The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Charles Neivert: Good morning, guys. Just a couple of things. One, in the turnaround — and I’ll just ask them all at the same time and you can just answer whatever. Turnarounds coming up, does they — I know they improve efficiency, there they have to be done. But is there any consequent like increase in supply? I know it’s not a chemical operation, so you don’t necessarily get that, but would there be any supply increase on the turnaround? Second, during the outages that you guys had, do you think the outage had an influence on price upward and therefore, now when everything is running, now it takes away whatever influence it pushed up. And lastly, on Ma’aden, do you — does the shareholding from the joint — versus the joint venture operation, does that change your, for lack of a better term, influence on the company into what they do? And do they have any plans for later for expansion coming up — or are they putting forward at this point?

Bruce Bodine: Thanks, Charles. Let me start with the latter because I didn’t write it down as fresh in my mind. So I don’t think the deal structure changes are influenced really a whole lot. We’ve been a technical kind of adviser in that and a minority partner — so I don’t think that’s going to change a whole lot. The deal, they still want Mosaic as technical input and Mosaic Resources as part of this, where we can participate and help them. And then you’re going to have to talk to them about what their future plans are as far as expansion. I know there’s been stuff that they’ve talked about in the press. And obviously, as a shareholder, we’re going to be interested in them maximizing their shareholder value. But I don’t think our influence is going to be much different than what it’s been in the past, nor should you expect anything of significance there turnarounds, they are a necessity.

And the ones that were the primary focus has been for us, although it’s on a lot of our assets, but the primary one where we struggled over the last few years is on sulfuric acid. And our sulfuric acid plants, we’ve got dozen or more of those globally, there are basically a 3-year turnaround. And if you don’t do a major turnaround on a 3-year schedule, you run the risk of losing reliability. And those cascade through, we need the steam that is generated at sulfuric acid as an exothermic process to evaporate the lower concentrated phosphoric acid that’s made to feed that into granulation and make granulated fertilizer. But also, we use that excess steam for generating power through our cogeneration facilities, which are much cheaper than buying power from the utility.

But I think to your question was has our drop in production actually helped on pricing. Well, I don’t think it’s enough to have influence that. And I don’t think that us getting back to our historical run rate of 8 million tonnes would be enough to influence that significantly as well, given where we are with our growth in phosphate demand and that there is limited supply, I think this market stays pretty tight. And our tonnes are going to be needed to keep even level on the tightness of that. And then lastly was something on price — what’s that? I covered it? Okay. Maybe I can predict, Charles. I did my best to hit those three, and I appreciate you giving me some flexibility with that. So with that —

Operator: We do have an additional question from Edlain Rodriguez from Mizuho. Please go ahead with your question.

Edlain Rodriguez: Okay. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Just a quick one on earlier comment during the prepared remarks. You talked about realizers being well positioned for higher prices in the second half as demand recovers — and along with Jenny’s comments on the potash contracts, would you be highly disappointed if those contracts don’t reflect that view?

Bruce Bodine: I think we’d be surprised, based on what we believe about the supply and demand and what’s needed in the marketplace. But I’ll turn it over to Jenny and if he’s got any more since she addressed that original question.

Jenny Wang: Yeah, we have — thanks for the question. We have our own estimation based on the fundamentals. And also, we are watching the latest negotiation, especially in India. So I would say the price — contract price are likely going to be settled is already included in our price forecast.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll be concluding today’s question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

Bruce Bodine: Well, thank you, operator. To conclude our call, I’d like to emphasize our key points. First, our transaction with Ma’aden will benefit our shareholders by establishing a transparent value for our investment and providing us with greater capital flexibility for the long term. Second, we are making good progress on our strategic initiatives. We’re investing in our best performing assets while reducing costs and capital expenditures. And finally, fertilizer market fundamentals remain constructive, and we expect continuing strong demand through this year. To summarize, Mosaic is generating solid results in dynamic conditions, and we’re working to deliver strong shareholder value. So, thanks for joining us today, and everyone, have a good and safe day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll conclude today’s conference call and presentation. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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