杜邦 (DD) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to DowDuPont's Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, today's call is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加陶氏杜邦2018年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）另外，今天的通話將被錄音。

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr.Neal Sheorey. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我將把通話交給尼爾·謝奧雷先生。請繼續，先生。

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for DowDuPont's Third 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年第三季財報電話會議。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 this 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，以補充我們在本次電話會議中的演講。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 Jennifer Driscoll and Lori Koch, who will lead IR for Corteva and DuPont, respectively.

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；以及將分別領導 Corteva 和 DuPont 投資者關係的 Jennifer Driscoll 和 Lori Koch。

Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the earnings 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 Form 10-K and each of Dow's and DuPont's Forms 10-K as well as Dow's and Corteva's Forms 10 include detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties which may cause such differences.

請閱讀盈利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 表格以及陶氏和杜邦的 10-K 表格以及陶氏和科迪華的 10 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. Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today are on a pro forma basis, and all financials, where applicable, exclude significant items. 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.

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

Good morning. Thank you, Neal, and thanks to all who are joining us for the DowDuPont Third Quarter Earnings Call.

早安.謝謝尼爾，也感謝所有參加陶氏杜邦第三季財報電話會議的朋友。

We delivered another strong quarter, as you saw earlier today. I was pleased with the way our teams performed in all 3 divisions as they successfully grew the top line and bottom line. They did this while delivering cost synergies, executing good price/volume discipline, advancing their growth synergies and preparing for the spins.

正如您今天早些時候所看到的，我們又迎來了一個強勁的季度。我對我們三個部門團隊的表現感到滿意，他們成功地提高了收入和利潤。他們一邊實現成本協同效應，一邊執行良好的價格/銷售控制，推進成長協同效應，並為分拆做好準備。

The financial highlights on Slide 2 are as follows. First, sales grew 10%. We saw continued strong demand for our products and executed well against our new product launches. While we had higher raw material costs and more currency pressure than we expected, we successfully increased pricing by 5 points while also delivering solid volume growth. The consistency across all divisions and regions was very good.

第二張幻燈片上的財務亮點如下。首先，銷售額成長了10%。我們看到市場對我們的產品需求持續強勁，新產品的上市也取得了良好的效果。雖然原物料成本和匯率壓力都比預期要高，但我們成功地將價格提高了 5 個百分點，同時銷售也實現了穩健成長。各部門和地區之間的一致性非常好。

Second, operating EBITDA increased 19%. We expanded our operating EBITDA margin with volume and price gains, cost synergies and strong execution overall. And last, adjusted EPS rose 35%.

其次，營運 EBITDA 成長了 19%。透過銷售和價格的成長、成本協同效應以及整體的強勁執行力，我們擴大了營業 EBITDA 利潤率。最後，調整後每股收益成長了 35%。

As our divisions advance toward separation, they continue to build out the structure and features necessary to their future success. Each of them continues to make progress toward their best-in-class cost structures. Cost synergies this quarter exceeded $450 million. We have executed against the majority of our cost synergy projects, and those savings are coming through.

隨著我們各部門逐步分離，它們將繼續建構未來成功所需的結構和功能。它們各自都在朝著實現一流成本結構的目標不斷努力。本季成本綜效超過 4.5 億美元。我們已經執行了大部分成本協同項目，而這些節省正在逐步實現。

Today, we increased our cost synergy target to $3.6 billion, another $300 million increase, to reflect further expected benefits. These increased benefits are expected to begin to show in our results in the second half of 2019 and are primarily related to additional procurement savings.

今天，我們將成本綜效目標提高到 36 億美元，比之前增加了 3 億美元，以反映預期的進一步收益。預計這些增加的收益將在 2019 年下半年開始體現在我們的業績中，主要與額外的採購節省有關。

For DowDuPont, we are reaffirming our full year adjusted EPS guidance of low 20s percent growth. This is consistent with the increased guidance we provided during our second quarter earnings call. It speaks to our team's focus and our ability to continue to deliver a strong full year result, which comes from the levers within our control: execution of cost synergies, new product introductions and growth investments, to name a few.

對於陶氏杜邦公司，我們重申全年調整後每股盈餘成長預期，預期成長幅度在 20% 左右。這與我們在第二季財報電話會議上給出的更高預期一致。這體現了我們團隊的專注以及我們繼續取得強勁的全年業績的能力，這源於我們可控的因素：成本協同效應的實施、新產品的推出和成長投資等等。

Another step toward separation was naming the boards of the 3 intended companies. These boards each consist of highly experienced, independent professionals across a range of relevant fields. They bring deep insights, expertise and support to their respective management teams as they work to drive growth and fully capitalize on the potential of our 3 independent companies.

分拆的另一步是任命三家擬分拆公司的董事會成員。這些委員會均由來自各個相關領域的經驗豐富的獨立專業人士組成。他們為各自的管理團隊帶來深刻的見解、專業知識和支持，致力於推動成長並充分發揮我們 3 家獨立公司的潛力。

I really appreciate the good work the board and advisory committees have already done. They have worked closely with management to develop near-term strategic plans for the respective businesses. They also have worked hard to enable all 3 companies to be well positioned in their markets, with appropriate capital structures, and plan to invest capital and R&D in a way that will drive meaningful shareholder value creation now and over the long term.

我非常感謝董事會和顧問委員會已經完成的出色工作。他們與管理層密切合作，為各自的業務制定了近期策略計劃。他們還努力使這三家公司在各自的市場中佔據有利地位，擁有適當的資本結構，併計劃以能夠推動股東在現在和長期內創造有意義的價值的方式投資資本和研發。

Our confidence in our future is one of the reasons we announced today a new share buyback plan, a $3 billion program. We intend to complete it before the first spin. This would bring our total expected share repurchases to $7 billion since merger close.

我們對未來充滿信心，這也是我們今天宣布一項新的股票回購計畫（一項 30 億美元的計畫）的原因之一。我們打算在第一次旋轉之前完成它。這將使我們自合併完成以來的預期股票回購總額達到 70 億美元。

We are creating 3 financially strong, independent companies, each of which will be well positioned for continued growth and further shareholder remuneration, to be determined by each company's board at the time of spin.

我們將創造 3 家財務實力雄厚、獨立營運的公司，每家公司都將為持續成長和進一步的股東回報做好充分準備，具體回報將由各公司董事會在分拆時決定。

In September and October, we filed the initial Forms 10 for Dow and Corteva. Filing the forms gets the clock ticking for the SEC to approve these registration documents and enables us to stay on schedule for our expected separation. This means separating Dow on April 1 and Corteva on June 1, thereby creating the new DuPont on June 1.

9 月和 10 月，我們為陶氏化學和科迪華提交了最初的 10 號表格。提交這些表格後，美國證券交易委員會批准這些註冊文件的時間表就開始倒數計時，使我們能夠按預期的分拆計劃進行。這意味著陶氏化學將於 4 月 1 日分拆，科迪華將於 6 月 1 日分拆，從而在 6 月 1 日成立新的杜邦公司。

We show the time line on Slide 3.

我們在投影片 3 上展示了時間軸。

Keep in mind these Forms 10 are iterative. We will be sharing more information with you in updated filings.

請記住，這些表格 10 是迭代的。我們將透過更新的文件與您分享更多資訊。

I am pleased to report today that our board made solid progress in the quarter on defining the capital structures of the intended spins. Howard will cover this in more detail in a moment. The important point is that we are doing what we said we would: creating 3 strong companies that can hit their targeted capital structures.

我很高興地報告，本季董事會在確定擬分拆公司的資本結構方面取得了實質進展。霍華德稍後會更詳細地介紹這一點。重要的是，我們正在做我們承諾要做的事情：打造 3 家實力雄厚的公司，實現其既定的資本結構目標。

We are very excited about the growth opportunities for each of the 3 businesses. With greater focus, each of these intended companies, [already] industry leaders as divisions of DowDuPont, will be able to unlock their full growth potential. We expect each will be able to allocate capital more effectively, apply their powerful innovation more productively and expand their products and solutions to more customers worldwide. Our results today and throughout the year we've been merged illustrate that our strategy is working.

我們對這三家企業的發展機會感到非常興奮。透過更集中精力，這些目標公司（作為陶氏杜邦旗下各部門，它們本身已經是產業領導者）將能夠充分釋放其成長潛力。我們期望他們能夠更有效地配置資本，更有效率地運用其強大的創新能力，並將其產品和解決方案推廣到全球更多客戶。我們今天以及過去一年來的業績都表明，我們的策略是有效的。

At our investor events next week, you will hear from each of these [independent] companies will be positioned to capture the attractive growth opportunities in their end markets, as well as further details on their capital structures and financial priorities. You also will have access to all the leaders who will be driving our future growth. I look forward to seeing you there to introduce you to these exciting new businesses.

在下週的投資者活動中，您將聽到這些[獨立]公司如何定位自身，以抓住其終端市場中極具吸引力的成長機會，以及有關其資本結構和財務重點的更多細節。您還將有機會接觸到所有將推動我們未來發展的領導者。我期待在那裡見到你，並向你介紹這些令人興奮的新企業。

With that, let me turn it over to Howard.

接下來，我將把發言權交給霍華德。

Thanks, Ed. Turning to Slide 4. As Ed mentioned, one of our key achievements in the quarter was defining the capital structures of each of the 3 intended companies. Each of the companies will have strong investment-grade credit profiles, in line with what we committed when we first announced the merger.

謝謝你，艾德。翻到第 4 張投影片。正如 Ed 所提到的，本季我們的一項主要成就是確定了 3 家擬建公司的資本結構。每家公司都將擁有良好的投資等級信用評級，這與我們最初宣布合併時所做出的承諾一致。

We were able to accomplish all this and implement our new $3 billion stock buyback program announced today for DowDuPont. Consistent with the rating agencies' criteria, adjusted debt includes several adjustments to each company's leverage to account for pension deficits, nonconsolidated subsidiary debt and operating leases.

我們成功完成了所有這些工作，並實施了今天宣布的針對陶氏杜邦的30億美元股票回購計畫。根據評級機構的標準，調整後的債務包括對每家公司槓桿率的幾項調整，以反映退休金赤字、未合併子公司債務和經營租賃。

We have also now finalized how we will allocate the heritage DuPont and Dow defined benefit pension plans and OPEB. As you see on this slide, Corteva and new Dow will each assume the heritage U.S. pension plans of DuPont and Dow, respectively. New DuPont will issue new debt based on its stand-alone financials and provide funds to Corteva and new Dow to enable the deleveraging of the heritage financial debt necessary for their respective target credit ratings.

