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Nine Energy Service, Inc. (NINE -4.96%)
Q2Â 2019 Earnings Call
Aug 12, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Nine Energy Service Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation. [Operator Instructions] And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I'd like to turn the conference over to Heather Schmidt. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Heather Schmidt -- Vice President, Investor Relations and Marketing
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Nine Energy Service earnings conference call to discuss our results for the second quarter of 2019. With me today, are Ann Fox, President and Chief Executive Officer; Clinton Roeder, Chief Financial Officer. We appreciate your participation.
Some of our comments today may include forward looking statements, reflecting Nine's views about future events. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC.
We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our conference today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are also included in our second quarter press release and can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.
I will now turn the call over to Ann Fox.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Heather. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results for 2019. This quarter, both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, fell within the range of management's original guidance and we increased cash flow from operations by approximately 95% quarter over-quarter. We anticipate cash generation will continue to increase throughout the remaining quarters in 2019 and into 2020.
In fact, as of close of business on Friday, August 9, our current cash position is up significantly from quarter close to approximately $59 million. Additionally, we anticipate CapEx to be down materially in 2020, which should lead to significant free cash flow. Company revenue for the quarter was $237.5 million, net income with $6.1 million and adjusted EBITDA was $38 million. Basic earnings per share was $0.21. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $8.8 million or $0.30 for adjusted basic earnings per share. ROIC for the second quarter was 7%. Despite volatile moves in WTI throughout the quarter, the market remained steady throughout the majority of regions and service lines during the second quarter, with the exception of the Northeast, which began to see activity weakness in the back half of Q2.
I will speak in greater detail about this during our Q3 outlook. Our larger oil levered E&P customers have remained consistent with their activity plan. We saw increased activity across all of our service lines this quarter, with strong performances from cementing and completion tools, which continue to outperform the market.
Once again, our cementing division increased activity by approximately 1% quarter-over-quarter, while simultaneously increasing profitability by increasing the average revenue per job by approximately 5%. This increase was despite US new wells drilled declining by approximately 4% quarter-over-quarter and not receiving any incremental units during the quarter. In the Permian, we increased our market share for the second consecutive quarter, while maintaining an industry-leading on time rate above 95%.
As a company, we increased our total stages completed by approximately 19%, despite total US completions increasing by only 6%. In completion tools, we increased the number of stages completed by approximately 26% and revenue by approximately 4% quarter-over-quarter. Our US wireline performed well, winning market share and putting the four new wireline trucks we received at the end of Q1 to work in West Texas, helping to generate activity growth of approximately 4% quarter-over-quarter. Despite headwinds associated with our Canadian business, which had low utilization in Q2 due to typical spring break up seasonality. In June, we did begin to see the effects of the Northeast slowdown on revenue and profitability.
In Q2, our coiled tubing division performed well. This is due in large part to our technology, including down-hole memory tools and data collection, along with the expertise and execution at the well site. Our large diameter utilization was up [Phonetic] quarter-over-quarter and our days worked increased by approximately 2% quarter-over-quarter, with more complex completions, including lateral -- longer laterals and multi-well pad development, coiled drill outs remain extremely difficult and can be one of the largest contributor of non-productive time if not executed perfectly.
This complexity has enabled us to differentiate in the market. As many of you know, one of nine highest priorities for 2019 has been the development of a dependable, lower cost, low temperature dissolvable plug to penetrate the Permian and Northeast markets, which have lower bottom hole temperatures than other US basin. This development is a collaboration between our legacy Nine and Magnum teams to create both new IP design with a shorter design to bring the overall cost-to-manufacturer down through less materials, as well as new material science to ensure consistent and predictable dissolution for every type of well-bore in a low temp environment.
We have also successfully utilized data from our coiled tubing team and the design of the tools. We remain confident that our Q1 2020 timeline for commercialization remains on track. After a multitude of successful in-house R&D tests to date, we have begun to run products downhole with customers. We are partnering with leading E&P companies who are willing to share information on performance such as water analysis, deployment speed, treating pressures and clean out results.
