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Text: We will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, and a reconciliation of GAAP can be found in earnings materials on our website.
Excluding a special item with a net after-tax benefit of $32 million, we earned $450 million or $0.60 per diluted share.
In the third quarter, we delivered strong results across each of our businesses despite weather-related disruptions, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and continued supply chain challenges.
Our teams did an exceptional job navigating these headwinds, and I'm incredibly proud of their collective efforts and focus on safely operating our businesses and continuing to serve our customers.
Truly, great execution across the entire supply chain in a difficult environment, which has resulted in record earnings and cash flow in 2021.
Year-to-date, we've generated more than $3.4 billion of adjusted EBITDA and $2.4 billion of adjusted funds available for distribution.
Turning now to our third quarter business results.
I'll begin the discussion with Timberlands, on pages six through nine of our earnings slides.
Timberlands earnings increased by $20 million in the quarter, which included a $32 million gain on the previously announced sale of our North Cascades Timberlands.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $15 million compared to the second quarter.
In the West, adjusted EBITDA decreased by $13 million compared to the second quarter.
Western domestic log markets started the quarter in a favorable position despite weakening lumber prices and ample log supply.
Demand remains elevated as mills continue to bolster log inventories during the peak of wildfire season, but weakened somewhat in September as a number of producers experienced COVID-related disruptions and finished lumber inventories increased above normal levels.
Despite these headwinds, our third quarter domestic sales realizations were comparable to the second quarter, driven by strong domestic log prices in July and August.
Salvage operations resulting from the 2020 Oregon wildfires continued in the third quarter.
The teams have done an outstanding job in managing these salvage efforts over the last year.
To date, we've completed approximately 80% of our planned salvage harvest and expect to conclude most of this work by year-end.
As expected, during the warmer and drier months in the summer, we transitioned to higher elevation and higher cost operations.
Additionally, although we experienced very minimal wildfire damage to our timberlands, active fires and dry conditions across the region resulted in restrictions on our harvest activity in the quarter, particularly in Oregon.
As a result, our fee harvest and domestic sales volumes were modestly lower in the third quarter, and per unit log and haul costs were higher.
Turning to our export markets.
In Japan, demand for our logs remained strong in the third quarter.
Lumber imports from Europe into Japan continue to be restricted by the ongoing shortage of global shipping containers.
This dynamic is driving increased market share for our customers and robust demand for our logs.
As a result, our Japanese log sales realizations increased moderately compared to the second quarter, and sales volumes were comparable.
In China, demand for our logs remained favorable in the quarter despite seasonally lower consumption, COVID impacts to construction activity and other supply chain disruptions.
Imports of lumber and logs into China continue to be constrained by global shipping container availability as well as the ban on Australian logs.
As a result, sales realizations for our China export logs increased moderately compared to the second quarter, but were more than offset by higher ocean freight rates.
Sales volumes to China were comparable to the second quarter.
Moving to the South.
Southern timberlands adjusted EBITDA was comparable to the second quarter.
Southern sawlog and fiber markets continued to strengthen as log supply was constrained and mill inventories remain lean, resulting from ongoing wet conditions and significant weather events.
As a result, our sales realizations were slightly higher than the second quarter.
Fee harvest and sales volumes increased slightly in the third quarter, but fell below our planned activity level as a result of persistent wet weather and operational disruptions from Hurricane Ida.
Per unit log and haul costs increased slightly in the quarter as did forestry and road costs.
On the export side, we continue to see growing demand for our Southern logs.
Our export log pricing increased substantially in the third quarter, but volumes were lower than second quarter as we continue to face challenges associated with container availability and increased freight rates.
In the North, adjusted EBITDA decreased slightly compared to the second quarter.
Sales volumes were significantly higher coming out of spring breakup conditions, though sales realizations were lower due to mix.
Turning to Real Estate, Energy and Natural Resources on pages 10 and 11.
Real estate and ENR contributed $45 million to third quarter earnings and $60 million to adjusted EBITDA.
Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $31 million lower than the second quarter due to timing of transactions, but comparable to the year ago quarter.
