that the economy is gonna pick up, and we'll see a swing in the construction market, but we're not planning on that being a crutch to lean on all year long. so we're hopeful that the economy is gonna pick up and we'll see a swing in the construction market but we're not planning on that being a crutch to lean on all year long

Speaker 2: Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Okay, that's helpful. okay that's helpful Thank you. thank you I'll turn it over. i'll turn it over

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be for Peter Osterland at Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Next question will be for Peter Osterland at Truist Securities. next question will be for peter osterland at truist securities Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 15: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. For TiO2, what are the dynamics around mix that you're expecting in the first quarter? On a year-over-year basis, is mix expected to be a headwind, and what are the major drivers there? Thank you. Hey, good morning. hey good morning Thanks for taking the questions. thanks for taking the questions For TiO2, what are the dynamics around mix that you're expecting in the first quarter? for tio2 what are the dynamics around mix that you're expecting in the first quarter On a year-over-year basis, is mix expected to be a headwind, and what are the major drivers there? on a year-over-year basis is mix expected to be a headwind and what are the major drivers there Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Well, Q4 to Q1 mix will be a tailwind on price. So as I mentioned, Asia was, we sold a lot more in Asia, and there's some lower margin sales in Asia in the fourth quarter. India sales in the first quarter are down for reasons that I explained, and we're seeing a seasonal build in Europe and in the U.S., which typically yields higher margins. So when I reference first quarter, we're implementing price increases. We estimate those price increases to be 2%-4%. That's a mix between actual price increases and the positive mix that we're getting from selling into higher price markets. Well, Q4 to Q1 mix will be a tailwind on price. well q4 to q1 mix will be a tailwind on price So as I mentioned, Asia was, we sold a lot more in Asia, and there's some lower margin sales in Asia in the fourth quarter. so as i mentioned asia was we sold a lot more in asia and there's some lower margin sales in asia in the fourth quarter India sales in the first quarter are down for reasons that I explained, and we're seeing a seasonal build in Europe and in the U.S., which typically yields higher margins. india sales in the first quarter are down for reasons that i explained and we're seeing a seasonal build in europe and in the u.s which typically yields higher margins So when I reference first quarter, we're implementing price increases. so when i reference first quarter we're implementing price increases We estimate those price increases to be 2%-4%. we estimate those price increases to be 2%-4% That's a mix between actual price increases and the positive mix that we're getting from selling into higher price markets. that's a mix between actual price increases and the positive mix that we're getting from selling into higher price markets

Speaker 15: Very helpful. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, on the potential for a higher zircon pricing beginning in the second quarter, could you just size approximately the price increase that you're targeting? And are you seeing market dynamics that are favorable enough to potentially support continued price recovery beyond the second quarter? Very helpful. very helpful Thank you. thank you Just as a follow-up, on the potential for a higher zircon pricing beginning in the second quarter, could you just size approximately the price increase that you're targeting? just as a follow-up on the potential for a higher zircon pricing beginning in the second quarter could you just size approximately the price increase that you're targeting And are you seeing market dynamics that are favorable enough to potentially support continued price recovery beyond the second quarter? and are you seeing market dynamics that are favorable enough to potentially support continued price recovery beyond the second quarter

Speaker 10: So we're negotiating with a lot of different customers. I can't provide you with specifics on price, but I can say that I've got a high level of confidence based on what we're seeing right now, that the increases that we're working on for Q2 will start to be implemented. And if the market continues to be tight, and again, I made reference that our volumes or our inventory is getting lower. We had a strong fourth quarter. Again, first quarter is gonna be a mirror image of that. So I would expect that the industry is gonna continue to get tight. We're also starting to see buying patterns from customers where they had destocked. So we're negotiating with a lot of different customers. so we're negotiating with a lot of different customers I can't provide you with specifics on price, but I can say that I've got a high level of confidence based on what we're seeing right now, that the increases that we're working on for Q2 will start to be implemented. i can't provide you with specifics on price but i can say that i've got a high level of confidence based on what we're seeing right now that the increases that we're working on for q2 will start to be implemented And if the market continues to be tight, and again, I made reference that our volumes or our inventory is getting lower. and if the market continues to be tight and again i made reference that our volumes or our inventory is getting lower We had a strong fourth quarter. we had a strong fourth quarter Again, first quarter is gonna be a mirror image of that. again first quarter is gonna be a mirror image of that So I would expect that the industry is gonna continue to get tight. so i would expect that the industry is gonna continue to get tight We're also starting to see buying patterns from customers where they had destocked. we're also starting to see buying patterns from customers where they had destocked They're restocking, getting back to normal buying patterns, and we have seen-- I think on the last call, I said we'd started to see some positives on the zircon side of the business everywhere except China. Now we're starting to see some positive moves on the Chinese consumption. So it's a bit early for me to give you an annual guide, but I have confidence that, you know, for lots of reasons, price momentum will continue beyond Q2. But that's still a bit early to call that definitively. They're restocking, getting back to normal buying patterns, and we have seen-- I think on the last call, I said we'd started to see some positives on the zircon side of the business everywhere except China. they're restocking getting back to normal buying patterns and we have seen-- i think on the last call i said we'd started to see some positives on the zircon side of the business everywhere except china Now we're starting to see some positive moves on the Chinese consumption. now we're starting to see some positive moves on the chinese consumption So it's a bit early for me to give you an annual guide, but I have confidence that, you know, for lots of reasons, price momentum will continue beyond Q2. so it's a bit early for me to give you an annual guide but i have confidence that you know for lots of reasons price momentum will continue beyond q2 But that's still a bit early to call that definitively. but that's still a bit early to call that definitively

