“Also, resilient end markets such as food and beverage and healthcare will continue to grow mid-single digit, driven by demographics and consumer demand.”

In context

“and the U.S. EMEA has experienced broad-based declines in industrial production due to geopolitical and energy challenges. In the U.S., manufacturing sales are about flat when excluding the timing of gases supplied to the aerospace sector. Elsewhere, underlying manufacturing volumes have been stable to slightly up across a variety of key sectors, including battery manufacturing, pulp and paper, and merchant scale clean energy opportunities. A good example is our recent announcement to invest in an electrolyzer to grow our merchant hydrogen network density in Brazil and help customers decarbonize. Looking ahead, our base volumes are expected to track local industrial production, including in there are some encouraging secular growth trends such as batteries, aerospace and clean energy. Also, resilient end markets such as food and beverage and healthcare will continue to grow mid-single digit, driven by demographics and consumer demand. Furthermore, we have a healthy backlog of approximately $5 billion which will continue contributing to earnings for the next couple of years. However, I'm not expecting near-term improvement in industrial production, especially in certain parts of EMEA. These flat economic conditions are embedded in the guidance assumptions at the midpoint, which Matt will discuss in more detail. Overall, I remain confident that we will continue to be nimble and actively manage the balance between volume, price and productivity to grow earnings even in the sluggish economic conditions. And when industrial production levels rebound as they always do, Linde will be very well positioned to leverage this growth. I'll now turn the call over to Matt to walk through the financial results. Matthew White: Tha”