Boise Cascade Company ("Boise Cascade," the "Company," "we," or "our") (NYSE: BCC) today reported net income of $96.7 million, or $2.43 per share, on sales of $1.5 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023, compared with net income of $302.6 million, or $7.61 per share, on sales of $2.3 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

“During the first quarter, the expected weaker environment from lower new single-family starts and commodity product prices was evident. Despite those headwinds, the strength and resilience of our business model and our associates were in clear view as the Company delivered solid financial results,” stated Nate Jorgensen, CEO. “As we look to the second quarter, economic uncertainties persist, but we remain focused on providing high service levels to our vendor and customer partners. The strength of our balance sheet also allows us to remain committed to our strategies and the continued execution of our growth initiatives. In addition, together with our Board of Directors, we again took action to reward our shareholders through our recently announced special dividend.”

First Quarter 2023 Highlights

In first quarter 2023, total U.S. housing starts decreased 18%, driven by a decrease in single-family housing starts of 29% compared to the same period in 2022. Single-family housing starts are the key demand driver for our sales.

Wood Products

Wood Products' sales, including sales to Building Materials Distribution (BMD), decreased $121.5 million, or 22%, to $437.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, from $558.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022. The decrease in sales was driven by lower plywood sales prices and lower sales volumes for I-joists and LVL (collectively referred to as EWP). These decreases were offset partially by higher plywood sales volumes and higher EWP sales prices.

Comparative average net selling prices and sales volume changes for EWP and plywood are as follows:

Wood Products' segment income decreased $120.7 million to $69.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, from $190.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022. The decrease in segment income was due primarily to lower plywood sales prices and lower EWP sales volumes. In addition, segment income was negatively impacted by higher per-unit conversion costs and an increase in depreciation and amortization expense due to the acquisition of two plywood facilities on July 25, 2022. These decreases in segment income were offset partially by higher EWP sales prices and higher plywood sales volumes, as well as lower OSB costs (used in the manufacture of I-joists).

Building Materials Distribution

BMD's sales decreased $732.6 million, or 35%, to $1,379.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, from $2,111.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022. Compared with the same quarter in the prior year, the overall decrease in sales was driven by sales price and sales volume decreases of 20% and 15%, respectively. By product line, commodity sales decreased 50%, general line product sales decreased 13%, and sales of EWP (substantially all of which are sourced through our Wood Products segment) decreased 24%.

BMD segment income decreased $156.2 million to $69.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, from $225.9 million in the comparative prior year quarter. The decrease in segment income was driven by a gross margin decrease of $177.3 million, resulting primarily from lower margins on commodity products and lower sales volumes, offset partially by decreased selling and distribution expenses of $20.3 million.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

Boise Cascade ended first quarter 2023 with $1,000.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and $395.9 million of undrawn committed bank line availability, for total available liquidity of $1,396.7 million. The Company had $444.6 million of outstanding debt at March 31, 2023.

We expect capital expenditures in 2023 to total approximately $120 million to $140 million. Our 2023 capital expenditures range includes funding for greenfield distribution centers in South Carolina and Texas, projects at our mills in the southeast to expand our EWP capacity, and the purchase of property to house an additional door shop assembly operation in Kansas City, Missouri. This level of capital expenditures could increase or decrease as a result of several factors, including acquisitions, efforts to further accelerate organic growth, exercise of lease purchase options, our financial results, future economic conditions, availability of engineering and construction resources, and timing and availability of equipment purchases.

Dividends

On May 4, 2023, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share on our common stock, as well as a special dividend of $3.00 per share on our common stock, both payable on June 15, 2023, to stockholders of record on June 1, 2023.

