管理層發言
Good evening. My name is Carrie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the PureCycle Technologies Second Quarter 2025 Corporate Update Conference Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Eric DeNatale, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Carrie. Welcome to PureCycle Technologies Second Quarter 2025 Corporate Update Conference Call. I am Eric DeNatale, Director of Investor Relations for PureCycle and joining me on the call today are Dustin Olson, our Chief Executive Officer; and Jaime Vasquez, our Chief Financial Officer. This evening, we will be highlighting our corporate developments for the second quarter of 2025. The presentation we'll be going through on this call can also be found on the Investor tab on our website at purecycle.com. Many of the statements made today will be forward-looking and based on management's beliefs and assumptions and information currently available to management at this time. The statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which may be beyond our control including those set forth in our safe harbor provisions and forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our second quarter 2025 corporate update press release filed this afternoon as well as in other reports on file with the SEC to provide further detail about the risks related to our business.
Additionally, please note that the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Our remarks today may also include preliminary non-GAAP estimates and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, changes in connection with quarter end and year-end adjustments. Any variation between PureCycle's actual results and the preliminary financial data set forth herein may be material. You're welcome to follow along with our slide deck or if joining us by phone, you can access it at any time at purecycle.com. We are excited to share updates from the previous quarter with you. With that, I will now turn it over to Dustin Olson, PureCycle's Chief Executive Officer.
All right. Thank you, Eric. Thanks for joining the call today. You may notice my voice is a bit short as I'm still recovering from a little summer cold. So forgive me ahead of time if I've got to go on mute for a moment or two for a cough. The second quarter was a meaningful period for PureCycle as it marked the shift towards growth. We updated the market approximately six weeks ago with the successful capital raise in late June and the announcement of our global growth plans in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. This expansion is planned to bring roughly one billion pounds of installed capacity to the market by 2030. The reaction from our customers has been very positive, especially from the larger global brands looking for an opportunity to truly move the needle for their brand's global sustainability goals. This is a transformative moment and we're thrilled to bring our product to the world. I want to thank our team for their hard work on this and in particular, thank our new and existing capital partners that participated in the $300 million capital raise.
We also continue to see progress on the commercial front as our pipeline advanced. The acceptance of our material continues to strengthen across numerous applications. Our ability to deliver high volumes of FDA and PCR resin with a wide range of material properties through compounding is differential. We now have numerous applications and post-trial negotiations, and the backlog of trials continues to build. We currently have 17 customer applications that are in post-trial discussions with continued plans for a second half revenue ramp as these discussions convert into sales. Also notable is that the commercial discussions focused not only on deliveries in 2025 but also capacity reservation for 2026. This is a fundamentally different dialogue when compared to before our successful capital raise. Many of these applications are with brands and products that I expect all of you are familiar with: coffee lids, yogurt cups, spouts, container lids, pins, snack bags, tapes, and storage totes are only a few of the applications that we're excited to bring to the market.
We also sought our first major commercial agreement with Emerald in this quarter for approximately five million pounds of purified resin, which starts to convert into revenue in Q3. Fiber was one of those first major technical compounding achievements, and we're excited to see those early wins accelerating into increased customer interest. The film market is an enormous opportunity for PureCycle, and one that we have been talking about in the recent quarters. Remember, there isn't a reliable high-quality post-consumer recycled FDA resin that can be used at scale in chip bags, candy bars, and other fill applications. We originally expected trial success in the second half of 2025, but I'm very proud to announce that we achieved our first successful trial in film earlier than expected and have planned to test two additional larger-scale trials in August, one with Bruckner and another with a large global converter, and a third in September.
We believe that this is a very large underserved market for both FDA and non-FDA applications and are hearing indications of demand from film players for 2026, even before the product has been fully tested. Operationally, the story continues to be one of steady progress at Ironton. As we noted on the capital raise update six weeks ago, Q2 was a strong quarter for our team, where we achieved onstream times approaching 90% in both April and May. We also produced pellets for 65 consecutive days. In early June, we took a small planned outage to prepare for the second half of 2025 commercial ramp to implement a couple of small reliability improvement projects. We also successfully completed an initial test run at upper limits of the facility with a rate test at 14,000 pounds per hour on August 1. We plan to continue testing the plant at these high levels throughout August and September to map out the requirements at these rates and also raise rates to higher levels in Q3 and Q4 to meet the commercial funnel requirements.
