CLMT

As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q2. Today, we are looking at infrastructure stocks, starting with Calumet (NASDAQ:CLMT). Energy infrastructure companies build, own, and operate assets including pipelines, storage facilities, and processing plants that transport and handle oil, natural gas, and related products. These businesses often generate fee-based revenues providing cash flow stability. Tailwinds include growing production volumes requiring expanded takeaway capacity and export infrastructure demand. Long-term contracts with creditworthy counterparties reduce commodity price exposure. Headwinds include permitting and regulatory challenges delaying new projects, environmental opposition to pipeline construction, and potential long-term demand decline from energy transition. High capital intensity and interest rate sensitivity affecting financing costs present additional considerations. The 7 infrastructure stocks we track reported a very strong Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 14.1%. Luckily, infrastructure stocks have performed well with share prices up 10.2% on average since the latest earnings results. With roots dating back to 1919 and facilities strategically positioned from Louisiana to Montana, Calumet (NASDAQ:CLMT) refines crude oil into specialty products like lubricating oils, solvents, and waxes used in cosmetics, batteries, and industrial applications. Calumet reported revenues of $1.45 billion, up 40.8% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 32%. Overall, it was a very strong quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates. "Calumet continues to execute against every element of our multi-dimensional strategy," said Todd Borgmann, CEO. Calumet achieved the biggest analyst estimate beat among its peers. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 26.9% since reporting and currently trades at $53.15. Is now the time to buy Calumet? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Operating a 64% stake in the Poseidon Pipeline, one of the Gulf of Mexico's largest crude oil pipelines, Genesis Energy (NYSE:GEL) provides midstream services like pipeline transportation, storage, and processing for crude oil and natural gas producers and refiners. Genesis Energy reported revenues of $532 million, up 41% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 26.2%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 8.9% since reporting. It currently trades at $16.19. Is now the time to buy Genesis Energy? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Dominating the Permian Basin with a fleet focused on large horsepower units exceeding 1,000 horsepower each, Kodiak Gas Services (NYSE:KGS) operates compression equipment that maintains natural gas pressure for production, gathering, and transportation. Kodiak Gas Services reported revenues of $391.1 million, up 21.1% year on year, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 1.9%. Still, it was a slower quarter as it posted a significant miss of analysts’ EPS estimates. Interestingly, the stock is up 10.5% since the results and currently trades at $62.81. Read our full analysis of Kodiak Gas Services’s results here. Operating specialized vessels that can deliver up to 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, Excelerate Energy (NYSE:EE) provides liquified natural gas regasification services using floating vessels that convert LNG back into natural gas. Excelerate Energy reported revenues of $329.3 million, up 61% year on year. This result beat analysts’ expectations by 1.6%. Overall, it was a strong quarter as it also produced a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. Excelerate Energy had the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. The stock is up 3% since reporting and currently trades at $39.65. Read our full, actionable report on Excelerate Energy here, it’s free. With each vessel capable of carrying roughly 2 million barrels of oil—enough to fill about 125 Olympic swimming pools—DHT Holdings (NYSE:DHT) operates very large crude carriers that transport crude oil across international routes for energy companies and traders. DHT Holdings reported revenues of $255.2 million, up 174% year on year. This print topped analysts’ expectations by 4.8%. It was an exceptional quarter as it also put up an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA and EPS estimates. DHT Holdings scored the fastest revenue growth of the whole group. The stock is up 13% since reporting and currently trades at $20.19. Read our full, actionable report on DHT Holdings here, it’s free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market’s biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market’s primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market’s dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Strong Momentum Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer-Louis Borgmann Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer-David Lunin Executive Vice President, Montana Renewables and Corporate Development-Bruce Fleming President, Specialties-Scott Obermeier Investor Relations-John Kompa Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Calumet Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Kompa, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. John Kompa: Thanks, David. Good morning. Thank you for joining our second quarter 2026 earnings call. With me on today's call are Todd Borgmann, CEO; David Lunin, EVP and Chief Financial Officer; Bruce Fleming, EVP, Montana Renewables and Corporate Development; and Scott Obermeier, President, Specialties. You may now download the slides that accompany the remarks made on today's conference call, which can be accessed in the Investor Relations section of our website at calumet.com. Also, a webcast replay of this call will be available on our site within a few hours. Turning to the presentation. On Slide 2, you can find our cautionary statements. I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, we may provide various forward-looking statements. Please refer to our press release that was issued this morning as well as our latest filings with the SEC for a list of factors that may affect our actual results and cause them to differ from our expectations. As we turn to Slide 3, I'll now pass the call to Todd. Louis Borgmann: Thanks, John. Good morning, and welcome to today's call. The last time we were together, we expressed that this year was setting up a lot like 2022, and the second quarter delivered on that with $175 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes despite starting the period with 3 planned turnarounds in Princeton, Cotton Valley and Montana Renewables. Just as important as the quarterly earnings is what they mean for Calumet's strategic positioning. Our restricted group leverage ratio is now below 4x. And with the first phase of our MaxCalf 150 expansion behind us and strong cash flows in all businesses, we're expecting to surpass 3x next quarter. About a month ago, we called $100 million of notes. And last week, we terminated the sale leaseback of our CMR truck rack with $115 million repurchase, eliminating that high interest debt. The outlook is for continued and accelerated deleveraging from here. So the conversation today is increasingly about what our self-funding and growing platform does next. Let's turn to Slide 4, and we'll start with our specialties business. We've long talked about our integrated specialty strategy. And this quarter, we saw it in spades. Our routinely high-margin specialty products are exposed to an extremely favorable market dynamic, we'll hit on momentarily. As we've discussed previously, our specialty products are sourced from crude oil, which is a competitive advantage as relying on sourcing intermediates in the current market is a challenging position given the value of those intermediates to fuels processors and the scarcity of them in general. Further, processing crude to generate specialties means we're exposed to the fuels and asphalt coproducts that are generated during production as well. I'll take this a little deeper into the underlying drivers of the current specialty markets. Last quarter, we talked about the disruptions in the global energy market and their expected impact on diesel, which drives solvents pricing at Cotton Valley and lubes, which we make in varying forms at Shreveport and Princeton and then upgrade further at other sites. We've now seen this impact of global disruptions on the market in real time. Historically, our industry produces a little over 700,000 barrels per day of paraffinic base oil globally. And at the highest level, it's been well balanced with demand. Today, over 10% of that capacity is off-line, leaving the market structurally imbalanced. Historically, the Middle East and United States were the 2 large export hubs, each of which we're supplying about half of the base oils imported elsewhere throughout the world. With 1/3 of Middle Eastern capacity fully or partially off-line from the Iranian war, that export capability has turned upside down. A disproportionate share of that is Group III, which is in even worse shape than the broader lube oil market, although the shortfall of Group II has meant changes in formulations, increasing Group II demand in motor oil segment. About half of Calumet's paraffinic base oils are Group 2. Further, Europe has lost roughly 1/3 of its Group 1 base oil production during the Russia-Ukraine war, creating a shortage of that grade as well. Group 1 is typically tailored to industrial applications and represents the other half of Calumet's parffitic base oil production. Pre-war, Europe was essentially balanced in supply and demand, but has now joined Asia as an extremely short market. In short, there's simply not enough base oil to go around. Further, logistics costs to ship oil around the globe have ballooned given the shortage of vessels and skyrocketing insurance costs. Combine these elements with the refining industry already running at record utilization with no room to process more, and you have a setup that is unlikely to be resolved quickly. Prime example is fortunate to land on the right side of each of these global dynamics. Our crude supply is largely domestic, nearby and readily available. Our customers will often being major global companies as a whole are typically domestic ships, and we're a fully integrated producer, so we capture the intermediate value that nonintegrated suppliers have to pay for. Given this strong backdrop, accelerated deleveraging in action and a constructive outlook, we're also closely examining a pipeline of low-risk, high-return growth projects that we've been accumulating over the years as the majority of our discretionary capital was pointed toward building Montana Renewables and deleveraging. While we won't take our eye off completing the deleveraging, that's occurring more quickly than previously anticipated. So we're progressing this growth pipeline in a parallel and disciplined fashion. We're expecting a good chunk of this pipe to clear the FEL process and be deployed in 2027 and 2028. I thank our specialties team for the execution today. It's great to be talking about high return growth CapEx again in this business and having a team that's rebuilt our operational and commercial foundation so successfully, albeit with little capital, adds to our conviction. Turning to Slide 5. We see a similarly strong market at Montana Renewables as the RVO is working out exactly as expected. The index margin has moved sharply higher as it has to because the mandate requires biodiesel capacity to come back online. And as we said on prior calls, biodiesel producers have long memories and won't restart until they're confident. That's precisely what we're seeing, a measured rational restart that supports margin, which is what the administration intended to do when it set the RVO. Step back and the pattern is clear. There have been 2 decades of RVO targets since 2006. And every single one of them, except the 2024 CET1 er, EPA set the target at existing capacity plus growth and let American ingenuity fill the gap. Plenty of opponents called the SEP 2 policy too big and unreachable. What we've actually seen with the SEP 2 rule is a 70% increase in biomass-based diesel production this year as the industry reignites. Also, the agriculture community is crushing more crop than ever. Soybean and canola crush are both at record levels, and we're seeing about 5% more crush capacity being added this year. Throughout the value chain, we're seeing a lot more American jobs making American energy. You can see it on the RINs data on this slide, and this dynamic is why this critical lag in energy policy has been a long-standing and bipartisan issue. And last, let's turn to Slide 6 and talk Montana Renewables growth. David will walk through the financials in the segment review, but the gist at MRL is we made $17 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes in Q2 despite over $40 million of foregone margin while we are offline completing the first stage of the MaXTA-150 expansion. And with July as an indication, we're on track to pace well ahead of the second quarter even after normalizing for the downtime. Also since we last talked, we completed our performance test of the newly installed MaxSAF catalyst, and it met or exceeded expectations across the board. With the first step of MaxSAF behind us, we'll turn our efforts to the next steps of the expansion. First, I'll remind everyone that as we improve our project, we're also working with the DOE to ensure the supporting documents are updated. This is progressing well, and we'll disclose more