杜邦 (DD) 2018 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to DowDuPont's Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would now like to turn the call over to Neal Sheorey. Please go ahead, sir.

大家好，歡迎參加陶氏杜邦2018年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）另外，今天的通話將被錄音。現在，我想把電話交給尼爾·謝奧雷。請繼續，先生。

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for DowDuPont's Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. We are making this call available to investors and media via webcast.

各位早安。感謝您參加陶氏杜邦2018年第二季財報電話會議。我們將透過網路直播向投資者和媒體提供本次電話會議的收聽服務。

We have prepared slides to supplement our comments during today's conference call. These slides are posted on the Investor Relations section of DowDuPont's website and through the link to our webcast.

我們準備了幻燈片，以補充我們在今天電話會議上的演講。這些幻燈片已發佈在陶氏杜邦公司網站的投資者關係部分，也可透過我們網路直播的連結查看。

Speaking on the call today are Ed Breen, Chief Executive Officer; Howard Ungerleider, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Fitterling, Jim Collins and Marc Doyle, Chief Operating Officers for DowDuPont's Materials Science, Agriculture, and Specialty Products divisions, respectively; and Greg Friedman, Vice President of Investor Relations.

今天參加電話會議的有：執行長 Ed Breen；財務長 Howard Ungerleider；陶氏杜邦材料科學、農業和特種產品部門的首席營運長 Jim Fitterling、Jim Collins 和 Marc Doyle；以及投資者關係副總裁 Greg Friedman。

Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the news release and slides. During our call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risk and uncertainty, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Our 10-K, and each of Dow's and DuPont's 10-Ks, include detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties, which may cause such differences.

請閱讀新聞稿和幻燈片中包含的前瞻性聲明免責聲明。在電話會議中，我們將就我們對未來的預期或預測發表前瞻性聲明。由於這些聲明是基於目前的假設和涉及風險和不確定性的因素，我們的實際表現和結果可能與我們的前瞻性聲明有重大差異。我們的 10-K 表格，以及陶氏化學和杜邦公司的 10-K 表格，都詳細討論了可能導致此類差異的主要風險和不確定性。

Also, we will comment on segment results on a divisional basis so please take note of the divisional disclaimer in our earnings release and slides.

此外，我們將按部門對各業務板塊的業績進行評論，因此請注意我們盈利報告和簡報中的部門免責聲明。

Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today are on a pro forma basis, and all financials, where applicable, exclude significant items.

除非另有說明，否則今天提供的所有歷史財務指標均為準備數據，所有財務數據（如適用）均不包括重大項目。

We will also refer to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in our earnings release and on our website.

我們也會參考非GAAP指標。與最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的調節表及其他相關披露信息，請參閱我們的盈利報告和網站。

I will now turn the call over to Ed.

現在我將把通話轉給艾德。

Thanks, Neal, and good morning, everyone. As you saw, we had a strong second quarter. The highlights were that we grew sales, volume and operating EBITDA by double digits percent, and we delivered local price gains and operating EBITDA margin expansion. We are delivering growth in each division due to a combination of strong global demand and innovation. These are key indicators for me that our business focus and our people are making a difference in the marketplace, for our customers and for shareholders.

謝謝你，尼爾，大家早安。正如你所看到的，我們第二季表現強勁。亮點在於，我們的銷售額、銷售和營業 EBITDA 均實現了兩位數百分比的成長，並且實現了本地價格上漲和營業 EBITDA 利潤率擴張。由於全球強勁的需求和創新，我們各個部門都實現了成長。對我來說，這些都是關鍵指標，顯示我們的業務重點和員工正在為市場、為我們的客戶和股東帶來改變。

Net sales grew double digits percent in every division, and we were up in every region. Growth was fueled by broad-based volume gains, enabled by capacity expansions from our U.S. Gulf Coast and Sadara investments, benefits from the recovery of Ag sales due to weather-related delays last quarter and pricing strength. This is the second quarter in a row that we see synchronized growth in our end markets.

各部門淨銷售額均達到了兩位數百分比的成長，各地區的淨銷售額也均有所成長。成長主要得益於銷售全面提升，這得益於我們在美國墨西哥灣沿岸和薩達拉投資帶來的產能擴張、上季度因天氣原因導致的農產品銷售延遲的恢復以及價格走強。這是我們的終端市場連續第二季實現同步成長。

We also continued to benefit from cost synergies. We realized more than $375 million of savings in the second quarter. Savings since the merger closed total nearly $900 million. Examples of our cost synergy work include renegotiating procurement contracts, streamlining manufacturing operations and rightsizing our organization. Most of our nearly 900 cost synergy projects have been initiated.

我們也持續受益於成本綜效。第二季我們實現了超過 3.75 億美元的節約。自合併完成以來，累計節省了近9億美元。我們成本協同效應工作的例子包括重新談判採購合約、簡化製造流程和調整組織規模。我們近 900 個成本協同計畫大部分已經啟動。

Based on our progress so far, we are increasing our year-over-year savings target to $1.4 billion, up more than 15% from our previous target. And we remain on pace to deliver our target of $3.3 billion on a run-rate basis at the end of 2 years.

根據我們目前的進展，我們將年度節省目標提高到 14 億美元，比先前的目標高出 15% 以上。我們仍有望在兩年內以年率實現 33 億美元的目標。

We're seeing benefits in our gross margin, which was up this quarter despite raw material costs, and we're are seeing it in SG&A, which declined as a percent of sales. I'm very pleased with the progress our teams are making with synergies while continuing to run the business well.

儘管原物料成本上漲，但我們的毛利率在本季度仍然上升，這表明我們的毛利率有所提高；同時，銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的百分比也有所下降，這表明我們的毛利率有所提高。我非常滿意我們團隊在協同合作方面的進展，同時我們也持續保持良好的業務運作。

Now I will turn to the status of the intended separation and spins on Slide 3. Since our last call, we have made substantial progress determining the capital structures of each of the spins. We expect to share our capital structures at our investor events this fall.

現在我將轉向投影片 3 中關於計畫分拆和分拆的進度。自從我們上次通話以來，我們在確定每個分拆項目的資本結構方面取得了實質進展。我們預計將於今年秋季的投資者活動中公佈我們的資本結構。

We also made progress this quarter with the other items you see on the time line. We remain confident that the new Dow will separate by the end of the first quarter of 2019, and Corteva by June 1, resulting in the creation of new DuPont at that time. We expect to file the first Form 10 for Dow in September and the initial Form 10 for Corteva by the end of October. Our teams are getting excited about this as the date gets closer, and they can see the opportunities ahead for themselves as more focused companies and leaders in their industries.

本季我們在時間軸上顯示的其他項目上也取得了進展。我們仍然相信，新的陶氏化學將在 2019 年第一季末分拆，科迪華將在 6 月 1 日分拆，屆時將成立新的杜邦公司。我們預計將於 9 月提交陶氏化學的第一份 10 號表格，並於 10 月底提交科迪華的第一份 10 號表格。隨著日期臨近，我們的團隊越來越興奮，他們看到了未來作為各自行業中更具專注力的公司和領導者的機會。

We have made strong progress with building out the 3 advisory committees, announcing 10 new members since our last earnings call. The addition of these high-quality leaders strengthens the focus of each committee and the diversity of perspective within them. We intend to announce the leadership teams of Corteva and DuPont next month.

自上次財報電話會議以來，我們在組建 3 個諮詢委員會方面取得了顯著進展，宣布新增 10 名成員。這些高素質領導人的加入，增強了各委員會的專注力，並豐富了委員會內部的視野。我們計劃在下個月公佈科迪華和杜邦的領導團隊。

Also, on July 1, we completed the handover of the management books and operational control of the Hemlock Semiconductor JV to Specialty Products. This completes the transfer of the $2.4 billion in EBITDA resulting from the portfolio realignment we announced last September. Starting with the third quarter, the results of the JV will be aligned with Electronics & Imaging. And we will provide you with a recast of our historical results to reflect this reporting change.

此外，7月1日，我們完成了將Hemlock Semiconductor合資公司的管理帳簿和營運控制權移交給Specialty Products公司。至此，我們去年 9 月宣布的投資組合調整所產生的 24 億美元 EBITDA 的轉移工作已全部完成。從第三季開始，合資企業的業績將與電子與影像業務保持一致。我們將重新整理歷史績效數據，以反映此報告方式的改變。

I also recognize many of you are interested in our views on the potential effects of tariffs that took effect July 6. We support fair trade and continue to work with all stakeholders to find effective and measured solutions to unfair trade policies. We have completed an analysis of the potential impact, and continue to expect that tariffs will not have a material impact on the company in 2018 partly due to mitigation actions we have already taken and partly due to our global asset base.

我也知道你們很多人都關心我們對7月6日生效的關稅可能產生的影響的看法。我們支持公平貿易，並將繼續與所有利害關係人合作，尋找有效且穩健的方案來應對不公平的貿易政策。我們已經完成了對潛在影響的分析，並繼續預計關稅在 2018 年不會對公司產生實質影響，部分原因是我們已經採取了緩解措施，部分原因是我們擁有全球資產基礎。

On the Ag side, we recognize that trade tensions have increased volatility in agricultural commodity prices and have amplified market reactions to very highly rated U.S. crops. We can also see that global markets are already adjusting to the current landscape. U.S. soybean exports that would normally go to China are simply being shifted to other countries, as reported by USDA. That said, we will continue to monitor events as they unfold and take actions to mitigate any potential impacts.

在農業方面，我們認識到貿易緊張局勢加劇了農產品價格的波動，並放大了市場對美國高評級農作物的反應。我們也可以看到，全球市場已經開始適應當前的情況。根據美國農業部報道，原本出口到中國的美國大豆現在正轉移到其他國家。儘管如此，我們將繼續密切關注事態發展，並採取措施減輕任何潛在影響。

With that, I'll turn it over to Howard to cover our financial performance in more detail as well as our outlook.

接下來，我將把發言權交給霍華德，讓他更詳細地介紹我們的財務表現以及未來展望。

Thanks, Ed. Moving to Slide 4 and a summary of our second quarter results.

謝謝你，艾德。接下來是第 4 張投影片，總結一下我們第二季的業績。

We once again grew earnings per share, net sales and EBITDA, each by double digits. Drivers of the 41% EPS increase include: volume and local price gains, cost synergies, currency, higher equity earnings and lower pension and OPEB costs. Our tax rate was also lower than the year ago period, in line with our modeling guidance. These gains more than offset higher raw material costs in all divisions and increased turnaround activity in Materials Science.

