Ecovyst Inc.

Good morning. My name is Nikki, and I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to the ECOVIST Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call and Webcast. Please note, today's call is being recorded and should run for approximately one hour. Currently, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. If you want to remove yourself from the queue, please press star two. When posing your question, we ask that you please pick up your handset to allow for optimal sound quality. Lastly, if you should need operator assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jean Shields, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to ECOVIST's second quarter 2025 earnings call. With me on the call this morning are Kurt Bidding, ECOVIST's chief executive officer, and Mike Vian, ECOVIST's chief financial officer. Following our prepared remarks, we'll take your questions. Please note that some of the information we will share today is forward-looking information, including information about the company's financial and operating performance strategies, our anticipated end-use demand trends, and our 2025 financial outlook. This information is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results and the implementation of the company's plans to vary materially. Any forward-looking information shared today speaks only as of this date. These risks are discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures mentioned in today's call with their corresponding GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and in presentation materials posted in the investor section of our website at ecovis.com. I'll now turn the call over to Kurt.

Thank you, Gene, and good morning. The second quarter of 2025 was another quarter of solid performance for Ecovist. We achieved our financial objectives and we delivered on key initiatives that position us for future growth and unlock value for our stockholders. During the quarter, demand fundamentals across the majority of the end uses we serve remained stable. Ecoservices sales were up 14% compared to the second quarter of 2024, with favorable pricing and the addition of the Wagamon site contributing to the increase. Results for our advanced materials and catalyst segment came in favorable to our expectations and our guidance range, reflecting favorable sales timing and mix. In terms of strategic objectives, during the quarter, we closed the acquisition of the sulfuric acid production assets of Cornerstone Chemical Company. Integration of the Wagamon, Louisiana site is ongoing, and we expect to realize meaningful synergies and benefits upon full integration of the site into our existing network. The Wagamon site positions us well to meet the growth needs of our customers, and I want to publicly welcome the enthusiastic and engaged Wagamon team to EcoVist. Additionally, with our focus on delivering value for our stockholders, during the second quarter, we also repurchased 2.9 million shares of our common stock, totaling approximately $22 million. As is our usual practice, on slide six, we provide our latest views on demand trends and our short and longer-term outlook. As I noted earlier, demand fundamentals over the course of the second quarter were stable, and we continue to expect relative stability over the balance of the year. For eco-services, high refinery utilization and positive alkaloid economics continue to underpin demand for our regeneration services business. We believe the outlook for virgin sulfuric acid demand also remains positive. We continue to expect a stronger second half for sales into the nylon end use, and we expect second-half sales into the mining sector to benefit as expansion projects come online. For our advanced silicas business, while there is some uncertainty regarding the effects of ongoing global macroeconomic challenges on the demand for polyethylene, we expect that our sales of polyethylene catalysts will increase this year compared to 2024. We also look forward to the completion of the Kansas City expansion project later this year. This expansion will support growth in customer demand as their expansion projects come online in 2026 and 2027. In addition, as we look to emerging technologies to provide meaningful growth opportunities, such as advanced silicas for biocatalysis and carbon capture applications, customer engagement remains high. with a number of trial programs underway, and we expect these to translate into further sales growth in 2026. Within the zealous joint venture, current orders indicate that 2025 is projected to be a strong year for hydrocracking catalyst sales. We anticipate that sales of hydrocracking catalysts will surpass 2024 levels. Regarding our catalyst technologies utilized in the production of sustainable fuels, We anticipate that sales this year will remain in line with the prior year or show a slight increase. However, the longer-term outlook is encouraging. The recently proposed RVO targets are expected to increase renewable diesel consumption in the United States from 3.3 billion gallons in 2025 to 5.6 billion gallons in 2026. Achieving the proposed 67% increase in renewable diesel usage will require the industry to operate at high utilization rates. We project that future growth in our sustainable fuels catalyst materials will be driven by increased utilization of existing capacity, new capacity expansions, and the continual replacement cycle for catalyst materials. With our advanced catalyst technologies, we believe we are well positioned to support the rising demand for both renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. I'll now turn the call over to Mike, who will review our second quarter results in more detail.