- Significant high-quality, low-cost phosphate rock reserves
- Ability to direct rock with low levels of impurities to diversified product line to optimize margins
- Mining near processing facilities provides cost advantage over North American competitors
- Access to lower-cost North American liquid sulfur
- Strong position in North American purified acid and feed phosphate markets
- Transporting ammonia to solid fertilizer plants is becoming more difficult and costly
- Higher sulfur and ammonia costs can negatively impact margins
- Plants with high fixed costs may not perform profitably at lower operating rates
- Long-term sales contracts for industrial and some liquid fertilizer products can cause a lag in pricing in times of rising input costs, temporarily impacting margins
- Tight phosphate rock, phosphoric acid and solid fertilizer supply/demand fundamentals
- Few companies globally with rock of sufficient quality to economically produce purified acid
- We believe that fewer greenfield projects gives at least a three-year window on solid fertilizer supply until Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden project comes on stream
- Significant government control in global phosphate supply and consumption decisions
- High barriers to exit because of significant environmental restoration and remediation costs
- Extensive environmental and permitting requirements