伊士曼化學 (EMN) 2017 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Eastman Chemical Company First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. This call is being broadcast live on the Eastman's website, www.eastman.com. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Greg Riddle from Eastman Chemical Company, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

大家好，歡迎參加伊士曼化學公司 2017 年第一季財報電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。這場電話會議正在伊士曼網站 www.eastman.com 上現場直播。現在我將電話轉給伊士曼化學公司投資者關係部門的 Greg Riddle 先生。先生，請繼續。

All right. Thanks, Ron, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On the call with me today are Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO; Curt Espeland, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Louis Reavis, Manager, Investor Relations.

好的。謝謝，羅恩，大家早安，謝謝你們加入我們。今天與我一起參加電話會議的有董事會主席兼首席執行官馬克·科斯塔 (Mark Costa)、執行副總裁兼首席財務官科特·埃斯佩蘭 (Curt Espeland) 和投資者關係經理路易斯·裡維斯 (Louis Reavis)。

Before we begin, I'll cover 2 items. First, during this presentation, you will hear certain forward-looking statements concerning our plans and expectations. Actual events or results could differ materially. Certain factors related to future expectations are or will be detailed in the company's first quarter 2017 financial results news release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K filed for 2016 and the Form 10-Q to be filed for first quarter 2017.

在我們開始之前，我將介紹兩件事。首先，在本次演示中，您將聽到有關我們的計劃和期望的一些前瞻性陳述。實際事件或結果可能有重大差異。與未來預期相關的某些因素已在或將在公司 2017 年第一季財務業績新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳細說明，包括 2016 年提交的 10-K 表格和 2017 年第一季提交的 10-Q 表格。

Second, earnings per share and operating earnings referenced in this presentation exclude the effect of noncore items. In addition, the adjusted first quarter 2017 earnings per share is calculated with an adjusted tax rate that is forecasted for the full year. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures, including a description of the adjusted items, are available in the first quarter 2017 financial results news release, which can be found on our website, www.eastman.com in the Investors section. Projection of future earnings also exclude any noncore unusual nonrecurring items and assume that the adjusted tax rate for first quarter 2017 will be the actual tax rate for the projected periods.

其次，本報告中提到的每股盈餘和營業收益不包括非核心項目的影響。此外，2017 年第一季調整後的每股盈餘是按照預測全年的調整後稅率計算的。與最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標及其他相關揭露（包括調整後項目的描述）的對帳可在 2017 年第一季財務業績新聞稿中找到，該新聞稿可在我們的網站 www.eastman.com 的「投資者」部分找到。未來收益預測還不包括任何非核心不尋常的非經常性項目，並假設 2017 年第一季的調整後稅率將是預測期間的實際稅率。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

說完這些，我會把電話轉給馬克。

Good day, everyone. I'll start on Slide 3. We're off to a great start to the year with first quarter results that were consistent with our expectations. Our results demonstrate the strength of our specialty portfolio with strong volume growth in Advanced Materials and Additives & Functional Products.

大家好。我將從幻燈片 3 開始。今年我們有一個好的開端，第一季的業績符合我們的預期。我們的業績證明了我們的專業產品組合的實力，先進材料和添加劑及功能產品的銷售成長強勁。

We continue to upgrade the quality of our product mix by growing high-margin specialty product lines through innovation and market development, a key component of our winning strategy to transform towards a specialty portfolio. As I said before, we're creating our own growth, through innovation, leadership and specialty markets. We're seeing excellent progress in converting our top innovation programs into commercial orders across AM and AFP and are on track to exceed our business close target of $200 million. In a few moments, I'll share examples of just a few of the ways we're winning with customers through innovation.

我們透過創新和市場開發增加高利潤的專業產品線，不斷提升產品組合的質量，這是我們向專業產品組合轉型的致勝策略的關鍵組成部分。正如我之前所說，我們正在透過創新、領導力和專業市場創造自己的成長。我們在將我們的頂級創新項目轉化為 AM 和 AFP 的商業訂單方面取得了巨大進展，並且有望超越我們 2 億美元的業務成交目標。稍後我將分享一些我們透過創新贏得客戶青睞的方法。

Moving next to the cost management front. We remain well on track with our corporate cost-reduction efforts without sacrificing our long-term growth initiatives. Our cash flow in the quarter was consistent with our expectations, and we remain on track to deliver approximately $1 billion of free cash flow in 2017, enabling an increasing dividend, continued deleveraging and accelerating the rate of our share repurchases.

接下來轉向成本管理方面。我們在降低企業成本方面仍進展順利，同時又不犧牲我們的長期成長計畫。本季我們的現金流與預期一致，我們仍有望在 2017 年實現約 10 億美元的自由現金流，從而實現股息增加、繼續去槓桿和加快股票回購速度。

Beyond these great results, we've also been the recipient of numerous awards over the past several months, which highlight many of the qualities our stakeholders have come to expect from Eastman. We were named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the fourth consecutive year by Ethisphere for outstanding corporate ethics and corporate responsibility, characteristics highly valued by our employees, our shareholders, our communities and our customers. We also earned the 2017 Military Friendly Employer designation by Victory Media, which recognizes exceptional hiring programs for transitioning service members, veterans and spouses. Finally, we were recognized by the EPA as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, becoming the only chemical company to -- that received this recognition consecutively for 6 years, a win for both the environment and our cost structure.

除了這些出色的成績之外，過去幾個月我們還獲得了無數獎項，這些獎項彰顯了我們的利害關係人對伊士曼的許多期望。我們連續四年被道德村協會評為全球最具商業道德的公司之一，因為我們卓越的企業道德和企業責任，這些特質受到了我們的員工、股東、社區和客戶的高度重視。我們還獲得了勝利媒體頒發的 2017 年度軍事友好雇主稱號，該稱號旨在表彰我們為退伍軍人、退伍軍人和配偶提供的卓越招募計劃。最後，我們被美國環保署評為年度能源之星合作夥伴，成為唯一一家連續六年獲得此認可的化學公司，這對環境和我們的成本結構來說都是一個勝利。

Our first quarter results and the continued recognition we're receiving are a direct result of the great work being done by Eastman employees around the world, and I want to thank them for their outstanding contributions. These results also demonstrate that we can execute on the things we can control, from cost reductions to returning cash to our stockholders to innovating throughout our enterprise.

我們第一季的業績和持續獲得的認可直接歸功於全球伊士曼員工的出色工作，我要感謝他們所做的傑出貢獻。這些結果也表明，我們可以執行我們能夠控制的事情，從降低成本到向股東返還現金，再到整個企業的創新。

Moving on to Slide 4. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of our Tritan copolyester, which has been a tremendous success over the past decade and continues to have significant growth potential moving forward. Hundreds of Eastman team members were integral to the success of Tritan, and we are honored by the American Chemistry Society with the Heroes of Chemistry Award. You can see on the slide the spectrum of brands in the -- in consumer medical products that use Tritan, which is now established as the material of choice in the markets we serve.

繼續看投影片 4。今年是我們推出 Tritan 共聚酯的 10 週年，該產品在過去十年中取得了巨大的成功，並且在未來繼續具有巨大的成長潛力。數百名伊士曼團隊成員為 Tritan 的成功做出了重要貢獻，我們榮獲美國化學學會頒發的「化學英雄獎」。您可以在幻燈片上看到使用 Tritan 的消費醫療產品品牌範圍，Tritan 現在已成為我們服務的市場中的首選材料。

Tritan is currently used by hundreds of brand names globally, and there are over 25,000 products sold on Amazon today with Tritan in them. Since Tritan debuted in 2007, it has grown to what is approaching $300 million of annual revenue, the fastest adoption of any polymer in this space.

Tritan 目前被全球數百個品牌使用，目前亞馬遜上銷售的含有 Tritan 的產品超過 25,000 種。自 2007 年 Tritan 首次亮相以來，年收入已成長至近 3 億美元，是該領域採用速度最快的聚合物。

Even with the tremendous success to date, we still have only penetrated a small portion of the total addressable market, particularly as we're still early in the adoption in Europe and Asia. And we're just introducing a broader range of products and seeing convincing early growth in new markets, such as medical. To support this growth, we are currently in the process of almost doubling our Tritan capacity in Kingsport. Tritan is indicative of the innovation and market development capabilities that Eastman has established over many years, and we expect Tritan will be an important contributor to our growth and success going forward.

儘管迄今為止取得了巨大的成功，但我們仍然只佔據了整個目標市場的一小部分，特別是因為我們在歐洲和亞洲的應用仍處於早期階段。我們正在推出更廣泛的產品，並在醫療等新市場看到了令人信服的早期成長。為了支持這一成長，我們目前正在將金斯波特的 Tritan 產能提高近一倍。Tritan 體現了伊士曼多年來建立的創新和市場開發能力，我們預計 Tritan 將成為我們未來成長和成功的重要貢獻者。

On Slide 5, we continue to upgrade the quality of our product mix by increasing revenue, of high-margin specialty products through innovation and market development. These initiatives are accelerating as more customers validate our innovative differentiated products, which is driving growth today and into the future.

在投影片 5 上，我們透過創新和市場開發來增加高利潤特色產品的收入，從而持續提升產品組合的品質。隨著越來越多的客戶認可我們創新的差異化產品，這些舉措正在加速推進，這將推動我們當前和未來的成長。

One innovation success is within our team protection film's platform in the Advanced Materials segment. As we leverage the emerging middle income class trend, we are seeing a growing demand for materials that meet consumers' needs for protecting their cars from damage caused by rock, salt, insects and other road debris. Eastman is a global leader in paint protection films that deliver high gloss, virtually invisible shield with self-healing properties that consumers love. We've recently launched our latest generation of paint protection film and have seen an overwhelming positive response from the market. This is a great example of synergy from the Commonwealth acquisition, combining leading-edge paint protection technology with our strong market connect and application development capability. Our paint protection film is on track to deliver over 20% revenue growth this year with margins above the corporate average.

我們團隊在先進材料領域的保護膜平台中取得了一項創新成功。隨著我們利用新興的中產階級趨勢，我們看到對滿足消費者保護汽車免受岩石、鹽、昆蟲和其他道路碎片造成的損害的需求的材料的需求不斷增長。伊士曼是漆面保護膜領域的全球領導者，其生產的漆面保護膜具有高光澤、幾乎看不見的保護膜和自修復特性，深受消費者喜愛。我們最近推出了最新一代的漆面保護膜，並獲得了市場的熱烈反應。這是收購 Commonwealth 後協同效應的一個很好的例子，將尖端的油漆保護技術與我們強大的市場聯繫和應用開發能力結合在一起。我們的漆面保護膜今年的營收預計將成長 20% 以上，利潤率高於企業平均。

Another innovation success is the commercial launch of our Enhanz feed additive in the Additives & Functional Products segment. As poultry farms move away from the use of antibiotics, there's a growing need to optimize food to feed conversion yield. Eastman Enhanz feed additive reduces feed cost while improving feed utilization efficiency. We realized double-digit volume growth in the first quarter and expect strong volume growth on a full year basis. I'm excited to see the latest innovation in our animal nutrition portfolio come to market. This success also shows how our growth portfolio has broadened through our Taminco acquisition.

