伊士曼化學 (EMN) 2017 Q2 法說會逐字稿

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

大家好，歡迎參加伊士曼化學公司2017年第二季電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。本次電話會議正在伊士曼網站 www.eastman.com 上進行網路直播。現在我們將會議交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。

Okay. Thank you, Anthony, 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。謝謝你，安東尼，大家早安，謝謝你加入我們。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 second quarter 2017 financial results news release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-Q filed for first quarter 2017 and the Form 10-Q to be filed for second 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 年第二季度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 2017 年第一季提交的 10-Q 表和即將於 2017 年第二季度提交的 10-Q 表。

Second, our second quarter and first 6 months 2017 earnings per share referenced in this presentation using adjusted provision for income taxes and certain prior periods earnings also exclude certain non-core items. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures, including a description of the excluded and adjusted items, are available in the second quarter 2017 financial results news release, which can be found on our website, www.eastman.com, in the Investors section. Projections of future earnings exclude any non-core, unusual or nonrecurring items and assume that the adjusted tax rate for the first 6 months 2017 will be the actual tax rate for the projected period.

其次，本報告中引用的 2017 年第二季和前六個月每股收益採用調整後的所得稅準備金和某些前期收益，也不包括某些非核心項目。與最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標及其他相關披露的對賬，包括排除項目和調整項目的描述，均可在 2017 年第二季度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。未來收益預測不包括任何非核心、不尋常或非經常性項目，並假設 2017 年前 6 個月的調整後稅率將是預測期間的實際稅率。

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

說完這些，我會把電話轉給馬克。

Good morning, everyone. I'll start on Slide 3. We continue to make great progress in executing our strategy with second quarter operating results that were consistent with our expectations.

大家早安。我將從幻燈片 3 開始。我們在執行策略方面持續取得巨大進展，第二季的經營業績符合我們的預期。

Our results demonstrate the strength of our specialty portfolio with continued volume growth of premium products in Advanced Materials and Additives & Functional Products. As I've said many times before, we are creating our own growth through innovation and leadership in specialty markets. We are seeing excellent progress in converting our top innovation programs into commercial orders across AM and AFP. In the first half, we delivered 7% volume growth in our specialty businesses, which is 2 to 3x the underlying market.

我們的業績證明了我們專業產品組合的實力，先進材料和添加劑及功能產品中的優質產品產量持續成長。正如我之前多次說過的，我們正在透過在專業市場的創新和領導來實現自身的成長。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。上半年，我們的特種業務銷售成長了 7%，是基礎市場銷售量的 2 到 3 倍。

In a few moments, I'll share examples of just a few of the ways we're winning with customers through innovation and our enhanced commercial capabilities. In addition to this specialty volume growth, we have done a great job implementing price increases to offset higher raw material costs, especially in intermediates. And we will see more of the benefits of these actions as we move into the second half of the year.

稍後我將分享一些我們透過創新和增強的商業能力贏得客戶青睞的方法。除了特種產品產量的成長之外，我們還出色地實施了價格上漲以抵消原材料成本的上漲，尤其是中間體的成本。隨著進入下半年，我們將看到這些行動帶來的更多好處。

On the cost management front, we continue to make great progress further improving our low cost position, which is already within the lowest cost quartile of the industry. These actions enable us to invest some of our savings to accelerate our growth programs and improve our cost structure going forward.

在成本管理方面，我們持續取得巨大進展，進一步提高我們的低成本地位，目前已經處於產業最低成本四分之一之內。這些舉措使我們能夠將部分儲蓄用於加速我們的成長計劃並改善未來的成本結構。

Our cash engine continues to generate impressive free cash flow as we remain on track to deliver approximately $1 billion of free cash flow in 2017, enabling an increasing dividend, deleveraging and an accelerating rate of share repurchases. During the first half of 2017, we returned approximately $325 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. These results demonstrate that we continue to execute on what we can control, from innovating through our enterprise to pricing discipline to returning cash to our stakeholders.

我們的現金引擎持續產生令人印象深刻的自由現金流，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、去槓桿化和股票回購速度加快。2017年上半年，我們透過股票回購和股利向股東返還了約3.25億美元。這些結果表明，我們將繼續執行我們能夠控制的事情，從企業創新到定價紀律，再到向利害關係人返還現金。

Moving on to Slide 4. 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.

轉到投影片 4。我們透過創新和市場開發增加高利潤特色產品的收入，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 of our recent innovation successes is our May launch of TREVA, a proprietary engineered bioplastic in Advanced Materials based on our cellulosics, which meets the improved sustainability profile and performance needs of brands, fabricators, molders and other companies across the value chain. Our innovative bioplastic, which leveraged our nearly 100 years of cellulosic expertise, is superior in chemical resistance, dimensional stability and has excellent flow, all while being sourced from sustainably managed forests. Our customers view TREVA as the first genuine engineered biopolymer ever introduced in the marketplace. And we can provide this polymer at scale today, which most alternatives cannot offer. This is a great example of what we can accomplish when we focus on creating our own growth. I'm extremely proud of the innovation team who brought this breakthrough from development and idea to launch in a record time of less than 2 years.

我們最近的創新成功之一是於 5 月推出的 TREVA，這是一種基於我們纖維素的先進材料專有工程生物塑料，可滿足品牌、製造商、模具製造商和整個價值鏈上其他公司對永續性和性能的更高要求。我們的創新生物塑膠充分利用了我們近 100 年的纖維素專業知識，具有優異的耐化學性、尺寸穩定性和流動性，同時原料均來自永續管理的森林。我們的客戶認為 TREVA 是市場上推出的第一個真正的工程生物聚合物。我們今天可以大規模提供這種聚合物，這是大多數替代品無法提供的。這是一個很好的例子，說明當我們專注於創造自己的成長時我們可以取得什麼成就。我為創新團隊感到非常自豪，他們在不到兩年的時間內就實現了這一突破，從開發和構思到產品發布。

Another innovation and market development success is our Saflex heads-up display interlayer within Advanced Materials. We have long been a leader in the attractive market that has been growing our HUD sales by about 35% through the first 6 months of 2017 versus last year. Looking forward, we are launching our next-generation head-up display product this year, which will improve image clarity for tolerance for our driver positions in windshields with complex curvatures, which is becoming a bigger and bigger trend in the market. Through our experience in working jointly with glass manufacturers and OEMs, we know how to enable best-in-class HUD optics as well as ensure a smooth launch of each HUD vehicle program. This success is a great example of the value of integration across technology platforms as it requires the integration of acquired PVB technology with our heritage plasticizer technology and optical expertise from specialty plastics.

另一項創新和市場開發成功是我們先進材料中的 Saflex 平視顯示器夾層。長期以來，我們一直是這個極具吸引力的市場的領導者，與去年相比，2017 年前 6 個月我們的 HUD 銷售額增長了約 35%。展望未來，我們今年將推出下一代平視顯示器產品，該產品將提高影像清晰度，以適應駕駛員在複雜曲率擋風玻璃中的位置，這正成為市場上越來越大的趨勢。透過與玻璃製造商和 OEM 合作的經驗，我們知道如何實現一流的 HUD 光學元件以及如何確保每個 HUD 車輛計劃的順利啟動。這項成功是跨技術平台整合價值的一個很好的例子，因為它需要將收購的 PVB 技術與我們傳統的塑化劑技術和特殊塑膠的光學專業知識相結合。

Finally, an update regarding our tire resins platform for Additives & Functional Products. With the new fuel economy standards coming in 2020, tire manufacturers are needing higher-performing additives to maintain performance and safety standards. We're uniquely qualified to meet this need and have actually commercialized a new family of proprietary resins for a leading global tire manufacturer and are sampling a full range of resins with selected innovation partners. Last year, tire resins already delivered double-digit volume growth over 2015. We expect that to accelerate to approximately 20% growth this year with margins above corporate average. This is another great example of revenue synergy from an acquired company, which brought a strong market connect and application development capability, combined with our unique resin technology platform. Impera tire resins, Saflex HUD and TREVA are just 3 of the success stories that are part of our larger innovation and market development portfolio.

最後，關於我們的輪胎樹脂平台添加劑和功能產品的更新。隨著 2020 年新燃油經濟性標準的出台，輪胎製造商需要性能更高的添加劑來維持性能和安全標準。我們擁有獨特的資質來滿足這一需求，並且已經為一家全球領先的輪胎製造商商業化了一系列新型專有樹脂，並且正在與選定的創新合作夥伴一起對全系列樹脂進行抽樣。去年，輪胎樹脂的銷量已比2015年實現了兩位數的成長。我們預計今年的成長率將加速至約 20%，利潤率將高於企業平均。這是被收購公司收入協同效應的另一個很好的例子，它帶來了強大的市場聯繫和應用開發能力，並結合了我們獨特的樹脂技術平台。Impera 輪胎樹脂、Saflex HUD 和 TREVA 只是我們更廣泛的創新和市場開發組合中的三個成功案例。

On Slide 5 is a higher-level look at our impressive innovation and market development portfolio. Our success in building this impressive innovation portfolio over the last 5 years is based on the integration of 3 critical capabilities that our competitors do not have: world-class technology platforms, where we are by far the R&D leader as well as having a far superior manufacturing scale and reliability; advantage application development capability via a true development partner with our customers, we're also realizing competitive -- compelling benefits from this significant investment, which has been critical to all of our market application launches; and a deep market connect, which is enabled by strong market share leadership and long history with our customers. These 3 capabilities are required to embrace market complexity and convert it into value, which is the only way you win long term in a specialty business where you produce molecules.

幻燈片 5 更深入地展示了我們令人印象深刻的創新和市場開發組合。過去五年來，我們成功打造出這令人印象深刻的創新組合，這得益於我們整合了競爭對手所不具備的三項關鍵能力：世界一流的技術平台，我們在該平台上是研發領域的領先者，同時擁有卓越的製造規模和可靠性；透過與客戶建立真正的開發合作夥伴，我們獲得了優勢應用開發能力，我們也從這項重大投資中獲得了極具競爭力的收益，這對我們所有市場應用的推出都至關重要；以及深度市場聯繫，這得益於我們強大的市場份額領導地位以及與客戶的長期合作。這三種能力是應對市場複雜性並將其轉化為價值所必需的，這是在生產分子的專業業務中取得長期成功的唯一途徑。

And this page provides the evidence of how this program is working across the company. We're seeing compelling customer validation of these innovative, differentiated and often-patented products, which enable strong growth into the future. In 2016, we delivered innovation and market development, adding greater than 2% to our corporate revenue. And we are on track to exceed that commitment in 2017. With the great success we're having, we are raising the growth rate to greater than 2% from our previous 1% to 2% commitment on innovation and market development.

此頁面提供了該計劃在整個公司如何運作的證據。我們看到客戶對這些創新、差異化且經常獲得專利的產品的認可，這將為未來的強勁成長提供動力。2016年，我們實現了創新和市場開發，公司收入成長了2%以上。我們預計在 2017 年超額完成這項承諾。憑藉我們取得的巨大成功，我們將創新和市場開發的成長率從先前 1% 到 2% 提高到 2% 以上。

On Slide 6, Eastman's competitive advantage is also based on a unique capability relative to specialty competitors. Our vertical and horizontal integration is a critical advantage to our success in an increasingly competitive world. It's much more than just a substantial cost advantage. It enables innovation, reliability, operational excellence and dampens earnings volatility. Our greatest success stories in innovation over decades has come from integration across technology streams. Our most differentiated cellulosics specialties include an integration of acetyls and propylene derivatives. Tritan is another example of the integration of our polyester stream with acetyls and olefin platforms. And we are extending this technology into Tetrashield, which is our recently introduced protective coating resin to help AFP accelerate their growth.