Speaker 15: Great. Thanks a lot. Great. great Thanks a lot. thanks a lot

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be from Frank Mitsch at Fermium Research. Please go ahead. Next question will be from Frank Mitsch at Fermium Research. next question will be from frank mitsch at fermium research Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 5: Hey, good morning, John. Listen, I mean, when I see something like 13% volume growth at the same time, the price is down 8%, you know, my macro 101 suggests that, you know, there's a price war breaking out, and people are using price to grab volumes. You know, you've been outlining why that's not the case, but what are you seeing on behalf of the industry as a whole? You're announcing price increases. It takes two to tango. Is there some resolve in the industry, you believe, and some price discipline, given that we're at, you know, pretty low profitability levels? Any color there would be very helpful. Hey, good morning, John. hey good morning john Listen, I mean, when I see something like 13% volume growth at the same time, the price is down 8%, you know, my macro 101 suggests that, you know, there's a price war breaking out, and people are using price to grab volumes. listen i mean when i see something like 13% volume growth at the same time the price is down 8% you know my macro 101 suggests that you know there's a price war breaking out and people are using price to grab volumes You know, you've been outlining why that's not the case, but what are you seeing on behalf of the industry as a whole? you know you've been outlining why that's not the case but what are you seeing on behalf of the industry as a whole You're announcing price increases. you're announcing price increases It takes two to tango. it takes two to tango Is there some resolve in the industry, you believe, and some price discipline, given that we're at, you know, pretty low profitability levels? is there some resolve in the industry you believe and some price discipline given that we're at you know pretty low profitability levels Any color there would be very helpful. any color there would be very helpful

Speaker 10: Yeah, it's a great question, Frank. Thanks. Again, I can't speak to everybody. What I can tell you is what I hear in the industry, and that's everybody's announcing price increases. So we aren't on an island. And again, for us to be getting traction on prices, others need to be pushing. China has made some announcements. The question is, will they implement those price increases? There's other things that are going on as well. I mean, we talk a lot about anti-dumping. I mean, there's some activity going on to try to increase those duties in Europe. But the reality is profitability in the industry, when you look at, you know, for a fourth quarter, EBITDA announcements by the publicly traded companies, there, there wasn't a lot of EBITDA there. Yeah, it's a great question, Frank. yeah it's a great question frank Thanks. thanks Again, I can't speak to everybody. again i can't speak to everybody What I can tell you is what I hear in the industry, and that's everybody's announcing price increases. what i can tell you is what i hear in the industry and that's everybody's announcing price increases So we aren't on an island. so we aren't on an island And again, for us to be getting traction on prices, others need to be pushing. and again for us to be getting traction on prices others need to be pushing China has made some announcements. china has made some announcements The question is, will they implement those price increases? the question is will they implement those price increases There's other things that are going on as well. there's other things that are going on as well I mean, we talk a lot about anti-dumping. i mean we talk a lot about anti-dumping I mean, there's some activity going on to try to increase those duties in Europe. i mean there's some activity going on to try to increase those duties in europe But the reality is profitability in the industry, when you look at, you know, for a fourth quarter, EBITDA announcements by the publicly traded companies, there, there wasn't a lot of EBITDA there. but the reality is profitability in the industry when you look at you know for a fourth quarter ebitda announcements by the publicly traded companies there there wasn't a lot of ebitda there Now, I can't presuppose what's going to happen when other announcements happen, but I think the industry needs to get back to a profitable place. So part of it has to do with profitability, but at the end of the day, there has to be, to your point, it does take two to tango, and you can't be on an island. I do believe that the industry is moving towards price increases. I can't speak to exactly what that will look like, but I do think that, based on what we're hearing, we're not the only one announcing increases. Now, I can't presuppose what's going to happen when other announcements happen, but I think the industry needs to get back to a profitable place. now i can't presuppose what's going to happen when other announcements happen but i think the industry needs to get back to a profitable place So part of it has to do with profitability, but at the end of the day, there has to be, to your point, it does take two to tango, and you can't be on an island. so part of it has to do with profitability but at the end of the day there has to be to your point it does take two to tango and you can't be on an island I do believe that the industry is moving towards price increases. i do believe that the industry is moving towards price increases I can't speak to exactly what that will look like, but I do think that, based on what we're hearing, we're not the only one announcing increases. i can't speak to exactly what that will look like but i do think that based on what we're hearing we're not the only one announcing increases All right All right all right

Speaker 11: I'd say one contributing factor that with respect to our Chinese competitors, is sulfur prices have gone up significantly. If you take a look at where they were since mid-2025, they're up 70%. So they are facing a big headwind on raw material costs. I'd say one contributing factor that with respect to our Chinese competitors, is sulfur prices have gone up significantly. i'd say one contributing factor that with respect to our chinese competitors is sulfur prices have gone up significantly If you take a look at where they were since mid-2025, they're up 70%. if you take a look at where they were since mid-2025 they're up 70% So they are facing a big headwind on raw material costs. so they are facing a big headwind on raw material costs

