Agrium Inc. (AGU) recently declared that it has resumed production of potash at its Vanscoy mine after completion of the tie-in of its one million ton expansion project. Production at this site is supposed to ramp up during the first half of 2015 with a production volume targeted at 2.1 million tons for this year.
Production at Vanscoy had been suspended in Jul 2014 after its main hoist system suffered a mechanical failure. Operations had to be shut down at the mine due to the failure but no injuries were caused during the incident. As a result of the outage, Agrium had proposed to bring forward the planned turnaround to tie-in the current capacity expansion project. As a result, production was kept on hold till the completion of the tie-in.
Agrium posted its third-quarter 2014 results on Nov 3, 2014. The company’s profit from continuing operations increased 13.8% year over year to $91 million. However, its adjusted earnings from continuing operations came in at 43 cents per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents. Revenues went up roughly 4.4% year over year to $2,920 million, but missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Agrium, based in Alberta, Canada, is a major retailer of agricultural products and services in North and South America. The company is the third largest potash producer in North America. It is also a leading global wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural macronutrients − nitrogen, potash, and phosphate − besides being a premier supplier of micronutrients and specialty fertilizers in the U.S. and Canada.
Agrium, which is among the major fertilizer makers along with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Inc. (POT), The Mosaic Company (MOS) and CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF), follows a strategy to grow along the value chain through a combination of acquisitions and organic development. It stands to gain from overall strong fundamentals for the agriculture and crop input market.
Agrium is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock.
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