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F500-2021-388-Westlake Chemical

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Houston-based Westlake is a global manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers, and fabricated building products.

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Westlake is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals and products used in the housing and construction, packaging, and health care industries. It focuses on two main segments: performance and essential materials (PEM) and housing and infrastructure products (HIP). The PEM segment produces materials such as polyethylene, PVC, and epoxy resins, which are used in various industries including packaging, automotive, and construction. The HIP segment offers products like residential siding, trim, roofing, and PVC pipes, catering to housing and infrastructure markets.

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Westlake (WLK): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Westlake

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Corporation second quarter 2026 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. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, August 4th, 2026. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Holy, Westlake's Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Sir, you may now begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Corporation conference call to discuss our second quarter 2026 results. I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our Executive Chairman, Jean-Marc Gilson, our President and CEO, Jon Baksht, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Steve Bender, our Special Advisor to the President, and other members of our management team. During the call, we will refer to our two reporting segments, Performance and Essential Materials, which we refer to as PEM or Materials, and Housing and Infrastructure Products, which we refer to as HIP or Products. Today's conference call will begin with Jean-Marc, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's second quarter performance. Jon will then discuss our financial and operating results, after which Jean-Marc will add a few concluding comments, and we'll open the call up to questions.

References to income from operations, EBITDA, net income, and earnings per share on this call exclude the financial impact of the identified items. As such, comments made on this call will be in regard to our underlying business results using non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is provided in our earnings release, which is available in the investor relations section of our website. 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 31st, 2025, 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 on 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 4th, 2026, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay.

I would 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. I would like to turn the call over to Jean-Marc Gilson. Jean-Marc?

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our second quarter of 2026 results. During the second quarter, we delivered $3.3 billion in net sales and EBITDA of $679 million, which was a substantial improvement from both the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2025. At a high level, there were really three key earnings drivers in the second quarter. PEM's globally advantaged feedstock and energy position in North America enabled it to expand its integrated margins as its average sales prices benefited from higher oil prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. Our three-pillar profitability improvement plan contributed approximately $150 million to the year-over-year EBITDA improvement.

HIP's 6% year-over-year organic sales volume growth against a backdrop of soft North American residential construction activity drove stable segment EBITDA and demonstrates why we continue to view HIP as a key growth driver for Westlake. I'd like to expand on each of these three drivers in more detail to provide more context on how the quarter played out. PEM's feedstock and energy cost advantage in North America, where over 85% of our production capacity resides, was an important factor in PEM's second quarter earnings improvement. During the second quarter, a spike in global oil price drove significantly higher costs for competitors in higher cost regions like Asia and Europe, which along with tighter global supply-demand conditions, contributed to a 21% sequential increase in PEM's average sales price.

At the same time, PEM's own production costs, which are mostly based on more affordable North American natural gas and NGLs, were largely immune to the spike in oil prices. This allowed PEM to convert to higher global selling prices directly into higher margins and EBITDA. In fact, our natural gas and ethane cost in North America actually declined significantly from the first quarter due to warmer weather and an increase in associated gas from higher U.S. oil drilling activity. PEM also benefited from a 2% sequential increase in sales volume, driven by improved North American demand. Taken together, we believe that PEM's second quarter performance demonstrates the value of PEM's globally advantaged feedstock and energy position, and the substantial earnings leverage that PEM has to a better global supply-demand balance for its products, particularly polyethylene, caustic soda, and PVC resin. Turning now to our three-pillar profitable improvement plan.

The actions that we took last year are generating significant cost savings that are contributing to our EBITDA improvement. Our first pillar is footprint optimization, which primarily consists of the shutdown of our epoxy plant in Pernis, our styrene plant in Lake Charles, and three of our chlor-vinyl plants in the U.S. These shutdowns took place last year, and the associated cost savings from these actions are tracking ahead of plan so far in 2026. For example, our epoxy business has done a complete turnaround from annual losses in excess of $100 million to a return to profitability in the second quarter of 2026. Our North American chlor-vinyl business is benefiting from more streamlined operations with significant logistical cost savings from a more optimized footprint.

