Dow Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Dow Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Dow Investor Relations Vice President, Andrew Riker. Mr. Riker, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining today. The accompanying slides are provided through this webcast and posted on our website. I'm Andrew Riker, Dow's Investor Relations Vice President. Leading today's call are Karen S. Carter, Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Tate, Chief Financial Officer. Please note our comments contain forward-looking statements and are subject to the related cautionary statement contained in the earnings news release and slides. Please refer to our public filings for further information about principal risk and uncertainties. Unless otherwise specified, all financials, where applicable, exclude significant items. We will also refer to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in the earnings news release that is posted on our website. On slide two is our agenda for today's call. Karen will begin with an overview of the actions we are taking to create long-term value over the cycle. as well as details on our second quarter performance. Following that, Jeff will share more about each of our operating segments as well as our outlook for the third quarter. Karen will also share some timely updates about how we're advancing our priorities while also remaining focused on our actions to improve earnings and cash flow. And Jeff will share some insights about our continued commitment to financial discipline and our balanced capital allocation approach. And as always, we'll leave plenty of time for your questions at the end. With that, let me turn the call over to Karen.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. As I assumed the role of CEO this month, I couldn't help but reflect on the many fundamentals that have made Dow successful throughout our nearly 130-year history, many of which are still true today. We have a strong portfolio, a world-scale global asset base, deep customer relationships and exceptional talent. So before reviewing our near-term performance and outlook, I want to reiterate how we are using these strengths to continue building a more competitive company that consistently delivers long-term value. We have laid out our top priorities on slide three. We will stay focused on the areas we can control while acting decisively in response to those we cannot. This means we will set our sights on these key priorities, holding ourselves accountable to deliver on our commitments, and ensuring we are consistently grounded and creating value. First, we will drive focused growth and innovation in the high-value markets where Dow can win and create differentiated value with our customers. We will prioritize targeted innovation, technology, and commercial excellence to strengthen our competitive position, deepen customer relationships, and accelerate growth where we have the greatest opportunity to lead. Second, we're enhancing our portfolio competitiveness. This means operating with a best owner mindset across our portfolio, investing in leading businesses, technologies, and low-cost positions, while also taking action where we are no longer competitive. And third, we will continue to hold ourselves accountable for taking a balanced approach to capital allocation. This includes using consistent principles to strengthen our balance sheet, driving a focus on cash flow, and ensuring maximum financial flexibility. Jeff and I will share additional details later on today's call and in the coming months on each of these priorities. But first, let's turn to slide four. We delivered solid results in the second quarter. This reflects our industry leadership as we translated improved market fundamentals and disciplined execution into meaningful earnings growth, margin expansion, and cash generation. Net sales were $12.1 billion, reflecting a 20% increase versus the year-ago period, and operating EBITDA was $2.3 billion. We demonstrated meaningful progress toward ensuring lasting competitiveness, delivering more than $300 million of benefits in the quarter through our targeted self-help actions. This includes, first and foremost, the completion of our $1 billion 2025 cost savings program. transform to outperform is beginning to deliver meaningful impact. And we shut down our upstream siloxanes unit in Barrie, United Kingdom. We also announced new product and innovation capabilities across our silicones franchise. This allows us to capitalize on higher value downstream opportunities and grow and attractive in markets like consumer and mobility applications where Dow is providing a wide range of enhanced solutions. The key takeaway is this. Team DAO is executing with discipline. We are doing so in an uncertain environment and taking bold actions within our control to deliver lasting competitiveness for DAO and improve value creation. We advanced meaningful self-help actions, and we have a clear path to creating long-term value with greater earnings durability and stronger cash flow through the cycle. Now I will hand it over to Jeff to cover our operating segment and third quarter outlook.