我們現在也最終確定瞭如何分配杜邦和陶氏的遺留固定收益退休金計劃和退休後福利。正如你在這張投影片上看到的，Corteva 和新成立的陶氏化學將分別繼承杜邦和陶氏化學的傳統美國退休金計畫。新杜邦公司將根據其獨立財務狀況發行新債務，並向科迪華公司和新陶氏公司提供資金，以實現其各自目標信用評級所需的傳統金融債務去槓桿化。

Turning to Slide 5. We will implement the capital structures in several coordinated steps. New DuPont will first issue new debt based on its pro forma financials. As we disclosed when we made the shelf filing in the third quarter, this debt will be nonrecourse to Corteva or new Dow. New DuPont will then contribute the majority of the proceeds from the debt issuance to Corteva and new Dow so that those entities can further delever to achieve their targeted capital structures.

請看第5張投影片。我們將分幾個協調的步驟來實施資本結構。新杜邦公司將首先根據其預測財務數據發行新債。正如我們在第三季提交擱架申請時所披露的那樣，這筆債務對科迪華或新陶氏化學來說都是無追索權的。新杜邦公司隨後將債務發行所得的大部分收益貢獻給科迪華公司和新陶氏公司，以便這些實體能夠進一步降低槓桿率，從而實現其目標資本結構。

Taken together, these structures best position each company and their shareholders for long-term success and financial strength. At our investor events next week, each of the future companies' CFOs will unpack more details on the financial policies that underpin these capital structures.

綜合來看，這些結構能夠最好地保障每家公司及其股東的長期成功和財務實力。在下週的投資者活動中，每家未來公司的財務長將詳細介紹支撐這些資本結構的財務政策。

Moving to Slide 6 and a summary of our third quarter results. For every quarter since merger close, we grew earnings per share, net sales and EBITDA year-over-year. Drivers of our 35% EPS increase included volume and local price gains, cost synergies and lower pension and OPEB costs. These gains more than offset higher raw material costs in all divisions and currency headwinds, primarily in Agriculture, from the Brazilian real.

接下來是第6張投影片，總結一下我們第三季的業績。自合併完成以來，每季我們的每股盈餘、淨銷售額和 EBITDA 都實現了年成長。推動我們每股收益成長 35% 的因素包括銷售和本地價格上漲、成本協同效應以及退休金和退休後福利成本降低。這些收益足以抵銷所有部門原料成本上漲和貨幣逆風（主要是巴西雷亞爾對農業的影響）。

We grew net sales by 10%, evenly balanced between pricing actions and broad-based demand for products across the vast majority of DowDuPont's key market verticals. Sales rose 13% in Materials Science with double-digit gains in every segment. Specialty Products achieved 8% sales growth, led by a 14% gain in Nutrition & Biosciences. And Agriculture grew sales by 2%, led by strong gains in Latin America and Asia Pacific.

我們淨銷售額成長了 10%，這主要得益於定價策略和陶氏杜邦絕大多數主要市場垂直領域對產品的廣泛需求。材料科學領域的銷售額成長了 13%，所有細分市場均實現了兩位數的成長。特種產品銷售額成長 8%，其中營養與生物科學產品成長 14%，帶動了整體銷售成長。農業銷售額成長了 2%，其中拉丁美洲和亞太地區的強勁成長帶動了這一成長。

Volume increased 5%, with gains in all divisions and all regions. Agriculture grew volume 8%, led by gains in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Materials Science grew volumes 6% with gains in most segments and all regions. And Specialty Products delivered 3% volume growth with gains in all segments and all regions as well.

銷量成長5%，所有部門和所有地區均實現成長。農業產量成長8%，其中以拉丁美洲和亞太地區的成長最為顯著。材料科學銷量成長 6%，大多數細分市場和所有地區均實現成長。特種產品銷售量成長了 3%，所有細分市場和所有地區均實現了成長。

Local price increased 5%, also with gains in all divisions and all regions. Price increases were led by Materials Science, which was up 7%. Agriculture increased local price by 3%, and Specialty Products increased local price by 2%.

當地價格上漲了 5%，所有部門和所有地區的當地價格均上漲。材料科學領域價格上漲最為顯著，漲幅達 7%。農業使當地價格上漲了 3%，特色產品使當地價格上漲了 2%。

And as Ed mentioned, we continue to exceed our cost synergy commitments, delivering more than $450 million on the quarter. We have now delivered cumulative savings of more than $1.3 billion since merger close. And we ended the quarter at a run rate of greater than $2.5 billion on our cost synergies, exceeding our original 1-year target by more than $400 million.

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 4.5 億美元的收益。自合併完成以來，我們已累計節省超過13億美元。本季末，我們的成本綜效實現了超過 25 億美元的收益，比我們最初設定的 1 年目標高出 4 億美元以上。

These collective drivers translated to operating EBITDA of $3.8 billion in the quarter, up 19% year-over-year; and operating EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 140 basis points. We delivered these results despite approximately $600 million of higher raw material costs versus the prior year period.

這些共同的驅動因素使得本季的營業 EBITDA 達到 38 億美元，年增 19%；營業 EBITDA 利潤率也提高了約 140 個基點。儘管原材料成本比上年同期增加了約 6 億美元，但我們仍然取得了這些業績。

Cash flow from operations was a use of cash of approximately $320 million in the quarter, which included discretionary pension contributions of approximately $2.2 billion. Excluding these, cash flow from operations would have been a positive $1.9 billion.

本季經營活動產生的現金流為約 3.2 億美元，其中包括約 22 億美元的酌情退休金繳款。排除這些項目，經營活動產生的現金流將為 19 億美元。

The pension contributions had 2 benefits. First, they significantly improve the funded status of the Dow and DuPont plans. And second, they provided economic value as we were able to optimize the benefit under prior tax law and free up tax credits to offset tax on future income.

退休金繳款有兩項好處。首先，它們顯著改善了陶氏和杜邦計劃的資金狀況。其次，它們提供了經濟價值，因為我們能夠根據先前的稅法優化收益，並釋放稅收抵免來抵消未來收入的稅款。

Finally, we again returned nearly $2 billion of cash to our shareholders in the quarter, including another $1 billion of share repurchases. Including dividends, we have now returned $7.5 billion of cash to our owners since merger close.

最後，本季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，包括股息在內，我們已向股東返還了75億美元的現金。

Turning to our modeling guidance on Slide 7. For the full year, we are reaffirming our prior guidance of adjusted earnings per share up low 20s percent, consistent with the increased guidance we provided during our second quarter earnings call. 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 year-over-year. We see full year net sales to be in the range of $86.5 billion to $87 billion, and we continue to expect full year operating EBITDA be up in the mid-teens percent.

接下來我們來看投影片 7 的模型指引。對於全年業績，我們重申先前的指導意見，即調整後每股收益將增長 20% 左右，這與我們在第二季度財報電話會議上給出的上調指導意見一致。我們預計公司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年增。我們預計全年淨銷售額將在 865 億美元至 870 億美元之間，我們繼續預計全年營運 EBITDA 將成長 15% 左右。

For the year, the Materials Science division expects low-teens top line growth on the continued ramp-up of our recent U.S. Gulf Coast investments and strong global demand. Operating EBITDA is expected to increase in the low teens as well on solid underlying end market fundamentals, continued cost synergies, supply from our U.S. Gulf Coast growth projects and lower start-up and commissioning costs. These tailwinds will be partly offset by some margin compression in plastics and lower isocyanate prices that have begun to come down from the record levels we saw in the second half of 2017. As you may recall, these trends are in line with the expectations we laid out at the beginning of the year.

今年，材料科學部門預計營收將實現兩位數左右的成長，這得益於我們近期在美國墨西哥灣沿岸的投資持續成長以及強勁的全球需求。由於終端市場基本面穩健、成本協同效應持續、美國墨西哥灣沿岸成長計畫的供應以及啟動和調試成本降低，預計營運 EBITDA 也將實現兩位數低位成長。這些利好因素將被塑膠利潤率的收窄以及異氰酸酯價格的下降部分抵消，異氰酸酯價格已從 2017 年下半年創紀錄的水平開始回落。您可能還記得，這些趨勢與我們年初提出的預期相符。

The Specialty Products Division expects full year net sales to increase in the high single-digits percent with strong organic growth across all of our segments. We continue to expect operating EBITDA to be up in the high-teens percent, driven by cost synergies, lower pension and OPEB costs, sales growth and portfolio and currency benefits, partially offset by increased raw material costs and growth investments.

特種產品部門預計全年淨銷售額將實現高個位數百分比的成長，所有業務板塊均將實現強勁的內生成長。我們繼續預計，在成本協同效應、退休金和退休後福利成本降低、銷售成長以及投資組合和匯率收益的推動下，營運 EBITDA 將成長 10% 以上，但部分被原材料成本增加和成長投資所抵銷。

The Agriculture division expects full year sales to be flat with 2017 as price and mix gains and the benefits from new products are offset by lower planted area in North America and Brazil, continued currency pressures and the portfolio impact. Operating EBITDA is expected to grow by mid-single-digits percent, which we've said is about $2.7 billion. The gain is expected to be driven by cost synergies, higher local prices and lower pension and OPEB costs.

農業部門預計全年銷售額將與 2017 年持平，因為價格和產品組合的成長以及新產品帶來的好處將被北美和巴西種植面積的減少、持續的匯率壓力和產品組合的影響所抵消。預計營運 EBITDA 將以中等個位數百分比成長，我們之前說過，這大約是 27 億美元。預計收益將主要來自成本協同效應、當地物價上漲以及退休金和退休後福利成本下降。

Before turning it over to Jim, I want to address the trade and tariff topics that are still receiving attention. After assessing the potential and based on actions implemented to date, we do not expect that tariffs will have a material impact on any of our divisions in the fourth quarter. This is due to our global asset base, our local presence in markets around the world and proactive mitigation actions we have been taking.

在把發言權交給吉姆之前，我想談談目前仍然受到關注的貿易和關稅問題。經過評估，並根據迄今為止採取的行動，我們預計關稅不會對我們第四季的任何部門產生實質影響。這得益於我們的全球資產基礎、我們在世界各地市場的在地化佈局以及我們採取的積極主動的緩解措施。

I'll now turn it over to Jim to cover Materials Science business performance.

現在我將把發言權交給吉姆，讓他來介紹材料科學業務的表現。

Thanks, Howard. Moving to Slide 8. Materials Science delivered another strong quarter. The core business again achieved strong top line gains with double-digit increases in each of our segments and gains across all regions. We continue to capture demand growth well above GDP while also driving quick pricing actions where supply/demand fundamentals are favorable and the value in use of our products differentiates us in the market.

謝謝你，霍華德。進入第 8 張投影片。材料科學又迎來了一個強勁的季度。核心業務再次取得強勁的營收成長，各業務板塊均實現兩位數成長，所有地區也均實現成長。我們持續獲得遠高於 GDP 的需求成長，同時在供需基本面有利的情況下迅速採取價格調整措施，而我們產品的使用價值使我們在市場上脫穎而出。

And our growth investments also continue to contribute to our performance. Our assets on the U.S. Gulf Coast are running at or above design rates, and we're executing our marketing plans to continue to place product in the market. And in our first quarter lapping full commercial operations at Sadara, the JV again delivered a year-over-year earnings improvement.

