The Trading Corp. of Pakistan called a tender Wednesday, April 29, for 50,000 mt of urea that closes May 29. Delivery must be no later than June 23.

The tender comes as Chinese urea producers are digging in their heels on pricing, causing grief for Indian buyers and their trading partners. Arab producers are also talking about higher prices.

One saving note for the Pakistani treasury is that unlike past tenders, the basic tender documents do not exclude Iranian material. Shipping for Iranian product is easier than for any other source and the material is often sold at a discount because of the complications of the embargo on Iran.

The Pakistan government authorized the importation of 310,000 mt late last month.  This tender may represent the first in a rapid series of tenders to reach that amount.

The rules governing TCP tenders do not allow the buyer to negotiate with the second or third lowest offering companies, as Indian buyers are allowed. The buyer can only take the offered tonnage from the lowest qualified offer. If that offer does not fulfill the needs of the tender, TCP is forced to call another tender for the balance.

This created a situation where a number of tenders had to be called in rapid succession because few companies were willing to offer 300,000 mt in one shot.

Also under TCP rules – unless the government issues a special exemption – the time between calling the tender and its closing is 30 days. When TCP was forced to call follow-up tenders, it either had to ask for an exemption to reduce the time from announcement to closing or stretch out the purchasing schedule for months.

Recently, however, TCP has taken to calling tenders for smaller amounts of 50-60,000 mt one day after another. For example, the current tender closes May 29. If TCP follows its recent patterns, another tender will be called April 30 with a closing of May 30, April 31 to close June 1 and so on until the full 310,000 mt is covered.

Watch Green Markets for updates on the situation.

EuroChem Group AG reports that it has selected a site in St. John the Baptist Parish for its contemplated Louisiana natural gas-based nitrogen plant and distribution center.

Two locations were short listed among available properties including the property in St. John the Baptist Parish and a state-owned site in Iberville Parish, which was purchased by EuroChem in 2013.

While a final investment decision remains subject to EuroChem board approval, finalizing the purchase agreement on the property allows EuroChem to move forward with the planning and pre-construction phase of the project.

The company plans to work with state and parish officials to secure another industrial buyer for the Iberville Parish site.

Salt and specialty fertilizer producer Compass Minerals reported first quarter net earnings of $60.6 million on sales of $393 million, up from the year-ago $50.2 million on sales of $422 million.

Plant Nutrition operating earnings were $20.8 million on sales of $73.6 million, up from $16.3 million and $66.1 million, respectively.

Intrepid Potash Inc. reported net income of $6.5 million on sales of $117 million for the first quarter ending March 31, 2015, up from a year-ago loss of $355,000 on sales of $98.9 million.

LSB Industries Inc. and its large shareholder, Starboard Value LP, have reached agreement on board membership and company direction.

LSB said April 27 that it has elected Louis Massimo, Andrew Mittag, Richard Roedel, Ms. Marran Ogilvie and Lynn White to its board of directors. These five new independent directors, as well as incumbent directors Richard Sanders and Barry Golsen, will stand for re-election to LSB’s board at the company’s 2015 annual meeting of stockholders. Massimo and Mittag will fill the vacancies created by the resignations, effective today, of Gail Lapidus and Robert Henry.

If re-elected by LSB’s stockholders at the 2015 meeting, Ogilvie, Roedel, Sanders, Golsen and White will have terms expiring at the 2018 annual meeting and Massimo and Mittag will join the class of directors with terms expiring at the 2017 annual meeting. With these appointments, the LSB board will expand to 13 directors, 11 of whom are independent and 9 of whom were appointed in the last 24 months.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Starboard on the composition of the board,” said Barry Golsen, LSB CEO. “On behalf of the entire Board, I would like to thank Gail Lapidus and Robert Henry for their dedicated service and contributions to the Board and LSB. We look forward to working with the new independent directors.”

 “We remain committed to enhancing stockholder value, and we believe the improvements we are making to increase capacity and upgrade facilities will position LSB for enhanced growth and profitability,” added Golsen. “We are therefore pleased to announce our intention, once our El Dorado facility expansion projects have been completed and brought online in 2016, to the extent market conditions allow and subject to board approval, to separate the company’s Chemicals business from its Climate Control business and to explore an MLP structure for the Chemicals business.”

