AdvanSix, Inc. Stock

Good day, and welcome to the AdvanSix Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Kressel, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Debbie. Good morning, and welcome to AdvanSix's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. With me here today are President and CEO, Erin Kane; and Senior Vice President and CFO, Patrick Day. This call and webcast, including any non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on our website at investors.advansix.com. Note that elements of this presentation contain forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and of our business as we see it today. Those elements can change, and the actual results could differ materially from those projected, and we ask that you consider them in that light.

We refer you to the forward-looking statements included in our press release and earnings presentation. In addition, we identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K as further updated in subsequent filings with the SEC. This morning, we will review our financial results for the second quarter 2026 and share our outlook for our key product lines and end markets. Finally, we'll leave time for your questions at the end. So with that, I'll turn the call over to AdvanSix's President and CEO, Erin Kane.

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us here today for our quarterly call. As you saw in our press release, our resilient second quarter results reflected a significant sequential improvement in earnings and cash flow amid what remains a highly dynamic macro environment, particularly in plant nutrients. Patrick will dive into the financials in a moment, but I would like to start the discussion today framing our key strategic priorities.

To drive through-cycle value creation and support total shareholder return with higher highs and higher lows, we remain focused on commercial execution, operational excellence, and disciplined capital deployment. These are the controllable levers that are critical to anchor our performance. On commercial execution, we continue to focus on winning with customers to profitably fill our plants and shifting product mix towards higher-value applications. Our commercial teams continue to leverage both formula and market-based pricing mechanisms to recover inflationary raw material costs.

In the quarter, strong pricing across plant nutrients, chemical intermediates, and nylon solutions offset higher sulfur, benzene, and propylene costs. Importantly, our year-over-year net price over raws impact was neutral in the quarter, which is a notable improvement from the first quarter headwind. On operational excellence, we are well positioned through our integrated asset base, global low-cost position, and continued focus on productivity. Our base capital investments support safe, stable, and sustainable operations.

As we discussed on prior calls, our ammonia turnaround was moved to the second quarter and scoped to align with our suppliers' natural gas pipeline inspection. We are pleased to share that we executed to our expectations. Lastly, we are focused on generating meaningful operating cash flow to support disciplined capital deployment. From a working capital perspective, our cash conversion cycle benchmarks in the top quartile among peers. Our significant runway of opportunity on 45Q carbon capture tax credits also supports future cash generation.

As we allocate capital, our discretionary organic investments target greater than 20% returns. Our sustained growth program is generating returns in excess of 30%, and we remain on track to deliver product mix optimization with 75% ammonium sulfate granular conversion. This is an important milestone as we continue to align our production output with growing demand for sulfur nutrition. We will continue to ensure a well-managed balance sheet that will afford the investments for performance and growth.

We continue to expect improved earnings and cash flow in the second half of the year compared to the first half as we build momentum into 2027. While the near-term market environment has been mixed, our durable competitive advantage, portfolio resiliency across a diverse set of end markets, and our long-term positioning for growth underpin what we believe is a compelling investment thesis for AdvanSix.

Let's turn to Slide 4. Based on our expectations coming out of the first quarter earnings call, a number of items played out as anticipated. Notably, the sequential improvement in net pricing over rising raw material costs was a primary driver of our earnings improvement. Both Nylon Solutions and Chemical Intermediates performed at or better than our expectations with strong commercial performance and mix optimization supporting margins. Plant Nutrient volume, however, was lower than anticipated.

The spring planting season saw a significant increase in grower input costs, while crop and grain prices remained steady at lower levels. This unfavorably impacted farmer profitability and resulted in a reduction of fertilizer consumption overall. Despite these challenges, we ended the full fertilizer year at near-record volume performance for domestic granular ammonium sulfate. Lastly, our utilization rates were lower on operational performance, including the impact of our ammonia plant turnaround. With that, I'll turn it to Patrick to discuss the financials.

Thanks, Erin. I'm now on Slide 5 to discuss our results for the quarter. Sales of $421 million increased approximately 3% versus the prior year, comprised of 18% favorable pricing, partially offset by a 15% decline in volume. Raw material pass-through pricing was up 13%, following a net cost increase in benzene and propylene. Market-based pricing improved 5%, primarily driven by an increase in plant nutrients, reflecting higher nitrogen pricing amid increased sulfur input costs.

Lower sales volume was primarily driven by more challenging agricultural fundamentals, including farmer economics, which resulted in a reduction of in-season fertilizer purchases. Adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, down $24 million from last year. I will highlight the key year-over-year variances in a moment. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.19 declined $1.05 versus the prior year. The higher effective tax rate compared to last year was driven primarily by 45Q carbon capture tax credits claimed in the prior year period and changes in taxable income.

We expect the full year 2026 effective tax rate to be in the range of 10% to 15% prior to any additional 45Q claims. On a sequential basis compared to the first quarter, earnings and cash flow improved significantly with tailwinds across the portfolio from net favorable pricing over raw material input costs. So overall, a testament to the commercial performance in the first half of this year.

Now let's turn to Slide 6. In the quarter, we drove pricing improvement across the portfolio on both a year-over-year and sequential basis. This was supported by higher raw material pass-through pricing as well as an increase in market-based pricing. The primary driver of lower volume, both year-over-year and sequentially was plant nutrients due to the in-season dynamics we observed. To a lesser extent, we saw modestly lower volumes quarter-over-quarter in Nylon Solutions and Chemical Intermediates.

Across Nylon Solutions, resin volumes increased year-over-year on improved operational performance, while caprolactam volumes moderated in a soft demand environment for carpet applications. We saw a reduction overall in export volume sequentially in the second quarter. A more constrained production environment, including the planned turnaround activities, shifted our focus to serving our North American customers. Consistent with our ongoing operating approach, we evaluate the optimal product and geographic mix to ensure the best economic outcome for the integrated enterprise.

Let's turn to Slide 7. Here, we highlight the key drivers of our second quarter adjusted EBITDA performance year-over-year. We completely offset the significant raw material cost increase in the quarter through commercial execution and pricing actions. We thought it was important to highlight in this environment, the magnitude of the input cost inflation that we were able to offset through pricing in the quarter. As you can see on the right side of this slide, raw material costs were a headwind of $72 million in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis. This was primarily driven by rising benzene and sulfur prices.

We were able to fully recoup that impact through strong commercial execution with favorable market and pass-through pricing across the portfolio. On a sequential basis, while we incurred a $10 million headwind in 1Q, we saw that flip to a $39 million tailwind in 2Q. This was also supported by strong pricing in each business line, more than offsetting rising benzene, sulfur, and propylene costs. Natural gas costs were seasonally lower in the second quarter as compared to the first, which is typical for our business.

Now back to the bridge on the left side of the chart. Volume represented a $17 million unfavorable impact, primarily driven by lower sales in plant nutrients in the face of more challenging agricultural fundamentals, including farmer economics. Operationally, we saw an approximately $4 million unfavorable impact from the timing of planned plant turnarounds.

Lastly, all other items netted to a $3 million headwind with the impact of reduced production output, partially offset by lower SG&A as planned. Let's turn to Slide 8. On the left side of the page, we've shown our first half free cash flow generation for 2025 and 2026. Our year-to-date performance is largely tracking to last year when taking into account approximately $26 million of insurance proceeds in the prior year period. Working capital, although improved year-over-year, has been a seasonal use of cash in the first half as expected.

The primary driver of the improvement was disciplined inventory management. As we've shared previously, there is nonlinearity in our cash flow on a quarterly basis. As we look forward into the second half, we anticipate significant sequential improvement, notably as a result of our reduced CapEx run rate, working capital tailwinds, including our fourth quarter prebuy program in plant nutrients, timing of annual payments paid in the first half, and 45Q cash tax credits. Let me turn the call back to Erin.

Thanks, Patrick. With the moving parts in our end markets, let's first take a deeper dive into what we're seeing in the Plant Nutrients market and specifically sulfur input costs, which have been key drivers of our first half performance. We realized lower in-season plant nutrient sales as a result of reduced grower application of nutrients. Ammonium sulfate demand softened significantly in 2Q after strong early season purchases as farmers prioritize applying nitrogen in the peak of the season above all nutrients, most notably ammonia.

As the season progressed, growers applied fertilizer, including ammonium sulfate based on purchases and inventory that was in the channel. Despite weaker in-season sales, we still achieved one of our strongest fertilizer year performances in terms of total domestic granular volume. It is clear that we structurally improved our output and mix supported by our sustained growth program. From an input perspective, sulfur costs have moved up to record highs over the course of the last year. It is evident that elevated sulfur prices, amplified by the conflict in the Middle East, created demand destruction across the industry, most notably in phosphates, which represent approximately 50% of sulfur demand.

The Tampa sulfur market closed at another record of $705 per long ton in the third quarter, following $655 per long ton in the second. Third-party industry experts are forecasting a roughly $200 decline in sulfur prices entering 2027, which will be a tailwind for the next planting season amid what is likely tighter domestic ammonium sulfate supply. As a sensitivity for impact to AdvanSix, every $100 per long ton change in sulfur raw material price equals an approximately $35 million cost impact on an annual basis.

In this environment, we have flexed optionality to incrementally increase ammonia sales availability based on market dynamics across the entire value chain. Our plan for the full year 2026 is expected to be up 30% on ammonia sales volume compared to 2025, which was a prior record year. This reflects our ongoing debottlenecking efforts and the benefit of targeted replacement and maintenance capital investments over time. With our positive experience securing our existing USDA grant in support of our SUSTAIN program, we're now planning to apply for the new FIELD grant to expand our ammonia capacity and increase nitrogen nutrition availability for domestic farmers.

In addition, our previously announced DEF project is progressing through its evaluation phases as planned and if moved forward would unlock more value of our integrated ammonia platform. Let's turn to Slide 10 to highlight what we're seeing across the rest of the portfolio. Moving beyond ag to our key nylon end markets across building construction, engineering plastics, and packaging, North American demand has not materially changed. Global pricing has moved up with higher input costs, while raw material shortages, logistics constraints, and lower operating rates in China have tightened supply.

Similar to nylon, end market demand across chemical intermediates into construction, coatings, and downstream industrials has been broadly stable. Phenol demand remains soft overall, driving lower global operating rates, coupled with reduced acetone imports into the U.S., all of which are supporting tighter ammonia -- acetone supply and demand dynamics.

Let's move to Slide 11. Looking ahead, we have line of sight to several drivers in place to support second half sequential EBITDA and cash flow improvement. On earnings, we expect benefits from the absence of the first quarter winter storm impact and the completion of our larger planned turnaround in the second quarter. We continue to target approximately $10 million savings exiting 2026 from our multiyear non-manpower fixed cost reduction program.

