Westlake Chemical (NYSE:WLKP) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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The full earnings call is available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/493g3eiw
Summary
Westlake Chemical Partners reported a first-quarter 2026 net income of $14 million, or $0.40 per unit, benefiting from higher third-party average sales prices despite slightly lower production and sales volumes.
The company announced a 47th consecutive quarterly distribution, with a distribution of 47.14 cents per unit, highlighting its consistent cash flow and stable business model.
Looking forward, the company anticipates benefiting from increased demand for North American ethylene due to Middle East conflicts affecting global supply, and it plans to leverage this through potential increases in third-party sales.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, you will be invited to participate in a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 5, 2026. I would now like to turn the call over to today’s host, Jeff Hawley, Westlake Chemical Partners Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Sir, you may begin.
Jeff Hawley (Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer)
Thank you, Kelly. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners first quarter 2026 conference call. I’m joined today by Albert Chow, our Executive Chairman, John Mark Gilson, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and other members of our management team. During this call, we refer to ourselves as Westlake Partners or the Partnership. References to Westlake refer to our parent company, Westlake Corporation, and references to OPCO refer to Westlake Chemical, OPCO lp, a subsidiary of Westlake and the partnership which owns certain olefins assets. Additionally, when we refer to distributable cash flow, we are referring to Westlake Chemical Partners MLP distributable cash flow. Definitions of these terms are available on the partnership’s website. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward looking information that is based on management’s beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. These forward looking statements suggest predictions or expectations and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. We encourage you to learn more about the factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing the cautionary statements in our regulatory filings which are also available on our investor relations website. This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our first quarter 2026 financial and operating results. This document is available in the press release section of our webpage@wlkpartners.com A replay of today’s call will be available beginning two hours after the conclusion of this call. The replay can be accessed via the partnership’s website. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today May 5, 2026, and therefore you are advised that time sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an Internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at wlkpartners. Now I’d like to turn the call over to Jean Marc Kilson.
Jean Marc Kilson
Thank you, Jean Marc, Jeff and good afternoon everyone. And thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter 2026 results in this morning’s press release we reported Westlake Partners first quarter 2026 net income of $14 million or $0.40 per unit compared to the first quarter of 2025. Our first quarter sales and earnings benefited from a higher third party average sales price that was offset by slightly lower production and sales volume. The stability of Westlake Partners business model is consistently demonstrated through our fixed margin ethylene sales agreement which minimizes market volatility and other production risks. The high degree of stability in cash flow when paired with the predictability of our business has enabled us to deliver the long history of reliable distribution and coverage this quarter. Distribution is the 47th consecutive quarterly distribution since …
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