Earnings Call Transcript - ACA Q1 2020

Operator, Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Arcosa Incorporated First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Nicky and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host, Gail Peck. Ms. Peck, you may begin.

Gail Peck, Host

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our first quarter 2020 earnings call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO; and Scott Beasley, CFO. A question-and-answer session will follow their prepared remarks today. A copy of yesterday's press release and the slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our Investor Relations website www.ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next two weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year on our website under the News and Events tab. Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. Let me also remind you that today's conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties including our Form 10-K, the earnings press release we filed yesterday, and our Form 10-Q for the first quarter expected to be filed later today. I would now like to turn the call over to Antonio.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Thank you, Gail. Good morning and thank you for joining today's call to discuss Arcosa's first quarter results and business outlook. I will provide you with the current conditions within our markets, the highlights of our first quarter performance and later discuss our business line expectations, while Scott will update you on the first quarter financials. Please move to slide 4. There are several key messages I would like you to take away from today's call. First, Arcosa's business continues to operate well within the COVID-19 environment. We have been designated an essential business and our facilities are operational. Second, we have implemented business continuity plans and have adopted protocols to protect the health and safety of our employees and the community in which we operate. This is our priority and I would like to recognize all of our teams for how quickly and effectively these protocols were put in place. Third, Arcosa's strong financial quarter performance shows the earnings power we have and our strong balance sheet provides us with flexibility in this uncertain time and the capacity for significant growth opportunities for the future. And fourth, while we expect lower demand for some of our product lines, in some others we continue to see strong fundamentals and have substantial backlogs that provide good visibility. On page 5, you can find the agenda for today's call. Let's start by discussing our priorities during the COVID-19 health crisis on slide 7. First and foremost, our top priority is the health and safety of our 6,300 employees and the community in which we operate. To that end, we immediately put in place safeguards at our facilities consistent with CDC guidelines. We also implemented work from home protocols for our office staff and are making plans for how we return to our offices once it's authorized and safe to do so. As an essential supplier to the nation's infrastructure sectors, we have continued operating the plants to meet our customers' needs in every business. And as you can see from our first quarter results, we have not missed a beat. Our strong liquidity position and financial flexibility are now even greater competitive advantages than they were only just a few months ago. I know from experience having a strong balance sheet is key to successfully navigating through an economic downturn. Scott will review this in more detail, but from a high level, we have about $200 million of cash and close to $274 million in revolver availability. Net debt is roughly half of our annual EBITDA and we expect strong free cash flow. Additionally, we have taken actions to reduce operating and corporate costs and have postponed non-essential capital expenditures to ensure we are prepared for a potential extended slowdown. Arcosa's strong balance sheet provides us with the resources to make strategic acquisitions on a disciplined basis at attractive prices should they become available. Now let's turn to slide 9 for a look at the company-wide results. For the first quarter, the company performed extremely well with revenues of $488 million, up 19% year-over-year. All three business lines contributed to this growth. Adjusted EBITDA of $76 million was up 29%, reflecting the considerable operating leverage we continue to achieve. Adjusting for a bad debt recovery of $3 million last year, within the Energy Equipment, all business lines contributed to the profit growth, with Construction Products being the largest contributor to this quarter's revenue and EBITDA growth. This segment benefited from the recent acquisition of Cherry, which is performing ahead of plan. Importantly, both our utility structures and barge businesses saw healthy order intake in the first quarter. Scott will give you more details on the individual business lines and then I will return to provide you additional market color and discuss our outlook. Scott?

