Earnings Call Transcript - LECO Q2 2024

Operator, Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Lincoln Electric 2024 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Amanda Butler, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

Amanda Butler, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you, Greg, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Lincoln Electric's second quarter 2024 conference call. We released our financial results earlier today, and you can find our release and this call slide presentation at lincolnelectric.com in the Investor Relations section. Joining me on the call today is Steve Hedlund, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gabe Bruno, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we're happy to take your questions. But before we start our discussion, please note that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially from our expectations due to a number of risk factors and uncertainties, which are provided in our press release and in our SEC filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. In addition, we discussed financial measures that do not conform to US GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the financial tables in our earnings release, which again is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at lincolnelectric.com. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Hedlund. Steve?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Thank you, Amanda. Good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 3. I am pleased to report solid second quarter results, demonstrating the team's strong execution of our higher standard strategy initiatives, structural improvements in the business, and diligent management of costs, which has enabled us to successfully navigate through a more challenging portion of the cycle. Despite an organic sales decline of 4% in the quarter, we held our operating income margin steady at last year's record 17.4% rate. I would like to thank the global team for staying focused on our customers and executing our commercial and operational initiatives in a dynamic environment. We also reported solid earnings performance, cash flow generation, and cash conversion at 110%. We continue to invest in growth via internal CapEx and two acquisitions, while also returning $91 million in cash to shareholders in the quarter through our dividend and share repurchases. We did this while maintaining top quartile ROIC performance, highlighting strong capital stewardship in the business. Turning to slide 4 to discuss organic sales trends in the quarter. We experienced lower demand in our two welding segments due to lower production levels among heavy industry OEM customers, moderating automotive production, and weak macroeconomic conditions impacting our customers in the general industry sector. We also saw a pause in capital spending for automation projects as the automotive OEMs rebalance future product plans between EVs, hybrids, and internal combustion powertrain platforms, and as small and medium-sized fabricators moderate their capital investment in the face of increasing economic uncertainty. These factors, along with challenging prior year comparisons in equipment, resulted in a 4% organic sales decline. Looking at our end markets, two of our five end markets, or approximately 30% of our end sector sales mix, grew in the quarter, led by strong international growth in construction infrastructure and global energy projects. General industries declined modestly, while heavy industry and automotive sectors were more challenged. Moving to slide 5 and investments for long-term growth. I am pleased to report that we have added approximately $175 million of annualized sales from three acquisitions year-to-date. This generates 400-plus basis points of sales growth versus the prior year, which is in line with our strategy. We previously highlighted our RedViking Automation acquisition in April and I'm pleased to discuss two new acquisitions, including Vanair, which we announced earlier today. First, Inrotech is a small but impressive automation integrator in Denmark that has developed a proprietary AI-based solution that automatically programs a welding robot with minimal human intervention. This technology enables customers to reduce the time it takes to program a robot to make complex repetitive welds from days to minutes. Initially designed for shipbuilding applications, we believe this technology is a game-changer that can be deployed across a broad range of solutions. Earlier today, we announced the acquisition of Vanair, a leading player in mobile power solutions for the service truck industry. This acquisition extends our channel reach to sell our existing welding products to this customer segment while expanding our portfolio of mobile and battery-powered solutions. We have been working with Vanair on several co-development projects and have seen a very strong customer response to the products we have launched to date. We estimate our three acquisitions will generate an initial full-year earnings run rate of $0.14 to $0.16 per share pre-synergies as we work to integrate their operations. Moving to Slide 6 and an update on our EV fast charger initiative. I am proud to report that we successfully launched our initial 