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Text: But first, I'll review the Safe Harbor disclosure.
As such, actual results may vary materially from expectations.
I have joining me on the call today, Stuart Rose, Executive Chairman of the Board; and Zafar Rizvi, Chief Executive Officer.
Sales for the quarter increased approximately 4.2%, primarily reflecting higher year-over-year production in the ethanol segment and increased distillers grain pricing.
Sales were based upon 67.7 million gallons this year versus 65.9 million in the prior year fourth quarter.
Gross profit for the ethanol and by-products segment increased for the fourth quarter from $8.1 million to $8.3 million, primarily due to improved distillers and corn oil pricing.
The refined coal segment had a similar fourth quarter loss of $1.4 million for this year versus a $1.5 million for the prior year.
SG&A decreased for the fourth quarter from $5.6 million to $4.4 million, largely due to lower ethanol freight charges recorded in selling, general and administration due to certain contract terms.
The company recorded income from its unconsolidated equity investment of $332,000 for the fourth quarter of this year versus $1 million in the prior year.
We recognized a tax benefit of $1.8 million in this year's fourth quarter versus a benefit of $3.4 million in the prior year's fourth quarter.
The refined coal segment contributed a benefit of $1.7 million this year versus $1.5 million in the prior year fourth quarter for the tax benefit.
The above factors led to net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 of $3.5 million compared to $4.4 million in the prior year, while diluted earnings per share decreased from $0.70 to $0.59.
Going forward, ethanol now is currently profitable, and we're up against a period last -- COVID-related closure period last year.
In terms of corn and ethanol prices, they are both up as virtually all commodities are up, and crush spreads remained challenging.
DDG is up with the price of corn.
The new Biden administration appears to have appointees that are favorable to the ethanol industry.
RIN pricing is still -- RIN pricing, although up right now, we are still waiting to see how they will treat RIN pricing.
In terms of the COVID, the COVID news is with the opening up of different states, it should help drive RIN, which should improve demand for our product, especially versus last year.
In terms of refined coal, remains profitable on an after-tax basis.
We plan on ending that operations by year end this year.
In terms of going forward with our cash, we have about $180 million in consolidated cash and equivalents, no debt, our plants are continuing to explore investing in carbon and carbon capture, we've made progress there and have spent a fair amount of time on working on that project.
We also are looking -- continue to look for a high quality ethanol plants.
The ethanol plants we would hope to find if we -- should we find ones to buy would be in our opinion something that is the best -- has good technology, good locations, good people.
As I mentioned in the last three calls, 2020 started in a challenging environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We temporarily shutdown our plants during the first and part of the second quarter and we struggled to find corn for our NuGen facility.
We saw a decrease in the fuel demand and that negatively impacted the ethanol industry.
During the third quarter, condition improved.
We received a steady flow of corn at both of our majority-owned as well as a minority-owned locations.
This resulted in improved crush margin and a very profitable third quarter.
These improved conditions continued through the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Later we began to see a decline in the crush margin in addition to the price of ethanol failed to keep up with increase in corn price.
Farmers lost interest in selling their corn because they were receiving a direct payment from the federal government under the CARES Act.
When China stepped up its corn price -- stepped up its corn purchases, that led to the higher corn prices.
Behind these factors, we experienced political uncertainty and trade disputes.
In addition, the EPA continue to consider and grant small refinery exemption from RFS compliance year.
We expect the crush margin in the near future to continue to be under pressure, but we also expect it to improve once the threat of COVID-19 declines with the progress in vaccination and people began to drive more again.
March 9th report of the USDA showed that carry-out stayed at 1.5 billion bushels with export at 2.6 billion bushels.
The estimated corn yield is 172 bushels per acre and ethanol plants are expected to consume approximately 5 billion bushels in 2021 crop year.
Export of the distillers grains in 2020 was approximately 10.96 million tons compared to 10.8 million in 2019.
We saw considerable improvements in export during the last quarter of the year.
January 2021, Mexico, South Korea and Indonesia were the top three importers in January 2021.
Ethanol export during 2020 totaled of 1.3 billion gallons compared to 1.46 billion gallons of 2019.
January 2021 export totaled 164.7 million gallons compared to 151.3 million gallons in January.
India, China and Canada were the top three importers.
So we saw that India suddenly is on the top of the list compared to generally either -- normally the Brazil or Canada.
So we see some improvements coming out from India also.
Let me give you some progress in the carbon sequestration project.
As I discussed in our previous calls, we are working with the University of Illinois to drill a carbon sequestration test well to determine suitability for an injection well at our One Earth Energy facility.
The University of Illinois is in the progress of evaluating a permit application determined 2D seismic survey to select a test well location and contracting a front end engineering and design, FEED study of the CO2 capture system.
The data will be analyzed to make sure the location is suitable for test characterization well.
The university expect to start drilling a test well.
Once the drilling permit is granted and the design is completed, we expect to start drilling the characterization well in early September.
It would take approximately six weeks to drill and another several weeks of testing.
It will require extensive modeling and computer stimulation to predict the behavior of the CO2 when it is injected.
These stimulation models will determine how much CO2 can be injected at the location and what rate, and it is eventual distribution in the sub-surface area.
This project is still at a preliminary stage and we cannot predict yet that we will be successful.
Our target is to achieve net zero emission.
In summary, we are pleased to announce a profitable quarter and year in spite of a very difficult environment for the ethanol industry and other businesses last year.
And I will give back the floor to Stuart Rose for his further comments.
In conclusion, the economy is starting to open up.
We have great plans, great people, great locations.
We have high hopes that when the economy does open up that our business will improve as demand improves.
Most importantly and the biggest thing that we have going forward is our people.
They've stuck with us through thick and thin.
And they are what we feel makes a difference and what separates us from the rest of the industry and who will continue to allow us to outperform the industry.
I'll now leave it open to questions.

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compname reports q4 earnings per share $0.59.
q4 earnings per share $0.59.

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