In Nylon Solutions, we expect steady volume performance and continued focus on price relative expansion through disciplined commercial execution and mix optimization. In Chemical Intermediates, we continue to expect cycle average performance for acetone spreads, while our other products in the portfolio are performing to expectations. In Plant Nutrients at this point in the year, we've historically realized a $10 million to $15 million sequential headwind on earnings due to the reset of the North American fertilizer year beginning with the fall fill program.

This year, we expect the impact to be greater given pricing dynamics amid higher sulfur input costs that have impacted the fill program outcomes. Due to the softer late season demand as discussed, there was fertilizer inventory left in the channel, which prompted competitive intensity as players, including traders of imported and other domestic volume, sought to liquidate their positions without regard to producer economics. While this has near-term impact, we remain focused on serving our customers with a strong sulfur nutrition value proposition we have long built through sound agronomic research and grower yield benefits.

Moving to cash. There are several tailwinds, which Patrick highlighted, supporting our stronger second half performance. Let's turn to Slide 12 before moving to Q&A. We remain confident in the through-cycle value creation opportunity at AdvanSix. Our unique combination of assets and business model are core to our durable competitive advantage and long-term positioning. Key to our strategy is a focus on the levers we control, commercial execution, operational excellence, cash generation and disciplined capital deployment.

As we move through the remainder of 2026 and navigate the current industry environment, we are well positioned to support our strategic priorities as a U.S.-based integrated manufacturer aligned to domestic supply chains and energy markets, as well as a diverse set of end market applications. We believe the actions we're taking and strategic priorities ahead support AdvanSix to deliver improved performance and sustainable long-term value. With that, Adam, let's move to Q&A.

Thanks, Erin. Debbie, can you please open the line for questions?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Pete Osterland with Truist Securities.

So just wanted to start on the comment on running Hopewell at lower rates than you expected. Was this a market-based decision driven by ammonium sulfate demand? Or were there any operational delays coming out of the turnaround? And then also, maybe if you could size just how far below your optimal rates you're running and how much line of sight you have into when conditions would be supportive of raising operating rates?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Pete. Certainly, in the quarter, we would have had Hopewell running around mid-70s, consistent with other turnaround quarters. So a large majority there would have been really being constrained through our ammonia production, which has implications on the full value chain. As we proceed forward, obviously, we're focused on, as we've shared, running the assets to the demand. So as you've seen, certainly, our Chesterfield operations are improving year-over-year in operational performance, that's important there. And then obviously, we're continuing to evaluate really the economics given the environment on both how we think about monetizing ammonia and sulfuric acid in the environment for ammonium sulfate. But we have to take the full enterprise chain all the way through to the mix to make those best decisions. So it's kind of an ongoing opportunity set for us to optimize.

Okay. Understood. And then a lot of moving parts with pricing versus raw materials. But just following the full offset of pricing versus raws in the second quarter, do you have an estimate or a range you could share of what you expect the net impact would look like in the third quarter just based on what you can see right now?

Yes. Certainly, as we shared, I can start and then Patrick can jump in as well. Given where sulfur has landed, I think that's going to be the largest headwind vis-a-vis certainly where ammonium sulfate pricing has reset, right, in the fall fill program. Benzene and propylene are going to move with oil, right? And certainly, we have moving parts there based on really how the Middle East is impacting that on a regular basis. So when you think about the pricing mechanisms, the formula and pass-through definitely play more to benzene being passed through in the formulas mechanistically. So it's really going to be how the sulfur plays out relative to the price performance.

Yes. I think we highlighted in our comments, the $10 million to $15 million year-over-year headwind. That's currently the range we're working with and what we expect.

Okay. Very helpful. So I just wanted to finish with a couple of questions on some of the cash tailwinds you're expecting in the second half. So just first on the ammonium sulfate prebuy advances with some of the challenges around farmer economics and fertilizer demand that you called out, do you expect the prebuy in the second half to be weaker than normal? And I guess, could you size what is normal? And what are your expectations for how that is shaping up this year?

Yes. At this point, we would anticipate that it's a bit -- on one hand, a little too early to tell, right? We're just getting through the fall fill. Obviously, this is something that we generally see as steady demand every winter. At this point, with Nutrition, we're really kind of watching now the fundamentals and the guideposts, right? So we're watching the current crop demand -- sorry, crop performance. If you think about -- we'll get more from the USDA this week. You've got certainly implications now that the corn rating has declined since mid-July, a little bit more in line with '22 and '23 crops in the last 2 years.

So how that plays into yield estimates, how that will play into future corn prices, obviously, a reset in profitability. And so we would -- as we sit here today, there's no reason to think that there wouldn't be a positive view relative to that prebuy program setting up for next spring. You could see still a constructive setup, right, when you kind of look forward relative to where we sit today and head forward into the spring. We would see -- also see that ammonium sulfate will probably be a bit tighter as well as we move forward. As we sit here today, the input costs are not supporting, we believe, and what the feedback is from the industry that the marginal producer in the U.S. is not running. And so again, these are the things that we're going to continue to look at as we progress through Q3, Q4 and work to set up a constructive view as we get to spring.

Okay. Great. And then just lastly, on the reductions in CapEx for the second half. When you talk about risk-based prioritization, are these mainly deferrals of spending that at some point in the future, you have to catch up on? And what kind of activities are we talking about? Just maybe some more color around that would be helpful.

Sure. When you think about sort of historical approaches, in many cases, to repair and maintenance as well as just capital intensity on that same view. A lot of the techniques are time-based, right? A piece of equipment goes in with an expected life. The reality is in today's views, you can use better data, have quantitative risk assessments. And so when we talk about risk-based, it's using better indications on when we should be tackling the repair and maintenance type capital in the assets going forward based on how we need them to run to meet demand.

So I wouldn't think about it as a deferral where there will be a catch-up, but rather an overall reslating or reprioritization, right, using data heuristics and new just ways to prioritize where we spend, when we spend it across the enterprise. And so the back half just reflects -- I mean, obviously, you've got a time lag here, right, for our actions to take place relative to the cash flow. So certainly, the first half heavier, right, as we exited 2025 and then putting this into place as we roll forward.

The next question is from David Silver with Freedom Capital Markets.

I guess I just wanted to pick up maybe on one of your recent comments about the lower operating rates for your overall production network and the opportunity, I guess, to gain some flexibility in what you're selling and whatnot. So you mentioned that the ammonia and the sulfuric acid units, in particular, maybe there's an opportunity there to sell more of those products just as they are as opposed to running them through your vertically integrated network there. But especially with the slower fertilizer season here, I mean, how are you thinking about maybe coaxing a little more flexibility and a little more of those basic products, I'm sorry, I'm not speaking very clearly. But just selling ammonia and sulfuric acid more into what seem to be pretty healthy markets right now.

Thanks for the question, David. Yes, so that is definitely what we're trying to increase and certainly been core to a lot of our strategies across expanding beyond the operational excellence of running our assets well, but creating more degrees of freedom and give you more levers to flex and the optionality to do so. So certainly, in the spring, the industry sold more ammonia than normal as it was the cheapest source of nitrogen. We sold certainly more in the first half. Again, these are products that are, I would say, logistics sensitive, right? So there are freight logical reaches, if you will. And certainly, where we sit in the Mid-Atlantic, we have to optimize what we can sell there.

But to put it in perspective, we sold roughly 49,000 short tons in the first half, up from 33,000 in the first half of 2025. And just to put that in perspective, while we shared at the end of last year, we had a record sales for ammonia, we anticipate that as we project through this year, we'll be up 30% year-on-year for the full year. Now obviously, sulfuric acid as well is a freight logical product. We continue to look at that. When you think about the trade-offs, right, I would share with you, it's not just as simple as do we sell ammonia and sulfuric acid or do we make ammonium sulfate because we're not making just synthetic ammonium sulfate. We have an integrated chain.

So we really do need to look at the full set of options, including do we make caprolactam for export? Do we make resin for export? How are the performance implications on Frankford. So we look at the integrated chain to make those economic decisions. And so certainly, relative to our targeted operational approach for the back half of the year, we're dialing into where that optimization makes sense. So -- and we certainly are -- we have a little bit of a knob, if you will, on how we can think about the AS-to-capro lever, right? We built that through the COVID years and thinking about our own technology, and we certainly are looking to minimize that as well as an extra lever. So it's a pretty integrated set of considerations, but that's how we're running it today.

Okay. And I stipulate it it's a very complicated decision map, I guess, and not as easy as flipping a switch. But if anybody was aware of kind of how to tweak the system, I think it would be yourself and your team there. If I could just -- and I apologize, I did have to step away at one point. But could I just get an update on the expectations for the Section 45Q credits. In other words, both when you might be booking an additional round of credits for 2026 and then when cash might be received from the credits that you claimed in 2025?

Sure, David. Let me take that one. So just as some background, our 2018 LCA is already approved by the IRS. This allowed us to claim the credits for 2018, 2019, and 2020, which we've done over the recent years. We have $18 million currently accrued on the balance sheet related to that LCA. Our 2021 LCA is still under review by the DOE and the IRS. We worked closely with them on an updated submission here in the second quarter to assure that they had all the required data that they needed. All 4 of these years are currently included in a broader audit by the IRS.

As soon as that is resolved, we expect to receive the $18 million payment, and we're still targeting that for the second half of this year. And then once that 2021 LCA is approved, we will use the approved 2021 LCA to begin the credit refund process for those applicable years. And as a reminder, that can be used for up to 3 years. And at this point, look, all open items on our side related to the LCAs and the audits are closed. We are here to be responsive to the IRS and our DOE in the event any questions come up as they may arise as they're completing their process.

Okay. That's great detail. Can I also just double check, but is the total amount of credits that you're ultimately targeting, is it still in that $100 million to $125 million range? Or has there been any variation based on the review by the federal authorities thus far?

No. No changes to that range at this point.

Okay. Great. I would like to maybe switch over to the DEF opportunity that was mentioned last -- highlighted a little bit last quarter. At the early stages of the process, I understand. But could you just provide maybe an update on the progress to date? And any changes or any notable developments that you would highlight at this relatively early stage?

Thanks, David. Certainly, the project remains on track and as planned. So as you say, we announced it last quarter. We entered into the licensing agreement to assess the expansion of the platform on our integrated ammonia platform and certainly supply DEF into the growing market in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast. So we continue to progress through our front-end engineering design work, and that's proceeding with our partners and still on track for that final investment decision targeted for the first half of 2027.

As a reminder, this is a multiyear capital investment with, we believe, strong attractive financial returns and align with our long-term value creation objectives. And upon a successful view here, the timing for full operations would be in 2029. So again, progressing as we anticipated. Obviously, we'll continue to keep you apprised. I would share -- it was in the commentary, but lends itself because I know you have asked the question in the past of do we need more ammonia to produce DEF, which we don't necessarily. But it's been interesting.