Speaker 10: Yeah, that's, I think it's a good point 'cause it's not just Chinese. It's anybody that makes TiO2 on the sulfate base. So it's all the European sulfate producers. And John made that point, it's up 70% since July of last year. Since the beginning of 2025, it's up 160%. And that's not sustainable. It has a lot to do with the Ukraine-Russia war, but there's lots of reasons why prices need to move. But the point you made is the most valid one, Frank, and that is, it all depends on, you know, how the competition work, and I can't speak exactly to that other than we're not the only one announcing increases. Yeah, that's, I think it's a good point 'cause it's not just Chinese. yeah that's i think it's a good point 'cause it's not just chinese It's anybody that makes TiO2 on the sulfate base. it's anybody that makes tio2 on the sulfate base So it's all the European sulfate producers. so it's all the european sulfate producers And John made that point, it's up 70% since July of last year. and john made that point it's up 70% since july of last year Since the beginning of 2025, it's up 160%. since the beginning of 2025 it's up 160% And that's not sustainable. and that's not sustainable It has a lot to do with the Ukraine-Russia war, but there's lots of reasons why prices need to move. it has a lot to do with the ukraine-russia war but there's lots of reasons why prices need to move But the point you made is the most valid one, Frank, and that is, it all depends on, you know, how the competition work, and I can't speak exactly to that other than we're not the only one announcing increases. but the point you made is the most valid one frank and that is it all depends on you know how the competition work and i can't speak exactly to that other than we're not the only one announcing increases

Speaker 5: That's, that's very helpful color. And I appreciate the breakouts on Slide 6 and 7 in terms of, in terms of what drove sales and what drove EBITDA. What jumped out at me was volumes, sequentially increasing $56 million on the top line, but $2 million, on the bottom line, sequentially. I was wondering if you could speak to the, you know, incremental margins, on, on, on volume growth and what your expectations are there. That's, that's very helpful color. that's that's very helpful color And I appreciate the breakouts on Slide 6 and 7 in terms of, in terms of what drove sales and what drove EBITDA. and i appreciate the breakouts on slide 6 and 7 in terms of in terms of what drove sales and what drove ebitda What jumped out at me was volumes, sequentially increasing $56 million on the top line, but $2 million, on the bottom line, sequentially. what jumped out at me was volumes sequentially increasing $56 million on the top line but $2 million on the bottom line sequentially I was wondering if you could speak to the, you know, incremental margins, on, on, on volume growth and what your expectations are there. i was wondering if you could speak to the you know incremental margins on on on volume growth and what your expectations are there

Speaker 10: Great question. And again, a lot of that has to do with a lot of the sales that we had or a lot of the sales growth we had in the fourth quarter. I would say the variance between the three to five guide that we had and the nine that we actually achieved had a lot to do with where we sold it, and a lot of that was in Asia, and the significant portion of it was in India. Again, we're still competing with the Chinese over there, so it had a lot to do with where we're selling. So when we think about the volume shifting in the first quarter, it's shifting away from those markets, and that's why part of our margin improvement in the first quarter is being driven by mix, and that's regional mix, in addition to price increases. Great question. great question And again, a lot of that has to do with a lot of the sales that we had or a lot of the sales growth we had in the fourth quarter. and again a lot of that has to do with a lot of the sales that we had or a lot of the sales growth we had in the fourth quarter I would say the variance between the three to five guide that we had and the nine that we actually achieved had a lot to do with where we sold it, and a lot of that was in Asia, and the significant portion of it was in India. i would say the variance between the three to five guide that we had and the nine that we actually achieved had a lot to do with where we sold it and a lot of that was in asia and the significant portion of it was in india Again, we're still competing with the Chinese over there, so it had a lot to do with where we're selling. again we're still competing with the chinese over there so it had a lot to do with where we're selling So when we think about the volume shifting in the first quarter, it's shifting away from those markets, and that's why part of our margin improvement in the first quarter is being driven by mix, and that's regional mix, in addition to price increases. so when we think about the volume shifting in the first quarter it's shifting away from those markets and that's why part of our margin improvement in the first quarter is being driven by mix and that's regional mix in addition to price increases

Speaker 5: Terrific. Thanks so much. Terrific. terrific Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 10: Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Frank. thank you frank

Speaker 14: Next question will be from Vincent Andrews at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Next question will be from Vincent Andrews at Morgan Stanley. next question will be from vincent andrews at morgan stanley Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 13: Good morning, this is Justin Pellegrino on for Vincent. I was just hoping you could describe the next process and kind of the anti-dumping duty story here. Now, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers for share that had originally been ceded to the Chinese? And then are there any other markets that you're watching for potential anti-dumping duty measures in the future? Thank you. Good morning, this is Justin Pellegrino on for Vincent. good morning this is justin pellegrino on for vincent I was just hoping you could describe the next process and kind of the anti-dumping duty story here. i was just hoping you could describe the next process and kind of the anti-dumping duty story here Now, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers for share that had originally been ceded to the Chinese? now what's the approach to take share from other western suppliers for share that had originally been ceded to the chinese And then are there any other markets that you're watching for potential anti-dumping duty measures in the future? and then are there any other markets that you're watching for potential anti-dumping duty measures in the future Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Yeah, I'll start with the last question, and I would say anywhere where there's TiO2 production, there's probably work underway to look at anti-dumping. I can't go into any specifics, but, you know, this is a shifting tide. And as I mentioned before, in Asia, China's largely saturated that market, but there's other areas where TiO2 is produced, and, you know, there's work underway in every one of those regions on anti-dumping. Could you restate your first part of the question again, so I make sure I answered it? Yeah, I'll start with the last question, and I would say anywhere where there's TiO2 production, there's probably work underway to look at anti-dumping. yeah i'll start with the last question and i would say anywhere where there's tio2 production there's probably work underway to look at anti-dumping I can't go into any specifics, but, you know, this is a shifting tide. i can't go into any specifics but you know this is a shifting tide And as I mentioned before, in Asia, China's largely saturated that market, but there's other areas where TiO2 is produced, and, you know, there's work underway in every one of those regions on anti-dumping. and as i mentioned before in asia china's largely saturated that market but there's other areas where tio2 is produced and you know there's work underway in every one of those regions on anti-dumping Could you restate your first part of the question again, so I make sure I answered it? could you restate your first part of the question again so i make sure i answered it