Our second pillar, cost savings, is also tracking ahead of plan, thanks to help from our suppliers and a company-wide effort to economize. Our third pillar is plant reliability. While the reliability of our plant in the H1 of 2026 was much improved from the prior year, it was not yet where we wanted to be due to residual unplanned outages this quarter. We continue to make progress improving our operations, and most of the production issues were corrected by the end of the second quarter, with the plants running well into July. We continue to target $600 million of combined EBITDA benefit in 2026 from our profitability improvement plan. I would like to thank and recognize the efforts of all our employees as they safely execute our three-pillar improvement plan. Turning to HIP's contribution to the second quarter earnings.

The segment produced its second-highest quarterly revenue in its history, which we view as a significant achievement considering the soft level of home-building activity during the quarter, and a testament to the value of the diversity of our HIP's portfolio. As a reminder, infrastructure makes up a significant portion of HIP's sales and earnings, and this part of the segment has shown solid growth in recent quarters. HIP's second quarter revenue grew 8% year-over-year, driven by solid 6% organic sales volume growth, which translated into stable EBITDA despite cost inflation and a lower average sales price. As has been the case in recent quarters, Pipe & Fittings drove the volume growth. In fact, Pipe & Fittings sales volume grew roughly 20% year-over-year as a result of continued North American infrastructure investments, including the growth in data center projects.

The performance of our housing products business was another bright spot as it outgrew the market during the second quarter due to the strength of our brands, our broad geographic footprint, and our position as a supplier of choice to large national home builders and distributors. In summary, we were very pleased with our overall second quarter results that reflect Westlake's foundational strength, our globally advantaged North American production, our highly integrated business model, our innovative and differentiated HIP product offering, and our strong investment-grade rated balance sheet. While our plant reliability improved, we are making further progress to generate better results in coming quarters. The issues that we experienced in recent quarters are fixable, and our corrective actions are already generating solid return thus far in the third quarter.

Before Jon provides more detail on our financial results for the second quarter of 2026, I want to take this opportunity to thank Steve Bender for all of his many contributions to Westlake over the past 21 years as our CFO and wish him the best of luck with his upcoming retirement. I'd like to turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Albert Chao, to say a few words. Albert?

Thank you, Jean-Marc, and thank you, Steve, for all you have done to grow Westlake into a Fortune 500 company with diversified, vertically integrated chemical and building products, businesses operating around the world. On behalf of James and the entire Chao family, I would like to thank you for your many years of service and your contributions to Westlake's growth and financial strengths. We would like to wish you and Denise the best in your retirement.

Thank you, Albert and Jean-Marc. It's been a pleasure working with both of you and James Chao and the entire Westlake team over the past 21 years. I am proud that during my tenure as CFO, together, we navigated the demands of the high-yield markets, were recognized for the discipline we demonstrate in running Westlake, and built the financial foundation that would carry Westlake to investment-grade standing, which supported the significant growth in our business, delivering compounded annual growth in total shareholder return of 13% over that time period. I leave for retirement next month knowing that Westlake's foundation is solid and the future holds promise. I look forward to Westlake's continued growth while delivering meaningful value to shareholders.

I want to also thank all the analysts and investors on the call for their continued support of Westlake over the years and the relationships that we have built over that time. With that, I'll like to turn the call over to Westlake's new Chief Financial Officer, Jon Baksht. Jon?

Thank you, Steve. Your contributions to Westlake will be missed, and we all wish you the best of luck in your retirement. I'm excited to be a part of the Westlake team with its rich history and culture. What really stood out to me when joining the organization is not only the strong track record of shareholder returns and growth, but also the focus on all stakeholders, including employees and communities. I look forward to partnering with all of you as the company builds on its positive momentum. Turning to our financial results. In the second quarter of 2026, Westlake reported sales of $3.3 billion and net income of $260 million, or $2.01 per share, which compares to a net loss of $12 million in the second quarter of 2025. At the segment level, HIP posted solid results against a backdrop of weaker North American residential construction.

Net sales of $1.3 billion increased nearly $100 million, or 8%, from the second quarter of 2025, driven by the January acquisition of ACI and solid double-digit sales volume growth in Pipe & Fittings. Excluding ACI, HIP's sales volume grew 6%, while average sale prices declined 3%, with Pipe & Fittings driving both trends. HIP's sales volume also benefited from solid growth in siding and trim through our strong position with large national home builders and distributors. HIP EBITDA of $276 million increased by $1 million from the second quarter of 2025 as HIP's sales growth more than offset a slight decline in EBITDA margin to 22% from 24% in the prior year period, driven by a lower average sales price and inflation in transportation and raw material costs.

