Earnings Labs

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 24, 2014

$10.22

-0.24%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+7.05%

1 Week

+16.10%

1 Month

+6.05%

vs S&P

+5.27%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michelle, and I am your conference facilitator today. I would like to welcome everyone to Cliffs Natural Resources 2014 Second Quarter Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to introduce Jessica Moran, Director, Investor Relations. Ms. Moran, kindly proceed.

Jessica Moran

Management

Thanks, Michelle. I'd 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 protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 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 presentation, which is posted on our website at cliffsnaturalresources.com. Joining me today are President and Chief Executive Officer, Gary Halverson; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Terry Paradie; and Executive Vice President-External Affairs and President-Global Commercial, Kelly Tompkins. At this time, I’ll turn the call over to Gary to discuss our second quarter's results.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jess. Thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. The second quarter's results were solid. Year-over-year CapEx was down over $200 million. Costs were lower in every segment. And liquidity is up 20%. All while we experienced significant pricing pressure and the residual effects of first quarter's unprecedented cold weather, which impacted sales tons. Before I cover the quarter's results in detail I'll briefly discuss the current status of the proxy contest as we approach our annual meeting on July 29. Last week, three proxy advisory firms issued the recommendations for how shareholders should vote at the annual meeting. It is important for highlight that all three firms were clear and unanimous on one key point; Casablanca nominee should not constitute a majority of Cliffs' board. In response to the proxy advisory firms' recommendations we reduced our director slate to seven individuals to provide our shareholders a way to vote in line with both ISS and Glass Lewis recommendations of providing Casablanca with minority representation. We're extremely pleased that Glass Lewis revised its analysis and now recommends shareholders' vote for all of Cliffs' nominees on the white proxy card. We issued a press release this morning with additional detail on this recommendation, but it is important to note that Glass Lewis reiterated our concern that Casablanca can use cumulative voting which enables shareholders to aggregate their votes towards one or more nominees to its advantage to elect the majority of the board. As we have previously raised, if most shareholder's vote the gold card, we believe it is almost certain that not four but all six of Casablanca's nominees would be elected constituting the majority of Cliffs' board. This is not the intended outcome recommended by any of the three proxy advisory firms. By voting our new white card…

Terrance Paradie

Management

Thank you, Gary. I'd like to start by reviewing some of our new features of our amended revolving debt agreement, which will be in place until October of 2017. Given the declining pricing we saw during the quarter, we took proactive measures to manage our debt profile in order to enhance our liquidity. On June 30, we announced amendment to our 1.75 billion revolving credit facility with the unanimous support of the lender group. The prior leverage covenant ratio of debt to EBITDA of less than 3.5 times was replaced with a debt to capitalization ratio of less than 45%. Additionally, the amendment increases the current EBITDA to interest covenant – coverage covenant to a minimum requirement ratio of 3.5 times, a level we are currently well above. Other changes include the establishment of a net leverage incurrence ratio related to dividend increases, share repurchases, investments and acquisitions, as well as the tighter restriction on the company's ability to issue priority debt. Our ability to successfully execute this amendment without reducing the facilities borrowing capacity, increasing the interest rate, or shortening maturity reinforces the strength of our banking partner relationships, and the confidence they have in our current management team. We also believe this is their endorsement of their underlying fundamentals of our long-term strategy. The primary benefit of this agreement is that it enables us to be more resilient and volatile iron ore and met coal pricing environments. Despite the year-over-year decline in pricing, we ended the quarter with over $1.8 billion in total liquidity, a 20% increase compared to prior year's second quarter. This is the result of having higher cash balance of $360 million and lower amounts drawn under our existing credit facilities of $378 million. In addition to the amendment, our continued success in cutting capital,…