Overall, the progress that we're seeing with the trial pipeline, as well as what we're hearing in our post-trial brand discussions, is positive and will lead to increased branded sales in the second half of the year. More importantly, the indications of demand that we are hearing from our customers are strong, gives us increased belief that sales will continue to ramp up leading to and through 2026. The unit economics on our branded contracts and what we are seeing with our current discussions continues to support the unit economics we previously laid out to the market. When we announced our capital raise about six weeks ago, we gave a lot of detail to the market regarding our global growth plans. I think it's important to take a step back and reiterate why the time for growth is now. First, the operational reliability at Ironton has meaningfully improved over the past year, which was exemplified by onstream time approaching 90% in both April and May, and 65 days of consecutive pellet production.
Secondly, the momentum in our commercial trials has continued, and this gives us increased confidence that demand for recycled polypropylene far exceeds our ability to supply the market. When it comes to growth, I couldn't be more excited about Thailand. We shifted to Thailand because it allows the fastest speed to market while also minimizing the incremental capital outflow. This project has a high ROIC, gives direct access to Southeast Asia and ensures Procter & Gamble exclusivity for Asia. The brownfield site that we have access to in Rail has existing infrastructure, including power, steam, roads, warehousing, fire, compounding assets, a deepwater port, and equally, if not more important, a deep bench of very talented project professionals. This combined with the low-cost nature of Thailand should allow us to bring the project to completion for somewhere between $1.50 and $1.75 CapEx per pound.
This is inclusive of roughly $87 million in long lead equipment that we've already purchased, which further reduces the incremental cash outflow. We continue to expect that we should have this facility operational in the second half of 2027. A portion of the capital raise will also be allocated to completing the permitting process in Antwerp and finalizing the Gen 2 design for a $300 million-plus pound production unit for future facilities. We continue to expect that permitting for Antwerp will be completed in the second half of 2026, and the overall project should be completed in 2028. Design work for the larger lines should be completed in the first half of 2026, which will then kick off construction of our Gen 2 line, which is expected to complete in 2029. Since the most recent update, we continue to progress our growth plan and have already selected our EPCm partners for Thailand and Antwerp.
We are measuring the staffing needs for both projects carefully as we scale the future designs and integrate Ironton learnings into the process, this should lead to lower operating costs for each new line, and the combination of lower CapEx per pound and lower OpEx per pound should result in very attractive capital returns and positive results from project financing. We continue to make progress with our commercial trials and are now in post-trial discussions for 17 customer applications with numerous brands and converters. These consist of applications for many large global brands. This is consistent with prior guidance where the first half of the year would be about application trials, and the second half would be about working to convert those trials into sales, and that's what we're starting to see. While it's difficult to precisely time the trial-to-sales pipeline, we are on track with prior disclosures and are very happy with our trial win percentage.
The brands are excited about our product, and we are moving into the final gating items for many applications. This is good for the 2025 ramp; but it's also very timing as they plan for 2026 volume commitments. Many of these are with large well-known consumer brands with meaningful volume requests north of five million pounds per year with the intent to grow thereafter. And other major brands are inquiring about reservations starting at volumes greater than that. When we look at our sales funnel, I think it's important to look at a couple of different metrics. First, does the funnel continue to progress and build, and secondly, how do the attrition rates look? On both of these metrics, we see incredible success. Last quarter, we had a meaningful number of active trials convert to post-trial discussions, many pending trials convert to active trials, and the backlog of future trials continue to grow.
