Stepan Company (NYSE:SCL) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 30, 2024 8:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Luis Rojo - Chief Financial Officer
Scott Behrens - President and Chief Executive Officer
Conference Call Participants
Vincent Anderson - Stifel
Mike Harrison - Seaport Research Partners
Dave Storms - Stonegate
Operator
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Stepan Company First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Luis Rojo, CFO. Please go ahead.
Luis Rojo
Good morning and thank you for joining Stepan Company first quarter 2024 financial review. Before we begin, please note that information in this conference call contains forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions, and factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
In addition, this conference call will include discussion of adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP measures. We provide reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures in the earnings presentation and press release, which we have made available at www.stepan.com under the Investors section of our website. Whether you’re joining us online and over the phone, we encourage you to review the investor slide presentation. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings release is issued, and we hope that you find the information and perspective helpful.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Scott Behrens, our President and Chief Executive Officer.
Scott Behrens
Good morning and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2024 results. I plan to share highlights from our first quarter performance, and we’ll also share updates on our key strategic priorities, while Luis will provide additional details on our financial results.
The company reported first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $51.2 million, up 5% year-over-year. Global sales volume was up 1% year-over-year. Volume weakness in the agricultural market due to continued inventory destocking and lower phthalic anhydride volumes due to ongoing operational issues at our Millsdale site, mostly offset the strong recovery in volumes across our other core markets. Global sales volume, excluding the impact of agricultural and PA was up 4%. Surfactants experienced double-digit volume growth in Personal Care and Oilfield end markets and with our distribution partners. As expected, Latin American surfactant volumes grew strong double-digits as we recovered volumes in Mexico.