Peter Huntsman
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thank you, Kurt. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Let's turn to slide number 3. Adjusted EBITDA for our polyurethanes division in the third quarter 2014 was $187 million. During the quarter we experienced a manufacturing disruption at our Port Neches, Texas facility which negatively impacted EBITDA by approximately $30 million. Demand for our MDI remains strong. Global sales volumes grew 5% compared to the prior year despite a weak European economy which led to flat sales in Europe. Our Asia business continues to expand. Within China our sales volumes grew 7% in the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace than the second quarter. Asian growth was led by strong double-digit growth in our differentiated and consumer-driven automotive and furniture markets. North America was the real highlight in the third quarter, with volume growth at 12%. Demand in our 2 largest North American markets were strong, with insulation growing at more than 20%, and composite wood products increasing 9%. As a reminder, we have scheduled maintenance for the first quarter of 2015 at our PO/MTBE facility in Port Neches, Texas. We currently estimate that the facility will be offline for approximately 60 days, beginning around the 1st of February. The EBITDA impact will be approximately $60 million. This amount includes lost revenue and unabsorbed fixed costs for the period. In addition the maintenance costs will be approximately $90 million. However, these costs are capitalized and amortized over approximately 5 years until the next scheduled maintenance outage, reducing future EBITDA over that future period of time. The total cost of the maintenance will be approximately $150 million. We expect a typical seasonal slowdown in the fourth quarter as MDI demand slows and PO/MTBE prices soften. Turning to slide number 4, in the third quarter our performance products division achieved record margins and earned a record adjusted EBITDA of $129 million. We continue to see strong demand for amines used in energy, oilfield, and epoxy markets. Margins continue to improve as a result of the tightening supply-demand balance. Maleic and hydride volumes have been strong, in part due to some industry supply outages in North America. Our margins have improved generally as a direct result of our attractive integrated position and our leverage to low-cost raw materials on the US Gulf Coast. In the fourth quarter we expect to see a typical slowdown in demand as customers' business activity slows down and they reduce their year-end working capital. It's not unusual to see fourth-quarter sequential earnings decrease more than 20%. This year we sold our European commodity surfactants business in the second quarter and closed our Patrica, Italy facility in October. Along with the concentrated focus on differentiated surfactants, we believe we will improve our annual EBITDA by approximately $20 million beginning in 2015. Let's turn to slide number 5. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter in our advanced materials division was $57 million, in part due to $7 million of one-time benefit related to inventory accounting. We continue to see strong demand in our aerospace composites. Volumes in this key market increased at double-digit rates compared to the prior year. This important market was the highest margin within the division and represents approximately 30% of its earnings. We are encouraged by the long-term trends as production rates of next-generation aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 and the Airbus 350, continue to ramp up. We've seen strong demand in earnings growth in our composites used in NGL tanker linings, oilfield drilling, and epoxy coatings. Favorable business conditions in these applications led to a year-over-year increase in earnings of $7 million in our transportation and industrial and coatings construction markets. Although much of the fourth-quarter seasonality has been overshadowed recently by results of improved earnings from our restructuring, it is not unusual for fourth-quarter sequential earnings to decrease as much as 30% in this division. Turning to slide 6, our textile effects divisions reported adjusted EBITDA of $14 million in the third quarter, the most we have earned in any third quarter since we've owned the business. Second-quarter earnings are usually the strongest within this business. We've lowered our cost structure and refocused our emphasis on key sectors and markets. As a result, we have deselected certain lower-value business. Our sales volumes grew 6% compared to the [indiscernible] adjusted for this deselection process. Strong demand for our environmentally and economically sustainable chemicals and dyes has allowed us to raise our prices and improve margins. Our average selling price increased 17% compared to the prior year as a result of our focus on higher margin product and increased raw material costs. We are proud of the product improvement in this division. Chemical industry experts are also taking note. We recently received the highest award available and were the overall winner of the ICIS innovation awards. Let's turn to slide number 7. Our pigments division earned $18 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter. Our global sales volumes improved 6% compared to the prior year as we saw meaningful improvement in North America and Asia Pacific. This is partially offset by lower demand in Europe where sales volumes decreased 8%, which we believe was consistent with the overall industry. Our average selling price decreased compared to the prior year and prior quarter. We believe the soft pricing environment is a result of high industry inventory days. At the end of the third quarter, our inventory days on hand were in the mid 50s. Starting in the fourth quarter this division will be reported as pigments and additives. All of the businesses acquired from Rockwood will be included in this division, with the exception of a small business known as Gomet which makes specialty automotive polyurethane molded components, and will be part of our polyurethanes division. Although we didn't own the assets in the third quarter, the Rockwood businesses earned $37 million this year, and was impacted by approximately $5 million of planned maintenance at its Duisburg, Germany facility. This compares to $40 million last year. We believe TiO2 prices and volumes in the fourth quarter will be seasonably soft. Last year the Rockwood businesses earned approximately $26 million in the fourth quarter, and we expect this year will be similar. We now have 7 pigment manufacturing facilities in Europe with over 700,000 metric tons of capacity. In light of the sluggish European economy and softer TiO2 demand, we're in the process of evaluating whether we need all of our current capacity. Before sharing some concluding thoughts, I'd like to turn a few minutes over to Kimo Esplin, our Chief Financial Officer.