With the low-temp dissolvable, we are simultaneously working on two other technologies, which we also anticipate having ready for commercialization in 2020. Both of these products will leverage a similar shorter design, similar to that of the low-temp requiring less materials, ultimately lowering the manufacturing costs for Nine and for our customers.
The first is a high-temp dissolvable plug, which will utilize our existing high-temp materials, which are proven and have consistently performed flawlessly. This new shorter design will allow us to lower the cost for operators in basins like the Bakken, Haynesville, Eagle Ford and other international markets, so that they can move from a hybrid to full wellbore dissolvable plug, while maintaining consistent and reliable dissolution. We remain very confident in the continued performance of the materials that we have been running successfully for over four years in high temperature environments. To be clear, for the high temp -- high temp plugs, the variable that changes is the plug design, not the already proven material.
Second, we'll get shorter and cheaper all composite plug. While we believe dissolvables are the future, there is still a large addressable market for composite plugs that we can continue to access and gain market share. We will be utilizing similar materials from our current Scorpion designs and anticipate continued high level performance from this product. This new line of plug, with a similar design with different applications will be known as the Scorpion Stinger product line.
With all three technologies, Nine will be able to service the entire addressable plug market in the US, Canada and abroad. The Permian will be the largest growth market in North America with both the low temps and composite plugs. But we also anticipate the international market could potentially be a significant channel of growth as well, for both the composite and high-temp plugs.
By mid-Q4, yield trials for the low-temp dissolvable plug should be completed, having run trials in all major low temps basins, including the Permian and Northeast for multiple customers with unique wellbores. We anticipate field trials for the high-temp plugs to be completed in early Q1, and field trials for the composite plugs to be completed in mid to late Q1 2020.
We expect all three plugs will be commercialized and ready for Q2 2020, with the low-temp being the first in Q1. At this time we are not providing any growth rate or 2020 outlook for these tools, but based on what we know today, we are expecting very health growth for these new technologies, even if 2020 market conditions and E&P capex spend remain consistent with current levels.
As a reminder for tools, EBITDA has almost 100% free cash flow conversion and we will simultaneously be able to drive revenue growth margins and cash flow, while reducing our overall capex spend. To conclude, this new product line will fundamentally reduce the cost to complete for our customers, provide a consistent and reliable technology, and lower our Company's overall cost to manufacture, resulting in cheaper, better and faster tools, which is the only way to win in North American shale.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Clinton to walk through segment and other detailed financial information for the quarter.
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Ann. In our Completion Solutions segment, second quarter revenue totaled $215.9 million compared to first quarter revenue of $209.1 million, an increase of approximately 3%. Second quarter adjusted gross profit was $49.8 million, compared to first quarter adjusted gross profit of $47.7 million, an increase of approximately 5%. During the second quarter, we completed 1,156 cementing jobs, an increase or approximately 1% over the first quarter. The average blended revenue per job increased by approximately 5%.
Cementing revenue for the quarter was $56.7 million, an increase of approximately 7% quarter-over-quarter. During the quarter, we did not receive any incremental cementing units, but did pay for two units, which is reflecting in the capex number for Q2. During the second quarter, we completed 11,494 wireline stages. An increase of approximately 4% versus the first quarter, despite wireline stages in Canada being down approximately 40% due to typical seasonality around spring breakup. The average blended revenue per stage decreased by approximately 2%.
Wireline pricing in the US decreased slightly, but the blended revenue per stage declined mostly due to less stages out of Canada, which has a higher average stage pricing. Wireline revenue for the quarter was $64.2 [Phonetic] million, an increase of approximately 1%. We received two incremental growth capital wireline units toward the back half of Q2, bringing our unit count to 61 at the end of the quarter.
In Completion Tools, we completed 32,888 stages, an increase of approximately 26% versus the first quarter. Completion Tool revenue was $56.1 million, an increase of approximately 4%. During the second quarter, our coiled tubing days worked increased by approximately 2%. The average blended day rate for Q2 decreased by approximately 1%.
Coiled tubing utilization during the second quarter was 59%, which does include the small diameter unit we have parked. Coiled tubing revenue was $38.9 million, an increase of approximately 1%. In our Production Solutions segment, second quarter revenue totaled $21.6 million compared to first quarter revenue of $20.6 million. Adjusted gross profit for the second quarter was $3.1 million compared to first quarter adjusted gross profit of $3.4 million.
