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spk00: Today's conference is scheduled to begin shortly. Please continue to standby. Thank you for your patience. Thank you. Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ramako Resources Incorporated Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Jeremy Sussman, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
spk17: Thank you. On behalf of Ramico Resources, I'd like to welcome all of you to our second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. With me this morning is Randy Atkins, our chairman and CEO, and Chris Blanchard, our COO. Before we start, I'd like to share our normal cautionary statement. Certain items discussed on today's call constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements represent Ramico's expectations concerning future events. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of Ramico's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, Ramico does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Lastly, I'd encourage everyone on this call to go onto our website, ramicoresources.com, and download today's investor presentation under the events calendar. With that said, let me introduce our Chairman and CEO, Randy Atkins.
spk16: Thanks, Jeremy. As always, I want to thank everyone for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results. There is a line in an old song by Paul Simon which says, when something goes right, it's apt to confuse me. And in the three months since our last call, we have gone through a pleasant series of things going right. I'd like to provide a few highlights. First, we have now printed two very strong quarter design rows. driven by some terrific cost metrics and an improving overall met coal market. We concluded a first half with $30 million of EBITDA, which is frankly higher than we had internally budgeted for the entire year back in last December. The balance of 2021 seems on track for more strength and hopefully a record performance. Our second quarter production of 550,000 tons at our Elk Creek complex was also a record. The first half production of almost 1.1 million tons puts us on track to perhaps exceed even nameplate capacity at Elk Creek of 2.1 million tons, and that's even allowing for Q3 and Q4 vacations. Sales have certainly been strong. The U.S. low-ball benchmark pricing has rather dramatically increased by over $50 since Q1. We've continued to see the general world economy improve. Steel companies, both domestically and abroad, are enjoying record pricing and the highest capacity utilization since 2008. In the second quarter, we sold almost 700,000 tons, making it a quarterly record by almost 30%. This puts us at about 1.1 million tons sold through the first half, which is about 40% ahead of last year. At Elk Creek, we have held first half costs at $61 a ton, and for all our operations, at $65 a ton. As a result of these outstanding operational and marketing results, for the second time this year, we are again increasing guidance on production and sales, and reducing guidance on cost and CapEx. Both are set forth in our release. Our margins on our most recent sales are now running in excess of $70 a ton. We still have over 400,000 tons of dry powder remaining to place in the second half of the year, hopefully with these same strong margins or above. As we feel, the MET markets will still have more room to run. Iron ore and copper made their moves early in the cycle. We think met coal is now playing catch up and may indeed turn out to have longer legs. This is especially given the unique supply constraints in the coal sector from lack of capital. So bottom line, if the met markets continue with their current strength, which we expect, then we anticipate having our strongest year of free cash flow. As we have said repeatedly, we try to manage for cash and, of course, for liquidity. Indeed, as you know, we have one of the cleanest balance sheets and liability profiles in our industry, as well as a very strong liquidity position. After the end of the second quarter, we took some additional steps to improve that liquidity by floating an unsecured bond offering where we raised almost $35 million. We are proud that this was the first unsecured debt deal in the coal space in over four years, and we'd like to give a tip of the cap to all of our underwriters. This additional liquidity gives us some optionality to explore ideas to add near-term production, either organically or through outside development projects. As I said, we see the MET markets as having some legs. We think you may see a strong multi-year market, and we would like to be able to take advantage of that with some additional near-term, low-cost production. Having said that, we intend to exercise a good deal of discipline in how we approach looking at both the market and any new production opportunities. Our industry, unfortunately, has a long reputation of when the market shows some strength, we throw money at indiscriminately adding more tons, even when that might not be particularly prudent. We intend not to do that at Ramico. Further, I think the capital markets will keep too much production of Zubrids in check this cycle. We always will try to keep liabilities, our balance sheet, and liquidity in the forefront as we analyze any options. And we hope to be able to discuss some ideas further with you over the coming months. I also want to mention two matters which occurred post-quarter end. While they were both not entirely unexpected, they do add a sense of additional positive momentum as we continue to build out the year. First, we've won a very decisive $33 million plus costs jury victory in litigation against Chubb Insurance. This grew from Chubb's denial of coverage for damages stemming from the collapse of a coal storage silo at Elk Creek in late 2018. Although court decisions are always subject to possible appeal, we feel very confident in our positions. We look forward to having the decision finalized. Additionally, late last week we heard from the SBA that our Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8.4 million, which we secured last year, had been formally forgiven. Although we had treated the loan in this manner since last year, it is comforting to also have this finalized as well. To close, I want to touch briefly on matters near and dear to our shareholders. of which Ramico's management team is certainly in that camp. We have seen our stock rise by 200% over the last 12 months and by about 130% year-to-date. This is certainly very gratifying, and we hope for continued strength in price over the coming months. But also, as we grow and begin to reach close to our production goals, we will begin later this year to explore with our board what may become our dividend policies. A growth company such as Ramico always has a rather tricky balancing act. We need to fund growth and production, and we also need to balance that growth against making sure we have enough sustainable free cash flow to fund a reliable and growing dividend. As a company, we hope we are at a point later this year to explore this, again, not in the not-too-distant future. Now, before I turn the floor over to Jeremy and Chris to delve into finances and operations in more detail, I would just like to reiterate how proud I am to our whole Ramico family on what has been a very strong first half that's been produced. With some continued operational execution and a bit of wind in our sails for the market, I hope we will continue, as that song goes, to have some things go right for the balance of what I hope will be our strongest year. And with that, I'd like to now turn the floor back to Jeremy to discuss our financial results.