我們的成長投資也持續為我們的績效做出貢獻。我們在美國墨西哥灣沿岸的資產正以設計速度或更高速度運轉，我們正在執行行銷計劃，以繼續將產品推向市場。在薩達拉全面投入商業營運後的第一個季度，合資企業再次實現了同比成長。

Let me hit the division highlights. We have delivered double-digit top line growth every quarter since merger close. We grew volumes 6% with gains in most segments and all regions, and we achieved local price increases of 7% with gains in all segments and all regions. We delivered strong EBITDA growth, up 8%, with gains in most segments. We again exceeded our cost synergy commitments. And we delivered all of these results despite $400 million of higher raw material costs in the quarter.

讓我來介紹一下分區亮點。自合併完成以來，我們每季都實現了兩位數的營收成長。銷量成長了 6%，大部分細分市場和所有地區均實現了成長；本地價格上漲了 7%，所有細分市場和所有地區均實現了成長。我們實現了強勁的 EBITDA 成長，增幅達 8%，且大多數業務板塊均有所成長。我們再次超額完成了成本綜效的承諾。儘管本季原物料成本增加了 4 億美元，我們仍然取得了所有這些業績。

I'll now take a closer look at our business performance. Performance Materials & Coatings achieved operating EBITDA growth of 37%, led by local price gains as well as cost and growth synergies. The segment achieved double-digit sales gains in both businesses and in most regions.

接下來，我將更詳細地了解我們的業務表現。高性能材料與塗料業務的營業 EBITDA 成長了 37%，主要得益於本地價格上漲以及成本和成長協同效應。該業務板塊在兩個​​業務領域和大多數地區均實現了兩位數的銷售成長。

Sales gains in Consumer Solutions were driven by double-digit local price gains in all regions. While total volume was down for the business, our price/volume management in upstream silicone intermediates enabled us to achieve volume gains for our downstream formulated silicones applications, where we achieved higher margins for our products.

消費者解決方案業務的銷售成長主要得益於所有地區兩位數的本地價格上漲。雖然公司總銷量有所下降，但我們對上游有機矽中間體的價格/銷售管理使我們能夠在下游配方有機矽應用領域實現銷售增長，從而為我們的產品實現了更高的利潤率。

Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure operating EBITDA declined by 3%. Double-digit volume gains and strong pricing actions in both businesses were more than offset by rising raw material costs, margin compression in isocyanates and equipment repairs to an isocyanate unit on the Gulf Coast.

工業中間體及基礎設施業務的營業息稅折舊攤銷前利潤下降了3%。兩項業務的銷售量均實現了兩位數成長，且價格策略強勁，但這些成長都被原材料成本上漲、異氰酸酯利潤率下降以及墨西哥灣沿岸異氰酸酯裝置的設備維修所抵消。

Polyurethanes achieved double-digit sales gains in most regions based on broad-based demand growth in all regions, led by Asia Pacific and EMEA; as well as on local price increases. Industrial Solutions delivered volume and price gains in every region, led by gains in downstream ethylene oxide derivatives, with double-digit growth in intermediates for crop defense, energy heat management and food and feed manufacturing.

受亞太和歐洲、中東及非洲地區等各地區需求全面成長以及當地價格上漲的影響，聚氨酯產品在大多數地區實現了兩位數的銷售成長。工業解決方案在每個地區都實現了銷售和價格的成長，其中下游環氧乙烷衍生物的成長最為顯著，作物防禦、能源熱管理以及食品和飼料製造的中間體實現了兩位數的成長。

Volume gains in both Polyurethanes and Industrial Solutions were further supported by increased supply from the Sadara joint venture.

聚氨酯和工業解決方案的銷售成長得益於 Sadara 合資企業供應量的增加。

The Packaging and Specialty Plastics segment grew operating EBITDA 4%. Volume and local price gains were the key earnings drivers, including increased supply from growth projects. Lower commissioning and start-up costs and cost synergies also contributed to the year-over-year improvement. These benefits more than offset the increased feedstock costs. Additionally, you'll remember that last year's hurricane activity hit this segment the hardest, and the absence of that cost impact also helped the segment's earnings year-over-year.

包裝和特殊塑膠業務部門的營業 EBITDA 成長了 4%。銷售和當地價格上漲是獲利的主要驅動因素，其中包括成長項目帶來的供應增加。較低的調試和啟動成本以及成本協同效應也促成了同比業績的提升。這些收益足以抵銷增加的原料成本。此外，您可能還記得，去年的颶風活動對該行業造成了最嚴重的打擊，而沒有受到颶風帶來的成本影響也幫助該行業實現了同比收益增長。

The Packaging and Specialty Plastics business grew volume 6% on broad-based demand strength and new capacity additions on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Volume gains were led by demand for industrial and consumer packaging and health and hygiene applications. The business also achieved double-digit growth in Elastomers applications.

包裝和特殊塑膠業務的銷售量成長了 6%，這得益於整體強勁的需求以及美國墨西哥灣沿岸新增產能。銷售成長主要得益於工業和消費品包裝以及健康和衛生應用領域的需求。該業務在彈性體應用領域也實現了兩位數的成長。

Finally, on our growth projects, through the third quarter, Sadara has now delivered year-over-year equity earnings improvement of $170 million. We have now lapped full commercial operations in the year-ago period, and the JV remains on track to execute the full lenders reliability test at year-end or early in 2019.

最後，關於我們的成長項目，截至第三季度，Sadara 的股權收益比去年同期成長了 1.7 億美元。我們現在已經完成了去年同期的全面商業運營，合資企業仍按計劃在年底或 2019 年初完成貸款方的全面可靠性測試。

On the U.S. Gulf Coast, our new assets continue to run hard and contribute to earnings. And our High Melt Index Elastomers train in Freeport and our bimodal high density debottleneck in St. Charles both remain on track for start-up before year-end.

在美國墨西哥灣沿岸，我們的新資產持續高效運轉，為獲利做出貢獻。我們在弗里波特進行高熔體指數彈性體培訓，在聖路易斯進行雙峰高密度消除瓶頸。查爾斯和其他人仍有望在年底前啟動計畫。

The strong results of our Packaging and Specialty Plastics segment is worth noting, particularly during a quarter where we experienced significant raw material cost headwinds. Our results, which outperformed our peers, are another proof point of the value of the portfolio we have carefully constructed over the last several years, and it's one that well positions us for future growth going forward.

值得一提的是，我們的包裝和特殊塑膠業務部門取得了強勁的業績，尤其是在本季度我們面臨原材料成本大幅上漲的情況下。我們的業績優於同行，再次證明了我們過去幾年精心構建的投資組合的價值，也為我們未來的成長奠定了良好的基礎。

There are many pieces to that advantage that pay off, especially in times like we saw in the third quarter: first, our industry-leading asset flexibility, which enabled us to more effectively manage feedstock swings versus other industry players. Second is our ability to reduce risk and drive greater margin stability across the cycle. We do this in 3 ways: through our full chain integration and ownership of the entire monomer-to-polymer chain, through our broad geographic reach and through our product differentiation that is further downstream than peers. Lastly, our growth investments leverage these collective factors and deliver EBITDA growth to offset the headwinds like those that we saw in the quarter.

這項優勢包含許多方面，尤其是在像第三季那樣的時期，這些優勢都能帶來回報：首先，我們擁有領先業界的資產靈活性，這使我們能夠比其他產業參與者更有效地管理原料波動。其次，我們有能力降低風險，並在整個週期中實現更高的利潤率穩定性。我們透過三種方式實現這一目標：透過我們對整個單體到聚合物鏈的完全整合和所有權，透過我們廣泛的地域覆蓋，以及透過我們比同行更下游的產品差異化。最後，我們的成長投資利用了這些綜合因素，實現了 EBITDA 成長，以抵消我們在本季度遇到的不利因素。

To sum it up, Materials Science continues to capture strong demand growth, drive agile pricing actions and exceed our synergy commitments and control our costs. I look forward to sharing more on the path forward for the new Dow, which will separate from DowDuPont in less than 5 months, at our Investor Day event on November 7.

總而言之，材料科學持續保持強勁的需求成長，推動靈活的定價策略，超額完成協同效應承諾，並控製成本。我期待在 11 月 7 日的投資者日活動上，與大家分享更多關於新陶氏化學未來發展方向的資訊。新陶氏化學將在不到 5 個月的時間內從陶氏杜邦公司分離出來。

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

現在我將把發言權交給馬克，讓他來介紹特色產品。

Thanks, Jim. Turning to Slide 9. Specialty Products again reported strong growth on both the top and bottom line. We continue to deliver steady mid-single-digit top line gains through higher volume and price. Our organic growth is enabled by our new products, customer-driven application development and leadership positions in attractive end markets.

謝謝你，吉姆。請看第 9 張投影片。特種產品業務再次實現了營收和利潤的強勁成長。我們透過提高銷售量和價格，持續實現穩定的個位數中段營收成長。我們的有機成長得益於我們的新產品、以客戶為導向的應用開發以及在具有吸引力的終端市場中的領先地位。

The division reported 5% organic sales gains, with Transportation & Advanced Polymers again leading the way with organic sales growth of 9%. And Safety & Construction was not far behind at 8% growth. Operating EBITDA for the division again grew double digits, with gains in all segments, driven by cost synergies, sales gains, lower pension and OPEB costs and a portfolio benefit more than offsetting higher raw material and freight costs and onetime prior year benefits.

該部門報告稱，有機銷售額增長了 5%，其中運輸和先進聚合物部門再次領先，有機銷售額增長了 9%。安全與建築業緊隨其後，成長率達 8%。該部門的營業 EBITDA 再次實現兩位數增長，所有業務板塊均實現增長，這主要得益於成本協同效應、銷售增長、養老金和退休後福利成本降低以及投資組合收益，這些收益足以抵消原材料和運費上漲以及上年一次性收益。

One of the items I'm particularly pleased with this quarter was our pricing strength. We delivered an overall 2% improvement in price with contribution from almost all of the businesses. The specialty nature of our portfolio enables us to price our products for the value they deliver to our customers and mitigate the earnings impact of higher raw material costs.

本季我特別滿意的一點是我們的定價優勢。在所有業務部門的共同努力下，我們實現了價格整體下降 2%。我們產品組合的特殊性使我們能夠根據產品為客戶帶來的價值來定價，並減輕原材料成本上漲對收益的影響。

Turning now to the segments. Electronics & Imaging net sales and operating EBITDA were steady with last year due to well-known weakness in the photovoltaics space caused by the midyear reduction of incentives in China. We continue to see strength in the semiconductor business driven by new customer wins and robust end markets.

