Nutrien Ltd. (Nutrien) is a global provider of crop inputs and services.
The company operates a network of production, distribution, and agriculture retail facilities that positions it to efficiently serve the needs of farmers. The company focuses on creating long-term value by prioritizing investments that strengthen the advantages of its business across the agriculture value chain, and by maintaining access to the resources, and the relationships with stakeholders needed to achieve its goals....
Nutrien Ltd. (Nutrien) is a global provider of crop inputs and services.
The company operates a network of production, distribution, and agriculture retail facilities that positions it to efficiently serve the needs of farmers. The company focuses on creating long-term value by prioritizing investments that strengthen the advantages of its business across the agriculture value chain, and by maintaining access to the resources, and the relationships with stakeholders needed to achieve its goals.
Acquisitions and Divestitures
In 2024, the company announced an update to its strategy, with the intent of simplifying its business and focusing on business activities that are core to its long-term vision while pursuing opportunities to exit non-core activities. As a result, in 2024, the company pursued the divestiture of non-core retail assets in South America, including the closure of more than 50 locations, and the suspension of operations at all five blending facilities in Brazil, to improve asset efficiency. Additionally, in 2024, the company announced a review of strategic options related to its investment in Profertil S.A., which is located in Argentina.
Segments
The company reports its results in four operating segments: Nutrien Ag Solutions (‘Retail’), Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate.
The company’s business operations are further categorized as upstream, midstream, and downstream through its involvement across the agriculture value chain. The company’s upstream Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate segments are differentiated by the chemical nutrient contained in the products that each segment produces, and are supported by midstream activities, which include the global sales, freight, transportation, and distribution of its products that are reported within these segments. The company’s downstream Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed, and merchandise, and provides agronomic application services and solutions, including services offered through Nutrien Financial. Retail also manufactures and distributes proprietary products, and provides services directly to farmers through a network of retail locations in North America, South America, and Australia.
Upstream
The company’s upstream operations are focused on its low-cost production assets, including mining, processing, and manufacturing of three essential crop nutrients needed for fertilizer production, potash, nitrogen, and phosphate. The company’s fertilizer manufacturing assets are primarily located in North America, which provides access to high-quality resources, lower cost inputs, and an extensive distribution network to efficiently supply its customers.
Potash Segment
The company’s Potash segment includes the mining and processing of potash, which is predominantly used as fertilizer, at its six Saskatchewan potash mines. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources has granted the company the exclusive right to mine potash on approximately 383,000 hectares (or approximately 947,000 acres) of Crown land pursuant to subsurface mineral leases. Of the 383,000 hectares leased from the Crown, approximately 282,000 hectares comprise its Potash operations at the Allan, Cory, Lanigan, Patience Lake, Rocanville, and Vanscoy mines. Leases also exist with freehold mineral rights owners within the Crown subsurface mineral lease areas, and elsewhere in Saskatchewan.
Subsurface mineral leases with the province of Saskatchewan are for 21-year terms, renewable at the company’s option, at each of its producing mines. The company’s subsurface mineral leases with other parties are also for 21-year terms, which are renewable at its option, provided generally that production is continuing, and that there is continuation of the applicable lease with the province of Saskatchewan.
In 2024, the company’s nameplate capacity represented 53 percent of the North American total nameplate capacity, and its potash production represented 57 percent of North American production. The company allocates production among its mines on the basis of various factors, including cost efficiency and the grades of product that can be produced.
Production Methods
The company produces potash primarily using conventional mining methods, except for its Patience Lake mine, which was originally a conventional underground mine, but began employing a solution mining method.
Nitrogen Segment
The company owns and operates ammonia production facilities at which it produces and, where applicable, upgrades ammonia and urea to other products, such as UAN, ammonium nitrate, nitric acid, and ESN. The company also has a 50 percent joint venture ownership in Profertil S.A. (‘Profertil’), a joint venture that owns a nitrogen facility in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. The company is reviewing its investment in Profertil as part of its strategic priorities announced in 2024.
Production Methods
Ammonia is produced by taking nitrogen from the air and reacting it with a hydrogen source, usually natural gas reformed with steam. CO2 is produced as a result of ammonia production in two primary ways – first, as a product of the chemical reactions involved, and second, as a product of burning fuels that generate the heat required to make those chemical reactions occur.