spk17: Thank you, Randy. I'll start by going over our second quarter 2021 financial highlights. We had another stellar quarter, both operationally and financially. Second quarter 2021 EPS of 23 cents was up more than 260% from a year ago, while second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $18.1 million was up 67% from a year ago. This was the second best overall quarter of adjusted EBITDA in our history, with only Q2 of 2019 beating these results when domestic met coal contracts were 30% higher than in 2021. First half of 2021 adjusted EBITDA was $30 million, which was materially higher than our adjusted EBITDA for all of 2020. Turning to our forward outlook, for the second straight quarter, we are increasing our 2021 production and sales guidance while decreasing our 2021 cost and capital expenditure guidance. We now anticipate overall 2021 production of 2.2 to 2.4 million tons, up from 2.1 to 2.4 million tons previously, and compared to 1.7 million tons in 2020. We have increased 2021 sales guidance by a like amount. We now anticipate 2021 cash costs of $61 to $65 per ton at our Elk Creek complex, down from $61 to $66 per ton previously, and down from $70 per ton in 2020. We now expect total 2021 capital expenditures of $23 to $26 million, down from $25 to $28 million previously. We continue to anticipate paying minimal cash taxes for the foreseeable future. In terms of what we are seeing in the market, metallurgical coal pricing has continued to improve throughout 2021, as both the U.S. and global economies have benefited from massive global fiscal stimulus packages aimed at consumption and infrastructure. We expect these positive conditions in the steel and met coal markets to continue to provide strong tailwinds for Ramico. On the demand side, U.S. low-volume met coal price indices have more than doubled from their COVID-19-induced lows. Domestic hot-rolled coil steel prices are at record levels above $1,850 per ton. U.S. steel capacity utilization recently hit 85% for the first time since 2008. At the same time, the supply of high-quality, low-sulfur met coal that we produce remains scarce. We see nothing on the horizon to change our view that the net coal supply response will continue to be muted for a variety of factors. This positive supply-demand market positioning is occurring as we head into negotiations for 2022 annual contracts with domestic steel mills. Now, moving on to our balance sheet, I am pleased to note that we have shifted from having a small net debt position previously to a net cash position of $6 million as of June 30th. We believe we are the only U.S. publicly traded coal company to be in a net cash position. We ended the quarter with a record of almost $50 million of liquidity. After quarter end, we completed a $34.5 million, 9% senior unsecured note offering. Looking ahead, both Berwyn and Big Creek are on time and on budget, with Big Creek recently having uncovered coal in its first work area. we continue to expect to be producing at a 5 million ton per annum run rate by mid-2022. Simply stated, we are very excited about what the future holds for Ramico. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, Chris Blanchard. Chris?
spk13: Thanks, Jeremy. Before turning to the update on operational issues, I did want to briefly thank the entire in-house team and outside counsel who worked with Ramico throughout the Chubb litigation. This is a long process and a complex and technical case. We thank the court for their attention and, of course, the jury for their time and care in rendering what we believe was a wise and fair decision. Switching back to our operations, safety and compliance remain our primary focus. Our safety statistics for the first half of 2021 continue to track ahead of our performance for the same period in 2020. This is despite the fact that we are now growing our workforce and running our existing operations at near capacity, as opposed to the throttle back production we experienced in the early months of the pandemic last year. We now have just under 400 employees and hope to grow by year end to near 450. Similarly, on the environmental side, we are happy to report that water quality compliance within Ramico has reached 99.9% for the first half of the year. All that said, we have seen COVID-19 related impacts to our workforce move up slightly at the end of the second quarter and continue into July in line with increased positivity rates throughout the country. We have kept all of our preventative measures in place across our operations and plan to do so until the pandemic is clearly behind us. We're also tracking and monitoring the increased stress in the local labor market on finding experienced coal miners. While we have been able to successfully grow our workforce in the second quarter to accommodate the Big Creek startup and fill vacancies at our existing Elk Creek operations, we have started to see turnover rates modestly increasing as well. To date, we have not experienced any adverse impacts in our productivity rates at our operations, but continue to monitor the situation closely. Turning now to the existing operations at Elk Creek. We ended the second quarter of 2021 with all of our Elk Creek Mons operating in areas where we anticipate that productivity should continue at approximately the same levels for the third quarter and into the fourth quarter. I would remind everyone on the call that the third quarter does contain one of our traditional vacation weeks for the mines, although the preparation plans continue to operate throughout. While we did see a modest increase in mine cash costs in the second quarter, this was only to our anticipated levels and of course included the welcome increase in cash costs due to higher realization for our spot and our index-based coal sales. We have seen modest raw material cost increases from our suppliers and anticipate these to continue as long as the commodity prices remain strong. However, we believe that the projected cash cost ranges that we have provided will cover these inflationary pressures. Moving to our new operations, As both Randy and Jeremy noted, these projects are moving forward at full speed. Our Big Creek surface mine worked through the majority of the second quarter on pre-mining construction and sediment control. As Jeremy mentioned, we did uncap our first coal in July, and we have moved the mine into producing status, although only one shift per day currently as we start August. We anticipate having the surface mine fully staffed and operating two shifts per day in September. Our high wall mining system at Big Creek should begin operation at the end of the quarter or very early in October, bringing this mine to its anticipated full run rate of approximately 200,000 clean annual tons by the end of this year. We will process the first coal from this mine in the coming days and look forward to first shipments potentially in September. At our Berlin mine, the slope project continues, and excavation of the three slope tunnels is approximately two-thirds complete. At our current construction rates, we anticipate we will reach the Pocahontas No. 4 seam in the final days of next month, or early in October. Equipment and infrastructure will be moved in, and we expect to begin the production ramp at Berlin at that time. Assuming the fourth quarter of 2021 startup in the Berlin P4 mine, we expect to have this mine fully operational as currently budgeted and producing it up to a 750,000 annual clean ton pace by the end of the second quarter of 2022. At that point, the combined Ramco run rate from Elk Creek, Big Creek, and Berlin should exceed the 3 million annual clean ton production rate, which we have previously discussed. It is indeed a promising time in the metallurgical coal markets, and it is an exciting time for Ramico. With that, this concludes management's prepared remarks, and I would now like to return the call to the operator for the Q&A portion of the call. Operator?
