Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation's First Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, you will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference call is being recorded, today, May 4, 2015. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Dave Hansen, Westlake Chemical Corporation's Senior Vice President of Administration. Sir, you may begin. David R. Hansen - Senior Vice President, Administration & Head-Media Relations: Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Corporation's first quarter 2015 conference call. I am joined today by Albert Chao, our President and CEO; Steve Bender, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and other members of our management team. The conference call agenda will begin with Albert who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake's performance in the first quarter of 2015, followed by a current perspective on the industry. Steve will then provide a more detailed look at our financial and operating results. And finally, Albert will add a few concluding comments, and then we'll open the call up for questions. At times, we may refer to ourselves as Westlake Chemical, references to Westlake Partners refer to the Master Limited Partnership, Westlake Chemical Partners LP. References to OpCo refer to Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, whose assets consist of two ethylene production facilities located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, an ethylene production facility located in Calvert City, Kentucky, and an ethylene pipeline that runs from Mont Belvieu, Texas, to the Longview, Texas chemical sites. Today management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's…

Thank you. And our first question comes from Hassan Ahmed from Alembic Global. Your line is open.

Hey, Steve. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Good morning.

Question around the Olefins side of things, obviously, we saw the propane-based ethylene margins expand quite considerably, call it, through the course of Q4 and Q1. So the question really that I have is, that as you take a look at your feedstock flexibility as it sits right now, keeping in mind what propane-based margins have done over, at least the last handful of quarters, are you satisfied with the level of flexibility that you have? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Yes, I think so, Hassan, because when you think about the feedstock that we use in ethane, it gives us the capacity capability that we wouldn't have, but we've been using a heavier feedstock by propane. So we are very pleased with the results that we've seen from the feedstock, which – and of course, the expansion from added pounds.

Fair enough. And now switching gears a bit to Westlake Partners, we all know obviously one of your competitors out there is considering MLPing their chlor-alkali assets. If at all there is a positive ruling around that, would those assets be assets you would consider sort of dropping into your MLP, part one? And part two, if you could just generally give us your thought process with regards to further dropdowns within the MLP? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Well, certainty we'll watch with interest any action on the MLP front and assets that might qualify and assess what if that might makes sense for us. In terms of the pace of the dropdowns, you saw the one that we announced last week and we continue to be very focused at making sure that we can continue to meet the objectives that we've been very clear on and that is having a distributable cash flow and growth for the LP unit holders on that low double-digit growth rate trajectory that we've been very clear in telegraphing.

Very helpful. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from James Sheehan from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Your line is open.

Thanks. Just wondering if you would comment on your building products volumes in the first quarter, how did they do? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, building products has improved somewhat, but the first quarter, due to the weather conditions, the demand there has not grown as much as we expected.

And how do you think that the second quarter is going to look. Is there going to be a big bounce back from the weaker first quarter? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. We expect the second quarter, the volume to improve.

Thank you. And can you just talk about, what you're seeing in Europe around Vinnolit? You referenced in your summary remarks about European economy is getting stronger. How much do you expect that to benefit your Vinnolit business? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. With the lower euro compared with the dollar, as well as the lower ethylene prices, our European economy is doing better. Europeans PVC demand is doing better. And having price increases as well due to a lower – the increased demand. So we expect the business, general, for this year to be better than the last year in the euro terms.

Your Vinyls volumes were up the 80% this quarter, was that all Vinnolit? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: PVC demand compared – I don't know which quarter you are comparing with. But PVC demand in the first quarter sales has been better than last year first quarter as well as better than the fourth quarter. So Vinnolit suddenly played a large part, but I think generally speaking, the Vinyls business has, especially PVC resins has picked up speed.

So in the 80% figure that you list in your press release for the year-over-year change in Vinyls volumes, how much of that would have been legacy Westlake volumes? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, Westlake volume would improve somewhat, but I think that the Vinnolit as well as our chlor-alkali plant at Geismar that started up first part of 2014. This year's first quarter performance is much better. So I think, Vinnolit and the new chlor-alkali capacity expansion addition has been the majority of the increase.

Thank you. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: You're welcome.

