Q4 2024 Algoma Steel Group Inc Earnings Call

Participants

Michael Moraca; Treasurer and Investor Relations Officer; Algoma Steel Group Inc

Michael Garcia; Chief Executive Officer, Director; Algoma Steel Group Inc

Rajat Marwah; Chief Financial Officer; Algoma Steel Group Inc

David Ocampo; Analyst; Cormark Securities Inc

Ian Gillies; Analyst; Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc

Katja Jancic; Analyst; BMO Capital Markets Equity Research

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to Algoma Steel Group, Inc., full year fiscal 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)
Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Moraca, Treasurer, Investor Relations Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Michael Moraca

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Algoma Steel Group, Inc., full year fiscal 2024 earnings conference call. Leading today's call are Michael Garcia, our Chief Executive Officer, and Rajat Marwah, our Chief Financial Officer.
As a reminder, this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay later today in the Investors section of Algoma steel's; corporate website at www.algoma.com. I would like to remind you that comments made on today's call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which involve assumptions and inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from statements made today.
In addition, our financial statements are prepared in accordance with IFRS, which differs from US GAAP. And our discussion today includes references to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Last evening, we posted an earnings presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks. The slides for today's call can be found in the Investors section of our corporate website.
With that in mind, I would ask everyone on today's call to read the legal disclaimers on Slide 2 of the accompanying earnings presentation and also refer to the risks and assumptions outlined in Algoma Steel's fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 management's discussion and analysis.
Please note that our financial statements are prepared using the US dollar as our functional currency and the Canadian dollar as our presentation currency. Our fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31, and our statements have been prepared for the years ended March 31, 2024 and March 31, 2023.
Please note all amounts referred to on today's call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Following our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Michael Garcia.
Mike?

