White Plains, NY-Bunge Ltd.’s fertilizer results continued to shine in the third quarter, with operating profits from that segment up 209 percent, to $207 million on sales of $1.256 billion, versus the year-ago $67 million and $883 million. Actual fertilizer volumes were off slightly during the quarter, to 4.03 million mt from the year-ago 4.07 million mt. Bunge attributed the overall improved performance to higher international prices for imported fertilizers and raw materials, as products are priced on import parity. It said demand for fert products slowed in the third quarter after above trend line volume growth in the first half. Bunge expects good fertilizer and agribusiness fundamentals to continue into the fourth quarter and 2008. Nine-month profits were up 263 percent to $414 million on sales of $2.66 billion, versus the year-ago $114 million and $1.68 billion, respectively. Nine-month sales volumes were up 24 percent, to 9.5 million mt from the year-ago 7.66 million mt. Bunge-wide, the company reported third-quarter net income of $351 million ($2.70 per diluted share) on sales of $12.7 billion, versus the year-ago $169 million ($1.40 per share) and $6.96 billion. Nine-month net income was $533 million ($4.12 per share) on sales of $30.8 billion, versus the year-ago $257 million ($2.13 per share) and $18.6 billion, respectively.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain