Rio de Janeiro — There was more bad news recently for Vale SA, joint owner of Brazilian iron-ore miner Samarco Mineração SA, which suffered a devastating tailings dam collapse on Nov. 5 (GM Nov. 23, p.14). A securities class action has been filed in a New York court on behalf of those who purchased Vale shares between March 21, 2015, and Nov. 30, 2015, inclusive. Corporate litigation firm Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman LLC initiated the legal action Dec. 8. According to a shareholder alert by the litigation firm, the complaint alleges that throughout the class period, Vale made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Samarco iron ore operation. Shareholders have until Feb 6, 2016, to participate as plaintiffs. BHP Billiton, a 50 percent owner in Samarco, is not named as a target of the lawsuit. Vale’s securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange have plummeted close to 33 percent since the dam disaster. Vale and BHP already are facing a R$20 billion ($5.2 billion) lawsuit instigated by Brazil’s Federal Government and the Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo state authorities for clean-up costs and damages for the dam failure (GM Dec. 7, p.16).
On Jan. 1, 2016, Belarus will increase the export duty on potash fertilizers, according to Belarusian press agency, Belta, citing Decree No. 490 dated Dec. 17, 2015, which it said was officially published on the national legal internet portal.
On Jan. 1, the export duty on potash fertilizers exported from the territory of Belarus outside the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union (except potash fertilizers exported to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) will equal €55 per mt. In 2015, the duty was €45 per mt.
The Kassel Regional Council on Dec. 18 authorized K+S Kali GmbH to resume the injection of saline wastewater from the Werra plant until Dec. 31, 2016, to a limited extent. K+S expects that the final decision regarding the application to continue injection until the end of 2021, will be completed next summer following the completion of the technical assessment by the authority.
"The very limited continuation of injection is a step in the right direction. Nonetheless, until the final decision regarding our injection application, we will have to continue to align production and disposal of the saline wastewater that will inevitably result from our operations to the water flow of the Werra River. Overall, that will be more possible at the beginning of the year due to above average precipitation." said Dr. Ralf Diekmann, managing director of K+S Kali. In view of this, further temporary production restrictions at the individual sites of the Werra plant cannot be ruled out in the months ahead. As a precautionary measure, a works agreement on short-time working has been concluded with the works council.
The Council has granted permission to K+S to continue with the injection of saline wastewater at the Hattorf site of the Werra plant until Dec. 31, 2016, as a transitional measure on the basis of an annual total volume of 725,000 cubic meters. A volume of 120,000 cubic meters per month shall not be exceeded. The technical authority believes that this restriction during the transitional phase will definitely remove any cause for concern regarding groundwater and drinking water.
CF Industries Holdings Inc. and OCI N.V. have announced that they have amended the combination agreement originally announced on Aug. 6, 2015. Under the amended agreement, the jurisdiction of incorporation and tax residency of the new holding company has been changed from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands. The move was in response to recent U.S. Department of Treasury rules.
The amended agreement has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
"The industrial logic and strategic rationale of the combination remains very attractive, with expected operational and structural synergies essentially unchanged from those previously announced," said Tony Will, CF president and CEO.
The anticipated timing to close the transaction remains mid-2016. The proposed transaction remains subject to approval by the shareholders of CF and OCI, as well as customary closing conditions and certain other regulatory approvals. Antitrust approvals and clearances obtained to date include approval from the European Commission on Dec. 4, 2015; the expiration of the waiting period mandated for United States government antitrust review on Nov. 2, 2015; and unconditional approval from the Turkish Competition Authority received on Oct. 6, 2015. The companies said they will continue to pursue all required regulatory approvals.
Canton and Winesburg, Ohio — OSHA has penalized Case Farms an additional $462,000 for safety issues with the ammonia refrigeration systems at two Ohio plants. OSHA cited Case Farms’ Canton plant for five repeated and three serious violations, totaling $154,000 in penalties. Inspectors cited the company’s plant in Winesburg for eleven repeated, four serious, and two other-than-serious violations, totaling $308,000. The citations follow $1.46 million in penalties levied by OSHA in September after two workers were maimed in separate accidents in March and April at the Canton plant. A 17-year-old boy working for a subcontractor lost his left leg from the knee down in the April incident, while a Case employee lost the tips of two fingers in the March incident. According to OSHA, both injured workers eventually were fired. Case Farms has contested those violations, and in a written statement said it was reviewing the latest citations and would work with OSHA to address concerns. “While we do not deem it appropriate to comment on ongoing administrative matters, we do not agree with the negative characterizations that have been made about our company and our employees,” the statement said. “We value our employees and are committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment.” Case is based in Troutman, North Carolina, and has facilities in North Carolina and Ohio. The company bought the Canton plant and other operations from Park Farms in early 2012. According to a press release from OSHA, Case Farms has more than 10,000 pounds of ammonia in its refrigeration systems at each Ohio plant.
U.S. Gulf: A quiet week in the UAN barge market left prices unchanged at $168-$175/st ($5.25-$5.47/unit) FOB.
East Coast-delivered vessels continued to show offers at $190/mt CFR, without any bites.
Eastern Cornbelt: UAN-28 was pegged at $204-$212/st ($7.29-$7.57/unit) FOB in Ohio and Indiana for prompt or prepay tons, depending on location. The UAN-32 market was generally quoted at $240-$250/st ($7.50-$7.81/unit) FOB out of most Illinois terminals.