另一項創新成功是我們在添加劑和功能產品領域商業化推出 Enhanz 飼料添加劑。隨著家禽養殖場逐漸不再使用抗生素，優化食物與飼料的轉換產量的需求日益增長。Eastman Enhanz飼料添加劑降低了飼料成本，同時也提高了飼料利用效率。我們在第一季實現了兩位數的銷售成長，並預計全年銷售將強勁成長。我很高興看到我們動物營養產品組合中的最新創新進入市場。這一成功也表明，透過收購 Taminco，我們的成長組合得到了擴大。

Next, I'll provide an update regarding our next-generation Crystex initiatives. This new technology improves our cost position by better than 20% while also creating a new product slate with improved performance attributes. Performance benefits of this new technology help our customers maximize the productivity of their operations, enabling us to leap ahead of our competition. We've now validated the value proposition of our next-generation Crystex through multiple customer engagements. This success supports our investment in Kuantan, Malaysia, where work continues to deploy this technology and build the world's largest and lowest-cost insoluble sulfur facility in the world.

接下來，我將提供有關我們下一代 Crystex 計劃的最新消息。這項新技術使我們的成本優勢提高了 20% 以上，同時也創造了具有更高性能的新產品。這項新技術的性能優勢可幫助我們的客戶最大限度地提高營運效率，使我們能夠在競爭中保持領先地位。我們現在已經透過多次客戶接觸驗證了下一代 Crystex 的價值主張。這項成功支持了我們在馬來西亞關丹的投資，在那裡我們將繼續部署這項技術，並建造世界上最大、成本最低的不溶性硫磺設施。

We committed to innovation and market development, adding 1% to 2% on a compounded basis to drive corporate revenue growth. We met that commitment last year. And you can see with these examples, we are on track to exceed that commitment in 2017.

我們致力於創新和市場拓展，以1%至2%的複合成長率推動企業營收成長。我們去年履行了這項承諾。透過這些例子您可以看到，我們預計在 2017 年超額完成這項承諾。

With that, I'll turn it over to Curt.

說完這些，我會把話題交給 Curt。

Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with our first quarter corporate results on Slide 6. Sales revenue grew as increases in Additives & Functional Products, Advanced Materials and Chemical Intermediates more than offset a decline in Fibers. We did a nice job of driving volume growth in our more specialty product lines. If you excluded, for example, Fibers, our volume growth was over 6% for the quarter. And we were able to raise prices in our Chemical Intermediates segment to offset higher raw material and energy costs.

謝謝，馬克，大家早安。我將從幻燈片 6 上的我們第一季的公司業績開始。由於添加劑和功能產品、先進材料和化學中間體的增長超過了纖維的下降，銷售收入有所增長。我們在推動更專業產品線的銷售成長方面做得很好。例如，如果不包括纖維，我們本季的銷售成長率將超過 6%。我們能夠提高化學中間體部門的價格，以抵消更高的原料和能源成本。

For the company, selling prices for the quarter were flat year-over-year and sequentially increased over 1%. Operating earnings declined slightly as strong performance in Advanced Materials and Chemical Intermediates was more than offset by a decline in Fibers. Overall, earnings per share increased year-over-year by 7%, reflecting solid operating earnings and the benefit of other actions taken to deliver growth. These positive results reflect our continued focus on controlling the things we can control and taking actions to deliver earnings per share growth in what remains an uncertain global business environment.

對於該公司而言，本季的銷售價格與去年同期持平，且較上季上漲超過 1%。由於先進材料和化學中間體的強勁表現被纖維業務的下滑所抵消，營業收益略有下降。總體而言，每股收益年增 7%，反映了穩健的營業收益和為實現成長而採取的其他行動帶來的好處。這些積極的結果反映了我們繼續專注於控制我們能夠控制的事情，並在仍然不確定的全球商業環境中採取行動實現每股收益成長。

Moving next to the segment results and starting with Advanced Materials on Slide 7, which delivered another impressive quarter driven by our innovation platforms. Sales revenue increased due to strong sales volume growth and improved product mix of premium products, including double-digit volume gains in Eastman Tritan copolyester and Saflex acoustic interlayers. Earnings increased primarily due to strong sales volume growth, improved product mix of premium products, and fixed cost leverage partially offset by higher raw material and energy costs and slightly lower selling prices. The operating margin in the quarter increased more than 70 basis points year-over-year to 19%, demonstrating the strength of this business in an environment of increasing raw materials and unfavorable currency. Overall, outstanding first quarter results, which continues Advanced Materials' track record of success. Looking at the full year, we continue to expect strong results for Advanced Materials as we make further progress on our strategy for this business of driving volume growth, mix improvement and fixed cost leverage.

接下來是分部業績，從幻燈片 7 上的先進材料開始，在我們的創新平台的推動下，該部門又取得了令人印象深刻的季度業績。銷售收入的成長得益於銷售量的強勁成長和優質產品組合的改善，其中包括 Eastman Tritan 共聚酯和 Saflex 聲學夾層的兩位數銷售成長。獲利成長主要由於銷售量強勁成長、高端產品組合改善、固定成本槓桿，但原材料和能源成本上升以及銷售價格略有下降部分抵消了這些影響。本季營業利潤率年增超過 70 個基點，達到 19%，彰顯了該業務在原材料上漲和貨幣不利的環境下的強勁表現。總體而言，第一季的業績表現出色，延續了先進材料的成功記錄。放眼全年，我們繼續期待先進材料業務取得強勁業績，因為我們在推動銷售成長、產品組合改善和固定成本槓桿方面的策略上取得了進一步進展。

Now to Additives & Functional Products on Slide 8. Revenue increased due to higher sales volume across the segment, driven by innovation and market development initiatives, partially offset by slightly lower selling prices and unfavorable currency. The lower selling prices reflect the continued impact of lower raw material prices from last year as selling prices in this segment generally lag changes in raw material prices by about 3 to 6 months. Sequentially, from fourth quarter to first quarter, prices increased slightly. Operating earnings increased slightly as higher sales volume was mostly offset by higher raw material and energy costs, lower selling prices and unfavorable currency.

現在就來看看投影片 8 上的添加劑和功能產品。由於整個部門的銷售量增加，收入有所增加，這得益於創新和市場開發計劃的推動，但銷售價格略有下降和貨幣不利，部分抵消了這一增長。較低的銷售價格反映了去年原材料價格較低的持續影響，因為該部門的銷售價格通常滯後原材料價格變化約 3 至 6 個月。連續第四季到第一季度，價格略有上漲。由於銷售量增加大部分被原材料和能源成本上漲、銷售價格下降和不利的貨幣所抵消，營業利潤略有增加。

Looking at full year 2017, we continue to expect mid-single-digit sales volume growth, which we would be about double end market growth, reflecting innovation and market development initiatives, such as fluid solar projects, tire resins and Aerafin polymers or adhesives. We also expect it to increase sequentially in second quarter and have already achieved increases in many products. However, we still need to manage through the spike in raw materials that occurred in the first quarter with higher costs still needing to flow through inventory. All-in, Additives & Functional Products remains well positioned to deliver solid results for the year.

展望2017年全年，我們繼續預計銷量將實現中等個位數成長，即市場成長的兩倍，這反映了創新和市場發展措辭，例如流體太陽能專案、輪胎樹脂和​​Aerafin聚合物或黏合劑。我們也預計第二季其銷量將環比成長，並且許多產品已經實現了成長。然而，我們仍需要應對第一季原物料價格飆升的問題，更高的成本仍需要透過庫存來消化。綜合來看，添加劑和功能產品業務仍處於有利地位，預計今年將取得穩健的業績。

Now to Chemical Intermediates on Slide 9. Sales revenue in the first quarter increased primarily due to higher selling prices. The higher selling prices were attributed to higher raw material costs and improved competitive conditions. Operating earnings increased primarily due to higher selling prices that are keeping up with increasing raw material costs and the benefits of lower commodity hedge costs. Looking at the full year 2017, we're doing a good job of recovering from a tough 2016 as we increased prices to offset high raw material and energy costs, benefit from lower commodity hedge costs and reduced corporate costs at which Chemical Intermediates receives the largest share.

現在就來看看投影片 9 上的化學中間體。第一季的銷售收入增加主要是因為銷售價格上漲。銷售價格上漲歸因於原物料成本上漲和競爭條件改善。營業利潤的成長主要得益於銷售價格的上漲，以跟上原料成本的上漲，以及商品避險成本的降低。縱觀2017年全年，我們正從艱難的2016年中復蘇，因為我們提高了價格以抵消高昂的原材料和能源成本，受益於較低的商品對沖成本以及化學中間體佔最大份額的企業成本的降低。

I'll finish the segment review with Fibers on Slide 10, where results were in line with our expectations. Sales revenue decreased primarily due to lower sales volume and lower selling prices, particularly for acetate tow. Lower acetate tow prices were primarily due to lower industry capacity utilization rates. Lower acetate tow volume was a result of reduced sales in China and customer share shifts. Regarding China, 2 items worth mentioning. The first quarter of 2016 total imports were at still 2015 import levels, and we still expect reduced import levels for 2017 that we discussed back in January. Outside of China, we were impacted by lost share at a few customers that we have now regained with others. This will result in lower tow volume in the first half of this year, as we will not see the full benefit of regaining lost share until the second half. Operating earnings for the quarter declined year-over-year due to lower sales volume and lower selling prices, partially offset by lower operating costs resulting from recent actions.

我將在第 10 張投影片上結束對 Fibers 的細分回顧，其結果符合我們的預期。銷售收入下降主要是因為銷售下降和銷售價格下降，特別是醋酸絲束。醋酸絲束價格下跌主要是因為產業產能利用率較低。醋酸絲束產量下降是因為中國市場銷售下降和客戶份額轉移所致。關於中國，有兩點值得一提。2016 年第一季的總進口量仍與 2015 年的進口量持平，我們預計 2017 年的進口量仍將下降，這一點我們在 1 月就討論過。在中國以外，我們受到了一些客戶份額流失的影響，但目前我們已經重新贏得了其他客戶的份額。這將導致今年上半年拖車量下降，因為直到下半年我們才能看到重新獲得失去的份額的全部好處。由於銷售量下降和銷售價格下降，本季營業收入年減，但近期行動導致的營業成本降低部分抵銷了這一影響。

Looking forward, we continue to anticipate earnings for this segment to be down approximately 25% for the year. This includes an expectation that acetate tow volume outside of China will be about flat for the full year. Probably also worth mentioning that with these steps, less than 10% of the segment revenue will be impacted by total imports into China. We are taking all actions within our control to provide stability for this business moving forward and strongly believe that Fibers will continue to be a valuable business for Eastman.

