Toronto—A fourth-quarter C$88.7 million non-cash impairment due to the erosion in margins for some water treatment products put Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund in the loss column for both the quarter and the year. Chemtrade fingered aluminum sulfate as the product under pressure. The company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $80.1 million ($1.16 per diluted share) on revenues of $335.7 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $10.1 million ($0.16 per share) and $313.3 million, respectively. The full-year loss was $47.6 million ($0.69 per share) on revenues of $1.36 billion, compared to the year-ago net income of $21 million ($0.35 per share) and $1.2 billion, respectively. Increased revenues were due to the stronger U.S. dollar, as well as the inclusion of General Chemical for 12 months rather than 11 in 2014. The year 2014 also included results of the Montreal East business, which was sold to Suncor Energy Products Inc. on July 17, 2014. “Overall, our businesses performed well in 2015,” said President and CEO Mark Davis. “Our adjusted EBITDA is the highest ever generated by Chemtrade. Our Sulphur Products & Performance Chemicals segment produced strong results from regenerated sulfuric acid and ultra pure acid, more than offsetting some weakness experienced by certain other products. In Water Solutions & Specialty Chemicals, despite some competitive pressures in our water treatment chemicals, our other products in this segment performed better than last year,” continued Davis. He added that demand for most of the company’s products was stable in 2015, and that the company expects that to continue in 2016. The only exception, he said, might be a little weakness in its sulfur resale business due to a downturn in the fertilizer market. Chemtrade told analysts it had recently renewed its sulfuric acid supply agreement with Vale SA through 2020, with the terms being substantially the same as before. Vale is Chemtrade’s largest acid supplier, and is expected to go down to one furnace in 2017. Chemtrade said it markets close to 2 million mt of acid in North America, and that it is well positioned to absorb any fluctuations as roughly half of its volumes are self-produced.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain