US miner Foresight Energy announces lower coal sales, revenues in 2019

Houston — Foresight Energy experienced large declines in coal sales and revenues in 2019, driven by lower export volumes and coal sales realizations per ton, the producer said in its quarterly earnings filing Monday.

In the fourth quarter, the Missouri-based thermal coal miner sold 4.4 million st of coal, down 28.9% from the year-ago quarter, and output 3.5 million st, down 42.6% on year.

Coal sales realization per ton sold in Q4 was $36.86/st, compared with $48.33/st in Q4 2018.

Coal sales in Q4 totaled $161 million, down 45.7% year on year. Foresight had a net loss of nearly $236 million, compared with a net income of $16.9 million.

Throughout 2019, Foresight's coal sales revenues totaled $834 million, down 24% year on year, and sales volumes totaled 19.7 million st, down 15.6%. Overall, the producer had a net loss of $320 million st last year, compared with a net loss of $61.6 million in 2018.

According to the producer, the drop in revenues came from lower coal sales volumes, largely due to lower export volumes, along with lower coal sales realizations per ton sold.

Coal sales realization per ton on an annual basis was $42.26/st in 2019, down from $46.91/st in the previous year.

On an annual basis, the company produced 19.9 million st of coal, down 14.5% from 2018.

In March, Foresight filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in addition to resuming longwall mining production at its Hillsboro complex in Illinois and idled continuous mining at its Macoupin complex, also in Illinois, the filing said.

Regarding its 2020 expectations, Foresight said "based on the Foresight Chapter 11 Cases and the uncertainty, social and economic, surrounding the domestic and global impact the coronavirus disease pandemic will have on our coal markets, the Partnership is not providing guidance for 2020 at this time."