展望未來，我們繼續預期該部門的獲利今年將下降約 25%。其中包括預計中國以外地區的醋酸纖維絲束產量將全年基本持平。或許值得一提的是，透過這些措施，該部門的收入將只有不到 10% 受到中國進口總額的影響。我們正在採取一切力所能及的措施，為該業務的未來發展提供穩定性，並堅信纖維業務將繼續成為伊士曼的寶貴業務。

On Slide 11, I'll transition to an overview of our cash flow and other financial highlights for first quarter. First quarter operating cash flow was $52 million, in line with our normal seasonality of cash flow generation. Capital expenditures for the quarter totaled $133 million, and we continue to expect our full year capital expenditures will be approximately $575 million. I remain very confident in our ability to generate approximately $1 billion of free cash flow for the year.

在第 11 張投影片上，我將概述第一季的現金流量和其他財務亮點。第一季的經營現金流為 5,200 萬美元，與我們正常的現金流產生季節性相符。本季資本支出總計 1.33 億美元，我們預計全年資本支出約為 5.75 億美元。我對我們今年創造約 10 億美元自由現金流的能力仍然非常有信心。

Looking at the balance sheet, we continue to expect a $350 million reduction in debt this year. Additionally, we remain committed to returning cash to stockholders. In the first quarter, we returned $150 million through our first quarter dividend of $75 million and $75 million in share repurchases.

從資產負債表來看，我們仍然預期今年的債務將減少 3.5 億美元。此外，我們仍致力於向股東返還現金。第一季度，我們透過 7,500 萬美元的第一季股利和 7,500 萬美元的股票回購返還了 1.5 億美元。

Our effective tax rate for the first quarter was 21%. We now expect our full year tax rate to be between 20% and 22%, reflecting the continued benefits of an improved business operations and resulting impact on expected tax events. Sitting here today, it feels like 21% for the year, which will be in line with last year and is reflected in our results for the first quarter. As a whole, I'm pleased with earnings and cash flow performance to start the year and look forward to the remainder of the year.

我們第一季的有效稅率為21%。我們現在預計全年稅率將在 20% 至 22% 之間，這反映了業務營運改善帶來的持續利益以及對預期稅收事件的影響。今天坐在這裡，感覺今年的成長率是 21%，與去年持平，並反映在我們第一季的業績中。總體而言，我對今年年初的獲利和現金流表現感到滿意，並期待今年剩餘時間的表現。

With that, I'll turn it back over to Mark.

說完這些，我會把話題交還給馬克。

Thanks, Curt. On Slide 12, I'll discuss our outlook for 2017. We continue to benefit from our specialty businesses, which we expect will deliver mid-single-digit volume growth for the rest of the year, which will be about double the growth rate of the underlying markets.

謝謝，Curt。在第 12 張投影片上，我將討論我們對 2017 年的展望。我們繼續受益於我們的專業業務，我們預計今年剩餘時間內該業務的銷售將實現中等個位數成長，約為基礎市場成長率的兩倍。

To deliver this, we're leveraging the investments we have made in our innovation and market development initiatives to drive growth in attractive end markets, which are being positively impacted by very attractive and disruptive macro trends. We've also taken actions to aggressively reduce costs, and we're benefiting from a reduction in commodity hedge costs. We've improved the quality of our balance sheet, reducing our interest costs. And we've also been able to neutralize an expected tax headwind, so that our effective tax rate this year will be similar to last year. Finally, disciplined capital allocation continues to contribute to growth, including accelerating our share repurchases in 2017 compared to '16.

為了實現這一目標，我們利用我們在創新和市場開發計劃中所做的投資來推動有吸引力的終端市場的成長，這些市場正受到極具吸引力和顛覆性的宏觀趨勢的積極影響。我們也採取了積極降低成本的措施，並從商品對沖成本的降低中受益。我們提高了資產負債表的質量，降低了利息成本。我們還能夠抵消預期的稅收阻力，因此今年的有效稅率將與去年相似。最後，嚴格的資本配置繼續促進成長，包括與 2016 年相比，2017 年加快了股票回購速度。

All of these actions are helping us to offset challenges we continue to face, including uncertain global GDP growth, a stronger dollar, more-than-normal raw material and energy price volatility and the challenges we face in Fibers. Putting all this together, on an operational level, our performance remains in line with our previous expectations we outlined in January. And with the tax rate no longer expected to be a headwind, we expect EPS growth to improve to the top half of our previously communicated 8% to 12% range.

所有這些行動都在幫助我們應對持續面臨的挑戰，包括不確定的全球 GDP 成長、美元走強、原材料和能源價格波動超過正常水平以及我們在纖維領域面臨的挑戰。綜合起來，在營運層面，我們的業績仍然符合我們一月份提出的預期。由於稅率不再是阻力，我們預期每股盈餘成長將提高到我們先前預測的 8% 至 12% 區間的上半部。

On Slide 13, we have a summary slide that we've shown you before and is even more applicable today. We have a strong portfolio of specialty businesses. We expect to deliver approximately 70% of our earnings from these high-quality specialty businesses, a true testament to the quality and transformation of our portfolio. We're continuing to create our own growth through accelerating our innovation and improving our product mix. We're committed to using every lever we have in this uncertain environment, and we're returning our free -- a very strong free cash flow to our stockholders. We're on track to return approximately $650 million to our shareholders this year. I remain confident that 2017 will be a strong year for Eastman with increasing earnings and record free cash flow. More importantly, I believe that we're building one of the world's leading specialty companies to deliver long-term sustainable growth.

在第 13 張投影片上，我們有一張之前向您展示過的摘要投影片，它今天更加適用。我們擁有強大的專業業務組合。我們預計約 70% 的收益將來自這些高品質的專業業務，這真正證明了我們投資組合的品質和轉型。我們將透過加速創新和改善產品組合來繼續創造自身的成長。我們致力於在這個不確定的環境中利用我們所擁有的一切槓桿，並將我們的自由——非常強大的自由現金流返還給我們的股東。我們預計今年將向股東返還約 6.5 億美元。我仍然相信，2017 年對伊士曼來說將是強勁的一年，獲利將會增加，自由現金流也將創歷史新高。更重要的是，我相信我們正在打造世界領先的專業公司之一，以實現長期永續成長。

Thanks for joining us this morning, and I look forward to your questions.

感謝您今天早上加入我們，我期待您的提問。

Right. Thanks, Mark. (Operator Instructions) .

正確的。謝謝，馬克。（操作員指令）。

With that, Ron, we're ready for questions.

羅恩，我們已經準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) And we'll take our first question from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員指示）我們將回答德意志銀行的 David Begleiter 提出的第一個問題。

Mark, just on the guidance. Now that we're in the top half of the range, is the entire raise due to the lower tax rate? Any change to the segments as all versus what you were thinking about back in late January?

馬克，只是提供指導。現在我們處於範圍的上半部分，整個加薪是否是由於稅率較低造成的？與您在一月底考慮的相比，各個部分有什麼變化嗎？

David, thanks for the equation, and we're really excited about being on track to deliver such attractive earnings growth for our shareholders and principally doing it through operating earnings, as we've sort of neutralized that tax headwind. As you noted, we're looking at all the businesses and continue to see very strong earnings growth for our specialty businesses, both AM and AFP. Love the volume growth that we saw in the first quarter and expect continued volume growth. I'd say, volume's coming in a little bit better than expected, which has been fantastic, especially in these high-quality businesses. Fibers is exactly in line with expectations. No surprises or changes there. But we've also seen raw materials sort of spike up a little bit more than we expected, and we're making great progress in improving prices. But we've got to catch up to those raws. So when I net it altogether, the operational outlook of everything feels pretty similar to where we were with a few sort of slight differences there, in volume being better, raws being a little higher. But we feel great about that performance and think it's extremely attractive for us in this industry in these market conditions. So as you look at the guidance we gave, we banked the tax rate improvement in our guidance to the upper half of the range. But it's 3 months into the year. There's a lot of uncertainty about how the economy and these raws will play out, so we'll just have to see how it goes from here.

大衛，謝謝你的這個等式，我們真的很高興能夠為我們的股東帶來如此有吸引力的盈利增長，而且主要是通過營業利潤來實現，因為我們已經在某種程度上抵消了稅收逆風。正如您所說，我們正在關注所有業務，並繼續看到我們的專業業務（AM 和 AFP）的獲利成長非常強勁。我們非常高興看到第一季的銷售成長，並預計銷售量將繼續成長。我想說，交易量比預期要好一些，這非常棒，尤其是在這些高品質的企業中。Fibers 完全符合預期。沒有什麼意外或變化。但我們也看到原物料價格上漲幅度比我們預期的要高一些，我們在提高價格方面取得了巨大進展。但我們必須趕上這些原始水平。因此，當我把所有東西綜合起來看，一切的營運前景都與我們之前的狀況非常相似，只是存在一些細微的差別，例如數量更好，原材料略高一些。但我們對這項表現感到非常滿意，並認為在目前的市場條件下，這對我們這個產業來說極具吸引力。因此，當您查看我們給出的指導時，我們將指導中的稅率改善預測到了範圍的上半部分。但現在已經是今年的第三個月了。經濟和這些因素將如何發揮作用存在許多不確定性，所以我們只能看看接下來會發生什麼。

And David, this is Curt, if I could also add. When we think about the shaping of the earnings for the year, that has been pretty consistent with what we're thinking about in January. We've been talking about pricing catching up to higher raw materials. We've talked about Fibers volumes increasing in the back half of this year, the impact of lower hedge costs as they flow through the last 3 quarters of the year as well as kind of our growth programs gain momentum through the year. So the other thing that I think has been consistent, net-net, is we kind of expect earnings to be evenly split between the first half and second half of the year. It's maybe a little more weighted towards the second half of the year as we compare it to last year. But I -- similar to Mark, I'm very pleased with the business performance. That remains on track, delivering the earnings growth we talked about and then the removal of the tax headwind.

還有 David，如果我可以補充的話，那就是 Curt。當我們思考今年的獲利狀況時，我們發現這與我們一月份的思考非常一致。我們一直在談論價格如何趕上原物料價格上漲。我們談到了今年下半年纖維產量的成長、對沖成本降低在今年最後三個季度帶來的影響，以及我們的成長計畫在今年全年獲得動力。因此，我認為另一個始終如一的事情是，我們預計今年上半年和下半年的收益將平均分配。與去年相比，我們可能更傾向於下半年。但我——與馬克類似，我對業務表現非常滿意。這一進程仍在繼續，實現了我們談到的獲利成長，並消除了稅收阻力。

Very good. And just lastly, Curt and Mark, given the decline in propylene prices, can you discuss the impact on how that will affect your ability to get some price increases through in those downstream propylene derivative product lines?

