Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) Q1 2013 Earnings Call Transcript
Published at 2013-04-25 10:00:00
Jessica Moran – Director of Investor Relations Joseph A. Carrabba – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Terrance M. Paradie – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Group Limited Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC Steve Bristo – RBC Capital Markets
Good morning, my name is Ashley and I am your conference facilitator today. I would like to welcome everyone to Cliffs Natural Resources 2013 First Quarter Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) After the speakers’ remark there will be a question-and-answer session. At this time I would like to introduce Jessica Moran Director, Investor Relations. Ms. Moran?
Thanks, Ashley. I would like to welcome everyone to this morning’s call. Before I turn the call over, let me remind you that certain comments made on today’s call will include predictive statements that are intended to be made as forward-looking within the Safe Harbor projections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Acts of 1995. Although the company believes that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Important factors that could cause results to differ materially are set forth in reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and news releases filed with the SEC, which are available on our website. Today’s conference call is also available and being broadcast at cliffsnaturalresources.com. At the conclusion of the call, it will be archived on the website and available for replay. We will also discuss our results excluding certain special items, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. A reconciliation for Regulation G purposes can be found in our earnings release which is so said on our website at cliffsnaturalresources.com. Joining me today are Cliff’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Carrabba and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Terry Paradie. At this time I’ll turn the call over to Joe for his initial remarks. Joseph A. Carrabba: Thanks, Jess, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. Before I discuss the quarter’s results, I would like to take this opportunity to address recent concerns over the long-term sustainability of our U.S. iron ore business. As many of you know our U.S. iron ore segment has really been the core of Cliffs’ global operations. We have been operating on the iron range but well over a century. At year-end we had over 800 million tons of proven and probable reserves in the U.S. alone. We are the pioneers in developing the pelletizing process which takes low grade ore and increases the iron content to a complex beneficiation process. Over the last decade, we have significantly increased our market position enabling us to become the largest merchant supplier of iron-ore pellets to steel mills in the United States. As many of you know, most of the U.S. iron-ore volumes sold to customers in North America are under long-term requirements contracts, meaning that if our customers are running their furnaces they are required to use Cliffs’ palettes. A significant amount of our U.S. iron-ore volume will sold under these contracts for the next 3.5 years. We acknowledge that over the last two years new iron ore supply projects have been announced within the Great Lakes. Naturally, we are monitoring these projects on a regular basis and we are well aware of the potential competition we could face later this decade. As an owner and operator of low-grade mines we understand the front-end challenges of building and developing a mine. We also understand that day in and day out planning that is necessary to consistently produce a reliable high quality product for our customers. Our U.S. mines are well capitalized, well maintained, and run by the best operators in the business. As a result, our U.S. iron ore cash cost are consistent quarter-over-quarter. This enables us to generate respectable sales margins and price competitively, that being said we fully intend to protect the long term volumes in our U.S. iron ore business. Looking at the North American steel market as a whole, the announced investments in DRI steel production is something that interests us. The EAF market is one we’ve never meaningfully supplied. However, this dynamic could change as our ability to produce DR grade products is optimized. Last year we identified two mines that have a reserve base that could support producing DR grade products. At the time we ran a small batch of volume and determined that we were able to meet the required product specs. Last month at our North Shore mine we ran a full scale production test for two weeks. We successfully produced 30,000 tons achieving the targeted specs of a DR grade pellet. Throughout the remainder of the year, we will continue to test different methods using a variety of ore blends and flow sheets. We are working closely with the companies who manufacturing DRI facilities to conduct performance evaluations of our DR grade pellet samples. While we are optimistic of our DRI technology and the long-term impacts it could have for the U.S. steel making industry, one concerning trend that we continue to see is the surge of steel imports in the United States. This is impacting the competitiveness of our customers and we urge congress to support tax policies that would level the international playing field for steel producers. Globally, the lack of growth in Europe was offset by increasing steel production from China which improved pricing for commodities in the first quarter. China’s crude steel production continues to be healthy with first quarter annualized run rates averaging north of 750 million tons. Iron ore inventories at the ports are at multiyear lows and customer demand for our products is strong. In the U.S., positive economic indicators are emerging that could drive growth during the second half. Consumer spending has strengthened, the labor markets are trending up and the housing market is showing signs of recovery, balanced in-market mix of our products enables us to generate healthy cash flows from our U.S. business and benefit from China’s growth. Now, turning to the performance of our business segments during the quarter. First quarter sales volume in U.S. iron ore decreased 9% to 3.1 million tons from 3.4 million tons primarily driven by a customer bankruptcy that occurred in May of last year. As many of you know our first quarter U.S. iron ore sales volumes in typically the lightest when compared to other quarters due to the annual lock maintenance in the Great Lakes. We are increasing our 2013 sales volume expectation by a million tons to 21 million tons for the full year. The increase