Sequentially, HIP's sales volume of $1.3 billion increased 26%, driven by a 24% increase in sales volume and a 2% increase in average sales price. The sales volume growth was led by Pipe & Fittings, where growth was the result of solid end market demand for pipe driven by higher U.S. infrastructure spending, including the construction of data centers. We also believe that some pipe orders and demand may have shifted from the third quarter into the second quarter of 2026 as customers sought to secure supply in the wake of the onset of the conflict in the Middle East. There could be a modest impact to our third quarter pipe sales volumes from this shift in the timing of orders. Aside from pipe, HIP's second quarter sales volumes benefited from seasonally higher demand for exterior building products.

Housing product sales of $1 billion increased $223 million sequentially, reflecting seasonal strength in siding and trim and stone. Infrastructure products sales of $241 million rose $36 million from the first quarter, primarily due to higher Pipe & Fitting sales volume and pricing actions in Global Compounds aimed at offsetting rising costs. Moving to our PEM segment. PEM second quarter EBITDA of $416 million increased by $364 million versus the second quarter of 2025, driven by the benefits of our three-pillar profitability improvement plan and a 14% increase in average sales price, led by polyethylene and PVC resin. Excluding the impact of plant closures, sales volume increased 7%, driven by caustic soda and PVC resin. Compared to the first quarter, PEM EBITDA increased by $380 million due to a 21% increase in average sales price and lower natural gas and ethane costs.

Sales volume rose 2% sequentially as higher caustic soda, chlorine, and epoxy resin sales volume more than offset lower polyethylene and PVC resin sales volume. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow statements. We continue to maintain financial flexibility with a strong balance sheet as well as our longstanding commitment to a solid investment-grade credit rating. As of June 30th, 2026, cash and investments total $1.9 billion, and total debt was $5.1 billion with a staggered long-term fixed rate debt maturity schedule. I'd like to thank Steve for establishing the company's enviable debt profile with a weighted average maturity of over 17 years with an average coupon rate of 4%. During the second quarter, we retired the remaining $500 million of debt outstanding on our 2026 notes, and we repurchased $30 million of Westlake common stock.

For the second quarter of 2026, net cash provided by operating activities of $318 million more than doubled from the prior year period and includes a seasonal build in working capital as well as cash payments for the $67 million PVC pipe legal settlement that were recorded in the first quarter of 2026. As is typically the case, we expect our cash flow in the second half of the year to benefit from a significant release of working capital, particularly in the fourth quarter. In June, we closed the acquisition of PVC and VCM plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This facility benefits from its advantageous logistical infrastructure, including a deepwater port capable of receiving globally advanced feedstocks supplied by our North American operations. We see significant integration benefits from this acquisition as we optimize our European supply chain and manufacturing operations.

This transaction underscores our disciplined approach to deploying capital in ways that create long-term shareholder value. Let me provide guidance. We expect 2026 revenue and EBITDA margin in our Housing and Infrastructure Products segments to be towards the lower end of our previously communicated ranges of $4.4 billion-$4.6 billion of revenue, with EBITDA margin between 19% and 21% excluding identified items. As we discussed last quarter, the decrease in expectations is driven by a more muted outlook for North American residential construction activity and increases in transportation and raw material costs. Total capital expenditures for the company for 2026 are still expected to be $900 million, which is approximately $100 million lower than last year and in line with our annual depreciation. We continue to expect cash interest expense to be approximately $215 million.

I will turn the call over to Jean-Marc to provide a current outlook of our business. Jean-Marc?

Thank you, Jon. Global industrial and manufacturing activity has shown steady improvement thus far in 2026, led by North America, where ISM readings in the U.S. have been above 50 each month this year. PEM sales volume has tracked these trends with modest demand growth in the U.S., balanced by softer end market conditions in other regions. As we look to the H2 of 2026, we expect PEM sales volume to continue to reflect the same steady global demand environment that we experienced in the H1 of the year. With regards to PEM pricing, polyethylene prices exited the second quarter of 2026 slightly below the quarterly average, though they remained higher than pre-conflict levels. Meanwhile, PVC resin prices exited the quarter at or very near the highest levels for the year.

