Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Dan Oppenheim – Credit Suisse.
Daniel Oppenheim – Credit Suisse
Thanks very much. I was wondering if you can talk about the pricing environment and you've done a great job in terms of controlling costs, but with some of the cost escalation out there and thinking about the gross cost increase for August, how much of an increase do you think you need just to offset the impact of the higher production costs and transportation right now?
James S. Metcalf
Well, we, I appreciate your comments on our price improvement from the beginning of the year. It's been a very tough market to get price improvement. We've had some great track record really for the last 18 months on it, and we have a price increase in the market for August of 10%. We are going to aggressively attempt to get price improvement in August. We have – we've been talking to all of our customers because it's a very, very difficult pricing environment because the supply chain is getting pressed down the channel on pricing, but we're going to continue to aggressively go after it.
Daniel Oppenheim – Credit Suisse
Thanks very much, and then in thinking about the cash flow during the quarter you commented in terms of the cash flow for the first half of '09, if we think about the second quarter how much of a benefit did you have in terms of just working capital and should we expect to see more of that coming through in the second half of this year or is there any reversal of that?
Richard H. Fleming
Well, for the first half of the year there was a significant benefit from both reducing receivables and inventory and right now we think a good portion of that was due to lower volume but there's also a substantial component that's due to structural changes we've made. Clearly the good news in the second half we hope is that business picks up a little bit and we build some receivables but right now as I say the focus is on making sure we're as effective and efficient as we can be on working capital
management.
Operator
Your next question comes from Ken Zener – Macquarie Capital.
Kenneth Zener – Macquarie Capital Securities
Good morning. I'm wondering, could you kind of talk about, you mentioned an additional $50 million in cost reductions. First, can you break that up into kind of between a variable and a fixed component and then how much farther do you think you guys are able to take down the fixed portion of your wallboard business?
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