現在來看各個部分。由於中國年中削減激勵措施導致光伏領域疲軟，電子與影像業務的淨銷售額和營業 EBITDA 與去年持平。半導體業務持續保持強勁勢頭，這主要得益於新客戶的持續贏得和終端市場的蓬勃發展。

Sales in our displays business were up nearly 20% due to strong demand in China for one of our new OLEDs products. Overall operating EBITDA improvement from cost synergies, higher semi and display volumes and lower pension and OPEB costs were offset by headwinds from softness in photovoltaics and higher raw material costs.

由於中國市場對我們一款新型 OLED 產品需求強勁，我們顯示器業務的銷售額成長了近 20%。成本協同效應、半導體和顯示器銷售增加以及退休金和退休後福利成本降低帶來的整體營運 EBITDA 改善被光伏業務疲軟和原材料成本上漲帶來的不利因素所抵消。

Nutrition & Biosciences grew sales -- grew net sales by double digits with price and volume gains, in addition to the benefit from the acquisition of the FMC Health & Nutrition business. Organic sales increased 4%. Nutrition and health continues to see strong growth in probiotics, with sales up more than 30% this quarter.

營養與生物科學業務銷售額成長－淨銷售額實現了兩位數的成長，這得益於價格和銷量的提升，以及收購 FMC 健康與營養業務帶來的收益。有機銷售額成長4%。益生菌在營養和健康領域持續保持強勁成長勢頭，本季銷售額將成長超過 30%。

Within Industrial Biosciences, top line growth in CleanTech and volume growth in bioactives were offset by lower production volumes in biomaterials, partially driven by Hurricane Florence. Segment operating EBITDA grew 33%, driven by portfolio benefits, cost synergies and volume growth.

在工業生物科學領域，清潔技術的收入成長和生物活性物質的產量成長被生物材料產量的下降所抵消，部分原因是颶風弗洛倫斯的影響。業務部門營運 EBITDA 成長 33%，主要得益於產品組合效益、成本綜效和銷售成長。

Safety & Construction organic sales increased 8%, led by broad-based growth across industrial, personal and life protection and medical packaging, partially offset by softness in construction in U.S. residential markets. Our pricing strength continues to improve. In this quarter, we delivered 2% growth. This was a result of targeted actions to drive value-in-use pricing across our portfolio. We look for this pattern to continue.

安全與建築業的有機銷售額成長了 8%，主要得益於工業、個人及生命防護和醫療包裝領域的全面成長，但部分被美國住宅市場建築業的疲軟所抵消。我們的定價優勢持續增強。本季我們實現了2%的成長。這是我們採取有針對性的措施，推動產品組合實現物有所值定價的結果。我們預計這種模式會持續下去。

Operating EBITDA for the quarter was up 10% as reported but up 20% when excluding prior year onetime gains of approximately $30 million. Growth was driven by cost synergies, lower pension and OPEB costs and higher local price, partially offset by higher raw material costs and the absence of prior year onetime gains.

本季營業 EBITDA 按報告顯示成長 10%，但若排除上年同期約 3,000 萬美元的一次性收益，則成長 20%。成長主要得益於成本綜效、退休金和退休後福利成本降低以及當地價格上漲，但部分被原物料成本上漲和前一年一次性收益的缺失所抵銷。

Transportation & Advanced Polymers again delivered strong top and bottom line growth. The segment continues to perform well, driven by strength in automotive, which grew double digits and again significantly outpaced auto builds.

交通運輸及先進聚合物業務再次實現了強勁的營收和利潤成長。該細分市場持續表現良好，主要得益於汽車產業的強勁成長，汽車產業實現了兩位數的成長，並再次大幅超過了汽車製造業的成長速度。

Our ability to sustainably deliver this type of above-market growth stems primarily from 2 factors. First is our leading position with key OEMs. Second is our robust product portfolio, which enables both higher content per vehicle and biases our offering towards the higher-growth areas of the industry, including hybrid and electric vehicles.

我們能夠持續實現這種高於市場平均的成長，主要源自於以下兩個因素。首先，我們與主要原始設備製造商保持領先地位。其次是我們強大的產品組合，這不僅能提高每輛車的配置，也能使我們的產品更專注於產業內成長更快的領域，包括混合動力車和電動車。

We also continue to experience growth within the electronics and aerospace end markets. In addition to higher volume, we again 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 550 basis points to about 31%, driven by sales gains, cost synergies and pension and OPEB benefits, partially offset by raw material headwinds.

我們在電子和航空航太終端市場也持續保持成長。除了銷售增加外，由於行業供應緊張，客戶希望滿足強勁的市場需求，我們的尼龍產品價格再次走強，這鞏固了我們的地位。受銷售成長、成本綜效以及退休金和退休後福利 (OPEB) 的推動，營業 EBITDA 利潤率成長超過 550 個基點，達到約 31%，但部分被原材料價格上漲的不利因素所抵消。

In closing, I'm pleased with our businesses' ability to execute on items that are benefiting all lines of our P&L through pricing actions, productivity initiatives, high-return capacity expansions and customer-driven new product innovations. This winning formula will enable us to continue to drive sustainable top and bottom line growth.

最後，我對我們業務部門能夠透過定價策略、提高生產力、擴大高回報產能以及以客戶為導向的新產品創新來執行各項舉措，從而使我們損益表的各個方面都受益感到滿意。這一成功模式將使我們能夠繼續推動營收和利潤的可持續成長。

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

接下來，我將把農業方面的報道交給吉姆。

Thanks, Marc. Turning to Slide 10. For Agriculture, our third quarter is mostly [focused] on the southern hemisphere, and we finished strong. The 2 standout highlights were the 11% organic sales growth and the $134 million year-over-year improvement in operating EBITDA. I'm pleased with how well the team has executed, particularly with our new product launches in crop protection.

謝謝你，馬克。翻到第10張投影片。農業方面，我們第三季主要集中在南半球，並且取得了強勁的收官成績。兩個突出的亮點是11%的有機銷售額成長和1.34億美元的營運EBITDA年成長。我對團隊的執行力非常滿意，尤其是在作物保護方面的新產品發布方面。

Let me break down that organic sales growth figure of 11%. Volume for ag this quarter [rose] 8%, driven by Latin America and Asia Pacific, and local price increased 3%. Our organic sales growth was largely driven by crop protection. Total sales rose 2% with a negative currency impact of 6% and portfolio reductions of 3%. Our currency pressure came mainly from the Brazilian real, which went as high as BRL 4.1 to the dollar at the time our seed selling season began. The portfolio change was a result of the Brazil seeds remedy we executed last year to complete the merger.

讓我來詳細分析一下11%的有機銷售成長率。本季農產品銷售成長 8%，主要得益於拉丁美洲和亞太地區的成長，當地價格上漲 3%。我們的有機產品銷售成長主要得益於作物保護產品的推動。總銷售額成長 2%，但受到 6% 的匯率負面影響，產品組合減少了 3%。我們的貨幣壓力主要來自巴西雷亞爾，在我們種子銷售季開始時，雷亞爾兌美元匯率高達 4.1 雷亞爾。投資組合的變化是我們去年為完成合併而對巴西種子資產採取的補救措施的結果。

Our organic sales growth this quarter reflected the strength of new product launches, more normalized crop protection inventory levels in Brazil, [pricing] benefits in crop protection and an early start to the Latin America season for seeds and crop protection. Our crop protection business led the way with 17% organic sales growth. As expected, much of the sales gain came from volume, up 13%, as we successfully launched several new crop protection products this quarter.

本季我們的有機銷售成長反映了新產品上市的強勁勢頭、巴西作物保護庫存水準的正常化、作物保護產品的價格優勢以及拉丁美洲種子和作物保護產品銷售季的提前開始。我們的作物保護業務以 17% 的有機銷售額成長領先。正如預期的那樣，銷售額的成長主要來自銷量，成長了 13%，因為我們在本季成功推出了幾款新的作物保護產品。

Among the products driving our volume gains were the Picoxy-based products such as Vessarya, the leading treatment for Asian soybean rust in Brazil; Arylex, a new cereal herbicide in Europe; and Pyraxalt, a novel insecticide for rice brown plant hopper control in Asia Pacific. We also saw strong growth in seed-applied technologies with new launches of Lumisena.

推動我們銷售成長的產品包括以吡啶甲酸為基礎的產品，例如巴西領先的亞洲大豆銹病防治劑 Vessarya；歐洲的新型穀物除草劑 Arylex；以及亞太地區用於防治水稻褐飛蝨的新型殺蟲劑 Pyraxalt。我們也看到種子應用技術實現了強勁成長，Lumisena 等新產品相繼推出。

Last year's third quarter crop protection inventories were unusually high and have now returned to more normal levels, helping our volumes. Pricing in crop protection rose 4% as we responded quickly to fluctuations in the Brazilian real. We still expect currency to be about $100 million EBITDA headwind in the second half for the Ag segment, impacting seed more than crop protection.

去年第三季作物保護劑庫存異常高，現在已恢復到較正常的水平，這有助於我們的銷售量。由於我們迅速應對巴西雷亞爾的波動，作物保護產品的價格上漲了 4%。我們仍預計，下半年匯率波動將為農業部門帶來約 1 億美元的 EBITDA 負面影響，對種子業務的影響將大於對作物保護業務的影響。

Organic sales for seed rose 1% on volume gains, despite an expected reduction in corn planted area and lower royalties. We continue to have good results and strong demand for our POWERCORE and Leptra brand corn seeds. And we enjoyed an earlier start to the planting season.

儘管玉米種植面積預計減少且特許權使用費降低，但由於銷量增長，有機種子銷售額仍增長了 1%。我們的 POWERCORE 和 Leptra 品牌玉米種子持續取得良好銷售業績，市場需求強勁。而且我們很早就開始了播種季節。

And I will also note that Pioneer hybrids were awarded the first and second prizes in Mexico's [largest] dairy congress for their extraordinary silage results. Price in seed was essentially flat with last year's quarter. The remedy loss subtracted 9 points from seed, with currency taking another 6 points, for a total sales decline of 14% in seed.

我還要指出，先鋒雜交品種憑藉其卓越的青貯飼料效果，在墨西哥（規模最大的）乳牛大會上榮獲一等獎和二等獎。種子價格與去年同期基本持平。補救措施損失使種子銷量下降了 9 個百分點，貨幣損失又使銷量下降了 6 個百分點，導致種子銷量總下降了 14%。

The ag segment operating EBITDA loss this quarter was $104 million, an improvement of 56% versus last year's quarter. The third quarter is our seasonal low point, ahead of the southern hemisphere season that starts in September. The year-over-year improvement reflects cost synergies, sales gains, lower performance-based compensation and lower pension and OPEB costs. These positives offset higher raw material costs and launch spending for our new products. We reaffirm our full year guidance of $2.7 billion of operating EBITDA, consistent with what we said last quarter, including the earlier start in Brazil, which benefited the third quarter; and continuing currency pressure.