我們再次實現了每股收益、淨銷售額和 EBITDA 的兩位數成長。推動每股盈餘成長 41% 的因素包括：銷售量和本地價格上漲、成本綜效、匯率因素、更高的股權收益以及更低的退休金和退休後福利成本。我們的稅率也低於去年同期，與我們的模型預測相符。這些收益足以抵銷所有部門原料成本上漲以及材料科學部門檢修活動增加所帶來的影響。

We drove top line growth of 17%, led by broad-based demand for products across the majority of DowDuPont's key market verticals. Sales rose 25% in Agriculture, primarily driven by recovery from weather-related delays in the first quarter and local price gains. Materials Science delivered top line growth of 18% with double-digit gains in every segment and in every region. And Specialty Products achieved 10% sales growth in the quarter with gains in most segments and in all regions.

在陶氏杜邦大多數主要市場垂直領域對產品的廣泛需求推動下，我們實現了 17% 的營收成長。農業銷售額成長了 25%，主要得益於第一季因天氣原因造成的延誤後的復甦以及當地價格上漲。材料科學業務營收成長18%，各細分市場及各地區均達到兩位數成長。特種產品部門本季實現了 10% 的銷售成長，大多數細分市場和所有地區均實現了成長。

Volume increased a healthy 10% with gains in all divisions. Regional highlights included double-digit demand growth in the U.S., Canada and Asia Pacific and mid-single-digits growth in EMEA. Agriculture grew volume 20% primarily driven by recovery from the weather-related delays in the first quarter. Materials Science grew volume 10% with gains in all segments and regions, and Specialty Products delivered 4% volume growth.

成交量健康成長了10%，各分部均有所成長。區域亮點包括美國、加拿大和亞太地區兩位數的需求成長，以及歐洲、中東和非洲地區中等個位數的成長。農業產量增加了 20%，主要得益於從第一季天氣原因造成的延誤中恢復過來。材料科學銷售量成長了 10%，所有細分市場和地區均有所成長；特種產品銷售成長了 4%。

Local price increased 4% with gains in all divisions and all regions. Price increases were led by Materials Science, which was up 5% with gains in all regions on continued strong supply demand fundamentals across most of its targeted end markets and a 4% price improvement in Agriculture. Specialty Products increased local price by 1%.

當地價格上漲 4%，所有部門和所有地區均有上漲。材料科學板塊引領價格上漲，上漲 5%，所有地區均有所成長，這得益於其大部分目標終端市場持續強勁的供需基本面；農業板塊價格上漲 4%。特產產品本地價格調高了 1%。

Equity earnings increased by $177 million, led by greater contributions from the Kuwait joint ventures and improved Sadara results.

股權收益增加了 1.77 億美元，這主要得益於科威特合資企業的貢獻增加以及 Sadara 業績的改善。

And as Ed mentioned, we continue to exceed our cost synergy commitments, delivering more than $375 million in the quarter.

正如 Ed 所提到的，我們繼續超額完成成本綜效的承諾，本季實現了超過 3.75 億美元的收益。

These collective drivers translated to operating EBITDA of $5.7 billion in the quarter, up 29% year-over-year with double-digit gains in every division and operating EBITDA margin expansion of more than 200 basis points.

這些共同的驅動因素使得本季的營業 EBITDA 達到 57 億美元，年成長 29%，每個部門都實現了兩位數的成長，營業 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 200 多個基點。

Cash flow from operations in the quarter was $2.1 billion, driven by increased cash earnings in each of our divisions.

本季經營活動產生的現金流量為 21 億美元，主要得益於各部門現金收益的增加。

And we, again, returned nearly $2 billion of cash to our shareholders in the quarter, including another $1 billion of share repurchases. We have now returned $5.6 billion of cash to our owners since merger close. In the third quarter, we will target another $1 billion of stock buybacks.

本季度，我們再次向股東返還了近 20 億美元的現金，其中包括 10 億美元的股票回購。自合併完成以來，我們已向股東返還了56億美元現金。第三季度，我們將計劃再進行10億美元的股票回購。

Now turning to our modeling guidance on Slide 5. For the third quarter, we continue to expect healthy demand as well as pricing gains across most of our businesses. At the company level, we expect our top and bottom line growth to continue. We see third quarter net sales to be in the range of $20 billion to $20.5 billion. Third quarter adjusted EPS is expected to be up in the mid-30s percent range. This includes our expectation of delivering between $400 million to $425 million of year-over-year cost synergy savings.

現在就來看看投影片 5 中的模型預測。對於第三季度，我們仍然預期大部分業務的需求將保持健康成長，價格也將上漲。公司層面，我們預期營收和利潤將持續成長。我們預計第三季淨銷售額將在 200 億美元至 205 億美元之間。預計第三季調整後每股收益將成長30%左右。這包括我們預計每年可節省 4 億美元至 4.25 億美元的成本綜效。

The Materials Science division expects continued EBITDA expansion from underlying end market growth, pricing gains, new supply from our U.S. Gulf Coast projects, cost synergies, lower start-up and commissioning costs and continued improvements in equity earnings from Sadara. This will be partly offset by higher raw material costs and the impacts of an MDI force majeure and moderating isocyanates prices that are coming down from first half levels.

材料科學部門預計，來自終端市場成長、價格上漲、美國墨西哥灣沿岸計畫的新供應、成本協同效應、啟動和調試成本降低以及Sadara公司股權收益的持續改善，將推動EBITDA持續成長。原物料成本上漲、MDI 不可抗力事件的影響以及異氰酸酯價格從上半年水準回落的影響將部分抵消上述影響。

The Specialty Products Division expects continued price and volume growth in the quarter, reflecting robust demand in our key end markets and strength from new product developments. The division expects to realize further contributions from cost synergies, which will help offset raw material headwinds across all of the segments and a onetime gain in the prior year in the Safety & Construction business.

特種產品部門預計本季價格和銷售量將繼續成長，這反映了我們主要終端市場的強勁需求以及新產品開發帶來的強勁勢頭。該部門預計將從成本協同效應中獲得更多貢獻，這將有助於抵消所有業務部門的原材料不利因素，以及上一年安全與建築業務的一次性收益。

The Agriculture division is expected to generate a seasonal loss as we prepare for the start of Latin America plantings. The Brazilian real continues to be volatile and is expected to be a year-over-year headwind for the segment. Additionally, the division anticipates a reduction in planted corn area in Brazil due to improving soybean economics, which is a headwind to our current portfolio on Brazil that favors corn plantings over soybeans. The division expects to more than mitigate these market headwinds on a year-over-year basis through continued delivery of our strong new product pipeline and execution of our synergy programs.

由於我們正在為拉丁美洲的播種做準備，預計農業部門將出現季節性虧損。巴西雷亞爾匯率持續波動，預計將成為該產業年發展的不利因素。此外，該部門預計，由於大豆經濟效益的改善，巴西玉米種植面積將會減少，這對我們目前在巴西的投資組合（該投資組合更傾向於種植玉米而不是大豆）來說是一個不利因素。該部門預計，透過持續推出強大的新產品線和執行協同效應計劃，將逐年緩解這些市場不利因素。

Now turning to the full year 2018 on Slide 6. We are raising our full year earnings guidance versus our last annual guidance update in February to reflect our strong performance in the first half of the year, which we expect to outweigh some discrete headwinds in the second half. At the company level, we expect earnings per share to be up in the low 20s percent range versus the prior year. We now expect upside in the Materials and Specialty Products divisions to be partially offset by challenging market conditions within the Agriculture division, mainly stemming from planted area dynamics in Brazil and the U.S. along with weakness in the Brazilian real. Despite these headwinds, we continue to take actions to drive our earnings higher, including our cost synergies, which we now see delivering $1.4 billion in year-over-year savings, an increase of $200 million.

現在就來看幻燈片 6，我們將展望 2018 年全年。與 2 月的上次年度業績預期更新相比，我們上調了全年盈利預期，以反映我們上半年的強勁表現，我們預計這將抵消下半年的一些不利因素。公司層面，我們預期每股盈餘將比上年成長 20% 左右。我們現在預計，材料和特種產品部門的成長將部分被農業部門充滿挑戰的市場環境所抵消，這主要源自於巴西和美國的種植面積動態以及巴西雷亞爾的疲軟。儘管面臨這些不利因素，我們仍繼續採取措施提高獲利，包括成本綜效，目前預計這將帶來 14 億美元的年度節省，比前一年增加 2 億美元。

To sum it up, for the first half of 2018, the DowDuPont team has delivered very strong year-over-year net sales and EBITDA growth. And for the full year, we now expect to deliver double-digit sales and EPS growth by continuing to focus on price/volume discipline, cost synergies, innovation and our growth investments.

總而言之，2018 年上半年，陶氏杜邦團隊實現了非常強勁的年成長淨銷售額和 EBITDA 成長。展望全年，我們將繼續專注於價格/銷售控制、成本協同效應、創新和成長投資，預計銷售額和每股盈餘將實現兩位數成長。

With that, I'll now turn it over to Jim to cover the results for Agriculture.

接下來，我將把麥克風交給吉姆，讓他來報道農業方面的結果。

Thanks, Howard.

謝謝你，霍華德。

Turning to Slide 7. I'd like to start with the highlights of the Ag division for the second quarter and then recap the first half as we've largely closed out the planting season in the Northern Hemisphere. Agriculture's second quarter was very strong with double-digit sales and operating EBITDA growth.

接下來請看第 7 張投影片。我想先介紹一下農業部門第二季的亮點，然後再回顧一下上半年的情況，因為北半球的播種季節已經基本結束了。農業部門第二季表現非常強勁，銷售額和營業 EBITDA 均實現了兩位數成長。

The sales progression this quarter played out largely as we expected. You may recall that when the quarter began, unseasonably cool weather had pushed planting progress in the Northern Hemisphere 3 or 4 weeks behind. By early May, the weather warmed up and field conditions became favorable for planting. Farmers showed an impressive ability to bring planting rates back up fast. By mid-May, rates in the U.S. had returned to normal levels, and by late May, corn planting was essentially complete.

本季的銷售進展基本上符合我們的預期。您可能還記得，本季度初，北半球異常寒冷的天氣使播種進度落後了 3 到 4 週。五月初，天氣變暖，田間條件變得有利於播種。農民們展現了令人印象深刻的能力，並迅速恢復了播種率。到 5 月中旬，美國的利率已恢復正常水準；到 5 月下旬，玉米種植基本上完成。

Now field conditions have remained generally favorable since then, and forecasts for yield show that most farmers should have a good harvest again, this year despite the late start for most parts of the country.

自那以後，田間條件總體上保持良好，產量預測顯示，儘管今年全國大部分地區開工較晚，但大多數農民應該會再次獲得豐收。

We were pleased with the way our teams came together to quickly deliver our products to customers. We achieved volume gains of 20% as we successfully recovered all of the sales that had been delayed.

