Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Strong Siding and ExpertFinish offset OSB price collapse, Q1 downturn ahead
Summary
LP closed 2025 with a split personality. Siding delivered resilient top-line growth, margin expansion and standout adoption of ExpertFinish, while OSB suffered a commodity price rout that pushed real prices to 20-year troughs. Management is leaning on operational improvements, new capacity for ExpertFinish and disciplined capital allocation to navigate a soft start to 2026.
Near term is ugly but intentional. LP expects a sharp Q1 hit driven by elevated two-step inventories and pulled-forward shed demand, with siding volumes down 15% to 20% and OSB facing a first-quarter loss. The company still has liquidity, a clear path to margin recovery if housing stabilizes, and flexibility to pace its $400 million 2026 capex depending on market direction.
Key Takeaways
- Leadership change: Jason Ringblom succeeded Brad Southern as CEO, emphasizing continuity and strategic focus on market share and product innovation.
- 2025 full-year results: Net sales $2.7 billion, adjusted EBITDA $436 million, adjusted EPS $2.65.
- Siding strength: Full-year siding revenue grew 8%, driven by +4% net selling prices and +4% volumes; siding EBITDA was $444 million, up $54 million year-over-year, with a 26% margin.
- ExpertFinish momentum: ExpertFinish volumes rose 18% for the year and 35% in Q4, with margins improving roughly 8 percentage points YoY thanks to scale and OEE gains.
- OSB distress: OSB price weakness dominated the year, producing only $7 million of segment EBITDA for 2025 and trough real prices not seen in 20 years at LP.
- Q4 company snapshot: LP reported $567 million in Q4 net sales, $50 million in EBITDA, and $0.03 in adjusted diluted EPS.
- Q1 2026 guidance and near-term pain: LP expects total siding volumes down 15%-20% in Q1, shed volumes down 25%-30%, new residential and R&R down 10%-15%; siding ASPs to rise 6-8 points, resulting in Q1 net sales down ~11%-13% and siding EBITDA margin 23%-25%.
- OSB Q1 outlook: Management forecasts an OSB loss of $25 million to $30 million in Q1 if current Random Lengths prices hold, with utilization a few points below the long-term 85% average.
- Inventory and channel dynamics: Two-step distributors pulled demand forward ahead of LP price increases, creating elevated channel inventories (roughly 2-4 weeks at two-step level) even as dealer inventories were kept lean; LP expects much of this to normalize into Q2.
- Capacity and operations: Green Bay 70 million foot ExpertFinish line expected to ramp in early Q2; LP came off allocation February 1 due to OEE improvements. OSB OEE rose 1 point to 79%; siding OEE stayed near 77% with ExpertFinish OEE improving materially.
- Capital allocation and liquidity: 2025 operating cash flow $382 million, CapEx $291 million, dividends $78 million, buybacks $61 million; year-end cash $292 million plus $750 million undrawn revolver, giving >$1 billion liquidity. $177 million of buyback authorization remains.
- 2026 CapEx plan and flexibility: LP plans about $400 million of capex split evenly between sustaining and growth, back-end loaded with roughly 60% in H2, and with latitude to accelerate or cut depending on demand.
- Input cost assumptions: Siding guidance includes roughly $20 million of raw material inflation (resin and paper overlay, largely contractual), about $7 million of labor inflation, plus modest freight pressure.
- Tariff and one-time items: Q4 benefited from non-recurrence of prior production/cost timing and no tariffs on ExpertFinish imported into Canada; OSB saw routine mark-to-market on inventory but no exceptional one-time writedowns.
- Strategic view: Management argues LP SmartSide is gaining share over time via product differentiation and pricing power, giving the firm leverage to outperform the broader, cyclic housing market if starts stabilize.