During the second quarter, well services had utilization of 61%, which was down approximately 1% quarter-over-quarter. Total rig hours for the quarter was 47,040 an increase of 2%. Average revenue per rig hour during the quarter was $460, an increase of approximately 3%. The Company reported selling, general and administrative expenses of $21.8 million, compared to $19.9 million for the first quarter. This increase was largely due to stock-based comp expense and professional fees.
Depreciation and amortization expense in the second quarter was $18.5 million, compared to $18.2 million in the first quarter. The Company recognized income tax benefit of approximately $2.7 million in the second quarter and overall income tax benefit year-to-date of approximately $2.3 million, resulting in effective tax rate of negative 10.8% against year-to-date results. The current year impact of our valuation allowance positions, as well as state and non-US income taxes are the primary components of our 2019 tax position.
During the second quarter, the Company reported net cash provided by offering activities of $11.5 million, an increase of approximately 95% quarter-over-quarter. The average DSO for the quarter -- second quarter was approximately 64 days compared to 62 days in Q1. Total capital expenditures were $13.8 million, of which approximately 27% was maintenance capex.
Our original full year capex guidance of $60 million to $70 million remains unchanged, with approximately 57% spent year-to-date using the midpoint of that provided range. Also, to reiterate Ann's comments, we expect capex to be down considerably in 2020. During the second quarter, we repaid all of our outstanding ABL credit facility borrowings in full.
As of June 30, 2019, Nine's cash and cash equivalents were $16.9 million with $161.1 million of availability under revolving ABL credit facility, resulting in a total liquidity position of $178 million as of June 30, 2019. As Ann mentioned, our cash balance has increased significantly since June 30. As of close of business on Friday, August 9, our cash position is approximately $59 million. This increase is related to collections of FASB receivables that will call it by changes to our MSAs with customers as well as vendor set up issue with certain customers online payment portals.
I will now turn it back to Ann to discuss our Q3 outlook.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Clinton. At Nine, we never anticipated a stronger back half to 2019. And we talked about a relatively flat quarterly run rate. With so much uncertainty and volatility in the market, in conjunction with operators' unwavering commitment to staying within capital budgets, we do believe the rest of the year will be choppy from both an activity and pricing perspective, especially for specific regions and service lines.
As many of you know, approximately 30% of our total revenue comes from gassy [Phonetic] and the gas market has been extremely difficult with lower-than-expected demand this summer, sub-$2.50 spot pricing and the EIA is projecting that natural gas prices could be the lowest summer average since 1998. This is causing a number of operators in the Northeast to suspend activities and temporarily reduce frac crews for Q3 and into Q4.
We are estimating that active frac crews could drop from as high as approximately 55 to 60 crews at the end of Q1 to as low as 35 to 40 in Q3, and potentially more following the Thanksgiving holiday. This decline affects approximately 20% of the frac crews we follow in the region.
We have been proactively working on navigating this activity decline and looking forward with new customers. But this amount of activity decline will affect our back half numbers from both the revenue and profitability perspective as pricing pressure increases with less work to go around. As a reminder, we have approximately 20% of our revenue coming out of the northeast with both wireline and completion tool exposure. We are estimating revenue drop for this region quarter-over-quarter of 20% for both wireline and tools.
Our coiled tubing division is very active in the Haynesville and we do anticipate activity declines in this region as well, which could affect revenues for both Q3 and Q4 for our coiled tubing team. Today, approximately 9% of our total revenue comes from the Haynesville. Our customers in other regions, specifically the Permian, appear to be moving forward with their plans as anticipated, but the environment today does not facilitate central price increases.
On top of activity declines in gassy regions, we have also begun to see pricing pressure within our Composite Plugs tools due to less activity in the Northeast, as well as our current competition, lowering prices to try and win market share. We have made a conscious decision to lower our prices and temporarily and feed margins for the short term for strategic reasons, as we look into 2020. We feel it is imperative that we maintain these customer relationships and wellbores in order to eventually transition these customers to our new, cheaper and higher-margin tools in early 2020. We are still able to maintain a strong margin and this strategy will facilitate adoption of our new technologies in 2020.