Last quarter, we reported 88 active and pending trials with 3 that were post-trial. Now we have 96 active and pending trials and 17 are post-trial. Additionally, we have only had one trial drop out of the funnel. So the attrition rates have been incredibly low. This speaks to our ability to meet the customer requirements and how much our customers want a quality recycled product. We're introducing a couple of new terms, but one of them is serviceable addressable market. The serviceable addressable market of our sales funnel is currently 4.8 billion pounds. And while that's an enormous number, that continues to build quarter-over-quarter. It's still only a fraction of the 200 billion pounds global market. Last quarter, we talked a lot about the excitement we have regarding our ability to make sales, which is an underserved market for recycled material. Since the last update, we had our first industrial trial success in film, which positions us well for commercial success going forward.
I was actually at a facility a while ago and got to see the equipment running. And I have to say it was just awesome. These moments fuel our team and give everyone confidence in our products that we're building. I remain very bullish on our potential for non-FDA and FDA BOPP film. We're moving as fast as we can to qualify film across numerous customers by working our product into their highly congested production schedules for industrial trials. We have two large-scale BOPP trials scheduled for August, one with our partner Bruckner, which we mentioned last quarter, and another with a large global converter, and a third scheduled for September in the U.S. The conversations with brand owners have increased and filmed even in front of these trials, and some have even begun to communicate interest in securing volume reservations for 2026 and beyond. The overall backlog of potential trials has also continued to increase since last quarter.
And after our successful capital raise, many brand owners are inquiring about capacity commitments from our facilities beyond Ironton. I would like to pause for a moment and highlight this point. Global brands manage massive systems in extremely competitive markets. To do so successfully, they require high levels of efficiency and consistency from everyone that touches their system. And like all of us, they are judicious with where they spend their time. The fact that we can deliver no-compromise drop-in replacement products with FDA and PCR certifications and that we have significant volume pipeline planned that solves major regulatory, consumer, and investor-related demands is awesome. We provide the value proposition that they need. In July, we announced a partnership with Emerald Carpets, which is one of the largest installers of trade show carpets in the country. The large-scale commercial supply agreement that we have with them is for approximately five million pounds per year of PureFive Choice resin beginning this quarter.
Emerald consumes roughly 50 million pounds of polypropylene per year. So there's a lot of room for us to grow the partnership. And I can tell you, both parties are interested in doing so. There is also a unique opportunity with Emerald to create true circularity over time. And I give them a lot of credit for really chasing this activity in the market. With true circularity, we can take their unused carpets and use them as feedstock to produce recycled resin for their future demand. This is an exciting development and one that we hope to iterate with other commercial partners over time. The success with Emerald is also a good reminder of the regulatory pressures that are beginning to come into play for consumers and polypropylene. California recently mandated 5% recycled content for all their carpets sold in the state, with a stated goal of increasing that over time. PureCycle is a solution for California and other states that decide to follow suit.
During the second quarter, PureCycle earned Green Circle's Recycled Content Certification for nearly 30 grades of PureCycle resin and co-products one and two. This is an independent certification verifying that greater than 90% of our feed comes from qualified PCR feedstocks. Customers just want to know that their product is truly coming from post-consumer curbside, and they know it's extremely difficult to procure high-quality final product made at scale from PCR feed. We hear this in the market all the time, and we know this is a differential value proposition for PureCycle. The reality is that PureCycle is processing PCR feedstock day in and day out at Ironton, and we're happy to get this certification to add to our docket of successful certifications. Overall, we've made tremendous progress with our commercial pipeline, and we continue to expect a commercial ramp in both Q3 and Q4 with increasing visibility on potential demand from our customers for 2026 and beyond.
We recently received board approval to initiate a project to bring compounding operations to Ironton by the end of the year. This is a great project. This is expected to increase our on-site compounding capacity to approximately 100 million pounds and will be primarily focused on film, thermoforming, and injection molding applications. This decision came in large part due to our commercial conversations. First, it's becoming clearer every day that our customers want compounded material across multiple application types and grades. And therefore, our existing third-party capacity would be insufficient to meet their needs. Secondly, as we progress with larger blue-chip companies, their volume indications require higher volumes and, therefore, require rail, which can be more cost-effectively and reliably managed through compounding at Ironton. This expansion will not only help improve our logistics and our ability to serve our customer needs, but we believe it will realize cost savings in excess of four million dollars per year and improve the overall quality management activities.