is driven by higher iron ore pellet demand from our existing customers in the U.S. We intend to deliver between 1.5 million and 2 million tons of pellets from the Great Lakes into the St. Lawrence Seaway during 2013, which is included in our increased sales volume expectation of 21 million tons. We are maintaining our expected full year production volume of 20 million tons with the additional sales volume coming out of our inventory stockpile. Turning to Eastern Canadian Iron Ore before discussing the quarter results, I think it’s important to highlight some management changes we’ve made within our Eastern Canadian Iron Ore operations. Dave Blake, who previously had oversight for both U.S. Iron Ore and Eastern Canadian Iron Ore, will now be exclusively focused on Eastern Canada. Under Dave’s management our U.S. Iron Ore business unit has performed exceptionally well delivering consistent volumes and cash cost on a quarter-over-quarter basis for several years. Dave is leaving the U.S. iron ore business in the very capable hands of Terry Paradie. Before joining Cliffs two years ago, Terry Paradie had more than 25 years of experience in the steel industry. He possesses the operational knowledge, leadership skills and distinctive customer insights that are critical to our business. Both Dave and Terry report directly to Laurie Brlas, Executive Vice President, Global Operations. Eastern Canadian Iron Ore sales volume for the quarter was relatively flat over year at 1.9 million tons. This is comprised of 1.5 million tons of sales volume from Bloom Lake and 400,000 tons from Wabush, a comparable mix for last year’s first quarter. As we’ve previously discussed, moving forward the Bloom Lakes mine development is a major focus for our Eastern Canadian operating team this year. Optimizing the ore characterization and blend with higher quality crude ore from the west pit is expected to significantly improve our throughput. At this point we are still experiencing variability in the mill ore feed. I view this is as a real opportunity for us as the west pit mine development ramps up throughout the year. Over the next few months, we expect to take delivery of seven trucks, two dozers, two shovels and a drill which will be meaningful additions to our mobile fleet. Also we have completed the installation of our truck dispatch system. Once fully optimize this system is expected to reduce cycle times and improve our productivity. We have not yet restarted the construction of Phase II concentrator and load-out facility. At this time Phase II has amount 65% complete. Our plan to resume construction is very probable however, before making this decision we will look at a number of factors including seaborne iron-ore price, mine development progresses and our financial flexibility before making the decision to advance the project to completion. Also another factor we will consider Quebec newly proposed mining royalty tax. If the proposed royalty model were to be applied in its correct form the economic assumptions supporting our original investment at Bloom Lake could be undermined. This may put further investment decisions at risk. We do not claim the current tax regime is perfect it may need adjustments, but we do not believe that the proposed changes would have, but we do believe that the proposed changes would have damaging impacts to the competitiveness of still Quebec iron-ore producers and the entire provinces economy. For the remainder of this year we are focused on a number of projects including the some of the shared infrastructure and permission to operate projects. Our built out of the booster tailings pump outs and water treatment plant is nearing completion and is expected to be commissioned this summer. The system will contribute to environmental risk mitigation as well as improve our cash cost profile. We are gaining traction with customers and are delivered efforts to diversify Bloom Lake’s customer base. During the quarter, we sent product samples of Bloom Lake’s concentrate to several mills in Europe and a trial cargo to Japan. The feedback from customers has been excellent and we have been successful in signing a handful of long-term contracts, while customers might be slower to adopt the new concentrate product, we are finding there is a good synergy between high quality concentrate ores and direct shipping products from Western Australia. In many ways, they are complementary sinter feeds. With the increasing reality of ore degradation and meaningful lower grade supply additions from Western Australia are number wise and we believe Bloom Lake’s concentrate will be well positioned as a niche product with growing demand. At Wabush, we recognize the operating performance has not been acceptable for several quarters. By June our pellet commitments to customers will be satisfied. Once this occurs we intend to idle Wabush’s pellet plant at Pointe Noire. In addition, we are simplifying the mine plant and processing flow sheet or shrinking our operating footprint if you will. Essentially, this will result in less equipment to maintain in a smaller organizational structure. With these changes, we expect to achieve some $100 cash costs by end of the year. If this target is not met, our option will be limited and a permanent solution will be heavily considered. In light of these announcements and operating adjustments, we have been encouraged by the [scully] mine management's receptivity response to change. That being said for 2013, we are maintaining our eastern Canadian iron ore sales and production volumes expectations of 9 million to 10 million tons. This is comprised of 6.5 million to 7 million tons from Bloom Lake and the remainder from Wabush. Turning to Asia-Pacific iron ore. First quarter sales volume decreased 17% to 2.3 million tons from 2.8 million tons sold in last year’s comparable quarter. The decrease was attributed to vessel timing and the absence of sales volume from our Cockatoo Island operation that ceased production in the third quarter of 2012. Looking into the second quarter we are expecting two, approximately 10 days shut down of the port which will impact our second quarter sales tons we are confident that we will make up the volume in the second half of the year as such for the full year we are maintaining our expected sales and production volumes of a 11 million tons. Our ore rates in Asia-Pacific are creating a real challenge to our mine plan based on additional drilling performed in the fourth quarter we have updated our resource models and we are not showing any real improvements to the longer-term ore grades. Throughout this process we have been in discussion with our customers and we do not expect any main impacts on volumes in light of this reality. Terry will discuss the