本季農業部門的營業 EBITDA 虧損為 1.04 億美元，比去年同期改善了 56%。第三季是我們的季節性淡季，之後是9月開始的南半球淡季。與去年相比，業績有所改善，這反映了成本協同效應、銷售成長、績效工資降低以及退休金和退休後福利成本降低。這些正面因素抵消了原材料成本上漲和新產品上市費用增加的影響。我們重申全年營運 EBITDA 預期為 27 億美元，與我們上個季度所說的一致，包括巴西市場提前啟動，這對第三季有利；以及持續的匯率壓力。

Turning to operational highlights. We have 3 worth calling out this quarter. First, we exceeded our commitment of reaching a 75% run rate against our goal of $1.1 billion in cost synergies by the first year since merge. This run rate illustrates that we have taken quick action and are tracking these projects rigorously. Consistent with the company's new synergy targets, we now project a total of $1.17 billion in cost synergies, an increase of $70 million. We expect to reach 100% of that higher goal on a run-rate basis by the third quarter of 2019.

接下來是營運亮點。本季有3個值得重點介紹。首先，我們超額完成了合併後第一年實現 11 億美元成本綜效目標的 75% 的預期。這一進展速度表明我們已迅速採取行動，並正在嚴格追蹤這些項目。與該公司新的綜效目標一致，我們現在預計成本綜效總額將達到 11.7 億美元，比前一年增加 7,000 萬美元。我們預計到 2019 年第三季度，以運行速度計算，將 100% 實現這一更高的目標。

Second, we have advanced our new multichannel, multi-brand strategy in the quarter. Realigning our global brand portfolio was necessary to better focus our product and service offerings to our customers. This strategy will expand access to the company's genetics, technology and traits across various agriculture distribution channels, including agency direct, retail, distribution and licensing. So far, the response from farmers has been good, and early indications are that we are making a smooth transition to the new brand structure.

其次，本季我們推動了新的多通路、多品牌策略。為了更好地將我們的產品和服務集中在滿足客戶需求，我們有必要重新調整我們的全球品牌組合。該策略將擴大公司基因、技術和性狀在各種農業分銷管道的普及範圍，包括代理直銷、零售、分銷和授權。到目前為止，農民們的反應良好，初步跡象表明，我們正在順利過渡到新的品牌結構。

We launched our Brevant brand in Eastern Europe, after having launched it in Brazil and Argentina earlier this year as part of our efforts to regain share lost from the seed remedy. We will delve deeper into this topic at Investor Day next week.

今年早些時候，我們在巴西和阿根廷推出了 Brevant 品牌，作為我們努力奪回因種子療法而失去的市場份額的一部分，之後我們在東歐推出了該品牌。我們將在下週的投資者日上深入探討這個主題。

Third, we filed the initial Form 10 for the Corteva spin. As promised, we will continue to update that document as more details become available. Overall, we are happy with the progress the team is making towards separation. All the key projects remain on track as we advance towards June 1. In closing, we are delivering results by optimizing our organizational structure and go-to-market strategies, successfully launching innovative new products targeted to customers' needs and maximizing efficiency and productivity.

第三，我們提交了 Corteva 分拆的初始 10 表格。正如我們承諾的那樣，隨著更多細節的公佈，我們將繼續更新該文件。總體而言，我們對團隊在分離方面的進展感到滿意。隨著我們向 6 月 1 日的目標邁進，所有重點項目都按計劃進行。最後，我們透過優化組織結構和市場推廣策略，成功推出針對客戶需求的創新產品，並最大限度地提高效率和生產力，取得了成果。

I'll now turn it to Jen to open up the Q&A.

現在我把麥克風交給Jen，讓她開始問答環節。

Thank you, Jim. And with that, let's move on to your questions. First, I'd like to remind you that our forward-looking statements apply to both our prepared remarks and the following Q&A.

謝謝你，吉姆。那麼，接下來我們來回答您的問題。首先，我想提醒各位，我們的前瞻性聲明適用於我們準備好的發言稿和接下來的問答環節。

Rochelle, please provide the Q&A instructions.

Rochelle，請提供問答環節的說明。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today will come from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

（操作說明）今天我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的文森特安德魯斯。

Maybe I could just ask you to put the buyback, the $3 billion, into context. Clearly, given where the share price is, why not -- why wasn't it larger? Why did you do discretionary pension payment now versus maybe doing a higher buyback now? And why not accelerate the share repurchase, given where the stock is?

或許我可以請您解釋一下這筆30億美元的股票回購計畫的背景。顯然，鑑於目前的股價，為什麼不呢——為什麼不更大一些呢？為什麼現在選擇進行酌情退休金支付，而不是現在進行更高比例的退休金回購？鑑於目前的股價水平，為何不加快股票回購速度呢？

Yes. This is Ed. Let me comment, and maybe Howard wants to make a couple of comments also. Remember, the share repurchase that we announced today, we're going to accomplish that in literally the next 5 months pre the spin of Dow. So we'll be moving at a pretty good clip there. I would also say to you, although we have the new boards of the 3 companies look at this, but we're obviously going to talk about financial policy next week at our Investor Day for the 3 companies. So we'll get into more detail on that, talking about dividend and all. But I can suggest to you that we will be very friendly remuneration companies to our shareholders, and share buyback will also be a part of that. So I would look at this in the context of the next year and the opportunity we have to repurchase shares and have a nice dividend in each of the companies. The pension, I'll let Howard comment on that here, but it was very advantageous for us to do it at this point in time. And Howard, why don't you give a few of the details around that.

是的。這是艾德。我想說幾句，也許霍華德也想說幾句。記住，我們今天宣布的股票回購計劃，我們將在道瓊斯分拆前的接下來的 5 個月內完成。所以我們會以相當快的速度推進。我還要告訴大家，雖然這三家公司的新董事會正在考慮這個問題，但我們顯然會在下週的投資者日活動上討論這三家公司的財務政策。所以接下來我們會更詳細地討論這個問題，包括股息等等。但我可以向你們保證，我們將成為對股東非常友善的回報公司，而股票回購也將是其中的一部分。因此，我會從明年的角度來看這個問題，我們有機會回購股票，並在每家公司獲得可觀的股息。關於退休金的問題，我讓霍華德在這裡評論一下，但對我們來說，在這個時候這樣做是非常有利的。霍華德，你能否詳細說說這件事？

Yes, Vince. And it was really a combination of tax benefits as well as the value from the spread between the EROA and the interest expense spreads. And so -- and it was a credit-neutral event. Because, if you look at the capital structure slides in the deck, you'll see that the rating agencies look at the underfunded pension, so it was credit-neutral from that perspective, and it allowed us to take a significant economic opportunity to create value.

是的，文斯。這實際上是稅收優惠以及 EROA 和利息支出利差之間價值的綜合體現。因此——這是一起信用中立事件。因為如果你看一下簡報中的資本結構幻燈片，你會發現評級機構會關注資金不足的退休金，所以從這個角度來看，它是信用中立的，這讓我們有機會抓住一個重要的經濟機會來創造價值。

And next, we'll move to David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.

接下來，我們將連線德意志銀行的戴維‧貝格萊特。

Ed, can you and Jim discuss the lowered guidance in Materials Science for full year? And then how much of the additional cost synergies are in Materials Science going forward?

Ed，你和Jim能討論一下材料科學領域全年下調的績效指引嗎？那麼，未來材料科學領域能帶來多少額外的成本綜效呢？

Yes. I'll take it, Ed. David, look, I think the 2 big things that are on the radar screen for everybody in materials is just margin compression in isocyanates, which we've seen; and also a little bit of concerns about what's going on with feedstock costs as we look at the plastics chain. Just to give you a reference. On the third quarter, we actually did better in plastics versus what the IHS forecast out there in terms of margin compression, considerably better. And we're starting to get synergies to roll through. I'll give you a quick plastics recon. Synergies in the third quarter were positive $87 million. We had a positive $80 million from hurricane. We had lower start-up costs, so that was positive $66 million. We had positive $103 million from our Gulfstream investments, positive $15 million from Sadara. Turnarounds and maintenance was a negative. So I had a couple of turnarounds and I had one unplanned event, $70 million. And feedstocks were $231 million. So that's how you get to the third quarter results. Isocyanates saw some compression, still good margins. I think at these growth rates, both pMDI and TDI will tighten up by mid-2019.

是的。我收下了，艾德。大衛，你看，我認為材料行業所有人關注的兩大問題是異氰酸酯的利潤率壓縮（我們已經看到了這一點）；以及當我們審視塑料產業鏈時，對原料成本的擔憂。僅供參考。第三季度，我們在塑膠業務方面的表現實際上比 IHS 預測的利潤率壓縮情況要好得多。我們開始看到協同效應逐漸顯現。我來給你快速了解一下塑膠的狀況。第三季的綜效為正值 8700 萬美元。颶風為我們帶來了8000萬美元的收益。我們的啟動成本較低，因此淨賺了 6,600 萬美元。我們在灣流投資中獲得了 1.03 億美元的正收益，在 Sadara 投資中獲得了 1,500 萬美元的正收益。檢修和維護是不利因素。所以我經歷了幾次業績下滑，還發生了一件計畫外事件，損失了 7,000 萬美元。原料成本為 2.31 億美元。這就是得出第三季業績的方法。異氰酸酯的壓縮有所增加，但利潤率仍然良好。我認為以目前的成長速度，到 2019 年年中，pMDI 和 TDI 都將收緊。

David, this is Howard. The only other thing that I would like to just add is if you look on at it on a full year basis, the Materials Science division is up on an EBITDA basis low-teens percent. And so we feel really good about that performance.

大衛，這位是霍華德。我唯一想補充的是，如果從全年來看，材料科學部門的 EBITDA 成長了百分之十幾。所以我們對這場比賽的表現非常滿意。

We'll next 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。

If you add back your pension contribution, you said your cash flow from operations was $1.9 billion. So what that means is that, for the year, even if you add it back, your cash flows from operations are down by about $3 billion. Can you talk about that differential, why it's so much lower? And last year, your cash flow from operations for the year were $8.7 billion. Like where do you think you'll stand relative to that, adjusting for your pension expense?

如果把退休金繳款加回去，你說你的營運活動現金流為 19 億美元。所以這意味著，即使把這部分加回去，今年的營運活動現金流也減少了約 30 億美元。你能談談這個差異嗎？為什麼它低這麼多？去年，你們的經營活動現金流為 87 億美元。考慮到你的退休金支出，你認為你目前的處境會如何？

Yes. I think on a -- Jeff, this is Howard. On a cash from ops basis, I mean, one of the big drivers is working capital. So we've been growing sales double digit now every quarter since merger close, and it's just not possible to do that and not add some working capital dollars. But the team is very focused on efficiency. And if you look at the efficiency metrics for working capital, Q3 versus a year ago, our efficiency improved by a day, a little bit higher DSI but offset by positive improvements in both DSO and DPO. When you think about it on a full year basis, I mean, if you just take street estimate of around $18 billion of EBITDA for 2018, you subtract out the interest expense, the working capital investments, the voluntary pension contributions, the integrate -- the onetime integration and restructuring costs, you're getting a cash from ops of around $10 billion. And then if you subtract out CapEx, you're talking about free cash flow of around $5 billion.

