All posts by mickeybarb@charter.net

Workers at Lithuania’s Achema Launch Strike

Lithuania, News, News Briefs, Nitrogen

Workers at Lithuania’s nitrogen fertilizer and chemicals producer AB Achema went on an indefinite strike on Feb. 8, after company management rejected a collective agreement, according to the website of the European Public Service Union (EPSU).

According to EPSU, about 600 people, or almost half of Achema’s workforce, were expected to take part in the strike action. It is the first strike in the private sector in 30 years in Lithuania.

Achema CEO Ramūnas Miliauskas, as cited by a news report by Lithuanian national radio and television broadcaster, Lrt, said the company was not planning to close down the production plants at Jonova in central Lithuania during the strike, but conceded if the company has to halt production, “it would be done safely.”

According to the report, Achema said earlier that it had increased the wage bill for 2021, created an additional bonus fund, and promised a 3.5 percent pay raise for production staff, according to the report.

Achema in October was forced to cut its production due to high natural gas prices. After the annual repairs, carried out in summer, one of the two ammonia plants was not restarted.

Poland Calls on E.U. to Approve Fertilizer Subsidies

News, News Briefs, Poland

Poland’s Premier Mateusz Morawiecki has called on the European Commission (E.C.) to approve the country’s request to subsidize fertilizers as soon as possible, according to a Bloomberg report. According to the report, the Polish premier said Poland won’t wait for the E.C. to approve recovery funds for the country to start subsidizing investments.

The government move comes as Polish farmers plan new country-wide protests against escalating fertilizer prices.

Acron Group, Haldor Topsøe Ink Green Technologies MOU

Green Ammonia, Green Hydrogen, News, News Briefs, Russia, Scandinavia

Acron Group, Moscow, and Danish engineering company Haldor Topsøe A/S have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop green technologies together.

The MOU includes initiatives to design a process that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (СО2and N2O) at Acron Group’s existing production sites and to develop promising new products with minimum environmental impact, Acron said Feb. 7. Acron Engineering, the group’s research center, will participate in the project.

Topsøe is already engaged in several projects to produce green hydrogen, green ammonia, eMethanol, and efuels.

Cibrafértil Plans Two New Plants

Brazil, News, News Briefs

Brazil’s Cibrafértil Group, Salvador, Bahai, plans to spend R$430 million in 2022 to expand fertilizer production, according to a report in Estadao, citing company CEO Santiago Franco.

Most of the funding – R$360 million – would go to two new plants, which would start up in first-quarter 2023. One new plant is reportedly being built in Sinop, Mato Grosso, while the location of the second has not been revealed pending environmental licensing.

The remainder of the funding would go to upgrade the company’s Uberaba, Minas Gerais, plant, which the company bought in 2021 (GM Feb. 26, 2021) from Fertilizantes Heringer SA. The acquisition of that plant increased Cibrafértil’s Brazilian production capacity by 24 percent, according to a Nasdaq report, citing a company statement. The purchase was part of Cibrafértil’s plan to reach local production capacity of 2.5 million mt by 2025.

AmmPower Plans Louisiana Green NH3 Plant

Green Ammonia, Green Hydrogen, Louisiana, News, News Briefs, Vancouver

Clean technology developer AmmPower Corp., Vancouver, on Jan. 31 announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to develop a green hydrogen/ammonia facility at the Port of South Louisiana (POSL). It said the facility, based upon future feasibility studies, could produce up to 4,000 mt/d of green ammonia.

AmmPower said it will build the facility to produce, store, and distribute green ammonia for use as a carbon free fuel and a carrier of hydrogen energy. The facility would service the fueling of oceangoing vessels (over 4,500/year) at the POSL, and also provide hydrogen rich green ammonia for use domestically and for export.

AmmPower said the project, led by Maarten Mobach, President, AmmPower Maritime, and long-time industry veteran, will be one of the first renewable energy project of this scale, at one of the largest working ports in the world. “Having been involved in a number of large port construction and infrastructure projects over the past 40 years, I can truly say this is a remarkable moment,” said Mobach.

“The pivotal shift to green energy is an important one, and I am very excited to be working with the Port of South Louisiana. We hope this will be the first of many AmmPower projects in the maritime industry that will help transition towards green energy,” he added.

In November, AmmPower announced the production of the first laboratory quantities of ammonia at its Michigan plant (GM Nov. 5, 2021). The company said its “cracking” technology will allow hydrogen to be more easily transported as ammonia, then released as the point of use.

Also last year, AmmPower entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil’s Porto Central for the development of a green ammonia production, storage, and distribution project (GM July 30, 2021).

AmmPower told Green Markets that more information about its projects such as the cost projections, as well as groundbreaking and completion timelines, would be announced by press release as it becomes available.

Scotts Consumer Unit Exceeds Expectations; Hawthorne Posts Loss, Cuts 200 Jobs

Earnings, Eastern Cornbelt, News, Specialty

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., Maryville, Ohio, reported a loss for the quarter ending Jan. 1, 2022, but said its U.S. Consumer segment exceeded expectations and the company upgraded guidance for the unit.

Scotts reported a company-wide net loss of $50 million ($0.90 per diluted share) on net sales of $566 million, compared to the year-ago income of $25.2 million ($0.43 per share) and $748.6 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was a negative $8.5 million, down from the year-ago positive $75.5 million.

U.S. Consumer profit dropped 76 percent to $10.7 million on sales of $342.4 million, down from the year-ago $45.3 million and $408.2 million, respectively. While down, Scotts said this was only the second time the segment has recorded a first-quarter profit.