details when that process concludes, which we expect will occur before our next call. Until then, I'll give a little more insight into how we're envisioning expansion in Montana, and we'll limit our comments on the further details until the full package is announced. Importantly, rather than a massive mega project, which includes transporting a second reactor from the Gulf Coast, we've identified a novel expansion. It's much cheaper, faster, lower risk and carries a much higher IRR. We plan to reconfigure some assets that CMR is already operating in Great Falls with the anchor asset being a second reactor. Lining up the second reactor in SAF production will provide best-in-class SAF yields. The current industry standard practice for SAF production involves fractionating and isomerizing renewable diesel, which creates SAF, but also creates less valuable byproducts like naphtha and fuel gas. In times of strong renewable diesel margins, the net act of converting renewable diesel to SAF plus byproducts balances at an economic optimum of lower SAF output. In fact, that's why you may hear industry participants at times saying the economics favor making RD even though there's a SAF premium. This second phase of our MaXSAF-150 project differentiates us by deploying the second reactor in a patent-pending polishing service instead of more severe cracking, which means minimal byproducts and in turn, an economic optimization that occurs at a much higher SAF output. Furthermore, because the second reactor is repurposed from the crude refinery, we plan to have it running this winter. This reactor ultimately provides the capability to produce roughly 200 million gallons of SAF when we expand total fresh feed rate to 17,000 barrels a day over the next 2 years for a fraction of the capital originally expected. More imminently, it will pair with our existing reactor ramping up late this year and then producing 120 million to 150 million gallons of SAF next spring at an industry-leading yield and cost structure. And long term, we still have our Gulf Coast reactor, which will now be known as the third reactor available to us after we step through the series of project nodes that we'll discuss in more detail soon. Swapping the reactor from fossil to renewable service requires about 2 weeks of downtime on the fossil side, and we're going to take that early this winter. In fact, we originally planned to do this tie-in midyear. But in the current market environment, we're expecting to earn over $50 million of EBITDA at CMR between now and the reconfiguration, which is a major upgrade to the original plan. So we'll capture that and run at a 60 million gallon SAF run rate for a few months as we finish out the retail asphalt season. While the Great Falls site reconfiguration will repurpose some CMR equipment for a step change increase in profitability, we'll continue to operate at CMR, keeping the jobs in the community, providing the shared services for MRL and producing world-class asphalt. In summary, this capital-efficient project saves hundreds of millions of capital dollars, accelerates both increased SAF and throughput by years, derisk the construction and doing the site reconfiguration this winter allows us to capture an extra $50 million of unexpected CMR upside. We expect to make an economically optimum 60 million gallon run rate of SAF until we reconfigure later this year. Coming out of that, we expect to quickly ramp up to 80 million to 100 million gallon run rate by year-end, and we'll be running -- run rating over 120 million gallons by spring of 2027. And most importantly, we're gaining another lasting competitive advantage at Montana Renewables, adding best-in-class SAF production yields to our top-tier position in location, feedstock flexibility, operating costs and our first half -- first-mover SAF marketing advantage. We look forward to sharing the full details of our expansion, the cost details and more on the multistep reconfiguration soon. And with that, I'll turn the call over to David. David? David Lunin: Thanks, Todd, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with the headline. We delivered $175 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes this quarter, and we're very proud of that result. Both of our businesses, Specialties and Montana Renewables performed well, and we continue to operate in an incredibly attractive part of the market. Every segment participated, led by Specialty Products & Solutions. In STS, we executed across the board, both on the commercial and operational side despite a heavy turnaround period. That performance shows up not just in earnings but in cash generation, and we drove over $90 million of cash flow from operations during the quarter, which speaks to the underlying strength of the portfolio. And this is while we built $70 million of working capital as the value of our receivables increased substantially, which will naturally unwind itself. I do want to talk through a few tactical items that affected the quarter because they were deliberate choices rather than surprises. First, we saw an offset from fuel hedges of around $20 million. As I mentioned last quarter, we put these hedges in place, roughly 20% of our fuel production intentionally to protect our cash flow and support our debt paydown commitments at historically attractive spreads, essentially trading some upside for certainty as we work through our deleveraging plan. We have 10,000 barrels a day of hedges on through early 2028 with 2027 levels at approximately $28 per barrel on a CBOB basis. This, combined with the near-term margin environment, provides ample confidence that our ultimate deleveraging success is in plain sight. In fact, this quarter, we saw restricted group leverage fall below 4x, and that's before we retired 115 more debt and expect to accelerate that through the second half of this year. Second, we had a working capital draw, and it's worth breaking that into its components because they tell very different stories. About $30 million is from intentionally holding higher levels of crude inventory than normal. That was a deliberate decision to derisk our operations in an incredibly dynamic and evolving market for global oil. We expect that build to unwind naturally over time. Another $30 million came from an increase in accounts receivable, which was simply a function of higher prices across all of our SPS businesses. In other words, a good problem to have and not a sign of collection or credit issues. We've captured attractive margins across base oils, solvents, Penico and fuels. We also saw roughly $20 million of build at MRL as the business ramped up and built inventory and accounts receivable following the completion of our expansion project. With Montana Renewables now back operating consistently at higher rates, that build should come down. All of these actions are concrete steps toward deleveraging. In July, we called $100 million of our 2028 MIRA notes and also retired our sale leaseback at the truck rack at CMR. Given our strong business performance and outlook for the rest of the year, we expect to continue at this accelerated pace. Taken together, we see this quarter as a continuation of the operational momentum we've built with a few timing-related working capital items that we expect to normalize and a continued unwavering focus on completing our debt reduction. With that, let me walk through the performance by segment. Turning to Specialty Products & Solutions. Adjusted EBITDA of $161.7 million more than double that of the prior year. The strong results came from both sides of the integrated model. The more than 20 specialty price increases our commercial team pushed through during the first quarter's spike reached full realization with Shreveport running clean all quarter. Further, we started the quarter with turnarounds at Princeton and Cotton Valley, both of which were completed on time and on budget. We have no turnaround scheduled for the third quarter, and Shreveport will do its turnaround in the fourth quarter. This quarter also marked our seventh consecutive quarter of specialty sales volume above 20,000 barrels per day and more importantly, a record specialty production quarter. Year-to-date, in 2026, our specialties volume has increased over 5% from the high milestone achieved last year in 2025. As we've highlighted in the past, our integrated business allows us to produce fuels and take advantage of the attractive high-margin fuel environment. The price increases that we've already implemented plus the elevated fuel margin environment continue to position us well for what we believe will be a strong second half of 2026. Turning to Performance Brands. Adjusted EBITDA was $6.3 million, down about $6.2 million versus the prior year. This is timing, not demand. Volumes were up 18% in the quarter. Input costs spiked before our pricing actions caught up. And as we discussed last quarter, our retail-oriented customer base carries a typical 60- to 90-day lag before price increases flow through to margin. It's also worth remembering that all of our businesses are in a LIFO accounting. So the rapid cost inflation flowed straight into the quarter's cost of goods rather than being smoothed the way a typical FIFO finished products business would report it. That was a $7 million headwind for PV during the quarter. As pricing action catches up and the inventory effect reverses, we expect the segment to recover. And frankly, this quarter is evidence that the same input cost move squeezing Performance Brands is what's benefiting the rest of Calumet. With STS production 35x greater than Performance Brands, it's a condition we'll gladly accept. Looking ahead to the third quarter, we continue to remain vigilant on the pricing front with select actions going forward. In our Montana/Renewables segment, Todd covered Montana Renewables performance with $17 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes despite the site being down all of April and half of May, with roughly $40 million of lost opportunity between the MAX SAF expansion and turnaround as well as the Powderad outage. Index margins are strong, approximately $2.60 per gallon and rising today. So we are excited as we've ever been to have MRL meaningfully contributing, and we expect the third quarter to be meaningfully higher as we show a full quarter of production and earnings. Strategically, we are pleased to complete the first step of our MaxSAF 150 expansion on time and stepping into the market that is extremely positive for both renewable diesel and SAF. Our industry-leading low-cost structure and geographic advantage continues to underpin Montana Renewables competitive advantage in the industry. On the refining side, CMR generated $12.2 million of adjusted EBITDA, up about $10.9 million sequentially as the margin environment is well known. Asphalt margins lagged early in the quarter as rapid crude escalation squeezed asphalt margins. Pricing is caught up and the third quarter is peak asphalt season. So as Todd noted, CMR is set up for an outsized run between now and the November downtime. In closing, let me reiterate, we entered the second half of 2026 with real momentum. The specialties environment is carrying forward. The third quarter is turnaround free and Montana Renewables is ramping its strong index margins with the staff share of our slate growing. Our priorities are simple: run safely, reliably and full to capture this market, finish the DOE modification and lay out the complete expansion, funding and site reconfigure details, which we expect to do well before our next earnings call and continue deleveraging ahead of schedule while begin deploying capital into high-return growth with discipline. Thank you for your time today. And with that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Conor Fitzpatrick with Bank of America. Conor Fitzpatrick: Across the energy sector, there's been pretty divergent outcomes as a result of the Iran war. Refined product crack spreads are around record levels and the strip declines only gradually into the future as capacity would struggle to rebuild inventories. Petrochemicals margins have normalized more rapidly, mostly as a result of crude and feedstock prices and availability normalizing as well. Base oil cracks are extremely high and have remained high. But I wanted to get your perspective on how durable high base oil cracks will be. Damage tends to interrupt operations only for a couple of months at a time at the fuel refinery level, but undercapacity slows inventory rebuild. Is there kind of a similar story playing out for specialties and base oils? And how much of global margin gains in base oils are just the pass-through of feed costs like VGO? Scott Obermeier: Yes. This is Scott. Let me start with -- I think right now across the whole portfolio, and I'll get into base oils here in a second. But I think across our whole portfolio, I'd say we're certainly firing on all cylinders, as touched on in the script, production has been great, execution has been great, et cetera. And we think about the fuel crack market being historic specialties, again, across our whole portfolio are doing really well. So we feel good about that. We think in this current environment, it's not just a short-term situation. There's been a lot of structural impacts, if you will, that will take months and months to sort of stabilize. So we don't view the overall market as just a short-term situation. So our outlook in the coming months is that I think results will be similar to how they were here in -- just to touch a little bit further on base oils, and maybe it will be helpful if I zoom out. It was touched by Todd in the script. But -- so CabMet