Looking ahead to the H2 of the year, we expect future price trends to be heavily influenced by global oil price movements. During the H2 of 2026, PEM's margins and earnings will continue to be supported by our three pillar profitability improvement program, which we continue to expect to generate $600 million of EBITDA benefit in 2026. As I discussed, we are improving the reliability of our plants and operations, have performed well thus far in the third quarter. Our focus for PEM for the remainder of 2026 is to sustain this improved reliability on a consistent month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter basis. Additionally, in the H2 of 2026, PEM will integrate the newly acquired PVC business in Wilhelmshaven into the broader Westlake system.

These actions establish a structural regional cost advantage at the site, enabled by its unique logistical assets, positioning it to contribute more meaningfully to PEM sales and earnings beginning next year. Turning to HIP, we do not expect the macro environment to provide a meaningful tailwind for HIP's housing products business in 2026. Even so, our strong competitive position, supported by the value of our brands and the breadth of our offerings, should enable HIP's housing products business to continue to outperform the market. Turning to HIP's Pipe and Fittings business, end market conditions remain favorable, driven by robust demand for municipal pipe as a result of the Infrastructure Act, as well as strong growth in overall U.S. infrastructure spending, including the construction of new data centers.

The short- and long-term outlook for Pipe and Fittings demand remains favorable, and we continue to expect its sales volume to grow at healthy rates, supported by solid underlying demand trends and the startup of our new PVCO plant in Wichita Falls at the end of this year. Finally, in Global Compounds, we have been pleased by the performance of ACI since its acquisition in January. ACI brings differentiated technology and expanded market access to Westlake, which we intend to leverage across our legacy compound business. Before opening the call to questions, I want to highlight the actions taken during the quarter to improve our balance sheet and reward our shareholders. As Jon noted, we reduced debt by $500 million while returning approximately $100 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

Our investment-grade rated balance sheet and cash flow generation allow us to continue to invest to profitably grow the company, including our new PVCO pipe plant and the acquisition of ACI and Wilhelmshaven. Thank you very much for listening to our second quarter earnings call. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff. Jeff?

Thank you, Jean-Marc. Before we begin taking questions, I would like to remind listeners that our earnings presentation, which provides additional clarity into our results, is available on our website. A replay of this teleconference will be available two hours after the call has ended. Operator, we will now take questions.

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Hassan Ahmed from Alembic Global Advisors. Your line is now open.

Morning, Jean-Marc. Obviously pleased to see the strong results in the PEM segment. I know you guys addressed this on the call as well. Just trying to figure out the sustainability of these higher results. I know pricing was obviously very strong, but you guys obviously also talked about a year-over-year benefit of around $150 million from the Three Pillar Program. Just trying to understand how much of that $150 million actually was on the PEM side of things rather than the HIP side of things. Again, any commentary around the sustainability of these higher sort of profitability levels in PEM would be helpful.

Yeah. Thank you. Look, good question. As we explained it in previous quarters, we've been working really hard on the Three Pillar strategy. They are really delivering up to our expectation. As you mentioned, most of the benefit, not all of the benefit of the Three Pillar strategy is going to the PEM segment. Some of it is going to the HIP segment. The vast majority of it is going into the PEM segment. None of these are one-offs. These are sustainable cost savings going into the future. We've added about $300 million to EBITDA thanks to these savings so far this year, and about $150 in this quarter. As I said, we are expecting to deliver the full value of the program over the course of the year and getting into a better operating mode into 2027 and beyond.

Hassan, this is Jon. Hassan, I would just add, you can see this on our financial statements as well. It is coming through. This isn't one of these programs where you have to take an offline spreadsheet to calculate the savings. I would just point to our H1. If you look at our cost of sales line, H1 year-over-year, our volume is up 3% in an inflationary environment. You see $150 million of reduction in our cost of sales just in the H1 of the year. When you consider that the 3% volume increase

Would translate into additional cost of sales as well. You can translate that at the same run rate of our other volume right to the $300 million. You're seeing it in our P&L today in the H1 of the year.

Very helpful, guys. Just as a follow-up, it seems that at least the North American chlorovinyls landscape is changing a little bit with a recently announced merger. Just with that in mind, how are you guys thinking about that? Would there be potentially more opportunities for you guys on the chlorine side of things? I know you consume a lot of it internally. Could there be some risks on the caustic side of things as potentially a large chlor-alkali producer starts sort of raising their operating rates, call it through the course of 2027?

