Hallador Energy Co (HNRG) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today's Hallador Energy's second-quarter 2024 conference call. My name is Cole, and I'll be the moderator for today's call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to pass the call over to Sean Mansouri, the company's Investor Relations adviser with Elevate IR. Please go ahead.

午安.感謝您參加今天的 Hallador Energy 2024 年第二季電話會議。我叫科爾，我將擔任今天電話會議的主持人。（操作員指示）我現在想將電話轉接給 Sean Mansouri，他是 Elevate IR 公司的投資者關係顧問。請繼續。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our second-quarter 2024 results. With me today are President and CEO, Brent Bilsland; and CFO, Marjorie Hargrave. This afternoon, we released our second quarter 2024 financial and operating results in a press release that is now on the Hallador Investor Relations website. Today, we will discuss those results as well as our perspective on current market conditions and our outlook for 2024. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to answer your questions.

謝謝大家，大家下午好。我們感謝您與我們一起討論我們 2024 年第二季的業績。今天與我在一起的有總裁兼執行長 Brent Bilsland；財務長馬喬裡·哈格雷夫。今天下午，我們在新聞稿中發布了 2024 年第二季度的財務和營運業績，該新聞稿現已發佈在 Hallador 投資者關係網站上。今天，我們將討論這些結果以及我們對當前市場狀況的看法以及對 2024 年的展望。在準備好發言後，我們將召開電話會議來回答您的問題。

Before beginning, a reminder that some of our remarks today may include forward-looking statements subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained in our filings from time to time with the SEC and are also reflected in today's press release. While these forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us, if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we projected or expected.

在開始之前，請注意，我們今天的一些言論可能包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到我們不時向SEC 提交的文件中包含的各種風險、不確定性和假設的影響，也反映在今天的新聞稿中。雖然這些前瞻性陳述是基於我們目前掌握的信息，但如果這些風險或不確定性中的一項或多項成為現實，或者如果我們的基本假設被證明是不正確的，則實際結果可能與我們預測或預期的結果有重大差異。

In providing these remarks, Hallador has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law to do so. We plan on filing our Form 10-Q later this week.

在發表這些言論時，哈拉多沒有義務公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因，除非法律要求這樣做。我們計劃在本週稍後提交 10-Q 表格。

And with the preliminaries out of the way, I'll turn the call over to President and CEO, Brent Bilsland.

預賽結束後，我將把電話轉給總裁兼執行長布倫特·比爾斯蘭 (Brent Bilsland)。

Thanks, Sean. At Hallador, we've been undergoing a strategic and deliberate transformation process to capture increased value from our products and services as the company advances up the value chain. To accomplish this, we are focused on expanding our offerings from fuel production to wholesale electricity sales to ultimately powering the industrial end user. The acquisition of our Merom power plant, less than two years ago was the first step in this journey, enabling us the ability to transform our fuel into higher value wholesale electricity.

謝謝，肖恩。在 Hallador，我們一直在進行策略性、深思熟慮的轉型過程，以便隨著公司向價值鏈上游發展，從我們的產品和服務中獲取更高的價值。為了實現這一目標，我們致力於將我們的產品範圍從燃料生產擴展到批發電力銷售，直到最終為工業最終用戶提供電力。不到兩年前收購我們的梅羅姆發電廠是這趟旅程的第一步，使我們能夠將燃料轉化為更高價值的批發電力。

We took another step forward earlier this year when we signed a memorandum of understanding with Hoosier energy and WIN REMC, creating a pathway to further increase value and drive margin expansion by enabling sales of wholesale electricity to industrial users of power. We have recently carried out a data center targeted request for proposal that has received a strong response.

今年早些時候，我們又向前邁出了一步，與 Hoosier energy 和 WIN REMC 簽署了一份諒解備忘錄，透過向工業電力用戶銷售批發電力，開闢了進一步增加價值和推動利潤擴張的途徑。我們最近進行了資料中心定向徵集活動，並得到了強烈的迴響。

Our active negotiations on that RFP, further strengthen our conviction that power is in critical demand and that we possess a crucial component to the success of these data centers. While we are encouraged by our progress with our counterparties, we caution that these negotiations are ongoing and take time given the potential magnitude for both our partners and our company.

