Albemarle Corporation

Hello and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q2 2026 earnings call. I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability.

Thank you and welcome everyone to Albemarle's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released after market closed yesterday and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the investors section at albemarle.com. Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, Chief Executive Officer, and Neal Sheorey, Chief Financial Officer, Mark Mummert, Chief Operations Officer, and Eric Norris, Chief Commercial Officer, are also available for Q&A. As a reminder, some of the statements made during this call, including outlook, guidance, expected company performance, and strategic initiatives, may constitute forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation. That same language applies to this call. Please also note that some of our comments today may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You can find reconciliations in our earnings materials. And now I'll turn the call over to Kent.

Thank you, Meredith. Our strong start to 2026 continued in the second quarter, supported by disciplined execution and improving conditions across our key markets. Second quarter net sales of $1.7 billion increased 31% year over year, driven by higher pricing in energy storage and both higher pricing and volumes in specialties. adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $858 million, with our enterprise EBITDA margin expanding to 49%. Importantly, we converted that performance into cash. We generated $710 million of cash from operations, representing a more than 80% operating cash conversion, and $638 million of free cash flow in the quarter. We are also on track to reach the high end of our 100 to 150 million dollar full year target for cost and productivity improvements. These results reflect a deliberate focus on operational excellence and cost discipline. We also benefit from globally diverse and resilient key end markets. Global lithium consumption was up 45% year-over-year through May, tracking above our forecasted range, driven by continued strength in stationary storage and improving growth in electric vehicles. Needed supply increases are coming to market slower than demand growth due to limited spodumene availability, temporary disruptions in shipments from Africa, and slower-than-expected ramp-up of Chinese lapidolite mines. As a result, inventories are low and the physical lithium market remains tight. We are improving our 2026 outlook considerations, including raising our specialty sales and EBITDA outlooks due to a strong year-to-date performance and reducing expected capital spending thanks to ongoing capital efficiency efforts. Beyond our 2026 outlook, we are also advancing resource options that can support sustainable growth through the cycle. On today's call, I'll focus on our efforts at the Salarda Atacama, where we're leveraging decades of brine processing expertise to advance direct lithium extraction. We also have opportunities at our Australian Hard Rock Joint Ventures. Wajana is outperforming on better than planned ore availability and recoveries. This is helping offset the impact of a fire at Greenbush's CGP3 plant, which occurred on June 9th. CGP3 restarted on August 1st. Now I'll turn it over to Neal to discuss recent results and outlook. I will then cover recent market trends and give more detail on our resources before we open the call for Q&A.