Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. report that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has issued a final order approving their merger of equals transaction to be implemented by way of a plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act. As previously announced, shareholders of both companies overwhelmingly voted to approve the proposed merger of equals.  Other regulatory approvals are necessary, and the two parties expect to finalize the merger by mid-2017.

LSB Industries Inc., Oklahoma City, said Nov. 3 that its board of directors has initiated a process to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives for the company, which may include a sale of the company, a merger with another party, or another strategic transaction involving some or all of the assets of the company.

LSB has retained Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC as its financial advisor to assist with the strategic review process.

The company stated that there can be no assurance that this strategic review process will result in a transaction. LSB has not set a timetable for completion of the review process, and it does not intend to comment further regarding the strategic review process unless a specific transaction is approved by its board of directors and signed, the strategic review process is concluded, or it is otherwise determined that further disclosure is appropriate or required by law.

Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. shareholders today voted in favor of the merger of equals. Some 98 percent of Agrium shareholders voted for the merger. Only two-thirds were required. PotashCorp shareholders approved the deal by 99 percent.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has now imposed antidumping duties on imports of ammonium sulfate from China. These findings are the result of petitions filed by PCI Nitrogen in May alleging that imports from China were both being subsidized and dumped at below fair value and were causing material injury to the U.S. ammonium sulfate industry.

DOC has now released its preliminary determination in the antidumping investigation, finding that imports of ammonium sulfate from China were dumped at margins of 493.46 percent percent ad valorem. As a result, DOC will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin collecting cash deposits or bonds on imports of ammonium sulfate from China equal to the preliminary dumping margins.

The antidumping duties will be imposed in addition to the countervailing (CVD) duties of 206.72 percent ad valorem. The CVD duties became effective Nov. 2 and were the result of DOC’s Oct. 24 preliminary determination that imports from China were also being heavily subsidized (GM Oct. 28, p. 11).

Commerce is due to issue its final determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations in mid-January 2017, which will be followed by the U.S. International Trade Commission’s final phase investigation assessing the material injury caused to the U.S. ammonium sulfate industry.

Agrium Inc. reported a third-quarter net loss attributable to equity holders of $41-million ($0.29 diluted loss per share) compared to year-ago net earnings of $101-million ($0.72 per share). The company said the reduction was driven by lower year-over-year nutrient pricing, low pest and disease pressure in the U.S. which limited the demand for crop protection products and application services this growing season, a delayed harvest across North America related to wet weather, and one-time costs primarily related to the proposed merger with PotashCorp.

Net sales were off 11 percent to $2.24 billion from the year-ago $2.52 billion.

“Agrium continues to focus on what we can control during these times of market weakness,” said Chuck Magro, Agrium president and CEO. “I am particularly pleased with the results of our operational excellence initiatives. Our focus on growing our Retail business continues, with 70 locations acquired year-to-date, representing approximately $500-million of expected incremental annual sales. Looking out for the rest of the year, we expect solid demand for crop nutrients; however, growers have experienced poor fall weather in Canada and pockets of the U.S. which has impacted harvest progress and ammonia applications.”

“Our proposed merger with PotashCorp is a transformational opportunity to create a world class integrated global supplier of crop inputs and services,” he added. “This merger creates benefits and opportunities that neither company could achieve on its own and will unlock significant value for shareholders of both companies. By generating meaningful synergies, and producing significant combined cash flows, the new company will be positioned for further growth, while benefiting customers, suppliers, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders.”

Both Agrium and PotashCorp shareholders will be voting on the merger Nov. 3.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. reported a third-quarter net loss attributable to common stockholders of $30 million ($0.13 per diluted share) on net sales of $680 million compared to the year-ago net income of $90 million ($0.39 per share) and $928 million, respectively.

CF said the pricing for nitrogen products in the U.S. Gulf declined during the third quarter, often trading below international parity, as seasonal decreases in agricultural demand were compounded by delayed customer purchasing activity, resulting in multi-year lows in product prices for all major products.

“CF remains well-positioned with enduring structural advantages despite the challenging market environment,” said Tony Will, CF president and CEO. “The versatility of our unmatched production and distribution system allows us to meet evolving customer needs, and our imminent capacity increase continues to support our cash generation capability. With these elements in place, CF remains the best-positioned company to benefit from recovery in the sector.”