我們對該 RFP 的積極談判進一步增強了我們的信念：電力需求迫切，而且我們擁有這些資料中心成功的關鍵組成部分。雖然我們對與交易對手方的進展感到鼓舞，但我們警告說，考慮到我們的合作夥伴和我們公司的潛在規模，這些談判仍在進行中，並且需要時間。

Nearly all of these proposed transaction would involve sales of large amounts of our energy and capacity for well over a decade. The State of Indiana, where our power plant is located, continues to solidify its position as the developing hub for high-tech and high-growth sectors. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation reports the plans for nearly $15 billion of new investments in Indiana's technology infrastructure have been announced by Fortune 500 businesses thus far in 2024, underscoring the growth potential in our marketplace.

幾乎所有這些擬議的交易都將涉及十多年來我們大量能源和產能的銷售。我們發電廠所在的印第安納州繼續鞏固其作為高科技和高成長產業發展中心的地位。印第安納州經濟發展公司報告稱，截至 2024 年，財富 500 強企業已宣布計劃對印第安納州的技術基礎設施進行近 150 億美元的新投資，這凸顯了我們市場的成長潛力。

Businesses need power to enable them to build in Indiana, and Hallador is one of the few companies that has. We believe we are entering a unique time of electricity scarcity. We have heard multiple reports from across the country where utilities have told industrial customers, they cannot timely provide them with power needed to support their growth.

企業需要電力才能在印第安納州進行建設，而哈拉多是少數擁有電力的公司之一。我們相信我們正在進入一個獨特的電力短缺時期。我們聽到來自全國各地的多份報告，公用事業公司告訴工業客戶，他們無法及時為他們提供支持其成長所需的電力。

We have seen numerous companies referenced the lack of available power as restricting their company plans. Last week, the result of the PJM capacity auction, a neighboring market to the MISO System where we operate had certain zones where capacity prices traded up to the legal limit as much as 9 times more than the previous year.

我們看到許多公司表示缺乏可用電力限制了他們的公司計劃。上週，PJM 容量拍賣的結果是我們經營的 MISO 系統的鄰近市場，在某些區域，容量價格交易達到法定上限，比前一年高出 9 倍。

This result supports our belief that the value of dispatchable generation like our Merom plant continues to increase. Energy scarcity is leading to higher long-term power prices as evidenced by significantly higher energy prices starting in 2026 as contracted by Hallador and forecasted by the forward energy curve.

這一結果支持了我們的信念，即像我們的 Merom 發電廠這樣的可調度發電的價值持續增加。能源短缺正在導致長期電價上漲，正如哈拉多 (Hallador) 簽訂的合約和遠期能源曲線預測的那樣，從 2026 年開始能源價格將大幅上漲，就證明了這一點。

I would also like to point to a recent Wall Street Journal article, reporting that heavy industrial uses of power such as aluminum smelters are struggling to compete for electricity with higher value users of energy such as data centers. According to the article, in the year 2000, there were 23 aluminum smelters located in the United States. Today, there are only 4. During the quarter we added $45 million in forward energy sales, bringing our forward capacity and energy sales book to $664 million as of June 30.

我還想指出《華爾街日報》最近發表的一篇文章，報道鋁冶煉廠​​等重工業用電企業正在努力與資料中心等高價值能源用戶爭奪電力。文章稱，2000年，美國有23家鋁冶煉廠。今天，只有 4 個。本季度，我們的遠期能源銷售增加了 4,500 萬美元，截至 6 月 30 日，我們的遠期產能和能源銷售帳簿達到 6.64 億美元。

When combined with our forward fuel sales, our total forward sales book at June 30 totaled approximately $1.4 billion. Unfortunately, the recent environment for spot electricity sales has been challenging. This past winter, record high US natural gas production ran into the ninth warmest winter on record according to NOAA.

與我們的遠期燃油銷售相結合，我們截至 6 月 30 日的遠期銷售總額約為 14 億美元。不幸的是，近期現貨售電環境充滿挑戰。據美國國家海洋和大氣管理局(NOAA)稱，去年冬天，美國天然氣產量創歷史新高，進入了有史以來第九個最溫暖的冬天。

The lack of winter heating demand contributed to gas inventory levels climbing as much as 38% above the 5-year average. As gas prices address downward, wholesale electricity prices also declined. In the first 6 months of 2024, approximately 90% of the off peak energy hours at the Merom Hub and approximately 60% of the total energy hours at the Merom Hub, price below our production costs at our Merom facility.