Scott Beasley, CFO

Thank you, Antonio, and good morning everyone. I'll start on slide 10 of the presentation and walk through our results from the quarter and then discuss our financial strength and capital allocation plans in more depth. Starting with Construction Products, revenue grew 41% to $149 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 49% to $32.1 million. EBITDA margins increased to 21.5%, more than 100 basis points better than last year's first quarter. The legacy businesses performed well during the quarter and the Cherry acquisition exceeded our expectations. Volumes in our legacy business were higher for both our natural aggregates and specialty lightweight aggregates businesses, as Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas end markets remained robust throughout the quarter. Additionally, the Cherry acquisition exceeded our expectations. The Houston construction market remains solid and the team did an excellent job executing during the integration. The only weak spot in the segment was continued softness in our West Texas and Oklahoma aggregate plants serving oil and gas infrastructure, but that exposure is a small part of our revenue in the segment. And the segment still posted strong revenue and margin improvements even with the exposure. Moving to Energy Equipment on Slide 11, revenue grew 7% to $223 million, and adjusted EBITDA was roughly flat once we adjust for a one-time bad debt recovery in 2019. Higher volumes in both wind towers and utility structures drove our increased revenue, which was even more impressive given that lower pass-through steel prices were a pricing headwind for utility structures in the quarter. The wind towers team continued to execute well and delivered a higher unit count than the first quarter of 2019, including the successful delivery of a larger tower type. Pricing, as expected, was lower in the quarter than last year's first quarter, but in line with the expectations that we laid out heading into the year. Utility structures continue to be a very strong performing product line. We delivered higher volumes with improved margins. Our storage tank business declined year-over-year on lower shipments of residential and commercial propane tanks. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was $33.6 million, which was in line with our expectations. 2019 EBITDA was helped by $2.9 million of one-time bad debt recovery. In 2020, we had a $1.3 million loss on impaired assets as we transitioned the plant from supporting railcar component work to utility structures. Overall, the Energy Equipment segment continued its progress on lean improvements and recorded an excellent financial and operational quarter. Turning to Slide 13, Transportation Products had 20% growth in revenues and 55% growth in adjusted EBITDA. Barge revenues and profitability grew significantly versus the first quarter of 2019. In the Barge business, margins expanded significantly versus last year's first quarter. We had improved pricing and backlog, and we did not have the start-up costs from reopening our Louisiana plant that we incurred in 2019. The operating team did an outstanding job hitting our production schedule. In addition to strong execution in the quarter, order activity continued to be healthy. We received $90 million of new orders in the quarter, bringing the total backlog to $348 million, approximately 90% of which will deliver in 2020. That backlog gives us excellent visibility for the rest of the year. The rail components business continues to be weak and revenue dropped by $20 million from last year's first quarter. We have had to take additional actions at our facilities to respond to lower demand for new railcars and we will continue to build out our non-railcar product lines using our forging and foundry capabilities. I will now turn to Slide 14 to discuss our liquidity and balance sheet highlights. The strong free cash flow profile of our businesses has contributed to the $475 million of liquidity that we had at the end of the quarter, made up of $201 million of cash and an additional $274 million of committed revolver capacity. Free cash flow of $20 million was in line with our expectations heading into the year. It was below our 5-quarter average, primarily because we were working through a number of advanced payments that we received in the fourth quarter of 2019. During the quarter, we borrowed $100 million on our revolving credit facility as a precautionary measure, but we have not yet seen any material increases in our overdue accounts receivable or credit risks that concern us. Turning to Slide 15, one of the attractive investment characteristics about our company is our low leverage, which will enable us to manage through challenging economic scenarios as well as pursue disciplined growth when the time is right. Since our spinoff in late 2018, we've completed two