Speaker 13: Yeah, absolutely. I was just kind of curious, you know, as we've seen these anti-dumping duties put in place, you know, now that they're largely in place. You know, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers that was originally share that was ceded to the Chinese? You know, is it largely a price dynamic, or are there other competitive actions that you can take to try and gain share? Yeah, absolutely. yeah absolutely I was just kind of curious, you know, as we've seen these anti-dumping duties put in place, you know, now that they're largely in place. i was just kind of curious you know as we've seen these anti-dumping duties put in place you know now that they're largely in place You know, what's the approach to take share from other Western suppliers that was originally share that was ceded to the Chinese? you know what's the approach to take share from other western suppliers that was originally share that was ceded to the chinese You know, is it largely a price dynamic, or are there other competitive actions that you can take to try and gain share? you know is it largely a price dynamic or are there other competitive actions that you can take to try and gain share

Speaker 10: From other Western suppliers, I would say the majority of what we're doing with anti-dumping is actually taking share from China. So again, when we think about our marketing plan, there's areas that are strategic for us, and we'll continue to grow in those markets. But anti-dumping is largely going to be a structural shift where we're taking share that we basically lost to China as they were dumping. Not to say that we don't compete with all the other Western suppliers, we do, but anti-dumping isn't really driving an opportunity for us to go out and do anything other than recapture share that the Chinese actually had taken based off of very low dumping prices. From other Western suppliers, I would say the majority of what we're doing with anti-dumping is actually taking share from China. from other western suppliers i would say the majority of what we're doing with anti-dumping is actually taking share from china So again, when we think about our marketing plan, there's areas that are strategic for us, and we'll continue to grow in those markets. so again when we think about our marketing plan there's areas that are strategic for us and we'll continue to grow in those markets But anti-dumping is largely going to be a structural shift where we're taking share that we basically lost to China as they were dumping. but anti-dumping is largely going to be a structural shift where we're taking share that we basically lost to china as they were dumping Not to say that we don't compete with all the other Western suppliers, we do, but anti-dumping isn't really driving an opportunity for us to go out and do anything other than recapture share that the Chinese actually had taken based off of very low dumping prices. not to say that we don't compete with all the other western suppliers we do but anti-dumping isn't really driving an opportunity for us to go out and do anything other than recapture share that the chinese actually had taken based off of very low dumping prices

Speaker 13: Okay. Thank you. Okay. okay Thank you. thank you

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be from Roger Spitz, Bank of America. Please go ahead. Next question will be from Roger Spitz, Bank of America. next question will be from roger spitz bank of america Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 16: Thank you very much, and good morning. Maybe you said it and I missed it, but if you exclude for TiO2 price for Q4 on a year-over-year basis or sequential basis, if you exclude the regional mix, which was an adverse mix, what was TiO2 pricing? Was it essentially flat? Thank you very much, and good morning. thank you very much and good morning Maybe you said it and I missed it, but if you exclude for TiO2 price for Q4 on a year-over-year basis or sequential basis, if you exclude the regional mix, which was an adverse mix, what was TiO2 pricing? maybe you said it and i missed it but if you exclude for tio2 price for q4 on a year-over-year basis or sequential basis if you exclude the regional mix which was an adverse mix what was tio2 pricing Was it essentially flat? was it essentially flat

Speaker 10: It was down 2%, and that was we forecasted. It was down 2%, and that was we forecasted. it was down 2% and that was we forecasted

Speaker 16: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 10: Yeah. The other 2% was mix. Yeah. yeah The other 2% was mix. the other 2% was mix

Speaker 16: Okay. And the Stallingborough downtime, did you provide an EBITDA impact in Q4 from that? Okay. okay And the Stallingborough downtime, did you provide an EBITDA impact in Q4 from that? and the stallingborough downtime did you provide an ebitda impact in q4 from that

Speaker 10: About $11 million. About $11 million. about $11 million

Speaker 16: Got it. And lastly, for me, have you or can you say what is the total fixed cost savings of having shut Botlek and Fuzhou on an annual basis? Got it. got it And lastly, for me, have you or can you say what is the total fixed cost savings of having shut Botlek and Fuzhou on an annual basis? and lastly for me have you or can you say what is the total fixed cost savings of having shut botlek and fuzhou on an annual basis

Speaker 11: Yeah, so, you know, as we've for Botlek perspective, we've mentioned that, you know, longer term, our fixed cost leverage would be about $30 million of savings, and then Fuzhou would be about $15 million dollar savings. Yeah, so, you know, as we've for Botlek perspective, we've mentioned that, you know, longer term, our fixed cost leverage would be about $30 million of savings, and then Fuzhou would be about $15 million dollar savings. yeah so you know as we've for botlek perspective we've mentioned that you know longer term our fixed cost leverage would be about $30 million of savings and then fuzhou would be about $15 million dollar savings

Speaker 10: Just to be clear, maybe on that Stallingborough comment, that outage is behind us. Just to be clear, maybe on that Stallingborough comment, that outage is behind us. just to be clear maybe on that stallingborough comment that outage is behind us

Speaker 16: Yes, got it. Thank you very much for your time. Yes, got it. yes got it Thank you very much for your time. thank you very much for your time

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be from John Roberts at Mizuho. Please go ahead. Please go ahead, Mr. Roberts. Next question will be from John Roberts at Mizuho. next question will be from john roberts at mizuho Please go ahead. please go ahead Please go ahead, Mr. Roberts. please go ahead mr roberts

