Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:ARLP) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nathan Martin: That’s very helpful, guys. Maybe just to kind of wrap that up. I mean, really, I guess my questions kind of revolve around maybe what gets you to the lower, the high end of your full year ‘24 price per ton guidance and you’ve got 32.5 million tons, it looks like, committed and priced. Maybe what’s your assumption there in API2 price if that’s what your export volumes are tied to? We’ve seen some pressure there obviously. You mentioned that domestic contracts, where you’re pricing those have been above the spot rates, so that’s a positive? Just trying to get a sense of maybe what gets you to the lower high end of that range. Thank you.

Joe Craft: Yeah, the whole range is going to be dependent on the export market. So we’ve seen the export pricing on the indexes drop probably $10 to $12 in the last month. We don’t believe that’s sustainable. We believe that the pricing will get back in the API2 level that’s greater than the $110 to $120 range, because we believe that’s what the world supply will demand for those products. We do believe that demand is stable. However, the pricing right now is a little soft. And so the whole swing will be how we place those export tons throughout 2024 that will be the determining factor as to the ranges that you spoke to. But when you look at the total compared to our UI position, it doesn’t move the needle that much because we have so little times that are needed to be placed for 2024.

Nathan Martin: Great. I appreciate those comments, guys. I’ll pass it along to the next caller. Thanks for your time and best of luck here in 2024.

Joe Craft: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Mark Reichman with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Reichman: Thank you and good morning.

Joe Craft: Good morning.

Mark Reichman: So going into the fourth quarter, the delta between what was committed and priced in 2023 and the — your guidance, that was kind of expected to be kind of what happened in the export market. So the tons sold came in kind of at the low end compared to the guidance. So when do you expect that delta between committed and priced and what was sold to carry over into 2024? Will that mainly be in the first quarter? And I assume that’s kind of already kind of baked into the 2024 guidance?

Cary. P Marshall: Yes, that’s right. That’s right, Mark. We would expect those tonnages to roll over into the first quarter and it is baked into the guidance that we provided.

Mark Reichman: Okay. And then, during the last conference call, you didn’t expect much in the way of fourth quarter outside coal purchases, but sequentially the number increased over 20 million from 11.5 million. So did the adverse conditions at Mettiki, did those just extend beyond your expectations and do you think we’re done with the outside coal purchases?

Joe Craft: So, yeah — so we, in the last earnings call, we felt like the longwall would be up and running by the end of November and it was actually delayed until the end of December. So we did have some shipments that we needed to buy some coal that we thought we would be able to produce that we came up with short and we may have to actually buy some in the first quarter. The longwall did come up the last week of December. It is operating as expected. But depending on whether the timing of shipments is possible, we may have some purchases in the first quarter. I don’t believe we are anticipating anything beyond that.

Mark Reichman: Okay. That was at least when I compared to what our estimates looked like. I think we were at the low end, but that was kind of a difference. And then just lastly, I know it’s too early to talk about revenues, but this agreement between Infinitum and Matrix, rather than revenue numbers, can you just kind of maybe highlight the economics of becoming a global distributor for Infinitum? Are there any shared arrangements on the development of new mining products? So I mean, will they just get the margin from the sale of Infinitum’s projects, products? Or are there some other, like, when they go in and install a project for a mining customer, are there other sources of revenue? What does kind of the revenue sub-stack or revenue stack look like for Matrix when they enter an arrangement like that with Infinitum?

Joe Craft: Well, the initial project they were working on, they basically are making equipment that effectively we’re going to be testing in our operations in 2024. That’ll start, I believe, in the second quarter of this year.

Cary. P Marshall: Yeah.

Joe Craft: Cary, do you have those more specifics? And then that will roll in, and then we will start to hopefully be marketing those in 2025.

Cary. P Marshall: Yeah, that’s right, Joe. The products, it kind of goes back to similar to what we did with IntelliZone, where we’re providing proof-of-concept for these underground. And so we have been in discussions with the regulatory agencies here for underground mining and do anticipate those going underground here. Certainly by the second quarter we’re hoping to push it even a little bit quicker than that.

Joe Craft: And we’ve got another motor technology that we’re also working on that would also need MSHA approval. And that’s too, we would think that that would be manufactured and then sold into 2025. Our initial focus will be domestically, but then it too would be rolling out, similar to our proximity device and IntelliZone that is currently being marketed in South Africa and Australia.