TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US coal producer Alpha Natural Resources attributes the improvement of its fourth-quarter net loss, in part, to strong cost control, especially at its eastern operations.

The company on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $122-million, or $0.55 a share, down from a net loss of $359-million, or $1.62 a share, in the comparable period a year earlier.

Excluding special items, the Bristol, Virginia-based company recorded an adjusted net loss of $112-million, or $0.50 a share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $115-million, or $0.52 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The reported loss came in below the average analyst expectation of $0.71 a share, on revenue of $985.35-million.

Revenues were $1.1-billion, flat year-on-year, and coal revenues were $900-million, down from $1-billion a year earlier. The decrease in coal revenues was attributable to lower average price realisations in all regions, which was partly offset by increased tons sold.

Freight and handling revenues, and other revenues were $118-million and $21-million, respectively, up over the $110-million and $19-million, respectively, of the 2013 fourth quarter.

The company, which last month reiterated that it planned to shutter certain West Virginia operations, citing sustained weak market conditions and increasingly stringent federal government regulations, would cut its capital expenditure outlook from $250-million to $300-million for last year to between $225-million and $275-million for 2015.

Coal miners across the globe were finding little respite in the current low oil prices, as stubbornly low coal prices, a global supply glut and competition from natural gas had forced cash-strapped miners to idle unprofitable mines and retrench thousands of miners. In the US, increasingly strict environmental legislation also had a stranglehold on the coal industry’s growth prospects.

Coal-producing companies, such as Arch Coal, Cliffs Natural Resources and Walter Energy, had recently suspended dividends as they tried to stay afloat in the low price environment.

Alpha this year expected to ship between 69-million tons and 80-million tons of coal, which would include 14-million tons to 17-million tons of Eastern metallurgical coal, 19-million tons to 23-million tons of Eastern steam coal and 36-million tons to 40-million tons of Western steam coal.