Full Transcript
Conference Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2025 Louisiana-Pacific Corporation earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, we’ll open up for questions. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today’s call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to your speaker, Aaron Howald, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Aaron Howald, Vice President, Investor Relations, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us from the International Builders Show in Orlando to discuss LP’s financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, as well as our outlook for 2026. Hosting the call with me this morning are Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, and Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer. After prepared remarks, we will take a round of questions, and then we will be available for follow-up calls and visits to LP’s booth at IBS. During this morning’s call, we will refer to a presentation that has been posted to LP’s IR webpage, which is investor.lpcorp.com. Our 8-K filing, earnings press release, and other materials are also available there. Finally, I will remind you that today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial metrics, as described on slides 2 and 3 of the earnings presentation.
The appendix of that presentation also contains reconciliations that are further supplemented by this morning’s 8-K filing. Rather than reading those materials, I will incorporate them herein by reference. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Jason.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thank you, Aaron, and thank you all for joining us. First of all, let me start by offering thanks and congratulations on behalf of the entire LP team to Brad Southern for a well-earned retirement after more than 25 years of transformative leadership at LP. It’s truly an honor to be succeeding Brad as LP’s next CEO, and I’m confident that LP has the right strategy and the right team to make a seamless transition. We remain fully committed to driving growth, gaining market share, delivering product and process innovation, and generating shareholder value in the years to come. 2025 was a difficult year for home building and aspiring homeowners. Tariffs, economic policy uncertainty, and deteriorating consumer confidence all contributed to affordability challenges. Housing starts decelerated throughout the year.
In fact, single-family starts, a key demand indicator for both siding and OSB, were down roughly 10% in the third quarter, according to the Census Bureau. Unfortunately, the Census Bureau has yet to publish fourth quarter housing data, but I suspect when that data is available, it will confirm further weakness. Despite these challenges, LP grew the siding business by 8% for the full year while expanding margins, particularly in ExpertFinish. In the fourth quarter, LP delivered $567 million in net sales, $50 million in EBITDA, and $0.03 in adjusted diluted earnings per share. LP’s siding business showed resilience in a weakening market. For the full year, we achieved 4% higher net selling prices and 4% higher sales volumes, resulting in 8% revenue growth. This allowed us to deliver a 26% EBITDA margin.
Major contributors to these results were growth in the shed segment, which reinforces the power of LP’s diverse end-use applications and ExpertFinish, where not only has product innovation helped us expand the addressable market to reach new repair and remodel customers, but as Alan will describe in a few minutes, we have also seen significant margin improvement. 2025 saw significant volume growth with our largest shed customers, particularly in the first half of the year. It’s hard to be precise, given the broad range of uses for SmartSide lap, trim, and panels, but we estimate that shed volumes were up slightly more than 20% year-over-year. We estimate that products sold into new residential construction saw volumes decline by roughly 1-3 points, which significantly outpaced the decline in single-family starts.
LP’s repair and remodel sector was likely flat to up a point or two, with impressive 18% growth in ExpertFinish. To be fair, Siding also enjoyed some geographic advantages in 2025. We had stronger market presence in the Upper Midwest, where construction activity remained comparatively strong, and we were modestly insulated from softer markets in the Southeast due to our lower market penetration in this region. One consequence of recent market uncertainty is that dealers adopted a more cautious stance with regard to their inventory positions, holding fewer weeks of supply than normal. This adjustment coincided with a volume allocation prior to LP’s price increase that we now realize was somewhat larger than necessary. Unfortunately, the combined effect of these phenomena appears to have resulted in some pull forward at year-end, leading to elevated channel inventories with some of our Two-Step Distribution partners.
Currently, and as Alan will detail in the guidance section, siding order files have been a bit weaker than anticipated to begin 2026. OSB results tracked housing demand more closely, as they generally do, with commodity prices softening alongside housing starts. Unfortunately, at their trough, OSB prices, adjusted for inflation, are the lowest we’ve seen in 20 years at LP. Despite that, LP’s OSB mills operated safely and efficiently in the fourth quarter. We managed costs and capacity with care and discipline, and while we did not break even for the quarter, we did overcome softness in the second half of the year to achieve a positive EBITDA for the full year. As you all know, we can’t control OSB prices, so we focus our efforts instead on executing our strategy.
