Q2 shipments were 20.1Mt compared to 21.1Mt in the first quarter of 2013.

Shipments were exactly on par with the 20.1Mt shipped in the second quarter of 2012 and the company continues to expect shipments to be approximately 90Mt for the 2013 full year.

Cloud Peak cited weather interruptions, unplanned power plant outages at a small number of its major customers and the impact of production interruptions during planned maintenance downtime for the 1Mt decrease.

Costs per ton rose as a result of spreading fixed costs over lower shipments during a quarter when several major planned annual maintenance jobs were completed.

With continued low Newcastle benchmark prices, Cloud Peak said its logistics segment made a limited additional contribution to adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

It therefore expected adjusted EBITDA for Q2 to be lower than Q1 2013.

As a result, Cloud Peak said it was lowering the mid-point of its full year adjusted EBITDA guidance range by $15 million, so full year adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be between $210 million and $250 million.

“While the second quarter shipments were lower than we expected, we are now in the position where we expect to be able to run at higher shipment rates and therefore lower costs per ton in the second half of the year,” Cloud Peak president and chief executive officer Colin Marshall said.

Cloud Peak’s results for the quarter are expected to be announced on July 30.