Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Koppers Holdings Inc. Third Quarter 2013 Conference Call held on the 7th of November, 2013. Throughout today's conference, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the conference, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator instructions) I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host, Michael Snyder. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Mark and good morning everyone. Welcome to our third quarter earnings conference call. My name is Mike Snyder and I'm the Director of Investor Relations for Koppers. At this time, each of you should have received a copy of our press release. If you haven't, one is available on our website or you can call Rose Helenski at 412-227-2444 and we can either fax or e-mail you a copy. Before we get started, I'd like to remind all of you that certain comments made during this conference call may be characterized as forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may be affected by certain risks and uncertainties, including risks described in the cautionary statement included in our Press Release and in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included in the Company's comments, you should not regard the inclusion of such information as a representation that its objectives, plans and projected results will be achieved. The Company's actual results could differ materially from such forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. References may also be made today to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The Company has provided with its press release, which is available on our website, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financials measures. I'm joined on this morning's call by Walt Turner, President and CEO of Koppers; and Leroy Ball, our Chief Financial Officer. At this time, I'd like to turn over the call to Walt Turner. Walt?

Thank you, Mike and welcome everyone to our 2013 third quarter conference call. I'd like to spend a few minutes providing a recap of our third quarter results before I turn the call over to Leroy, who will provide additional financial details for the quarter. Similar to our last quarter, our European business continues to struggle and will likely do so for at least the remainder of this year. As was the case in the last quarter, the impact of weak European economy again affected our North American Carbon Materials and Chemicals business in the form of increased levels of imports that negatively impacted our North American sales volumes and prices during the quarter. However the impact in the imports was less significant than it was last quarter as we were more aggressive in the marketplace. For the third quarter, our adjusted EPS came in at $0.90 a share compared to $0.82 a share in the third quarter last year due mainly to the continued weakness of some of the European operations, our effective tax rate including discrete items in the third quarter of this year was higher than last year’s third quarter, which on a quarter-over-quarter basis had a negative impact to our EPS of about $0.13 a share. You may recall that last year’s third quarter was negatively impacted by some unusual charges related to a pitch tank leak in Australia and an outage at our plant in the Netherlands and they charged the benefit expense related to lower interest rates. Additionally, we imported a cargo of more expense of coal tar into North America. In total, these items had a negative impact on adjusted EPS of about $0.19 a share. With that effect of these items on the quarter-over-quarter basis is that the third quarter of this year is $0.02 a share higher than last year’s third quarter which we view as a favorable result. Consolidated sales for the third quarter were up 2% as sales for the Railroads & Utility Products business were up 5%, mainly due to the addition of the Australian utility pole business that we had acquired at the end of last year and a continued strong North American railroad market while sales for Carbon Materials & Chemicals were flat compared to the third quarter of last year. Our adjusted operating profit for the third quarter was $39.2 million, up 20% from last year’s third quarter, adjusted operating profit of $32.7 million, as both business segments showed improvement over the prior year quarter. Leroy will now provide some additional financial detail on the quarter. After his review, I'll give you an update on the progress we are making with several of our strategic initiatives and provide more insight into the status of our end markets. Leroy?

Thanks, Walt. Starting with our consolidated results, sales for the third quarter increased by 2%, $7.2 million to $395.2 million compared to the prior year quarter. Driven mainly by higher sales and the acquisition of Western Poles business in Australia. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $47 million, $7 million higher than 2012 third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $40 million. Adjusted EBITDA margins of 11.9% for the third quarter of 2013 were above adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.3% for the third quarter of 2012. The higher margins were driven by improved profitability from both business segments combined with the non-recurrence of certain shares that impacted the third quarter of last year. Tax expense as a percent of pretax earnings for the quarter was 42% compared to 34% in the prior year quarter, with the increase due mainly to the unfavorable impact of lower European earnings in the third quarter of 2013. The negative impact of the higher tax rate on third quarter results amounted to about $0.13 per share. We anticipate an overall tax rate for the year including discrete items of around 39%. Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2013 were $18.8 million and $0.90 a share compared to $17.2 million and $0.82 per share for the third quarter of 2012. Items we excluded from our adjusted results for the quarter included $1.2 million of free tax charges related to the closure of Grenada, $1.8 million of pretax income, related to the gain on sale and related environmental reserve reversal of our former utility pole facility in Hume, Australia. Turning to Carbon Materials and Chemicals, in our Global Carbon Materials and Chemicals business for the third quarter revenues were flat $241.6 million compared to $241.1 million in the prior year quarter, a slightly…