Western Cornbelt: UAN-32 remained at $245-$255/st ($7.66-$7.97/unit) FOB out of terminals in the Western Cornbelt region.
Southern Plains: UAN-32 was quoted in a broad range at $215-$240/st ($6.72-$7.50/unit) FOB in the Southern Plains, with the lower end of the range reported at regional production points. Sources said terminals offering tons at the upper end “had some room for negotiation from serious buyers.”
South Central: UAN-32 pricing had reportedly slipped to $210-$225/st ($6.56-$7.03/unit) FOB in the South Central region, with the low reported in the Memphis market.
Southeast: The UAN-32 market in the Southeast was pegged at $197-$200/st ($6.16-$6.25/unit) FOB port terminals, down another $8-$10/st from last report, although there were few inquiries and minimal new buying activity taking place to test the market.
Washington — The U.S. Congress on Dec. 18 included a rider in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (H.R. 2029) that prohibits the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from enforcing its revision to the retail exemption in the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. OSHA last July published an enforcement memorandum that removed the long-standing retail exemption from PSM, causing an uproar in the ag retail community because it would force dealers to adopt a set of procedural, operational, and organizational design standards if they handled anhydrous ammonia. The rider prevents OSHA from enforcing the PSM revision for fiscal year 2016 until the Census Bureau establishes a new North American Industry Classification System code for Farm Supply Retailers. OSHA must also conduct a formal rulemaking process with public comment before any guidance change may be implemented. The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) called the Congressional directive “a significant victory” for agricultural retailers. “This bill puts a stop sign in front of a runaway agency,” said Daren Coppock, ARA president and CEO. “Congress blocked OSHA’s imprudent attempt to require ag retailers to comply with a regulation that doesn’t fit our industry. We are willing to work with the administration to develop targeted, common-sense regulations to improve safety and security at agricultural retail facilities and surrounding communities.” ARA and The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) brought suit against OSHA in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in September. ARA said the court recently deferred ruling on OSHA’s motion to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, allowing the case to proceed. "OSHA is misguided in trying to apply PSM to ag retailers," said Harold Cooper, ARA chairman and CEO of Premier Ag Cooperative in Columbus, Ind. “OSHA intentionally exempted ag retailers from PSM since the rule’s inception in 1992. Forcing us to comply with regulations aimed at manufacturers would cost my business at least $60,000, and not provide any improvement in worker safety – just more bureaucratic red tape.”
Santiago, Chile — Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) on Dec. 15 reported the results of an investigation conducted by U.S. law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP. The firm had been hired by SQM’s AdHoc Committee, which was appointed by the company’s board on Feb. 26, 2015, to investigate the possible liability for SQM as an issuer of securities in the U.S. market under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The investigation specifically analyzed whether SQM had made any payment defined as corrupt for FCPA purposes, and whether SQM had breached the accounting provisions of the FCPA. The nine-month investigation determined that payments had been authorized by SQM’s former CEO, Patricio Contesse, for which the company did not find sufficient supporting documentation, but no evidence was identified that demonstrates the payments were made to induce a public official to act or refrain from acting to assist SQM in obtaining economic benefits. In addition, the investigation concluded that SQM’s books did not accurately reflect transactions that have been questioned, and SQM’s internal controls were not sufficient to supervise the expenses made by the cost center managed by Contesse. SQM said its management was fully cooperative and transparent throughout the investigation, during which roughly 930,000 documents were reviewed and 24 individual interviews were conducted. SQM said it has taken and will continue to take the proper measures to strengthen its corporate governance and internal controls in order to correct the issues identified in the report. To date, these measure include the dismissal of Contesse as CEO; filing corrected tax returns with the Chilean Internal Revenue Service; creating SQM’s Corporate Governance Committee; strengthening the responsibilities of the company’s Internal Audit and Compliance departments; hiring auditing firm KPMG to review SQM’s payment process controls, and improving the payment process controls and approvals; and reformulating SQM’s code of ethics.
Cherokee Nitrogen LLC announced that Tommy Tharrington, national accounts manager, will retire on Dec. 31, 2015, after 55 years in the industry. Tharrington began his career in fertilizer sales with Armour Ag in 1960, then moved to USS Agri Chemicals and LaRoche Industries. He has spent the last 15 years with Cherokee Nitrogen.
Deerfield, Ill. — CF Industries Holdings Inc. announced on Dec. 16 that the new urea plant at the company’s Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex in Louisiana has been operating since Nov. 17, 2015, and has achieved consistent, stable operation. The plant has produced more than 80,000 tons of granular urea since start-up, CF reported. “Start-up of the new urea plant in Donaldsonville is a significant milestone in our capacity expansion projects and for the future of CF,” said Tony Will, CF’s president and CEO. “Donaldsonville will play a key role as we become an even larger global supplier of nitrogen-based fertilizer. Its increased capacity, along with its unmatched logistics capability, will allow us to serve customers in North America and around the world in the most efficient way possible while providing attractive returns for shareholders.” This is the first plant to be commissioned and started up as part of CF’s major capacity expansion projects in North America, CF said, and the first new world-scale urea plant to be completed in North America since 1998. Upon completion of the capacity expansion project, the Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex will be the largest nitrogen facility in the world. Output for urea at Donaldsonville in 2016 is expected to range from 2.2-3.2 million product tons, depending on product mix, up from an average annual product of 1.7 million tons currently.
Disclaimer of Warranty
All information has been obtained by Green Markets from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Green Markets or others, Green Markets does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information.
For additional details visit our
Terms of Use.
