Intrepid Potash Inc., Denver, said Dec. 15 that it has engaged Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. to assist in assessing potential strategic alternatives available to Intrepid.

The company said it had previously agreed with its noteholders, pursuant to the terms of an amended and restated note purchase agreement, dated Oct. 31, 2016, to engage a nationally recognized investment bank to assess, evaluate and assist in pursuing potential strategic alternatives available to Intrepid, as determined to be appropriate by Intrepid. Strategic alternatives could include, but are not limited to, continuing its current operating plan, equity offerings or balance sheet restructurings, merger and acquisition opportunities, partnership or joint venture opportunities, entering into new or complementary businesses or a sale of Intrepid or some or all of Intrepid’s assets. Intrepid noted that there can be no assurance that this evaluation will result in any transaction. Intrepid has not set a timetable for the completion of the strategic review process.

The Mosaic Co. has announced a potash winter fill program. It includes $245/st Midwest warehouses for shipment now through the end of February, with an extra $5/st for rail delivered. Mosaic will be raising the price by $20/st no later than Dec. 16.

Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Ma’aden) has announced that it is developing its third project for the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers. The project is expected to be implemented in phases and eventually will add a further 3 million mt/y of production capacity. Costs are currently estimated approximately 24 billion Saudi Riyals and full capacity could be reached in 2024. This project is subject to the completion of feasibility studies and necessary consents. The company said further information will be released in due course.

Platte River Equity, Denver, said Dec. 12 that it has acquired Tiger-Sul Products, a global leader in sulfur fertilizers and crop performance products, in partnership with existing management. Tiger-Sul was acquired from H.J. Baker & Bro. Inc., which has owned the company since 2005 and will retain a minority equity position.

Tiger-Sul’s headquarters will remain in Shelton, Connecticut, and the company will continue to operate its existing facilities in Atmore, Ala.; Stockton, Calif.; Irricana, Alba. (Canada); and Shanghai, China.

“For more than 50 years, Tiger-Sul has been providing farmers around the globe with high-quality sulfur bentonite and micronutrient fertilizers, pushing the boundaries of innovation in the industry,” said Don Cherry, CEO of Tiger-Sul. “Platte River has the resources and experience to help us accelerate the company’s growth in the global market.”

“We were attracted to Tiger-Sul because of its reputation in the agriculture industry for superior products and a consistent ability to deliver product innovations to address the needs of its end customers,” said Kris Whalen, managing director of Platte River.

“We welcome Tiger-Sul to the Platte River portfolio and look forward to partnering with Don Cherry and the leadership team to take full advantage of the available growth opportunities,” added Platte River Vice President Eric Crawford. Platte River invested capital out of its third fund, Platte River Equity III LP, to acquire Tiger-Sul.

Platte River Equity is a private equity firm focused on equity investments from $20 million to $80 million in lower middle market operating companies with enterprise values generally between $40 million and $250 million. The firm says it invests in sectors where it has deep operating and investing experience, including aerospace and transportation; energy and industrial products and services; and agriculture, chemicals, metals and minerals. Platte River has raised funds with committed capital in excess of $700 million.

A new plant outage at the AdvanSix plant in Hopewell, Va., is not expected to have as much impact on ammonium sulfate as other company products, Green Markets was told Dec. 8. “The impact to our ammonium sulfate business is less significant given the seasonal timing and we’re working with our customers to mitigate the impact,” a spokesperson said. However, such was not the case for other products as their supplies had been depleted due to an earlier turnaround in November.

AdvanSix said Dec. 8 that it experienced a temporary outage at Hopewell reducing caprolactam production with a resulting reduction in resin production at its downstream Chesterfield, Va., polymerization plant. While the company expects the required mechanical work to be completed in approximately one week, it has informed those customers of this force majeure event and is actively working to mitigate the impact of the outage on its customers’ operations.

AdvanSix also reports the due to the current outage it expects to incur an approximate $10-$12 million unfavorable impact to pre-tax income in fourth-quarter 2016.

Grannus LLC, Tucson, Ariz., has selected Plant Process Equipment (PPE) as its Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) management company for its regional-scale advanced ammonia plant to be built in Kern County, Calif.

The Grannus plant is expected to operate below all applicable California air quality control standards and will produce 250 st/d, representing approximately 40 percent of California’s agricultural ammonia consumption.

“Plant Process Equipment’s deep experience in the modular design of syngas plants is a perfect fit for our regional-sized California plant. It’s our intent to replicate the California plant design throughout the world to further reduce capital costs and to streamline lead times for delivery,” said Matthew Cox, CEO of Grannus.