Phosphate Segment
The company’s Phosphate segment includes the manufacture and sale of solid and liquid phosphate fertilizers, phosphate feed, and purified phosphoric acid, which is used in feed and industrial products. The company has phosphate mines and mineral processing plant complexes in Aurora, North Carolina, and White Springs, Florida. The company also has three phosphate feed plants in the U.S.
Production Methods
The company extracts phosphate ore using surface mining techniques.
Midstream
The company’s Commercial organization supports the global sales of its potash, nitrogen, and phosphate products, transportation, distribution, and logistics, market research, and product management functions. This organizational function helps maximize performance across its supply chain and generates incremental value by delivering customer service, driving supply chain efficiencies, and leading margin optimization opportunities across its integrated network. It achieves this through optimizing its logistics infrastructure, leveraging its distribution network, and customer relationships, and increasing internal sourcing of its upstream manufactured fertilizer sales volumes.
Transportation, Storage, and Distribution
The company operates a sophisticated logistics network to transport its products from production facilities to retail and wholesale customers, ensuring timely and efficient delivery. Transportation costs can be a significant component of the total delivered cost of its products. Producers may have an advantage in serving markets close to their sources of supply depending on prevailing transportation costs. International shipping cost variances permit offshore producers to effectively compete with the company’s production in many geographies.
Potash Segment
The company uses an extensive transportation and distribution network to transport its potash products. Most of its potash for North American customers is shipped by rail, along with significant volumes shipped by truck and barge. The company has a strategic advantage in this market with approximately 330 owned or leased potash distribution points, and a fleet of approximately 5,800 owned or leased railcars as of December 31, 2024. Shipments are also made by rail from each of its Saskatchewan mines to Thunder Bay, Ontario for shipment by lake vessel to its warehouses and storage facilities in Canada and the U.S. In 2024, the company expanded its midstream distribution network with the opening of a new potash terminal, providing additional storage capacity for multiple products, and shortening delivery lead times for its customers.
The potash produced in Canada for sale to destinations outside the U.S. and Canada is sold exclusively to Canpotex Limited (‘Canpotex’). Canpotex is owned in equal shares by the company and another potash producer in Canada. Canpotex acts as an export company providing integrated sales, marketing, and distribution for all Canadian potash produced by its shareholders/producers that is exported to destinations outside the U.S. and Canada. Each shareholder of Canpotex has an equal voting interest as a shareholder, and a right to equal representation on the Canpotex board of directors. In general, Canpotex sales volumes are allocated among Canpotex producers based on production capacity.
In the case of the company’s sales to Canpotex, Canpotex is responsible for managing and directing all aspects of its logistics infrastructure platform, including the transportation of its potash by way of rail to marine facilities where it is handled, stored, and loaded onto ocean-going vessels. The company has an equity interest in Canpotex Bulk Terminals Limited, which is a part owner of the marine facilities utilized by Canpotex in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company also provides a lease to Canpotex for the utilization of a marine facility in Saint John, New Brunswick. Canpotex also utilizes marine facilities in Portland, Oregon, and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Other facilities may be utilized as required.
Nitrogen Segment
The company distributes its nitrogen products by vessel, barge, pipeline, railcar, and truck to its customers, and, in high-consumption areas, through its strategically located storage terminals. In North America, as of December 31, 2024, the company owned or leased approximately 200 nitrogen distribution points, as well as a fleet of approximately 5,700 owned or leased railcars. The company also leases dry and liquid storage capacity in Europe. These locations provide a network of field and production site storage capacity sufficient to serve local dealers during the peak seasonal demand period, and are also used to provide off-season storage.
The company also distributes nitrogen products from Trinidad primarily to markets in the U.S., South America, and Europe. The company employs five long-term chartered ocean-going vessels and utilizes short-term and spot charters as necessary for the transportation of ammonia for its marine distribution operations in Trinidad. All bulk urea production from Trinidad is shipped through third-party carriers. In addition, Profertil’s terminal on the Paraná River includes a dedicated berth and two 100,000 tonne dry storage buildings in a key agricultural region of Argentina.
Phosphate Segment
As of December 31, 2024, the company had approximately 130 owned or leased phosphate distribution points, and a fleet of approximately 5,400 owned or leased railcars. The company has access to ocean-based shipping terminal capacity in North Carolina through which it internationally ships a portion of the Aurora facility’s finished product. Most of the company’s offshore phosphate sales are shipped through the terminal at Morehead City, North Carolina. The company uses barges and tugboats to transport solid products and phosphoric acid between the Aurora facility and the Morehead City terminal. Raw materials and products, including sulfur, are also transported to and from the Aurora facility by rail and truck. Sulfur is delivered to the White Springs facility by rail and truck from Canada and the U.S. Most of the phosphoric acid and chemical fertilizers produced at the White Springs facility are shipped to North American destinations by rail. Ammonia for the Aurora and White Springs facilities is supplied by rail and truck from its production facilities in Lima, Ohio, and Augusta, Georgia.