That's a good question. Yes, there is some announcement, and there will be an increase in supply later on this year by one of our competitor. If you look into what we've done since the beginning of the year and really starting in last quarter of 2025, we have shrunk our capacity, and our goal is, regardless of what happens in the market, we will aim to run at 100% of all of our assets. We are aiming, really, the whole strategy is to aim to run at 100% like we do on the polyethylene side, where regardless of market conditions, we are trying to run at 100%. That is exactly the goal that we're trying to achieve on the chlorovinyls side of our business in North America, and then if you extend that to Europe now with the new acquisition.

That is the goal of Westlake, be the lowest cost producer and running at 100% regardless of market conditions. I think we've taken some really good steps to achieve that. When the price is up, you see the absolute advantage of that strategy.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kevin McCarthy of Vertical Research Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes, thank you and good morning. Jean-Marc, would appreciate your latest thoughts on the low-density and linear low-density polyethylene markets. I think some of the consultants had set forth a projected price decline of $0.10 a pound. Not sure if you've engaged in any settlements yet for the month of July, but would welcome an update on that trajectory as you see it, as well as any market color around inventories and demand and so forth.

Good morning, Kevin. I'll take that one. What we've seen on polyethylene is it's up $0.25 through the second quarter of the year, so year-to-date. July's not settled yet, really don't have a comment on that one. The August announcements are out and at up 5%. What I'll tell you is $0.05. Yeah, sorry. $0.05, excuse me. By year-end, we expect the price to be higher than the prior year.

Okay. Very helpful. I wanted to follow up on the HIP segment, maybe a two-parter there. I think you were able to grow your housing product sales by 3%, outperforming the market. Just curious on where you think you're punching above your weight or gaining share on that side. On the infrastructure side, I think there was a comment in the prepared remarks that we'll see if we pulled forward some demand from 3Q. Curious if you're seeing or suspecting anything to that effect in July or just something that you're watching for.

I will take the first part of the question, Jon will take the second part of the question. The first part of the question as it relates to better than market performance in HIP. I think what you see there is the competitive advantage of our housing products is reliability of supply all across the U.S., great warranty, affordable price, PVC being one of the preferred product for siding across the U.S., really supporting this affordability question in the U.S. I will not comment on our competitors, but frankly, we've done not only this quarter, but over the last several years, I think we've done very well in the U.S. housing market, even when the market is flat like it is this year. We doing everything to continue on that trend.

Picking up on the second part of your question here. As you look into this back half of the year for HIP, we are expecting the housing market for new construction to be relatively flat. R&R likely up low single digits. There's still a lot of uncertainty. The interest rate environment, mortgage rates continue to go up, so that expectation is overall a bit softer than it would've been one quarter ago or before some of the conflicts in the Middle East and the corresponding impacts in the financial markets. That being said, we see a H2 demand being very solid, and we did mention that we are expecting some pull forward into Q2, but what we did see was some customers secured supply at the onset of the war just to secure some additional inventory.

We also passed through some increases in pricing in Q2 that you'll see through the back part of the year. A lot of that was to offset the end cost such as inflation, predominantly on freight costs that we're seeing.

Thank you. Our next call comes from the line of David Begleiter from Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Jean-Marc, just on polyethylene exports, how much of your production did you export in Q2 and the H1 of the year?

Yeah. As you know, we are mostly domestic. I mean, producer and selling into the domestic market. I would say between 10%-20% is being exported much lower than our competitors. Hence, we are less exposed to export pricing than our competitors.

Very good. Just on caustic, what are your expectations for caustic in the back half of the year?

Yeah, caustic, I think we are looking to see some solid demand, pretty flat price, and again, similar comment as polyethylene. With the reduction and the closure last year of a very large diaphragm plant at our Lake Charles South facility, we are much less exposed to export markets, which currently, and I think it's our forecast, will stay at a lower price than domestic market.

Yeah, caustic is up 75% through the second quarter, and we expect the H2 to average higher than the H1.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham from Citi. Your line is now open.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I think you mentioned PVC price exiting the quarter at or near the highest levels. If you noted steady improvement in domestic demand, but how would you characterize overall export demand throughout the quarter and what you're kind of expecting to see from the export market in the H2?

