Hubei Province in China has ordered that businesses, already down due to the New Year holiday are to remain closed through Feb. 14, according to a Bloomberg report. Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus is the capitol of Hubei. This should have a significant impact on Chinese phosphate production as a large portion of the country’s phosphate capacity is near Wuhan.

Junior miner Gensource Potash Corp., Saskatoon, reports that Helm Ag is the offtaker for its Tugaske project in Saskatchewan. Gensource had said in May that a large and well-respected international fertilizer manufacturing and distribution company had inked a nonbinding agreement for 100 percent of the production. Gensource said it and Helm are currently finalizing the definitive offtake agreement under which Helm will purchase all of the production for 10 years, renewable thereafter. The offtake agreement is expected to be complete in the first quarter.

Tugaske includes Gensource’s initial 250,000 mt/y potash production facility in the Vanguard area in Saskatchewan.

The Tampa ammonia price for February has been concluded at $250/mt CFR, a roll over from the January price.  Sources had been predicting a roll over to a possible slight drop.

The Mosaic Co. said Jan. 28 that it intends to keep its Colonsay potash mine idled for the foreseeable future citing weak demand. It also reported that it will incur a pretax noncash charge of up to $530 million for the idling in fourth-quarter 2019. In addition, Mosaic said it will also incur up to $590 million in fourth-quarter charges on Phosphate segment goodwill.

Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, has confirmed that its Vanscoy potash mine will remain down through at least the end of February for “Inventory Adjustment.” The shutdown had already been extended from an eight-week shut down ending in December to the end of January (GM Dec. 20, 2019).

At the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, Yara International ASA and IBM announced plans for an Open Farm & Field Data Exchange, inviting farmer associations, industry players, academia and NGOs from the food and agriculture industry to join a movement to develop an open data exchange that facilitates collaboration around farm and field data, with the aim of improving the efficiency, transparency and sustainability of global food production. The two noted that today, farm and field data are typically dispersed, non-compatible and inaccessible.

Yara and IBM joined forces in April 2019, announcing plans to build the world’s leading digital farming platform (GM April 26, 2019).

Spain’s competition regulator on Jan. 21 started an investigation into Yara Iberian over possible infringements of the Spanish Competition Act, according to Bloomberg citing a statement from Yara International ASA, Oslo. Investigations are taking place at the company’s premises in Madrid. Yara says it’s cooperating fully with the authorities in order to ensure the investigation can be carried out as efficiently as possible.

The J.R. Simplot Co., Boise, reports that it has finalized the acquisition of Pinnacle Agriculture. The acquisition, first announced in November, unites two major distributors of agricultural crop inputs and related services.

CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., has launched a UAN tender in which buyers can submit bids for UAN at any CF source with the primary focus on first-quarter shipments. Bids are due to CF by 5 p.m., Chicago time Jan. 22, with responses expected Jan. 24. Individual offers by customers are to remain private.

Shareholders of specialty phosphate maker Innophos Holdings Inc., Cranbury, N.J., have approved the company’s sale to One Rock Capital. The closing of the deal is expected in February 2020, after which Innophos will become a private company and its common stock will no longer be listed.