Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDP) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 9, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kate Charlton - Vice President, Investor Relations

Randy MacEwen - Chief Executive Officer

Paul Dobson - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Aaron MacNeil - TD Cowen

Manav Gupta - UBS

Rupert Merer - National Bank

Rob Brown - Lake Street Capital Markets

Greg Wasikowski - Webber Research

Mac Whale - Cormark Securities

Jordan Levy - Truist Securities

Brett Castelli - Morningstar

Craig Shere - Tuohy Brothers

Kashy Harrison - Piper Sandler

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Ballard Power Systems Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Kate Charlton, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kate Charlton

Thank you, Operator, and good morning. Welcome to Ballard’s second quarter 2023 financial and operating results conference call. With us on today’s call are Randy MacEwen, Ballard’s CEO; and Paul Dobson, Chief Financial Officer.

In June we hosted our 2023 Capital Markets Day. During the event, we provided an extensive update on the progress that Ballard has made, while also providing additional transparency on our expectations for our business. In case you missed the event, the webinar and presentation are available on the Investors section of our website. Consequently, we have intentionally kept our remarks today brief for this quarter.

We will be making forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectations, beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. Actual results could be materially different. Please refer to our most recent annual information form and other public filings for our complete disclaimer and related information.

I will now turn the call over to Randy.

Randy MacEwen

Thank you, Kate, and welcome everyone to today’s conference call. We are making important progress on our strategic priorities as communicated at our 2023 Capital Markets Day. During Q2, we grew our order book, invested in next-generation fuel cell products and continue to drive our product cost-reduction programs.

We continue to see growing customer interest across our market verticals, which is reflected in $25.1 million of new orders in Q2 and a growing sales pipeline. Importantly, our power products backlog is now up over 140% compared to the prior year period. We are particularly excited about the growing customer engagement levels in the U.S. and European markets.