You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: stepan.com under the Investors section of our website.
Although many parts of the world are slowly improving, the Delta Variant continues to spread, and vaccine rates in much of the developed world have stalled.
Global supply chain disruptions are impacting commerce and many of the products we all use every day have been impacted.
At Stepan, our team continues to navigate through the turbulent environment to help our customers serve the market.
Adjusted third quarter net income was $36.4 million flat with prior year.
The negative impact of the global supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures was offset by one-time tax benefits.
Year-to-date adjusted net income was $121 million or $5.20 per diluted share.
Both adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share were up 22% versus the first nine months of 2020.
Surfactants was also negatively impacted by lower consumer demand for cleaning, disinfection and personal wash products which have dropped since the pandemic peak in 2020.
In the third quarter, each of our Company's three global business segments was negatively affected by raw material price inflation and significant supply chain disruptions including raw material shortages and logistics constraints.
Surfactant operating income was down 16% largely due to higher North American supply chain cost, driven by inflation, higher planned maintenance costs and the $2.2 million insurance recovery related to the Millsdale plant in 2020.
Our Polymer operating income was down 12%, mostly due to the non-recurrence of the insurance recovery and the compensation received from the Chinese government in the third quarter of 2020.
Global Polymer sales volume rose 27% and was largely driven by the INVISTA acquisition.
Our Specialty Product business rose by 53%, and was mainly due to order timing differences within our food and flavor business.
Our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on Stepan's common stock $0.335 per share payable on December 15, 2021.
With this 9.8% increase, Stepan has now increased and paid its dividend for 54 consecutive years.
The Board also authorized the Company to repurchase up to $150 million of its common stock, further demonstrating our commitment to deliver stockholder value through disciplined capital allocation.
Our strong balance sheet and cash generation will allow us to invest in our current business and pursue strategic opportunities while we return capital to our stockholders.
Luis will now share some details about our third quarter and year-to-date results.
Let's start with the Slide 4 to recap the quarter.
Adjusted net income for the third quarter of 2021 was $36.4 million or $1.57 per diluted share, basically flat versus the third quarter of 2020.
Because adjusted net income is a non-GAAP measure, we provide full reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures.
Specifically, adjustment to reported net income this quarter consists of adjustment for deferred compensation, environmental reserves increase, and minor restructuring expenses.
Adjusted net income for the quarter exclude deferred compensation income of $1.1 million or $0.05 per diluted share compared to deferred compensation expense of $2.6 million or $0.11 per diluted share in the same period last year.
The deferred compensation numbers represent the net expense related to the Company's deferred compensation plan as well as cash-settled stock appreciation rights for our employees.
Because these liabilities change with the movement in the stock price, we exclude these items from our operational discussion.
Slide 5 shows the total Company earnings bridge for the third quarter, compared to last year's third quarter, and breaks down the increase in adjusted net income.
Because this is net income, the figures noted here are on an after-tax basis.
We will cover each segment in more detail.
But to summarize, Surfactants and Polymers were down, while Specialty Product was up versus the prior year.
Corporate expenses and all others were slightly higher due to inflation.
The Company's effective tax rate was 20% for the first nine months of 2021 compared to 24% in the same period last year.
This year-over-year decrease was primarily attributable to a favorable tax benefit recognized in the third quarter of 2021.
The tax benefits are related to the merger of the Company's three Brazilian entities into a single entity and more favorable R&D tax credits.
We expect the full year 2021 effective tax rate to be in the 20% to 22% range.
Slide 6, focuses on Surfactants segment results for the quarter.
Surfactant net sales were $388 million, a 16% increase versus the prior year.
Selling prices were up 20% primarily due to improved product and customer mix as well as the pass-through of higher raw material costs.
The effect of foreign currency translation positively impacted sales by 2%.
Volume decreased 6% year-over-year.
Most of this decrease reflect the lower volume sold into the North America consumer product end market as demand for cleaning, disinfection and personal wash products dropped from the peak of the pandemic.
This was partially offset by very strong growth in our functional product end markets and solid growth in the industrial and institutional cleaning market.
Surfactant operating income for the quarter decreased $6.7 million or 16% versus the prior year, primarily due to supply chain disruption impacts and the one-time insurance payment of $2.2 million recognized in the third quarter of 2020.
We estimate the supply chain disruption had a negative impact of approximately $4 million during the current quarter.
We implemented price increases in October to continue recovering our margins.
Latin America operating results were lower due to planned maintenance and expansion activities.
Europe results increased slightly due to higher demand in functional products, partially offset by a decrease in consumer products.
Now turning to Polymers on Slide 7, net sales were $199 million in the quarter, up 70% from prior year.
Selling prices increased 44% primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs.
Volume grew 27% in the quarter driven by 33% growth in global rigid polyol.
This volume growth is mostly related to the INVISTA acquisition.
Global rigid polyol volume excluding INVISTA was flat, driven by supply chain disruptions.
Higher demand within the Specialty polyol business also contributed to the volume growth.
Polymer operating income decreased $2.6 million or 12%, driven by one-time benefits of $4 million in the third quarter of 2020 and significant supply chain disruptions in the current quarter.
We estimate the supply chain disruptions had a negative impact of approximately $3 million during the quarter.
North America polyol results decreased due to one-time benefit recognized in the third quarter of 2020 and supply chain disruptions, partially offset by higher volume.
In October, we implemented price increases in the market to recover our margins.
Europe results increased driven by the INVISTA acquisition.
China results decreased due to the one-time benefit recorded in the third quarter of 2020 as well as higher supply chain costs.
The Specialty Product net sales were up 15% driven by volume up 9% between quarters.
Operating income increased $0.8 million or 53% due to order timing differences within our food and flavor business and improved margins within our MCT product line.
