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Cooper Tire & Rubber Co (CTB)
Q2Â 2020 Earnings Call
Aug 3, 2020, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning and welcome to Cooper Tire & Rubber Company's Second Quarter Earnings Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants on the call are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Jerry Bialek. Please go ahead.
Jerry Bialek -- Vice President & Treasurer
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. This is Jerry Bialek, Cooper's Vice President, International Finance and Treasurer. I'm here today with Chief Executive Officer, Brad Hughes, and Chris Eperjesy, our Chief Financial Officer.
During our conversation today, you may hear forward-looking statements related to future financial results and business operations of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. Actual results may differ materially from current management forecasts and projections. Such differences may be a result of factors over which the Company has limited or no control. Information on these risk factors and additional information on forward-looking statements are included in the earnings release we issued earlier this morning and in the Company's reports on file with the SEC.
During this call, we will provide an overview of the Company's second quarter 2020 financial and operating results as well as a business update. Our earnings release includes a link to a set of slides that summarize information included in the news release and in the 10-Q that will be filed with the SEC later today. Please note that we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. The linked slides include information about these measures and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call to participants for a question-and-answer session.
Now, I'll turn the call over to Brad.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Jerry, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin the call this morning by thanking Cooper employees around the globe for stepping up to the challenges of the global pandemic and helping us to deliver second quarter results that materially exceeded our expectations. Throughout coronavirus and its impacts, the health and safety of our people has been our first priority, and our teams have done a great job following our very rigorous health and safety standards, while also seizing opportunities to improve and grow our business in this environment.
In fact, while coronavirus significantly impacted our results in the second quarter, Cooper made notable progress on multiple key measures. We generated significant cash flow in part by taking decisive actions during the early stages of the pandemic, including reducing working capital and capital expenditures and limiting discretionary spending. We grew market share in the U.S., performing better than the USTMA and the total industry, and in Asia, we were able to increase third-party unit sales. In addition, Cooper was able to continue building momentum for another quarter by executing our strategic initiatives, which are driving the positive transformation of our business even in the midst of this challenging environment. This strengthens our confidence in our strategic plan as well as the power of the Cooper brand and the value that our products delivered to consumers who are increasingly looking to buy high quality tires at an affordable price. That's the essence of the Cooper value proposition.
We went into coronavirus with a strong balance sheet and momentum from our strategic plan, and assuming the economy can continue to rebound, we believe we will emerge from this situation in an even stronger position. In short, we are optimistic about our future. Today, all of our manufacturing facilities around the world are in operation and continuing to ramp up in line with increasing demand. From a production standpoint, April was significantly impacted as the majority of our plants were shut down. But as we brought plants back on line in May with enhanced health and safety protocols, production continued to increase through the month of June. We took several temporary actions early on to preserve our cash position, including plant shutdowns, salary reductions, employee furloughs, and other actions. However, we have reversed many of these actions as our results recovered much quicker than originally expected. Of note, we recently implemented a modest but a permanent reduction in our force at our corporate headquarters and within certain manufacturing plants to help position our business and capabilities for the future.
Before I turn it over to Chris, I want to touch on some recent important and exciting news. In line with strengthening our capabilities, we have made a series of important leadership appointments, including Paula Whitesell as our new Chief Human Resources Officer, as well as Hank Eisenga as our new Vice President of Global Manufacturing. Just a few days ago, we officially announced that Cooper has earned another OE tire fitment from Mercedes-Benz. The Cooper Discoverer SRXLE will be on the new Mercedes-Benz GLS, which is the automaker's next-generation full-size SUV. Finally, we shared the news of our Serbia plant expansion, which will increase the size of our Krusevac facility to more than 882,000 square feet and about a third more in annual production capacity and enable the facility to produce new larger diameter tires demanded in Europe and other global markets. Cooper received $8 million in Serbian government incentives for this project.
Now, I will turn the call over to Chris, who will provide more detail on our financial performance. Chris?
