The world’s largest fertilizer company expects the global supply of the nutrient potash to remain constrained this year.
Shipments out of major exporters Belarus and Russia are still at least partially constrained and a lot of alternative outlets for product have been exhausted, Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz said Tuesday in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters.
“Looking at 2023, we think there’s going to continue to be challenges which creates a gap in the market,” he said.
The Canadian company is monitoring conditions and will continue to adjust its planned ramp-up of potash production as farmer demand changes, the CEO said.
Seitz also commented on relations with BHP Group Ltd., which is developing the $5.7 billion Jansen project close to Nutrien’s mines near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in western Canada. The two firms held talks about a potential partnership two years ago, and BHP was said in January to have been interested in doing more deals, at the right price, with companies such as Nutrien.
“The relationship with BHP is good; we’re in the community together,” Seitz said, while declining to comment on whether the companies have been in talks more recently. “They’re focused on their work on Jansen project; we’re focused on the work that we’re doing — and that’s the focus at the moment.”