Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE:PKG) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 24, 2024 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Mark Kowlzan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Tom Hassfurther - Executive Vice President, Corrugated Products
Bob Mundy - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
George Staphos - Bank of America Securities
Mike Roxland - Truist
Mark Weintraub - Seaport Research Partners
Anthony Pettinari - Citi
Gabe Hajde - Wells Fargo
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Charlie Muir-Sands - BNP Paribas
Operator
Good morning. Thank you for joining Packaging Corporation of America's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Results Conference Call. Your host today will be Mark Kowlzan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PCA. Upon conclusion of his narrative, there will be a Q&A session.
I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Kowlzan. Please proceed when you are ready.
Mark Kowlzan
Good morning, everyone and thank you for participating in Packaging Corporation of America's second quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. Again, I'm Mark Kowlzan, Chairman and CEO of Packaging Corporation of America. And with me on the call today is Tom Hassfurther, Executive Vice President, who runs the Packaging business; and Bob Mundy, our Chief Financial Officer.
I'll begin the call with an overview of the second quarter results. And then I'll be turning the call over to Tom and Bob, who'll provide further details. And then I'll wrap things up and we'll be glad to take questions. Yesterday, we reported second quarter net income of $199 million or $2.21 per share. Excluding special items, second quarter 2024 net income was $199 million or $2.20 per share compared to the second quarter 2023 net income of $209 million or $2.31 per share. Second quarter net sales were $2.1 billion in 2024 and $2 billion in 2023.
Total company EBITDA for the second quarter excluding special items, was $404 million in 2024 and $418 million in 2023. The details of special items for both the second quarter of '24 and 2023 were included in the schedules that accompanied the earnings press release. Excluding special items, the $0.11 per share decrease in second quarter 2024 earnings compared to the second quarter of 2023 was driven primarily by lower prices and mix in our Packaging segment for $0.87 and Paper segment $0.07. Even with our constant focus on minimizing inflationary cost increases, operating costs were higher by $0.31 per share. This was particularly in the areas of recycled fiber and inflation-driven increases on labor and benefits, outside service expenses, repair and operating material costs, rents, property taxes and insurance.