Terra Industries' Q2 profit down 60%, sales down 46%

23 July 2009 13:46  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Terra Industries’ second-quarter net income fell 60% to $80.5m (€56.4m) from $202.2m in the year-ago quarter as revenues fell 46% due to lower nitrogen products selling prices and sales volumes, the US-based fertilizer producer said on Thursday.

Revenues for the three months ended 30 June were $453.5m, down by $389.6m from $843.1m in the 2008 second quarter.

Nitrogen markets continued to be weak during the quarter because of the economic slowdown and customers’ reluctance to replenish inventories, Terra said.

“Industrial demand for ammonia remained relatively weak as the economy struggled to recover, and this led us to temporarily idle our Donaldsonville, Louisiana ammonia plant on 1 July,” CEO Michael Bennett said.

However, Terra was likely to restart the plant next month because of improving US Gulf coast ammonia prices and solid order activity, he said.

Terra expected an improvement in the second half of the year because of higher than expected US corn plantings, stronger nitrogen prices and continued favourable natural gas prices, among other factors, the company said.

Earlier on Thursday, fertilizer producers PotashCorp and Bunge also reported lower second-quarter profits.

($1 = €0.70)

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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