Nutrien Delivers Improved Operating Results as Ag Fundamentals Continue to Strengthen

Nov 10, 2020 | potash news

Nutrien Ltd. (TSX and NYSE: NTR) announced today its 2020 third quarter results, with a net loss of $587 million ($1.03 diluted loss per share), which includes a non-cash impairment of $823 million, primarily related to our Phosphate operations. Third-quarter adjusted net earnings were $0.23 per share (adjusted EBITDA was $670 million), excluding the impairment. Adjusted net earnings includes a net tax benefit of $48 million ($0.08 per diluted share) related primarily to recoveries of prior year taxes due to US legislative changes. Adjusted net earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA (consolidated), together with the related guidance and potash cash cost of product manufactured are non-IFRS financial measures. See the “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” section for further information.

“Nutrien delivered another quarter of solid operating results with strong fertilizer sales volumes and exceptional growth of orders through our digital agriculture platform, surpassing $1 billion of sales. Market conditions are improving around the world with higher crop and fertilizer prices, lower expected inventories and strong demand for crop inputs as we finish the year and enter 2021,” commented Chuck Magro, Nutrien’s President and CEO.

Highlights:

– In the third quarter of 2020, we recognized a non-cash impairment of $823 million associated primarily with our Phosphate assets related to a less favorable long-term outlook for phosphate prices and expected global supply imbalance.

– Retail delivered 13 percent higher adjusted EBITDA in the first nine months of 2020, over the same period in 2019 as a result of double-digit growth in sales and gross margin. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2020 was 15 percent lower due to elevated applications in the same period last year caused by the timing of the growing season, and was further impacted by lower insecticide and fungicide applications this quarter as a result of lower than expected US acreage and dry conditions. Total sales through our leading digital retail platform exceeded $1.0 billion in the first nine months of 2020, more than double our annual goal of $500 million. Digital sales in the first nine months of 2020 accounted for 43 percent of North American sales of products that were available for purchase online.

– Potash sales volumes in the third quarter and first nine months of 2020 were higher compared to the same periods in 2019, and Nutrien is fully committed on offshore potash sales volumes and well subscribed domestically for the remainder of the year. Potash adjusted EBITDA was down 19 percent and 33 percent in the third quarter and first nine months of 2020 respectively, compared to the same periods last year as strong sales volumes and lower cost of goods sold per tonne were more than offset by lower net realized selling prices. Potash cash cost of product manufactured was $53 per tonne in the third quarter, the second lowest on record and $9 per tonne lower than in the third quarter of 2019.

– Nitrogen adjusted EBITDA was 21 percent lower in the third quarter and 17 percent lower in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same periods last year due to lower net realized selling prices and lower industrial sales volumes. We delivered higher sales volumes, lower cost of goods sold and higher ammonia utilization rates (93 percent versus 90 percent) in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same period last year. In the third quarter, we also made the decision to indefinitely close the smallest of our four ammonia plants in Trinidad. The closure is expected to enhance the competitiveness at that site, and we are now running three plants at normal production levels.

– Nutrien’s full-year 2020 adjusted net earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA guidance range is narrowed to $1.60 to $1.85 per share and $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion, respectively due to increased visibility in each of our business units to the end of the year.

Market Outlook

Agriculture and Retail

Key crop prices have increased, driven by significant improvements in supply and demand fundamentals. Higher crop prices have boosted North American grower sentiment.
The North American harvest progressed at a pace well ahead of the past two years when timing was impacted by late maturing crops and weather delays. This is expected to provide a wider window for growers to plan and apply fall fertilizer compared to the past few fall seasons.

Strong Brazilian crop prices and margins provided an incentive to boost summer soybean and Safrinha corn planting. We expect the planted area of these crops to increase by approximately 4 percent and 6 percent respectively. Planting has started slower than normal as a result of dry weather, but we expect a long planting window and high crop prices will motivate farmers to plant.
Crop Nutrient Markets

Global potash demand has been strong in 2020 and we continue to expect global potash shipments and consumption to increase by approximately 2 million tonnes from 2019 levels. As a result, we maintain our 2020 shipment forecast between 65 and 67 million tonnes.

