U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. announced net income of $31.6 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022. Those results compared with net income of $32.1 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2022. Overall tons sold of 4.606 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 were essentially flat compared with 4.624 million tons sold in the third quarter of 2022 and increased 10% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.
Full-year 2022 revenue was $1.5 billion, an increase of 38% compared with $1.1 billion for 2021. Overall tons sold of 18.016 million for 2022 represents an increase of 14% compared with 15.837 million tons sold in 2021.
Bryan Shinn, chief executive officer, stated, “Our fourth quarter delivered a strong close to an exceptional year. During 2022, we successfully executed our strategic plan and delivered impressive bottom-line results while strengthening our balance sheet and positioning U.S. Silica for future success. In 2022, we significantly raised pricing across both segments to help offset inflation, we increased contract coverage while expanding margins in our Oil and Gas segment and generated $262.7 million of cash flow from operations. We opportunistically used this cash to retire $150 million of long-term debt, effectively reducing our net leverage ratio to 2.2x at year-end. Financially and operationally, we reported impressive achievements during the year, as revenues increased 38%, Adjusted EBITDA grew 58%, and overall tons sold increased 14% year-over-year.
“In our Oil and Gas segment, activity was strong through the holidays, and we did not experience meaningful disruptions from seasonality or weather. The supply and demand balance remained very tight in sand proppant and last-mile logistics, and we continued to be effectively sold-out due to strong well completion demand, especially in West Texas. During the quarter, our customers secured incremental sand supply for the medium term and we signed attractive multi-year contracts that extend into 2024 and 2025, in addition to successfully realizing increased pricing on existing customer contracts.
“In our Industrial and Specialty Products segment, our fourth quarter profitability declined sequentially as we’d expected, due to normal year-end seasonality. Partially offsetting these seasonal impacts, were lower natural gas input costs and the previously announced November 1st price increases on most of its non-contracted industrial products.
“In summary, 2023 is setting up to be another strong year of financial performance and free cash flow generation. Our Oil and Gas segment is well positioned to continue to generate strong earnings and cash flow while delivering further sequential growth. In our Industrial segment, customer demand remains strong overall, and we anticipate sequential improvements as customer activity rebounds from the typical fourth quarter seasonality and we realize a full quarter of price increases,” Shin concluded.