Martin Midstream Partners L.P. ("the Partnership") reported net income for the first quarter of 2012 of $10.5 million, or $0.40 per limited partner unit. This compared to net income for the first quarter of 2011 of $7.3 million, or $0.31 per limited partner unit. Revenues for the first quarter of 2012 were $338.3 million compared to $283.0 million for the first quarter of 2011.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2012, net income was not impacted by non-cash derivative losses. For the first quarter of 2011, net income was impacted negatively by $0.5 million, or $0.02 per limited partner unit, in non-cash derivatives net losses from certain commodity and interest rate hedges that are subject to mark-to-market accounting.
The Partnership's distributable cash flow for the first quarter of 2012 was $22.8 million. Distributable cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure which is explained in greater detail below under "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information." The Partnership has also included below a table entitled "Distributable Cash Flow" in order to show the components of this non-GAAP financial measure and its reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measurement.
Ruben Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Martin Midstream GP LLC, the general partner of Martin Midstream Partners, said, "We are pleased with the Partnership's first quarter financial performance. For the quarter we earned distributable cash flow of approximately $22.8 million and a strong distribution coverage ratio of 1.17 times. The Partnership benefitted from stronger than expected performance in our Sulfur Services Segment as our fertilizer and molten sulfur divisions continued their positive momentum and strong margin levels we saw in the fourth quarter last year. Operationally, our fertilizer production units are running at very high levels of utilization that coincides with strong customer demand for our product offerings.
Collectively, Terminalling and Storage, Natural Gas Service and Marine Transportation were all slightly below management's expectations for the quarter. However, we continue to be optimistic regarding the throughput level at our marine shore based assets as incremental deep-water offshore drilling seems imminent. Additionally, our marine assets are seeing day-rate improvement and high utilization across both in the inland and offshore divisions.
Looking forward to the second quarter, we expect continued strong performance in our Sulfur Services Segment fertilizer division. In addition, the Partnership will benefit from additional assets coming on line in our Terminalling and Storage Segment."