150-kilowatt Velion fast charger that was designed specifically to meet the US NEVI requirements. We have achieved several key milestones and have received very encouraging feedback from prospective customers and continue to pursue a number of sales opportunities tied to the NEVI program and private fleets. However, the EV charger market has evolved significantly in the last six months. The deployment of NEVI funds has been very slow. With new vehicles able to accept much higher charging levels, the market has begun to question how to future-proof investments in charging hardware. As a result, several leading EV charging hardware manufacturers have become insolvent, exited the industry, or announced significant layoffs. While responses to our technology, manufacturing capabilities, and value proposition have been overwhelmingly positive, many customers are now seeking products that differ materially from NEVI's specifications. In response, we are leveraging the modular nature of our product architecture to accelerate the introduction of new products to enable us to better serve evolving customer needs. We expect this will extend the start of any meaningful revenue ramp to late 2025. We remain confident that the long-term market potential is attractive and that we will continue to pursue this opportunity without the need for significant further investments. The incremental operating expenses associated with the EV charger initiative are almost fully offset by the improved performance of our additive manufacturing business, which is reaching an inflection point in commercial adoption. The maturation of additive manufacturing after several years of technology development and incubation is evidence of our ability to leverage our core competencies to create value outside of our legacy welding business. I am pleased with the team's execution of our strategy in a challenging environment while we continue to invest in long-term growth and operational efficiency. These efforts position us to capitalize on the many opportunities ahead and deliver superior value through the cycle. And now I'll pass the call to Gabe Bruno to cover second quarter financials in more detail.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Steve. Moving to Slide 7. Our second quarter sales declined 4% to $1.22 billion, primarily from 5.4% lower volumes. We achieved 1% higher price and benefited 1.2% from acquisitions, which were partially offset by 40 basis points of unfavorable foreign exchange. Gross profit dollars increased approximately 3% to $384 million, to a record 37.6% gross profit margin, which increased 240 basis points versus the prior year. Effective cost management and operational improvements generated strong profit performance. We recognized a $2.2 million LIFO benefit in the quarter. Our SG&A expense increased 8% or approximately $16 million from a combination of acquisitions, higher employee-related costs, and incremental unallocated corporate overhead costs. SG&A as a percent of sales increased 220 basis points to 20.4% versus prior year on lower sales but was relatively steady sequentially. We expect corporate expenses to be closer to $3 million per quarter in the back half of the year. Reported operating income declined 16% to $149 million, primarily due to $29 million in special item charges, including a $23 million non-cash rationalization charge from the final liquidation of our Russian business. We also incurred a $5 million loss from an asset disposal related to a small international divestiture, which helps shape our model, and $2 million in acquisition-related transaction costs. Excluding special items, adjusted operating income declined approximately 4% to $178 million, while our adjusted operating income margin held steady versus the prior year at 17.4%. Interest expense net in the quarter declined 9% to $10.7 million. We expect our interest expense net for the full year 2024 to be relatively flat versus the prior year. This reflects our recent refinancing announced in late June, where we issued $550 million of senior unsecured notes and used the proceeds to repay our $400 million term loan and fund acquisitions. Once these new note transactions are completed in August, we will have $1.25 billion in total debt with a weighted average interest rate, including the impact of interest rate swaps of 4.08%. We also entered into a new 5-year $1 billion revolving credit facility to increase liquidity and align with our higher EBITDA performance. At June 30, we did not have any borrowings against the revolver. Moving further down the income statement, we reported a $1.6 million other expense in the quarter. This reflects the net impact of a $2.4 million gain from the termination of interest rate swaps, offset by the $5 million loss on asset disposal, which I previously discussed. Excluding special items, other income was $3.4 million and was $6.7 million in the prior year period. Our second quarter effective tax rate was 25.6% on lower reported income. On an adjusted basis, our tax rate was 21.2%. We continue to expect our full year 2024 adjusted tax rate to be in the low to mid-20% range, subject to the mix of earnings and anticipated extent of discrete tax items. Second quarter diluted earnings per diluted share was $1.77. Excluding special items, adjusted