Plymouth, Minn. — The Mosaic Co. recently announced that it will spend some $225 million to expand MicroEssentials capacity from 2.3 million mt to 3.5 million mt by 2017. Mosaic says the DAP product, which is embedded with micronutrients, has allowed it to de-commoditize its portfolio. Mosaic put the MicroEssentials net margins over $40/mt relative to DAP and MAP. Mosaic said it set a new MicroEssentials sales record in fourth-quarter 2013, and that for full-year 2013 sales grew 22 percent over 2012. It said it invoiced over 1 million mt of the product in North America in 2013. Mosaic also sells MicroEssentials S9, specifically developed for Brazil; MicroEssentials S5, which is focused on grain; and Nexfos, a feed phosphate, and is developing a MicroEssential-type potash product called Aspire. Aspire has undergone a few years of field trials and has had its first small production run, and will be available at select dealers this spring. In the meantime, a complicated patent infringement suit brought against Mosaic over MicroEssentials by Specialty Fertilizer Products (SFP), Leawood, Kan., in 2009, continues to linger in the court system (GM April 23, 2012, p. 13), according to Mosaic. SFP had not responded to inquiries at press time.
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