Jessica Moran

Management

That concludes our prepared remarks for today's call. Michelle, please open the lines to begin our question-and-answer session.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Brian Yu from Citi. Your line is open. Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.: Great, thanks. Good morning, Gary, Terry. I got a question just regarding your earlier comments on the strip ratio and how you revised life-of-mine plan. So, relative to the point of your fixed average, where are you guys now and where do you plan to be in the back-half of the year? Is that a contributing factor to taking cash cost below $80 a ton.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. It's actually one of the biggest drivers, Brian. We start off the year just above $2 by the end of Q2 we're down at $1.6. The majority of the knock-down actually is into the second-half of this year where we'll be around $0.9 on strip. That's a big impact on a yearly value. You're looking at about – on a year-over-year basis about 20 million tons of differential. Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.: Okay. And then second question also on Bloom is that, as you look at where you could cash costs down to – price realizations tend to be somewhere around $25 give-or-take below IODEX index. And then you've also got sustaining CapEx, is there a level that you guys have in mind where Bloom Lake could break-even on a free cash basis, in terms of the iron ore price, that would make you to kind of continue press forward with the mine.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

So, again, I think just to put it in a nutshell we're just driving those costs down and keeping that capitalized level to a minimum and driving that forward. Brian Hsien Yu – Citigroup Global Markets Inc.: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Timna Tanners from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Yes, hi, good morning.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Terrance Paradie

Management

Hey, Timna. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: I wanted to just make sure I understood why the lower-end of volume, the U.S. Iron Ore guidance and the higher-end of coal volumes given the potential closure of Pinnacle?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, the…

Jessica Moran

Management

Usually at the lower-end of the coal volume. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Okay. But they didn't fall further, I guess, I was surprised. So is there any guidance on that? Is the iron ore in the U.S. because of exports or is it because of domestic mills?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Kelly?

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Yes, well, I think importantly we reaffirmed a bit at the low-end of the guidance but based on where we're seeing sales volumes in June and what we've seen so far in July we're very confident that we can meet the sales volume expectations that we've set out. We'll still have little over 0.5 million tons of export but we're going to also keep the option if we can place that with some of our domestic customers. We'd certainly prefer to do that.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

And as Jessica pointed out, Tim, on the coal volumes, it's really as a result of, we were at 7 million tons to 8 million tons and as a result of the idling of Pinnacle we're going to the lower end of that range at this point. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Okay.

Jessica Moran

Management

Yes, you can imagine, we have inventory on the ground, so even if we do idle pinnacle we could sell out of the inventory of Pinnacle Mine. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Got you, okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Then my only other question was on, the U.S. Iron Ore segment which is an important part of your company. There has been some developments, let's say, moving from potentially four customers to three with AK and Severstal looking to consolidate, and also some weakness with the recent filing from Algoma, so I'm just wondering if you could comment on your customer base?

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Sure, Tim, it's Kelly. I'd take the second one first. The Algoma filing actually we see that as an incremental positive. We've been working very closely with Algoma all year, given their challenged financial condition. But the filing that they made which is really the firm up there, new capital structure, importantly doesn't reorganize or restructure our supply contract so we really think what we'll resolve is a healthier Algoma post-financial reorganization. So, again that's net of positive. Timna Tanners – Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Mitesh Thakkar from FBR Capital Markets. Your line is open. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Good morning, everybody.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Hi, good morning, Mitesh.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · FBR Capital Markets

Good morning. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Just – you have made some progress with respect to Bloom and redoing the mine plan and improving the strip ratio and if you gave some color around reduction in the mine life. Can you quantify that how much reduction in mine life are we talking about? And when you think about from a long-term cost perspective, iron ore prices have been coming down, and so the target is kind of little bit moving towards the lower end, how should we think about that, and as you put long-term cost into perspective?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Sure, the net effect on the reserve base is on the order of 20% overall, so we were in 30 plus years on structure. So you could factor it down by that. I think the more important thing is it's fairly significant when you talk about a reduction over that time period of about 20 million less tons per year, on the order of $3 a ton. It's pretty significant and combine that with other optimizations that we're doing, we do want to drive that number into the lower end of the – in the $70 to $80 market. So, are we done yet? No. There is a number of other changes in optimizations that we'll look at and then the true unlocking of the value of this for the long-term is really about the partnering process and how we can take on the extra volume capacity knowing we have a high fixed overhead cost. So as we get into that and unlock that value, that continues to drive down the pricing. That's how I look at it. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Great. And just looking at Australia again, you guys lowered the cost expectation there too. Can you fill in some of the buckets, how should we look at that $5 or so of change? How much of that is royalty and how much of that is changes to the maintenance and stuff like that.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Well, it's a combination. Majority of that was related to the optimization and that's been carrying on since we opt our profile there to 11 million tons per year as an annualized rate. So lot of the change is again focusing on the open pit design changes and really steepening wall angles, reducing amount of material that we're moving and stockpile management has helped us to get a more consistent product and make sure that we're hauling the right materials. Also our development – simple things like where original design work was for a two-lane haul road, we're going down to a single haul road with passing lanes and those things all just start adding up as you think differently like that and the other one was really we had set this up as a region. It's set up now as a single mine and with that mine there is a – everybody is focused on the operational side. So there's – the overheads have really come down over the last six months. I don't, if you have more, Terry?