Chris Eperjesy -- Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Brad. I would also like to begin my remarks by recognizing the resiliency and adaptability of our teams across the globe during these unprecedented times and to recognize our supplier partners, and of course, our customers and consumers for their trust in Cooper. With that, let's take a look at our second quarter results.
On a consolidated basis, sales were $496 million, down from $679 million in 2019. This 26.9% decrease was driven by $187 million of lower unit volume and $7 million of unfavorable foreign currency impact, partially offset by $11 million of favorable price mix. Operating profit was $5 million or 1.1% of sales, compared with operating profit of $32 million or 4.7% of sales in 2019.
Second, second quarter operating profit compared with 2019 was impacted by the following factors, which are summarized on Page 6 of the supplemental slide deck: $44 million of lower unit volume and $39 million of higher manufacturing costs, both attributable to the coronavirus pandemic. This was partially offset by $30 million of favorable raw material costs, $15 million of favorable price and mix, $7 million of lower SG&A expenses, and $4 million of lower other costs. Diluted loss per share was $0.12, compared to an earnings per share of $0.18 in the second quarter of 2019.
Now, moving on to our segment performance, starting with the Americas Tire Operations. Segment sales for the second quarter were $426 million, down 26.9% from $582 million in 2019 as a result of a $183 million of lower unit volume and $2 million of unfavorable foreign currency impact, which were partially offset by $29 million of favorable price and mix. Segment unit volume was down 31.5%, compared to the same period a year ago. Our U.S. light vehicle unit volume decreased 24.1%, while the USTMA decreased 31% and the total industry decreased by 31.7% for the period. April was the most challenging month of the quarter as USTMA volumes were down over 50%. There was strong sequential improvement during May and June, with USTMA volumes down 33.4% and 6.2% respectively. Our U.S. light vehicle unit volumes improved throughout the quarter and outperformed both USTMA and the total industry.
Second quarter operating profit in the Americas decreased to $22 million or 5.1% of net sales, compared with $47 million or 8% of sales in 2019. Operating profit included $41 million of lower volume and $37 million of unfavorable manufacturing costs. This was partially offset by $25 million of favorable raw materials, $18 million of favorable price and mix, $6 million of lower SG&A expenses, and $4 million of lower other costs.
Now, turning to our International Tire Operations. Net sales for the second quarter were $101 million, down 27.1% from the second quarter of 2019. This result was driven by $23 million of lower unit volume, $11 million of unfavorable price and mix, and $4 million of unfavorable foreign currency impact. Segment unit volume decreased 16.4%, primarily driven by lower unit volume in Europe. In Asia, third-party unit sales were up 4.5% versus the prior year. The second quarter operating profit in our international operations was $1 million, compared to an operating loss of $1 million in 2019. The quarter included $5 million of lower raw materials, $4 million of lower SG&A expenses, which was partially offset by $4 million of unfavorable price and mix, $2 million of lower unit volume, $2 million of higher manufacturing costs, and $1 million of other -- of higher other costs. The second quarter of 2019 also included a $2 million restructuring charge related to our decision to cease light vehicle tire production at our Melksham facility, positively impacting the year-over-year comparison.
Moving to raw materials. Our raw material index decreased 15.1% from the second quarter of 2019. The raw material index decreased 8.8% sequentially from 150.7 in the first quarter of 2020 to a 137.4 in the second quarter of 2020. This was in line with our expectation to be down on a year-over-year and sequential basis. As we look forward, we anticipate raw material costs will continue to be significantly down on a year-over-year basis and slightly down on a sequential basis in the third quarter of 2020. We remain cautious about our ability to forecast precisely in this period of market volatility.
Now to some corporate items. Other pension and post-retirement benefit expenses decreased $3.7 million versus the prior year. This was primarily due to the Company's improved funding position at December 31, 2019 as a result of favorable return on plan assets. The effective tax rate for the second quarter was 13.5%, compared with 38.7% for the same period the prior year. The tax rate for the second quarter of 2020 was primarily driven by the lower level and mix of earnings among our different tax jurisdictions, as well as unbenefited losses in jurisdictions with valuation allowances. The tax rate for the second quarter of 2019 included $2 million of discrete items related to the accrual of additional uncertain tax positions pertaining to previous years. The effective tax rate is based on forecasted annual earnings and tax rates for the various jurisdictions in which the Company operates. More detail on our taxes will be available in our Form 10-Q that will be filed with the SEC later today.