The expected payback on this project is less than two years. The announcement today on our compounding expansion is a reflection of the commercial progress on specific trials and speaks to the confidence that we see in the demand ramp to come. As previously disclosed, we achieved onstream times approaching 90% in both April and May before taking a brief outage in June. The Ironton Facility has been back up and is ramping into higher production levels for Q3. We initiated a number of rate tests and successfully ran at levels at 14,000 pounds per hour, nearing nameplate rates on the first of August. Like with all rate tests, we moved to a new level and then we evaluate product quality, reliability, and operability at these levels. And then we do it over again; we optimize, we learn, and we improve along the way until it becomes the new norm for operations. We have been doing this successfully for two years now.
I can't say enough with how proud I am of our operational successes. This is not a game that's won with a single home run. It takes practice, diligence, some occasional strikeouts, and a series of endless singles. These accomplishments position us well for when we ramp our production in conjunction with the commercial ramp. Overall, the second quarter marked an important inflection point for PureCycle. We successfully raised $300 million in capital, which should allow us to begin our growth beyond Ironton and bring our PureFive resin to the global marketplace. We have structured our growth plans in a manner that we believe creates the best balance between speed to market, cost and overall returns. As we laid out in late June, we continue to see a path to roughly one billion pounds of installed capacity by the end of 2029 and should provide roughly $600 million of run rate EBITDA. We have successfully advanced our commercial trials and are ramping revenue at Ironton.
We are excited for the next stage of the journey, and I'm incredibly excited about the recent developments and more confident than ever what the future holds for PureCycle. With that, I'll turn over to Jaime for the financial presentation.
Thank you, Dustin. As we mentioned, we had a successful capital raise in June, which significantly bolstered our liquidity position. As you see on Slide 12, we ended the quarter with $298 million of cash on the balance sheet, including $284 million of unrestricted cash. Earlier in the quarter, we also sold $11.9 million face value of our revenue bonds at a price of $88 for net proceeds of $10.5 million, and we still hold about $87 million of revenue bonds that we plan to sell in the future to further support our growth initiatives. Our operations and corporate spend were around $39 million, which was slightly higher than the $37 million spent in the previous quarter. We anticipate that our operational spend will remain at similar levels adjusted for increased spend associated with the ramp up of commercial sales. Additionally, we expect growth capital spend to slowly increase over the next several quarters. We are working on detailed project plans and will provide more insight once the spend curves associated with those plans are finalized. I would now like to turn the call back to Carrie, who will open the call for questions.
分析師問答
Your first question will come from Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Congratulations on the quarter and all the great progress. Dustin, you touched on this a little bit on the call, but I'm wondering, can you give us maybe a bit more detail on the growth plans, how you have progressed them since you last updated the market?
Thank you, Andres. I appreciate your kind words. We are truly excited to advance our growth initiatives. We've identified three key growth projects: in Thailand, Antwerp, and our Gen 2 facilities. We are in a strong position, having spent years securing the right locations that are now ready for development. Ironton is prepared to support these efforts and instill confidence as we progress with the projects. In Thailand, we have an excellent facility that produces integrated polypropylene. The cost of installation is relatively low since much of the necessary infrastructure is already in place, allowing us to easily integrate our purification facility. This will result in high returns on invested capital and strong cash generation right from the start. We also have solid infrastructure, including good roads, an abundance of steam, and deep port access. The deep port access is particularly significant, as it addresses plastic pollution, especially in Asia, where waste management systems are often underdeveloped compared to other regions.
