UAN reported and declared zero distribution. Bummer. Share price hit multi-year low the trading day after the report.
Lets see......
Q4 revenues were $86m, the low for 2019, due to lower production (turnaround downtime) and lower prices. UAN said the prices were lower
In the conference call they indicated that after the turnaround the Dubuque facility hit record ammonia production in December 2019. That sounds good for production going forward into 2020.
Direct operating expenses were $45.6m and CapEx was $8.5m.
There is some guidance for Q1 2020, I don't recall seeing guidance previously. They think Utilization will be 95% to 100%, so there appears to be no planned downtime. That's good.
They also say direct expenses will be about $37.5m and CapEx about $5.5m, so those two add up to a savings of about $11m in Q1 2020 compared to Q4 2019.
So production should be higher, and costs and capital spending lower in the current Q1 2020 quarter. We don't know the price per ton change, but that generally sounds good. Even with flat prices for fertilizer in Q1 2020 it seems like the should return to distributions in the current quarter.
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The Board has approved a re-expansion project at our Coffeyville plant, which is expected to be completed during the turnaround scheduled for the fall of this year.
I'm surprised they're doing another turnaround in 2020. I thought they did them every four years, with the two plants staggered in two year intervals. Oh well, another interruption expected in the fall, bummer!
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We expect corn planting to increase to 92 million to 95 million acres and with slower purchasing by customers this year in advance of planting, we expect to see strong in-season purchases of nitrogen fertilizer. |
