SunCoke Energy, Inc. (NYSE:SXC) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Shantanu Agrawal - Investor Relations

Mike Rippey - Chief Executive Officer

Katherine Gates - President

Mark Marinko - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Lucas Pipes - B. Riley

Nathan Martin - Benchmark Company

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for attending today’s SunCoke Energy First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Bethany, and I will be the moderator for today’s call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Shantanu Agrawal, VP of Finance and Treasurer with SunCoke Energy. Please go ahead.

Shantanu Agrawal

Thanks, Bethany. Good morning and thank you for joining us this morning to discuss SunCoke Energy’s first quarter 2023 results.

With me today are Mike Rippey, Chief Executive Officer; Katherine Gates, President; and Mark Marinko, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following management’s prepared remarks, we’ll open the call for Q&A. This conference call is being webcast live on the Investor Relations section of our website, and a replay will be available later today. If we do not get to your questions on the call today, please feel free to reach out to our Investor Relations team.

Before I turn things over to Katherine, let me remind you that the various remarks we make on today’s call regarding future expectations constitute forward-looking statements. The cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in our SEC filings apply to the remarks we make today. These documents are available on our website as are reconciliations to non-GAAP financial measures discussed on today’s call.

With that, I’ll now turn things over to Katherine.

Katherine Gates

Thanks, Shantanu. Good morning and thank you for joining us on today’s call. Earlier today, we announced SunCoke Energy’s first quarter results. I want to discuss a few highlights before turning it over to Mark to review the results in detail. I’d like to start by thanking all of our SunCoke employees for their contributions to our first quarter results. Our domestic coke business operated at full capacity during the quarter, and our Logistics segment performed well as we continue to pursue new customers. Through our collective efforts, we delivered consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $67.1 million. Last week, we also announced the extension of our Indiana Harbor coke agreement with Cleveland-Cliffs through September 2035.

The key provisions of the extension are similar to the current contract. This renewal affirms our mutually beneficial relationship with Cleveland-Cliffs and positions Indiana Harbor well for the future. Our foundry coke business continues to perform well, with all sales finalized for the full year. The foundry coke expansion project is also progressing and it remains on time and on budget. Our order book for non-contracted blast furnace coke is solid, and all of our non-contracted blast furnace coke sales are finalized through the third quarter. From a leverage perspective, at the end of the quarter, our gross leverage ratio was approximately 1.93x on a trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA basis. Finally, as we continue to execute against our 2023 objectives, we remain well positioned to achieve our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance of $250 million to $265 million.