Similar to last year, our 2021 real estate sales activity has been heavily weighted toward the first half of the year.
Third quarter earnings more than doubled compared to the third quarter of 2020 due to the mix of properties sold.
We continue to capitalize on strong demand for HBU properties, resulting in high-value transactions with significant premiums to timber value.
Moving to Wood Products, pages 12 through 14.
Wood Products earnings and adjusted EBITDA decreased by approximately 60% compared to the prior quarter as lumber and OSB pricing declined substantially from record levels earlier in the year before stabilizing later in the quarter.
Additionally, weather events in the U.S. South, including Hurricane Ida, resulted in temporary downtime and lost production in our lumber business.
And together with COVID-related staffing disruptions, further exacerbated transportation challenges in the region.
Despite these headwinds, our teams performed well and delivered strong results.
Our EWP business established a new quarterly EBITDA record in the third quarter and the overall Wood Products segment has achieved year-to-date adjusted EBITDA of more than $2.8 billion.
Lumber markets began the third quarter with elevated home center and treater inventory levels due to softening do-it-yourself repair and remodel activity.
As a result, pricing continued its downward trajectory in July and for much of August.
The market began to strengthen later in the quarter as home centers and treaters work through excess inventories and consumer spending shifted back to do-it-yourself repair and remodel activity after Labor Day.
When combined with solid demand from new home construction and professional repair and remodel activity, each of which remain healthy throughout the third quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA for our lumber business decreased $686 million compared to the second quarter.
Our sales realizations decreased by 52% in the third quarter while the framing lumber composite pricing decreased by 61%.
Our sales volumes increased moderately in the third quarter and log costs increased slightly, primarily for Canadian logs.
The OSB market weakened significantly at the outset of the third quarter with the softening of do-it-yourself repair and remodel activity.
This dynamic drove lower sales activity and higher inventories at the home centers.
As a result, we experienced a rapid decline in pricing from the peak record prices that we reached in July.
Pricing then stabilized above the historical average in August, as demand from strong new home construction activity continued and the market faced supply constraints resulting from ongoing resin availability and transportation challenges.
This dynamic, along with late quarter improvement in do-it-yourself repair and remodel demand, drove prices gradually higher through September.
Adjusted EBITDA for our OSB business decreased by $128 million compared to the second quarter.
Our sales realizations decreased by 24% in the third quarter while the OSB composite pricing decreased by 43%.
This relative outperformance was largely a result of our higher percentage of premium OSB products.
Our sales and production volumes improved modestly in the third quarter due to less downtime for planned maintenance.
Unit manufacturing costs increased slightly, primarily for resin costs.
Engineered Wood Products adjusted EBITDA increased $23 million compared to the second quarter, a 43% improvement.
Sales realizations improved significantly across most products, and we continue to benefit from previously announced price increases for solid section and I-joist products.
This was partially offset by higher raw material costs for OSB webstock, resin and veneer.
Sales and production volumes were moderately lower for most products as a result of planned annual maintenance during the quarter.
In Distribution, adjusted EBITDA decreased by $53 million compared to the second quarter.
Despite lower sales volumes for most products and significantly lower margins resulting from the commodity price correction, our teams did a great job navigating these challenges and delivered $22 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter.
I'll begin with our key financial items, which are summarized on page 16.
We generated $659 million of cash from operations in the third quarter, bringing our year-to-date total to nearly $2.7 billion, our highest year-to-date operating cash flows on record.
Adjusted funds available for distribution or adjusted FAD, for year-to-date, third quarter 2021 totaled over $2.4 billion, as highlighted on page 17.
Year-to-date, we have returned $382 million to our shareholders through the payment of our quarterly base dividend, and we will supplement the base dividend each year with an additional return of cash to achieve the targeted 75% to 80% of adjusted FAD.
For this year, we intend to achieve this entirely through a variable supplemental cash dividend.
Though in future years, we may also utilize opportunistic share repurchase for a portion of this cash return.
The supplemental dividend will normally be paid in the first quarter of each year based on prior year cash flow.