produces Group 1 and Group II base oils. A lot of the early headlines with the Iran war was on Group II Middle East capacity and refineries being taken offline, et cetera. That has had some impact on Group 1 and Group 2 as customers and companies look to formulate up Group 1 and Group 2. So the demand has been really strong to try to replace some of the gap in Group II. In addition, you have some of the larger global, I'll call it, more commodity refineries that make base oils as well that have been diverting to distillate due to the historic crack spread. And the third piece on base oils that we see going on, in fact, there was more reports this week of Russian refineries that were impacted by drone strikes from Ukraine. So there's a significant amount of capacity that just in the past couple of months has been taken offline. So long story short, I think overall and also specifically for base oils, we view the market as being tight, and we expect that to continue certainly in the coming months here through 2026. Conor Fitzpatrick: And I guess the follow-up is capital structure has improved by over $100 million and MRL run rate operations should accelerate that further going forward, at least in the near term, along with specialties margins and surplus. So in the event that your deleveraging targets are achieved organically soon, does that change your approach to MRL regarding monetization or other options? Louis Borgmann: It's Todd. It's a good question. I think the answer is no, not long term. We still expect that separating monetizing Montana Renewables is the right long-term path for this business. I'd say what has changed, and you pointed this out in your question, is we no longer have to do it as a prerequisite to grow our specialties business, which I think is critical. Our business cash flow allows us to pay down debt much more quickly than we ever planned. So we're looking at MRL monetization purely through the lens of shareholder value optimization, which is exactly where you want to be when approaching a potential transaction of that size with the value creation potential that it has. Operator: And the next question comes from Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright. Amit Dayal: Amazing results. Congratulations on the execution. For 3Q '26, what is your confidence level to see sort of the full benefits of MRL come through? I know it's been start and stop over the last 2 years roughly. But for 3Q '26 and maybe for the second half of this year, can we expect the full contribution from MRL to come through? Louis Borgmann: It's Todd again. I'll start off and then see if Bruce wants to jump in. I think the answer is absolutely yes. In July, we saw Earnings continue to ramp positively. Obviously, we were down April, first half of May for the MaxSAF turnaround, which you don't shed the fixed costs in that environment. So earlier, we talked about probably a normalized run rate Q2, you would have thought about in the $60 million range, $17 million we did plus a little over $40 million on kind of foregone margin while we were down. So I think you extend that to what we're seeing into Q3. We certainly expect to continue picking up on that pace in a meaningful way. So already demonstrating really strong margins return. It's great to see that. We've been talking about it for a while. We saw the RVO change. The market is reacting as we expected. We're seeing the increased staff and the impact of that. And going forward, we expect to continue that improvement. Amit Dayal: And then just sort of a follow-up to that. The Gulf Coast reactor, just to clarify, could that allow you to go beyond the 200 million gallons? Louis Borgmann: Yes, it could. It's -- no reason it couldn't do what it was originally scheduled to do when we talked about this project, right? So I don't want to miscommunicate that the numbers that we talked about today are the end of the road or anything like that. What we're saying is the next step in the growth process here. I look -- really looking forward to sharing more details on this, particularly costs, et cetera, because it's just so much more capital efficient than we are planning on doing. But we're going to have the ability to increase to 17,000 barrels a day of total throughput and up to 200 million gallons of SAF. -- much more quickly, much more economically than previously planned. And from there, sure, we have the ability to add the third reactor if we want, and we'll make that decision as time gets closer. Operator: And the next question comes from Josiah Knight with Goldman Sachs. Josiah Knight: Maybe just on the outlook for SAF more broadly. I know you just press released $30 million to the Minneapolis Airport. Can you talk about the demand you're seeing from customers, whether domestically or abroad a little deeper? Bruce Fleming: Josiah, this is Bruce. Yes, happy to do that. The North American voluntary market and the European mandatory market are introducing some possible trade flows. And we've seen cargoes move on the water. So there's going to be industry dynamics associated with that. But at the moment, and our best understanding from all of our customer conversations is those markets are going to remain separate and behave separately. And so we've not found the bottom of the voluntary demand. We expect to continue to ramp sales up. We've prepositioned our production capability by the project we just installed and by the pivot of some fossil refinery assets that Todd just covered. So we're maintaining an attitude of thinking flexibly and being really good at managing the risks in a climate of external volatility. Josiah Knight: Got it. That's helpful. And then a follow-up, just on mid-cycle. I know right now, there's a lot going on. Has your view of mid-cycle renewable diesel margins changed at all? Or has that been the same? Bruce Fleming: It has not. I mean I would draw everybody's attention to -- we call it the supply stack. It's on Slide 5 of the handout. If you want to bring capacity back into the market, which is a bipartisan effort, everybody on both sides of the aisle is in favor of domestic production. And in this case, it's the production of renewables, you're going to need cash margins to cover fully loaded costs. And that's where the market is or above. I mean the market may be a little above at the moment. And that's consistent with the 20 years of history, which we also show in here. So yes, we think last year was an aberration and error in the CET1 rule. And we think going forward, we're going to have typical behavior. On that basis, this remains a strong business for a domestic producer. Operator: And the next question comes from Jason Gabelman with TD Cowen. Jason Gabelman: I want to ask about the reactor that you're taking from the Montana plant putting into MRL. Can you share anything around the cost of that project and then the yield that you'll lose at the conventional Montana plant? Louis Borgmann: Jason, it's Todd. Let's defer of talk on the extra details for just a little bit here. And like I said earlier, we expect to be out with more on that soon. But I will say it's safe to say a good chunk of the EBITDA CMRs made historically will be traded for a much larger number at MRL and the massive cost savings of the project. So I'll also say that it's not like CMR is underwater or anything like that. It's somewhere in between. So I'd keep it to that for now. It's important to our community. It's important to our employees. And quite frankly, it's important to Montana Renewables to continue to provide the shared benefits that MRL receives from sharing the underlying fixed costs and workforce. So CMR is going to be continued piece of the portfolio, but we are reconfiguring a decent chunk of it for obvious a high multiple of return at MRL. Bruce Fleming: I would add to that because you asked about the mix, I think. On the fossil side, we're going to keep the asphalt rack open. We're going to keep the gasoline rack open. We're going to keep the crude run going. We're going to keep the employment. We are going to have some rearrangement in the black oils, the CAF area. And we'll be able to get into that post some DOE activity and imminent conversation around the details. Jason Gabelman: Okay. My follow-up is kind of related to that. I mean it's a bit surprising that you're not running at MAX SAF until the reactor comes online. I think when you laid out the project, you only expected about 1,000 barrels a day of renewable naphtha. So has the yield that you've seen on the current MAX SAF configuration differed from what your expectations were and that's why you're deciding to run at higher renewable diesel until you have this other reactor. Does it have to do with when SAF contracts kick in? Just any more color would be helpful. Louis Borgmann: Yes, you bet. I don't want to say that the yields on renewable naphtha are higher than originally expected at all. I'd say as you crank up without the polishing service, as you crank up severity on the cracking, more and more RV goes to naphtha. And if we rewind the clock a few months, when RD is less valuable, losing some of that in the cracking process isn't too painful, right? And when CMR margins were lower, converting that second reactor sooner wasn't much of a lost opportunity either. And I think the reality now and fortunate for all of us is the economics are different. So we're not incentivized to lose RD until we add the policy reactor. And at that point in time, our yields are going to go from, I'd say, normal industry at the margin to best-in-class. And we're happy to push that back a few months to capture this big $50 million prize sitting in front of us at CMR. So you kind of combine all of it to figure out the step that we're taking here. But I'd say altogether, it's a really nice step. As far as the SAF contracts, there's nothing to do with kind of a ramp-up or something like that, that you mentioned in your -- both these things with some flexibility in the first place. We have the ability to ramp up. We have the ability to ramp down. So we'll kind of service the contracts in a way now that says, hey, we'll have $60 million -- or 60 million gallon run rate being pushed out the door until we make that switch, get the better yields, crank up the staff and then we'll exercise the flexibility that we have in them to continue to grow and obviously add more as well. Jason Gabelman: Got it. That's good color. If I could just squeeze in one more. The debt paydown subsequent to quarter end, was that funded by cash on hand? Did you have to draw on the -- or did you have to draw on the ABL? David Lunin: Jason, it's David. It's predominantly cash generated just from the earnings of the quarter. Operator: And the next question comes from Gregg Brody with Bank of America. Gregg Brody: Just to stay on the question that Jason asked, can you tell us how we should think about the product yields from the MAX SAF 150 right now, how it's running beyond the SAF production? Louis Borgmann: Yes. I think the -- as far as the SAF, we'll lay out all of the yields and the volumes in more detail kind of as we step through the project here in not-too-distant future. But what we're saying now is we're running at about a 60 million gallon run rate now. I expect that to be the optimum. Obviously, if margin dynamics change one way or the other, then we'll be flexible as always. But expect that, that's the optimum now through the time when we do the reconfiguration. From there, we'll quickly ramp up by the end of the year, I think that we'll be 80 million, 100 million gallon SAF run rate. By the spring, we'll be at 120 million to 150 million gallon range. And then we'll step through some additional steps that we'll talk about later, ultimately getting to 200 million gallons of SAF by 2028. I'd also say at the end of 2028, it's not just more SAF, it's more throughput, right, increasing from 12,000 barrels a day before. Right now, we're just around 13,000 barrels a day, and we're going to increase that further to 17,000 barrels a day of total throughput. So a number of positives here as we step up in a much more capital efficient way than we originally had discussed. Gregg Brody: My question was on today's -- the 60-plus SAF that I'm looking at, what's the yields on the other parts? Is it mostly RD? Or is there greater naphtha? Louis Borgmann: Yes. No, it's mostly RD. Nothing's changed there from normal. Gregg Brody: Bruce, you were about to say something I cut you off. Bruce Fleming: Yes. So let's do this chronologically. So today, we've shifted some RD to SAF. We're going to continue to run that journey as we have been for a couple of years. Remember, we started at 30 million gallons with Shell back at the outset, and we've been walking that up. What Todd has given you, and he just said it verbally, and I just want to draw your attention to the bottom of Slide 3, I think there's a note. We're providing additional color about the $150 million and breaking that into additional tactical steps that we're taking this year through this winter in order to maximize the site's cash contribution to the corporation. So we've got this additional tactical color that flows from accelerating the whole program that was originally designed with the DOE. So we're getting more, we're getting faster and now we're showing some additional step granularity. And we wanted that out ahead of what's expected to be a detailed discussion with a lot more color in the relatively near future. Gregg Brody: Got it. Maybe just shifting gears. The $50 million of capital that you're talking about for at Specialties. Scott, congratulations. You finally got to put that to work. It's been a couple of years since