Speaking of strategic execution, the integration of LP under a chief commercial officer and chief operating officer structure, rather than two business general managers, is also beginning to show its value. For example, aligning OSB and Siding go-to-market strategies has enabled unique sales synergies that provide new pathways for ongoing Siding growth. Integrating operations has improved best practice sharing, uncovering opportunities for enhanced safety, OEE, and system-wide capacity utilization. Operating efficiency in the OSB business increased by 1 point to 79%, which is remarkable given the operating challenges of a soft demand environment. While total Siding OEE was flat year over year at 77%, OEE at LP’s ExpertFinish facilities improved significantly. This not only contributed to our ability to come off of a managed order file a bit earlier than previously anticipated, but as Alan will detail in a moment, the extra volume helped deliver margin expansion.
LP also executed our capital investments efficiently and flexibly, adjusting in response to slowing demand and accelerating ExpertFinish expansion to meet strong demand. Most importantly, we operated safely and responsibly. LP achieved a total incident rate of 0.62 in 2025, which was incrementally better than 2024’s level. We also had two mills, Newberry, Michigan, in Siding and Jasper, Texas, in OSB, reached 3 years without a recordable injury in 2025. As a result, LP earned the APA’s Safest Company Award for the third year running. With that, I’ll turn over the call to Alan Haughie for a more detailed review of LP’s financial results for the quarter and the year, as well as a discussion of our outlook, after which we will take a round of questions.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thanks, Jason. Slide 7 of the presentation shows the fourth quarter year-over-year waterfall for Siding. Revenue increased by 6%, with prices, including mix effects, up 8% on a 2% volume decline. While these price increases added $24 million to sales and EBITDA year-over-year, some of that benefit came from volume rebate thresholds not being met. Within this modest volume decline, ExpertFinish jumped 35%, while prime volumes fell by 5%. This creates a slight adverse mix effect within EBITDA because ExpertFinish still has a lower margin than primed products. Having said that, ExpertFinish margins have improved by about 8 points year-over-year, thanks to leverage on increased volume and manufacturing efficiencies.
The only other items to note for Siding in the fourth quarter chart are the absence of tariffs on the ExpertFinish we’re importing into Canada, and the non-recurrence of last year’s effects from production and cost timing due to the delayed maintenance project last fall. As a result, the EBITDA margin for the quarter was 25%, up 5 points year-over-year. For the full year on slide 8, net sales were up 8%, evenly split between price and volume, as Jason said, adding $131 million to revenue and $91 million to EBITDA. Selling and marketing expenses increased by about $11 million, while raw material cost tailwinds mostly offset freight and labor cost headwinds. SG&A increases, tariffs, and other factors totaled about $23 million.
As a result, Siding finished 2025 with $444 million in EBITDA, which is $54 million higher than 2024, with a 1 percentage point rise in the EBITDA margin to 26%. The OSB charts on pages 9 and 10 are dominated by price, as they so often are, sadly, this time to the negative. In the fourth quarter, unfavorable supply-demand dynamics resulted in multiyear price lows and volume reductions across the OSB portfolio. Now, volume and price movements are harder to parse in OSB than they are in Siding, given its commodity nature, and they combined for a year-over-year decrease of $129 million in revenue and $95 million in EBITDA. Given these headwinds, the OSB operations team made the best of a very difficult market and found every opportunity for savings and efficiency.
Their efforts and diligence allowed the segment to achieve $7 million of EBITDA for the year, as detailed on slide 10. So to summarize the financial results for the full year, we had $2.7 billion in net sales, $436 million of EBITDA, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.65. These were the net effect of siding growth and margin expansion, offset by low OSB prices. As you can see on slide 11, we consistently executed our capital allocation strategy. Adjusted EBITDA of $436 million generated $382 million of operating cash flow, after $42 million in cash taxes and a small increase in working capital.