Turning to cash flows and some balance sheet highlights. Capital expenditures in the second quarter were $17 million, compared with $45 million in the same period a year ago. Return on invested capital was 5.1% for the trailing four quarters. At the end of the second quarter, Cooper had $541 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, compared with the $112 million at the end of the second quarter of 2019 and compared to $433 million at the end of the first quarter of this year. You will recall that the Company drew down $270 million on our revolving credit facilities during the first quarter. There were no new net borrowings during the second quarter. The improvement in cash during the quarter was primarily driven by our actions to reduce working capital, capital expenditures, and discretionary spending, as Brad noted. Other than discretionary debt pay down, we do not currently believe we have a substantial cash usage in the third quarter. In fact, due to our improving financial position and outlook, as of July 31, we have paid down $200 million of the $270 million we borrowed on our revolving credit facilities.
Let me provide an update as it pertains to capital allocation. First, given the improved results and [Phonetic] outlook, we now expect full year 2020 capital expenditures to be at the high-end of our previously stated range between $140 million and $160 million. Second, as it pertains to share repurchases, we continue to pursue these more opportunistically. And third, we continue to support our quarterly dividend. We entered the year with a strong balance sheet and took the prudent steps to ensure the sustainability of the business. This allows us the ability to continue to support our strategic growth initiatives.
I'll now turn the call back over to Brad for our updated outlook. Brad?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Chris. Looking ahead, while coronavirus may present a level of risk going forward, we expect our business to improve in the second half of this year, and further into the future, we are confident in our ability to return to our mid-term operating margin target range of 10% to 14%. While this has been a challenging time and we have taken some difficult but necessary actions to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on our business, we also believe that this is an exciting time for Cooper and that there is one way for further success, especially if the economy continues to rebound. Our value proposition resonates with consumers. Consumer awareness of our brand is growing and our strategic initiatives are clearly taking hold.
With that, let's move to your questions. Operator, will you take the first question please?
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Rod Lache with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Thanks for taking my question. Good morning.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Rod.
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Wanted to just ask about a couple of things as we look out to the second half. Maybe just what your perspective is on industry trends right now, what is the extent to which volumes are recovering, how should we be thinking about these manufacturing costs, which obviously were pretty big headwinds in Q2? And it sounds like -- maybe you can just confirm that, but it sounds like raw materials and pricing continue at least at this pace, maybe better given the sequential improvement into the Q3.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
So, with regard to volume to start with, I -- and again, I'll for the moment focus on the U.S., but what we saw, what the industry saw during the second quarter was an improvement each month. So, April was the lowest, that improved in May, that further improved in June, and so that exit momentum was positive, still down, but positive for the industry and what we were seeing at least with our customer base is that the sell-out on volume was actually a bit ahead of the sell-in volume that we saw in the second quarter and that also portends well for the momentum going into the third quarter. And obviously, there's a lot of unknown with regard to the virus and how that could impact the reopening of the economy and whether or not that slowed at some point in time, but I think it's appropriate to say that exiting the second quarter, that momentum was still on the recovery trend in the U.S. market, in particular, and we feel really good about our momentum, both in the quarter and as we exited the quarter going into the third quarter.
With regard to price and raw materials, the price environment has remained pretty stable on the actions that most folks in the industry took during the first quarter to increased prices seems to have held in place and that looks to be the case today as well. Raw materials, as we said, we expect to see a small sequential reduction in our raw material index for the third quarter relative to the second quarter. That would represent a similar or maybe slightly larger improvement for the third quarter year-over-year.
So, manufacturing -- sorry, with manufacturing, again, we've been ramping up our facilities on consistently month-to-month. April was essentially a shutdown month. May, we began to ramp back up. June, that ramp up continued, and frankly, that ramp up continues today as we continue to ramp up to try and meet the demand that we're seeing for our products.