you've been. I'm flashing back to being in that room in Montana, where we were surprised to have you talk for most of the time we were there. So it's just when should we expect that to start to trickle through? Is that this year? Or is that over time? Is it over this year and next? Just help me understand how much CapEx is going up at the restricted group. Louis Borgmann: I'd say the majority of that comes through next year, right? So where we're at right now is we have a pipeline of projects that we're reviewing. These are smaller projects in nature. So think of it as a portfolio, optimization type things, debottlenecking, small expansions that have been stacking up. So there's 5 or items, actually a little bit more, but 5 or 6 of size that make up that portfolio. Those are at the end of the FEL process. We're expecting to clear that, approve those in the not-too-distant future, at least most of those, right? So from there, we'd expect that the majority of that $50 million becomes part of the 2027 and 2028 capital budget that we'll announce. So we're not expecting additional CapEx out the door this year for growth. Obviously, not all of that gets spent on day 1 of 2027. It will be a staged project. Some of them are things that tie in, for example, to turnarounds that are scheduled at the end of '27, et cetera. So I'd say from a cash flow, you're looking at just cash flow out the door. I don't want to give too many specifics, but maybe 2/3 plus '27, the remainder in '28. Gregg Brody: So we won't see that show up in results until '28 most likely. Louis Borgmann: That's right. And maybe a little bit trickling in, in the second part of '27. But as a whole, I think '28. Gregg Brody: Okay. And then just turning to MREL. So obviously, you're set up to generate a lot of cash. Should we expect a fair amount of that to go back to pay back to intercompany payables to start to work down? Louis Borgmann: We'll talk a little bit more about kind of the cash and the loan and all of that soon. So I don't want to get ahead of that. I'd expect the cash, first and foremost, to be going toward kind of the next steps of the project, which, like we said, are pretty capital efficient. So we'll go there first and then the rest will accumulate. But let's go into more details when we can talk with the full deal in front of us. Gregg Brody: Got it. And just one last one for you. Obviously, with the higher stock price and cash flow, M&A is a greater possibility than it was in the past. What's your assessment of opportunity set out there? And is that something we should expect more of? Louis Borgmann: Yes. It's certainly something that we're paying attention to. We're not going to take our eye off of finishing the deleveraging. So we've said that. We've also got some nice organic growth CapEx that pretty low risk and we carry a lot of confidence in. But absolutely, we'll be watching actively the market and what's going on. And as always, if there's opportunities to create shareholder value, we're going to be all over them. We'll be looking for things that carry synergy with our broader specialties network. And you could say the same thing about Montana Renewables. So I think we're in a place to really start to look at what growth looks like in this company and excited to be stepping into that. But don't want to get ahead of our skis and send the wrong message, right? We're also going to be disciplined and complete the deleveraging, and we're doing those things in parallel. Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Kompa for any closing remarks. Louis Borgmann: Okay. Thank you, David. On behalf of Todd and the entire management team, I'd just like to thank everyone again for their interest in Canyon, and have a great rest of the day. Thank you. Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Calumet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Calumet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Calumet (CLMT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved $175 million adjusted EBITDA despite three planned turnarounds, driven by a structurally imbalanced global base oil market where over 10% of global capacity is offline. Leveraged a fully integrated specialty model to capture intermediate value, benefiting from domestic crude supply and high logistics costs that disadvantage non-integrated competitors. Capitalized on global energy disruptions, including the Iranian war and Russia-Ukraine conflict, which have removed significant Group I, II, and III base oil capacity from the market. Successfully completed the first phase of the MaxSAF 150 expansion, confirming that the newly installed catalyst met or exceeded all performance expectations. Reduced restricted group leverage to below 4x through strong cash flow and targeted debt retirement, including calling $100 million in notes and repurchasing a $115 million sale-leaseback. Identified a novel, lower-risk expansion path for Montana Renewables by repurposing existing fossil refinery assets to serve as a second reactor for SAF production. Maintained specialty sales volumes above 20,000 barrels per day for the seventh consecutive quarter, supported by 20 price increases implemented earlier in the year. Expect to surpass a 3x leverage ratio next quarter, with accelerated deleveraging supported by 10,000 barrels per day of fuel hedges through early 2028. Planning a phased SAF ramp-up: 60 million gallon run rate until reconfiguration later this year, increasing to 80-100 million gallons by year-end 2026 and 120-150 million gallons by spring 2027, and reaching 200 million gallons by 2028. Anticipating a $50 million EBITDA contribution from CMR fossil assets before their winter reconfiguration, representing a strategic upgrade to the original expansion timeline. Advancing a pipeline of low-risk, high-return specialty growth projects with approximately $50 million in capital deployment expected across 2027 and 2028. Continuing to work with the DOE on updated supporting documents for the modified expansion project, with full disclosure expected before the next earnings call. Incurred $40 million in foregone margin during Q2 due to planned downtime for the MaxSAF expansion, turnarounds, and a power outage. Recorded a $20 million offset from fuel hedges, intentionally trading upside for cash flow certainty to support debt paydown commitments. Managed a $70 million working capital build, primarily driven by higher crude inventory levels and increased accounts receivable from higher product pricing. Performance Brands segment faced a $7 million LIFO accounting headwind as input cost spikes preceded the typical 60- to 90-day retail pricing lag. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management believes the current tight market is structural rather than short-term, citing significant capacity losses in the Middle East and Russia that will take months to stabilize. Noted that commodity refineries are diverting feedstocks to distillate to capture historic crack spreads, further tightening base oil availability. Repurposing a second reactor from the crude refinery is significantly cheaper and faster than transporting a new reactor from the Gulf Coast. The configuration uses a patent-pending 'polishing' service that minimizes low-value byproducts like naphtha, optimizing economics for high SAF output rather than renewable diesel. Management confirmed that separating or monetizing MRL remains the long-term goal, but the company is no longer forced to do so as a prerequisite for growth. Strong organic cash flow allows the company to approach MRL monetization purely through the lens of shareholder value optimization rather than necessity. While some fossil capacity will be reconfigured, the site will maintain its asphalt rack, gasoline rack, and crude runs to preserve community jobs and shared service benefits. The trade-off involves exchanging a portion of CMR's historical EBITDA for a significantly higher return multiple at Montana Renewables.

Interested in Calumet, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Calumet reported $175 million in second-quarter adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes, driven by Specialty Products and Solutions, whose EBITDA more than doubled year over year to $161.7 million. Strong specialty pricing, record production and tight global base-oil markets offset planned turnaround and expansion-related downtime. The company accelerated deleveraging by calling $100 million of notes and repurchasing its $115 million CMR truck-rack sale-leaseback, primarily using cash generated from operations. Management expects leverage to fall below three times in the next quarter. Montana Renewables is positioned for a stronger third quarter after completing the MaxSAF 150 expansion, while Calumet adopted a lower-cost plan to expand SAF production using a repurposed reactor. The revised plan targets 80 million–100 million gallons of annual SAF capacity by the end of 2026 and more than 120 million gallons by spring 2027. 2 Energy Stocks Surging on Billion-Dollar DOE Loan Commitments Calumet (NASDAQ:CLMT) reported second-quarter adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes of $175 million, as strong performance in its Specialty Products and Solutions business helped offset downtime tied to planned turnarounds and the first phase of its MaxSAF 150 expansion at Montana Renewables. Chief Executive Officer Todd Borgmann said the company began the period with three planned turnarounds at Princeton, Cotton Valley and Montana Renewables. Despite that activity, Calumet’s restricted-group leverage ratio fell below four times. Borgmann said the company expects to surpass three times leverage in the next quarter as cash flow supports faster debt reduction. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth During the quarter and shortly afterward, Calumet called $100 million of notes and repurchased its CMR truck-rack sale-leaseback arrangement for $115 million, eliminating what Borgmann described as high-interest debt. Chief Financial Officer David Lunin said the debt reduction following the quarter was funded predominantly by cash generated from quarterly earnings. Specialty Products and Solutions generated adjusted EBITDA of $161.7 million, more than double the prior-year figure. Lunin said the result reflected commercial and operating execution, including the full realization of more than 20 specialty-product price increases put in place during the first quarter. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High The company completed planned turnarounds at Princeton and Cotton Valley on time and on budget, according to Lunin. Calumet has no turnarounds scheduled for the third quarter, while Shreveport is scheduled for a turnaround in the fourth quarter. Specialty sales volumes exceeded 20,000 barrels per day for the seventh consecutive quarter, while specialty production reached a record during the period. Year-to-date specialty volumes were up more than 5% from 2025 levels, Lunin said. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling Borgmann attributed the favorable market to global shortages in paraffinic base oils, as well as high fuel and asphalt values generated as co-products from specialty production. He said more than 10% of global paraffinic base-oil capacity was offline, with Middle Eastern capacity affected by the Iranian war and European Group I production reduced during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Calumet produces both Group I and Group II base oils. Scott Obermeier, president of Specialties, said demand for those products has strengthened as customers seek substitutes for constrained Group III supply. He also cited refinery decisions to divert production toward distillates amid high crack spreads, along with additional refinery disruptions in Russia. “We view the market as being tight, and we expect that to continue certainly into the coming months here through 2026,” Obermeier said. Performance Brands recorded adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 million, down about $6.2 million from the prior year. Lunin said volume increased 18%, but higher input costs arrived before pricing actions could fully flow through to retail customers. He said the segment also faced a $7 million headwind from LIFO accounting during a period of rapid cost inflation, and management expects margins to recover as pricing catches up and inventory effects reverse. Montana Renewables posted $17 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes during the second quarter, although the site was offline throughout April and for part of May as it completed the first stage of the MaxSAF 150 expansion, a turnaround and recovery from a power outage. Lunin estimated that the downtime represented more than $40 million of foregone margin opportunity. Management said the newly installed MaxSAF catalyst passed its performance test and met or exceeded expectations. The company expects third-quarter earnings at Montana Renewables to be meaningfully higher as the site operates for a full quarter and benefits from stronger renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, economics. Lunin said renewable diesel index margins were approximately $2.60 per gallon and rising at the time of the call. Borgmann said the renewable volume obligation, or RVO, has supported a measured restart of biodiesel capacity, while soybean and canola crushing have reached record levels. Bruce Fleming, executive vice president of Montana Renewables and corporate development, said Calumet’s view of mid-cycle renewable diesel margins has not changed. He said the market needs cash margins sufficient to cover fully loaded costs in order to bring capacity