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: On Slide 3, in order to provide improved transparency into the operating results of our business, we provided non-GAAP measures adjusted net earnings, adjusted earnings per share, and adjusted segment earnings that exclude the severance and restructuring charges related to aligning our business to current market conditions.
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Before I summarize the quarter and Chuck goes through the results, I want to express how proud I am of our global team.
We faced challenges and complexities to our business that we have never faced before.
Our number one goal was and remains to keep our employees safe while delivering our essential products to our customers.
I say confidently that our team met and often exceeded my expectations.
You truly make A. O. Smith a remarkable company.
The business performed in the second quarter is largely in line with what we saw in April.
Continuing the pace of growth we saw in the first quarter, our North America water treatment business organically grew 19%.
Direct-to-consumer and retail sales were particularly strong as consumers became more health conscious during the pandemic and the shelter-in-place orders confined many of us to our homes.
As expected, industry volumes of residential water heaters in the U.S. held up notably well.
Based on our June shipments, we estimate industry volumes were flat to slightly up [Phonetic] in the quarter compared to last year.
Due to construction project delays and postponements in North America, we saw commercial water heater and boiler volumes decline, in line with our estimates of the industry declines of 20% to 25% in the quarter compared with last year.
Consumer demand for our products in China was flat to slightly positive compared to the second quarter of 2019 as restaurants and shopping malls reopened and retail foot traffic increased.
We remained operational with no significant disruptions.
Our Juarez, Mexico plant, which we voluntarily closed in April, reopened in May and ramped up production over the latter portion of the quarter.
We have taken numerous and meaningful steps to protect our employees, suppliers, and customers in the pandemic.
These important steps, in many cases reduced efficiencies, and include continuous communication and training to our employees on living and working safely in a COVID-19 world, client [Phonetic] accommodations and reconfiguration to maintain social distancing, masks for all employees, implementation of sanitizing stations, temperature taking, and regular proactive deep cleaning and sanitization of our facilities.
Our global supply chain remain operational.
We continue to monitor and manage our ability to operate effectively as tariffs and the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related stresses on the supply chain and periodic marketplace disruptions impact our operation.
To align our business with current market conditions, primarily in China and to a lesser extent in North America, we reduced headcount and incurred other restructuring costs totaling $6 million in the second quarter.
Second quarter 2020 sales of $664 million declined 13% compared to the second quarter of 2019.
The decline in sales was largely due to lower water heater volumes in China and lower commercial water heater and boiler volumes in North America driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result of lower sales, second quarter 2020 adjusted earnings of $73 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.45 declined significantly compared with the same period in 2019.
Sales in our North America segment of $481 million declined 8% compared to the second quarter of 2019.
Organic growth of approximately 19% in North America water treatment sales was more than offset by lower commercial water heater volumes, lower boiler volumes, and a water heater sales mix composed of more electric models which have a lower selling price.
Rest of the World segment sales of $190 million declined 24% compared to the same quarter of 2019.
China sales declined 20% in local currency related to higher mix of mid-price products and further reductions in customer inventory levels.
Consumer demand for our products in China was flat to slightly positive compared with the second quarter of 2019.
China currency translation negatively impacted sales by approximately $6 million.
Our sequential sales in China improved through the quarter and China was profitable in May and June.
India sales declined significantly as the economy was shut down during a majority of the quarter to minimize the spread of the virus.
On Slide 7, North America adjusted segment earnings of $108 million were 12% lower than segment earnings in the same quarter in 2019.
The decline in earnings was driven by lower volumes of commercial water heaters, lower boiler volumes, and a mix skew to electric water heaters.
Certain costs directly related to the pandemic including temporarily moving production from Mexico to the U.S., paying employees during temporary plant shutdowns, facility cleaning, paying benefits for furloughed employees and other costs were $5.5 million in the second quarter.
Adjusted earnings exclude $2.2 million in pre-tax severance costs.
As a result, second quarter 2020 segment -- adjusted segment margin of 22.4% declined from 23.5% achieved in the same period last year.
Rest of the World adjusted segment loss of $2 million declined significantly compared with 2019 second quarter segment earnings of $22 million.
The unfavorable impact to profits were lower China sales and a higher mix of mid-price products which have lower margins more than offset the benefits to profits from lower SG&A expenses.
These results exclude $3.9 million in pre-tax severance and restructuring costs.
As a result of these factors, adjusted segment margin was negative compared with 9% in the same quarter of 2019.
Our corporate expenses of $10 million and interest expense of $3 million were similar to last year.
Cash provided by operations of $179 million during the first half of 2020 was higher than $144 million in the same period of 2019 as a result of lower investment in working capital, including deferral of our April estimated federal income tax payment to July, which was partially offset by lower earnings compared with the year ago period.
