Oklahoma City-LSB Industries Inc. said last week that its shelf registration statement on Form S-3 of $200 million of securities has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The registration gives LSB the ability to offer and sell up to $200 million of its securities, consisting of common stock, preferred stock, debt (senior and subordinated), warrants, units, or a combination thereof. “We do not have immediate plans to sell our securities under the registration statement,” said LSB Chairman and CEO Jack Golsen. “The board of directors believed that having a shelf registration in place was prudent given the current market environment, as it provides us greater financial flexibility in the event we identify strategic opportunities that may require additional capital.”

Hopewell, Va.-Honeywell’s Hopewell, Va., production facility was slowly returning to normal operations last week after sustaining an outage caused by a Mid-Atlantic storm system at mid-month. After the remnants of Hurricane Ida hammered the East Coast on Nov. 10-13, Honeywell alerted customers on Nov. 16 that it was not taking new rail orders for ammonium sulfate due to “an unexpected outage” caused by the storm. A notice to customers on Nov. 23 said water line repairs required tearing up much of the track in the facility’s rail loading area, resulting in very limited rail loading last week as the company made on-site repairs. The Nov. 23 notice said Honeywell most likely would not be taking new granular ammonium sulfate rail orders for another two weeks, although mid-grade ammonium sulfate cars were reportedly being loaded and shipped last week. Honeywell’s earlier notice said orders for granular and mid-grade ammonium sulfate at Honeywell warehouses would be taken as long as current inventory allows. “We will attempt to increase rail loading in December to catch up on some of the lost shipments in November,” the Nov. 23 notice said.

St. Louis-Rotem BKG LLC will become ICL Premium Fertilizers NA, according to Ariana Cohen, president. The change coincides with the reorganization of ICL North America. ICL Premium Fertilizers NA will continue to be the main supplier of mono potassium phosphate (MKP) under the brand name PeaK® for the horticulture, tech, and food markets, and technical grade mono ammonium phosphate under the brand name NovaMAP®. Additional products sold in the U.S. by ICL Premium include other potassium, phosphate-based fertilizers (PeKacid, HiPeaK, and MgPhos) and magnesium nitrate. ICL Premium is a member of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL), a global group active in fertilizers, bromine and bromine compounds, specialty and performance chemicals, and metallurgy.

Ft. Collins, Colo.-USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists have found that using alternative types of fertilizers can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, at least in one part of the country. They are currently examining whether these types offer similar benefits nationwide. Their concerns are that nitrogen fertilizers necessary for ensuring sufficient crop yields release nitrous oxide, a major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Fertilizer use is one reason an estimated 78 percent of the nation’s nitrous oxide emissions comes from agriculture, according to Ardell Halvorson, a soil scientist at the ARS Soil Plant Nutrient Research Laboratory, located here. Halvorson compared nitrous oxide emissions from corn fields treated with either a conventional nitrogen fertilizer (urea) or either of two specially-formulated urea fertilizers – one with polymer-coated controlled release, and the other with inhibitors to stabilize the urea to keep more of it in the soil as ammonium for a longer period. In a two-year experiment at Fort Collins, Halvorson collected the emissions using static-vented chambers, similar to small “pillbox” structures placed over the soil. He chose a no-till cropping system known to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He found that the controlled-release fertilizer cut nitrous oxide emissions by a third, and that the stabilized fertilizer cut them almost in half. Halvorson’s results are so far limited to the irrigated fields and cool, semi-arid conditions in and around Fort Collins. But nitrous oxide releases are the result of a complex interplay of conditions that vary from one area to the next, such as soil water content, soil temperatures, soil types, microbial activity, climactic conditions, and rainfall patterns. So Halvorson is expanding the study, with support from the fertilizer industry and cooperation of other ARS locations, to see how the fertilizers respond at seven sites around the United States.

Alberta Lea, Minn.-The Freeborn County sheriff says the case of a driver who drove his fertilizer truck into a swamp and then left the scene and was missing for a day or more is under investigation. “I know that this missing man was found early Friday evening (Nov. 20) and is no longer missing,” Sheriff Mark Harig told Green Markets. Harig declined to elaborate “because there is an active investigation into his disappearance. Thankfully he has been found after spending the night sleeping in a cornfield and had only minor injuries and is now safe.” The driver was identified as Seth Strusz, 34, Hartland, Minn. Officials at High Yield in Hartland declined to talk about the situation, but Green Markets did learn that the fertilizer aboard the truck had been recovered. The area was searched by more than 60 volunteers. A canine unit and helicopter equipped with infra red were used before the missing driver was located later in the evening.

Ames, Iowa-The producers are looking into complaints of “sickly odors” from a water-based fertilizer made from a soybean refining byproduct. “We’ve been using it for land application for eight or nine years in Iowa and it’s the first time we’ve had this issue,” reported Sam Scheidler, executive director of Feed Energy of Des Moines, the company that supplies the fertilizer. “We’ve suspended the use while we are looking into what created this situation.” Over the last two weeks residents in Ames and other areas have reported an intermittent rotting meat or dead fish odor. “It just reeks,” said Mike Holub, who owns a greenhouse business two miles east of the Heart of Iowa Cooperative branch near Nevada where the liquid is stored in a tank. “We’re getting headaches around here from it.” Story County Interim Health Director Margaret Jaynes is looking into more than 15 complaints from residents living in three different areas. Heart of Iowa reported more than a dozen complaints. Boyd Brodie, operations manager for Heart of Iowa, told the local press this is the second year the fertilizer has been applied to fields in Story County. He believes the odor may be the result of treating the fields earlier in November during warmer weather. “We’ve been taken by surprise,” Brodie said. “Everybody’s trying to figure out what happened to cause these odor issues.” Scheidler told Green Markets the fertilizer, which has all the primary nutrients plus micronutrients, is usually applied on row crops after harvest. “Farmers who have used it like it,” he added.