With that for Q3, we expect total revenue between $215 million and $225 million and consolidated adjusted EBITDA between $24 million and $29 million. This decline is due to loss revenue and margin degradation in the Marcellus, Utica and Haynesville regions. Our 2019 priorities remain unchanged. We are focused on the development and commercialization of our new Scorpion Stinger plug line, delevering the Company and reaching our goal of 1 times net debt-to-EBITDA by Q4 2020 through free cash flow generation and evaluating our existing service lines and geographies to ensure they are accretive to margins, cash flow and ROIC.
We still see a strong pathway in 2020 and beyond to increase free cash flow generation and margin expansion, as well as a positive trajectory in our ROIC for the medium to long term, despite difficult gas market conditions. We anticipate a significant reduction in our CapEx spend looking into 2020, which will help generate significant free cash flow moving forward.
We remain committed to our asset-light model that blends service and technology, helping our customers lower their overall costs to complete, and being good stewards of capital for our shareholders. We will now open up the call to Q&A.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first questions are from the line of Sean Meakim with J.P. Morgan.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Sean.
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Good morning.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
So Ann, I'd like to focus on some of the more idiosyncratic growth drivers that you've been investing in this year for 2020. I think you gave a good amount of detail on the plans for tools, but could you also maybe talk about your confidence in the MidCon build out for cementing, given the landscape now among your E&P customers?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, that's a great question, Sean. We've been watching the MidCon closely. As you know, and just to remind the market, we're expecting delivery of eight new cement spreads and those will be largely in the back half. Candidly, the demand for our cement business in West Texas is extraordinary. We are short and [Indecipherable] around that at the present time. So I think you'll see us ship some of those pumps to meet some of that West Texas demand. And this really has been not only a record revenue year for us in cement, but also in profitability. So this is market share gains and it's declining new wells drilled environment. And I think we're really hitting on all fronts out there in West Texas. So I think you can bank on the majority of that going to West Texas and slow walking and carefully walking the build out of the MidCon, as we wait to see operators spend plans, specifically in that area in 2020.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Okay. That makes sense. Thank you for that update. Could you also maybe just talk about pricing in the completion service lines? You mentioned Composite Plugs, but can we talk maybe through cementing, wireline, and coiled tubing, you could spread it out geographically if you like, however, you think is best way to characterize it, but even within those product lines that you're seeing differences in pricing between some, you know -- simple jobs to some of the more complex work that you try to focus on. Would be great to get an update of what you're seeing in the market for each of those service lines?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Well, I'll just start with cement just since because we just left off with that. I mean, again, we've talked many times about the deep moats around this business and the barriers to entry, both technical and capital. And we're having tremendous success in our lab this year, developing some really forward leaning proprietary lightweight cement slurries, so that's been very helpful to us. And you couple that with the execution, it's been great. And so that allowed us to demand price from the operators both for the differentiation in the slurries, as well as execution in the on-time rate.
I would say that pricing is good, Sean. We don't expect too much to change there, where obviously the whole market is watching capex spend for Q4. If you look at the Permian specifically, it looks from our analysis, like most of the operators are kind of tracking 50% of their budget year-to-date [Phonetic]. So I think, perhaps the cliff that we saw coming may not be as pronounced as well they. But having said that, I do want to be cautious that I think our customer base is more focused this year than we have ever seen them be on living within their capital budget.
So if those capital budgets increase for some reason or the spend -- the pace of the spend increases, it could -- you could see at shelf in Q4. But barring that, I think cement pricing is great. That service line is really panning out. I'm so tremendously pleased that we put those dollars to work. I'll shift to coiled tubing specifically in gassy basins like the Haynesville very tough [Phonetic]. We have a lot of incremental unit coming on into North American land in the back half, certain public companies making a few hundred thousand [Phonetic] EBITDA in any given quarter. And that means that they are becoming very fierce with pricing, changing their kind of average pricing upwards of 50% down.