Ken Reynaud, PPE’s senior vice president, said, “The Grannus project is right in our wheelhouse, serving Grannus’ desire for a modular design that can be fabricated offsite and delivered anywhere in the world on a very cost-effective basis. The benefit will be ammonia plants that can deliver product on a regional basis at costs competitive with those of world-scale facilities.”

The Grannus plant will be the first ammonia plant built in California in more than 60 years. It will be operational in 2019.

Junior phosphate mining company HPS II LLC said Dec. 6 that it is poised to move forward with the permitting phase of its plan to open a new phosphate resource in North Central Florida. The plan includes facilities in both Bradford and Union counties. Production projections for each plant currently forecast approximately 1.2 million st/y of 66-68 BPL (30-31 percent P2O5) wet rock.

HPS II LLC was formed by local families with the purpose of bringing this ore body, which contains approximately 60.9 million st of recoverable high-quality “Bone Valley”-characteristic phosphate rock, into the world market.

There are no plans to build fertilizer production processing facilities.

HPS reports that it has engaged Kleinfelder, an engineering and environmental professional services firm, to oversee the mining permit process.

OCI NV, Amsterdam, today said that it has submitted a proposal to the board of directors of OCI Partners LP to acquire all publicly held common units of OCI Partners in exchange for OCI NV shares. OCI currently owns 79.88 percent of issued and outstanding common units of OCI Partners, which has an ammonia plant and methanol plant in Beaumont, Texas.

OCI is proposing an exchange ratio of 0.5200 OCI NV shares for each publicly-held unit of OCI Partners, as part of a transaction that is to be effected through a merger of OCI Partners with a wholly-owned subsidiary of OCI. In exchange, OCI will offer 9.10 million newly issued OCI NV shares, to be admitted to listing on Euronext Amsterdam, representing approximately 4 percent of total OCI shares currently outstanding. The proposed Exchange Ratio represents a value of $7.80 per unit to OCI Partners minority shareholders, or an 8.3 percent premium over the closing price of OCI Partners common units as of Dec. 5, 2016, and a 25.6 percent premium over the 30 trading day average OCI Partners/OCI exchange ratio as of Dec. 5.

The proposed transaction is subject to approval of a definitive agreement by the board of directors of OCI NV, the board of directors of the general partner of OCI Partners and a Conflicts Committee to be established by the OCIP board, and would be subject to customary closing conditions. OCI NV said there can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be executed or that any transaction will materialize.

“We believe the proposed transaction is attractive to minority investors in OCI Partners who, as new OCI NV shareholders, would have the opportunity to diversify from single-asset equity ownership to a leading global methanol and fertilizer producer,” said Nassef Sawiris, OCI NV CEO. “OCI has significant growth prospects with the start-up of two new world-scale greenfield facilities in the United States: a fertilizer complex in Wever, Iowa, and a methanol plant in Beaumont, Texas, adjacent to the facility owned by OCI Partners. In addition, it allows unitholders to benefit from the significantly better trading liquidity of the OCI NV share compared to OCI Partners. For OCI NV shareholders, the proposed transaction allows for simplification of the group’s corporate structure, greater operational synergies, including the removal of public listing costs and addresses concerns over the attractiveness of Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) as an asset class in an environment of rising interest rates and potential changes in U.S. tax regulations.”

PCI Nitrogen (PCI), Pasadena, Texas, said Nov. 29 that Interoceanic Corp., White Plains, N.Y., will be its exclusive distributor for the sulfuric acid it produces at their Pasadena facility.

“We expect it will bring us closer to the market and add substantial value to our customers,” said James Costello, PCI CEO.

“The Pasadena facility has been a producer and reliable supplier of sulfuric acid for many years and with IOC’s sales, marketing and logistical experience it will make the plant more competitive in a very volatile environment,” said Elio Mazzella Jr. “Our focus has always been in sales, logistics and customer service. To bring product to our customers when they need it at the most competitive prices.” Interoceanic is a marketer of fertilizer and industrial products for over 33 years.

Shrieve Chemicals reportedly previously marketed the Pasadena sulfuric acid. Interoceanic owns PCI.

Toronto-based Potash Ridge Corp., a junior potassium sulfate company, has announced a cooperative relationship with China’s Migao Corp, to assist in the development and operation of the corporation’s Valleyfield SOP in Quebec. Migao, which has 320,000 mt/y of SOP capacity across China, has agreed to provide technical, construction, commissioning, operations, and maintenance support services to Valleyfield for its planned 40,000 mt/y project. Migao will be responsible to procure equipment sourced in China and provide performance guarantees on all such equipment.