Dow Inc. (DOW) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 25, 2023 8:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Dow First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn it over to Dow Investor Relations Vice President, Pankaj Gupta. Mr. Gupta, you may begin.

Pankaj Gupta - IR, VP

Good morning. Thank you for joining Dow's first quarter earnings call. This call is available via webcast and we have prepared slides to supplement our comments today. They are posted on the Investor Relations section of Dow's website and through the link to our webcast. I'm Pankaj Gupta, Dow Investor Relations Vice President, and joining me today on the call are Jim Fitterling, Dow's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Howard Ungerleider, President and Chief Financial Officer.

Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the earnings news release and slides. During our call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Dow's Forms 10-Q and 10-K include detailed discussions of principal risks and uncertainties, which may cause such differences. Unless otherwise specified, all financials where applicable, exclude significant items.

We will also refer to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures is contained in the Dow earnings release, in the slides that supplement our comments today, as well as on the Dow website.

On Slide 2, you will see the agenda for our call. Jim will begin by reviewing our first quarter results and operating segment performance. Howard will then share our outlook and margin guidance. To close, Jim will outline how our Decarbonize and Grow and Transform the Waste strategies enable continued value creation. Following that, we will take your questions.

Now let me turn the call over to Jim.

Jim Fitterling - Chairman and CEO

Thank you, Pankaj. Beginning on Slide 3. In the first quarter, Team Dow demonstrated its agility, delivering sequential earnings improvement in what continues to be a challenging environment. These results reflect our competitive advantages and operating discipline as we leveraged our structurally advantaged feedstock positions, proactively aligned our operating rates with market demand and focused on higher-value products where pockets of demand remain resilient, such as pharmaceutical applications, energy, commercial building and construction and mobility end markets. Additionally, our actions to deliver $1 billion in cost savings in 2023 are progressing with $100 million achieved in the first quarter. These actions will ensure we continue to focus on cash flow generation through our low-cost to serve operating model.