冬季暖氣需求不足導致天然氣庫存水準比 5 年平均高出 38%。隨著天然氣價格下降，批發電價也下降。2024 年前 6 個月，Merom Hub 約 90% 的非高峰用電小時以及 Merom Hub 總用電小時的約 60% 均在 Merom Hub，價格低於我們 Merom 工廠的生產成本。

Our goal is for Hallador power to generate approximately 1.5 million megawatt hours on a quarterly basis, which equates to approximately 6 million megawatt hours annually. During the first half of 2024, Hallador power generated approximately 1.6 million megawatt hours during the first half of the year.

我們的目標是 Hallador 電力每季發電量約 150 萬兆瓦時，相當於每年約 600 萬兆瓦時。2024 年上半年，Hallador 電力發電量約 160 萬兆瓦時。

We experienced sales prices of nearly $261 per megawatt hour for limited times balanced against most days, pricing below our variable cost to produce. These fluctuations led to an inconsistent dispatch schedule. We also performed 70 days of scheduled outages on half the plant during the first half of the year.

在有限的時間內，我們的銷售價格接近每兆瓦時 261 美元，與大多數日子相比，價格低於我們的可變生產成本。這些波動導致調度時間表不一致。今年上半年，我們也對一半工廠進行了 70 天的計畫停駛。

We believe the environment will be better in the last half of this year to see higher dispatch rates as we have no scheduled outage design for the plant for the balance of this year. Additionally, our plant already ran 437,000 megawatt hours for the month of July. Gas inventory levels have also improved from 38% above the 5-year average in March to 16% above the 5-year average at the end of July.

我們相信今年下半年的環境會更好，調度率會更高，因為我們沒有為今年餘下的時間安排工廠停駛設計。此外，當我們工廠 7 月的發電量已達 437,000 兆瓦時。天然氣庫存水準也從 3 月比 5 年平均高出 38% 提高到 7 月底比 5 年平均高出 16%。

For the first half of 2024, lower energy prices negatively affect both Hallador Power Company's generation model and the dispatch rates of Sunrise Coal's utility customers. In response to dispatching less, those customers slowed coal shipments from Sunrise during the first half of this year. To match Sunrise's production levels and cost structure to that of market demand, we restructured Sunrise's operations in the first quarter of 2024.

2024 年上半年，較低的能源價格將對 Hallador 電力公司的發電模式和 Sunrise Coal 公用事業客戶的調度率產生負面影響。為了應對出貨量減少，這些客戶在今年上半年減緩了 Sunrise 的煤炭運輸。為了使 Sunrise 的生產水準和成本結構與市場需求相匹配，我們在 2024 年第一季重組了 Sunrise 的營運。

As we have previously noted, the restructuring included a reduction in force of approximately 110 people in February. We have since allowed attrition to further reduce our workforce by approximately 130 additional people, a total workforce reduction of more than 25% as of June 30. We also restructured our operations to focus on our more profitable units and to idle units with higher production costs. Transitioning our Oaktown mining facilities from 7 units of production to 4 units of production was a deliberate process, which took considerable time and effort and was completed in mid-July.

正如我們之前指出的，重組包括 2 月裁員約 110 人。此後，我們允許員工自然減員，進一步減少了約 130 名員工，截至 6 月 30 日，員工總數減少了 25% 以上。我們也重組了我們的業務，以專注於利潤較高的部門和生產成本較高的閒置部門。將我們的 Oaktown 採礦設施從 7 個生產單位轉變為 4 個生產單位是一個深思熟慮的過程，花費了大量的時間和精力，並於 7 月中旬完成。

We are encouraged by their early results of Sunrise's restructuring and has seen improvement in mining costs since we made the decision to adjust our operations. Our clean tons per foot of advancement, a key efficiency metric we utilize improved from January to June by 27%, and our June cash costs at Oaktown were approximately $44 a ton, while our cash costs for the quarter were approximately $50.