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Maybe just to clarify a little bit. So, how close to normal levels of volume and manufacturing are you at this point? We're already kind of midway through Q3. Because on the other hand, if you just look at the rate of pricing and raw material declines, I mean, that alone if it's -- even if it just held at the Q2 level, that's like a 600-basis point margin tailwind. Obviously, you have some headwind coming from volume and manufacturing to indicate that 10% to 14% is kind of a mid-term target rather than a near-term target.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So, with regard to manufacturing, specifically, we still have some room to go in terms of the ramp up. We're largely getting close to normal, but there is still some room there that we have to further recover as we finish off the third quarter here. And then, with regard to margins, I guess, the only comment I'd make right now is, we feel good about what happened in the second quarter, because that also -- we talk about price mix and that -- in combination, that was a strong contributor to the -- for what happened in the quarter from a profit perspective last quarter, and we're not seeing a substantial difference as we move into the third quarter as you outlined.
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Right. So, maybe just -- I'll just ask this way and then I'll get off the call, but did you mean to imply that the 10% to 14% margin is more of a mid-term expectation, because it seems like there are a number of tailwinds that couldn't try to -- can kind of kick in to get you there relatively near term?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Here's what I would say about that. As we said in the remarks, the opening remarks here, we're obviously confident that the second half is going to be a better half than the first half based on everything we can see right now. There is -- with all the caveating that you need to do today with regard to the virus as it plays out and effects the economic rebound or maybe doesn't, but as we look forward, it's -- we're not trying to put a timeline on when we get to that 10% to 14%. A lot of it's going to have to do to get to the other side of the virus and its impact on the economic rebound. But once we get through that, we're confident that we're going to be able to get back to that 10% to 14% target that we'd outlined in May of 2018. So, second half better than first half. We're not trying to put a timeline on the 10% to 14% because there's just too many things that are uncertain right now with regard to the sustainability of what we're seeing happening right now. But there were some good things happening right now.
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Yeah, great. Well, thanks for that.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Thanks, Rod.
Operator
And our next question will come from James Picariello with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, guys.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, James.
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Just to dig in on the internationals quickly. I mean, first quarter of a return to profitability in over a year. It sounds as though you're ramping up capacity investments at your Serbia plants. So, just wondering what the utilization improvement potential is for your international business going forward. And would you expect to generate profitability through the rest of the year?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So we were pleased with the performance of that business in the second quarter. And if you look at the markets around the world, everybody is at a different stage of reacting to and recovering from the pandemic. And Asia was the first really -- and I'd say Asia, it's really China was the first to emerge, and again, there is bumps in the road in all of these markets as well, but the China was the first to emerge and our business did as well. That economy and vehicle industry and tire industry seem to be recovering and stabilizing in that recovery reasonably well. Obviously, still some risks there and challenges. Very competitive market, but overall, that market seems to be stabilizing in a recovery mode right now.
Europe is a bit behind, and you've got a lot of different markets over there, individual countries that are different places in terms of their response and rebound from the pandemic. And so they are still entering, from our view, the recovery stage, and it's not as clear how quickly that's going to happen. So the timing of that market in our international business recovery in the second half is going to be largely dependent on what's happening with the economic rebound. Does China and Asia continue to stay stable in the rebound stage and does Europe? We've seen some good signs in Europe. Does that continue? That will have a lot to do with the timing of when we return to profitability on a sustainable basis in Europe. But the signs are pretty good right now. Utilization should be improving here now, and ultimately, as we begin to bring on more capacity in Serbia, we feel confident that we're going to be able to fill that additional capacity with even more profitable tires. So, I think overall, the international situation, little uncertainty still as we look out over the last half of this year, but the trends are positive in that market.
Did I answer everything there, James? I'm sorry.