We invested $291 million in sustaining maintenance and growth capital, and this was about $25 million less than we anticipated spending on the last call, made possible by the deferral of some of the non-essential projects in OSB, as well as the decision to slow down capacity investments in siding. We returned $139 million to investors through $78 million in quarterly dividends and $61 million in share repurchases. At the year-end, LP’s cash balance was $292 million, and with an undrawn revolver of $750 million, LP has over $1 billion in liquidity. Just for the sake of housekeeping, we have $177 million of Board authorization remaining to repurchase shares. Which finally brings us to guidance.
LP’s OSB guidance is algorithmic and relatively straightforward, so let me dispense with that first. Random Lengths prices have climbed recently to levels that are near enough to OSB breakeven that, should we extrapolate current prices for the full year, OSB results will be very similar to 2025. I should also note, just for sensitivity modeling purposes, that we currently anticipate LP’s utilization rate for the OSB to be a few points below our longer-term average rate of 85%. For the first quarter of 2026, LP’s price realization has lagged the rising market price, which is typical. So assuming prices hold at current levels, OSB EBITDA in the first quarter should be a loss of between $25 million and $30 million. Unlike OSB, our siding guidance is not algorithmic.
Rather, it is informed in the near term by our order file and in the longer term by macroeconomic data and customer sentiment. As Jason said in his remarks, an acute lack of that data, particularly housing starts, added uncertainties who are planning for volume allocations following the announcement of our 2026 price increase last October. So despite our best intentions, we overshot, resulting in some pull forward of demand from the first quarter of this year into the fourth quarter of last year, especially with our shed customers. Now, to be fair, it’s difficult to precisely separate this impact from that of a severe winter storm that hit the Southeast in late January. But suffice to say, as a result, our order file is weaker today and inventories are higher.
So far in the first quarter, our order files contain significantly weaker shed activity than we experienced this time last year, with demand in the new residential construction and repair and remodel sectors, roughly in line with the year-over-year decline in single-family housing starts, but exacerbated by our current inventory position. Accordingly, we currently anticipate total volumes in the first quarter will be down 15%-20%, with shed volumes down 25%-30% and new res construction and R&R volumes down about 10%-15%, consistent with single-family starts. However, we expect average selling prices in the first quarter to be up 6-8 points as a result of list price increases and a positive mixed effect of ongoing ExpertFinish.
This would result in a first quarter year-over-year decline in net sales of 11%-13%, with the EBITDA margin coming in at between 23% and 25%. Now, given the exit rate from Q4 of last year, flat housing consensus for 2026 implies meaningful improvement after a difficult first quarter. Presuming the consensus is correct and the starts do indeed end the year flat to 2025, we would expect to see demand improve sequentially, especially as shed demand returns to prior year cadence as inventories normalize. As such, by the year end, we would expect siding volumes to be down low single digits, selling prices to be up mid-single digits, and the result, net sales to be up low single digits for an EBITDA margin of around 25%-26%.
With regard to capital expenditures, consistent with the same general market assumptions I just mentioned, we currently anticipate investing about $400 million, split equally between sustaining maintenance and strategic growth. The spending will probably be back-end loaded, with about 60% of the investments occurring in the second half. Now, should the market demand environment diverge meaningfully, for better or worse, we have significant flexibility in our plans such that we could accelerate investments somewhat or reduce them substantially. And as I said a moment ago, LP certainly has the balance sheet to weather further market weakening or support accelerated investment as needed. We’re facing a very uncertain market backdrop at the moment. However, rather than dwelling on what we do not know, LP’s teams will focus on what we do know. LP SmartSide has consistently gained share with innovative products that expand the addressable market.
That growth, coupled with the pricing power that comes with a premium specialty product, brings leverage and margin expansion. And while not linear, that growth has, over time, outperformed the underlying markets we serve. We are confident that these fundamentals remain intact and that we have a long runway ahead of us and the right strategy to guide us. And with that, we’ll be happy to take a round of questions, after which we look forward to seeing you at LP’s booth at the International Builders Show.