在投影片 6 中，伊士曼的競爭優勢也基於相對於專業競爭對手的獨特能力。我們的垂直和水平整合是我們在日益激烈的競爭中取得成功的關鍵優勢。這不僅僅是顯著的成本優勢。它能夠實現創新、可靠性、卓越營運並抑制收益波動。幾十年來，我們在創新方面最大的成功來自於跨技術流的整合。我們最具差異化的纖維素專業產品包括乙醯基和丙烯衍生物的整合。Tritan 是我們的聚酯流與乙醯基和烯烴平台整合的另一個例子。我們正在將這項技術擴展到 Tetrashield，這是我們最近推出的保護塗層樹脂，旨在幫助 AFP 加速其發展。

There are many other examples on the previous slide of how integration is a key enabler of our innovation and market development portfolio. Reliability and security of supply in specialties is essential to our customers, especially for our many proprietary products. Integration back to readily available raw materials and the operational expertise enabled by large integrated sites allow us to have an outstanding reliability record as we have not had a force majeure in over 20 years. Of course, we have a significant scale on cost advantage from keeping large integrated sites running full that cascade throughout the streams into multiple product lines. This benefits our margins and allows us to be competitive and support our growth programs.

上一張投影片中還有許多其他例子，說明整合如何成為我們創新和市場開發組合的關鍵推動因素。專業產品供應的可靠性和安全性對我們的客戶至關重要，尤其是對於我們的許多專有產品。透過整合易於取得的原材料以及大型綜合站點所具備的營運專業知識，我們擁有出色的可靠性記錄，因為我們在 20 多年來從未遇到過不可抗力事件。當然，透過保持大型綜合站點滿載運行，並將整個流程串聯到多條產品線，我們在成本方面具有顯著的規模優勢。這有利於我們的利潤，使我們具有競爭力並支持我們的成長計劃。

We're also adept at developing higher-value products and leveraging our existing asset base to make them. For example, Tritan is made from a former PET asset, and the heads-up display is made in the assets as standard interlayers at much higher margins. And integration could help to diminish earnings volatility at the corporate level. Second quarter was an example of this as Chemical Intermediates strength helped to offset the timing of recovery of raw materials in the specialties. Although we value integration, this does not mean that we won't make the right portfolio choices. Our history of divesting approximately $3.5 billion of revenue since 2004 attests to that. And we remain very committed to working to divest, at a minimum, our excess ethylene and potentially its derivatives. With that said, we see our integration as a source of value and a key enabler of innovation and cost reductions today and into the future.

我們也擅長開發更高價值的產品並利用現有的資產基礎來生產這些產品。例如，Tritan 是由先前的 PET 資產製成的，並且平視顯示器是在資產中作為標準夾層製造的，利潤率要高得多。整合有助於降低企業層面的獲利波動。第二季就是一個例子，因為化學中間體的強勢幫助抵消了特殊原料復甦的時間。儘管我們重視整合，但這並不意味著我們不會做出正確的投資組合選擇。自 2004 年以來，我們剝離了約 35 億美元收入的歷史就證明了這一點。我們仍然致力於至少剝離過剩的乙烯及其衍生物。話雖如此，我們認為我們的整合是價值的源泉，也是當前和未來創新和降低成本的關鍵推動因素。

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

說完這些，我會把話題交給 Curt。

All right. Thanks, Mark. I'll start with our second quarter corporate results on Slide 7. 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. And we were able to raise prices in our Chemical Intermediates segment to offset higher raw material and energy costs.

好的。謝謝，馬克。我將從幻燈片 7 開始介紹我們第二季的公司業績。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。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 continued to improve sequentially and for the quarter, were up more than 3% year-over-year. Operating earnings grew as increases in Advanced Materials and Chemical Intermediates were more than offset in declines in other areas -- more than offset, I should say. Our operating margin expanded both sequentially and year-over-year as we made good progress offsetting a material headwind from higher raw material costs.

對於該公司而言，銷售價格持續連續上漲，本季銷售價格年增超過 3%。由於先進材料和化學中間體業務的成長被其他領域的下滑所抵消，營業利潤有所增長——應該說是抵消得更多。由於我們在抵銷原料成本上漲帶來的材料阻力方面取得了良好進展，我們的營業利潤率較上季和年比均有所擴大。

Overall, earnings per share increased year-over-year by 18%, reflecting solid operating earnings and other actions taken to deliver earnings per share growth. These positive results reflect our continued focus on managing the things we can control and taking actions to deliver earnings per share growth in what remains an uncertain global business environment.

總體而言，每股收益同比增長 18%，反映了穩健的營業收益和為實現每股收益增長而採取的其他措施。這些積極的結果反映了我們繼續專注於管理我們能夠控制的事情，並採取行動在仍然不確定的全球商業環境中實現每股收益成長。

Moving next to the segment results with Advanced Materials on Slide 8, which delivered a strong first half of the year. For the quarter, sales revenue increased due to higher sales volume across the segment, including premium products listed here on this slide. Operating earnings increased primarily due to higher sales volume and fixed cost leverage, partially offset by higher raw material and energy costs. Despite the headwind from higher raw material costs, Advanced Materials expanded its operating margins both sequentially and year-over-year. Sequentially, we delivered a 13% increase in earnings, driven by volume growth, mix improvement and fixed cost leverage. This marks another strong 6 months for Advanced Materials as first half operating earnings increased 8% or $18 million, driven by a 6% increase in sales volumes and lower unit cost due to higher capacity utilization.

接下來是幻燈片 8 上的先進材料部門業績，該部門上半年表現強勁。本季度，由於整個部門的銷售量增加，包括本投影片中列出的優質產品，銷售收入增加。營業利潤的成長主要由於銷售量和固定成本槓桿的增加，但原材料和能源成本的上升部分抵消了這一增長。儘管面臨原材料成本上漲的不利因素，先進材料公司的營業利潤率仍比上一季和上年同期均有所擴大。受銷售成長、產品組合改善和固定成本槓桿的推動，我們的獲利連續成長了 13%。這標誌著先進材料公司又度過了強勁的六個月，上半年營業利潤增長 8% 或 1800 萬美元，這得益於銷售量增長 6% 以及產能利用率提高導致單位成本降低。

As a result, first half 2017 operating margin increased to 20%, an approximately 60 basis point improvement over the first half of '16, which demonstrates the strength of this business in an environment of increasing raw materials and reflects the level of returns this business deserves, given the investments we are making. Overall solid results, which continues Advanced Materials' track record of success. For the back of the year, underlying business performance should remain strong as Advanced Materials continues to execute its strategy of mid-single-digit volume growth, mix improvement and fixed cost leverage. We are delivering compelling proof of our ability to drive growth through innovation, even in a slow growth macro environment.

因此，2017 年上半年的營業利潤率增至 20%，比 2016 年上半年提高了約 60 個基點，這表明在原材料價格上漲的環境下，該業務仍然保持強勁，並考慮到我們的投資，該業務應得的回報水平。整體而言，業績穩健，延續了先進材料公司的成功記錄。今年下半年，由於先進材料公司持續執行其中位數銷售成長、產品組合改善和固定成本槓桿策略，其基礎業務表現應能保持強勁。我們正在提供令人信服的證據，證明即使在成長緩慢的宏觀環境下，我們也有能力透過創新推動成長。

Now to Additives & Functional Products on Slide 9, where results are in line with our expectations. Sales revenue increased year-over-year due to higher sales volume and higher selling prices for most product lines. Operating earnings declined as higher raw material and energy costs were more than offset -- more than offset the impact of higher sales volumes and higher selling prices. Sequentially, operating earnings increased 5% as sales volume increased to 5% due to seasonality and selling prices increased as we continued to work to offset higher input costs.

現在就來看看投影片 9 上的添加劑和功能產品，其結果符合我們的預期。由於銷售量增加以及大多數產品線的銷售價格上漲，銷售收入較去年同期成長。由於原材料和能源成本上漲超過了銷售量增加和銷售價格上漲的影響，營業利潤出現下降。由於季節性因素導致銷售量增加 5%，且我們持續努力抵銷更高的投入成本，導致銷售價格上漲，因此營業收入較上季增加 5%。

Looking at full year 2017. We continue to expect mid-single-digit sales volume growth, which would be about double end market growth. This volume growth reflects innovation and market development initiatives in this segment, including tie resins as well as acquired businesses, such as fluids, solar projects and care chemicals. And as we have indicated previously, strong volume growth in some of these acquired businesses are operating margins below the segment average. We also expect to continue to work to offset input cost increases with higher selling prices and therefore, expect our operating margin in the second half of the year to be above the first half. All-in, Additives & Functional Products remains well positioned to deliver solid earnings growth 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，這大約是終端市場成長的兩倍。這一銷售成長反映了該領域的創新和市場開發舉措，包括連接樹脂以及收購的業務，如流體、太陽能專案和護理化學品。正如我們之前所指出的，其中一些被收購企業的銷售成長強勁，但營業利潤率卻低於該行業的平均水平。我們也預計將繼續努力透過提高銷售價格來抵銷投入成本的增加，因此預計下半年的營業利潤率將高於上半年。總體而言，添加劑和功能產品業務仍處於有利地位，預計今年將實現穩健的獲利成長。

Now to Chemical Intermediates on Slide 10. Sales revenue increased due to higher selling prices attributed to higher raw material prices and continued improvement in competitive conditions. Operating earnings increased primarily due to higher selling prices, lower commodity hedge levels and lower scheduled maintenance costs, partially offset by higher raw material and energy costs.

現在就來看看投影片 10 上的化學中間體。銷售收入的成長是由於原物料價格上漲以及競爭條件持續改善導致銷售價格上漲。營業利潤的成長主要由於銷售價格上漲、商品對沖水平降低以及定期維護成本降低，但原材料和能源成本的上漲部分抵消了這一增長。

Looking at full year 2017. We continue to do a nice job of recovering from a trough 2016 as we increased prices to offset higher raw material and energy costs and benefit from both lower commodity hedge costs and our cost reduction program, which Chemical Intermediates receives the largest share. These actions will help to mitigate the anticipated headwind from weakness in ethylene prices during the back half of the year.

展望2017年全年。我們繼續順利地從 2016 年的低谷中復甦，因為我們提高了價格以抵消原材料和能源成本的上漲，並且受益於較低的商品對沖成本和我們的成本削減計劃，其中化學中間體佔據了最大的份額。這些措施將有助於緩解下半年乙烯價格疲軟預計帶來的不利影響。

Lastly, I'll give you a quick update on our process for divesting our excess ethylene capacity and potentially certain commodity olefin product lines. We continue to work with a variety of interested parties and remain hopeful we can find a mutually agreeable transaction. Given the current environment, these negotiations are taking a little longer than expected.

最後，我將簡要介紹我們剝離過剩乙烯產能和潛在的某些商品烯烴產品線的流程。我們將繼續與各種有興趣的各方合作，並希望能夠找到雙方都同意的交易。鑑於當前的環境，這些談判所花的時間比預期要長一些。

I'll finish up the segment review with Fibers on Slide 11, where our results were in line with our expectations. Sales revenue decreased primarily due to lower selling prices, particularly for acetate tow, attributed to lower industry capacity utilization rates. Additionally, acetate tow sales for the second quarter was down 4% year-over-year, more than offset by higher sales volume for acetate flake and acetyl chemicals due to timing of customer shipments. Operating earnings declined due to lower selling prices, partially offset by lower operating costs, resulting from recent cost reduction actions.

我將在第 11 張投影片上結束對 Fibers 的細分回顧，我們的結果符合我們的預期。銷售收入下降主要是因為行業產能利用率較低導致銷售價格下降，尤其是醋酸絲束的銷售價格下降。此外，第二季醋酸纖維絲束銷量較去年同期下降 4%，但由於客戶出貨時間原因，醋酸纖維薄片和乙醯化學品銷量增加，抵消了部分銷量下降的影響。由於銷售價格下降，營業利潤下降，但近期採取的成本削減措施導致營業成本下降，部分抵銷了這種影響。

Looking forward, we expect earnings to modestly improve sequentially in the third quarter with further sequential improvement again in the fourth quarter as we realize regained share lost earlier in the year, which we discussed back in our April earnings call. Our full year view includes an expectation that acetate tow volume outside of China will be about flat for the full year relative to last year. We're taking all actions within our control to provide stability for this business moving forward and expect Fibers will continue to be a valuable business for Eastman.

