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Text: I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and other members of our management team.
The conference call agenda will begin with Albert, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's performance and a current perspective on the industry.
Finally, Albert will add a few concluding comments, and we'll then open the call up to questions.
Any reference to Westlake Partners is to our master limited partnership, Westlake Chemical Partners LP, and similar references to OpCo refer to our subsidiary, Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, which owns certain olefins facilities.
Actual results could differ materially based on many factors, including the cyclical nature of the industries in which we compete, availability, cost and volatility of raw materials, energy and utilities; governmental regulatory actions, changes in trade policy and political unrest; global economic conditions, including the impact of the coronavirus; industry operating rates; impacts of extreme weather events; the supply demand balance for Westlake's products; competitive products and pricing pressures; access to capital markets; technological developments and other risk factors as discussed in our SEC filings.
We appreciate you joining us to discuss our first quarter 2021 results.
Our operating income increased 154% in the first quarter of 2021 versus the first quarter of 2020, which was before the impact of the pandemic.
Before Steve goes through the financial results, Let me provide some insight into the quarter.
The first quarter of 2021 saw strong pricing for many of our products driven by robust global demand.
The strength in demand for polyethylene and PVC resulting from the global economic rebound in 2020 was driven by an increase in worldwide packaging consumption and construction activities.
The 30% year-over-year increase in U.S. housing permits and associated housing starts shows the strength in residential construction activity that benefited our downstream building products business.
In our Vinyls segment, with tight inventory conditions, strong demand for vinyls and production outages caused by the severe winter storm, we saw PVC resin prices steadily increased in the first quarter.
The polyethylene industry also experienced tight inventory conditions due to the strong global packaging demand and domestic production outages caused by the severe winter storm.
These conditions drove pricing and integrated margins in our Olefins segment.
I would now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on our financial and operating results for the first quarter.
I will start with discussing our consolidated financial results and then go into a more detailed review of our Vinyls and Olefins segment results.
Westlake continue to benefit from the strong global supply demand dynamics and a robust return of global economic activity driving demand for most of our products.
For the first quarter of 2021, we reported net income of $242 million or $1.87 per share compared to net income of $145 million for the first quarter 2020, which included a $62 million tax benefit from the CARES Act.
These results are inclusive of the previously mentioned severe winter storm impact of approximately $100 million or $0.61 per share in the first quarter.
The $97 million first quarter year-over-year increased net income is a result of higher sales prices and integrated margins for polyethylene and PVC and higher earnings resulting from the strong demand in our downstream building products business.
Partially offsetting these increases were lost sales and lower production volumes, elevated maintenance cost, higher feedstock and natural gas fuel cost, all related to the severe winter storm as well as lower sales prices for caustic soda.
While we work quickly to get our facilities back online, our estimates for a loss margin from sales and repair expense are approximately $120 million.
We incurred approximately $100 million in the first quarter of 2021 results or approximately $0.61 per share, with the remaining $20 million falling into the second quarter.
Of this estimated first quarter impact of $100 million, approximately 75% was related to our Vinyls segment, with the balance affecting our Olefins segment.
First quarter 2021 net income increased by $129 million from fourth quarter 2020 net income of $113 million.
The increase in net income was largely attributable to higher sales prices for polyethylene and PVC resin.
Offsetting these benefits were lower caustic soda prices and higher feedstock and fuel cost.
Our utilization of the FIFO method of accounting resulted in a favorable pre-tax impact of approximately $55 million or $0.33 per share compared to what earnings would have been reported under the LIFO method.
This is only an estimate and has not been audited.
Now let's move on to discuss the performance of our two segments, starting with our Vinyls segment.
Throughout the first quarter, we experienced robust global demand for PVC anchored by strong global construction activity.
Our downstream building products business continued to benefit from solid residential construction and repair and remodeling demand.
PVC strength was driven by broad-based end market demand, including residential construction, automotive and medical equipment.
While the severe winter storm impacted our production in the quarter, the strong demand for PVC and our downstream building products saw higher sales prices, and we benefited from strong integrated margins during the quarter.
For the first quarter of 2021, Vinyls operating income of $200 million increased $127 million from the prior year period, primarily as a result of higher sales prices and margins for PVC resin and higher sales prices and margins in our downstream building products business.
This is partially offset by reduced sales volumes and lost production from the severe winter storm, lower sales prices for caustic soda and higher feedstock and fuel cost.
For the first quarter of 2021, Vinyls operating income increased $34 million from fourth quarter of 2020, primarily the result of higher sales for PVC resin and higher volumes in our downstream building products business.
In our Olefins business, robust global demand for packaging and other consumer products expanded our integrated margins in polyethylene.
Our first quarter 2021 operating income of $180 million increased $118 million from the first quarter 2020, driven by strong pricing and improved demand, offset by lower sales volumes resulting from the severe winter storm.
For the first quarter 2021, Olefins operating income increased $158 million from fourth quarter of 2020, primarily due to higher sales prices and margins as well as increased sales volumes, partially offset by higher feedstock and fuel cost.
Next, let's turn our attention to the balance sheet and statement of cash flows.
We generated $265 million in cash flows from operations in the first quarter 2021, resulting in total cash and cash equivalents of $1.4 billion.
First quarter 2021 capital expenditures were $141 million.
We maintain a long-dated debt maturity profile with a weighted average debt maturity of 14 years, anchoring our investment-grade balance sheet.
Now to address some of your modeling questions.
We expect our effective tax rate for the full year of 2021 to be approximately 23% and a cash tax rate of approximately 19%.
As we stated in our last call, we forecast our capital expenditures for the year to be between $700 million and $800 million.
We are planning for a turnaround of our Petro II ethylene unit to begin in September of this year.
This turnaround and associated outage is expected to last approximately 60 days.
As we look ahead, we see continuing strength in global demand in polyethylene, PVC and downstream building products driven by the solid market in residential construction, packaging, automotive and healthcare.
Our high-level integration extends through the value chain from natural gas liquids and other feedstocks through to consumer building products.
Our chemical operations sit on the lower end of the global cost curve, which enable us to drive long-term value throughout the business and investment cycles while meeting the needs of our end-use customers with the downstream building products business, bringing additional value.
In our Vinyls segment, we see continuing strength in the PVC and downstream building products markets, driven by strong construction and other durable goods demand.
In our Olefins business, end-use demand remains strong as the essential everyday products such as consumer packaging and healthcare are driving polyethylene demand.
With the continued emphasis on corporate stewardship, we remain vigilant with our focus in developing products and solutions for a more sustainable future while protecting and investing in our people.
As an example of our commitment to sustainability, we have introduced green caustic soda, a certified climate-friendly caustic soda, utilizing renewable energy.
This product is available under the brand name GreenVin, which has a reduced CO2 impact of more than 30% compared to conventional caustic soda.
We look forward to further discussing these products with you as more developments are made and furthering our commitment to transparency through our future ESG reporting.
These initiatives reflect our dedication to being a dominantly and socially responsible corporate citizen.
Westlake remains focused on our core tenets, namely, to protect the health and safety of our employees, deliver on our commitments to our customers, and strengthen the company in all aspects.
Anchored by these values, we are confident that Westlake is well positioned to serve the growing worldwide needs of our customers while maintaining financial discipline, which, combined with the strong fundamentals of our business, enable us to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.
We'll provide that number again at the end of the call.
Daphne, we'll now take questions.

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q1 earnings per share $1.87.

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