Terry Paradie

Analyst · FBR Capital Markets

No, I think that's right, Gary. I think from a royalty perspective obviously as price comes down, it has a little impact, but the majority is what Gary talked about. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: So is it fair to say. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Those $2 a ton of FX…

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · FBR Capital Markets

Favorable rates, well…

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Yes, is it fair to say most of these changes where you made a sustainable both in Australia and in Canada?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Well, definitely. Yes, this is for like a mine, we're doing these changes, we're redesigning a pit optimizations, we're also heading into the U.S. operations and looking at some of those same features as well. It's a common look at how we run sequencing of pit designs and updating those with current cost information as our pricing information allows us to continue to optimize those pits. Mitesh Thakkar – FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Perfect, thank you very much guys and good luck.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · FBR Capital Markets

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Sal Tharani from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: I want to just go on your U.S. capacity, you have a long-term contract with AK Steel, Severstal, Algoma, and ArcelorMittal one contract I believe has been the rollover for couple of years and then one is coming up. I was just wondering if all these contracts remain in place, what is – what capacity are we looking over the next few years, are you – if the demand increases, do you have capacity to raise your production in the U.S.?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I'll speak. I mean, we've increased our capacity from 2013 to 2014 with the expansion and bringing our lines back on at certainly at Northshore and then the other one being Empire back online and depending on how we look at Empire with, the current plan is to run that into the 2017. But along with that, there are different opportunities that we can take advantage off with our partners, but more detail maybe Kelly you can share that.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Yes. So I mean, I think the other way to look at it is really where we do we end up in terms of mix going forward and where we place times and that's to say, we are looking still very optimistically at the DR pellet opportunity, which in due course we'll provide an option instead of placing tons in the export market, which is – which will be critical given where pricing is at, it’s a better economic equation to look at that. So, I think it’s really – we'll focus as much as on where we best optimize the placing of the tons given our ample capacity. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: The DRI, the BlueScope DRI project was canceled. I'm wondering, when you talk about DR pellets, these for the existing plants which are either in the construction already running in the U.S., or are you talking to the new clients who maybe opting to go DRI route?

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Yes, more focused on the going forward and as you might guess, we're not going to comment on any particular opportunity, but I think the common denominator with all of the folks that we could be talking to is that, the question will be the go to iron ore supplier and question is whether we have simply DR-grade pellet supply contract opportunities or whether if the investment return criteria is right whether we might participate in a DRI through an equity JV, but those will be driven most importantly by capital allocation criteria and when the right option comes forward. But certainly, we are talking more fully looking with all rather than the current players that are out there.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I just add to that. We are proceeding with our feasibility work on the conversion of our plant at Northshore to be able to be in a position where we want to make sure that we're in a lead position that people want to go to. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: And one last if I may. In Canada, until recently the talk was that Phase I is not feasible without Phase II, are we going to not think about Phase II at all, or is that just all the improvement you are doing is in a way that you are thinking of Phase I as the ultimate level where you are going to reach in terms of production and so forth?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I described Phase I as something we haven’t optimized yet. And all the optimization that we put into Phase I actually improves the economics and the ability to drive Phase II numbers even better. That’s both on the capitalization until we challenge people to improve what they have and understand the orebody, all those things that we gain on Phase I are totally transferrable into the Phase II thought process. So that’s how I tend to look at that. Sal Tharani – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Tony Rizzuto from Cowen and Company. Your line is open. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Thank you, and good morning, everyone.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Tony. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: I just want to follow on at similar line of questioning if I could. So just looking at Phase I longer-term Gary, where do you think you can drive costs at Bloom Lake and what would be some of the bigger baskets there?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, we're – I mean, we're looking at, in the 70's we've – for us as I described the one big pieces on the order of $60 million that that translates into about $10 a ton just by itself, a number of the other inputs that we're still driving have the capability of another let's say $5 a ton. So, there is a lot more to take advantage of, it’s going to come in a sequence, and I've got the guys just focused on Phase I and the capital work we're doing and the amount we're spending is, we're achieving our goals that laid out in front of us for this year.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes, Tony, I might just add from a commercial standpoint. We continue to be impressed with the appetite for trial cargoes out of Bloom Lake both in the Europe and Japan as customers are increasingly looking for that higher Fe content product. So, again, I think the commercial appetite will be there when the project in the cost profile and the capital all match up. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Kelly, you think that, I think I heard you guys mentioned, you had an $8 pits on premium for your grades, I think your grades what at Bloom Lake is 66%, is that sustainable, could we even see that maybe a inch higher going forward based on some of the conversations you are having?