展望未來，我們預計第三季度盈利將環比小幅改善，第四季度盈利將進一步環比改善，因為我們收回了今年早些時候失去的份額，這一點我們在 4 月份的盈利電話會議上討論過。我們對全年的展望包括預計中國以外地區的醋酸纖維絲束產量將全年與去年持平。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，並期望纖維業務將繼續成為伊士曼的一項寶貴業務。

On Slide 12, I'll transition to an overview of cash flow and other financial highlights for the second quarter. We continue to do an excellent job of generating cash with first 6 months operating cash flow of over $480 million. Capital expenditures for the first half of 2017 totaled $279 million. We continue to expect our full year capital expenditures will be approximately $575 million. I remain confident in our ability to generate approximately $1 billion of free cash flow for the year.

在第 12 張投影片上，我將概述第二季的現金流量和其他財務亮點。我們繼續出色地完成現金創造工作，前 6 個月的營運現金流超過 4.8 億美元。2017年上半年資本支出總計2.79億美元。我們繼續預計全年資本支出約為 5.75 億美元。我仍然對我們今年創造約 10 億美元自由現金流的能力充滿信心。

Looking at the balance sheet. We continue to expect a $350 million in debt this year, which will occur in the second half of the year. Additionally, we remain committed to returning cash to our stockholders. Through the first 6 months, we returned $324 million through $140 million in dividends and $175 million in share repurchases. Our effective tax rate for the second quarter was 19%. We expect our full year tax rate to be approximately 20%, which is on the low end of the 20% to 22% previously guided, reflecting the continued benefits of our improved business operations and the impact of expected tax events.

查看資產負債表。我們預計今年的債務仍將達到 3.5 億美元，這將發生在今年下半年。此外，我們仍致力於向股東返還現金。在前 6 個月，我們透過 1.4 億美元的股息和 1.75 億美元的股票回購返還了 3.24 億美元。我們第二季的有效稅率為19%。我們預計全年稅率約為 20%，處於先前預測的 20% 至 22% 的低端，反映了我們改善的業務運營帶來的持續利益以及預期稅收事件的影響。

As a whole, I'm pleased with the earnings and cash flow performance to start the year. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Mark.

整體而言，我對今年年初的獲利和現金流表現感到滿意。說完這些，我會把話題交還給馬克。

Thanks, Curt. On Slide 13, I'll discuss our outlook for 2017. We continue to benefit from our specialty businesses, which we expect to deliver mid-single-digit volume growth for the year, which is 2 to 3x the growth rate of the underlying markets. To deliver this, we are leveraging innovation and market development initiatives to drive growth in attractive end markets. And we're delivering revenue synergies through improvements in the commercial execution capabilities of our acquired businesses.

謝謝，Curt。在第 13 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，我們預計今年該業務的銷售將實現中等個位數成長，是基礎市場成長率的 2 到 3 倍。為了實現這一目標，我們正在利用創新和市場開發計劃來推動有吸引力的終端市場的成長。我們透過提高所收購企業的商業執行能力來實現收入綜效。

We've also taken actions to reduce cost in a disciplined way, which has allowed us to strategically invest in long-term growth and further improve our cost structure. And we are benefiting from a reduction in the commodity hedge costs. We have improved the quality of our balance sheet, reducing interest costs. And we have made further progress on optimizing our business structure, so our effective tax rate this year is expected to be slightly lower than last year. Finally, disciplined capital allocation continues to contribute to growth, including accelerating our share repurchases in 2017 compared with '16.

我們也採取了有紀律的措施來降低成本，這使我們能夠策略性地投資於長期成長並進一步改善我們的成本結構。我們也受惠於商品對沖成本的降低。我們提高了資產負債表的質量，降低了利息成本。而且我們在優化業務結構方面也取得了進一步的進展，因此預計今年的有效稅率將比去年略有下降。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 to offset challenges we continue to face, including uncertain global GDP, more than normal volatility in raw material prices in ethylene and the challenges we face in Fibers. Putting this all together, on an operational level, we expect strong performance in line with previous expectations we outlined in January and in our April calls. Our expectation for 2017 EPS growth has improved to 10% to 12%, which will be an excellent result in this business environment. And we remain committed to our $1 billion of free cash flow target, which is one of the most compelling in the industry.

所有這些行動都有助於抵消我們繼續面臨的挑戰，包括不確定的全球 GDP、乙烯原材料價格的波動幅度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，我們預期業績將表現強勁，符合我們在 1 月和 4 月電話會議上提出的預期。我們對 2017 年每股收益成長的預期已提高至 10% 至 12%，這在目前的商業環境下將是一個優異的結果。我們仍然致力於實現 10 億美元的自由現金流目標，這是業界最引人注目的目標之一。

On Slide 12, let me summarize where we are. We have a strong portfolio of specialty businesses. We expect to deliver approximately 70% of our earnings from these high-quality specialty businesses. We continue to create our own growth through accelerating innovation, improving commercial excellence across our businesses and improving our product mix. We're committed to using every lever we have in this uncertain environment. And we are returning our very strong free cash flow to stockholders.

在第 12 張投影片上，讓我總結一下我們現在的狀況。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。我們透過加速創新、提高整個業務的商業卓越性和改善我們的產品組合來繼續創造我們自己的成長。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手段。我們正在向股東返還非常強勁的自由現金流。

I also want to take a moment to say how proud I am of all of the Eastman employees. In building a long-term innovation-driven company, it is extremely hard to cut costs aggressively at the same time. Deeply appreciate how everyone is driving for cost improvements and fighting for every revenue dollar across the company. And at the same time, I'm extremely proud of how our growth teams are staying focused on driving for commercial orders across all of our innovation programs. All of us at Eastman are committed to delivering both short-term earnings growth and building a company that can also deliver long-term earnings growth. And I look forward to discussing our strategy to both short- and long-term growth at Investor Day, either late this year or early next year.

我也想花點時間表達我對所有伊士曼員工的自豪感。在打造一家長期創新驅動的公司時，同時大幅削減成本是極為困難的。深深感謝公司上下為改善成本、爭取每一分收入所做的努力。同時，我對我們的成長團隊如何專注於推動所有創新項目的商業訂單感到非常自豪。伊士曼全體員工都致力於短期獲利成長，並打造一家能夠實現長期獲利成長的公司。我期待在今年年底或明年年初的投資者日上討論我們的短期和長期成長策略。

Thanks for joining us this morning, and look forward to your questions. With that, I'll turn it back to Greg.

感謝您今天早上加入我們，並期待您的提問。說完這些，我就把話題轉回給格雷格。

All right. Thanks, Mark. (Operator Instructions) With that, Anthony, we are ready for questions.

好的。謝謝，馬克。（操作員指示）安東尼，我們已經準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners.

（操作員指示）我們的第一個問題來自 Vertical Research Partners 的 Kevin McCarthy。

Wondering if you could bring us up to speed on where you stand in your specialty chemical businesses with regard to the gap between raw material cost inflation and selling prices. Where are you most confident that you've closed that gap? And where do you have the most work still ahead, please?

想知道您是否可以向我們介紹一下貴公司特種化學品業務在原材料成本上漲和銷售價格之間的差距方面的情況。您最有信心在哪些方面縮小了差距？請問您接下來最需要完成的工作是什麼？

Sure. We're feeling great about how we're managing our overall portfolio. I mean, our story is obviously about very strong volume growth and mix upgrade across the businesses and we're seeing that. Obviously, there was a pretty big spike-up in raw material prices in the first quarter. And many of them come off, and I think we're making good progress on improving prices in AM and AFP, where it actually matters. On the AM side, we continue to see strong earnings growth for the year. It is predominantly driven by volume and mix, but we're also getting prices up in the polyesters, where we saw some raw material headwinds. You have to remember though in AM, the contracts for the interlayer business are actual fixed contracts. So those prices are fixed for the year based on the nature of that business. So that's really about '18. On the AFP side, as you saw, we already made good progress in getting our prices up. And I'd like to highlight that not only do we get our prices up, we also delivered outstanding volume growth at the same time. So I feel good that we're able to do both. And we're continuing to raise prices to offset some raw material headwinds in that business as we go into the third quarter. So in general, we feel good about recovering the raws there in AFP and feel good about the guidance we've given around the overall earnings growth for both businesses being strong in AM and solid in AFP on a full year basis.

當然。我們對於整體投資組合的管理方式感到非常滿意。我的意思是，我們的故事顯然是關於非常強勁的銷售成長和業務組合升級，我們正在看到這一點。顯然，第一季原物料價格上漲幅度較大。其中許多都已實現，我認為我們在提高 AM 和 AFP 價格方面取得了良好進展，這才是真正重要的。在 AM 方面，我們繼續看到今年強勁的獲利成長。這主要受產量和混合因素的影響，但聚酯的價格也在上漲，因為我們看到了一些原料的阻力。不過，您必須記住，在 AM 中，夾層業務的合約是實際的固定合約。因此，這些價格是根據業務性質決定的年度價格。這確實與 18 年有關。在法新社方面，如您所見，我們在提高價格方面已經取得了良好的進展。我想強調的是，我們不僅提高了價格，同時也實現了出色的銷售成長。所以我很高興我們能夠同時做到這兩點。進入第三季度，我們將繼續提高價格，以抵消該業務的一些原材料阻力。因此，總體而言，我們對 AFP 的恢復感到滿意，並且對我們給出的有關兩大業務全年整體盈利增長的指導感到滿意，即 AM 業務強勁，AFP 業務穩健。

Just as a follow-up, Mark, you ticked up your expected contribution through 2018 from your innovation efforts. What changed there?

馬克，作為後續問題，您提到了 2018 年創新努力的預期貢獻。那裡有什麼變化？

It's just seeing tremendous engagement from customers and excitement by them around our top 10 innovation programs. We have this list that we're very focused on that our platforms allow us to grow in multiple applications in markets. And it's just amazing to see, the top 10 programs we have today are still the same 10 that we had 3 years ago. And for those who know growth portfolios, it's amazing that all 10 are still alive and kicking and driving forward. Normally, you have some sort of die along the way. So that's incredibly encouraging. And in the last 6 months and what we see in the next 6 months, 8 of those 10 are going commercial with commercial orders coming in. So you just see growth happening all over the place in AM and AFP. And even these initiatives we've kicked off to help fill the Fiber assets in the tow business, we're seeing great traction and success and orders in a few places on those new innovation efforts to leverage those assets. And TREVA is one of those examples. We're seeing growth in Naia, which is a new acetate yarn we launched. And there's a bunch of things we're not yet ready to talk about. But it's just exciting to see the growth across all 3 of these segments. And so we have a lot higher confidence that we're going to be more and more innovation-driven in our top line.

我們看到客戶對我們的十大創新計劃表現出極大的參與和興奮感。我們有這個清單，我們非常關注我們的平台，這使得我們在市場上的多個應用程式中能夠成長。令人驚訝的是，我們今天擁有的十大項目仍然和三年前的十大項目一樣。而對於那些了解成長型投資組合的人來說，令人驚訝的是，這 10 隻股票仍然活躍且不斷向前發展。通常情況下，你在途中會遭遇某種死亡。這真是令人鼓舞。在過去的 6 個月以及未來 6 個月中，我們看到這 10 艘船中有 8 艘將投入商業運營，並有商業訂單陸續到來。因此，您會看到 AM 和 AFP 各處都在成長。即使我們啟動這些舉措是為了幫助填補拖車業務中的光纖資產，我們也看到了巨大的吸引力和成功，並且在一些地方透過這些新的創新努力來利用這些資產獲得了訂單。TREVA 就是其中一個例子。我們推出的新型醋酸纖維紗線 Naia 正在成長。還有很多事情我們還沒準備好要談。但看到這三個領域的成長還是令人興奮的。因此，我們更有信心，我們的營收將越來越以創新為驅動。

Our next question comes from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Mark, just in Advanced Materials, volumes were up 3% in Q2 versus plus 10% in Q1. Was that just a matter of Q1 maybe pulling in some volumes from Q2? And is the first half number a better look at that business versus the 10% and 3%?

