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 joined today by Bob Patel, our Chief Executive Officer; and Michael McMurray, our Chief Financial Officer.
The passcode for both numbers is 137-21413.
During today's call, we will focus on second quarter results, the current environment, our near-term outlook and provide an update on our growth initiatives.
Good day to all of you.
We appreciate you joining us today as we discuss our second quarter results.
Every day, we work diligently to ensure that the colleagues, the friends and most importantly, the families of our employees and contractors never have to receive the calls that went out last Tuesday evening.
Notifying them for the loss or injury of a loved one.
Our investigation is underway, and it will be some time before we reach a conclusive determination recovery for all of the injured.
Despite the increased working capital required by higher prices and volumes, we generated $1.9 billion of cash from operating activities.
These results demonstrate how LyondellBasell's disciplined investments in growth and share repurchases over the past few years have enabled us to establish new benchmarks for our company's profitability.
Second quarter EBITDA is [Technical Issues] a larger LyondellBasell is now positioned to generate stronger results and higher cash flow through business cycles.
The events of this week provide a vivid reminder of the reasons behind our company's commitment to safe and reliable operations.
As of the end of June, our year-to-date total recordable incident rate of 0.22 for employees and contractors remained in the top 10% of our industry.
As we do with all major incidents, we will investigate the root cause and contributing factors involved in this week's events and share our findings with our contractors, our employees and our industry peers.
Our aim is to learn from all incidents and achieve a goal 0 work environment that prevents such tragedies from occurring.
On slide five, I would like to highlight our most recent sustainability report that we released last month.
This report focuses on LyondellBasell's efforts to address three urgent global challenges for our business, eliminating plastic waste in the environment, addressing climate change and supporting a thriving society.
LyondellBasell is leading work to transform our industry toward more sustainable market for Circular Polymers.
On climate change, we support the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement and we're moving forward with investments in energy reduction, increased utilization of renewable energy and evaluation of new low-carbon technologies.
We will be sharing more details on our carbon reduction plans over the coming months.
In our work to advance the thriving society, I'm very pleased to see the enthusiasm from our employees [Technical Issues] with our emphasis on a safe work culture and community engagement, our work to capture the full potential of our diverse global workforce should further enhance the sustainability of our company's performance.
Following an exceptional second quarter, some market observers are predicting a rapid decline in prices and profitability for our industry.
On slide six, I would like to point out why we believe that markets will be stronger for longer.
COVID vaccinations have been the driving force behind the reopening of societies and the rebounding global economy.
As of July, only 14% of the global population is fully vaccinated.
While the U.S. and roughly a dozen other countries have achieved vaccination rates approaching or exceeding 50%, health experts anticipate that vaccines will be rolling out to the rest of the world throughout 2022 and into 2023.
As seen by the increased spread among unvaccinated populations and the rise of variants, we still have much work ahead of us to contain the coronavirus and realize the full economic power of global reopening.
Returning to normalcy is eagerly anticipated by consumers with considerable pent-up demand and increased disposable income.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that U.S. personal savings averaged $3.5 trillion during the first five months of 2021, nearly three times the level seen in 2019.
With fiscal stimulus continuing to flow into the economy, consumers are both motivated and well funded to [Technical Issues].
This unfulfilled demand will persist to drive strong industrial production and demand for our materials for quite some time.
One example is that the average age of an automobile in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 12 years in 2021.
Businesses and consumers will eventually need to replace this aging fleet of cars and trucks.
Despite higher prices and supply chain constraints, demand for our products serving automotive manufacturing are forecast to increase a total of 10% in 2021 and an additional 11% during 2022.
Strong U.S. household formation during the pandemic has evolved into a robust housing market.
LyondellBasell benefits from both direct demand for building and construction materials as well as demand for our products used in the myriad of furniture, appliances and other goods that complete a new home.
And as vaccinations facilitate improvements in global mobility, LyondellBasell's products will see increased demand from restocking and consumption by service, entertainment, travel and hospitality industries as well as increased demand for transportation fuels supplied by LyondellBasell's oxyfuels and refining businesses.
In short, we remain confident that persistently high demand should support strong markets for our products through 2022.
In the second quarter, LyondellBasell generated $1.9 billion of cash from operating activities that contributed toward the more than $4 billion over the past 12 months.
Our free operating cash flow yield has been 10.1% over the past four quarters and free operating cash flow for the second quarter improved by more than 80% relative to the second quarter of 2019.
We expect continued improvement of our last 12 months cash flow performance as we move forward through each quarter of 2021.
As I have mentioned during previous calls, a strong and progressive dividend plays a fundamental role in our capital deployment strategy.
In the second quarter, we expressed our confidence in our outlook by increasing the quarterly dividend by 7.6% to $1.13 per share.
We continue to invest in maintenance and growth projects during the quarter with approximately $430 million in capital expenditures.
