OAO PhosAgro, the biggest fertilizer maker on the European continent, plans to increase its sales by a factor of two of the selected plant nutrients to Europe and Latin America. As CEO Andrey Guryev put it, the company is interested “in markets such as Russia and the CIS, Latin America, Europe and the U.S.”.
In contrast, the firm plans to market minimal volumes in India due to currently unattractive prices there. China, interestingly, is not on PhosAgro’s list either as the country does not consume high-quality fertilizers. PhosAgro, unlike some of its rivals, has the flexibility to opt for higher-value products used outside India and China.
The company would like to boost sales of complex fertilizers to Latin America by 110,000 metric tons from the current 210,000 tons by 2020. Sales to Europe could go up by 670,000 tons from 270,000 tons, PhosAgro said. As to urea sales, these are predicted to go up by 270,000 tons from 200,000 tons by 2020. Sales of diammonium phosphate and mono-ammonium phosphate are expected to increase by 250,000 tons from the current 500,000 tons. Sales of urea to Northern and Eastern Europe may soar by 330,000 tons from the current 70,000 tons.
The company finds also the U.S. market interesting and full of potential but it is not yet possible to sell there because of political complications, mostly being the conflict in Ukraine and accompanying sanctions on Russia. The firm, however, plans to increase its sales to Russia as well as other former Soviet republics to 2.1 million tons by 2020 compared to current 1.6 million tons. In order to achieve these targets, PhosAgro plans to expand its capital by about a billion USD by 2017. Moreover, the company also plans to boost fertilizer production by a quarter to 8.1 million tons. It forecasts that earnings before interest rate, taxes, amortization, and depreciation will go up by 26 percent in 2017 from this year’s 942 million USD.