我們對團隊齊心協力快速將產品交付給客戶的方式感到滿意。我們成功追回了所有延遲的銷售額，銷量成長了 20%。

Let me touch on 3 other highlights of the quarter. First, we achieved local price gains driven by continued penetration of new corn hybrids and A-Series soybeans. Second, we delivered nearly 20% growth in insecticides with better supply due to work on debottlenecking and productivity and new product launches. Third, we continued to make progress toward our cost synergy target while advancing our growth synergy work.

讓我再談談本季的其他三個亮點。首先，由於新型玉米雜交品種和 A 系列大豆的持續滲透，我們實現了本地價格上漲。其次，由於我們致力於消除瓶頸、提高生產效率和推出新產品，殺蟲劑的供應情況有所改善，實現了近 20% 的成長。第三，我們在推動成長綜效工作的同時，繼續朝著成本綜效目標邁進。

While soybean royalty costs rose in the quarter, this was expected as we increased the penetration of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans. Meanwhile, we continue to improve our germplasm, work on the efficiency of our supply chain to bring unit costs down and advance our pipeline of new products. We continue to position our products as priced for value and did not see any heavy discounting in the current season. It's important to note that our new product pipeline is the best it has ever been, and we expect to launch 21 new seed and crop protection products over the next 5 years. In fact, since our last earnings call, we were encouraged to receive approval of the active substance, Inatreq, for use in the European Union. This innovative product offers a new mode of action to control septoria, a disease that has been reducing wheat yields in many parts of Europe. Inatreq is produced by fermentation and is derived from natural sources, which we believe will appeal to many farmers in this market. This example reinforces our continued leadership in bringing naturally derived products to the marketplace.

雖然本季大豆特許權使用費有所上升，但這也在預料之中，因為我們提高了 Roundup Ready 2 Xtend 大豆的滲透率。同時，我們不斷改進種質資源，提高供應鏈效率以降低單位成本，並推動新產品研發。我們繼續將產品定位為物有所值，並且在本季沒有出現任何大幅折扣。值得注意的是，我們的新產品研發管線是迄今為止最好的，我們預計在未來 5 年內推出 21 種新的種子和作物保護產品。事實上，自從我們上次財報電話會議以來，我們很高興地得知活性物質 Inatreq 已獲得歐盟批准使用。這款創新產品提供了一種新的防治小麥穎枯病的機制，這種疾病一直在降低歐洲許多地區的小麥產量。Inatreq 以發酵製程生產，源自天然原料，我們相信這將吸引該市場上的許多農民。這個例子進一步鞏固了我們在將天然衍生產品推向市場方面的持續領先地位。

Turning to our performance for the first half. The Ag division sales were nearly flat as local price and currency gains were offset by volume declines. The causes of the volume pressure were twofold. First, North America saw a reduction in corn- and soybean-planted area. This reduction impacted both seed and crop protection sales. Second, the delayed summer harvest shortened the safrinha season in Brazil, resulting in lower planted area as well as a shift toward lower technology corn as farmers acted to minimize the impact of lower yields, given the reduced growing times. Given these factors, we see operating EBITDA of about $2.7 billion for the full year, up 4% versus 2017.

接下來回顧我們上半場的表現。農業部門銷售額基本上持平，當地價格和匯率上漲帶來的收益被銷售下降所抵銷。造成體積壓力的原因有二。首先，北美玉米和大豆種植面積減少。這一降幅對種子和作物保護產品的銷售都產生了影響。其次，由於生長週期縮短，夏季收割的延遲導致巴西的玉米種植季節縮短，種植面積減少，同時農民為了盡量減少產量下降的影響，轉向種植技術含量較低的玉米。鑑於這些因素，我們預計全年營運 EBITDA 約為 27 億美元，比 2017 年成長 4%。

To support our growth strategy, we continue to invest in product launches and building out our digital capabilities. We see strategic value in expanding our own use of technology in the research process as well as expanding our digital offerings to provide a more complete product for our customers, including both agronomic and farm management solutions. At the same time, we are building out our multi-brand, multichannel strategy. For example, this past quarter, we introduced Brevant brand of seeds in Russia and Ukraine. And this fall, in addition to launching Brevant in Brazil, U.S. farmers will see strategically important shifts in our brand strategy when we present next year's seed lineup.

為了支持我們的成長策略，我們將繼續投資於產品發布和建立我們的數位化能力。我們認為，在研究過程中擴大自身技術的使用，以及擴大我們的數位化產品，為客戶提供更完整的產品（包括農藝和農場管理解決方案），都具有策略價值。同時，我們正在建立多品牌、多通路策略。例如，上個季度，我們在俄羅斯和烏克蘭推出了 Brevant 品牌的種子。今年秋季，除了在巴西推出 Brevant 品牌外，美國農民還將看到我們在明年種子產品線發佈時，品牌策略發生具有重要戰略意義的轉變。

Corteva is well on the path to becoming an increasingly innovative Ag company. We are excited about our future as a focused, pure-play Ag company, a trusted partner that offers farmers the right products for the right acres. And we are committed to bring to the market ever better ways for farmers to drive their productivity while creating higher value for shareholders.

科迪華正穩步邁向成為日益創新的農業公司。我們對未來充滿信心，希望成為一家專注於農業的純粹型公司，成為值得信賴的合作夥伴，為農民提供適合其土地的合適產品。我們致力於為市場帶來更好的方法，幫助農民提高生產力，同時為股東創造更高的價值。

With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to cover Materials Science.

接下來，我將把材料科學部分交給吉姆來介紹。

Thank you, Jim.

謝謝你，吉姆。

Moving to Slide 8. Materials Science delivered another standout quarter. Our results demonstrate the mindset and the sharper focus of the new Dow: a more agile and disciplined enterprise where value growth is and will remain job #1. Our performance also speaks to our ability to play to our core strengths moving closer to the customer in our targeted market verticals, maintaining our position as a best-in-class operator and driving an optimized cost structure.

進入第 8 張投影片。材料科學又迎來了一個出色的季度。我們的成果展現了新道氏的思維模式和更清晰的關注點：一個更敏捷和自律的企業，價值成長是並將永遠是第一要務。我們的業績也體現了我們發揮自身核心優勢、在目標市場垂直領域更貼近客戶、維持一流營運商地位以及實現優化成本結構的能力。

I'll start with the division highlights. We achieved double-digit top line growth, led by broad-based demand in our core end markets of consumer care, infrastructure and packaging. And our growth projects delivered organic expansion. Our EBITDA grew even faster year-over-year as we, again, delivered ahead of plan on our cost synergy targets. And our equity earnings showed strong improvements driven by the Kuwait joint ventures and Sadara.

我先來說說分區賽的亮點。在消費者護理、基礎設施和包裝等核心終端市場的廣泛需求推動下，我們實現了兩位數的營收成長。我們的成長項目實現了內生式成長。由於我們再次提前實現了成本綜效目標，我們的 EBITDA 年比成長速度更快。我們的股權收益也出現了強勁成長，這主要得益於科威特合資企業和薩達拉公司的業績。

We delivered these results despite higher raw material costs of more than $400 million and a $100 million impact from higher planned maintenance activity.

儘管原材料成本增加了 4 億美元以上，並且由於計劃維護活動增加而造成了 1 億美元的影響，但我們仍然取得了這些成果。

Our growth projects were very important contributors to the quarter. I'll start with the Sadara. The JV delivered another $82 million of year-over-year equity earnings improvement, bringing the first half benefit to about $160 million. Nearly 2/3 of this improvement shows up in Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure. Looking to the back half of this year, we will begin to lap the full commercial operations of this complex. But the JV remains on track to deliver its $200 million equity earnings improvement this year.

我們的成長項目對本季業績做出了非常重要的貢獻。我先從薩達拉開始。該合資企業又帶來了 8,200 萬美元的年成長股權收益，使上半年收益達到約 1.6 億美元。近三分之二的改善體現在工業中間體和基礎設施領域。展望今年下半年，我們將開始全面推動該綜合體的商業營運。但合資企業仍有望在今年實現 2 億美元的股權收益成長目標。

Switching to our U.S. Gulf Coast investments. Our new Texas-9 ethylene facility and our ELITE, NORDEL and low-density facilities are all running well and contributing to the bottom line.

轉而關注我們在美國墨西哥灣沿岸的投資。我們新建的德州-9乙烯生產設施以及我們的ELITE、NORDEL和低密度乙烯生產設施都運作良好，並為公司獲利做出了貢獻。

Up next, our bimodal gas-phase debottleneck at our St. Charles site is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter as part of a planned turnaround of this unit, which we shifted to later in the year to take full advantage of the strong demand in the first half. And our new high-melt index elastomers unit remains on track for start-up by year-end.

接下來，我們將討論我們在聖路易斯的雙峰氣相瓶頸消除問題。查爾斯工廠預計將於第四季度完工，這是該工廠計劃改造的一部分，我們將其改期至今年晚些時候，以便充分利用上半年的強勁需求。我們的新型高熔點彈性體裝置仍按計畫在年底前投產。

We're also underway with our next wave of incremental projects. We recently began construction on the expansion of our new Texas-9 ethylene facility, which will increase its capacity to 2 million metric tons, making it the largest in the world. This expansion will support our derivatives as well as MEGlobal's new capacity being built next door. And as such, the cracker expansion will come online in late 2019, aligned with the downstream derivative needs.

我們的下一階段增量專案也正在進行中。我們最近開始擴建位於德州 9 號的新乙烯工廠，這將使其產能增加到 200 萬噸，成為世界上最大的乙烯工廠。此次擴建將為我們的衍生性商品業務以及隔壁 MEGlobal 正在建設的新產能提供支援。因此，裂解裝置擴建工程將於 2019 年底投入運營，以滿足下游衍生品的需求。

Turning to the business performance in the quarter. Performance Materials & Coatings achieved an operating EBITDA growth of 5%, led by local price gains. Excluding an asset sale in the year ago period, EBITDA rose about 15%. Disciplined price/volume management delivered sales gains in both businesses and in every region.

接下來來看看本季的業務表現。高性能材料與塗料業務的營業 EBITDA 成長了 5%，主要得益於本地價格上漲。若不計入上年同期的資產出售，EBITDA 成長約 15%。嚴格的價格/銷售管理為兩家公司和所有地區都帶來了銷售成長。

Consumer Solutions, again, delivered double-digit sales growth on gains in upstream silicone intermediate products and continued acceleration of our growth synergies.

消費者解決方案業務再次實現了兩位數的銷售成長，這得益於上游矽酮中間體產品的成長以及我們成長綜效的持續加速。

Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure increased operating EBITDA by more than 60%. Broad-based demand growth, pricing actions, cost synergies and improved equity earnings in both Kuwait and Sadara drove strong results in the quarter. Our continued focus on operational and commercial execution enabled us to more than offset higher raw material costs and increase planned turnaround activity.