Strong cash flow supported debt repayments of $1.3 billion, bringing our year-to-date debt reduction to $1.8 billion.
We closed the second quarter with cash and liquid investments of $1.5 billion.
Last week, S&P Global Ratings recognize the improvement in our metrics by upgrading our credit ratings and indicating a stable outlook.
We expect that robust cash generation and an anticipated tax refund will enable continued progress on our goal to reduce our net debt by up to $4 billion during 2021 and further strengthen our investment-grade balance sheet.
One modeling item of note.
Our original full year net interest expense guidance of $430 million did not include extinguishment costs associated with our accelerated debt repayment program.
As a result, our 2021 net interest expense will likely exceed this prior guidance.
In the second quarter of 2021, LyondellBasell's business portfolio delivered record EBITDA of $3 billion.
This was an improvement of more than $1.4 billion relative to the first quarter.
Our results reflect robust demand for our products driven by the recovery in global economy and our growth investments.
Markets remained tight during the second quarter as the industry returned to normal operation following first quarter disruptions from the winter storm that constrained production for LyondellBasell and nearly all of our competitors with operations in the state of Texas.
Persistent consumer and industrial demand has met tight markets, leading to seven consecutive months of North American polyethylene contract price increases totaling more than $900 per ton.
We expect market conditions to remain robust and that continued progress in global reopening, sizable order backlogs in the increasing demand for transportation fuels will all support strong margins across LyondellBasell's businesses.
Our previous quarterly EBITDA record set in the third quarter of 2015 was approximately $2.2 billion, with more than $140 million of EBITDA contributed by our Refining segment.
Today, our growth investments are helping offset a challenging refining environment and enabling us to surpass the 2015 record.
Our aim is to leverage our larger business portfolio to achieve improved results at all stages of the business cycle.
Now let's review second quarter results for each of our segments.
As mentioned, my discussion will describe our underlying business results, I will begin with our Olefins and Polyolefins Americas segment on slide 10.
Strong demand, improved margins and our growth investments drove second quarter EBITDA to a record of $1.6 billion, $709 million higher than the first quarter.
Olefins results increased by approximately $310 million compared to the first quarter due to higher margins and volumes.
LyondellBasell's cracker operating rates increased to 93% and following the first quarter Texas weather events, about five points above the second quarter industry average.
Margins improved primarily due to the absence of high cost incurred during the prior quarter's weather events.
Polyolefin results increased by about $400 million during the second quarter as robust demand in tight markets drove higher prices and margins for polyethylene and polypropylene.
We anticipate continued strength in demand and margins for our O&P and Americas businesses during the third quarter.
While consultants are predicting some margin compression for ethylene recent outages have caused prices to quickly rebound and demonstrated that markets remain relatively tight.
High demand, low downstream inventories and customer backlogs are expected to continue and provide ongoing support for strong polymer margins.
As of this week, our August order volumes for PE and PP in the Americas segment are stronger than any prior month in 2021.
Similar to the Americas, robust demand and improving margins in our EAI markets drove second quarter EBITDA to a record $708 million, $296 million higher than the first quarter.
Olefins results improved by $100 million as margins increased driven by higher ethylene and coproduct prices.
Demand was robust during the quarter, and we operated our crackers at a rate of 96%, more than 10% above industry benchmarks.
Combined polyolefin results increased approximately $180 million compared to the prior quarter.
Strong polymer demand drove spread improvements with price increases for polyethylene and polypropylene outpacing monomer prices.
Margin improvements were partially offset by a small decline in polyolefin volume.
During the third quarter, we could see modest rebalancing of tight European markets as customers take downtime for summer holidays.
Robust demand expanded our margins and increased our sales volumes following the Texas weather events and some plant maintenance during the prior quarter.
Second quarter EBITDA was $596 million, more than three times higher than the prior quarter.
Second quarter propylene oxide and derivative results increased by $170 million driven by record high margins.
Intermediate Chemicals results increased by about $170 million, primarily due to higher product prices for most of the businesses.
Oxyfuels and related products results increased by $70 million, driven by higher margins, benefiting from improved demand and higher gasoline prices.
We expect continued strength in durable goods and improving transportation fuels demand to increase third quarter volumes for our I&D segment.
Margins could slightly moderate if industry production rates remain strong.
Demand for transportation fuels are rebounding from pandemic close.
Total gasoline and distillate demand in June was within 5% of prepandemic levels.
Reduced demand in margins for refined products is mostly due to lagging demand for jet fuel associated with business and international travel.
Jet fuel demand remains stubbornly below pre-pandemic levels.
As vaccinations in global travel resumes through 2022 and 2023, we expect refining margins will improve and drive additional earnings power for LyondellBasell's Houston refinery.
