Haldor Topsoe, Lyngby, Denmark, said on Aug. 11 that by mutual agreement, Chief Commercial Officer Amy Hebert has left the company.
“Amy Hebert has been with Topsoe since 2018, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Amy for her contribution and dedicated efforts in furthering our commercial offerings. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors,” said CEO Roeland Baan.
The company said the recruitment process for the next CCO has been initiated.
Innovations for World Nutrition (IFWN), Florence, Ala., has announced its first issued U.S. patent. It deals with the early growth of plants and increased yields for grains, particularly rice.
IFWN said the technology involves the feeding of CO2 (carbon dioxide) to the initial roots of the plant, while also providing an energy source to the forming roots, which stimulates plant growth prior to the formation of leaves.
The company said the CO2 is provided by biocarbonates of sodium, potassium, and ammonium in combination with urea, with energy coming from sugar-containing chemicals.
The company said yield increased 50 percent over base cases in greenhouse work. It said the plants with CO2 and sugar grow faster and stay green longer, thereby increasing yield.
In addition to the now issued U.S. Patent Number 11,040,920 B2, IFWN said it has filed for eight additional U.S. patents dealing with CO2 usage and early growth technologies.
Some five years of development work continues at Applied Chemical Technology (ACT) in Florence, Ala., under the director of ACT founder Ray Shirley (GM May 1, 2020; April 5, 2019).
Growmark, Bloomington, Ill., and technology provider Indigo Ag, Boston, on Aug. 10 announced a joint effort to spur participation in the growing market for agricultural carbon. Growmark’s network of FS branded retailers will help farmers navigate the soil carbon market and they will use Carbon by Indigo, a third-party verified credit program.
“The opportunity for farmers to benefit from public demand for high-quality carbon credits is tremendous,” said Mark Orr, Growmark Vice President, Agronomy. “We’re proud to work with Indigo to provide our farmer partners with a simple and informed path to generate maximum revenue for their efforts.”
“We are excited to be working with Growmark and FS retailers to help further farmers’ understanding of the fast-growing carbon farming landscape and support the development of the market to adequately reflect the value of farmers’ environmental contributions,” said Chris Harbourt, Indigo Ag Global Head of Carbon.
New Fortress Energy Inc., (NFE), New York, reported on Aug. 11 that it has executed two Gas Supply Agreements with subsidiaries of Unigel Participações (Unigel) to supply natural gas to the Unigel Agro-BA and Unigel Agro-SE nitrogen fertilizer plants located in the Brazilian states of Bahia and Sergipe, respectively. The agreements also include an option to supply Unigel’s chemicals facility in Candeias, state of Bahia, Brazil.
Proquigel Química SA, a unit of Unigel, agreed to lease the Bahai and Sergipe plants from Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), Rio de Janeiro, in 2019 (GM Nov. 22, 2019). The ten-year leases were fully secured in 2020 (GM Aug. 14, 2020), and production started this year (GM Jan. 29, p. 1; April 16, p. 1).
In total, NFE expects to supply Unigel with up to 41 Tbtu of natural gas annually (equivalent to approximately 1.4 million gallons of LNG per day) for a five-year term beginning in first-quarter 2022.
“We are excited to become the strategic gas supply partner of Unigel, one of the premier industrial companies in Brazil,” said Wes Edens, NFE Chairman and CEO. “This partnership demonstrates the value our LNG import terminals will provide to customers in Brazil as we bring affordable, reliable energy supply and support industry throughout Brazil.”
The supply of gas from NFE’s Suape and Sergipe LNG terminals in Brazil’s northeast will connect Unigel’s operations to the global LNG and natural gas markets, as well as significantly reduce pipeline transportation charges.
“We believe that this five-year term agreement with NFE will provide a more reliable, stable operation for our plants in the long run, which is key to improve our competitiveness and solidify our commercial presence in Brazil,” said Roberto Noronha Santos, Unigel CEO.