Speaker 9: Sorry, I was on mute. Should we think about normal seasonal sequential volumes after the March quarter? You know, it's obviously been pretty volatile and unusual seasonality in the last couple of quarters, but is that so? In your mind, kind of when we normalize again? Sorry, I was on mute. sorry i was on mute Should we think about normal seasonal sequential volumes after the March quarter? should we think about normal seasonal sequential volumes after the march quarter You know, it's obviously been pretty volatile and unusual seasonality in the last couple of quarters, but is that so? you know it's obviously been pretty volatile and unusual seasonality in the last couple of quarters but is that so In your mind, kind of when we normalize again? in your mind kind of when we normalize again

Speaker 10: Yeah, I would say even in the fourth quarter, when you look—I mean, the first quarter, when we think about seasonal volumes, and I made a reference that you look at Europe and North America, the Q4 to Q1 growth is pretty similar to what we're seeing, what we saw last year, and that was an uptick. And we're forecasting normal seasonal growth. Now, to the extent we see, you know, more of a pickup in demand and it's not just a structural shift, then you could get a bit of a higher bump on that. But I think a lot of that's gonna depend on the housing market and what happens with interest rates. But short answer is yes, we'd see more of a normal shift in seasonal demand. Yeah, I would say even in the fourth quarter, when you look—I mean, the first quarter, when we think about seasonal volumes, and I made a reference that you look at Europe and North America, the Q4 to Q1 growth is pretty similar to what we're seeing, what we saw last year, and that was an uptick. yeah i would say even in the fourth quarter when you look—i mean the first quarter when we think about seasonal volumes and i made a reference that you look at europe and north america the q4 to q1 growth is pretty similar to what we're seeing what we saw last year and that was an uptick And we're forecasting normal seasonal growth. and we're forecasting normal seasonal growth Now, to the extent we see, you know, more of a pickup in demand and it's not just a structural shift, then you could get a bit of a higher bump on that. now to the extent we see you know more of a pickup in demand and it's not just a structural shift then you could get a bit of a higher bump on that But I think a lot of that's gonna depend on the housing market and what happens with interest rates. but i think a lot of that's gonna depend on the housing market and what happens with interest rates But short answer is yes, we'd see more of a normal shift in seasonal demand. but short answer is yes we'd see more of a normal shift in seasonal demand

Speaker 9: Could you share any updated thoughts on the proposed China acquisition of the idled U.K. TiO2 plant? Could you share any updated thoughts on the proposed China acquisition of the idled U.K. could you share any updated thoughts on the proposed china acquisition of the idled u.k TiO2 plant? tio2 plant

Speaker 10: I can tell you that, you know, there's a lot of work going on there. There was an article that came out earlier this week. CMA is obviously investigating that. I think on the last call, we said that it's not a slam dunk, that still a work in progress, and I can't give you clear visibility on what's gonna happen there. But there's a lot of, let's say, activity going on around that acquisition, and there's been no decision on how that's gonna be concluded yet. I can tell you that, you know, there's a lot of work going on there. i can tell you that you know there's a lot of work going on there There was an article that came out earlier this week. there was an article that came out earlier this week CMA is obviously investigating that. cma is obviously investigating that I think on the last call, we said that it's not a slam dunk, that still a work in progress, and I can't give you clear visibility on what's gonna happen there. i think on the last call we said that it's not a slam dunk that still a work in progress and i can't give you clear visibility on what's gonna happen there But there's a lot of, let's say, activity going on around that acquisition, and there's been no decision on how that's gonna be concluded yet. but there's a lot of let's say activity going on around that acquisition and there's been no decision on how that's gonna be concluded yet

Speaker 9: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question comes from Aaron Rosenthal at JPMorgan Chase. Please go ahead. Next question comes from Aaron Rosenthal at JP Morgan Chase. next question comes from aaron rosenthal at jp morgan chase Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 1: Hey, good morning. Thanks for the call. Is your definition of cash flows being referenced both on the call and in the slides, you know, defined as cash from ops plus CapEx, or is there an adjusted cash flow definition that we should think about? And, on that same front, what are your expected cash restructuring charges this year? Hey, good morning. hey good morning Thanks for the call. thanks for the call Is your definition of cash flows being referenced both on the call and in the slides, you know, defined as cash from ops plus CapEx, or is there an adjusted cash flow definition that we should think about? is your definition of cash flows being referenced both on the call and in the slides you know defined as cash from ops plus capex or is there an adjusted cash flow definition that we should think about And, on that same front, what are your expected cash restructuring charges this year? and on that same front what are your expected cash restructuring charges this year

Speaker 11: Yeah. No, that's correct. It's free cash flow after-- It's basically before the dividend and other debt movements. And then from a restructuring charge perspective, we, you know, the mass majority of the Botlek restructuring charges were hit in 2025. So we do see a significant reduction, just about $6 million left there. And then China, you know, we expect about $15 million or so restructuring charges related to that. So overall, over a $50 million improvement on a cash basis year-over-year. Yeah. yeah No, that's correct. no that's correct It's free cash flow after-- It's basically before the dividend and other debt movements. it's free cash flow after-- it's basically before the dividend and other debt movements And then from a restructuring charge perspective, we, you know, the mass majority of the Botlek restructuring charges were hit in 2025. and then from a restructuring charge perspective we you know the mass majority of the botlek restructuring charges were hit in 2025 So we do see a significant reduction, just about $6 million left there. so we do see a significant reduction just about $6 million left there And then China, you know, we expect about $15 million or so restructuring charges related to that. and then china you know we expect about $15 million or so restructuring charges related to that So overall, over a $50 million improvement on a cash basis year-over-year. so overall over a $50 million improvement on a cash basis year-over-year