Organizations such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste are investing heavily to tackle this issue, which we anticipate will lead to increased capacity for waste collection, sorting, and processing over the next few decades. This positions our facilities in Thailand perfectly to manage the growing supply of waste from that area. I'm very enthusiastic about Thailand; it has the potential to be a major facility for us moving forward. Additionally, I want to highlight our exceptional team and partnership with IRPC in Thailand. They not only have the right facility but also an experienced team equipped to manage the project efficiently. Their expertise will ensure successful execution. The collaboration on staffing and project support is already underway, with both teams working together to ensure timely and cost-effective delivery of the project. As for Antwerp, it is situated in a significant recycling hub.
Europe leads in demand for recycling capacity, and we aim to provide high-quality products in that market. We are currently navigating the permitting process, which varies by region, but in Europe, it’s crucial to complete engineering, submit for permits, and await approval before construction begins. This is why there’s some delay, but we remain optimistic about the project’s potential and acceptance in that market. Finally, regarding our Gen 2 facilities, we are still determining the plant's size as we work on the engineering phase to decide between a capacity of 300 or larger. This facility promises a significantly advantageous cost structure. Early partners will benefit from competitive pricing and substantial volume, which should lead to both competitive operating costs and capital expenditures. Our goal is to position our PureCycle projects as competitive alternatives to virgin polypropylene facilities, ensuring they are considered when the demand for polypropylene rises in the future. I appreciate your question. Thank you.
No. Thank you, Dustin, for that very elaborate answer. I really appreciate all the color. Maybe one more for me. I think the big question that I think most of us probably have on the call. So I'm wondering if you can maybe give us a bit more granularity on the 17 applications that you disclosed are post-trial. How should we think about the gating items here before commercialization? And maybe how would you characterize the likelihood of success?
Yes. We've continued to invest in our commercial team, building a first-class group. We're formalizing our evaluation process for different customer segments and focusing on the applications that will be most beneficial. I'm really proud of the team's accomplishments. The 17 trials are successful, which is a significant shift from a year ago when there were doubts about our product's viability. Now, we have post-trial discussions, indicating that customers are using and approving the technology, leading to positive outcomes. The various lanes we are exploring allow us flexibility in our approach. As for sales conversions, those are occurring, with many successful trials entering late-stage negotiations. Brands are eager to move forward but are navigating supply chain issues and logistics, which takes time. The technical successes are paving the way for positive discussions in different regions. I feel optimistic about the ramp-up we've previously outlined for the second half of the year. While there may be some fluctuations with customers and trials, we are currently on track to ramp up our operations and remain confident about our progress.
Things seem to be progressing along extremely well. My first question is around commercialization, right? A couple of things that you said on the call intrigued me a lot. You talked about the serviceable addressable market being around 12.8 billion pounds. And like you rightly said, for an industry that's, call it, 185 million pounds, 190 billion pounds, that's just scratching the surface. So I guess my question is that as you inked this sort of commercial agreement with Emerald, 5 million pounds, their needs are 50. I mean, how are you guys thinking about parceling the sort of production out, meaning the pace with which things are going and what you're alluding to? I mean the demand is there; they're just going to sort of scoop this up, right? So how is your commercial team thinking about picking and choosing the right sort of customers? How are you thinking about what it entails to actually get the best deals? And how to sort of maybe even grow in pricing, right? Because, I mean, it's a very unique sort of place to be in commodity chemical land, where the demand so exceeds what you're producing that in theory, I mean, the pricing power is with you.
Yes, that's a great question. It relates to the decommoditization of polypropylene. We aren't just commodity polypropylene; we are a specialty product that is currently in short supply with high demand in the market. Regarding our segment choices, we want to demonstrate that we can successfully produce across various applications with our Ironton initiative. For example, we intend to show the automotive sector that we can manufacture bumpers and that our material meets quality standards for use inside vehicles. We also want to prove to the textile market that we can reliably create fiber in different forms including single strand, nonwoven, and staple, suitable for applications such as automotive and carpeting. There is high willingness to pay among valuable customers in every segment, although the depth of the market may vary. Consumer-facing FDA grades feature a deeper market than others, but there are still valuable customers in these segments that we can target effectively.
