We had adjusted EBITDA of $35.1 million this quarter on sales that were up 48% to $450 million.
This quarter's adjusted EBITDA has been exceeded only twice in any quarter since 2014, and one of those occurred just last period when we posted $37 million of adjusted EBITDA.
We are now expecting to see our full year adjusted EBITDA coming in above $130 million, which is our highest annual total since 2013.
So looking at our segments, Titan, again, this quarter experienced strong sales growth in each of our segments, with agriculture leading the way with a 60% increase compared to last year.
Our order books continue to strengthen, especially on the ag side, where commodity prices remained at good levels with corn above $5, soybean above $12 and cotton at record highs, thus ensuring another year of farmer incomes, strong farmer incomes for 2022.
We have seen demand continue to be above our expectations that we had at the start of the year with sales growth of this quarter of 36% on a year-over-year basis.
Titan, in addition to our solid operation results again this quarter and really for all of 2021 for that matter, Titan has strengthened our financial position this year by refinancing our $400 million bonds.
There are continuing positive signs in our end markets, which puts Titan in a good position, as I stated earlier, to post adjusted 2021 adjusted EBITDA of over $130 million.
And has all this positive going on, yet our stock is trading at only around 6.5 times current year adjusted EBITDA.
Sales grew at a very nice clip at 48% this quarter.
Our growth was led by the Ag segment with a 60% increase from Q3 last year.
And at the same time, the EMC segment was also very strong at a growth of 37%, and our growth in the consumer segment was nothing to sneeze at, with an increase of 32%.
Our gross profit increased by 93% in the quarter, and our margin improved to 13.4% compared to only 10.3% last year.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $35 million, representing the strongest third quarter performance since 2013 that bears repeating.
On a trailing 12-month basis, our adjusted EBITDA stands at $116 million as of this quarter, and we expect Q4 performance to be strong, improving that run rate to over $130 million for fiscal 2021.
Our cash position remained stable again this quarter at $95 million despite some growth in working capital.
With our improvement in profitability and our strong management of the balance sheet, our debt -- our net debt leverage as of the end of Q3 stands at 3.3 times our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA.
Again, our sales levels for the third quarter were strong, and we saw another sequential increase of 2.5%, notwithstanding the normal seasonal variation from holidays and plant maintenance that reduces our production days.
Sales increased relative to last year by $146 million and $104 million or 30% from the third quarter of 2019, a more normal third quarter period.
Volume was up over 25% with all of our business units, except Australia, seeing significant double-digit percentage growth year-over-year.
Gross profit for Q3 was $60 million versus only $31 million in adjusted gross profit in the third quarter of last year.
Our gross profit margin in the third quarter, again, was very strong at 13.4%.
Our Ag segment net sales were $244 million, an increase of $91 million or 60% from third quarter last year, which makes it the strongest quarter for the segment in the last eight years, beating last quarter sales by 5.5%, reflecting strength in North America and Latin America.
Volume in the segment was up 30% -- 36% just like Q2.
Our agricultural segment gross profit in the third quarter was $33 million, up from only $16 million last year, representing a 105% improvement.
Our gross margins in Ag were 13.6%, which is another significant improvement from the margin produced last year of 10.6%.
Overall net sales for the EMC segment grew by $45 million or 37% from last year as well.
All of the major geographies experienced year-over-year growth during the quarter with the largest growth coming from ITM, our undercarriage business, which grew 38% from third quarter last year.
Gross profit within our Earthmoving and Construction segment for the third quarter was $21 million, which represents an improvement of $9 million or 71% from gross profit last year.
Gross profit margin in the EMC segment was 12.7% versus only 10.1% last year, a very healthy increase.
The Consumer segment's Q3 net sales were up 32% or nine million compared to last year.
As we discussed, our primary priorities -- production priorities have been with our Ag and the EMC segments and our customers, but we did see healthy increases related to our Latin American utility truck tire business and increased mixed stock rubber sales in the U.S. The segment's gross profit for the third quarter was 5.8%, a very healthy improvement from last year as well.
Gross margins were at 15%, which was an improvement from 9.5% last year, reflecting some positive mix and pricing improvements with our products.
Our SG&A and R&D expenses for the third quarter were $34.6 million, down about $0.5 million sequentially from the second quarter.
Most importantly, SG&A and R&D expense was 7.7% of third quarter sales, a very nice improvement from a year ago.
During the third quarter, we recorded tax expense of $5.3 million, somewhat higher than in the quarter than originally expected, but reflective of increased profitability in certain high tax jurisdictions for Titan, including Latin America, Turkey, Germany and parts of Asia.
I now expect taxes on the income to be about approximately $15 million for the year.
Our overall cash balances remained solid in the quarter at $95 million.
Our operating cash flow for the quarter was positive at $15 million, and we generated positive free cash flow of over $5 million in the quarter.
During the third quarter, inventory grew by approximately $28 million sequentially from Q2.
As a percentage of the most recent quarterly sales, inventory stands at 20.7%.
This compares favorably to 23% -- over 23% from a year ago at this time.
Our overall DSOs in the business improved sequentially from Q2 by two days and now stands at 53 days compared to 55 in Q2 and 58 from this very time last year.
capex for the quarter was up sequentially at $9.6 million as expected.
As of the first nine months, we -- capex stands at $24 million.
Based on our latest forecast, I expect full year 2021 capital investments of around $35 million at the low end of the previous estimate for the year.
The credit facility was increased to $125 million and is extended until October of 2026.
It still has the option to expand by another $50 million through -- in an accordion provision.
Our borrowings on the ABL stands at $30 million, roughly in line with last quarter.
Overall, net debt decreased in the quarter about -- to $387 million, down $4 million from last quarter.
I stated it earlier, but it bears repeating that our debt leverage at the end of September based on 12 -- trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA has decreased to 3.3 times, which is right in the target range that we have been discussing.

Summary:
We had adjusted EBITDA of $35.1 million this quarter on sales that were up 48% to $450 million.
We are now expecting to see our full year adjusted EBITDA coming in above $130 million, which is our highest annual total since 2013.
There are continuing positive signs in our end markets, which puts Titan in a good position, as I stated earlier, to post adjusted 2021 adjusted EBITDA of over $130 million.
Sales grew at a very nice clip at 48% this quarter.
On a trailing 12-month basis, our adjusted EBITDA stands at $116 million as of this quarter, and we expect Q4 performance to be strong, improving that run rate to over $130 million for fiscal 2021.