Bunge Ltd., White Plains, N.Y., said Dec. 10 that CEO Soren Schroder, 57, will step down. To ensure a smooth leadership transition, Schroder, who has served as CEO since 2013, will continue in his current role until a successor is named. The board has established a search committee to identify the company’s next CEO.

“It has been an honor to serve as Bunge’s CEO,” said Schroder. “We are making solid progress, and it is the right time to turn over the leadership reins. The company has a strong legacy and an exciting future ahead.”

Schroder joined Bunge in 2000 and has held a variety of agribusiness leadership roles, including CEO of Bunge North America.

In addition, Kathleen Hyle, 60, who has served on Bunge’s board of directors since 2012, will become board chair, effective immediately. L. Patrick Lupo, who has served on Bunge’s board since 2006 and in the role of chairman since 2014, will remain a board member. Ms. Hyle will serve on the CEO search committee, along with board members Paul Fribourg, J. Erik Fyrwald and Mark Zenuk.

Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, announced Dec. 5 that it has closed the sale of its remaining SQM shares to Tianqi Lithium Corp. through an open auction process on the Santiago Stock Exchange for gross proceeds of approximately US$4.1 billion. This is the final divestiture required by the Competition Commission of India and Ministry of Commerce in China in providing their clearance for the merger of Agrium and PotashCorp to form Nutrien. Net proceeds from the sale of all of the equity investments in 2018 is expected to total approximately US$5 billion.

Uralkali has entered into an agreement to sell potash to China and India for $290/mt CFR, according to the Russian news media, however, the company says these are small volumes and are substantially lower than traditional contracted deliveries.

“There are signed contracts (on supplies) to China and to India under $290/mt,” Uralkali’s main shareholder Dmitry Mazepin told reporters. “We have signed a small-scale contract on minor volumes to be supplied to China under that price, though it is several times smaller compared with our traditional volumes.”

K+S Group, Kassel reports that production at its Werra plant in Germany has been secured up to and including Dec. 23. The reason for this is the continuous optimization of wastewater management as well as the use of existing possibilities for off-site disposal.

Against this background and assuming a prolonged extreme drought, disposal-related stoppages in production are now only expected to continue over the holidays until Jan. 1. Should significant rainfall occur in the coming days, these stoppages could be further reduced.

Because of this, K+S expects a negative EBITDA effect of a maximum of € 15 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. “We can now confirm our range for the EBITDA of € 570 to 630 million, including this possible additional burden. Thereby we expect an average de-icing salt business in December,” said Dr. Burkhard Lohr, CEO of K+S.

CHS Inc., St. Paul, reported net income for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2018 of $775.9 million, up from the prior year $71.6 million. Revenues were $32.7 billion, up $646 million from the prior year.

“Our fiscal 2018 results show the progress we are making on the priorities we set for CHS,” said Jay Debertin, CHS president and CEO. “Our year-over-year financial performance shows good improvement, our balance sheet is solid, and our relationships with cooperative owners are strong. The diverse CHS business platform allowed us to deliver improved earnings and enables us to return $150 million in cash patronage and equity redemptions to owners even as we navigated challenging market conditions.”

Ag pretax earnings were a positive $74.3 million, up from the prior year loss of $270.1 million. The prior year figure was driven by major impairments.

Nachurs Alpine Solutions, Marion, Ohio, reports that it has acquired the Garretson, S.D. manufacturing plant and the related specialty NPK business from Koch Fertilizer LLC.

“We believe this strategic acquisition fits very well within our current operations and its ability to support all six of our business units in its geography,” said Jeff Barnes, Nachurs Alpine CEO.

The Garretson facility is Nachurs Alpine Solutions seventh plant across North America and all current personnel at the facility will remain on staff.

European Parliament and Council negotiators today agreed to new rules easing access to the European Union single market for fertilizers made from organic or recycled materials and setting limits for cadmium.

The agreed text introduces limits for heavy metals, such as cadmium, in phosphate fertilizers to reduce health and environmental risks. The limits for cadmium content in “CE marked” phosphate fertilizers will be 60 mg/kg as from the date of application of the regulation (i.e. three years after its entry into force).

A review clause requires the European Commission to review the limit values, with a view to assessing the feasibility of reducing them, four years after the date of application of the new rules (i.e. seven years after entry into force).

The co-legislators also agreed on a voluntary “low cadmium” label. Where the fertilizing product has a cadmium content lower than 20 mg/kg, the statement “Low cadmium (Cd) content” or similar, or a visual representation to that effect, may be added.

Sufficient incentives should be provided to develop decadmiation technologies and to manage cadmium-rich hazardous waste by means of relevant financial resources, the lawmakers added.

With regard to boosting the use of organic and waste-based fertilizers, existing EU rules on fertilizers cover mainly conventional fertilizers, typically extracted from mines or produced chemically, with high energy-consumption and CO₂ production. Diverging national rules make it difficult for producers of organic fertilizers to sell and use them across the EU single market.

The new legislation, provisionally agreed on today promotes increased use of recycled materials for producing fertilizers, thus helping to develop the circular economy, while reducing dependence on imported nutrients. It also eases market access for innovative, organic fertilizers, which would give farmers and consumers a wider choice and promote green innovation, and establishes EU-wide quality, safety and environmental criteria for “EU” fertilisers (i.e. those which can be traded in the whole EU single market), according to the European Parliament statement.

Internal Market Committee rapporteur, Mihai Ţurcanu (EPP, RO), said: “I am pleased that today we finally reached a very good agreement after long negotiations, technical meetings and a huge amount of work that has been done with four Presidencies of the Council in the past two years. Today’s agreement represents a success for all parties involved and the European Parliament”.

The provisional agreement still needs to be confirmed by the EU member states’ ambassadors (Coreper) and by Parliament’s Internal Market Committee. The draft regulation will then be put to a vote by the full Parliament in an upcoming plenary session and formally approved by the EU Council of Ministers.

Compass Minerals, Overland Park, Kan., announced Nov. 19 that the company’s board of directors and Fran Malecha have mutually agreed that Malecha will step down from his position as president, CEO and board member effective immediately. Dick Grant, lead independent director, will serve as chairman of the board and interim CEO until a permanent CEO is named.

“Over the last several years, we have made progress toward building a balanced company for the future,” said Grant, chairman and interim CEO. “The board remains committed to achieving best-in-class operational efficiency in our Salt business to maximize its cash generating capabilities and investing in our higher-growth, global Plant Nutrition business. We are now moving forward with a keen focus on execution in order to ensure we can drive value from these investments and deliver sustainable, long-term value creation for our shareholders.”

The board has appointed a search committee comprised of independent directors and will retain an executive search firm to assist with the search for the company’s new president and CEO. Both internal and external candidates will be considered. Upon appointment of the company’s new president and CEO, Grant will serve as non-executive chairman of the board.

K+S Group, Kassel, reported a 52.5 percent drop in third-quarter EBITDA to €36.4 million from the year-ago €76.7 million, citing extreme drought in Europe and higher transportation costs. Revenues, however, were up 15.6 percent mainly due to the new volumes from the Bethune mine in Saskatchewan as well as higher potash prices. Revenues were €840.1 million versus €726.5 million. Operating income (EBIT) was in the loss column at €58.1 million versus the year-ago positive €12.3 million.

K+S has adjusted annual guidance downward to EBITDA of €570-€630 compared to the prior year’s €577 million.