Future dividend declarations, including amount per share, record date and payment date, will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other things, legal capital requirements and surplus, our future operations and earnings, general financial condition, material cash requirements, restrictions imposed by our asset-based credit facility and the indenture governing our senior notes, applicable laws, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

Outlook

Demand for the products we manufacture, as well as the products we purchase and distribute, is correlated with new residential construction, residential repair-and-remodeling activity and light commercial construction. U.S. housing starts in March 2023 were approximately 1.42 million on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, mortgage rates have declined from peak levels in late 2022, and measures of builder sentiment have improved from fourth quarter 2022 levels. However, home affordability remains a challenge for consumers, and the Federal Reserve's ongoing actions in response to inflationary data and what impacts these actions have on future mortgage rates and the broader economy will influence the near-term demand environment. As such, the full year outlook for 2023 is uncertain and is reflected in various industry forecasts for 2023 U.S housing starts that generally range from 1.2 million to 1.4 million units, compared with actual housing starts of 1.55 million in 2022, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. Regarding home improvement spending, the age of U.S. housing stock and elevated levels of homeowner equity have provided a favorable backdrop for repair-and-remodel spending. However, industry forecasts project continued moderation of year-over-year growth in renovation spending, and economic uncertainty may also negatively impact homeowners' further investment in their residences.

As a manufacturer of certain commodity products, we have sales and profitability exposure to declines in commodity product prices and rising input costs. Our distribution business purchases and resells a broad mix of commodity products with periods of increasing prices providing the opportunity for higher sales and increased margins, while declining price environments expose us to declines in sales and profitability. Future commodity product pricing and commodity input costs may be volatile in response to economic uncertainties, industry operating rates, transportation constraints or disruptions, net import and export activity, inventory levels in various distribution channels, and seasonal demand patterns. In addition, EWP volumes will continue to be influenced by demand for new residential construction, particularly single-family housing starts and we expect further EWP price erosion in the second quarter.

About Boise Cascade

Boise Cascade Company is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America and a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.bc.com.

Webcast and Conference Call

Boise Cascade will host a webcast and conference call to discuss first quarter earnings on Friday, May 5, 2023, at 11 a.m. Eastern.

To join the webcast, go to the Investors section of our website at www.bc.com/investors and select the Event Calendar link. Analysts and investors who wish to ask questions during the Q&A session can register for the call here.

The archived webcast will be available in the Investors section of Boise Cascade's website.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We refer to the terms EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in this earnings release and the accompanying Quarterly Statistical Information as supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity that are not required by or presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). We define EBITDA as income (loss) before interest (interest expense and interest income), income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, which further adjusts EBITDA to exclude the change in fair value of interest rate swaps.

We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are meaningful measures because they present a transparent view of our recurring operating performance and allow management to readily view operating trends, perform analytical comparisons, and identify strategies to improve operating performance. We also believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are useful to investors because they provide a means to evaluate the operating performance of our segments and our Company on an ongoing basis using criteria that are used by our management and because they are frequently used by investors and other interested parties when comparing companies in our industry that have different financing and capital structures and/or tax rates. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, however, are not measures of our liquidity or financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to net income (loss), income (loss) from operations, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP or as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. The use of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA instead of net income (loss) or segment income (loss) have limitations as analytical tools, including: the inability to determine profitability; the exclusion of interest expense, interest income, and associated significant cash requirements; and the exclusion of depreciation and amortization, which represent unavoidable operating costs. Management compensates for these limitations by relying on our GAAP results. Our measures of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the methods of calculation.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements about our expectations of future operational and financial performance that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our outlook. Statements preceded or followed by, or that otherwise include, the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "project," "estimates," "plans," "forecast," "is likely to," and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "would," "should," and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The accuracy of such statements is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, prices for building products, changes in the competitive position of our products, commodity input costs, the effect of general economic conditions, mortgage rates and availability, housing demand, housing vacancy rates, governmental regulations, unforeseen production disruptions, as well as natural disasters. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise them in light of new information. Finally, we undertake no obligation to review or confirm analyst expectations or estimates that might be derived from this release.

See accompanying summary notes to consolidated financial statements and segment information.

Summary Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and Segment Information

The Consolidated Statements of Operations, Segment Statements of Operations, Consolidated Balance Sheets, Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, and Segment Information presented herein do not include the notes accompanying the Company's Consolidated Financial Statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company’s 2022 Form 10-K and the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Net income for all periods presented involved estimates and accruals.

EBITDA represents income before interest (interest expense and interest income), income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, which further adjusts EBITDA to exclude the change in fair value of interest rate swaps. The following table reconciles net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, and December 31, 2022:

The following table reconciles segment income and unallocated corporate costs to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, and December 31, 2022:

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