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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 43% primarily due to increased production levels.
Ethanol sales for the quarter were based upon 74.6 million gallons this year versus 47.6 million gallons last year.
We ran our consolidated plants at full capacity in the current year third quarter while last year we had reduced the run rate at the NuGen plant based upon tight corn supply in that region.
Ethanol price per gallon did decline from $1.39 in the prior year to $1.31 in the current year.
We reported a large increase in gross profit to $18.9 million in the third quarter for the ethanol and by-products segment versus a gross profit of $28,000 in the prior year.
Our crush spread between ethanol and corn was approximately $0.19 in the current year versus approximately a negative $0.04 in the prior year, primarily reflecting year over year lower corn pricing of 21%.
Our refined coal segment had a gross loss of $1.3 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 versus $1.6 million in the prior year based upon lower volumes.
These losses are offset by tax benefits of $1 million and $2.2 million for the third quarters of fiscal 2020 and 2019 respectively recorded from the Section 45 credits and the tax benefit from operating losses.
SG&A was similar for the third quarter at $4.3 million versus $4.1 million in the prior year.
We recorded income of $1.2 million from our unconsolidated equity investment in this year's third quarter versus a small loss of $15,000 in the prior year.
Interest and other income declined year-over-year from $1 million to $537,000, primarily due to lower interest rates on a cash and short-term investments as interest rates fell sharply during the current year.
We recorded a tax provision of $4.1 million for the third quarter of this year versus a benefit of $3.2 million in the prior year.
We had a tax expense in the current quarter based upon returning to profitable operations, reversing in the third quarter previously recorded federal benefit of losses at 35% for the current year as well as having lower run rates at the refined coal facility.
The above factors led to net income attributable to REX shareholders of $8.8 million or $1.44 per share in this year's third quarter versus the net loss of $2.1 million or a loss of $0.32 per share in the prior year.
The quarter -- on the quarter to date going forward, we so far are profitable, but crush spreads have deteriorated rapidly in the last 30 days, Zafar Rizvi, our CEO will discuss that further.
We have hoped for a possible better EPA and Agriculture Secretary related to ethanol in the Biden administration that should be a positive -- we hope to be a positive for our Company.
Currently there is less driving which is related to COVID hitting people hard.
And I expect it to hit people even harder right before the vaccine -- hit us even harder right before the vaccine as people are more cautious as they see a vaccine coming soon.
And we believe more people will be staying home.
In terms of refined coal, we have approximately one year left where we receive tax credits, or expect to receive tax credits on that business.
The fourth quarter did well.
We expect it to improve over the third quarter on an after-tax basis.
When cold weather hits, the utilities usually run more which gives us a chance to make more refined coal from the utility, where it usually runs more which gives us a chance to make more refined coal.
In terms of short-term cash on the balance sheet, we have approximately $202 million in short-term cash and short-term investment, -- excuse me, short-term investments and cash on the balance sheet, we have approximately $202 million.
We repurchased 316,349 shares.
And so far in fiscal 2020, we have authorization for another 33,512.
We current -- under our current authorization and we tend to or try to buy or use our buyback to buy the stock on debts.
We're also looking for opportunities in the ethanol field, where we're only really looking at plants that we consider among the very, very best.
In terms of carbon capture, we're working hard on that.
Zafar Rizvi, our CEO will discuss that.
I'll now turn the conference call over to our CEO, Zafar Rizvi.
As I mentioned during calls -- about the last two quarters, this year started in a challenging environment including: a decline in the crude and ethanol demand and price; COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of businesses and; stay at home orders.
And we struggled to find corn for NuGen facility.
We saw a decrease in the fuel demand and the negative impact to the ethanol industry.
We experienced improvement in late May when the COVID-19 shutdown order were relaxed, creating a greater demand for the gasoline and ethanol.
During the third quarter, condition further improved, most importantly, we received a steady flow of corn at both of our majority owned as well as minority owned locations.
This resulted in an improved crush margin and a very profitable third quarter.
These improved conditions continued until recently, now we are seeing a decline in the crush margin.
Due to higher corn price, the price of ethanol failed to keep up with the increase in corn prices in the wake of the threat of another wave of COVID-19.
Also, direct payment to farmers under the CARES Act resulted in a lack of interest from farmers in selling corn.
When China stepped up its corn purchase, that led to a higher corn price.
In addition, we are experiencing continued uncertainty because of the trade dispute.
And the EPA continued to consider and grant small refinery exemption from RFS compliance year.
Unless economic condition and the availability of the corn continue to improve, trade disputes as a result, and COVID-19 threat diminishes, we expect the crush margin may continue to decline due to less demand for ethanol and the higher cost of corn.
On the other hand, USDA corn report shows corn condition at the South Dakota are 79% excellent to good.
We had difficulty in sourcing corn at our NuGen plant during the last crops year.
But this year the crops around our plants' draw in South Dakota and Illinois is strong and encouraging.
The corn crops for 2021 year is projected to yield approximately 14.5 billion bushels and expected to carry 1.7 billion bushels.
DDG export dropped approximately 111,000 [Phonetic] metric tons in the first nine month of 2020 compared to last year.
Export of dry distal grains through September 2020 totaled approximately 8.24 million metric tons compared to 8.3 million metric tons for the first nine month of 2019.
Ethanol export during this timeframe totaled 983 million gallons, 89% of last year's volume of 1.1 billion gallons during the same period.
Let me give you a little bit about our carbon sequestration project.
As I mentioned during our last call, we are working with the University of Illinois to drill a carbon sequestration well at our One Earth Energy facility.
The University of Illinois is in the process of evaluating a permit application to drill a test well.
Their teams will perform 2D seismic surveys to select the location and conduct a front-end engineering and design feed study of the CO2 capture system.
The University expect to receive a well drilling permit in the first quarter of 2021 and plan to drill the test well within the first half of 2021.
This project -- this project is still a very preliminary stage and we cannot predict yet that we will be successful with this project.
In summary, we are pleased to announce a very profitable quarter in spite of a very difficult environment for the industry.
We are pleased with the production of the corn crops in our draw area this year over last year.
It helped and led to a very profitable third quarter.
They contributed to profitable third quarter earnings in spite of the uncertainty and the difficult overall environment.
I will give back -- floor back to Stuart Rose for additional comments.
As Zafar said, we had a good quarter, we regained profitability, but hard times have hit us again as the crush spread have gone negative.
All things considered, a profitable quarter during these times is something to be proud of.
And, our plants are among the -- and continue to be among the best locations and best plants in the industry.
And as Zafar said most importantly and the best part of our Company is, during these COVID times, our employees have shown how great they are, they've been heroes, they've come to work and we're very proud that we have the best -- the best employees in the industry.
And that's allowed us to produce among the best numbers in the industry.
I'll now leave the forum open to questions.

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compname posts q3 earnings per share $1.44.
compname reports fiscal 2020 third quarter earnings per share of $1.44.
q3 earnings per share $1.44.

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