Unigel said its fertilizer plants are capable of producing over 3,000 mt/d of urea in total.
CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., said on Aug. 9 its wholly-owned subsidiary, CF Industries Inc., has elected to redeem on Sept. 10, 2021, $250,000,000 principal amount, representing one-third of the currently outstanding $750,000,000 principal amount, of its 3.450 percent Senior Notes due 2023. CF intends to use cash on hand to fund the redemption.
Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, reported second-quarter results that broke records, beat Wall Street estimates, and prompted an uptick in guidance for the year. Second-quarter net earnings were $1.11 billion ($1.94 per diluted share) on sales of $9.76 billion, up from the year-ago $765 million ($1.34 per share) and $8.43 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $2.2 billion, up from the year-ago $1.7 billion.
The average analyst projection (Bloomberg Consensus) had adjusted EBITDA of $2.19 billion and sales at $9.71 billion. Analysts were more optimistic on net income at $1.16 billion compared to Nutrien’s $1.11 billion.
“We delivered record earnings across our global business for the second quarter and first half of 2021 and expect the remainder of the year to contribute to a full year record,” said Mayo Schmidt, Nutrien President and CEO. “We showcased Nutrien’s unique competitive advantages, strong operating performance and the significant leverage to higher fertilizer prices as we focus on our purpose to help growers meet the ever-growing demand for increased food production in a sustainable manner. The outlook for global crop and fertilizer markets continues to be very strong and we are positioned to benefit from our structural advantages and as a global leader in agriculture.
“We increased our full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA guidance by over $1.5 billion, supported in part by our quick actions to produce an additional one million mt of potash, illustrating the power of the Potash team’s unparalleled flexible, reliable, and low-cost six-mine network,” he added.
Nutrien raised full-year 2021 adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net earnings per share guidance to $6.0-$6.4 billion and $4.60-$5.10 per share, up from $4.5-$4.9 billion and $2.55-$3.25 per share, respectively. It said this reflects higher expected results across the business, as well as the benefits of increasing 2021 potash sales guidance by one million mt to address global demand. By fourth-quarter 2021, Nutrien expects to surge potash production to an annualized run-rate of approximately 17 million mt.
“We expect global potash demand in 2021 to be at record levels between 69-71 million mt and global inventory levels in key regions to remain very low,” Schmidt told analysts in the company earnings call. “We are the only producer globally with the capability to respond. We delivered record volumes in the first half of 2021 and are on track to achieve a full-year record,” he added, citing exceptional spot market demand in the U.S., Brazil, and Southeast Asia.
Schmidt, however, was a bit cautious, saying that when the Brazil price sits at $680/mt there is some level of concern whether growers will simply mine the soil.
Going forward, he expects global potash demand to grow 2-3 percent per year, which could mean that in the next 8-9 years the industry would need 14-23 million mt/y. And he reminded that if the market needs it, Nutrien has a line on 5 million mt/y more of low-cost, brownfield tons.
On the Nitrogen side, the company said it has completed its major turnaround at Borger, Texas, and it is one-third of the way through its turnaround at Redwater, Alta.
Among its Retail segment highlights was that in the first-half the company’s digital platform delivered $1.57 billion in sales, up from the year-ago $722 million. Digital’s proportion of sales rose to 19 percent from 10 percent. In the meantime, the brick and mortar part of the segment continues to be rationalized; the company estimated that it rationalized some 70 retail branches in North America over the past three years.
Nutrien also boosted segment adjusted EBITDA and sales volume expectations: Retail to $1.6-$1.7 billion from $1.55-$1.65 billion; Potash to $2.4-$2.6 billion from $1.5-$1.7 billion; Nitrogen to $1.85-$2.05 billion from 1.3-$1.5 billion; Phosphate to $400-$500 million from $275-$375 million; Potash sales tons to 13.5-13.9 million mt from 12.5-13.0 million mt; and Nitrogen sales tons to 10.8-11.2 million mt from 10.9-11.4 million mt.
