Bob Braithwaite: Yes. I mean as I just mentioned to Nate, one of the deals we did last quarter was into Europe that had a seven handle on it. And I’m actually heading over to Europe here next week to meet with several of our customers at their request, which certainly is positive news. And I do think that many are concerned about actual needs and if supply will be there even assuming a normal winter. I did read this morning to that ARA prices or — I’m sorry ARA inventory levels are continuing to drop. A lot of that has to do with the Rhine River situation now getting back to normal. So, I am quite bullish in Europe and when it comes to their thermal coal needs in 2024, and I think you’ll continue to see some strength in the API2 prices as well.
Michael Dudas: How about your Indian customers?
Bob Braithwaite: Yes. I mean, India, we’re getting constant demand for our product over there. I mean the retail market seems to be pretty strong so far this year and then there continues to be growth in cement capacity as we move forward as well. So, we are passing on some opportunities today to move some coal into India for the balance of this year as the crossover market continues to be the best market for us to sell our product. And based on where our current sold position is, we’re taking advantage of the best market to ensure that we have the highest realizations.
Michael Dudas: And yes, speaking on the crossover, certainly there’s been upside volatility in the global coking coal markets. How do you see it in positioning not only some of the crossover opportunities and I’m assuming there’s some marginal benefit to that maybe in the first half of next year placing some of that coal. And then with Itmann, give a sense of where you are on customer interest and for where your capacity is going to get to at the end of this year beginning and next? And how comfortable you feel you can ramp up not only on the production side to place those tons into the market at reasonable pricing.
Bob Braithwaite: Yes. So on the sales side talking about our PAMC product and the crossover, if you think about where we’re at so far year-to-date, I mean we’re on pace to do over 2.5 million tons into the crossover market this year, which I wouldn’t say is a record for us but it’s certainly much higher than what it traditionally has been. Brazil is our core market. But as Mitesh mentioned, we’re in Indonesia now. We’re also selling a lot of coal into China now as well. So, we feel as though — and that’s the reason why we brought back that fifth longwall in particular at Enlow Fork, because of the quality of that longwall and that’s certainly benefiting us in that crossover market. So again, we feel very confident in our ability to continue to expand that crossover market for our PAMC coal.
Moving on to Itmann, certainly a lot of interest there. We did participate in a lot of the domestic RFPs for 2024 we were successful in concluding close to 300,000 tons under those RFPs. I will tell you we certainly could have secured more volume, but we elected to not do so for desire to diversify. And then we also felt as though prices were likely going to be higher on the export side. We’ve certainly seen a nice jump in TSI prices. We saw a nice jump in US East Coast low-vol prices although it’s come off a bit. But again, there’s certainly a lot of interest there. As soon as we get the mine fully up to full run rate, we feel that we’ll be able to participate in additional markets there as well.
Michael Dudas: Excellent. Thanks for your thoughts, Bob. Gentlemen, good luck.
Jimmy Brock: Thanks, Mike.
Mitesh Thakkar: Thanks, Mike.
Operator: The next question is a follow-up from Lucas Pipes with B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Lucas Pipes: Thank you very much, and thank you for taking my follow-up question. It’s Itmann related. Approximately what is the utilization rate today? Should we think of like two out of the three super sections are running so it’s kind of close to call it 70% or so? Or would you describe it differently? And what do you think will take on the labor front to get that third super section fully mobilized? And then on the domestic contracting you just mentioned you participated with I think you said 300,000 tons, what — could you share the pricing that’s associated with that tonnage? Thank you very much.
Jimmy Brock: Well, on the production rate, I would say utilization, we are somewhere around that 70% number. We have two of the three super sections running now. However, we’re still in managed development, which is requiring us to cut a little bit of height, which slows our mining progress down to allow for equipment and things to get into mind for the long term. I think here before the year-end we will have one of those super sections into a panel development, which will increase production and lower our costs, as well as our yield. So I think, we’ll get more tons there. I’m pretty excited about where Itmann is right now. On the labor side of it, we’re still having some challenges down there of getting fully staffed. We have some turnover, we’re working on all those things.
We’ve made some changes there in the last couple of weeks that we feel like it’s going to help. And then on the equipment side of it, we still get delays. I mean, we have some new equipment coming, but we’re not going to receive that this year like we had hoped to receive in the fourth quarter. So I think when I look at Itmann, where it is today, we have lots of room to improve there, particularly on the production side. As soon as we get the third super section up and running get one of these three super sections in the panels, I think you’ll see our productivity come up, and I’ll be excited to see what type of cost we can actually run at Itmann.
Lucas Pipes: Thank you. And helpful — that’s helpful. On the pricing side, anything you can share?
Bob Braithwaite: Yeah. I mean, obviously, I think it’s known that the pricing has been down year-on-year on the domestic contracting front. But right now, if you look at where US East Coast low-vol prices are we typically net back about 70% of that index. So if you look at the index right around 260 figure FOB mine netbacks are in the 180 to 185 range.
Lucas Pipes: And would that be for the tons you would sell into the export market? Or would that be the price where you could contract it domestically?
Bob Braithwaite: Domestically would be a little bit lower than that. But again based on where — if US East Coast oil prices hover around that 260 range it kind of gives you a sense of where the balance of the volume we would sell at into the export market. But again we’ll provide full guidance in January or February when we announce our next earnings.