So I think there are real balance, it's not our ability to differentiate, but it's really fighting off what I'll call the slow dying companies or folks that are on life support. And I think we're going to have to muddle through on the OFS side for the next couple of quarters. So we see some companies that just don't recapitalize their equipment or don't have the cash flow to be at sustainable entities.
So we're certainly dealing with that. And we've obviously talked about that in the call. When you think about wireline pricing, this is one of the service lines that has a lower barrier to entry, a lot more saturation of equipment in North American land, but it's also not a capital intensive business. So you can beat your margin down a bit more and you can still maintain returns, hurdles in that business just because you don't have the capex need going into those units.
So that's something where we're, for instance, in the gassy markets in the Northeast. We're willing to take a need for a couple quarters because of where we see the market and our position in the market in 2020, but I would say pricing remains very challenging there. It is very much a zero defect mentality from the operators without kind of significant premium and premium and pricing. What I mean by that specifically is, the efficiency demand from our customer base are probably the toughest that we have ever seen them. And you anticipate pricing would move in conjunction with that.
But I think, you know, given the volatility in the commodity prices, we just haven't been able to garner increases in prices there. And I would not suspect and I would not model any increases in prices for wireline in the back half of 2019.
Completion tools, we have a unique phenomenon [Indecipherable] on the Composite Plugs side. We have not seen new entrants, Sean, but we have seen a massive degradation in the pricing as people fight for market share. And if you look at some competitor tool companies, you can see margins that really aren't reflective of completion tools. And so that again, gives you an idea of where people are going and the approach generally has been to gain market share and not hold profitability.
Now we are doing that temporarily, as I said, because we have products to fill those wellbores where we think we're fundamentally going to be able to shift the profitability of the corporation, and I wouldn't be surprised once we get a run rate going next year, if we could put 700 basis points on the margin from the midpoint of my guidance.
So the midpoint of my guidance is about a 12% adjusted EBITDA margin and given what we're doing with -- potentially doing with certain geographies in this Company as well as certain service lines, plus the profile of the tools, our big focus for 2020 will be to really put the profitability lever as well as the cash flow generation, while dialing back the capex.
And we certainly consummated a couple transactions in 2018, that gave us the platform and foundation to do that. We have some cleanup in the strategy and execution of the business this year as it relates again to certain geographies and service lines, which we hope you'll see some progress on. And then again, we are very confident in this Scorpion stinger line.
So a couple quarters of taking a knee here and then very excited for 2020.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Very helpful recap. Thanks for that, Ann.
Operator
Our next questions are from one of Chris Hewitt with Wells Fargo.
Chris Hewitt -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst
Morning.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Chris.
Chris Hewitt -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst
Just want to ask on capex first. You mentioned it could be down considerably next year. And I think if I did the math right, it was about 10% maintenance capex last quarter, 27% this quarter. I think you're on an annual rate about maybe $15 million this year? What kind of growth projects do you have in mind next year on top of that kind of underlying rate for capex?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
I'll be candid with you. My Chief Operating Officer and I, when we look at the business over the next 12 to 24 months, we're really looking at maintenance capital. We've put a lot of growth capital into the business. In 2019, we're really building out that cement business, which we love. We've put growth capital into wireline. As I've mentioned before, completion tools, which will be the greater -- greatest driver of profitability in 2020 doesn't need CapEx. So my answer to you is, this is going to be a maintenance CapEx story for 2020 and likely for 2021.
Chris Hewitt -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. Thanks. And then to follow up, I think last quarter you talked about maybe $4 to $5 a share in cash flow from operations target. Obviously, it looks like you're taking it in the next couple of quarters and kind of regrouping due to the market environment. Can you give maybe an updated target for that this year?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I don't think it's unreasonable for you to think about the bottom end of that range. And I think that's still a reasonable forecast. And again, when we look at the back half of this year, we spent a lot of time building these teams, positioning within the market. And so the decremental margin coming from Q2 to Q3 looks, -- it looks a bit obnoxious, but it's purposeful. And it's because of what we see in 2020, where we need those wireline crews to help us pull through the tools and technology, but from a cash flow generation perspective, what is a great part of this story is in a declining price and activity environment, you can sell that very cash generative business. And that this has been part of our transformation of this business into a capital-light model so that we can generate that cash flow in what we think could be a flat CapEx spend environment next year.
