Toronto-MagIndustries Corp. said Aug. 30 that a deal in which China National Complete Plant Import & Export Co. Ltd. (COMPLANT) would acquire a majority stake in Mag’s Mengo Potash Project in the Republic of the Congo did not close at the end of August as earlier envisioned (GM Feb. 8, 2010). COMPLANT, a Chinese company, sought approval from its controlling shareholder, the State Development and Investment Commission, a government-owned enterprise, but this was not achieved. Mag says it continues to have dialogue with COMPLANT; however, it is now on a non-exclusive basis, and it is reassessing other options in light of the recent PotashCorp-BHP Billiton news.

Visalia, Calif.-The owner and general manager of a San Joaquin Valley fertilizer business was shot and killed Sunday, Aug. 29, in his office at a Visalia Mormon church where he served as bishop. The details of the shooting are not yet available, but Clay R. Sanner was in his office during a break in Sunday services when the shooter went in to talk to him and then shot him dead. Minutes later the shooter called police from his car, then engaged them in a shootout. He was wounded and is now in the hospital under guard. There is no indication of the shooter’s motivation. Visalia police say they’ve handed the investigation over to Tulare County sheriff’s deputies because of the police officer’s involvement. Sanner’s death has shocked and puzzled both the agriculture and religious communities, where he was highly respected by his associates. Sannar headed Soil Basics Corp., which began operations in 1995. According to the company’s website, the organization has been involved in some of the most exciting products in the agricultural chemical/nutrient industry, and has as its mission providing growers with technologically advanced solutions for improved plant health. A special notice was inserted in the website announcing Sannar’s death and plans for funeral services Sept. 3 in the LDS Stake Center in Visalia. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been set up with a local bank. His brother, Jared Sannar, who is also a Mormon bishop and is serving as family spokesman, told Green Markets in a brief call that he didn’t know of any connection between Clay Sannar, who had been a bishop for only a short time, and the shooter. He said that Soil Basics was not an enormous business, but a “good solid family operation.”

San Francisco-City fire authorities doubted there would be any action against a Pier 96 recycling company over an incident Aug. 27, when a box containing an undetermined amount of ammonium phosphate broke open on a conveyor and spread a cloud of dust that required treatment at the scene for 12 individuals and put one in the hospital. Eight others complained about eye irritation, but did not require treatment. San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Lt. Mindy Talmadge told Green Markets that the box was on the conveyor with other material at West Coast Recycling. “We didn’t know what it was at the time,” Talmadge reported. “Our paramedics assessed about 20 people reporting irritated eyes. Twelve of them had their eyes irrigated, and one was transported to the hospital.” She said that at first the unidentified material was treated as hazardous waste by the hazmat team, but when it was found to be non-life-threatening the hazmat team just wet down the fertilizer. “Actually this was considered not the proper way of disposing of ammonium phosphate, but I doubt that there will be any further action,” she added. “I think the ideal method of getting rid of unwanted ammonium phosphate is to dump it on your lawn.”

Rio de Janeiro-Vale S.A. said Sept. 1 that in the auction of the tender offer to acquire shares of Paranapanema S.A. (Paranapanema) scheduled to take place Sept. 1 (GM Aug. 2, 2010), the number of Paranapanema shares tendered did not reach the minimum threshold upon which the tender offer was conditioned – 50 percent plus one share. As a consequence, no Paranapanema shares were acquired by Vale. Reportedly, only 38 percent of the shares were tendered to Vale. Paranapanema, a leading copper producer in Brazil, also has a stake of 99.09 percent in Cibrafértil, which operates a phosphate fertilizer plant.

Santiago-Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) reported a 23 percent increase in net income for the second quarter ending June 30, 2010, to $105 million ($.40 per share) on sales of $476.7 million, compared to the year-ago net income of $85.7 million ($.33 per share) on sales of $347.2 million. Specialty Plant Nutrition (SPN) sales moved up to $172.8 million from the year-ago $137.9 million as growers returned to more normalized rates of application. Potassium chloride and potassium sulfate sales were also up, at $117.7 million from the year-ago $87.1 million. SQM said there has been a positive shift in demand across all of its businesses, though prices this year are lower than last year. “Our expansion of potassium-based fertilizers has continued to develop according to plans, as evidenced by the completion of our 300,000 mt potassium nitrate facility in Coya Sur and the significant increase of production capacity of potassium chloride in the Salar de Atacama,” said Patricio Contesse, SQM CEO. SQM six-month net income was $181.5 million ($.69 per share) on sales of $865.3 million, versus the year-ago net income of $174.2 million ($.66 per share) on sales of $668.4 million. Six-month SPN revenues were $301 million, up from $258.6 million a year ago, while potassium chloride and SOP rose to $242.4 million from the year-ago $182.8 million.

