Nutrien Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Nutrien reported second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of CAD 2.4 billion and first-half adjusted EBITDA of CAD 3.5 billion, up 6% year over year, while operating cash flow increased 12%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Potash demand remains constructive across major markets, prompting Nutrien to raise the low end of its 2026 sales-volume guidance to 14.2–14.8 million tons; automation also helped keep controllable cash costs below the CAD 60-per-ton target.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company reduced 2026 capital-expenditure guidance by CAD 50 million to CAD 1.95–2.05 billion and accelerated share repurchases to approximately CAD 75 million per month, supported by stronger cash generation and portfolio divestitures.
  • Negative Sentiment: Retail fertilizer volumes declined notably in the second quarter, with phosphate down about 10% and nitrogen down about 7%; phosphate demand is expected to remain weak, while higher fuel and fleet costs pressured expenses.
  • Negative Sentiment: Phosphate profitability deteriorated because of elevated sulfur costs, which management called unsustainable, and nitrogen volumes were affected by production outages, planned maintenance, and deferred purchases amid market volatility.
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Earnings Conference Call
Nutrien Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Thanks, and welcome to Nutrien's 2026 second quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Holzman, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and FP&A. Please go ahead.

Jeff Holzman
Jeff Holzman
Senior VP of Investor Relations and FP&A at Nutrien

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and welcome to Nutrien's second quarter 2026 earnings call. As we conduct this call, various statements that we make about future expectations, plans, and prospects contain forward-looking information. Certain assumptions were applied in making these conclusions and forecasts, therefore, actual results could differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking information. Additional information about these factors and assumptions is contained in our quarterly report to shareholders, as well as our most recent annual report, MD&A, and annual information form. I will now turn the call over to Ken Seitz, Nutrien's President and CEO, and Mark Thompson, our CFO, for opening comments.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to review our first half performance, progress on our strategic priorities, and the outlook for our business. In the first half of 2026, Nutrien delivered record potash sales volumes, strong growth in proprietary products margins, and further enhanced the reliability and cost position of our nitrogen assets in a dynamic global operating environment. We raised the bottom end of our 2026 potash sales volumes guidance, lowered our capital expenditures guidance range, and increased the pace of share repurchases. Our results demonstrated strong performance against our strategic priorities that are strengthening our business, driving structural growth in free cash flow, and increasing cash returns to shareholders. In potash, we increased production from our low-cost six-mine network and utilized the capabilities of our extensive global supply chain to meet strong customer demand.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

In the first half, we mined 53% of ore tons using automation, exceeding the top end of our 2024 Investor Day target. This result reflects the strong execution of our automation strategy, while also highlighting additional opportunities to further enhance deployment and performance across the network. These investments are delivering wide-ranging benefits beyond improvements in safety and productivity. Increased automation enables us to mine more ore with the assets already in place, helping to optimize capital expenditures and maximize returns on existing investments. In nitrogen, our low-cost North American assets remain well-positioned, with advantage natural gas costs and a continued focus on initiatives that increase upgraded product volumes and margins. Our first half production was consistent with our previous expectations, including a planned turnaround at our Carseland facility that demonstrated operational excellence in action.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

The turnaround was the largest in the facility's history and included a debottlenecking project that increased the site's annual production capacity. Despite a much larger scope than the last major turnaround four years ago, we achieved higher productivity and contractor efficiency through improved planning and execution. The work was completed safely with zero lost time injuries, ahead of schedule, and under budget. Turning to our downstream retail business. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 4% in the first half of 2026, underpinned by execution of key growth initiatives that enhance our ability to serve growers with a broader set of products and services integrated through our network. Our proprietary products business delivered strong growth in the first half, including a 10% increase in proprietary crop nutrients gross margin despite softer fertilizer demand, as growers continued to prioritize solutions that enhance productivity.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Our performance reflects targeted investments we made to expand capacity and meet increasing customer demand with sales volumes for certain nutritional products increasing nearly tenfold compared to the prior year. Together, these results demonstrate how customer insights, targeted investments, and disciplined execution are driving earnings growth. Over the last two years, we have taken purposeful steps to optimize our portfolio following a comprehensive review of each asset's free cash flow contribution and returns on invested capital. Since June 2026, we completed agreements to sell non-core assets for gross proceeds of approximately $90 million. Including these agreements and prior divestments, we have generated approximately $1 billion in gross proceeds since the fourth quarter of 2024. These actions are strengthening our portfolio quality while creating additional flexibility to reduce debt, increase shareholder returns, and allocate capital to businesses with superior long-term growth opportunities.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

