CF Industries Q4 2019 Earnings Report
Key Takeaways
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. reported Q4 2019 net earnings attributable to common stockholders of $55 million, or $0.25 per diluted share. EBITDA was $306 million and adjusted EBITDA was $325 million.
Full year net earnings of $493 million, or $2.23 per diluted share; EBITDA of $1,620 million; adjusted EBITDA of $1,610 million
Fourth quarter net earnings of $55 million, or $0.25 per diluted share; EBITDA of $306 million; adjusted EBITDA of $325 million
Full year net cash from operating activities of $1,505 million, free cash flow of $915 million
Set company record for quarterly gross ammonia production in fourth quarter
CF Industries
CF Industries
Forward Guidance
CF believes that near-term global nitrogen demand will be positive as application seasons develop in different regions of the world. In North America, crop futures combined with an expected return to traditional planting conditions in North America continue to support an increase in nitrogen-consuming planted corn and coarse grain acres in 2020 compared to 2019.
Positive Outlook
- Global nitrogen demand will be positive
- Increase in nitrogen-consuming planted corn and coarse grain acres in 2020 compared to 2019
- Demand in India is expected to remain strong in 2020
- Demand for urea in Brazil is expected to be positive in 2020, supported by lower domestic urea production.
- Global nitrogen market will tighten as industry fundamentals underpinning the global nitrogen cost curve continue to improve
Challenges Ahead
- Urea tender volumes in India in 2020 may ease from 2019’s record high based on growing conditions and whether new domestic urea capacity increases total production, which has been affected by significant outages in existing facilities.
- Chinese coal-based nitrogen complexes to remain the global marginal urea producer and thus set the global price.
- Net Chinese-produced urea exports are likely to be in a range of 2-3 million metric tons annually, with additional Chinese export tons possible if urea supply is needed worldwide and global nitrogen prices support positive margins for Chinese marginal urea producers.
- Forward energy curves suggest the cost advantage per metric ton of urea for North American producers should remain well over $100 compared to Chinese anthracite-coal based producers.
- Capital expenditures in 2020 are estimated to be in the range of approximately $400 to $450 million.