Thank you, Leroy. Now I would like to give you an update on the status of our key end markets and how we see these markets impacting our results for the rest of the year. First, I'd like to talk about our Railroad and Utility products business. Our third quarter sales volumes for cross ties were flat compared to the third quarter of last year as higher sales volumes for treated crossties offset lower sales volumes for untreated crossties due to the tight lumber markets. As you may recall, we mentioned in our last call that we expected a headwind in the second half of the year due to the increased competition for hardwood lumber from the flooring and crane net markets that would provide a challenge in obtaining adequate supply of the raw material. While we see continued challenges cross tie procurement, we expect to be able to manage through the temporary shortage and we believe we are in a stronger position than our competitors due to the size of our procurement by network. The shortage we are currently experiencing will likely result in fewer air seasoned crossties available for treatment next year, but fortunately, we have the option of using an accelerated drying process referred to as boltonizing that should help mitigate most if not all of the shortfall. The commercial cross tie business continues to be strong this year as the short line railroads continue to upgrade their rail lines to accommodate heavier carloads in the Class I railroads and also continuing to take advantage of the benefits of the Section 45 tax credits. Our rail joint bar business continues to perform well, and in addition to having a strong US presence, we have been focusing on expanding our exports sales for these products around the world.…

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. The first question comes from Laurence Alexander from the company Jefferies. Please go ahead. Jeffrey Schnell – Jefferies LLC: Hi, this is Jeff Schnell on for Laurence. Can you talk about the inventory levels that you're seeing at Class I railroads in terms of cross ties and any indications that you have for volumes in 2014?

Well, first of all as we’re talking here the equivalent of the right size that we’re buying out there, it’s still a difficult market. I guess one reference I can give you is that when we monitor our tie inventories that we have air stacked at our plants that are going through the air drying process, we’re probably looking at year-end compared to last year’s year-end of a reduction of about somewhere between 8% and 9%. So as I also mentioned, it continues to be a little bit of a struggle from the procurement side, but it is improving little bit and we think over the next six to nine months, it will be in much better shape. However, during this interim time we have this process boltonizing that we can keep up with the demand from our Class I customers as well as commercial railroads. Jeffrey Schnell – Jefferies LLC: Great. And then I guess on CMC, is it possible to quantify the headwinds that you anticipate in 2014 from aluminum smelters that are anticipating a close or have closed?

Well, there continues to be discussion out there on further idling of the higher cost of smelters, especially in Europe and also some here of the U.S., but none more recently, but there continues to be talk about that. So it’s a high energy cost and as I mentioned earlier you’ve got the Ma'aden smelter in Saudi Arabia and Emal is expanding there, 740,000 tons smelter by doubling the volume and they’re ramping up and full be at full production by the end of 2014. So we see this again this shifting of where aluminum is being produced, but it’s just a matter of how we’re shipping and how we’re producing products for this shipping of where aluminum is being produced. Jeffrey Schnell – Jefferies LLC: Great, thank you.

Thank you. And the next question comes from Mike Harrison from First Analysis. Please go ahead. Mike J. Harrison – First Analysis Securities Corp.: Hi. Good morning.

Good morning, Mike. Mike J. Harrison – First Analysis Securities Corp.: I was hoping to get a feel for the restructuring you're doing in North America and how that ties into your growth or decline outlook for the carbon materials business in North America. Does this kind of catch you up to where you need to be or do you think that there are going to be other actions necessary over time?

