Peabody chairman and chief executive Irl Engelhardt said the fourth successive quarterly increase was achieved despite a recession, mild winter weather and recent disruption in the energy trading markets.
"Management anticipates a much stronger 2002, driven by improved pricing and the benefit of new mines that will come online in the second half of the year to serve long-term contracts," Engelhardt said.
Revenues for the quarter rose 23% to US$687.2 million, while nine-month revenues increased 15% to US$2.03 billion on the back of strong coal markets over the past year.
Peabody, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in late May, reported results for the quarter and nine-months period following a fiscal year that ended March 31. It changed to a calendar-year reporting basis on January 1.
The world's largest private-sector coal company, Peabody's sales volumes rose to an industry record 176 million tonnes for calendar 2001, 10% higher than the year before. It estimated total US industry coal shipments in 2001 also set a new record, 10% up on the previous year at 1.02 billion tonnes.
US coal production was bolstered by reduced hydroelectricity generation and increases in customer coal stockpiles from 36-38 days at the beginning of the year to 48-50 days by year end.
Peabody said it has sales commitments in place for 93% of its anticipated 2002 production, with about 75% of the uncommitted output to be delivered during the second half of the year.
It expects 2002 production to total about 177Mt and total sales to approach 19Mt, with average pricing increases for the entire year. It is forecasting revenue improvements during the last six months 5% higher than the first half.
For the quarter ended March 31, management is targeting EBITDA of US$110-120 million, a 20-30% year-on-year improvement. For the full year it is forecasting US$475-500 million and earnings per share of US$1.60-2.00.