spk00: As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question or if your question has been answered, press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Lucas Pipes from D. Riley Securities. Your line is open.
spk03: Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone, and congratulations on a really strong first half.
spk11: Thanks, Lucas.
spk03: My first question is on the growth project. And I wondered if you could remind us in terms of the quality of the additional coal, roughly what you'd be thinking about in terms of production costs, and then the commercial strategy. Should we anticipate test shipments for customers, or are you establishing the markets efficiently with elk that you'll be able to lay it in kind of with no kind of test shipments ahead of time. Thank you very much for your perspective on that.
spk16: So, Lucas, your question relates to our current production?
spk03: No, on the growth project.
spk16: The growth project.
spk03: All three.
spk16: Chris, you want to talk about Big Creek and try it?
spk13: So, Lucas... Start with Big Creek. It's the 200 or so thousand annual clean tons, and that's a mid-vol project or a mid-vol product primarily. We expect the cost to be in the upper 50s in that range. Then turning to Berwyn, that's more of an established product for us, say low sulfur, low ash. low slash mid-ball that we expect costs, once it's at full run rate, to be in the low $70 range.
spk17: And Lucas, it's Jeremy here. So in terms of kind of the commercial strategies, Chris said Berwyn, you know, it's an established low ball in the market. So, you know, needless to say, we've had more inquiries than tons on the ground that we could sell. So I don't think – Certainly, that's not going to be a challenge. Obviously, we'll be ramping up, so you will want to get test shipments in here and there, but needless to say, low vol is in very tight supply. While we don't have an established mid-vol, obviously, Big Creek will be the first of that product. Clearly, that's also a type of coal that's in short supply. We've been receiving inbounds on that. Obviously, having, you know, uncovered first coal is a good first step. So, you know, I think we'll start to get, you know, samples in the hands of customers shortly. And needless to say, you know, we want to get these mines up and running as quick as possible.
spk16: Yeah. And, Lucas, one other thing just in terms of strategy. So I think this is – as we look out at our overall portfolio, you know, we started life with a pretty heavy – sort of high ball B component, and we're now moving. So probably by next year, certainly into 23, we're going to be probably two-thirds in terms of low ball A's and mid balls. And I think that's probably the direction we'll start to look as we kind of examine some of our production options.
spk03: Very helpful. Thank you very much for all that detail. And then, Randy, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned capital returns and certainly very exciting discussion to be turning to that topic in the coal space. And I wondered if you could maybe elaborate on what you're looking at today, what sort of metrics, either from the industry or from your balance sheet, would influence your decision on the capital return question.
spk16: Thank you very much. I don't want to get too far over my skis because, as I said, we're going to talk about this with the board later on as we progress through the year. We're in a very good position right now. We've got record liquidity. We hope to end the year even in a stronger position than we sit right now. There are a few things that are still obviously out there in the space that need to be nailed down. We have to understand how the 22 business is going to look from a domestic standpoint. We have to get some visibility really on the market a little bit further into the second half. And we've got some ideas obviously to increase production that we're just now beginning to explore both Organically, we've got a couple of projects in our pipeline, and externally, we've got a couple of projects that we're looking at as well. So I think what I wanted to telegraph is that we are not unmindful that a dividend would be something that is very high in our priority, assuming we're able to balance the requirements of getting our growth profile to a level of production that we feel comfortable we can make sort of a sustained generation of free cash flow that would support a decent dividend and a sustainable dividend. So that's probably not nailing it down with the specificity that you'd like. But again, I don't think we're in a position as we sit here just over the lip of the second quarter to really nail that down for the year. But we will be discussing it later as the year evolves.
spk03: Randy, this is super helpful. Really appreciate all the detail and continued best of luck.
spk16: Thanks, Lucas. And thanks to B-Rally for the placement efforts that they did in helping us underwrite the baby bond.
spk03: That's very much appreciated. Thank you.
spk00: Once again, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Martin from the Benchmark Company. Your line is open.
spk08: Hey, good morning, guys, and congratulations on the performance. Thanks, Nate. Maybe I'll start with pricing. It looks like you guys have committed about half a million tons of export sales now at a price of 98. I think that was versus about 200,000 tons at 89 at the end of one queue. If I do that math, you come up with incremental pricing around 105, but obviously that can include some tons you guys have already shipped. Randy, you made the comment that what you're seeing out there right now is maybe more of a margin of close to $70 or better. So I was just hoping you could talk maybe a little bit more about the export pricing environment you're seeing today, you know, into the back half, and give us an idea, you know, where your products are pricing relative to published U.S. East Coast indices. Thank you.
