Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. reported second quarter earnings of $0.60 per share ($522 million), which compared to $0.96 per share ($840 million) in the same period last year. The company said while this year’s second-quarter results reflected strong underlying performance, they were impacted by notable items, including a $341 million ($0.39 per share) impairment recorded on our investment in Sinofert Holdings Ltd. (Sinofert) and $29 million ($0.02 per share) in items related to the phosphate segment (included in cost of goods sold).
Accelerating potash demand, including unprecedented offshore sales volumes, and record contribution from nitrogen operations resulted in gross margin of $1.2 billion for the quarter, the third-best quarterly total in company history and slightly exceeding that of the same period last year.
For more details, see the Green Markets Web Edition July 27.