SunCoke Energy Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Full-Year EBITDA Guidance Reaffirmed Amid Operational Recovery

Nick, Conference Operator: Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sharon Doyle, IR Manager. Please go ahead.

Sharon Doyle, Investor Relations Manager, SunCoke Energy: Thanks, Nick. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss SunCoke Energy’s first quarter 2026 results. With me today are Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This conference call is being webcast live on the investor relations section of our website, and a replay will be available later today. Following management’s prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. If we do not get to your questions on the call today, please feel free to reach out to our investor relations team. Before I turn things over to Katherine, let me remind you that the various remarks we make on today’s call regarding future expectations constitute forward-looking statements. The cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in our SEC filings apply to the remarks we make today.

These documents are available on our website as are reconciliations to non-GAAP financial measures discussed on today’s call. With that, I’ll now turn things over to Katherine.

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thanks, Sharon. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today’s call. This morning, we announced SunCoke Energy’s first quarter results. I wanna share a few highlights before turning it over to Shantanu to discuss the results in detail. We’re pleased with our performance in the first quarter, delivering consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $56.5 million, reflecting strong operational execution. Our industrial services business performed well during the quarter with sequential improvement in terminals handling volumes and with Phoenix performing to our expectations. As discussed on our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call, our coke plants were impacted by severe winter weather and the Middletown turbine failure. Earlier today, we also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share payable to shareholders on June 2, 2026. This is our 27th consecutive quarter announcing a dividend.

While the dividend is evaluated on a quarterly basis by our board, we expect the dividend to continue as part of our well-balanced capital allocation strategy. We had strong operating cash flow generation of $72.7 million and ended the quarter with ample liquidity of $262 million. As previously discussed, we are running at full capacity and sold out for the full year. With the continued seamless integration of Phoenix, the resumption of power production at Middletown, and continued strong operational execution, we are confident we will achieve full year 2026 consolidated Adjusted EBITDA within our guidance range of $230 million-$250 million. With that, I’ll turn it over to Shantanu to review our first quarter earnings in detail. Shantanu?

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thanks, Katherine. Turning to slide 4. Net loss attributable to SunCoke was $0.05 per share in the first quarter of 2026, down $0.25 versus the prior year period. The decrease was primarily driven by higher depreciation expense, the shutdown of our Haverhill One coke-making facility, severe winter weather, and the lower power sales due to Middletown turbine failure, partially offset by lower income tax expense. Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2026 was $56.5 million compared to $59.8 million in the prior year period. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by the impact of severe winter weather on our coke operations, lower power sales from the Middletown turbine failure, and the shutdown of Haverhill One, mostly offset by the addition of Phoenix. Moving to slide 5 to discuss our domestic coke business performance in detail.

First quarter domestic coke Adjusted EBITDA was $35.3 million, and coke sales volumes were 842,000 tons compared to $49.9 million and 898,000 tons in the prior year period. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by severe winter weather impacting our operations, lower power sales due to the turbine failure at Middletown, and lower coke sales volume due to the Haverhill One shutdown. While we experienced a slow start to the year, we are already seeing improvement in our coke operations in the second quarter with more favorable weather conditions. We are confident we’ll make up the lost production from the first quarter during the balance of the year. Additionally, we are expecting power production to resume at Middletown late in the second quarter.

We are reaffirming our full-year domestic coke Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $162 million-$168 million. Moving on to slide 6 to discuss our industrial services results. Our industrial services segment generated $26.2 million of Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $13.7 million in the prior year period. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by the addition of Phoenix results, partially offset by a change in mix of products handled at the terminals. First quarter total terminal handling volumes were 5.6 million tons, representing a substantial improvement versus the fourth quarter of 2025. Steel customer volumes serviced were 5.6 million tons in the first quarter.