spk17: Nate, it's Jeremy. I'll start off and then turn it to Randy. So, yeah, your math certainly is correct. I would note a couple things. One, you know, Randy's, you know, his comments on sort of where pricing is today is, as he said, you know, low ball's up 50 bucks a ton since, you know, we last reported Q2. So, clearly, we've you know, we're seeing higher prices today than anything that we have, you know, previously shipped. You know, I think the second thing is, you know, of the call it 300,000 tons or so There were some semi-soft in there. We kind of give a good breakout of, you know, the semi-soft and everything on slide 13, you know, low ball, high ball A, B, et cetera. So any time you get a little bit of lumpiness in there, that can kind of skew the average a little bit. So, you know, that – speaks to the kind of quarter-to-quarter cadence. And, Randy, I don't know if you have any other comments on pricing.
spk16: No, I think the only thing I would really reference is, you know, we've got some sales that we've done that have netted us back probably in the 150-plus range at the mine. And, you know, if you take a look at where our cost structure is, that's pretty easy to figure out what kind of margins we're looking at. We think the market, as I said, has got some legs. I would not be – surprised to see further strengthening in the market as we go into the second half and perhaps even into 22. Because I think, you know, the thesis is that met coal has somewhat lagged some of the other steel supplies or really feedstocks like iron ore because, frankly, you've had a situation politically with China and Australia, which I think has dampened a lot of the met coal pricing structures. So I think is that, I'm not sure I would espouse that we're gonna see any change in the Australia-Chinese puzzle over the next few months, but I do think that METCO will begin to catch up to what's happened earlier in the year on copper and iron ore.
spk08: Great, appreciate your thoughts there, guys. And just to kind of drill down on the last part of my question, Any thoughts on discount or, you know, if you're getting roughly in line with U.S. East Coast indices, you know, high vol A, high vol B, et cetera?
spk16: I don't like discounts, Nate. I think it's hard to talk about premiums.
spk08: Okay. That's great. And I guess, you know, again, thanks for those thoughts. You know, maybe if I could get your thoughts, guys, on, you know, how the domestic contracting season is progressing and or given, again, extremely tight market we're seeing, could you give us an idea, you know, how much you think pricing could possibly be up year over year, given, you know, what we just talked about with actual pricing, where it is today, you know, that much higher than where it was a year ago during this time?
spk16: Well, I think the best guidance I could give you is that we, at least as we sit here today, expect that the dance will start sometime in September. When in September, it's not quite clear. uh, but at some point, and I think, you know, to sort of handicap pricing sitting here in August, uh, is a little difficult. Um, uh, I don't see anything out there on the horizon that is going to impede, uh, sort of what continued upward, uh, trend in pricing. Uh, and I, as I said, I said in my, uh, remarks, I guess for the earnings release, uh, I expect the pricing this year to be, uh, uh, much more robust than, uh, the 2021 pricing, and we'll just have to see as we get closer to it.
spk08: Got it. Makes sense. I had to ask, obviously. Sure. I mean, Lucas kind of touched on my bigger picture question. I mean, obviously you guys are, you know, now in that cash position. You know, you've got some more cash coming in the door, you know, related to the positive verdict on Elk Creek silo failure. Again, a substantial amount of money, especially related to your current cash balance of about $19 million. Again, you've lowered CapEx guidance for the second quarter in a row. Again, maybe just ask a little bit differently. What would be your first use, you think, for some of this extra cash that you guys are going to have on hand? Any other thoughts there?
spk16: The first thing, we're a relatively conservative bunch, so we certainly don't want to count cash before we receive it. We haven't We haven't cashed a check yet on the judgment that we just received against Chubb. And, of course, we did borrow some money, and I'm kind of fond of not having too much debt hanging around, so repayment of liabilities is certainly high on my priority list. And when we look at talking about dividends and things of that nature, of course, it's going to be paid out of free cash, not from borrowed money, at least from our vantage point. So we'll take a look at where we are a little later in the year. We'll take a look at what our forward thoughts are into 22. We'll have a better visibility, as I said, on sort of what 22 may look like once we're beyond the domestic sales season. And we'll also, I think, have some visibility on how the steel industry is itself looking into 22, which from all indications right now is that – The steel industry is going to have an extremely strong 22, which we think is great. And I think the other, you know, interesting dynamic is that typically, you know, you've seen our coal industry rush into producing a lot of tons quickly whenever they saw a market rise. And I think this time it's going to be a little bit different because in this cycle we're seeing some real constraints on on adding new production from the capital market side of the equation. Probably there's a lot of people who would like to produce more coal, but just can't find the money to do so. We're fortunately in a position that we have that luxury to try to add some new tons, which we think we would try to add for near-term production. We don't want to have mines that are going to take three or four years to build out. We would like to see mines that would be in in a position to be in production well inside of a year, and so we can take advantage and sort the market strength.
spk08: Got it. I appreciate those thoughts, Randy. I think that's it for me. Thanks again for the time, and best of luck in the second half. Great.
spk02: Thanks, Nate.
spk00: Once again, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. I am showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Mr. Randall Atkins. Please go ahead, sir.
spk16: Okay, thank you. And again, we, as always, appreciate everyone's time and attention this morning. We hope we've addressed most of the questions that you've had, and we certainly are looking forward to a strong second half, and we'll look forward to speaking to you sometime in October or November. Take care.