工業中間體及基礎設施業務的營運 EBITDA 成長超過 60%。科威特和薩達拉兩地需求全面成長、定價策略、成本協同效應和股權收益改善推動了本季強勁的業績。我們持續專注於營運和商業執行，使我們能夠彌補更高的原材料成本，並增加計劃內的檢修活動。

Both our Polyurethanes & Chlor-Alkali Vinyl business and our Industrial Solutions businesses delivered double-digit sales growth with gains in all geographies. Demand growth was particularly strong in Asia Pacific due to the contributions from new capacity at Sadara. Customer wins in our Polyurethanes systems house applications also drove our growth.

我們的聚氨酯和氯鹼乙烯基業務以及工業解決方案業務均實現了兩位數的銷售成長，並且在所有地區都取得了成長。由於薩達拉新產能的貢獻，亞太地區的需求成長尤為強勁。客戶在聚氨酯系統住宅應用方面的成功也推動了我們的成長。

The Packaging and Specialty Plastics segment grew operating EBITDA 14%. The drivers were broad-based local price gains; robust volume growth, including the new capacity from our growth projects; higher equity earnings; lower start-up costs; and cost synergies. These more than offset the increased raw material costs and higher planned turnaround activity. The Packaging and Specialty Plastics business grew volume by a solid 9% with gains in all geographies. The broad-based demand strength that we captured was led by double-digit gains in food and specialty packaging, industrial and consumer packaging and rigid packaging end markets. The business also benefited from double-digit gains in elastomers and high single-digit gains in Wire and Cable.

包裝和特殊塑膠業務部門的營業 EBITDA 成長了 14%。推動因素包括：本地價格普遍上漲；銷售量強勁成長，包括我們成長項目帶來的新產能；較高的股權收益；較低的啟動成本；以及成本綜效。這些收益足以抵銷原料成本增加和規劃檢修活動增加所帶來的影響。包裝和特殊塑膠業務銷量實現了穩健成長 9%，所有地區均有所成長。我們所觀察到的廣泛需求強勁，主要得益於食品和特殊包裝、工業和消費品包裝以及硬質包裝終端市場的兩位數成長。該業務還受益於彈性體業務的兩位數成長和電線電纜業務的高個位數成長。

To sum it up, Materials Science, which will be the New Dow in about 8 months' time, demonstrated the value growth that we can deliver through our focused portfolio, operational excellence, unique solutions and organic growth investments. This marks the 23rd consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings growth delivered by the new Dow team. The core business is capturing demand growth well above GDP, our investments are delivering top and bottom line gains and we continue to prudently manage our cost structure.

總而言之，材料科學（大約 8 個月後將成為新的陶氏化學）證明了我們可以透過專注的產品組合、卓越的營運、獨特的解決方案和內生成長投資來實現價值成長。這是道氏新團隊連續第 23 季實現年成長。核心業務的需求成長遠超過GDP增速，我們的投資帶來了營收和利潤的雙重成長，我們將繼續審慎地管理成本結構。

As we look ahead toward spin, I look forward to sharing more details in the coming months about our well-defined strategic road map. We have an exciting ambition that is geared toward enabling higher return on capital, increasing free cash flows and greater shareholder returns.

展望未來，我期待在接下來的幾個月分享更多關於我們明確的策略路線圖的細節。我們有一個令人振奮的目標，那就是實現更高的資本回報率、增加自由現金流和更高的股東回報。

Now I'll turn it over to Marc to cover Specialty Products.

現在我將把麥克風交給馬克，讓他來介紹特色產品。

Thanks, Jim.

謝謝你，吉姆。

Turning to Slide 9. Specialty Products, again, achieved double-digit top and bottom line growth in the quarter. We continue to deliver results through customer-focused application development powered by our innovation engine and strong customer relationships. Our integration of the FMC business into the portfolio is complete, and we continue to advance both our cost and growth synergies from the powerful combination of the 3 businesses.

請看第 9 張投影片。特種產品部門在本季再次實現了兩位數的營收和利潤成長。我們憑藉著創新引擎和強大的客戶關係，持續透過以客戶為中心的應用程式開發交付成果。我們已經完成了對 FMC 業務的整合，並且我們將繼續透過這 3 項業務的強大組合來推進成本和成長協同效應。

The division reported double-digit net sales gains with Transportation & Advanced Polymers leading the way with organic sales growth of 11%. Operating EBITDA for the division also grew double digits with gains in most segments. In fact, operating EBITDA margins expanded by over 280 basis points as lower pension/OPEB costs, higher demand, cost synergies and increased local price more than offset rising raw material and freight costs.

該部門報告稱淨銷售額實現了兩位數的成長，其中交通運輸和先進聚合物部門以 11% 的有機銷售成長領先。該部門的營業 EBITDA 也實現了兩位數成長，大多數業務板塊均有所成長。事實上，由於退休金/退休後福利成本降低、需求增加、成本協同效應以及當地價格上漲，抵消了原材料和運費上漲的影響，營業 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 280 多個基點。

Turning now to the segments in Specialty Products. Electronics & Imaging net sales and operating EBITDA declined due to portfolio actions taken in 2017. Excluding this, both net sales and operating EBITDA increased. Semiconductor and consumer electronics end markets remain robust, and our demand growth continues to outpace the market. Strength in these areas was partially offset by lower photovoltaic sales, which were negatively impacted by reduced PV incentives in China. Excluding prior period portfolio actions, operating EBITDA improved as volume growth, lower pension/OPEB costs and cost synergy delivery more than offset higher raw material and freight costs and increased spending for growth investments.

現在來看特種產品細分市場。由於 2017 年採取的投資組合調整措施，電子與影像業務的淨銷售額和營業 EBITDA 下降。剔除此因素後，淨銷售額和營業 EBITDA 均有所成長。半導體和消費性電子終端市場依然強勁，我們的需求成長持續超過市場成長。這些領域的優勢被光電銷售額的下降部分抵消，而光電銷售額的下降又受到中國光電補貼減少的負面影響。不計前期投資組合變動，經營 EBITDA 有所改善，因為銷售成長、退休金/退休後福利成本降低以及成本協同效應的實現，超過了原材料和運費上漲以及成長投資支出增加的影響。

Nutrition & Biosciences grew net sales by double digits with price and volume gains in addition to the benefit from the acquisition of the FMC Health and Nutrition business. Organic sales were up 5%, representing growth in both the Nutrition & Health and Industrial Biosciences business. Nutrition & Health sales gains were preliminary driven by areas in which we are investing such as probiotics and pharma excipients, attractive businesses with solid growth characteristics. Industrial Biosciences sales growth was driven by CleanTech from alkylation and acid equipment sales, microbial control and bioactives. Operating EBITDA grew in the mid-30s percent range driven by portfolio benefits, cost synergies and volume growth.

營養與生物科學業務的淨銷售額實現了兩位數的成長，這得益於價格和銷量的成長，以及收購 FMC 健康與營養業務帶來的收益。有機銷售額成長了 5%，營養與健康業務和工業生物科學業務均實現了成長。營養與健康業務的銷售成長初步主要得益於我們在益生菌和醫藥輔料等領域的投資，這些都是具有穩健成長特性的有吸引力的業務。工業生物科學的銷售成長主要得益於烷基化和酸化設備銷售、微生物控制和生物活性物質等清潔技術業務的推動。受投資組合收益、成本協同效應和銷售成長的推動，營運 EBITDA 成長了 30% 左右。

Transportation & Advanced Polymers also grew net sales in the double digits, and operating EBITDA grew nearly 50%. The segment continues to outperform driven by strengths in automotive, which grew double digits and again significantly outpaced auto builds as well as in electronics and aerospace end markets. Additionally, we benefited from pricing strength in our nylon products as tight industry supply dynamics supported our position with customers looking to meet strong market demand. Operating EBITDA margins expanded by more than 600 basis points to 30% driven by sales gains, pension/OPEB benefits, currency and cost synergies.

運輸和先進聚合物業務的淨銷售額也實現了兩位數的成長，營業 EBITDA 成長了近 50%。受汽車行業強勁增長的推動，該細分市場繼續表現出色，汽車行業實現了兩位數的增長，再次顯著超過了汽車製造業以及電子和航空航天終端市場的增長。此外，由於產業供應緊張，客戶希望滿足強勁的市場需求，我們的尼龍產品價格也因此受益匪淺，鞏固了我們在客戶中的地位。受銷售成長、退休金/退休後福利、匯率和成本綜效的推動，營業 EBITDA 利潤率成長超過 600 個基點，達到 30%。

Safety & Construction net sales increased driven by strength in construction markets in the U.S. and Canada and industrial applications. The segment increased local price well with gains across all businesses. Operating EBITDA increased 30% as lower pension/OPEB costs execution of cost synergies, volume growth and favorable currency more than offset higher costs, including higher raw materials as well as freight costs in the U.S. and Canada.

安全與建築業務淨銷售成長，主要得益於美國和加拿大建築市場以及工業應用領域的強勁表現。該板塊本地價格上漲勢頭良好，所有業務均有所增長。由於退休金/退休後福利成本降低、成本協同效應的實施、銷售成長和有利的匯率，營業 EBITDA 成長了 30%，超過了更高的成本，包括更高的原材料成本以及美國和加拿大的運費成本。

Looking ahead, we continue to advance our high-return capacity expansions across the portfolio. The probiotics expansion remains on track to be completed by the end of the year, and we recently announced the Tyvek expansion aimed at high-growth end markets. Additionally, we are increasing polymer extrusion capacity in Asia Pacific to address demand in the automotive light weighting market. We are also executing on our asset reliability program to enable sustainable supply and drive margin expansion. In addition to internal actions being taken to drive profitable growth, we will also continue to pursue portfolio actions to improve our underlying business as reflected in our decision this past quarter to exit the European Styrofoam business. This transaction is expected to improve both margins and top line growth and should close by year-end.

展望未來，我們將持續推動旗下所有高回報產能擴充項目。益生菌業務擴張計劃仍按計劃在年底前完成，我們最近也宣布了針對高成長終端市場的 Tyvek 業務擴張計劃。此外，我們正在亞太地區增加聚合物擠出產能，以滿足汽車輕量化市場的需求。我們也在執行資產可靠性計劃，以實現永續供應並推動利潤率成長。除了採取內部措施推動獲利成長外，我們還將繼續採取投資組合調整措施來改善我們的基礎業務，正如我們在上個季度決定退出歐洲泡沫塑膠業務所體現的那樣。預計此次交易將提高利潤率和營收成長，並預計在年底前完成。

I'll now turn it over to Greg to open the Q&A.

現在我將把問答環節交給格雷格。

Thank you, Marc. Let's move on to your question. First, I'd like to remind you that our forward-looking statements apply both to our prepared remarks and the following Q&A. Rachelle, please provide the Q&A instructions.