Hawthorne reported a first-quarter loss of $5.3 million on sales of $190.6 million, compared to the year-ago income of $40.4 and $309.4 million, respectively. On Jan. 4, Scotts said it was maintaining its full-year company-wide outlook for adjusted earnings per share ($8.50-$8.90 per share) despite a greater-than-expected decline in Hawthorne sales for the fiscal first quarter (GM Jan. 7, p. 25), citing a slowdown in the cannabis market and supply chain disruptions.

“The U.S. Consumer segment continues to exceed our expectations and got off to a good start, especially given the difficult comparison from the 147 percent growth the segment reported in the first quarter a year ago,” said Jim Hagedorn, Chairman and CEO. “Consumer purchases at our largest retail partners increased 3 percent in units for the quarter and 9 percent in dollars against 40 percent growth for each measure a year ago. The continued level of consumer and retailer support leaves us optimistic about the strength of the segment as we prepare for the upcoming lawn and garden season.”

Scotts said the better-than-expected result in U.S. Consumer, coupled with additional pricing actions that will take effect in the third quarter, is allowing it to increase full-year sales guidance in the segment to a range of plus 2 percent to minus 2 percent. This compares to a previous range of flat to minus 4 percent.

“While Hawthorne sales declined due to broader market conditions, we made two important acquisitions (GM Jan. 7, p. 27) during the quarter and took several steps to strengthen the business when growth returns,” added Hagedorn. “We have told shareholders for years that our results in this segment could be choppy at times, but our long-term optimism about the industry, and our confidence in the Hawthorne business, is unchanged.”

Separately, Scotts announced plans to consolidate U.S. lighting manufacturing for Hawthorne into a single location, moving production from Vancouver, Wash., to Southern Calif. It will also close the Santa Cruz, Calif., manufacturing facility of the recently acquired HydroLogic Purification Systems (GM Aug. 6, 2021) and move that work to Santa Rosa, Calif. The company said it is also consolidating distribution on the East Coast to a facility it recently built in New Jersey to meet expected demand in new markets. A restructuring charge of up to $5 million is expected to be recorded in the second quarter and will be excluded from the company’s full-year adjusted results.

The company estimates that the restructuring has resulted in the elimination of roughly 200 positions. “While the business decision was easy, it is never a good day when we have to part with valued members of the team,” said Christopher Hagedorn, Executive Vice President and Division President of Hawthorne. “We did everything we could to provide them a soft landing and I sincerely wish them well moving forward.”

“This consolidation has been under consideration for months and, given the current market conditions and our strong inventory position, we chose to make these moves now with limited impact on the business,” said CFO Cory Miller. “As important, the consolidation of our manufacturing footprint is expected to dramatically lower the per-unit price of some of our most important LED lighting fixtures, which we believe will strengthen Hawthorne’s competitive position in the years to come.”

Miller told analysts on Feb. 1 that for the year, the company was 70 percent locked in on commodities, with that slightly behind normal due to lumber vendors not wanting to lock in long-term contracts.

“On everything else, we are actually in good shape including urea where we are nearly 80 percent locked in for the year,” Miller said. “The better news is we are starting to see some relief. Resin has been retreating for a couple of months now. Urea has begun to do the same.” He added that he was optimistic the pricing moves the company has taken would offset these commodity headwinds on a full-year basis.

Scotts continues to see a very good M&A pipeline, and has budgeted some $200 million for future transactions over the balance of 2022.

Darling Ingredients – Management Brief

Management Briefs, Specialty, Texas

Organic supplier Darling Ingredients, Irving, Texas, has announced that Melissa Gaither, Vice President, Investor Relations, Sustainability, and Global Communications, will retire effective April 29 after more than 33 years of dedicated service. She began her career at Darling as a commodity trader in 1989 and has served in a number of leadership roles, including purchasing, investor relations, sustainability, and global communications.

Suann Guthrie has been named to succeed Ms. Gaither, effective Jan. 31. She will report to Chairman and CEO Randall Stuewe. The company said she brings more than 20 years of leadership across strategy development, media and investor relations, public and government affairs, corporate communications, crisis management, and ESG. She joins Darling most recently as a communications executive from the tech industry. Her career also includes stints at BNSF Railway and ExxonMobil.

UPL Ltd. – Management Briefs

London, Management Briefs

UPL Ltd., London, announced on Jan. 25 that it has appointed Mike Frank as President and Chief Operating Officer UPL Crop Protection. He was most recently Vice President and CEO, Nutrien Ag Solutions, at Nutrien Ltd. from 2017-2021.

Frank also spent 25 years with Monsanto, where he was Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer from 2014-2017. He holds an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s Degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Saskatchewan.

UPL is a global provider of sustainable agriculture products and solutions, with annual revenue exceeding $5.2 billion. Its portfolio consists of biologicals and traditional crop protection solutions with more than 14,000 registrations. It is present in more than 130 countries.

Norwegian Plant to Make Green NH3 by 2027

Ammonia, News, News Briefs, Scandinavia

Iverson eFuels As, owned by Hy2gen, Trafigura, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, will begin constructing a plant to make shipping fuel ammonia in 2024 at a site in Norway, according to a Feb. 3 statement by Trafigura, as cited by Bloomberg.

The plant is set to be fully operational by 2027 and will produce ammonia with electrolysis powered by clean electricity. The project will have an initial electrolyzer capacity of 240 megawatts, producing 600 mt/d of ammonia. The company plans to scale up production from that base in the future.