back online, and characterized 2024 as an aberration tied to the prior rulemaking. Calumet outlined a revised approach for expanding SAF production at Montana Renewables. Rather than transporting a second reactor from the Gulf Coast as part of a larger project, the company plans to repurpose an existing reactor at its Great Falls site. Borgmann said the approach is expected to be cheaper, faster, lower risk and more capital efficient than the original plan. The repurposed reactor will be used in a patent-pending polishing service designed to minimize lower-value byproducts, including renewable naphtha and fuel gas. Management said the configuration should improve SAF yields compared with a more severe cracking process. Calumet expects to operate at an economically optimal SAF run rate of about 60 million gallons until a site reconfiguration planned for early winter. The company expects the reconfiguration to allow production to ramp to an 80 million to 100 million gallon annual run rate by the end of 2026 and more than 120 million gallons by spring 2027. Over the next two years, management expects the site to reach roughly 200 million gallons of SAF capacity as total fresh-feed rates rise to 17,000 barrels per day. Borgmann said Calumet delayed the fossil-side reactor conversion because current CMR market conditions are expected to generate more than $50 million of EBITDA before the winter reconfiguration. The company plans to retain operations at CMR, including asphalt and gasoline racks, crude processing and the shared workforce supporting Montana Renewables. Management said it expects to provide further details on the Department of Energy modification process, project costs, funding and the site reconfiguration before its next earnings call. Calumet said it is examining a pipeline of low-risk, high-return specialty growth projects after directing most discretionary capital in recent years toward Montana Renewables and debt reduction. Borgmann said a number of projects could clear the front-end-loading process for deployment in 2027 and 2028. The company discussed approximately $50 million of specialty growth capital spending, with most of the cash outlay expected in 2027 and the remainder in 2028. Management said the projects are generally smaller debottlenecking and expansion initiatives, with most financial benefits expected in 2028. Borgmann also said Calumet continues to view a future separation or monetization of Montana Renewables as the appropriate long-term path, but said accelerated deleveraging means such a transaction is no longer required before investing in the specialties business. He said management will assess any potential Montana Renewables transaction through the lens of shareholder-value optimization while continuing to prioritize debt reduction. Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) is an independent provider of high-value, essential product solutions derived from both petroleum and renewable feedstocks. The company operates an integrated network of manufacturing plants, blending terminals and storage facilities across North America, delivering customized products and technical services to industrial, automotive, consumer and agricultural end markets. By leveraging its scale and technical expertise, Calumet tailors supply chain and formulation solutions to meet stringent regulatory and performance requirements. Calumet's product portfolio includes specialty lubricants and base oils for high-performance applications; process oils and waxes for food-grade, cosmetic and packaging uses; industrial solvents and cleaning solutions; and fuel additives designed to optimize engine performance and emissions. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Calumet Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Second Quarter 2026 net loss of $(95.9) million, or basic earnings per common share of $(1.09), driven by non-cash RINs and other mark-to-market items Second Quarter 2026 Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes of $175.2 million Montana Renewables completes first phase of MaxSAF® 150 expansion; now capturing robust renewable margins Accelerated deleveraging continues with $115 million of debt retirement in July Integrated specialties platform, favorable margin environment, and strong operational execution drive exceptional Specialty Products & Solutions results INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Calumet, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLMT) (the "Company," "Calumet," "we," "our" or "us") today reported its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, as follows: "Calumet continues to execute against every element of our multi-dimensional strategy," said Todd Borgmann, CEO. "Our integrated specialties platform delivered exceptional results in a strong margin environment, supporting $115 million of debt retirement in July. Further, Montana Renewables completed the first stage of our MaxSAF® 150 expansion and is advancing toward a faster, highly capital-efficient next stage expansion. Combined, our operating momentum and favorable outlook position us to simultaneously accelerate deleveraging and advance our growth strategies across both businesses." Net loss in the second quarter of 2026 was significantly impacted by the following non-cash items: (1) an unrealized gain of $9.0 million for derivatives and (2) non-cash RINs related expense of $163.6 million. Specialty Products and Solutions (SPS): The SPS segment reported Adjusted EBITDA of $161.7 million during the second quarter 2026 compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $66.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. The second quarter 2026 Adjusted EBITDA results for SPS reflect a constructive market, underpinned by a global shortage in specialty products; strong production, and excellent commercial execution. Performance Brands (PB): The PB segment reported Adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 million during the second quarter 2026 versus Adjusted EBITDA of $13.5 million in the second quarter of 2025. Second quarter 2026 results reflected strong volumes and record quarterly sales of TruFuel®, partially offset by compressed margins as price increases were implemented during the quarter after a normal price lag, and feedstock costs escalated immediately with $7.3 million of LIFO impact to the segment. Montana/Renewables (MR): The MR segment reported $26.6 million of Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes during the second quarter 2026 compared to Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes of $16.3 million in the prior year period. Our renewables business began its planned turnaround and MaxSAF® 150 expansion in March that lasted through April before restarting operations in early May with a strong renewables margin environment. In addition, total corporate costs represent $(19.4) million of Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter 2026. This compares to $(20.1) million of Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter 2025. Continued Debt Reduction On July 15, 2026, the Company's wholly owned subsidiaries, Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (the "Partnership") and Calumet Finance Corp. (together with the Partnership, the "Issuers"), redeemed all of the outstanding $100 million 9.75% Senior Notes due 2028 that were originally issued in January 2025 (the "2028 Mirror Notes"), at a cash redemption price of 102.438% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest up to but not including the redemption date. In addition, on July 31, 2026, we fully repaid and terminated the Montana terminal asset financing arrangement for cash consideration of $15.5 million. The Company remains focused on strong operations and continued use of cash from operations to pay down debt in future periods. Operations Summary The following table sets forth information about the Company's continuing operations after giving effect to the elimination of all intercompany activity. Facility production volume differs from sales volume due to changes in inventories and the sale of purchased blendstocks such as ethanol and specialty blendstocks, as well as the resale of crude oil. Webcast Information A conference call is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. ET on August 7, 2026, to discuss the financial and operational results for the second quarter of 2026. Investors, analysts and members of the media interested in listening to the live presentation are encouraged to join a webcast of the call with accompanying presentation slides, available on Calumet's website at www.calumet.investorroom.com/events. Interested parties may also participate in the call by dialing 844-695-5524 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-0700 (International). A replay of the conference call will be available a few hours after the event on the investor relations section of Calumet's website, under the events and presentations section and will remain available for at least 90 days. About Calumet Calumet, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLMT) manufactures, formulates, and markets a diversified slate of specialty branded products and renewable fuels to customers across a broad range of consumer-facing and industrial markets. Calumet is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and operates twelve facilities throughout North America. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and information in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." The words "will," "may," "intend," "believe," "expect," "outlook," "forecast," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "plan," "should," "could," "would," or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. The statements discussed in this press release that are not purely historical data are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the statements regarding (i) demand for finished products in markets we serve, (ii) our expectation regarding our business outlook and cash flows, including with respect to the Montana Renewables business and our plans to de-leverage our balance sheet, (iii) our ability to monetize federal clean fuel production tax credits ("CFPCs") under Section 45Z of the Internal Revenue Code and the price we expect to receive for CFPCs, (iv) our expectation regarding anticipated capital expenditures and strategic initiatives and (v) our ability to meet our financial commitments, debt service obligations, debt instrument covenants, contingencies and anticipated capital expenditures. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on us. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we anticipate. All comments concerning our current expectations for future sales and operating results are based on our forecasts for our existing operations and do not include the potential impact of any future acquisition or disposition transactions. Our forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include: the overall demand for specialty products, fuels, renewable fuels and other refined products; the level of foreign and domestic production of crude oil and refined products; our ability to produce specialty products, fuel products, and renewable fuel products that meet our customers' unique and precise specifications; the marketing of alternative and competing products; the impact of fluctuations and rapid increases or decreases in crude oil and crack spread prices, including the resulting impact on our liquidity; the results of our hedging and other risk management activities; our ability to comply with financial covenants contained in our debt instruments; the availability of, and our ability to consummate, acquisition or combination opportunities and the impact of any completed acquisitions; labor relations; our access to capital to fund expansions, acquisitions and our working capital needs and our ability to obtain debt or equity financing on satisfactory terms; successful integration and future performance of acquired assets, businesses or third-party product supply and processing relationships; our ability to timely and effectively integrate the operations of acquired businesses or assets, particularly those in new geographic areas or in new lines of business; environmental liabilities or events that are not covered by an indemnity, insurance or existing reserves; maintenance of our credit ratings and ability to receive open credit lines from our suppliers; demand for various grades of crude oil and resulting changes in pricing conditions; fluctuations in refinery capacity; our ability to access sufficient crude oil supply through long-term or month-to-month evergreen contracts and on the spot market; the effects of competition; continued creditworthiness of, and performance by, counterparties; the impact of current and future laws, rulings and governmental regulations, including guidance related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; the costs of complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard, including the prices paid for renewable identification numbers ("RINs"); our ability to sell, and the prices received for, CFPCs; shortages or cost increases of power supplies, natural gas, materials or labor; hurricane or other weather interference with business operations; our ability to access the debt and equity markets; accidents or other unscheduled shutdowns; and general economic, market, business or political conditions, including inflationary pressures, instability in financial institutions, general economic slowdown or a recession, political tensions, conflicts and war (such as the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and their