impacts it has on our revenue realization expectations later in the call. Now turning to coal our first quarter sales volume increased 27% to 1.8 million tons from 1.4 million tons last year. During the quarter we encountered a geological fall that Pinnacle mine which meaningfully slowed production for several weeks. Fortunately we are now passed the fall and the loss in production volume was offset with increased production from ore growth. Ore growth continues to show exceptional performance across the board the mine achieved $74 cash costs of production which we believe to be best-in-class amongst our fellow peers. I think it’s important to highlight that our cash costs profile has continued to trend down despite the significant increased inspections from state and federal regulatories. In the first quarter alone we had just over 550 inspectors in our coal mines, with safe production top of mind, we will continue to work with regulators to enhance our safety focus culture. I’m impressed with the team’s success especially in today’s challenging regulatory and pricing environment. For 2013, we continue to expect to sell and produce approximately 7 million tons largely comprised of metallurgical coal. Moving to our chromite project, all our internal evaluations are nearing completion, resolution of several items including the definitive agreement with Ontario is necessary before we will be able to conclude our feasibility study. Unfortunately, talks have not yet resumed with the new prudential government and other significant issues remain unresolved. We will not approve any significant investment capital or major construction activity until key elements supporting economic viability are resolved. Our work to build positive relationships with the First Nation communities continue. Today, we have invested over a $3 million in various programs that have positively impacted these communities. This is an extraordinary project opportunity that we require the support of First Nations, government and others to advance beyond the current phase. In closing, we are headed in the right direction for 2013. I’m pleased with the entire organizations effort to focus on reducing cost and executing the plan. With the spring fall upon us, I’m looking forward to reporting Bloom Lakes’ progress throughout the remainder of the year. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Terry for his review of the financial highlights. Terry. Terrance M. Paradie: Thank you, Joe. Before I jump to the results, I wanted to review some of the recent changes to our capital structure. During the quarter, we successfully completed an equity offering raising a total of $995 million and net proceeds after commissions, discounts and fees. The offering consisted of two types of securities and the proceeds from growth offerings were used to pay down the balance on our outstanding term loan of $847 million. This decision to eliminate the term loan is consistent with our goal of enhancing financial flexibility and de-risking the balance sheet. At quarter end, our total debt stood at $3.4 billion, which included $550 million strong on our $1.75 billion revolving credit facility. Also during the quarter and previously discussed we received unanimous support from our lenders to adjust our debt covenants for the quarterly reporting periods in 2013. The details of the amendment can be found with last night’s press release within our Form 10-K. Based on the actions we took during the quarter both Moody’s and S&P improved their outlook to stable on our investment grade ratings. Global seaborne iron ore pricing for 62% Fe fines product, a significant driver of our profitability remain relatively flat averaging a $148 per ton or 3% higher than last year’s first quarter. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter were $1.1 billion 6% lower than previous year driven by a 10% decrease in year-over-year iron ore sales volume. Lower sales volumes resulted in a 2% decrease in cost of goods sold to $903 million for the quarter. Net income attributed to common shareholders was $97 million or $0.66 per diluted share compared with net income of $376 million or $263 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2012. First quarter of 2013 results included income tax benefit of $6 million. The benefit was driven by our expected full year income tax effective rate before discrete items of 1% offset by certain discrete items. Also the prior year’s first quarter results included a non-cash deferred tax benefit $255 million primarily related to the enactment of Australia's MRRT tax which was partially offset with certain other discreet tax items. In February, we adjusted the way we provide our full year business segment revenue per ton guidance due to the pricing volatility we saw last year. We continue to use the same method this quarter of providing revenue sensitivities. We will use the March year-to-date average iron ore price of a $148 per ton as a proxy for our full year average price. It’s important for me to stress that this is not our internal iron ore price outlook for the year. The sensitivity table is included in the outlook section of last night’s earnings release. In U.S. Iron Ore, revenue per ton increased to a $120 from last year’s first quarter revenue of $117 per ton. The increase is due to customer mix and favorable provisional price settlements when compared to the first quarter of 2012. Cash cost per ton decreased to $60 from $61 in 2012s first quarter. The year-over-year improvement was primarily driven by lower maintenance cost. Our U.S. Iron Ore operating teams worked very hard this quarter to manage cash costs and we’re working against higher year-over-year energy and labor costs, which are largely fixed. We are maintaining our 2013 cash cost per ton expectation in U.S. Iron Ore of $65 to $70. In Eastern Canadian Iron Ore, revenue per ton increased to a $132 ton, up 13% when compared to the prior year’s first quarter. This was driven by favorable provisional price settlements, 14% lower freight rates and 3% year-over-year (inaudible) iron ore pricing. During the quarter, Bloom Lakes’ cash cost decreased 9% to $89 per ton, which was due to lower trend shipping costs reduced emerge and lower contract of spending. Generally speaking the harsh weather experience in Northern Quebec during the winter month unfavorably impacted our first quarter cash costs. We are maintaining our previously cash cost per ton expectation of [blue-make] of $85 to $90 per ton for 2013. For the longer term we expect to continue to target a mid-$60 cash cost range once both phases are completed. With the change in our product offering at Wabash Mine, we expect mine’s cash cost to average $115 to $120 per ton for the full year. For the entire Eastern