Conifex Timber Inc.

This conference has been recorded. Cette conférence est enregistrée.

All participants, thank you for standing by. The conference is ready to begin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the ConFX Timber Inc. Q2 2021 Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Ken Shields. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Patrick, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this call covering our first half 2021 results. I'm joined today by Chief Financial Officer Winnie Tang and Operating Head Andrew McClellan. After a few brief opening comments, I will hand the call over to Andrew to review operations and Winnie to review our finances. I then plan to review some important near-term developments that we believe will strengthen competitiveness and future cash flow generation at our McKinsey complex. We'll then respond to any questions that shareholders and analysts may have. But first, let's quickly deal with the housekeeping item. We will be making forward-looking statements and references to non-IFRS measures, and therefore call your attention to the warning statements set out on pages one and two of the MD&A that we released earlier today. For the second quarter, our net earnings were $26.1 million, equivalent to $0.56 per share. EBITDA was $37.8 million. This brought our first half results net earnings up to $30.6 million, or $0.66 a share, and first half EBITDA up to $47.5 million dollars. The sequential improvement in quarterly earnings was driven by dramatically higher lumber prices, improved lumber shipments as rail car supply normalized, and $2.8 million in business interruption insurance proceeds. The settlement we reached with our power generation plant insurer verifies the statements Andrea and I made on previous calls to the effect that neither employers nor gaps in maintenance procedures triggered their curtailment at the power plant. I'll now turn the meeting over to Andrew who will update you on our lumber and power business.