Wilbur-Ellis Co. said Sept. 30 that it is planning to expand its York, Neb., facility. The new facility will include: bulk fertilizer storage; a runway expansion; additional warehousing; and a bulk seed and treatment facility.

The company began its presence in Nebraska with the acquisitions of Muckel’s Aerial Inc., and Ag Flight, Inc., in 2010. While the company is known for its aerial application capabilities in the area, it is working toward bringing its total solutions approach enjoyed by its customers across the company’s operations in the U.S. This approach includes access to Wilbur-Ellis field technology specialists, as well as their portfolio of branded products.

“In many of our geographies across the U.S., Wilbur-Ellis is known for having full- service agriculture retail locations,” said Jason Perdue, sales agronomist for Wilbur-Ellis. “Our goal is to maximize our growers’ return on investment, and this new facility will expand our capabilities and help us meet those goals.”

In addition to the facility, the company has hired employees to help grow and support the business in Nebraska, including LaVerle Miller and Chase Johnson as sales agronomists, bringing 25 years of agronomy experience. Also coming on board is Ernie Price as operations manager. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

Ohio Valley Resources LLC (OVR), Fairfield, Ill., which is planning a $952 million nitrogen plant for Spencer County, Ind., reports that it has received its air permit. OVR has selected a 150-acre site, just north of Rockport (GM March 4, p. 1, May 20, p. 10). Green Markets reported Sept. 23 that the permit was expected soon. For more details, see the Green Markets Web-Edition Sept. 27.

OAO Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner has been removed from a Belarus jail to a private apartment in Minsk. Baumgertner was arrested Aug. 26. In the meantime, reports are that Suleiman Kerimov, who owns 21.7 percent of Uralkali, remains in negotiations to sell his stake, a move that could result in Baumgertner’s final release to go home to Russia.

Bangladesh closed two tenders for 25,000 mt each for granular urea to different ports. In both cases, Chinese urea dominated the offers. The lowest offers showed a marked improvement in netback prices to China. The lowest offer in the tender destined for Mongla came out of the UAE at $339/mt CFR for a netback of $310.90/mt FOB. The best offer destined for Chittagong came from Aires Traders at $336.31/mt CFR for a netback of $310.31/mt FOB.

Each of these netback prices is higher than recent postings. The posted Green Markets price was $285-$300/mt FOB.

Sources are unsure how much of an impact this tender will have on the September 26 MMTC/India tender. Bangladesh has often commanded a better netback because of the relatively small quantities of its purchases – 25,000 mt at a time – compared to the hundreds of thousands of tons bought by India at one time.

Agrium Inc.’s board of directors announced today its intention to increase Agrium’s dividend by $1.00 U.S. per common share to a total dividend of $3.00 U.S. per common share on an annualized basis. Agrium also provided an outlook for results in the third quarter of 2013.

The intention to increase the dividend to $3.00 U.S. per common share comes as part of Agrium’s annual strategic review process and recognizes the strength in the long-term agriculture fundamentals and the benefits of our integrated model. Based on the closing price of Agrium’s shares on the NYSE on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, this represents a dividend yield of 3.3 percent. The increased dividend is expected to be paid in quarterly installments of $0.75 U.S. and the next $0.75 U.S. per common share dividend will be paid Oct. 17, 2013 to shareholders of record on September 30, 2013.

Soft nutrient prices, combined with lower sales volumes, are expected to negatively affect third quarter Wholesale results across all three nutrients. Wholesale EBIT in the third quarter of 2013 is expected to be approximately $200-million lower than the same period last year. However, Agrium’s Retail EBIT this quarter is expected to surpass the third quarter of 2012 and is anticipated to be in-line with the strong results achieved in the third quarter of 2011.

Customer demand has been delayed across all three nutrients this quarter. Wholesale nitrogen and phosphate sales volumes are expected to be down 20 and 30 percent respectively from the third quarter of 2012 and potash volumes are anticipated to be about 30 percent lower than normal for a third quarter.

Agrium said plant outages at its nitrogen facilities impacted volumes by approximately 100,000 mt this quarter, which also impacted costs. Benchmark nutrient prices in the third quarter of 2013 are 20-30 percent below the same period last year. Retail nutrient inventories were low at the end of the spring season and Agrium said Retail is in a good cost position from an inventory perspective for its nutrient products overall.

“The dividend increase demonstrates our confidence in the ability of the business to generate significant cash flow and is an indication of the strength of our position across the crop-input value chain. Agrium is committed to returning capital to shareholders while continuing to deliver on value-added growth,” said Mike Wilson, Agrium president and CEO. “Despite short-term headwinds for our wholesale business unit this quarter, the long term fundamentals of our business remain strong and we expect significant crop input demand as we move into the fall season."

The long wait is over. MMTC called a urea tender to close Sept. 26. The tender call was long expected. Sources say the country still needs about 2.2 million mt to close out the year.

The soft urea market and slightly rebounding rupee makes the possibility of large purchases possible. Sources say, however, the supplies of urea are not as plentiful as they were just a few weeks ago. The big players in the tender are expected to be Iranian and Chinese producers.

Sources reported last week that Chinese exporters successfully closed deals with North and South American buyers as well as a handful of African buyers. The result is that the port-side warehouses are not bulging with product as they once were. While Iran could play a major role, the amount of Iranian tons is not as much as Indian buyers would like.

The move to call the tender came as sources were beginning to see a minor uptick in urea prices in China and the Arab Gulf. The shutdown of CIS producers in response to the lower prices will have an impact on urea availability.

MMTC added an addendum that required Iranian suppliers to provide all required insurance packages in their offers. MMTC will cover the insurance for all non-Iranian material.

The Mosaic Co. has updated guidance in advance of a Sept. 17 appearance an analyst conference. Mosaic noted that the domestic and international crop nutrient markets have softened in part as a result of the distributors’ cautiousness caused by the Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC) break-up.

"The long-term positive outlook for crop nutrient demand has not changed; high commodity prices are driving record farm returns and making our products more affordable than ever before. These strong fundamentals are expected to drive near record global phosphate and potash shipments in calendar 2013," said Jim Prokopanko, President and CEO. "In the short term, however, dealers are cautious and are deferring purchases. As a result, we have lowered our price and volume guidance for both the Potash and Phosphates segments for the third calendar quarter of 2013."

In Potash, the revised quarterly guidance range of 1.45 to 1.65 million mt reflects lower near-term demand. Previous guidance had been 1.8-2.1 million mt. The company’s realized price expectations are now in the range of $330 to $340 per mt, net of transportation and other distribution costs. This had been $330-$360/mt. The Potash gross margin rate is now expected to be in the low to mid 30 percent range. This had been in the mid to high 30 percent range.

In Phosphates, Mosaic said distributors’ cautious sentiment with respect to potash is spilling over as buyers are in a wait-and-see mode. The company has lowered third calendar quarter 2013 volume guidance to 2.6 to 2.8 million mt, down from 2.9-3.3 million mt. Also, third quarter realized prices are now expected to be in the range of $430 to $440 per mt, net of transportation and other distribution costs, down from $430-$465/mt.. The Phosphates gross margin percentage rate is expected to be in the mid-teens. It had been expected to be flat with the prior quarter.

Additionally, the company now expects its effective tax rate for the seven month transition period to be in the low 20 percent range. It had expected mid 20 percent range.

All other guidance is unchanged.