share was $2.34. Moving to our reportable segments on slide 8. Americas Welding sales decreased 4% in the quarter, primarily due to 6.7% lower volumes with compression across all three product areas, reflecting factors Steve previously discussed, and a challenging prior year comparison in automation and equipment systems. Price and the benefits of our RedViking and Power MIG acquisitions contributed approximately 3% sales growth. We expect price benefits of 50 to 100 basis points in the third quarter. Americas Welding Segment second quarter adjusted EBIT declined approximately 2% to $137 million. The adjusted EBIT margin increased 10 basis points versus prior year to 19.9% on effective cost management. We expect Americas Welding to operate in the 19% to 20% EBIT margin range for the remainder of the year. Moving to Slide 9. The International Welding Segment sales declined approximately 6% on 4% lower volumes. Strong automation sales and project activity in portions of the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions continued to be offset by weak European macros. Price declined 1.2%, but did not impact underlying margin performance as lower price was offset by disciplined cost management, which helped mitigate lower volumes. A 10.4% adjusted EBIT margin performance reflects quarter-specific operating inefficiencies, which we do not expect to repeat. We continue to expect the segment to perform in the 11% to 12% EBIT margin range for the full year 2024. Moving to The Harris Products Group, on Slide 10. Second quarter sales increased approximately 3%, led by 5% higher price on rising metal costs, which was partially offset by 2% lower volumes. Volume declines continued to narrow in Harris, as retail and specialty gas grew but were offset by the challenged HVAC market. Adjusted EBIT increased approximately 28% to $25 million. The adjusted EBIT margin increased 350 basis points to a record 18.2%, reflecting a seasonally high quarter, structural improvements in their operations, and effective cost management. We expect the team to generate EBIT margins in the 16% to 17% range for the balance of the year. Moving to Slide 11. We generated $171 million in cash flows from operations in the quarter, resulting in 110% cash conversion. Our average operating working capital decreased 90 basis points to 18% versus the comparable year period on improved inventory levels. Moving to Slide 12. We invested $176 million in growth in the quarter from $23 million in CapEx and $153 million in acquisitions. We returned $91 million to shareholders through our higher dividend payout and approximately $50 million of share repurchases. We maintained a solid adjusted return on invested capital of 23.7%. For the balance of the year, we will continue to focus on growth and opportunistic share repurchases. Turning to Slide 13 and our Full Year 2024 Operating Assumptions, we are maintaining the assumptions we provided in late May that reflect slowing end market trends in a more challenged portion of the industrial cycle. Our sales in June and July have tracked to these lower assumptions. As we progress through the second half of the year, we are focused on heavy industries demand trends and the timing of automotive OEMs capital expenditure plans, as these two factors present added risk to our operating assumptions. As stated in May, we expect a mid-single-digit percent decline in organic sales in 2024, likely at the higher end of the range with typical seasonality. We expect price to contribute 50 to 100 basis points of growth with volume headwinds from weak industrial activity and slower capital spending, which will be most notable in our welding segments. Acquisitions are expected to contribute $75 million to $85 million of sales in the second half of the year, primarily in Americas welding. We anticipate acquisition sales will be weighted to the fourth quarter based on the timing of revenue recognition. In the third quarter, we expect an approximate 300 basis point contribution to consolidated sales growth with the addition of Vanair. We expect acquisitions to contribute between $0.05 to $0.07 of adjusted EPS in the second half of the year with high integration activity. Excluding acquisitions, we continue to anticipate solid operating income margin performance at approximately 17.5% on a full-year basis. This reflects the benefits of diligent cost management, structural improvements in both Harris and Automation's operating model, as well as the early benefits from cost-saving initiatives. We estimate that the acquisitions may unfavorably impact our estimated full-year average operating income margin by up to 30 basis points, but we are working to minimize this impact. Before I pass the call for questions, I would like to summarize that while we are managing through a challenging portion of the cycle, we remain focused on growth, whether through innovation by driving new solutions into the market from our core businesses as well as through our adjacent new technology initiatives and by accelerating the top line with acquisitions. We're also operating a more efficient business as demonstrated by our ability to mitigate weakness in demand with stable margins, strong cash flows, and over 100 percent cash conversion. And now I would like to turn the call over for questions.