謝謝你，馬克。我們接下來回答你的問題。首先，我想提醒各位，我們的前瞻性聲明既適用於我們準備好的發言稿，也適用於接下來的問答環節。Rachelle，請提供問答環節的說明。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today will come from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）今天我們的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的大衛‧貝格萊特。

Ed, you increased 2018 cost savings by a little bit. Why didn't you increase the full $3.3 billion cost-savings target?

艾德，你讓2018年的成本節約額略有增加。為什麼沒有將節省成本的目標提高到33億美元？

Yes, David, we're still working on that and we have not given up on looking at a potential increase there. One of the areas we're going back on is the procurement area, which you know is a big chunk of where we got savings. 2/3 of our projected savings on the $3.3 billion is coming from kind of the COGS area and so we're taking another run through that, and I would hope we have some opportunity there. So we'll address that the next time we speak publicly. But what we have been able to do, as we mentioned in our comments, is we have almost 900 projects, almost all -- at last quarter, by the way, we had about 75% of them being worked on. Now we're literally at about 95% of them are already either initiated or finished or well on their way. So we've just been able to really expedite and kind of move the time line up on it, so it was really a move up of some of the $3.3 billion to get that extra $200 million in here. But again, we're not giving up that we can maybe get that number higher and we're working real hard on it.

是的，大衛，我們仍在努力，並且沒有放棄尋找增加收入的可能性。我們要重新檢視的領域之一是採購領域，你也知道，這是我們節省開支的主要來源之一。在我們預計節省的 33 億美元中，有 2/3 來自銷售成本領域，所以我們正在再次仔細審查該領域，我希望我們能從中找到一些機會。所以我們會在下次公開講話時談到這個問題。但正如我們在評論中提到的，我們已經能夠做到的是，我們有近 900 個項目，幾乎所有項目——順便說一下，上個季度我們大約有 75% 的項目都在進行中。現在，其中大約 95% 的專案已經啟動、完成或進展順利。因此，我們得以加快進度，提前完成這項工作，實際上是將 33 億美元中的一部分提前投入，以獲得額外的 2 億美元。但是，我們並沒有放棄，我們或許還能把這個數字提高，我們正在為此努力。

And next, we'll move to P.J. Juvekar with Citi.

接下來，我們將介紹花旗銀行的 P.J. Juvekar。

So in Specialty Plastics, your price was up only 1% despite strong polyethylene prices in the U.S. since last year and because of the hurricanes and all that. So is it polyethylene price outside the U.S. that is expecting that or something else? And then Jim, (inaudible) to that, this cracker start-up in the U.S., including your Texas-9, how do you see that shape of the ethylene cycle in second half and then going into 2019?

因此，儘管自去年以來美國聚乙烯價格強勁，而且由於颶風等原因，特種塑膠的價格僅上漲了 1%。那麼，是來自美國以外的聚乙烯價格預期會如此，還是另有其他因素？然後吉姆，（聽不清楚）關於這一點，美國的這家裂解裝置新創公司，包括你的德州-9，你如何看待乙烯循環在下半年以及進入 2019 年的走勢？

Yes, thanks, P.J. This is Jim. So on Plastics, while we did see good volume and good price in North America, we also saw some softening in Europe, so chain margins were down a bit in Europe, and I think with 1/3 of our business based over there, that pulls things down a little bit. And I would say Asia Pacific held up, I would say, kind of flattish for the quarter. So it's mostly volume growth that you see coming through there. We had $400 million of higher raw material costs, so you've got some margin compression pushed on the raw materials side. But I'm not worried about volume growth in Plastics. Volume growth is very robust, and it's across-the-board. All the segments are growing strong. As the ethylene cycle goes, ethylene's a little bit disconnected right now just in the United States Gulf Coast because there's not enough derivative demand or supply there to convert it. And so I think as the year progresses, you're going to see some of that balance out. In the short term, you've seen some people turn down higher-cost ethylene derivatives because there's really not much capacity to move it out. So I think when you look at it, you've got to look at full plastics chain margins, not ethylene. There really isn't much of an ethylene merchant market that's going to make this swing.

是的，謝謝你，P.J.。我是吉姆。所以，在塑膠方面，雖然我們在北美看到了良好的銷售和價格，但我們也看到歐洲市場出現了一些疲軟，因此歐洲的連鎖利潤率略有下降，我認為由於我們三分之一的業務都在那裡，這會稍微拉低利潤率。而亞太地區本季表現平平。所以你看到的主要是銷量成長。原材料成本增加了 4 億美元，因此原材料方面的利潤空間受到了一定的壓縮。但我並不擔心塑膠產業的銷售成長。銷售成長非常強勁，而且是全面成長。各個細分市場都呈現強勁成長動能。就乙烯循環而言，目前乙烯在美國墨西哥灣沿岸地區有點脫節，因為那裡沒有足夠的衍生性商品需求或供應來轉化它。所以我認為隨著時間的推移，這種情況會逐漸趨於平衡。短期來看，有些人會拒絕價格較高的乙烯衍生物，因為目前確實沒有足夠的產能來銷售這些產品。所以我覺得，從這個角度來看，應該要看整個塑膠產業鏈的利潤率，而不是乙烯的利潤率。實際上，不會有太大的乙烯貿易市場能夠承受這種價格波動。

And next, we'll move to Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan.

接下來，我們將連線摩根大通的傑夫·澤考斯卡斯。

At the end of 2017, you forecasted your EBITDA and you thought that Ag would be up high teens percent and the Materials company would be up mid-single digits to high single digits. And so now things look different to where Ag is up mid-single digits and the Materials Sciences company is mid-teens. And so what that means is that the Ag EBITDA is falling short of the original expectation by about $300 million, $250 million or $300 million, and the Materials Sciences EBITDA is better by, I don't know, $800 million. Can you describe how your business has performed relative to your original expectations so that you can give us a sense of why Ag is lower and Materials Sciences is higher? Is it all external factors? Is it internal factors? How would you describe it?

2017 年底，你預測了你的 EBITDA，你認為農業部門將成長 10% 以上，材料部門將成長個位數中段到個位數高段。因此，現在的情況與之前不同了，Ag 的股價上漲了個位數，而材料科學公司的股價則上漲了十幾個百分點。因此，這意味著農業 EBITDA 比最初的預期少了大約 3 億美元、2.5 億美元或 3 億美元，而材料科學 EBITDA 則比預期高出，我不知道，大概 8 億美元吧。您能否描述貴公司的實際業績與最初預期相比如何，以便我們了解為什麼農業部門的業績較低而材料科學部門的業績較高？都是外在因素造成的嗎？是內部因素嗎？你會如何描述它？

Let me hit Ag, and Jim Collins, if you want to jump in, fine. I mean, it's really the Ag story is -- let me hit the first half. We actually did a little better in the first half than we thought we were going to. We made up the whole shift from first quarter to second quarter. You might pick a different number but, in my mind, we did another $70 million, $80 million of EBITDA over that shift. So we had good, real robust shipments with our Crop Protection business that was up by 20%. So I think we ended the first half really kind of solid relative to what we thought at the beginning of the year. The issue in the second half is all externally related. It's currency, as you know, the Brazilian real has taken a major move here in the last couple months, so that's a major piece of it and so we're forecasting these higher rates for the rest of the year. Who knows if that holds. And then, secondly, we've got a shift, as everyone's talked about, from corn to soy, which hurts us a little bit obviously as we go into Latin America season. So that's really the 2 things that changed that number around. Jim, do you want to add anything else?

讓我來談談Ag和Jim Collins，如果你想插話，沒問題。我的意思是，這其實是農業的故事——讓我先講講前半部。實際上，我們上半場的表現比預期的要好一些。我們把第一季到第二季的整個班次都補上了。你可能會選擇不同的數字，但在我看來，在那次轉型中，我們額外實現了 7,000 萬到 8,000 萬美元的 EBITDA。因此，我們的作物保護業務出貨量非常強勁，成長了 20%。所以我覺得，相對於年初的預期，我們上半年的成績相當不錯。下半場的問題都與外在因素有關。如你所知，貨幣是關鍵因素，巴西雷亞爾在過去幾個月經歷了大幅波動，這是其中一個重要因素，因此我們預測今年剩餘時間利率將保持在高水準。誰知道這是否成立。其次，正如大家所討論的，作物種植從玉米轉向大豆，這顯然會對我們進入拉丁美洲產季造成一些影響。所以，真正改變這個數字的就是這兩件事。吉姆，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes, Jeff, let me add more thing. When we built the original plan for 2018, you'll know, based on USDA reports, that we had a reduction of corn acres in North America and a reduction in soybean acres. So if you think about this lower number, about 1/3 is attributed to just lower acres, 1/3 is the currency that Ed mentioned and then everything else. The other 1/3 is kind of that shift from corn to soybeans anticipated in Brazil, along with the safrinha market hold that we talked about in the first quarter. There are some other minor things like freight and some raw materials increases in there, but I'd say those are the major ones.

是的，傑夫，我再補充一點。根據美國農業部的報告，您就會知道，在我們制定 2018 年的原始計劃時，北美玉米種植面積和大豆種植面積都有所減少。所以，如果你考慮這個較低的數字，大約 1/3 是因為面積減少造成的，1/3 是 Ed 提到的貨幣，剩下的就是其他所有因素了。剩下的 1/3 是巴西預期的從玉米轉向大豆的趨勢，以及我們在第一季度討論過的 safrinha 市場。還有一些其他的小問題，像是運費和一些原物料價格上漲，但我覺得這些是主要問題。

Jim Fitterling, you want to address MatCo?

吉姆·菲特林，你想談談MatCo嗎？

Yes. I think, Jeff, on MatCo in the second half, we had a couple of major turnarounds in the quarter -- in the second quarter so in Terneuzen and also down in Freeport. And so as we get through that in the second quarter, you should see some positive impact of that plus the fact that we'll have less turnaround costs in the quarter. I do expect we'll still have some raw materials headwinds coming at us, but I think the volume growth is good and we still got some year-over-year improvements on the new capacity growth. And then by fourth quarter, we're going to have the St. Charles gas-phase debottleneck done. It's about 125,000 tons of additional capacity in St. Charles and then we're going to have the debottleneck -- the new plant coming on, the high-melt index elastomers plant, coming on in the fourth quarter.