Michael Garcia

Thank you, Mike. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2024 results, ensuring the safety of our employees is a core value and top priority for our company. This unwavering commitment led to significant improvements in our lost time injury performance during fiscal 2024.
As our site continues to be a hub of activity, especially with the increasing contractor involvement in our EAF project, emphasizing safety more crucial than ever. We are pleased to announce the addition of Erin Oliver, as our new Vice President of health and safety. This is a new position on our leadership team reporting directly to myself.
Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Erin brings a wealth of experience and a strong background in fostering health and safety initiatives across Canada. For expertise will be instrumental in our pursuit of zero workplace injuries.
Next, I'll cover key events and milestones during our fiscal fourth quarter and subsequent to its end, as well as give an update on progress at our transformational PAF projects. I will then turn the call over to Rajat, for a deeper dive into the numbers and a discussion of our strong liquidity and balance sheet. Before closing, with an update on market conditions.
There are a few important themes I would like to get across on this call. Our results for the quarter were adversely impacted by previously disclosed operational challenges related to the cokemaking utility structure collapse and subsequent blast furnace outage in January, which was resolved and resulted in approximately 150,000 tons of lost production.
Subsequent to the quarter end, we completed our planned upgrade related to the Plate mill modernization project. The upgrades to the mill are now substantially complete and production from the Plate mill is already running as expected, with operations and commercial teams focused on increasing production and sales of Plate products.
Our primary operations are running normally following recovery from utilities corridor collapse and completion of the Plate mill work which we expect will result in sequentially higher shipments in fiscal Q1 of 2025 and further improvement in the quarters ahead.
And finally, our long-term strategy remains unchanged. And on track to successfully execute our electric-arc -furnace project and transition to being one of the leading producers of Green Steel in North America.
Now, let me give you some additional color on those key themes. Our results for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024, were in line with our previously disclosed guidance for both shipments and adjusted EBITDA. They reflected approximately three weeks of lost production related to the utility's quarter collapse at our cokemaking facility and related blast furnace outage.
That outage highlighted the challenges of operating facilities that in some cases are over 70 years old, but also put on full display, the professionalism and expertise of our workforce and their ability to rapidly recover from that incident.
But also highlights the benefits we expect to realize as we shift from legacy blast furnace steelmaking to state-of-the-arc, electric-arc-furnace operations starting next year. Somewhat offsetting the lost production in the quarter was higher pricing. Due to the lagging nature of our order book realized pricing in the quarter reflected higher index pricing from the end of calendar year 2023, flowing through our contract order book.
Subsequent to quarter end, we successfully completed the planned outage related to the modernization of our Plate Mill. Our team successfully installed new equipment across the facility, which has achieved enhanced product quality and pave the way for higher Plate shipments, despite the facility being offline for three weeks, our Plate production in the fiscal first quarter of 2025 is expected to be approximately 65,000 tons.
That would be in line with past quarters that had no maintenance outage and indicative of the higher run rate we expect going forward. On a very positive note, the team was able to accelerate additional work during the outage and the vast majority of the modernization project at the facility is now substantially complete.
We expect any remaining items to be addressed with other planned maintenance activities over the coming year, providing significant efficiencies on downtime. What does that mean for performance? In the upcoming quarter, we expect Plate Mill production to reach approximately 90,000 tons. Our operations and commercial teams are focused on ramping up production and sales of Plate products over the balance of the fiscal year, putting us on a path towards our expected annual run rate capacity of over 650,000 net tons.
As previously announced, we have begun our exit from the wide coil market, which will be completed over the balance of the fiscal year. This strategic shift will allow us to prioritize Plate production and sales, taking advantage of our position as Canada's only discrete producer of Plate products resulting in a more favorable product mix that is expected to drive meaningful margin enhancement with the blast furnace recovered from the unplanned outage in the quarter. And the Plate mill upgrade complete, our operations are running normally, and we expect solid production levels in the second half of calendar 2024.
Next, I'll give an update on our progress during the quarter on our transformational electric-arc-furnace or EAF project. The EAFs will ultimately increase our throughput capacity by roughly a third, allowing us to reach a shipping capacity of approximately 3 million tons. Utilizing our two state-of-the-art electric arc furnaces. Higher output will match our expanded downstream finishing capacity, including increased capacity at our modernized Plate Mill.
Transitioning to EAF steelmaking will improve overall product mix and lower our carbon emissions by approximately 70% when fully operational, when factoring in the makeup of our power supply, when we switch to EAF operations. We expect to be one of the greenest producers of steel in North America.
During the quarter, cumulative investment in the EAF project reached $563 million to date, we have committed contracts totaling approximately $800 million with approximately 93% by the fixed price contracts. Progress to date on both the construction of the project and the contracted portion of work yet to be completed has significantly derisked the project budget as we progress towards the expected start of commissioning in late calendar 2024.
As a reminder, our startup plan continues to include normal production from our existing steelmaking facility while ramping up steel production from our EAF in calendar 2025, followed by a complete switch to EAF production.
In summary, the quarter was a challenging one operationally and market conditions the last several weeks have shown near term softness, but we are focused on what we can control operating our existing facilities safely, completing the important upgrades at our Plate Mill and advancing the EAF project on schedule and on budget.
I'd like to once again thank all of our employees for their hard work, dedication and professionalism, particularly their ability to rapidly and safely bring our facilities back to normal production levels during a challenging period.
Now, I will pass the call over to Rajat, to go over our financial results for the quarter.
Rajat?