We aim to manage overall margins across each segment and choose the segments that allow us to maximize margins while increasing volume. Furthermore, I want to emphasize an important point regarding our in-house compounding of materials, which we are announcing for the first time. Recycling materials involves fundamentally different feedstock that requires significant work to prepare for customers. We may need to add whitening, improve impact resistance, enhance tensile strength, adjust melt flow index, or incorporate different types of virgin material. We have the flexibility to handle all these needs. Our customers appreciate our brand, our focus on circularity, and our overall approach. When we create a product that meets their requirements seamlessly, we succeed. This compounding solution is not intended to replace the third-party compounding we've mentioned before but is meant to complement it.
Being able to implement this at scale with reliable transport options and major brands with high demand is exciting. I believe we are in a favorable position, and we will find ways to maximize margins for shareholder value by expanding our options. We will continue to improve our ability to define our opportunities, enhance our funnel, and selectively focus on specific areas.
No, that's phenomenal and a unique situation to be in. And sort of question around where you just left off. The compounding opportunities seem very interesting as well. It's almost like on the pricing side, you could get that economics for a bulk chemical, right? So my question is, you've initiated that 100 million pounds sort of project, as you called it for compounding. Could you give us a sense of, a, how long this is going to take and b, the capital outlay? And part and parcel with that c, I guess, would this be something that you would consider at the other growth projects that you are considering, be it out in Asia or Europe or the like? Is this going to be the model?
Yes. I mean, let's answer the first question first. We expect to have the compounding project done by the end of the year with startup in Q1. We do not expect it to impact our compounding operations with the third party. If we need more compounded capacity, we have another alternative that we can turn on to pull in additional capacity. It will come at a fee, but we have that as an option developed right now. So it should be on by the end of the year. When it comes to whether or not this will be part of future discussions, like, I think so. We've got to evaluate this. We got to see how it plays into all of the projects. The moment that we started to turn on compounding about a year ago, we really started to find great traction. Customers are starting to see us with a different lens of reliability. Instead of them having to make adjustments to the recycled material coming in, we can make them on our side and make it easier for them.
They've communicated their desires more clearly, and they want it to happen smoothly. And I think they love it. When it comes to thin-wall injection, the plastic industry has been thin-walling plastic applications for decades. We're going to be able to do that with our compounding operations because we have such a clean product coming out of purification. I just think that we're in a unique position, and we're seeing successes. I think you're right that the successes we're seeing in these applications in Ironton will potentially translate to the same customers in different regions. We have a lot of customers saying, 'We're a global brand. We make the same thing around the world.' They want the product to look the same, smell the same, and process the same. I just don't think there are many recycled solutions that can say they're going to be able to provide a global solution that enables their customers to have a no-compromise kind of lower anxiety changeover to recycled sustainability products. I think we're truly unique there.
This is Luke on for Eric. So first, your capacity obviously seems to be in high demand at Ironton right now, which could give you the luxury of being selective. So how are you thinking about customer diversification playing out? Do you expect to be servicing maybe a select few customers and higher volumes at Ironton or do you think it's realistic to plan on converting a greater portion of that trial pipeline into maybe lower volume commercial contracts?
Yes, that's a great question. I believe that the customers who act quickly will have the first opportunity. We're noticing a significant amount of capacity reservation cleanup in 2026, indicating a rush to secure their share. This is beneficial for us. Additionally, some market segments inherently offer higher margins than others. The FDA film and other consumer-facing brands are likely to be involved, but we shouldn't overlook the larger brands. The automotive industry faces major regulations coming in 2028 and 2030, which means they need to start preparing now. Overall, every segment will have elements that recognize the value and sustainability needed to maintain strong margins across the board. Yes. Look, I mean, it is a fundamentally different place where we are today than where we were when we started building and designing Ironton. Today, we've seen commercial scale run. We know how it works.