馬克，僅在先進材料方面，第二季的銷量就成長了 3%，而第一季則成長了 10%。這是否只是第一季可能從第二季吸收一些銷售的問題？與 10% 和 3% 相比，上半年的數字是否更能反映該業務的情況？

Certainly, the first half is the better way to look at that business, David. There is a certain chunky nature to sort of how these -- the Tritan business, in particular, performs. As I mentioned in the first quarter call, we saw a tremendous number of new business closes around Tritan applications last fall that led to orders that were quite high to fill the shelves for all these new products. And so that drove up volume. Obviously, once you fill the shelves, demand drops off a bit. And there's just some of that cyclicality you see in the consumer durable business as you get wins. So that was part of the sorry, David. Part of it is a bit of a prebuy, I think. As people expected prices to go up in the polyesters, they were pulling ahead a little volume, so we saw some of that. That doesn't give us any concern about the rest of the year. And then we've seen auto OEMs obviously slow down a little bit in growth rates. And so that slowed down the interlayer business a little bit. But none of that, when you combine it together, gives us any concerns about the full year number. And you have to remember even on the auto side, we have a lot of ways to grow even in a flat market. We have these double-digit growth rates in acoustics and head-up display interlayers. That's a huge earnings mix upgrade inside that OEM market. And we're also gaining a lot of real estate beyond the windshield, in the side windows and the sunroofs allow us growth above OEM build rates. So we're feeling good about the business.

當然，大衛，前半部分是看待這項業務的更好方式。這些 — — 尤其是 Tritan 業務 — — 的表現都有一定的厚重性。正如我在第一季電話會議上提到的那樣，去年秋天，我們看到圍繞 Tritan 應用的新業務量大幅增加，導致訂單量相當高，以至於所有這些新產品的貨架都擠滿了訂單。因此這提高了銷量。顯然，一旦貨架上擺滿了東西，需求就會下降一些。當你獲得勝利時，你會看到耐用消費品業務中的一些週期性。這就是抱歉的一部分，大衛。我認為，其中一部分是預購。由於人們預期聚酯纖維價格會上漲，因此他們的交易量增加，我們看到了一些這種情況。這並沒有讓我們對今年剩餘的時間感到擔憂。然後我們看到汽車原始設備製造商的成長率明顯放緩。因此，這稍微減緩了夾層業務的發展。但當你把這些因素綜合起來時，我們就不會對全年數據感到擔憂。你必須記住，即使在汽車方面，我們也有很多方法可以在不景氣的市場中成長。我們在聲學和平視顯示器夾層領域實現了兩位數的成長率。這對於 OEM 市場來說是一次巨大的獲利組合升級。除了擋風玻璃之外，我們還在側窗和天窗方面獲得了大量空間，這使得我們的成長率高於 OEM 的建造率。所以我們對業務感到很滿意。

Very good. And Curt, just on the euro and FX, what's the impact of the euro in second half guidance versus what you were expecting back in April?

非常好。而 Curt，僅就歐元和外匯而言，與您 4 月的預期相比，歐元對下半年指引的影響如何？

Well, again as you've looked at the euro, it has improved of late. That is obviously favorable to Eastman. You saw the second quarter, it was roughly $1.10, first quarter, $1.03. So what it's doing for us is going to be a slight favorable if this continues. And that's just embedded into our overall guidance.

好吧，再次看看歐元，它最近有所改善。這對伊士曼來說顯然是有利的。您看到第二季的價格約為 1.10 美元，第一季的價格為 1.03 美元。因此，如果這種情況持續下去，對我們來說將會略有好處。這已經融入我們的整體指導中。

Our next question comes from P.J. Juvekar with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 P.J. Juvekar。

Well, one of your competitors is merging its 2 assets with another player. Were you involved in any of those discussions? Or are you proactively doing anything about your 2 business?

好吧，您的一個競爭對手正在將其 2 項資產與另一個競爭對手合併。您是否參與過其中任何討論？或者您是否正在積極地為您的第二項業務做些什麼？

Well, this is Curt. We believe we are the lowest cost assets in history. And with the actions we have taken of last year's, we're balanced on flake and tow. So we've taken actions we feel we need to take, P.J. It's not our practice to comment on what else someone else is doing with their assets or their transactions. So right now, our focus is on taking the actions we can within our control to stabilize this business in 2018 and beyond.

嗯，這是 Curt。我們相信我們是歷史上成本最低的資產。透過去年採取的行動，我們在薄片和拖曳方面取得了平衡。因此，我們採取了我們認為需要採取的行動，P.J. 我們不會評論其他人對其資產或交易的處理方式。因此，現在我們的重點是採取我們所能採取的行動，以穩定 2018 年及以後的業務。

Yes, I would say that we feel great about the actions that we have taken. We do see the business stabilizing this year. As we've discussed in the past, we've got 2/3 of our volume in multiyear agreements. As Curt mentioned, we've taken a lot of actions to reduce and align our asset footprint with the market and be cost-competitive. And in fact, we're the only company that's actually rationalizing assets since 2013, when this all started. And as I just mentioned, we're making tremendous progress in our new applications to fill these assets into new markets. So I feel really good about focusing on what we're controlling and how we're stabilizing this business. And we'll just have to see what other people choose to do with theirs.

是的，我想說我們對我們所採取的行動感到非常高興。我們確實看到今年的業務正在趨於穩定。正如我們過去所討論過的，我們的 2/3 交易量都來自多年期協議。正如 Curt 所提到的，我們已經採取了很多措施來減少和調整我們的資產足跡以適應市場並提高成本競爭力。事實上，自 2013 年一切開始以來，我們是唯一一家真正合理化資產的公司。正如我剛才提到的，我們在新應用方面取得了巨大進展，以將這些資產推向新的市場。因此，我很高興能夠專注於我們所控制的事情以及我們如何穩定這項業務。我們只需要看看其他人會選擇如何處理它們。

Okay. And then one more question on AdMat. Pricing has been an issue for the last 6 quarters. I see your Tritan bottles everywhere. That's good news, you're getting the volume. Why aren't you able to get pricing? Or is that related to raw materials?

好的。還有一個關於 AdMat 的問題。過去六個季度以來，定價一直是一個問題。我隨處都可以看到你們的 Tritan 瓶。這是個好消息，你獲得了音量。為什麼您無法獲得定價？或者說跟原料有關係嗎？

So in Advanced Materials, I think that's what you said, right, about Tritan, P.J.? You just broke up in the beginning.

那麼在《先進材料》中，我想這就是您所說的關於 Tritan 的事情，對嗎，P.J.？一開始你們就分手了。

Yes.

是的。

So what we're seeing in that chain is great pricing discipline. We have done quite well in our pricing for Advanced Materials if you go back to '14 through now and how we've managed that business. And the other thing to keep in mind is the increases in paraxylene have been pretty moderated in that part of the world compared to what you saw happen in AFP and CI. The real huge spikes in raw material numbers was really more in that side of the world than it was in the polyester chain.

因此，我們在該連鎖店看到的是良好的定價紀律。如果回顧 2014 年至今的情況以及我們如何管理先進材料業務，那麼我們在定價方面做得相當不錯。另外要記住的是，與 AFP 和 CI 的情況相比，該地區對二甲苯的增加已經相當緩和。原材料數量的真正大幅增長實際上更多地發生在世界那邊，而不是聚酯鏈中。

Our next question comes from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的文森特安德魯斯。

Curt, can I just ask on the free cash flow in the quarter and year-to-date? It looks like there's been a bit of a working capital build, but presumably it's going to reverse in the second half of the year. But can you just sort of help us understand what's happened and what's going to happen to get to the $1 billion?

Curt，我可以問一下本季和今年迄今的自由現金流嗎？看起來營運資本已經增加，但預計今年下半年趨勢將會逆轉。但是您能否幫助我們了解發生了什麼以及將要發生什麼才能達到 10 億美元？

Yes, sure. As we talked earlier in the year, our working capital requirements are seasonally higher in the first half of the year, particularly in the first quarter. If you just take the first half of this year versus last year, our working capital requirements were $300 million this year versus less than $200 million last year. So part of that is again, our history is traditionally these working capital requirements are released in the second half of the year. Just keep in mind, last year, our seasonal increases in working capital kind of were helped by lower input costs. So if you take that $300 million first half of the year impact of our operating cash flows, you hope a good portion of that reverses in the second half of the year. On top of that, our CapEx requirements are different between the 2 years because of some of these large projects that we have underway. So our capital expenditures are kind of peaking right now and will be lower by about $100 million second half of this year compared to last year. So when we put that all together, we feel very good about our ability to generate the $1 billion of free cash flow.

是的，當然。正如我們今年稍早談到的，我們的營運資金需求在上半年，尤其是第一季度，季節性較高。如果僅將今年上半年與去年進行比較，我們今年的營運資金需求為 3 億美元，而去年則不到 2 億美元。因此，部分原因在於，我們的歷史傳統上是這些營運資金需求是在下半年發布的。請記住，去年，我們的營運資本的季節性增加得益於投入成本的降低。因此，如果您考慮到我們上半年 3 億美元的營運現金流的影響，那麼您希望其中很大一部分在下半年得到扭轉。除此之外，由於我們正在進行一些大型項目，因此兩年間的資本支出需求有所不同。因此，我們的資本支出目前正處於峰值，今年下半年將比去年下降約 1 億美元。因此，當我們把所有這些放在一起時，我們對產生 10 億美元自由現金流的能力感到非常滿意。

Okay. And then if I could just ask a follow-up, there are $0.50 of cost reductions planned for the full year. Can you give us a sense of how far along you are on those year-to-date and what's then left for the balance of the year?

好的。然後，如果我可以問一個後續問題，全年計劃削減 0.50 美元的成本。您能否告訴我們今年迄今為止這些工作的進展以及今年剩餘時間的剩餘工作安排？

So I'll put it this way, our cost actions are on track to deliver that $100 million of cost reduction. As a reminder, this includes labor, site optimization, energy efficiency, et cetera. So because of that, roughly 75% of the reduction is kind of in that manufacturing supply chain area. And because of that, CI feels a good portion of it that I mentioned before. And so I feel very good about that. Mark did mention that as part of our innovation program, we're making investments in market development, commercial and the tech service capabilities. In addition, we're using some of these cost savings to make some structural changes in our cost structure that will benefit kind of 2018 and beyond. And then lastly, as you would expect as we respond to business structures as well as look at tax reform, we're having to spend some money working on our taxes. Luckily, you see that, that's beneficial to our overall effective tax rate. So we're using some of that cash -- those savings to make these investments. To give you a sense of the amount, the best way to look at it is if you look at the -- our other segment, you'll see that our run rate for the first half in '17 is a little higher than last year. What I would actually assume is that first half of run rate for '17 will continue in the second half of '17. And that will give you a kind of shaping of that other segment and how much of the investments we're making.

所以我可以這麼說，我們的成本行動預計將實現 1 億美元的成本削減。提醒一下，這包括勞動力、場地優化、能源效率等等。因此，大約 75% 的減量發生在製造供應鏈領域。正因為如此，CI 感受到了我之前提到的很大一部分。所以我對此感覺非常好。馬克確實提到，作為我們創新計劃的一部分，我們正在對市場開發、商業和技術服務能力進行投資。此外，我們正在利用部分成本節省對我們的成本結構進行一些結構性調整，這將使 2018 年及以後受益。最後，正如您所預料的，當我們回應商業結構以及研究稅收改革時，我們必須花一些錢來處理我們的稅收。幸運的是，您會看到，這對我們的整體有效稅率有利。因此，我們使用部分現金——這些儲蓄來進行這些投資。為了讓您了解這個金額，最好的方法是看看我們的其他部分，您會發現 2017 年上半年的運行率比去年略高。我實際上認為 2017 年上半年的運行率將在 2017 年下半年繼續保持。這將幫助您了解其他部分的情況以及我們進行的投資金額。

Our next question comes from Frank Mitsch with Wells Fargo Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自富國證券的弗蘭克米奇 (Frank Mitsch)。

Mark, you mentioned that you're planning on having an Investor Day later this year or early next year. Is the timing of that contingent upon an announcement relative to the chem intermediates and a cracker divestiture sale, what have you?