是的。我想……傑夫，我是霍華德。從營運現金流的角度來看，其中一個主要驅動因素是營運資金。自合併完成以來，我們每季的銷售額都實現了兩位數的成長，如果不增加一些營運資金，這是不可能的。但團隊非常注重效率。如果你看一下營運資本的效率指標，第三季與去年同期相比，我們的效率提高了一天，DSI 略有上升，但 DSO 和 DPO 的正面改善抵消了這一影響。從全年來看，我的意思是，如果按照市場對 2018 年 EBITDA 約 180 億美元的估計，減去利息支出、營運資本投資、自願養老金繳款、整合——一次性整合和重組成本，你就能得到約 100 億美元的營運現金流。如果扣除資本支出，那麼自由現金流約為 50 億美元。

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

接下來，我們將介紹花旗銀行的 P.J. Juvekar。

A question on ag for Jim Collins. Jim, can you describe the impact you expect to see from a 4 to 5 million acre shift from soybeans to corn next spring? And then in your recent $4.6 billion charge that you took in ag, you mentioned delayed product registration. Can you shed some light on products that are getting delayed?

吉姆·柯林斯面臨一個關於農業的問題。吉姆，你能否描述一下明年春天400萬至500萬英畝土地從種植大豆轉為種植玉米預計會產生什麼影響？然後，在你最近對農業領域提列的 46 億美元費用中，你提到了產品註冊延遲的問題。您能否說明一下哪些產品出現延期出貨的情況？

Yes. Thanks, P.J. So it's a little too early to kind of nail down what we expect to see going into 2019 in terms of acres. And we would be out selling right now normally. We'd have a good look at our order book, but you're probably also keeping track. North America harvest has been quite delayed, so our signal that we would normally have by now is a little bit weak. That said, commodity prices on soybeans, that pressure is likely to drive some higher corn acres. And historically, our portfolio, from a margin perspective and just our ability to compete, favors a strong corn market. So we'd expect to see that. Other crops that we participate in a little bit too, will benefit. We think some of that shift out of soy could be going into wheat and cotton. So it's a little hard to say. The flip side is, as we're seeing more soy acres going into Brazil, we have a very strong chemistry portfolio that I've talked about before. Our Picoxy-based products are industry-leading, so we'd expect to benefit on this soy shift in Latin America. In terms of the impairment and the registrations, the main one we were pointing to there was Qrome, another year delay, not huge. But with the discussions going on with China, we'd expect to not hear anything now until

是的。謝謝，P.J.。所以現在就確定我們預計 2019 年的種植面積還為時過早。正常情況下，我們現在應該正在外面進行銷售。我們會仔細查看訂單簿，但你們可能也在關注此事。北美地區的收割工作已經嚴重滯後，因此我們現在通常應該已經收到的訊號有點微弱。也就是說，大豆商品價格上漲的壓力可能會促使玉米種植面積增加。從歷史角度來看，從利潤率和我們的競爭力來看，我們的投資組合更有利於強勁的玉米市場。所以我們應該會看到這種情況。我們少量種植的其他作物也會受益。我們認為，部分從大豆種植轉向小麥和棉花種植的作物可能會增加。所以很難說。另一方面，隨著巴西大豆種植面積的增加，我們擁有非常強大的化學組合，我之前也談過這一點。我們的吡啶甲酸基產品處於行業領先地位，因此我們有望從拉丁美洲的大豆消費轉變中受益。就減損和註冊而言，我們主要指的是 Qrome，又延遲了一年，不太嚴重。但鑑於目前正與中國進行磋商，我們預計現在不會聽到任何消息，直到…

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

Early 2019 and our ability to ramp up parent seed. We are out with a limited commercial launch. So we're still demonstrating that technology to customers, and we're still seeing good yield advantage. So the other thing is some delays in being able to integrate some of the Dow traits into Pioneer germplasm, especially with Enlist, another delay in that. And final one we pointed to was we lost a registration in Europe for Picoxy for fungicide in wheat. And we're working with the European Commission to get that registration back, but we're going to lose at least the sales season here.

2019 年初，我們有能力提高母種產量。我們已進行有限商業發布。所以我們仍在向客戶展示這項技術，而且我們仍然看到了良好的收益優勢。所以另一件事是，將陶氏的一些特性整合到先鋒種原中存在一些延誤，特別是 Enlist，這方面又出現了延誤。最後，我們指出的一點是，我們失去了吡咯烷酮在歐洲作為小麥殺菌劑的註冊。我們正在與歐盟委員會合作，爭取恢復註冊，但我們至少會錯過這個銷售季。

And next, we'll hear from Christopher Parkinson with Crédit Suisse.

接下來，我們將聽聽瑞士信貸的克里斯多福·帕金森的發言。

Within the specialty businesses, there's been a lot of end-market noise and even some investor fear, just ranging from construction to semis to auto. Can you just parse out the key macro variables over the 12 -- next 12 months as you see and how you're positioned for further growth? And then also, if you could just address the simple, new sources of the $100 million synergy increase and give a quick update on your intentions for the broader portfolio realignment, that will all be greatly appreciated.

在專業領域，從建築到拖車再到汽車，終端市場出現了許多噪音，甚至引發了一些投資者的擔憂。能否分析未來 12 個月的關鍵宏觀變量，以及您為進一步成長所做的準備？另外，如果您能簡單說明這1億美元協同效應成長的新來源，並簡要介紹一下您對更廣泛的投資組合調整的意圖，我們將不勝感激。

Yes. This is Ed. Let me just make a few comments on trends. And it's always hard to say what the next 12 months will do obviously. But if you look at the quarter that we just recorded, and I'd even go to the guidance that we gave for the quarter we're now

是的。這是艾德。我想就趨勢發表幾點看法。當然，未來12個月會發生什麼事總是很難預測的。但如果你看看我們剛剛公佈的季度業績，我甚至會參考我們先前對本季的業績預期。

in, fourth quarter, auto sales for us were up 10%, even though auto builds were flat to down 1%. And probably that continues a trend we've had for almost 3 years now, where we've had double-digit growth on auto, and it's because of the parts of the market that we participate in, the lightweighting, electrification, et cetera. So we're seeing strong demand there. Our China sales across the DowDuPont portfolio were up 18% and very strong. In fact, it was double-digit growth in all 3 divisions, by the way, so continuing strength there. Our semi businesses, as Marc had mentioned, was up nicely, 3%. And our industrial sales across the platform were up 8%. So some of the areas I know others have been talking about, we continue to see nice secular strength in our part of the product portfolio that we're delivering to those markets.

第四季度，儘管汽車產量持平或下降了1%，但我們的汽車銷量卻增加了10%。而且這可能延續了我們近 3 年來一直保持的趨勢，即汽車業務實現了兩位數的成長，這是因為我們參與的市場領域，例如輕量化、電氣化等等。所以我們看到那裡的需求很強勁。陶氏杜邦旗下所有產品在中國的銷售額成長了 18%，表現非常強勁。事實上，這三個部門都實現了兩位數的成長，所以成長動能依然強勁。正如馬克所提到的那樣，我們的半成品業務成長良好，達到了 3%。我們平台上的工業銷售額成長了 8%。因此，我知道其他人一直在談論的一些領域，我們繼續看到我們向這些市場提供的產品組合中，部分領域呈現出良好的長期成長勢頭。

And so this is Marc. Let me just add a little bit more on the market side going into 2019. We are -- as I've said, it's hard to predict the future, but we are expecting that electronics markets to be strong next year. We think semi will have another strong year next year. As Ed indicated, we think our auto growth will continue to be strong because we're better connected to key trends like auto electrification. And we're also expecting photovoltaics to rebound next year, so that will be a positive tailwind next year for us versus this year. I want to say something about synergies, too. There's a question about the synergy breakdown. I'd say just from a Spec co perspective, we said that the breakdown of synergies would be about $100 million for Spec co. That's mostly going to be driven by procurement savings, and we'll see most of that in the back half of next year. And so that maybe answers the question on the synergy.

這就是馬克。讓我再補充一點關於2019年市場方面的狀況。正如我之前所說，預測未來很難，但我們預計明年電子產品市場將表現強勁。我們認為明年半導體產業將持續保持強勁勢頭。正如 Ed 所指出的，我們認為汽車業務的成長將繼續保持強勁，因為我們與汽車電氣化等關鍵趨勢聯繫更加緊密。我們也預計光伏發電明年將反彈，因此明年對我們來說將是一個利好因素，與今年相比。我也想談談綜效。關於協同效應失效的問題。僅從 Spec 公司的角度來看，我們認為協同效應的分解將為 Spec 公司帶來約 1 億美元的收益。這主要將由採購成本節約推動，我們將在明年下半年看到大部分節約成果。所以這或許可以回答綜效的問題。

Yes. And just to follow it, MatCo will have about $130 million extra in synergies. Ag will have about $70 million in extra synergies. The bulk of the increased synergies, and we've kind of highlighted this before that we've been working on hard, is in the procurement area. So that will start kicking in kind of depending on the division. But kind of by midyear '19, those extra synergies will be kicking in as it flows through our production facilities.

是的。此外，MatCo還將獲得約1.3億美元的綜效。Ag公司將獲得約7000萬美元的額外綜效。大部分增強的綜效（我們之前也強調過，我們一直在努力實現這一點）都體現在採購領域。所以，具體生效時間將取決於分區情況。但到 2019 年年中，隨著產品流經我們的生產設施，這些額外的綜效將會開始發揮作用。

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

接下來，我們將連線 BMO 資本市場的 John McNulty。

I think in the remarks, you had indicated, I think it was, a $650 million raw material headwind that you were dealing with. I guess, can you give us some color as to where you're catching up on that and where you feel like there's still more to go? I guess especially in the specialty business, but even on the materials segment would be helpful.

我認為你在演講中已經提到，你正在應對價值 6.5 億美元的原材料成本上漲的不利影響。我想，您能否透露一下您在哪些方面取得了進展，以及您認為在哪些方面還需要努力？我想這在特種材料產業尤其重要，但即使在材料領域也會有所幫助。

Yes. Let me give you an overall comment, though, and Marc and Jim can comment on those -- the 2 divisions you mentioned. I think, look, one of the highlights in the quarter was, across the whole platform, we had a 5% price increase. So we saw raw materials going up, and our teams reacted very, very quickly. And with the products we have, we were able to get price out of it. So to capture that kind of price across the platform, I think, really demonstrates the strength of the portfolio. So we were able to take that $600 million and really cover it and have great leverage to the bottom line. I mean, look, our leverage to the bottom line with 35% EPS growth was very significant despite that fact. And a lot of that was due to the price actions that we took. Jim, do you want to comment specifically on MatCo though?