我們對 Sunrise 重組的早期成果感到鼓舞，並且自從我們決定調整營運以來，採礦成本有所改善。我們使用的關鍵效率指標——每英尺清潔噸數從 1 月到 6 月提高了 27%，Oaktown 6 月的現金成本約為每噸 44 美元，而本季的現金成本約為每噸 50 美元。

We expect to continue driving improvements in cash costs in the second half of the year as we have already implemented further operational improvements in the month of July. It's worth noting that you will not find these cash cost numbers in our upcoming 10-Q filing as we have revised the presentation of our financials to conform with GAAP.

我們預計下半年現金成本將繼續改善，因為我們已經在 7 月實施了進一步的營運改善。值得注意的是，您不會在我們即將發布的 10-Q 報告中找到這些現金成本數字，因為我們已經修改了財務報表以符合 GAAP 的要求。

Overall, we're enthusiastic about how it was prospect for significant growth and value creation. The improving energy market landscape provides a solid foundation to return to growth as we exit 2024 and we believe the surge in demand to power data centers and other industrial users provides a real opportunity to transform our financial profile over the long run.

總的來說，我們對顯著成長和價值創造的前景充滿熱情。隨著我們退出 2024 年，不斷改善的能源市場格局為恢復成長奠定了堅實的基礎，我們相信，資料中心和其他工業用戶的電力需求激增為我們長期的財務狀況轉變提供了真正的機會。

I will now hand the call over to Margie Hargrave before opening Q&A and returning for closing remarks.

現在我將把電話轉給瑪吉·哈格雷夫，然後開始問答並返回閉幕詞。

Thank you, very much, Brent, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to our second quarter financials. Electric sales for the quarter were $56.8 million compared to $71 million in the prior year period. The decline was primarily due to an abundant natural gas supply leading to low energy prices. This, coupled with the mild winter and scheduled maintenance resulted in our dispatch rates being decreased.

非常感謝，布倫特，大家下午好。轉向我們第二季的財務狀況。本季電力銷售額為 5,680 萬美元，去年同期為 7,100 萬美元。下降的主要原因是天然氣供應充足導致能源價格低廉。再加上溫和的冬季和定期維護，導致我們的調度率下降。

Coal sales were $32.8 million for the quarter compared to $88.6 million in the prior year period. This decline was driven by our decision to reduce our coal production as previously discussed in our restructuring of our Sunrise Coal division. Additionally, a slowdown in customer deliveries coincided with the decrease in coal plant output throughout the quarter. These two segments drove revenue of $90.9 million for the quarter compared to $161.2 million in the prior year period.

本季煤炭銷售額為 3,280 萬美元，而上年同期為 8,860 萬美元。這一下降是由於我們決定減少煤炭產量所致，正如我們之前在日出煤炭部門重組中所討論的那樣。此外，整個季度客戶交付量的放緩與燃煤電廠產量的下降同時發生。這兩個部門為本季帶來了 9,090 萬美元的收入，而去年同期為 1.612 億美元。

Net loss for the quarter was $10.2 million compared to positive net income of $16.9 million in the prior year period. This was largely driven by a loss in coal operations of $13.33 cents per ton due to a reduction in contract average sales price and reduced demand given the oversupply of lower priced natural gas and reduced dispatch rates at our customers coal-fired power plants. We improved operating cash flow to $23.5 million for the quarter compared to $18.1 million in the prior year period.

本季淨虧損為 1,020 萬美元，而上年同期淨利為 1,690 萬美元。這主要是由於合約平均銷售價格下降以及低價天然氣供應過剩和客戶燃煤電廠調度率降低導致需求減少導致煤炭業務每噸虧損 13.33 美分。本季我們的營運現金流從去年同期的 1,810 萬美元增至 2,350 萬美元。

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, which is reconciled in our earnings press release issued earlier today was negative $5.6 million for Q2 compared to $35.3 million in the prior year period. We invested $13.1 million in capital expenditures during the second quarter, bringing total year-to-date CapEx to $28 million. This puts us well on target for our planned capital outlay of $43 million for calendar year 2024. In response to the current environment we focused on strengthening our balance sheet.

調整後的 EBITDA（一項非 GAAP 衡量標準）已在我們今天早些時候發布的收益新聞稿中進行了調整，第二季度的調整後 EBITDA 為負 560 萬美元，而去年同期為 3530 萬美元。第二季我們投資了 1,310 萬美元的資本支出，使年初至今的資本支出總額達到 2,800 萬美元。這使我們很好地實現了 2024 年計畫資本支出 4,300 萬美元的目標。為了因應當前的環境，我們將重點放在加強資產負債表。

During the second quarter, we decreased our bank debt by $31.5 million. This decrease in bank debt contributed to our 41% decrease in total debt from $141 million as of December 31, 2023 to $83 million as of June 30, 2024.