Rajat Marwah

Thanks, Mike. Good morning and thank you all for joining the call. As a reminder, all numbers are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.
Our fourth-quarter results included adjusted EBITDA of $41.5 million, which reflects an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.7% and cash generated from operating activities of one $21.2 million. We finished the quarter with a strong balance sheet, including $98 million of cash and availability of $347 million under our revolving credit facility.
Subsequent to the quarter end, we raised USD350 million in the form of high-yield bonds bearing interest at 9.125%. Mike, provided details earlier on the cokemaking corridor collapse. From a financial perspective, we estimate the resultant outage negatively impacted hot metal production in the quarter by approximately 150,000 tons and reduced adjusted EBITDA by approximately $120 million to $130 million.
We have been working closely with our insurance providers and adjusters as they complete their assessments. While we do expect to recover a significant amount of the losses, the amount and timing of these recoveries are still to be determined.
Now, let me dive into the key drivers of our performance. We shipped 451,000 tons in the quarter, down 21.1% versus the prior year quarter. The decrease in shipments were largely attributable to the utility corridor collapse at our cokemaking facility that resulted in the shutdown of a blast furnace that Mike previously discussed.
This was offset somewhat by producing and shipping some product from available inventories of slabs and finished goods. Net sales realization average $1,260 per ton, up 18.2% versus the prior year period. The increase versus the prior year level reflects the lagging effect of our order book and the strong pricing around the ending calendar year.
Plate pricing continued to enjoy a significant premium relative to hot-rolled coil during the quarter, driven by resilient demand. This resulted in steel revenue of $568 million in the quarter, down 6.7% versus the prior year period.
On the cost side, Algoma cost per tonne of steel products sold average $1,182 in the quarter, up 21% versus the prior year period. The main drivers of the increase versus the prior year period include lower volumes, the cost of replacing internally produce coke with purchase coke and high natural gas.
Cash flow from operations totaled $121 million for the quarter, up from $95 million in the prior year period. The main driver of cash flow in the quarter was a net change in non-cash working capital. Inventories at fiscal year end was $808 million, down from $886 million at the end of the fiscal third quarter.
Looking at our fiscal 2024 full year results. We shipped 2.1 million tons for the year, up 4.1% as compared to the prior year. Net sales realization averaged $1,220 per ton, down 4.1% versus the prior year, reflective of soft market conditions on average across the fiscal year.
This resulted in steel revenue of $2.5 billion, relatively flat year-over-year. On the cost side, Algoma's cost of steel products sold average $1,018 per ton for the year, an increase of 1.5% for the prior year. The main drivers of this increase were higher purchase coke use, higher natural gas use and labor costs, which more than offset the higher shipments.
Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $313 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.2% compared to adjusted EBITDA of $452 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.3% in fiscal 2023. The decrease was primarily attributable to lower price realizations and higher costs, which more than offset higher shipments.
Cash flow from operating activities for fiscal 2024 was to $295 million, up from $177 million in fiscal 2023. The increase year over year was primarily due to the net change in noncash working capital, partially offset by the decrease in operating income. Working capital decrease from $875 million at the end of fiscal 2023 to $830 million at the end of fiscal 2024.
We initially expected to release a higher amount of working capital during the period. However, as I mentioned on the last call, the release lower amounts on account of the unplanned outage in the quarter. We remain focused on driving down working capital levels and continue to expect a release of at least $100 million in fiscal 2025.
Now, I'll touch on the financing activity. We completed in early April, our indirect wholly owned subsidiary, ASI issued and aggregate USD350 million of 9.125% senior secured second lien notes during April 2029. This move enhance the strength and flexibility of our balance sheet. The successful issuance reflects the positive view that credit investors have of our company and their confidence in our strategic direction and financial stability.
All told the cash on hand undrawn capacity available on our ABL revolver at fiscal year end plus the additions of the proceeds from the issuance of these notes represents over $900 million of liquidity.
Now, turning to our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Based on our operations to date in the quarter, our order book and our expectations for shipments for the end of the month, we expect to deliver solid fiscal first quarter adjusted EBITDA in a range of $30 million to $40 million and total shipments of steel of 500 to 510,000 tons.
I'd now like to turn the call back over to our CEO, Michael Garcia, for closing comments.
Mike?

Michael Garcia

Looking at the state of the North American steel market, prices have been volatile year to date since the beginning of January, index pricing for US Midwest domestic hot-rolled coil have fallen approximately USD400 per ton. Current market weakness reflects ample spot supply, short lead times, economic uncertainty and buyers being cautious into the seasonally slower summer buying season.
As I said previously, we are focused on what we can control operating our facilities safely to best capture market opportunities as they arise. Our results are supported by the fact that Plate pricing continues to demonstrate a significant premium as overall demand for Plate products remains high. This in turn continues to benefit our average price realizations, especially as we see higher production levels from the Plate Mill following the most recent planned outage and upgrade.
The next several quarters represent an exciting time in the story of Algoma as we continue to execute work towards the start of commissioning of our transformative EAF project by year end. This will usher in the next phase of our company that defines the future of Algoma provides the foundation for long-term value creation for our stakeholders and solidifies our leadership position at the forefront of Green Steel production in North America.
Thank you very much for your continued interest in Algoma Steel. At this point, we would be happy to take your questions. Operator, please give the instructions for the Q&A session.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

( Operator Instructions) David Ocampo, Cormark Securities.

David Ocampo

Thanks for taking my questions, everyone. I guess my first one is just on shipments for the June quarter. I mean that's running below the normal run rate, even though Plate shipments seem pretty solid at 65,000 tons. Just curious what the lower volumes are attributed to?
Is it is it mainly just weaker industry conditions or is there some other factors that are contributing to that?

