The Mosaic Co. on Sept. 6 reported that it is increasing potash prices by $15/st, effective immediately. As a result, the company’s potash postings have moved to $250/st FOB Midwest warehouses and $220/st FOB NOLA barges.

Growmark said Aug. 31 that it plans to build a new state-of-the-art fertilizer facility in Ayr, Ont. It will be managed by FS Partners. The 15,000 mt facility will have nine bins to give flexibility for retail blending needs. It will also have a blending system capable of mixing up to 2,000 mt of crop nutrient products per day, more than doubling the old capacity of 800 mt per day. The facility will be capable of receiving products by rail and truck.

Construction is expected to start in October, with completion in about a year. The new plant is a shared asset between Growmark and FS Partners, with FS utilizing it to serve its farmer-customers, while Growmark will use it to it to distribute to area retailers.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. officials were on hand today in Hammond, Ind., for the grand opening of the $90 million rail facility and warehouse at the Hammond Regional Distribution Center. This structure can hold more than 100,000 tons of potash and with this capacity, PotashCorp says the distribution center is like having a mini mine in the Midwest.

“It improves our ability to efficiently deliver potash to our U.S. market,” says Bob Felgenhauer, PotashCorp’s vice president of transportation and distribution. “Building this facility shows our customers we are committed to meeting their needs and are willing to invest in facilities to do that.”

The warehouse, completed in April 2016, is equipped with state-of-the-art product-handling equipment that can unload railcars two to three times faster than a typical potash warehouse. This helps handle increased capacity from PotashCorp’s Saskatchewan mines, which recently saw multi-billion dollar expansions.

The first phase of the Hammond project, which added 14 miles of track to the rail yard, was completed in 2012. This created space for up to 1,000 railcars to stand loaded and ready to roll. In bypassing potential bottlenecks at the busy Chicago rail corridor 25 miles to the north, PotashCorp said it can forward position material and significantly reduce delivery times to customers.

The State Trading Co. in India has so far awarded just under 800,000 mt from its May 19 urea tender. More awards are still possible because STC asked for offers to be valid through May 27. Prices for the awards range from $214.39/mt CFR for West Coast ports to $218.89/mt CFR for Gopalpur on the East Coast. Sources said as the tender closed STC could take close to 1 million tons if the price was right. The results from this tender represent about a $10/mt drop in price from the MMTC tender from just a month ago.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. and OCI NV today announced the termination of the proposed combination of CF and the European, North American and Global Distribution businesses of OCI. The companies said the US Department of Treasury announcement on April 4, 2016 materially reduced the structural synergies of the combination. Since that time, both companies have worked together collaboratively to explore alternative transactions and structures that would be attractive to their respective shareholders. However, the companies were unable to identify an alternative acceptable to both parties and, therefore, agreed to terminate the combination.

K+S Group said April 5 that potash production at the Hattorf site is resuming today and that the Unterbreizbach site will be back up April 7. The company said the restrictions are being lifted due to improvements in the water flow of the Werra River, which will allow the disposal of saline wastewater into the river.

K+S said it is now possible to operate at full production capacity.

The temporary layoff, which started April 1, impacted some 950 employees. The company warned that the situation could arise again if weather patterns change. It reiterated that it remains important that it receive a long-term injection permit of sufficient scope as soon as possible as it is currently dependent on the Werra River water flow.

Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP said April 1 that it has completed its merger with CVR Partners LP.

Rentech Nitrogen and CVR Partners entered into a definitive merger agreement on Aug. 9, 2015 pursuant to which CVR Partners agreed to acquire all of the common units of Rentech Nitrogen. Under the terms of the transaction, each eligible Rentech Nitrogen common unit issued and outstanding immediately prior to the closing was automatically converted into the right to receive 1.04 units of CVR Partners and $2.57 of cash.

Prior to the close, Rentech sold its Pasadena, Texas, facility to a unit of Interoceanic Corp.

With the completion of the merger, Rentech Nitrogen is no longer being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

USDA released its Prospective Plantings report at noon on March 31, projecting that U.S. growers will plant an estimated 93.6 million acres of corn in 2016, up 6 percent from last year. If realized, USDA said this will represent the highest planted corn acreage in the U.S. since 2013, and will be the third highest planted acreage in the country since 1944.

Soybean planted area in the U.S. for 2016 is estimated at 82.2 million acres, down less than 1 percent from last year. USDA said soybean acreage intentions are down or unchanged in 23 of the 31 surveyed states compared with last year.

All wheat planted area for 2016 is estimated at 49.6 million acres in the U.S., down 9 percent from 2015. The 2016 winter wheat crop is estimated at 36.2 million acres, down 8 percent from last year and down 1 percent from the previous estimate. Area planted to other spring wheat for 2016 is estimated at 11.3 million acres, down 14 percent from 2015.

The intended Durum planted area for 2016 is estimated at 2.00 million acres, up 3 percent from 2015. Sorghum growers intend to plant 7.22 million acres for all purposes in 2016, down 15 percent from last year.Area seeded to oats for 2016 is estimated at 2.75 million acres, down 11 percent from 2015 and the third lowest acreage on record in the U.S., if realized. USDA said record low planted oats acreage is estimated in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.Barley producers intend to seed 3.14 million acres for the 2016 crop year, down 12 percent from 2015 and the fourth smallest seeded barley crop on record in the U.S., if realized. In North Dakota alone, planted barley acreage is expected to decrease by 29 percent from last year.

All cotton planted area for 2016 is estimated at 9.56 million acres, up 11 percent from last year. Upland area is estimated at 9.35 million acres, reflecting an 11 percent increase from 2015, while American Pima area is estimated at 215,000 acres, up 36 percent from 2015.

Area planted to rice in 2016 is expected to total 3.06 million acres, up 17 percent from 2015, with USDA citing “lower prices for competing commodities” as the primary reason for the rice acreage increase.

USDA said its annual Prospective Plantings report is based primarily on surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March of more than 83,000 farm operators across the country.