We expect our industrial services segment to continue delivering strong results throughout the balance of the year and are reaffirming our full year 2026 industrial services Adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $90 million-$100 million. Turning to slide 7 to discuss our liquidity position for Q1. SunCoke ended the first quarter with a cash balance of $104.4 million and revolver availability of $158 million, representing ample liquidity of $262 million. We generated strong operating cash flow of $72.7 million during the quarter, mainly driven by a reduction in coal and coke inventory, and used $26 million for debt paydown. We spent $17 million on CapEx and paid $10.7 million in dividends at the rate of $0.12 per share this quarter.

SunCoke has a strong track record of generating steady free cash flow. We expect the trend to continue throughout the year. As Katherine mentioned earlier, we intend to continue utilizing our free cash flow to pay down debt as well as to reward our long-term shareholders via dividends, which is reviewed and approved on a quarterly basis by our board of directors. With that, I’ll turn it back over to Katherine.

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thanks, Shantanu. Wrapping up on slide 8. As always, safety is our first priority. Our excellent safety performance in 2025 has continued into the beginning of 2026, and the team remains committed to maintaining strong safety and environmental performance throughout the year. Robust safety and environmental standards set SunCoke apart and are central to our reliable delivery of high-quality coke and industrial services. We continue to be confident in our operations for 2026 with our profitable long-term coke business underpinned by the 3 pillars of Indiana Harbor, Middletown, and Jewell Foundry, which have consistently delivered excellent performance and results. With our Haverhill 2 and Granite City cokemaking contracts extended and all spot blast and foundry coke sales finalized, we’re sold out for the full year. We also maintain a positive outlook for our industrial services segment.

2026 will benefit from a full year of Phoenix Adjusted EBITDA contribution and improvement in market conditions at our terminals. Our efforts will continue on the seamless integration of Phoenix, maintaining the strength of our core businesses, as well as assessing new growth opportunities across all of our businesses. As always, we take a balanced yet opportunistic approach to capital allocation. On the back of our steady and healthy cash flow generation, our focus will remain on utilizing our free cash flow to support our capital allocation priorities. We will use excess cash to continue paying down our revolver balance with the goal of gross leverage below 3 times by the end of 2026 and beyond. We also plan to continue returning capital via the quarterly dividend as approved by our board, which has always been well-received by our long-term shareholders.

We continuously evaluate the capital needs of the business, our capital structure, and the need to reward our shareholders, will make capital allocation decisions accordingly. We are committed to maximizing value for all of our stakeholders, which means operating and investing in our assets in the best and most efficient way possible. Overall, we see the strong fundamentals of our business and expect our 2026 results to be reflective of that. We are confident that we’ll be able to deliver full-year consolidated Adjusted EBITDA within our guidance range of $230 million-$250 million. With that, let’s go ahead and open up the call for Q&A.

Nick, Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star and then 2. At this time, we’ll pause for a moment to assemble the roster. The first question will come from Nathan Martin with The Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. Just to start out, within the domestic coke segment, adjusted EBIT per ton, I guess roughly $42, obviously below the $48-$50 per ton full year guidance that you guys just reiterated. What was the main driver or drivers there? You know, how much of that was lower power sales, maybe at Middletown? You know, can you guys help us bridge kind of that full year range as we move throughout the rest of the year? Thanks.

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Yeah. Nate, I mean, as we mentioned, you know, the two main factors of us performing, you know, lower versus kind of our full year guidance is the winter weather impact to our operations and the Middletown turbine impact, right? They were both very comparable, right? If you recall, when we were in the Q4 2025 earnings call, we talked about that this quarter is roughly $10 million off versus kind of the run rate. I think that still holds through from that perspective. You know, looking forward, as we mentioned, the Middletown turbine is expected to be back in late Q2, you will see that impact through majority of Q2 with no power production there.

We should be able to make that back up in Q3 and Q4. You should see a much, you know, significant improvement in Q3 and Q4 as the power production comes back up.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Appreciate that, Shantanu. Is it fair to consider the Middletown impact in 2Q could be roughly half of that $10 million, so maybe $5 million headwind or so in the second quarter?

