CF Industries Has Favorable Outlook for North America Nitrogen Demand -- Commodity Comment

   By Josh Beckerman

CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) said its second-quarter earnings attributable to common stockholders rose to $283 million, or $1.28 a share, from $148 million, or 63 cents a share, as sales rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion. The company said it has a strong North American nitrogen demand outlook for 2020 and 2021.

On results for the first half of the year:

"The CF team operated exceptionally well during a challenging spring season," as "we shifted our production mix, favoring urea over UAN to capture higher margin opportunities, we leveraged our transportation flexibility to overcome the impact of historic flooding and we reliably supplied our customers where and when they needed product."

On the North America market outlook:

"The company expects that nitrogen fertilizer industry fundamentals will be positive over the near and longer term. In the near-term, demand for nitrogen in North America should be strong due to the impact of adverse planting and growing conditions in many parts of the United States in 2019. Historic flooding is expected to lead to a reduction in 2019 corn production due to significantly lower planted acres and yields. This should create a strong price incentive for growers in the United States to increase planted corn acres significantly over the next two seasons."

On India and Brazil demand:

"Globally, the company expects demand for urea from India and Brazil to remain strong over the next two years. Through the end of June 2019, urea imports to India were 3.5 million metric tons, an increase of 11 percent over the prior year period. Imports of urea to Brazil for the full year 2019 are expected to increase."

Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2019 19:18 ET (23:18 GMT)

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