May 06, 2021 / 05:20PM GMT
Michael Joseph Sison - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Analyst
Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Mike Sison. I apologize for delay. We had a couple of technical difficulties here in Cleveland. I cover chemicals for Wells Fargo. I do want to introduce Westlake Chemical, which is having a strong start to '21. Stock is up 25% year-to-date versus the S&P 500 up 11%. I had a longer opening, but I'm just going to introduce Albert Chao here, CEO; as well as Steve Bender, CFO. And we can just go right into some questions here.
Questions and Answers:
Michael Joseph Sison - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity AnalystAlbert, I guess, initially, I wanted to maybe spend a little bit of time on how Westlake fits in the world of commodity chemicals and talk a little bit about your vertical integration strategy in the vinyls and olefins and how that creates value for shareholders.
Albert Yuan Chao - Westlake Chemical Corporation - President, CEO &