是的。不過，我先給予整體評價，至於你提到的那兩個部門，Marc 和 Jim 可以發表意見。我認為，本季的一大亮點是，整個平台的價格上漲了 5%。所以我們看到原物料價格上漲，我們的團隊迅速做出了反應。憑藉我們現有的產品，我們能夠獲得價格優勢。因此，我認為，能夠在平台上獲得這樣的價格，真正體現了投資組合的實力。因此，我們能夠利用這 6 億美元來彌補損失，並對最終利潤產生巨大的影響。我的意思是，你看，儘管如此，我們透過 35% 的每股盈餘成長對利潤的影響仍然非常顯著。而這很大程度上要歸功於我們採取的價格策略。吉姆，你有沒有特別想談談MatCo這件事？

John, out of the $600-and-some-odd million, $400 million of that approximately was in materials company. It's both hydrocarbons and energy, but there's some non-hydrocarbons cost, too, just other raw materials that we purchase. As I mentioned, $230 million of that was in plastics, so you can see the rest of it, and largely in Performance Materials, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure. Some of what happened in the quarter was you had a big spike at the end of the quarter in ethane. And as we know, that was very short lived, and that's come back down to kind of the $0.35, $0.40 range. And I think, as we go forward, you'll probably see ethane in that $0.40 range for that quarter. Natural gas has come back off quite a bit. So natural gas, there's plenty of gas in the United States at below $3.50 and plenty of gas at $3 a million BTU. So that to me means we're going to have good gas, good ethane, good propane positions, and that's our key feedstock exposure. So I think, in the quarter, as we saw the stock prices decline, there were some overreaction to what people were anticipating with some of those feedstock costs. And look, that's why we invest, to be able to navigate through that with feedstock flex.

約翰，在6億多美元中，大約有4億美元投資於一家材料公司。它既包含碳氫化合物，也包含能源，但其中也包含一些非碳氫化合物成本，也就是我們購買的其他原料。正如我所提到的，其中 2.3 億美元用於塑料，所以你可以看到其餘部分，而且大部分用於高性能材料、工業中間體和基礎設施。本季發生的一些事情是，季度末乙烷價格出現了大幅飆升。我們知道，這種情況持續時間很短，價格又回落到 0.35 美元到 0.40 美元左右。而且我認為，隨著時間的推移，該季度乙烷價格可能會維持在 0.40 美元左右。天然氣價格已經大幅回落。所以，天然氣在美國供應充足，價格低於每百萬英熱單位 3.50 美元，價格為每百萬英熱單位 3 美元。所以對我來說，這意味著我們將擁有良好的天然氣、良好的乙烷和良好的丙烷供應，而這正是我們關鍵的原料供應來源。所以我認為，在本季度，隨著股價下跌，人們對某些原料成本的預期出現了一些過度反應。所以，這就是我們投資的原因，為了能夠靈活應對原料短缺的問題。

Marc, comment on...

馬克，請評論…

Yes. Let me just add on the spec side. We had a little over $100 million in headwinds on raw materials, and it was distributed through the segments. The largest piece was in our Transportation & Advanced Polymers segment. And there, you can think commodity chemicals for monomers, for our polymer production. And we more than offset it at the division level with pricing, so we felt pretty good about how we performed during the quarter.

是的。我再補充一點規格方面的內容。我們在原材料方面面臨超過 1 億美元的不利影響，這筆費用分散到了各個業務部門。最大的一筆支出來自我們的交通運輸和先進聚合物業務板塊。在那裡，你可以想到用於我們聚合物生產的單體大宗化學品。我們在部門層級透過定價彌補了這一損失，因此我們對本季的業績感到相當滿意。

And 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。

I got a question for Jim Collins. Just wanted to know how you're doing on trying to recapture some of that divested insecticide business. And then I'm sure you saw EPA bless the dicamba tolerance technology last night. If you can ever get Chinese import approval on your Enlist technology, do you think that market is going to be too penetrated to enter into with a new technology?

我有個問題想問吉姆‧柯林斯。我只是想知道您在重新奪回部分剝離的殺蟲劑業務方面進展如何。然後，我確信你昨晚也看到了美國環保署對麥草畏耐受技術表示認可。如果你的 Enlist 技術最終能夠獲得中國進口許可，你認為中國市場競爭過於激烈，以至於新技術難以進入嗎？

Thanks, Steve. So globally, we've been working with our really strong insecticide portfolio, as you know, headlined by our Spinosad and spinetoram products, and we've been working on debottlenecking manufacturing processes. So we have the volumes to be aggressive. And overall, that's working quite well. And we talked about our insecticide volumes through the first half were up dramatically, and we continue to see that same trend for the second half of the year. So I feel really good about that. The other area we're focused on, remedy recovery, is certainly in our seed business in Latin America. And I feel really good about the way that team is executing. We saw a nice early start to the season. And the additional launches of our new seed brands like Brevant are giving us greater opportunity there. So overall, in really great shape. In terms of the dicamba piece, yes, the main news there was obviously the shortening of the window days after planning application window. And we're still excited about the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend technology, and we still feel like it's very useful. That said, with Enlist in soybeans, we think we will benefit from maybe a better advantage in terms of application flexibility. And we already know that in cotton. Today, we have a strong advantage with Enlist and the flexibility the growers have around application windows.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。因此，在全球範圍內，我們一直在利用我們非常強大的殺蟲劑產品組合，正如您所知，其中最引人注目的是我們的多殺菌素和多殺菌素產品，我們一直在努力消除生產流程中的瓶頸。所以我們有足夠的交易量來採取正面的策略。總的來說，效果相當不錯。我們談到，上半年我們的殺蟲劑銷售量大幅成長，而且下半年我們繼續看到同樣的趨勢。所以我對此感覺非常好。我們關注的另一個領域是補救措施的恢復，這當然也體現在我們拉丁美洲的種子業務中。我對團隊的執行方式感到非常滿意。賽季伊始，我們看到了一個不錯的開局。而我們新推出的種子品牌，例如 Brevant，也為我們帶來了更大的機會。總的來說，狀態非常好。關於麥草畏，是的，主要新聞顯然是縮短了規劃申請窗口期後的窗口天數。我們仍然對 Roundup Ready 2 Xtend 技術感到興奮，並且仍然覺得它非常有用。也就是說，在大豆中使用 Enlist，我們認為在應用靈活性方面可能會獲得更大的優勢。我們已經知道棉花也有這種情況。如今，我們憑藉 Enlist 擁有強大的優勢，種植者在應用時間方面也擁有很大的靈活性。

And we'll move on to Jonas Oxgaard with Bernstein.

接下來，我們將討論喬納斯·奧克斯加德和伯恩斯坦。

A 2-part question, if you don't mind. Ed, you previously said that you were going to stay actively involved with all 3 companies. We saw the announcement on the boards today, and you're not on the Dow board. So first part is, how are you planning to be involved with Dow after this spin? And the follow-up question is also on the Dow board. There were a couple of board members who are very close to the mandatory retirement age. How should I think about that going forward? Is that mandatory retirement age going to change? Or are they just going to be basically interim members?

如果可以的話，我想問一個兩部分的問題。艾德，你之前說過你會繼續積極參與這三家公司的營運。我們今天在公告欄上看到了相關公告，而你不在道瓊斯指數的董事會成員之列。首先，您打算在這次分拆之後如何繼續參與陶氏化學的運作？後續問題也在道瓊指數板塊。董事會中有幾位成員的年齡已經非常接近強制退休年齡。我接下來該如何看待這件事？強制退休年齡會改變嗎？還是他們只是臨時成員？

So I think, by the way, all 3 of the boards will have additional turnover here in the next year or 2 because of the -- part of it, because of the age limit you just mentioned. So we're well aware that each of the 3 divisions is actually continuing to talk to other people about joining the board. I wouldn't doubt, by the way, that you'll see another announcement from -- or 2 or 3 from us still to add. If you kind of add up the list of what we announced today, you can see we're maybe 1 or 2 short on each of the boards potentially from where we want to be, including turnover because of the age, as you mentioned, that we'll be having over the next year or so. So we're clearly talking to a group of people still. I'm pretty excited about some of the people we're talking to and the skill sets that they have. So we're not 100% complete there, and yes, there'll be additional turnover that we're working on. As far as my involvement, I am -- as you can see from today's announcement, I'm going to be on the Corteva board, Executive Chair of DuPont. And I think my comment back when I made it was I'm going to stay actively involved to help these companies out. So I think that's the best area for me to be involved. And the Executive Chair role will be a full-time role, so it's -- I'm going to be very, very busy doing that. By the way, I feel very good about the Dow board and the additions that we made. I think they're awesome additions to the business. And I also feel very, very good about where the Dow board is and the management team is headed with the business. I think the focus around capital spending, on their D&A levels -- and by the way, they're going to crush it this year on that. They're going to be $500 million, $550 million below, if no big greenfields come. I think the way Jim Fitterling and the team are managing the business is just very, very different as we move forward here over the next few years. And I think you're going to see great returns out of that business, and I think you're going to see great returns out of the other 2 businesses the way we're managing them. So I'm pretty excited about the future for all 3.

所以我覺得，順便說一句，由於你剛才提到的年齡限制，這三個董事會在未來一兩年內都會有額外的更迭。所以我們很清楚，這三個部門其實都在繼續與其他人士洽談加入董事會的事宜。順便說一句，我毫不懷疑你們還會看到我們發布另一份公告——或者兩三份公告。如果你把我們今天宣布的內容加起來，你會發現，考慮到你提到的，由於人員年齡增長，我們未來一年左右可能會面臨人員更替，因此我們每個董事會可能都還差 1 到 2 名成員才能達到我們想要的目標。所以很明顯，我們還是在跟一群人對話。我非常興奮能與一些我們正在洽談的人合作，並了解他們所擁有的技能。所以，我們還沒有 100% 完成這項工作，是的，我們還會進行一些其他的人員更換工作。至於我的參與，正如你們從今天的公告中看到的那樣，我將加入 Corteva 董事會，擔任杜邦公司的執行主席。我記得當時我的表態是，我會繼續積極參與，幫助這些公司。所以我認為這是我最適合參與的領域。而且執行主席一職是全職的，所以──我將會非常非常忙。順便說一句，我對道瓊斯指數的調整以及我們所做的調整感到非常滿意。我認為他們是公司非常棒的補充。而且，我對道瓊斯董事會的現狀以及管理團隊帶領公司走向的方向也感到非常非常滿意。我認為重點在於資本支出，以及他們的折舊和攤銷水平——順便說一句，他們今年在這方面將會取得巨大成功。如果沒有大型新建項目，它們的價值將比預期低 5 億美元到 5.5 億美元。我認為，在接下來的幾年裡，吉姆·菲特林和他的團隊經營公司的方式將會非常非常不同。我認為這項業務會為你帶來豐厚的回報，而且我認為，按照我們目前的管理方式，另外兩項業務也會為你帶來豐厚的回報。所以我對他們三個的未來都感到非常興奮。

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 some of the commentary on materials co. Jim, you mentioned that you'll stay in that $0.40 range or so on ethane. You also mentioned that isocyanates and MDI could improve by mid next year. Maybe you can just give us a little bit more detail on both of those and also your outlook on polyethylene given some of the recent nominations and also the pullback in ethane.