Rajat Marwah

You're absolutely right. That's a touch lower. But normally, when we take such kind of outages, which is the 20-day outage that we took for the Plate Mill and the ramp up, we normally lose around 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes, both from the Plate Mill as well as the Strip Mill attached to it.
So normally, our shipments should be below 500, but the Plate Mill really came back solid after the outage and and recovered some of that losses. So we will be in the [500 to 510] range. But the main the main reason for that is the outage that we took, which you know it's normally 20 days and the ramp-up takes little bit longer.

David Ocampo

Let me maybe for you as well, just on the CapEx in the quarter, I think it was close to $120 million and $50 of that one to the EAF. Curious what the other $70 million was attributable to that some of that CapEx leak into the coke ovens that you guys had to do repair?

Rajat Marwah

Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's the CapEx that's related to the coke oven and some of the blast furnace issues. It's all because of the coke oven collapse, the utility corridor, and we are discussing with the insurance providers on that aspect as well. So which will be recovered once it's settled. And it will probably come into the following quarter -- following year, this year 2025 fiscal.

David Ocampo

Okay. So the CapEx potential recovery from insurance providers, that's on top of the $120 million to $130 million of lost EBITDA that you guys are trying to call back?

Rajat Marwah

That's correct.

David Ocampo

And then just a last one for me. Before I hand the call over, I mean, you guys are nearing the completion of your EAF projects. Just curious when we think about the range of outcomes for the total costs, what are the risks that are still out there that would push you guys above the top end of your guidance.
And then on the flip side, what would cause you guys to coming closer to that $825 number, just given that the $800 million does appear to be locked in contract prices already?

Michael Garcia

Hi, David, this is Mike. Really, we've substantially derisked the project in terms of schedule and budget given where we're sitting right now. There's always risk around weather delays, any labor disruptions. We don't we don't see any of those right now that we are concerned about a small probably under 8% of the work is being done on time and materials.
So there would theoretically be a risk that the time of materials exceeds via the placeholders we have in there right now. Our assumptions of where they'll come in. But again, that's less than 10% of the of our intended a total spend. So we don't see that as a significant risk.
On the flip side in terms of potential for bringing it in under that range between $825 and $875, again, because most of the work is contracted, there's not a lot of upside to be captured. And there there could be some efficiencies that we identify that would allow us to gain a little bit on some of the time of material work.
And then we have a handful of contracts still to award on the remaining scope of work. There's probably only two contracts of moderate to significant size. One being the material handling system. and the second one being the fire protection system. So the team is spending a lot of time working with the contractor base to give them the right engineering package to be able to to bid on both those pieces of work, we feel good about where they're going to come in. But again, we won't know until the actual contracts are awarded, does that help?

David Ocampo

Yes, I guess those two pieces of contracts that are left to be awarded, is that $25 million or $50 million or what's the order of magnitude that needs to be contracted still.

Michael Garcia

And I don't have a number for you right now. I can talk to the team and maybe get something for you.

David Ocampo

Okay, that's helpful. I'll hand the call over.

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Ian Giles, Stifel.

Ian Gillies

Could you as we get closer to the start-up of the EAF. Could you is there any update you can provide around the scrap strategy and where you think you're at on that front as it could be a potential pinch points?

Michael Garcia

Sure. So as we've shared before, our methodology or mechanism for sourcing scrap for the EAFs will be through our joint venture that we formed at the beginning of this project with triple and metals, that joint venture has been operationalized. It's staffed the members of Triple M or ATM Algoma, Triple M is the name of the venture, they've been out in the market discussing with future and current scrap suppliers that will be buying from, so they spent a lot of work in the market.
We know who will be buying scrap from. We know how we'll be moving it to Sault Ste. Marie, we spent a lot of time on the supply chain, making sure we have efficient logistics on rail, truck and across the Great Lakes. The joint venture is currently buying scrap for our ongoing operations. It's not near the magnitude of the scrap will be buying in the future, but we do buy scrap for our basic oxygen furnace steelmaking shop right now.
So we feel good about understood understanding the scrap market who will be buying from, but again, we won't be buying those large quantities, still a further down the ramp-up curve in the latter half of calendar year 2025. So it's hard to predict exactly what the market will look like or feel like at that time.

Ian Gillies

Okay. That's helpful.
On the on the Plate side, the ramps obviously can be pretty material over the next call it four to six quarters. Can you talk a little bit more about how your commercial team is capturing market share and tends to cap or capture market share there? Because the input price has been quite weak in recent weeks?