And so when you think about this business, if WTI remains between $50 to $60, and North American capex spend is flat, we want a business that, high teens, normalized, EBITDA margin, and very cash generative and very differentiated. And that's where we plan to go. So $4 is optimal [Phonetic].
Chris Hewitt -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst
Thanks for the color. I'll turn it back.
Operator
Our next question is from the line of John Daniel with Simmons Energy.
John Daniel -- Simmons Energy -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Ann, can you speak to your willingness to potentially buy assets from some of your struggling peers who may need to divest them to raise cash?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I probably am not interested in that, John. I never like to be exclusive and we certainly have folks here that literally turn over every rock and consider everything deeply. But again, you know, there's -- we've got enough good growth capital with differentiated equipment in our capital-intensive businesses. So we'd have to be something very, very compelling, because, as you know, my feeling on discounted assets in OFS is that, number one, they are rough, and number two, the real value is the collection of workforce. So it would be challenging for me to think about that.
John Daniel -- Simmons Energy -- Analyst
Fair enough. And then just as we go into the second half choppiness, can you just speak to how you balance headcounts, just given softer utilization, but then an expectation for a rebound in 2020?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. I mean, you're obviously first and foremost looking at the liquidity profile the cash generation of the business, we're very focused on right sizing the balance sheet and hitting our 1 times net debt-to-EBITDA target by Q4 of 2020. So we would not do anything to the business that we felt would impact our ability to get there. And I think when you think about headcount and you think about talent and you think about sitting around that 12% or 13% margin, although we're not crazy about that margin level, we really see a path for success in 2020. So we don't want to fundamentally impede that or capability to rebound with the market in Q1, so we're holding on to some costs that you would not have held on to in 2015 and '16 when your operators had no clue whether they were ever coming back to work. So again I would say we're balancing that carefully. I'd certainly entrust the team and the field to make those decisions, which they have been making very wisely. But my message to them is, do not dismantle what you've built for years when you know -- you already know your customers plans for Q1.
John Daniel -- Simmons Energy -- Analyst
Okay. That's it for me. Thanks, Ann.
Operator
Our next question is from the line of George O'Leary with Tudor, Pickering, Holt.
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Morning, Ann.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, George.
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Let's talk a little bit out on the last quarter's call, about customers really intently checking [Phonetic] different metrics, operational metrics. I think there is a comment that, I guess, we're monitoring things with a stopwatch and I know you guys monitor efficiency and operations metrics very closely. I wonder If you could share what areas your customers are most acutely focused on, improving efficiencies, improving up and what's left to do there for you all?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. So if you start with cementing, I mean, there's a number of different metrics the industry uses, but the primary metric, the primary key performance indicator is the on-time rates. And that may sound simple, but the reality is, everything in North American shale now is time. And so if you're late for a cement job, the ripple effects all the way through the completion phase of the well are significant. So that's the metric that I highlighted where we have over 95% on time rates. We think some of our competition is down in the 70% mark, although we can't -- we can't prove that. And so we think we're really beating on that particular metric.
If you look at wireline, I think I said in my last call, one of our great customers measured us on over 219 line items, and they're measuring not just efficiency raised, they're measuring flat time. They're certainly measuring non-productive time. But what they're looking there -- for there is efficiencies in stages. So for instance, to all your guns in a cluster fire, how long does it take for you to rehead cables? So a number of things all related to the time it takes you to complete the stage and really the efficiency in which you do that.
And wireline has been one of the more score-carded service lines in the industry. So we're actually getting quite good at that. Completion tools, it's really not drill time of the plug anymore. That's kind of a thing of the past. Your plugged better drill out and a good amount of time. It's really what we call dump is dump or plug to plug time. So how well does that entire plug drill up and move from stage to stage? Of course, how does it roll out, what are the features? And I'm talking about all the key composite. What are the pieces look like when they come back? So for every different tool, it's obviously a different metric.