Conference Operator: ... Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up in the interest of time. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Boley from Barclays. Your line is now open.
Anika Zylakia, Analyst, Barclays: Hi, good morning. You have Anika Zylakia on for Matt today. Thank you for taking my questions. And first off, Brad, congrats, and Jason, look forward to working with you. So first off, just wondering, with LP siding revenue guidance, it implies a step up through the rest of the year to get to that $1.7 billion guidance, maybe somewhere in the mid-single digit range. And so I know you guys talked about shed normalizing. Is that kind of the main factor that you’re looking at in the year-over-year comps? Or just any details around how you’re thinking about the cadence of revenues? Thanks.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah. Yeah, there is, we are expecting some improvement in shed, and that’s probably the dominant piece, but really, we’re expecting improvement across the board as housing normalizes.
Anika Zylakia, Analyst, Barclays: Okay, got it. And then I’m curious on the affordability pressure today, are you seeing any risk of maybe mix down to vinyl or other siding materials that have a lower upfront cost? What are you hearing maybe from contractors, and if there’s any differences in the builder, by channel, either builder or R&R, if you’re seeing differences in affordability there? Thanks.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thanks for the question. Yeah, I would say, you know, obviously, affordability remains a primary headwind, and, you know, all the builder customers that we’re working with are focused on, you know, meeting a price point that will obviously allow them to turn more homes. So there’s been some, a little bit of a move to vinyl, but we think, you know, with the broad product offering that we offer with SmartSide, that there’s tremendous value there, and with a relatively low share position, there’s plenty of opportunities for us to continue on our growth trajectory.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Keaton Mamtora from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Keaton Mamtora, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Coming back to siding, Jason, can you talk a little bit about what you are seeing in terms of demand in your ExpertFinish product? I saw volumes were pretty good in Q4. Are you still in allocation on that business? Any trends you can talk to?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thanks, Keaton. Appreciate the question. In regards to ExpertFinish, what I would say is, you know, macro trends remain in our favor here. Labor is tight, labor is expensive. Homeowners expect a durable and resilient solution when that comes with a warranty. So our value proposition for ExpertFinish and ExpertFinish Naturals really addresses all of those needs. And as a result, we’re continuing to see this product category outperform in both new construction and repair remodel. In regards to the allocation question, we did come off allocation I believe February first, so a couple of weeks ago. That’s really due to the OEE improvements that we were able to realize across our network.
We thought that we would have to wait until our new Green Bay facility came online in early Q2 of this year, but through great work from our operations folks, we’ve been able to come off slightly in advance of what we had planned on.
Keaton Mamtora, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: Understood. That’s helpful. And then can you remind us on how you are thinking about sort of additional capacity in siding? Last quarter, you talked about sort of Manumax as being one of the options. How should we think about sort of timeline on that? And in the meantime, how are you all thinking about managing production in OSB?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yes, I’ll start with siding and just say, you know, we’re very excited to be ramping up our new 70 million foot line in Green Bay in early Q2. Very excited about that. In regards to broader capacity expansion opportunities, what I would say is we are continuing the detailed engineering work for future ExpertFinish and primed capacity expansion projects. And some of that capital spend is in the figures that Alan shared with you earlier. Obviously, a little bit more back-end loaded. But big picture, we want to be prepared to execute with projects that are essentially ready for plug and play when the timing is appropriate, with a heavy bent towards being early versus late.
Conference Operator: Thank you.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: The second question, Keaton, I believe, was around how we’re managing OSB capacity. And I would say, you know, largely consistent with what we’ve done in prior years. You know, very focused on managing capacity to demand. We’re very pleased to see the nice rebound in prices that we’ve realized to begin the year. We’ve been able to additionally keep a healthy order file across our network.... So it certainly feels, you know, more optimistic that supply and demand are a little bit more in balance than they had been for the majority of last year.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of George Staphos from Bank of America Securities. Your line is open.
