Alcoa Corporation

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alcoa Corporation third quarter 2019 earnings presentation and conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your touch-tone phone. Who would draw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to James Dwyer, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Allison. And good day, everyone. I'm joined today by Roy Harvey, Alcoa Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, and William Offlier, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will take your questions after comments by Roy and Bill. As a reminder, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations that are subject to various assumptions and caveats. Factors that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation and in our SEC filings. In addition, we have included some non-GAAP financial measures in this presentation. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the appendix to today's presentation. Any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. Also, a note on our financial statements. Effective January 1st, 2019, The company changed its accounting method for valuing certain inventories from LIFO to average cost. The effects of the change in accounting principle have been retrospectively applied to all prior periods presented. Finally, as previously announced, the earnings released and slide presentation are available on our website. With that, here's Roy.

Thank you, Jim, and thank you to everyone for joining today's call. In the third quarter, we continued to demonstrate strong operational performance and stability across our aluminum value chain. We achieved new production records in bauxite and alumina, and our aluminum segment remained profitable, helped in part by lower alumina prices. Production costs fell across the portfolio, and we continued to drive the benefit of lower raw material costs to our bottom line. This past quarter, we also continued to strengthen our company. We finalized the divestiture of two aluminum plants in Spain, announced a new operating model, and reached new labor contracts. Looking back, since separation, we have relentlessly improved our portfolio and our balance sheet. We've returned stability to our plants, as evidenced by our production records, and we've continued to revitalize safety. It is because of that work that we've been able to weather these markets. Today, we're building upon that progress. We're announcing a multi-year review of alumina and aluminum capacity and non-core asset sales to drive costs lower and to enable sustainable profitability. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started with an overview of third quarter results. We reported a net loss of $221 million or $1.19 per share. Those results include restructuring charges to divest two aluminum assets in Spain and to implement our new operating model. Excluding special items, we reported an adjusted net loss of $82 million or $0.44 per share. On an adjusted EBITDA basis, excluding special items, we generated $388 million. Lastly, we closed the quarter with $841 million of cash. That's slightly higher than the previous period and given persistently weak markets, a notable achievement. Turning to safety, we're disappointed that we experienced one serious injury in the third quarter at one of our refineries. The employee is now resting and recovering. As always, we continue to prioritize safety every day, and we're making progress on improving our safety programs for the benefit of everyone who enters our locations. Our focus on operational excellence enabled our current Bauxite and Illumina operating portfolio to achieve the highest quarterly production since our launch as a separate company in 2016. In our aluminum segment, we successfully divested the Adoles and La Coruña facilities in Spain, removing historically uncompetitive capacity from our portfolio. In Quebec, the restart of our Beconcourt facility is underway and on schedule to be complete in the second quarter of 2020. And in the United States, the United Steelworkers ratified a new four-year labor contract that positions our company and our employees for future success. In our markets, we continue to project a global aluminum deficit for the year, but we're reducing our global aluminum demand estimate due to macroeconomic headwinds and trade tensions. Today's current market environment aside, as sustainability becomes a growing force, aluminum has a long, bright future, and we'll review some of those trends. Lastly, we have continuously demonstrated our commitment to create a stronger Alcoa. Just last month, we announced a new operating model that will bring our management even closer to our plants, creating a leaner company and saving costs. And as I mentioned earlier, today we're announcing a multi-year capacity review and potential asset sales. This kind of announcement is never easy because it will eventually affect some of our employees. but we must continue to act to combat the current market environment and strengthen Alcoa for the long term. We'll undertake the portfolio review and asset sales in line with our values and communicate outcomes as decisions are made. With that, I'll turn it over to Bill for a detailed review of our third quarter results.