Speaker 1: Okay, great. And then just looking at liquidity and thinking about the cash flow bridge. So 1Q cash burn, that makes sense, 2Q, maybe flattish, and then an implied 2H, you know, cash generation. But as you think about effective liquidity, you know, pro forma at 3/31 or into the second quarter, it seems like it's gonna be very light, and with very little margin of error. Are you entertaining any additional sources of liquidity in the near term? Equity is up a lot secured bonds are par. The market loves chem. It seems like right now would be a very opportunistic time. Okay, great. okay great And then just looking at liquidity and thinking about the cash flow bridge. and then just looking at liquidity and thinking about the cash flow bridge So 1Q cash burn, that makes sense, 2Q, maybe flattish, and then an implied 2H, you know, cash generation. so 1q cash burn that makes sense 2q maybe flattish and then an implied 2h you know cash generation But as you think about effective liquidity, you know, pro forma at 3/31 or into the second quarter, it seems like it's gonna be very light, and with very little margin of error. but as you think about effective liquidity you know pro forma at 3/31 or into the second quarter it seems like it's gonna be very light and with very little margin of error Are you entertaining any additional sources of liquidity in the near term? are you entertaining any additional sources of liquidity in the near term Equity is up a lot secured bonds are par. equity is up a lot secured bonds are par The market loves chem. the market loves chem It seems like right now would be a very opportunistic time. it seems like right now would be a very opportunistic time

Speaker 11: Yeah, so we’ve ended the year with $674 million of liquidity. So we believe that is a strong and sufficient amount of liquidity to lever or to manage through any cycle. We’ve said in the past that, you know, we can operate as low as $200 million or so of liquidity. We like to go into Q1 with over $300 million, as, you know, that is the biggest use for us. So we’re more than double the position of even being comfortable at the, you know, at a reasonable range. So, we're just focused on running the business, managing, you know, pulling levers that we can, but, you know, as we expect to generate significant amount of free cash flow in the rest of the year after Q1, we think we're in a solid position. Yeah, so we’ve ended the year with $674 million of liquidity. yeah so we’ve ended the year with $674 million of liquidity So we believe that is a strong and sufficient amount of liquidity to lever or to manage through any cycle. so we believe that is a strong and sufficient amount of liquidity to lever or to manage through any cycle We’ve said in the past that, you know, we can operate as low as $200 million or so of liquidity. we’ve said in the past that you know we can operate as low as $200 million or so of liquidity We like to go into Q1 with over $300 million, as, you know, that is the biggest use for us. we like to go into q1 with over $300 million as you know that is the biggest use for us So we’re more than double the position of even being comfortable at the, you know, at a reasonable range. so we’re more than double the position of even being comfortable at the you know at a reasonable range So, we're just focused on running the business, managing, you know, pulling levers that we can, but, you know, as we expect to generate significant amount of free cash flow in the rest of the year after Q1, we think we're in a solid position. so we're just focused on running the business managing you know pulling levers that we can but you know as we expect to generate significant amount of free cash flow in the rest of the year after q1 we think we're in a solid position

Speaker 1: Great. If I could just sneak maybe one more in. I think beyond the, you know, the primary cash flow revolver, there's a handful of other smaller facilities. I think there's one that was up for renewal. I think it was maybe $50 or $60 million in 2026. Is the expectation that you are going to renew and extend that? Great. great If I could just sneak maybe one more in. if i could just sneak maybe one more in I think beyond the, you know, the primary cash flow revolver, there's a handful of other smaller facilities. i think beyond the you know the primary cash flow revolver there's a handful of other smaller facilities I think there's one that was up for renewal. i think there's one that was up for renewal I think it was maybe $50 or $60 million in 2026. i think it was maybe $50 or $60 million in 2026 Is the expectation that you are going to renew and extend that? is the expectation that you are going to renew and extend that

Speaker 11: Yes, we normally get those renewed every year. We have a couple facilities in the U.K. and Saudi that we get renewed. Yes, we normally get those renewed every year. yes we normally get those renewed every year We have a couple facilities in the U.K. and Saudi that we get renewed. we have a couple facilities in the u.k and saudi that we get renewed

