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: I'm Mark Kowlzan, Chairman and CEO of PCA, and with me on the call today is Tom Hassfurther, Executive Vice President, who runs our Packaging business; and Bob Mundy, our Chief Financial Officer.
I'll then wrap things up and then we'll be glad to take questions.
Yesterday, we reported first quarter net income of $167 million or $1.75 per share.
First quarter net income included special items expenses of $0.02 per share related to closure costs for certain corrugated products facilities and specific costs related to discontinuing paper operations associated with the previously announced conversion of the No.
3 machine at our Jackson, Alabama mill to linerboard.
Excluding the special items, first quarter 2021 net income was $169 million or $1.77 per share compared to the first quarter 2020 net income of $143 million or $1.50 per share.
First quarter net sales were $1.8 billion in 2021 and $1.7 billion in 2020.
Total company EBITDA for the first quarter, excluding special items was $342 million in 2021 and $311 million in 2020.
Excluding the special items, the $0.27 per share increase in first quarter 2021 earnings compared to the first quarter of 2020 was driven primarily by higher volumes for $0.45 and prices and mix $0.31 in the Packaging segment and lower annual outage expenses for $0.12.
The items were partially offset by lower volumes, $0.28, and prices and mix of $0.03 in the Paper segment.
Operating costs were $0.15 per share higher, primarily due to inflation-related increases, particularly in the areas of labor and benefits expenses, and fiber costs and energy.
We also had inflation-related increases in our converting costs, which were $0.02 per share higher.
For the last three quarters, freight and logistics costs have risen and were $0.12 per share higher in the first quarter compared to last year.
Significant increases in fuel costs, high truck supply and a higher mix of spot pricing to keep up with box demand are the primary drivers.
And in the first quarter, we had the issues brought on by the winter storms as well.
We also had other expenses of $0.01 per share.
Looking at the packaging business.
EBITDA excluding special items in the first quarter of 2021 of $352 million with sales of $1.6 billion resulted in a margin of 22% versus last year's EBITDA of $290 million and sales of $1.5 billion or a 20% margin.
Demand in the Packaging segment remained very strong as sales volume in both our containerboard mills and our corrugated products plants set or matched all-time quarterly records.
Although we were able to replenish some inventory during the quarter by utilizing the Jackson, Alabama mill for additional containerboard production, we again ended the period with inventory levels lower than planned and at record lows from a weeks-of-supply standpoint due to stronger-than-expected demand.
Our mills and box plants displayed outstanding management of their operations to meet customer commitments in spite of several weather-related events that impacted their operations, created raw material availability issues and presented both inbound and outbound freight and logistics challenges.
In addition, our facilities continued to deliver on numerous cost reduction initiatives, efficiency improvements in capital projects and bringing the benefits of those efforts to the bottom line.
We also recently completed two high return strategic projects that we've mentioned to you before, the OCC project at our Wallula Mill and the boiler project at our Filer mill.
The tremendous effort our employees put into these initiatives and projects helps us minimize some of the cost inflation we see every year and especially now with what we're seeing in the areas I mentioned previously.
As Mark mentioned, corrugated products and containerboard demand were very strong during the quarter, total volume in our corrugated products plants was up 6.6% versus last year and equal the all-time record for total box shipments that we just set in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Shipments per day were up 8.3% over last year, which set a new first quarter record for us.
Strong domestic demand drove outside sales volume of containerboard 13% above last year's first quarter.
Domestic containerboard and corrugated products prices and mix together were $0.26 per share above the first quarter of 2020 and up $0.52 per share compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 as we continued to implement our November 2020 announced price increases during the quarter and we began the implementation of our announced March increase.
Export containerboard prices were up $0.05 per share versus last year's first quarter and up $0.04 per share compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
Looking at our Paper segment, EBITDA excluding special items in the first quarter was $16 million with sales of $165 million or a 10% margin compared to the first quarter of 2020's EBITDA of $42 million and sales of $217 million or a 19% margin.
