Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Lincoln Electric 2026 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference call. This call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Amanda Butler, Vice President of Impressor Relations and Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Lincoln Electric's second quarter 2026 conference call. We released our financial results earlier today, and you can find our release and this call's slide presentation at lincolnelectric.com in the investor relations section. Joining me on the call today is Steve Hedlund, our chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Gabe Bruno, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we are happy to take your questions. But before we start our discussion, please note that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking and actual results may differ materially from our expectations due to a number of risk factors and uncertainties which are provided in our press release as well as in our SEC filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. In addition, we discuss financial measures that do not conform to U.S. GAAP and a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is found in the financial tables in our earnings release, which again is available in the investor relations section of our website at lincolnelectric.com. And with that, I will turn the call over to Steve Hedlund. Steve?

Thank you, Amanda. Good morning, everyone. Turning to slide three, second quarter marked a solid inflection to volume growth in the business after nine quarters of compression, led by strength in the America's Welding segment. Volume leverage in an improved price-cost position generated record performance across sales, adjusted operating income margin, adjusted earnings per share, and cash flows. In addition, we delivered top quartile ROIC performance and continue to execute our capital allocation strategy with $120 million returned to shareholders. Our performance reinforces the strength of our global team and the effectiveness of our operating model as we advance our RISE strategy. Turning to slide four, consolidated organic sales increased 10% with volume growth across all three product areas. This was largely driven by higher demand in the Americas region and price actions taken across all three segments to mitigate inflation in energy, logistics, and in certain metals. Given persistent inflation, we are continuing to monitor if additional actions are needed. Turning back to improved volume performance, we were encouraged to see capital spending improve in the second quarter. Both equipment and automation volumes increased mid-single digit percent. resulting in automation sales of $229 million in the quarter. Consumable volumes continued to grow at low single-digit percent rate aligned with general industrial production activity. Geographically, organic growth was strongest in the Americas and in portions of Asia Pacific, notably China, India, and Vietnam. Europe remained challenged due to persistently soft industrial trends and buy-ahead activity in the first quarter. The Middle East was resilient during the ceasefire, resulting in a modest $2 to $3 million sales headwind on a consolidated basis. In America's welding, growth accelerated and broadened out across most end markets and channels. Strength in the industrial gas distribution channel continued to hold, and we were pleased to see direct OEM and rental customers increase their capital spending. Equipment organic sales growth in America's welding accelerated high teens percent in the quarter and consumables grew high single digit percent. Looking at end sector trends on a consolidated basis, four of our five end markets achieved organic growth in the quarter, representing approximately 80% of our revenue exposure. General fabrication organic sales grew over 30% from improved industrial production activity in the Americas, and commercial HVAC demand in Harris. Heavy industries and non-residential structural steel both grew mid-single-digit percent in the quarter, largely in America's welding, on rising capital spending to support off-highway construction and mining equipment, as well as higher project activity in commercial structural steel fabrication. Energy sales also held up well with strong oil and gas demand in America's welding, which was up nearly 30% in the segment. And finally, transportation sales declines have narrowed in a mid-single-digit percent rate as demand for equipment systems grew but were offset by lower factory production activity and timing of our automation projects. We expect transportation to improve during the balance of the year on equipment demand, timing of automation projects, and the acceleration of new automation quoting activity to support new lightweight vehicle platforms. Before I hand the call over to Gabe, I would like to thank our global team for staying focused on our customers, driving higher service levels, and executing on our rise strategy in this dynamic operating environment. We are encouraged by six consecutive months of favorable macro data in the Americas, strong incoming order rates, and a record backlog position, which gives us confidence in the durability of an industrial recovery in the Americas. and we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on customers' investments in productivity, capacity, automation and infrastructure. Our innovative solutions, domain expertise, winning commercial team, operational initiatives and capital allocation strategy will accelerate our cycle over cycle performance and deliver superior returns for shareholders. And now I will pass the call to Gabe Bruno to cover second quarter financials in more detail.