Kilgore, Texas—Martin Midstream Partners reported a 6 percent uptick in operating income for its Sulfur Services segment, which includes both sulfur and fertilizer, for the year ending Dec. 31, 2015, to $27.1 million on revenues of $170.2 million, compared to 2014’s $25.6 million and $215.5 million, respectively. Adjusted actual EBITDA from the unit was $36 million, with this consisting of $19.5 million from fertilizer, $9.8 million from molten sulfur, and $6.7 million from sulfur prilling, compared to the year-ago $33.8 million. “During the fourth quarter, the pure sulfur side exceeded forecast in both the molten and prilled sulfur lines of business,” said Ruben Martin, president and CEO of Martin Midstream GP LLC, the LP’s general partner. “Volumes within our fertilizer business decreased during the quarter; however, sales migrated to higher margin product lines. For 2015, we exceeded full-year guidance by more than $8.6 million in the Sulfur Services segment based on margin improvement as raw material costs declined. Our Sulfur Services segment has proven to be resilient, even approaching a counter-cyclical nature to the current commodity price environment. Based on 2016 agricultural planting forecasts, we are optimistic that fertilizer performance without our Sulfur Services segment will again be strong,” he continued. Martin said fertilizer margins improved $34/lt in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. Despite an uptick in planting in 2016, he said this would be somewhat offset by the first-quarter drydocking of its ocean-going sulfur barge, which transports molten sulfur from Beaumont to Tampa. While 2015 sulfur volumes were up 1 percent, to 856,000 lt from 2014’s 848,000 lt, fertilizer volumes dropped 10 percent, to 274,000 lt from 306,000 lt. Company-wide, Martin reported 2015 net income of $38.4 million on revenues of $1.04 billion, up from 2014’s loss of $11.7 million and $1.64 billion. Revenues were down, primarily due to significantly lower natural gas liquids prices. Fourth-quarter net income was $6.8 million on revenues of $254.4 million, up from the year-ago $4.4 million and $377 million, respectively.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain