Westlake Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation first quarter 2021 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, May 4th, 2021. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Hawley, Westlake's Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Daphne. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation First Quarter 2021 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 and 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 will then 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 Olafin'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 on 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 first 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 first quarter. 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 467-7649. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, May 4, 2021, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that today's conference call is being broadcast live through an internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at westlake.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Albert Chau. Albert?

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our first quarter 2021 results. In this morning's press release, we reported a strong start to the year, despite the impacts of a severe winter storm. With net income for the first quarter of 2021 of $242 million or $1.87 per share. Our operating income increased 154% in the first quarter of 2021 versus the first quarter of 2020, which was before the impact of the pandemic. Before Steve goes through the financial results, let me provide some insight into the quarter. The first quarter of 2021 saw strong pricing for many of our products driven by robust global demand. The strengthening demand for polyethylene and PVC resulting from the global economic rebound in 2020 was driven by an increase in worldwide packaging consumption and construction activities. The 30% year-over-year increase in U.S. housing permits and associated housing starts shows the strength in residential construction activity that benefited our downstream building products business. In our vinyl segment with tight inventory conditions, strong demand for vinyls and production outages caused by the severe winter storm, we saw PVC resin prices steadily increased in the first quarter. The polyethylene industry also experienced tight inventory conditions due to the strong global packaging demand and domestic production outages caused by the severe winter storm. These conditions drove pricing and integrated margins in our olefin segment. I want to take this opportunity to thank our employees for their efforts, quickly responding to the disruptions caused by the severe winter storm and fully resuming operations by the end of the first quarter. I would now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on our financial and operating results for the first quarter.