CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., is planning to increase its overseas shipments to regions plagued by fertilizer shortages, including Latin America, CEO Tony Will said this week in an interview with Bloomberg prior to a trip to the region. Brazil is the No. 1 soybean and the No. 2 corn exporter globally.
“We seriously need to look at doing significant exports to Latin America to make up for the deficit that used to be sourced out of Russia,” he said.
North American farmers have “ample” fertilizer for spring sowing, which in some regions has already begun, Will said. That will allow the company to up overseas sales, especially in the second half of the year.
CF is seeing a large influx of cash thanks to high fertilizer prices, and is planning to return some of it to shareholders in a $1.5 billion share repurchase program. They will also use some of it to expand their position in clean energy. CF is looking to acquire companies that could help expand its North American production capacity for some types of ammonia.
“The world is going to be short of ammonia,” Will said. “If you can decarbonize the production process of ammonia, you have a really sustainable clean energy source.”
Earlier in the week, Will told CNBC that the current fertilizer shortage may take 2-3 years to work itself out.