“We see everything lined up to having a really terrific spring planting season with good crop fundamentals,” CF Industries Holdings Inc. Chairman, President, and CEO Stephen Wilson told analysts Aug. 6. Wilson said 2011 nitrogen consumption should be up 2-2.5 percent and phosphate up 4-4.5 percent. He expects corn acreage to be somewhere north of 90 million acres.

As for the fall, “The market seems to be strong in all of our products today, and that’s because we’re looking forward to an early harvest.”

CF told analysts that it would no longer release quarterly data regarding the status of its Forward Purchase Program (FPP). In the past, CF would release information on forward nitrogen and phosphate sales when it released its quarterly earnings. CF said it originally began releasing the FPP information because it was a new company and it wanted to provide investors with insight into risk mitigation actions in the context of high and volatile natural gas costs. Now, said CF, it is a much larger company, and it has a very different and more stable risk profile. In addition, it believes the forward order position is competitively sensitive information.

“With respect to natural gas, we maintain our discipline of essentially backing forward orders with committed gas so that we lock in our margin and we mitigate the risk associated with being exposed on one side or the other,” said Wilson. He said CF would never get into a gas position that exceeded its physical need for gas, adding that the company bought some options to cap its gas exposure in the months of Aug.-Oct. just to be prudent with respect to hurricane risk.

CF reiterated that it does plan to continue to use the FPP as a marketing tool, and doesn’t expect the patterns it has shown in the past to be much different than those in the future.

Wilson also noted that the company’s Woodward, Okla., expansion is expected to come online soon. Woodward, which came to CF via Terra Industries Inc., was expected to see its UAN expansion come up by the end of 2010 (GM May 12, 2008). When asked by Green Markets to quantify the date, a company spokesman said that the facility is supposed to be up by the end of the year. The $180 million expansion will consist of the addition of a 1,500 st/d Weatherly-design UAN facility. The project will affect the Woodward facility’s annual output as follows: ammonia capacity will remain at 440,000 st; because the plant will upgrade more of its ammonia production to UAN, ammonia available for sale as a finished product will decrease from 310,000 to 100,000 st; UAN capacity will increase from 300,000 to 825,000 st (32 percent nitrogen basis); and the expansion will require the addition of approximately 10 employees.

Wilson said the company has plenty of material to take care of traditional CF and Terra customers, as well as to respond to opportunities in the marketplace. He assessed the legacy CF customer as being a large wholesale customer that is relationship-driven. Wilson said Terra had a substantial number of smaller customers downstream, also with very good, long-term relationships. He also noted that Terra had a substantial percentage of its business from the industrial market. “We have a full range of nitrogen products now, and we have multiple locations at which to produce them. And we’ll be looking to put every ton to its highest and best use.”

CF was asked if it could supply its Florida neighbor – The Mosaic Co. – with phosphate rock should Mosaic have to buy rock this fall due to the court injunction against Mosaic mining its new permit in Hardee County (GM Aug. 9, p. 14). “We do not have excess rock production,” said Wilson. “And certainly, the production that we have right now is earmarked for Plant City and on to our customers.”

Addressing its potential nitrogen complex in Peru, CF said the current hurdle is whether there will be a natural gas pipeline to its potential plant site. “There’s been no work on that and we, obviously, are dependent upon that. We wouldn’t make a decision on a project in the absence of that, and no one would lend us any money for the project even if we wanted to make a decision.”

CVR Energy Inc. told analysts Aug. 5 that it has seen aggressive buying in its markets. “We haven’t seen the retailers pull back at all in terms of purchasing intentions and positioning themselves for the spring,” said Stanley Riemann, CVR chief operating officer.

He added that inventories are down. “We went into the second quarter with probably higher ammonia inventories than we normally do and we blew through those in April during the ammonia run. So it was a good call, with respect to our fertilizer marketing team.” As for UAN inventory, he said normally inventories should be somewhat stagnant; while they started out higher, they have drawn down to only 5-6,000 st.

“We’re now taking fill orders rather than spot orders,” added CEO and President John “Jack” Lipinski. “Last year, our forward book at this time was in the range of $130/st for UAN. This year our forward book is roughly $40/st higher. Our current fiscal book will carry us through the end of the year, and we foresee a continuing positive fertilizer market.” He added that agriculture was not as heavily impacted by the recession as other industries, and that fertilizer markets are stable-to-improving.

CVR said it is planning a fertilizer turnaround during the fourth quarter at a cost of $3.8 million, which will be expensed as incurred.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. reported net income of $175.9 million ($2.59 per diluted share) on sales of $1.24 billion for the third quarter ending July 3, 2010, compared to the year-ago net income of $147.8 million ($2.24 per diluted share) on sales of $1.23 billion.