major construction products acquisitions primarily using cash from operations, and we ended the quarter with approximately 0.5 net debt-to-EBITDA. We have also taken aggressive actions to conserve cash during this period of uncertainty and have adjusted our capital allocation outlook for 2020, which you see on Slide 16. First, we have delayed non-essential CapEx and now expect to invest in a range of $75 million to $85 million this year, down $20 million from our previous guidance. That range includes approximately $65 million of maintenance CapEx, plus a select set of growth projects that still meet our return criteria in a more uncertain environment. The bulk of our growth CapEx will continue to be in utility structures and reserve acquisitions in our aggregates and Specialty Materials businesses. In addition to reducing our CapEx, we've also taken steps to reduce our SG&A spending, in order to keep our total SG&A costs in line with revenue. Finally, we've implemented a number of working capital initiatives to reduce our working capital requirements across receivables, inventory, and payables. We will also be disciplined in our acquisition strategy. In addition to Cherry, we completed a $25 million complementary acquisition of a traffic structures business in Florida to expand into this adjacent product line. We are attracted to the infrastructure-related market drivers of the business as well as the manufacturing synergies with our other product lines within Energy Equipment. We expect to be able to expand this new product line into other geographies, using our manufacturing expertise and footprint across North America. Finishing up with return of capital to shareholders, we currently plan to maintain our dividend at roughly $10 million per year. And we still have $34 million remaining on our share repurchase authorization.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Thank you, Scott. For the first quarter, our business experienced only minor disruption from COVID-19. But we do expect the resulting economic downturn to impact some of our product lines. And we have already seen some indications of that. We continue to be encouraged by the momentum we have in many of our businesses. However, the very fluid and uncertain economic environment has caused us to suspend earnings guidance. We intend to share Arcosa's outlook with you today so you can understand what we're currently experiencing in each of the business lines. Given the uncertainty on the depth and length of the slowdown in the economy, I will try to be as transparent as I can with the information available today. Turning to page 19, let's start with Construction Products. Construction performed very well in the first quarter. In most states, construction is considered an essential service. As such, demand has held up well. In addition to the new Cherry acquisition, its recycled aggregates business has performed ahead of plan. We have seen some softness in the construction site support business, since most of the customers are rental companies, who have begun to cut back on or delay CapEx in this environment. Still, this product line only accounted for 12% of group revenue on a pro forma basis which includes Cherry. While the Construction Products business performed well in the first quarter, we have been supplying projects that were already underway. As we move forward, we expect weaker demand in the construction sector, especially in the residential market. As this business line operates with shorter lead times and does not have the benefit of backlog, it is much harder to forecast in this environment. Also, the second and third quarters are the busiest for this business line, so the effect of the slowdown is particularly challenging to predict. On a positive note, there is talk of a stimulus bill and additional potential increase in state infrastructure spending which would benefit Arcosa in the medium and long term. Turning to slide 19, let's disclose the Energy Equipment segment, where we have much better visibility given its backlog, which stands at $505 million and gives us confidence in our 2020 performance expectations. The wind tower and utility structure business units have combined backlog of $476 million, which represents over 75% of the revenues those businesses generated in 2019. While there are some outside factors unrelated to COVID-19 that are pressuring the wind tower business, such as the expiration of the production tax credit, our backlog covers most of 2020. And the main potential impact would be some unfilled spots in our production schedule in the fourth quarter. The market for utility structures remains active. The growth drivers are long-term in nature. This end market continues to show strong demand and limited supply, and our 2020 growth outlook remains intact based on what we know today. Where we are seeing some softness at the Energy