We know it's corks. We know what we can do to make even Ironton better on a day-to-day basis, and we're going to implement that into the next two lines in Antwerp and Thailand. Out of the gate, the reliability of those other lines will be improved. When it comes to a fundamental understanding of our process, we are extremely deep. We have learned a lot through the commercialization of Ironton, but also through the acceleration of learning and development, and research and development out of Durham. I mean, Durham is an incredibly valuable facility for us. Our R&D team has grown and gotten better and better year-over-year. The fundamental research gives us the confidence to scale it up into much, much higher levels, and quite frankly, that's why we haven't decided how big of a plant we want to make. It's still open as to what that number will be, and that will ultimately come down to a cost optimization decision for us in the next six to twelve months.
Can you just update us on what the 2H ramp actually looks like now? I mean, does Q3 look like Q2 and then Q4 is significantly better? And then is the I think in the past, I think you talked about EBITDA breakeven for Ironton in the third quarter? And then at the corporate level, being EBITDA breakeven, I believe, late Q4, early Q1, is that target still on track?
Yes. That's a good clarification question, Jim. I appreciate that. When we talked in the last quarter, I think we disclosed 12 weeks ago or so that we expected Q1 and Q2 to be consistent and largely they are. I mean, Q2 is a small increase over Q1, but effectively the same level. We anticipated that and expected it. When it comes to Q3 and Q4, we see ramp in both quarters. We're already seeing higher revenue numbers in Q3 than what we did in Q2. We expect that to continue. With respect to exiting Q3, what we said is that we believe that we could exit Q3 at the $4 million per month revenue level. I think that still makes sense. We've done a lot of work to continue to minimize cost. I mentioned that in terms of the in-line compounding. That's going to help us quite a bit to get to breakeven. We've seen good progress with our trials. Ultimately, some of the timing for that depends on when the customers turn on and how quickly.
But I think we've got good line of sight being one month into the quarter that we're going to see pretty good run rates at the end of September. Whether we get to the $4 million in September or at the end of October, look, I don't know, but I know that we're on the right trajectory. With respect to Q4 and Q1, what I disclosed last time was that we think we can get to corporate breakeven in the Q4 to Q1 timeline. I think that's still very much in play. Our internal goals are to reach $4 million per month next, representing breakeven for Ironton. Then $8 million per month is the goal for corporate level breakeven. I think we still feel pretty good about that over the coming quarters.
Okay, great. And then can you just talk about what your goals for orders would be in the third quarter? And then like what's the pushback you're getting from customers? Is it price? Is it like melt flow? Is it quality consistency? What are you getting? What is the pushback from customers?
Yes, that's a good question. We obviously have lots of discussions trying to understand what the incumbent resin looks like. How does it perform? And how can we emulate that through our compounding operation? There's always a lot of back and forth. Sometimes we get the compounding recipe perfect out of the gate. Other times it takes a couple of different trials to get there. We certainly experienced that with fiber. With respect to pushback, there's a lot of discussions. I would boil down most of it to bureaucracy. Each bureaucracy and comfort level varies with each company and each brand, especially well-established global brands. Their calling card for success is doing it consistently and reliably. They've just got a whole host of requirements to get through before finalizing sales. Part of it includes product quality and consistency, getting the compounding on-site. When they think about sending the material to a third party, they're concerned about reliability from a quality perspective.
All of that has been part of the discussion; and in the end, the brand has to make a decision: Do I want this product to meet my sustainability goals? Can I trust them to deliver it month-over-month reliably? That comfort level comes with time and conversation, and we're making progress on all fronts. I wouldn't look at it as major pushback anywhere; rather, there is a funnel that is filling up really fast. There's a lot of ways behind us in terms of new volume, new opportunities, and new applications. The customers coming through the end of the funnel are getting much more comfortable with our products, and excited about what this can mean for their operations.
And really exciting progress. First, this circular supply that you noted with Emerald is certainly meaningful. Separately, looking at recent feedstock data, we've seen evidence in mechanical recyclers have been increasing uptake in PP feedstock, which we assume is largely down cycle. Is this a competitive concern for PCT? Or can you obviate this as you move to the increased volumes that you've been talking about?