Canadian iron ore segment we expect cash cost to be $95 to a $100 in 2013. Turning to Asia-Pacific iron ore; revenue decreased 9.5% to $117 per ton, from a $130 per ton primarily driven by quarter (inaudible) pricing mechanism used to certain customers, also the lower iron grade Joe discussed earlier on the call unfavorably impacted revenue by approximately $6 per ton during the quarter. We do expect the lower ore rate to impact our realized revenue per ton for the full year. To reflect this we lowered our full year Asia Pacific iron ore revenue expectation by $5 per ton. Cash cost slightly increased 2% to $75 per ton, compared with $74 per ton in the year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily attributed to higher mining and logistics costs as a result of increased production volumes and inventory stock-pile moment to the build-up of inventory in the first quarter. We are maintaining our full-year cash cost expectation for 2013 of $70 to $75 per ton. In North American coal segment revenue was a $110 per ton, down 9% from previous year’s results primarily driven by lower year-over-year spot pricing for [met-coal]. For 2013, we have committed and priced approximately 75% of our expected 2013 sales volume at an average price of a $110 per [short] ton at the mine. With the significant portion of our coal volumes committed we are maintaining our expected revenue to be $110 to $115 per ton. Our cash cost decreased 6% from last year’s first quarter to $91 per ton from $97 per ton. Again a tremendous effort by our operators to deliver lower cost quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, considering the challenging mining conditions we experienced at Pinnacle mine. In 2013, we are maintaining our expected cash cost of $95 per ton to $100 per ton. Turning to cash flow, in the first quarter of 2013, the business used $25 million in cash from operations versus a use of $129 million in the first quarter of 2012. The improvement was driven by favorable working capital, primarily related to receivable and other current assets. At quarter end, we held $287 in cash and cash equivalents. We are marinating our full year CapEx expectation of $800 million to $850 million. Our expected 2013 CapEx includes approximately $300 million of sustaining capital, the remainder is growth and productivity capital, and is largely related to the investments at Bloom Lake, which will support both Phase 1 and 2. We are also maintaining our expected full year SG&A expenses of approximately $230 million. In addition, we are maintaining our expected cash outflows, expectation on growth projects of approximately $85 million. This has comprised of approximately $25 million related to exploration; and $60 million related to the completing the feasibility stage of the development of our chromite project in Ontario, Canada. For the full year, we expect unfavorable working capital adjustments of approximately $250 million, and a full year effective tax rate of approximately 1%. In summary, our first quarter financial results were solid. Our operators will continue to look for ways to improve our cash cost profile without jeopardizing safety or quality. Our ability to stay operationally and financially flexible during volatile pricing environments is a key factor and our ability to create long-term value for shareholders. With that Jess, I think we are ready now for questions.
Ashley, that concludes our prepared remarks for the call today, can you please open the line for questions.
Thank you. (Operator instructions). Our first question is from Timna Tanners of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Yes, hi, good morning.
Unidentified Company Representative
Good morning. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: I wanted to ask a little bit more about the long-term contract structure that you discussed in terms of the exports for iron ore pellets and longer term options there.
Unidentified Company Representative
Timna, we don’t use a lot of long-term contracts, we do that on a spot basis when we do the export of the pellets, and then it really just is a decision on margin and where the market is and who is looking for pellets at the time with that. So, it’s driven on margin and spot basis as we have used this. I don’t see a huge amount of additional opportunity coming out of Great Lakes. A lot of it is logistics drive. There is just not a lot of shipping capacity for those size of vessels that are currently for charter coming up and down the seaway. And in Quebec City there is also limitations on where you have to transload. So, the 1.5 million and 2 million it’s a nice piece of business that our commercial group is built over the last couple of years starting with nothing and they balance it just in the marketplace. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: I think, I asked that wrong, I apologize. So, you said, you send a trial cargo to Japan, and we are sending to Europe, and I confused that with the St. Lawrence Seaway volumes that was really more Eastern Canada and you had mentioned some long-term contracts there.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yeah, we did do a trial contract. I mean, we are very bullish on being able to diversify our suppliers that comes as it goes around the world, it’s been a stated goal of ours since the beginning of the project as it goes and just as we stated people are understanding the how to use the iron ore concentrate they like the chemistry of the higher iron and the low aluminum and (inaudible) that goes along with it, but when we lowered the silica while it gave us a lot of operational challenges that also gave us a good competitive edge as well. So [traps] are going very well, they are very cautious as they should be to put products into their mills, but we think we can diversify quite a bit of Bloom Lake’s capacity into other markets.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes, and we also did sign a couple of contracts with couple of Chinese customers this quarter that are greater than a year and couple of cargos a year for the next few years. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Right. So that’s based off of its spot market contract basis I assume and I was just wondering if there is like a color or how you structure those to make sure that you can remain profitable in up or down market?
Unidentified Company Representative
They are primarily spot yes contacts, yes. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Okay. My only other question if I could is really about Australia, if you could give us a little bit more color you talked about some challenges there, so I was just trying to understand is that just price, is it also cost, is it temporary, how to think about that? Thanks.