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes, Tony, actually it was $9 in the quarter, but… Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Okay.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes, I mean, I think what you are saying or clearly saying the pressure as we saw at APIO with the sub-62 grades, the 58 grade kind of product is where the supply demand equation is being aggravated, but the 58 and the 66 that spread is, we think it’s going to continue. We think there is a global degradation of quality out there and the Bloom product can be that that sweetener if you will to optimize some of the blends to offset some of the lower grade stuff. So in short, yes, we think that that spread differential should continue. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: All right, great. And I was very intrigued by the comments Gary that you were making on Australia, and a lot of the things you are doing there, pit optimization and stockpile management going to smaller lane haul road profile, et cetera. In the past you guys have talked about the potential opportunity to extend the reserve life there at relatively low CapEx. I'm just wondering, can you bring us up-to-date with that status and what you see is some possible opportunities at low capital cost?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, the – we did extensive exploration drilling. And as of the end of last year, we had six years of mine life at Koolyanobbing, and that that’s still the case today. It does test the system in this $90 to $100 price environment, so our focus is really been on taking those numbers down and knocking the overhead on the head, which is going good. We've done a lot of drilling and we don’t see a lot of upside potential given where we are at today. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Okay. And just one quick final question if I may, North American coal has been kind of a flurry of M&A activity going on. You've got your cost kind of right-sized, maybe, not a whole lot you can do from this point. Coal mark is kind of at the bottom right now, but is this is a time, maybe a little bit more amenable to possibly testing the waters?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

As we continue to say, we believe our assets are great. We continue to push the cost curve down on what we control. We're in the lower third in the domestic cost profile of producers. A lot of other producers are swimming in deep water. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Yes.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

But in terms of selling the assets at the low end of the commodity and we've see it technically bottomed out, we're seeing it lag on. We've seen 10 million tons to 16 million tons of announced product, 17 million I guess now that is supposedly coming out of the market. I want to run that to the upside, Tony. I don't believe the – right now, there's bottom feeding going on and fire-selling things is not, that's not under – where we're at today, I'd rather preserve the asset and we want to – that's why we're talking about Pinnacle idling; it's worth more to us, we believe.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes, you Tony… Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: I hear you, Gary. Certainly understood.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Cowen and Company

You can see what Severstal – hey, Tony, you can see what Severstal did recently with recently with their coal acquisition what they just recently sold versus what they have bought it for and you can see, it's pretty low realized price. Anthony Rizzuto – Cowen and Company: Very, very, good. Thank you very much, guys.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Kuni Chen from UBS. Your line is open. Kuni Chen – UBS Securities LLC: I guess, Gary, just to start off, quick question on Bloom Lake. You have your data room open, and I guess, you're in a number of discussions this year. You could just update us on how that process is going and I think you had mentioned that you'd potentially look to making the announcement on what happens with Phase II by the end of this year, is that still the right time frame?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

As you can appreciate, Kuni, it's been a tough environment with the huge drop in the iron ore seaborne pricing. It's not helping us one bit and then obviously with the shareholder activism creating uncertainty into the headwinds you already have that doesn't help us at all. So we – we're having those discussions, we're also not going to give things away. So we're focused on the Phase I improvements and it is going to take what it takes to progress this thing. Kuni Chen – UBS Securities LLC: Okay. Understood. And I guess just moving on to the coal side of the equation, if you could talk about any – severance or idling cost with Pinnacle if that goes forward. Also talk about maybe how long to restart the mine and what met coal price you would need to bring it back. And then just lastly can you kind of contrast Pinnacle versus Oak Grove and these are both longwall mines, wouldn't they be similar from a cost perspective? Why not idle that one as well?