regional and global ramifications). For additional information regarding factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see our filings with the SEC, including the risk factors and other cautionary statements in our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and you should not rely unduly on them, as they involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that we cannot predict. In addition, we have based many of these forward-looking statements on assumptions about future events that may prove to be inaccurate. While our management considers these assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, our actual results may differ materially from the future performance that we have expressed or forecast in our forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. Certain public statements made by us and our representatives on the date hereof may also contain forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained above. Non-GAAP Financial Measures Our management uses certain non-GAAP performance measures to analyze operating segment performance and non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate past performance and prospects for the future to supplement our financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). These financial and operational non-GAAP measures are important factors in assessing our operating results and profitability and include performance measures along with certain key operating metrics. We use the following financial performance measures: EBITDA: We define EBITDA for any period as net income (loss) plus interest expense (including amortization of debt issuance costs), income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We believe net income (loss) is the most directly comparable GAAP measure to EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA: We define Adjusted EBITDA for any period as: EBITDA adjusted for (a) impairment; (b) unrealized gains and losses from mark to market accounting for hedging activities; (c) realized gains and losses under derivative instruments excluded from the determination of net income (loss); (d) non-cash equity-based compensation expense and other non-cash items (excluding items such as accruals of cash expenses in a future period or amortization of a prepaid cash expense) that were deducted in computing net income (loss); (e) debt refinancing fees, extinguishment costs, premiums and penalties; (f) any net gain or loss realized in connection with an asset sale that was deducted in computing net income (loss); (g) amortization of turnaround costs; (h) LCM inventory adjustments; (i) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (j) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (k) RINs incurrence expense; and (l) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of gain or loss, or revenue or expense. We define Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes for any period as Adjusted EBITDA plus the notional value of CFPCs, less the difference between the notional value of any CFPCs sold and the amount realized from such sales. Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA Margin: We define Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA Margin for any period as Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA divided by Specialty Products and Solutions segment sales. Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Specialty Products and Solutions segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. Performance Brands segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Performance Brands segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Performance Brands segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. Montana/Renewables segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Montana/Renewables segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Montana/Renewables segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. The definition of Adjusted EBITDA that is presented in this press release is similar to the calculation of (i) "Consolidated Cash Flow" contained in the indentures governing our each series of our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2028 (the "2028 Notes"), our 9.25% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2029 (the "2029 Secured Notes") and our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2031 and (ii) "Consolidated EBITDA" contained in the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility. We are required to report Consolidated Cash Flow to the holders of our 2028 Notes, 2029 Secured Notes and 2031 Notes and Consolidated EBITDA to the lenders under our revolving credit facility, and these measures are used by them to determine our compliance with certain covenants governing those debt instruments. Please see our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K, for additional details regarding the covenants governing our debt instruments. These non-GAAP measures are used as supplemental financial measures by our management and by external users of our financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and others, to assess: the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis; the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to pay interest costs and support our indebtedness; our operating performance and return on capital as compared to those of other companies in our industry, without regard to financing or capital structure; the viability of acquisitions and capital expenditure projects and the overall rates of return on alternative investment opportunities; and our operating performance excluding the non-cash impact of LCM and LIFO inventory adjustments, RINs mark-to-market adjustments, RINs incurrence expense, and depreciation and amortization. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful to analysts and investors, as they exclude transactions not related to our core cash operating activities and provide metrics to analyze our ability to fund our capital requirements and to pay interest on our debt obligations. We believe that excluding these transactions allows investors to meaningfully analyze trends and performance of our core cash operations. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) should not be considered alternatives to Net income (loss), Operating income (loss), Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, gross profit (loss) or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. In evaluating our performance as measured by EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) management recognizes and considers the limitations of these measurements. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes do not reflect our liabilities for the payment of income taxes, interest expense or other obligations such as capital expenditures. Accordingly, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) are only a few of several measurements that management utilizes. Moreover, our EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of another company because all companies may not calculate EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) in the same manner. Please see the section of this release entitled "Non-GAAP Reconciliations" for tables that present reconciliations of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes to Net income (loss), our most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure; and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) to segment gross profit (loss), our most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/calumet-reports-second-quarter-2026-results-302846002.html

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Adjusted EBITDA: $175 million with tax attributes for Q2 2026. Specialty Products and Solutions (SPS) Adjusted EBITDA: $161.7 million, more than double the prior year. Performance Brands Adjusted EBITDA: $6.3 million, down $6.2 million year-over-year, with volumes up 18%. Montana Renewables Adjusted EBITDA: $17 million with tax attributes, despite over $40 million of foregone margin due to downtime. CMR Adjusted EBITDA: $12.2 million, up $10.9 million sequentially. Cash Flow from Operations: Over $90 million during the quarter, including a $70 million working capital build. Specialty Sales Volume: Seventh consecutive quarter above 20,000 barrels per day, with a record specialty production quarter. Specialty Volume Growth: Year-to-date 2026 volume increased over 5% from 2025 levels. Fuel Hedges: Approximately $20 million offset in the quarter; 10,000 barrels per day hedged through early 2028 at approximately $28 per barrel on a CBOB basis for 2027. Index Margin: Approximately $2.60 per gallon and rising for Montana Renewables. Debt Reduction: Called $100 million of 2028 notes in July and repurchased the CMR truck rack sale leaseback for $115 million. Leverage Ratio: Restricted group leverage below 4 times, expected to surpass 3 times next quarter. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with CLMT. Is CLMT fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 07, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Calumet Inc (NASDAQ:CLMT) delivered strong Q2 2026 results with $175 million of adjusted EBITDA, driven by robust performance in both Specialties and Montana Renewables segments. The company's restricted group leverage ratio fell below 4x, and it expects to surpass 3x next quarter, supported by strong cash flows and accelerated debt reduction efforts. Specialties business is benefiting from a structurally imbalanced global base oil market, with over 10% of global capacity offline, positioning Calumet's integrated production model advantageously. Montana Renewables is ramping up successfully after completing the first phase of MaxSAF 150 expansion, with July indicating a pace well ahead of Q2 and strong index margins around $2.60 per gallon. The company identified a novel, capital-efficient expansion for Montana Renewables using a second reactor from the fossil refinery, which is cheaper, faster, and carries a higher IRR, enabling up to 200 million gallons of SAF production by 2028. Calumet Inc (NASDAQ:CLMT) faced a $20 million offset from fuel hedges in Q2, which traded upside for certainty to support debt paydown commitments, potentially limiting gains from favorable market conditions. The company experienced a $70 million working capital build during the quarter, including higher crude inventory levels and increased accounts receivable, which, while expected to unwind, temporarily ties up cash. Performance Brands segment saw adjusted EBITDA decline by $6.2 million year-over-year due to timing issues, as input costs spiked before pricing actions caught up, with a $7 million LIFO accounting headwind. Montana Renewables' Q2 results were impacted by over $40 million of foregone margin due to downtime from the MaxSAF expansion and turnaround, limiting its contribution to $17 million of adjusted EBITDA. The company is deferring the full ramp-up of SAF production to capture an extra $50 million of EBITDA at the conventional refinery (CMR) before reconfiguring assets, which delays the realization of higher SAF yields and volumes. Q: How durable are the high base oil cracks, and how much of the margin gains are just a pass-through of feed costs like VGO? A: Scott Obermeier, President of Specialties, stated that the current environment is not a short-term situation, citing structural impacts from the Iran War and the Russia-Ukraine conflict that will take months to stabilize. He noted that Calumet produces Group I and Group II base oils, and demand has been strong as customers formulate to replace the gap in Group III supply. Additionally, larger commodity refineries are diverting to distillate due to historic crack spreads, and Russian refineries have been impacted by drone strikes. He expects the market to remain tight through 2026. Q: With the capital structure improving and MRL's run rate operations accelerating, does achieving deleveraging targets organically change your approach to MRL monetization? A: CEO Todd Borgmann confirmed that the long-term plan to separate and monetize Montana Renewables remains unchanged. However, he emphasized that the company no longer needs to do so as a prerequisite to grow its Specialties business. The strong cash flow allows for faster debt paydown than planned, and MRL monetization is now viewed purely through the lens of shareholder value optimization. Q: Can you share the cost of the project to move the reactor from the Montana plant to MRL and the yield you'll lose at the conventional plant? A: CEO Todd Borgmann deferred detailed cost discussions until a later announcement but stated that a good chunk of CMR's historical EBITDA will be traded for a much larger number at MRL, with massive cost savings. He clarified that CMR will continue operating, keeping jobs and providing shared services for MRL. Bruce Fleming added that the asphalt rack, gasoline rack, and crude run will remain operational, with some rearrangement in black oils and cat feed areas. Q: Why aren't you running at MaxSAF until the second reactor comes online, and has the yield on the current configuration differed from expectations? A: CEO Todd Borgmann explained that yields on renewable naphtha are not higher than expected. The decision to run at a 60 million gallon SAF run rate until reconfiguration is driven by current economics: with strong renewable diesel margins, losing RD to naphtha in the cracking process is not incentivized. The company is capturing an unexpected $50 million EBITDA opportunity at CMR before the winter reconfiguration, after which yields will become best-in-class with minimal byproducts. Q: What is your confidence