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Frank Mitsch from Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is open.

Good morning, gentlemen. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Good morning.

Hey, just a follow up on the Vinnolit and you obviously mentioned the euro move making it more competitive. Can you give us a sense as to what's – roughly what percent is typically exported out of the region and where may that be standing here in 2015 given the benefits on currency? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes, certainly. Vinnolit exports, I think, on the average less than the European PVC industry because most of its plants are in England, in Germany, and not on the Coast, already do export to the CIS region as well as other regions around Europe so the export may not be overseas to Asia or elsewhere but more the greater Europe area.

And you're seeing that pickup right now, correct? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: In general, business has picked up, yes.

All right, terrific. And then, I believe when you were talking about the $0.05 per pound price increase for polyethylene here in May, you're talking about global demand getting better as well as some restock. Can you size for us what you think is going on in terms of restock? And, I guess, by that I mean where my inventory levels be at the consumer level? How sustainable might that shot in the arm in terms of demand be? And heck, while I'm at it, how confident are you in that $0.05 price increase? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Since November last year until now the U.S. polyethylene industry has dropped approximately $0.16 a pound in prices reflecting lower ethylene and lower crude oil prices. And this is the first price increase in U.S. for the polyethylene industry. And today, U.S. polyethylene prices domestically are lower than around Asia and Europe. So I think that given the restocking as well as the higher prices overseas, I think, the likelihood for price increase is very strong.

Thank you so much. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: You're welcome.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Kevin McCarthy from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Yes. Good morning. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning.

With regard to the interest of 2.7% in OpCo that was dropped down for $135 million, can you comment on how that valuation was determined and how we should think about multiples and valuations for future dropdowns in that context? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes, Kevin. There is a committee of independent directors at Westlake Partners. They're commonly in the industry called the Conflicts Committee and they negotiate with the Westlake Chemical on that valuation and certainly that's an arm's length negotiation from a value perspective. And so, as you'd imagine, they hire advisors as does Westlake Chemical to derive that ultimate price paid.

So it's really the product of a negotiation rather than any sort of formulaic approach? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: That's correct. It is – as I say, there is no formulaic approach, as I say it's a product of a negotiation and in both sides use their advisors in that process. But there are – certainly looking at the structure, which we think is a very stable based contract structure for Westlake Partners and we think a very nice structure that provides insulation from the ebbs and flows in the commodity business.

Understood. And then, I guess, two housekeeping questions, Steve. In the second quarter recognizing it's still early in the quarter, would you expect the FIFO accounting impact to shift to a benefit based on what you see today? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: It's been pretty flat at this stage. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Ethane may have dropped a little bit so far, but the second quarter is not over yet. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Yeah. It's been pretty flat at this stage. It's hard to make a call for the quarter at this stage because it really, as Albert noted, it hadn't really changed a whole lot over the month of April and first couple of days of May.

Okay. And then last one for me, again, on the housekeeping side, I think you had mentioned a $32 million hit from various plant turnarounds recognizing one of them is in Europe. Could you help us out a bit with how that might split between your two segments? Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Those that are in Europe are obviously in the Vinyls segment let's call that $8 million to $10 million and the rest is going to be in the Olefins space.

Great. Thank you very much. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: You're welcome.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brian Maguire from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hey. Good morning, guys. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Good morning. Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Just following up on that last question on the outages, I think last quarter you mentioned you weren't expecting to have any outages this year. So just wondering if this is a strategic or maybe tactical decision to take advantage of some changing market dynamics in the U.S. or Germany or maybe in advance of some expectation of prices going up or are there some operational issues to be aware of or just basically what's driving the timing and size of those outages? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: No, Brian, what I'm doing is I'm calling out the outages on the Olefins side are polyethylene outages and just because we have a number of the them occurring in the second quarter both in Lake Charles and Longview, I thought, it was worthy of calling them out. Normally, they are spread more evenly throughout the year, and I just thought, given the sensitivity of the people's awareness, I thought, I'd call out the turnaround that's occurring in Europe in Cologne and Knapsack in the second quarter as well for Vinnolit. Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay. I got it. And the Geismar impact in the first quarter, give a dollar amount? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Yeah. I made reference to that in my prepared remarks – it was…

Thank you. And our next question comes from Don Carson from Susquehanna. Your line is open.