是的。傑夫，我認為，在MatCo的下半年，我們在第二季經歷了幾次重大的轉折——在特爾納和弗里波特。因此，隨著我們順利度過第二季度，您應該會看到一些正面的影響，再加上本季週轉成本會降低。我預計我們仍將面臨一些原材料方面的不利因素，但我認為銷售成長良好，而且我們在新增產能成長方面也取得了一些同比改善。然後到了第四節，我們將擁有聖徒隊。查爾斯氣相瓶頸消除工作完成。聖路易市新增產能約 125,000 噸。查爾斯，然後我們將迎來瓶頸的消除——新工廠即將投產，高熔點指數彈性體工廠將於第四季度投產。

And I think just maybe, Jeff, this is Howard, to add a little bit more color on MatCo. When you look at -- your analysis is right. You think about what the key drivers are, it was broad volume growth, so 10% volume growth in the first half -- or in the second quarter, I should say; local price up 5% as well; the equity earnings, both the Kuwaiti JVs and the Sadara JVs were better than expected; and then we did get a little bit of help as well from favorable currency.

傑夫，我想，或許這位霍華德會為MatCo增添一些色彩。你仔細觀察後發現──你的分析是正確的。想想關鍵驅動因素是什麼，首先是銷量全面增長，上半年（或應該說是第二季度）銷量增長了 10%；其次是本地價格上漲了 5%；股權收益方面，科威特合資企業和薩達拉合資企業的收益都好於預期；此外，有利的匯率也給我們帶來了一些幫助。

And next, we'll move to Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

接下來，我們將連線摩根士丹利的文森安德魯斯。

Ed, you mentioned when you were going to talk about capital structure and so forth, but when do you think we'll sort of get a finalization of personnel and roles and so forth? And I noticed you've added a bunch of people to the Advisory Committee. Are those presumably going to be board members on the different companies? And are any of them subject to maybe joining in an operational role?

艾德，你提到你會在什麼時候討論資本結構等等問題，但你認為我們什麼時候才能最終確定人員配備和角色等等？我注意到你們在顧問委員會裡增加了很多人。這些人大概會成為各家公司的董事會成員嗎？他們當中是否有人有可能加入營運部門擔任營運職務？

Yes, so we announced 10 new board members across the 3 divisions. They will become the permanent board members of each of the committees we announced them on. You probably will see 2 or 3 more members join the different boards that we still have to add to. So we're diligently working on that and interviewing and talking to people now. And by the way, who we're talking to are some really high-quality, talented people, so I'm really thrilled that we'll have that process done very shortly. And probably just to add to that, all 3 of the boards are just meeting during the last couple of weeks to go through 2-day strategy sessions. So our new members are now attending, so they're going to be well up to speed once we get to the spin of the businesses. They will not be new at it. So we've really worked out a nice process there. We are going to announce the management teams of DuPont and of Corteva in the month of September. We've always stated that's about when we would do it, 6 to 8 months kind of before the spin, so we're going to be ready to do that, you'll see that come out. And then as far as capital structure, we're in very good conversations with the rating agencies, but it is a process and we're hoping to conclude that in kind of the early-ish fall range and then we will talk in detail about that. We're planning on doing a 3 investor days or half days later in the fall. We'll get a date out on that very shortly. So we'll do one for MatCo, one for Spec co and one for Ag co and we'll be able to talk about all that at that meeting.

是的，我們宣布了三個部門共 10 位新董事會成員。他們將成為我們之前宣布的各個委員會的正式董事會成員。你可能會看到另外 2 到 3 名成員加入我們還需要擴充的各個板塊。所以我們正在努力推進這項工作，目前正在進行面試和與相關人員的溝通。順便說一句，我們正在洽談的人都是一些非常有才華的優秀人才，所以我很高興我們很快就能完成這個過程。可能還需要補充一點，這三個董事會都在過去幾週開會，進行為期兩天的策略會議。所以我們的新成員現在都參加了，一旦我們開始討論業務流程，他們很快就能跟上進度。他們對此並不陌生。所以我們已經制定了一套很不錯的流程。我們將於9月公佈杜邦和科迪華的管理團隊。我們一直都說我們會在發布會前 6 到 8 個月左右發布，所以我們會做好準備，你們很快就會看到結果。至於資本結構方面，我們正在與評級機構進行非常良好的溝通，但這需要一個過程，我們希望能在秋季初完成，然後我們會詳細討論這個問題。我們計劃在秋季晚些時候舉辦 3 天或半天的投資者日活動。我們很快就會公佈具體日期。所以我們會分別為MatCo、Spec公司和Ag公司做一個方案，然後我們可以在會議上討論所有這些問題。

And next, we'll move to John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

接下來，我們將連線 BMO 資本市場的 John McNulty。

Maybe tied to that, if it turns out after these discussions with the rating agencies that you have some excess flexibility with your cash flow at your disposal, I guess, when you think about it, is it more valuable to you to be putting it into the current stock because I think you've certainly been vocal about it being undervalued. Or is it more important to leave it to the specific businesses so that they have flexibility when they're spin out, whether it's for M&A, buybacks or what have you. Pick. Can you give us some thoughts on that?

也許與此相關，如果在與評級機構討論之後，發現您在現金流方面有一些多餘的靈活性，我想，仔細想想，把這些錢投入到目前的股票中對您來說是否更有價值，因為我認為您肯定已經公開表示該股票被低估了。或者，更重要的是將決定權留給具體的業務部門，以便它們在分拆時擁有更大的靈活性，無論是為了併購、回購或其他目的。挑選。您能就此談談您的看法嗎？

Well, let me give you a leaning, but I would preface it with saying that is a board decision. But I would think if we're sitting on excess cash at these kind of stock prices, I think share repurchase would be something we'd be very interested in. I think Howard mentioned in his remarks we are going to do another $1 billion share buyback this quarter, so it's something we will sit down with the board and look at. Let me add a second point. The capital structures I think we're very confident we're going to get to where we need to be from our preliminary conversations, and I think we'll be healthy in the ranges that we told you we're going to be in. So I think we know we'll have some flexibility with where we're going to get rated anyway, so therefore maybe another way of saying it is the need to sit on a lot of cash is not something we need to do from a flexibility standpoint. We will have flexibility for these 3 companies going out, so we'll be able to address that in the near future.

好吧，我給你一個傾向性意見，但首先我要說明，這是董事會的決定。但我認為，如果以這樣的股價，我們手頭上有大量現金，那麼股票回購將會是我們非常感興趣的事情。我認為霍華德在演講中提到，我們將在本季再進行 10 億美元的股票回購，所以我們將與董事會坐下來討論此事。我再補充一點。我認為，根據我們先前的討論，我們非常有信心能夠達到我們所需的資本結構水平，而且我認為，我們將保持在我們之前告訴你們的範圍內，保持健康發展。所以我覺得我們知道，無論如何，我們在評級方面都會有一定的靈活性，因此，換句話說，從靈活性的角度來看，我們不需要持有大量現金。對於這三家公司的退出，我們將有一定的靈活性，因此我們將在不久的將來解決這個問題。

And next, we'll move to Christopher Parkinson with Crédit Suisse.

接下來，我們將連線瑞士信貸的克里斯多福·帕金森。

Can you just give us an update on your portfolio review within Specialty Products and any incremental planned divestitures and just how you're thinking about the management of these separate portfolios going forward? And just also could you just give us any insight on whether or not you believe that investors are giving you adequate credit for these efforts?

能否向我們介紹一下您在特種產品領域的投資組合審查情況，以及任何計劃進行的增量剝離，並說明您未來將如何管理這些不同的投資組合？另外，您能否也談談您認為投資人是否對您所做的這些努力給予了足夠的認可？

Let me hit the portfolio and I want Marc to jump in on it. We've already -- we stated many times in Specialty that we're going to divest 5% to 10% of the portfolio. It's not where we see the highest future returns in the business and/or the growth rates that we want, which, I guess, translates into returns also. And one of the things Marc highlighted in his prepared remarks was we just did announce the divestiture of the Styrofoam business in Europe. That was about $220 million of sales, so there's 1% out of the portfolio right there. And by the way, when you take that out, the Safety & Construction margins go up a full 100 basis points just with that move. And oh, by the way, that business happened at low returns. So there's an action. We will try to take a couple more actions pre the spin, but quite a few of the actions we want to take are going to have to be post spin because our teams are so tied up making the spins happen. The same people who have to work on the carves and all the legal entity work and all to do that. So you might see 1 or 2 other announcements from us, but the bulk of it will be right afterward. But we -- Marc's teed up with the board. They understand what we want to do on that front and we're ready to go.

讓我看看投資組合，我想讓馬克也參與其中。我們已經——我們在專業領域多次聲明，我們將剝離 5% 到 10% 的投資組合。這裡並不是我們認為未來業務回報最高和/或成長率最高的地方，我想，這也會影響到回報。馬克在事先準備好的演講稿中重點強調了一點：我們剛剛宣布剝離歐洲的泡沫塑膠業務。那筆銷售額約為 2.2 億美元，佔投資組合的 1%。順便一提，如果把那項因素剔除，安全與施工利潤率僅此一項調整就能提高整整 100 個基點。哦，對了，那項業務的回報率很低。所以，這裡有一個行動。我們將在旋轉之前嘗試採取一些行動，但我們想採取的許多行動都必須在旋轉之後進行，因為我們的團隊都忙於確保旋轉順利進行。負責雕刻的人，以及所有相關的法律實體工作等等，都是同一批人。所以你可能會看到我們發布一兩個其他公告，但大部分公告都會緊跟在後。但我們——馬克已經和董事會談妥了。他們理解我們在這方面想做什麼，我們已經準備好了。

Next, we'll move to Steve Byrne with Bank of America.

接下來，我們將連線美國銀行的史蒂夫·伯恩。

On Corteva, now that the North American selling season is over, should we expect an acceleration in the cost-cutting efforts in that business? And any structural changes between the 2 big Midwestern campuses that you have on that? And if you could just comment on your strategy on gaining market share with those legacy Dow Spinosad insecticides, what is enabling that market share gain?

