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Text: Last night, we released results for our third quarter of fiscal year 2021, copies of which are posted in the Investor Relations section of our website.
In order to provide greater transparency regarding our operating performance, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that involve adjustments to GAAP results.
Any non-GAAP financial measures presented should not be considered to be an alternative to financial measures required by GAAP.
Erica McLaughlin will review the business segment and corporate financial details.
I'm very pleased with our results this quarter as we generated adjusted earnings per share of $1.35.
This marks the second strongest quarterly earnings performance in the company's history.
Demand across all businesses were strong and we continue to leverage our global network of plants to serve our customers while managing the persistent challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and disruptions in international transportation and logistics markets.
I'm very proud of the entire Cabot team for demonstrating great operating discipline across all aspects of our business and for their resilience in this very dynamic environment.
Our culture of teamwork and our commitment to commercial and operational excellence serves as the foundation for our strong performance.
While raw material markets remained somewhat volatile during the quarter, we were successful in implementing price increases to maintain robust margins.
I am also very excited about our continued progress across our portfolio of targeted growth initiatives, particularly in the battery application.
I believe the battery market presents one of the most compelling new growth opportunities for the materials sector and our strategic investments over the last several years have positioned Cabot very well to capitalize on this unique opportunity.
Our energy materials business continued to build strong momentum in the quarter as we achieved qualification milestones and began commercial sales to an additional two of the global electric vehicle battery leaders.
The Top 8 EV battery producers represent approximately 90% of the industry and we now have commercial sales to six of these Top 8 manufacturers.
In addition, we are supplying conductive carbon additives to the Top 5 EV battery producers in China.
The Cabot value proposition to the battery market is based on three factors.
First, the breadth of our product line of conductive carbon additives including conductive carbon blacks, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanostructures and blends of conductive carbon additives.
Second, the depth of our application knowledge in our global research and development centers allow us to tailor products for our customers and respond quickly in this fast changing environment.
And finally, our global footprint of manufacturing plants and our sales and technical service support.
As battery producers expand their manufacturing footprints outside of Asia to support auto OEMs with robust regional supply chains, we see the value of our global footprint becoming even more important for our customers.
We believe these capabilities represent a compelling differentiator for Cabot and position our company as a key supplier and innovator to the leading battery manufacturers.
Transitioning now to cash.
Operating cash flow in the quarter was $71 million and $157 million year-to-date.
While EBITDA generation has been very strong, conversion to operating cash has been impacted somewhat by higher oil prices, which contributed to over $100 million of the net working capital increase year-to-date.
While oil price volatility can create short-term fluctuations in working capital balances, history has shown that over the long-term, oil driven working capital fluctuations tend to balance out.
Given the size and strength of our balance sheet, we can easily absorb these changes in working capital without impacting our long-term capital allocation priorities.
As oil prices stabilize, we expect to see a greater level of conversion of our strong EBITDA to operating cash flow.
The strength of the balance sheet and our cash flow is reflected in our investment grade credit rating.
This has long been a priority for us and we remain committed to this posture.
We recently closed on a new $1 billion ESG linked credit facility, which replaces our existing credit facility that was due to mature in October of 2022.
The facility includes two ESG metrics centered around our annual sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emission reduction goals.
This agreement represents one of the first ESG linked credit facilities in the chemical industry and further reinforces our commitment to sustainability.
The facility matures in August of 2026 with key terms largely the same as our prior facility.
In addition, during the quarter, we released our 2020 sustainability report, which provides enhanced transparency on our environmental, social, and governance priorities.
ESG leadership is central to our strategy and the interactive digital report summarizes our progress and accomplishments.
Overall, we had a very strong quarter in terms of financial performance and progress against strategic objectives.
I will start with discussing results in the Reinforcement Materials segment.
The Reinforcement Materials segment delivered strong operating results with EBIT of $85 million, which is up $90 million compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2020.
The increase is primarily due to significantly higher volumes across all regions and improved unit margins driven by favorable pricing in the Asia region.
Globally, volumes were up 71% in the third quarter as compared to the same period of the prior year due to 146% growth in the Americas, 100% increase in Europe, and up 30% in Asia.
Higher volumes were driven by key end market demand that continued to recover from COVID-related impacts in fiscal 2020.
Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect the volumes to remain strong.
Fixed costs are expected to be sequentially higher due to the timing of planned plant maintenance.
Given the very strong demand in the last few quarters and limited inventory in most supply chains, our focus has been on supporting our customers' product needs.
As a result, we have scheduled a higher than normal amount of maintenance in the upcoming quarter.
Another factor that will affect our fourth quarter is the impact of a outage at a plant in the U.S. due to an equipment failure on our recently installed air pollution control system.
Cabot completed this project on schedule according to the consent decree.
However, controlling this level of SOx and NOx emissions is new for the carbon black industry in the U.S. With the start-up of any new technology, there can be unexpected issues and this is the situation we currently face.
We anticipate this site will be down for about one month to repair the equipment.
