You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: But first, I'll review the safe harbor disclosure.
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 declined 30% primarily due to reduced ethanol gallons sold offset by an $0.11 increase in per-gallon ethanol pricing.
Sales for the quarter were based upon 47.6 million gallons this year versus 71.4 million last year.
The reduced production also resulted in lower unit sales for the ethanol by-products.
The lower ethanol production was primarily at the NuGeN South Dakota plant, as we experienced reduced availability of affordable corn, largely in response to the wet spring conditions, which has led to uncertainty on current year corn production in that area.
We also experienced a lower distiller grain pricing on a year-over-year basis.
Our consolidated corn cost per bushel rose 25% compared to the prior year, again, largely reflecting the concern for corn availability.
Combining these factors led to gross profit for the ethanol and by-product segment decreasing from $11.3 million in the prior year to $25,000 for the current year.
The refined coal segment had a gross loss of $1.8 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 versus $3.5 million for the prior year, reflecting lower production levels in the current year.
These losses are offset by tax benefits recorded under Section 45 credits.
SG&A decreased for the third quarter from $5.4 million to $4.1 million, primarily due to reduced incentive compensation associated with corporate profitability and reduced commission fees associated with the lower refined coal production.
Equity and income of unconsolidated ethanol affiliates decreased from $611,000 [Phonetic] to a small loss of $15,000 for the quarter.
Interest and other income increased from $809,000 to $1 million, primarily reflecting higher interest rates in the current year.
We booked a tax benefit of $3.2 million for the third quarter of this year versus a benefit of $10 million in the prior year.
The benefit is primarily as a result of the Section 45 credits from our refined coal operation, and again reflects lower refined coal production in the current year.
The above factors led to a net loss attributable to REX shareholders for the third quarter of $2.1 million this year compared to income of $11.9 million, and a loss per share of $0.32 this year versus income of $1.86 in the prior year.
Going forward, our corn supply has improved over the last quarter and the crush spreads we have also improved.
We have -- there is less production going on currently in the industry as many plants have -- or number of plants have closed or slowed down.
Demand next year should be up, if the government sticks to the announced rain products.
We're currently running at a profitable rate in ethanol and we're running at a rate that's above last year's corresponding quarter, and certainly, above the quarter we just reported.
In refined coal, we currently continue to run at a rate that -- or we continue to expect a rate less than last year, but we expect it to still be profitable in the current quarter on an after-tax basis.
Our cash balance was approximately $196 million.
We have -- still, have our authorized share repurchase program, 350,000 shares are still open to be bought.
We generally bought our shares on dips.
[Phonetic] We have -- we still have that availability, should we choose.
And we also continue to look for opportunities in the ethanol field.
At the moment, there is nothing imminent, but we are looking.
We have -- also looking at opportunities outside the ethanol field where we can use our management abilities to make profits for our shareholders.
In terms of our cash, we're currently investing it in short-term securities.
As I mentioned in our previous two calls, a challenging environment has continued throughout the year.
The Company faced a number of issues due to weather-related problems, which delayed the planting of corn, uncertainty regarding the expected corn yields and expected delays in the harvest.
We struggled to obtain an adequate supply of corn at our NuGeN facility in South Dakota, where production has fallen off of a historical level.
Our production at this point -- at this plant continue to be interrupted due to corn availability, including no operation in October.
That's largely we experienced the loss in the ethanol segment in the third quarter of 2019.
The only other time it happened was in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 because of drought, and that was almost seven years ago.
On top of that, we are experiencing continued uncertainty because of the trade disputes and the small refinery exemption.
Recently the EPA approved 31 small refineries exemptions for 2018, effectively reducing by 1.4 billion gallons obligation required under the renewable fuel standard.
The EPA has granted a waiver of 2016 and 2017 totally, 2.6 billion gallons.
The EPA has already received 10 petitions for small refinery exemption for -- from the 2019 renewable fuel standard compliance year.
These petitions have doubled since the EPA updated its online dashboard in September.
These waivers are contrary to President Trump's promise to deliver a huge package to the ethanol industry during the trade disputes.