Currently we’re curtailing about 60%, 65% of the Follansbee, West Virginia distillation capacity by moving product production to other facilities here in the U.S. So it’s certainly going to improve our cost structure and as I mentioned we are looking at an annual savings from about $4 million a year. Is that going to be enough going forward, I mean we’ll continue to look at product demand as time goes on, but that’s really I can say at this point, Mike is that. We’ll make adjustments based on product in hand. Mike J. Harrison – First Analysis Securities Corp.: And in terms maybe related question, in terms of the Portland terminal being idled, our understanding is that you had been using that facility for the import of Chinese tar. Is that the case and, if so, is idling that facility, does that speak to demand being down significantly in North America or has your sourcing simply improved?.

The Portland terminal out in Oregon has been a great asset for us and you’re absolutely right. We bring Asian pitch for the most part Chinese pitch into that Portland terminal when needed. So it continues to be a great way for us to balance in our tar production based on coal tar availability versus producing pitch here or the market demand increases we’ve got that option of bringing additional pitch into the terminal, so it’s a great asset unfortunately as we look here at the moment, 2014 we really do not need that facility as the part of our program for 2014. But it’s been a good asset for us. Mike J. Harrison – First Analysis Securities Corp.: All right. Last question I had is you were a little bit unclear if you were going to see growth in export tie orders this year. Have we seen we seen any orders from Vale come through and what are your thoughts on the outlook for export tie orders?

Today this year, no we’ve not received an order to export ties to Brazil, but I can tell you we got a full pressed effort to do that. because there is a large need for ties in Brazil. In fact just a report I got yesterday with our representatives there it’s not just Raleigh, it’s all three of the major railroads there are seriously looking at ties, the [indiscernible] they are treating with CCA just are not lasting and so the hardwoods are very much in demand and so unfortunately Brazil and I think this may apply to other South American countries takes a long time to decision making. But that’s definitely a part of our long-term program going forward. Mike J. Harrison – First Analysis Securities Corp.: All right. Thanks very much.

Sure.

Thank you. And the next question comes from Liam Burke from Janney Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Liam D. Burke – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Thank you. Good morning, Walt, good morning Leroy.

Hi, Liam.

Good morning. Liam D. Burke – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Walt, you’ve talked about acquisitions as you moved in obviously it’s there is a component on the rail side of the business. Are you seeing acquisition potential there large enough to move the needle or it’s relatively fragmented market of these smaller types of potential targets.

We can’t say too much Liam but I can tell you that the M&A activity is very strong on both the railroad business as well as the Carbon Materials and Chemicals business. And to your point, we're looking at both sort of the tuck-in type acquisition versus even some larger ones, but hopefully we can get a little more detail to you here in a few months. Liam D. Burke – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Great. And you mentioned that there is increased demand for borate in the product line. How does that look – I mean, it extends the life of the tie. Do you anticipate any significant over time change in volume demand as the life of the tie is extended?

When this whole movement by the Class I railroads started about 2.5, 3 years ago, it was really focused on these creosote-borate ties being installed in sort of the high decay zones. But I wish I give you a very good reason, but I can't, but the trend is really moving not just high decay zones, but it is moving to other areas of the country that the railroads are wanting. And so I really think this process is going to continue to grow and that’s why I mentioned that they were looking at least one, perhaps two more borate facilities in 2014. Now it does increase the life of the tie, absolutely and what I think we’re probably 10 years, 15 years out before we can actually see anything, but we’ve had questions in the past – is this going to eventually decrease the number of tie insertions by the Class Is. And the answer is no, because as you recall the railroads are replacing ties maybe 2.5% to 3% of the total ties that are in service out there. So I really don't see that happening, I think you are going to see maybe a tad more tie insertions just to keep up with their maintenance. And also with these higher, heavier load cars, like you’re going to see some more mechanical destruction, which will even cause more high maintenance, if you will. Liam D. Burke – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Great.

I think our view on it is, we are not that worried about the railroad moving to increase borate treatments outside of the high decay areas, just because of what Walt had mentioned there. We think that although it will again extend the life that a lot of those ties will reach the point of mechanical wear before they ever decay. So they need to be replaced. Liam D. Burke – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Great. Thank you, Walt. Thank you, Leroy

Okay.

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) The last question comes from Kevin Hocevar from the company, Northcoast Research. Please go ahead. Kevin W. Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners LLC: Hi, everybody.