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Yeah. No, that's helpful. Just on the Serbia plant discussion, so, the investments that you're announcing and making this year, does that fully accommodate the 1 million units that are getting shifted from Melksham to Serbia or is there any additional throughput that you're targeting within the investments that you've communicated?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Well, what we've announced in Serbia, couple of points here. One is the amount of the $55 million that's been announced. A lot of -- about a little over half of that's already been invested in 2019. So there is about half, maybe a little bit less than half of that to go just to help you with the capital spending side of it. And then, with regard to the -- with the Melksham facility and the cessation of light vehicle tire production there, that's going into our full footprint, a lot of it going into Serbia. This will fully account for that and possibly a little bit more because as we look to our manufacturing footprint, it really is in order to support global markets in the most efficient way. And while we always strive to be near-sourced and to sell units from plants that are close to those markets we're selling into, we will flex the global footprint to support global demand. And we did that with Melksham and the Serbia will absorb a good chunk of that and then there is a little bit more there probably.
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Got it. And free cash flow came in much better than expected for the quarter. What were the puts and takes there and how should we be thinking about for the second half, working capital in the third quarter versus the fourth? Does the third quarter trend as a use of cash and then we see that typical seasonal bump in 4Q? Color there would be helpful.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think, well, first of all, the team continues to do a great job. We started this a year-and-a-half or so, maybe two years ago in terms of really putting in an increased focus on making sure that we're being efficient with our working capital. That's a big contributor what was going on in cash flow. So, all the work that they had been doing was a big part of this. We did take some incremental actions as all companies did to try and make sure that we were going to make it through a period of great uncertainty in terms of the economy and the industry and Cooper's performance, but the team has done a great job of performing. We've been able to back away from some of the things that we had to initiate as those incremental actions to try and preserve cash. And so a lot of it really turned into working capital. We do have some wind in the sail there [Phonetic], as we've been ramping our plants up, demand has been recovering very quickly. And as a result, we -- the normal inventory build that you would see in the second quarter in preparation for the larger selling season in the third and fourth quarter was difficult to achieve. So we're basically at this point on selling a lot of what we're making. And so that's a good thing for cash.
For the third quarter, we've indicated we don't -- and this is what we said for the second quarter and we'll see how it plays out, but we said we don't expect a significant cash utilization. And so, again, not a big difference from what we said around the second quarter.
And then, yeah, I think we would expect the fourth quarter to have its typical cash generation. It may be a little bit less this year than it has been in past years, because we've pulled forward some of that free cash flow from the way that the working capital and inventory, specifically finished tire inventory has been managed through the first half of the year and what we expect going into the third.
So, great free cash flow generation, great management of that by the Company and the team. Third quarter, we don't expect much usage and fourth quarter will likely be a cash generation as it is traditionally, maybe a little bit muted because we pulled some of that forward.
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks. Congrats on the great momentum here.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, James.
Operator
Our next question will come from Ryan Brinkman with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Ryan Brinkman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Hi, thanks for taking my question. Are you able to share what trends you've seen since the close of the quarter in terms of volume, particularly with regard to U.S consumer replacement tire shipments in July? And do you have an estimate for industry volumes in 3Q? Of course, Goodyear on Friday, guided to down 20% in 3Q. I'm just curious if you might have a different view for the industry or expect that Cooper can perform differently in the market, whether due to your different geographic or segment mix, product cadence, or some other factor.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Ryan, first of all. Secondly, all I would say is, we're early into the third quarter and there is still a lot of uncertainty around us that could pop up pretty quickly, if things were to turn with regard to the way that the pandemic situation is playing out and how state and local governments respond to that effect on the economy. Having said that, I would say that what we saw in July was a continuation of the rebound that we saw toward the end of the second quarter and I would say that that was for the industry and it was certainly for Cooper. So, as we moved into the third quarter from the Cooper perspective, I think that what we've seen so far is a continuation of the momentum that we've been gaining and talking about since the fourth quarter of last year. And so, without -- if we can continue to perform the way we've been performing and we can continue to ramp up our manufacturing capacity and productivity, I would think that we're in a position to outperform the market in the near term here in the U.S.
