Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc

MAP (monoammonium phosphate) is the second most used phosphate fertilizer after DAP (diammonium phosphate).

Canada, Russia, and Belarus together account for more than 89% of the world’s estimated reserves and a little over 66% of global capacity.

Are you considering investing in cryptocurrency in 2020? This post is a guide for anyone who wants to know more about the virtual currency space.

Why oil affects fertilizer price In a competitive industry like nitrogenous fertilizer, the marginal producer’s cost sets the floor for the industry. These producers are the most expensive manufacturers to supply the product at that point in time. When the marginal producer’s cost rises, so does the industry’s. On the the other hand, falling costs […]

The importance of costs Understanding how fertilizers are produced is an important part of investing. What companies buy and what they pay for will be their costs. When costs are rising, they can have a negative impact on earnings and cash flow if the industry can’t pass them on to buyers. Conversely, when costs are falling, […]

In a competitive industry like the nitrogenous fertilizer industry, the marginal producer’s cost sets the industry floor.

How China affects the global fertilizer market China, the world’s largest producer of nitrogen (a chemical used to make nitrogenous fertilizers for growing plants) occupies roughly 40% of global production capacity. Although much of its output is sold to domestic farmers—as an export tax of as much as 75% during the on-season restricts domestic firms […]

According to the EIA (U.S Energy Information Administration), natural gas prices were broadly mixed from November 29 to December 6, 2017.

The United States is one of the largest producers of agricultural products in the world, but it’s not a key producer of nitrogen fertilizers.

Nitrogen is an important nutrient for crop development and growth. It’s also the most important input that allows farmers to feed billions of people in the world.

Last week, the DAP prices in the NOLA region rose by 53 basis points to $344 per metric ton from $342 per metric ton.

Earnings per share Earlier, we discussed major agribusiness companies’ earnings, which have mostly fallen over the years. In 2018, their earnings are expected to rise. Next-12-month earnings As shown in the above chart, agribusiness companies’ NTM (next-12-month) EPS (earnings per share) are expected to improve year-over-year. FMC’s (FMC) EPS are expected rise 90% to $4.70, Agrium’s […]

In the earlier part of this series, we discussed how shipments impacted CF Industries’ (CF) sales. From our analysis, it’s clear that a rise in selling prices remains the most important growth catalyst for the company.

Phosphate prices Earlier in this series, we discussed phosphate prices in 2017 and what has driven prices down recently. We saw that excess capacity pushed down phosphate fertilizer (NANR) prices during the year. In this part, we’ll look at supply and demand trends for phosphate fertilizers in 2018. Supply and demand In 2017, overall global […]

Performance comparison In our series Comparative Analysis of Fertilizer Companies’ 3Q17 Earnings, we compared fertilizer companies’ 3Q17 performance. However, as the agriculture business is seasonal, we should also look at annual trends for a complete picture.   Year-over-year sales In the above chart, we compare agribusiness companies’ sales over the last 12 months and the year prior. All […]

MAP (monoammonium phosphate) prices have shown strength in recent weeks, moving higher to peak at $ $403 per metric ton in Brazil.

For the week of December 6–13, 2017, natural gas spot prices at Henry Hub were broadly lower, according to the EIA.

Mosaic (MOS) has had a disappointing year so far compared to PotashCorp (POT) and Agrium (AGU). MOS stock significantly underperformed the S&P 500.

In this part of the series, we’ll look at the dividend yield trends for PotashCorp (POT), Monsanto (MON), Mosaic (MOS), and FMC (FMC).

Last week, which ended December 8, 2017, saw a slight rise in the Fertilizer Affordability Index issued by Mosaic (MOS).

Last week, which ended December 8, 2017, overall potash prices were broadly flat to positive at the four locations we’re covering in this series.

Last week, which ended December 8, 2017, was broadly mixed for movements in DAP (diammonium phosphate) prices. Some regions saw weekly gains, and others moved sideways to negative.

Potash prices Potash prices remained firm for the week ending December 1. In most of the regions discussed below, the weekly prices of potash fertilizers were flat to positive. Weekly movements Last week, the granular potash prices in the Cornbelt region of the US (MOO) rose ~1.2% week-over-week to $234 per metric ton from $231 […]

Henry Hub (MOO) natural gas prices saw a negative week-over-week trend, a continuation of the trend from the previous week.

Last week, the granular MOP (muriate of potash) prices in NOLA (New Orleans) in the US (NANR) rose by as much as 45 basis points week-over-week to $203 per metric ton.

The prices for DAP (diammonium phosphate) in most of the regions of the world saw positive momentum last week.

Last week, the average weekly natural gas prices were broadly lower week-over-week at the Henry Hub in the US (MOO).

PotashCorp owns 28% of Arab Potash and can appoint three of the latter’s 12 board members. It can also reportedly appoint senior management positions.

The potash prices in the Cornbelt region were flat at $231 per metric ton. It was the sixth consecutive week that potash prices were mostly unchanged.

Last week, urea prices at the Yuzhny location fell as much as 4.1% week-over-week to $256 per metric ton from $267 per metric ton a week ago.

Last week was broadly flat for potash prices in the three locations discussed below.

Last week, surprisingly, the prices for DAP (diammonium phosphate) saw positive momentum week-over-week.

In 3Q17, Mosaic (MOS) reported sales growth of ~2% YoY (year-over-year) to $2 billion, which grew from $1.95 billion in 3Q16.

Last week, the Fertilizer Affordability Index rose again week-over-week from 0.69x to 0.70x.

Last week continued to be a positive week for urea prices. Prices have risen lately as a result of excess capacities cooling off.

As on October 25, the consensus analyst rating for Mosaic stood at 3.0, which suggests an overall “hold” recommendation for the stock.

The natural gas prices at Henry Hub in the US fell 4.1% week-over-week from a weekly average of $2.96 per MMBtu to a weekly average of $2.84 per MMBtu.

We’re nearing the end of the year, and most agribusiness stocks have underperformed the benchmark indexes.

India is another major market for NPK (nitrogen, phosphate, and potash) fertilizers. The country is partly self-sufficient in nitrogen fertilizers.

Among the three NPK (nitrogen, phosphate, and potash) fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers have had the worst recovery.

So far this year, Henry Hub natural gas prices have hovered around $3 per MMBtu (million British thermal units).

The Seed and Genomics segment’s gross margins expanded from 34.0% in 4Q16 to 41.4% in 4Q17.

In recent months, MAP prices in Brazil have been on a downward trajectory. However, MAP prices appear to have found firmness in recent weeks.

The market environment for potash has seen a better recovery than nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers have seen.

Given the growth in potash shipments and the increase in price realization, it’s natural that the margins of potash producers improved YoY in 2Q17.

PotashCorp’s (POT) phosphate segment contributed almost a fourth of overall sales for 2Q17. Sales were driven by shipments and price realizations.

PotashCorp (POT) had lackluster earnings growth last year. However, the company reported EPS (earnings per share) growth in 1Q17.

Last week, granular urea prices moved higher, which helped bring some relief to urea producers. But the falling global ammonia prices remained a challenge.

Mosaic (MOS) remains a painful investment for investors. The company has delivered losses of 18.7% year-to-date as of July 13.

For 2016, India’s imports of nitrogen fertilizers, which only included numbers for urea, fell 27.0% to 4.9 million metric tons.