spk00: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. I'm sorry. music music Thank you. today and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ramako Resources Incorporated second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Jeremy Sussman, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
spk17: Thank you. On behalf of Ramico Resources, I'd like to welcome all of you to our second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. With me this morning is Randy Atkins, our Chairman and CEO, and Chris Blanchard, our COO. Before we start, I'd like to share our normal cautionary statements. Certain items discussed on today's call constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements represent Ramico's expectations concerning future events. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of Ramico's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, Ramico does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Lastly, I'd encourage everyone on this call to go onto our website, ramicoresources.com, and download today's investor presentation under the events calendar. With that said, Let me introduce our chairman and CEO, Randy Atkins.
spk16: Thanks, Jeremy. As always, I want to thank everyone for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results. There is a line in an old song by Paul Simon which says, when something goes right, it's apt to confuse me. And in the three months since our last call, we have gone through a pleasant series of things going right. I'd like to provide a few highlights. First, we have now printed two very strong quarter to zone row, driven by some terrific cost metrics and an improving overall met coal market. We concluded a first half with $30 million of EBITDA, which is frankly higher than we had internally budgeted for the entire year back in last December. The balance of 2021 seems on track for more strength and hopefully a record performance. Our second quarter production of 550,000 tons at our Elk Creek complex was also a record. The first half production of almost 1.1 million tons puts us on track to perhaps exceed even nameplate capacity at Elk Creek of 2.1 million tons, and that's even allowing for Q3 and Q4 vacations. Sales have certainly been strong. The U.S. low-ball benchmark pricing has rather dramatically increased by over $50 since Q1. We've continued to see the general world economy improve. Steel companies, both domestically and abroad, are enjoying record pricing and the highest capacity utilization since 2008. In the second quarter, we sold almost 700,000 tons, making it a quarterly record by almost 30%. This puts us at about 1.1 million tons sold through the first half, which is about 40% ahead of last year. At Elk Creek, we have held first half costs at $61 a ton, and for all our operations, at $65 a ton. As a result of these outstanding operational and marketing results, for the second time this year, we are again increasing guidance on production and sales, and reducing guidance on cost and capex. Both are set forth in our release. Our margins on our most recent sales are now running in excess of $70 a ton. We still have over 400,000 tons of dry powder remaining to place in the second half of the year, hopefully with these same strong margins or above. As we feel, the MET markets will still have more room to run. Iron ore and copper made their moves early in the cycle. We think met coal is now playing catch up and may indeed turn out to have longer legs. This is especially given the unique supply constraints in the coal sector from lack of capital. So bottom line, if the met markets continue with their current strength, which we expect, then we anticipate having our strongest year of free cash flow. As we have said repeatedly, we try to manage for cash and, of course, for liquidity. Indeed, as you know, we have one of the cleanest balance sheets and liability profiles in our industry, as well as a very strong liquidity position. After the end of the second quarter, we took some additional steps to improve that liquidity by floating an unsecured bond offering where we raised almost $35 million. We are proud that this was the first unsecured debt deal in the coal space in over four years, and we'd like to give a tip of the cap to all of our underwriters. This additional liquidity gives us some optionality to explore ideas to add near-term production, either organically or through outside development projects. As I said, we see the MET markets as having some legs. We think you may see a strong multi-year market, and we would like to be able to take advantage of that with some additional near-term, low-cost production. Having said that, we intend to exercise a good deal of discipline in how we approach looking at both the market and any new production opportunities. Our industry, unfortunately, has a long reputation of when the market shows some strength, we throw money at indiscriminately adding more tons, even when that might not be particularly prudent. We intend not to do that at Ramico. Further, I think the capital markets will keep too much production of Zubrids in check this cycle. We always will try to keep liabilities, our balance sheet, and liquidity in the forefront as we analyze any options. And we hope to be able to discuss some ideas further with you over the coming months. I also want to mention two matters which occurred post-quarter end. While they were both not entirely unexpected, they do add a sense of additional positive momentum as we continue to build out the year. First, we've won a very decisive $33 million plus costs jury victory in litigation against Chubb Insurance. This grew from Chubb's denial of coverage for damages stemming from the collapse of a coal storage silo at Elk Creek in late 2018. Although court decisions are always subject to possible appeal, we feel very confident in our positions. We look forward to having the decision finalized. Additionally, late last week we heard from the SBA that our Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8.4 million, which we secured last year, had been formally forgiven. Although we had treated the loan in this manner since last year, it is comforting to also have this finalized as well. To close, I want to touch briefly on matters near and dear to our shareholders. of which Ramico's management team is certainly in that camp. We have seen our stock rise by 200% over the last 12 months and by about 130% year-to-date. This is certainly very gratifying, and we hope for continued strength in price over the coming months. But also, as we grow and begin to reach close to our production goals, we will begin later this year to explore with our board what may become our dividend policies. A growth company such as Ramico always has a rather tricky balancing act. We need to fund growth in production, and we also need to balance that growth against making sure we have enough sustainable free cash flow to fund a reliable and growing dividend. As a company, we hope we are at a point later this year to explore this, again, not in the not too distant future. Now, before I turn the floor over to Jeremy and Chris to delve into finances and operations in more detail, I would just like to reiterate how proud I am to our whole Ramico family on what has been a very strong first half that's been produced. With some continued operational execution and a bit of wind in our sails for the market, I hope we will continue, as that song goes, to have some things go right for the balance of what I hope will be our strongest year. And with that, I'd like to now turn the floor back to Jeremy to discuss our financial results.