Moving on to Slide 8.
Our balance sheet remains strong, and we have ample liquidity to invest in the business.
Our leverage and interest coverage ratios continues at very healthy levels.
We had a strong cash from operations in the first nine months of 2021 which we have used for capital investments, dividends, share buybacks and working capital given the strong sales growth and raw material inflation.
We executed a $50 million private placement note at a very attractive and fixed interest rate of around 2%.
We will use a new cash to fund our organic and inorganic growth opportunities and for other general corporate purposes.
For the full year, capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $200 million to $220 million.
This new estimate includes today's announced alkoxylation investment at our Pasadena, Texas facility.
Beginning on Slide 10, Scott will now update you on our 2021 strategic priorities.
As we wrap up the first nine months of 2021, we believe our business will remain relatively strong despite the supply chain challenges we and our customers are experiencing.
We continue to prioritize the safety and health of our employees as we deliver products that contribute to the fight against COVID-19.
Consumer habits have changed and these new behaviors include the higher use of disinfection, cleaning and personal wash products.
We believe our Surfactant volumes in the consumer product end market will remain higher versus pre-pandemic levels, however, lower than peak pandemic demand in 2020.
We are seeing institutional cleaning and disinfection volumes grow as economies around the world reopen and people demand higher standards for cleaning and disinfection in public settings.
Our diversification strategy into functional markets continues to be a key priority for Stepan.
During the first nine months of the year, global agricultural volume increased double-digits.
High commodity prices for corn and soybeans coupled with higher planted acreage in the 2021 growing season drove the demand for crop protection products in North America.
Latin America and Asia sales continue to grow in the post-patent pesticide segment with new products being launched throughout the world.
Oilfield volume was up strong double-digits during the first nine months of the year due to higher oil prices and a depressed 2020 base.
We remain optimistic about future opportunities in this business as oil prices have recovered to the $80 per barrel level, and we continue to promote our new cost-effective product solutions that improve oilfield operator ROI and protect their wells.
We will continue working on improving operational productivity as well as product and customer mix to improve Surfactant operating income and margins.
Globally, we are increasing capacity in certain product lines, including biocides and amphoteric to ensure we can meet higher requirements from our customers.
As discussed previously, we are increasing North American capability and capacity to produce low 1,4-dioxane sulfates.
1,4-dioxane is the minor byproduct generated in the manufacture of ether sulfate surfactants which are key cleaning and foaming ingredients used in consumer product formulations.
Through a combination of process optimization and additional manufacturing equipment, Stepan will be prepared to supply customers ether sulfates that meet the new January 2023 regulatory requirements.
This project, along with our announcement today to invest $220 million to build under an EPC contract 75,000 metric tons per year Alkoxylation production facility at our Pasadena, Texas site are the primary drivers of our 2021 capital expenditure forecast of $200 million to $220 million.
We are excited about the capability and future growth that these investment projects will deliver to Stepan Company.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 customers continue to be a focus of our Surfactant growth strategy.
We added 300 new customers during the quarter and approximately 800 customers during the first nine months of the year.
We finished our consulting work in our Millsdale plant and are focusing now on executing the recommended changes.
We accelerated investments in both expense and capex to improve productivity and to increase capacity.
We expect this project and the investment level to continue through the remainder of the year, and we should see benefits including productivity enhancements, increased capacity in several high margin product lines and improved service levels to our customers next year.
Polymers had good performance during the first nine months of the year as market demand recovered after a challenging year in 2020 due to COVID restrictions.
The business has also benefited from the INVISTA acquisition which closed in January.
However, in the third quarter, we saw significant impact to our margins due to raw material availability and cost escalation while orders from customers remained restrained by their own raw material availability and other supply chain issues.
For perspective, we had suppliers declare force majeure on critical raw materials, while our customers experienced market shortages on MDI and flame retardants, which are used in their finished foam insulation formulations.
We are currently working to recover our margins in the fourth quarter.
The long-term prospects for our polyol business remain attractive as energy conservation efforts and more stringent building codes should increase demand.
The integration of the business acquired from INVISTA is going well and expect this acquisition to deliver more than $20 million of EBITDA in 2021.
Given the strength of our balance sheet, we plan to continue to identify and pursue acquisition opportunities to fill gaps in our portfolio, and to add new platform chemistries aligned with our Company's growth strategy.
The Company delivered record first nine month earnings in 2021.
Looking forward, we believe our Surfactant volumes in North American consumer product end markets will continue to be challenged by raw material and transportation availability.
While we believe, industrial and institutional cleaning volume will grow versus prior year, we do not believe it will compensate for lower consumer consumption of cleaning, disinfection and personal wash products.
We believe that the demand for Surfactants in the agricultural and oilfield markets will exceed prior year demand.
We believe our Polymer business will deliver growth versus prior year due to the ongoing recovery from pandemic-related delays and our first quarter acquisition of INVISTA's aromatic polyester polyol business.
We continue to believe the long-term prospects for rigid polyols remain attractive.
We anticipate our Specialty Products business will improve slightly year-over-year.
Despite continued raw material sourcing issues, raw material price increases, higher planned maintenance expenses and supply chain challenges, we believe underlying market demand remains strong and we are optimistic about delivering full-year earnings growth this year.
Low inventories across the value chain should provide opportunities in 2022.
Frank, please review the instructions for the question portion of today's call.

user
stepan co increases quarterly cash dividend.
stepan co - board authorized company to repurchase up to $150 million of its common stock.
stepan co - approved an increase of $0.030 per share, or 9.8%, on its quarterly cash dividend to $0.335 per share.
compname posts q3 adjusted earnings per share $1.57.
q3 adjusted earnings per share $1.57.
stepan - surfacant volumes in north american consumer product end markets will continue to be challenged by raw material, transportation availability.

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