However, as a result of the record year-to-date performance, we accelerated a portion of the supplemental dividend by returning $375 million to our shareholders through our previously announced $0.50 per share interim supplemental dividend earlier this month.
We look forward to returning the remaining portion of the supplemental dividend with a significant payment in first quarter 2022.
During the third quarter, we also returned $26 million to shareholders through share repurchases.
Further, as previously announced, we authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program.
And as always, we'll look to repurchase shares opportunistically under circumstances when we believe it will create shareholder value.
Turning to the balance sheet.
We ended the quarter with approximately $2.3 billion of cash and just under $5.3 billion of debt.
Subsequent to quarter end, we repaid our $150 million or 9% note at maturity, which brings our debt balance to $5.1 billion.
After this repayment, we have no additional maturities until 2023.
Looking forward, key outlook items for the fourth quarter are presented on page 18.
In our Timberlands business, we expect fourth quarter earnings and adjusted EBITDA will be comparable to the third quarter.
Turning to our Western Timberland operations, although domestic log inventories ended the third quarter higher than normal, takeaway of finished lumber and log demand have improved following a brief pullback in September.
We anticipate this dynamic continuing for most of the fourth quarter.
As a result, we expect our domestic sales realizations to improve from the lower levels experienced in September.
For the fourth quarter, we anticipate our average domestic sales realizations to be moderately lower than the elevated third quarter levels.
As Devin discussed, we have made great progress within our salvage operations in Oregon and expect our salvage volumes to decrease in the fourth quarter.
As a result, we expect fourth quarter fee harvest volumes to be moderately higher with lower per unit log and haul costs.
Moving to the export markets.
In Japan, log demand remains favorable.
We anticipate our fourth quarter sales realizations to be comparable to the elevated third quarter levels, partially offset by moderately lower sales volumes due to the timing of vessels.
In China, despite elevated log inventories at the ports, demand for our logs is expected to remain favorable as construction activity increases seasonally and imports of lumber and logs continue to be constrained from other countries.
We expect our fourth quarter sales volumes to be higher than the third quarter, partially offset by slightly lower sales realizations.
Elevated freight costs and labor to load ships continue to be headwinds.
In the South, weather conditions improved at the outset of the fourth quarter.
As a result, we anticipate slightly higher fee harvest volumes compared to the third quarter.
Log demand continues to be favorable as mills work to bolster lean inventories, resulting from persistent wet conditions and reduced log supply.
As a result, we anticipate slightly higher sales realizations during the fourth quarter.
We expect this will be offset by slightly higher per unit log and haul costs as well as a moderately higher forestry and road costs as a portion of our planned activities in the third quarter were deferred due to weather disruptions.
As a result of persistent wet conditions in 2021 and significant weather events in the third quarter, we now expect full year Southern fee harvest volumes to be comparable to 2020.
In the North, sales realizations are expected to be slightly lower due to mix and fee harvest volumes are also expected to be slightly lower compared to the third quarter.
Turning to our Real Estate, Energy and Natural Resources segment.
Fourth quarter earnings and adjusted EBITDA will be significantly lower than third quarter due to timing of transactions.
We continue to predict full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA will be approximately $290 million, and we now expect basis as a percentage of real estate sales to be approximately 25% to 30% for the full year.
For our Wood Products segment, new residential construction activity remains strong and demand from the repair and remodel segment continues to strengthen following the improvement in do-it-yourself activity in September.
This dynamic should continue for most of the quarter before weakening seasonally into winter.
Excluding the effect of changes in average sales realizations for lumber and oriented strand board, we expect fourth quarter earnings and adjusted EBITDA will be higher than the third quarter.
For lumber, production volumes are expected to be comparable to the third quarter.
However, our sales volumes are expected to be modestly lower, resulting from the inventory drawdown we experienced in the third quarter.
We anticipate this will be offset by slightly lower log costs and improved unit manufacturing costs.
As shown on page 19, our current and quarter-to-date realizations for lumber are slightly higher than the third quarter average.
