Fertilizer Maker Mosaic Cuts Output After Iran War Raises Costs
Phosphate rock loaded into railroad cars to be transported to the Mosaic Co. fertilizer chemical plant in Tampa, Florida.
Photographer: Jim Stem/Bloomberg
Fertilizer producer Mosaic Co. is temporarily taking nearly two million tons of US phosphate production off the market, underscoring the severity of the Iran conflict’s disruptions to a key agricultural and mining input.
The US’s biggest phosphate fertilizer producer is reducing production rates at its plants in Bartow, Florida, and in Louisiana to about half of capacity because of higher prices for sulfur, which the company uses for processing, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Bodine said on an earnings call. The temporary move “allows us to limit the need for incremental sulfur at today’s prices and wait until the market normalizes,” he said.