第二季度，我們的銀行債務減少了 3,150 萬美元。銀行債務的減少使我們的總債務減少了 41%，從截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的 1.41 億美元減少到截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日的 8,300 萬美元。

We also repaid $5 million of unsecured one year notes from related parties affiliated with our Board of Directors that were issued during the first quarter of 2024. Utilizing our ATM offering, we raised $27.9 million by issuing 3.9 million shares of our common stock during the quarter.

我們也償還了董事會附屬關聯方在 2024 年第一季發行的 500 萬美元無擔保一年期票據。利用我們的 ATM 發行，我們在本季發行了 390 萬股普通股，籌集了 2,790 萬美元。

We also successfully converted our remaining $11 million of senior unsecured convertible notes, including accrued interest with $2.1 million shares of our company's common stock. Taken together as of June 30, 2024, our bank debt was $45.5 million. Total liquidity improved to $60.7 million and our leverage ratio was 2.12 times.

我們也成功轉換了剩餘的 1,100 萬美元優先無擔保可轉換票據，其中包括我們公司 210 萬美元普通股的應計利息。截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日，我們的銀行債務總計為 4,550 萬美元。總流動性改善至 6,070 萬美元，槓桿率為 2.12 倍。

These improvements were supported by a $43 million prepayment for an 11 month forward energy sale representing approximately 22% of our annual $6 million megawatt hours gold during the term of the contract. Through these strategic initial actions to bolster our balance sheet, we have established a solid foundation to carry us through the challenges of the near-term environment and position Hallador for significant growth and margin expansion in the years ahead.

這些改進得到了 11 個月遠期能源銷售預付款 4,300 萬美元的支持，約佔合約期間我們每年 600 萬兆瓦時黃金的 22%。透過這些增強資產負債表的策略性初步行動，我們已經奠定了堅實的基礎，可以幫助我們應對近期環境的挑戰，並為哈拉多在未來幾年實現顯著成長和利潤率擴張奠定基礎。

That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open up the call for any questions. Thank you.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。我們現在將開放電話詢問任何問題。謝謝。

(Operator Instruction)

（操作員說明）

Lucas Pipes, B. Riley.

派普斯 (Lucas Pipes)，B. 萊利 (B. Riley)。

Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Brent, my first question is on the bilateral power agreements with data centers that you mentioned. I wondered if you could maybe speak a little bit to the type of organizations that have shown interest how mature are they ? What's the size? And also kind of what do you screen for from those potential customers? You're looking for the best price, are you looking for specific credit profile? I would appreciate your thoughts on that. Thank you.

非常感謝接線員，大家下午好。布倫特，我的第一個問題是關於你提到的與資料中心的雙邊電力協議。我想知道您是否可以談論那些表現出興趣的組織類型，它們的成熟程度如何？尺寸是多少？您還從這些潛在客戶中篩選什麼？您正在尋找最優惠的價格，您是否正在尋找特定的信用狀況？我很感激你對此的想法。謝謝。

Yes, great question. So we're talking to several different partners, our potential customers. They can range from investor-owned utilities, cooperatives, co-hosting data center developers. So those are the type of counterparties that we're looking at. As we said in the prepared remarks that we anticipate, look, all of these counterparties and trying to figure out how to build data centers as fast as they can. And so they are looking at a major capital investment and they need power for a long period of time, right? They don't want to build these things and then find they can't get power in the second or third year.

是的，很好的問題。因此，我們正在與幾個不同的合作夥伴、我們的潛在客戶進行交談。它們的範圍包括投資者擁有的公用事業公司、合作社、共同託管的資料中心開發商。這些就是我們正在尋找的交易對手類型。正如我們在準備好的演講中所說，我們預計、觀察所有這些交易對手，並試圖找出如何盡快建立資料中心的方法。因此，他們正在考慮進行重大資本投資，並且需要長期供電，對嗎？他們不想建造這些東西，然後發現他們在第二年或第三年無法獲得電力。

So as we said in the prepared remarks, we think that this will be a sale of the majority of our energy and capacity. And for a period of time that exceeds a decade and length. So that kind of gives you the scale of, this will be, if we're successful, this will be a major transaction, transformational to the company. These deals aren't done, right? And they take a long time to negotiate because there's big dollars and a construction project typically on the other side of it.