Cairo-Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) reports that its fertilizer group sold some 1.1 million mt of nitrogen-based fertilizer during the second quarter ending June 30, 2010. While Egyptian Fertilizer Co. (EFC) reported weaker results as a result of softer urea prices, OCI Nitrogen saw a stronger price environment for nitrate-based products, offsetting the impact of urea prices. However, with urea prices seeing a 30 percent rebound starting in July, the company sees positive fundamentals going forward. OCI also reported improved results from its investment in Gavilon LLC during the quarter. EFC second-quarter urea sales were 334,400 mt, up from the first quarter’s 307,690 mt, while ammonium sulfate sales were off, at 7,691 mt from 22,100 mt in 1Q 10. OCI unit EBIC sold 172,449 mt of ammonia, up from the first quarter’s 131,550 mt. The OCI Nitrogen unit, which OCI bought from DSM, saw second-quarter CAN sales of 352,000 mt, UAN 43,000 mt, ammonia 101,000 mt, nitric acid 27,000 mt, and melamine 51,000 mt. OCI’s EFT unit sold 22,545 mt of urea in the second quarter. OCI has been moving to assimilate its new assets into the company, including the new ammonia terminal in Rotterdam (GM July 19, 2010), as well as the former DSM assets (GM April 5, 2010). The company reports that construction of the Sorfert Algeria nitrogen complex remains on track, with 94.2 percent completion as of July 31, 2010, and commissioning expected in early 2011. Company-wide, OCI second-quarter net income was up 40.8 percent, to $144.0 million on revenues from continuing operations of $1.34 billion, up from the year-ago net income of $102.3 million on revenues of $1.1 billion. Six-month net income was $260.6 million on sales of $2.33 billion, up from the year-ago income of $208 million on sales of $1.92 billion.

Hong Kong-Sinofert Holdings Ltd. is back in the plus column, posting profit attributable to shareholders of RMB340 million for the first half ending June 30, 2010, versus a year-ago loss of RMB828 million. Revenues were RMB13,246 million, up 5.92 percent from the year-ago period. First-half total sales volume increased by 17.15 percent, to 7.44 million mt. Sinofert, the largest fertilizer distributor in China, sold 3.26 million mt of nitrogen fertilizer and 1.18 million mt of potash, representing substantial increases of 24.01 percent and 97.06 percent, respectively. Sales volume of phosphate fertilizer increased by 8.64 percent to 1.82 million mt, while that of compound fertilizer decreased slightly to 0.95 million mt.

Washington-The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is dismissing as “not in the real world” research at North Carolina State University raising the possibility of fertilizer being converted into a toxic form by sea creatures. In a study published last month, N.C. State researchers show that water fleas take up nitrates and nitrites and convert them into nitric oxide, which can be toxic to many organisms. The study, published in PLoS ONE, shows that the fleas in water were plagued with developmental and reproductive problems consistent with nitric oxide toxicity even at what would be considered low concentrations. According to Dr. Gerald LeBlanc, professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at N.C. State and an author of the paper, this raises questions about the effect these chemicals may have on other organisms’ toxicology. LeBlanc conceded that additional research will be needed to explore those questions. Bill Herz, TFI vice president of scientific programs, dismissed this research as “an in vitro experiment trying to replicate real world conditions using surrogates.” Herz added, “It’s a deliberate exposure of organisms that is not a real pathway (because) it takes a fair amount of energy to go from nitrate to nitrite, and nitrite is not a typical byproduct of fertilizer loss. This nitrite exposure is very hypothetical, and you have to have conditions that are not often found in fresh water conditions.” In the report, LeBlanc labeled some of the study’s results as surprising. “There’s only limited evidence to suggest that animals could convert nitrates and nitrites to nitric oxide, although plants can,” he said. “Since animals and plants don’t have the same cellular machinery for this conversion, it appears animals use different machinery for this conversion to occur.” There were even toxic effects at low nitrite concentrations showing negative effects to water fleas at approximately 0.3 milligrams per liter where concentrations fall within 1 to 2 milligrams per liter.

Washington-Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have agreed, at the prodding of Navistar, to take a look at claims that diesel trucks with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) can “cheat” on emissions control requirements by continuing to drive without diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). According to Navistar, a critic of SCR and DEF has finalized an agreement with EPA to dismiss three lawsuits on the condition that EPA re-examine whether trucks with this latest emissions-control technology are able to cheat. In the suits, in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Navistar claimed EPA had failed to consider that SCR might not reduce tailpipe emissions as intended. In the first step of the process, at Navistar’s urging, EPA, along with CARB, held a public workshop in July to address issues raised by Navistar. CARB has since announced it is considering tightening up or shortening the time or mileage that a vehicle would be allowed to operate when out of DEF. At the workshop Navistar presented a third-party study that concluded new commercial vehicles equipped with SCR continue to operate effectively when urea is not present. At such times, according to Navistar, the vehicles throw off levels of NOx as much as 10 times higher than when urea is present. Spokeswoman Karen Caesar said in the press that CARB is currently “taking into consideration the comments we received at the workshop and afterwards as we move forward,” she said. “However, it’s still unclear at this time whether we will actually put out new guidelines for the next model year.”