非常好。最後，Curt 和 Mark，鑑於丙烯價格下跌，您能否討論一下這將如何影響您在下游丙烯衍生產品線上提高價格的能力？

Sure. First, I'm very happy with how we've managed pricing in the first quarter where we had the ability to make price changes. As we said, the specialties especially had a lot of quarterly pricing or, in some cases, annual pricing. But Chemical Intermediates, to me, it's just a fantastic job of raising prices and keeping up with raws in the first quarter, and of course, we benefit with the hedge rolling off. As we go into the second quarter, it's important to keep in mind that even with the recent drop in propylene prices for 1 month, the propylene prices, the propane prices, the natural gas prices, the methanol prices are all exceptionally higher than they were a year ago for Q2, and they were much, much higher in Q1. And we still have those costs flowing through inventory from Q1. Even in Chemical Intermediates, it's a 1 to 3 month flow-through where specialties are 3 to 6. So we see absolutely no reason to be reducing prices in the second quarter. I'm very happy that we've got prices up in AFP and Advanced Materials. Most of that's quarterly priced, so that should be pretty solid through the quarter. And even in Chemical Intermediates, I think the competitors as well as us have much higher costs, and we're still in the process of trying to recover those. So I don't see any reason that prices should come off. Of course, competitive dynamics can dictate other outcomes. But we expect that we've increased the prices, and we're going to keep increasing prices as we go into the 3 -- into the third quarter.

當然。首先，我對我們第一季的定價管理方式感到非常滿意，我們有能力調整價格。正如我們所說，專業領域尤其有很多季度定價，或者在某些情況下是年度定價。但對我而言，化學中間體在第一季提高價格並跟上原材料的步伐是一項非常棒的工作，當然，我們也受益於對沖的結束。進入第二季度，重要的是要記住，即使最近丙烯價格下跌了一個月，但丙烯價格、丙烷價格、天然氣價格、甲醇價格在第二季度都比去年同期高得多，而且在第一季度也高得多。而且從第一季開始，這些成本仍然透過庫存流動。即使是化學中間體，其流通週期也只有 1 到 3 個月，而特種化學品的流通週期為 3 到 6 個月。因此，我們認為完全沒有理由在第二季降低價格。我很高興 AFP 和先進材料的價格上漲了。其中大部分是按季度定價的，因此整個季度的價格應該會相當穩定。即使在化學中間體領域，我認為競爭對手和我們的成本都高得多，我們仍在努力收回這些成本。所以我看不出有任何理由降低價格。當然，競爭動態可以決定其他結果。但我們預計我們已經提高了價格，並且進入第三季後我們將繼續提高價格。

And we'll take our next question from Aleksey Yefremov with Nomura.

我們將回答野村證券的阿列克謝·葉夫列莫夫 (Aleksey Yefremov) 的下一個問題。

If we turn to Chemical Intermediates, how sustainable is this level of performance for the rest of year? And also, could you address whether there are any changes in underlying supply-demand in addition to pricing versus raw material spreads?

如果我們轉向化學中間體，那麼這種表現水準在今年剩餘時間內能持續多久？另外，您能否談談除了定價與原料價差之外，基礎供需是否也改變了？

Well, I think that for the last question, there's obviously a lot of volatility in some of these raw material prices, where they've moved up a lot and some have come off a little bit lately, all of them, which are still substantially higher than last year. So I think the pricing dynamics remain in place, where we're in a business of increasing prices, which is refreshing compared to the last 2 years and I think healthy for the industry. So I think that, that will continue. You have to keep in mind, for Chemical Intermediates, you've got the hedge starting to be a sequential headwind from first quarter to second quarter. But the hedge costs, obviously, are less than last year, but it's still a sequential headwind. So that'll have an impact on CI earnings. But overall, I think the industry is pretty tight. And when it comes to a lot of these market dynamics that are going on right now, some of it is supply-driven. And so we'll have to see how that resolves itself and impacts market dynamics as we move to the back half of the year.

嗯，我認為對於最後一個問題，這些原材料的價格顯然波動很大，有些價格上漲了很多，有些價格最近有所回落，但總體而言，它們的價格仍然比去年高出很多。因此，我認為定價動態仍然存在，我們處於提價的業務中，這與過去兩年相比令人耳目一新，我認為這對行業來說是健康的。所以我認為這種情況將會持續下去。你必須記住，對於化學中間體而言，從第一季到第二季度，對沖開始成為連續的逆風。但對沖成本顯然比去年低，但這仍然是一個連續的逆風。所以這將對 CI 收益產生影響。但總體來說，我認為這個行業相當緊張。就目前正在發生的許多市場動態而言，其中一些是由供應驅動的。因此，我們必須觀察這個問題如何解決，以及在下半年如何影響市場動態。

And Mark, if I just could clarify, the lower hedge costs will be a benefit for CI somewhat partially in the first quarter and will be a benefit the rest of the year.

馬克，如果我可以澄清一下的話，較低的對沖成本將在一定程度上使 CI 在第一季度受益，並且在今年剩餘時間內也將受益。

And we'll go to the next question from Robert Koort with Goldman Sachs.

我們將討論高盛的羅伯特·庫爾特 (Robert Koort) 提出的下一個問題。

I was wondering, in AM, if you could guys help maybe size the Tritan business. How big is that increase to this space? And then can you give us any granularity on individual product line, growth rates within that impressive 10%? Were there any of that were meaningfully more or less than the 10%?

我在想，你們是否能幫忙擴大 Tritan 業務的規模。這個空間的增加有多大？然後，您能否向我們詳細介紹各個產品線的具體增長率，以及這令人印象深刻的 10% 的增長率？其中是否有任何數字明顯高於或低於 10%？

Thanks, Bob. So in talking about Advanced Materials, it's just a great story of innovation and success that we've been building for many years now, and it's great to see us deliver earnings growth this year in the first quarter on top of 20% compounded growth in the last 4 years and doing it in a way where we've -- through volume mix and actually improved, margins in an increasing raw material environment with currency headwinds. I mean, it's just a great demonstration of a business delivering organic growth. And as you said, big driver is Tritan. Huge success story, especially in the first quarter. We had a lot of great wins last year and a number of customers filling their shelves with our polymer into their products. That drove very high growth in Tritan in the first quarter, and we expect very good strong growth for the rest of the year. Maybe not quite as high as 1Q, but still very attractive. Same thing with acoustics and head-up display, interlayers. You've got double-digit volume growth as we're growing in the windshields and moving to the side lams and sunroofs of the car. So we're gaining more real estate per car, getting into new models and just seeing tremendous growth. And we still have a lot of room for growth there. We're probably in the third inning of penetration in the automotive market. We've actually seen good recovery in architectural in Europe, in particular, which is very attractive for us on the interlayers business, so rocking and rolling there with double-digit growth. Performance films, same story. We launched some very creative and successful channel strategies in China and North America, which are our 2 largest markets for performance films, these are tinted window films on cars, and have seen tremendous growth through the auto channel, the auto dealers, in addition to the aftermarket stores and now really seeing tremendous success in this paint protection film. We had the best film in the market when we bought Commonwealth, and now we've developed a new product that is even better and getting tremendous success. So we really have innovation basically everywhere across this portfolio. And what's great is most of these are proprietary products, where you only have one competitor in some of them. And the customers really see us as an essential part of their success and what they're offering to the market, and we have great relationships in all of them.

謝謝，鮑伯。因此，談到先進材料，這只是一個我們多年來一直在構建的創新和成功的故事，我們很高興看到我們在今年第一季實現了盈利增長，這在過去 4 年 20% 的複合增長率的基礎上，通過產量組合和實際提高的利潤率，在原材料價格上漲和貨幣逆風的環境下實現了這一目標。我的意思是，這只是企業實現有機成長的絕佳例證。正如您所說，最大的推動力是 Tritan。巨大的成功，尤其是在第一季。去年我們取得了許多重大勝利，許多客戶在他們的產品中都加入了我們的聚合物。這推動了 Tritan 在第一季的高速成長，我們預計今年剩餘時間該業務將實現強勁成長。可能不如第一季那麼高，但仍然非常有吸引力。與聲學、平視顯示器、夾層的情況相同。隨著我們在擋風玻璃領域的業務不斷增長，並轉向汽車側窗和天窗領域，我們的銷量實現了兩位數的成長。因此，我們每輛車的房地產面積都在增加，我們推出了新車型，並實現了巨大的成長。我們仍有很大的成長空間。我們可能正處於汽車市場滲透的第三階段。我們實際上已經看到歐洲建築業的良好復甦，這對我們的夾層業務非常有吸引力，因此那裡實現了兩位數的成長。表演電影，同樣的故事。我們在中國和北美推出了一些非常有創意且成功的通路策略，這兩個市場是我們高性能薄膜（汽車有色窗膜）的最大市場，並且透過汽車通路、汽車經銷商以及售後市場商店實現了巨大的成長，現在，我們的漆面保護膜確實取得了巨大的成功。當我們收購 Commonwealth 時，我們擁有市場上最好的電影，現在我們開發了更出色的新產品，並獲得了巨大的成功。因此，我們的整個投資組合中基本上都充滿了創新。最棒的是，其中大多數都是專有產品，其中一些只有一個競爭對手。客戶確實將我們視為他們成功並向市場提供產品的重要組成部分，我們與他們都保持著良好的關係。

And Bob, it's really exciting to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Tritan. As I mentioned earlier in the call, that has moved to a $300 million business over that timeframe. And with the expansions that we're adding, we can nearly double that revenue over the future.

鮑勃，慶祝 Tritan 十週年真的非常令人興奮。正如我之前在電話中提到的那樣，在這段時間內，這項業務已經發展成為一項價值 3 億美元的業務。隨著我們不斷擴展，未來我們的收入幾乎可以翻倍。

I think we're really establishing that we've got one of the best product and market development capabilities in the industry, proving it through this business. And you're going to start seeing the same proof in Additives & Functional Products as we move through this year and the next.

我認為我們確實證明了我們擁有業內最好的產品和市場開發能力之一，並透過這項業務證明了這一點。隨著今年和明年的到來，您將在添加劑和功能產品中看到相同的證明。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our next question from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指示）我們將回答摩根士丹利的 Vincent Andrews 提出的下一個問題。

Curt, if I could just ask you on your balance sheet targets, if you could remind us probably what you're trying to get back to from a debt leverage perspective. And I guess one of the things I'm thinking about is just -- if you -- assume it's your -- goes according to plan and, next year, you're able to put up similar growth, do you think you would do the same amount of debt paydown next year? Or do you think you'd maybe have more flexibility?