level that MRL will deliver full benefits in Q3 2026 and the second half of the year? A: CEO Todd Borgmann expressed absolute confidence, noting that July earnings continued to ramp positively. He highlighted that Q2 results of $17 million Adjusted EBITDA included over $40 million of foregone margin during downtime. With the MaxSAF expansion complete and strong index margins around $2.60 per gallon, the company expects Q3 to be meaningfully higher with a full quarter of production. Q: Can you provide more color on SAF demand from customers, domestically and abroad? A: Bruce Fleming, EVP of Montana Renewables and Corporate Development, stated that the North American voluntary market and European mandatory market are introducing possible trade flows, with cargoes moving on the water. He noted that markets are expected to remain separate and behave differently. The company has not found the bottom of voluntary demand and expects to continue ramping sales, maintaining flexibility to manage external volatility. Q: Has your view of mid-cycle renewable diesel margins changed given the current environment? A: Bruce Fleming stated that the view has not changed. He pointed to the supply stack on slide five, emphasizing that bringing capacity back into the market requires cash margins covering fully loaded costs, which is where the market is or above. He characterized last year's Set 1 Rule as an aberration and expects typical behavior going forward, making renewables a strong business for domestic producers. Q: How should we think about product yields from MaxSAF 150 currently, beyond SAF production? A: CEO Todd Borgmann outlined the ramp: currently running at a 60 million gallon SAF run rate, expected to be optimal until reconfiguration. After the winter reconfiguration, the company expects to ramp to 80-100 million gallons by year-end and 120-150 million gallons by spring 2027, ultimately reaching 200 million gallons by 2028. Total throughput will increase from 13,000 to 17,000 barrels per day. Bruce Fleming clarified that the current slate is mostly RD, with nothing changed from normal yields. Q: With the $50 million of growth capital at Specialties, should we expect CapEx to increase this year or next? A: CEO Todd Borgmann stated that the majority of the capital will be deployed in 2027, with projects currently at the end of the FEL process. He expects most to be approved soon, with roughly two-thirds of cash flow out the door in 2027 and the remainder in 2028. Results from these projects are expected to trickle in during the second half of 2027, with full impact in 2028. Q: With higher stock price and cash flow, is M&A a greater possibility, and what's your assessment of the opportunity set? A: CEO Todd Borgmann confirmed that M&A is being actively considered but emphasized discipline in completing deleveraging first. He noted the company has low-risk organic growth CapEx with high confidence. Any M&A would need to carry synergies with the broader specialties network or Montana Renewables. He stressed a disciplined approach, executing deleveraging and growth in parallel. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in Calumet, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Calumet suffered an operational hit when organic chlorides in its crude stream forced the Shreveport plant offline, costing roughly 750,000 barrels of production and an estimated $30M+ of lost opportunity; management says repairs and added sampling are complete and the plant has been running ~50,000 bpd. The MaxSAF 150 expansion at Montana Renewables was completed on time and on budget, positioning the business for a projected 4–5x annual increase in SAF volumes and benefiting from an improved EPA Set 2 RVO backdrop and evergreen SAF contracts with ~$1–2/gal premiums. On finance, Calumet has hedges covering ~10,000 bpd (~25% of fuels) at crack spreads placed around ~$22–$27/boe (causing a ~$6M realized loss this quarter), raised a $150M tack-on for balance-sheet flexibility, and says working-cap pressures from the crude spike are mostly unwinding as it pursues deleveraging and eventual monetization of Montana Renewables. 2 Energy Stocks Surging on Billion-Dollar DOE Loan Commitments Calumet (NASDAQ:CLMT) executives told investors the company entered 2026 facing unusually strong margin conditions across both traditional fuels and renewable fuels, but first-quarter results did not fully reflect those tailwinds due to downtime at its Shreveport facility and planned work at Montana Renewables. On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Todd Borgmann described the period as “eventful and strategically pivotal,” pointing to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long-awaited Set 2 renewable volume obligation (RVO) announcement late in the quarter, as well as a strong commodity margin backdrop. Borgmann said Montana Renewables was taken down for a turnaround tied to its MaxSAF 150 expansion in early March and “successfully commenced operations in early May.” → Insider Sales: Top AST SpaceMobile Insider Cuts Postion Over 30% EVP and CFO David Lunin reported Calumet generated $50.1 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes, slightly below the $55.0 million posted in the first quarter of 2025. Lunin said the company “didn’t fully capture the opportunity the market provided” due to the Shreveport incident and Montana expansion work. Lunin said that late in the quarter, organic chlorides were discovered in Calumet’s crude stream, contributing to a loss of about 750,000 barrels of production. He described organic chlorides as a serious risk, noting industry consequences when they are blended into crude because they can cause rapid erosion of steel. Lunin said the Shreveport team identified corrosion, traced the cause, and acted quickly by taking impacted equipment out of service and inspecting the facility. → Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth He estimated the event cost the company over $30 million of lost opportunity given the elevated margins late in the quarter. Lunin said the issue is now “behind us,” and the plant has been running about 50,000 barrels per day through most of April. Later, responding to analyst questions, Borgmann said no further work is needed at the facility and that Calumet “inspected the facility thoroughly” and made repairs conservatively, including replacing “a big chunk” of the naphtha train. He added the company installed additional sampling and quality-monitoring redundancy to reduce the risk of recurrence, while continuing to investigate how the chlorides entered the supply chain. → Years in the Making, AMD’s Upside Movement Has Just Begun In the Specialty Products and Solutions (SPS) segment, Lunin reported $44.3 million of adjusted EBITDA, down from $56.0 million in the year-ago quarter. Both Borgmann and Lunin emphasized Calumet’s integrated model and commercial response capabilities in a volatile environment, with Borgmann noting that in March crude oil prices increased more than 50% in a two-week period. Borgmann said Calumet’s commercial team executed more than 20 price increases across product lines to counter cost escalation. Lunin said specialty margins were “temporarily compressed” by the crude spike, but the pricing actions were implemented quickly and the company expected to see benefits in the second quarter. Lunin also noted the company posted its sixth consecutive quarter with specialty sales volumes exceeding 20,000 barrels per day, despite the Shreveport outage largely affecting fuels production. Borgmann said Calumet completed two planned turnarounds at its Cotton Valley and Princeton facilities in April and was “running at max volumes across the board” to capture current market conditions. On the broader specialty market, Borgmann highlighted Middle East-related supply-chain sensitivity, saying that while roughly 20% of global crude volumes pass through the Strait of Hormuz, about 10% of global base oil supply does as well, along with a disproportionate share of “lube crudes.” He said Calumet’s crude supply is largely domestic and that fully integrated production provides an economic advantage when competitors must buy intermediates such as VGO or refined fuels as specialty feedstocks. For Performance Brands, Lunin reported $12.6 million of adjusted EBITDA. He said results were partially impacted by margin compression and the normal pricing lag typical of a retail-oriented customer base, estimating a 60–90 day period for price actions to be reflected, compared with less than a month in SPS. Lunin also pointed to progress following the divestiture of the Royal Purple industrial business (which was included in first-quarter 2025 results but not in the current period). He said commercial and operational teams “successfully offset” the lost EBITDA in under a year through cost controls, growth of trusted brands, and customer relationships. He added that TruFuel posted record monthly results in February, that momentum continued throughout the first quarter with record sales volume, and the company posted another monthly volume record in April. Calumet’s Montana Renewables segment generated $10.2 million of adjusted EBITDA with tax attributes, up from $3.3 million a year earlier, Lunin said. On an 87% Calumet-owned basis, renewables EBITDA with tax attributes was $8.8 million. Lunin said the company delivered the MaxSAF 150 expansion on time and on budget and said the new capacity positions the business for a “transformational product mix shift” between renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). He said the shift is expected to deliver a 4 to 5-fold increase in SAF volumes on an annual run-rate basis. Management tied the opportunity to both policy and commercial structures. Borgmann said the EPA’s Set 2 RVO announcement reset the outlook after what he called the “Set 1” period, when the industry experienced reduced utilization. He said the agency’s updated approach is based on a historical methodology that evaluates prior-year capacity and increases mandates to incentivize utilization growth. In Q&A, EVP of Montana Renewables and Corporate Development Bruce Fleming said Calumet’s SAF contracts are structured as evergreens with a distribution of notice periods, reflecting three years of SAF sales. He said contracts that have rolled “have renewed within” the company’s guidance range. Borgmann added that, on average, these are “typically 2, 3 year type evergreens” and that the company has not had problems renewing contracts or adding supply. Lunin said the SAF portfolio includes customers with a contractual premium of $1 to $2 per gallon over renewable diesel. Discussing biodiesel industry utilization, Fleming said margins are “solidly back into a market environment where the prices are gonna have to incent the small biodiesel guys,” adding that some capacity may return faster than expected unless it has been permanently removed. He noted analysts have been calling for a return toward 90% utilization by the end of the year. Fleming also said Montana Renewables has “essentially unlimited feedstock flexibility,” enabled by pre-treater capability and monthly re-optimization, and said the company is located in a feedstock long area without questions of physical shortage. Lunin said Calumet entered crack spread hedges for portions of 2026 and 2027 fuels production to support cash flow and deleveraging goals. He said the company has hedges for approximately 10,000 barrels per day, or about 25% of fuels production, on the 2-1-1 crack spread. He noted some 2026 hedges were placed around $22 per barrel (with the gasoline leg using Argus or CBOT) and resulted in about $6 million of realized hedge losses in the quarter. He said an additional tranche for 2027 was added at levels closer to $27 per barrel on a CBOT basis. On liquidity and working capital, Lunin said the run-up in crude prices affected inventory and accounts receivable, creating a working-capital draw that was exacerbated by the Shreveport downtime. He said the company was already seeing “almost a total unwind” of that in April, with some continuing into May. Lunin also referenced a $150 million “tack on” completed earlier in the year, describing it as a way to potentially pay down some 2028 debt when call protection steps down in July, while also providing balance during the crude price spike. He said the company would reevaluate market conditions closer to July. Borgmann told analysts the company’s broader deleveraging and value-creation strategy remains intact, including a plan to eventually monetize Montana Renewables. He said the next step is “showcasing what the earnings power of this business is” with the MaxSAF project operating and in a more supportive RVO market. Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) is an independent provider of high-value, essential product solutions derived from both petroleum and renewable feedstocks. The company operates an integrated network of manufacturing plants, blending terminals and storage facilities across North America, delivering customized products and technical services to industrial, automotive, consumer and agricultural end markets. By leveraging its scale and technical expertise, Calumet tailors supply chain and formulation solutions to meet stringent regulatory and performance requirements. Calumet's product portfolio includes specialty lubricants and base oils for high-performance applications; process oils and waxes for food-grade, cosmetic and packaging uses; industrial solvents and cleaning solutions; and fuel additives designed to optimize engine performance and emissions. The article "Calumet Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for May 2026.

