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: Last night, we released results for our second 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 the GAAP results.
Any non-GAAP financial measures presented should not be considered to be an alternative to financial measures required by GAAP.
Erica will review the business segment and corporate financial results.
I'm very pleased with the exceptional operating results we generated this quarter as we saw continued strength across our businesses.
For the quarter, we generated a second consecutive record adjusted earnings per share of $1.38 and segment EBIT of $149 million.
Adjusted earnings per share was up 79% over the second fiscal quarter of 2020 largely due to strong volumes across all regions, robust unit margins, disciplined operational execution and strong performance in our targeted growth initiatives.
The Cabot team demonstrated great operational flexibility in the face of continued COVID restrictions, weather related interruptions and tightness in the global shipping markets.
This operational adaptability was made possible by the extraordinary efforts of our commercial and supply chain teams and the strength of the Cabot manufacturing network.
During the quarter, we saw strong volumes in the tire and automotive markets and continued strength in our infrastructure, packaging and consumer-driven applications.
We are pleased to see that automotive builds and passenger car miles driven have improved, though still generally lag pre-COVID levels.
On the other hand, truck miles driven are very robust, driving a large replacement tire market.
With both automotive and tire markets still expected to be below prior peaks on a 2021 forecast basis, we are optimistic about our growth runway in the coming years.
In the near term, COVID cases remain persistently high in certain regions, particularly across Europe, South America and India.
While vaccines are offering promise, the economic recovery will likely remain uneven and challenge to reach its full potential until the public health crisis is fully under control.
Raw material prices continue to rise across most value chains and our businesses were no different.
We effectively implemented price increases to recover these rising costs, which combined with favorable product mix to drive robust unit margins.
Looking at our major segments, Reinforcement Materials generated record EBIT performance in the quarter of $89 million, driven by robust customer demand and strong Asia pricing.
Results in Performance Chemicals were up sharply over the prior year with segment EBIT of $58 million compared to $31 million last year, as the business drove double-digit volume growth in both Performance Additives and Formulated Solutions businesses, and benefited from favorable product mix.
Overall I am very pleased with the way we have navigated the pandemic, and I believe that Cabot is emerging from the COVID crisis a stronger company.
Our global manufacturing footprint and service capabilities and leading product portfolio are increasingly valued by our customers.
While the recession of 2020 required an intense focus on cost and cash preservation, we continue to sustain our assets and make important investments in sustainability and growth for the long term.
One of the most exciting growth investments is in the space of batteries and I would like to take a few minutes to update you on our progress here.
We are seeing a real inflection point in terms of demand for electric vehicles and energy storage as pressures to reduce greenhouse gases increase.
Cabot is well positioned and is supporting this transition with our leading portfolio of highly engineered, conductive carbon additives and formulation capabilities.
Our business is demonstrating strong growth this year and we expect this will continue into the future.
I will start with some comments about the overall market.
Lithium ion batteries are growing rapidly and expected to grow at a 25% to 30% compound annual growth rate through 2030 with the primary growth driver being electric vehicles as countries establish CO2 reduction goals and accelerate the shift away from internal combustion engines.
Further technology improvements in batteries are a necessary enabler of this transition, and the materials industry will play a key role in this pursuit to drive down costs and increase range.
Cabot currently serves this market by offering a range of materials and formulations for use in energy storage applications.
These materials can be classified into two groups, conductive carbon additives, which include conductive carbon black, carbon nanostructures and carbon nanotubes and non-carbon additives which include products in our fumed metal oxides business.
Conductive carbon additives are a small part of the battery formulation, but play a very important role.
These additives enable electrons to move in and out of the active phase where they're stored during charging and discharging of the battery.
There are two types of conductivity required to make this effective, short range conductivity and long range conductivity.
Based on the different shapes and properties of conductive carbon additives they impart different conductivity performance.
For example, carbon nanotubes are more advantaged in providing the long range conductivity, while conductive carbon blacks are more advantaged in providing the short range conductivity.
Therefore, there is no one single best additive for this application.
Having the capability to offer different types of conductive carbon additives and blends of such materials is important in delivering a formulated solution to the customer that addresses their specific needs.
There are a few drivers that distinguish Cabot in the conductive carbon additive space.
First, we have an established an unmatched global footprint and application capability to support our customers, as they build manufacturing plants around the world.
Over the past few years, through the establishment of our Asia Technology Center and the R&D capabilities acquired from the Sanshun acquisition, we have built a leading technical support team.
This capability coupled with a global manufacturing footprint positions us favorably in the eyes of our customers.
Second, through organic and inorganic investments over the past few years including the recent acquisition of Sanshun, Cabot is the only carbon additive supplier with commercially proven conductive carbon black, carbon nanotube, carbon nano structure and dispersion capabilities.
This variety of conductive carbon additives enables us to tailor different formulated solutions for our customers and work with them on next generation technologies.
And third, Cabot has a rich legacy of innovating in demanding technical applications.
Our experience in the CMP market for semiconductors and inkjet has offered invaluable practices and protocols that will be critical for the battery market.
In terms of financial performance, we believe that the battery application will become a material contributor to the Performance Chemicals segment over the next few years.
The current conductive carbon additives market for lithium ion batteries which includes both CNTs and conductive carbon black is approximately $400 million in material value.
We expect this market will grow to approximately $1 billion in value by 2025.
Our energy materials business is off to a strong start in fiscal 2021 with forecasted revenue of approximately $80 million for the fiscal year.