Nine-month net income was $236.7 million ($3.51 per share) on sales of $2.66 billion, versus the year-ago $168.2 million ($2.55 per share) on sales of $2.46 billion.

Scotts said it has been a strong year, though it has not been the best year for weather. It pointed to bad weather in January-March in some areas and then euphoria in April, when it saw a huge increase in sales. The company said its nimbleness and region-by-region presence allowed it to go after the business when it was available. “It is not a business for folks who don’t like roller coaster rides,” said Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn, or “for the faint of heart.”

Scotts told analysts that it is exploring strategic alternatives for its Global Professional business unit. “I think it is a good business,” said Hagedorn. “I’m not sure that we are the best owner necessarily of that business.” He said the company is carefully examining whether the unit should remain in the Scotts portfolio.

Scotts said it would continue to focus on its Global Consumer business. “Our consumer business is our heart and soul. That is who we are,” said Hagedorn.

Third-quarter Global Consumer income was $292.7 million on sales of $1.085 billion, up from the year-ago income of $265.2 million on sales of $1.083 billion. Nine-month net income was $510.2 million on sales of $2.31 billion, up from the year-ago income of $429.2 million on sales of $2.11 billion.

Global Professional income for the third quarter was $6.9 million on sales of $71.9 million, versus the year-ago income of $5.2 million on sales of $69.5 million. Income was down for the first nine months, to $15.3 million from the year-ago $26.8 million, while sales were up 4 percent, to $205.3 million from $196.5 million.

Scotts LawnService 3Q income was $22.8 million on sales of $81.3 million, up from the year-ago income of $21.6 million on sales of $78.9 million. Nine-month income was $1.5 million on sales of $144.9 million, up from the year-ago loss of $2.3 million on sales of $150.5 million.

Scotts said it is seeing higher prices for next year and it expects to pass them on to consumers – at least modestly. “We know we have some price increases coming our way and for sure we are not going to let that affect our margin,” said Hagedorn. He said Scotts is looking at modest price increases, in the low single-digits in selected categories. “I don’t think we’re afraid to be sort of alone on pricing, especially where we see cost increases coming down the road. On the other hand, if the consumer is not willing to pay that price, and we see differentials get to a point where we’re not comfortable, we’ll make adjustments in season if we have to.” He noted that the company is operating in a period of historic consumer weakness, which adds more pressure not to make a mistake.

That said, Scotts said sales are up 6 percent year-to-date in four states with some of the worst economic pain – Florida, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania ?Çô and they were up 5 percent in another – Michigan.

Scotts also confirmed that Walmart is planning to pick another supplier for some or all of its private label fertilizer business instead of Scotts. Scotts picked up private label business when Spectrum Brands Inc. went out of business (GM June 29, 2009). However, Scotts assured analysts it would still do an “awesome” quantity of branded business with Walmart. “Walmart is committed to our branded business and we have excellent programs in the queue for next year in regard to our branded fertilizer program,” said Mark Baker, Scotts president and chief operating officer. “So I feel very good about that. I do like the private business, largely because we have one truck coming in, we can deliver everything together, it’s more efficient for them …. But the retailers can make the choices they want, and there’s a price below which we’re not going to do it.”

In other news, Scotts said that by the end of summer it will open new regional offices in Chicago and New York. Overall sales growth is expected to be 5-7 percent this fiscal year, which is down from earlier estimates of 7-8 percent.

Scotts also announced last week that its board authorized it to repurchase up to $500 million worth of common shares over the next four years. The board also voted to increase the quarterly dividend paid to shareholders to $.25 per share, double the current level.

Intrepid Potash Inc. told analysts Aug. 5 that almost every dealer it spoke with at the Southwestern Fertilizer Conference said they intentionally finished the spring season with their storage bins as empty as possible.

“Over the last few weeks, we have seen a significant uptick in order activity,” said R. L. Moore, Intrepid senior vice president for marketing and sales. “There seems to be recognition in the marketplace that we may experience an early harvest, which means there should be a more favorable application window for potash.

“With the rail orders that were generated in July, coupled with our commitment to supply our consignment warehouse customers and truckload customers, we will likely come close to depleting existing inventories and production through the end of the third quarter.” Moore said current demand patterns are more typical of a normal year.

“Going into the fall, dealers are now indicating a willingness to take inventory risk, are more confident that demand has returned to normal patterns, and are not expressing concerns about current price levels.”