We are 1 of 8 successfully performing USDA grant projects through SUSTAIN. And with that credibility and certainly momentum we've built, the USDA has launched a new program called FIELD, the Fertilizer Investment and Expansion for Long-term Domestic supply grant, which we are planning to apply for relative to our ammonia -- really to expand our ammonia capacity and increased nitrogen availability for domestic farmers. So while, again, it wasn't necessary for DEF, this new opportunity has presented itself.

Again, we have strong performance under the current grant. This grant is different. It actually is a one-for-one match on dollar spend. So it's 50% covered, whereas the current grant is only 20%. And we're pretty excited about the opportunity. We believe we have a more capital-efficient program than what others have discussed. So more to come there. But just, again, the opportunities that we have on the integrated ammonia platform continues to provide real opportunity.

Wow, that's a little different. And just to clarify, and I apologize, but you're saying potentially a project to add or debottleneck ammonia capacity would be done 50% subsidies totaling about 50% of the estimated cost. Is that what FIELD represents? Or did I misunderstand?

Yes. That's the opportunity ahead of us. So the grant program was launched and applications are due and so we're working that at hand. So more to come there, but I just wanted to share that.

Yes, very interesting. Okay. Just some comments. And again, I may have stepped away when Patrick was going over this. But just running kind of back of the envelope on cash flow generation or free cash flow prospects for the second half of the year. And you did highlight, I'm guessing the fourth quarter cash receipts from growers might be a little lower this year. On the other hand, you've really been very, very efficient with the turnarounds and maintenance expenses. And I was looking at kind of -- you do have relatively low inventory levels, at least to my view. So just what are the prospects for getting close to cash breakeven or so in the back half of the year?

Yes, sure. I can give you a couple of comments there. First, let me start with the Plant Nutrients prebuy. I would say in Q4 of last year, comparing to the prior year, Q4 of last year, we were fairly selective on what we took in terms of prebuy, just given we knew some of the dynamics were happening around sulfur. So in terms of year-over-year comparison, I think that's -- I'd say that that's a relatively soft comparison point. We touched on CapEx as we were talking through the CapEx details, really the way that our sequencing lines up on a cash basis with CapEx, we are more heavily weighted to the front end of the calendar. And then I think the last piece, too, look, we're looking at sequential earnings improvement too in the second half, which is obviously going to contribute some more cash as well.

So -- and I think just the last piece, we talk about payment timing, just the way the calendar year unfolds for us. We have some higher payments going out the door in the first half of the year. Insurance, for example, those invoices get paid on a timing basis earlier in the calendar year. So we have some timing due to that as well. So those are really your big drivers that get you back to the first half versus second half sequential improvement in cash.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Erin Kane for any closing remarks.

Thank you all again for your time and interest this morning. We hope this call and discussion have clarified the key considerations that supported our second quarter performance and outlook across our end markets. The strength of our business model and our position as an integrated chemistry company will serve us well, and we continue to expect performance this year to demonstrate our resilience. With that, we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Stay safe and be well.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the AdvanSix First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Kressel, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Danielle. Good morning, and welcome to AdvanSix's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. With me here today are President and CEO, Erin Kane; Senior Vice President and CFO, Patrick Day; and Vice President of Corporate Finance and Strategic FP&A, Chris Gramm. This call and webcast, including any non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on our website at investors.advansix.com. Note that elements of this presentation contain forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and of our business as we see it today.

Those elements can change, and the actual results could differ materially from those projected, and we ask that you consider them in that light. We refer you to the forward-looking statements included in our press release and earnings presentation. In addition, we identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K as further updated in subsequent filings with the SEC.

This morning, we will review our financial results for the first quarter of 2026 and share our outlook for our key product lines and end markets. Finally, we'll leave time for your questions at the end. So with that, I'll turn the call over to AdvanSix's President and CEO, Erin Kane.

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us here today for our quarterly call. As you saw in our press release, the AdvanSix team navigated a number of headwinds to deliver a solid first quarter performance, including the earlier winter storm-related impacts and new geopolitical challenges amid continued subdued industrial end market demand. In the quarter, we generated 7% sales growth year-over-year, supported by improvements in chemical intermediates volume and plant nutrients market pricing, partially offsetting the margin impacts driven by increased sulfur and natural gas costs.

We are executing with a focus to recover inflationary raw material input costs by leveraging both our pass-through formula and freely negotiated pricing mechanisms. I'd like to thank all of our teammates who contributed to successfully maintaining safe operations during the winter storm earlier this year. While the earnings impact related to this event came in just above the high end of our anticipated range, we were able to save $3 million of planned turnaround expense for the year. Looking ahead, we anticipate significant sequential earnings and cash flow improvement into the second quarter.

We are in a solid position as the domestic planting season progresses and continue to operate amid a tightening acetone global supply and demand environment and a modestly recovering nylon industry. We're maintaining a disciplined focus on cost productivity, capital spending, turnaround execution and full year free cash flow generation. We continue to expect full year CapEx in the range of $75 million to $95 million with targeted allocation of nearly 20% of that towards high-return growth investments.

We also continue to expect debt leverage ratios near the low end of our target range of 1 to 2.5x by the end of this year. Key to our strategy is a keen focus on controllable levers to support through-cycle profitability and cash conversion while progressing targeted growth strategies and initiatives. We announced yesterday an exciting new opportunity to expand our integrated ammonia platform at our Hopewell, Virginia site to supply the growing regional diesel exhaust fluid or DEF market. I'll share more about this later in the call.

Lastly, effective April 27, we welcome Patrick Day as our new Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Pat has tremendous experience establishing corporate and financial strategies that accelerate growth and shareholder value, and we look forward to his expertise as we advance in our next chapter. I'd like to also give thanks to Chris Gramm for his commitment and support during his time as Interim CFO over the last year. With that, I'll turn it to Chris to discuss the financials.

Thanks, Erin. I'm now on Slide 4 to discuss our results for the quarter. Sales of $404 million in the quarter increased approximately 7% versus the prior year, comprised of 6% volume growth and 1% favorable price. Sales volume growth was primarily driven by favorable chemical intermediates sales. Market-based pricing improved by 3%, primarily driven by an increase in plant nutrients, reflecting higher nitrogen pricing amid increased sulfur input costs. Raw material pass-through pricing was down 2% following a net cost decrease in benzene and propylene, which is a major input to cumene, our largest raw material and key feedstock to our products.

Adjusted EBITDA was $5 million, down $47 million from last year. This was primarily driven by the absence of insurance proceeds from the prior year of $26 million, the unfavorable impact of higher sulfur and natural gas raw material prices, higher utility expenses and $11 million of winter storm-related impacts. On a sequential basis compared to the fourth quarter, higher sales volume growth supported by improved operational performance was more than offset by escalating raw material input prices. From a free cash flow perspective, the first quarter represents a seasonal use of cash as expected, primarily due to the timing of cash payments for CapEx following the prior quarter outages.

The absence of insurance proceeds was also a meaningful driver of the year-over-year change. We continue to anticipate sequential improvement into the second quarter and expect the second half of the year to be a source of cash to achieve our full year expectations. Now let's turn to Slide 5. On this slide, we are detailing our quarterly sales contributions by product line as well as price and volume indicators, both year-over-year and sequentially. In light of the significant raw material inflation and the mix of our formula or index-based pricing mechanisms, we did not fully cover those costs in the first quarter.

However, we anticipate recouping a large portion of that shortfall in the second quarter, particularly into the heart of the domestic planting season for plant nutrients. Starting with Nylon Solutions, resin volumes improved sequentially on improved operational performance, while caprolactam volumes moderated in a soft demand environment, particularly for carpet applications. We saw a higher export mix in the first quarter of 2026, which is expected to continue in the near term.

With our advantaged position, we are evaluating export opportunities to ensure the best economic output for the integrated enterprise. Domestic pricing steadily increased overall, supported in part by higher input costs. Plant nutrient volumes were flat to down, both year-over-year and sequentially in the first quarter, while pricing strength continued. In the early parts of the year, we witnessed more cautious buying behavior down the value chain and a more risk-averse sentiment from customers amid the higher input costs and rapidly rising nitrogen prices.

And lastly, chemical intermediate sales improved on the back of volume improvements year-over-year. In acetone, as we mentioned on the first quarter 2025 earnings call, downstream MMA saw extended plant outages last year. In the first quarter of 2026, we observed more normalized operating rates down the value chain supporting demand. In addition, given pricing dynamics and trade flows across our key products in this portfolio, we delivered on opportunistic spot sales domestically and in the export markets.

Thanks, Chris. I'm now on Slide 6 to discuss what we're seeing across our major product lines. Our diversified end market exposure continues to be a strategic advantage, providing resilience across cycles. Agricultural and fertilizer remains our largest end market. As we sit here today, our domestic granular sales for this fertilizer year are now expected to be near record levels, but closer to flat as compared to the last fertilizer year. While the fertilizer year started off with optimism and a strong fall fill, as we've discussed in previous calls, buying has become more cautious given continued challenged fundamentals, including farmer profitability and input affordability, cold weather to start the spring and drought conditions.

What that means is we are now selling in-season tons with the ability to work coverage of sulfur input costs, which is important because, amid a higher global nitrogen pricing environment on the heels of the conflict in the Middle East, our ammonium sulfate pricing actions are largely offsetting sulfur input costs rather than driving margin expansion in this current context. We know that growers value the cost of nutrition. In fact, ammonia for direct application is currently a relatively attractive value for growers.

While we are not a large merchant ammonia supplier, we have seen good demand and netbacks and have been maximizing our ammonia availability this spring while slightly moderating ammonium sulfate production. So while we capture the benefit from the advantage between U.S. natural gas and global nitrogen prices, we also contend with the impact of sulfur input costs versus the sulfur value proposition we deliver to farmers. On tightened global supply, sulfur quarterly prices settled at a record $655 per long ton in the second quarter of 2026, with current spot prices trading even higher than those levels.

That represents over 30% sequential increase and a roughly 140% surge year-over-year, so a meaningful increase that the industry is experiencing. Moving to our key nylon end markets across building and construction as well as engineering plastics, North American demand has not materially changed. Global pricing has moved up with capacity rationalization and raw material shortages in Europe, lower operating rates in China, logistics constraints and higher input costs. Our industry pricing mechanisms work to pass through changes in core raw materials, notably benzene, but also natural gas and sulfur.

Given global trade flow dynamics, reduced imports have created opportunities to gain share. In this environment, it's critical for our business to remain agile through pricing and mix. We continue to execute our plan, including taking advantage of export opportunities as they arise, increasing prices to offset cost increases and reducing inventory levels for the nylon resin to align with our current market conditions.