Unidentified Company Representative
Let me comment on the operational and Terry can fill in the facts with the numbers to go with it. We’ve got the operation stabilized now at this point as we talked about when we did our expansion, which was very successful on the project side of hitting the mark on total dollars getting the tonnage that we look like. The complexity of opening that up several new pits while closing coming to closure of several of our older pits, the modeling was wrong on the geology and the ore decline that we are seeing across Western Australia, is also catching up with us and as in our mines, while last year was a surprise. This year we are starting to build it in. So, we won’t see the condition go back up to if you will at 62%, 62.5% Fe. We’re going to be in that 59% to 60% range, it looks right now and we will update folks on our product specifications, as we get a better handle on it, but we think we have settled the modeling issue that we had, and the go forward is the decline in our grade, but not slow and study if you will from where we are, but maintaining that step down and change in the grade.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes, as a result for that Timna, that’s why we adjusted our pricing forecast by $5 a ton. So, you look at 1.5 to 2 points of Fe degradation. So, it’s about $5 to $6 a ton impact. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Michael Gambardella of JPMorgan. Your line is open. Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC: Good morning Joe and congratulations on the strong quarter.
Thanks Mike. Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC: I have a couple of questions. One, on your Great Lakes iron ore market, what do you think the potential is for increased demand for iron ore from the emergence of DRI. We have the plant down in the Louisiana by Nucor. There’s another plant that’s getting funding right now in Ohio, and some others out there. What do you think the potential is for increased demand for iron ore and the Great Lakes for that?
I think as Nucor has led the way, Mike, as you’ve talked about, I think, that strengthened people’s belief in the financial model of the conversions of these DRI grades and I think they’ve stated publicly what the – how much they can lower their cost to go with it. So, given that in mind we’re out talking to a lot of different mills within our area of influence if you will. We’re shipping out of Central Minnesota where the two mines are that we can do with that. I’ll come back with the number, we’re just now doing our marketing study if you will and going to the mills and see it what stage there in with that, but its substantial, I mean we feel at this point in time, our goal would be to offset any losses we may incur and we believe that we can do that in the future if these New York facilities are built. I mean there are about, if I understand them, but the normal module is about a million tons to a 1.5 million tons. Most folks like to have that inside of their gate, so they can get the advantage of the heat value and those cost advantages go well. And there are several potentials that are starting to form up for looking at any gaps we maybe able to cover, if there are any potential losses in our current iron ore business. Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC: Yes, that’s great. Thanks. Another question a lot has been made recently of the transportation costs that you have to go from the Great Lakes through the stand lines out through the Atlantic, I guess somewhere around $30 a ton and you’re doing that and you’re making money on those export sales right now. But the same is true in terms of transportation costs coming from the Atlantic into you market into the Great Lakes. When you look at the exploration of your Great Lakes contracts for iron ore, which are based on formulas that only take in partial consideration to seaborne price, if you were to go to a seaborne price in the Great Lakes today, what would that do to your price, average price for your Great Lakes business?
I don’t have a specific number for your Mike that gives, with that but I think that just as we look forward obviously everybody does their netback offs for [freight] and it’s from there we think we would be very competitive and our pricing when we put our margin side to fend off the competitors would be greater, not lesser as we look at today’s marketplace. So, we think there is a lot of opportunity here on the upside and they are still fending off the (inaudible) on potential products coming into the marketplace as well.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes, you look at low cost of our production at our U.S. iron ore. That’s a great competitive advantage we have, call it mid 60s. The freight differential of $30, so it gives us an opportunity to price appropriately to our customers to protect our…
Unidentified Company Representative
That’s right. Because you know we have a – most of our material is through the Great Lakes and again with very low Great Lake shipping as well. So we have a huge competitive advantage and we would exercise as much of that for increased margin, which we think we could get as well as with the DRI, starting to put pressure on that market. We think the future looks pretty good for us. Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC: And Joe with your Great Lakes costs, cash costs somewhere, 65 to 70, something like that. That’s for pellets, and pellets obviously a price for the premium to the seaborne price that everyone talks about. So, in general, as these contracts in a great lakes expire, even if you were to go to seaborne with a little bit of discount or whatever given the transportation costs that competitors would face to get NPO market from the Atlantic. You would see your prices going up right now as those contracts roll off, everything else being the same in terms of market pricing.
Unidentified Company Representative
It absolutely would, Mike. I mean you got the numbers right, that’s exactly how the math works, prices would go up. Michael Gambardella – JPMorgan Securities LLC: Thanks Joe.
Unidentified Company Representative
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you. Our next question is from Brian Yu with Citi. Your line is open. Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.: : Thanks and good morning. Hey, Joe you admit that the DR grade covered. Can you give us a sense of what the cost, if there’s incremental cost associated with that besides the three point difference in the Fe content?
We’re just not there yet. We ran this trial very successfully. We’ve done a number of bench scale trials with that, but up at North Shore we ran the 30,000 tons if you will, just to start getting the sense of that that we want to do. We will go because we said we will continue to trial bulk samples throughout the year with different flow sheets to see what the effect is on the yields to go with it, but we’re really just not there yet, to throw any number out would be way too soon with that. I think by the time we get into the late summer, into the third quarter, we’re going to have a pretty good handle on which flow sheet we design, how we optimize our cost. Make no mistake, North Shore can make product, and bulk as you saw – as we discussed here, and we will start working on the optimization of the process now to bring the cost in line. But we will report on that when we have a number we can hang our hat on if you will and stand behind. Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.: Got it. Then from a logistical standpoint, would you be able to service new cores facility down in Louisiana, and will it be a combination like we’re embargoed as to keep the cost flow?
