Several top fertiliser producers have seen their stocks turn green between May and June 2023, after months of trading in losses. However, there are still some that have not managed to turn their fortune around.
The losses that these giant companies saw in their valuation and that are highlighted here are only a factor of the gain they recorded in 2022. For example, in August 2022, CF Industries stock price shot up to over $112 after starting the year at around $69/share. Also, it is worthy to note that in the past five years, these top companies have seen their stocks appreciate steadily since after the pandemic.
Illinois-based CF Industries, an industry leader in production and distribution of nitrogen-based fertilisers, saw its stock price drop by over 23% between December 2022 and May 2023. However, by mid-June, the company’s shares had appreciated by 11.15%.
The Mosaic Company, another United States fertiliser maker and the country’s biggest potash and phosphate fertiliser producer, reported a stock price increment of 1.67% between mid-May and mid-June. Before this, the company had seen its shares drop by 19.58% 6 months prior to this article.
Meanwhile, ICL Group Ltd has struggled to turn its fortune around with a stock depreciation of 7.32 in the past one month after recording an overall drop in value of 20.24% since December 2022. Likely, the loss is due to its other businesses which includes engineering materials as it is not only a fertiliser producer.
Like ICL, Yara International has also reported a stock drop in the past one month. Its shares price dropped by 9% between mid-May and mid-June while in the last 6 months, the company has seen a 16.13% loss of valuation.
Intrepid Potash, the largest potassium chloride maker in the US and a fertiliser producer, saw its stocks trading in the green this past month. It had also suffered alongside other industry competitors since the beginning of the year, recording the highest loss in value we saw as 26.76% of its valuation was shaved off. For its remarkable loss, it also made the biggest comeback with 11.54% appreciation in one month.
On the Casablanca Stock Exchange, we found that OCP, which is owned by the Moroccan government, managed to keep its 6-months-loss small, seeing only a drop of 5.14%. Conversely, its one month recovery was equally small, showing an appreciation of 1.03% on its shares price.
Canadian giant fertiliser producer, Nutrien, continues to see its stock price suffer after recording a loss of over 20% in the past six months and a drop of 3.69% in the past one month.
Sociedad QuÃmica y Minera de Chile or SQM, a lithium producer that uses its manufacturing process to make fertilisers, saw a decline in its stock price in the past six months and has not recovered yet.
After exceptional gain levels in 2022, which the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) criticised heavily, the World Bank has predicted that fertiliser prices will drop in 2023 by up to 37% and continue to do so in 2024. However, the international financial institution says that fertilisers that depend on natural gas will fall more than those that depend on minerals like diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potassium chloride (MOP).
The World Bank’s projection means that phosphate giants who depend more on minerals to make their fertlisers than energy products, will weather the effects of the price drops better.
It is equally important to remember that the price falls are compared to 2022, the historical comparisons shows that fertiliser prices are still higher than before the pandemic. Thus, it means that food prices across the world remains higher than the pre-pandemic period as well, which is where it really affects touches the common man.
