Westlake Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Corporation Second Quarter 2022 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, August 2, 2022. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Holley, Westlake's Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Dennis. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Corporation conference call to discuss our results for the second quarter of 2022. I'm joined today by Albert Chow, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Roger Kearns, our Chief Operating Officer, and other members of our management team. During the call, we will refer to our two reporting segments, the Housing and Infrastructure Products segment, which we will refer to as HIP, and the Performance and Essential Materials segment, which we will refer to as PEM. Today's conference call will begin with Albert, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's performance. Steve will then discuss our financial and operating results, after which Albert will add a few concluding comments, and we will open the call up to questions. 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. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in Westlake's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and other SEC filings. We encourage you to learn more about these factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing these SEC filings, which are also available on our investor relations website. This morning, Westlake issued a press release with details of our second quarter results. This document is available in the press release section of our website at westlake.com. We have also included an earnings presentation which can be found in the investor relations section of our website. A replay of today's call will be available beginning today, two hours following the conclusion of this call. This replay may be accessed via Westlake's website. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 2nd, 2022, 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 this 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 second quarter 2022 results. I'm pleased to announce that we achieved record quarterly results in the second quarter of 2022, including record net sales of $4.5 billion, record EBITDA of $1.5 billion, and record net income of $858 million. These record results were driven by good demand with significant pricing and margin improvements in our cloth vinyl business. Strong demand from new housing construction repair and remodeling activities, and contributions from the acquisitions we've completed over the past 12 months. The strength in these markets, combined with our integrated operations in North America, drove record EBITDA and strong margins in the quarter, offsetting the impacts of rising energy and raw material costs, as well as ongoing supply chain disruptions. I want to thank all my colleagues at Westlake for their hard work and dedication in helping us achieve these results. During the quarter, we continue to see the benefits of our expanded portfolio driven by the acquisitions that occurred over the past year. Over year-over-year sales for the second quarter in our PEMS segment grew 45% while achieving strong margins by leveraging our vertically integrated North American operations with our globally advantaged feedstock and energy costs. As the global leader in chloro vinyls, these products provided a significant contribution to the year-over-year strength, driven by higher prices for caustic soda, PVC resin, and specialty PVC materials. Our focus on specialty and differentiated product portfolios provides a clear margin advantage, while our product mix also distinguishes us. Within our HIP segment, we realized significant sales and earnings growth from our housing and infrastructure products offerings in the second quarter. The significant backlogs of orders for new home construction resulting from the momentum in the North American housing market, along with sustained activity in the repair and remodeling markets, which represents approximately 50% of our housing sales, enable us to take advantage of our leading market positions and brands in many of our product offerings. Elevated infrastructure spending, which we are now beginning to see, associated with the recently passed infrastructure bill, will continue to support demand for our products. This spending will also pull PVC resin across our segments, enabling us to drive additional value from our recently acquired businesses. I would now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on the financial results for the second quarter, 2022.