spk17: Thank you, Randy. I'll start by going over our second quarter 2021 financial highlights. We had another stellar quarter, both operationally and financially. Second quarter 2021 EPS of 23 cents was up more than 260% from a year ago, while second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $18.1 million was up 67% from a year ago. This was the second best overall quarter of adjusted EBITDA in our history, with only Q2 of 2019 beating these results when domestic met coal contracts were 30% higher than in 2021. First half of 2021 adjusted EBITDA was $30 million, which was materially higher than our adjusted EBITDA for all of 2020. Turning to our forward outlook, for the second straight quarter, we are increasing our 2021 production and sales guidance while decreasing our 2021 cost and capital expenditure guidance. We now anticipate overall 2021 production of 2.2 to 2.4 million tons, up from 2.1 to 2.4 million tons previously, and compared to 1.7 million tons in 2020. We have increased 2021 sales guidance by a like amount. We now anticipate 2021 cash costs of $61 to $65 per ton at our Elk Creek complex, down from $61 to $66 per ton previously, and down from $70 per ton in 2020. We now expect total 2021 capital expenditures of $23 to $26 million, down from $25 to $28 million previously. We continue to anticipate paying minimal cash taxes for the foreseeable future. In terms of what we are seeing in the market, metallurgical coal pricing has continued to improve throughout 2021, as both the U.S. and global economies have benefited from massive global fiscal stimulus packages aimed at consumption and infrastructure. We expect these positive conditions in the steel and met coal markets to continue to provide strong tailwinds for Ramico. On the demand side, U.S. low-volume met coal price indices have more than doubled from their COVID-19-induced lows. Domestic hot-rolled coil steel prices are at record levels above $1,850 per ton. U.S. steel capacity utilization recently hit 85% for the first time since 2008. At the same time, the supply of high-quality, low-sulfur met coal that we produce remains scarce. We see nothing on the horizon to change our view that the net coal supply response will continue to be muted for a variety of factors. This positive supply-demand market positioning is occurring as we head into negotiations for 2022 annual contracts with domestic steel mills. Now, moving on to our balance sheet, I am pleased to note that we have shifted from having a small net debt position previously to a net cash position of $6 million as of June 30th. We believe we are the only U.S. publicly traded coal company to be in a net cash position. We ended the quarter with a record of almost $50 million of liquidity. After quarter end, we completed a $34.5 million, 9% senior unsecured note offering. Looking ahead, both Berwyn and Big Creek are on time and on budget, with Big Creek recently having uncovered coal in its first work area. we continue to expect to be producing at a 5 million ton per annum run rate by mid-2022. Simply stated, we are very excited about what the future holds for Ramico. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, Chris Blanchard. Chris?
spk13: Thanks, Jeremy. Before turning to the update on operational issues, I did want to briefly thank the entire in-house team and outside counsel who worked with Ramico throughout the Chubb litigation. This is a long process and a complex and technical case. We thank the court for their attention and of course the jury for their time and care in rendering what we believe was a wise and fair decision. Switching back to our operations, safety and compliance remain our primary focus. Our safety statistics for the first half of 2021 continue to track ahead of our performance for the same period in 2020. This is despite the fact that we are now growing our workforce and running our existing operations at near capacity, as opposed to the throttle back production we experienced in the early months of the pandemic last year. We now have just under 400 employees and hope to grow by year end to near 450. Similarly, on the environmental side, we are happy to report that water quality compliance within Ramico has reached 99.9% for the first half of the year. All that said, we have seen COVID-19 related impacts to our workforce move up slightly at the end of the second quarter and continue into July, in line with increased positivity rates throughout the country, We have kept all of our preventative measures in place across our operations and plan to do so until the pandemic is clearly behind us. We're also tracking and monitoring the increased stress in the local labor market on finding experienced coal miners. While we have been able to successfully grow our workforce in the second quarter to accommodate the Big Creek startup and fill vacancies at our existing Elk Creek operations, we have started to see turnover rates modestly increasing as well. To date, we have not experienced any adverse impacts in our productivity rates at our operations, but continue to monitor the situation closely. Turning now to the existing operations at Elk Creek. We ended the second quarter of 2021 with all of our Elk Creek Mons operating in areas where we anticipate that productivity should continue at approximately the same levels for the third quarter and into the fourth quarter. I would remind everyone on the call that the third quarter does contain one of our traditional vacation weeks for the mines, although the preparation plans continue to operate throughout. While we did see a modest increase in mine cash costs in the second quarter, this was only to our anticipated levels and of course included the welcome increase in cash costs due to higher realization for our spot and our index-based coal sales. We have seen modest raw material cost increases from our suppliers and anticipate these to continue as long as the commodity prices remain strong. However, we believe that the projected cash cost ranges that we have provided will cover these inflationary pressures. Moving to our new operations, As both Randy and Jeremy noted, these projects are moving forward at full speed. Our Big Creek surface mine worked through the majority of the second quarter on pre-mining construction and sediment control. As Jeremy mentioned, we did uncap our first coal in July, and we have moved the mine into producing status, although only one shift per day currently as we start August. We anticipate having the surface mine fully staffed and operating two shifts per day in September. Our high wall mining system at Big Creek should begin operation at the end of the quarter or very early in October, bringing this mine to its anticipated full run rate of approximately 200,000 clean annual tons by the end of this year. We will process the first coal from this mine in the coming days and look forward to first shipments potentially in September. At our Berlin mine, the slope project continues, and excavation of the three slope tunnels is approximately two-thirds complete. At our current construction rates, we anticipate we will reach the Pocahontas No. 4 seam in the final days of next month, or early in October. Equipment and infrastructure will be moved in, and we expect to begin the production ramp at Berlin at that time. Assuming the fourth quarter of 2021 startup in the Berlin T4 mine, we expect to have this mine fully operational as currently budgeted and producing it up to a 750,000 annual clean ton pace by the end of the second quarter of 2022. At that point, the combined Ramco run rate from Elk Creek, Big Creek, and Berlin should exceed the 3 million annual clean ton production rate, which we have previously discussed. It is indeed a promising time in the metallurgical coal markets, and it is an exciting time for Ramico. With that, this concludes management's prepared remarks, and I would now like to return the call to the operator for the Q&A portion of the call. Operator?