Over the past five years, revenue has grown at a CAGR of roughly 50% which includes the acquisition of our CNT business in China.
While we are making significant investments to drive qualification and further extend our technical capabilities EBITDA is forecasted to be between $15 million and $20 million in fiscal year 2021.
We are excited about the promise of this emerging application and will continue to focus our efforts to support customers and realize the potential of energy storage.
I will start with discussing results in the Reinforcement Materials segment.
The Reinforcement Materials segment delivered record operating results with EBIT of $89 million which is up 46% compared to the same quarter of fiscal 2020, primarily due to significantly higher volumes across all regions and improved unit margins driven by favorable spot pricing in the Asia region.
Globally, volumes were up 18% in the second quarter as compared to the same period of the prior year primarily due to 30% growth in Asia and 10% higher volumes in the Americas and Europe.
Higher volumes are driven by key end market demand that continued to recover from COVID related impacts in fiscal 2020.
Results also benefited from higher margins from continued strong pricing in Asia, which included a second consecutive quarter of price increases ahead of rising feedstock costs.
Looking ahead to the second half of 2021, we expect volumes to remain strong.
In addition, we anticipate higher feedstock cost flow-through in Asia, while fixed costs are expected to be higher due to the timing of planned plant maintenance spending, after delayed spending in 2020 and the first half of this fiscal year.
Now, turning to Performance Chemicals, EBIT increased by $27 million as compared to the second fiscal quarter of 2020, primarily due to strong volumes across the segment and improved product mix, driven by an increase in sales and into automotive applications.
Year-over-year volumes increased by 10% in Performance Additives and 14% in Formulated Solutions, driven by increases across all our key product lines from higher demand levels and some level of customer inventory replenishment during the quarter.
Looking ahead to the second half of fiscal 2021, we expect overall volumes to remain strong.
However we anticipate demand into auto applications will decrease somewhat due to the semiconductor chip shortage, which will unfavorably impact product mix as compared to the first half of the year.
In addition, we anticipate higher fixed costs in the second half of the fiscal year due to the timing of spending.
Moving to Purification Solutions, EBIT in the second quarter of 2021 declined by $1 million compared to the second quarter of 2020.
The reduced demand in mercury removal applications was partially offset by a reduction in fixed costs, resulting from the sale of our mine in Marshall, Texas and the related long term supply agreements.
Looking ahead to the second half of fiscal 2021, we expect EBIT to improve driven by seasonally higher volumes.
I'll now turn to corporate items.
We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $146 million and our liquidity position remains strong at approximately $1.3 billion.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2021, cash flows from operating activities were $65 million which included a working capital increase of $80 million.
The working capital increase was largely driven by growth related networking capital as accounts receivables increased with higher sales and inventory increase from purchases of higher cost raw materials.
Capital expenditures for the second quarter were $40 million, for the full year we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $200 million.
This estimate includes continued EPA related compliance spend and capital related to upgrading our new China carbon black plant to produce specialty products.
Additional uses of cash during the quarter included $20 million for dividend.
Our year-to-date operating tax rate was 28% and we forecast our operating tax rate will be between 27% and 29% for the fiscal year.
We are very pleased with the record results in the second quarter of 2021 with volumes continuing to recover from the COVID related lows we experienced in fiscal 2020 and great execution across the organization.
We achieved another record setting quarter in reinforcement materials and very strong results in the performance chemicals segment.
Throughout the first half of the year, I am pleased with how well the team has been executing.
Our manufacturing plants continue to operate effectively in the COVID environment to meet the needs of our customers.
Furthermore, we achieved an important milestone on our sustainability journey with the completion of the air pollution control project at our Franklin Louisiana plant.
We continue the integration of our CNT acquisition in China and our investments in inkjet are on track, to deliver on the promise of growth in the packaging segment.
And finally, we continue to renew our ways at working to drive more efficient and effective processes through the implementation of digital solutions.
I'm proud of the Cabot team for their work to strengthen our foundation and establish our platform for sustainable growth.
Moving to our current outlook, we continue to see robust and broad-based demand globally including in our key tire, automotive and industrial end use markets.
Our current view is that the underlying demand will remain strong during the second half of the year.
Against this demand outlook, we expect some impact from the flow-through of higher raw material costs in Asia, moderating volumes into automotive applications due to the semiconductor chip shortage and higher fixed costs as we perform some maintenance and turnarounds that are necessary to ensure we can meet customer demand in 2022.
Based on these factors, we expect adjusted earnings per share for the full year to be in the range of $4.70 to $4.95.
On the cash side, we anticipate our cash and liquidity will remain robust.
Networking capital increases, driven by a sharp recovery in demand and a steady increase in oil prices should moderate in the second half of the year.
We expect to see better conversion of our strong EBITDA and to operating cash flow as this happens.
We anticipate operating cash flow for the year will cover our cash needs for capital expenditures and dividends.
Our debt to EBITDA ratio was 2.3 times at the end of March and we expect this will be reduced further by year end.
The strength of our culture and the resilience of our employees has never been more apparent than it has during these challenging times.

user
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $4.70 to $4.95.
q2 adjusted earnings per share $1.38.
for h2 of fiscal year, anticipate continued demand strength across our segments.
for h2, expect some impact from flow-through of higher raw material costs in asia.
for h2, expect some impact from moderating volumes into automotive applications due to semi-conductor chip shortage.
for h2, expect some impact from increased fixed costs due to timing of scheduled maintenance activities.

assistant