Ryan Brinkman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Okay, that's great, thanks. And then just, what is your current outlook for potential tariffs on tires imported from China to the United States? Are there any milestones we should be looking for or time frame that you expect? And can you remind us of your own import of tires from China? Which types of tires would you expect could be impacted versus what you import and do you expect to be a net beneficiary of any potential tariffs?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of that timeline on is also moving around a little bit. The most recent news that we've heard is that the more important part of that tariff decision-making process, which is the anti-dumping tariffs, that's likely to happen around the early part of next year, which is a little bit delayed compared with what the original timeline was. But the preliminaries we're expecting sometime early next year and then the finals maybe second quarter of next year.
We continue to optimize our global manufacturing footprint, and that includes adjusting where we make tires for the markets we sell them in, and if tariffs have a significant impact, that's something that we'll continue to move around. So the number of tires that we bring in, light vehicle tires, specifically, that we bring into the U.S. market from China is pretty low in terms of a percentage of the total these days. And again, we're doing -- everything that we're doing is to optimize that equation from a -- what is a terrific footprint we believe for the markets that we're selling in. So, not much of an impact today on what's coming out of China, which is the one market that is affected by tariffs. We don't bring light vehicle tires in from any of the four markets that are being evaluated right now as part of the petition.
If you look back to what happened 2009, '10, '11 that time frame when the initial tariffs were put on light vehicle tires coming in from China, we think that might be a reasonable proxy to look at for what might happen here, because the number of tires that are imported or sold in the United States that come from these four markets is 25%-plus of the tires sold in the U.S., and it would be really difficult for those tires to find a new manufacturing home really quickly to avoid the tariffs. And so, what happened in a similar situation when they put the tariffs on light vehicle tires from China, again, about a decade ago, it became more of a pricing event, where the industry increased prices to offset on a portion of the tariff costs that was applied at that point in time. As we look at this situation, that seems to be the most likely outcome from our perspective.
Ryan Brinkman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Very helpful, thank you.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks.
Operator
And the next question will be from John Healy with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.
John Healy -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning, guys. Wanted to ask a little bit about the performance relative to the USTMA members. When you look at the catch-up in performance and the outperformance this quarter, how would you kind of bucket that? I know in quarters past, there has been noise in the numbers with private label and things like that that have kind of worked against you guys. I was just trying to understand when you look at the data, is this an acceleration in terms of Cooper's performance if you kind of adjusted for those outlining factors? And really, what do you think is driving it?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Well, I really do think that -- and we've said this for a few quarters that the -- our effort to exit some of the non-strategic private-label business is behind us. And so, the work that our teams have been doing to grow in different channels to grow our retail presence, which has grown significantly in the United States, our ability to be available to consumers that want to buy Cooper are beginning to show. And there are -- within these numbers, the specific things that the team has been working on are coming to fruition and beginning to contribute to this growth relative to the market, I should say. I mean, it's -- I want it to be growth, right now we're down less than [Indecipherable], but I think that the momentum that's there and the work that the teams have done really are going to position us well for performance going forward.
I think one of the things that may be happening as a result of the COVID situation is people are becoming more value conscious. That doesn't just pertain to tires, we're seeing that in a lot of consumer durable industries. And so, we do believe that that may be one thing that has changed a little bit is putting more focus on a brand -- a value brand like Cooper. I mean, it just fits very, very well with the value that we provide to consumers and to our customers with a great product. And so, we think that that is a -- maybe a little bit of an accelerant here. Beyond that, there is a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes that are maybe pluses or minuses in the short term here, but we think that this is real on sustainable change in the trajectory of our performance relative to the USTMA and the industry.