馬克，你提到你計劃在今年晚些時候或明年年初舉辦投資者日。這一時間是否取決於有關化學中間體和裂解裝置剝離出售的公告，您有什麼消息嗎？

No, Frank, it's not contingent on that. I mean, as Curt said, we're driving very hard and very committed to sort of doing what we can to exit that excess ethylene position and maybe some of the derivatives. But that's an independent process from running our company. We just think that's the right time as all these innovations coming together, as we're proving how we can grow much faster than market, create our own growth, manage raws at the same time, I think it's just a compelling story. But we'd like to have a little more time in sort of proving that all out to set up the proper investment story. Because I think we are really on track to build the leading sort of innovation-driven specialty company here. And we're quite excited about telling that story, but you've got to do it at the right time.

不，弗蘭克，這並不取決於此。我的意思是，正如 Curt 所說，我們正在非常努力地、非常致力於盡我們所能擺脫過剩的乙烯地位以及一些衍生品。但這是一個與我們經營公司無關的過程。我們只是認為現在正是所有這些創新匯聚在一起的正確時機，因為我們正在證明我們如何能夠比市場成長得更快，創造我們自己的成長，同時管理原料，我認為這只是一個引人入勝的故事。但我們希望有更多的時間來證明這一切，以建立正確的投資故事。因為我認為我們確實正在朝著打造領先的創新驅動型專業公司的目標邁進。我們非常高興講述這個故事，但你必須在正確的時間講述它。

And Frank, if I could add, it's also just a function of finding the right date and the right venue.

弗蘭克，如果我可以補充的話，這也只是找到正確的日期和正確的地點的功能。

Got you. I mean, yes, clearly, I mean, 7% volume growth in specialties is impressive. But coming back to the cracker sale, you did indicate that you're planning on a midyear announcement, that negotiations are taking longer than anticipated. Is this a potential 2018 event?

明白了。我的意思是，是的，顯然，專業產品銷售成長 7% 令人印象深刻。但回到餅乾銷售問題，您確實表示您計劃在年中發佈公告，談判時間比預期的要長。這是 2018 年可能發生的事件嗎？

Well, Frank, unfortunately, I've put a couple of dates out there in the past and haven't worked out as I anticipated. And again, I have to share, I'm a little disappointed. We haven't made the progress that we had been hoping for. But again, we still have multiple parties involved in the process. Negotiations are just taking longer, given some of the current market conditions and you guys can see what current market conditions are like. But we remain committed to improving our portfolio. This is a potential transaction that remains a priority for us. And I'll give you an additional update when I have something more concrete to say.

好吧，弗蘭克，不幸的是，我之前安排了幾次約會，但結果並不如我預期。我必須再次分享，我有點失望。我們還沒有取得我們所希望的進展。但同樣，我們仍然有多方參與這個過程。考慮到當前的一些市場狀況，談判需要更長的時間，你們可以看到當前的市場狀況是什麼樣的。但我們仍然致力於改善我們的投資組合。這是一項潛在的交易，對我們來說仍然是優先事項。當我有更具體的消息要說時，我會向你提供進一步的更新。

Fair enough, I appreciate that. Just lastly, staying on CI, you mentioned lower hedge costs helping out Q2. How should we think about order of magnitude in Q2 and for the second half of the year benefit from that?

很公平，我很感激。最後，繼續討論 CI，您提到較低的對沖成本有助於第二季。我們該如何看待第二季度的數量級以及如何從中獲益？

Well, you'll see as you look in our [10-quarter] the benefit of the hedges rolling off as about $45 million in the second quarter. And Chemical Intermediates gets a good portion of that. That hedge roll-off will continue in these third and fourth quarters, again predominantly in the CI. We've talked about before, that's been roughly $0.50 a share. The other thing I think it's important to remind you on CI is we've embedded in our guidance that ethylene prices will be lower in the second half of the year versus the first half. But at our guidance is that prices will improve from third quarter to fourth quarter. I'd also remind you that when you look at our business in ethylene, that excess ethylene, you should look at spot rather than contract prices as a proxy for our merchant ethylene selling prices. So as a whole, when I look at this businesses, CI is doing a better job holding on to derivative margins, probably better than I expected the first part of this year. But that's being more than offset right now by ethylene margin compression in the second half of the year. So when I look at kind of the trend for CI, I would expect some sequential decline in third quarter due to these lower ethylene prices and seasonal demand for means in the ag sector but still favorable year-over-year. That trend will be similar going into the fourth quarter, but we will no longer have this favorable year-over-year comp in the fourth quarter.

好吧，您會看到，從我們的 [10 季] 來看，第二季的對沖收益約為 4500 萬美元。化學中間體佔據了其中很大一部分。對沖減少的現象將在第三季和第四季繼續，並且主要發生在 CI 領域。我們之前討論過，大約是每股 0.50 美元。我認為在 CI 上需要提醒您的另一件事是，我們在指導中已經明確指出，下半年乙烯價格將低於上半年。但我們的預期是，價格將從第三季到第四季有所改善。我還要提醒您，當您查看我們的乙烯業務（即過剩乙烯）時，您應該將現貨價格而不是合約價格作為我們商家乙烯銷售價格的代理。因此，總體而言，當我審視這些業務時，CI 在維持衍生性商品利潤率方面做得更好，可能比我預期的今年上半年要好。但目前這項影響已被下半年乙烯利潤率的壓縮所抵銷。因此，當我觀察 CI 的趨勢時，我預計第三季會出現環比下降，原因是乙烯價格下跌以及農業領域的季節性需求，但同比來看仍然有利。進入第四季度，這一趨勢將類似，但第四季度我們將不再擁有這種有利的年比業績。

Our next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas。

My recollection is that you have 3 major capacity expansions, Crystex, polyvinyl butyral and Tritan. What's the timing of those 3 expansions? That this, when do they actually come online?

我記得你們有三次主要的產能擴張，分別是Crystex、聚乙烯醇縮丁醛和Tritan。這 3 個擴充的時機是什麼時候？那這個，他們什麼時候真正上線？

The PVB expansion and the Crystex expansion is expected to be mechanically compete in the second half of this year, a little bit towards the later end of the year. And the Tritan expansion is expected to be mechanically complete at the beginning of next year. So probably in the late first quarter is what we're targeting for that.

PVB 擴建和 Crystex 擴建預計將在今年下半年（即年底前）機械完成。Tritan 擴建工程預計明年初機械完工。因此，我們的目標很可能是在第一季末實現這一目標。

Okay. These are all 2018 events, really.

好的。事實上，這些都是 2018 年的事件。

Yes, I agree with that, Jeff.

是的，我同意，傑夫。

Yes. So the price of propane is moving up. That is, maybe at average, $0.62 a gallon in the second quarter and now we're up at maybe $0.73. And in the second quarter, you guys did a nice job of having your price increases more than offset your raw material cost inflation. Is the trend positive or negative, given the movement in propane now?

是的。因此丙烷的價格正在上漲。也就是說，第二季的平均價格可能為每加侖 0.62 美元，現在可能上漲至 0.73 美元。在第二季度，你們做得很好，價格上漲幅度超過了原物料成本上漲幅度。鑑於目前丙烷的走勢，趨勢是正面的還是負面的？

Jeff, it's a good question. I mean, obviously there's a lot of volatility around some of these raw materials. So it can be up today and a week from now, it can be back down to $0.58. And that's just the nature of the world we live in. We feel good about our ability to manage prices relative to our raws, especially in CI. And we're also, as I said, making good progress in the AFP business, both in the second quarter and as we go into the third. So we feel fine about that. Obviously, extremity is always a problem, but we don't see this as a major issue for us relative to our sort of 10% to 12% guidance. I would like to compliment the CI team, who's just done a phenomenally good job on commercial excellence and managing pricing in the first and second quarter. And they're on track already in the third quarter to do the same thing. So improvement in margin performance has actually been much better than we expected. And that's helping manage some of these issues. So overall, we'll just have to see how it plays out. I would also note that there's no places where raw materials are coming off in a meaningful way. And so that's a benefit into the numbers as well, especially in AFP.

傑夫，這是個好問題。我的意思是，顯然這些原料中的一些存在很大的波動性。因此，今天它可能會上漲，但一周後，它可能會回落至 0.58 美元。這就是我們所生活的世界的本質。我們對自己管理原物料價格的能力感到滿意，特別是在 CI 方面。正如我所說，無論是在第二季還是在進入第三季時，我們的 AFP 業務都取得了良好的進展。所以我們對此感覺良好。顯然，極端情況始終是一個問題，但相對於我們的 10% 到 12% 的指導，我們並不認為這是一個大問題。我要讚揚 CI 團隊，他們在第一季和第二季的商業卓越性和定價管理方面做得非常出色。他們在第三季就已經開始做同樣的事情了。因此，利潤率表現的改善實際上比我們預期的要好得多。這有助於解決其中的一些問題。所以總的來說，我們只需要看看它如何發揮作用。我還要指出的是，沒有任何地方的原料能夠以有意義的方式流出。從數字上看這也是一個好處，尤其是在法新社。

Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Arun Viswanathan。

I just wanted to go back to your guidance a little bit. It looks like the midpoint of the guidance now implies about 11% earnings growth for the year. I think previously, you had stated that the second half was going to be stronger than the first half. Is that still your feeling? And if not, why not? And then just curious about your thoughts for ongoing long-term EPS growth. I mean, is the target kind of double digits for '18 as well?

我只是想稍微回顧一下你的指導。目前看來，該指引的中點意味著今年的獲利成長約為 11%。我認為您之前曾說過，下半年會比上半年更強。你還是這種感覺嗎？如果不是，為什麼？我只是好奇您對長期 EPS 成長的看法。我的意思是，18 年的目標也是兩位數嗎？

So first of all, we feel great about how we delivered the first half of the year. And certainly, the first half came in a bit better than we expected. Some of that was through an improved tax rate, which was great for both earnings and cash. And as Curt guided, we'll continue to sort of deliver that 20% rate and always working hard to make it better. Most importantly, we see this strong growth in AM, solid earnings growth in AFP and the specialties while we're delivering a lot of volume and managing a pretty volatile raw material environment. I think that's great proof about the quality of these businesses that leaves us to have good confidence for the back half of the year. I'd also emphasize that Fiber sequentially improving into 3Q over 2 and 4Q over 3 is a source of improvement as well as what's even more important to us right now is stabilizing this business. And so all that's actually quite positive as you know. But Chemical Intermediates has some uncertainty, too. Clearly, ethylene prices aren't where we expect it. No one expected the current situation if you look how people were forecasting ethylene in the first half of the year. So we've got to deal with that as well as the Jeff's comment on propane. So when you put it all together, we feel that 10% to 12% is very balanced in our outlook. And if you do the math, that implies that the second half of the year is maybe just slightly lower than the first half of the year, too, because we pulled a bit of earnings forward in the first half. So I'd say we're very balanced is the word I'd use. But we feel good about the range and our ability to deliver in this range with all these moving parts. Yes, long term, to answer that question, look, we're building a growth engine, showing we can grow faster than the market because we create our own growth through commercial excellence, through innovation. There's no reason that's going to stop. That will continue to drive in '18. We expect Fibers to stabilize, so there won't be a headwind there. Chemical Intermediates, always has a certain amount of uncertainty to it. But overall, we feel we're in a position to deliver strong attractive growth in '18 over '17.

