K+S Group reported June 7 that the Kassel public prosecutor’s office has discontinued the investigative proceedings pending since December 2015 in relation to persons responsible at K+S KALI GmbH in connection with attempted water pollution. The office found there were insufficient grounds for suspecting the commission of a criminal offense.

It was initially alleged that the company had manipulated documents in connection with the application filed by it in April 2015 for continuing its injection practices.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (SQM) said June 2 that it has decided to increase its total potassium nitrate production capacity by 500,000 mt/y to 1.5 million mt/y.

To gain the 500,000 mt/y, SQM plans a new 300,000 mt/y plant as well as upgrades at existing facilities to add the additional 200,000 mt/y. SQM said the upgrades will result in 100,000 mt/y in 2016 and 100,000 mt/y in 2017. The new plant is expected up in mid-2018. SQM said it will determine the cost of the new plant during the third quarter.

The J. R. Simplot Co. reports that its new FŪSN™ fertilizer is now commercially available to growers. The product has been on the drawing board for some time. The company says it fuses ammonium sulfate to create an ammonium nitrate-based fertilizer that is less detonable, more efficient and socially responsible.

“FŪSN revitalizes and makes safe a proven nutrient growers want and need,” said John Malinowski, vice president of business development and marketing for Simplot’s Agribusiness group. “The fusing of nitrate and sulfate suppresses the detonability of the nitrate while adding agronomic benefits such as optimizing plant uptake potential.”

Simplot’s FŪSN is a dry, granular homogenous fertilizer that delivers nitrate and ammonium nitrogen and sulfate sulfur to the plant. The fused sulfate-nitrate compound also helps decrease volatilization of surface-applied nitrogen.

Simplot collaborated with Honeywell on the new fertilizer, leveraging Honeywell’s Sulf-N26® fertilizer technology to develop the engineering and manufacturing for this new product at Simplot’s Lathrop, Calif. facility.

Simplot says FŪSN is now available in select areas in the Western United States.

Morocco’s OCP SA reported a 27 percent drop in first-quarter EBITDA, to MAD 2.89 billion ($294 million) on revenues of MAD 10.34 billion ($1.06 billion), down from the year-ago MAD 3.95 billion ($411 million) and MAD 10.91 billion ($1.1 billion), respectively. The first-quarter EBITDA margin contracted eight percentage points year-on-year to 28 percent. Adjusted operating cash flows fell 71 percent to MAD 622 million ($63 million) in the quarter under review, sharply down from MAD 2.17 billion ($226 million) in the prior-year period.

“OCP continues to report margins that are significantly ahead of the industry average thanks to our key competitive advantages, mainly cost leadership and commercial and operating flexibility. The company’s unique access to low cost and high quality phosphate rock, our geographically diversified customer base and our industrial and commercial strategy combine to provide OCP with greater resilience to challenging market conditions,” said Mostafa Terrab, OCP’s chairman and CEO.

First quarter revenues were 5 percent down year-on-year, as weaker prices across all product classes more than offset higher volumes across all three segments – rock, acid and fertilizers, OCP said.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, OCP concurs with industry analysts’ views that 2016 will be “a year of progressive improvement”. “We continue to expect second half results to outpace the first half, as demand increases within a more stable pricing environment, said Terrab.

PCI Nitrogen LLC, Pasadena, Texas, said May 26 that it has filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions covering imports of ammonium sulfate from China with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Department of Commerce. PCI produces ammonium sulfate at its facility in Pasadena, Texas.

The petitions allege that Chinese producers of ammonium sulfate are dumping product in the United States at margins ranging from 273.33 to 474.94 percent. The petitions also allege that the Chinese national, provincial, and local governments are providing a host of countervailable subsidies including preferential loans, grants, income tax breaks, import duty and VAT exemptions, preferential freight rates, and inputs for below-market prices including natural gas, coal, electricity, and ammonia.