只是想回顧一下之前關於材料公司的一些評論。吉姆，你提到乙烷價格會維持在每盎司 0.40 美元左右。您還提到異氰酸酯和MDI的情況可能會在明年年中得到改善。或許您可以更詳細地介紹這兩方面，以及鑑於最近的一些提名和乙烷價格的回落，您對聚乙烯的看法。

Yes. Sure, Arun. On isocyanates, mMDI is tight. pMDI is a little more well supplied right now. But at these growth rates, it's going to tighten up by mid-'19. And what you had in the first half of the year with the big spike in pMDI pricing and mMDI pricing was because you had some unplanned outages that were in the marketplace as well. And so those are not easy technologies to run, so sometimes things happen to tighten those markets up. TDI is in a similar situation to pMDI. The other thing I would say is the growth in the business is really heavily shifting towards systems. So if you look at systems, and this is where the isocyanates get consumed, you're talking about double-digit growth rates. Whether it's systems going into automotive applications, insulation applications, energy efficiency, food value chain, food storage, comfort and to new materials, they're all good demand growth. So I think you're in a very short, shallow adjustment period here to new capacity, which some of it includes the Sadara capacity that we brought on. Polyethylene, the -- as I said relative to the IHS estimates, we ended up in a much better place in third quarter. There are some predictions out there that everything's going to collapse. I'm not sure that I believe that. We've seen that inventories are relatively under control. They're actually down at the end of third quarter slightly. So inventories are 42 day. And that's basically what you need to run the supply chain. So there's no massive issues there. Operating rates on polyethylene are tight. The new polyethylene capacity is coming on. That will tighten up ethylene a bit. We needed ethylene to tighten up a bit, and I think you'll see that start to happen. And most of that ethylene link has been in the U.S. So I think there's some concerns that people have about China and China demand. But as Ed said, DowDuPont was up 18% in China this quarter. Materials was actually up 20%. So we're still moving a lot of material into China, and the demand is good. So I think some of the pessimism is a little bit overblown.

是的。當然可以，阿倫。mMDI 與異氰酸酯結合緊密。目前 pMDI 的供應稍微充足一些。但照此成長速度，到 2019 年中，市場將會趨於緊張。今年上半年 pMDI 和 mMDI 價格大幅上漲，是因為市場上出現了一些計劃外的停產。因此，這些技術並不容易運行，所以有時會發生一些事情導致這些市場趨緊。TDI 的情況與 pMDI 類似。我想說的另一點是，業務成長正在大力轉向系統領域。所以，如果你觀察這些系統，你會發現異氰酸酯就是在這裡被消耗的，而這指的是兩位數的成長率。無論是應用於汽車、隔熱、能源效率、食品價值鏈、食品儲存、舒適性或新材料的系統，所有這些都帶來了良好的需求成長。所以我認為你們目前正處於一個非常短暫、程度較淺的適應新產能的時期，其中一部分產能包括我們引進的 Sadara 產能。正如我之前所說，相對於 IHS 的估計，聚乙烯在第三季的情況要好得多。坊間有一些預測說一切都會崩潰。我不太相信這一點。我們看到庫存相對處於可控範圍內。實際上，他們在第三節末段略微落後。所以庫存週期為 42 天。這就是營運供應鏈所需的基本要素。所以這方面沒有什麼大問題。聚乙烯的生產效率很低。新的聚乙烯產能即將投產。這樣可以稍微減少乙烯的逸出。我們需要乙烯來加強密封性，我想你會看到這種情況開始發生。而且大部分乙烯供應都在美國。所以我認為人們對中國和中國的需求有一些擔憂。但正如艾德所說，陶氏杜邦本季在中國的股價上漲了18%。材料價格實際上上漲了 20%。所以我們仍然向中國出口大量貨物，而且需求良好。所以我認為某些悲觀情緒有些誇大其詞。

And John Roberts with UBS will have our next question.

接下來，瑞銀集團的約翰羅伯茲將提出我們的下一個問題。

The industrial intermediates volume growth of 14% include a significant benefit from distribution for Sadara. But you didn't mention any Sadara equity income there, like you did over in the plastics segment. So is all of the Sadara equity income being booked in plastics even though the Sadara distribution sales are spread across the segments?

工業中間體產量成長 14%，其中 Sadara 的分銷業務帶來了顯著收益。但你沒有像在塑膠板塊那樣提到任何來自 Sadara 的股權收益。那麼，即使 Sadara 的分銷銷售額分散在各個業務板塊，Sadara 的所有股權收入是否都計入了塑膠業務？

Yes, John. This is Jim. Sadara was positive in plastics this quarter. It was slightly negative in the Polyurethanes space. It was good in industrial Intermediates. It was slightly negative in the Polyurethanes space mainly because we had a isocyanates unit that was down in the quarter, and we did that because we are making some mechanical adjustments to get ready for the lenders reliability test which is underway right now. So that was planned, and that was just something that we needed to get done so we had a good shot to pass this test. Otherwise, I think you'll see good rates through the fourth quarter, and you'll see some improvement there.

是的，約翰。這是吉姆。Sadara本季塑膠業務表現良好。聚氨酯領域略有下滑。它在工業中間體領域表現出色。聚氨酯業務略有下滑，主要是因為我們的異氰酸酯裝置在本季度有所下降，這是因為我們正在進行一些機械調整，為目前正在進行的貸款機構可靠性測試做準備。所以這是計劃好的，也是我們必須完成的事情，這樣我們才有更大的機會通過這次考試。否則，我認為第四季利率會比較理想，而且會有一些改善。

And moving on, we'll hear from Frank Mitsch with Fermium Research.

接下來，我們將聽聽來自 Fermium Research 的 Frank Mitsch 的演講。

Jim, just to follow up on integrated polyethylene margins and your comment before that you exceeded the IHS margin forecast in Q3. And in your supplemental slide, you talked about the U.S. and European integrated polyethylene margins down greater than 50%. Obviously, it sounds like you don't believe that. Can you kind of ballpark where you think that might settle out? And actually, more importantly, what is your expectation as we head into 2019 for the integrated polyethylene margins?

吉姆，關於聚乙烯綜合利潤率，以及你之前提到的第三季利潤率超過 IHS 預測的情況，我想跟進一下。在您的補充幻燈片中，您提到美國和歐洲的聚乙烯綜合利潤率下降了 50% 以上。顯然，聽起來你並不相信這一點。你大概可以估計一下最終結果會是什麼樣子嗎？更重要的是，展望 2019 年，您對聚乙烯綜合利潤率有何預期？

Welcome back, Frank. I think a couple of things factor in here. One of them is mix. One of the reasons we did better than the IHS forecast was product mix. I think the IHS forecast kind of attributes quite a bit of our mix to commodity materials. And so they don't account for things like double-digit growth in Elastomers and how much Elastomers mix we've got and the investments that we made in both Sadara and in the Gulf Coast to grow the Elastomers business. So we're continuing to shift mix as we make those investments and that helps. Feedstock advantage helped in the quarter because we are able to use flex in the quarter in Europe, and that's an advantage to us. So you can see that clearly in the pure comparisons. And then geographic mix, we're obviously growing share in Asia. We're growing share in Africa. We're growing share in India, Middle East. So those are all helpful to us. We've got synergies, so synergies are going to continue to accrue into next year. Our volume growth and the margin on that volume is offsetting, obviously, some of the compression that you've got across the rest of the base. And we're continuing to keep the focus on making sure that we're getting the right nominations out there on the pricing. So I think we ended up probably half the delta of the IHS. What they anticipate that the margin compression was going to be in the third quarter, that might be a good barometer on how you look going forward. I think we'll tighten up. Obviously, what's happened with ethylene is you've got ethylene and PE kind of out of balance with each other. They're both running at high rates. They're in the 90% to 95% operating rates. So I think what you'll see is a couple of polyethylene units come up. That's how we'll tighten things up across the board. And through the early part of next year, it would be kind of a short and shallow compression here and then we'll come out of it.

歡迎回來，弗蘭克。我認為這裡面有兩個因素要考慮。其中之一是混合。我們績效優於 IHS 預測的原因之一是產品組合。我認為 IHS 的預測將我們產品組合中的很大一部分歸因於大宗商品材料。因此，他們沒有考慮到彈性體業務兩位數的成長，也沒有考慮到我們擁有的彈性體混合物的規模，以及我們在薩達拉和墨西哥灣沿岸為發展彈性體業務而進行的投資。因此，隨著我們進行這些投資，我們也不斷調整產品組合，這會有所幫助。原料優勢在本季度發揮了作用，因為我們能夠在歐洲靈活使用原料，這對我們來說是一個優勢。所以，從純粹的比較中可以清楚看出這一點。從地域組成來看，我們在亞洲的市佔率顯然正在成長。我們在非洲的市佔率正在成長。我們在印度和中東的市場份額正在成長。這些對我們都很有幫助。我們之間已經產生了協同效應，所以這種協同效應將會持續到明年。我們的銷售成長以及由此帶來的利潤率，顯然抵消了其他部分銷售受到的一些壓縮。我們將繼續專注於確保我們能夠提出正確的定價方案。所以我覺得我們最終的增量大概只有IHS的一半。他們預計第三季利潤率將出現多大程度的壓縮，這或許可以很好地反映你未來的發展趨勢。我認為我們會加強管控。顯然，乙烯方面出現的情況是乙烯和聚乙烯之間的比例失衡了。它們都以很高的速度運行。它們的運作率在 90% 到 95% 之間。所以我認為你會看到幾個聚乙烯裝置出現。這就是我們將如何全面收緊各項措施的方式。明年年初，這裡將經歷一段短暫而輕微的壓縮期，然後我們就會走出困境。

Thanks, Jim, and thanks, everyone, for joining us for the DowDuPont call. We appreciate your interest in the company. For your reference, a copy of our transcript will be posted on DowDuPont's Investor Relations website later today.

謝謝吉姆，也謝謝大家參加陶氏杜邦電話會議。感謝您對本公司的關注。供您參考，我們的會議記錄副本將於今天晚些時候發佈在陶氏杜邦投資者關係網站上。

I'd also like to remind you that our Investor Days will be held next week, on the afternoon of November 7 and all day on the 8th. These events will be video webcast, and all materials will be made available on the new DowDuPont Investor Relations website.

我還想提醒各位，我們的投資者日活動將於下週舉行，具體時間為11月7日下午和8日全天。這些活動將進行視訊直播，所有資料都將在新的陶氏杜邦投資者關係網站上提供。

And with that, we conclude our call.

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。