The chart on the left illustrates the Northwest Europe raw material margin for MTBE, which is an industry marker for our oxyfuels products sold into gasoline blending markets around the world.
While Oxyfuels are typically a reliable performing business through the cycle, low demand for gasoline pushed this margin into breakeven or negative territory over the prior four quarters.
Since the beginning of this year, global demand for gasoline and gasoline blending components such as MTBE and ETBE has improved, increasing the margin to an average of $167 per ton during the second quarter.
This is a significant rebound and well within the historical range shown by [Technical Issues] Now let's move forward and review the results of our Advanced Polymer Solutions segment on slide 14.
The margin improvement was offset by a decline in volumes as semiconductor shortages reduced demand for our polymers serving automotive and electronic end markets.
Second quarter EBITDA was $129 million, lower than the first quarter.
Compounding & Solutions results decreased by about $25 million as volumes decline for polymers supplied to the automotive sector appliance manufacturing and other industries that were constrained by chip shortages.
Advanced Polymer results increased by approximately $10 million due to improved polymer price spreads over propylene raw materials.
In July, feedstock cost for our polypropylene compounds produced in Europe have increased and are likely to pressure margins during the third quarter.
We only expect gradual volume recovery for compound supply to automotive electronics applications as semiconductor supply constraints decrease over the coming quarters.
This resulted in second quarter EBITDA of negative $81 million, an improvement of $29 million relative to the first quarter of 2021.
In the second quarter, the Maya 2-1-1 benchmark increased by $6.14 per barrel to $21.46 per barrel.
The average crude throughput at the refinery increased to 248,000 barrels per day, an operating rate of 93%.
In July, we continue to see improvements in refined product demand and we are running the refinery at nearly full rates.
Strong demand for diesel and improving demand for gasoline is expected to improve refining margins and could enable our refinery to return to profitability before the end of 2021.
And as mentioned, full margin recovery will require a stronger rebound in jet fuel demand.
Increased licensing revenue was offset by a decline in Catalyst margin, resulting in a second EBITDA of $92 million, $2 million lower than the prior quarter.
We expect that third quarter profitability for our technology business will be similar to the same quarter last year based on the anticipated timing of licensing revenue and catalyst demand.
Let me summarize our view of current conditions and the outlook for our businesses with slide 17.
In the near to midterm, we are still in the early stages of the global economic recovery.
And despite the challenges from variants, continued progress with vaccinations and reopening should continue to support robust demand and margins for our products.
Pent-up demand is tangible and consumers have ample liquidity to drive purchases of both services and manufactured goods as reopening proceeds globally.
Low inventories due to supply constraints and logistics disruptions will only serve to extend tight market conditions, downstream customer backlogs and persistent demand bode well for continued strength in LyondellBasell's order books.
In polyethylene, strong U.S. and Latin American demand has overtaken volumes that previously flowed from the U.S. to export markets in Asia.
As logistics constraints subside, and U.S. PG exports to Asia resume, producers will need to refill a depleted supply chain of 500,000 tons or more that is not fully captured in industry statistics.
In North America, we expect markets for PE and PP will remain tight into next year.
Higher vaccination rates are expected to improve global mobility over the coming year.
The return of international travel will drive further recovery in transportation fuels markets to increase profitability for our oxyfuels and refining businesses, providing additional earnings upside for LyondellBasell.
Let me close with slide 18.
Our second quarter results provide clear evidence of LyondellBasell's progress in maximizing cash flow performance through all stages of the business cycle.
We are leveraging our leading and advantaged positions across a larger asset base to deliver results that far exceed our previous benchmarks.
In today's strong markets, our second quarter EBITDA results are 38% higher than our previous record.
By 2023, we expect that our recent growth investments will provide an additional $1.5 billion of mid-cycle EBITDA earnings capability relative to 2017.
Our value-driven growth investments should propel stronger performance in a variety of business environments.
Our prudent financial strategy remains consistent.
We have increased our quarterly dividend and remain confident in our capability to deliver on this commitment throughout business cycles.
We are prioritizing deleveraging and our rapid progress on debt repayment will serve to further strengthen our investment-grade balance sheet.
Capacity expansions are coming online in our industry during a period of extraordinary demand growth and enabling an orderly absorption of this new capacity into the market.
Further investments in petrochemicals are proceeding at a manageable rate and recent project cancellations and delays demonstrate capital discipline by market participants.
At LyondellBasell, we're focused on providing leadership for our industry to establish a more sustainable future with new circular business models.
We will increase our capacity to serve the growing market demand for circulun-branded polymers produced from recycled and renewable feedstocks as we work toward our goal of annually producing two million tons [Technical Issues] robust returns from our growing global business portfolio and look forward to updating you on our progress over the coming quarters.

user
increased quarterly dividend by 7.6 percent to $1.13 per share.
expect strong integrated polyethylene margins to continue.

assistant