首先，我們對上半年的業績感到非常滿意。確實，上半年的表現比我們預期的要好一些。其中一部分是透過提高稅率來實現的，這對於收入和現金都有好處。正如 Curt 所指導的那樣，我們將繼續實現 20% 的利率，並始終努力使其變得更好。最重要的是，我們看到 AM 業務強勁成長，AFP 業務和特種業務獲利穩健成長，同時我們交付了大量產品並管理相當不穩定的原料環境。我認為這充分證明了這些企業的質量，讓我們對今年下半年充滿信心。我還要強調的是，光纖業務第三季的業績比第二季有所改善，第四季的業績比第三季有所改善，這是一個進步的源泉，而現在對我們來說更重要的是穩定這項業務。所以正如你所知，這一切實際上都是非常積極的。但化學中間體也存在一些不確定性。顯然，乙烯價格並未達到我們的預期。如果你看看今年上半年乙烯的人們預測，你會發現沒有人預料到目前的情況。所以我們必須處理這個問題以及傑夫對丙烷的評論。因此，綜合考慮所有因素，我們認為 10% 到 12% 的成長率在我們的預期中是非常平衡的。如果你算一下，你會發現下半年的獲利可能也只是比上半年略低一點，因為我們在上半年提早了一些獲利。所以我想說我們非常平衡，這是我會使用的詞。但是，我們對整個範圍以及透過所有這些活動部件實現這一範圍的能力感到滿意。是的，從長遠來看，回答這個問題，看，我們正在建立一個成長引擎，表明我們可以比市場成長更快，因為我​​們透過商業卓越、透過創新創造自己的成長。沒有理由停止這種事。這一趨勢將在 2018 年繼續延續。我們預計 Fibers 將會穩定下來，因此不會出現逆風。化學中間體，總是具有一定程度的不確定性。但總體而言，我們認為我們有能力在 2018 年實現比 2017 年更強勁的成長。

And once we lock it in our Investor Day, we'll have a lot more to provide you on that topic.

一旦我們在投資者日鎖定它，我們將為您提供更多關於該主題的資訊。

Sure. And then just as a follow-up, maybe just give us your thoughts on propylene spreads and how that affects your own product pricing? Do you expect to continue to be able to achieve some price increases if propylene prices kind of stabilize or go lower?

當然。然後作為後續問題，您能否談談您對丙烯價差的看法以及這對您自己產品定價有何影響？如果丙烯價格穩定或走低，您是否預期能夠繼續實現價格上漲？

Yes. On that front, the propylene spreads are doing a lot better than the ethylene spreads as you can do your own math. So we do also -- we're not buying -- we buy about 40% of our propylene needs, so that's relevant. But we're producing the other part on ethane and propane. And those costs are still being worked off. That's why we're continuing to drive for price increases in places, especially in AFP, associated with that, and we're having good progress on that. So again, I think we're in good shape to manage the price versus raws game in the specialties.

是的。從這方面來看，丙烯價差的表現比乙烯價差好很多，你可以自己算算看。所以我們也這樣做——我們不購買——我們購買大約 40% 的丙烯需求，所以這是相關的。但我們用乙烷和丙烷來生產另一部分。這些成本目前仍在被抵銷。這就是為什麼我們繼續推動一些地方，特別是法新社，提高與此相關地區的價格，而且我們在這方面取得了良好的進展。因此，我認為我們能夠很好地管理專業領域中的價格與原料之間的博弈。

Our next question comes from Aleksey Yefremov with Nomura Instinet.

我們的下一個問題來自野村證券的阿列克謝·葉夫列莫夫 (Aleksey Yefremov)。

In Chemical Intermediates, it appears that the oxo chemicals markets and plasticizers markets were fairly tight in the first half. Given potential changes in the supply dynamics in the second half and next year, do you this level of margins is sustainable?

在化學中間體方面，上半年羰基化學品市場和增塑劑市場似乎相當緊張。考慮到下半年和明年供應動態的潛在變化，這種利潤水準是否可持續？

No, we're expecting prices to come off a little bit in those business. That's embedded in our outlook for the second half of the year. To your point, there's some supply that's come on and there's been some supply disruptions in the first half of the year that compounded that situation. So that's all embedded in our forecast. But the margins are, even with that included, are recovered in a pretty attractive way. And we feel good about how that trends into next year. I'd also add that while that's all going on, we've seen a real benefit from our antidumping case against the Korean plasticizer producers, where it's been ruled in our favor with duties put in place. And so that shifted the trade flows in that business pretty dramatically in favor to us here in North America with just where we concentrate our plasticizer business. On a broader note I'd also mention that applies to CI and even more so to AFP is another upside we're seeing that's helping both drive some volume growth as well as improve the competitive situation is the dynamic in China. We're seeing the Chinese strictly enforce environmental regulation for the first time in the last sort of 6 to 12 months. And it's really been pretty dramatic in its impact. We have a lot of small competitors in AFP and small and big ones in CI out of China. And they're being shut down left and right by this enforcement, sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent, where they have to take their plant and move it from some suburb or a field to a proper chemical park. And that's a pretty significant new thing for us. And it's great because it's impacted a bunch of these competitors, especially in AFP, where most of our competitors are these small, little plants, mom-and-pop shops that don't really have much capability but can cause trouble. And they're under a lot of pressure. And even when they moved to these chemical parks, if they can afford to do so, the cost to operate there, especially to clean up the wastewater that they produce, is going to be a lot higher, so the cost structure is going to go up. So that helps CI a bit and it's also starting to help AFP.

不，我們預計這些業務的價格會略有下降。這已包含在我們對今年下半年的展望中。正如您所說，一些供應已經增加，而今年上半年也出現了一些供應中斷，使情況更加複雜。這些都包含在我們的預測中。但即使算上這些，利潤率也以相當有吸引力的方式恢復了。我們對明年的趨勢感到樂觀。我還要補充一點，儘管這一切仍在繼續，但我們對韓國增塑劑生產商的反傾銷案確實給我們帶來了好處，該案的裁決對我們有利，並徵收了關稅。因此，這極大地改變了該行業的貿易流向，對我們在北美地區有利，而我們的增塑劑業務就集中在這裡。從更廣泛的角度來看，我還要提到，這適用於 CI，甚至更適用於 AFP，這是我們看到的另一個好處，它既有助於推動銷量成長，又能改善競爭形勢，這是中國的動態。我們看到，中國在過去 6 到 12 個月內首次嚴格執行環境法規。它的影響確實非常巨大。我們在 AFP 有許多小競爭對手，在中國的 CI 也有很多大大小小的競爭對手。這些企業因執法部門的強制關閉而遭到關閉，有時是暫時的，有時是永久的，他們必須將工廠從郊區或田地搬到合適的化學園區。這對我們來說是一件非常重要的新事物。這很好，因為它影響了許多競爭對手，特別是在 AFP，我們的大多數競爭對手都是小型工廠、小商店，它們實際上沒有太大的能力，但可能會造成麻煩。他們承受著很大的壓力。即使他們搬到這些化學園區，如果他們負擔得起的話，在那裡運營的成本，特別是清理他們產生的廢水的成本將會高得多，因此成本結構將會上升。這對 CI 有一點幫助，也開始對 AFP 有幫助。

Great. And I guess a second question on AFP margins. What would be the normalized margin level after you're done fully offsetting the raw material inflation? Just based on the 7% volume growth, I would think your margin should be higher than 2016 baseline. Is it fair to assume that you'll end up somewhere above 2016?

偉大的。我想第二個問題是關於 AFP 利潤率的。完全抵銷原物料通膨後，標準化的利潤水準是多少？僅基於 7% 的銷售成長，我認為您的利潤率應該高於 2016 年的基準。是否可以合理地假設您最終的成績將高於 2016 年？

So I think as we look at it, the current margins will sequentially improve a bit as we work the price versus raw material equation. It's also important to keep in mind that there's a widespread of spreads of these products in this business. And a lot of the volume growth that we've had this year, the stronger part of our volume growth has been from some of our acquired companies. And we've seen tremendous volume growth in our animal nutrition, chemical care, fluids businesses. We've made a lot of investments to improve our commercial capabilities there and how we're going to market. And we're really seeing a return on that investment, revenue synergy, if you will, from those acquisitions. But those segments of -- within AFP just naturally have lower spreads per kg than the segment average. So it's not margin compression. It's just a bit of a mix shift. I want to emphasize that the high-value stuff is still growing with the market, so we're not having any volume growth issues in coatings or high-value tire additives, et cetera. Those are all growing fine and a little bit above market actually. But these others are growing a lot faster. And so you're just changing the weighted average spread a bit. So you've got that going on that's going to cause the net margin to be a little bit lower, but it's not actually margin compression. Of course, we're going to continue to improve prices, benefit from a little bit of trailing off raws in the second half of the year that will help on the margin front. And then the innovation programs, as you think about this going into '18 and '19, those are all above segment and company average margins. So that will start driving mix in the other direction as we go into those into '18 and '19, just like we do in Advanced Materials. So overall, it feels good. But the average margins is going to be a bit than the last couple of years as a result of that. But we still feel good of it being around that sort of 20%, maybe just a little bit below.

因此，我認為，當我們計算價格與原材料的關係時，目前的利潤率將會逐漸提高一點。還需要記住的是，這些產品在這個行業中的傳播範圍很廣。我們今年的銷售成長很大一部分來自於我們收購的一些公司。我們的動物營養、化學護理和液體業務的銷售量都出現了巨大的成長。我們已投入大量資金來提高我們在那裡的商業能力以及我們的行銷方式。而我們確實看到了這些收購帶來的投資回報，也就是營收綜效。但 AFP 內部的這些部分每公斤的價差自然低於平均值。所以這不是利潤壓縮。這只是一點點混合轉變。我想強調的是，高價值產品仍在隨著市場成長，因此我們在塗料或高價值輪胎添加劑等方面沒有遇到任何產量成長問題。它們都生長得很好，實際上略高於市場水平。但其他公司的成長速度要快得多。因此，您只是稍微改變了加權平均差價。因此，這種情況會導致淨利潤率略低，但實際上並不是利潤率壓縮。當然，我們將繼續提高價格，受益於下半年原材料的少量下降，這將有助於提高利潤率。然後，當你想到進入 2018 年和 2019 年時，創新計畫的利潤率都高於細分市場和公司的平均利潤率。因此，當我們進入 2018 年和 2019 年時，這將開始推動混合向另一個方向發展，就像我們在先進材料領域所做的那樣。整體來說，感覺不錯。但由於這個原因，平均利潤率將比過去幾年略有下降。但我們仍然對這個數字在 20% 左右感到滿意，也許只是略低一點。

And Alex, if I could just as add. If this business delivers mid-single-digit volume growth and operating margins of 20%, I'm going to be a pretty happy CFO.

還有 Alex，如果我可以補充的話。如果這項業務的銷售量能夠達到中等個位數成長，營業利潤率達到 20%，我會非常高興地擔任財務長。

The key to remember is that our story is about driving volume growth and sustainable margins over time through innovation. I think we're doing great on that.

要記住的關鍵是，我們的故事是透過創新推動銷售成長和永續利潤。我認為我們在這方面做得很好。

Our next question comes from Jim Sheehan with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

我們的下一個問題來自 SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 的 Jim Sheehan。

Could you give us more color on your adhesive resins business? How are volumes doing there? And what's your pricing outlook in the second half? Should it be higher or lower?

您能否向我們詳細介紹一下您的黏合劑樹脂業務？那裡的銷量怎麼樣？您對下半年的定價前景如何？應該是更高還是更低？

Sure. We discussed this in the last quarter call and nothing's changed from those comments, which is underlying market growth rate is actually quite strong. We've sort of upgraded our view about underlying market growth in hygiene and hot melt adhesive packaging, which is the biggest drivers of our demand. It's now sort of growing at 5% to 7%, which is great. It's caused the market to be tight, especially in '15 and '16 as there was limited supply and has led this business to having some attractive margins. We have acknowledged and mentioned this before that those margins are coming off this year because there's been some added supply in C5s. And we've seen some of those prices come off in this space as a result. And then at the back end of this year, one of our competitors in the hydrogenated side is going to be bringing on a new plant in Asia. And that will sort of put some pressure on margins there, too. So not a concern long term, the margins here are quite attractive, above segment average and we're happy about how this business is performing. The margins will obviously be pressured by some of this. But what's more exciting for us is we're actually seeing a new trend of innovation in this business that we haven't seen in a while. And that gives us a way to have a lot of growth and margin upgrade as we go into '18, '19 and '20. There's a strong need for some new resins and we're launching new resins right up that are low odor and also don't cause some product safety concerns around some food packaging issues and how we prevent some things leaking out. And so dramatic improvement in resin performance, that could be proprietary. And in addition to that, we're seeing great engagement on our launched Aerafin polymer. This is what you match with a resin to make an adhesive that is better-performing and proprietary to us than what's available in the marketplace as a APO. So we're seeing a lot of growth there, both all this will be better margins, so we're feeling good.