Speaker 1: Great. Thank you. Great. great Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Next question will be from Hassan Ahmed at Alembic Global. Please go ahead. Next question will be from Hassan Ahmed at Alembic Global. next question will be from hassan ahmed at alembic global Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 6: Morning, John. John, obviously, a lot of comments made about volume growth in 2026 year-on-year, and then obviously, you know, expecting a positive titanium dioxide sort of pricing inflection. So just wanted to sort of bring all of those factors together and, you know, seek some clarification. Look, I mean, my understanding is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you guys obviously had a very strong Q4 volume-wise, right? So, you know, even if the market does not demand-wise grow that much, you know, this year, just you know, for Tronox in particular, you know, the sort of market share gains from anti-dumping and the like should put you in a very decent position to show meaningful volume growth year-on-year. So, first part of that question is, is that fair to assume? Morning, John. morning john John, obviously, a lot of comments made about volume growth in 2026 year-on-year, and then obviously, you know, expecting a positive titanium dioxide sort of pricing inflection. john obviously a lot of comments made about volume growth in 2026 year-on-year and then obviously you know expecting a positive titanium dioxide sort of pricing inflection So just wanted to sort of bring all of those factors together and, you know, seek some clarification. so just wanted to sort of bring all of those factors together and you know seek some clarification Look, I mean, my understanding is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you guys obviously had a very strong Q4 volume-wise, right? look i mean my understanding is and correct me if i'm wrong that you guys obviously had a very strong q4 volume-wise right So, you know, even if the market does not demand-wise grow that much, you know, this year, just you know, for Tronox in particular, you know, the sort of market share gains from anti-dumping and the like should put you in a very decent position to show meaningful volume growth year-on-year. so you know even if the market does not demand-wise grow that much you know this year just you know for tronox in particular you know the sort of market share gains from anti-dumping and the like should put you in a very decent position to show meaningful volume growth year-on-year So, first part of that question is, is that fair to assume? so first part of that question is is that fair to assume With, you know. And then, you know, obviously, restocking and maybe growth in the market would just be gravy from a volume perspective. And then, you know, alongside that, on the pricing side of things, you know, it just seems that towards the end of last year, pricing got a bit sloppy. You know, you had a bankruptcy out in England. You know, there was this chatter about, you know, inventory being sold at below market pricing and the like. So a combination of maybe the absence of that and a lot of folks not making EBITDA, you know, you know, is that really what's driving your confidence in terms of getting pricing in Q1 and beyond? With, you know. with you know And then, you know, obviously, restocking and maybe growth in the market would just be gravy from a volume perspective. and then you know obviously restocking and maybe growth in the market would just be gravy from a volume perspective And then, you know, alongside that, on the pricing side of things, you know, it just seems that towards the end of last year, pricing got a bit sloppy. and then you know alongside that on the pricing side of things you know it just seems that towards the end of last year pricing got a bit sloppy You know, you had a bankruptcy out in England. you know you had a bankruptcy out in england You know, there was this chatter about, you know, inventory being sold at below market pricing and the like. you know there was this chatter about you know inventory being sold at below market pricing and the like So a combination of maybe the absence of that and a lot of folks not making EBITDA, you know, you know, is that really what's driving your confidence in terms of getting pricing in Q1 and beyond? so a combination of maybe the absence of that and a lot of folks not making ebitda you know you know is that really what's driving your confidence in terms of getting pricing in q1 and beyond

Speaker 10: Yeah, thanks, Hassan. I think, I'll start with the first part of your question, and you're exactly right. We're not forecasting a tremendous amount of demand growth. This has a lot to do with the restructuring of the business. And again, I made that reference, if you know we only get if China keeps half the exports that they were exporting at the peak, and we get 25% of that 400,000 tons, it's 100,000 tons for us, and, you know, very quickly, we're sold out. To the extent market demand improves, then that's going to be additional volume for us. So we're not banking on a significant recovery, although, as I mentioned last quarter, the market will recover. I can't specify exactly, but we're starting to see seasonal trends that will lend itself towards supporting that. Yeah, thanks, Hassan. yeah thanks hassan I think, I'll start with the first part of your question, and you're exactly right. i think i'll start with the first part of your question and you're exactly right We're not forecasting a tremendous amount of demand growth. we're not forecasting a tremendous amount of demand growth This has a lot to do with the restructuring of the business. this has a lot to do with the restructuring of the business And again, I made that reference, if you know we only get if China keeps half the exports that they were exporting at the peak, and we get 25% of that 400,000 tons, it's 100,000 tons for us, and, you know, very quickly, we're sold out. and again i made that reference if you know we only get if china keeps half the exports that they were exporting at the peak and we get 25% of that 400,000 tons it's 100,000 tons for us and you know very quickly we're sold out To the extent market demand improves, then that's going to be additional volume for us. to the extent market demand improves then that's going to be additional volume for us So we're not banking on a significant recovery, although, as I mentioned last quarter, the market will recover. so we're not banking on a significant recovery although as i mentioned last quarter the market will recover I can't specify exactly, but we're starting to see seasonal trends that will lend itself towards supporting that. i can't specify exactly but we're starting to see seasonal trends that will lend itself towards supporting that So I agree with everything you said from a demand perspective. On the pricing side of the equation, I would agree with you as well. You know, there were, there were a lot of reasons why pricing should not have gone down in the fourth quarter. It did. We're starting to not only announce increases, we're implementing them in the first quarter. And, you know, kind of going back off the question Frank had earlier, you can't do that if you're on an island. I tell you, you know, if we're the only one raising pricing and there's a, a supply-demand that's out of balance, then it's hard to do that. So I would agree with that. And again, you start to think about the recovery. So I agree with everything you said from a demand perspective. so i agree with everything you said from a demand perspective On the pricing side of the equation, I would agree with you as well. on the pricing side of the equation i would agree with you as well You know, there were, there were a lot of reasons why pricing should not have gone down in the fourth quarter. you know there were there were a lot of reasons why pricing should not have gone down in the fourth quarter It did. it did We're starting to not only announce increases, we're implementing them in the first quarter. we're starting to not only announce increases we're implementing them in the first quarter And, you know, kind of going back off the question Frank had earlier, you can't do that if you're on an island. and you know kind of going back off the question frank had earlier you can't do that if you're on an island I tell you, you know, if we're the only one raising pricing and there's a, a supply-demand that's out of balance, then it's hard to do that. i tell you you know if we're the only one raising pricing and there's a a supply-demand that's out of balance then it's hard to do that So I would agree with that. so i would agree with that And again, you start to think about the recovery. and again you start to think about the recovery The recovery is going to be an inflection that will be a bit different because there is a lot of Western supply that's just not there anymore because it's permanently closed. Every single Western supplier has closed plants. We've closed, too, and one supplier doesn't even exist anymore, and it wasn't like, you know, they weren't a good supplier. So I would agree with everything that you said. If the market picks up and interest rates start to move and housing moves in the right direction, that'll only be a catalyst for higher pricing. The recovery is going to be an inflection that will be a bit different because there is a lot of Western supply that's just not there anymore because it's permanently closed. the recovery is going to be an inflection that will be a bit different because there is a lot of western supply that's just not there anymore because it's permanently closed Every single Western supplier has closed plants. every single western supplier has closed plants We've closed, too, and one supplier doesn't even exist anymore, and it wasn't like, you know, they weren't a good supplier. we've closed too and one supplier doesn't even exist anymore and it wasn't like you know they weren't a good supplier So I would agree with everything that you said. so i would agree with everything that you said If the market picks up and interest rates start to move and housing moves in the right direction, that'll only be a catalyst for higher pricing. if the market picks up and interest rates start to move and housing moves in the right direction that'll only be a catalyst for higher pricing