In Chemical Intermediates, phenol demand remains soft overall, driving lower global operating rates, coupled with reduced acetone imports into the U.S., all of which are supporting tightening acetone supply and demand dynamics. Acetone price increases have been implemented in the industry to keep pace with rising propylene costs. Spreads have held near cycle averages, and we continue to anticipate that for the full year of 2026.

Let's move to Slide 7. We were excited to announce yesterday that we have entered into a process design and licensing agreement to assess expansion of our integrated ammonia platform to enable the domestic manufacturing of DEF, a critical emissions control product used across on- and off-highway diesel applications. As background, DEF is an EPA-mandated additive for reducing NOx emissions from diesel engines, with strong and growing demand driven primarily by Class 8 vehicle usage in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Demand for DEF continues to grow to meet environmental standards and as regulatory requirements expand across transportation, construction, agriculture and industrial equipment fleets. The AdvanSix Hopewell facility provides a strong foundation for expanding domestic manufacturing at the site and already produces all required DEF inputs. This potential expansion would complement existing manufacturing capabilities at this site with full continued commitment to the production of ammonium sulfate fertilizer to serve the U.S. farming industry.

Our geographic position uniquely enables reliable supply to meet growing demand in a market currently served by imports and production from other domestic regions. Our investments over time with our ammonia unit operation have paid off in terms of our reliability and output. This project has the potential to unlock further value from our existing assets through increased optionality to serve a broadened customer base. We will advance through detailed engineering and development phases with final investment decision targeted for the first half of 2027.

Additional updates will be provided as engineering, commercial and financial milestones are achieved and regulatory approvals are secured. We anticipate a multiyear capital investment supporting attractive financial returns following expected operational start-up in 2029, which align with our long-term value creation objectives and commitment to disciplined capital allocation.

Let's turn to Slide 8 before moving to Q&A. AdvanSix offers a compelling investment thesis with value drivers supporting through-cycle profitability and sustainable performance. Our strategic initiatives, unique combination of assets and business model are core to our durable competitive advantage and long-term positioning. Our global low-cost position and vertically integrated caprolactam production serves us well. In addition, ammonia and sulfuric acid platform integration, coupled with a leading technology position, underpins how we win in plant nutrients. We are progressing our sustained ammonium sulfate growth program and have now announced another high-return investment opportunity to serve the growing DEF market.

These capabilities, combined with increasing asset operational agility and diversified product and end market mix position us to navigate cycles and capitalize on emerging opportunities. We remain focused on delivering on controllable levers, including our non-manpower fixed cost savings program, risk-based prioritization of our capital investments, continued working capital discipline and 45Q carbon capture tax credits to support improved cash flow generation. With that, Adam, let's move to Q&A.

Thanks, Erin. Danielle, can you please open the line for questions?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Peter -- from Pete Osterland from Truist Securities.

Just wanted to start on the DEF ammonia project. I guess do you have a rough estimate you can share for the capital intensity you expect for this project between now and 2029? And maybe how does the return hurdle you're targeting at this point compare to other programs you've had like SUSTAIN and the IRRs you referenced there?

Thanks, Pete. I appreciate the question. At this time, I would share that we would expect the CapEx for this program certainly to be larger than our SUSTAIN program. Hopefully, you can appreciate that while we're investigating and doing our FEED process, we are having a number of negotiations with folks. And at this time, we would keep the actual CapEx range a bit confidential and more to come there. But you can think about it, it certainly is a larger program than SUSTAIN. That said, our internal targets, as we've shared for high-return growth and cost savings projects are 20-plus percent IRR hurdle rates. And this project fits well into that range. And certainly, we're here today and certainly announcing it yesterday, given the fact that this continues to demonstrate real great potential for the company.

Very helpful. And then kind of switching gears, I guess, just when you think about the level of sulfur pricing that you're guiding to for the second quarter, I mean, is it your expectation at this point that prices should be at or above that level for the remainder of the year? I mean, even if the Iran conflict ended very soon, I guess, how long would you expect at this point until you start seeing some easing for the dynamics that are driving higher prices in that market?

Yes. I mean, certainly, you're probably aware that the spot prices continue to trade higher than the Q2 settlement. Certainly, as we think about the Q3 settlement, that will come in a couple of months, right? It's settled by 2 large phosphate producers here in the U.S. and our 3 largest suppliers. But I think consistent with what you're probably hearing with others in this space, even if things were to -- we have a resolution in the Middle East, there is quite a bit of time certainly for things to settle back out. I would share that security supply is not a consideration for us being that we're buying here in North America.

Certainly, there is a lot of sulfur, 50% or so world's supply comes from the Middle East, but we're in a great spot being a North American producer and purchaser here. But certainly, we would anticipate now that it's hard to predict, but pricing probably does stay a bit higher for longer. And then we'll have to see what really it does for demand into its largest applications, right? Just over 50% of the world's sulfur goes into phosphate fertilizer. So watching that will be key compared to what we see. But we feel good about certainly our sequential opportunity to recover, and that's been our focus really as we are progressing now in Q2 as we move forward.

The next question comes from David Silver from Freedom Capital Markets.

Let me just get my questions in order here. I did want to go back to maybe the sulfur question and a couple of your comments regarding ammonium sulfate. So I think you mentioned that ammonium sulfate prices are increasing, but more or less in line with the rise in sulfur costs. And I'm just wondering, you talked about kind of balanced markets, whereas, I mean, for most nitrogen fertilizer products, it's somewhat different supply-demand aspect. It's very tight. And you do have a very strong vertically integrated production structure. Just wondering what kind of in-season flexibility you think you have to maybe exploit some pretty big, I don't know, price differentials amongst the different nitrogen fertilizer products. So you've looked at these markets for quite a while. Why not tilt or lean on direct ammonia sales and a little bit less of the ammonium sulfate here?

Thanks for the question, Dave. And certainly, hopefully, that was teased out a bit in our remarks. We are a big producer and a leader in ammonium sulfate, and that is certainly a place here. And as you say, with ammonium sulfate, we are and do get that differential certainly between where nitrogen is priced in our U.S. natural gas position. We also can have that directly in our ammonia sales as well. I would say right now, it's a moderate lever, right? Certainly, we are and can pull back a bit, right, on our ammonium sulfate production. We continue, as we shared last year, to produce ammonia at historically high levels. And then certainly, relative to what we are targeting to sell would be consistent with that.

So again, farmers need NPK, they need that, right? There is a value proposition for sulfur, and we continue to focus on ensuring that they have their needs met there as well. And -- but certainly a little bit different than perhaps historical when nitrogen has moved and you have the spread. This situation right now compared to perhaps Ukraine and Russia definitely continues to just have to contend with the sulfur. But certainly, farmers do seem to be sticking more with N, and we're looking to take advantage of that too and really wrestle -- not wrestle, but provide the opportunity that we have off our assets to do so.

Okay. Just -- I'm going to follow up with a couple of targeted questions. Firstly, you did talk about the sulfur market. You did talk about your positioning, able to get all the sulfur that you require. But there is -- I don't know, I would -- I'm guessing it's unprecedented, but there is this gap that you touched on between the spot price of sulfur and the contract price of sulfur. And I just wanted to clarify that AdvanSix is able to purchase at the contract price, the lower contract price under your current supply agreements and rather than some mix of contract and spot pricing. Just if you could just kind of touch on your supply arrangements for sulfur and in particular, how tight is the relationship between the U.S. contract price versus having to go out into the spot market?

I can confirm that we purchased entirely on the contract market..

Okay. Great. I did want to follow up maybe on the DEF project, very interesting project and leveraging some of that -- some of your capabilities. I read the release the other day and then I read your comments in the prepared remarks. But certainly, you're going to be adding some urea melt capacity there. Will you also be debottlenecking ammonia? In other words, are you going to have a higher ammonia capacity once the project is all finished than you currently have? Or how should I just kind of think about that in terms of allocating ammonia amongst the nylon, the fertilizer and now the DEF.

Yes. So certainly, this next phase does not -- this project doesn't require an ammonia expansion. Certainly, given our geographical location, our integrated platform, we always look at marginal ammonia debottlenecks. But for the DEF, we do not need to expand ammonia for the purposes of the project.

Okay. Very good. And then last one for me, but I would like to just get an update on the Section 45Q credit. So you did talk about it, but I'm guessing that the 2025 filings for roughly $20 million that, that has not been received yet? Just kind of an update on that? And then what -- do you anticipate filing for an additional tranche of the credits to which you're entitled in the current fiscal year? And should we think about that maybe in the $20 million range as well?

Yes, David, thanks for that question. As you can imagine, there's been a lot of continuing activity around 45Q. We are -- have the audit process underway with the IRS for the 2018 through the 2020 years of credits. We anticipate field work being ramped up in the second quarter and we're making good progress on the audit itself. In terms of the timing of the cash and while $20 million was the sort of full value, we've already received $2 million of that in prior years. So we're anticipating another $18 million. We would expect the proceeds for that in the second half, subject to the IRS approval process, but we're expecting that in the second half.

In terms of the life cycle assessment for the '21 year and following, we've submitted those to the DOE, and we're working now with the DOE and the IRS to get those certified. So just as a reminder, we've been at this for over 5 years. And so this process just takes some time as we work through with the government to get their approval and the due diligence that they do. So hopefully, those will be coming shortly, but that's the process and where we are. So...

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Erin Kane for closing remarks.

Thank you all again for your time and interest this morning. As we move through the remainder of 2026 and navigate a dynamic environment, we are well positioned to support our strategic priorities as a U.S.-based integrated manufacturer aligned to domestic supply chains and energy markets as well as a diverse set of end market applications. With that, we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Stay safe and be well.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the AdvanSix' Q4 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Kressel, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead, Adam.

Thank you, Bailey. Good morning, and welcome to AdvanSix' Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With me here today are President and CEO, Erin Kane; and Interim CFO, Chris Gramm.

This call and webcast, including any non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on our website at investors.advansix.com. Note that elements of this presentation contain forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and of our business as we see it today. Those elements can change, and the actual results could differ materially from those projected, and we ask that you consider them in that light. We refer you to the forward-looking statements included in our press release and earnings presentation. In addition, we identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K as further updated in subsequent filings with the SEC.

This morning, we will review our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 and share our outlook for our key product lines and end markets. Finally, we'll leave time for your questions at the end.

So with that, I'll turn the call over to AdvanSix' President and CEO, Erin Kane.

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us here today for our quarterly call.

As you saw in our press release, the AdvanSix team executed well to close out 2025. A great thanks to our organization for remaining focused on safely optimizing operational and commercial performance. We delivered full year adjusted EBITDA of $157 million and generated $6 million of free cash flow in a year characterized by continued cyclical trough market conditions for Nylon Solutions, robust plant nutrient supply and demand fundamentals amid an increasing input cost environment and mixed chemical intermediates industry conditions with lower acetone net pricing as anticipated.

