For the period ended December 31, the Virginia-based producer posted a net loss of $128 million, or 58c per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $793 million, or $3.62 per diluted share, over the fourth quarter of 2011.
Total revenues were $1.6 billion, down year-on-year from $2.1 billion in 2011. Coal revenues were $1.4 billion, down from $1.8 billion in the previous period.
Alpha said the revenue reductions, both overall and in coal, were primarily due to lower coal shipment volumes and lower average realizations for both metallurgical and eastern steam coal.
Metallurgical coal shipments were 4.9 million tons in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.3Mt in 2011 and flat compared with the third quarter of 2012.
Alpha also shipped 11.6Mt of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal during the quarter, compared with 13.9Mt in the year-ago period and 13.2Mt in the third quarter of 2012. Eastern steam coal shipments were 9.4Mt, down from 11.9Mt in the year-ago period and 9.8Mt from the sequential quarter.
The producer recorded a $228 million impairment and restructuring charges during the period, largely non-cash, which included $188 million from its annual goodwill impairment testing.
A $40 million impact of charges and asset impairments stemmed from its restructuring initiatives, which kicked off last September and that officials said were substantially complete.
Looking whole-year, Alpha reported total revenues of $7 billion, including $6 billion in coal revenues. That figure includes a full-year contribution from the former operations of Massey it acquired in June 2011.
Revenues in 2011 were $7.1 billion and coal revenues during the same time period were $6.2 billion, which included the Massey operations for the last seven months of the year.
The company said a slight decrease in coal revenue in 2012, despite the inclusion of a full 12 months of legacy Massey operations was primarily attributable to its ramping down of the quarterly run-rate for metallurgical shipments over the year along with a 19% drop in average per-ton realizations on metallurgical coal resulting in a 14% slip in metallurgical coal
revenues.
That decrease, it noted, was partially offset by an 11% jump in eastern steam coal revenues stemming from a 12% increase in shipment volumes.
Throughout 2012, Alpha recorded coal shipments of 108.8Mt, up from 106.3Mt for whole-year 2011. Of that, metallurgical coal shipments were 20.3Mt and PRB coal and eastern steam coal were 46.7mt and 41.8Mt, respectively.
Alpha chief executive officer Kevin Crutchfield called the final fiscal quarter “pivotal” for the producer and said it ended the year with “tremendous strides” across its strategic priorities.
“We have also been executing well against our internal objectives, and the extensive restructuring initiative we announced in September is largely behind us,” he said.
“And while we do not expect the unit costs reported in the fourth quarter to be sustainable, we do expect to at least hold the line or slightly reduce our unit costs in the east this year compared with full year 2012, and we are guiding to a substantial reduction in SG&A expense for full year 2013.”
Looking ahead, Alpha said it expected to ship between 81-92Mt, including between 19-22Mt of eastern met coal, 25-30Mt of eastern steam coal, and 37-40Mt of western steam coal from the PRB.
As of January 25, 47% of its midpoint of anticipated metallurgical coal shipments were committed and priced at an average of $113.25 per ton, and 94% of its midpoint of anticipated eastern steam coal shipments were committed and priced at an average of $62.71.
Additionally, 97% of its midpoint of anticipated PRB shipments were committed and priced at an average of $12.84.
Alpha anticipates its cost of coal sales for the year will range between $71-75/t in the east and $10-11/t in the west.
Capital expenditures for 2013 were expected to fall within the range of $300-350 million.
