Saskatoon-Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. on March 15 announced a $1 million donation to support relief efforts in Japan following the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and the tsunami that struck the island nation on March 11. The contribution will go to the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund. “Like the rest of the world, we have been gripped and deeply moved by the devastation and destruction of this unprecedented natural disaster,” said Bill Doyle, PotashCorp president and CEO. “We value the longstanding friendships and relationships we have forged with customers across Japan and hope that our contribution brings help and hope in the wake of this terrible crisis.” In addition to the $1 million contribution, PotashCorp employees’ donations to relief efforts in Japan will be matched dollar-for-dollar through PotashCorp’s Employee Matching Gift program, the company reported. “We are extremely grateful to PotashCorp for its very generous donation,” said Conrad Sauve, secretary general and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross. “This gift will be used to directly support Red Cross relief and recovery operations underway in affected communities.” Mitsui & Co. Ltd., a firm headquartered in Tokyo that has fertilizer trading operations worldwide, reported on March 14 that it had “not experienced any major damage to its facilities,” including those at its Tohoku office in northeastern Japan. Mitsui said its employees “are all safe and unharmed,” and reported that it was still collecting information regarding its affiliated companies. Mitsui also announced on March 14 a 400-million-yen cash donation, including a 20-million-yen donation declared earlier, to aid emergency relief efforts in the Tohoku region. “We would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the earthquake,” Mitsui said. “At the same time we express our earnest wish for the earliest recovery of the region, as well as the safety and well-being of the residents.” PotashCorp’s donation to Japan relief efforts follows significant commitments to earthquake relief efforts in China and Myanmar in 2008, Haiti and Chile in 2010, and most recently in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Sydney-Australia’s competition watchdog, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), has given its approval to Cargill Inc.’s A$1.24 billion acquisition of the commodity management business Agrium Inc. acquired with its takeover of Australia’s AWB Ltd. “The ACCC concluded that the proposed acquisition would be unlikely to enable Cargill post merger to depress prices paid to growers for grain or raise prices of grain to domestic customers due to the presence of the remaining grain traders,” ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement. The existing competition between Cargill and AWB is focused mainly in New South Wales in grain trading, and to a lesser extent grain storage and handling, ACCC said. Other competitors in that locale include GrainCorp, the largest grain trader and storage provider in New South Wales, as well as Cooperative Bulk Handling, the Elders Toepfer joint venture, Glencore, and Viterra. Ralph Selwood, Cargill Australia’s managing director, said in a statement that ACCC’s announcement is a significant milestone following the sales agreement with Agrium reached in December (GM Dec. 20, 2010). He added, however, that a decision from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board is still required for the sale to proceed. AWB is a leading agricultural retailer in Australia, with more than 200 company-operated retail locations, more than 140 additional retail franchise and wholesale customer locations in Australia, and investments in various related joint venture companies. Agrium successfully completed its acquisition of AWB on Dec. 3, 2010 (GM Dec. 6, 2010).

Washington-Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) recent amendment to immediately repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) in the small-business program reauthorization bill drew a critical response from the National Corn Growers Ass’n (NCGA) and the Renewable Fuels Ass’n (RFA) last week. The bill, introduced by Coburn and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), would end the “blenders tax credit,” which provides 45 cents per gallon to blenders of ethanol. Coburn says the repeal would save taxpayers $6 billion. “We are disappointed that Senator Coburn is singling out the ethanol industry in his amendment to immediately repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit while tax credits to the oil and gas industries remained untouched,” said NCGA President Bart Schott on March 16. “The American ethanol industry provides and supports 400,000 jobs here in the United States during a time of economic uncertainty. In addition, in the past year alone, ethanol added more than $50 billion to the national Gross Domestic Product and displaced the need for more than 360 million barrels of imported oil, valued at $16 billion.” Schott said the amendment’s passage “could result in the ethanol industry reducing its production volume by 38 percent. That is approximately 4 billion of the 10.75 billion gallons produced in 2009. This loss in ethanol production would result in the shedding of approximately 112,000 jobs in all sectors of the economy.” The NCGA’s comments were echoed by the RFA. “Given Sen. Coburn’s interest in what he deems unnecessary subsidies, we would encourage him to offer an amendment that would eliminate subsidies to oil companies posting tens of billions of dollars in profit quarterly,” a March 16 RFA statement said. “In lieu of that, the RFA urges the Senate to ignore this frivolous amendment.” RFA noted that Congress voted to extend the tax incentive for ethanol use just last December. “Reneging on that stability just four months after voting to provide it is the kind of job-killing, innovation-stalling policy that will keep America addicted to foreign oil,” RFA said. Coburn, in a statement released when the bill was introduced, called the ethanol tax credit “bad economic policy, bad energy policy, and bad environmental policy.” He said “the $6 billion we waste every year on corporate welfare should instead stay in taxpayers’ pockets where it can be used to spur innovation, stimulate growth and create jobs. I’m hopeful my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will take a stand against business-as-usual special interest giveaways and eliminate this wasteful and harmful subsidy.”

