CVR Partners Q1 2026 Earnings Report

CVR Partners EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.72
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

CVR Partners Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $180.05 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

CVR Partners Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 4/29/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

CVR Partners (NYSE:UAN), L.P. (NYSE: UAN) is a publicly traded master limited partnership focused on the production and marketing of nitrogen fertilizer products. Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, the partnership owns and operates two nitrogen fertilizer plants in Coffeyville, Kansas, where it manufactures ammonia, granular urea, and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions. These products are essential nutrients for a wide range of row and specialty crops, helping growers optimize yield and soil fertility across diverse agricultural applications.

The partnership’s operations center on two integrated facilities connected by pipeline, rail and trucking infrastructure, enabling efficient logistics and year-round production. CVR Partners sources natural gas feedstock under long-term supply agreements and employs proprietary process technologies to maximize energy efficiency and product consistency. Finished fertilizers are distributed through a network of dealers and direct-to-farm shipments, serving growers primarily in the U.S. Midwest, Great Plains and other key crop-growing regions.

Established in November 2013 as a spin-off from CVR Energy, Inc., CVR Partners traces its roots to a joint venture between CVR Energy and Terra Nitrogen Company. Since its formation, the partnership has focused on leveraging cost-advantaged feedstock positions and operational expertise to deliver competitive fertilizer solutions. The general partner, CVR Energy, oversees strategic direction and operational management, drawing on decades of experience in petrochemical and agricultural markets.

CVR Partners continues to invest in maintenance and process improvements to sustain reliable output and environmental performance. While its primary footprint remains in southeastern Kansas, the partnership’s products reach farming operations across the continental United States. CVR Partners remains committed to meeting evolving crop nutrition needs through consistent supply, product innovation and customer support.

CVR Partners Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 financials — reported net sales of $180 million, net income of $50 million ($4.72/unit), EBITDA of $78 million, and the board declared a $4.00 per common unit distribution for the quarter.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational outperformance — ammonia utilization reached 103% with total ammonia production of 220,000 gross tons and firm pricing (UAN ~34% higher YoY at an average $343/ton; ammonia ~24% higher YoY at an average $687/ton).
• Negative Sentiment: Cost and volume pressures — direct operating expenses rose by roughly $9 million (driven by higher natural gas, electricity and repair & maintenance), and UAN volumes were slightly down due to minor planned and unplanned outages at East Dubuque.
• Positive Sentiment: Market-driven tailwinds — geopolitical conflicts (Middle East and ongoing Russia-related disruptions) tightened global nitrogen supply, supporting higher spring fertilizer prices and creating export opportunities for U.S. producers as Europe faces structurally higher gas costs.
• Neutral Sentiment: Growth and funding outlook — management plans brownfield debottlenecks and a Coffeyville feedstock/capacity project that could raise consolidated ammonia capacity ~7–8%; 2026 capex guidance is $60–75 million, largely funded from accumulated cash reserves while the board continues to reserve some capital.

Presentation

[Operator]

As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now hand today's call over to Richard Roberts, Vice President of FP&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

[Richard Roberts, VP of FP&A and Investor Relations at CVR Partners]

Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your participation in today's call. With me today are Mark Pytosh, our Chief Executive Officer, Dane Neumann, our Chief Financial Officer, Mike Wright, our Chief Operating Officer, and other members of management. Prior to discussing our 2026 first quarter results, let me remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined under federal securities laws. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You are cautioned that these statements may be affected by important factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our latest earnings release. As a result, actual operations or results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements.

[Richard Roberts, VP of FP&A and Investor Relations at CVR Partners]

We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. This call also includes various non-GAAP financial measures. The disclosures related to such non-GAAP measures, including a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, are included in our 2026 first quarter earnings release that we filed with the SEC for the period. Let me also remind you that we are a variable distribution MLP. We'll review our previously established reserves, current cash usage, evaluate future anticipated cash needs, and may reserve amounts for other future cash needs as determined by our general partners board.