科特，如果我可以問你關於資產負債表目標的問題，你是否可以從債務槓桿的角度提醒我們你想要恢復的目標。我想我正在考慮的事情之一是 - 如果你 - 假設這是你的 - 按計劃進行，並且明年你能夠實現類似的增長，你認為明年你會償還相同數額的債務嗎？或者您認為您可能會擁有更多的靈活性？

Well, it depends. So if you think about just our goals for 2017, we talked about that $1 billion of free cash flow. And $300 million goes with that nice dividend that we have in the industry, $300 million, and so the rest is going to be split between share repurchases and debt deleveraging. And so if you combine that with kind of our EBITDA growth that we expect this year, we're closing the gap between where we start the year and kind of that targeted 2.5x debt to EBITDA kind of in shortcut fashion. And so when it gets into '18, we'll look at how much deleveraging we further have to complete, depending on our EBITDA growth we expect for that time, and we'll kind of gauge our capital allocation as we get closer to the end of the year.

嗯，這得看情況。因此，如果您只考慮我們 2017 年的目標，我們討論的是 10 億美元的自由現金流。其中 3 億美元用於支付我們行業內的優厚股息，即 3 億美元，其餘部分將用於股票回購和債務去槓桿。因此，如果將其與我們今年預期的 EBITDA 成長結合起來，我們就能以捷徑的方式縮小年初水準與目標 2.5 倍債務與 EBITDA 之間的差距。因此，當進入 2018 年時，我們將根據當時預期的 EBITDA 成長情況來考慮還需要完成多少去槓桿，並且隨著年底的臨近，我們將衡量我們的資本配置。

Okay. And just as a follow-up. Williams has now sold it cracker. Any update on where you are in your process? And does what they printed change your view on what you wanted to do? Or any sort of broad update would be helpful.

好的。這只是後續行動。威廉斯現在已經將其出售。您的進程有任何更新嗎？他們所刊登的內容是否改變了你對自己想做的事的看法？或者任何形式的廣泛更新都會有幫助。

No. The other competing asset within marketplace, we weren't quite sure it was really impacting our process. But nonetheless, it's good to see that transaction get done, and I think we're the only cracker facility that's out there for availability right now. As it relates to the status of that, I feel that we're continuing to make good progress with a number of parties actively engaged with us. Again, as I mentioned before, the variety of options are from an outright sale, partnership, joint venture, whatever the case may be. But we continue to have interest, given the quality and reliability of our assets. And you've heard me say it, and I'll say it again, we're going to be a patient seller. But we're making good progress, and I'm still hopeful we have something to talk about by midyear.

不。對於市場內的其他競爭資產，我們不太確定它是否真的會影響我們的流程。但儘管如此，看到交易完成還是很高興的，而且我認為我們是目前唯一可用的裂解設施。就其現狀而言，我認為我們正在繼續取得良好進展，有多個方面積極與我們合作。再次，正如我之前提到的，選擇多種多樣，包括直接出售、合作、合資，無論哪種情況。但考慮到我們資產的品質和可靠性，我們仍然感興趣。你已經聽我說過，我再說一遍，我們將成為一個有耐心的賣家。但我們正在取得良好進展，我仍然希望我們能在年中之前找到一些可以討論的議題。

And we'll take the next question from Jim Sheehan with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

我們將回答 SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 的 Jim Sheehan 提出的下一個問題。

I was wondering if you could give us an update on your adhesive resin business. How's pricing going in that business? And what do you see is the outlook there, given some capacity additions coming later in the year?

我想知道您是否可以向我們介紹一下您們的黏合劑樹脂業務的最新情況。該業務的定價情況如何？考慮到今年稍後將增加一些產能，您認為前景如何？

Thanks. Adhesives has been a fantastic business for us. It's had tremendous earnings growth and quite attractive margins last couple of years. And as we've said in past calls, a lot of that is due to tight market conditions. These are great attractive end markets that have a lot of growth, and the growth rates are improving. We used to think about it as 4% to 5% growth, and it's now up to 5% to 7%, where you see such tremendous growth in hygiene products and hot melt adhesive packaging. So we're very encouraged by what we see in the market. But as you noted, there is capacity coming online. We're feeling some of that pressure this year in our C5 resins with some capacity, and the prices have come off a bit. And there is more capacity coming online on our hydrogenated resin at the end of this year into next year, and we'll feel some price pressure from that. But as you look at the margins and the ROIC of this business, it's just fantastic. When you think about specialty businesses, they're great, attractive businesses, attractive margins, ability to grow faster than the market. But there are still always going to be some amount of cyclicality in any individual product when a competitor brings some capacity online, whether it's an impact on volume or margins as you cycle through it. But what I love about AFP as well as Advanced Materials is it's a robust portfolio, diverse set of end markets, diverse set of products, and that diversity gives you strength as you sort of absorb those sort of trends that happen naturally in any of these businesses.

謝謝。黏合劑對於我們來說是一項非常棒的業務。過去幾年，該公司的獲利成長驚人，利潤率也相當可觀。正如我們在過去的電話會議中所說的那樣，這在很大程度上是由於市場緊張造成的。這些都是極具吸引力的終端市場，成長迅速，而且成長率正在提高。我們過去認為成長率為4%到5%，而現在已達到5%到7%，其中衛生用品和熱熔膠包裝的成長尤為顯著。因此，我們對市場表現感到非常鼓舞。但正如您所說，現在有容量正在上線。今年，我們的 C5 樹脂產能受到了一定壓力，價格下降。今年年底至明年，我們的氫化樹脂產能將會增加，我們將感受到一定的價格壓力。但當你看到這個業務的利潤率和投資報酬率時，你會發現它簡直太棒了。當你想到專業業務時，你會發現它們都是很棒的、有吸引力的業務、誘人的利潤率、比市場更快成長的能力。但是，當競爭對手將部分產能投入使用時，任何單一產品總是會存在一定程度的周期性，無論這種週期性是否會對產量或利潤率產生影響。但我之所以喜歡 AFP 和 Advanced Materials，是因為它擁有強大的產品組合、多樣化的終端市場和多樣化的產品，而這種多樣性會給你帶來力量，讓你能夠吸收這些業務中自然發生的趨勢。

Terrific. And then in terms of some of the volume improvements you've seen, how much of that do you think is attributable to underlying demand improvement versus maybe some restocking or some prebuying ahead of price increases?

了不起。那麼，就您所看到的銷售改善而言，您認為其中有多少是由於潛在需求的改善，還是由於價格上漲前的補貨或預購？

Yes. What I love about our growth story in the first quarter is it's innovation-driven. We've had -- and we have attractive markets, and they're delivering good growth. And they're nice diverse set of markets that are relatively stable, whether it's transportation, B&C, consumables, personal care, ag and animal nutrition. And even in the large markets, like transportation, B&C, a high portion of that is pretty stable because it's refinish-, replacement tires-type business. And then on top of that, we're layering in our innovation growth that will continue through the year, allowing us to grow faster than the underlying markets. There was some additional demand in the first quarter. As I mentioned, Tritan had a huge number of wins, and there was some high-level of orders to help us some of our customers load the shelves with our Tritan in their products. And there were some additional seasonal demand in AFP, strong deicing quarter, strong crop protection demand as well in the quarter. So there's a little bit of seasonal dynamics. Regarding prebuying, I don't think there's been that much. There may have been a little bit in tires, but we don't see a lot of that at this stage.

是的。我喜歡我們第一季的成長故事，因為它是由創新驅動的。我們擁有—並且擁有具有吸引力的市場，並且它們正在實現良好的成長。它們是多元化且相對穩定的市場，無論是運輸、生物和消費品、消費品、個人護理、農業或動物營養。即使在交通運輸、B&C 等大型市場中，很大一部分也相當穩定，因為它是修補、更換輪胎類型的業務。除此之外，我們還將持續推動創新成長，並將持續全年，讓我們的成長速度超越基礎市場。第一季有一些額外的需求。正如我所提到的，Tritan 贏得了大量訂單，並且有一些高級別的訂單可以幫助我們的一些客戶將我們的 Tritan 材料裝入他們的產品中。本季度，菲律賓法新社 (AFP) 有一些額外的季節性需求，除冰需求強勁，作物保護需求也強勁。因此存在一些季節性動態。至於預購，我認為沒有那麼多。輪胎方面可能存在一點問題，但目前我們還沒有看到太多這樣的問題。

And we'll take the next question from Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan.

我們將回答摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas 提出的下一個問題。

Can you talk about the effects of the new PDH unit enterprise will bring on stream for Eastman? That is, you're going to buy some propylene at cost plus. Does this increase the amount of propylene derivatives that you wish to sell by any material amount? Or is it just a substitute of getting propylene from one source than getting it from another source? And in your Tritan expansion, by what percentage are you increasing overall Tritan capacity through your expansion this year?

您能談談新的PDH裝置企業投產將給伊士曼帶來的影響嗎？也就是說，您將以成本價購買一些丙烯。這是否會大幅增加您想要銷售的丙烯衍生物的數量？或者它只是從一個來源獲取丙烯而不是從另一個來源獲取丙烯的替代品？在 Tritan 擴張過程中，今年您將透過擴張將 Tritan 整體產能提高多少百分比？

Jeff, Curt. So if you think about the effects of the PDH unit, that is what you described in the latter -- your point. That is just taking a shift in sourcing of some of that propylene. So we're buying some of that propylene in the market today and with the PDH units that will participate, and that will be the source of that propylene and become more of a propane-based [sole-source] operably enforced from a cost standpoint. So it doesn't really impact our derivatives and what we're able to sell in the marketplace. On Tritan itself, the expansion that we're in the process of completing and look forward to coming forward, that increases our capacity about 80%.

傑夫，科特。因此，如果您考慮 PDH 單元的影響，這就是您在後者中所描述的——您的觀點。這只是對部分丙烯的來源進行了轉變。因此，我們今天在市場上購買了部分丙烯，並透過參與的PDH裝置購買了部分丙烯，這將成為丙烯的來源，從成本角度來看，將成為更可操作的以丙烷為基礎的[單一來源]。因此它實際上並不會影響我們的衍生性商品以及我們能夠在市場上銷售的產品。就 Tritan 本身而言，我們正在完成並期待擴建，這將使我們的產能增加約 80%。

80%, okay. And then for my follow-up, this year, you have an expansion in Tritan, in Crystex, I think in PVB. If you total up the cost of all of those expansions as part of your capital expenditures this year, roughly how much would it be? And I imagine that you expect to complete all these 3 expansions in the second half. Is that correct?

80%，好的。然後，就我的後續情況而言，今年，你們在 Tritan、Crystex 和 PVB 方面都有所擴展。如果將所有這些擴張的成本加起來作為今年資本支出的一部分，大概是多少？我想您希望在下半年完成所有這 3 個擴展。對嗎？

So if you look at our capital expenditures, you think of our maintenance capital in that $300 million to $350 million range. The rest of it is the growth capital, and a good portion of that growth capital will be spent on the projects you just defined. Most of those projects, as you can see, our CapEx is pretty -- higher in the first quarter than it was last year. So you can see, we're really working hard on those capital projects. I know the Crystex facility is going to be (inaudible) complete this year. Tritan, this year, maybe carrying it to next year.