spk00: As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question or if your question has been answered, press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Lucas Pipes from V. Riley Securities. Your line is open.
spk03: Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone, and congratulations on a really strong first half.
spk11: Thanks, Lucas.
spk03: My first question is on the growth project. And I wondered if you could remind us in terms of the quality of the additional coal, roughly what you'd be thinking about in terms of production costs, and then the commercial strategy. Should we anticipate test shipments for customers, or are you establishing the markets efficiently with elk that you'll be able to lay it in kind of with no kind of test shipments ahead of time. Thank you very much for your perspective on that.
spk16: So, Lucas, your question relates to our current production?
spk03: No, on the growth project.
spk16: The growth project.
spk03: All three.
spk16: You want to talk about Big Creek?
spk13: Yeah. So, Lucas... Start with Big Creek. It's the 200 or so thousand annual clean tons, and that's a mid-vol project or a mid-vol product primarily. We expect the cost to be in the upper 50s in that range. Then turning to Berwyn, that's more of an established product for us, say low sulfur, low ash. low slash mid-ball that we expect costs, once it's at full run rate, to be in the low $70 range. Lucas, it's Jeremy here.
spk17: So in terms of kind of the commercial strategies, Chris said Berwyn, you know, it's an established low ball in the market. So, you know, needless to say, we've had more inquiries than tons on the ground that we could sell. So I don't think – Certainly, that's not going to be a challenge. Obviously, we'll be ramping up, so you will want to get test shipments in here and there, but needless to say, low-vol is in very tight supply. While we don't have an established mid-vol, obviously, Big Creek will be the first of that product. Clearly, that's also a type of coal that's in short supply. We've been receiving inbounds on that. Obviously, having, you know, uncovered first coal is a good first step. So, you know, I think we'll start to get, you know, samples in the hands of customers shortly. And needless to say, you know, we want to get these mines up and running as quick as possible.
spk16: Yeah. And, Lucas, one other thing just in terms of strategy. So I think this is – as we look out at our overall portfolio, you know, we started life with a pretty heavy – sort of high ball B component, and we're now moving, so probably by next year, certainly into 23, we're going to be probably two-thirds in terms of low ball A's and mid balls, and I think that's probably the direction we'll start to look as we kind of examine some of our production options.
spk03: Very helpful. Thank you very much for all that detail. And then, Randy, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned capital returns and certainly very exciting discussion to be turning to that topic in the coal space. And I wondered if you could maybe elaborate on what you're looking at today, what sort of metrics, either from the industry or from your balance sheet, would influence your decision on the capital return question.
spk16: Thank you very much. I don't want to get too far over my skis because, as I said, we're going to talk about this with the board later on as we progress through the year. We're in a very good position right now. We've got record liquidity. We hope to end the year even in a stronger position than we sit right now. There are a few things that are still obviously out there in the space that need to be nailed down. We have to understand how the 22 business is going to look from a domestic standpoint. We have to get some visibility really on the market a little bit further into the second half. And we've got some ideas obviously to increase production that we're just now beginning to explore both Organically, we've got a couple of projects in our pipeline, and externally, we've got a couple of projects that we're looking at as well. So I think what I wanted to telegraph is that we are not unmindful that a dividend would be something that is very high in our priority, assuming we're able to balance the requirements of getting our growth profile to a level of production that we feel comfortable we can make sort of a sustained generation of free cash flow that would support a decent dividend and a sustainable dividend. So that's probably not nailing it down with the specificity that you'd like. But again, I don't think we're in a position as we sit here just over the lip of the second quarter to really nail that down for the year. But we will be discussing it later as the year evolves.
spk03: Randy, this is super helpful. Really appreciate all the detail and continue best of luck.
spk16: Thanks, Lucas. And thanks to B-Rally for the placement efforts that they did in helping us underwrite the baby bonds.
spk03: That's very much appreciated. Thank you.
spk00: Once again, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Martin from the Benchmark Company. Your line is open.
spk08: Hey, good morning, guys, and congratulations on the performance. Thanks, Nate. Maybe I'll start with pricing. Looks like you guys have committed about half a million tons of export sales now at a price of 98. I think that was versus about 200,000 tons at 89 at the end of one queue. If I do that math, you come up with incremental pricing around 105, but obviously that can include some times you guys have already shipped. I think, Randy, you made the comment that what you're seeing out there right now is maybe more of a margin of close to $70 or better. So I was just hoping you could talk maybe a little bit more about the export pricing environment you're seeing today, you know, into the back half, and give us an idea, you know, where your products are pricing relative to published U.S. East Coast indices. Thank you.