正如我們在準備好的演講中所說，我們認為這將是我們大部分能源和產能的出售。並且持續了超過十年的時間和長度。因此，如果我們成功的話，這將為你帶來規模，這將是一項重大交易，對公司來說具有轉型意義。這些交易還沒完成，對嗎？他們需要很長時間進行談判，因為另一邊通常有大筆資金和建設項目。

So what are we looking for? We're looking for a counterparty that has very good credit, right? We want to know that they're going to be there at the end of this contract, not just at the beginning. And so price, likelihood of, can we actually transact with the counterparty and will their credit survive the test of time. Those are probably the three biggest attributes that we're taking into consideration.

那我們在尋找什麼？我們正在尋找信用良好的交易對手，對吧？我們想知道他們會在合約結束時留在合約中，而不僅僅是在合約開始時。因此，我們能否實際與交易對手進行交易的價格、可能性以及他們的信用能否經受住時間的考驗。這些可能是我們正在考慮的三個最大的屬性。

Thank you, Brent. And you mentioned that these things can can take awhile. Any color in terms of how long it could take from here. I know you just mentioned, there's a lot of wood to chop, but any perspective you could add that, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

謝謝你，布倫特。你提到這些事情可能需要一段時間。任何顏色都取決於從這裡出發需要多長時間。我知道你剛才提到，有很多木材需要砍伐，但如果你能補充這一點，我們將不勝感激。謝謝。

Well, that's a great question, too. And we only control one side of the negotiation. And oftentimes in the negotiation, you have three parties, right? You have ourselves, the wholesaler of power capacity. You have someone that like a Hoosier that has the right to sell industrial power that we have an MOU to potentially sell through, and then you have the end user.

嗯，這也是一個很好的問題。我們只控制談判的一側。通常在談判中，你有三個參與方，對吧？您擁有我們自己，電力批發商的能力。你有一個像印第安人這樣有權出售工業電力的人，我們有一份諒解備忘錄可以透過它來銷售，然後你就有了最終用戶。

And so because there are three different groups typically to the transaction, our crystal ball on how long this all takes is a little more opaque. So what does it feel like? It feels like, I don't know, somewhere near the end of the year or Q1 of next year. That's what it feels like. But we we'll just have to stay tuned.

因此，由於交易通常涉及三個不同的群體，因此我們對這一切需要多長時間的水晶球有點不透明。那麼感覺如何呢？我不知道，感覺就像是在接近年底或明年第一季的某個時候。就是這樣的感覺。但我們只需要保持關注。

Brent, I appreciate that. Really helpful. Thank you for taking a stab. I appreciate there's uncertainty in different parties. One other question from me. Just in terms of kind of looking out to the second half of 2024 in the context of the our first half performance. Obviously, power pricing has been softer. I thought you mentioned 1.6 million megawatt hours sold in the first half.

布倫特，我很欣賞這一點。真的很有幫助。謝謝你的一擊。我理解各方都存在不確定性。我的另一個問題。只是在我們上半年表現的背景下展望 2024 年下半年。顯然，電價已經走軟。我記得您提到上半年售出了 160 萬兆瓦時。

But for the second half, where do you think that number should shake out? You mentioned somewhat higher, I think July utilization rates, but gas prices are super weak. If you had to point to specific, if you had to point to a range for generation, I would appreciate your thoughts on that. Thank you.

但對於下半年，你認為這個數字該在哪裡震盪？你提到的，我認為 7 月的利用率有所提高，但天然氣價格非常疲軟。如果您必須指出具體的情況，如果您必須指出生成的範圍，我將不勝感激您對此的想法。謝謝。

Well, the market has improved from the standpoint of, in March, we had gas inventory levels that were 38% above the 5-year average. That's just staggering amount of gas that was sit around in storage. And so the market gas price down, we believe, to incentivize, it's used, right? And so what's happening is, you have higher heat rate plants dispatching in front of coal plants because we have such just incredibly cheap gas, people tend to look at Henry Hub and the IMEX pricing, but really Chicago Citygate is probably a better indicator for us, and it's been a discount even to those markets.

