OJSC PhosAgro (PHOR)
PhosAgro-Region Exceeded 3 Million Tonnes in Mineral Fertilizer Sales in
Russia in 2019
29-Jan-2020 / 16:00 MSK
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information
according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group.
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announcement.
For Immediate Release 29 January 2020
PhosAgro-Region Exceeded 3 Million Tonnes in Mineral Fertilizer Sales in
Russia in 2019
Moscow - The largest mineral fertilizer distribution network in Russia,
PhosAgro-Region* (a PhosAgro subsidiary), increased its supply of mineral
fertilizers to Russian agricultural producers by 7.6% year-on-year in 2019
to 3.16 million tonnes.
Most notably, sales of PhosAgro products to farmers increased by 10.5%
year-on-year to 2.69 million tonnes. Sales of complex and phosphate-based
fertilizers, which increased by 13.9% year-on-year, accounted for more than
80% of this volume. PhosAgro-Region's regional companies also supplied more
than 470 thousand tonnes of product made by other producers.
According to the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association, PhosAgro remains
the largest supplier in terms of the overall volume of all types of mineral
fertilizers to Russian farmers. The domestic Russian market remains
PhosAgro's priority market, where the Company sells around 30% of its
production output; PhosAgro fertilizers are produced to meet demand from
Russian farmers and to comply with standards for environmentally friendly
agricultural products.
In 4Q 2019, PhosAgro's sales to the Russian market increased by 15%
year-on-year. This dynamic increase in demand for phosphate-based
fertilizers was largely due to the fact that farmers began stocking up on
phosphate-based fertilizers in advance of field work not only for the spring
but also for autumn 2020.
The largest consumers of PhosAgro-Region products and services are located
in areas of the Central Black Earth Region and the south of Russia, which
account for about 70% of sales. In 2019, the highest growth rates in terms
of purchases of mineral fertilizers were seen in parts of the Black Earth
Region, where the network's regional companies increased total sales of all
types of mineral fertilizers by 9.2% to 1.24 million tonnes.
PhosAgro-Region invested more than RUB 650 million in 2019 into
infrastructure development in priority regions. New logistics capacities
were launched in the Tambov and Voronezh regions that made it possible to
reduce end consumers' costs for the delivery and storage of mineral
fertilizers and to improve capacity to supply farmers during periods of
field work and peak demand. In November of last year, PhosAgro-Region began
construction of its fifth distribution centre in the Krasnodar region, the
launch of which is expected shortly before the start of spring field work.
As of the end of 2019, the simultaneous storage capacity of
PhosAgro-Region's warehouses exceeded 650 thousand tonnes. Almost all of the
network's distribution centres have dependable capacity for the storage and
shipment of liquid mineral fertilizers: over the past five years, their
total capacity has increased tenfold to almost 45 thousand tonnes. About
half of these centres are located in southern regions of Russia, which are
rapidly developing the practice of using liquid complex fertilizers.
PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev said: "PhosAgro supplies more fertilizers to the
Russian market than to any other country in the world. In 2019, for the
first time in the recent history of Russian agribusiness, PhosAgro-Region
exceeded 3 million tonnes in sales of mineral fertilizers to farmers. More
than a third of these sales were made up of a wide range of NPK fertilizers,
which has proven effective in ensuring the consistently high quality and
unique environmental performance of Russian agricultural products.
"In turn, a large and profitable harvest enabled farmers to invest more
heavily in the mineral nutrition systems used for their crops to achieve
better results, which supports the growth of the entire mineral fertilizer
industry.
"As of the end of 2019, the volume of supplies of mineral fertilizers from
the largest producers to the Russian market had grown by 14.5% to 9.5
million tonnes, which was the highest figure seen in the past 20 years. This
year, the demand for fertilizers in the Russian market may increase by
another 5-10%.
"I am confident that the creation of the national Green Standard for
environmentally friendly products will contribute to the further development
of the Russian agricultural sector, which will allow us to highlight the
competitive advantages of Russian agricultural products in foreign markets
and to use advanced agricultural technologies to create an affordable basket
of wholesome food products for domestic consumers."
About PhosAgro
PhosAgro (www.phosagro.com [1]) is one of the world's leading vertically
integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production
volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a
P2O5 content of 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly
fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the
contamination of soils with heavy metals.
The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by
total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of
high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and one of the leading
producers of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed
phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's
only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP).
PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers,
feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by
customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents.
The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin
America, Europe and Asia.
PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary
receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the
ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in
the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.
More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website:
www.phosagro.com [1].
*By total volume of fertilizers supplied and by the simultaneous fertilizer
storage capacity.
ISIN: US71922G2XXX
Category Code: MSCM
TIDM: PHOR
LEI Code: 635400F8A3KGJIIBIK95
OAM Categories: 2.2. Inside information
Sequence No.: 43321
EQS News ID: 963309
End of Announcement EQS News Service
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January 29, 2020 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
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