White Plains, N.Y. — While Bunge Ltd. fertilizer volumes were up for the second quarter ending June 30, 2012, to 1.42 million mt from the year-ago 1.38 million mt, margins continued to be affected by high-cost inventories from earlier in the year. The company said conditions improved throughout the quarter as it worked through those inventories. Fertilizer segment income before taxes was a loss of $1 million on net sales of $679 million, compared to the year-ago loss of $5 million on sales of $753 million. “In fertilizer, farm economics are strong and South America is entering its high volume period, with approximately 60 percent of the expected volumes to be sold between July and December,” said Drew Burke, Bunge CFO. Six-month volumes were 2.53 million mt, up from 2.37 million mt. Fertilizer losses were $75 million on sales of $1.28 billion, compared to the year-ago loss of $6 million on sales of $1.27 billion. Company-wide, second-quarter income attributable to Bunge was $274 million ($1.78 per diluted share) on sales of $15.1 billion, down from the year-ago $316 million ($2.02 per share) on sales of $14.5 billion. Six-month income was $366 million ($2.37 per share) on sales of $28.5 billion, down from the year-ago $548 million ($3.51 per share) on sales of $26.7 billion.
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