While the macro environment has been challenging, there were a number of highlights over the past year to recognize. We successfully executed our planned turnarounds at the low end of our target spend range. We delivered record annual production across both of our key ammonia and sulfuric acid unit operations. We invested $116 million in CapEx, funding key growth and enterprise initiatives, including our sustained growth program. We progressed tax strategies, claiming additional 45Q carbon tax credits, received the final $26 million settlement proceeds in the first quarter 2025 related to the 2019 PES supplier shutdown claim, and we preserved our competitive dividend while maintaining conservative debt leverage levels and ample liquidity.

At the end of the year, we also welcomed Jeffrey Bird to our Board of Directors. Jeff's breadth of experience and deep financial and operational leadership in complex industries will further strengthen our Board's strategic oversight.

As we look ahead to 2026, the end market environment remains mixed overall. We anticipate continued strength in plant nutrient supply-demand fundamentals and expect acetone margins to remain near cycle averages, while nylon remains plateaued in its trough. Now there have been several recent industry announcements pointing to capacity rationalization in the nylon chain and lower operating rates in China, which we believe should lead to more favorable supply and demand conditions over time.

Raw material input costs are expected to be a headwind, particularly in the first half of the year on meaningfully higher sulfur and natural gas prices. As many well know, we recently navigated a significant winter storm across the country and Mid-Atlantic. We are proud that we were successful in safely and continuously running our operations through these extreme temperature, ice and snow conditions. Everyone at our operating sites came together to deliver this result. We did have to contend with natural gas restrictions, additional maintenance costs, and we elected to moderate operating rates, which was a necessary impact to maintain safe operations. In

total, we anticipate roughly an $8 million to $10 million unfavorable earnings impact in the first quarter, which we do intend to fully offset as we progress through the year. In this environment, we remain focused on controllable levers to support through-cycle profitability and cash conversion. This includes optimizing production output and sales volume mix, driving fixed cost reductions and productivity, maintaining a disciplined approach to cash management and taking a risk-based approach to capital investment and plant turnaround scoping. Our strategic initiatives, unique combination of assets and business model are core to our durable competitive advantage and long-term positioning.

With that, I'll turn it to Chris to discuss the financials.

Thanks, Erin. I'm now on Slide 4 to discuss our results for the quarter. Sales of $360 million in the quarter increased by approximately 9% versus the prior year. Sales volume increased approximately 11%, driven primarily by the prior year impact of the Q4 '24 extended planned turnaround. Market-based pricing was favorable by approximately 2%, driven by the continued strength in plant nutrients, reflecting favorable North American ammonium sulfate supply and demand conditions. Partially offset by lower acetone prices as anticipated. Raw material pass-through pricing was down 4% following a cost decrease in benzene, which is a major input to cumene, our largest raw material and key feedstock to our products.

Adjusted EBITDA was $25 million, up $15 million from last year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was 6.9%. The improvement in earnings versus last year was primarily driven by the favorable year-over-year sales volume and lower cost impact of plant turnarounds, partially offset by a decline in chemical intermediates pricing net of raw material costs.

On a sequential basis compared to the third quarter, earnings were roughly flat as higher plant nutrient pricing was offset by increased sulfur and natural gas input costs as well as the impact of the previously disclosed unplanned Chesterfield electrical outage and planned Hopewell turnaround.

Now let's turn to Slide 5. On this slide, we are detailing our quarterly sales contributions by product line as well as price and volume indicators, both year-over-year and sequentially. We hope this view into the underlying dynamics of our financials provides better insight into our commercial sales performance. In Nylon Solutions, volumes declined sequentially as we moderated caprolactam and resin production rates to manage inventory in a softer demand environment. Domestic market-based pricing held relatively steady, while raw material pass-through pricing saw declines on lower benzene input prices. Plant nutrients continue to perform exceptionally well with strength in volume, pricing and mix. Granular ammonium sulfate volumes increased year-over-year, supported by the resiliency of sulfur nutrition demand and continued progress of our sustained growth program. And lastly, chemical intermediates pricing was stable sequentially, but lower year-over-year, consistent with expectations as acetone pricing moderated from the multiyear highs experienced in 2024.

I'm now on Slide 6, where we've summarized our full year 2025 financial results. Sales were roughly flat year-over-year, while we delivered full year adjusted EBITDA of $157 million and 90 basis points of margin expansion to 10.3%. Strong plant nutrients pricing and volume performance, in part supported by our sustained growth program, helped to overcome higher natural gas and sulfur feedstock costs, continued trough market conditions for Nylon Solutions and lower acetone pricing over raws.

I would also highlight that the strong fourth quarter performance supported positive free cash flow generation for the full year 2025. On the bottom right portion of the slide, we've included a snapshot of our plant utilization across our 3 major facilities. At Hopewell, operating rates were roughly flat in 2025 on a year-over-year basis. As Erin mentioned earlier, we delivered record annual production across both of our key ammonia and sulfuric acid unit operations at our Hopewell site while continuing to optimize granular ammonium sulfate production. At our Frankfurt phenol and acetone plant, utilization rate was up on improved performance year-over-year. At Chesterfield, operating rates were down high single digits. This reflects the strategic choice to moderate production and manage inventory levels as well as the site-wide electrical outage in fire.

Thanks, Chris. I'm now on Slide 7 to discuss our end market exposure and what we're seeing across our major product lines. Our diversified end market exposure continues to be a strategic advantage, providing resiliency across cycles. Agriculture and fertilizer remains our largest end market. Overall, we continue to see favorable ammonium sulfate supply and demand fundamentals with sulfur nutrition demand growing approximately 3% to 4%. There is caution around crop prices and sensitivity to declining farmer profitability in addition to higher sulfur input costs, which are impacting fertilizer margins. Sulfur prices settled at nearly $500 per long ton in the first quarter of 2026. That compares to $165 per ton in the first quarter of 2025 and $310 per ton last quarter, so a meaningful increase that the industry is experiencing.

There continues to be robust acceptance of the sulfur value proposition with growers seeking to maximize crop yields. In the first 7 months of this fertilizer year, granular sales volume is up 10%. We continue to build upon last year's success and are on pace for another record year of sales growth. As the value chain has been preparing for the upcoming planting in spring, we are seeing inventory fill up in the channel, particularly with the impact of weather-related delays. We're now seeing our first half order book shift more into the second quarter when fertilizer typically moves very quickly through the chain to the field. While there is risk to our first quarter planned volume, we also view this as an opportunity to place more tons in the second quarter when we traditionally see the highest in-season pricing.

To put this into historical context, at this point in the year, we're typically sold out several months in advance. meaning that pricing for the first quarter shipments is based on the back half of the prior year and the second quarter shipments largely reflect first quarter pricing. This year, given the considerations around anticipated acceleration of input costs, expectations for corn acres planted and tight domestic fertilizer supply, we engaged in a more limited prebuy program and have taken a more cautious and patient approach to the order book. By not selling forward, our average price in the order book is above last year's pricing and much closer to current published pricing without the historical lag.

Moving to Building Construction. Dynamics here remain largely unchanged. We have direct and indirect exposure across nylon and chemical intermediates through flooring, oriented strand board and paints and coatings to name a few. Our view is that latent demand will build and begin to recover through 2026, assuming moderating interest rates going forward. Third-party estimates indicate approximately 3% commercial construction growth anticipated in 2026. For nylon fiber and filament, in particular, we see a stronger presence in commercial applications such as office, hospitality and leisure.

Broadly across Nylon Solutions, the industry remains in an extended trough. Pricing has stabilized domestically with margins supported by lower benzene input costs. However, demand remains muted across construction, automotive, food packaging and broader industrial applications.

As I mentioned earlier, encouragingly, we are seeing increased evidence of capacity rationalization in Europe and lower operating rates in China, which again should support more balanced supply and demand conditions over time. In chemical intermediates, phenol demand remains weak overall, driving lower global operating rates and supporting more balanced acetone supply and demand dynamics. While acetone margins have moderated, they remain near cycle averages. Downstream MMA demand is improving following planned and unplanned downtime in the fourth quarter of 2025.

In addition, we note that the refinery-grade propylene pricing marker is being discontinued in 2026, and the industry is moving to buying cumene on a polymer-grade propylene minus pricing construct. Lastly, as of January, the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission made final determinations to renew the antidumping duties for acetone into the U.S. for another 5 years.

Let's move to Slide 8. As we look ahead to the remainder of 2026, our strategic priorities remain clear. We're focused on bolstering sustainable cash flow generation through risk-based prioritization of capital investments, cost productivity, tax optimization and commercial and operational execution. Our balance sheet is positioned to provide optionality and the ability to weather the challenging macro environment with leverage exiting 2025 at approximately 1.2x net debt to adjusted EBITDA.

Now starting with CapEx. We're expecting to spend in the range of $75 million to $95 million in 2026 compared to $116 million in 2025. This reduction reflects a rigorous evaluation and risk-based assessment of base investments in enterprise programs with continued progression of growth projects, including our sustained growth program. We anticipate a similar range of investment in 2027 as well as we prioritize capital based on compliance, risk and reliability assessments and efficiency improvements. We've also taken a refined risk-based approach to our planned turnaround schedule in 2026. While it is an ammonia turnaround year at Hopewell, we reduced the scope of these activities, focusing on critical maintenance and compliance areas.

In total, we now anticipate the pretax income impact of plant turnarounds to be in the range of $20 million to $25 million. The majority of the spend will be in the second quarter this year as we necessarily aligned our work with planned natural gas pipeline maintenance already scheduled by our vendor partners.

As we previewed on our last earnings call, we are embarking on a non-manpower fixed cost takeout initiative, which is expected to support margin resilience. Supported by our recent ERP upgrades and enhanced management tools and data analytics, this multiyear productivity program targets approximately $30 million of annual run rate cost savings. From an execution perspective, we remain focused on optimizing production output, inventories and sales volume mix while remaining nimble to capture market opportunity in the areas that are most profitable. We are also actively managing our cash tax rate, which we anticipate being below 10% this year.

Lastly, all of these contributing items support expected meaningful improvement in free cash flow for the year. As a reminder, our linearity consistent with past years will represent a first half use of cash, primarily due to the unwinding of cash advances, the run rate of cash payments on CapEx and timing of annual payments. Conversely, we anticipate the second half to be a source of cash to achieve our full year expectations.

Let's turn to Slide 9 before moving to Q&A. We believe that AdvanSix offers a compelling investment thesis with several value drivers supporting through-cycle profitability and sustainable performance. Our leading U.S.-based position, advantaged value chain and business model provide inherent competitive advantages. We're aligned to a diverse set of end market applications, including roughly 40% of our revenue tied to underlying strong agricultural fundamentals. Our ammonia sulfuric acid platform integration, coupled with leading granular crystallization technology underpins our ammonium sulfate growth and how we win in plant nutrients. These capabilities, combined with our asset utilization agility and product mix position us to navigate cycles and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

With disciplined capital allocation, a healthy balance sheet and a keen focus on productivity and free cash flow generation, we believe we have the flexibility and resilience to navigate current market conditions and create long-term shareholder value.