因此，如果你看一下我們的資本支出，你會發現我們的維護資本在 3 億至 3.5 億美元之間。其餘的則是成長資本，其中很大一部分成長資本將花在你剛剛定義的專案上。如您所見，對於大多數項目，我們第一季的資本支出都比去年同期高得多。所以你可以看到，我們確實在努力完成這些資本項目。我知道 Crystex 設施今年將會（聽不清楚）完工。Tritan，今年，或許會延續到明年。

One thing I'd add is what I love about our story is not only just delivering great earnings growth through the specialty business, but we're generating $1 billion of free cash flow. And that includes spending material amount of CapEx on specialty projects to enable long-term growth, not just trying to deliver short-term growth. So it's just a compelling story that we can have one of the strongest free cash flows in this industry and still invest in long-term growth so we can keep this going as we move forward beyond this year into -- and into the future.

我想補充一點，我喜歡我們的故事，不僅因為我們透過專業業務實現了巨大的獲利成長，還因為我們產生了 10 億美元的自由現金流。這包括在專業項目上投入大量的資本支出，以實現長期成長，而不僅僅是試圖實現短期成長。所以這是一個令人信服的故事，我們可以擁有這個行業中最強勁的自由現金流之一，並且仍然投資於長期成長，這樣我們就可以在今年以後乃至未來繼續保持這種勢頭。

So your CapEx should come down a lot next year.

因此，明年您的資本支出應該會大幅下降。

Well, let's talk about that as we get towards the end of the year in our capital allocation. When you have an innovation program like Eastman, you have so many of these projects that are -- to be completed and come down, but then you also have to assume we have additional growth projects that are in the hopper. So it's logical to assume that's going to come down, but at the same token, give us the right to bring forward other growth capital projects as we get towards the end of the year.

好吧，當我們的資本配置接近年底時，讓我們來討論一下這個問題。當你擁有像伊士曼這樣的創新計劃時，你會有很多這樣的項目需要完成和完成，但你也必須假設我們還有其他正在進行的成長項目。因此，合理地假設這個數字將會下降，但同時，這也賦予我們在年底前提前推出其他成長資本項目的權利。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take the next question from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners.

（操作員指示）我們將回答 Vertical Research Partners 的 Kevin McCarthy 提出的下一個問題。

To follow up on your expansion plans, Mark, as you look at the 3 that you have on the table now, how would you characterize the returns on these projects, either in absolute or relative terms? And with regard to Tritan specifically, to what extent can you leverage the existing copolyester asset infrastructure there and, likewise, leverage the TMCD monomer for your Tetrafield -- Tetrashield product ambitions?

馬克，為了跟進您的擴張計劃，當您查看現在桌上的 3 個項目時，您如何描述這些項目的回報，無論是絕對回報還是相對回報？就 Tritan 而言，您可以在多大程度上利用那裡現有的共聚酯資產基礎設施，同樣，您可以在多大程度上利用 TMCD 單體來實現您的 Tetrafield - Tetrashield 產品目標？

Thanks, Kevin, great question. And we're excited about all these growth investments we're making and delivering against them. With the returns on capital, we expect to deliver 12% to 15% ROIC in most of our large-scale capital investments like these, and certainly have done that in the past and would expect to continue that going forward. And relative to our cost of capital these days, that's an extremely attractive return for shareholders. When it comes to sort of Tritan, you brought up a great point about not just Tritan, but actually our interlayers business as well as our cellulosics stream. We are masters at upgrading value on an integrated asset base and core technologies stream, where we're the best in the world of developing new applications from these streams. So when you think about it with Tritan, we started out with PET assets. We've upgraded those into copolyester assets. That was a great success story for many years and still growing quite well. And now we're upgrading those same assets. Those same PET assets are being repurposed into Tritan. And now the monomer capacity to make the TMCD to make Tritan is obviously new capital, but you're leveraging this huge infrastructure base in our Chemical Intermediates to make all the intermediates that go into the copolyester as well as the actual polymer assets themselves and constantly upgrading. And that gives you a great ROIC because you're not having to rebuild or create new ground-up capacity all the time. It's the same story in interlayers, where we make a standard interlayer for decades and now we're making acoustic and head-up display interlayer in the same asset. That's substantially higher margins, and that's why we keep emphasizing the mix upgrade. It's not just the variable margins are higher, but the leverage on the existing assets is tremendous. And then a great example is not only are we -- we've been doing this in Tritan for copolyesters, we're now porting it into polyester coatings. And that's a pretty tough business if you're just selling standard polyester coatings. But like Tritan, we can upgrade substantially what we can offer to the market with our Tetrashield products at much higher margins and seeing great success there, in both automotive, we've gone from one interested customer a year ago to 10 engaged with us now around the world, interested in our products, as well as seeing great success for our Tetrashield as a BPA-free can coating to replace epoxy with better performance than what's being offered in the market today by the first generation of polyesters out there. So it's, again, leveraged assets, leveraged acceleration filling out those assets as we bring the coating market on as well as the thermoplastic product extensions.

謝謝，凱文，這個問題問得好。我們對於我們正在進行和實現的所有這些成長投資感到非常興奮。就資本回報率而言，我們預計在大多數此類大規模資本投資中，投資回報率 (ROIC) 將達到 12% 至 15%，過去我們確實做到了這一點，並預計未來仍將繼續保持這一水平。相對於我們目前的資本成本，這對股東來說是極具吸引力的回報。當涉及 Tritan 時，您提出了一個很好的觀點，不僅涉及 Tritan，還涉及我們的夾層業務以及纖維素流。我們擅長提升綜合資產基礎和核心技術流的價值，我們是全球最擅長利用這些技術流開發新應用程式的人。因此，當您考慮 Tritan 時，我們從 PET 資產開始。我們已將它們升級為共聚酯資產。這是一個多年來偉大的成功故事，並且仍在良好發展。現在我們正在升級這些資產。這些相同的 PET 資產正在重新用於 Tritan。現在，生產 TMCD 和 Tritan 的單體產能顯然是新資本，但您可以利用我們化學中間體中這個龐大的基礎設施基礎來生產共聚酯所需的所有中間體以及實際的聚合物資產本身，並不斷升級。這可以為您帶來巨大的投資資本回報率 (ROIC)，因為您不必一直重建或創建新的產能。夾層的情況也是一樣，我們幾十年來一直生產標準夾層，現在我們用同一種設備生產聲學夾層和平視顯示器夾層。這實際上意味著更高的利潤率，這也是我們不斷強調組合升級的原因。不僅是浮動利潤率更高，而且現有資產的槓桿率也非常高。一個很好的例子就是我們不僅——我們一直在 Tritan 中對共聚酯進行這種處理，現在我們還將其移植到聚酯塗料中。如果你只是在銷售標準聚酯塗料，那麼這是一個相當艱難的生意。但與 Tritan 一樣，我們可以透過 Tetrashield 產品大幅提升我們向市場提供的產品，從而獲得更高的利潤，並在汽車領域取得了巨大成功，一年前，我們只有 1 個感興趣的客戶，而現在，全球已有 10 個客戶與我們合作，他們對我們的產品感興趣，同時，我們的 Tetrashield 作為一種高氧環的 TPA 罐體性能更好，同時，我們的 Tetrashield 作為一種影響比約氧性能更好。因此，隨著我們進入塗料市場以及熱塑性產品擴展市場，這又是槓桿資產，槓桿加速填補了這些資產。

So just to follow up and clarify, Mark. It sounds like all 3 of the expansions will be clustered within that range of 12% to 15% that you mentioned, and Tritan wouldn't necessarily be meaningfully higher than that, given your ability to leverage.

所以只是為了跟進和澄清，馬克。聽起來所有 3 個擴展都將聚集在您提到的 12% 到 15% 的範圍內，考慮到您的槓桿能力，Tritan 不一定會比這高得多。

Kevin, what I would say is that our target is 12% to 15%. Some projects, particularly maybe like the Tritan, could be higher than that.

凱文，我想說的是，我們的目標是 12% 到 15%。一些項目，特別是像 Tritan 這樣的項目，價格可能會更高。

And our next question comes from Frank Mitsch with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的弗蘭克‧米奇 (Frank Mitsch)。

Look, you're starting the year on a run rate of negative $0.70 a share on the Fibers side. And yet you're guiding to negative $0.40 for the year, and you're saying that things are playing out as expected. I just I want to follow up on your confidence level there. And do you have contracts in place? Are there orders already on the books that give you the confidence that we are going to see that pickup in the latter part of this year?

你看，今年年初，光纖業務的每股運行率為負 0.70 美元。然而，您預計今年的利潤為負 0.40 美元，而且您說事情正在按預期進行。我只是想了解您的信心程度。你們有簽約嗎？是否已經有一些訂單讓您有信心我們將在今年下半年看到這種回升？

So to answer your question, Frank, this is Curt, the answer is yes. We have a good portion of our business under long-term agreements. What we talked about is we're kind of going through this transition of some of our customer mix. And so that's why we understand what's happening on our volumes in this business, where we're going to see volumes improve second half of the year versus the first half. And because of those customer relationships and the confidence we have in managing through the transition is the outlook we have for Fibers.

所以回答你的問題，弗蘭克，我是 Curt，答案是肯定的。我們的業務很大一部分都是簽訂長期協議的。我們談論的是，我們正在經歷部分客戶結構的轉變。因此，我們了解該業務的銷售情況，我們將看到下半年的銷售量比上半年有所提高。正是由於這些客戶關係以及我們對順利完成轉型的信心，我們對 Fibers 的前景充滿信心。

And Frank, looking beyond just sort of share shift dynamics and what's going on this year, we really feel like we're making great progress in stabilizing this business. And when you think about all the actions that we've taken, I think it's certainly going to get more stable. We've obviously done a lot to sort of reduce our capacity, shutting the U.K. asset down, exiting the flake joint venture, 2/3 of our volume now in the long-term agreements that allow us to provide stability for our customers and ourselves, continue to make progress in how we take cost out across the company but as well as specifically in this business. And we still have more opportunities to improve through productivity there. And then you think about our innovation efforts that will start kicking in to gear this year and be more meaningful next year, and finding new applications in other markets outside of cigarettes and really impressed with the progress that team has made and success we're having there. So you put all that together and I think we've got a good situation to stabilize this business. One other thing to keep in perspective is China tow now is closely becoming irrelevant to the overall story. When you think about -- it only -- it being less than 10% of our revenue this year and Fibers being around 10% of our total revenue, we've now got something that's 1% of our corporate revenue. We're talking about as far as future import uncertainty when it comes to China. So we're not happy about where we are and how earnings have dropped associated with that business. But as you think about it going forward, that just adds another element of stability because there's just less risk there.

