International Paper Company (NYSE:IP) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Mark Nellessen - Vice President, Investor Relations

Mark Sutton - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Tim Nicholls - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Clay Ellis - Senior Vice President, Global Cellulose Fibers

Tom Hamic - Senior Vice President, North American Container and Chief Commercial Officer

Jay Royalty - Senior Vice President, Containerboard and Recycling

Conference Call Participants

Gabe Hajde - Wells Fargo

Anthony Pettinari - Citigroup

George Staphos - Bank of America

Mark Weiintraub - Seaport Research

Mike Roxland - Truist Securities

Phil Ng - Jefferies

Matthew McKellar - RBC

Operator

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to today’s International Paper’s Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the speakers' remarks, you will have an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]

I’d now like to turn today’s conference over to Mark Nellessen, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Mark Nellessen

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, and thank you for joining International Paper's third quarter 2023 earnings call. Our speakers this morning are Mark Sutton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Nicholls, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. There is important information at the beginning of our presentation on Slide 2, including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-U.S. GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of those figures to U.S. GAAP financial measures is available on our website. Our website also contains copies of the third quarter earnings press release and today's presentation slides.

I will now turn the call over to Mark Sutton.

Mark Sutton

Thank you Mark and good morning, everyone. We will begin our discussion on slide 3 where I will highlight our results. In the third quarter, our teams across International Paper executed well with intense focus on optimizing our cost structure while taking care of our customers. Looking at our performance, we delivered on the earnings outlook we provided last quarter and we continued our efforts to drive out the highest marginal cost across our system. In addition, International Paper for delivered $75 million of year-over-year incremental earnings benefits from our building a better IP initiative. Year-to-date this program has contributed $195 million in benefits, exceeding our full year target for the second year in a row.