Intrepid Potash Inc. reported a second-quarter loss of $13.4 million ($0.18 per dilute share) on sales of $51.8 million, down from the year-ago loss of $4.9 million ($0.07 per share) and $73.6 million, respectively.
Actual potash sales volumes were up during the quarter to 168,000 st from the year-ago 147,000, however, the average net realized sales price dropped to $193/st from $358/st.
“We continue to be impacted by nutrient pricing uncertainty and the ongoing global oversupply of potash products, which pressured our sales and margins in the second quarter,” said Bob Jornayvaz, Intrepid executive chairman, president and CEO. “With the placement of our West facility into care-and-maintenance mode in July and the better-than-anticipated ramp up of Trio® production at our East facility during the second quarter, we believe we are making progress towards lowering our cost profile and optimizing our specialty product production. While it will take time for the impact of these operational changes to be fully realized in our financial results and our sales volumes, we remain focused on the long-term potential of these changes.”
“We have made good progress and continue to work towards a final resolution of the debt covenant issues that we have been experiencing,” he added. “We are grateful for the diligence and thoughtfulness our creditors have demonstrated in the negotiations this far and ask for patience from investors as we endeavor to memorialize the previously announced agreements in principle.”