As expected, sales volume was about 22% below last year as we ran only one machine at the Jackson, Alabama mill this quarter versus both machines running in the first quarter of 2020.
First quarter paper prices and mix were almost 3% below last year, however, prices began to move higher in the latter part of the quarter, resulting from the announced paper price increases and averaged 1% higher than fourth quarter 2020 average prices.
Industry conditions in the uncoated freesheet market continue to be challenged due to the nationwide responses to help control the spread of the pandemic, however, with the actions we've taken in our Paper segment to match supply with our customers' demand and moving production on the No.
3 machine at our Jackson, Alabama mill from paper to linerboard, we have not only avoided the significant cost issues associated with extended paper market downtime, but we've also enhanced our capabilities, as well as the profitability in our Packaging segment.
Going forward, we will continue to assess our outlook for paper demand and the optimal inventory levels and will run our paper system accordingly.
For the first quarter, we generated cash from operations of $192 million and free cash flow of $107 million.
The primary uses of cash during the quarter included capital expenditures of $85 million and common stock dividends of $95 million.
We ended the quarter with $983 million of cash on hand or $1.1 billion, including marketable securities.
Our liquidity at March 31st was $1.5 billion.
I want to update you on our full year guidance for a couple of items that we provided on last quarter's call.
Current plans and scope of work for the scheduled maintenance outages at our containerboard mills has changed and the new total company estimated cost impact for the year is $0.97 per share.
The actual impact in the first quarter was $0.10 per share and the revised estimated impact by quarter for the remainder of the year is now $0.30 per share in the second quarter, $0.16 in the third and $0.41 per share in the fourth quarter.
Also, our capital spending estimate for the year has changed to a range of $650 million to $675 million as we have now announced our plans for the conversion of the No.
3 paper machine at our Jackson Mill to linerboard.
Regarding the conversion of the No.
3 machine at Jackson, Alabama, our current plans are to continue running the machine on linerboard as demand wards in a manner similar as to how we ran in the first quarter until the scheduled first phase outage is taken in the second quarter of 2022.
The converted machine is expected to operate at an initial production rate of approximately 75% of its new capacity.
The second phase outage work is planned for mid-2023 with the machine reaching its run rate capacity of 2,000 tons per day by the end of 2023.
This phased conversion over the next few years will provide much needed internal linerboard supply.
This gives us a runway for maintaining an optimal integration level and enables us to further optimize and enhance our current mill capacity and box plant operations.
We're committed to being fully integrated and we have a track record of ramping up production from machine conversions according to our customers' demand requirements.
We will continue to serve our paper customers with the No.
1 paper machine at Jackson, Alabama and both machines at our International Falls, Minnesota Mill, which is capable of producing all of Jackson's paper grades.
Looking ahead, as we move from the first and into the second quarter, in our Packaging segment, we expect demand to remain strong and we will continue implementing our previously announced paper price increases.
We also expect export prices to move higher.
In the Paper segment, we expect volumes to be fairly flat with higher average prices and mix as we continue the rollout of our recently announced paper price increase.
The second quarter will be our busiest of the year for planned annual outages in the Packaging segment with work scheduled at four of the mills.
Outage expenses are estimated to be approximately $0.20 per share higher compared in the -- to the first quarter.
We also anticipate continued inflation with freight and logistics expenses as well as most of our operating and conversion costs.
However, energy costs should improve as we move into seasonally milder weather.
With that, we'd be happy to entertain any questions.
The statements were based on current estimates, expectations and projections of the Company and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including the direction of the economy and those identified as risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K on file with the SEC.
And with that, Regina, I would like to open up the call to questions, please.

user
q1 earnings per share $1.77 excluding items.
q1 sales $1.8 billion.
q1 earnings per share $1.75.
in q2 packaging segment we expect demand to remain strong.
in q2 packaging segment, expect export prices to move higher.
in q2 paper segment, we expect volumes to be fairly flat with higher average prices and mix.
q2 will be our busiest of year for planned annual outages in our packaging segment.

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