Cairo, Ill.-Officials were closely monitoring rising water levels at numerous locations last week. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Sioux Falls, S.D., issued a midweek flood warning for the Des Moines River at Jackson, Minn., and the Rock River at Rock Rapids, Iowa. Levels on the Des Moines were expected to reach the 12-foot flood stage late on March 16, with a crest at 14.4 feet expected by the weekend. There were reports that some fertilizer terminals in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area were closed last week due to high water-related road closures, and barge restrictions were reportedly in place in the St. Louis area at midweek. One contact said some locations south of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers are already seeing the highest river levels since 1996, leaving bottom ground under water in many locations. As of March 16, levels on the Ohio River were well above flood stage at measuring stations located in Smithland, Ky., Paducah, Ky., Brookport, Ill., Grand Chain, Ill., and Cairo, Ill. The river at Cairo, where flood stage is 40 feet, was at 53.3 feet at midweek, heading to an expected crest of 54 feet on March 19. On the Mississippi River, measuring stations above flood stage on March 16 included Cape Girardeau, Mo., Thebes, Ill., New Madrid, Mo., Tiptonville, Tenn., Caruthersville, Mo., Osceola, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn. At New Madrid, where flood stage is 34 feet, river levels stood at 40.3 feet at midweek, while river levels at Caruthersville had reached 39.8 feet and were expected to crest at 41 feet on March 20, well above the 32-foot flood stage. Even though levels had not reached flood stage at Mississippi River locations south of Memphis, flood warnings were still in effect. The NWS in Memphis issued a flood warning at Helena, Ark., on March 15, noting that the river had risen to 41.4 feet, with flood stage at 44 feet. The alert remained in effect as the week advanced, with minor flooding in the forecast. In Greenville, Miss., the river had risen by March 16 to 45.6 feet, with flood stage at 48 feet. A crest of 49 feet was forecast at Greenville for March 27. River levels at other southerly locations were expected to climb above flood stage during the March 29 through April 1 timeframe. Anticipated crests during these dates include 43 feet at Vicksburg, Miss., where flood stage is 43 feet; 49.5 feet at Natchez, Miss., where flood stage is 48 feet; 51 feet at Red River Landing, La., where flood stage is 48 feet; and 35 feet at Baton Rouge, La., where flood stage is 35 feet.

Deerfield, Ill.-CF Industries announced on March 16 that it has put the Terra Centre office building in downtown Sioux City, Iowa, up for sale for $10.5 million. CF acquired the 10-story building when they purchased Terra Industries last year. CF reportedly owns floors 2-10 of the Terra Centre, with most of the lower two floors under separate ownership. “CF Industries’ decision to sell the Terra Centre is consistent with the company’s plans to keep its corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, and to relocate staff to that office,” said CF Spokesperson Kim Mathers. “The Terra Centre is a well-maintained facility in an excellent location. The space that CF Industries owns is nearly fully occupied by paying tenants. CF Industries’ Sioux City employees will continue to occupy a significant portion of the building’s office space for many months, regardless of the timing of the building’s sale.” CF has hired Sioux City commercial realtor NIA LeGrand & Co. to market the property. CF said it is executing its plans to achieve a portion of its forecasted operating synergies through the elimination of overlapping positions, noting that some of the eliminated positions have been at other CF locations. A number of legacy Terra employees have accepted corporate positions and have relocated to Deerfield, the company reported, and some others continue to work for CF Industries out of their homes in the Siouxland area.

Salt Lake City-The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now accepting bids for competitive leasing of 64 parcels on 125,762 acres of the Sevier Dry Lake in west/central Utah where known potash deposits exist (GM March 14, p. 14). BLM officials said the bids, which may be submitted by mail or in person, must be physically received by 10 a.m. April 5, and that the bid opening itself will take place at the agency’s Salt Lake City offices at 1 p.m. on that date. BLM Spokesman Mitch Snow told Green Markets that sealed bids may not be modified or withdrawn after 10 a.m. on the date of the bid opening. Snow noted as well that 20 percent of the amount, in the form of a certified cashier’s check made payable to the BLM, must accompany all bids, and cautioned that multiple bids by a single company or individual will not be allowed on any single parcel and any such bids will be disqualified. “We can’t say at this point anything about the interest or the number of bids that might be submitted,” Snow said. BLM did note, however, in its announcement of the bid opening that the Sevier Lake playa contains brines that contain potassium (K) and will be leased under the authority of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. The total potash reserves have been estimated at 5.2 million tons. The mailing address for bid submissions is Utah State BLM Office, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-0155. Sealed bids may be hand-delivered to the cashier, Utah State Office, 440 W. 200 South, Suite 500, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Medina, Ohio-Medina County attorneys will be in Licking County Court May 26 in the latest chapter of a dispute between Sharon Township and the Ohio Department of Agriculture over the safety of storing anhydrous ammonia. “We’re saying it is the responsibility of the state to regulate these tanks and that the state’s regulations themselves do not adequately address the safety of the general public,” said Tom Karris, assistant county prosecutor. Sharon Township and state agriculture officials have been at odds since a Medina County farmer received the go-ahead for installation of a 12,000-gallon tank based on state requirements that township trustees said do not limit its size, require a background check of the installer, or consider the township’s ability to respond if the chemical were released. “Our complaint is limited to permanent stationary tanks (and) is not about nurse tanks,” Karris explained. “We don’t have an issue with those. Our issue is with the location and the installation of stationary storage tanks. We certainly are not attacking the use of anhydrous ammonia by farmers (who) buy just enough to apply to their crops and don’t generally store on their farms.” He said he expects an early ruling on the state’s motion that township trustees overstepped their bounds by asking the Licking County judge for an injunction to stop use of a chemical storage tank, but declined to speculate on what would be the effect of the court ruling against larger tanks in the state.

Karachi-Pakistan media report that President Asif Ali Zardi signed into law a new ordinance that removes the sales tax exemption for fertilizers, imposing a 17 percent tax. The Federal Board of Revenue said removal of the sales tax exemption, along with the removal of exemptions in other areas, is expected to raise Rs 53 billion (US$621 million) for the cash-strapped country.