With that, Adam, let's move to Q&A.

Thanks, Erin. Bailey, can you please open the line for questions?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from David Silver with Freedom Capital Markets.

A number of questions. I guess I would like to start with a couple on the nylon -- your nylon outlook. And in particular, you did use the term that there have been a string of industry announcements. So I am aware of the one closure in Europe, but by Fibrant. I'm just wondering if you could recap, have there been other capacity closure announcements? And secondly, where would you expect the reduced capacity or operating rates to be most prominent? In other words, what end markets do you anticipate the capacity or production cutbacks to -- where would that show up most prominently in your view?

Sure. Yes. So let's touch on Europe because I think that certainly is the area where, as you mentioned, Fibrant has already reported their intention to shut down. Europe remains structurally long relative to its demand and utilization has been hovering 50, 60 type percent. And so there's a Fibrant announcement. DOMO is also operating in insolvency. And so while not announced, I think there is a watch out there in consideration on their long-term prospects.

To put in perspective, if they both were to exit operating rates in Europe on a caprolactam perspective would certainly move up into the 80s range, right, albeit on lower output relative to the full regional capacity, but much more in line from a structured supply-demand fundamental that would ultimately support pricing, we think, by a couple of hundred dollars per metric ton. So that's Europe.

In China, there are also reports that they are managing their operating rate, if you will, in the country. And so we have seen their rates come down in the fourth quarter, operating anywhere from sort of the high 60s to mid-70 range, which certainly goes a long way to the global oversupply, if you will, and we actually see that reported in constrained ammonium sulfate coming out of the country as well. So these are things that are pointing to that direction because obviously, the monomer caprolactam, right, is the key starting point for the nylon chain.

And so when you think about sort of just the overall health of the end markets, it's hard to say. Certainly, on a global basis, building construction, North America building construction continues to be challenged. Here, that impacts fiber and filament into carpet. Globally, automotive would be a contributor to engineering plastics challenges in its demand. And then in the U.S. on packaging, again, just a little bit more challenged main applications here in meat and cheese protective packaging, and you still see some rather inflationary pressures on red meat that are impacting demand there. So again, pointing in the right direction. We're always looking for these green shoots, if you will. And I think certainly, it appears that perhaps we're at an inflection point for this movement.

Okay. I would also just like to follow that with some questions -- a question about your outlook on sulfur market dynamics. So just personally, my view is sulfur is probably one of the least predictable large volume products to kind of get a real handle on supply and demand drivers at any given point. And of course, it's been -- there's been upward pricing momentum for several quarters now. Just from your perspective, maybe if you could give us a sense of -- firstly, what is the key driver to the more recent larger lift in pricing? In other words, is it more supply-driven or demand-driven? Or are there other factors you would point to? And then secondly, what are your expectations for where sulfur might be by the end of the year? In other words, do your folks see a plateauing or a moderation in the pace of increases here? Or just anyway -- but anyway, your company's view on the market dynamics for sulfur right now would be very helpful.

Yes. Certainly, David, we're sitting at nearly 20-year highs for sulfur prices right now, too. So to your point, perhaps they're predictable until they're not predictable. They're not interesting until they become interesting. And a similar type surge has happened twice before 2008, 2022. And in both times, prices drop precipitously in the following sort of 6 months. We will note that the first Q settlement was delayed, I think as negotiations were extended in a response to sort of the perhaps bid-ask on the global pricing basis. Relative to supply/demand, I think they both contribute to the current level of pricing. The industry has seen stronger demand in ag and global mining, right? But we've also seen supply constraints in the U.S. Gulf and lower output in other regions that is certainly contributing to the global prices. So that international market, we watch the spot prices has sustained $500 plus sulfur since 4Q of 2025.

I would note at these levels, certainly, we don't participate in this space, but noticing that there is mentioning now of phosphate demand destruction in the industry, right, which would also, again, in just the supply-demand consideration contribute to the expectation that we would see sulfur believe to come off across 2026, right? But as you know, it's hard to predict the exact timing there.

And maybe just to follow up briefly, but leaving the pricing dynamic aside, are you confident that you will have available supply? In other words, your overall operations do rely to a certain large extent on a continuous supply of sulfur again, leaving aside the cost, do you have any concerns about the availability of product in the amounts and on a timely basis that you require?

No, we contract with a number of suppliers to make sure that we have ample access. And so at this point, we do not have any concern in that regard.

Okay. Great. I wanted to swing over to the Section 45Q carbon credits, please. So two questions. I'll ask them both here. But firstly, could you talk about the size and the timing of the Section 45Q credits that you expect to be recognized or claimed in 2026? And then secondly, about a week ago, I guess, the federal government did issue a ruling and a little too complicated for me to repeat. But basically, their new policy is that CO2 is no longer considered a pollutant. And in light of that, I'm kind of wondering whether you see any impact from that ruling on your ability to claim and ultimately receive Section 45Q credits in the amount, I guess, $100 million to $120 million through 2029 or so. Is that still your view? Is there any impact on the magnitude or the timing of your plans to participate in the carbon credits available to you?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Dave. I would say, obviously, we keep an important eye on what's happening in the 45Q credits arena because they are collectively worth $100 million plus to us over the next several years. So let me take your maybe two questions sequentially here. On the endangerment finding, does that have an impact on the 45Q? And I think the simple answer there is no. And what is probably helpful is to think about it in 2 frameworks. One is the EPA framework and the other is on the tax law framework. So the endangerment finding from an EPA perspective defines what types of air emissions are subject to the EPA's oversight and the endangerment finding here would have an impact on the EPA around air permits and air emissions itself, whereas the 45Q is based in tax law.

So in fact, these things are generally separate. In fact, 45Q predates the endangerment finding. And 45Q has had a strong bipartisan support since its creation. In fact, recently, in the One big Beautiful Bill Act, there is strong support for the 45Q, particularly around utilization, and we saw that in which the credit rate was actually increased and is now on par with permanent sequestration. So the answer there is that we still see the 45Q carbon credits being available to us moving forward, and we don't see a lot of risk with that.

In terms of what we think we can expect, just as a reminder, we have to go through a process where we get approval on the life cycle assessments from the Department of Energy. And then once that's approved, we can go ahead and claim the credit. As a reminder, we've already been approved and have claimed the credits for years '18 through '20. For 2021 life cycle assessment, we filed that with the Department of Energy in August of '25, and we've been working with them to answer their questions and sort of help them through the application.

Upon approval of that credit, those approvals are typically good for a 3-year cycle. And we would expect that each of those 3 years is worth about $6 million or so. And as we sort of continue to work through this process and catch up to sort of the real time, we would expect that we'd be able to book those 3 years, so an $18 million impact for '26, once again, subject to the Department of Energy's approval of our life cycle. But we're confident in our position, and we're working with them on the claim and the approval.

That's great. And I'm going to be stealing your phrase about endangerment ruling. So I needed that. Just one quick follow-up. But regarding the carbon credits that you claimed in 2025, first half of the year, have those been received by your company to this point? Are they in the 4Q results or anything -- or sorry, your December 31 balance sheet? Sorry.

Yes. No, it's a good question. So they recorded in the P&L across '24 and '25. We are still -- in order to receive the refund, we have to work through the audits. And the audits for those particular years have started. It's obviously subject a bit to the IRS' resource and workload, but we're working through it with them. Once we get through the audits, obviously, there's a bit of an approval process that has to happen. So we are -- have available resources to support the audit and answer all the questions, but it's a bit of a process that's a little bit out of our control. But I think we are we have the resources committed to make this process move as expeditiously as possible. So we haven't received them yet, but I do believe we would expect them this year.

Okay. So another factor in figuring out your boosting maybe your free cash flow outlook for 2026. Okay. Maybe one last question. I did take note in the prepared remarks about record ammonia and sulfuric acid production in 2025. And it's kind of scratching my head, but given the age, I guess, and the seasoning of those facilities, it is kind of notable that you're achieving record production at this point. Should we think about the nameplate capacity for ammonia and sulfuric acid, should we think about that being kind of permanently increased either due to debottlenecking or process improvements or things like that? Or would you say the record production rates over the past year was more, I don't know, just due to shorter-term operating performance variables that might be better next year might be a little worse. But does the record production rates at some of your basic facilities, does that point to kind of a permanent increase in production potential going forward?

I appreciate the question and the call out. Obviously, these are two critical assets that are key to our platform integration. The rates and the performance in these assets have continued to improve over time. We've had a keen focus, and I think this is a demonstrated sort of proof point to how we have put forth our repair and maintenance capital investments and our preventative maintenance programs overall that's contributing to uptime and output. We certainly have also had plan to continue an ongoing effort to identify what I would call more incremental debottlenecking areas that are definitely contributing as well to these two key assets in our footprint. I would say what our currently disclosed capacities are still great to use as a reference point. We'll continue to assess if we need to update those.

But I would also say part of our opportunity set and differentiation is we have the ability to monetize additional profitable volumes off of these assets that don't move downstream into the caprolactam process that continues to be a key focus for us as well. So all of that contributed to certainly in this environment, our core strategic effort is to place molecules into the most profitable areas of opportunity. And the plants did a great job those teams to reach these records. And importantly, [indiscernible] did it in a turnaround year. So great kudos to them.

Our next question comes from Pete Osterland with Truist Securities.

I just wanted to start by following up on the conversation around the input cost pressure you're seeing right now, particularly for natural gas and sulfur. I guess just based on the assumptions you're baking in right now for the first quarter, about how much of an earnings headwind do you expect that pricing versus raw materials will represent in the first quarter versus fourth quarter?

Yes. So I think we are seeing pretty significant increases with sulfur almost at $500 a ton and natural gas also going up kind of the $300 a dekatherm range. We are implementing a number of price increases across really the entire portfolio. What we are sensitive to is in, I think, the ammonium sulfate space, there's a bit of probably a gap in terms of the net raw material price impact probably in the 5 to 6, 7 range. And then similarly in nylon, I think the pricing there is probably stronger correlated with benzene. So we are moving prices up there as well, but we are seeing a bit of margin compression versus natural gas. So probably overall, we're probably seeing sequentially some margin challenges probably in the $10 million to sort of $15 million range overall.

Okay. Great. And then you touched on this, but I guess just given the elevated input cost pressure, is there a potential for that to support a higher degree of pricing power than what has historically been typical for ammonium sulfate as you look kind of beyond first quarter later in the year? Or I guess, if you're competing with alternatives that aren't under as much pressure from those specific materials, does that limit the pricing power at all?