Brad Barton, Analyst, Bank of America Securities: Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Brad Barton on for George. And, Jason, congrats on the new role. We look forward to working with you.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thanks, Brad.
Brad Barton, Analyst, Bank of America Securities: Just, you know, just starting off, I know you touched a little bit on, on vinyl and, you know, affordability concerns and maybe some shifts there, but could you speak to more of the broad competitive environment that you’re seeing in siding right now?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, what I would say, Brad, is broadly, we’re very confident that we are gaining share in all of the segments that we focus on. I think there’s strong evidence of that if you look back at the last couple of years with 25 supporting that as well. You know, right now, obviously, with starts checking up the back half of 2025, you know, there’s, it comes with its challenges. But again, we feel like in the new construction and repair remodel segments, in particular, we’ve got a relatively low share position and a very large field sales organization that’s focused on winning new customers.
That doesn’t stop in a softer market, and we believe there’s plenty of those opportunities in front of us.
Brad Barton, Analyst, Bank of America Securities: Great, thanks. Just to follow up, you know, as you bring ExpertFinish capacity online here, can you speak to how you’ll have to ramp your marketing spend and investments, you know, both in terms of the timeline and the magnitude, maybe compared to the $11 million investment that you saw in 2025?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah. So what I would say is, you know, over the course of the last several years, you’ve seen an increase in both, I guess, marketing spend, as well as the addition of additional field sales resources to support the growth of ExpertFinish. We did not put in any of that on pause as we experienced allocation back in September or October of last year. So those investments will continue going forward. And again, we’re, we’re very pleased with the growth we’re seeing in ExpertFinish and excited to bring on one of our newest state-of-the-art lines in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Brad Barton, Analyst, Bank of America Securities: Great. Thanks for taking the questions.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Mark Weintraub from Seaport Research Partners. Your line is open.
Mark Weintraub, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Thank you. So last year, you mentioned sheds up a little bit better than 20% by your best estimate, obviously slowed in the first quarter. Just wondering, what are you embedding for sheds for the full year in 2026 versus 2025? And, and, and maybe, to the extent that you have, information on where, where would you say your shed business was relative last year, relative to, say, the last 10 years, or whatever you think would be an appropriate timeframe, given there’s been, you know, lots of ups and downs with the pandemic, et cetera?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I’ll start with the first part of the question. You know, what I would say is, in regards to shed, there’s always been a bit of a lumpiness to our order intake. And although inventories are higher than we anticipated, what we are hearing anecdotally from several of our largest shed fabricators is that underlying demand in the segment remains on a firm footing and trending very similarly to 2025 levels. So this positive news, also coupled with some new product innovations, specifically our Everyday Flooring series and SilverTech Roofing that we launched to begin the year, we feel like we can get back to a normal trajectory pretty quickly once inventories are depleted throughout the first quarter of this year.
Mark Weintraub, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: I’m just sorry, because you were up 20%, I think you suggested, last year. So was that just getting you to what you consider to be normalized, or was that, you know, substantially better than what you consider normalized to be?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah. So last year, I would say it was a little bit of an anomaly because our shed distributors came into 2025 with inventories very lean. So we had an inventory build throughout Q1 and Q2, and then obviously overshot the allocation prior to the 2026 price increase. So, you know, we feel like the underlying demand, again, is very stable in shed, and with some of the new products that we’ve brought to market, we feel like there’s growth opportunity in that segment, even though we own a relatively high share position.