當然。我們在上個季度的電話會議上討論過這個問題，這些評論沒有任何改變，即潛在的市場成長率實際上相當強勁。我們已經更新了對衛生和熱熔膠包裝潛在市場成長的看法，這是我們需求的最大驅動力。現在它的成長率大概在 5% 到 7% 之間，這很好。這導致市場緊張，尤其是在 2015 年和 2016 年，因為供應有限，並導致該業務獲得了一些可觀的利潤。我們之前已經承認並提到過，由於 C5 的供應增加，今年的利潤率將會下降。因此，我們看到該領域的一些價格已經下降。今年年底，我們在氫化領域的一個競爭對手將在亞洲建立一座新工廠。這也會給那裡的利潤帶來一些壓力。因此從長期來看這不是什麼問題，這裡的利潤率相當有吸引力，高於行業平均水平，我們對這項業務的表現感到滿意。利潤率顯然會受到一些壓力。但令我們更興奮的是，我們實際上看到了這個行業中一種我們很久沒有見過的創新趨勢。這讓我們在進入 2018、2019 和 2020 年時能夠實現大幅增長和利潤率提升。市場對一些新型樹脂的需求強烈，我們正在推出低氣味的新型樹脂，它們不會引起一些產品安全問題，例如食品包裝問題以及如何防止某些物質洩漏。樹脂性能的顯著改善可能是專有的。除此之外，我們推出的 Aerafin 聚合物也獲得了很高的迴響。將其與樹脂相匹配，即可製成性能更佳、且為我們所專有的黏合劑，比市場上現有的 APO 黏合劑更佳。因此，我們看到那裡有很大的成長，所有這些都會帶來更好的利潤率，所以我們感覺很好。

Great. And then you talked about your new product for tires and tire resins. So obviously, a lot of your demand profile there is driven by the new fuel efficiency standards. Could you also talk about how you see the underlying tire demand developing in both truck and passenger tires?

偉大的。然後您談到了用於輪胎和輪胎樹脂的新產品。顯然，許多需求都是由新的燃油效率標準所推動的。您能否談談您如何看待卡車和乘用車輪胎的潛在輪胎需求發展？

Yes. So demand overall, I mean, globally you can get a better look at demand just by looking at the tire companies for PCR and truck. And we're growing with the market and in some places, better than the market. As I said, where we had some competitive disruptions by environmental enforcement in China, this one of those places where we're seeing that benefit in both antidegradants in a material way and to some extent as well as in our insoluble sulfur Crystex products. So we're growing faster than the market and that's quite helpful. But overall, we see the demand as solid and continuing to grow. But the underlying market is pretty modest.

是的。因此，整體需求，我的意思是，從全球來看，只要看看 PCR 和卡車輪胎公司，你就能夠更了解需求。我們與市場一起成長，在某些方面甚至比市場表現更好。正如我所說的，我們在中國的環境執法方面遇到了一些競爭幹擾，但在這裡我們看到了抗降解劑在實質上和某種程度上以及我們的不溶性硫磺 Crystex 產品中的好處。因此，我們的成長速度快於市場，這非常有幫助。但整體而言，我們認為需求依然穩固且持續成長。但基礎市場相當溫和。

Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Laurence Alexander。

I have 3 quick ones. Just on the tax rate, do you -- what do you see is a likely range for 2018 through 2020? For the cellulosics portfolio, given the trends that you're seeing in Fibers now, do you think cellulosics as a product -- a chain will be back in growth mode at the end of the decade? And then lastly, can you characterize demand trends that you're seeing in your business in China, like how fast your volumes are growing there?

我有 3 個快速的。僅就稅率而言，您認為 2018 年至 2020 年的稅率範圍可能是多少？對於纖維素產品組合，鑑於您現在在纖維領域看到的趨勢，您是否認為纖維素作為一種產品——一個鏈條將在十年末恢復成長模式？最後，您能否描述一下您在中國業務中看到的需求趨勢，例如您在中國的業務量成長速度有多快？

Sure. I'll start with the tax rate. Right now, I think discussing the effective tax rate beyond 2017 is a little premature, given all the discussions that are going on right now in D.C. Again, as Mark mentioned, we're going to continue to pursue whatever opportunity to optimize our business and tax structure for earnings and cash flows for the remainder of the year and going forward. And I'm also very confident we have a great tax, finance and legal team that know how to navigate whatever changes and actions are enacted that come at us. But let us talk about tax rate more as we get more into a holistic discussion of '18 and beyond.

當然。我先從稅率開始。現在，考慮到華盛頓正在進行的所有討論，我認為討論 2017 年以後的有效稅率有點為時過早。正如馬克所提到的，我們將繼續尋求任何機會來優化我們的業務和稅收結構，以實現今年剩餘時間和未來的收益和現金流。我也非常有信心，我們擁有一支優秀的稅務、財務和法律團隊，他們知道如何應對我們所面臨的任何變化和行動。但是，當我們對 18 年及以後的情況進行更全面的討論時，讓我們多談談稅率。

When it comes to China and Asia in general, what I'd say is I don't think that the underlying market growth rates are materially improving. They're still pretty modest. But we are growing quite well in Asia for a few reasons. One is the macro trends we've talked about for a long time around product safety as well as emerging middle-income class is driving a lot of demand, especially in China, where people are looking for higher-quality products. And our specialties are key to enabling those higher-quality products, so we're seeing better-than-market growth as a result of that trend. We're also benefiting from the Chinese consumers very focused on product safety. So our Tritan products, our Made in America products, are viewed as higher-quality, more reliable, safer. And we're seeing better-than-market growth as a result of that trend as well. In addition to that, I mentioned some of this environmental enforcement that's helping us out, where not just local customers but more importantly our multinational customers who operate around the world including China, security supply is very important to them. And they want to make sure they're going to get specialty products that are essential to enabling the production of their products and not inhibit their ability to produce. So that's helping drive people to us on that front. So a lot of different things going on well. When you look at our revenue growth in Asia Pacific, it's quite good, especially when you include the headwind of Fibers. And it's also important to keep in mix that -- in mind that the majority of what we do in specialty is almost all of it is specialties, right? So that growth is high-quality mix.

對於中國和整個亞洲而言，我想說的是，我認為潛在的市場成長率並沒有實質提高。他們還是很謙虛的。但由於一些原因，我們在亞洲發展得很好。一是我們長期以來談論的有關產品安全的宏觀趨勢，以及新興中產階級正在推動的大量需求，尤其是在中國，人們正在尋求更高品質的產品。我們的專業是實現這些更高品質產品的關鍵，因此我們看到了這一趨勢帶來的高於市場的成長。我們也受益於中國消費者非常注重產品安全。因此，我們的 Tritan 產品、我們的美國製造產品被視為品質更高、更可靠、更安全。由於這一趨勢，我們也看到了優於市場的成長。除此之外，我還提到了一些對我們有幫助的環境執法措施，不僅是對本地客戶，更重要的是對包括中國在內的在世界各地運營的跨國客戶，安全供應對他們來說非常重要。他們希望確保獲得對其產品生產至關重要的特殊產品，而不是抑制其生產能力。這有助於吸引人們在這方面關注我們。所以很多不同的事情進展順利。當你看到我們在亞太地區的收入成長時，你會發現它相當不錯，尤其是當你考慮到纖維業務的逆風時。而且還要記住的是──我們在專業領域所做的大部分工作幾乎都是專業的，對嗎？因此，這種增長是高品質的組合。

And one more trend that I should mention, and it was alluded with the kind of question Kevin had and we'll see if this trend continues, is the weakening of the dollar, which helps our specialties as they complete across the globe. So if that continues to trend, that will be favorable to Eastman. For the second half of the year, we have assumed that euro to be kind of roughly $1.14, $1.15 as an example.

我還應該提到的另一個趨勢是美元的疲軟，凱文提出的問題也提到了這一點，我們將看看這種趨勢是否會持續下去，這有助於我們的專業在全球範圍內完成。因此，如果這種趨勢持續下去，這將對伊士曼有利。對於今年下半年，我們假設歐元匯率約為 1.14 美元或 1.15 美元。

Our next question comes from John Roberts, UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀的約翰羅伯茲。

In your comment on divesting excess ethylene, you added in potentially derivatives. Do you have significant ethylene-only derivatives? Or if you divested derivatives here, you'd reduce your purchases of propylene?

在您對剝離過剩乙烯的評論中，您添加了潛在的衍生物。您是否擁有重要的乙烯衍生物？或者如果您在這裡剝離衍生品，您會減少丙烯的購買量嗎？

No, when we look at potential commodity derivatives, those are typically where we add -- there's limited value add. Those are predominantly ethylene-based derivatives. Propylene and propylene derivatives, we have a tremendous amount of value add. And that would still be strategic for us.

不，當我們研究潛在的商品衍生性商品時，這些通常是我們增加的地方——附加價值有限。這些主要是基於乙烯的衍生物。丙烯和丙烯衍生物，我們有巨大的附加價值。這對我們來說仍然具有戰略意義。

And 4 years ago, if PDH existed, we would have built PDH in it, right, because our whole strategy in our specialties and AM/AFP and even some of the new things we're working on for Fibers often include a propylene derivative in the cellulosics as well as the polyesters. But the ethylene is just, in our business, a byproduct of what we're trying to get, which is propylene, opposite of what most people do in this business.

4 年前，如果 PDH 存在，我們就會在其中建立 PDH，對吧，因為我們在專業領域和 AM/AFP 的整個策略，甚至我們正在為纖維研究的一些新事物，通常包括纖維素和聚酯中的丙烯衍生物。但在我們的業務中，乙烯只是我們試圖獲得的丙烯的副產品，這與該行業中大多數人的做法相反。

Our next question comes from Mike Sison with KeyBanc.

下一個問題來自 KeyBanc 的 Mike Sison。

On Slide 5, you did a nice job showing the different areas that are growing by new products in market development. When you think about bolt-on acquisitions, Mark, and you want to maybe bolster some of these areas, any particular opportunities that you see out there?

在第 5 張投影片上，您很好地展示了市場開發中透過新產品實現成長的不同領域。馬克，當您考慮附加收購時，您可能想要加強其中的一些領域，您看到了什麼特別的機會嗎？

Well, we're always interested in bolt-on M&A. I think we have demonstrated a fantastic and impressive acquisition track record, both large and small, in integrating and creating value from acquisitions. So we certainly seeing bolt-on M&A as an avenue for growth. To be clear, we're not looking at large M&A. But on the bolt-on side, we're looking. I'd say the pipeline is in development. We've been so focused on our innovation programs and delivering organic growth, making sure we're doing everything best possible there. I haven't wanted anybody distracted, but we are starting to build that pipeline now. So hopefully, we'll be adding to our growth via a very accretive bolt-on M&A as we go into '18 and '19. But there's nothing imminent.

嗯，我們一直對附加併購很感興趣。我認為，我們在整合和創造收購價值方面已經展現出出色且令人印象深刻的收購記錄，無論收購規模大小。因此，我們當然將附加併購視為一種成長途徑。需要明確的是，我們並不考慮大規模的併購。但在螺栓固定方面，我們正在尋找。我想說管道正在開發中。我們一直專注於我們的創新計劃和實現有機成長，確保我們盡最大努力。我不想讓任何人分心，但我們現在開始建造那條管道。因此，希望在進入 2018 年和 2019 年時，我們能夠透過極具增值的附加併購來促進我們的成長。但沒有立即發生任何事。

Right. And a quick follow-up, it sounds like your specialty businesses are getting good momentum here as you get into the second half of the year. How much of the earnings growth do you think in the second half will be driven by the specialty businesses, given volume trends are still pretty good and you're going to catch up on raw materials?

正確的。快速跟進一下，聽起來你們的專業業務在進入下半年時正獲得良好的發展勢頭。考慮到銷售趨勢仍然很好，而且你們將在原材料方面迎頭趕上，您認為下半年盈利增長中有多少將由特種業務推動？

Well, I think you can pretty much sense that, that we're seeing the growth in our specialty businesses, given the trajectories, the sequential declines in our Chemical Intermediates business, some modest improvement in Fiber sequentially. So that earnings growth that we're looking for is coming from those specialties. But just keep in mind, fourth quarter tends to have a seasonal impact in our specialty, so you've got to just factor those things all together. But I agree with your comment, I really like the momentum that we're seeing in our specialty businesses.

