Innophos reports positive net income

Cranbury, N.J.-Innophos Holdings Inc., a North American specialty phosphate producer, reported a $10.6 million increase in third-quarter net income, moving the company into the plus column. “We are proud to report our first ever positive net income quarter,” said Randy Gress, Innophos CEO, “highlighted by continued improvement in our U.S. and Mexican businesses. We believe we are well positioned in the marketplace, and are making the right investments to further improve our financial performance.” Third-quarter net income was $5.6 million on sales of $146.4 million, versus the year-ago loss of $5 million on sales of $140.6 million. The company reported a nine-month net loss of $1.6 million, down from the year-ago $8.1 million. Third-quarter sales in Mexico increased 11 percent and were up .7 percent in the U.S., though they were off 4 percent in Canada. In October, the company’s Coatzacoalcos plant had two planned shutdowns ?Çô one non-annual to maintain its sulfuric acid unit and to perform scheduled cogeneration tie-in work, and one annual maintenance shutdown of one train of its merchant green acid unit. During the outages, the facility also experienced an unplanned downtime in other production units due to a shortage of sulfuric acid from local suppliers caused by terrorist actions, which affected natural gas distribution and sulfur production in Mexico. Tight world sulfuric acid supplies were also a factor. Innophos reports that all units at the facility have been up and running since Oct. 30.