The fertiliser industry, which healthily headed back to pre-crisis levels during 2011, is starting to experience the effects of the global economy weakened by the European debt crisis, the slowdown in China and the recent downgrade of US debt in addition to major markets such as India pushing downwards pressure on prices.
After announcing in Q4 2011 positive forecasts for the industry along with plans for dramatic capacity increases, some major fertiliser mineral producers had to reconsider their estimates and take measures in order to adjust their production to a slowdown in demand, including Russia’s PhosAgro, US-based The Mosaic Co. and Canada’s Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. for its mines in Allan, Lanigan and Rocanville.
In December in a television interview, Vladislav Baumgertner, CEO of Russian potash producer Uralkali, had revealed that the company’s estimates for the 2012 production guidance, initially targeted at 11.8m tonne, had...