Terry Paradie

Analyst · UBS

So, Kuni, let me – this is Terry. Let me cover the idling cost, and we believe the idling cost from $40 million to $45 million on a full-year basis. So you look at that and looking at probably $10 million a quarter from an idle perspective. And then from the standpoint of – the longer it sits idle the more challenging and more costly it becomes from the standpoint of restarting it up. So, that would be sort of the cost impact with the – for a Pinnacle idle. And it will be pretty similar if we did something at the Oak Grove if we would idle that facility as well.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, just a comment. Pinnacle is setting some world records. On the one hand we were seeing some impressive unit costs out of Pinnacle. The side that we're having issues with is where that product gets placed and the – it's got our lowest placement in terms of contracts and lot of that material goes into Asia and that's where we're suffering both on shipping in the types of contracts we'd have. So the opportunity for that is really to look at and that's where we talked about commercially how we can improve ourselves into the 2015 nominations. That's one of the big drivers for this property. Oak Grove, again they're both longwall. Oak Grove has a better – I call it quality product that has a higher percentage sell into our typical marketplace. And so it's in a better spot but we continue to look at both Oak Grove and Logan County, but every product we produce has different customer bases and it's a bit of feeding those feed sources and then looking at opportunistically taking some better customer contracts going forward. Maybe, Kelly, you can…

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · UBS

Yes, just quickly from a commercial standpoint, I mean, if we proceed and idle Pinnacle one of the things that we're going to be looking at as we move into the fall customer nomination season, one, we would start typically negotiating for 2015 contracts. We got to see some constructive movement in terms of pricing. Now, we have seen few domestic customers indicate that they may come out earlier than sort of normal to seek pricing for 2015. So we're going to be looking at that closely. And again if we see enough constructive movement that – we can net-back to something that makes sense economically than we would bring Pinnacle back up if we idle it. But if we don't see that constructive market condition then the better use of the asset is to idle it. Kuni Chen – UBS Securities LLC: Okay. And then one last quick one if I may, just on the 24% of the coal that you have un-priced if you could just speak to the type of grades there?

Jessica Moran

Management

It's all net. Kuni Chen – UBS Securities LLC: (inaudible)?

Jessica Moran

Management

It's a mixed bag, Chen.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · UBS

A mix of both. Kuni Chen – UBS Securities LLC: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Nathan Littlewood from Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Nathan Littlewood – Credit Suisse Securities: Yes, hi, guys. Congratulations on the good set of operational numbers here, same about the iron ore price, but you can't help that. Look, I was just curious in exploring these product pricing differentials a little bit more and your comments on them. I was wondering if you could talk about the ability that you may have to sort of capitalize on that. Do you, for example, have the ability to actually increase the iron content of what you're selling from Bloom Lake or the Asia-Pac business at all, and how are you thinking about the investments in capital or operating costs that that might require? Maybe, in answering that question you could also just touch on what is the current head-grade going into the Bloom Lake plant and also the mass recovery would be useful.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Grade right now, I would have to get to that number, I don’t have it right in front of me. It's around 30% but I'll confirm and get a physical number to Nathan later. Kelly, you want to…

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Yes, Nathan, as we talked earlier, I mean, we saw $9 a ton in the second quarter and expect that $2 to $2.50 [ph] a ton per Fe unit to continue, and as Gary said, particularly when you're looking at Japanese steel mills, not only they being high Fe content but they're also very focused on silica levels. But to get that right spot it's – we can I think serve a real niche in the market. There's obviously a lot of supply pressures out there, but our goal is to not be the largest supplier of any one of these Japanese mills, but be the complementary supplier of this sort of sweetener product. Nathan Littlewood – Credit Suisse Securities: Okay. So, I mean, I get this sort of market dynamics. What I'm more interested in is what you may or may not be doing to actually change your product specs. So I use, for example, looking at raising the iron content of what you sell out of either of these assets in order to sort of capitalize on what you know, they're pretty big spreads at the moment.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, the way the circuit is configured, we're fixed on trying to optimize the tonnage throughput at 66% iron content. And that's the top-end for us and that's we're improving on the overall recovery of that. But 66% is a high-end, you start dropping off recovery rates pretty dramatically going above that. And then your – if it's the contaminate level of silica in there that's – we got to meet that spec as well.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Credit Suisse