Good morning Kevin. Kevin W. Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners LLC: Good morning. I was wondering, you mentioned being a little more aggressive encountering the phthalic anhydride imports in the U.S. I was wondering if you could elaborate on kind of what actions you're taking there. And you also mentioned potential avenues to increase volume. I'm wondering if you could elaborate on that as well?

I think through August Kevin, there has been about 25 million, 26 million pounds of phthalic imported in the North America – it’s imported at the U.S. rather from Mexico, Brazil, but several countries like Italy and Russia and a few other European countries, and there is a fair amount of very small customers out there and what we’re inferring here is that we’re truly looking at how do we best take better advantage of that particular market going through a distribution center that they could be a little more active on the sale side and really put that company’s name and product out there to these small customers that are buying phthalic anhydride, so that’s where we’re moving to and I think that really improves our overall market size if you will. Kevin W. Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners LLC: Okay. And I think last quarter I think you touched on here that there’s been some pricing pressure in the Middle East in carbon pitch, that cause you to keep product in China as opposed to exporting out. I’m wondering if you could elaborate on that. Has kind of these new smelters come online in Middle East, do you expect that to reverse or with other smelters expecting to come offline, is that remaining issue or how do you view that as kind of that’s been one of the faster growing region for the pitch business?

Yes, I mean with more so in 2014 with the expansions continuing to increase and carbon pitch demand continuing, the weak pricing in Middle East has really been for the abundance of tar and pitch in Asia for instance. There’s been more activity in that area and at the moment, if you sort of dissect this a little bit further, there is at the moment a little more supply of product than the demand and that’s why we’ve seen little bit of a weaker price, but you had another 85,000 tons to 120,000 tons of carbon pitch going into 2014 and 2015, for sure hoping that that would help strengthen the pricing of the pitch and I would also over time here and I say over the next 12 or 15 months, inventories are going to start declining on the LME and we are going to see a little stronger production side especially with consumption growing 5% or 6%. One of the issues here has been as I mentioned that, China is producing and consuming over 40% of the world’s aluminum and I think there’s going to be some changes in that area going forward as well and you’re going to see more aluminum production outside of China. Kevin W. Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners LLC: And then just final question on the crosstie and lumber availability. Could you comment on where you expect this to go from here? My understanding is it's been partially due to the wet weather – caused supply to be less but at the same time demand increasing from other applications. So do you think as weather maybe normalizes heading into next year this won't necessarily spill into 2014, this availability, or do you think it would start to improve as kind of weather normalizes, I guess?

The weather, for the last eight months the weather really hasn’t been a major part. It was a little bit back in, I guess April-May timeframe, but the real issue is the increased market demand from the lumber and from these crane mats that are being used by the oil and gas industry, which are paying top dollar for these hardwood species. So that’s been the real difficulty and over the last I’d say probably six, eight weeks we have been able to get the railroads to pay more, but we’re closing the gap on the difference between the pricing that’s been paid for us in the lumber and crane mat applications versus what the railroads are willing to play for the ties. And so that’s what’s helping. We have seen some improvements for the last two months and it will take time, but the issue is with the saw miller is looking at where I can get the most value from these logs that’s I’m selling and that’s sort of where we’re at. So we’ll see that is improving as we go forward, so this has been little bit of a difficulty at least last six or eight months. Kevin W. Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners LLC: Great, thank you very much.

Sure.

Thank you (Operator Instructions) There seems to be no further questions at present time. I’d like to turn the line back to Walter Turner for any concluding remarks.

Thank you, and we thank you all very much for participating in today’s call and also appreciate your continued interest in our company. We will continue to do the right things for our business by pursuing prudent growth opportunities and looking for ways to enhance our profitability within our existing businesses. Despite some of the current challenges due to the European economy, we believe that the diversity of our business and our company, along with our margin improvement and growth initiatives will continue to provide us with relative stability in both strong and weak economic climates. And finally we remain firmly committed to enhancing shareholder value by maintaining our strategy of providing our customers with the highest quality products and services, while continuing to focus on our safety, health and environmental initiatives. Thank you.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.