First Quarter 2026 net loss of $317.0 million, or basic loss per common share of $3.64, driven by non-cash RINs and other mark-to-market items First Quarter 2026 Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes of $50.1 million Montana Renewables completed turnaround and commenced MaxSAFﾮ 150 operations in early May EPA's SET2 RVO, announced in March, has transformed the outlook for biofuel margins Integrated specialties business entering extremely strong margin environment Shreveport plant resumed normal operations in early April following previously disclosed downtime INDIANAPOLIS, May 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Calumet, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLMT) (the "Company," "Calumet," "we," "our" or "us") today reported its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, as follows: "The first quarter of 2026 marked a pivotal moment in Calumet's transformation," said Todd Borgmann, CEO. "Late in the quarter, we saw the renewable fuels market fundamentally transformed following EPA's long-awaited SET2 RVO announcement in March, and we entered one of the strongest margin environments we've seen across both traditional and renewable energy markets. Further, we brought down Montana Renewables for a turnaround and MaxSAF 150 expansion in early March, and successfully commenced operations in early May. While these developments did not fully benefit first quarter financial results due to previously disclosed operational downtime at our Shreveport facility and the planned expansion work in Montana, Calumet is exceptionally well positioned to capture these tailwinds, accelerate deleveraging, and continue our long-term growth and value creation strategy." Net loss in the first quarter of 2026 reflected the following non-cash items: (1) $37.9 million in non-cash equity-based compensation related expenses as a result of an increase in the Company's stock price in the current year period; (2) non-cash RINs related expense of $147.4 million; and (3) an unrealized loss of $102.7 million for derivatives, including $46.0 million from the increased value of the inventory within our Supply and Offtake inventory financing arrangement. Specialty Products and Solutions (SPS): The SPS segment reported Adjusted EBITDA of $44.3 million during the first quarter of 2026 compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $56.3 million for the same quarter a year ago. Segment results reflected strong specialty product sales, partially offset by a rapid increase in feedstocks costs spurring over 20 price increases in our network. Results were negatively impacted by an unplanned outage at our Shreveport site due to the discovery of organic chloride contamination in our crude supply, which resulted in a loss of approximately 750,000 barrels of production. The Shreveport facility resumed normal operations in early April. Performance Brands (PB): The PB segment reported Adjusted EBITDA of $12.6 million during the first quarter of 2026 versus Adjusted EBITDA of $15.8 million in the first quarter of 2025. First quarter 2026 results reflected strong volumes and record quarterly sales of TruFuelﾮ. The first quarter 2025 results include Adjusted EBITDA from the Royal Purpleﾮ Industrial business, which was divested in March 2025. Montana/Renewables (MR): The MR segment reported $10.2 million of Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes during the first quarter of 2026 compared to Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes of $3.3 million in the prior year period. Our renewables business operated in January and February, and then began its planned turnaround and MaxSAFﾮ expansion in March that lasted into April. In addition, total corporate costs represent $(17.0) million of Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter 2026. This compares to $(20.4) million of Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter 2025. Operations Summary The following table sets forth information about the Company's continuing operations after giving effect to the elimination of all intercompany activity. Facility production volume differs from sales volume due to changes in inventories and the sale of purchased blendstocks such as ethanol and specialty blendstocks, as well as the resale of crude oil. Webcast Information A conference call is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. ET on May 8, 2026, to discuss the financial and operational results for the first quarter of 2026. Investors, analysts and members of the media interested in listening to the live presentation are encouraged to join a webcast of the call with accompanying presentation slides, available on Calumet's website at www.calumet.investorroom.com/events. Interested parties may also participate in the call by dialing 844-695-5524 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-0700 (International). A replay of the conference call will be available a few hours after the event on the investor relations section of Calumet's website, under the events and presentations section and will remain available for at least 90 days. About Calumet Calumet, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLMT) manufactures, formulates, and markets a diversified slate of specialty branded products and renewable fuels to customers across a broad range of consumer-facing and industrial markets. Calumet is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and operates twelve facilities throughout North America. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and information in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." The words "will," "may," "intend," "believe," "expect," "outlook," "forecast," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "plan," "should," "could," "would," or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. The statements discussed in this press release that are not purely historical data are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the statements regarding (i) demand for finished products in markets we serve, (ii) our expectation regarding our business outlook and cash flows, including with respect to the Montana Renewables business and our plans to de-leverage our balance sheet, (iii) our ability to monetize federal clean fuel production tax credits ("CFPCs") under Section 45Z of the Internal Revenue Code and the price we expect to receive for CFPCs, (iv) our expectation regarding anticipated capital expenditures and strategic initiatives and (v) our ability to meet our financial commitments, debt service obligations, debt instrument covenants, contingencies and anticipated capital expenditures. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on us. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we anticipate. All comments concerning our current expectations for future sales and operating results are based on our forecasts for our existing operations and do not include the potential impact of any future acquisition or disposition transactions. Our forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include: the overall demand for specialty products, fuels, renewable fuels and other refined products; the level of foreign and domestic production of crude oil and refined products; our ability to produce specialty products, fuel products, and renewable fuel products that meet our customers' unique and precise specifications; the marketing of alternative and competing products; the impact of fluctuations and rapid increases or decreases in crude oil and crack spread prices, including the resulting impact on our liquidity; the results of our hedging and other risk management activities; our ability to comply with financial covenants contained in our debt instruments; the availability of, and our ability to consummate, acquisition or combination opportunities and the impact of any completed acquisitions; labor relations; our access to capital to fund expansions, acquisitions and our working capital needs and our ability to obtain debt or equity financing on satisfactory terms; successful integration and future performance of acquired assets, businesses or third-party product supply and processing relationships; our ability to timely and effectively integrate the operations of acquired businesses or assets, particularly those in new geographic areas or in new lines of business; environmental liabilities or events that are not covered by an indemnity, insurance or existing reserves; maintenance of our credit ratings and ability to receive open credit lines from our suppliers; demand for various grades of crude oil and resulting changes in pricing conditions; fluctuations in refinery capacity; our ability to access sufficient crude oil supply through long-term or month-to-month evergreen contracts and on the spot market; the effects of competition; continued creditworthiness of, and performance by, counterparties; the impact of current and future laws, rulings and governmental regulations, including guidance related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; the costs of complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard, including the prices paid for renewable identification numbers ("RINs"); our ability to sell, and the prices received for, CFPCs; shortages or cost increases of power supplies, natural gas, materials or labor; hurricane or other weather interference with business operations; our ability to access the debt and equity markets; accidents or other unscheduled shutdowns; and general economic, market, business or political conditions, including inflationary pressures, instability in financial institutions, general economic slowdown or a recession, political tensions, conflicts and war (such as the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and their regional and global ramifications). For additional information regarding factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see our filings with the SEC, including the risk factors and other cautionary statements in our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and you should not rely unduly on them, as they involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that we cannot predict. In addition, we have based many of these forward-looking statements on assumptions about future events that may prove to be inaccurate. While our management considers these assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, our actual results may differ materially from the future performance that we have expressed or forecast in our forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. Certain public statements made by us and our representatives on the date hereof may also contain forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained above. Non-GAAP Financial Measures Our management uses certain non-GAAP performance measures to analyze operating segment performance and non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate past performance and prospects for the future to supplement our financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). These financial and operational non-GAAP measures are important factors in assessing our operating results and profitability and include performance measures along with certain key operating metrics. We use the following financial performance measures: EBITDA: We define EBITDA for any period as net income (loss) plus interest expense (including amortization of debt issuance costs), income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We believe net income (loss) is the most directly comparable GAAP measure to EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA: We define Adjusted EBITDA for any period as: EBITDA adjusted for (a) impairment; (b) unrealized gains and losses from mark to market accounting for hedging activities; (c) realized gains and losses under derivative instruments excluded from the determination of net income (loss); (d) non-cash equity-based compensation expense and other non-cash items (excluding items such as accruals of cash expenses in a future period or amortization of a prepaid cash expense) that were deducted in computing net income (loss); (e) debt refinancing fees, extinguishment costs, premiums and penalties; (f) any net gain or loss realized in connection with an asset sale that was deducted in computing net income (loss); (g) amortization of turnaround costs; (h) LCM inventory adjustments; (i) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (j) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (k) RINs incurrence expense; and (l) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of gain or loss, or revenue or expense. We define Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes for any period as Adjusted EBITDA plus the notional value of CFPCs, less the difference between the notional value of any CFPCs sold and the amount realized from such sales. Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA Margin: We define Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA Margin for any period as Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted EBITDA divided by Specialty Products and Solutions segment sales. Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Specialty Products and Solutions segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Specialty Products and Solutions segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. Performance Brands segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Performance Brands segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Performance Brands segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. Montana/Renewables segment Adjusted gross profit (loss): We define Montana/Renewables segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) for any period as Montana/Renewables segment gross profit (loss) excluding the impact of (a) LCM inventory adjustments; (b) the impact of liquidation of inventory layers calculated using the LIFO method; (c) RINs mark-to-market adjustments; (d) depreciation and amortization; (e) RINs incurrence expense; and (f) all extraordinary, unusual or non-recurring items of revenue or cost of sales. The definition of Adjusted EBITDA that is presented in this press release is similar to the calculation of (i) "Consolidated Cash Flow" contained in the indentures governing our each series of our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2028 (the "2028 Notes"), our 9.25% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2029 (the "2029 Secured Notes") and our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2031 and (ii) "Consolidated EBITDA" contained in the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility. We are required to report Consolidated Cash Flow to the holders of our 2028 Notes, 2029 Secured Notes and 2031 Notes and Consolidated EBITDA to the lenders under our revolving credit facility, and these measures are used by them to determine our compliance with certain covenants governing those debt instruments. Please see our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K, for additional details regarding the covenants governing our debt instruments. These non-GAAP measures are used as supplemental financial measures by our management and by external users of our financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and others, to assess: the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis; the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to pay interest costs and support our indebtedness; our operating performance and return on capital as compared to those of other companies in our industry, without regard to financing or capital structure; the viability of acquisitions and capital expenditure projects and the overall rates of return on alternative investment opportunities; and our operating performance excluding the non-cash impact of LCM and LIFO inventory adjustments, RINs mark-to-market adjustments, RINs incurrence expense, and depreciation and amortization. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful to analysts and investors, as they exclude transactions not related to our core cash operating activities and provide metrics to analyze our ability to fund our capital requirements and to pay interest on our debt obligations. We believe that excluding these transactions allows investors to meaningfully analyze trends and performance of our core cash operations. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) should not be considered alternatives to Net income (loss), Operating income (loss), Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, gross profit (loss) or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. In evaluating our performance as measured by EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) management recognizes and considers the limitations of these measurements. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes do not reflect our liabilities for the payment of income taxes, interest expense or other obligations such as capital expenditures. Accordingly, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) are only a few of several measurements that management utilizes. Moreover, our EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of another company because all companies may not calculate EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes, and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) in the same manner. Please see the section of this release entitled "Non-GAAP Reconciliations" for tables that present reconciliations of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes to Net income (loss), our most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure; and segment Adjusted gross profit (loss) to segment gross profit (loss), our most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/calumet-reports-first-quarter-2026-results-302766844.html