spk17: Nate, it's Jeremy. I'll start off and then turn it to Randy. So, yeah, your math certainly is correct. I would note a couple things. One, you know, Randy's, you know, his comments on sort of where pricing is today is, as he said, you know, low ball's up 50 bucks a ton since, you know, we last reported Q2. So, clearly, we've We're seeing higher prices today than anything that we have previously shipped. I think the second thing is of the call it 300,000 tons or so, There were some semi-soft in there. We kind of give a good breakout of, you know, the semi-soft and everything on slide 13, you know, low ball, high ball A, B, et cetera. So any time you get a little bit of lumpiness in there, that can kind of skew the average a little bit. So, you know, that – speaks to the kind of quarter-to-quarter cadence. And, Randy, I don't know if you have any other comments on pricing.
spk16: No, I think the only thing I would really reference is, you know, we've got some sales that we've done that have netted us back probably in the 150-plus range at the mine. And, you know, if you take a look at where our cost structure is, that's pretty easy to figure out what kind of margins we're looking at. We think the market, as I said, has got some legs. I would not be – surprised to see further strengthening in the market as we go into the second half and perhaps even into 22. Because I think, you know, the thesis is that met coal has somewhat lagged some of the other steel supplies or really feedstocks like iron ore because, frankly, you've had a situation politically with China and Australia, which I think has dampened a lot of the met coal pricing structures. I'm not sure I would espouse that we're going to see any change in the Australia-Chinese puzzle over the next few months, but I do think that METCO will begin to catch up to what's happened earlier in the year on copper and iron ore.
spk08: Great. I appreciate your thoughts there, guys. Just to kind of drill down on the last part of my question, Any thoughts on discount or, you know, if you're getting roughly in line with U.S. East Coast indices, you know, high vol A, high vol B, et cetera?
spk16: I don't like discounts, Nate. I think it's hard to talk about premiums.
spk08: Okay. That's great. And I guess, you know, again, thanks for those thoughts. You know, maybe if I could get your thoughts, guys, on, you know, how the domestic contracting season is progressing and or given, again, extremely tight market we're seeing, could you give us an idea, you know, how much you think pricing could possibly be up year over year given, you know, what we just talked about with actual pricing, where it is today, you know, that much higher than where it was a year ago during this time?
spk16: Well, I think the best guidance I could give you is that we, at least as we sit here today, expect that the dance will start sometime in September. When in September, it's not quite clear. but at some point. And I think, you know, to sort of handicap pricing sitting here in August is a little difficult. I don't see anything out there on the horizon that is going to impede sort of one continued upward trend in pricing. And as I said in my remarks, I guess, for the earnings release, I expect the pricing this year to be much more robust than expected. the 2021 pricing, and we'll just have to see as we get closer to it.
spk08: Got it. Makes sense. I had to ask, obviously. Sure. I mean, Lucas kind of touched on my bigger picture question, and obviously you guys are, you know, now in that cash position. You know, you've got some more cash hopefully coming in the door, you know, related to the positive verdict on Elk Creek silo failure. Again, a substantial amount of money, especially related to your current cash balance of about $19 million. Again, you've lowered CapEx guidance for the second quarter in a row. Again, maybe just ask a little bit differently. What would be your first use, you think, for some of this extra cash that you guys are going to have on hand? Any other thoughts there?
spk16: The first thing, we're a relatively conservative bunch, so we certainly don't want to count cash before we receive it. We haven't We haven't cashed a check yet on the judgment that we just received against Chubb. And, of course, we did borrow some money, and I'm kind of fond of not having too much debt hanging around, so repayment of liabilities is certainly high on my priority list. And when we look at talking about dividends and things of that nature, of course, it's going to be paid out of free cash, not from borrowed money, at least from our vantage point. So we'll take a look at where we are a little later in the year. We'll take a look at what our forward thoughts are into 22. We'll have a better visibility, as I said, on sort of what 22 may look like once we're beyond the domestic sales season. And we'll also, I think, have some visibility on how the steel industry is itself looking into 22, which from all indications right now is that – The steel industry is going to have an extremely strong 22, which we think is great. And I think the other, you know, interesting dynamic is that typically, you know, you've seen our coal industry rush into producing a lot of tons quickly whenever they saw a market rise. And I think this time it's going to be a little bit different because in this cycle we're seeing some real constraints on on adding new production from the capital market side of the equation. Probably there's a lot of people who would like to produce more coal, but just can't find the money to do so. We're fortunately in a position that we have that luxury to try to add some new tons, which we think we would try to add for near-term production. We don't want to have mines that are going to take three or four years to build out. We would like to see mines that would be in in a position to be in production well inside of a year, and so we can take advantage and sort the market strength.
spk08: Got it. I appreciate those thoughts, Randy. I think that's it for me. Thanks again for the time, and best of luck in the second half.
spk02: Great. Thanks, Nate.
spk00: Once again, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. I am showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Mr. Randall Atkins. Please go ahead, sir.
spk16: Okay, thank you. And again, we, as always, appreciate everyone's time and attention this morning. We hope we've addressed most of the questions that you've had, and we certainly are looking forward to a strong second half, and we'll look forward to speaking to you sometime in October or November. Take care.
spk00: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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