Miss Phos files for bankruptcy
Mississippi Phosphates Corp., a subsidiary of Phosphate Holdings Inc. voluntary filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Oct. 27.
Miss Phos has asked the court to authorize the company to continue to conduct normal business operations while management develops and implements its Chapter 11 plan. Miss Phos indicated that the Chapter 11 filing was necessary to obtain sufficient additional funding for its ongoing operations. The proposed new credit facility is intended to permit Miss Phos to satisfy its ongoing post-filing operational obligations.
Miss Phos said it curtailed DAP production at its Pascagoula, Miss., plant last week due to a shortage of raw materials, but kept most of its operations—sulfuric acid operations, ammonia terminal operations, dock and port operations and all environmental systems, controls and monitoring—in continued operations without interruption. To date, Miss Phos said there have been no layoffs or employee furloughs.
“We expect that through this filing, we can gain needed relief, secure an updated credit and funding facility and return to production operations in an expedited manner,” said Stephen Russo, CEO. “In addition to resuming operations, our plans call for the company to continue maintenance and all environmental and safety programs during this reorganization.”
The Miss Phos manufacturing facilities consist of two sulfuric acid plants, a phosphoric acid plant and a DAP granulation plant. The DAP granulation plant has a maximum annual production capacity of approximately 850,000 tons. The existing sulfuric acid plants have the capacity to produce sulfuric acid sufficient for annual DAP production of approximately 600,000 – 640,000 tons.