Downstream – Retail Segment
The company’s Retail segment markets crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed, and merchandise, and provides agronomic application services and solutions, including the services offered through Nutrien Financial, through more than 1,900 retail locations across North America, Australia, and South America. Over 4,500 crop consultants support farmers in crop planning, seed selection, soil sampling, variable rate fertilizer application, and crop monitoring.
Retail’s products and services are as follows:
Crop Nutrients: Dry and liquid macronutrient and micronutrient products, which include potash, nitrogen, and phosphate, specialty fertilizers, and proprietary plant nutrition and biostimulant products.
Crop Protection Products: Third-party supplier and proprietary products, primarily through the company’s Loveland Products Inc. brands across North America, South America, and Australia, designed to enhance crop quality and manage diseases, weeds, and other pests.
Seed: Third-party supplier and proprietary seed product lines, including Dyna-Gro, Proven, and Sementes Goiás, and seed treatments applied to seeds prior to planting, designed to protect them from pests and disease.
Services and Other: Product application, soil and leaf testing, crop scouting, and precision agriculture services, water services, and brokerage agency services.
Merchandise: Livestock-related merchandise, including fencing, feed supplements, animal identification merchandise, and various animal health products and services, storage and irrigation equipment, and other products.
Nutrien Financial: Financing solutions offered to the U.S. and Australia Retail branches and customers in the support of the company’s agricultural product and service sales.
The company has an extensive infrastructure system to store and transport its Retail products, strategically located across distribution points in regions where it operates to serve its customers across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and South America.
Supply chain management, utilizing the company’s extensive storage and distribution network and transportation capabilities, allows it to efficiently deliver crop nutrients and seed products to its customers. As farmers have a short application and planting window, the precise timing of such deliveries is unpredictable due to both the seasonal nature of crop planting and the impact of weather. The company regularly reviews and manages its suppliers to maintain critical feedstocks, and can leverage its diverse retail distribution network and expansive fertilizer terminal network to effectively manage product logistic challenges.
Seasonality
Seasonality in the company’s business results from increased demand for products during planting season. Crop input sales are generally higher in spring and fall application seasons. Crop input inventories are normally accumulated leading up to each application season. The results of this seasonality have a corresponding effect on receivables from customers and rebates receivables, inventories, prepaid expenses, and other current assets, and trade payables. The company’s short-term debt also fluctuates during the year (year ended December 2024) to meet working capital requirements. The company’s cash collections generally occur after the application season is complete, while customer prepayments made to it is typically concentrated in December and January, and inventory prepayments paid to its suppliers are typically concentrated in the period from November to January.
Environmental Matters
With respect to air emissions, the company anticipates that additional actions and expenditures may be required to meet increasingly stringent federal, provincial, and state regulatory and permit requirements in the areas in which the company operates, including existing and anticipated regulations under the U.S. federal Clean Air Act. The company continues to monitor developments in these various programs and assess their potential impact on its operations.
In Canada, the Multi-Sector Air Pollutants Regulations (‘MSAPR’) established oxides of nitrogen (‘NOx’) emission standards for gas-fired boilers, heaters, and stationary spark-ignition engines. Facilities must ensure regulated equipment meets mandated emission standards by either 2026 or 2036, depending on the equipment’s baseline emission levels. The company’s Canadian Nitrogen and Potash facilities operate equipment subject to these regulations, and as of December 31, 2024, the company was compliant with the MSAPR requirements.
Several of the company’s phosphoric acid production facilities have received notices of violation or entered orders with the EPA as a result of the EPA’s NECI. These facilities include the Aurora, North Carolina, White Springs, Florida, and Geismar, Louisiana phosphate facilities, as well as the Conda, Idaho phosphate production facility, which was divested in 2018 but for which the company retains environmental liabilities attributable to its historic activities. Nutrien settled with the EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality at the company’s former Geismar phosphoric acid production facility in October 2022. The company is engaged in ongoing negotiations with the EPA and the relevant state environmental agencies to resolve the outstanding matters relating to the other facilities.
History
Nutrien Ltd. was incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act (‘CBCA’) in 2017.