In connection with today’s announcement, LSB has entered into an agreement with Starboard, which beneficially owns approximately 7.6 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. Under the agreement, Starboard has agreed, among other things, not to solicit proxies or participate in any “withhold” campaign in connection with the 2015 annual meeting and to vote its shares in support of all of the company’s director nominees. Starboard has also agreed to vote all of its shares in accordance with the board’s recommendation with respect to the company’s say-on-pay proposal, subject to the recommendation of Institutional Shareholder Services.

In addition, the responsibilities of the Strategic Committee of the board, which was formed in June 2014, will be expanded to include an evaluation of company’s corporate governance and management structure, related party transactions and any other governance practices of the company deemed appropriate by the Strategic Committee. The Strategic Committee will make recommendations to the board based on its findings, and the company intends to announce the board’s decisions with respect to these recommendations concurrent with its second quarter 2015 earnings release.

The company also agreed to form an independent board committee to oversee the company’s previously announced executive search for a president of the Chemicals business; this committee will consist of Daniel  Greenwell, Sanders, Mittag and White. As previously announced the company is working with executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist in the search.

The company also announced that Greenwell was elected lead independent director.

Jeff Smith, CEO of Starboard, stated, “We are pleased that we have been able to continue to work constructively with LSB to reach this agreement, and we look forward to meaningful

Despite a change of subcontractors at the Wever, Iowa, work site, OCI NV’s Iowa Fertilizer Co. reiterated today that actual work at the site never stopped.

According to OCI, on Friday April 17, 2015, Orascom E&C USA Inc. (the EPC contractor) reassigned all work that was being carried out by one of its subcontractors to three other subcontractors, all of which have existing on-site experience, in order to improve construction supervision and productivity. The former sub-contractor was responsible for portions of the mechanical, electrical and instrumentation work in the ammonia and downstream process plants.

The company said the replacement subcontractors, which include an Iowa-based subcontractor, have demonstrated high levels of quality and productivity on the work they have performed to date and these factors were considered in the EPC contractor’s decision to re-assign work to the replacement subcontractors. The replacement subcontractors were close to completion of portions of their original scope, and would have been reducing their workforce in the coming months. Additionally, qualified labor from the former subcontractor is being reassigned to the replacement subcontractors. The company said in construction projects of this size, it is common for subcontractors to be exchanged.

OCI said all other site activity and construction on the Iowa Fertilizer project continues to make progress. The project remains on schedule for completion in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Yara International ASA reports that it has decided to write down the value of its Lifeco investment by US$112 million, leaving a remaining book value of $18 million.

Yara cited the worsening security outlook in Libya. Yara sees a high likelihood of a further deterioration in 2015 of the operating ability of the Lifeco joint venture plants. Yara said the jv’s feedstock and financial situation was already challenging.

Yara noted that the political and security situation in Libya has worsened rapidly, and may deteriorate further over the next year. In light of this, Yara is evaluating the operation of the plants on an ongoing basis in cooperation with the other partners, in order to protect the employees as well as the assets.

Yara said it will continue participating in the governance of Lifeco, with the aim of resuming full production once real improvements are seen in the security and political situation in Libya, creating a sustainable improved operating outlook for Lifeco.

The impairment will be reported as part of Yara’s first-quarter EBIT and EBITDA, under "Share of net income in equity-accounted investees."

USD Group LLC (USDG), via its wholly-owned subsidiary Northeast Energy Terminal LLC, has finalized a long-term lease agreement with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) for use of the Port of Philadelphia’s Pier 122. Under the terms of the lease, USDG’s Northeast Energy Terminal will assume responsibility for existing dry bulk operations at the pier facility.

USDG is taking over a lease formerly held by Growmark Inc., according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and is also buying domes and a loading crane from Growmark. The facility will continue to serve Growmark, but will expand to do other bulk commodities beyond fertilizer.

“USDG has decades of experience developing and managing large-scale multi-modal logistics facilities – experience we hope to use to further PRPA’s long-term vision for growth at Pier 122,” said Dan Borgen, USDG’s chairman, CEO and President. “We look forward to partnering with them to make that vision a reality.”

The lease was approved by PRPA’s board of directors at its March 17, 2015 meeting.

“USDG has the right experience to continue these operations and shares our commitment to maintaining and expanding the jobs and cargo at the terminal,” said Jerry Sweeney, chairman of the board of PRPA. “This agreement is good news for the Port of Philadelphia as we move forward at Pier 122.”

Included in the lease are Pier 122 and the associated dockage and equipment used for handling dry bulk cargo. Pier 122 and its deep-water berth feature ample and efficient logistics connections to domestic and international markets.