Plant to lift Terra profit margins
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Iowa-based Terra Industries, which is reopening an ammonia plant near Donaldsonville, posted record earnings of $202 million in the second quarter — about three times higher than a year ago.
Demand for and prices on its nitrogen-based agricultural products have soared, leading Terra to invest $10 million in reopening an ammonia plant near the Sunshine Bridge on the Mississippi River. The Donaldsonville plant, which had been used for storage and shipping since it closed four years ago, will produce an estimated 400,000 tons of ammonia annually.
Slated to open this quarter, the plant will enable Terra to realize higher profit margins on ammonia it previously imported for customers, Terra President Mike Bennett said in an earnings release today.
Despite a 48 percent increase in the company’s ammonia prices in the past year, sales volume is up 13 percent, the company said. Terra’s $202.2 million in net income for the second quarter, or $1.94 per share, eclipsed the $69.4 million of same quarter in 2007, when it earned 66 cents a share.
Revenue rose from $692 million in the 2007 second quarter to $843 million this year.
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