John Healy -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Great. And then just one follow-up question on costs. I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks that you've recently started to maybe reverse some of the furloughing or wage actions, but you've also had some headcount alignment both at the corporate and in the factories. Can you kind of talk about kind of what we might expect in Q3 from an incremental expense standpoint of some of those abated costs or kind of deferred costs coming back online? And then, how much are you going to be saving with this recent realignment?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. With the recent reduction in force, while there be a small positive -- small reduction in our SG&A costs related to that, I would recall that material, and frankly, that's as much about positioning the Company to make sure that we've got the right skill sets going forward to continue to drive our strategy forward. I think also, as we return to a more normal environment from an SG&A spending perspective, I think it's beginning to go back and look at it on a year-over-year basis as opposed to a sequential basis might be a good way to do it. I don't know that we'll get all the way back to what I would call a normal seasonal SG&A spend for the third quarter, but that's probably a better reference point than the second quarter, because we are beginning to move back in that direction of what I would expect our ongoing SG&A trend will look like.
John Healy -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Great, thank you.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
All right, thank you.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The next question will come from Bret Jordan with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Bret Jordan -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, guys.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Bret.
Bret Jordan -- Jefferies -- Analyst
On the market share gains, I mean obviously, starting to pick up some share against USTMA, do you see that being in new channels, whether it's national accounts or more online or is that also evenly spread across your legacy smaller dealership networks?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I would say that we're seeing contributions on -- from some of the newer channels and from some of the more traditional channels. It's -- as we -- as the team, particularly in North America, the focus here for this part of the discussion has been working on ensuring that we are more present where people want to buy us, but also trying to make sure that we've got the right partners going forward, and those that are going to help us to grow our business. We're seeing contributions from both sides of the business. And so, the new business development is definitely contributing, no doubt about that, but some of the traditional channels, whether it's retailers that we've had a long history with or it's the wholesale distribution part of our business, we're seeing contributions from both.
Bret Jordan -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay, great. And then one question, I mean obviously, this is tough to answer, but what's your take as far as the tariff potential on the new four markets? You commented it's more of a price impact than actual change where the tires are going to come from. But I think the last data was like $900,000 cost per job saved on the first China tariffs. Do you think the ITC is leaning toward the tariffs or do you think it's going to be more of attached to the consumer and they pass on it?
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Again, I don't, -- first of all, as we always -- we have a fairly general statement that we make that we would like the markets to be free and fair. I mean, that's the way we look at trade. We continue to look at any activity in this arena from that lens. And so, we'll see how this plays out when they get to an actual decision and whether they move forward and if they forward, what kind of tariffs they actually put in place. But at the end of the day, we don't know what they're going to do. The petition is out there, they're moving forward with it. We know what the timeline generally looks like at this point. So early we next year, we should have a read on if it's going to happen and how material it is. The big thing is it's such a big -- when you're talking about over 25% of the tires that are sold in this country today coming from those four markets, it's just hard to see a quick response in terms of moving at some place. And so, as a result, there's going to be a lot of the tires that are coming into this market that are going to have that incremental cost on it, and I think that there is the markets going to look to price to recover that cost impact, and again, largely based on the experience that we saw from the tariff impact back in '09, '10, '11 or '10, '11, '12, I can't remember what it was, '10, '11, '12 I think on Chinese light vehicle tires.
Bret Jordan -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. So, I'll turn it back to Mr. Hughes for any closing remarks.
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Okay. Thank you very much. In our first quarter call, I made a remark that I thought this could be a time when the Cooper team would really shine and I have to say that they've exceeded even my expectations. When you look at the first six months of this year and think about all that's transpired for our team who have been able to deliver a small operating profit, if you exclude the restructuring charges, while at the same time continuing to move forward our strategic initiatives, a lot of that related to our manufacturing footprint, but clearly, also the progress that's being made on the commercial end and creating more demand for our product, and all the while doing that while maintaining a very strong cash position, which is going to position us well as we move into the second half of this year and going forward, I think it's a testament to our plan, to the execution of that plan, but mostly to our team.
All right, with that, I want to thank everyone for participating today, and please stay safe and stay healthy.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 45 minutes
Call participants:
Jerry Bialek -- Vice President & Treasurer
Brad Hughes -- President & Chief Executive Officer
Chris Eperjesy -- Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Rod Lache -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
James Picariello -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Ryan Brinkman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
John Healy -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Bret Jordan -- Jefferies -- Analyst
