Agrium Inc. said its Vanscoy, Sask., potash mine is still closed today after a worker suffered a serious injury Monday morning, Aug. 8. “The mine is still closed while we focus on safety discussions with our workforce,” a company spokesman told Green Markets. “We are currently working on a safe restart plan.”
The company said the worker is still in the hospital. The company said its continued focus remains with the employee, his family and the safety of its workers.
OCI Partners LP, citing lower ammonia and methanol prices, posted a second-quarter loss of $15 million on sales of $56 million, compared to a year-ago net income of $13 million on sales of $80 million.
While ammonia sales volumes were up at 75,000 st from the year-ago 63,000 st, average selling prices were $301/mt, down from $447/mt. Methanol sales were also up, but prices declined to $192/mt from $362/mt.
LSB Industries Inc. reported a 31 percent increase in Agricultural volumes for the second-quarter ending June 30, 2016, though average selling prices were off 28-30 percent depending on commodity. Industrial, Mining and Other Chemicals saw a 5 percent drop in volumes
LSB reported an operating loss of $8.9 million compared to a year-ago loss of $1.6 million. Sales were $110 million, down from $125.5 million.
LSB reported a loss from continuing operations of $7.7 million, versus the year-ago loss of $2.9 million. Net income from discontinued operations were $22.8 million up from $3.3 million. LSB sold its Climate segment July 1.
Overall, the company reported net income of $15.1 million, up from the year-ago $417,000. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $5 million, up from $417,000.
Indian Potash Ltd. called a urea tender Aug. 5 to cover the remaining tonnage from its earlier tender. The new tender calls for two cargoes of 60,000 mt each, one for Kakinada and the other for Krishnapatnam.
The tender call will fill out the 420,000 mt IPL asked for in its July tender. The awards issued in that tender only covered 300,000 mt for mostly West Coast ports. The new tender is strictly for the two East Coast ports listed.
As with the previous tender, IPL will not negotiate for a lower price but retains the right to reject any offer.
Once this tender is cleared, sources still expect to see a similar tender from MMTC for just under 500,000 mt.
Tranlin Inc., Charlottesville, Va., is bringing plant-derived fulvic and humic acid fertilizer products to the U.S. from China, until its U.S. plant near Richmond, Va. (GM June 23, 2014) is completed. The company has two plants in China with one under construction.
Tranlin Inc., Charlottesville, Va., has announced the launch of its new line of plant-derived fulvic and humic acid fertilizer products. The Vastly Better Roots products are soil amendment and biostimulant products to improve long-term soil health, enhance nutrient uptake, increase plant vigor, and boost yield.
Tranlin, which has constructed a major pulp and fertilizer plant near Richmond, Va., (GM June 23, 2014), says the water-soluble fertilizer is available now in granular and liquid forms in Virginia followed soon by California, Texas and Florida and eventually nationally.
The products are derived from post-harvest crop residue. Tranlin uses a proprietary straw pulping process to extract fulvic and humic acids. The pulp is milled into tree-free paper napkins, bathroom and facial tissue products.
Tranlin is the U.S. based subsidiary of Shandong Tranlin Paper Co. Ltd.
While The Andersons Inc. reported a decline in second-quarter net income, results from its Plant Nutrients segment were up.
Second-quarter Plant Nutrient pre-tax income was up 23 percent to $23.5 million from the year-ago $18.9 million. Total volumes were up 4 percent to 942,000 st from 903,000 st, with basic nutrients up 2 percent and specialty products up 62 percent.
“The first half of the year was challenging, in line with our expectations, due to the poor crop last fall in the Eastern Corn Belt,” said CEO Pat Bowe. “While challenges in our Grain Group persisted, we did begin to see positive impacts from a good wheat harvest, and are starting to capture benefits from our productivity initiatives.”
“We were encouraged to see good volumes of specialty products in our Plant Nutrient business,” he added. “However, margins were disappointing in the face of oversupply of basic nutrients and low grain prices. The industry is starting to see production curtailments in certain products which should help bring supply and demand more into balance.”
Second-quarter net income attributable to the company was $14.4 million ($0.51 per diluted share) on revenues of $1.1 billion, compared to the year-ago $31.1 million ($1.09 per share) and $1.2 billion, respectively.
The company reported a first-half net loss of $273,000 ($0.01 per share) compared to year-ago $35.2 million ($1.23 per share).
CF Industries Holdings Inc. reported second-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders of $47 million ($0.20 per diluted share) on net sales of $1.13 billion, down from the year-ago $352 million ($1.49 per share) and $1.31 billion, respectively.
Included in the results is the $150 million payment CF made to OCI NV in connection with the termination of the combination agreement between CF and OCI announced in May.
CF says the demand outlook for 2017 is positive though new capacity will pressure global pricing. As a result, it expects a challenging price environment though 2017, which will pressure high-cost producers. However, the company says a lack of meaningful new production after the middle of 2017, coupled with capacity closures, is expected to lead to price recovery in 2018 and beyond. CF said in both the near and long-term, North American producers should remain at the very low end of the cost curve due to plentiful supply of North American natural gas.
Despite weak crop nutrient pricing, Agrium Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $564 million ($4.08 per diluted earnings) on sales of $6.4 billion. However, it was still a 16 percent reduction from the year-ago $674 million ($4.71 per share) on sales of $7 billion. Agrium said reduced earnings were driven by continued weakness in nutrient prices, partially offset by solid demand, lower costs and strong margins from the Retail segment.
“Agrium reported solid second quarter results driven by lower costs and strong margins across most of our business portfolio, supported by a stable cash flow from our retail operations. Our steadfast focus on operational excellence continues to deliver results and we believe our strategy and assets will create long-term shareholder value,” said Chuck Magro, Agrium’s president and CEO.
Agrium’s annual guidance range has been revised to $5.00-$5.30 per share, down from the previous guidance of $5.25-$6.25, due to the weak outlook for nutrient prices.
Acron has announced the sale of its subsidiary holding a 50.5 percent interest in China’s Hongri Acron to an independent Hong Kong-based investment holding company.
The Shandong Province-based Hongri Acron produces complex fertilizers for the Chinese market, with three NPK production lines with an aggregate 800,000 mt/y capacity. Hongri Acron recorded a negative EBITDA of RUB 400 million in the first quarter of this year and a negative EBITDA of RUB 803 million in full-year 2015. Lengthy repairs have been ongoing at the operation impacting both production and sales.
“In line with Acron Group’s long-term development strategy, we decided to sell our stake in the Hongri Acron plant in China and focus on further development of our Russian production assets,” said Alexander Popov, Acron board chairman.
“Nevertheless, China has been and will remain our key partner and a priority market to sell our products outside Russia. For this reason, Acron Group will maintain its strong presence in China turning our efforts to advancing the local distribution network Yong Sheng Feng, which has been successfully selling Russian fertilizers under the Acron brand in the Chinese market for eight years.”
Acron did not disclose any financial details of the transaction.