弗蘭克，除了專注於份額變化動態和今年的情況之外，我們確實感覺我們在穩定這項業務方面取得了巨大進展。當你考慮到我們所採取的所有行動時，我認為它肯定會變得更加穩定。顯然，我們已經做了很多來減少產能，關閉了英國資產，退出了薄片合資企業，現在我們三分之二的產量都簽訂了長期協議，這使我們能夠為客戶和我們自己提供穩定性，繼續在如何降低整個公司的成本方面取得進展，尤其是在這個業務方面。我們仍然有更多的機會提高那裡的生產力。然後，您會想到我們的創新努力將在今年開始發揮作用，明年將更有意義，並在香菸以外的其他市場找到新的應用，並且團隊所取得的進展和我們在那裡取得的成功令人印象深刻。所以，把所有這些綜合起來，我認為我們就有了一個穩定這項業務的良好局面。另一件需要注意的事情是，中國拖船現在與整個故事變得無關緊要了。想想看——它只占我們今年收入的不到 10%，而 Fibers 約占我們總收入的 10%，我們現在只占公司收入的 1%。我們正在談論未來中國進口的不確定性。因此，我們對目前的狀況以及與該業務相關的收益下降感到不滿。但當你展望未來時，這只會增加另一個穩定因素，因為那裡的風險更小。

All right. Got you, got you. One can hope that the change in ownership structure of the industry might also help. Can you provide an update on your $100 million productivity program in 2017 and where you were in Q1 and the expectations as we go through the year?

好的。明白了，明白了。人們希望，產業所有權結構的改變也能有所幫助。您能否介紹一下 2017 年 1 億美元生產力計畫的最新情況，以及第一季的進展和全年的預期？

Sure. Well, Mark mentioned our aggressive cost actions are on track to deliver about $100 million of cost reduction year-over-year. As a reminder, Frank, these are actions that include labor, site optimization, energy efficiency, et cetera. So given the nature of that, I'd say roughly 75% of our cost reductions are going to be kind of in that manufacturing, supply chain cost area. And with its large manufacturing base, Chemical Intermediates gets a good portion of those cost reductions in their results. And so you saw some of those benefits in the first quarter. Sometimes when things are going through inventories, it's always hard to predict exactly what was in the first quarter versus the rest of the year. But the simplest way I'd look at the $100 million of cost reductions, the line of sight we're implementing as we speak and it will be generally spread throughout the year evenly.

當然。嗯，馬克提到，我們積極的成本行動有望實現同比約 1 億美元的成本削減。提醒一下，弗蘭克，這些行動包括勞動力、場地優化、能源效率等等。因此，考慮到這種性質，我認為大約 75% 的成本削減將在製造、供應鏈成本領域進行。憑藉其龐大的生產基地，化學中間體在業績中獲得了很大一部分成本降低。因此，您在第一季就看到了其中的一些好處。有時，當庫存盤點時，總是很難準確預測第一季與今年剩餘時間的庫存狀況。但最簡單的方式是，我會看看我們正在實施的 1 億美元成本削減計劃，它將在全年平均分配。

Evenly.

均勻。

And we'll go to the next question. It comes from P.J. Juvekar with Citi.

我們來討論下一個問題。它來自花旗銀行的 P.J. Juvekar。

Couple of questions on the Taminco business. I know you have a methanol contract that runs through 2019, but with methanol price volatility, what was the impact on Taminco's, I mean, business? And then ag chemicals, particularly herbicides and pesticides, have been somewhat under pressure. Is that impacting Taminco as well?

關於 Taminco 業務的幾個問題。我知道你們有一份有效期至 2019 年的甲醇合同，但是甲醇價格波動對 Taminco 的業務有何影響？農業化學品，特別是除草劑和殺蟲劑，一直面臨一定壓力。這也對 Taminco 有影響嗎？

So Taminco has been a great acquisition, really done incredibly well. As you noted, methanol, obviously, came off with oil dropping from $100 to $50, and that created some pressure on our earnings in '15 and '16. But most of the contracts in Taminco are cost pass-through tied to market methanol, and as you noted we have an advantaged methanol position for part of our cost structure. So as oil's gone up, that's been helping that business improve this year versus last. So that's all sort of on track as you would expect. On the growth side, a lot of the business that they're in is quite stable, personal care, animal nutrition. Even our crop protection business in the Additives & Functional Products business is perishable products. These are high value, typically green vegetables or flowers, whatever. So there's not as much demand cyclicality as you hear about in sort of corn and soybean. So in place, we've been caught in these sort of crop demand cycles and some of our functional amines over in Chemical Intermediates. And obviously, that demand was off with the industry, though we're starting to see some recovery there this year. But there's still a lot of room for growth in recovery there that we're looking forward to realizing as we move forward from this year into the next.

因此，Taminco 是一次很棒的收購，而且做得非常好。正如您所說，甲醇顯然隨著油價從 100 美元跌至 50 美元而下跌，這對我們 2015 年和 2016 年的盈利造成了一些壓力。但 Taminco 的大多數合約都是與市場甲醇掛鉤的成本轉嫁，正如您所說，我們的部分成本結構在甲醇方面具有優勢。因此，隨著油價上漲，這有助於今年的業務比去年有所改善。正如您所期望的，一切都在按計劃進行。從成長方面來看，他們所從事的許多業務都相當穩定，例如個人照護、動物營養等。即使我們添加劑和功能產品業務中的作物保護業務也是易腐的產品。這些都是高價值的，通常是綠色蔬菜或鮮花，等等。因此，玉米和大豆的需求週期性並不像人們所聽到的那麼強烈。因此，我們陷入了這種作物需求週期以及化學中間體中的一些功能胺。顯然，該行業的需求有所下降，儘管今年我們開始看到一些復甦。但那裡的復甦仍有很大的成長空間，我們期待在今年邁向明年時實現這一目標。

And you mentioned about filter tow and what's going on there. Do you think there is room for more consolidation after the Blackstone-Solvay deal or this is a case of trying to see who shuts capacity down next?

您提到了過濾器拖曳以及那裡發生的事情。您是否認為在黑石集團與索爾維集團達成交易後，還有進一步整合的空間，或者這只是一個看看誰是下一個關閉產能的案例？

Well, I think that -- what I'm proud of is we've been very responsible managing our cost structure and taking out capacity to be better aligned in serving our customers, doing what we can do in the last couple of years with the U.K. tow shutdown and our exit of flake JV. We're down to our last flake asset and the tow that goes with it, and we have the lowest cost position with our integration back to coal and we have the largest scale in the industry. So we've done what we can do. Regards to industry consolidation, I don't think we play a direct role in that. I think it's really up to what the other 3 players choose to do, and it's better to ask them what they think is going to happen.

嗯，我認為——我感到自豪的是，我們非常負責任地管理我們的成本結構，並提高產能，以便更好地服務我們的客戶，在過去幾年裡，隨著英國拖車關閉和薄片合資企業的退出，我們盡了最大的努力。我們只剩下最後一塊薄片資產和與之相關的拖車，透過重新整合煤炭資源，我們擁有業內最低的成本，並且擁有業內最大的規模。所以我們已經做了我們能做的了。至於產業整合，我認為我們並沒有發揮直接作用。我認為這實際上取決於其他 3 名玩家的選擇，最好問問他們認為會發生什麼。

Okay. And also you mentioned about repurposing some capacity. When do we begin to see effects of that?

好的。您還提到了重新利用一些容量。我們什麼時候才能開始看到其效果？

I'm sorry. Could you repeat that question? You got garbled.

對不起。你能重複一下這個問題嗎？你被弄亂了。

He's asking about repurposing capacity for tow.

他詢問的是重新利用拖曳能力的情況。

Sure P.J., I think that we have the best innovation capability, hands down, when it comes to taking a technology stream and taking it into a wide range of new applications. We've been doing it for 90 years. We've done in polyester. We've done in cellulosics. We've done in a narrow part of olefins. We know how to do this. We've created all these different products for the industry. So we had stopped suddenly and run out of ideas. When the tow assets were running really tight, there wasn't a lot of need to do it. But as we saw things start to get a little bit softer in 2014, we formed the best people we had across the company in market development and product development, and they've just -- had tremendous success in developing a range of new applications. We're not going to talk about them specifically at this point because we're still in the middle of getting them in the market and getting all the IP finalized on some of these opportunities. But we'll be telling you more about it as we go through the year. But -- and the margins aren't going to be as good as tow, just to be clear. There are some that are low margins, some that are pretty attractive margins, but it's all against zero at the moment with the excess capacity we have. So it's all good earnings growth going forward.

當然可以，P.J.，我認為，在將技術流引入廣泛的新應用領域方面，我們擁有最好的創新能力。我們已經這樣做了90年。我們已經用聚酯纖維完成了。我們已經在纖維素材料領域完成了工作。我們已經在烯烴的狹窄部分完成了工作。我們知道如何做到這一點。我們為該行業創造了所有這些不同的產品。所以我們突然停下來並且沒有任何想法。當拖車資產非常緊張時，就沒有必要這麼做了。但隨著我們看到 2014 年情況開始變得有些疲軟，我們組建了公司最優秀的人才隊伍，負責市場開發和產品開發，他們在開發一系列新應用程式方面取得了巨大的成功。我們現在不會具體談論它們，因為我們仍處於將它們推向市場並最終確定其中一些機會的所有 IP 的過程中。但隨著時間的流逝，我們會告訴您更多相關資訊。但是——利潤率不會像拖車那麼好，只是要清楚。有些利潤率很低，有些利潤率相當誘人，但目前由於產能過剩，利潤率都為零。因此，未來的獲利成長前景良好。

And our next question comes from John Roberts with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的約翰羅伯茲。

As my follow-up, could you remind us of the range of transactions that you're entertaining at Longview? At the low end, I think it's just the idle capacity. What's the high end of the scope that you're considering?

作為我的後續問題，您能否提醒我們您在 Longview 正在進行的交易範圍？在低端，我認為這只是閒置產能。您所考慮的範圍的上限是多少？

Well, what we've talked about is the scope of our assets that were available is the excess ethylene, that's the baseline, because we don't feel that we're potentially the most natural owner of that excess ethylene position. And what we've talked about on top of it is we're willing to talk to different parties about some of the more commodity olefins for those crackers. We have not sized that, John, and that's because it varies by party. But the baseline is definitely at least the excess ethylene.

好吧，我們討論的是，我們可用資產的範圍是過剩乙烯，這是基準，因為我們不認為我們是過剩乙烯頭寸的最自然所有者。最重要的是，我們願意與各方討論這些裂解裝置的一些更商品化的烯烴。約翰，我們還沒有確定這個數字，這是因為它因政黨而異。但基線肯定至少是過量的乙烯。

(Operator Instructions) We'll go to the next question from Mike Sison with KeyBanc.