Yes. So if we go back to sort of the fundamentals on ammonium sulfate, certainly, we have the nitrogen baseline, right? So to that extent, right, the entire nitrogen market is experiencing the increase in natural gas prices. And so that nutrient value, as you probably have seen in other spaces, urea has continued to move up as well, particularly as we're head into the season. So that sets the base. And then obviously, we have to price for the premium of sulfur. And certainly, we are seeing industry prices move up mostly in line with sulfur. If you think about sort of our posting and latest pricing moved up $50 several weeks ago, another $10 more recently. So again, trying to work in lockstep where we can accordingly. Again, the largest sort of fertilizer that takes sulfur is phosphates, right? And certainly, that, as I mentioned before, has some consideration relative to their outlook.

But we're trying to take all things into consideration, right? Lots comes into play as to sort of what the pricing power is future crop prices, farmer profitability, acres planted, ultimately, how the weather is going to allow the planting season to take off. But we're doing everything that we do in our playbook relative to positioning material into the chain and getting ready for the season.

Great. That's very helpful. Just lastly, I wanted to ask about your guidance for your planned turnaround activity this year. Just historically, in years where you're doing maintenance on the ammonia unit, the expense has been meaningfully higher than what you're guiding to for 2026. So just wondering what maintenance activities are you foregoing this year? And when do you expect or I guess, do you expect you will have to catch up on this in future years?

Yes. No, it's recognize that it probably looks different than certainly history. As we mentioned, we have our natural gas pipeline that comes into the plant requiring some maintenance and inspections by our vendors. So we necessarily had to align. Ideally, we would align to the timing of which that takes, right? So it allowed us to come back through and risk prioritize, again, focusing on key compliance considerations and the necessary preventative maintenance. And so that's kind of the real drivers here. Overall, we are taking a look in general at our global turnaround strategies and what that really entails. Obviously, we've talked a lot about the importance of the ammonia plant and the sulfuric acid plant key to our success. But I think there are potentially some opportunities to look at those in light as we go forward. So we'll have to come back and kind of share as we go forward. But we're really not forgoing anything that we believe is critical at this time, right, to sustain our operations.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Erin Kane for any closing remarks.

Thank you all again for your time and interest this morning. We are confident in our demonstrated ability to perform through a multitude of environments and are positioning the enterprise to win long term. This is supported by our integrated business model, durable competitive advantage, healthy balance sheet and continued risk-adjusted investment decisions to drive through-cycle performance. With that, we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Stay safe and be well.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the AdvanSix 3Q '25 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, today's event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Kressel, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to AdvanSix's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With me here today are President and CEO, Erin Kane; and Interim CFO, Chris Gramm.

This call and webcast, including any non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on our website at investors.advansix.com. Note that elements of this presentation contain forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and of our business as we see it today. Those elements can change, and the actual results could differ materially from those projected, and we ask that you consider them in that light. We refer you to the forward-looking statements included in our press release and earnings presentation. In addition, we identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K, as further updated in subsequent filings with the SEC.

This morning, we will review our financial results for the third quarter of 2025, and share our outlook for our key product lines and end markets. Finally, we'll leave time for your questions at the end.

So with that, I'll turn the call over to AdvanSix's President and CEO, Erin Kane.

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us here today for our quarterly call. As you saw in our press release, AdvanSix continued to navigate challenging industry dynamics in the third quarter with a focus on optimizing operational and commercial performance. Our team executed with agility and discipline as we seasonally entered a new fertilizer year in plant nutrients, with a strong fall fill program amid higher raw material input costs, while continuing to realize the ongoing benefits from our sustained growth program.

Given the protracted downturn in nylon solutions and demand softness in chemical intermediates, we're making the strategic choice to moderate production rates to manage inventory levels, with a keen focus on free cash flow. Utilization across our integrated value chain was down roughly 4 percentage points sequentially from the second quarter to the third.

Operationally, we experienced a site-wide electrical outage at our Chesterfield nylon plant in mid-September. While there was minimal impact to 3Q results, we did have an isolated fire upon restart that impacted polymerization line of the plant and was fully contained. There were no injuries or environmental impacts, and the majority of our plant operations continue as normal. So while we were already tactically opting to reduce production levels, this incident is expected to impact 4Q EBITDA by $7 million to $9 million, primarily related to the negative impact of unabsorbed fixed costs. On a positive note, our fourth quarter planned plant turnaround centered around our sulfuric acid and OEM plant at Hopewell, was completed successfully at the low end of our target range.

While our domestic nylon solution margins over benzene once again expanded year-over-year, we are seemingly operating in a lower-for-longer macro environment. In times of uncertainty, we're focused on delivering on controllable levers. This includes continued optimization of production output and sales volume mix while driving productivity to support through-cycle profitability.

Taking a disciplined approach to cash management is critical, reflected in our prioritization of base capital investment and anticipated tailwinds in 2026, from 45Q carbon tax or tax credits and recent tax legislation. 2025 CapEx is now expected to be $120 million to $125 million, reflecting $30 million full year cash conservation through refined risk-based prioritization and execution.

Our select and targeted investments for growth are continuing to progress. The sustained growth program, which unlocks 200,000 tons of granular ammonium sulfate has been favorably tracking roughly 15% below its capital budget, with the final 2 projects remaining to be completed over the next year. In addition, our planned investment to upgrade our enterprise resource planning system went live in the third quarter, which will help streamline key processes across the organization while enhancing management tools and data analytics.

Finally, we added 2 new members to our Board of Directors this past quarter, Dana O'Brien and Daryl Roberts. Their deep industry and professional backgrounds and proven expertise in global manufacturing will be invaluable to our Board's role in ensuring strong corporate governance practices and supporting advancement of our strategic growth priorities.

With that, I'll turn it over to Chris, to discuss the financials.

Thanks, Erin. I'm now on Slide 4, to discuss our results for the quarter. Sales of $374 million in the quarter decreased approximately 6% versus the prior year. Sales volume was approximately half of that change, driven primarily by softer demand in both chemical intermediates and nylon end markets.

Raw material pass-through pricing was down 5% following a cost decrease in benzene, which is a major input to cumene, our largest raw material and key feedstock to our products. Market-based pricing was favorable by approximately 2%, driven by continued strength in plant nutrients, reflecting favorable North American ammonium sulfate supply and demand conditions.

Adjusted EBITDA was $25 million, down $28 million from last year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was 6.6%. The decline in earnings versus last year was primarily driven by a reduction in acetone price raw spreads as we anticipated, the impact of lower nylon and chemical intermediates sales and production volume and higher utility costs as a result of increasing natural gas prices.

On a sequential basis compared to the second quarter, we saw a nearly $20 million earnings decline due to typical ammonium sulfate seasonality with the start of the new fertilizer year. In addition, our results reflect the impact of moderated production rates amid softer demand for nylon solutions and chemical intermediates.

Now let's turn to Slide 5.

Here, we are illustrating our quarterly sales contributions by product line, as well as price and volume breakdown, both year-over-year and sequentially. We believe this double-click into the underlying dynamics of our financials provides insight into our commercial sales and performance.

Plant Nutrients continues to positively stand out. While we navigated typical seasonal pricing considerations, our continued strong performance in Q3, including the higher year-over-year pricing of our fall fill program and favorable sales mix supported by our sustained growth program are further proof points to the resiliency of sulfur nutrition demand.

Broader nylon markets continue to face pressure here in the U.S. and abroad. However, our domestic market-based pricing across nylon solutions is holding steady, while raw materials pass-through pricing saw declines on lower benzene input prices. And lastly, acetone pricing has moderated as expected from the multiyear highs witnessed in 2024.

Let's turn to Slide 6. Our end market exposure remains a strategic advantage. It provides a source of diversification, which helps insulate the company from significant variability in any one industry, as demonstrated by our results in various environments. We've highlighted our exposure in descending water, with agriculture and fertilizer at the top. This is an area that continues to grow.

We estimate sulfur nutrition demand growing 3% to 4% per year on average, and where we are leveraging our expertise as leaders in the space. There continues to be robust acceptance of the sulfur value proposition amid underlying increases in global nitrogen pricing, primarily driven by supply side impacts. Given current corn futures, this is a positive reinforcement that the value chain believes in software to improve economics for the same acreage. We believe stock-to-use ratios globally continue to support fertilizer demand over the long term.

Moving to Building and Construction. Dynamics here remain largely unchanged. Across this end application, we have direct and indirect exposure across nylon and intermediates through flooring, oriented strand board, and paints and coatings to name just a few. Our view is latent demand will build and begin to recover through 2026, assuming moderating interest rates going forward.

Plastics does remain challenged, reflecting broader macro softness. We had previously communicated that the auto sector was a watch out, including impacts of tariffs uncertainty and trade policy. We've continued to see a drawdown in auto inventories, as well as weakness across consumer durables and other industrial applications. Solvents likewise have been mixed. We've seen moderated growth into construction, pharmaceutical and electronics industries. In the semiconductor space, our Nadone sales demand was down year-over-year in the third quarter, but is anticipated to improve sequentially into 4Q and 2026.

Lastly, we continue to monitor and track trends in food packaging, where beef is the largest category. Nylon 6 is preferred here due to its excellent barrier properties and its puncture resistance. Our inflationary pressure and tariffs are impacting demand in this space, notwithstanding the relative resilience we are seeing in packaging.

Let's move to Slide 7.

Cash flow generation remains a critical focus area for us. We believe it's important to view our business performance on a trailing 12-month basis given the linearity considerations, primarily driven by the timing of the fertilizer season.

Trailing 12-month free cash flow through Q3 2025, is approximately breakeven, and we continue to target positive free cash flow for the full year of 2025. There are a number of levers that we're focused on to bolster sustained and improved cash flow generation moving forward, including working capital initiatives, risk-based prioritization of capital investments, cost productivity, and tax optimization. Our balance sheet is positioned to provide optionality and the ability to weather the challenging macro environment.

We expect strong free cash flow in the fourth quarter supported by working capital tailwinds, including the ammonium sulfate pre-buy cash advances. As Erin mentioned earlier, we're able to capture a roughly $30 million reduction to our full year 2025, capital plan.

We expect CapEx for 2026, to be in the range of $125 million to $135 million. We're also actively managing our cash tax rate, which we anticipate being below 10% over the next few years, supported by the continued progress on the 45Q carbon capture tax credits and 100% bonus depreciation.

Now let's turn to Slide 8, to wrap up before moving to Q&A.