Obviously, you're casing quotation tools need to burst at the right pressure. So I could go on and on about different metrics, but they're very paramount right now. And they are the deciding factor for folks because everybody is looking at how much efficiency these operators can drive in a flatter commodity price environment. And, you know, of course, we've seen huge drilling efficiencies this year, huge completion efficiencies. And I think every time folks think North American shale just can't get any more efficient, it does. And I think dissolvables will be a big contributor of that in days saved and time to get product to market.
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Great, That's super helpful, Ann. Thank you. And then just...
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
One other point on that, George. If you think about efficiency, we've often said we think the US market is anywhere between 10% to 15% of the stage count as dissolvables. And if you think about -- you just think about, say, 850,000 stages next year in 2020. Will you think about the Permian Basin about 63% of North American stages are in what we called cold or low temperature environment, and the Permian makes up 51% of that. So basically the bulk of the low temp environment, which we think is, still largely untouched by dissolvable technology. So, there's a lot of room for efficiency there in days to drill out per well. So I'm excited for our customers for that, that evolution to come to that market.
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Sounds very interesting. Thank you. Just given all the different ways you guys touched the well construction and completion side of the equation, curious if you guys have noticed anything interesting with respect to changes in well-designs or pad designs year-to-date. It seems like there have been a couple of issues in various basins and guide me after revisit the way they -- the E&C [Phonetic] wells, so just curious what you all are seeing.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I mean, I think the age old frac heads and down spacing is something that E&P community has talked a lot about and optimizing the downspacing on those wells. I think one thing we've seen is, we have seen operators some who are kind of more three well pad folks move to six to eight well pads. So I think we're continuing to see operators increase the number wellhead per pad. But I think the biggest change or revelation for the E&P community and they would tell you better than me, but has been that downspacing, and ensuring that they're not stealing production from wellbores nearby with their frac designs.
But if you're talking about, are they changing from sleeves, to plug and [Indecipherable] we've not seen any massive shift change in completion design. That's notable, like a sleeve, plug in per shift. If that is kind of where you're going.
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Both were very helpful. Thank you, Ann.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, George.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next questions are from the line of J.B. Lowe with Citi.
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, Ann, good morning, Clinton.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Good morning.
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
Wanted to ask about kind of the dissolvable market uptake in general. It kind of dovetails into the new technologies, so you guys are working on now. Has there been -- was the reason you guys are kind of working on a lower cost, high temp variance? Is it? Are you guys struggling to push the concept of using dissolvables across the entire wellbore? Is it more a matter of some competition coming into the dissolvable space at all like -- what's the -- what was kind of the methodology behind coming up with the shorter, high temp version?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, it's a great question, and specifically it is to reduce the switching costs. So that completions engineer, that's looking at that upfront AFE, we are trying to get that completions engineer. We're trying to get her to say, hey, I'm going to fill the wellbore with 100% dissolvables because I saved [Technical Issues] considerably because I get the product to market that much faster. And we have found the price point for which we need to be at, to do that, and that's what we're launching.
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
So have there been any notable new entrants into dissolvable space recently or maybe new offerings from existing players that you guys are keeping an eye on?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Same players at the time of acquisition of Magnum in October 2018.
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
All right. Can you talk about your market share position both on the metallic and non-metallic side?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. And that also, J.B. remains roughly the same where we really [Technical Issues] in the polymers. And we're working on obviously the low temp. So we're really hoping to be a significant player once we launch those products. And we've not given out our Composite Plug market share. There's obviously quite a bit more competition in the Composite Plugs market. And there have been a lot -- we have had a lot more competition for a while. We have not had new entrants, new significant entrants this year in that market. We've just, as I said, had a lot more pricing pressure from folks deciding to turn on the market share button.
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
Got you. And one last quick one, just shifting gears to the MidCon spending. Still that I understand the rationale behind pushing more of those units toward the Permian, but have you guys spent any significant amount of money on facility build out in the MidCon and what's the status of that if you are going to be shifting most of those spread out to the Permian?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we should be done with that for sure by the end of the year and it's very immaterial, insignificant amount of capital. The real capital is in [Technical Issues].
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
Got it. All right, thanks.
Operator
Our next questions are from the line of Chase Mulvihill with Bank of America.