Operator, Operator

Thanks, Gabe. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question today comes from Angel Castillo from Morgan Stanley. Angel, please go ahead.

Angel Castillo, Analyst

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I was hoping we could unpack a little bit more just what you're seeing from an end market demand perspective. It looked like there were some buckets where maybe we saw a little bit of kind of sequential improvement but others where we're hearing underproduction or just continued deterioration into the second half. So just based on kind of your order books that you see today, just where are conditions to date and how are they evolving?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So Angel, thanks for that question. Just to emphasize, as we adjusted our assumptions at the end of May, we saw the progression of those same demand patterns in June and July. As we noted, we saw an acceleration of softness in certain areas within heavy industry, particularly in the ag side of our business. So we see more of that progressively into the second half. When we think about demand within our automation business, we've talked about some pause between how the market is considering its next steps between EV investment, ICE, and even hybrid. So we see that air pocket or pause continuing. As we look at end market progression, we see more of the same in what we have seen in our business to date. And that's why we maintained the assumptions as we have.

Angel Castillo, Analyst

And could you maybe help us quantify just the degree of coverage you now have within automation? I think historically, you've had a kind of six-month visibility within that. Is that still the case? Or just given some of the pauses that we've seen in orders, how is that kind of coverage level evolving?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. I think that's a fair assumption still on average in that six-month type of outlook. But we did point to in the short cycle sign, which is about 15% of our automation business, we saw some pullback, particularly in the small to mid-sized fabricators. So that continues to be a challenge for us. But in general, I mean we look at projects, they do extend between three and six months on the shorter end, while some of the longer projects can extend beyond that. But six months is a fair representation of our mix.

Angel Castillo, Analyst

Very helpful. Thank you.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Thanks, Angel.

Bryan Blair, Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Hi, Bryan.

Bryan Blair, Analyst

Hi. In terms of bailing commercialization, I'm not surprised that that timeline has been pushed back a bit. Has your team's view on the medium-term revenue potential shifted given all the moving parts of the competitive landscape? And similarly, it's still the expectation that DC Fast Charger revenue will be fully mix accretive as it ramps up?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Yes. Bryan, take that in reverse order. Yes, we still expect EV revenue to be accretive to the business. We still believe the market is there. The US needs more robust DC fast charging infrastructure to drive the adoption of electric vehicles. The real question is the timing of how the money is going to be invested to do that. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, the NEVI program rollout of the funds has been much slower than anyone anticipated, which has had two effects. One, people aren't buying the hardware at the rate that we and everyone else in the market thought they would. Secondly, I think the US has missed the opportunity to drive standardization around a common platform of 150-kilowatt charger, which would have driven everyone to adopt that as the main standard. What you're seeing now is a lot of people looking at the vehicles that can take higher charging levels while trying to figure out how to best optimize that capacity. So you've got a lot of different customers with many different ideas, typically involving the concept of power sharing between two different charge dispensers, which we had on our roadmap anyway. We’re accelerating the work on that to be ready to offer that capability to customers. It's still anyone's guess when or how quickly this will mature, but we believe in the long-term potential and the team has been doing a great job of getting us to this point in a very short time.

Bryan Blair, Analyst

Understood. Very helpful color. Your comments on additives were quite encouraging at least directionally. So we've always found that to be a very intriguing technology and initiative for your team. I guess just to level set, what's the run rate revenue now of additive, what's current profitability? And how does your team think about the medium-term potential of that platform or initiative scale?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Yes. So Bryan, the run rate of the business now on a revenue basis is on the order of $10 million, which I can appreciate doesn't necessarily sound all that exciting to outside observers. However, we've progressed from printing blocks and test coupons to verifying that the technology works to prospective customers. We’re now printing parts that go into production, completing destructive testing and passing all tests with flying colors. We're experiencing a real groundswell of enthusiasm among targeted customers to use additive manufacturing to replace large castings for which there’s a long supply chain and generally poor quality requiring significant weld repairs. Our technology offers them a higher quality product with much shorter lead times. The exciting part from a financial standpoint is while revenues are small at this point, we’re nearing a breakeven point on operating expenses. We've been investing about $5 million to $6 million for several years to develop this technology, and reaching profitability would be a significant milestone for us.

Bryan Blair, Analyst

Got it. Appreciate all the detail. Thanks again.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Thanks, Bryan.

Nathan Jones, Analyst

Good morning, everyone.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Hey, Nathan.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Nathan.

Nathan Jones, Analyst

I guess I'll start off following up to Bryan's question on additive. Run rate revenue is $10 million today. What do you think the growth rate for that potential addressable market will be? Is it still very early in the commercialization of that as well? It seems like a relatively small addressable market but with extremely high value to the customer.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Yes. So Nate, let me piggyback on your comments that we're very early in the commercialization of this. We have customers that are talking about real big numbers and are enthusiastic about it, but we don't yet look like we have all the purchase orders to justify those big projections. So we view this as a long-term play for the business with great upside and optionality, but we're not yet ready to give specific projections or guidance around revenue.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

And Nate, to Steve’s point about his comments on investment, it provides us the patience to create value in these areas, like DC fast chargers and additive, as we work through our commercial strategies. We have a very promising outlook long-term.

