Agrium Inc. announced Feb. 6, 2014 that Richard Gearheard, Agrium senior vice president, and Retail segment president, will be retiring effective March 31, 2014. Agrium said he has been instrumental in the significant success and growth of Agrium’s Retail business unit and has been with Agrium and its predecessor companies for over 40 years. Under Richard’s leadership, Agrium’s Retail business has grown from a small US-based retail company generating $50-million in EBITDA in 1996 to an international retail business that is now the largest global direct-to-grower distributor of crop nutrients, agricultural crop protection products and seed generating close to $1-billion in EBITDA.

“On behalf of all of Agrium, I want to thank Richard for his tremendous contribution in building Agrium Retail into the leading agricultural retailer in the U.S. and globally. Richard is well known and broadly respected in the agriculture community for his business knowledge, humor and focus on people,” said Chuck Magro, Agrium’s president and CEO.

Steve Dyer, Agrium’s CFO, has been appointed to replace Gearheard as executive vice president and president of Retail. He has held a broad range of positions in his 23 year career at Agrium including financial, distribution, Retail, business development, IT, and Wholesale manufacturing. Prior to his current role as Agrium’s CFO, he was West region manager for Crop Production Services, which has over 130 retail farm branches and annual sales of over $1.5-billion.

Tom Warner, vice president, distribution for CPS has been appointed president, North America Retail and will report to Dyer. In his new role, he will have responsibility for all of CPS’s business throughout North America. He will act as interim president of Retail from April 1, 2014 until such time that Dyer’s replacement as CFO is appointed.

Jeff Tarsi, senior director, business strategy for CPS has been appointed vice president, Retail international, reporting to Dyer. In addition, to his Retail business strategy duties, he will also now have responsibility for Retail’s businesses outside of North America.

“I am very pleased that Steve has accepted the position as executive vice president and president of Retail. He brings to this role impressive agri-business experience and a strong background in distribution and retail. I would also like to welcome Tom and Jeff to their new roles and responsibilities,” added Magro.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. confirmed that it raised its potash postings by $20/st on Monday, Feb. 3. Industry rumors were that the other potash producers were also going up $20/st, but there was no confirmation and it was unclear exactly when or to what level they would repost.

The potash warehouse market in the Midwest had been commonly holding at the $350/st FOB level for red granular and $357/st FOB for white granular since early January.

PotashCorp citing challenging fertilizer market conditions saw a 45 percent drop in net income for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2013 to $230 million ($0.26 per diluted share) on sales of $1.54 billion compared to the year-ago $421 million ($0.48 per share) and $1.64 billion, respectively. The results included $60 million in severance-related costs from workforce reductions announced in December.

“Pricing headwinds—most notably in potash, weighed on our performance, although there were signs as the quarter came to a close that the uncertainty in global markets was beginning to abate,” said PotashCorp CEO and President Bill Doyle.

For the year, net income was off only 14 percent to $1.78 billion ($2.04 per share) on sales of $7.3 billion, down from 2012’s $2.08 billion ($2.37 per share) on sales of $7.93 billion.

PotashCorp gave first quarter 2014 guidance of $0.30-$0.35 per share and full-year guidance of $1.40-$1.80 per share.

Mississippi Phosphates Corp. (MPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Phosphate Holdings Inc. said late Jan. 30 that it plans to add MAP to its product line, beginning in mid-February 2014. MPC has long produced DAP and sold it through traditional domestic and international channels. The company said the addition of MAP to its portfolio will allow it to take advantage of broader market opportunities. MAP is currently trading about $20/st higher at NOLA than DAP.

MPC said by broadening its product mix, it will combine internal marketing efforts with an exclusive off-take agreement for MAP with Interoceanic Corp. (IOC), of Ossining, N.Y., in an effort to enhance it’s targeting of value-added market sectors. It said IOC’s proven market success in the industry will be in direct support of MPC’s new market strategy.

LSB Industries Inc. reported late Jan. 29 that additional repairs are required at the anhydrous ammonia plant at its Pryor, Okla., chemical facility. LSB said it is diligently working to complete the repairs and is performing additional maintenance while the plant is down. The company said it will update the market when the plant returns to production.

On Jan. 8, LSB reported that the plant went back down after a brief restart. At the time, LSB reported excessive vibrations in the second stage of the compressor. It said the second stage compressor was sent to Sulzer Turbo Services’ Houston, Texas laboratory for high speed testing and diagnosis. At that time, LSB was hoping the plant would be back up by the end of January. On Dec. 30, 2013, the plant restarted after having been down most of the fourth quarter.