Michael Garcia

Sure. So the whole team is really delighted about our Plate offering now, we've made substantial improvements in surface quality and flatness and dimensional tolerance with the improvements we've made in the Plate Mill, over the last two years, we have made substantial improvement in the delivery performance of our Plate over the last 18 months or so.
And I think with those two combinations, the commercial team has a stronger selling proposition to our current and potential Plate Mill customers. We actually had a a grand opening of our Plate Mill modernization here in Sioux City reared earlier this week and we are we had around 25 Plate customers here in the mill.
We toured them through the new facility. They got to meet the crews, they got to see the products, they got to see the new our assets in place and running. And so from this point. It's having those one-on-one conversations with our Plate customer base and potential Plate customer, some of them who were frankly, historical customers have Plate in the past and for whatever reason, we haven't had a big position with over the last five or 10 years.
So it's that type of selling, understanding that the customer needs, understanding what the customer wants and how they win in their marketplace and with their customers and just doing the type of work with the customers to either grow our share of wallet with existing customers or establish a position with customers where we aren't yet established.

Ian Gillies

Okay. That's helpful. With that, I'll turn it back over.

Operator

Katja Jancic, BMO Capital Markets.

Katja Jancic

Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe starting off on the CapEx for fiscal year '25, can you provide an update what the total expected CapEx is going to be?

Rajat Marwah

So a normal maintenance CapEx as usual, will be in the range of $100 million to $120 million, probably on the on the higher end considering where the legacy assets are. Our RAF, CapEx should be roughly $250 million to $270 million for the for the fiscal 2025, and this is all without any recovery from the government. And I think those stores will be the two substantial ones that that you will see in the fiscal 2025.

Katja Jancic

Is there still an incremental from the coke ovens that's going to spill into?

Rajat Marwah

There will be incremental on the coke oven related, but all of that will be offset by by the recovery that we'll see during the year and some more to offset the the ones that we have spent in this year. So that should offset each other once we finalize, but those things are yet to be finalized.
The amount that probably will be spending will be in the [$30 odd million] range, $30 to $40 on the coke side during the year. So if no recovery happens. That is what in addition you'll see for the, but the discussions with the insurers are going on on that side.

Katja Jancic

Okay. And then maybe on the volume side, currently, what is the normalized volume you're seeing per quarter you can reach in a more normalized environment?

Rajat Marwah

We've always said [550] is the normal that we will reach and that's what we benchmark against and that should start improving once the unit stabilizes. And again, that's all considering where are primary operations are, so that's that's what we feel as a more normal over the next couple of quarters.
And as we as I said, as we stabilize the year, we will start seeing the increase happening.

Katja Jancic

Maybe on that, how quickly do you think you can ramp up the EAF or how quickly can it stabilize?

Michael Garcia

So the EAF will begin producing on the first EAF steel in the first calendar quarter of 2025. Commissioning is actually going to start before the end of this year, but we don't expect to be striking an arc and making heat until the first calendar quarter of 2025.
Like all start-ups, it will. It will be deliberate and a lot of work for the startup team, but we have all the crews identified. We have training going on. We have a production plan and we expect to see volume on those EAFs ramp up through the balance of 2025, but and we'll share that at the appropriate time.
But frankly, it's we're we're not we're cautious of over committing or overstretching on exactly how much metal we'll be making out of those EAF especially in the first half of 2025. And that's why we plan to continue to run our current steelmaking assets and flow path at full production as we move into 2025 and through the balance of that year.

Katja Jancic

Okay. So just to confirm, during the startup basically the blast furnace will operate as usual or as normal. So it should be reaching normal production levels. In other words, [550], let's say per quarter?

Michael Garcia

We don't want to take a large any dip in quarterly shipments during that startup year because it's a start-up year.

Katja Jancic

And then maybe just one more, if I may, Mike, I think you said this quarter or in the first quarter. The Plate production is about 65,000 tonnes and did I understand correctly next quarter if you are to 90?

Michael Garcia

Correct.

Katja Jancic

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions, I would like to turn the conference back over to Management for closing remarks.

Michael Moraca

Yes, thank you again for your participation, our full year fiscal 2024 earnings conference call and your continued interest in Algoma Steel. We look forward to updating you on our results and progress when we report our fiscal first quarter results scheduled for August. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.