Nathan Jones, Analyst

Okay. I want to move to my second question on the Vanair acquisition. It took a departure from your recent acquisitions that have been focused on automation. Can you talk about the strategic value you think that brings to Lincoln Electric? How can you leverage your portfolio to grow that business faster or use it to grow your own portfolio? What kind of cost synergies do you expect?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Sure. Nate, I'll talk about the strategy, then I'll let Gabe handle the purchase multiple. We're really excited about this acquisition. We have been selling products into the work truck industry for several years. One of our leading competitors is much stronger in this market than we are, and we found that our ability to reach customers through our traditional distribution channels has been limited. We think this acquisition will significantly accelerate our ability to sell existing welding-based products to the work truck industry. Both we and Vanair have been working on Battery-Powered Solutions that provide customers with environmental and operational benefits by using a battery instead of a diesel or gasoline-powered engine. We see this as the future, and we think that together, we will expand and accelerate the product portfolio. There are many reasons for us to be excited about this transaction.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Nate, just to add a couple of comments on the financials. As you saw, we pointed to a low-double-digit type EBIT profile. Our objectives, as you know, are to drive to that corporate average on these acquisitions, which we consider in a three-year cycle. We’re excited about shaping the operating model of this business. The Vanair business has been in a double-digit growth trajectory. We see potential for maintaining that growth. When you think about the multiple, if you exclude some of the real estate components, we’re talking about high-single-digit type purchase price multiples. We're excited about how this fits within our business. While we've had a larger percentage of automation-type transactions, acquisitions, you’ve seen us steadily emphasize growth through acquisitions within our core welding business as well.

Nathan Jones, Analyst

Awesome. Thanks very much for taking my questions.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Nathan.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mig Dobre with Baird. Mig, please go ahead.

Joe Grabowski, Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys. It's Joe Grabowski on for Mig this morning.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Hi Joe.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Hi Joe.

Joe Grabowski, Analyst

Hey. Good morning. I guess I wanted to drill in a little further on the trends you saw in June and July. Were they steady? Were they choppy? Does it seem like we've settled out at this new level? And what is your confidence on the visibility for the last five months of the year based on what you saw in June and July?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Joe, just in general, the environment has been relatively choppy. For example, I'd point to General Industry. We were down low single digits in general fab. But on balance, what we've seen in June and July aligns with that mid-single-digit profile we’re projecting. We’re largely still a short cycle business. The automation components extend into our longer cycle business. But that gives us confidence in our assumptions. There are areas of risk that we pointed to, particularly how heavy industry progresses, especially in ag. We've seen some announcements there that we’re monitoring closely. We're also looking at how the market responds on the automotive side regarding their long-term capital decision-making. While the June and July patterns gave us confidence, we are watching closely.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Joe, this is Steve. I’ll add a bit of color to Gabe's comments. When we look at heavy industries, particularly in the production cuts in the ag sector, it has grabbed most headlines, yet we also saw a step down in the construction and mining subsectors. While not as significant as ag, they're still holding down production levels. We believe we're already seeing a slowdown through the second quarter and that we’ll remain flat at these production levels through the rest of the year.

Joe Grabowski, Analyst

That's very helpful color. Thank you very much. And then maybe just a quick follow-up on international. You mentioned a challenging macro environment in Europe. Can you provide additional color on that and your thoughts on pricing in the International segment for the second half of the year?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

In general, we should expect to see more of the same. We've seen some strength in areas of the Middle East and Asia. However, Europe continues to be challenged. While I mentioned some improvements in EBIT profile, the overall volume perspective and pricing in the first half of the year is what we expect to see in the second half. We’ll continually manage costs and pricing while aiming for improvement in EBIT.

Chris Dankert, Analyst

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Chris.

Chris Dankert, Analyst

I guess, maybe just to round out the discussion on end markets here, construction and infrastructure up low teens—that's a pretty impressive growth rate. Can you level set us on where you're seeing the growth geographically and how that has trended through July?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Chris, we have seen a choppy environment, as you've noted. Some infrastructure construction in the international markets has been positive. To give you perspective, we're up mid-teens this quarter following a mid-single-digit drop last quarter, and high teens in Q4. It’s been inconsistent after a strong run throughout 2022, so we expect continued choppiness. We remain hopeful about infrastructure investments in the US that could drive demand, but the situation remains variable.

Chris Dankert, Analyst

Got it. Thanks for the color there. Regarding your expectation for improvement in EBIT margin in international, can you provide some detail? Is it cost-driven or mix-driven?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

What you may have picked up is that during the second quarter, we had operational adjustments that were isolated to the quarter. That gives us confidence because as these reversals happen, we expect performance to revert toward our expected EBIT margin range of 11% to 12%.