[Richard Roberts, VP of FP&A and Investor Relations at CVR Partners]

As a result, our distributions, if any, will vary from quarter to quarter due to several factors, including but not limited to operating performance, fluctuations of prices received, finished products, capital expenditures, and cash reserves deemed necessary or appropriate by the board of directors of our general partner. With that said, I'll turn the call over to Mark Pytosh, our Chief Executive Officer. Mark?

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. To summarize financial highlights for the first quarter of 2026 include net sales of $180 million, net income of $50 million, EBITDA of $78 million, and the board of directors declared a first quarter distribution of $4 per common unit, which will be paid on May 18 to unit holders of record at the close of the market on May 11. For the first quarter of 2026, our Ammonia plant utilization was 103%, with both plants running well and experiencing minimal downtime during the quarter. We also saw an increase in Ammonia sales volume relative to the prior year period, along with increased sales prices for UAN and Ammonia.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

The tightness in the nitrogen fertilizer market that began in the second half of 2025 has only been amplified by the conflicts in the Middle East over the past two months and leading to higher prices for the spring, which I will discuss further in my closing remarks. I will now turn the call over to Dane to discuss our financial results.

[Dane Neumann, CFO at CVR Partners]

Thank you, Mark. Turning to our results, for the first quarter of 2026, we reported net sales of $180 million and operating income of $58 million. Net income for the quarter was $50 million, or $4.72 per common unit, and EBITDA was $78 million. Relative to the first quarter of 2025, the increase in EBITDA was primarily due to a combination of higher UAN and ammonia sales pricing and higher ammonia sales volumes. Total ammonia production for the first quarter was 220,000 gross tons, of which 70,000 net tons were available for sale, and UAN production was 335,000 tons.

[Dane Neumann, CFO at CVR Partners]

During the quarter, we sold approximately 310,000 tons of UAN at an average price of $343 per ton and approximately 73,000 tons of Ammonia at an average price of $687 per ton. Relative to the first quarter of 2025, total sales volumes were down slightly, primarily due to lower UAN production and sales volume due to some minor planned and unplanned outages at East Dubuque during the quarter. First quarter prices for UAN increased approximately 34%, and Ammonia prices increased approximately 24% relative to the prior year period. Direct operating expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were $63 million. Excluding inventory impacts, direct operating expenses increased by approximately $9 million relative to the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to higher natural gas and electricity costs and repair and maintenance expenses.

[Dane Neumann, CFO at CVR Partners]

Capital spending for the first quarter was $14 million, of which $8 million was maintenance capital. We estimate total capital spending for 2026 to be approximately $60 million-$75 million, of which $35 million-$45 million is expected to be maintenance capital. We anticipate a significant portion of the profit and growth capital spending plan for 2026 will be funded through cash reserves taken over the past few years. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of $178 million, which consisted of $128 million in cash and availability under the ABL facility of $50 million. With internal cash balance of $128 million, we had approximately $17 million related to customer prepayments for the future delivery of product.

[Dane Neumann, CFO at CVR Partners]

In assessing our cash available for distribution, we generated EBITDA of approximately $78 million and had net cash needs of $36 million for interest costs, maintenance CapEx, and other reserves. As a result, there was $42 million of cash available for distribution, and the board of directors of our general partner declared a distribution of $4 per common unit. Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2026, we estimate our Ammonia utilization rate to be between 95% and 100%, direct operating expenses, excluding inventory and turnaround impacts, to be between $57 million and $62 million, and total capital spending to be between $28 million and $32 million. With that, I will turn the call back over to Mark.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

Thanks, Dane. In summary, we had another strong quarter of operations with ammonia utilization over 100%. The recent conflicts in the Middle East have caused prices to increase further for the spring. The spring planting season is underway and it's gone well so far this year. The USDA is currently estimating approximately 95 million acres of corn will be planted in 2026. While this is a decline from the record levels of 2025, 95 million acres is well above the average level of corn plantings over the last five years. Yield estimates are approximately 183 bushels per acre, resulting in an inventory carryout level below 2025. Soybean planted acreage is expected to be approximately 85 million acres with a yield estimate of 53 bushels per acre, resulting in an inventory carryout roughly in line with 2025.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

