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General
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
General
1. General
Description of Business
SunCoke Energy, Inc. (“SunCoke Energy,” “SunCoke,” “Company,” “we,” “our” and “us”) is the largest independent producer of high-quality coke in the Americas, as measured by tons of coke produced each year, and has over 55 years of coke production experience. Coke is a principal raw material in the blast furnace steelmaking process and is produced by heating metallurgical coal in a refractory oven, which releases certain volatile components from the coal, thus transforming the coal into coke. Additionally, we own and operate a logistics business, which primarily provides handling and/or mixing services of coal and other aggregates to third-party customers as well as to our own cokemaking facilities.
We have designed, developed, built, own and operate five cokemaking facilities in the United States (“U.S.”), which consist of our Haverhill, Middletown, Granite City, Jewell and Indiana Harbor cokemaking facilities. Our cokemaking facilities have collective nameplate capacity to produce approximately 4.2 million tons of blast furnace coke per year. Our U.S. coke sales are made pursuant to long-term, take-or-pay agreements with ArcelorMittal USA LLC and/or its affiliates (“AM USA”), AK Steel Corporation (“AK Steel”) and United States Steel Corporation (“U.S. Steel”), who are three of the largest blast furnace steelmakers in North America. Additionally, we have designed and operate one cokemaking facility in Brazil under licensing and operating agreements on behalf of ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A. (“ArcelorMittal Brazil”), which has approximately 1.7 million tons of annual cokemaking capacity. To diversify our business and customer base, SunCoke began exploring the foundry coke market. Foundry coke is a high-quality grade of coke that is used at foundries to melt iron and various metals in cupola furnaces, which is further processed via casting or molding into products used in various industries such as construction, transportation and industrial products. Throughout 2020, we have been testing production capacity and executing successful test sales of foundry coke. We expect we will be in a position to produce and sell approximately 100 thousand tons of foundry coke in 2021.
Our cokemaking ovens utilize efficient, modern heat recovery technology designed to combust the coal’s volatile components liberated during the cokemaking process and use the resulting heat to create steam or electricity for sale. This differs from by-product cokemaking, which repurposes the coal’s liberated volatile components for other uses. We have constructed the only greenfield cokemaking facilities in the U.S. in approximately 30 years and are the only North American coke producer that utilizes heat recovery technology in the cokemaking process. We provide steam pursuant to steam supply and purchase agreements with our customers. Electricity is sold into the regional power market or pursuant to energy sales agreements.
Our logistics business provides handling and/or mixing services to steel, coke (including some of our domestic cokemaking facilities), electric utility, coal producing and other manufacturing based customers. Our logistics business consists of Convent Marine Terminal (“CMT”), Kanawha River Terminal (“KRT”), SunCoke Lake Terminal (“Lake Terminal”) and Dismal River Terminal (“DRT”) and has collective capacity to mix and/or transload more than 40 million tons of coal and other aggregates annually and has total storage capacity of approximately 3 million tons.
Incorporated in Delaware in 2010 and headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, we became a publicly-traded company in 2011 and our stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SXC.”
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements included herein have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”) for interim reporting. Certain information and disclosures normally included in financial statements have been omitted pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). In management’s opinion, the financial statements reflect all adjustments, which are of a normal recurring nature, necessary for a fair presentation of the results of operations, financial position and cash flows for the periods presented. The results of operations for the period ended September 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the operating results expected for the entire year. These unaudited interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.