Mark Weintraub, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question come from the line of Stephen Ramsey from Thompson Research Group. Your line is open.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation0: ... Thanks for taking my questions. Wanted to start with higher siding EBITDA in the guidance and then breakeven OSB. Does that point to operating cash flow being somewhat near the 2025 results? And if that’s so, the CapEx points to free cash flow being roughly breakeven. Maybe you can talk through the assumptions there on free cash generation.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Not a lot. I can add to that. That’s about right. Yes. Yeah, you nailed it.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation0: Okay, sounds good. Appreciate that. And then wanted to think about if there’s an expected pace on the siding margin ramp through the year, make sure I understand this. The last year or two, Q1 and Q2 EBITDA margins were in the same zone. Is it expected to be a steeper ramp upward going through 2026?
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I would think of it as more seasonal. So we had very strong Q1 and Q2s last year, hence, the seasonality was tilted towards that first half. I’m sorry, the seasonality of the volume. And so volume provides such huge leverage that the cadence of the EBITDA margin, while being on a modestly rising curve, will follow the seasonality of volume. And it’s really, that’s really the factor that most influences it, is the leverage we get from the volume.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation0: That’s helpful. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Kasia Strasky from TD Cowen. Your line is open.
Kasia Strasky, Analyst, TD Cowen: Hi there, it’s Kasia. Great effort, though. I’m on the call for Sean Stewart from TD Cowen. First question is around siding. Can you comment what kind of siding volume pull-through you’re seeing from your home builder channel right now, and just provide broader commentary about how any specific home builder relationships might be evolving?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Sorry, Kasia, you cut out a bit on the key word of the sentence. Could you repeat the question, please? Repeat the question.
Kasia Strasky, Analyst, TD Cowen: Hi, can you hear me better now?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: That’s much better. Yes, thank you.
Kasia Strasky, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay, great. Question was around siding. I’m curious about any thoughts on what kind of siding volume pull-through you’re seeing, the channel buildup, notwithstanding from your home builder channel, and then just if any, you can provide any broader commentary about how any specific home builder relationships might be evolving.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I’ll take that one. Thanks for the question, Kasia. What I would say is from just speaking to the home builder community, it’s very different depending on what region we’re talking about. I mean, there certainly more strength in the northern markets, where historically siding has been strongest and, you know, softer in the Southeast, Texas, you know, some western markets as well. So it depends on geography. What I would say just in terms of where we’re at with our relationships, I mentioned earlier the integration of LP. You know, we are really focused on leveraging our full portfolio of solutions to drive growth in the home builder segment. And we know we’re a very relevant supplier to this market.
You know, that strategy is allowing us to, you know, offer greater value, be more creative and responsive to our customers’ needs. So, you know, we’re still in the early stages, but we’re very encouraged by the reception that we’ve received from, you know, builders in response to the integration of LP.
Kasia Strasky, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay, thanks for that, Jason. I just wanna make sure I didn’t mishear earlier. Did you say that the inventory buildup in the channel right now, you expect that to unwind over the course of Q1, bringing us back to more of a normalized steady state in Q2?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I’ll shed a little bit of light on that. So we believe that the dealer channel, those closest to the builder, did not necessarily increase inventories throughout the fourth quarter. They’re focused, you know, more on working capital. However, our two-step customers, which is the folks we transact with most, they took advantage of the allocation and advanced the price increase. And, you know, we see that in terms of their inventory reporting requirements looking backwards. So based on what we see, you know, roughly 2-4 weeks of inventory at the two-step level, we do believe that that can be consumed heading into Q2 just with the traditional or historical uplift in seasonal demand heading into the building season. So yes.
Kasia Strasky, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay, gotcha. That’s helpful context. Then last one for me, on OSB. The segment EBITDA margins of -29%, is that largely attributable to the low mill operating rates in Q4, which presumably would have had a significant impact on your overall mill cost structure? Or are there any lumpy items in there? And in particular, what I have in mind, is any one-time inventory writedowns, things of that nature?