The only market that has been off for Intrepid has been the Rocky Mountain industrial market, which uses standard product. Intrepid is adding granulation capacity to its Moab, Utah, facility so as to provide better flexibility, i.e., sell more granular when standard is in lower demand. The granulation upgrade is expected by the end of the year. The current Intrepid sales ratio is 72% agricultural, 18% industrial, and 10% feed.

Intrepid denied analysts’ suggestions that Agrium Inc. might be taking away some of its market share in the U.S. Robert Jornayvaz, Intrepid’s chairman of the board and CEO, said that the Canadians had inventory that they probably weren’t sure they were going to sell, and that they were aggressive in certain areas because Intrepid had the opportunity to make more sales and it chose not to. “We were thinking that the market was going to firm and is going to continue to firm, and so we chose to pass on certain sales looking forward to what we think is going to be a good third and fourth quarter.”

Intrepid reiterated that it was the Canadians that first started dropping prices in late 2009, not Intrepid, which was selling at higher numbers.

David Honeyfield, Intrepid president and CFO, said the company sold the same number of tons in 2Q 10 as in 2Q 09, while Agrium sold about 10 times as much in the recent quarter than a year ago. Intrepid also suggested that Agrium might have been filling up its own retail outlets with part of the tonnage.

Honeyfield said Intrepid had a better average net realized sales price compared to other North American producers, in part due to its geographic location and the corresponding transportation advantage. He added that granular inventories are currently at prudent levels going into the fall buying season, and that the opportunities to sell exceed anticipated production. Honeyfield said that the company is holding back some tons for its truck markets, because those do tend to be higher margin sales. The company said it matched PotashCorp and Agrium price lists in some areas this summer, but not in others.

Intrepid said it has hired new personnel, and that the Carlsbad West and East facilities should be at full production.

On granular Trio, Intrepid said that every ton it can produce in the second half is spoken for. The company noted that Carlsbad East Mine langbeinite production was slowed down for 14 days in July due to heavy rains. The company’s Trio price goes up $15/st on Sept. 1.

Despite the slower-than-expected progress in bringing up the long-idled Pryor, Okla., nitrogen plant, LSB Industries Inc. President Barry Golsen told analysts Aug. 6 that Pryor is a valuable asset that will contribute to earnings for many years to come. “Even considering the delays and increased costs at Pryor, we anticipate completing Pryor for a fraction of the cost of a comparable new plant.”

Golsen added that LSB is enthusiastic about its relationship with Koch Nitrogen Co. on this project, which should facilitate the growth of this business for LSB. Koch has the contract to market the product from Pryor.

Pryor’s latest delay was caused by a fire in the primary reformer of the ammonia plant in June. LSB expects the plant to be back up by the end of September, and said that the delay is due to lead time to get replacement parts. While the plant began producing ammonia early in the year and produced some 14,000 st of UAN before the fire, LSB said it had not achieved full production.

Once it achieves full production, the Pryor ammonia plant is expected to start off producing 525 st/d. After upgrades to UAN, some 35,000 st/y should be available for the market. UAN production is expected to be 325,000 st/y. Thereafter, the company can boost that to a rate of 700 st/d. The company has the option in the future to bring up two smaller ammonia plants at the site as well. Their capacity is a combined 200 st/d, which would make a total ammonia production of 900 st/d possible.

LSB said the combined ammonia and UAN sales from Pryor in the second quarter were $5.7 million. Operating expenses were $6.2 million, while Pryor had an operating loss of $2 million. Pryor capital expenditure requirements for the rest of 2010 are about $14 million, most of which will occur in the third quarter. This amount includes $8 million to rebuild and repair the damaged reformer, and $6 million for other rebuilds and improvements. LSB expects that most of the costs to rebuild the reformer will be covered by insurance, with a $1 million deductible.

The company said it had a significant increase in agricultural product sales volumes in the second quarter, which was due to strong demand as a result of a late start to the spring season. Ag product sales were $51 million, up 48 percent from year-ago levels. Total ag product shipped was 45 percent higher than a year ago. Industrial chemical sales were $32.8 million, up 53 percent from year-ago levels; however, tons shipped were up only 44 percent. Mining product sales were $22.6 million, up 61 percent from year-ago levels, while tons shipped were up 33 percent.

Going forward, LSB said its entire nitrogen distribution system is virtually empty. “Our plants are currently sold out and we’re optimistic about the near-term future,” said Golsen. “We also remain bullish about the long-term demand for agricultural products we produce.”

In other news, LSB announced that it has signed a three-year labor contract with the union at its El Dorado, Ark., nitrogen plant.

On the Climate Control side of the business, LSB said that it will not be proceeding with the purchase of a heating and air-conditioning business in China. “What we found while doing our due diligence was not what we expected to find,” said Jack Golsen, LSB chairman and CEO.