Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE:PKG) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 24, 2023 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Mark Kowlzan - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Tom Hassfurther - Executive Vice President, Corrugated Products
Bob Mundy - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
George Staphos - Bank of America Securities
Mark Weintraub - Seaport Research Partners
Mike Roxland - Truist Securities
Anthony Pettinari - Citi
John Dunigan - Jefferies
Operator
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Packaging Corporation of America's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Results Conference Call. Your host for today will be Mark Kowlzan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PCA. Upon conclusion of his narrative, there will be a Q&A session. Please note that this call is being recorded.
At this time I'd like to turn the floor over to Mr. Kowlzan. Please proceed when you're ready.
Mark Kowlzan
Thank you, Jamie. Good morning, and thank you all for participating in Packaging Corporation of America's third quarter 2023 earnings release conference call. I'm Mark Kowlzan, Chairman and CEO, PCA, and with me on the call today is Tom Hassfurther, Executive Vice President, who runs our packaging business, and Bob Mundy, our Chief Financial Officer.
As usual, I'll begin the call with an overview of the third quarter results, and then I'll turn the call over to Tom and Bob, who will provide further details and then I'll wrap things up and then we'd be glad to take questions.
Yesterday we reported third quarter net income of $183 million or $2.03 per share. Excluding special items, third quarter 2023 net income was $185 million or $2.05 per share, compared to the third quarter of 2022's net income of $266 million or $2.83 per share. Third quarter net sales were $1.9 billion in 2023 and $2.1 billion in 2022.
Total company EBITDA for the third quarter excluding special items was $388 million in 2023 and $477 million in 2022. Third quarter net income included special items expenses of $0.02 per share, primarily for certain costs at the Jackson, Alabama mill for paper to container board conversion related activities. Details of all special items for the third quarter of 2023, as well as 2022 were included in the schedules that accompanied our earnings press release.
Excluding the special items, the $0.78 per share decrease in third quarter 2023 earnings, compared to the third quarter of 2022 was driven primarily by lower price and mix of $1.33 and volume $0.09 in the packaging segments. Higher depreciation expense $0.11; lower volume in the paper segment $0.04; higher tax $0.02; and other expenses $0.02 cents. These items were partially offset by lower operating costs of $0.58, primarily resulting from lower recycled fiber and energy prices along with outstanding mill and plant operational execution.