And the capital requirements that eek [ph] out an incremental amount, additional Fe probably wouldn't make sense from a capital allocation standpoint.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Credit Suisse

So, now… Nathan Littlewood – Credit Suisse Securities: Okay. That's exactly what I was after, thank you. The other question I had was just on the U.S. iron ore volumes, as you guys are probably aware we look at sort of activities on the Great Lakes pretty closely. And we now benchmark your tonnages for the quarter against what the boarder industry was doing.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

No, I think we got more than ample leverage if you will in terms of making sure our tons move, we work hand-in-hand with our customers during the – well, certainly first quarter and well under the second quarter but our – again our optimism in terms of shipping volumes for the balance of the year really build off of a very strong June and an equally strong July that would suggest on a pro-rata rate we should be able to meet our shipping targets in terms of moving volume. So, I don’t think you can read much more than that. So it's… Nathan Littlewood – Credit Suisse Securities: Okay. Just finally with respect to Eastern Canada and U.S. iron ore, there's obviously been some pretty big differences recently between the sales or the ship tonnages and also the production numbers. Could you just provide an update on where inventories currently sit at both of those assets? And looking forward should we be expecting sort of inventories that needs to be going up or down?

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Yes, Nathan, this is Terry. From an inventory standpoint I think other than the USIO business we're at a normal seasonalized level. As a result of only shipping perhaps the quarter we're probably up, what were shortfall in our volume may be $1.4 million tons of inventory at the USIO business. Other than that I think everything is in normal range. Nathan Littlewood – Credit Suisse Securities: Okay. Fantastic. Thank you very much.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Jessica Moran

Management

So, we'll take one more question.

Operator

Operator

Okay. Then your final question comes from Aldo Mazzaferro from Macquarie. Your line is open. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Capital: Hello, can you hear me all right?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Hello.

Jessica Moran

Management

Yes.

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Macquarie

Yes.

Jessica Moran

Management

I am. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Capital: I was just wondering on, back to the issue on Casablanca. If you get a less than a majority stake of them on the board is there a risk that you just end up in gridlock and nothing happens? Or maybe you could just kind of detail what exactly is it that you would do? You say you don’t want to sell the assets. I'm just wondering what strategy you might pursue if you get to the point where iron ore prices don't recover. And then I have a second question on Bloom Lake, if I could.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, just with Casablanca. I won't speculate on specific results. However, like we said the shareholders are voting the white card. Casablanca will get four seats and the dynamics of the board will have changed. So the majority of the board will have been known [ph] and it opens up a full and dynamic discussion on everything we do in these challenging times. So we look forward to those dynamics being put out to come up with the right values for driving the business forward for our shareholders. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Capital: Okay. If I could just ask quickly on Bloom Lake II, I saw you reduced your cash cost pretty nicely year-to-year. Has there been any change in the cost of transport to the port or what is that running still, $25 or so per ton or is that a good ballpark estimate?

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

The shipping – the rail contracts – a good rail contract that we have and then the port structure of our shipping to Asia. I think that's a good number to use…

Kelly Tompkins

Analyst · Macquarie

No, I think the – mine to the ports is probably in the $13 to $15 range and then there would be handling charges. But it's lot lower than that $25 and then these shipping costs from Port of Sept-Îles over to Asia is probably in the $25 to $30 range depending on what the markets working on. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Capital: All right, thanks very much.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Aldo. Aldo Mazzaferro – Macquarie Capital: Good luck. Okay.

Gary Halverson

Chief Executive Officer

So, just thanks for that. But I'd like to thank everybody. And really to just to conclude, our board and management team are really focused on our plan and they really enabled us to weather the current downturn and really emerge from this cycle as a stronger company. And really the future of this company is really in the hands of all of our shareholders and I encourage all shareholders to vote the white proxy card so we continue our current momentum to protect and enhance our shareholder values over the long-term. So with that thank you very much.

Jessica Moran

Management

Thanks, everybody.

Terry Paradie

Analyst · Macquarie

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.