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Well, the only inventory writedown that occurs is a mark to market on inventory that we carry on the books, because the selling price is at times lower than the standard carrying cost. But nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary or that hasn’t occurred at any various points over the last 20 years.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: ... We did have a couple of reasonably large maintenance projects in the quarter that added a bit of expense, but I think it was mostly utilization rates, and price that drove it.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question on conference line of Susan McClary from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation1: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My first question is staying on OSB. Can you talk a bit about how you’re thinking of the outlook for demand? The builders have largely talked about, you know, their starts this year being up low single digits. What does that imply in terms of the potential ramp for OSB in there? And then can you talk about your approach to capacity relative to that?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thanks, Susan. Appreciate the question. You know, what I would say, I hate to sound redundant, but I mean, our focus really truly is on matching our supply with customer demand. As I mentioned earlier, you know, we’ve seen a nice rebound to begin the year, but we do feel like it’s a supply driven rebound. A couple of our competitors announced mill closures in Canada. There’s also been some maintenance outages and some unscheduled downtime associated with the winter storm that I think is playing into a favorable pricing environment. So, I do think looking forward that, you know, we’ll need an improvement in demand to stay in balance as we head into Q2 and Q3.
But I’m optimistic that that will carry through as we head into the building season.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation1: Okay. That’s, that’s helpful. And then maybe turning to the margin in the siding segment there, can you talk a bit about what you’re seeing just in terms of input costs, freight? And how should we think about any startup costs that are associated with Green Bay and how that’ll flow through as well?
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: We certainly are in our guidance for the full year, siding EBITDA margin, we’ve included some significant inflation. It’s about $20 million of raw material inflation, which is on our resin and paper overlay, largely contractual, so I mean it this time. So $20 million of raw materials plus $7 million of labor and then some modest freight inflation. So that inflation is baked into the full year margin. We’ll see some of that already baked in, in Q1. What was the other part of the question?
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Ramp-up costs for Green Bay.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Nothing significant.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation1: Okay.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: In that respect.
Alan Haughie, Chief Financial Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation1: Okay. Thanks for the color, guys.
Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Kurt Younger from Davidson. Your line is open.
Kurt Younger, Analyst, Davidson: Great, thanks. Appreciate it. Jason, you had referenced the portfolio solutions approach. I was just hoping maybe you could talk about a couple examples of, of how you’re marketing that with the siding business and, kind of the value add component, of that go-to-market strategy.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I’ll touch on that. So really, the approach is to leverage our entire portfolio in a way to continue to drive growth of LP, but more specifically, our siding business. You know, the focus primarily is on the new construction segment to start with, but we also see opportunities within the shed segment and repair, remodel segment as well. So, you know, we are in the early stages.
We have a couple of builder wins that I think came as a result of this focus, and there’s a few more on the horizon that, you know, I’m not prepared to speak to today, but I do believe within the next quarter, we’ll be able to highlight as material wins that were a result of an enterprise approach to the segments we play in.
Kurt Younger, Analyst, Davidson: Okay. That’s very helpful. And then just in terms of the outlook, I mean, it sounds like at least in Q1, R&R versus kind of the new resi pieces within Siding were performing similarly. Is that how you kind of expect the whole shape of the year, or would you think that R&R could perhaps be a little bit more stable, notwithstanding, you know, the weather here in the first month and a half? Can you just talk a little bit about that, please? Thank you.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Yeah, I feel like, you know, definitely the repair remodel segment is the most stable for us right now, followed by shed. But, you know, shed is obviously a challenge for us in Q1 as we work through the channel inventory situation. Where we need to see a rebound is in the new construction segment right now. Obviously, it’s softer than it was this time last year. And, you know, we are planning for an improvement throughout 2026.
Kurt Younger, Analyst, Davidson: Thanks, Jason.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back over to Aaron for closing remarks.
Jason Ringblom, Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: Okay, thank you, everyone, for joining us to discuss LP’s results for 2025, fourth quarter and the full year. For those of you who are at IBS in Orlando, we’ll look forward to seeing you in our booth later this afternoon, and available for follow-up calls for those who aren’t able to join us in person. Thanks, everyone. Stay safe, and we’ll talk to you soon.
Conference Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.