Export markets were subdued in the first and certainly after March. The very first part of the year, they were subdued because there was a flooding in the market from China right before there was a reduction of the VAT or elimination of the VAT drawback. We saw a real flooding of the market with really a peak in export from China in around March. That really fell back into more normal, about 300,000 tons per month from a peak of 700,000 tons. We are starting to see a little bit of a pickup right now in terms of export demand because also, price is getting back to. It's still higher than where we started, but I think lower price is starting to pique the interest of traders again.

If you look at the pricing, we're up nine through Q2. Like Jean-Marc said, we're seeing high inventories, but solid demand with the pickup in the export pricing. By year-end, we expect pricing to be higher than the prior year.

Great. Just on the overall strong performance in PEM, I just want to dial into reliability and operating rates. How much did your operating rates improve in 2Q? I know you mentioned maybe there was some offset from unplanned outages and just as we think about the back half, is there any planned maintenance to be mindful of or should we expect some modest tailwinds there?

Thank you. Good question. I'll give you a rundown of how we look at our operations right now. I'll start by making a simple comment about HIP. I mean, HIP, no problem. Really running to supply demand, and that's it, with plenty of capacity to jump onto any opportunities that might arise. Let me go to PEM now. That's very much in line with what I said before, which is in line with our strategy. In terms of, I'll start with epoxy. We've been running at 100%, so really full out, in terms of our upstream capacity in epoxy. Olefins, likewise, we've been running full out. In terms of polyethylene, likewise, we've been running full out. In terms of our ECU production, we've been running above 90%. If you look at PVC, we're in the mid-80s climbing back up.

As you very well know, PVC is related to VCM production, and VCM from a low last year, we are really performing better and better. If you look at the H2 of the year, our expectations based on everything that we've done, all the fixing that we've done, and I would say the relatively small number of planned shutdown that we would see in the H2 of the year, we would be expecting to running our asset at a higher rate than what we've seen in the H1.

Our next question comes from the line of Pete Osterland of Truist Securities. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to start by asking about your cost improvement plans for the year. What is the remaining work that needs to be done through year-end to meet the $600 million target? On the cadence for earnings improvement, could you size how much of an impact you expect cost improvements will have in the third quarter relative to what you realized in the second quarter? Is that meaningful, or are you just expecting to see the same continuation of year-over-year improvement rolling through in the back half?

Hey, Pete. This is Jon. It's a good question. Broadly speaking, we're maintaining the $600 million target. We've talked about the $300 million we've already achieved. We are already at that run rate that will help us get to that level. For us, within the three pillars, it's going to be a pretty consistent clip between here and the end of the year. We've got the cost savings that we've already taken a lot of those actions. Those we're just seeing those continue forward in the P&L. Same with the footprint optimization. The reliability pillar is one that if we continue to run our operations as well as Jean-Marc just described, we should be in very good shape in terms of meeting those objectives.

Great. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about your expectations for free cash flow generation in the H2. Maybe do you have a net leverage target for year-end you could share? How are you viewing debt reduction as a priority relative to continued share repurchases in the H2?

I'll take those in order. Free cash flow, we don't provide free cash flow guidance for the back part of the year. In terms of just balancing the share repurchases and the credit profile, we want to balance those. Typically, we are very proud of our strong investment-grade balance sheet. Continuing to de-lever like we have with the free cash flow generation this quarter is something that I think that you should expect us to continue. We're going to continue to be opportunistic as it becomes with share repurchases. As noted by the $30 million purchases we did in Q2, we believe the shares are at a value. If we continue to weigh the returns on our shares as a good value driver, we will continue to purchase shares.

I will note that we are a very returns-based culture. We look at our shares as one area where we can generate returns. We also look at organic growth opportunities. We look at inorganic growth opportunities. We stack all of those against each other before we deploy capital. All that being said, within an investment-grade capital structure, we are committed to keeping that.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Duffy Fischer of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Good morning, fellas. Just a question, if you are looking at HIP and comparing the H1 to the H2 on margins. The last couple of years, you have come down H1 to H2, 2% and 4%. At the low end of both pegs on your guidance for EBITDA and for sales, you would come down about 3%. Can you just talk through what is that structural decline in margin driven by? Is it just a little bit lower sales in the H2, or is there a mix impact in there? What drives that, call it 200 to 400 basis points decline in margins in the H2?

it's a combination of things. I'd say there is a mix component to that, as you look at some of the pull forward that we talked about between Q2 and Q3 will impact that. In addition to the inflation factors that we've seen post some of the conflict in the Middle East, I touched on freight logistics costs starting to come into the system really in Q2, we'll see a full half year of that in the back part of the year. We are having some pricing to offset that on a dollar basis, but that does have an effect of tightening margins to some extent.