For oriented strand board, we anticipate moderately higher sales volumes and improved unit manufacturing costs, primarily due to less downtime for planned maintenance during the fourth quarter.
We expect this will be partially offset by moderately higher fiber costs.
As shown on page 19, our current and quarter-to-date realizations for oriented strand board are significantly lower than the third quarter average, but still elevated compared to historical standards.
For engineered wood products, we expect sales realizations for solid section and I-joist products will be comparable, while realizations for plywood will be lower.
We anticipate this will be more than offset by significantly lower raw material costs, primarily for OSB webstock.
For our distribution business, we're expecting higher adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter, primarily due to improved commodity margins, partially offset by seasonally lower sales volumes.
I'll wrap up with a couple of additional items or comments on our total company financial items.
We now anticipate our full year outlook for capital expenditures to be slightly below our previous guidance of $460 million as a result of supply chain and contract labor constraints with $15 million to $25 million potentially at risk.
The $90 million tax refund associated with our 2018 pension contribution was approved during the second quarter.
However, we are still awaiting the refund.
We expect to receive it by the end of fourth quarter 2021.
Excluding this refund, we now anticipate our full year cash taxes will be slightly lower than tax expense.
Notwithstanding a slight decrease from the prior quarter, U.S. housing activity remained strong in the third quarter, with total housing starts and permits averaging around 1.6 million units on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Although housing starts in 2021 continue at a strong pace, the cycle time between starts and completions has extended as homebuilders continue to experience supply chain and labor availability challenges.
Despite these headwinds, our customers tell us they continue to expect strong demand for new home construction for the balance of 2021.
The latest new home sales number released earlier this week further reinforces our positive view on the current state of the housing market.
With favorable long-term demand fundamentals, including a decade of underbuilding, favorable demographics, we continue to have a bullish outlook on U.S. housing activity well into the future.
Turning to repair and remodel.
We've continued to see strength in large professional projects over the course of 2021 and expect that to continue for the balance of the year and into 2022.
And while we did see some softening in the smaller do-it-yourself segment during the summer, demand has improved significantly coming out of Labor Day, and we've continued to see strong demand from the repair and remodel segment through October.
Overall, we continue to have a favorable long-term outlook for repair and remodel activity, supported by numerous demand drivers, including an aging housing stock, rising home equity and low interest rates.
Finally, we hope you have the opportunity to participate in our virtual Investor Day on September 22, where we outlined a series of multiyear strategic growth targets, including growing our Timberlands portfolio, growing our new Natural Climate Solutions business and organically growing our lumber business.
We also announced several capital allocation actions and enhanced our ESG leadership by releasing our carbon record and announcing new greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
Our strategy, as we outlined at Investor Day, is simple.
We intend to grow the value of our portfolio, improve our cash flows, build on our competitive advantage in the marketplace and solidify Weyerhaeuser as a premier ESG investment opportunity.
These actions will ensure that we drive superior returns for our investors, including returning meaningful amounts of cash to shareholders through a growing base dividend, a variable supplemental dividend and opportunistic share repurchases, all while continuing to invest in our businesses and maintain an appropriate capital structure.
We're excited about the future of Weyerhaeuser, and we're well positioned to capitalize on strong macro trends driving continued growth and demand for our products and new opportunities for our businesses.
We're greatly appreciative of Beth's contributions to our IR function and look forward to our next opportunity at the company.
With Beth's transition, Andy Taylor has assumed the lead role of our Investor Relations program.
Andy joined Weyerhaeuser in October of last year after an 18-year career in the energy industry, where he served in numerous leadership roles, including Investor Relations.
He's been a great addition to the Weyerhaeuser team, and we're really excited to have him taking on this new role.

user
q3 sales $2.3 billion.
q3 earnings per share $0.60 excluding items.
expects q4 earnings and adjusted ebitda will be comparable to q3 for timberlands.
sees q4 earnings and adjusted ebitda will be higher than q3 for wood products.
sees q4 earnings, adjusted ebitda significantly lower than q3 due to timing of transactions for real estate, energy & natural resources.

assistant