CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) announced that it has resumed production at its Woodward, OK, nitrogen complex. The company shut down production at the site in Oct 2014 due to a problem in one of the boilers. All the plants in the complex were safely shut down with no impact on personnel, the surrounding community or the environment.
CF Industries stated that it is in touch with its customers regarding the status of deliveries from the facility. The Woodward complex has average annual production capacity for 480,000 tons of gross ammonia, 820,000 tons of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), and 25,000 tons of urea liquor.
CF Industries’ profit for third-quarter 2014 slid year over year on a double-digit decline in sales. The bottom line was hit by higher natural gas costs. Both revenues and earnings missed Zacks Consensus Estimate.
However, CF Industries is optimistic about the fourth quarter of 2014 as well as 2015. The company expects strong nitrogen demand associated with 90 million acres of corn expected to be planted in 2015.
CF Industries’ current low ammonia inventory coupled with planned turnaround activity and unplanned outages may affect its total availability for the fall season which is expected to restrict fourth-quarter ammonia sales volumes, excluding sales to Mosaic (MOS).
CF Industries’ long-term plan is to invest in high-return projects and return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase programs.
CF Industries currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked stocks in the basic materials sector include Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTX) and NL Industries Inc. (NL), both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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