Great. Just a second question, looking H1 to H2. The last couple of years, revenue has been down kind of high single digits as you go from the H1 to the H2 in HIP. This year with the pull forward, again, at the low end of your range, it's only coming down 4%. You would think actually the delta, because of that pull forward, might be bigger than normal this year, but it seems like it's smaller. Is there something driving that?

No. Back to it's a function of mix and seasonality. When I say the mix, the mix of some of the pull forward and seasonality is the way to think about it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. If you could, maybe you could comment on pricing for the H2 across maybe your outlook for polyethylene as well as caustic and chlorine. Thanks.

Yeah. Like I mentioned, we're not going to comment specifically on pricing for polyethylene, just to reiterate the comments I made before. Based on what we've seen through the H1 of the year, which is up 25%, July came off a little bit, August, we've announced increases of $0.05. By year-end, we do expect pricing to be higher than the prior year in polyethylene. For caustic, just to reiterate some of my previous comments, we have seen an increase through the H1 of the year, up 75% there. We have solid demand, we expect H2 to average higher than the H1.

Chlorine has been down through the H1 of the year, we expect that to be roughly flat in the back half.

Our next call comes from the line of Abigail Eberts of Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Just wondering if you could provide a little bit more color on some of your specific HIP businesses that are more traditionally exposed to new construction, such as your stone veneer business, for example.

Yeah. What we've seen this year is, we've had really good performance on our siding business, really good performance into our roofing business. We have a new strategy on roofing and going after re-roofing as well as new construction and also our stone business. We spend a lot of time restructuring the activities and improving operations, and it's been paying off this year. We expect that to continue for the H2 of the year and going into next year.

The other piece I would just add in terms of the infrastructure side. We're also seeing strength there, which we touched on. From a municipality standpoint, we are seeing continued spending there. The data center growth is something that we have seen an increase. To note on the data centers, those aren't our end customers, but the overall consumers of our products, and we have been seeing increased spend going into that data center build-out.

Got it. Yeah, a follow-up question on the data center point. I assume most of that exposure is large-diameter pipe. Is there anything you can give us to help us quantify that opportunity?

We don't have specific numbers. Again, they're not our customers. We do talk to our distributors, we hear some anecdotal data. What we've heard through some of our distributors is that it could be up to 30% of that spend is going to data centers. We can't substantiate that with our own data.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Spector of UBS. Your line is now open.

Yeah. Hi, good morning. I wanted to follow up on HIP and just ask about pricing. You talked about pricing in place but not fully realized in 2Q. As you look sequentially, how much more price is coming through, and does that drive HIP pricing up year-over-year in 3Q?

Yeah, we don't quantify that in our forecast in terms of how much of that pricing is part of our projections. At this point, the pricing letters have gone out and we're not expecting a decrease in pricing in the back part of the year.

Okay, thanks. I guess I'm not asking about future pricing. It's more the May pricing and the roll forward. I thought more of that would layer in. Let's say you got 5% pricing in May, you realized 2% in the quarter. Does that mean an extra 3% flows through based on what you've already realized, or is that incorrect?

Well, if you look at just sequential pricing quarter-over-quarter, we're at 2% from Q1 to Q2 just from a pricing standpoint. In terms of how much of that will continue, there's also a mix component of the price that we're not necessarily forecasting. I think it would be safe to say that there will be some pricing increase from Q2 to Q3 that you'll see in the results.

Yeah. I think they will be probably minor. We started to push price up in HIP immediately after March, but as you know, in HIP, it takes a little bit of time because. I would say that by the end of the second quarter, maybe flowing a little bit into the third quarter, all prices had been pretty much realized.

As Jon said, maybe slight improvement, but don't expect a lot.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew DeYoe of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Morning, everyone. Steve, congrats again-

Morning on the retirement. It's been a pleasure working with you.

Westlake (WLK) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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