So let's start with Emerald. They're great. One, it's a new customer with real demand, with a unique value proposition to their market and an opportunity to create true circularity. Circularity is what everybody is looking for. I think it's going to be, I think, a shining example of that. There's already a little bit of buzz about our ability to serve that market. The opportunity for circularity is important. You bring up a great question with respect to feed and mechanical recycling and some of the uptake. First of all, there's a lot of mechanical recyclers that are having trouble differentiating themselves in an increasingly competitive feedstock environment. You start to see some players fall away. With respect to the competition in the U.S., there will be movements in the feedstock market every day. I think that at the end of the day, PureCycle makes a highly differential product that can go into various markets that mechanical recyclers can't touch.
I believe this will put us in a unique position to manage feedstock power to pay for it while still making great margins on the final product. We are leaning into what we call the feedstock plus pricing model for some of the longer-term projects in Europe, Thailand, and the U.S. This means that our customers recognize that feed is fundamentally different than oil, and they need to be sensitive to changes in feedstock to have reliable supply. This gives us good pricing and margin protection capability and puts us in a good competitive position with mechanical. The quality of our product enables that conversation. If we had a lower-end down-cycle product quality, I don't think they'd be willing to eat that feedstock cost. Our ability to provide FDA and BOPP certifications is key. This is a differential conversation that will benefit PureCycle.
Yes, I think that makes a lot of sense, frankly. And just a follow-up on the circularity part. Is it reasonable to think that as circularity develops, this could actually be a less expensive feedstock to source because it would presumably be a much better qualified feedstock rather than digging through giant piles and trying to sort everything out?
Yes. Look, that's a great question. When you have a good partner, then you have the opportunity to partner with them in smart, innovative ways to help build the product so it's more circular. We can work together with Emerald to create lower costs for feedstock. This can minimize their costs and our costs, leading to true partnership opportunities. I believe we can find an economic optimum that benefits both sides.
And let me ask one final quick modeling question. Are you still thinking about $1.36 a pound as sort of an average price? I'm asking that because of the feedstock plus. I'm wondering if that's changing any of those dynamics.
Yes. I think that we still feel comfortable with the $1.36 we announced a couple of years ago. That $1.36 led to an EBITDA projection, and we're managing it. I would tell you that as the feedstock moves up and down, we see those numbers move a little bit, okay, on average. It gets a little complicated when you bring compounding into the mix because the overall ASP might be a little bit low for the compound but better when you calculate it for PCT. Generally speaking, we’re still holding to the numbers we've mentioned in the past. We're generating great value for shareholders.
I wanted to take a slightly different approach and acknowledge all the trials and the pipeline. But do you ever consider narrowing your focus on the markets you're targeting? Once you identify the best options, areas, and returns, do you plan to refine where you sell some of those products to optimize their potential? In other words, could doing less actually lead to more efficiency? Have you had any internal discussions about this from a strategic standpoint?
Yes. Look, I think it's a good question. I think we're moving the funnel through very efficiently. I think the funnel is growing and progressing step to step, and we are moving fast. Ultimately, we will focus on markets that offer the best long-term margin and earnings capability for PureCycle as to who we choose to partner with. For Ironton, I think that it's broad stroke because we're not finding specific lanes, but proving we can walk in many different spaces. That gives us opportunities for price discovery across applications, and it's essential for building up the pipeline demand for 1 billion pounds.
I got you. So what you're saying is building a plant in Thailand gives you exclusivity on the original base technology that you licensed from Procter & Gamble. Is that the way to read it?
Yes, that's right. Thank you for bearing with me, my voice and my summer cold for this call. It was just six weeks ago that we updated the market on the capital raise and gave updates on operations, commercial, and projects. Even today, just six weeks later, we've seen real substantive progress. We're proud of that. PureCycle is working. Our tech is transformative, and we're distancing ourselves from the competition. Our operations and commercial plans are becoming clear and are ramping. Our growth plan is established and wildly exciting, and we are poised for a great decade. It's now time for us, employees, investors, and believers in PureCycle to change the world on a grand scale and make history. Thank you all for your attention today. We look forward to talking to you again in a few weeks.
Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.