The prospect of a robust fall application season in North America has supported strong retail-level demand. We expect that potash delivered in North America in the fall of 2020 will largely be applied to ground and that channel inventories will be lower at the end of 2020 compared to recent years. We also expect that strong fall applications in China, driven by historically high crop prices in combination with seasonal increases in compound NPK production, will support strong potash consumption in the remainder of 2020. Meanwhile, demand in India will continue to be supported by the favorable growing conditions and increased minimum support prices for crops.

Global urea prices have been relatively stable as Indian import tenders have pulled significant volumes out of the trade market. The pace of Chinese urea exports has recently increased, along with Indian demand, but remains down around 10 percent in the first nine months of the year. North American urea prices are currently discounted relative to the rest of the world, which is seasonally normal, but offshore imports are down more than 25 percent from July to September and prices need to increase significantly to reach import parity. Global ammonia prices have increased driven by improved industrial demand, higher global gas prices and production curtailments in East Asia and Trinidad.

Global phosphate prices have trended higher due to strong demand in India and Brazil and trade flow changes related to countervailing duty investigations in the US. We continue to believe the phosphate market is fundamentally oversupplied which could limit a long-term price recovery.

Seasonality in our business results from increased demand for products during the planting season. Crop input sales are generally higher in the spring and fall application seasons. Crop nutrient inventories are normally accumulated leading up to each application season. Our cash collections generally occur after the application season is complete, while customer prepayments made to us are concentrated in December and January and inventory prepayments paid to our vendors are typically concentrated in the period from November to January. Feed and industrial sales are more evenly distributed throughout the year.

Since the fourth quarter of 2019, Potash earnings have been impacted by lower net realized selling prices caused by a temporary slowdown in global demand. In the fourth quarter of 2018, earnings were impacted by $2.9 billion in after-tax gains on the sales of our investments in Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. and Arab Potash Company, which were categorized as discontinued operations. In the third quarter of 2020, earnings were impacted by non-cash impairments of property, plant and equipment primarily in the Phosphate segment as a result of lower forecasted global phosphate prices.

Risk Factors

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

Epidemics, pandemics or other such crises or public health concerns in regions of the world where we have operations or source material or sell products could impact or disrupt our business. Specifically, the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in travel restrictions and extended shutdowns of certain businesses around the world, as well as a deterioration of general economic conditions. These or any governmental or other regulatory responses or developments or health concerns in countries in which we operate could result in operational restrictions or social and economic instability, or labor shortages. More specifically, there remains uncertainty relating to the potential impact that COVID-19 could ultimately have on our business. It is still possible that COVID-19 could impact our operations, create supply chain disruptions and/or limit our ability to timely sell or distribute our products in the future, which would negatively impact our business, financial condition and operating results. It is also possible that COVID-19 could negatively impact our customers, even though the agriculture sector is classified as an essential service. Any significant long-term downturn in the global economy or agricultural markets could impact the Company’s access to capital or credit ratings, or our customers’ access to liquidity, which could increase our counterparty credit exposure.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our critical accounting policies are disclosed in our 2019 Annual Report. We have discussed the development, selection and application of our key accounting policies, and the critical accounting estimates and assumptions they involve, with the audit committee of the Board. Our critical accounting estimates are discussed on page 54 of our 2019 Annual Report. Other than the critical accounting estimates discussed below, there were no significant changes in the first nine months of 2020.

Long-lived Asset Impairment

During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, we identified an impairment indicator in our Phosphate cash generating units (“CGUs”) due to lower long-term forecasted global phosphate prices and recorded impairments of assets in the statement of (loss) earnings relating to our property plant and equipment at Aurora and White Springs of $545 million and $215 million, respectively. See Note 3 to the interim financial statements.

The recoverable values of Aurora and White Springs are most sensitive to the following key assumptions: our internal sales price forecasts which consider projections from an independent third-party data source, discount rates, long-term growth rates, and expected mine life. We used key assumptions that were based on historical data and estimates of future results from internal sources, external price benchmarks, mineral reserve technical reports, as well as industry and market trends.

The following table highlights sensitivities to the recoverable value which could result in additional impairment losses or reversals of previously recorded losses. The sensitivities have been calculated independently of changes in other key variables.