Steel Mills
SunCoke Energy Performs Well in Q2 on Strong Commodity Markets
Written by Laura Miller
August 2, 2022
Despite lower domestic coke sales in the second quarter, SunCoke Energy is seeing favorable export coke pricing and is increasing its earnings guidance for the year as a result.
“Our domestic coke and logistics segments continued to perform well in the second quarter with the backdrop of strong commodity markets. Although our coke production was impacted due to planned outages this quarter, it was more than offset by higher margins from our export coke sales,” commented president and CEO Mike Rippey in the company’s Q2 earnings report.
SunCoke’s Q2 net income of $18 million was a significant increase from the loss of $8.8 million it incurred in Q2 2021. Q2 revenues of $501.9 million were up 38% year-on-year.
The company’s domestic coke operations shipped just over 1.007 million tons in Q2—a decline of 56,000 tons from the year-ago quarter. The segment is made up of coke-making facilities and heat recovery operations in Jewell, Va.; East Chicago, Ind.; Franklin Furnace, Ohio; Middletown, Ohio; and Granite City, Ill.
For the full year, SunCoke now expects to produce 4.1 million tons of coke domestically and thinks it will continue to see higher export margins.
SunCoke plans to add pig iron production to its raw materials portfolio in the coming years. During Q2, the company entered into a non-binding letter of intent with US Steel to acquire the steelmaker’s Granit City blast furnaces and to build a 2-million-tons-per-year pig iron facility. Permitting and construction of the pig iron plant is expected to take approximately two years.
By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Laura Miller
Read more from Laura MillerLatest in Steel Mills
U.S. Steel sues Algoma over iron pellet shipments
U.S. Steel is suing Algoma over the Canadian flat-rolled producer's rejection of iron pellet shipments, arguing it has breached its contract.
August US mill shipments slip but still higher than last year
The American Iron and Steel Institute reported a decline in the monthly shipments of US mills from July to August.
TransPod, Algoma, Supreme Steel linkup anchors Canadian steel in high-speed transit build
The three Canadian companies have announced a strategic partnership to support the development of an ultra-high-speed transit line from Edmonton to Calgary.
Metallus, USW agree to tentative four-year labor deal
Metallus and the United Steelworkers (USW) have agreed to a tentative four-year labor contract.
ArcelorMittal Dofasco resumes cokemaking after emergency maintenance
The Canadian steelmaker reported on Sept. 30 that “urgent maintenance” was needed in its coke plant off-gas systems. The work required coke oven gas from the No. 2 coke plant to be flared for most of that week.