嗯，從 3 月的角度來看，市場已經有所改善，我們的天然氣庫存水準比 5 年平均高出 38%。儲存中的氣體數量驚人。我們認為，市場天然氣價格下降是為了激勵人們使用它，對嗎？所以發生的情況是，在燃煤電廠之前調度更高的熱耗率電廠，因為我們的天然氣非常便宜，人們傾向於關注亨利中心和IMEX 定價，但實際上芝加哥東薈城可能對我們來說是一個更好的指標，甚至對那些市場來說也是折扣。

So a lot of sub $2 gas in the first half of the year. So the inventory levels have improved, right? So at the end of July here, I think the [26] through the last report, inventory levels had come down by 22%. to 16%. Inventory levels were 16% above the 5-year average.

所以今年上半年有很多低於 2 美元的汽油。那麼庫存水準有改善，對嗎？因此，在 7 月底，我認為 [26] 透過上一份報告，庫存水準下降了 22%。至 16%。庫存水準比 5 年平均高出 16%。

So we still have a lot of gas, but we're a lot better positioned than we were at the beginning of the year. The other thing is this, we're in the summer months, right? So we had good heating demand in July. We should have decent heating demand in December. It's hard to say what the balance of the year will bring. We should see cooling demand again, sometime between around Thanksgiving.

因此，我們仍然有大量天然氣，但我們的處境比年初好得多。另一件事是，我們正處於夏季，對吧？所以我們7月的暖氣需求很好。12月份我們應該會有不錯的暖氣需求。很難說今年剩下的時間會帶來什麼。我們應該會在感恩節前後的某個時候再次看到需求降溫。

So when we look at the period of time we have left, we don't have any scheduled outages, whereas in the first half of the year, half of our plant was offline for 70 days. Now part of that was one unit. Part of that was the second unit. So it wasn't like it was one unit. But when you combine those, there were 70 days only half the plant available to us, no scheduled outages in the back half of the year.

因此，當我們查看剩餘時間時，我們沒有任何計劃停電，而在今年上半年，我們工廠的一半停電了 70 天。現在其中一部分是一個單元。其中一部分是第二單元。所以它不像是一個單元。但當你把這些結合起來時，我們發現在 70 天的時間裡，只有一半的工廠可供我們使用，下半年沒有規劃停電。

So if market prices call for that plant to run, it will run. We did 1.6 million megawatt hours roughly in the first half of the year. We've already exceeded 25% of that in July alone. So market will be better. We should run more. And if you look at the price of gas, when you get to December, it's above $3.

因此，如果市場價格要求該工廠運行，它就會運行。今年上半年我們發電量大約是 160 萬兆瓦時。光是 7 月我們就已經超過了 25%。所以市場會更好。我們應該多跑。如果你看看汽油價格，到 12 月時，它會超過 3 美元。

So at those prices, not only do we dispatch more, we should start to see higher margins, higher gross margins when we run the plant, right? So more widgets, greater margins. And that's what we say when we think that we'll see, finish the year strong and start to return to much more profitable times than we've seen in the first half of the year.

因此，按照這些價格，我們不僅可以發貨更多，而且當我們運營工廠時，我們應該開始看到更高的利潤、更高的毛利率，對吧？因此，更多的小部件，更大的利潤。當我們認為我們會看到，強勁地結束這一年並開始恢復比上半年更加有利可圖的時期時，我們就是這麼說的。

Thank you very much, Brent. I really appreciate it all. I'll turn it over for now. Continued best of luck.

非常感謝你，布倫特。我真的很感激這一切。我暫時把它翻過來。繼續祝你好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator instructions) There are no additional questions at this time. So I'll pass the call back to the management team for any closing remarks.

（操作員說明） 目前沒有其他問題。因此，我會將電話轉回管理團隊，以便其發表結束語。

Yes. I want to thank everyone for taking the time today to tune into our earnings call. I want to thank our management team and thank everyone for their interest in Hallador. Thank you.

是的。我要感謝大家今天抽空收聽我們的財報電話會議。我要感謝我們的管理團隊，感謝大家對 Hallador 的興趣。謝謝。

That concludes today's call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的參與。現在您可以斷開線路。