Equipment segment is in the storage tank product line, which contributed to $211 million of revenue in 2019. Here we have more limited backlog based on the nature of the business. We do expect an economic downturn to have an impact since this business has some exposure to the new housing and oil and gas markets in both the U.S. and Mexico. On the other hand, it's important to note that the large tank market, which has the most exposure to oil and gas dynamics, represents less than 5% of the group revenue. Please turn to slide 20. Transportation products have mixed conditions. Our barge business is providing significant growth, but our components business is dealing with very challenging market conditions. With respect to the components, as we have said in the past pre-COVID, demand for new railcars is estimated by industry sources to decline by 30% in 2020, and the number of idle cars in storage continues to increase. So expectations for the industry have gotten worse. We have planned for a significant slowdown, so the incremental impact is marginally negative to our previous expectations. However, we continue to take actions to right-size our costs. At the same time, we are working successfully on adding other non-rail products. On the other hand, our barge business had strong order activity in the first quarter with $90 million in orders. Overall, market fundamentals remain positive, with an aging fleet for both liquid and dry barges. The average age continues to increase and the significant decline in steel prices toward historic lows could encourage additional order activity. While the recent sharp decline in oil prices is a point of concern that we are watching, our backlog of $348 million provides us with a good line of sight for this business. We are also continuing to see strong demand in our marine components business which serves both the new and replacement markets. On balance, our outlook for transportation is for revenue to grow at least 15% for 2020 based on the confidence we have in our solid backlogs offsetting the declining components. Now, let's discuss the assumptions embedded in the current outlook. Please turn to Slide 21. First, please note that the COVID-19 situation is extremely fluid. So this slide lays out some of the assumptions we have to help you understand how we're thinking about the next few months. Overall, we expect to continue to operate as an essential business. We do expect the country to emerge from lockdown but at the same time most reports show the virus could continue to be a disruptive force until a vaccine is found. So we will remain vigilant and focused on following all established protocols for the foreseeable future. Our biggest risk could be the production delays resulting from planned shutdowns, potentially either around our customers or our suppliers. Separately, we're working with each business unit leader to reduce costs in line with our revenue expectations. We plan to continuously evaluate each business in real-time. If conditions should change, costs will be adjusted to reflect the market conditions we're seeing. Our corporate costs are already lean, but we are taking additional actions to reduce costs even further. From my experience in leading businesses through times of great uncertainty, I have learned that it is critical to get ahead of the cost curve before the downturn materializes. Also, operating flexibility is key as the news and outlooks change every day. We must be prepared to act quickly and I can confidently say we are. Another guiding principle we will apply during this uncertain time is to stay true to our values and do the right thing for our employees, our communities and other stakeholders. Finally, a strong balance sheet is a make or break factor in a challenging business environment and we are committing to keeping ours healthy. We plan to remain active on the M&A front in a disciplined manner on an opportunistic basis. Our low leverage and ample liquidity gives me confidence that we will emerge a stronger, leaner company. Turning to Slide 23, ESG continues to be a priority for us going forward. During this time, we have had the opportunity to develop new ways of supporting our local communities. At the same time, we remain committed to developing our baselines and setting goals for the company. We plan to publish our first sustainability report for 2020. Please turn to Slide 24. While the current impact of COVID-19 may delay some initiatives and create some uncertainty, it has not changed our long-term plan, which is to grow in attractive markets, reduce the complexity and cyclicality of our business, improve our long-term returns on invested capital and integrate ESG into everything we do. We continue to advance on these initiatives every day while working towards making Arcosa a leaner, more efficient company. I will now open the call to questions.

