CommoditAg, Effingham, Ill, an e-commerce platform, said June 26 that it has expanded, adding six Liqui-Grow warehouse locations in Northern Illinois and Iowa.
“Liqui-Grow, a division of Twin State Inc., is a powerful, innovative ag retailer who understands change and meeting customers’ expectations. We know Liqui-Grow will be a great complement to CommoditAg’s existing powerhouse group of ag retailers,” says Tim Bence, CommoditAgs chief operations officer.
K+S Group, Kassel, Germany, has entered into a nonbinding sulfate of potash (SOP) offtake agreement with Australian junior company Kalium Lakes. The proposed supply is for Stage 1 production (75,000 mt/y) from the Beyondie Sulfate of Potash Project in Western Australia. The term is for an initial 10 years.
The deal is still subject to the execution of a formal binding offtake agreement and the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent, including the completion of due diligence by K+S. K+S will provide Kalium with its expertise and technical support in relation to the design, construction and commissioning of the project.
Sirius Minerals Plc, which is developing the Yorkshire, UK, polyhalite project, has signed a binding take or pay offtake agreement to supply Poly4 to Intercontinental Trade DMCC Dubai (ITL Trading), one of the largest suppliers of fertilizer to Nigeria.
The supply agreement is a seven-year agreement from first production, for volumes of Poly4 increasing to 350,000 mt per annum in year four and provides for exclusive marketing rights into Nigeria. Sirius said the agreement has a pricing mechanism linked to a relevant product benchmark and is consistent with the company’s existing portfolio of agreements. Taking this latest deal into consideration, Sirius’ peak contracted sales volumes has increased from 4.4 million mt/y to 4.7 million mt/y, it said.
“Africa is a huge potential market for Poly4 and we are very pleased to establish our initial footprint in Nigeria, which is the largest market in West Africa,” said Sirius’ managing director and CEO, Chris Fraser. “Nigeria is positioned as the key market for fertilizer growth in the region and we believe ITL Trading will be a fantastic long-term partner for the company.”
ITL Trading is a global trading company with an active presence in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It specializes in supplying Nigeria and West African clients with globally sourced products and services. It is one of the largest suppliers of fertilizer into Nigeria, and through related companies, has access to distribution and logistics infrastructure including storage, port concessions and NPK blending facilities.
The K+S Group’s Bethune, Sask., potash facility is back up after a four-day unplanned outage last week, the company has confirmed. The facility was offline for the repair of a boiler stack. Production resumed Friday, June 15.
K+S said the outage will weigh on second-quarter earnings, though it could not provide further details.
OCI Partners LP, Nederland, Texas, said June 19 that the Conflicts Committee of the board of directors of OCIP’s general partner unanimously determined that the revised price being offered as of June 19, 2018, in the tender offer by affiliate and owner of our general partner, OCI NV, to acquire all of the outstanding common units representing limited partner interests in OCIP not currently held by OCI or its affiliates for $11.50 per common unit in cash, is fair to OCIP’s common unitholders. The $11.50 is up from an earlier offer of $11.00 (GM June 8, p. 1).
OCI NV currently owns 88.25 percent of the shares.
The Conflicts Committee recommends, on behalf of OCIP, that unitholders accept the tender offer and tender their common units pursuant to the tender offer, noting however, that unitholders should make the decision to tender based on their own investment objectives.
The Conflicts Committee rejected an earlier offer valued at $7.80 per share (GM April 21, 2017).
Chile’s Economic Prosecutor (FNE) will review Tianqi Lithium’s acquisition of a 24 percent stake in SQM from Nutrien, according to Bloomberg, citing a statement on the FNE’s website. FNE said it will review deal after requests from Chile government agency Corfo and Senator Alejandro Guillier. FNE says it will review if deal poses risks to competition.
Emaphos (Euro Maroc Phosphor) has decided to increase purified phosphoric acid capacity by 140,000 mt/y of P205 at Jorf Lasfar, Morocco, thereby doubling the total capacity of the company.
“This project, leveraging on the respective strengths of its founding partners, is an important milestone of the growth strategy of the company notably to serve demand for purified phosphoric acid (PPA) worldwide, enhancing in a unique manner the commercial reach of Emaphos,” said Emaphos Board Chairman Mustapha El Ouafi.
The project Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) has been awarded to Prayon Technologies.
Emaphos is a joint venture created in 1996 and is equally owned by OCP SA of Morocco, Prayon, Belgium and Budenheim, Germany.
Junior company Danakali Ltd., on behalf of Colluli Mining Share Co., said June 11 that it has a binding take-or-pay offtake agreement with EuroChem Trading GmbH for up to 100 percent of Module I Sulfate of Potash (SOP) production from the Colluli Potash Project. The Project, located in Eritrea, East Africa, is 100 percent owned by CMSC, a 50:50 joint venture between Danakali and the Eritrean National Mining Corp.
EuroChem will take, pay, market and distribute up to 100 percent (minimum 87 percent) of Colluli Module I SOP production. EuroChem may use a portion of Colluli SOP to product NPKS at its facilities in Antwerp, Belgium and Nevinnomyssk, Russia. The balance of SOP provided to EuroChem will be sold through their international channels. CMSC has the option to sell up to 13 percent through alternative sales channels.
The term of the agreement is 10 years from the date of commissioning of the Colluli SOP processing plant, with an option to extend for a further 3 years if agreed by EuroChem and CMSC. EuroChem may terminate the agreement if first commercial production has not occurred by July 1, 2022; well beyond CMSC’s production commencement expectations. Either party may terminate the agreement if a project financing agreement has not been executed and first drawdown achieved within 14 months of the signing of the agreement. The Danakali and CMSC boards, and the Eritrean Ministry of Energy and Mines, have approved CMSC’s entry into the agreement.
LSB Industries Inc., Oklahoma City, said June 12 that the ammonia plant at its El Dorado, Ark., chemical facility was taken out of service on June 4, 2018 after a power failure at the facility. Since that time, LSB management has been involved in the process of assessing the extent of the necessary repairs and has determined that the power outage resulted in tube failures in the ammonia plant’s boiler. LSB management estimates that these repairs will be completed, and ammonia production will resume, by the last week of June 2018. Management estimates the total impact to EBITDA in the second quarter of 2018 resulting from unplanned repair expenses, reduced absorption of fixed costs relating to the downtime and lost sales will be approximately $10.0 million to $11.0 million.
While El Dorado’s ammonia plant is out of service, the company has elected to pull forward work previously planned for the September 2018 turnaround, which will further shorten the planned turnaround in the third quarter to five days, from the previously revised twelve days, resulting in additional third quarter production and reduced turnaround expense.
Additionally, the ammonia plant at LSB’s Pryor, Okla. chemical facility was taken out of service for short periods at multiple points during the quarter to repair leaks to the waste heat boiler. Management estimates the second quarter EBITDA impact from the downtime at Pryor to be approximately $3.0 million to $4.0 million.
Land O’Lakes Inc., Arden Hills, Minn., has confirmed recent reports of job cuts.
“As a business and industry, we continue to push forward against unprecedented headwinds that make it more important than ever to be mindful of our structure, costs and expenses,” according to a company statement released to Green Markets. “With this in mind, Winfield United restructured its business to reflect the changing landscape and better serve our customers and owners. As part of this change, approximately 50 Winfield positions have been impacted by a workforce reduction. Such decisions are never taken lightly but at times are necessary to ensure continued success for our business, our retail owners and the farmers we serve.”