In addition, we expect margins to moderate from the third fiscal quarter due to higher feedstock differentials.
We anticipate this differentials impact will be approximately $5 million in the fourth quarter and we expect to recover this impact in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 through our DCA mechanisms.
Now turning to Performance Chemicals, EBIT increased by $33 million as compared to the third fiscal quarter of 2020 primarily due to strong volumes across the segment and improved product mix.
The stronger product mix was driven by an increase in sales into automotive applications in our specialty carbons and specialty compounds product lines.
Year-over-year, volumes increased by 17% in Performance Additives and 20% in Formulated Solutions driven by higher volumes across all our product lines underpinned by higher demand levels in our key end markets.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, we expect overall volumes to remain strong with some impact from lower seasonal demand.
We anticipate higher costs from planned turnarounds and a net unfavorable impact from planned outages.
The first outage is what I just mentioned at a plant in the U.S.
This plant supplies both the Reinforcement Materials segment and the Performance Chemicals segment.
Another planned outage is related to a specialty compounds plant in Belgium.
This plant was severely impacted by the heavy rains and floods in the region in July resulting in this plant remaining offline for the balance of the fourth quarter.
With higher maintenance impacting both the Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemical segments, we estimate the sequential impact of higher maintenance costs for the company to be in the $8 million to $10 million range.
We expect this elevated level to return to a more normal level in Q1 of fiscal 2022.
With regards to the plant outages, this impact is also across both the Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals segment and we expect the impact across the company to be in the range of $7 million to $10 million in the fourth quarter.
We expect to recover insurance proceeds that will help to offset the financial impact from these outages, but we do not anticipate any proceeds to benefit operating results until fiscal 2022.
Moving to Purification Solutions, EBIT in the third quarter of 2021 increased by $4 million compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020 driven by volume growth in specialty applications and an insurance reimbursement from a plant outage in the first quarter of this fiscal year.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, we expect EBIT to decline due to lower volumes in our mercury removal applications and we will not have insurance proceeds in the fourth quarter.
I will now turn to corporate items.
We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $173 million and our liquidity position remained strong at $1.3 billion.
During the third quarter of fiscal 2021, cash flows from operating activities were $71 million which included a working capital increase of $47 million.
The working capital increase was largely driven by the impact of higher raw material costs that cause [Phonetic] higher inventory balances and as we pass these higher costs on in our pricing, which drove accounts receivable higher as well.
Capital expenditures for the third quarter of fiscal '21 were $46 million.
For the full year, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $20 million.
This estimate includes continued EPA-related compliance spend and the capital related to upgrading our new China carbon black plant to produce specialty products.
We anticipate the new plant in China will be online in the second half of fiscal '22.
Additional uses of cash during the quarter included $20 million for dividends.
Our year-to-date operating tax rate was 28% and we forecast our operating tax rate will be between 27% and 28% for this fiscal year.
I'm very pleased with our third consecutive quarter of strong operating results and we are raising our expected full year outlook of adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.85 to $5.05.
This is truly exceptional performance for our company and reflects our strong commercial and operational execution and the value of the strategic choices we have made in recent years.
Our advancing the core strategy is focused on strengthening our industry-leading positions through great execution and by making smart targeted growth investments.
We've invested aggressively in our operating platform to build excellence in our commercial and manufacturing operations.
On the commercial front, our focus has been on strengthening our capabilities and the disciplines of key account management, data analytics, strategic pricing and voice of the customer and all of these have been underpinned by a world-class CRM platform.
On the manufacturing front, our focus has been on overall equipment effectiveness or OEE, energy recovery process and yield optimization, and capital efficiency.
Through these actions, we have demonstrated the earnings power of our two high-margin segments in Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals and we have enabled this growth in a more capital-efficient manner.
On the growth front, we have a philosophy of building from positions of strength and investing in market spaces where we believe we have a right to win.
This led us to invest for breakout growth in conductive carbon additives for batteries and to complete the Sanshun acquisition and we are growing in the battery space as we expected.
In addition, our capacity investments in Asia over the years have positioned us as a leader in the region across carbon black, fumed silica, and specialty compounds.
These investments are enabling us to drive strong earnings and returns in this high growth area of the world.
Through these foundational capability investments and smart growth choices, we have structurally increased the profitability of the company and have moved the EBITDA base to a new level.
As I look forward, the underlying performance of our business is very strong and customer demand remains robust.
Our growth investments are well positioned to take advantage of macro trends in the area of mobility, alternative energy generation and storage, connectivity, and infrastructure reinvestment.
I feel very good about how Cabot is positioned for fiscal '22 and the coming years.
The strength of our culture and the resilience of our employees has never been more apparent than it has been during these challenging times.

user
raises fy adjusted earnings per share view to $4.85 to $5.05.
q3 adjusted earnings per share $1.35.
have been successfully implementing price increases to maintain robust margins as raw material costs have continued to increase.
as we look ahead to q4 of fiscal year, we expect demand to remain strong across segments.
as we look ahead to q4 of fiscal year, expect demand to remain strong across segments.

assistant