I do want to introduce Andy Tometich, who will become CEO on December 1 Andy joined Quaker Houghton on October 13 and we are in the midst of a detailed transition process over the seven week period until we become CEO.
Andy has over 30 years of experience in the specialty chemicals industry with a strong track record of accomplishments and a passion for the customer intimate business model.
They increased nearly 10% from the second quarter to the third quarter, which was considerably higher than our expectations.
We saw good organic volume growth between 7% and 9% for our three largest segments, which was the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.
Higher prices of around 10% were also a major factor in our sales growth.
In addition, we saw a benefit from acquisitions of 4% and from foreign exchange of 2%.
While we did see growth in some of our end markets, sequential growth was muted by both seasonality and certain segments as well as the semiconductor shortage which we estimate cost us approximately 2% points of growth in the quarter.
I also want to point out that our ability to gain new piece of the business and take market share continued to contribute to our strong performance as we estimate total organic sales growth due to net share gains was approximately 3% in the third quarter of 2021 versus the third quarter of 2020.
So we continue to feel good about our ability to deliver on our historical performance of consistently growing 2% to 4% points above the market due to share gains and looking forward, we continue to feel good about delivering these levels given the opportunities we have recently won or are actively working on.
So in summary, the big picture on organic volume growth for us was approximately 3% was due to market share gains.
About 4% due to growth in our underlying markets, which we estimate would have been 2% higher, if it wasn't for the semiconductor shortage.
Overall, our cost of raw materials have increased nearly 10% sequentially in the third quarter.
Our trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA of $279 million is an all-time high as 25% higher than our $222 million from last year.
However, our leverage ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA continues to be at 2.7 which is the low point since the combination two years ago, and down from 3.4 one year ago.
In total, they're adding 15 million in revenue and $2 million in EBITDA.
And also there are reconciliations between US GAAP measures and non-GAAP measures provided in our call charts on pages 11 to 22 for reference.
Our record net sales of $449.1 million increased 22% from the prior year, driven by 6% organic volumes, 10% from our pricing initiatives, 4% percent from acquisitions and 2% from foreign exchange.
When looking sequentially, we were up 3% from the second quarter, largely due to increases from our pricing initiatives on flat volumes.
Our third quarter margin ended at 32.3%, given the upward trend of generally all input costs in the world, we knew this quarter would declined compared to the 35.5% level we had in second quarter and also signaled that this quarter would be the lowest of the year.
SG&A was up $7 million compared to the prior year, as we add additional direct selling costs due to our increase in sales and related margin higher labor and other costs that were directly impacted by COVID last year and additional costs associated with our recent acquisitions.
Sequentially, we benefited from $5 million of lower SG&A costs, which were primarily due to lower incentive compensation and some lower professional and other similar fees.
The net of this performance resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $66.2 million for the quarter, which was up 3% compared to the prior year of $63.9 million.
As you can see in chart nine, this increased our trailing 12 month adjusted EBITDA to a record $279 million.
The net of these impacts resulted in a 16% increase in EMEA earnings compared to prior year generally flat performances in Americas and GSP and a decline in Asia-Pacific earnings which was due to a solid performance last year as China was less impacted by COVID 19 in the prior year, as well as a decline in gross margin in the current quarter due to the continued increases in raw material costs.
From a tax perspective, we had low effective tax rates in the current and prior year quarters of 2.6% and 8.1% due to various one-time non-cash related items.
Excluding these items in each period, our tax rate would have been relatively consistent at 25% for the current quarter compared to 24% in the prior year.
To note, we expect our fourth quarter effective tax rate to be a little higher in the range of 26% to 28%.
But our full year effective tax rate will be more consistent with past estimates in the range of 24% to 26%.
Our non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.63 grew 5% compared to the prior year as our solid adjusted EBITDA coupled with over a million of interest savings due to lower borrowing rates and average borrowings were partially offset by a slightly higher tax expense.
As we look to the company's liquidity summarized on chart 10, our net debt of $759 million was flat compared to the second quarter.
This was primarily driven by $12 million of operating cash flow, offset by $7 million of dividends paid and $6 million of additional investments in normal capital expenditures.
The company's liquidity and leverage still remain healthy with a reported leverage ratio at 2.7 times as of the third quarter compared to 3.2 times entering the year.
I want to emphasize we are committed to prudent allocation of our capital and remain committed to reducing leverage to our target of 2.5 times, which we still are targeting to be near by year-end.
This is evidenced by our most recent tuck-in acquisitions of [Indecipherable] and industries, which were acquired for 13 million or a rough multiple of seven times EBITDA and bring with them a wealth of opportunity in technology and product reach.
And I appreciate those remarks, it's really been an honor and a privilege to work for Quaker Houghton for 23 years and to work with such a great people throughout this company that really deliver solutions for our customers every day and really make this a very special place to work.

Summary:
In total, they're adding 15 million in revenue and $2 million in EBITDA.
Our record net sales of $449.1 million increased 22% from the prior year, driven by 6% organic volumes, 10% from our pricing initiatives, 4% percent from acquisitions and 2% from foreign exchange.
Our non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.63 grew 5% compared to the prior year as our solid adjusted EBITDA coupled with over a million of interest savings due to lower borrowing rates and average borrowings were partially offset by a slightly higher tax expense.