Dallas, Texas 07/29/2013 (Financialstrend) – Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT) closed in the previous trading session at $11.14 after going 1.83% (or +$0.20) in the northwards direction. The stock has hit day’s high at $11.41 and day’s low at $10.68.
The company, Walter Energy, Inc. the leading producer of metallurgical coal for the steel industry all over the world, recently provided preliminary operating results for the 2nd quarter of the year 2013.
The chief executive officer of the company, Walt Scheller said that as the result of strong performance from the Alabama premium hard coking coal mines of the company, they have significantly reduced the costs in the 2nd quarter. He further said that he is pleased with the operational progress of the company but still the financial results for the quarter reflects the ongoing weakness in the market of global metallurgical coal.
The company continues to maintain its focus on operating efficiently and safely, on improving its financial performance and lowering costs while the short-term outlook for global metallurgical coal pricing still remains depressed.
Metallurgical (met) coal production in the second quarter of 2013 is expected to total approximately 2.9 MMTs (million metric tons), up approximately 7%, compared with 1st quarter of 2013. An increase of 0.4 million metric tons from the low-vol (low volatility) and mid-vol (mid volatility) mines in Alabama of the company has led to the higher production in this quarter.
Metallurgical coal cash cost of production per MT (metric ton) is expected to have declined by over $10 per MT (metric ton), or more than 10%, compared with the 1st quarter of 2013. Production cost per MT in the low-vol (low volatility) and mid-vol (mid volatility) mines in Alabama of the company declined by 14% while metallurgical cash costs of production per ton in the Canadian operations also declined in spite of the lower production volumes.
