I'm very pleased with our results this quarter as we generated adjusted earnings per share of $1.35.
The Top 8 EV battery producers represent approximately 90% of the industry and we now have commercial sales to six of these Top 8 manufacturers.
In addition, we are supplying conductive carbon additives to the Top 5 EV battery producers in China.
Operating cash flow in the quarter was $71 million and $157 million year-to-date.
While EBITDA generation has been very strong, conversion to operating cash has been impacted somewhat by higher oil prices, which contributed to over $100 million of the net working capital increase year-to-date.
We recently closed on a new $1 billion ESG linked credit facility, which replaces our existing credit facility that was due to mature in October of 2022.
The Reinforcement Materials segment delivered strong operating results with EBIT of $85 million, which is up $90 million compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2020.
Globally, volumes were up 71% in the third quarter as compared to the same period of the prior year due to 146% growth in the Americas, 100% increase in Europe, and up 30% in Asia.
Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect the volumes to remain strong.
We anticipate this differentials impact will be approximately $5 million in the fourth quarter and we expect to recover this impact in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 through our DCA mechanisms.
Now turning to Performance Chemicals, EBIT increased by $33 million as compared to the third fiscal quarter of 2020 primarily due to strong volumes across the segment and improved product mix.
Year-over-year, volumes increased by 17% in Performance Additives and 20% in Formulated Solutions driven by higher volumes across all our product lines underpinned by higher demand levels in our key end markets.
With higher maintenance impacting both the Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemical segments, we estimate the sequential impact of higher maintenance costs for the company to be in the $8 million to $10 million range.
With regards to the plant outages, this impact is also across both the Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals segment and we expect the impact across the company to be in the range of $7 million to $10 million in the fourth quarter.
Moving to Purification Solutions, EBIT in the third quarter of 2021 increased by $4 million compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020 driven by volume growth in specialty applications and an insurance reimbursement from a plant outage in the first quarter of this fiscal year.
We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $173 million and our liquidity position remained strong at $1.3 billion.
During the third quarter of fiscal 2021, cash flows from operating activities were $71 million which included a working capital increase of $47 million.
Capital expenditures for the third quarter of fiscal '21 were $46 million.
For the full year, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $20 million.
Additional uses of cash during the quarter included $20 million for dividends.
Our year-to-date operating tax rate was 28% and we forecast our operating tax rate will be between 27% and 28% for this fiscal year.
I'm very pleased with our third consecutive quarter of strong operating results and we are raising our expected full year outlook of adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.85 to $5.05.
Through these actions, we have demonstrated the earnings power of our two high-margin segments in Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals and we have enabled this growth in a more capital-efficient manner.

Summary:
I'm very pleased with our results this quarter as we generated adjusted earnings per share of $1.35.
Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect the volumes to remain strong.
I'm very pleased with our third consecutive quarter of strong operating results and we are raising our expected full year outlook of adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.85 to $5.05.
Through these actions, we have demonstrated the earnings power of our two high-margin segments in Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals and we have enabled this growth in a more capital-efficient manner.