Operator, Operator

And we'll take our first question from Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Brent Thielman, Analyst

Thank you. Congratulations on a great quarter.

Scott Beasley, CFO

Thank you.

Brent Thielman, Analyst

The margins in Transportation Products were really strong despite the fact that rail is sort of working against you. And I assume that's going to continue going forward. But just given the inland barge backlog and the embedded pricing within that, do you think you can maintain these sort of margin levels through this year?

Scott Beasley, CFO

Hey, Brent. Thanks for the question. This is Scott. The answer is yes for the full year. There will be some unevenness through the quarters as mix changes quarter-to-quarter. But the really strong margins in the first quarter, largely from better pricing and the barge backlog, no start-up costs, and then excellent operational execution, we would expect that to be relatively consistent for the full year. Q2 looks like because of mix in barge might be a little lower, but then it would pick back up in Q3 and Q4.

Brent Thielman, Analyst

Okay. And then I guess my follow-up is on utility and wind. The book-to-bill is a little slower this quarter but still pretty good backlog here. Are you seeing delays in bid processes or decisions to move business forward? Does that – because of COVID, or does that ultimately move some things to 2Q, 3Q in terms of bid activities? Just curious kind of what you're seeing there.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Brent, this is Antonio. There are different businesses. So let me talk about each one individually. On wind towers, as I've said, I think we have a good backlog that covers most of the fourth quarter. And we are seeing order inquiries from several of our customers and we expect to receive some orders before the end of the year. So I think it's slowed down a little bit because there's some disruption in the installation of wind towers with all this issue going around. It's a very busy year. Based on the expiration of the tax credit, there's a significant amount of movement in the fields of installing, etc. But I do expect orders to come in as we've said. The margins of the orders in wind turbine are lower than we had in the past. So it's important to remember that. As I've said in the past, it's a project-based business where our customers will come in and say, I have projects for the first half of 2021, let's bid on those rather than a blanket order for five years, like we used to have in the past. It's okay. That's how we operate in most of our business. And we're not afraid of it. We are encouraged by it and we're going to be dealing with that. Utility structures is a very different business, and we continue to see very strong order activity. Inquiries continue to be strong. I would tell you both on the wind and on the utility structure, the biggest question we were getting during the quarter, especially, at the end of March and beginning of April, where the uncertainty was at the highest point, the biggest question we would get was not about delays, but are you going to continue to be able to deliver these products? That was the biggest question we were getting. This tells you a little bit of the environment we're dealing with.

Brent Thielman, Analyst

That’s helpful. Thank you very much.

Operator, Operator

Next question comes from Bascome Majors with Susquehanna. Please go ahead.

Bascome Majors, Analyst

Yes. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. I was hoping we could revisit the outlook for aggregates and maybe the construction products segment as a whole. You commented that it's a seasonally strong business in the summer, which is going to be disproportionately impacted by the shutdowns and it's not a backlog business. But is there any way to frame some of the stress test scenarios you've done? Just trying to think about, kind of, worst-case scenarios in your minds that might be in play here, as we look to kind of underwrite risk/reward in one of your largest EBITDA generators. Thank you.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Thank you, Bascome. The business is currently divided into three segments: specialty materials, aggregates, and shoring. The shoring segment has experienced a noticeable slowdown, primarily because we supply a significant portion to rental companies. In these uncertain times, they are conserving cash, which is leading to delays in orders rather than cancellations. Customers are indicating that they are postponing orders for the third or fourth quarter. There is a lot of uncertainty in this sector, particularly within construction. When consulting with our customers and industry experts, opinions vary on whether there will be a recovery in the third or fourth quarter. However, there is a general acknowledgment that the duration and severity of the slowdown are uncertain. This uncertainty is why we have withdrawn our guidance. At this point, we continue to focus on ongoing projects from before, and the second quarter started strong for us. In the aggregates segment, we are not yet seeing any delays or signs of stress. However, some major projects, especially in California and Washington, have paused construction. A few states have seen construction activity halted, resulting in some challenges for us. The worst-case scenario would involve a resurgence of the virus leading to another lockdown where construction is deemed non-essential, but that’s not what we expect. We anticipate that construction will slow down in tandem with the economy. We will adjust our costs accordingly, with our primary aim in the aggregates segment being to maintain pricing, which is vital for this business, and to move forward.

Bascome Majors, Analyst

So, I mean, is there any way to frame the degree of revenue downside that you guys are kind of working with in your planning purposes?

Scott Beasley, CFO

Yes. I think, Bascome, if you look at previous recessions, and I think most people would say we're heading into some sort of recession now. You've seen a big variability where something as small as a 5% to 10% revenue decline to something like the 2009, 2010 that was a bigger revenue decline. I think it depends on how long the slowdown lasts and how deep it goes. But, I think, looking at those previous periods you can kind of book in what that might look like.

Bascome Majors, Analyst

Yes. Thank you for humoring us with that. And as we look to 2021, I realize that's a really long way away right now. But I was just trying to think through your thought process on the backlog businesses, which are clearly backed up to do quite well today, but also have some cyclicality where that could change in the future. Just, I don't know if you want to hit kind of your high-level thoughts on where you think structural mid-term demand could go in wind towers, utility structures, and barge?