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: That’s kind of in the ballpark, yes.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Okay, great. Appreciate that. Maybe shifting to the industrial segments. Looks like revenues are flat to actually slightly down quarter-over-quarter. However, Adjusted EBITDA was actually up about $3.5 million. Are there any cost savings or efficiency gains there we should think about driving this? I know you guys previously called out potential opportunities to improve things within Phoenix or maybe it’s related to the improvements on the terminal side. Just any additional color would be helpful there. Thanks.

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Yeah. On the terminal side, you know, as we lined out, you know, you’re comparing Q4 2025 to Q1 2026, right?

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Right.

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: We are seeing, you know, significant improvement in the volumes that we are handling in terminals when we expect the market environment to continue and to continue to improve for the rest of the year. We are, you know, very hopeful and our plan reflects that, the terminals will continue to improve and do well through the rest of the year. There is improvement coming from that. On the Phoenix side, obviously, right, like this is our second full quarter of running Phoenix under the SunCoke umbrella. As we go through the remainder of 2026, we expect to see some more of those synergies come through. There are some of the drag costs, right?

Like we are implementing, you know, kind of the software, kinda merging them together. There is some drag cost of that. As you get through rest of the 2026, you should see some cost, improvement in Phoenix, and that is built in to our guidance for industrial segment.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Okay. Got it. Then those costs, just jumping to SG&A for a second, was that kind of behind the increase there in the quarter? Was that the, you know, the IT and the bonus expense items maybe you previously mentioned as well, and how should we think about SG&A kind of going forward?

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: No. You know, in 2025, you know, the, the accrual for the bonuses are different for ’25 versus 2026 given the performance of the company, and that is the main driver of the difference in SG&A.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Should we expect it to kind of repeat at that level, Shantanu, or will it kind of come back down a little bit from the first quarter?

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: The Q1 2026 should be the run rate for the rest of the year.

Nathan Martin, Analyst, The Benchmark Company: Okay. Got it. I’ll leave it there. Jump back in the queue. Appreciate the time.

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thanks, Nate.

Nick, Conference Operator: The next question will come from Henry Herr with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Henry Herr, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Thank you, operator, good morning, everyone. To start off, I wanted to ask to what extent could your logistics terminals be a beneficiary of the Section 303 DPA determination on the coal supply chains and export terminals? Could you guys pursue potential DoD funding as well? Thanks.

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: Yeah. Thanks for your question. I think as we look ahead, we really, we see the market, as Shantanu said, improving, you know, throughout the year, and we’ve already seen that quarter-over-quarter. I don’t think that those are gonna be drivers to additional throughput necessarily. I mean, I think we’ll have to see. When we give our guidance with respect to industrial services and with respect to the performance of the terminal specifically, we really are looking at market conditions. As we look back in time, there’s been, you know, various regulatory initiatives over time. At the end of the day, it really seems driven by, you know, demand primarily internationally for coal.

Henry Herr, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Got it. Thank you. Then are you guys able to share specifically what % or what share of the volumes at CMT are thermal export tons?

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Going forward, you know, we like since it’s one segment, the industrial services, we are not kind of breaking out. We are giving one number for our terminals and one number for like the Phoenix business, the steel customer volumes serviced. You know, if you go back and look at historical data where we used to break out, the ratio should remain the same. That should kind of give you a good guidance on what those numbers are.

Henry Herr, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Got it. Thank you. Given the conflict in the Middle East over the past couple months, have you seen a kinda sizable increase in those export thermal tons? Would that be fair to say?

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: It’s a good question. We are seeing certainly some higher pricing in the market. That is leading to higher demand and that is part of how we, you know, look at the market as getting stronger as we move forward throughout the year. We don’t see any signs of that weakening. We’ve seen higher demand due to the higher prices. Yes, there’s definitely sort of a flow-through from that conflict and the focus on coal in light of the challenges that we’re seeing on the oil and gas side.

Henry Herr, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Got it. Thanks for the time, guys, and continued best of luck.

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thank you.

Shantanu Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thank you.

Nick, Conference Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Katherine Gates for any closing remarks.

Katherine Gates, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunCoke Energy: Thank you all again for joining us this morning and for your continued interest in SunCoke. Let’s continue to work safely today and every day.

Nick, Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.