I would – logistics, we would always look at the best and cheapest option. Right now, my answer would be yes, we could put products in the new core, I know there’s a lot of – are in the Louisiana are in the south. If you think about it right now, U.S. steel supply was – their products from Central Minnesota into the Fairfield plant have for many, many years. And we supply customers on a continuous basis in Mexico on a real basis with that. So there are customers that compete than the blast furnace markets right now with the same logistics model and I don’t know why this would be any different and we are certainly looking at options on how to optimize the cost down there.
Thank you. Our next question is from Sal Tharani of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Good morning, Joe. Good morning, Terry. Good morning, Jessica.
Good morning Sal. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Wanted to ask you a little bit more on DRI, you mentioned that you have identified two mines. Can you tell us, which one is also beside the North Shore and if North Shore is the only one you going to pursue. Second, what do you think you’re going to need in terms of capital equipment to do that? And lastly this 30,000 ton you’ve produced what changes did you make to get that, and do you think that the equipment you use is sufficient or you will need more equipment and also who has tested this DRI in their steel plant?
So, a lot of questions, and good ones. Thank you for opening that up Sal. The other mine is the UTAC mine that sits in the Central Minnesota as well. We found North Shore at this point in time to be the low capital cost option. It would certainly take some minimal capital to convert the two furnaces that we ran the facility on. North Shore has the ability to have a lot of small furnaces. It’s an older facility. So we can isolate two of the furnaces down there that we ran these trials and test on with that and it’s more of piping and pumping if you will and conveyance of material than it is modifying, putting new mills in and extra grinding and flotation capacity that we would have to do up at UTech, so Northshore right now has a competitive advantage in the two mines from a CapEx standpoint on a preliminary basis where we have just not done enough work yet to know where the operating the OpEx is on those two mines. : On the product side we’ve isolated enough of that product but if someone didn’t want to put in a trial shipment of (inaudible) isolated have a look at it we’ve yet we segregated that stock pile if we don’t sell it then throughout the year we’ll just blended into the rest of the stock pile and settle of this last one of speed. But we are holding that stock pile for a while to see if there is an interest in trial [Congress]. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: And just one more thing is any of the how much volume Northshore has how much you think can be converted into DRI and also is any of this volume committed to some furnaces in the U.S. which you may not be able to change over to DI?
Unidentified Company Representative
No we’ve got enough additional capacity you remember we shut Northshore down several of those furnace lines, the one that we are testing right now, earlier this year when we – the volume was lost to the bankruptcy and that volume left the U.S. as well. So we have that additional capacity right now, if a mill were to start up. But, I think, Sal the way to think about it is really in and for everybody is where, and this is where we want to get, we are way ahead of the curve if you will doing where potential DRI plants to be built. And, I would think for them to go to do their feasibility studies, they want to know that they got a product that's close to market and they can work first before they go forward and build the plant. So it's going to take several years through permitting to build these plants, and I think we are well ahead of the curve if you will by at least a year for our customers to be – to feel very safe and very satisfied that they got a product in place with the right quality they can design into whichever process they would select. But, I think we would have plenty of products to start off with, to start up at least one standard DRI facility. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Great, thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from Jorge Beristain of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.: Good morning, Joe and everybody. My question is just circling back on the Quebec taxation issue, and you mentioned that it may impact your capital decisions there. Could you just quantify if the proposed tax rates, royalties go through as proposed, what kind of a per ton difference that would make in cash flow that's my first question?
Unidentified Company Representative
I think we have that number in total, but again I think in reading the press and talking with the government and everything, you are probably more in tune with it than I am. But, the initial proposal was of 5% gross royalty, and I think you just apply the math using that is what we would do at this point in time in investment decisions, because we don’t have a better guide post, but the government’s proposal at this point in time is 5% on gross revenue. So, that would be difficult and a very difficult taxation regime wherever you compare it across the world at this point in time. So I would use that as the guideline until there is further clarification from the government. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.: And what the decision to move forward on the phase II restart in anyway be contingent on resolving the tax situation in Quebec?
It will certainly be a big proponent of it. I mean, again with all of the uncertainty that is setting around the world with all the other factors no matter what commodity business you’re in that has to be resolved first in my mind before you could make the viable economic decision for the long-term. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.: And then could you also quantify where you are in the process with the Ontario government. You said there has obviously been the change of government. But is this the kind of back to square one in terms of dealing with them on issues of road and energy subsidies or do you think that you’re able to keep a lot of the work that was done under the prior administration, and just trying to getting a sense as to how realistic the chromite project is under the previously stated timelines given the change in the government.