December corn prices are approximately $4.75 per bushel, and soybeans are approximately $11.90 per bushel. The Trump Administration and congressional leaders continue to discuss potential subsidy programs for farmers to help offset lower grain prices and higher input costs. As a reminder, the U.S. is a net importer of nitrogen fertilizers, resulting in domestic fertilizer prices being heavily influenced by changes in global fertilizer prices. Europe, Brazil, and India all compete with the U.S. for global fertilizer production. Geopolitical conflicts have impacted the global fertilizer industry for the past few years, beginning with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The recent conflicts in the Middle East have caused further disruptions to global supply, with roughly 30% of nitrogen fertilizer production typically transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

In addition, multiple nitrogen fertilizer production facilities across the Middle East have been damaged or have curtailed production over the past few months due to limited natural gas supplies. Unfortunately, these events occurred at a critical time for farmers needing to secure crop inputs ahead of the spring planting season, as fertilizer inventory levels were already tight across the industry after the large planting seasons in the U.S. and Brazil in 2025. While it remains unclear how long these issues in the Middle East and Russia will persist, we will continue to focus on safely and reliably running our plants at high utilization levels to meet the needs of our customers during this challenging time in our industry.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

Natural gas prices in Europe have also increased amid the recent Middle East conflicts, currently trading around $14 per MMBtu, while U.S. prices have once again fallen below $3 per MMBtu. Damage sustained at LNG production facilities could take several years to repair, which would likely keep upward pressure on international gas prices relative to U.S. prices. The cost to produce Ammonia in Europe has remained durably at the high end of the global cost curve, and production remains below historical levels, which has created sales opportunities for U.S. Gulf Coast producers to export Ammonia to Europe for upgrade. We continue to believe Europe faces structural natural gas supply issues that will likely remain in effect through the next few years. The conflicts over the past few years in Ukraine and now Iran are a reminder of the value of U.S. production with adequate and secure feedstock availability.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

At our Coffeyville facility, we continue to work on a detailed design and construction plan intended to allow the plant to utilize natural gas as an alternative feedstock to third-party petcoke, in addition to increasing ammonia production capacity by up to 8%. We now believe we can achieve the feedstock diversification and capacity expansion of this project without investing the capital to source hydrogen from the adjacent Coffeyville refinery, which should significantly reduce the total capital spend associated with that scope of the project. We also continue to execute certain debottlenecking projects at both plants that are expected to improve reliability and production rates. These include the brownfield capacity expansion at East Dubuque that we intend to complete during the upcoming turnaround, in addition to water quality upgrade projects at both plants and the expansion of our DEF production and load-out capacity.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

The goal of these projects is to support our target of operating the plants at utilization rates above 95% of nameplate capacity, excluding the impact of turnarounds. If the two brownfield expansion projects are completed, we estimate our consolidated ammonia production capacity would increase by approximately 7%. The funds needed for these projects are coming from the reserves taken over the last few years. The board elected to continue reserving capital in the first quarter. While the board looks at reserves every quarter, I would expect them to continue to elect to reserve some capital. We anticipate holding higher levels of cash related to these projects in the near term as we ramp up execution and spending. We believe unitholders will see the benefits of these investments in the coming years as these projects are completed and brought online.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

The first quarter continued to demonstrate the benefits of focusing on safety, reliability, and performance. In the quarter, we executed on all the critical elements of our business plan, which include safely and reliably operating our plants with a keen focus on the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and communities, prudently managing costs, being judicious with capital, maximizing our marketing and logistics capabilities, and targeting opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint. In closing, I would like to thank our employees for their excellent execution, safely achieving 103% Ammonia utilization and the solid delivery on our marketing and logistics plans, resulting in a distribution of $4 per common unit for the quarter. With that, we are ready to answer any questions.

[Operator]

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you would like to remove yourself from the queue, press star followed by the number one. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Again, as a reminder, to ask a question, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. At this time, there are no questions. I will now hand the call back over to the presenters for any closing remarks.

[Mark Pytosh, CEO at CVR Partners]

Well, thank you, everybody. We appreciate you joining the call today, and we look forward to discussing our second quarter results in late July. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

[Operator]

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.

Participants

Executives

• Dane Neumann, CFO
• Mark Pytosh, CEO
• Richard Roberts, VP of FP&A and Investor Relations