關於科迪華公司，既然北美銷售季已經結束，我們是否應該期待該公司加快削減成本的步伐？那麼，你們在中西部兩所大型校區之間，是否有任何結構性變化？如果您能談談您如何利用陶氏化學的傳統殺蟲劑 Spinosad 來獲取市場份額的策略，是什麼促成了市場份額的成長？

Thanks, Steve. As we've always talked about cost synergies in the business, we said that they were a bit back end loaded in Ag in the second half of 2018 and we'll continue to see those into 2019. Most of that back half loading, though, is related to COGS. As we significantly restructured our seed production footprint in both North America and Latin America, the crop that we're planting right now this year will benefit from a cost of goods as we condition it in the fourth quarter and get ready to sell that in fourth quarter and on into the first part of 2019. So a lot of that back end loading. All of those other areas that we talked about, we jumped on those really, really quickly in the end of '17 and early '18. So we're pretty well set with our footprint. That said, there are still some areas that we're looking at, some of the other corporate areas. As we begin to get ourselves ready for spin and we start to set up a fully functioning finance, HR, IT, tax, treasury organization, we'll have some opportunities to continue to fine-tune as we go forward. You mentioned the insecticide. So you saw in our results in second quarter we had 20% growth year-over-year, that's a high teens percent growth through the first half year-over-year and that is related to a few areas. First, it's debottlenecking of our manufacturing facilities, these fermentations, much higher productivity, which has given us supply that we just never had before. Second, it's better positioning of our products in the marketplace going head to head with some of the other competition that's out there. And yes, it's a sales organization that's really focused now on some of these key high-value specialty markets. And I wouldn't say regaining share, I would say establishing the right presence for those products, the Spinosad and spinetoram product line in the marketplace. If you think about our second half, that growth that you asked about is also coming from a few other products. It's coming from Vessarya, which is going to be the premier Asian soybean rust fungicide in Brazil, and with some of the excitement that we're feeling in Brazil with the soybean acres, we should benefit from that. We're also launching the Arylex cereal herbicide that I talked about. And then really exciting, a brand-new product in the industry in rice in Asia, Pyraxalt, which controls a pest that nobody else really gets at. And we've talked about having the best pipeline in the industry and we've talked about that pipeline starting to deliver. It's really showing up in our results.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。正如我們一直以來在業務中討論的成本協同效應一樣，我們說過，2018 年下半年農業部門的成本協同效應有些集中在後期，而且這種情況會持續到 2019 年。不過，後半部的負載大部分與成本有關。由於我們對北美和拉丁美洲的種子生產佈局進行了重大調整，我們今年種植的作物將受益於商品成本的降低，因為我們將在第四季度對其進行加工，並準備在第四季度以及 2019 年上半年出售。所以很多都是後端載入。我們談到的所有其他領域，我們在 2017 年底和 2018 年初都迅速投入其中。所以，我們的業務佈局已經相當完善了。話雖如此，我們仍在關註一些領域，一些其他的企業領域。當我們開始為宣傳做準備，並開始建立一個功能齊全的財務、人力資源、IT、稅務、資金部門時，我們將有機會在未來繼續進行微調。你提到了殺蟲劑。所以，你們從我們第二季度的業績中可以看到，我們實現了 20% 的同比增長，上半年同比增長率也達到了 10% 以上，這與幾個方面有關。首先，我們製造設施的瓶頸得以消除，這些發酵製程提高了生產效率，為我們帶來了以前從未有過的供應。其次，這有助於我們在市場上更好地定位我們的產品，並與市場上的其他競爭對手進行正面交鋒。是的，這是一個銷售組織，目前確實專注於一些關鍵的高價值專業市場。我不會說是重新奪回市場份額，我會說是在市場上為這些產品，即 Spinosad 和 spinosaram 產品線，建立正確的地位。如果你考慮我們下半年的情況，你提到的成長也來自其他一些產品。它來自 Vessarya 公司，該公司將成為巴西首屈一指的亞洲大豆銹病殺菌劑。鑑於巴西大豆種植面積的擴大，我們感到興奮，應該會從中受益。我們還將推出我之前提到的 Arylex 穀物除草劑。然後，更令人興奮的是，亞洲水稻產業推出了全新產品 Pyraxalt，它可以控制其他產品都無法控制的害蟲。我們已經討論過要擁有業內最好的產品線，我們也討論過這個產品線開始發揮作用了。這確實在我們的結果中體現出來了。

And next, we'll move to Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets.

接下來，我們將連線 RBC Capital Markets 的 Arun Viswanathan。

Just wanted to go back to the Form 10s and the split time line. I was just wondering if there's been any progress on potential further splits and if that's even an option or if that would change the ownership structure? I'm specifically thinking about the 4 units within Specialty. Is there any possibility that you could potentially look at spinning out Nutrition or Electronics on their own earlier than expected?

我只是想回到 Form 10 和分段時間線的問題。我只是想知道，關於進一步拆分公司是否有任何進展，這是否是一個可行的方案，或者這樣做是否會改變所有權結構？我指的是專科領域的 4 個單元。你們是否有可能提前將營養品業務或電子產品業務分拆成獨立公司？

Yes, thanks for the question, Arun. There'll be no other spins obviously before we do the three here. All the divisions have all their options open to them afterward and we've always highlighted on the SpecCo side. We have a lot of optionality with the portfolio. Having said that, well, we really like the portfolio the way it is with the portfolio realignment we did in September. It's an awesome portfolio. But it is 4 distinct, nice businesses. They're all market leaders. So we're in a nice position with a lot of flexibility moving forward. But nothing would clearly happen before we actually do these spins in the spring.

是的，謝謝你的提問，Arun。顯然，在我們完成這三次旋轉之前，不會再有其他旋轉了。之後所有部門都有各自的選擇，而我們一直強調的是 SpecCo 方面。我們的投資組合有很多選擇。話雖如此，我們還是很喜歡目前的投資組合，以及我們在9月進行的投資組合調整。這是一個非常棒的作品集。但這卻是4家各具特色、很不錯的企業。它們都是市場領導者。所以我們現在處境不錯，未來發展有很大的彈性。但在我們真正在春季進行這些旋轉之前，顯然不會發生任何事情。

And next, we'll move to Jonas Oxgaard with Bernstein Research.

接下來，我們將連線伯恩斯坦研究公司的喬納斯‧奧克斯加德。

If we can return to the board question just a second. You've added a bunch of people, they all look like great people. But the board is -- they're kind of getting unwieldingly large. Are you planning on shrinking the overall board number at some point? And can you talk a little bit more broadly on what would the ideal board look like for the 3 Spin cos?

我們能否稍等片刻，回到剛才的董事會問題。你新增了很多人，他們看起來都很棒。但是棋盤——它們變得越來越笨重了。你們是否計劃在某個時候縮減董事會成員總數？您能否更廣泛地談談對於 3 Spin cos 來說，理想的棋盤應該是什麼樣的？

Yes, so Jonas, that might be a little confusing. By the way, the DowDuPont board is a little big because it was 8 originally picked from the DuPont side and 8 from the Dow side, so that's a big board at 16. Having said that, by the way, the board has functioned extremely well together, and you can see we've made a lot of decisions very fast. But the way we're teeing it up is when we split into 3 companies, each board will have 10 to 12 board members, which is very typical to staff all the committees that you have in a company this size. So we've got to get ourselves over this kind of next month up to kind of 36 board members to actually get to kind of that 11-or-so, somewhere in that range, may be 12, on each of the 3 boards. So the way we're running them, Jonas, right now is we actually do separate meetings, committee -- we call them committees right now, of the MatCo, Spec co and Ag co board, which we just did during the last couple of weeks, the 2-day strategy session I talked about and that's the group that'll continue on with that board. And then the regular DowDuPont board, the 16, meet regularly, but all of those people are going to go on to one of the 3 boards also. So it's not actually wieldy, it's -- we're getting it down to the 3 so they can start running strategically looking at things and they'll end up, give or take, 11 or 12 board members. So we have to work our way up to that 30-some number so we're ready to go. And we want to them on as early as possible so they can attend 2, 3, 4, sessions, as I said, so they're all prepped and they understand strategy and we're moving from day 1.

是的，喬納斯，這可能有點令人困惑。順便說一下，陶氏杜邦的董事會有點大，因為最初杜邦一方選出了 8 位董事，陶氏一方也選出了 8 位董事，所以董事會有 16 位董事，算是很大的了。話雖如此，順便說一句，董事會的運作非常出色，你可以看到我們很快就做出了許多決定。但我們目前的計劃是，當我們分成 3 家公司時，每個董事會將有 10 到 12 名董事，這對於一家如此規模的公司來說，是組建所有委員會的典型人數。所以，我們必須在接下來的一個月裡把董事會成員人數增加到 36 人左右，這樣才能在 3 個董事會中分別達到 11 人左右，或許是 12 人。喬納斯，我們現在運作的方式是，我們實際上會分別召開會議，成立委員會——我們現在稱之為MatCo、Spec co和Ag co董事會的委員會，就像我們在過去幾周里召開的為期兩天的戰略會議一樣，我剛才也提到了這一點，這個小組將繼續與董事會合作。然後，陶氏杜邦的常規董事會（16人）定期開會，但所有這些人也將進入3個董事會中的一個。所以實際上並不方便，我們正在將人數減少到 3 人，這樣他們就可以開始進行策略性運作，審視各種情況，最終董事會成員可能會有 11 或 12 人。所以我們必須努力達到30多這個數字，這樣我們才能做好準備。我們希望他們儘早加入，這樣他們就可以參加 2、3、4 次課程，就像我說的那樣，這樣他們就能做好準備，了解戰略，然後我們從第一天就開始推進。

And we're adding some really good industry experience in each of the 3 spins. So when you see the new board members that have come on, you're seeing some pretty deep experience in each of our 3 areas here.

而且，我們在3個衍生項目中都融入了一些非常優秀的產業經驗。所以，當你看到新加入的董事會成員時，你會發現他們在我們這三個領域都有非常豐富的經驗。

And next, we'll move to John Roberts with UBS.

接下來，我們將連線瑞銀集團的約翰羅伯茲。

Is Sadara still planning an IPO? And is it too early for Sadara to start thinking about expansions now that they're at full commercial operation?

Sadara 還計劃進行 IPO 嗎？薩達拉公司現在已經全面投入商業運營，現在開始考慮擴張是否為時過早？

John, this is Jim. Sadara doesn't have any plans right now for an IPO. It has the optionality obviously to do an IPO in the future. We've always retained that. But with all the other things that are going on in Kingdom, especially with our partner, Aramco, Saudi Aramco, we haven't had a plan to do anything with an IPO right now. And then as far as expansions go, obviously we'll take a look at that. Our first order of business is to get our Lenders Reliability Test done at the end of this year. And once we get through that Lenders Reliability Test and pass that hurdle, I think the teams will take a look at do we have the feedstocks we need, do we have the other things we need to look at potential expansions. We're working on the ValuePark right now. Sadara is building an EO pipeline to the ValuePark. We have customers coming in to build next to that, and so we're looking at building on neighboring plants to actually take some of the offtake of Sadara and build up capabilities in Kingdom. They may not be DowDuPont investments, but they may be third-party investments.

約翰，這是吉姆。Sadara目前沒有任何IPO計劃。顯然，該公司未來可以選擇進行首次公開發行（IPO）。我們一直保留著這一點。但是，鑑於沙烏地阿拉伯王國正在發生的其他所有事情，特別是與我們的合作夥伴沙烏地阿美公司（Aramco）有關的事情，我們目前還沒有進行IPO的計劃。至於擴充方面，我們當然會考慮的。我們首要的任務是在今年年底完成貸款機構可靠性測試。一旦我們通過了貸款機構的可靠性測試並跨越這一關，我認為團隊將會考察我們是否擁有所需的原料，以及我們是否擁有其他必要的條件，以考慮潛在的擴張。我們目前正在開發ValuePark計畫。Sadara正在為ValuePark建造一條EO管道。我們有客戶打算在旁邊建廠，所以我們正在考慮在鄰近的工廠進行建設，以便承接 Sadara 的部分訂單，並在 Kingdom 建立產能。這些投資可能並非陶氏杜邦的投資，但可能是第三方投資。

And next, we move on to Hassan Ahmed with Alembic Global.

