TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Canada’s largest producer of the crop nutrient, this week announced temporary production curtailments at its Allan and Lanigan operations, in an effort to match supply with market demand.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based PotashCorp will curtail production at its Allan mine for four weeks, starting March 20. The mine, with a nameplate capacity of four-million tonnes of potassium chloride (KCl) a year, was forecast to produce 2.6-million tonnes in 2016.
From the same date, the Lanigan operation will also curtail production for four weeks. Lanigan has the capacity to produce 3.8-million tonnes of KCl a year, but was forecast to produce only 2-million tonnes this year.
PotashCorp said it expected the curtailments would reduce its full-year output by about 400 000 t.
The company advised that it was opting to achieve these curtailments through the use of maintenance shutdowns, which did not require temporary workforce layoffs.
PotashCorp in January closed its Picadilly, New Brunswick potash operations, citing a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. In response to weak demand, PotashCorp in October announced the permanent closure date of its Penobsquis, New Brunswick mine and inventory shutdowns in December at three of its Saskatchewan mines.
PotashCorp expected that its 2016 sales volumes would be between 8.3-million tonnes and 9.1-million tonnes. In January, the company also cut its quarterly dividend by 34%, owing to the challenging market conditions and emerging market currency weakness relative to the US dollar that continued to weigh on the fertiliser market.