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| And then by the way, even within people's own portfolio, I'm excited for us because we're coming into a major, I think, everyone would agree with me saying, major upturn in electronics and semiconductor, and we're in the sweet spot of the semiconductor play |
| By the way Spectrum is performing very well |
| They've done a really nice job driving margins as well to be able to deliver really nice productivity as we saw 2023 unfold |
| So that’s a really nice position with all the OEMs, not only on the structural and body side of adhesives but more importantly on the battery side, which is what's really driving the growth |
| I think that solidifies that that's occurring |
| We saw positive volume growth in ICS in the fourth quarter with about 2% and we'll look for continued recovery throughout 2024 |
| We do see improved utilization on the PCB side versus where we were -- it was the first business to go into the downturn in the third quarter roughly in 2022, so it was the first business to come out |
| So we actually had the procurement meeting yesterday before we came down and we saw an improvement in the natural gas and general utilities plays cycle-over-cycle |
| So I think the next few years are pretty exciting for us to watch us in |
| And look, we clearly feel we're very undervalued and most of you that own the stock and look at it, say the same thing |
| But in general, the economy feels pretty decent, a little bit lower growth probably just globally, the Germany comment so on, but companies can perform well in that environment |
| Obviously, the business model that we put together, they’re doing a major ramp with this one customer I just mentioned, that's going very well |
| So we're seeing that where it starts to pick up and it will be a key top line growth driver for us as well as a margin driver for the WMP business |
| But it's done quite well, I think, the past year |
| It is a benefit |
| So a key driver of that, not only the 6% to 7% market growth that our outperformance is that exposure to data centers and AI and more advanced chips |
| So we've got about $700 million business in data centers, about $250 million of that is AI, small but growing a very nice clip for us |
| So we continued to see lift in the first to second week of February and the only two end markets -- and by the way, it was very broad, which was interesting |
| So I think there’s further benefits we have from that combination |
| So I think that's a pretty nice mix |
| So the electronics went into the destock first and that's well over a year ago, both our ICS business and our semi business are now coming out of the destock and we're starting to see growth there as we've talked about on the earnings call |
| So adhesives is about $800 million business this year, almost 30% of it is EV and about a third of that 30% is battery and growing at a much higher clip than where auto builds are, so that's really what's driving the opportunity there |
| Really happy to have to the DuPont team here with us |
| So we believe we will have further deflation benefits primarily just coming from the procurement cycle |
| And I would add that two weeks now into February, our orders since January 1 through the middle of February are up low double digits |
| And for 2024, our current expectation is about 6% to 7% MSI growth and we'll outperform that metric by about 200 to 300 basis points |
| So we found the last several rounds we've done within ASR and we found that to be a very efficient model, there's a lot of bidding to get the program that gives us a nice discount |
| So very doable |
| So I think we have a nice mix of businesses, and so the portfolio is where we want it |
| So we're comfortable with the 2 times, it allows us to be very shareholder friendly with returning cash to shareholders and also opportunistic as even on the both on the M&A side, but right now, obviously, the focus has been on share repurchase with where our share price is |
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| And then when you're a short cycle business and you also go through distribution that was just a little bit of a surprise that it was severe as it did six weeks bouncing back |
| Again, we're a lot of short-cycle businesses, we saw order rates decline in some of our WLP businesses on the safety side, the water side, and it was all destocking going on there |
| However, it was offset by a cycle-over-cycle degradation in logistics, primarily from the Red Sea challenges |
| And then of course, we have kind of this year with the destock and the electronics downturn |
| On the WMP side, a lot of it was what you said, it was not our end customers as much as they were doing some destocking, but the numbers that were really down were with our distributor |
| So net-net in 2024, we see China about flat from a volume perspective, it’s going to be a tale of two halves again, so the first half still weak and the second half seeing strength |
| But natural gas is down about almost a buck in the past month or so |
| And then circling back to WMP, it seems like, obviously, inventory dynamics surprised a number of folks in the fourth quarter |
| So for instance, in China, a third of our water business is in China, we have more than this, but we have four main distributors over there, but they were down 30% |
| So I think we're, by enlarge, mostly out of the destock that we were seeing last year and kind of getting worse at the end of the year, and except for those two end markets that I mentioned now |
| Now obviously, right now, it's a little choppy |
| And then obviously, the destock was huge for -- I mean, the dispersion in earnings this past quarter was crazy |
| China has plenty of problems |
| But this was COVID related, it was supply chains buildup -- we had too much inventory, we all did |
| Well -- and look, it's just in my whole career doing this, I've never used the word destock except the one other time in '08, '09, which was mostly the economy went but there was destocking because the economy went so much |
| What do you see is the most significant share price headwind facing DuPont, core growth, margin, capital deployment or execution strategy? Okay, it seems like core growth is the winner there or the biggest focus for investors, I should say |
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