Mercer International Inc.

Excuse me, this is the operator. Today's conference is scheduled to begin momentarily. Until that time, your lines will again be placed and hold. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. good morning and welcome to mercer international second quarter 2021 earnings conference call on the call today is david gandasi president and chief executive officer of mercer international and david ewer senior vice president finance chief financial officer and secretary i will now hand the conference over to david ewer please go ahead good morning everyone before david begins i would like to remind you

this morning's conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements. And according to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, I'd like to call your attention to the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in our press release and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

David? Yeah, thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Well, Q2 was a remarkable quarter for us, We advanced key elements of our strategy, growing our annual pulp capacity by 80,000 tons at Stendhal, rebuilding our recovery boiler at Peace River, improving our ESG ratings, and demonstrating the potential of our Frisjau sawmill. We delivered solid operating earnings and executed three large maintenance shots, all while navigating the complexities of a global pandemic, wildfires in Western Canada, and flooding in Germany. Now, despite these challenges, including the current volatility of end product markets, we are very bullish on our future, and I'd like to take a few minutes to step away from the quarterly earnings to discuss why. For many years, we have been pursuing a strategy to create long-term value for stakeholders. We have focused on market pulp building products, clean energy, and chemical extractives because we believe that in the fullness of time, these products produced in modern facilities with a focus on long-term sustainability will outcompete the many weaker players in this space and deliver superior performance. We invest only in large and modern facilities that have the potential to be world leaders. We focus on timber supply, procurement, and logistics in making our investment decisions. We promote a values-based approach to our human resource development that honors health and safety, innovation, boldness, accountability, sustainability, and the pursuit of excellence. We maintain our mills to a very high standard, We look for and execute on high return projects that provide superior returns, not just financially, but environmentally, including resource efficiency. We don't buy junk. We don't pay too much. We have a point of view on the future and are seeking growth in areas where we have a strong commitment and where we feel we have sufficient core competencies to be successful. We do this while remaining true to our commitment to maintaining a strong balance sheet, carrying at times what might appear to be excess liquidity which could ultimately be described as dry powder for those opportunistic ideas that can come at any point in the cycle. We focus hard on sustainability. We know the planet is struggling under the weight of climate change. We believe our assets and activities are part of the solution, and this will become ever more apparent as science and policy converge to fight climate change. We support and promote sustainable forest management practices. We have a track record of going above and beyond when it comes to ecosystem-based management practices, promoting biodiversity and forest health. We also understand how critical it is for us to focus on our people. If you've taken the time to explore our website, you will recognize us as a progressive company working hard to develop our teams to maximize our team members' experiences and engagement with us. Mercer is a truly unique company of exceptional people, and we strive to ensure that every one of our employees is proud to be part of the team. From our website and disclosures, you will also recognize a company committed to transparency regarding important and relevant ESG performance indicators. We understand that we need to continuously improve, and we have a good track record of doing this. I see many of our competitors underperforming in this area, and time is catching up on them. I'll have more to say in a few moments, and I know listeners will be interested to discuss our product market fundamentals. But first, let's give the floor to David Ure to review our financial performance.