（操作員指示）我們來回答 KeyBanc 的 Mike Sison 提出的下一個問題。

In terms of AFP, volume growth continues to be very good. When do you think you'd turn the corner and generate some EBIT growth? I know raw material's kind of squeezing in near term. But does that show up in 2Q and 3Q and 4Q?

就 AFP 而言，銷售成長持續良好。您認為什麼時候能夠扭轉局面並實現息稅前利潤成長？我知道原料近期會面臨壓力。但這在第二季、第三季和第四季有體現嗎？

And so we're happy about the growth we've seen in the volume side, and we expect good volume growth as we go forward. When it comes to the pricing side of the equation, we were successful in getting price increases implemented in many products across the olefins, cellulosics and amines products. As I already noted, prices are coming off a little bit in adhesives, and we've seen prices come off a little bit in Crystex, which has been a natural dynamic for some time. So when you net it all together, we see prices go up in the second quarter. We are still intending to continue increasing prices beyond the second quarter as well as these raw materials flow through. But I think it's more of a back half dynamic than a front half when you start seeing the earnings growth on a year-over-year basis because the raw material spike was pretty big in the first quarter, flows through pretty slowly in specialty. So we still got to work our way through that in the second quarter.

因此，我們對銷售方面的成長感到高興，並且我們預計未來銷售將保持良好的成長。在定價方面，我們成功地提高了烯烴、纖維素和胺類產品等多種產品的價格。正如我已經指出的，黏合劑的價格正在略有下降，而且我們也看到 Crystex 的價格略有下降，這是一段時間以來的自然動態。因此，當我們把所有因素綜合起來時，我們會看到第二季價格上漲。我們仍打算在第二季之後以及這些原料流通期間繼續提高價格。但我認為，當你開始看到盈利同比增長時，這更多的是一個後半部分的動態，而不是前半部分，因為第一季度原材料的漲幅相當大，但在特種行業流通相當緩慢。所以我們在第二季仍需努力解決這個問題。

Got it. And then just shifting gears, a lot of the growth that you're seeing in the specialty businesses, you found them with the acquisitions. Any change and maybe looking for some bolt-ons to add to your specialty portfolio?

知道了。然後換個角度來說，你在專業業務中看到的許多成長都是透過收購實現的。有任何變化嗎？也許正在尋找一些附加功能來添加到您的專業組合中？

Yes. We're always looking for how to build the quality of our current businesses, and so bolt-ons are always an opportunity in addition to the organic growth that we're doing. And so that's always a consideration that we have when we look at how to best deploy our free cash flow. But I'll tell you right now, we don't have anything active. But I certainly hope we find some attractive acquisitions. I think we've demonstrated that we have a very impressive track record of doing great acquisitions and doing them in ways that we don't overpay for them. I like the fact that we haven't paid over 10 times for anything, 9x for our 2 largest acquisitions in synergies, giving us EBITDA multiples below 7. I think that's a good return for investors. But more importantly by far, we've done an excellent job of integrating these acquisitions into our company without losing any key talent. And more importantly, even beyond that is we're now demonstrating that we cannot only innovate in our core heritage Eastman technologies, but we can deliver innovation through our acquisitions and grow them equally well. And you're seeing that evidence right now with the strong growth in our interlayers business and acoustics and head-up display. You see the next-generation Crystex technology being launched, next-generation paint performance films. So really great story about how we create value through acquisitions.

是的。我們一直在尋找如何提升現有業務的質量，因此除了我們正在進行的有機成長之外，附加業務始終是一個機會。因此，當我們考慮如何最好地配置我們的自由現金流時，我們始終會考慮這一點。但我現在就告訴你，我們沒有任何活動。但我確實希望我們能找到一些有吸引力的收購。我認為我們已經證明，我們在進行重大收購方面有著非常令人印象深刻的記錄，而且我們在進行收購時不會付出過高的價格。我喜歡這樣一個事實：我們沒有為任何事物支付超過 10 倍的價格，出於協同效應，我們兩次最大的收購的價格均為 9 倍，這使我們的 EBITDA 倍數低於 7。我認為這對投資者來說是一個很好的回報。但到目前為止，更重要的是，我們在將這些收購的公司整合到我們公司的過程中做得非常出色，而且沒有失去任何關鍵人才。更重要的是，我們現在證明，我們不僅可以在伊士曼的核心傳統技術上進行創新，而且我們還可以藉助收購實現創新，並同樣出色地發展它們。現在，您就可以看到這項證據，我們的中間層業務、聲學和平視顯示器業務均實現了強勁成長。您將看到下一代 Crystex 技術正在推出，下一代油漆性能膜。關於我們如何透過收購創造價值的故事真是精彩。

And going to our next question, it comes from Laurence Alexander from Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Laurence Alexander。

This is Dan Rizzo on for Laurence. You mentioned before that you thought with olefin pricing being relatively remaining up through the third quarter, I was just wondering what your thoughts are with pricing towards the end of the year and into 2018, if you're expecting some easing with your outlook and what's your overall assumptions.

丹·里佐 (Dan Rizzo) 代替勞倫斯。您之前提到，您認為烯烴價格在第三季將保持相對上漲，我只是想知道您對今年年底和 2018 年的價格有何看法，您是否預計價格前景會有所緩和，以及您的總體假設是什麼。

Well, maybe -- I don't want to get into the business of trying to forecast the pricing of the different olefins. Maybe in a better way of -- I could address your question is how we're looking at cracking spreads, maybe a better way to approach it. And so when you look at over our cracking spreads, they're a little better year-over-year in the first quarter than we probably were anticipating back in January. But we're still thinking for the rest of this year, there's going to be some ebbs and flows. But generally speaking, we're assuming spreads will remain the same roughly for the remainder of the year as they were last year.

嗯，也許吧——我不想涉足預測不同烯烴價格的業務。也許更好的方法是——我可以回答你的問題是我們如何看待裂解價差，也許有更好的方法來解決這個問題。因此，當您查看我們的裂解價差時，您會發現第一季的裂解價差比去年同期略有好轉，這可能比我們一月份預期的要好一些。但我們仍然認為，今年剩餘時間仍將會出現一些起伏。但總體而言，我們假設今年剩餘時間的利差將與去年大致持平。

Okay. And then with your comments about the shift in acetate tow and the reduction in Chinese influence, does that possibly suggest that the end -- towards the end of this year that we're hitting the trough in the decline for that business? Or is 2018 perhaps another more modest leg lower?

好的。然後，根據您對醋酸纖維絲束的轉變和中國影響力的減弱的評論，這是否可能意味著到今年年底，我們將達到該業務下滑的低谷？或者 2018 年可能是又一次較為溫和的下跌？

No, I don't think there's any reason for us to think '18 is another modest leg lower. Obviously, it's not completely up to us in how the market dynamics play out. But from a demand point of view, we see stability. As I said, we're down to the China tow import business being a very small percentage of Fibers and a rounding area in the corporate story. So it's not as big of an issue as it was 2, 3 years ago. But we'll have to see. I mean, I think that we've done everything we can do. I'm very encouraged by what we see in the industry. I'm encourage by how we're going to fill these assets with new applications. So we're planning on stability in '18 relative to '17.

不，我認為我們沒有理由認為 18 只是又一次適度下跌。顯然，市場動態如何發展並不完全取決於我們。但從需求的角度來看，我們看到的是穩定。正如我所說的，我們認為中國的絲束進口業務在纖維業務中只佔很小的比例，並且在整個公司業務中只是一個很小的部分。因此，這個問題不再像兩、三年前那麼嚴重。但我們還需要拭目以待。我的意思是，我認為我們已經做了我們所能做的一切。我對我們所看到的行業現狀感到非常鼓舞。我很高興看到我們將如何用新的應用程式來填充這些資產。因此，我們計劃在 2018 年相對於 2017 年保持穩定。

And we'll take the next question from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets.

我們將回答 RBC Capital Markets 的 Arun Viswanathan 提出的下一個問題。

Just curious, maybe you can just touch a little bit on China as a region, what you're seeing, what you're hearing from your customers there across a couple of different businesses and then, similarly, with the automotives.

只是好奇，也許您可以稍微談談中國這個地區，談談您所看到的，談談您從那裡不同行業的客戶那裡聽到的，同樣，也談談汽車行業。

Asia's been great, and China including that statement, which is the largest market for us. We've seen great growth in our specialty businesses. Both Advanced Materials and Additives & Functional Products saw growth in automotive as well as building construction and consumer durables are all showing great growth. In fact, it's impressive when you look at our quarterly revenue growth in Asia being 3.5% over last year in the first quarter, when you consider the drop we've had in Fibers revenue in Asia. So I think it tells you that the growth in Asia is quite a bit stronger than what you're seeing in the specialties when you do the net math on that.

亞洲一直都很棒，包括那句話在內，中國是我們最大的市場。我們的專業業務取得了長足的成長。先進材料和添加劑及功能產品在汽車、建築施工和耐用消費品領域均實現了成長。事實上，當你看到我們第一季在亞洲的季度收入比去年同期增長了 3.5% 時，考慮到我們在亞洲的纖維收入有所下降，這是令人印象深刻的。因此，我認為，當你進行淨計算時，它告訴你亞洲的成長比你在專業領域看到的成長要強勁得多。

And just as a follow-up. You had experienced some competitive pressure in a couple of different markets, namely Adhesives & Plasticizers. As it relates to raws in the past, have you seen any of that? Or do you think that the market's still going rational now?

這只是後續行動。您在幾個不同的市場，即黏合劑和塑化劑，經歷了一些競爭壓力。就其與過去的原始內容有關而言，您見過其中任何內容嗎？還是您認為現在市場仍走向理性？

The plasticizer market is -- has certainly become a lot better, partly it's propylene costs and oil prices being higher, raising the cost structures of our competitors. In addition, the antidumping duties that we pursued against South Korea for some imports coming in and that soon being validated in the preliminary findings in the U.S. has led to a pretty material drop in -- already a pretty material drop in imports coming in from that country, allowing us to have both volume growth and price improvement in that market. So we feel good -- feel really good about that. And I think I already covered Adhesives conversation around the prices coming off a bit there.

增塑劑市場肯定已經變得好多了，部分原因是丙烯成本和油價上漲，提高了我們競爭對手的成本結構。此外，我們對韓國部分進口產品徵收的反傾銷稅很快就在美國的初步調查中得到證實，這導致來自該國的進口量大幅下降——已經大幅下降，這讓我們在該市場的進口量和價格都得到了增長。所以我們感覺很好——對此感覺非常好。我想我已經討論過有關粘合劑價格略有下降的話題。

Great. Thanks, again, everyone, for joining us this morning. A web replay and replay -- in downloadable MP3 format will be available on our website later this morning.

偉大的。再次感謝大家今天早上加入我們。今天上午晚些時候，我們的網站將提供網路重播和可下載的 MP3 格式的重播。

Have a great day.

祝你有美好的一天。

And that will conclude today's conference. We appreciate your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。