Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions)
Your first question comes from the line of Ryan Connors of Boenning & Scattergood.
Ryan Connors - Boenning & Scattergood
Good morning, guys.
Neal Butler
Good morning Ryan.
John Sobchak
Good morning, Sir.
Ryan Connors - Boenning & Scattergood
Yeah, certainly, very comprehensive remarks, didn't leave a lot of loose ends here, but a couple of follow-up questions. Number one, just one issue of Creosote being tough to source in an environment where energy prices are high, obviously, just in the last two weeks here, since the second quarter ended, the oil prices have taken another leg up. I just wondered if you can talk about, how that's impacting that market, that Creosote market in the present tense, as oppose to the second quarter?
And what we should expect in terms of margins for that product line, if energy prices would have sustained their most recent spike and maybe even go higher than that?
Neal Butler
We've seen an increase in that raw material rather notably the first six months of this fiscal year. And at this juncture, even with the price of all where it is today we're not anticipating any notable increases going forward, certainly through the end of this fiscal year. And actually I'm not for sure that I would almost say the same thing through the end of calendar year even though that maybe stressing out a bit too far.
But right now, I believe that with the agreements that we have in place that the prices that we have going forward will be close to where they are now, and, if there is an increase I just don't foresee it being significant.
Ryan Connors - Boenning & Scattergood
Okay. And then the other issue I'd like to get your thoughts was on just, obviously the macroeconomic situation is less than ideal right now. And if you could just talk a little bit about that how, how that impacts you guys, if at all, and really in particular the acquisition program, is that a negative or might we even view that as a positive, and then it might create some new opportunities and some new assets that might go on into the market?
John Sobchak
I think with regards to the acquisition program, the current economic situation is going to work in our advantage. I believe that the credit crunch helped perhaps to accelerate the progression of this last acquisition we did. We've always tried to maintain a very strong balance sheet and when we were negotiating with the seller at the time, we didn't have net debt on our books, which certainly helped our position.
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