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Let me start with those three. I believe they are the key areas with backlogs. First, regarding wind towers, I am a strong supporter of renewable energy, which will continue to be in demand. This trend will persist as we look to the future. Many utilities are discussing their plans and projects, highlighting the importance of storage solutions as well. I believe that storage and renewables will go hand in hand moving forward, and we are optimistic about the long-term outlook. Historically, the industry has relied on tax credits, which are fading away, but even with natural gas prices at $2, the industry remains competitive. I believe the technology is advancing rapidly, and I'm optimistic about its future. There will be some uncertainty in 2021 and likely into 2022, but the long-term fundamentals of the industry are promising. The utility structure is evolving, and despite the shifts towards renewable energy and electric vehicles, there is a crucial need for grid hardening and stronger transmission infrastructure investment, which we are observing in the market. This represents a long-term demand that we expect to persist for several years. Additionally, we currently have a relatively small market share in this area, which presents opportunities for us to expand our product offerings. As Scott mentioned, we made an acquisition in the first quarter related to highway signage, which has synergies with our existing product line due to similarities in design, engineering, and processes. We plan to continue expanding and growing the market as we see strong business fundamentals. Regarding barges, I highlighted that both liquid and dry cargo fleets, particularly dry cargo, are aging and in need of replacement. We're not anticipating fleet growth at this time, but there are replacement needs in both markets. Current steel prices are at a low, allowing us to purchase steel at half the previous year's cost, which could enhance our business opportunities. However, demand will also be influenced by agricultural prices and trade relations with China. Overall, we have a positive outlook on the barge market due to fleet age and steel prices, as well as on transmission. While there is some uncertainty surrounding wind energy, we do expect to have a profitable wind business in 2021.

Bascome Majors, Analyst

Thank you, guys.

Operator, Operator

And our next question comes from Stefanos Crist with CJS Securities. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Stefanos Crist, Analyst

Good morning and congrats on the quarter.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Thank you.

Stefanos Crist, Analyst

First, could you break out the growth in aggregates between organic and what has also contributed from Cherry?

Scott Beasley, CFO

Sure Stefanos. So, on the legacy business, volumes were up; pricing was relatively flat. And then the only downside was the oil and gas exposure. So, you put that all together, roughly flat. Almost all of the total growth was in the Cherry acquisition that operated very well during the quarter. The integration is going smoothly and it added a lot to our results in the first quarter.

Stefanos Crist, Analyst

Perfect. Thanks. And then so you guys also had a lot of orders in barge, $90 million. Could you maybe give us some color on how that's progressing into Q2?

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Yes, I'll take that. We received a few orders in Q2, but they were limited. Currently, we are revisiting our customers with new steel pricing. To give you an idea, when steel prices are at the current levels compared to last year, there could be a price reduction of $75,000 to $100,000 for a large barge. This is our current approach as steel prices stabilize. However, we have received only a few orders, and the components business is doing relatively well, but overall orders for barges are quite low.

Stefanos Crist, Analyst

Thank you so much and congrats again.

Scott Beasley, CFO

Thanks Stefanos.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst

Hi, thank you. It's great news that you're maintaining the dividend. I found it interesting that you mentioned mergers and acquisitions. What are your thoughts on the M&A front? Are there any targets you are considering that are facing financial difficulties where a good acquisition could be possible? Any insight on the current environment and the stable targets you might have would be appreciated. Thank you.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Yes. Ian, this is Antonio. Like everything else, I think over the last several weeks, there was a reset in the mindset of everyone. We have been working and we have talked about having a relatively full pipeline. Scott mentioned the three areas: the aggregate, the Specialty Materials, and the expansion of our utilities. With this slowdown, first, we have to make sure that we get some more clarity on how deep and how long this will be. We won't know that. The reality is we're going to be navigating these uncertainties and we just have to get comfortable with that. We have a good balance sheet. We're going to be disciplined. But we do believe that there are going to be opportunities for people who either have not such a strong balance sheet or their businesses are not performing well; they are not operating well or they run into some specific problems. I do believe we're going to find opportunities. I think it's a time where a strong balance sheet is going to be probably the most important thing for any company to have. We have a good one and we're going to be looking for opportunities. That doesn't mean that if we find something that we believe is reasonably priced, we won't do it. We have to leave that door open, because I think we have opportunities for the company for the future that we want to take advantage of.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst

