Postretirement Benefit Obligations

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

The components of net periodic benefit cost of the Company’s pension plan are as follows:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2018			2017
Service costs	$	2,001		$	1,908
Interest costs	469			333
Expected return on plan assets	(287		)	(76		)
Net periodic benefit cost	$	2,183		$	2,165

The Company plans to make contributions during calendar year 2018 sufficient to satisfy pension funding requirements under the AdvanSix Retirement Earnings Plan in an aggregate amount of approximately $8.0 million and will make additional contributions in future years sufficient to satisfy pension funding requirements in those periods. The Company made contributions of $2.0 million in the first quarter of 2018 and $1.6 million in April 2018.

The pension plan assets are invested through a master trust fund. The strategic asset allocation for the trust fund is selected by the Company's Investment Committee reflecting the results of comprehensive asset and liability modeling. The Investment Committee establishes strategic asset allocation percentage targets and appropriate benchmarks for significant asset classes with the aim of achieving a prudent balance between return and risk.