Inside Koppers: How Leroy Ball Is Shaping Treated Wood & Infrastructure Markets

Leroy Ball joins us now down here on the trading floor of the NYSE.

He is the CEO of Koppers here to celebrate two decades as a publicly traded company, just rang the closing bell.

Really nice to have you.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

You specialize in treated wood products.

We'll talk more about the business, but overall, what does it mean for you and the firm to be down here, a part of the New York Stock Exchange community here for 20 years?

Yes, it's exciting.

I mean, we're celebrating our 20 year anniversary, and so it's hard to believe.

I was here 10 years ago for our 10 year anniversary, the bell ringing at that point in time, and just all that we've seen and dealt with over the last 10 years, especially the last 6, the challenges we've been able to work our way through.

And you know, here we find ourselves in the strongest position we've been in with a more, you know, more focused portfolio.

A stronger and more disciplined operating framework and essentially we're excited to kick off our 2028 strategy and got the team down here really energized around that.

What should people know about the broader treated wood products space, especially through the lens of environmental products and considerations in recent years?

Yes, so I mean, look, it's a space where we make stuff that kills things.

That's what we do, right?

It prevents fungal decay and protects against insects.

So you railroad cross ties, utility poles, basically outdoor structures whether it be decking, fencing, all those sorts of things spanning, you know, residential through industrial, we do that and it is a challenge, but we've been doing it for decades on end and we have a great environmental services team that really supports the team.

Is it somewhat proprietary wood preservation technology and talk to us a little bit about the key differentiators for coppers versus others in the space.

So there's on the residential side, yes, we innovation is definitely.

A differentiator for us.

So we have a patented product, Micropro, that is the industry standard.

You'd find it in just about any lumber wholesaler, big box retailer.

You'll find our products.

We have 140 patents and are developing the next generation technology for that space right there.

And then we have the commoditized space too, which again is more on the industrial side railroad cross ties, utility poles in those spaces basically we differentiate ourselves in terms of quality.

In service.

We had a great quality control program offering, you know, lower total cost of ownership to our customer base, and that really differentiates us in the marketplace.

What does the artificial intelligence power demand mean for your industry?

Well, there's no question that that is, you know, increasing utility spend on infrastructure, right?

And so for us who play a key part in that in terms of providing utility poles to build out that infrastructure, whether it be data centers, whether it be, you know, electrification, the whole broadband expansion.

You know what we're doing is going to help support that and you know for us we've been really focused more east of the Mississippi southwest.

Our Southeast, northeast, and what we've been doing is trying to expand geographically through some key acquisitions better able to reach up into the Midwest, the Southwest, out west, and so that's where our focus has been.

I got to be honest, I don't know how many people maybe drive by their local infrastructure projects, the electrical poles, and think very much about it until, God forbid something happens, there's a horrible storm, and then you really have to think about those things.

Is that 16 years experience at the company, is that kind of the point of contact for a lot of consumers and the American people.

There's no question, and that's again another area where I think we stand out.

We have our own trucking unit who basically storm response is a huge differentiator for us.

We're out there responding to all those storms, making sure that the folks in the local communities can get the power back on.

What are the main headwinds Let's say the tailwinds.

What are the big beneficiaries out of Washington DC?

I'm thinking about the big bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress finally got over the finish line a few years ago.

What do things like that.

There's no question that helps us.

I mean, we're serving infrastructure markets, so anything that goes into that space is going to have a positive impact for us.

And again on the utility space with all the build out and infrastructure, another big tailwind, the stock perform. is really interesting.

Up 40% already here in 2026, but you had this incredible stretch in February.

I noticed 11 green candlesticks in a row.

Has something happened materially in the market since the start of this year, and something appears to have happened, at least in the month of February.

I thought it was interesting.

Yes, certainly it was a big, big month for us, a big comeback month for us.

I mean, it's been a pretty decent year for the materials markets overall.

I think for us, we've been telling the story about the investments we made through our last strategic planning cycle that has set us up for success here over the next 3 years.

So our cash generation is going to be off the charts in the next 3 years.

Our earnings, we're expecting to see double digit improvement over each of the next 3 years.

So I think that part of that story is starting to resonate.

Ticker symbol KOP up 0.1% on the day, having a strong start here to 2026.

CEO Leroy Ball, thanks for being here and making the case.

Nice to have you.

Thank you.