The petitions indicate that imports from China have increased by 682 percent from 2013 to 2015, and Chinese producers’ share of the U.S. market has increased significantly at the expense of U.S. producers. The petitions also say that Chinese imports are underselling U.S. producer prices by significant margins, and that this underselling has resulted in lower revenues and in material injury to the domestic industry. It also alleges that significant new capacity additions in China and other factors also indicate a threat of future injury to the domestic industry.

Under the antidumping and countervailing duty statutes, the ITC may make a preliminary injury determination in early July 2016, according to PCI, which said the DOC is expected to issue preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty investigations in August 2016 (October if extended) and in the antidumping duty investigations in November 2016 (January 2017 if extended). PCI expects all of the investigations will be completed within 13 to 14 months.

Tampa anhydrous ammonia business for June has been concluded at $315/mt DEL, down $5/mt from May’s $320/mt DEL. Sources cited the winding down of the US spring season as well as the coming up of new US nitrogen plants in the near term. In the meantime, Trinidad production does remain limited due to gas curtailments as high as 25 percent.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (SQM) reported first-quarter net income of US$58.5 million (US$0.22 per ADR), a decrease from the year-ago $71.7 million (US$0.27 per ADR). Revenues were $391.8 million up from the year-ago $387.5 million.

“During the first quarter of 2016, as anticipated, the downward trend in iodine prices and the weakness in potash prices continued, impacting our margins,” said CEO Patricio de Solminihac. “Potash sales volumes were higher this quarter compared to the first quarter of last year, which helped to offset the impact on revenues, although adverse weather conditions at the port caused some shipments to be postponed to the second quarter. We believe we are on track to see a recovery in our potash volumes for the full year, returning to levels similar to those reported in 2014. In fact, we expect to see higher sales volumes across all of our business lines for the full year, although margins will continue to reflect lower iodine and potash prices.”

“Pricing in the specialty plant nutrition business has been more stable than potash pricing, and our leading position in the potassium nitrate market has helped us to keep revenues stable in the face of uncertainty in the potash market,” he added. “The best news of the quarter has been our lithium business, where we saw significant revenue growth. In response to strong global demand for lithium, we are working to deliver more volumes, and prices have also increased.”

Israel Chemicals Ltd. reported a 70 percent drop in first quarter 2016 net income attributable to the company shareholders to US$66 million on sales of $1.26 billion, down from the year-ago $217 million and $1.4 billion, respectively. ICL cited a drop in potash prices and volumes; both were down 20 percent.

The Andersons Inc. today announced that its board of directors has rejected two non-binding, highly conditional, unsolicited proposals from HC2 Holdings Inc. to acquire all outstanding shares of The Andersons.  The Andersons’ announcement is in response to HC2’s public disclosure of its offer on Tuesday.

On Jan. 29, 2016, The Andersons said it received a private, unsolicited proposal from HC2 to acquire the company for $35 per share in cash. A subsequent proposal was submitted on March 22, 2016 for $37 per share in cash. The Andersons’ board, after careful review in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, unanimously determined that both of HC2’s proposals undervalue The Andersons and are not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders and other stakeholders.

“We believe HC2’s proposals ignore our value and prospects as a standalone entity and represent an opportunistic attempt to acquire the company at a low point in the industry cycle.  Following a thorough review, and in consultation with our independent financial and legal advisors, our board determined that the offers are not credible, significantly understate the company’s true value and are not in the best interests of our shareholders,” said Chairman Mike Anderson. “Our board and management team remain confident in our ability to execute on our standalone plan and believe we are well positioned to continue to create significant long-term value for shareholders.”

The company also noted that HC2’s letter dated May 17, 2016 contained numerous inaccuracies and misleading statements. Among others, the company says HC2’s claim that The Andersons did not substantively respond to its $37 per share offer is patently false.

LSB Industries Inc. said May 17 that its new 375,000 st/d anhydrous ammonia plant at its El Dorado, Ark., facility is operational and ammonia production is now underway. The company expects to be selling ammonia into the pipeline by the end of May. The plant will gradually ramp up production volume over the next two months and is expected to reach full capacity by the beginning of the third quarter of 2016.