Speaker 6: Very helpful. As a follow-up, obviously, you know, everything pointing towards, you know, 2026 certainly being a better year than 2025, and, you know, hopefully, you know, things cycling up thereafter. I mean, you know, with that said, where do we stand in terms of rationalization? I know you talked about it in prior calls, even on this call, that 1.1 million ton figure of sort of capacity shut down since 2023. You know, are you—I mean, with this sort of improving backdrop, I mean, what are your thoughts about further rationalizations, particularly as they pertain to China? You know, I keep sort of thinking through, you know, at least 20 facilities in China being less than 50,000 tons. How does the whole sort of anti-involution thing play in and further rationalization happen if indeed the environment is getting a bit better? Very helpful. very helpful As a follow-up, obviously, you know, everything pointing towards, you know, 2026 certainly being a better year than 2025, and, you know, hopefully, you know, things cycling up thereafter. as a follow-up obviously you know everything pointing towards you know 2026 certainly being a better year than 2025 and you know hopefully you know things cycling up thereafter I mean, you know, with that said, where do we stand in terms of rationalization? i mean you know with that said where do we stand in terms of rationalization I know you talked about it in prior calls, even on this call, that 1.1 million ton figure of sort of capacity shut down since 2023. i know you talked about it in prior calls even on this call that 1.1 million ton figure of sort of capacity shut down since 2023 You know, are you—I mean, with this sort of improving backdrop, I mean, what are your thoughts about further rationalizations, particularly as they pertain to China? you know are you—i mean with this sort of improving backdrop i mean what are your thoughts about further rationalizations particularly as they pertain to china You know, I keep sort of thinking through, you know, at least 20 facilities in China being less than 50,000 tons. you know i keep sort of thinking through you know at least 20 facilities in china being less than 50,000 tons How does the whole sort of anti-involution thing play in and further rationalization happen if indeed the environment is getting a bit better? how does the whole sort of anti-involution thing play in and further rationalization happen if indeed the environment is getting a bit better

Speaker 10: Yeah, it's another good question. You know, the closure of our Fuzhou plant was not an easy decision, and it wasn't as if it was, you know, low on the profitability wheel in China. We don't get subsidized, but, you know, it's a great question. I would have thought capacity would have closed already, and to the extent these anti-dumping initiatives continue to expand, as we believe they will, outside the regions they're already implemented in, you're gonna have to see some kind of rationalization. And again, is it going to be in China? Will it be outside of China? I think there could be a mixture of both. I can't tell you how long sulfur prices are gonna be up, but that is a significant headwind in the industry right now. Price is up in 12 months, almost 160%. Yeah, it's another good question. yeah it's another good question You know, the closure of our Fuzhou plant was not an easy decision, and it wasn't as if it was, you know, low on the profitability wheel in China. you know the closure of our fuzhou plant was not an easy decision and it wasn't as if it was you know low on the profitability wheel in china We don't get subsidized, but, you know, it's a great question. we don't get subsidized but you know it's a great question I would have thought capacity would have closed already, and to the extent these anti-dumping initiatives continue to expand, as we believe they will, outside the regions they're already implemented in, you're gonna have to see some kind of rationalization. i would have thought capacity would have closed already and to the extent these anti-dumping initiatives continue to expand as we believe they will outside the regions they're already implemented in you're gonna have to see some kind of rationalization And again, is it going to be in China? and again is it going to be in china Will it be outside of China? will it be outside of china I think there could be a mixture of both. i think there could be a mixture of both I can't tell you how long sulfur prices are gonna be up, but that is a significant headwind in the industry right now. i can't tell you how long sulfur prices are gonna be up but that is a significant headwind in the industry right now Price is up in 12 months, almost 160%. price is up in 12 months almost 160% That's not sustainable. It takes about 1.3 million tons of sulfur to make a ton of pigment. So you do the math, it's a lot of money. So I would expect if the market continues to recover quickly, maybe you won't see as much. If it takes a bit longer to recover, you might see more rationalization. And China is still kind of an unknown. I would have expected more capacity to come out already. That's not sustainable. that's not sustainable It takes about 1.3 million tons of sulfur to make a ton of pigment. it takes about 1.3 million tons of sulfur to make a ton of pigment So you do the math, it's a lot of money. so you do the math it's a lot of money So I would expect if the market continues to recover quickly, maybe you won't see as much. so i would expect if the market continues to recover quickly maybe you won't see as much If it takes a bit longer to recover, you might see more rationalization. if it takes a bit longer to recover you might see more rationalization And China is still kind of an unknown. and china is still kind of an unknown I would have expected more capacity to come out already. i would have expected more capacity to come out already

Speaker 6: Very helpful, John. Thank you so much. Very helpful, John. very helpful john Thank you so much. thank you so much

Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 14: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer portion, as well as our conference call for today. We would like to thank you for attending and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question- and- answer portion, as well as our conference call for today. ladies and gentlemen this concludes the question- and- answer portion as well as our conference call for today We would like to thank you for attending and ask that you please disconnect your lines. we would like to thank you for attending and ask that you please disconnect your lines Enjoy the rest of your day. enjoy the rest of your day