Alcoa Corporation

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alcoa Corporation second quarter 2022 earnings presentation and conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should 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 then one on your phone. To withdraw 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.

James Dwyer Thank you, and good day, everyone. I'm joined today by Roy Harvey, Alcoa Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, and William Opplinger, 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. Finally, as previously announced, the earnings release and slide presentation are available on our website. With that, here's Roy.

Thank you, Jim, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. Once again, we had a strong quarter with results that included a sequential increase in revenue, solid net income, strong cash flows, and increased capital returns to our stockholders. We will dive deeper into our results soon, but here are a few of the most important highlights. Net income was $549 million. Our adjusted EBITDA, excluding special items, was $913 million, which brings us to nearly $2 billion through the first half of this year. Our free cash flow, less non-controlling interest, was $383 million. Strong cash flow in the quarter supported capital returns to our stockholders. Year-to-date, we have provided $387 million in capital returns. This includes $275 million in stock buybacks during the second quarter and $19 million in cash dividends, which the company paid on June 3rd at the rate of 10 cents per share. Also, today we announced an additional authorization of $500 million for future stock repurchases supplementing the $150 million that remains from the prior authorization. Importantly, in these volatile markets, we continue to have a very strong balance sheet, and we are well positioned for all parts of the commodity cycle. Our proportional adjusted net debt has reached much lower levels. It stood at $1.2 billion at quarter's end, down from $3.4 billion for full year 2020. and we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $1.6 billion. We also recently amended and restated our revolving credit facility to provide more flexibility, which Bill will discuss in more detail during today's presentation. Before we do that, however, I want to reinforce an important foundational item, our Alcoa values. You see them on the left of this slide, and they continue to guide our company. We act with integrity, operate with excellence, care for people, and lead with courage. These values are our consistent guideposts, and we lean into them even more during times of volatility and uncertainty. Importantly, our commitment to safety is embedded in these values. This year, we've not had any fatal or life-altering serious injuries, or what we classify as FSIAs. Working safely remains our overarching goal every day. Our success requires continued vigilance in protecting the health and safety of our global workforce, including contractors and anyone who may visit our locations. With our values as a foundation, we continue to execute on our company's strategic priorities. We are restarting some aluminum smelting capacity. The Alumar restart in Brazil is progressing. and we expect some additional modest capacity at the Portland Aluminum Smelter in East Australia to come online beginning in September. Meanwhile, we have made production adjustments at two other locations. The high cost of natural gas in Spain prompted us to reduce the daily production rate at the San Ciprian Refinery to help mitigate some of those costs. And here in the United States, we made the decision this month to curtail one of three operating pot lines at Warwick Operations in the state of Indiana due to operational challenges. We also continue to move forward with our investment program, which includes some return-seeking projects that we announced recently. At our Musion smelter in Norway, we are working to boost the electrical infrastructure to increase its capacity by another 14,000 metric tons per year. In Canada, our Deschambault smelter broke ground this month on a project that will allow it to cast standard ingots for value-add products. providing more flexibility for customers. We have demand for this specific size, including for foundry alloys that are used in various automotive applications. And speaking of value-add products, we continue to have strong year-over-year demand for Ecolume, our low-carbon aluminum in our Sustana family of products, which is gaining more traction with customers. In our aluminum segment, we also continue to progress on energy contracts that support the commitment we made to our workforce to restart the San Ciprian smelter beginning in January 2024. I'll turn it over to Bill now to walk through the financials.