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Hey, good morning. I guess a follow-up on J.B.'s question on the MidCon build out in cementing. Can you maybe just talk about the competitive landscape a little bit there and maybe just kind of how fragmented the cementing market is in the MidCon?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. It's actually not -- it's really not that fragmented Chase, and that's one of the beauties of cement. Our choices there are just because we have some very large customers that we want to continue to gain incremental market share with and we need those pumps in an area where we're driving a lot of profitability that we think has a long -- a long way to run ahead of it. So our choice is to deploy those assets in West Texas is really more organic to us. And then also specifically because we think the spend from the customer base in the MidCon could be lower than anticipated, not because there are incremental competition there or it's highly fragmented. The large cap play in that area and there's a really good small cement in that area. But it's the kind of area where once again, you can count the number of competitors on your fingers.
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay. All right. Appreciate the color. Coming back to wireline a little bit. You were talking with some of the larger players, it seems like there's a big push to kind of have to integrate more crack in wireline. So kind of what's your thoughts on, you know, integration of crack and wireline and then possibly maybe also talk to the impact and pre-assembled guns are having on your wireline business?
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. So the bundling concept is in one that's been in the oil patch for a decade and it's one that we've faced constantly and consistently, as well as through the previous downturn. And I think, some operators that have fracked that is the strategy that they take. As you know, I'm -- I don't intend to put frac in the Company for all the reasons that I just highlighted previously as it relates to a differentiated capital-light model. So that won't be something that we're pursuing. And so -- but again -- but it is something that certain companies do and some do it better than others do it. But that's something we've contended with the whole time. And what was the second part of your question? How the integration --
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
The pre-assembled guns -- yeah.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, those are great. We love them. I mean, I think anytime you can take human hands out of gun building, you just reduce potential risk for misfire error. So we'd really like to integrate gun systems. We think it's contributed a lot to efficiencies this year and completion. I don't have a further question on those, but we really like the system.
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay. All right. A couple other kind of cleanup questions for the model SG&A in Q2 came in a little high. Was that more related to R&D and should we kind of run that number, that clean number through the income statement last year?
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So I think when you look at total SG&A, one of the things that drove an increase from Q1 was the stock-based comp. So if you're including that, that was an increase because that's the issuance for '19. There also when you look at it in Q2, if you look at some of the one-off items we've talked about before, there's some transaction bonuses related to Magnum that flow through there that will be declining as we go through the end of the year and as you get to the end of October, it will not continue [Indecipherable] December.
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay, But even if we remove some of that, there was still a big step up in SG&A on I think we kind of back all that stuff out? And so would...
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
The other item we highlighted was the professional fees. So there were some one-time professional fees related to few projects that are ongoing. Those will not continue as we get to the latter half of the second half of the year. So that will decline as well.
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay, all right. Last one just on inventory, then how we should think about inventories as we go into the first half of the year with the build out of completion tools?
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
So one of things we had talked about in the first quarter was that we had a build in our inventory in the first part of the year and that was related to us bringing in house the assembly. So we purchased some of the remaining inventory from our suppliers. We'll continue to work that down as we go throughout the end of the year. If you look at one point in the first quarter, if you look at our days, spells of inventory was above 90. We are targeting to get that down as we get into 2020 to 45 days. So you'll continue to see that decline. Now, the one thing I will highlight is the timing as we launch the new products, we will have an initial build that will occur as we launch new products in the early part of the year, and they work through that as well [Indecipherable].
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay. All right. That's helpful. I'll turn it back over. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. We have now reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back to Ann Fox, CEO, for closing comments.
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you for your participation in the call today. I want to thank our employees, our E&P partners and investors. Thank you.
Operator
This concludes today's teleconference today. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
Duration: 47 minutes
Call participants:
Heather Schmidt -- Vice President, Investor Relations and Marketing
Ann G. Fox -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Clinton Roeder -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Chris Hewitt -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst
John Daniel -- Simmons Energy -- Analyst
George O'Leary -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
J.B. Lowe -- Citi -- Analyst
Chase Mulvihill -- Bank of America -- Analyst