Nutrien’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.46 per share payable on Oct. 5, 2021, to shareholders of record on Sept. 30, 2021.
Six-month net earnings were $1.2 billion ($2.16 per share) on sales of $14.4 billion, up from the year-ago $730 million ($1.28 per share) and $12.6 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was up at $3 billion from the year-ago $2.2 billion.
| Retail (millions) | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 1,097 | 964 | 1,206 | 971 |
| Gross Margin | 1,858 | 1,627 | 2,510 | 2,168 |
| Total Sales | 7,537 | 6,764 | 10,509 | 9,425 |
| CN Sales | 3,045 | 2,527 | 4,061 | 3,312 |
| CN Margins | 703 | 559 | 923 | 715 |
| CN Volume (000 mt) | 6,152 | 6,122 | 8,552 | 8,147 |
| Avg ($/mt) | 495 | 413 | 475 | 406 |
| CN gross margin per mt | 114 | 91 | 108 | 88 |
| Potash (millions) | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 495 | 335 | 875 | 620 |
| Gross Margin | 500 | 278 | 820 | 530 |
| Total Sales | 817 | 558 | 1,428 | 1,105 |
| Sales Volume (000 mt) | 3,621 | 3,615 | 6,778 | 6,492 |
| Avg ($/mt) | 226 | 163 | 211 | 170 |
| Nitrogen (millions) | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 555 | 383 | 855 | 619 |
| Gross Margin | 416 | 208 | 566 | 305 |
| Total Sales | 982 | 696 | 1,555 | 1,226 |
| Sales Volume (000 mt) | 2,966 | 3,190 | 5,369 | 5,718 |
| Avg ($/mt) | 331 | 218 | 290 | 214 |
| Phosphate (millions) | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 112 | 77 | 209 | 123 |
| Gross Margin | 84 | 28 | 150 | 21 |
| Total Sales | 351 | 250 | 695 | 529 |
| Sales Volume (000 mt) | 586 | 666 | 1,288 | 1,425 |
| Avg ($/mt) | 598 | 375 | 539 | 372 |
Ammonia producer CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., and trading firm Mitsui & Co Inc., Tokyo, announced on Aug. 9 the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will guide the companies in a joint exploration of the development of blue ammonia projects in the U.S. Areas of study include establishing blue ammonia supply and supply chain infrastructure, CO2transportation and storage, expected environmental impacts, and blue ammonia economics and marketing opportunities in Japan and in other countries.
“As countries and industries continue to develop plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, there is broad interest in blue and green hydrogen and ammonia to help meet the world’s clean energy needs,” said Tony Will, CF President and CEO. “CF Industries and Mitsui share a belief that blue ammonia will play a critical role in accelerating the world’s transition to clean energy and that demand for blue ammonia will grow meaningfully. We are pleased to collaborate with Mitsui and leverage the world-class expertise of both companies to explore the development of blue ammonia capacity in the United States to meet this expected demand.”
In its Aug. 10 earnings call, CF also updated and outlined its near-term clean ammonia plans. Will said that projects the company has announced so far are likely to cost below $400 million spread over the next two or three years. “And based on the increased margin and cash flow that we are seeing from operations, that’s easily taken care of just based on normal spending levels.”
CF’s planned green hydrogen/ammonia project announced in 2020 for Donaldsonville, La. (GM Oct. 30, 2020), will be in the range of $100 million. This initial project would produce 20,000 st/y of green ammonia. Will said the dehydration and compression systems that the company is looking at for CO2 at Donaldsonville would be in the range of about $200 million and should be able to provide CF with about 1 million st/y of blue ammonia.
“And we are also looking at potentially a similar dehydration and compression unit in Yazoo City, Miss., which should be able to provide use with another 250,000-300,000 st/y of blue ammonia. And that would probably be in the $70-$80 million range,” he added.
Will said that blue/green ammonia are going to be in short supply relative to the demand that is coming. “So that suggests that it’s got to get built. And if you think about who the best ammonia operators are in the world with the largest network and where there ought to be significant scale advantages, it’s us.”
