Agrium Inc. (AGU) reported adjusted net earnings of 29 cents per share in the third quarter of 2009, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 32 cents. Year over year, earnings declined a significant 87% on lower volumes and prices. Revenues were down 41% year over year to $1.9 billion on weak corn prices and lower consumption of crop protection products at retail level.  Retail segment: Retail segment revenues plunged 25% to $1.2 billion in the quarter on a 41% decline in crop nutrient sales to $345 million due to a significant decline in crop nutrient prices. Crop nutrient volumes in the quarter remained flat. Gross profit from the crop nutrients business almost halved to $31 million. Crop protection sales were $768 million in the quarter, down 12% from the same period last year. The decline was driven by lower volumes for fungicides and lower pricing for glyphosate products. ...

The world’s largest fertilizer producer, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (POT), earned 82 cents per share in the third quarter of 2009, within its previously announced guidance of 80 cents to $1.20. Earnings were slightly better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 81 cents while it declined 79% from $3.93 per share reported in the same period of the previous year. The shortfall was based on lower demand and weaker fertilizer pricing, especially nitrogen and phosphate. The reported quarter’s sales totaled $1.1 billion, down 64% from $3.1 billion in the third quarter of 2008. The drop in sales and thereby earnings was driven by a decline in potash, phosphate and nitrogen sales volumes coupled with lower phosphate and nitrogen prices. The company blamed the global economic downturn for the drop in sales volumes and prices. However, it expects to see a strong rebound in potash sales volumes ...

Sberbank has slackened restrictions for individuals seeking loans, after last year's crisis driven squeeze on credit.  The government intends to establish a new state holding to oversee Russia's geological reserves, the Moscow Times reports.  Fertilizer producer Acron has said it may borrow up to $2.2 billion from Sberbank and VTB to finance development.  Gold output has increased by 18.5% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2009.  Daimler is attempting to fortify its share of the Russian market by planning a truck and bus joint venture with Kamaz.  Raiffeisenbank has explained that it had filed to bankrupt media firm RBC, but will withdraw the suit imminently as it hopes to come to a debt restructuring plan for the company.  Russian-Israeli tycoon Arkady Gaidamak has been charged with money laundering and fraud to the tune of ...

The resource-rich Canadian markets continued to gain momentum to the upside during Thursday trading with only the gold sector showing signs of weakness. For the tale of the tape; the TSX Exchange surged 2.33%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.79% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 1.28% with the advancers beating out the decliners by a 432 to 371 margin on 184 million shares traded. Teck Resources (NYSE:TCK) posted a second quarter profit of $570 million or $1.17 per share thanks to a non-cash foreign exchange gain of $413 million and a $33 million gain for the sale of its Hemlo gold operations in Ontario. Revenues from coal operations increased by $410 million but copper and zinc revenues fell by $508 million due to lower metal prices and lower copper sales. Teck ended the day up C$1.25 at C$26 even.

Potash Corp. of

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Calgary-based Fertilizer Company Agrium Inc. (AGU) has again extended its deadline for its hostile offer of $3.9 billion to buy out rival CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF). Agrium has stretched the deadline to August 19 from the previous deadline of July 22, stating that only about 21% or 10.4 million shares of CF Industries have been tendered and not withdrawn from the exchange offer as of July 17, 2009.

On June 23, CF’s shareholders had tendered about 62% of their total outstanding shares in support of Agrium's current offer of $40 plus one Agrium share per CF share. This was at 59% premium to CF's closing price on February 24, 2009, when the offer was made. Soon after the tender results, Agrium had extended the deadline to acquire CF Industries to July 22, 2009.

CF had repeatedly rejected Agrium’s takeover offer. Despite two upward revisions in the offer price, CF

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The takeover battle between CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) and Agrium Inc. (AGU) took another turn when the former announced that it will consider a merger deal with Agrium, the hostile bidder on June 26, 2009. Stephen R. Wilson, Chief Executive, President and Chairman of CF Industries stated that Agrium should however make an attractive offer, which must interest the company's board.

Based in Deerfield, Illinois, CF had earlier repeatedly rejected Agrium's takeover offer. Despite two upward revisions in the offer price, CF had turned down Agrium's proposal on grounds of substantial undervaluation and associated regulatory issues. CF has stated that Agrium's final offer of about $4.4 billion continues to undervalue the company.

On June 23, CF's shareholders tendered 62% of their total outstanding shares in support of Agrium's current offer of $40.00 plus one Agrium share per CF share. Based on

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On June 25, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT) cut its 2009 second-quarter earnings guidance due to lower-than-anticipated potash sales volume and lower prices for phosphate fertilizer. The company now expects EPS of $0.70, down from its April forecast of $1.10 to $1.50.

The sales of potash - an essential crop-nutrient - is expected to be affected by a higher price on top of falling demand. Due to the ongoing credit crisis and lower grain prices, farmers have cut back on their fertilizer consumption to save on costs.

Even then, the fertilizer cartel (accounting for 75% of the global potash capacity) has deliberately cut production to keep pricing unaffected. In mid-June, Potash Corp announced to curtail its potash production by an additional 800,000 tons, bringing the total reductions in 2009 to 4.7 million tons. About 40% of the global potash production capacity has been idled since

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Monday May 11, 2009 Navivest Canadian fertilizer producer Agrium (AGU) today announced that it is increasing its current outstanding offer to acquire CF Industries (CF) to $85.20 per CF Industries... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The base metals were all gushing red on Thursday. Copper was in the green until New York opened, then down it went, falling especially steeply in late morning, and barely coming off its intraday lows to finish at $1.9542/lb., down nearly 6 cents.

Nickel started down earlier, but was off as sharply, closing at its intraday low of $4.9872/lb., down almost 16 cents. Zinc followed a similar path, shedding 2 cents, to $0.6247/lb. Aluminum was modestly lower, ending at $0.6408/lb., down less than a half-cent, while lead fell to its intraday low of $0.6478/lb., down 2 cents.

Copper led the other industrial metals deep into the red, as the unemployment numbers out yesterday had traders questioning the possibility of economic resurgence anytime soon, and many decided to cash out recent gains.

“Copper’s price correction was exacerbated by earlier losses in equity markets and data showing a further deterioration in the labor and housing

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a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602013amp;sid=aym0w6OwbWsIamp;refer=commodity_futures"Interesting news today/a out of Potash Corp. (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=pot"POT/a):br /br /blockquotePotash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, said 2009 profit will be less than it previously expected after North American sales of the crop nutrient reached “a virtual halt.” pEarnings this year will be $7 to $8 a share, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp. said today in a statement. That’s less than the $10 to $12 a share the company forecast in January and trails the $9.33 average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Bloomberg/span. /p/blockquotep/pWe know the global slowdown would cut demand, but this is still a bit surprising. With prices under pressure, Potash will be cutting production.br /br /blockquote“The potash companies are cutting production to prop up their prices, and we’re cutting our ...