SunCoke Reports Slight Reduction in Second-Quarter Production

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--SunCoke Energy Incorporated (NYSE:SXC) (Lisle, Illinois) says a pull forward in the timing of planned maintenance at one of its facilities resulted in a slight reduction in second-quarter domestic coke production, when compared with the same quarter last year. Second-quarter domestic production was estimated at 1.047 million tons, down by an estimated 12,000 tons from second-quarter 2014.

"The decline largely reflects a pull forward in the timing of the 2015 planned maintenance outage at our Granite City facility, as compared to the prior year," SunCoke said in a press statement.

Industrial Info is tracking eight SunCoke projects with a total investment value of $614 million. This includes the $3.5 million maintenance outage at the 740,000 ton-per-year coke plant in Granite City, Illinois. The two-week outage earlier was planned for the fourth quarter.

The Granite City coke plant supplies United States Steel Corporation's (NYSE:X) (U.S. Steel) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Granite City operations. In March, U.S. Steel announced it was idling its Granite City flat-rolled operations, but SunCoke said U.S. Steel was obligated under a long-term, take-or-pay coke supply contract until 2025.

Second-quarter domestic capacity utilization was estimated to be 99%, versus 100% in the same quarter last year, according to the company, which reaffirmed full-year 2015 consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization guidance of $190 million to $210 million.

SunCoke also said it is continuing to downsize its coal-mining operations to reduce costs. The company said it was still pursuing a strategic exit from it coal-mining business, but no longer believed a sale of the business was probable amid current market conditions and lower prices. The company owns 110 million tons of proven and probable coal reserves in Virginia and West Virginia.

Industrial Info is tracking plans by SunCoke to build an 800,000-ton-per-year metallurgical coke plant at South Shore, Kentucky. With a total investment value of $400 million, the plant would feature the company's heat recovery coke making process technology. Construction kick-off is planned for fourth-quarter 2015, with completion in fourth-quarter 2017.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.