CF also listed its other clean initiatives, including participation in the Joint Study Framework established by Itochu Corp. to verify and study common issues regarding the use of ammonia as a maritime fuel.
In April 2021, CF signed an engineering and procurement contract with Thyssenkrupp to supply a 20 megawatt alkaline water electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen at Donaldsonville (GM April 23, p. 1). Construction is to begin in second-half 2021, with completion in 2023. CF said it would be the largest of its kind in North America.
CF said the U.K. government is expected in October to select at least two carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) clusters to move into an operational phase by 2026. CF said both of its manufacturing complexes are under consideration.
In addition, CF said that from Oct. 1, 2021, moving forward, 100 percent of electricity purchases for U.K. manufacturing complexes will be from renewable resources, compared to 23 percent currently. CF said this will bring company-wide electricity purchases from renewable resources to 38 percent versus 22 percent based on CF Industries’ electricity purchases across its network in 2020.
CF has established goals for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a 25 percent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030.
CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., reported second-quarter earnings attributable to common shareholders of $246 million ($1.14 per diluted share) on net sales of $1.59 billion, up from the year-ago $190 million ($0.89 per share) and $1.2 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was up, at $599 million from the year-ago $490 million. Total tons sold were down, to 5.17 million st from the year-ago 5.39 million st.
Despite the earnings uptick versus year-ago figures, earnings, sales, and adjusted EBITDA missed analyst average estimates (Bloomberg Consensus). Analyst projections had been for earnings of $338 million, sales of $1.62 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $707 million.
“The CF team performed well in the first half of 2021 as strong global nitrogen demand and favorable energy spreads enabled us to generate approximately $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA, nearly 25 percent higher than the first half of 2020,” said Tony Will, CF President and CEO. “These dynamics continue to support global nitrogen prices at levels far above those of a year ago, positioning CF Industries well for the second half of 2021. Looking ahead, we expect positive global nitrogen industry conditions to persist into 2023, underpinned by the need to replenish global grains stocks.”
Will told analysts that the CF incurred some $60 million in second-quarter turnaround and maintenance expenses and in the first-half hit by $100 million in costs to cover for lost production due to both the turnarounds and the big freeze that occurred in February, which required that the company buy urea and ammonia to cover commitments to customers. Cost of sales were also higher due to stronger natural gas prices and reduced volumes sold.
CF explained that in a normal year it has four major turnarounds, but that due to COVID-19 it only had two in 2020, which pushed 2021 turnarounds initially to six, but the company has now opted to pull a 2022 turnaround of the Port Neal 2 ammonia plant into 2021, for a total of seven. Will said this year would be the first that both Port Neal 2 and Donaldsonville 6 ammonia, its two largest plants, have had turnarounds, and those tend to take longer and be more expensive.
With all of these turnarounds under its belt by next year, CF said it may be able to set an all-time ammonia production record in 2022. Will said that as good as the pricing opportunity is right now, “we want to make sure we can run flat out” next year.
Six-month net earnings were $397 million ($1.83 per share) on net sales of $2.64 billion, up from the year-ago $258 million ($1.20 per share) and $2.18 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was up at $997 million from $808 million. Total tons sold were 9.74 million st, down from the year-ago 10.1 million st.