接下來，我們來聽聽 Alembic Global 的 Hassan Ahmed 的介紹。

You guys touched on the whole sort of trade side of things earlier as it pertains to obviously some of these sort of trade debates that we are hearing, so a two-part question around that. Why is that ahead of some of these tariffs and the like, have you noticed any prebuying from sort of, call it, China, that's one side of it. The second side of it, a bit longer term. And obviously, over the last couple of years, prior to oil prices coming down sort of in a marked manner and then rebounding thereafter, there was this rush to sort of build greenfield capacity over here. So once oil prices came down, obviously that simmered down a bit. But this sort of renewed, disconnected oil and to natural gas pricing environment, I would have imagined that the next wave of frackers would have been announced. Do you guys internally within DowDuPont sort of are you reconsidering maybe some sort of future post 2020 investments on the ethylene/ polyethylene side? Do you see similar trends in the industry as well? Again, all parts and parcel with the implications of a potential trade war?

你們之前談到了貿易方面的問題，這顯然與我們正在聽到的一些貿易辯論有關，所以關於這個問題我有兩個問題。為什麼在這些關稅等措施出台之前，你有沒有註意到從中國之類的國家提前購買商品？這是一方面。從更長遠的角度來看，還有第二方面。顯然，在過去幾年裡，在油價大幅下跌並隨後反彈之前，這裡曾出現過一股建設新產能的熱潮。所以，一旦油價下跌，這種情況顯然就有所緩和了。但是，在這種重新出現的、與天然氣價格脫節的環境下，我原本以為下一波水力壓裂法開採天然氣的浪潮將會到來。你們陶氏杜邦內部是否正在重新考慮2020年後在乙烯/聚乙烯領域進行一些投資？您是否也觀察到業界有類似的趨勢？這一切是否都與潛在的貿易戰息息相關？

So I think on the trade topics, I haven't seen any indications of prebuying in the materials sector. I think we've seen good growth in the markets. But most of it is driven by the fact that the Chinese consumer economy has actually been pretty good for our downstream products. I think if we had seen any kind of prebuying volumes, you would have seen a different price dynamic in the Asia Pacific market than what we've seen. As it goes to next growth, obviously one of the things that we all look for in terms of next growth is the ability to access competitive feedstocks and light hydrocarbons. Natural gas liquids is the most competitive feedstocks versus naphtha right now. Of course, the only access really to that for China is to take U.S. ethane and ship it over there, which is not as cheap as it is to build here. So I haven't seen anything in that direction. The other thing that is part of this whole tariff trade discussion is if you want to build an ethylene facility in China, you have to have a local partner and so that makes it a little bit difficult for some of the players to be able to get in and have a position that will make a return for the investors. So there are several dynamics at play. I don't see any big wave coming soon. I think there are a lot of next big wave projects lined up for the U.S. Gulf Coast and where there may be even some increments in Canada, too.

所以我覺得在貿易方面，我還沒有看到原料產業有任何提前購買的跡象。我認為我們已經看到了市場良好的成長。但主要原因在於，中國消費經濟其實對我們的下游產品非常有利。我認為，如果我們看到任何形式的預購量，亞太市場的價格走勢就會與我們現在看到的有所不同。展望未來，我們所有人都在尋求的下一個成長點，顯然是獲得有競爭力的原料和輕烴的能力。目前，天然氣液是相對於石腦油最具競爭力的原料。當然，中國獲得這種能源的唯一真正途徑是從美國進口乙烷並運到中國，但這遠不如在美國本土生產便宜。所以，我還沒有看到任何這方面的跡象。關稅貿易討論的另一個方面是，如果你想在中國建造乙烯工廠，你必須有一個當地合作夥伴，這使得一些企業難以進入市場並獲得能夠為投資者帶來回報的地位。所以這裡涉及多種因素。我覺得近期不會有什麼大浪。我認為美國墨西哥灣沿岸有很多即將啟動的大型項目，加拿大甚至可能會有一些項目。

And our final question today will come from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners.

今天最後一個問題來自 Vertical Research Partners 的 Kevin McCarthy。

Jim, may be a two-part question for you, Jim Fitterling. First, would you comment on the level of planned and unplanned outages related to Freeport in the MDI force majeure, for example, that you expect in the third quarter versus the second quarter? And then, secondly, wanted to ask about ethane feedstock. We've seen some upward volatility there. How much of that is transitory versus more durable in your view? And has it changed your feedstock mix in any appreciable way?

吉姆，這個問題可能包含兩個部分，吉姆·菲特林。首先，您能否就與MDI不可抗力相關的Freeport計劃內和計劃外停電水平發表評論，例如，您預計第三季度與第二季度相比會有哪些變化？其次，我想諮詢乙烷原料的問題。我們看到那裡出現了一些上漲的波動。你認為其中有多少是暫時的，又有多少是持久的？它是否對你的原料配比產生了任何顯著影響？

Yes. So we announced the -- an outage on the Freeport MDI unit and that's scheduled to run from August to the first half of September. It's really a mechanical change that we need to make in there, some cleanout of some parts of the plant. It requires us to open it up and go in and then close it up so that's a time-consuming one. As far as planned outages around the Gulf Coast, really they're small. There's nothing coming in terms of any cracker outages. We've got the St. Charles debottleneck, and when we do that, we need to take the plant down to actually put that expansion in place. So it'll be out for a little bit. But other than that, maybe a few days here and there on a plastics plant in the fourth quarter, nothing to speak of. In terms of how the feedstock prices are moving, obviously you've got new capacity coming on right now, Exxon's up, so you've got a big pull on ethane. There's still quite a bit of ethane in rejection, I think 275, down from 450 over the last time we talked about it. But I think you're going to see ethane kind of rebound here. Propane's been running a little bit high. Right now, we're heavy light. We're cracking as light as we can and we're cracking as much ethane as we can and I think we're going to be in that situation for the foreseeable future.

是的。因此，我們宣布了弗里波特 MDI 機組的停機檢修，計劃從 8 月持續到 9 月上半月。我們需要對工廠進行一些機械方面的改造，清理工廠的某些零件。需要我們打開它，進去操作，然後再關上，所以很花時間。就墨西哥灣沿岸地區的計畫停電而言，實際上規模都很小。目前不會出現任何破解程式故障。我們有聖。查爾斯正在消除瓶頸，而當我們這樣做時，我們需要拆除工廠才能真正實施擴建。所以它還會停產一段時間。除此之外，可能第四季會在塑膠廠零星待上幾天，沒什麼特別的。就原料價格走勢而言，顯然現在有新的產能投入使用，埃克森美孚的產能也在成長，因此對乙烷的需求也很大。廢氣中仍然含有相當多的乙烷，我認為是 275，比我們上次討論時的 450 有所下降。但我認為乙烷價格會在這裡出現反彈。丙烷價格有點高。現在，我們很重，也很輕。我們正在盡可能地裂解輕質化合物，並盡可能地裂解乙烷，我認為在可預見的未來，我們都會處於這種狀態。

Thanks, Jim. Before we close out the call, I'll pass it over to Ed to make some final remarks.

謝謝你，吉姆。在結束通話之前，我將把發言權交給艾德，讓他做最後的總結發言。

I'd say, overall, I feel really pleased with the team's execution in the first half of the year. It was a very robust first half, and as we said, broad based across the whole platform. If you go to our third quarter guidance, I think it's also, again, very robust, very solid guidance. If you go back when you get to study and look at Page 5 where we give you all the points against guidance, the midpoint is going to come to 17% EBITDA growth, so very robust like the first half of the year. And if you to Page 6 and you work your way through all that, you're going to end up with a full year for DowDuPont of EBITDA growth of the mid-teens, so very, very strong, and EPS ending the year in the low 20% increase range. So feeling very good. More importantly, I think we said it's synchronized and it's really we're seeing it in all end markets around the world. If you take volume and price, they're our 2 biggest positive drivers. When you look at it by regions, North America was up 17% this past quarter, Asia was up 18%, Europe was up 10%, Latin America was up 6%, so very synchronized around the globe. We see volume and price continuing to help us. The third thing that really helps us here is the synergies. And those things have been able to really offset a very significant movement in raw materials and the 2 comments we mentioned on Ag with currency in Brazil moving against us and the corn-to-soy shift. So some negative dynamics with some really robust positive dynamics that are teeing this year up for us the way it's going. So thank you very much for joining us today.

總的來說，我對球隊上半年的表現非常滿意。上半年表現非常強勁，而且正如我們所說，涵蓋了整個平台。如果你看一下我們第三季的業績預期，我認為那也是非常穩健、非常可靠的預期。如果你回頭複習一下，看看第 5 頁，我們列出了所有與預期相符的要點，你會發現中點是 17% 的 EBITDA 增長率，非常強勁，就像上半年一樣。如果你翻到第 6 頁，仔細閱讀所有內容，你最終會發現陶氏杜邦公司全年的 EBITDA 增長率達到了 15% 左右，非常非常強勁，而每股收益 (EPS) 年底的增長率也達到了 20% 左右。感覺非常好。更重要的是，我認為我們說過它是同步的，而且我們確實在世界各地的所有終端市場都看到了這一點。如果把銷量和價格都考慮在內，它們就是我們兩大正面的驅動因素。從地區來看，北美上個季度成長了 17%，亞洲成長了 18%，歐洲成長了 10%，拉丁美洲成長了 6%，全球各地的成長非常同步。我們認為銷售和價格將繼續對我們有利。第三點對我們真正有幫助的是綜效。這些因素確實抵消了原物料價格的重大波動，以及我們先前提到的關於農業的兩項評論：巴西貨幣走勢對我們不利，以及玉米向大豆的轉變。所以，今年既有一些負面因素，也有一些非常強勁的正面因素，這些因素共同造就了我們今年的局面。非常感謝您今天能來參加我們的節目。

Thanks, Ed, and thanks, everyone, for joining the call. We appreciate your interest in DowDuPont. And for your reference, a copy of our transcript will be posted on DowDuPont's website later today. This concludes our call.

謝謝艾德，也謝謝大家參加這次電話會議。感謝您對陶氏杜邦的關注。另外，供您參考，我們的成績單副本將於今天晚些時候發佈在陶氏杜邦公司的網站上。通話到此結束。

And that will conclude today's call. We thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。