Westshore Terminals Income Fund - 2010 first quarter report

About this update from Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation

[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n May 6, 2010 (Canada NewsWire Group) -- Westshore Terminals Income Fund (TSX: WTE-UN) announced today its earnings for the first quarter ending March 31, 2010. Please see attached Report to Unitholders for details.\n\n\n\n >\n\n\nThe earnings and distributable cash of Westshore Terminals Income Fund (the "Fund") are wholly dependent on the results of Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership ("Westshore"). Westshore's results are determined largely by the volume of coal shipped by its coal mine customers for sale in the export market, the US dollar denominated price received by Westshore's customers for coal, the CDN/US dollar exchange rate and Westshore's costs. In recent years, a substantial portion of Teck Coal's throughput was handled at loading rates that varied with the price of coal. However, as a result of a recently concluded agreement with Teck, a smaller portion of Teck's throughput will be at variable loading rates in 2010, and for the 2011/12 coal year none of the contracts with Teck will provide for variable pricing. Lower prices for hard coking coal resulted in Teck, which is Westshore's principal customer, achieving lower average settlement prices for the 2009/10 coal year (ended March 31, 2010) compared to the 2008/09 coal year. For the 2010/11 coal year, prices that have been publicly announced to date, including in Teck's release dated April 20, 2010, reflect increased coal prices in the US$200-$235 per tonne range. As Westshore has some exposure to fluctuations in exchange rates (as a result of pricing mechanisms under its customer contracts), Westshore engages in periodic currency hedging arrangements to provide some partial shielding from material short-term swings in the CDN/US dollar exchange rate.\n\n\n >\n\n\nThis management's discussion and analysis refers to certain measures other than those prescribed by Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"). These measures do not have standardized meanings and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other trusts or corporations. They are however determined by reference to the Fund's financial statements. These non-GAAP measures are discussed because the Fund believes that they provide investors with valuable information in understanding the results of the Fund's operations and financial position...

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