Supreme Court Extends Tank Deadline
Israel’s Supreme Court has agreed to extend the deadline for the emptying of the Haifa ammonia tank to Sept. 18 from July 31.
Israel’s Supreme Court has agreed to extend the deadline for the emptying of the Haifa ammonia tank to Sept. 18 from July 31.
The Tampa anhydrous ammonia price for August has been finalized at $190/mt CFR, down from July’s $240/mt CFR. In the meantime, third-quarter sulfur business has been concluded at $74/lt CFR, up $4/lt.
CVR Partners LP reported a second-quarter net loss of $3.5 million ($.03 per common unit) on net sales of $97.9 million, down from a year-ago loss of $17 million ($0.15 per unit) and $119.8 million, respectively.
“The East Dubuque fertilizer facility continued to achieve high on-stream rates during the 2017 second quarter, with the ammonia plant posting a record on-stream rate of 100 percent,” said Mark Pytosh, CVR CEO. “The gasification and ammonia plants at our Coffeyville facility operated at on-stream rates above 98 percent, however, we experienced approximately 11 days of downtime in the UAN plant related to outages at Linde’s air separation facility.
“Nitrogen fertilizer pricing continues to be impacted by additional production, particularly in the United States. In the U.S., we saw a marked decrease in imported nitrogen product as the spring progressed,” Pytosh said. “The last of the large U.S. capacity expansions is expected to come online and enter production during the third quarter and trade flows have been adjusting to the new capacity. While the market completes this transition, we will continue to focus on operating our plants at high on-stream rates, maximizing our marketing and logistics efforts and prudently managing costs and capital spending.”
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. reported second-quarter earnings of $0.24 per share ($201 million), which included an $0.08 per share income tax provision recovery, bringing the first-half total to $0.42 per share ($350 million). Results for both the quarter and the first six months surpassed the $0.14 per share ($121 million) and $0.23 per share ($196 million) earned in the respective periods of 2016.
“In the second quarter, we continued to benefit from stronger potash market conditions and our improved cost position in this nutrient,” said PotashCorp President and CEO Jochen Tilk. “Robust potash demand – especially in offshore markets, where Canpotex achieved its second highest first-half shipment total – supported a constructive market and is expected to carry through the remainder of the year. We anticipate more subdued nitrogen and phosphate markets in the second half to offset strength in potash and, as a result, have maintained our full-year earnings guidance range.”