Lori Koch
Chief Financial Officer at DuPont de Nemours
Thanks, Jon, and good morning, everyone. I'll cover our second quarter financial performance, beginning on slide five. Our results for the quarter reflect the diversity and strength of our portfolio and our team's continued ability to execute in the face of escalating raw material costs and global supply chain and logistics headwinds.
Net sales of $4.1 billion, were up 26% versus second quarter of 2020, up 23% on an organic basis. The organic sales growth resulted from a 20% increase in volumes and a 3% increase in price. Currency provided a 4% tailwind in the quarter, which was slightly offset by a 1% headwind as a result of non-core business divestitures in the prior year.
Overall sales growth was broad-based with double-digit growth on an organic basis in all three reporting segments and across all regions. The most notable increase versus the year ago period within our M&M segment reflecting the sizable change in the global automotive market versus the prior year and disciplined pricing actions. I will provide additional color on our segment top line results on the next slide.
From an earnings perspective, we delivered operating EBITDA of $1.06 billion and adjusted EPS of $1.06 per share, up 53% and about 240%, respectively, versus the year ago period. The earnings improvement resulted from volume gains, most notably reflecting ongoing recovery in key end markets adversely impacted by the pandemic and the absence of approximately $150 million in charges associated with temporary idling certain facilities partially offset by the absence of a $64 million gain associated with the joint venture that has since been divested.
Strong operating EBITDA leverage drove operating EBITDA margin expansion of 460 basis points. Incremental margins for the quarter were about 43%. Given the unique nature of 2020, and the discrete items that impacted our operating results in the prior year, it's important to evaluate our year-over-year operating performance for our core results on an underlying basis. Specifically, operating EBITDA for our core results during the quarter was up about 40% versus last year, after excluding the impact of the $115 [Phonetic] million in idle mills incurred in the prior year, with about 240 basis points of margin expansion and operating leverage of 1.5 times.
Similarly, I continue to track our growth versus 2019, given the significant impact of pandemic adding key end markets last year. In comparing our current second quarter results to a more normalized performance before the pandemic, our reported sales in the quarter were up 6% versus the second quarter of 2019 and up 10% versus that same period for our core sales. Operating EBITDA for our core results during the quarter was at 15% for the second quarter of 2019, or 1.5 times leverage.
From a segment perspective, E&I delivered operating EBITDA margin of 32% with 190 basis points of expansion driven by broad-based volume gain. M&M delivered significant operating EBITDA improvement driven by an overall recovery in automotive markets and the absence of approximately $130 million in charges associated with temporarily idling polymer capacity in the year ago period. Operating EBITDA margin for the quarter was 23%, reflecting volume growth and net pricing gains resulting from actions taken ahead of escalating raw material cost.
In W&P, operating EBITDA increased 4% versus the year ago period. Operating EBITDA margin and leverage were adversely impacted primarily by two key drivers. First, given contractual commitments with customers, local selling price increases lag the headwind from raw materials and supply chain cost escalation. We expect this to resolve in the second half as price increases start to kick in.
Second, production volumes for Tyvek protective garments were at peak levels in the year ago period, given the company's response to the pandemic. This enabled us to minimize manufacturing changeovers to other Tyvek grades, resulting in an overall increase in production rates. As Tyvek output shifted from protective garments to multiple other applications, the resulting increase in expected changeovers in the current quarter, decreased production rates leading to lower volume.
For the quarter, cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow were $440 million and $224, million, respectively. While these amounts have improved since the first quarter, cash flow and conversion are not where we need them to be. The headwinds we faced are related to increased working capital levels and capital spending in excess of D&A as we advance critical capacity expansion projects.
With respect to working capital, we saw an increase in inventories due to our efforts to create a more stable supply chain for our customers, given the strong demand environment and numerous raw material and logistics constraints. In the second half of the year, we expect higher cash flow and conversion rate as the global supply chain and logistic environment stabilizes.
Slide six provides more detail on a year-over-year changes in net sales for the quarter. Starting with E&I, organic sales were up 17%, on 17% volume growth with double-digit volume growth increases in our region. Volume gains were led by mid-twenties percent growth in Industrial Solutions, reflecting broad-based demand strength across most product lines, but most notably, for OLED displays for new phone and television launches, medical silicones in healthcare and [Indecipherable] deals within electronics.
Interconnect Solutions also delivered organic growth over 20% with high teens volume growth. The volume growth was driven by higher material content in premium, next generation smartphones partially resulting from timing shifts, as select OEM demand shifted from the second half this year, along with some share gains for printed circuit board.
Semiconductor Technologies continues to benefit from strong electronics demand and advancements in key growth areas, such as 5G, high performance computing and electric vehicle. During the quarter, new technology ramps in advanced nodes within logic and foundry and higher demand for memory in servers and data centers drove double-digit volume growth.
Continued recovery of key end markets within W&P drove organic growth of 11% driven by volume increases. Sales gains were led by a recovery in construction within Shelter Solutions reporting organic sales growth of more than 30%, which reflects continued strength in North American residential construction for products like Styrofoam and Tyvek house wrap and in retail channels for do-it-yourself applications.
Commercial construction recorded higher sales in the quarter for Corian surfaces as global demand continues to improve. Within Safety Solutions, organic sales were up high single-digits reflecting strong volume improvement for aramid fibers and industrial, oil and gas and automotive end markets. As previously noted, lower production volumes for Tyvek reduced overall safety volume.
In Water Solutions, broad-based demand for water technologies remained strong. However, logistic challenges primarily in our ultrafiltration business impacts our ability to supply, resulting in a low single-digit volume decline versus the year ago period. We expect organic sales growth for the year for Water Solutions to be in the mid to high single-digit.
The most notable increase in topline improvement within our M&M segment, which had organic sales growth of over 50%. The improvement was driven by the continued recovery of the global automotive market, which represents about 60% of the segment from an end market perspective and help deliver strong volume growth across all three lines of business.
Local pricing gains of 13% also contributed to organic sales growth, reflecting our actions taken to offset raw material costs and higher metals pricing in the Advanced Solutions business. Excluding metals pricing, local price was up about 8%. Within engineering polymers, global supply constraints of key raw materials continues to improve and are expected to remain tight through the end of the year. We continue to expect to recover lost volume related to these disruptions as the raw material constraints are alleviated.
Turning to slide seven. I mentioned earlier that adjusted EPS of $1.06 per share, was up over 240% from $0.31 per share in the year ago period. Higher segment earnings resulted in a net benefit totaling over $0.40. This net benefit resulted mainly from higher volumes and the absence of idle mills recorded in the prior year, offset slightly by portfolio changes, which includes the absence of the gain recorded in the prior year in Corporate. Also providing a significant benefit to adjusted EPS versus last year was an approximate $0.30 per share benefit due to a lower share count. Benefits from lower interest expense in the current quarter as a result of our recent delevering actions mostly offset by higher base tax rate compared to last year. Our base tax rate for the quarter of 19.8% was higher than the year ago period due to the absence of certain discrete gains benefitting the prior-year rate. For full year 2021, we currently expect our base tax rate to be closer to the lower end of our expected range of 21% to 22%.
With that, I'll now turn it back over to Ed.