CF said conditions have come to weigh on Chinese production and urea exports from that country are down, with this affecting prices. It said while the average U.S. Gulf urea barge price was approximately $180 st for the third quarter, it approached $200 at the end of the quarter and has steadily increased into the fourth quarter.

CF says the agricultural outlook for North America suggests continued profitability at the farm level for corn and soybeans despite less profitable acreage in the Western Cornbelt and Southeast. Accordingly, planted acres for corn are expected to decline to approximately 88 million acres in fertilizer year 2017 compared to approximately 94 million acres planted in fertilizer year 2016.

CF gave an update on its Port Neal, Iowa plants, saying they are in the process of starting up. Gas has been introduced into the ammonia plant and production is expected soon. The urea plant commission will parallel the ammonia plant and the granulation unit was successfully tested in September.

Going forward, CF said accelerated depreciation on capacity expansion projects drive an estimated tax refund of approximately $800 million of cash in 2017 from carrybacks of current year tax losses to prior tax years.

Grannus LLC, Tucson, announced Nov. 2, that Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions, the engineering and construction business of Air Liquide group, will license technology and provide engineering services for the production of hydrogen at its ammonia plant to be built in Kern County, Calif. (GM Oct. 14, p. 1). The plant is being built for the use of California Ammonia Co. (Calamco).

Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions will license oxygen-based Lurgi GasPOX technology and associated gas clean-up technologies, including a pressure swing adsorption unit (PSA) to produce high purity hydrogen required for the ammonia process. In addition, Air Liquide Global E&C solutions will prepare process design packages (PDPs) for the natural gas to hydrogen process.

The Grannus plant, due up in 2019, will produce 250 st/d of ammonia, which the company says represents approximately 40 percent of California’s agricultural ammonia consumption.

Intrepid Potash Inc. reported a third-quarter net loss of $18.2 million ($0.24 per diluted share) on sales of $43.6 million compared to the year-ago loss of $8.1 million ($0.11 per share) and $53.6 million.

The company said a volume increase of 34 percent was not enough to offset decreased potash prices.

On Oct. 31, 2016, Intrepid announced the completion of its debt negotiations, resulting in amendments to the company’s senior notes as well as a new revolving credit facility which provides up to $35 million in borrowing capacity, subject to a borrowing base limitation.

“The transition of our business model to a lower-cost solar potash and specialty Trio^® producer accelerated this quarter with the idling of West in early July and the completion of commissioning at East,” said Bob Jornayvaz, Intrepid’s executive chairman, president and CEO. “During the third quarter, we reached our goal of achieving an annualized Trio^® production run rate of double our 2015 production. We continue to focus on expanding our global presence for Trio^®, which we believe is a compelling product for chloride-sensitive crops. We are starting to see a more supportive selling environment for potash as pricing has firmed. Moving into 2017, we anticipate seeing some benefit to our potash gross margin as our lower-cost solar facility production becomes a greater proportion of our potash sales.”

The Mosaic Co. reported third-quarter 2016 net earnings of $39 million ($0.11 per diluted share) on sales of $1.95 billion, down from the year-ago $160 million ($0.45 per share) and $2.1 billion, respectively. Earnings per diluted share were $0.11, which included a negative $0.30 impact from notable items and a benefit of $0.08 per share from lowering the expected full year effective tax rate accrual.

Operating earnings were $70 million, down from the year-ago $246 million primarily driven by lower potash prices and lower phosphate margins partially offset by higher sales volumes and positive impacts of cost savings initiatives.

“We expected improving market conditions in the second half of 2016 and this quarter’s results reflect improvement,” said Joc O’Rourke, president and CEO. “Both potash and phosphate prices strengthened in the quarter as pent-up demand materialized. While the fourth quarter is expected to reflect a normal seasonal slowdown, we see a more stable operating environment in 2017, starting the year with lower pipeline inventories and demand growth in both nutrients. At the same time, we are taking action to protect the balance sheet and reduce operating expenses.”

Trammo Inc. has elected Brent Hart as its CEO. He has been with Trammo some 22 years, serving in many senior capacities in trading and management. He was most recently president of Trammo’s Commodities Division.