Well, we had a term sheet that we announced with the government, the predecessor in May of 2012. We worked with them very diligently and let me just say and very cooperatively with the government to get the definitive agreement nail down. Just we didn’t get it done on either side prior to the change of government. I think there was a lot of goodwill on both sides to try and get there and we just couldn’t reach that. I think with the new provincial government as cabinet shifts are made and people get settled back into their seat. It’s just a restart from priorities, I think, it’s in no way that we’ve seen at this point in time, a backing away from the term sheet, but it’s getting the definitive agreements in place with the new group of cabinet ministers, if you will. But, I would say both from the first nation’s perspective from [Ontario] government, again we are in negotiation phases, but people want this project to go forward. We just got a lag right now, while the other government gets reorganized, but they seem to have been still very positive on this project, and it’s not a restart, but it’s certainly is a lag in time, and again I don’t have a sense of the time either until the government is ready to reengage once they go through their changes. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.: Thank you. And, thought if I could squeeze one, last one in. Where are you with the excess premiums on the Bloom Lake product? Since start up, you have not been able to really affect those higher percentage Fe premiums. Are you making headway with clients? The market obviously for pellets has come back. Can you talk to that a bit in terms of, is that really 2014, normalization of the extra premiums you should be getting?
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes, I think it will be more of 2014, as we talked about our first goal is to make sure the product introduction is there, are concentrated as we talked about it as a new product particularly in Asia with this high grade type of chemistry, but pioneer to go into the centre blends. It’s taken a lot of work, mutual work between the steel companies, and our technical approach to start introducing these blends with the appropriate ways, so that they can see the value in use. As always you discount when you go into these markets, again we’ve been successful on the product. Technical manuals are being developed as it goes forward, and I think in 2014 once we get our customers diversification in place we can start getting back to the normal premium amounts you would look on Fe above 62%. Jorge Beristain – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.: Great, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Mark Parr of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Hey, good morning guys. It’s Jason Brocious in for Mark Parr.
Unidentified Company Representative
Hey, good morning Jason.
Unidentified Company Representative
Good morning Jason Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: I was just wondering if you could just give few details around the 1% effective tax rate, I think you guys have been typically in the low to mid 20s in the past.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yeah, I think we probably need to step back a little bit, back in February, I think, we didn't really have any guidance on the effective tax rate but we did say on the call that we had a cash tax rate somewhere between 20% to 25%. Reality, we have a couple of permanent tax benefit items are percentage depletion, as well as we have some income that is not taxed in certain foreign jurisdictions that we get a benefit from a rate standpoint. Those stay pretty flat during a period of time, so when we increased our forecast for the additional tons, obviously our pre-tax income is going up. So, the fact is we actually had a planned tax benefit back in February, now we’ve raised that, because our income is going higher, our tax rate is going up to that 1%. So, from a cash tax standpoint, we said 20% to 25%. I think you’re going to have to add a real 5 points to that number to get where our cash tax rate will be now. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Okay. All right. And, I just wanted to clarify in the – I’ll dig into it more on my own but the Quebec mining tax proposal 5% of gross revenue so that’s not going to take into account at all the profitability of the mines being taxed?
Unidentified Company Representative
No, not at the initial proposal, that’s the concerning piece of this. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: And, just on the comments you made about provisional pricing impacting the realizations in Eastern Canada and typically most of that business is priced on the spot. So can you explain where the provisional factor came in?
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes. So what happens is we have different contracts with different customers, but when we load the ships – that’s when we will recognize the revenue, but we have to estimate the time it takes to get to the ports in China, which is when the price gets settled. So, as we are estimating shipments in the fourth quarter when they actually got there and the price was realized we are a little bit conservative in our estimates and realty is that prices came in higher for the quarter and that’s what drove higher pricing there. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Okay. And what’s the typical shipment time from Eastern Canada over to Northern Chinese port.
Yes, it can go anywhere from high 30 to 45, so sometimes perhaps they’re based on when the boat leaves the dock and other contracts that are based on an average of a discharge in China, so that’s where you’re getting the provisional pricing coming into play. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Okay. So in the market like we saw 4Q, I mean, that can be quite a factor.
That’s right. Jason Brocious – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Okay. Yes, that takes care of me. Thank you very much guys.
Unidentified Company Representative
Thanks, bye.
Thank you. Our next question is from Aldo Mazzaferro of Macquarie. Your line is open. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Group Limited: Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thank you. I just have two quick questions to follow-up. On the comment you made about the better (inaudible) demand driving the U.S iron ore. Can you say whether those are minimal customers for DRI or is that integrated producers?
Unidentified Company Representative
It’s all integrated producers. We don’t sell anything into the mini mills at this point in time. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Group Limited: Great. Thanks, and then a question on the tax rate again. I think you just answered a lot of question I had but I guess in simple terms. How do you end up with the $43 million or $46 million deferred tax charge in the cash flow statement if didn’t have any tax accruals in the income statement.
Well, what you have is I think the cash flow has an income. It’s a benefit that’s going through, and that’s why the rate is an accounting. You have a deferred portion of your tax expense, as well as a current portion, but you’re seeing as a cash flow is the deferred portion benefit, which is non-cash. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Group Limited: Great, but those deferred all that’s the benefit I get it $46 million is the deferred benefit.
Yes, yes. So it’s sitting in income, but its non-cash, so it’s a (inaudible). I got cash flow statement. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Group Limited: Okay. Thanks. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from Tony Rizzuto of Cowen Securities. Your line is open. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: Thank you very much. My question, one of my questions is just a follow-up on the Eastern Canada price realization, and it seems that your realization was higher than your guidance seem to imply, and I understand a portion of that is the provisional pricing. So when we look ahead, should we expect that to be more closely in line with the guidance that you guys have put out there.
