Mercer International Inc. (NASDAQ:MERC) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 9, 2024 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Richard Short - CFO & Secretary
Juan Carlos Bueno - President & CEO
Conference Call Participants
Hamir Patel - CIBC
Brandon Hole - CIFC Asset Management
Kasia Kopytek - TD Cowen
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Mercer International's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. On the call today is Juan Carlos Bueno, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mercer International; and Robert Short, CFO and Secretary.
I will now hand the call over to Richard Short.
Richard Short
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I will begin by touching on the financial and operating highlights of the second quarter before turning the call over to Juan Carlos to provide further color into the markets, our operations, and our strategic initiatives. Also for you that have joined the call today by telephone, there is presentation material that we have attached to the Investors section of our website.
But before turning to our results, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements in this morning's conference call. According to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, I'd like to call your attention to the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in our press release and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This quarter, our EBITDA totaled $30 million compared to Q1's EBITDA of $64 million. The lower results were driven by 37 days of planned major maintenance downtime split between two mills compared to no downtime in Q1. We estimate the planned downtime adversely impacted our EBITDA by approximately $60 million. After adjusting for the planned maintenance downtime impact, the improved operating results were primarily driven by higher pulp sales realizations.
Our pulp segment contributed quarterly EBITDA of $32 million and our Solid Wood segment contributed quarterly EBITDA of $3 million. You can find additional segment disclosures in our Form 10-Q, which can be found on our website and the SECs. Strong demand for pulp in Q2, combined with softwood supply interruptions in Finland, pushed prices higher than Q1 in all our major markets.
In China, the Q2 average NBSK net price was $811 per tonne, up $66 from Q1. European NBSK list prices averaged $1,602 per tonne in the current quarter an increase of $202 from Q1. And the North American NBSK list price averaged $1,697 per tonne in the current quarter, an increase of $257 from Q1. The North American NBHK average Q2 list price was $1,437 per tonne, up $214 from Q1.