嗯，我想您可以明顯感覺到，考慮到發展軌跡，我們的專業業務正在成長，我們的化學中間體業務連續下滑，而纖維業務連續略有改善。因此，我們所尋求的獲利成長就來自於這些專業。但請記住，第四季度往往會對我們的專業產生季節性影響，因此您必須將這些因素綜合考慮。但我同意你的評論，我真的很喜歡我們在專業業務中看到的發展勢頭。

Our next question comes from Bob Koort, Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的鮑伯‧庫爾特 (Bob Koort)。

Mark, I appreciate Slide 5 and 6 and the assertion of your breadth and vertical integration. I guess, what I'm wondering is I've seen a recent study that says from a share performance, be a specialty, be a commodity, but don't be something in between. And I guess you'd say you're not really in between, but maybe your valuation levels and some other metrics suggest the market thinks you are. So I'm just curious, strategically what can you do? Do you buy more specialties? Do you maybe change your reporting structure to isolate your best businesses or SBUs better? Do you get more aggressive on the portfolio adjustments and, as you say, maybe go beyond just ethylene and maybe some derivatives? Or do you think it's just simply getting back to attractive double-digit earnings growth that gets people excited? How do you think strategically and holistically as a company of maybe breaking out of this sort of valuation funk that you've been in for so long?

馬克，我很欣賞投影片 5 和 6，以及您對廣度和垂直整合的斷言。我想，我感到奇怪的是，我看到了最近的一項研究，該研究表明，從股票表現來看，要成為一種專業產品，要成為一種商品，但不要成為介於兩者之間的東西。我想你會說你實際上並沒有處於中間狀態，但也許你的估值水平和其他一些指標表明市場認為你處於中間狀態。所以我很好奇，從戰略上來說你能做什麼？您購買更多特產嗎？您是否可以改變您的報告結構以更好地隔離您的最佳業務或 SBU？您是否會更積極地調整投資組合，並且如您所說，也許不僅限於乙烯和一些衍生性商品？或者您認為僅僅是恢復有吸引力的兩位數獲利成長就能讓人們興奮嗎？作為一家公司，您如何從策略和整體角度考慮，擺脫長期以來的這種估值困境？

Yes, Bob, thanks for the question. And I think that it's when we spend a lot of time thinking about and making sure everything we're doing in our a strategy is focused on value accretion for our shareholders. As I said, I actually think we've got a very unique capability as a specialty company, not just in the things I talked about in world-class technology, in AD capability, market connect, which other specialty companies pursue as well. But I actually think the integration is a unique advantage in delivering sustainable, long-term growth and very unique products that our competitors can't do. I mean, when you think about the integration of our technology across streams allows us to build and develop products that our competitors can't do because they don't have that breadth. The scale allows us to have dedication and expertise in different technical areas and operational disciplines that a specialty company frankly can't have. I mean, a specialty company typically has a bunch of small sites. They don't have experts on anything. They can't afford it, right? But this large scale gives us the ability to drive cost productivity and product development in a way that these small companies can't do. And in an increasingly competitive environment, where you're under pressure for short- and long-term earnings, people are managing costs pretty aggressively and so are we. But we've got these advantages that we don't have to give up because of our scale, smaller companies probably are. And that's going to really start creating challenges, I think, for them relative to us on innovation. So I think integration is going to be the winner. And we're the only specialty company that's actually got it. Only 2 other companies out there that does have this scale and integration with Dow and BASF. But our capital deployment is focused on the specialty side. So I think that this actually will pull us apart and help us differentiate by delivering consistent results. In the end, any company's valuation is connected to delivering consistent results. That's how you actually get a specialty multiple, specialty is just code for a highly reliable, profitable business. And I think that's what we're building. Obviously, we're committed to minimizing volatility on our stock as much as we possibly can. That's why we're trying to get rid of the excess ethylene. There's a lot of valuations driven right now by extremely aggressive cost and CapEx cutting and buying back stock in some of our peers and as well as lots of speculation about who's going to break up, combine and everything else. And it creates a context of looking at what we can do to also create value. And we're doing everything that we can. But I actually think the way we win is delivering consistent earnings results year-over-year.

是的，鮑勃，謝謝你的提問。我認為，當我們花費大量時間思考並確保我們在策略中所做的一切都是為了股東的價值增值時，這一點就很重要。正如我所說，我實際上認為，作為一家專業公司，我們擁有非常獨特的能力，不僅僅是我所說的世界一流的技術，還有 AD 能力、市場聯繫，其他專業公司也在追求這些。但我實際上認為整合在實現可持續的長期成長和獨特的產品方面具有獨特的優勢，這是我們的競爭對手無法做到的。我的意思是，當你考慮到我們的技術跨流程整合使我們能夠建立和開發我們的競爭對手無法做到的產品，因為他們沒有那麼廣度。這種規模使我們能夠在不同的技術領域和營運學科中擁有奉獻精神和專業知識，坦白說，這是專業公司無法擁有的。我的意思是，專業公司通常擁有許多小型站點。他們沒有任何方面的專家。他們負擔不起，對吧？但這種規模使我們有能力提高成本生產力和產品開發，而這些小公司卻做不到。在競爭日益激烈的環境中，人們面臨短期和長期獲利的壓力，人們都在積極地管理成本，我們也是如此。但是我們擁有這些優勢，我們不必因為規模而放棄這些優勢，小公司可能就必須放棄這些優勢。我認為，相對於我們而言，這將在創新方面為他們帶來真正的挑戰。所以我認為整合將會成為勝利者。我們是唯一一家真正擁有它的專業公司。目前只有另外兩家公司擁有與陶氏和巴斯夫同等規模和整合。但我們的資本配置集中在專業方面。所以我認為這實際上會讓我們分開，並透過提供一致的結果來幫助我們實現差異化。最終，任何公司的估值都與持續的業績有關。這就是你實際上獲得專業倍數的方式，專業只是高度可靠、有利可圖的業務的程式碼。我認為這就是我們正在建造的。顯然，我們致力於盡可能減少股票的波動。這就是我們試圖去除過量乙烯的原因。目前，許多估值都是由極其激進的成本和資本支出削減以及一些同行的股票回購所驅動，同時還有很多關於誰將分拆、合併等等的猜測。這也為我們提供了一個背景，讓我們看看我們能做些什麼來創造價值。我們正在盡一切努力。但實際上我認為我們獲勝的方法是逐年實現穩定的獲利結果。

And Bob, what I would add on top of that, what you see over time is the amount of earnings coming from Advanced Materials and Additives & Functional Products will continue to be a larger percentage of the revenue and earnings of the company. And as we continue to make progress with those innovations, that's going to drive that to where we can actually potentially even see Fibers turn back to a growth story. So let's see if we can execute and deliver on those. And if we do, I think we'll be rewarded in the marketplace.

鮑勃，我想補充的是，隨著時間的推移，你會看到來自先進材料和添加劑及功能產品的收入將繼續占公司收入和收益的更大比例。隨著我們在這些創新方面不斷取得進展，我們甚至有可能看到 Fibers 重新走向成長之路。那麼讓我們看看我們是否能夠執行並實現這些目標。如果我們這樣做，我認為我們將在市場上獲得回報。

So can I distill that and suggesting if we saw under that cover and saw the Eastman 5-year plan, there's a higher growth rate and a dampened amplitude of earnings volatility?

那麼，我能否提煉出這一點並提出建議，如果我們看到這個封面並看到伊士曼的五年計劃，那麼增長率會更高，盈利波動幅度也會減弱？

Absolutely. You're going to see the 3 segments over time grow, including Fibers because of all the new application development capability. So you've got the specialties becoming greater than 80% of the earnings of the total company. You have Chemical Intermediates trying to do everything we can to always dampen volatility, exit everything we can that is not necessary for the specialties. And that drives -- but it drives a lot of cost advantage, a lot of funding of growth and enablement of a lot of product development as we sort of mix all these different technology streams together. One of the things that our customers love about us is how we bring so many different products to them, not just one product, and that diverse technology set of platforms allows us to be more relevant to many of our customers than some of our competitors.

絕對地。隨著時間的推移，您將看到這 3 個部分（包括 Fibers）不斷發展，這得益於所有新的應用程式開發能力。因此，這些專業業務的收益占到公司總收益的 80% 以上。化學中間體正在盡一切努力抑制波動性，並盡可能淘汰一切對專業領域不必要的東西。當我們將所有這些不同的技術流混合在一起時，這將帶來很大的成本優勢、大量的成長資金和大量產品開發的支援。客戶喜歡我們的一個原因是我們為他們帶來了許多不同的產品，而不僅僅是一種產品，而且多樣化的技術平台使我們比一些競爭對手更能與許多客戶建立聯繫。

And it's a set of businesses and programs that deliver a billion dollars of free cash flow a year.

這是一系列每年可產生 10 億美元自由現金流的業務和計劃。

And our last question comes from Duffy Fischer with Barclays.

我們的最後一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的達菲·菲舍爾。

First question, just around tow. When you capture back some of that market share in the back half of this year that you talked about relative to maybe 4 or 5 years ago, is your market share back to where it was, above or below where it was? Excluding China, let's say.

第一個問題，只是圍繞著拖車。當您在今年下半年奪回您所說的相對於四五年前的部分市場份額時，您的市場份額是回到了原來的水平，還是高於或低於原來的水平？假設不包括中國。

Yes, if you leave China out of it, our plan is, as we've said, keep volumes flat, hold our share. Obviously, that means it slightly declines year-over-year with the overall market. But that's our plan outside of China. And as I mentioned on the last call, China demand is down to sort of 10% of revenue of this business or 1% of the revenue of the company. So the uncertainty of imports next year on that side is less relevant. So overall, we feel good about how demand is going to be stabilizing in this business as we go forward from this year into next. And then we've got all these innovation programs, allow us to grow volume into these new applications and leverage the existing assets.

是的，如果不考慮中國，我們的計劃是，正如我們所說的，保持銷量平穩，保住我們的份額。顯然，這意味著它與整體市場相比同比略有下降。但這是我們在中國以外的計劃。正如我在上次電話會議上提到的，中國的需求下降到了該業務收入的 10% 或公司收入的 1%。因此，明年進口的不確定性較不重要。因此，整體而言，我們對今年到明年該產業的需求將會趨於穩定感到樂觀。然後，我們有了所有這些創新計劃，使我們能夠擴大這些新應用程式的數量並利用現有資產。

Okay, great. And then could you just give us an update on your large offtake agreement from the PDH unit, where that stands, kind of what the economic impacts of that will be when it rolls through? And then do you get made whole on any of the delays that were associated with that?

好的，太好了。然後，您能否向我們介紹 PDH 部門的大型承購協議的最新情況，以及該協議實施後將產生什麼樣的經濟影響？那麼，您是否已經就與此相關的任何延誤得到了賠償？

Yes. So I think Enterprise has said that, that PDH unit is expected to come online later this year. When it does, we'll essentially be integrated back to propane with our propylene needs. So currently, we produce about 55% of the propylene that we need and 40%, 45% comes from the market. In terms of the financial impact, several years ago, we indicated that maybe there was a $30 million benefit from that unit coming online for us. Obviously, the world has changed a little bit in the years that have gone past. And therefore, the benefit won't be as much as we had expected. But we'll still be happy when the unit comes online. And thanks again, everyone, for joining us this morning. We'll have a web replay available around 11:00 a.m., and we thank you for your time.

是的。所以我認為 Enterprise 已經說過，PDH 裝置預計將於今年稍後上線。當這種情況發生時，我們基本上會重新整合丙烷和丙烯需求。目前，我們生產所需丙烯的約 55%，另外 40% 至 45% 來自市場。就財務影響而言，幾年前，我們曾表示，該部門上線可能會為我們帶來 3,000 萬美元的收益。顯然，過去的這些年世界發生了一些變化。因此，收益不會像我們預期的那麼多。但當裝置上線時我們仍然會很高興。再次感謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們將在上午 11:00 左右提供網路重播，感謝您的時間。

That does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。