As you all know, the ethanol industry did not receive any payments or subsidy from USDA or any other federal agencies.
As far as concerned about ethanol export, during the first nine-month of 2019, export fell to 1.1 billion gallons compared to 1.25 billion gallons during the same period last year.
Brazil, Canada, and India were the top three importers.
Last year, ethanol export were very healthy 1.7 billion gallon.
We expect ethanol export will drop to 1.5 billion gallon this year due to the continued trade uncertainty.
If or when trade disputes are resolved, export of ethanol are expected to increase as more countries will begin to blend ethanol into their fuel supply because of their growing concern about air quality.
The ethanol stock last week drew 237,000 barrels and the stock ended 22.277 million barrels.
That's almost -- that's now of almost 1.6 million barrels over just the last three weeks, according to a EIA data release on November 27, for the week ending in November 22nd.
Ethanol stock is down 11.6% compared to the same week, last year.
We are pleased that New York becomes the latest state to allow the sale of E15, opening up the fourth-largest fuel market in the USA.
But we are still waiting on California to approve the blend all year around.
As far as concern about the distiller grain, in the first nine months of 2019, export felt to approximately 8.3 million metric tons compared to 8.9 million metric tons in the first nine months of 2018, according to the USDA.
That's a reduction of 6% U.S. export of distiller grain in the September dropped approximately 72,000 metric tons to 1,046,000 metric tons, about 6.4% reduction in August.
However, that was 2% above the 1,020,000 metric tons exported in September 2018.
Mexico was the top buyer.
The country bought approximately 137,000 metric tons, down about 23% from the 180,000 metric tons it bought in August.
The top five importance of DDG in September were Mexico, Vietnam, Turkey, South Korea, and Japan.
DDG is currently trading at approximately 100 -- 210% [Phonetic] of the corn value.
We believe that DDG market will remain the same in the near future unless China tariff gets reduced or eliminated.
Farmers planted 19 million acres of corn and estimated corn yield is about 167 bushels per acre.
Corn use for ethanol field were down 25 million bushels each and export and domestic consumption was down about 50 million bushels each.
Due to heavy rain and floods, the planting season was delayed and many acres were planted very late or not at all.
Because of the delayed planting season, it is estimated approximately 1 billion or more bushels of corn are left to be harvested.
The carryout for 2019 and 2020 is expected to be 1.91 [Phonetic] billion bushels according to USDA.
As I mentioned previously, we have struggled to obtain an adequate supply of corn in South Dakota.
We have not seen this kind of situation during the last 10 years, including the drought year of 2012.
We have seen some improvements in the supply of corn during the harvest and the gross margin also has increased as Stuart mentioned earlier, but I stress cautions into the harvest, until the harvest is completed.
As far as concern about the capital expenses, during the last nine months, we made total capital expenses up approximately $2.6 million at our consolidated ethanol plant.
We estimate $5 million to $6 million of capital expenses during the fourth quarter, excluding any maintenance expenses.
In summary, it was a very challenging operating environment throughout the year.
We faced floods, logistic problems, production interruption because of lack of corn at the NuGeN plant, small refinery exemption and trade disputes.
But we have seen recent improvements in the gross margin, as Stuart mentioned earlier, and we currently expect to be profitable for the fourth quarter at this time.
But why did [Phonetic] this trend continues and we face no more corn shortage?
Now, I will give it back to -- floor to Stuart Rose for any additional comments.
In conclusion, as Zafar just mentioned, crush spreads and corn supplies have improved quarter-to-date versus last quarter, and we are again running at a profitable rate, and should -- and currently project if we can continue this to do better than the fourth quarter of last year.
We continue to outperform the industry even in difficult times.
We attribute this to good plants, good rail, and most importantly, we really believe we have the best people in the industry, and that's really what separates us from the industry.
I'll now turn the conference call over to questions.

user
compname reports q3 loss per share of $0.32.
compname reports third quarter diluted earnings per share loss of $0.32.
q3 loss per share $0.32.
rex american resources - lower q3 '19 ethanol production and lower distiller grain pricing resulted in year-over-year decline in net sales and revenue.

assistant