No, I think that’s those events depends on the volatility on a quarter end, when we’re estimating pricing for those ultimate delivery. So I think it’s just back from circumstances this time through.
Yes, Tony, I think you’ll just get a whole mix of lead and lag.
If you will and you’ve got to put customer mix in there as well and vessel timing that goes in on the shipments, it will move around I say quite a bit. But I don’t think the variation will be off that huge unless there is a huge pricing of that one where the other and vessel timing happens to coincide with it. So that will be difficult want to put your finger on. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: And just also with regard to Eastern Canada. So as you are gaining more traction with customers there, and it sounds like you are – they’re utilizing more of your material and it is a working process initially you break into the market and you’re getting a little bit of a discount there. Even more of that impact, we should begin to see that as more overly the premiums begin to follow in that’s more of a 2014 thing.
Yes, we’re still doing a lot of trials and a lot of test to go with that. Again as I said, it is appropriate for a steel mill, but it just don’t take any product as you would expect and we are targeting some very important customers that are very high class customers if you will, the quality is extremely important to them. This is a very slow if you will, but methodical, technical steps if you go through and it will be a 2014 event as we step through it. But we think its well writhen to get the right customer base diversified. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: Okay. And then just shifting to the U.S. for a second. The sustainability of the first quarter level. Your guidance seems to imply that costs will rise obviously year-on-year the costs were down a little bit. You talked about lower maintenance a little bit, but I’m wondering are you guys seeing some lower cost pressures we’re seeing other mining companies talking about that. Are you seeing this is well and specifically if you are in which areas and I’m got a follow-up on that as well?
Well, I think as a general statement as the heat of the mining business the events slow down as always expected. We do start to seeing some pricing contract or availability becomes more competitive in the space your bidding processes can become more competitive than that. I would say in generally, we’re starting to see a little easing of that those pressures have come with it, but to be specific of were big downside cost reductions have coming. I don’t think there is any that that would pop in the mind or shows up in the line items that we look at in the more detail here. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: Okay.
Yes, and I think and other things for the cost for the quarter is, we are experiencing higher in energy and labor cost, but we also had a couple from a timing standpoint. Couple of major repairs that happened in the first quarter of 2012, and it’s just the timing thing. So, we’re leaving our guidance to $65 to $70, because it’s timing of majors, but the team has done a nice job in really managing their costs in light of the inflationary environment they’re seeing on the energy and labor side. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: Got it. And then generally, my final question. Just to think about your ore grades there at the U.S. operations in the haulage profiles, all that as we think about the remaining quarters in 2013 and going into 2014, 2015. How is that likely be change, any meaningful way?
No, I mean grades are stable. They have been for many years in these mines as they go forward. Of course, as the many mine and spaces advancing over the whole distances get a little longer each year they never get any shorter Tony as they go with it, but nothing dramatic. We’re not opening new pits or new mines or going to new areas that would have a substantial change to haulage distances and effect cost going into 2014. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: Okay. Just overall, I mean, would it be safe to say that your cost guidance is maybe on the side of conservatism, given what we saw on the first quarter and maybe given some of the comments here today, a little bit more sustainable.
Now, if we thought they were we would change our guidance, as I think we’ve always tried to stay transparent with everybody. Again, as we smooth the maintenance curves as we go out in the first quarter. We work very hard at matching cost with revenues as they come in, it’s a slow quarter for us, it’s always with the locks being shut down. And quite frankly too if you don’t have to do a lot of those maintenance in the first quarter with the weather and the severe temperatures we’ve seen this year, everybody is just that much more productive. So, now we would maintain our guidance. Tony Rizzuto – Cowen Securities LLC: All right. Got it. Thank you very much. Joseph A. Carrabba: Thank you, Tony.
Ashley, we’ll take one more caller.
Thank you. Our last question is from Steve Bristo of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Steve Bristo – RBC Capital Markets: Yes, thanks and congrats on the strong quarter. I just had a question on preferred dividends. I saw that you had some preferred dividends coming through the income statement, but on the mandatory converts you weren’t supposed to have a dividend until May 1. I’m just wondering what that dividend represents and where we show up in the cash flow.
Unidentified Company Representative
It’s accrued in the balance sheet, because from the calculation for an EPS standpoint we have to accrue for that and back that out to calculate net income available to common shareholders of Cliffs. So, it’s accrued, it hasn’t been paid, but sitting in the accrued liability. Steve Bristo – RBC Capital Markets: Okay. And then, why was the declared dividend of $0.34 less than the 7%?
Because we raised the equity in the middle of the quarter and February 21 was the close date.
Unidentified Company Representative
Per rated.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes. Steve Bristo – RBC Capital Markets: So that declaration is in for the entire second quarter that’s just for the first quarter portion.
Unidentified Company Representative
Yes. Steve Bristo – RBC Capital Markets: Okay. All right. Perfect.
Okay. Thanks everyone for joining us for today’s call. I’ll be available for the rest of the day. If you have any further questions. Thank you.
Unidentified Company Representative
Thank you all very much.
Unidentified Company Representative
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This concludes today’s program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.