Westlake Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, you will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, February 23, 2021. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Hawley, Westlake's Vice President and Treasurer, so you may begin.

Thank you, Joelle. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation fourth quarter 2020 conference call. I'm joined today by Albert Chow, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our management team. The conference call agenda will begin with Albert, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's performance followed by a current perspective on the industry. Steve will then provide a more detailed look at our financial and operating results. Finally, Albert will add a few concluding comments, and we'll open the call up to questions. During this call, we refer to ourselves as Westlake Chemical. Any reference to Westlake Partners is to our master limited partnership, Westlake Chemical Partners LP, and similar references to OPCO refer to our subsidiary, Westlake Chemical Opco LP, which owns certain Olofsen's facilities. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements suggest predictions or expectations, and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially based upon many factors, including... the cyclical nature of the industries in which we compete, availability, cost, and volatility of raw materials, energy, and utilities, governmental regulatory actions, changes in trade policy, and political unrest, global economic conditions, including the impact of the coronavirus, industry operating rates, impacts of extreme weather events, the supply-demand balance for Westlake's products, competitive products and pricing pressures, access to capital markets, technological developments, and other risk factors as discussed in our SEC filings. This morning, Westlake issued a press release with details of our fourth quarter results. This document is available in the press release section of our webpage at westlake.com. We have also posted a presentation on our website to review the fourth quarter and full year results, as well as provide an outlook into 2021. A replay of today's call will be available beginning today, two hours following the conclusion of this call. This replay may be accessed by dialing the following numbers. Domestic callers should dial 855-859-2056. International callers may access the replay at 404-537-3406. The access code for both numbers is 308- Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, February 23, 2021, and therefore you're advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an Internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at westlight.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Albert Hsiao. Albert?

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2020 results. Before we get into our results, let me provide some context as to how we approach dealing with the challenges in 2020. 2020 was clearly an unprecedented year and one where our priorities were to protect the health and safety of our employees, deliver on our commercial commitments, and strengthen the company. I'm very appreciative of employees who continue to work day in and day out, particularly those in our plants and production facilities. Our facilities are a crucial component of the infrastructure that provide key products to our customers who assist in the pandemic response, keeping essential goods and services flowing in support of our economy. We have also made progress this year, developing products and solutions for a more sustainable future while protecting and investing in our people. We look forward to further discussing these products with you later this year. These initiatives reflect our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen. Let me now turn to review the results. In this morning's press release, we reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2020 of $113 million, or 87 cents per share, and full year 2020 net income of $330 million, or $2.56 per share. Before Steve goes through the fourth quarter and full year results, let me provide some insights into the year. The effects of COVID-19 weighed heavily on the global economy early in 2020. But starting at the end of the second quarter, we saw the beginning of a strong global demand recovery for PVC, polyethylene, and our downstream building products. With a strong rebounding demand, we were able to capitalize on the increasing price environment that drove improving product margins for PVC, polyethylene, and our downstream building products. In August and October, two major hurricanes made landfall in southwest Louisiana. While our plans weathered the storms well, there was extensive damage to the power and utility infrastructure in the Lake Charles area. Once utilities were restored, we worked tirelessly to restart operations. In spite of production constraints caused by the hurricanes, we worked diligently to serve our customers. I'm particularly thankful to our employees for their dedication who were also impacted by these hurricanes while working to restore our operations. While we did experience production constraints in the second half of the year due to the hurricanes, were able to benefit from the continuing growth in global demand. This translated into strong sales volumes for most of our products, driven by strong demand from packaging, housing, and automotive sectors. This was especially true as new housing starts, repair and remodeling activities generated robust demand in our downstream building products business. I would now like to turn our call over to Steve provide more detail on the financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and the full year.