Walt Liptak, Analyst

Hey. Thanks. Good morning, guys.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Hey, Walt.

Walt Liptak, Analyst

I want to ask about the macro environment. It sounds like the heavy industry is slowing down. But for general industrial, we've paused here. Have you gotten any feedback from your customers on why some of the demand has slowed?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

In general, thinking about the general industry runtime, you'd like to point to the small, midsized fabricators. The broad uncertainty in the market is driving activity levels. The choppiness in PMI and new orders and production, inventories—it's all inconsistent. I'm hopeful about trends improving, but there's a predominant lack of consistency in the outlook, which makes us cautious.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Walt, this is Steve. To give you perspective on GenFab in the Americas, we see that weakness in equipment and small automation reflecting customer confidence in the economy. There's tremendous uncertainty around interest rates and the upcoming election, also influencing their willingness to invest in CapEx. Fortunately, the consumables side is not doing too poorly.

Walt Liptak, Analyst

Okay. Great. And as we think about the future and where macro trends could go, especially in North America, you haven't adjusted your strategies for dealing with ramping down situations. Do you have any changes in the way you would deal with things if they start ramping down, like cutting costs?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

As you know, we’re very disciplined with discretionary spending. You are referring to profit sharing—the larger component in the Americas moves with profitability. We will continue to be disciplined in managing costs and looking for short-term levers. You're also seeing improvements in enterprise-wide initiatives focused on cost reductions and efficiency.

Walt Liptak, Analyst

Thank you for that insight.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Walt, to add further—if we focus particularly on GenFab in the Americas region, we're seeing a collapse in production cuts in ag that have grabbed headlines, but construction and mining subsectors also show material declines reflecting economic uncertainty. We expect to see flat production levels in the remainder of the year.

Walt Liptak, Analyst

Okay. Great. One last question for me on commodities. Can you address channel inventory levels and pricing? Some commodity prices have decreased recently. Can you maintain pricing within the consumables part of your business?

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

What we’ve done to date is what we expect in pricing. You caught that we expect pricing improvements of 50 basis points to 100 basis points in the third quarter. We're taking actions to maintain pricing. While wage and other inflationary pressures walked into the second quarter, we are acting to protect our model.

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Thanks, Walt.

Operator, Operator

And our final question today comes from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc. Steve, please go ahead.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Thanks. The automation strategy has always been concentrated in the Americas. Given the breadth of your product line now, is there an opportunity to increase automation exposure internationally or shift sales focus internationally even if conversion is delayed until markets firm up?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Yes, Steve. We've always been keen on expanding the automation business globally. The issue boils down to where the industry structure and market dynamics work in our favor. In Europe, for example, most robot manufacturers have decided to be in the automation integration business, creating strong pressure on margins. Hence, we focus on high-tech plays like Zeman and now Inrotech, which offer proprietary, high-value solutions instead of general integration.

Steve Barger, Analyst

To the point on Inrotech, it seems super interesting. Is the AI programming vision-based? With $10 million in sales, is this technology still working out the kinks or is it a finished product that just needed a bigger platform to scale?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

Yes, you're right, Steve. It is vision-based. A great attribute is it does not require a CAD file for comparison; it simply analyzes its surroundings and makes decisions independently. The technology is quite robust, although some integration work is required on our end, making our investment primarily about providing a bigger platform for market access.

Steve Barger, Analyst

How do you view the total addressable market for such an application like that? Can that technology translate to Harris as well?

Steve Hedlund, President and CEO

When we think about the total addressable market for automation, it is significantly larger than our current business. We’re relatively small players in a $35-plus billion market. As for Inrotech technology, it’s new, and its full potential remains to be uncovered, but we’re enthusiastic about the opportunities it presents and how it addresses customer demands.

Operator, Operator

And that does conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back to Gabe Bruno for closing remarks. Gabe, the floor is yours.

Gabe Bruno, Chief Financial Officer

I would like to thank everyone for joining us on the call today and for your continued interest in Lincoln Electric. We look forward to discussing the progression of our strategic initiatives in the future and showcasing new technologies at the upcoming FABTECH trade show in October. Thank you very much.

Operator, Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.