CF Industries Holdings Inc. reported second-quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $3 million ($0.01 per diluted share) on net sales of $1.12 billion, down from the year-ago $47 million ($0.20 per share) and $1.13 billion, respectively.
“The CF team delivered outstanding operational performance during the second quarter,” said Tony Will, CF president and CEO. “We ran our plants safely and at high utilization rates, sold record volumes and delivered cost efficiencies in the head office and across the manufacturing and distribution system. Our focus on execution is particularly critical during the current challenging market environment.”
CF said global nitrogen tradeflows are transitioning, with North American pricing affected the most. CF expects pricing to be challenged for the rest of 2017 and into 2018 as the marketplace continues to adapt to the significant capacity increases in recent years.
Second-quarter production levels were the highest in the history of the company. Gross ammonia production was 2.7 million st, 33 percent higher than in the second quarter 2016. CF said its system operated at a high utilization rate, including the new Port Neal ammonia plant, which ran at more than 115 percent of nameplate capacity in the second quarter.
During the quarter, the company successfully started up a 400,000 st/y diesel exhaust fluid unit (urea equivalent) at the Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex. CF said the new plant brings additional flexibility to Donaldsonville’s product mix, and allows the company to pursue additional customer demand in the growing use of nitrogen for emission control applications.
For the first six months, CF was in the loss column at $20 million ($0.09 per share) on sales of $2.16 billion, down from the year-ago positive $73 million ($0.31 per share) and $2.14 billion, respectively.