Thank you. I'd like to know if the business is considered essential on an individual basis or if it's the company as a whole.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

It's individual business. So, when you look at the guidelines that the government provided, each one of the businesses is essential for different reasons, but all of them fall in the essential category. It's also important that our business in Mexico has the same situation. We have continued to operate even though there's a disparity between both countries on what's essential. We continue to operate on both sides of the border and have been essential up to this point.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Operator, Operator

And we will take our next question from Blake Hirschman with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Blake Hirschman, Analyst

Hi. Good morning, guys.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Good morning.

Scott Beasley, CFO

Hi, Blake.

Blake Hirschman, Analyst

I was curious as to whether you guys might kind of talk about what April trends have looked like just across the segments' top line or just the margin?

Scott Beasley, CFO

Certainly. Here’s the rewritten Earnings Call remark: I can provide some general insights without getting into specific numbers. In the Energy and Transportation sectors, April has gone as expected, and our outlook remains positive. In Construction Products, where we don’t have a backlog, volumes have been robust. The markets we are involved in have performed well in April, largely due to projects that were initiated before the pandemic intensified in March. Therefore, while we experienced a strong April, there is uncertainty about the latter part of Q2 and Q3 regarding how many of these projects will be succeeded by new ones.

Blake Hirschman, Analyst

Got it. And if you look at Construction Products piece, I guess either in past cycles or kind of as you would expect for this one, what kind of decrementals would you expect to see there? I mean assuming that the top line drops 5% to 10% or maybe even closer to like a 20%, just kind of some rough template for how we should think about the decrementals there would be helpful.

Scott Beasley, CFO

Yeah. I'll give you some color around margin declines in kind of what we see in the businesses. In Energy and barge, those are more variable cost structures, so we should be able to hold margins relatively consistent by rightsizing the footprint. You do have some decline, but not particularly severe. Rail components and Construction, those are highest incremental and decremental margin businesses. So we'd expect more margin increases on the upside, which we've seen in good cycles, but more margin pressure on the downside of demand declines because of the higher fixed cost structure. So, if you're talking about orders of magnitude drop that you described there will be margin pressure on the downside.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO

Blake, this is Antonio. I wanted to provide some additional insight into the Construction segment. As I mentioned, the area where we're facing some challenges is in the shoring business, which supports construction sites. We have noticed some delays in our backlog that are pushing into the third and fourth quarters. While this isn't a substantial issue, it's important to note that this segment constitutes about 12% of our Construction revenue. It's a solid business with good margins, and we're optimistic about it, but this is where we are experiencing some additional pushback. Specifically, in states like Washington and California, where we operate, there has been a slowdown in construction activities, contributing to the overall deceleration we are observing.

Blake Hirschman, Analyst

Got it, makes sense. And then just lastly, with the COVID impact and just the broader effects that that's had. I mean do you think there's any kind of momentum for extending the wind tax credit beyond the end of this year?

Scott Beasley, CFO

This is Scott. From our understanding of discussions in Washington, that was part of some discussions around stimulus bills, but it was not included in the final bill. Those conversations are ongoing, and we'll monitor that closely. Even without the production tax credit, as Antonio said, we think the wind business is competitive economically and has a lot of positive drivers both from corporate ESG and other state mandates. So, a PTC extension would be a nice benefit, but not required for that business to be sound.

Blake Hirschman, Analyst

All right. Thanks a lot. I’ll hop back in queue.

Operator, Operator

And it appears that we have no further questions at this time. I will now turn the program back to Gail Peck.

Gail Peck, Host

Thank you, Nicky. Thank you everyone for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Bye.

Operator, Operator

This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation, and you may disconnect your line at any time.