Our strategic initiatives, unique combination of assets and business model are core to our durable competitive advantage and long-term positioning. Our global low-cost position in vertically integrated caprolactam production serves us well. In addition, ammonia and sulfuric acid platform integration, coupled with a leading granular crystallization technology position underpins our sustained ammonium sulfate growth and how we win in plant nutrients. These capabilities, combined with our asset utilization agility and product mix, position us to navigate cycles and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

2025 has been a dynamic year, but we remain well positioned as an American manufacturer of essential chemistries. We have been operating with structural tariffs in place globally across our value chains for quite some time. So we are adept at navigating an environment like this. We are largely insulated from first order impacts of reciprocal tariffs, with nearly 90% of our sales in the U.S. and our key product lines in a net import industry position.

Our U.S. footprint has allowed us to optimize our tax position with a meaningful impact on cash flow going forward. Recently, we've seen a number of industry actions with announced European capacity rationalization in phenol and acetone, as well as caprolactam and ammonium sulfate. We believe we're reaching an inflection point in several markets. And as we've discussed today, we're positioning ourselves to win long term.

With that, Adam, let's move to Q&A.

Thanks, Erin. Rocco, can you please open the line for questions?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from David Silver, Freedom Capital Markets.

I apologize. I always like to build up the suspense there. And I apologize. Let me just get a tiny bit organized here, sorry. Okay. So I did have a number of questions.

I think, first, I was hoping maybe you could provide a little additional color on the chemical intermediates market and pricing environment. were the revenue declines and the margin pressures, was that primarily acetone? Or did the weakness extend to other key products or end markets? So maybe just a little more color on the falloff in Chemical Intermediates results this quarter.

Yes. Certainly. And we recognize that we provided some new formats here today, and we did go ahead and include the specific line of business industry spreads and KPI updates in the appendices for reference. But yes, on the acetone side, as you well know, David, represents roughly 50% of our sales in Chemical Intermediates. And we would characterize Q3 as really more in line with our expectations, right?

As we headed into the year, we've been saying that we did expect phenol demand overall to remain subdued, right, that would keep acetone supply and demand balanced, but that we were expecting that we would come off the highs of 2024, and certainly probably moderate back to cycle averages. And that's where we continue to see the market play out.

Our portfolio is well balanced between small, medium and large buy that allows us quite a bit of flexibility to go where the value is in the market. And while the moves were significant kind of year-over-year, right, they are sort of moderating as we think about the adjustments to those cycle averages sequentially. But when you look across the rest of the portfolio, as you say, we hear in a number of other end markets, whether it's electronics, paints and coatings, adhesives, you kind of think about ag chemicals, the full space. In general, we would say that there's continued views of softness. I think this is thematic what you're seeing across the entire chemical sector, not necessarily anything unique to us.

We did call out the semiconductor space and Nadone demand. We're seeing signs that that's picking back up in Q4, with some sight of improvement into 2026. So I'd like to say that there's some opportunities in different places. We continue to stay focused in the right areas with favorable long-term trends, and that's what we're seeing there on intermediates. Hopefully, that helps.

Great. I'm sorry, I should have reviewed the appendix page details there. I would like to talk about the ammonium sulfate results this quarter. So the revenue number is quite striking. I believe that's your highest third quarter revenue total ever for that segment. And the summer quarter is typically, I guess, when you try to -- you typically sell a little bit more of the standard product and into international markets. But maybe just looking at the third quarter results, I mean, was there a disproportionate amount of products sold into the U.S. market? Or was there maybe some advanced purchasing? I mean, just maybe just a little more color on the strength in ammonium sulfate.

Yes. So as you point out, right, prior to the SUSTAIN program, that would have been the trend we would have expected sort of Q2 into Q3. For us now, right, the additional granular volume that we are producing is coupled with a good fall pickup, we did have less standard to sell across the board, right? So that mix differential is not as perhaps, I would say, geographical mix consideration is not as great as it used to be.

So certainly, 3Q year-over-year granular volume was up 20%, right? And so again, that is really at the heart of the intent behind sustain and obviously, with the year-over-year prices for fill up led to that revenue generation you saw.

Great. Next question would be probably about raw material cost trends. So you have cited some of the data, again, in the appendix slides. But sulfur, as you noted, continues to track upwards and natural gas has recently kind of shot up a bit maybe on anticipated winter demand here.

Should we just assume that you are a spot market purchaser for the fourth quarter? Or would there be the case where maybe you were able to do some hedging, or other prebuying ahead of the quarter? So maybe just a sense of how we should look at the spot market, or the recent changes in some of your raw materials and the flow-through to your fourth quarter results?

Yes. That's a great question. I would say, generally, we typically don't execute hedges on a regular basis. Sulfur is probably not as widely traded. And so the hedging process there would command a premium. But I think for natural gas, generally, we've elected to not enter a hedging strategy. What we've seen from gas, obviously, from a year-over-year perspective, the price has gone up from, let's say, an average of $2.30 a Decatherm to $3.40 here this year. So obviously, super sensitive to that, watching for that. Most of these 2 molecules do end up in ammonium sulfate. And while ammonium sulfate is generally based on value pricing, input cost does have a tendency to put pressure on the least marginal producers. So it does have some indirect effect.

I would say as well, particularly on the natural gas side with our formula pricing that there is natural gas components there. And so even though we don't, let's say, execute a financial or a synthetic hedge, we do have some coverage in our formula-based pricing in the nylon business as well. So hopefully, that gives you sort of a bit of color there, David, and kind of how we think about and react to some of these changes.

Great. Maybe another one for Chris, but I was looking or hoping to get a bit of an update on the Section 45Q carbon capture credits that you've applied for, and you may apply for in the future. So maybe just your sense of the timing for capturing, I guess, the first $20 million of credits that you've filed for, I guess, in the first half of the year? And then maybe is there an early read on what you may be filing for next year?

Yes. No, that's a great question. Obviously, 45Q is a significant value driver for us. And just as a reminder, we perfected the 2018 claim last year, and 2019 and 2020 this year. Based on those perfected claims, we filed amended returns. Those amended returns, as you can imagine, trigger an audit process that we have to work through. We're confident based on all the upfront work that we've done both with the Department of Energy and with the IRS, that we'll be successful through that audit process.

What I would say is due to the government shutdown, I think the timing of when we would expect to receive the credits that we have applied for, looks like that that's going to be shifting to 2026. I would point out that our early comment on positive free cash flow for the 2025 year does take that shift into account. So we still believe we're going to be positive free cash flow in 2025.

We do expect a cumulative benefit once again of $100 million and $120 million across the life of the program. Just as an update, we filed the 2021 life cycle assessment, and that needs to be reviewed and approved by the Department of Energy and the IRS. Under normal circumstances, that would take probably 3 to 4 months. So we're hoping that in short order once things sort of get back to a bit normal that it wouldn't be too long until we get approval for that. So we're going to continue to obviously, provide you updates as we move forward and move along, but we continue to push the opportunity there and make progress as well.

I think this one is also for Chris, but I have seen how your carbon capture credits flow through your income statement. Can you just remind me regarding bonus depreciation? Is that something that will impact your GAAP, or GAAP and non-GAAP results? Or is that something that strictly shows up on your tax filings? Just the impact of bonus depreciation is on how I should think about my estimates for next year. Does that impact them? Or is the impact solely going to be reflected on your tax-based filings?

Yes. No, great question. Just as a reminder, the 100% bonus depreciation is really affects our cash tax rate. So if you think about our effective tax rate, it looks at and tries to book the expected, I'll call it, tax consequences of what our U.S. GAAP financial statements are. So I would expect the changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act won't have a significant impact on the effective tax rate, but it does have a very significant impact on our cash tax rate.

So and to just give you a little color, the biggest benefit on bonus depreciation is on acquired and placed in service assets after January 19 of this year. So the dollar benefit of projects that qualify for both of those is $2 million for the calendar year '25. As we move forward to 2026, the benefit is going to grow as more of the projects qualify for those criteria. And we expect that number to be sort of mid- and the high single digits from a cash tax basis. And we would expect '27 to be even larger than that. So hopefully, that gives you a sense there of how it will get expressed in sort of the order of magnitude as we move forward.

I did get my CPA, but it was a long time ago. And thank you for walking me through that lapsed CPA. I know I admit it. All right. Yes.

So this one has to do with Slide 7, and in particular, the next to the last bullet point where you talk about inventory management, and then you say cost reduction initiatives for 2026. And I think it was touched on briefly in the prepared remarks, but just wondering if you could maybe talk about some of the buckets that go into that category of cost reduction initiatives for 2026?

Sure. I mean, as you would expect, our normal course focus on productivity includes things like optimizing yield, certainly inflationary energy environment, energy utilization programs like this. Here specifically, David, we're programmatically setting up to really address non-manpower fixed costs. You may see this across other companies when they announce these types of programs. We believe that there is a meaningful opportunity for us to, I would say, target that programmatically. And that's what we're really pointing to here.

So we would be in a position as we continue to set ourselves up for that. It's likely a 2-year type of a program. But in February, we'd be happy to come back and certainly clarify and quantify what we expect to be our 2026 targets, and sort of what our full run rate opportunity set would be for that program.

Let me just ask, but am I -- if I'm the only one here, I just have 1 or 2 kind of additional questions. Would that be okay? Or is there some -- if not, I can get back in the queue.

Sure, David. Go ahead.

Okay. Earlier this quarter, you did put out a press release regarding the, I guess, settlement over the -- your intellectual property for, I guess, EZ-BLOX. And I read the release with interest. I don't have it right in front of me, but I believe it was a settlement that your company considered satisfactory. And I was just wondering if qualitatively you might be able to discuss the nature of the settlement. In other words, are they going to be a new customer for you longer term? Or was there a monetary settlement? Just what was the nature of the settlement in that intellectual property dispute that you considered to your satisfaction?

Yes. And this is, I think, a win for us, obviously, when you spend the time, talent and treasure to put good IP in place, you want to protect it. And so we have been certainly defending that opportunity set for ourselves. And so we certainly were pleased that we were able to agree and sort of resolve the differences of opinion there with the various parties. And yes, with all agreements, there is some monetary settlement. You have an agreement relative to the patent use and upholding licensing from that regard. But I think importantly here, it allows us to set up the right customer and distribution base that is living by the rightful upholding of the IP and allowing us to make sure that sort of importers that are coming from other regions of the world that are violating [ SAIP ] can be held at base. So we do believe that ultimately, this sets us up for increased sales as a result.

And that does conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Erin Kane for closing remarks.

Thank you all again for your time and interest this morning. AdvanSix is a resilient company, and we are positioning ourselves to win long term. We're navigating a challenging market environment with discipline and agility while continuing to make risk-adjusted investment decisions to support through-cycle profitability and sustainable performance. We're not just reacting to market conditions. We're shaping our future with a clear focus on value creation. And we're doing it with an integrated business model, durable competitive advantage and a healthy balance sheet.

With that, we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Stay safe and be well.

Thank you. That does conclude our conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful weekend.