Our liquidity and balance sheet remained strong.
We had cash balances totaling $569 million and our net cash position was $288 million at the end of June.
Our leverage ratio at the end of the second quarter was 14.5% as measured by total debt to total capital.
We had $332 million of undrawn borrowing capacity on our $500 million revolver.
[Technical Issues] the second quarter and our share repurchase activity continues to be suspended.
During the first half of 2020, we repurchased approximately 1.3 million shares of common stock for a total of $57 million.
Our 2020 adjusted earnings per share guidance excludes $0.03 per share in severance and restructuring costs included that were incurred in the second quarter.
Our adjusted guidance assumes the conditions of our business environment and that of our suppliers and customers is similar for the remainder of the year to what we are currently experiencing and does not deteriorate as a result of further restrictions or shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We expect our cash flow from operations in 2020 to be approximately $350 million compared with $456 million in 2019, primarily due to lower earnings.
Our 2020 capital spending plans are between $60 million and $70 million and our depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $80 million.
Our corporate and other expenses are expected to be approximately $47 million in 2020, slightly higher than 2019 primarily due to lower interest income on investments.
We expect our interest expense to be $9 million in 2020 compared with $11 million in 2019.
Our effective income tax rate is expected to be between 23% and 23.5% in 2020.
Our assumptions assume no additional share repurchase resulting in an average diluted outstanding shares in 2020 of approximately 162.5 million.
Our outlook for 2020 includes the following assumptions.
We project U.S. residential water heater industry volumes will be flat in 2020 driven by resilient replacement demand and similar levels of new home constructions as last year.
We expect commercial industry water heater volumes will decline approximately 10% as job sites and business closures due to the pandemic delay or defer new construction and discretionary replacement installation.
It is encouraging to see consumer demand for our China product similar, if not a little higher than last year over the last four months.
We are also seeing sequentially quarterly improvement in market share both online and offline for water heater and water treatment products driven by our mid-price range products.
We took additional charges in Q2 for further restructuring of the business.
We believe these restructuring charges are largely behind us.
We continue to target closure of 1,000 existing stores while targeting to open 500 small store relationships in Tier 4 through 6 cities.
Cost actions and restructuring activity are projected to result in $35 million of savings in 2020 over 2019, $15 million of which will be realized in the second half of 2020.
We expect year-over-year declines in local currency sales of 18% to 20% and protract sequential quarter-over-quarter growth in the second half of the year as China appears to be making sustainable progress in reopening their economy and keeping the virus in check.
We expect our North America boiler sales will decline approximately 10% for the full year.
Commercial boilers represent 65% to 70% of our boiler sales.
With many job sites temporarily closed during the second quarter, we believe as job sites reopen, the orders will sequentially improve in the second half of the year.
We project 20% to 22% sales growth in our North America water treatment products which include incremental Water-Right sales.
We ended 2019 with a $2.6 million loss in India and expect a similar loss in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
Please advance to Slide 11.
We project revenue will decline by 7% to 8% in 2020 as strong organic North America water treatment sales and resilient North America residential water heater volumes are more than offset by weaker North America commercial water heater and boiler volumes and lower China sales, largely due to the pandemic.
We expect North America segment margin to be between 22.5% and 23% and Rest of World segment margins to be negative 1% to negative 2.5%.
We believe particularly in these uncertain times A. O, Smith is a compelling investment for a number of reasons.
We have leading share positions in our major product categories.
We estimate replacement demand represents approximately 80% to 85% of U.S. water heater and boiler volumes.
We have a strong premium brand in China, a broad product offering in our key product categories, broad distribution, and a reputation for quality and innovation in that region.
Over time, we are well positioned to maximize favorable demographics in both China and India to enhance shareholder value.
We have strong cash flow and balance sheet supporting the ability to continue to invest for the long-term with investments in automation, innovation, and new products as well as acquisitions and returning cash to shareholders.
We will continue to proactively manage our business in this uncertain environment.
We see improving consumer demand trends emerge in China where we were first impacted by the pandemic and see China operations pivot to profitability for the remainder of the year.
In North America, as the economy begins to reemerge after [Phonetic] the economic shut down, persistent COVID-19 cases and related potential implications to returning to a more stable environment in the market, workplace and supply chain will continue to be challenging throughout the remainder of the year.
We have a strong and dedicated team, which has navigated successfully through prior downturns and I'm confident in our ability to execute similarly through COVID-19.

user
suspended its share repurchase program in mid-march 2020 and repurchased no shares in q2 of 2020.
forecasts capital expenditures between $60 and $70 million in 2020.
continues to strategically invest in its business for long-term.
q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.45.
qtrly sales were 13 percent lower than sales of $765.4 million reported in same quarter of 2019.

assistant