| Production (000 st) | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Ammonia | 2,232 | 2,483 | 4,711 | 5,153 |
| Gran Urea | 968 | 1,206 | 2,152 | 2,491 |
| UAN 32 | 1,628 | 1,708 | 3,317 | 3,307 |
| AN | 449 | 546 | 924 | 1,061 |
| Ammonia | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Net Sales ($/M) | 459 | 364 | 665 | 557 |
| Gross Margin ($/M) | 126 | 102 | 252 | 122 |
| Sales Volumes (000 st) | 1,036 | 1,118 | 1,719 | 1,880 |
| Avg Selling Price ($/st) | 443 | 326 | 387 | 296 |
| Gas Costs ($/mmBtu) | 3.25 | 1.86 | 3.24 | 2.20 |
| Gran Urea | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Net Sales ($/M) | 433 | 329 | 832 | 666 |
| Gross Margin ($/M) | 192 | 124 | 327 | 237 |
| Sales Volumes (000 st) | 1,092 | 1,314 | 2,412 | 2,695 |
| Avg Selling Price ($/st) | 397 | 250 | 345 | 347 |
| UAN | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Net Sales ($/M) | 434 | 308 | 666 | 543 |
| Gross Margin ($/M) | 138 | 63 | 140 | 105 |
| Sales Volumes (000 st) | 1,949 | 1,840 | 3,463 | 3,230 |
| Avg Selling Price ($/st) | 223 | 167 | 192 | 168 |
| AN | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Net Sales ($/M) | 136 | 118 | 241 | 234 |
| Gross Margin ($/M) | 16 | 27 | 26 | 40 |
| Sales Volumes (000 st) | 501 | 576 | 939 | 1,123 |
| Avg Selling Price ($/st) | 271 | 205 | 257 | 208 |
| Other | 2Q-21 | 2Q-20 | YTD-21 | YTD-20 |
| Net Sales ($/M) | 126 | 85 | 232 | 175 |
| Gross Margin ($/M) | 31 | 18 | 47 | 34 |
| Sales Volumes (000 st) | 596 | 538 | 1,205 | 1,146 |
| Avg Selling Price ($/st) | 211 | 158 | 193 | 153 |
Land O’Lakes Inc., Arden Mills, Minn., reported a 22 percent increase in second-quarter net earnings to $99.7 million on net sales of $4 billion, up from the year-ago $81.6 million and $3.5 billion, respectively. Six-month earnings were up even more at 99 percent, to $235.6 million on net sales of $7.97 billion from $$118.3 million and $7.31 billion, respectively.
The company said second-quarter earnings were driven by strong performance in Crop Inputs with higher volumes and favorable product mix in crop protection and improved margins in crop nutrients. The company said net sales growth reflected strength in Crop Inputs and Animal Nutrition and higher pricing across the portfolio to offset rising input and supply chain costs. Net sales accelerated in the second quarter as farmers invested in their crops and animals.
“We are pleased we’ve been able to maintain the strength and accelerate the momentum of last year’s performance,” said Beth Ford, Land O’Lakes President and CEO. “Despite increasing costs, the fundamentals of our industry remain favorable and our differentiated approach has delivered sustained performance in all business segments through the first half of the year. We also recognize third quarter could be our toughest year-over-year comparison in our historically smallest quarter, as during 2020, COVID-19 drove above normal retail purchasing.”
Nutrien Ltd. announced on Aug 12 its agreement to acquire Bio Rural, a Brazilian retail business, operating in the soybean and corn producing state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
“This acquisition drives our expansion goals with a complementary increase in the number of physical branches and specialized consultants, allowing us to expand our presence and serve Brazilian farmers with the best and largest platform for agricultural solutions,” said André Dias, President of Nutrien for Latin America.
Nutrien said it plans to combine the knowledge and experience of Bio Rural with Nutrien’s global leadership in product and service offerings. Total revenue associated with Bio Rural is approximately R$200 million (US$38 million), with average EBITDA margins of approximately 10 percent. Nutrien said the deal will add another nine branches.
“Bio Rural built its history based on credibility, quality, and proximity to rural producers. Now we can bring our service model to these farmers, which combines Experience Centers, specialized consultants, and a digital platform in an integrated manner to provide information to and drive value for our growers,” added Dias.
Terms of the deal were not reported. The transaction is subject to approval by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and other customary closing conditions.
Leading up to the Bio Rural news, Nutrien had 33 branches in Brazil, having made four acquisitions in Brazil in the last 18 months, with the latest being Terra Nova Agricola in July (GM July 9, p. 1).