Yes, Albert, just a question on current business trends what you are seeing in April. On polyethylene, did you see a lot of pre-buying in April which would indicate customers think that the $0.05 price increase will go through on May 1? And what are you seeing in PVC? I know that we've had a slow start to the year here. How did April progress? And I think you indicated there is still some uncertainty over that $0.03 April price increase. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, certainly, Don. I think the polyethylene business is quite strong. As I said earlier, overseas polyethylene prices are at or higher than U.S. prices, (30:55) to catch up. And demand is good as spot price has gone up. So we believe that the May increase should be quite good. As far as PVC, we had $0.03 upon price increase in March. And we expect a portion of the $0.03 upon price increase to get through April. Demand is very strong in the U.S. and overseas. And even though, there is more ethylene coming up, I think the ethylene supply is still not there quite yet. So there is a balance between the strong demand and supply.

And Steve, what impact did the euro have as you translated your Vinnolit earnings back into dollars on? What kind of a drag was that? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: We actually didn't have a significant adverse impact as a result of it. Obviously, there is a balance sheet impact and the cumulative translation adjustment comes through, but on a P&L perspective, we really haven't seen a significant impact adversely as Albert noted. We continue to look for opportunities to use that lower euro to penetrate other markets.

Okay. And then, finally just a clarification on the Petro 1 turnaround, one of the industry publications has that listed is going down for maintenance outage in October, November, but you're saying now that that's not accurate, that you're not taking it down for that first half expansion and until after the New Year? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: It's a 2016 timing and we'll give a more clarity of exactly when in 2016 that will occur, but that's correct, it's 2016.

All right. Okay. Thank you. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: You're welcome.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Good morning, Jeff. Albert Chao - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning.

Hi. Could you reflect upon a little bit on the change year-over-year in SG&A expenses? I think you were roughly $55 million in the first quarter and maybe last year at this time you were $39 million. Is that something that has to do with Vinnolit or management compensation or is there a new level for quarterly SG&A expense? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: It's – Jeff, thank you for the question, it's largely Vinnolit, that's largely the big driver there.

Okay. And then secondly, Westlake is really very different than the other petrochemical companies in the way that it manages its balance sheet in that at Lyondell and at Dow there are very large share repurchases and there is a higher level of debt to EBITDA, whereas at Westlake you've chosen to manage the balance sheet being net debt free and there's been an avoidance of share repurchase. Can you explain the difference in your strategy versus the other two companies or why this is the best way to manage the cash flow as the balance sheet? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Jeff, I guess, I would say, as we continue to look for and we've gone through a period of very significant capital spending and the acquisitions we've made. Several acquisitions over the last several years have also launched the master limited partnership mid-year last year and continue to look for opportunities to deploy capital in an efficient way. But certainly, we do believe in continuing to deploy that in a way that is value additive to the shareholders. And if we can't find a way to deploy it effectively into the business, we can certainly continue to return it as we have to shareholders. And certainly that is – certainly our expected continued plan is to continue to look for those ways to deploy it into the business. But if we can't, we certainly can and have paid dividends both regular and special as well as bought shares back.

So can you say something more tangibly, that is, for example, if you didn't find an acquisition by the end of the year, what might you do with your balance sheet? Would that be a sufficient length of the time to change your approach or would you need more time to make your decision? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: Yeah, Jeff, I wish, I could be as specific as you'd like, but the reality is, we can't tell you the ideas that we have internally and we don't always control the timelines of those ideas.

Or some of those things that you're looking at relatively large in the size, such that you would want to maintain such a conservative balance sheet? Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: They vary in size.

Okay, great. Thank you so much. Mark Steven Bender - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Director: You're welcome.

Thank you. At this time, the question-and-answer session has now ended. Please proceed with any closing remarks. David R. Hansen - Senior Vice President, Administration & Head-Media Relations: We'd like to thank you very much for participating in our call today. And we very much look forward to having you join us again for our next conference call to discuss our second quarter 2015 results. Have a wonderful day.