As previously announced, we are reviewing strategic alternatives for our phosphate business and are encouraged to have received numerous non-binding bids as part of the process. We also continue to review strategic options for our Trinidad nitrogen operations and each component of the Brazilian retail business. We remain on track to solidify the optimal path for these businesses in 2026. Overall, our first half results demonstrate progress on our strategic priorities and disciplined execution to enhance earnings quality and free cash flow per share. Across each of our businesses, we continue to focus on areas within our control, namely operational excellence, cost management, and capital efficiency. While the external environment remains dynamic, we believe Nutrien is well-positioned to create long-term value for our shareholders. Now, turning to the market outlook. Global agricultural markets are supported by robust grain and oilseed demand.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Risks to crop production and trade have increased due to geopolitical uncertainty and forecasts indicating El Niño conditions, which are expected to place upside pressure on crop prices. Potash margins remain constructive due to favorable affordability, healthy demand in all major global markets, and stable supply relative to other commodities. We've maintained our forecast for global potash shipments of 74 million tons-77 million tons in 2026, as projected shipment levels are expected to be consistent with consumption. Global urea prices declined in the latter half of the second quarter during a seasonal low for demand that was exacerbated this year due to evolving geopolitical developments. Global urea fundamentals have firmed in the third quarter, driven by ongoing trade flow disruptions, production outages, elevated energy prices, and increased demand. We expect these factors will continue to shape the outlook for nitrogen markets over the remainder of 2026.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

In this environment, Nutrien's North American nitrogen assets are well-positioned to benefit from secure, low-cost feedstock supply, and dependable market access. With that overview, I'll now turn it over to Mark to provide more detail on our second quarter financial performance, guidance assumptions, and capital allocation priorities.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Thanks, Ken. Nutrien delivered adjusted EBITDA of $2.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, and first half adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 billion, up 6% from the prior year. Cash provided by operating activities rose by 12% in the first half, providing opportunity to further advance our capital allocation priorities. At potash, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $658 million in the second quarter, reflecting higher global benchmarks and strong operational and supply chain execution. Our second quarter and first half potash controllable cash cost of product manufactured was flat compared to the prior year, due to cost control measures and the benefits of our automation program that Ken articulated. We continue to target our controllable cash cost below $60 per ton on a full-year basis for 2026.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

We raised the bottom end of our 2026 potash sales volumes guidance to 14.2 million tons-14.8 million tons due to the strength of first half sales and increased visibility on the second half order book. Canpotex is fully committed for third quarter sales volumes, and we had a favorable response to our domestic summer fill program. We anticipate a similar split between offshore and domestic sales volumes in the third quarter compared to the prior year. Our nitrogen operating segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $635 million in the second quarter. Net selling prices were in line with higher global benchmarks and the timing of order book sales, with approximately 35% of total segment volume sold prior to the onset of the Middle East conflict.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Nitrogen sales volumes were down from the prior year, reflecting no production from Trinidad and New Madrid, planned maintenance at Carseland, and some deferred customer purchases late in the quarter during a period of increased market volatility. Looking ahead, the majority of our Q3 nitrogen fertilizer sales volumes are now committed and aligned with summer fill values set in late June and early July. We maintained our 2026 nitrogen sales volume guidance of 9.2 million tons-9.7 million tons, with planned turnarounds scheduled at our Lima and Redwater nitrogen facilities in the third quarter, and higher ammonia operating rates expected in the fourth quarter. In phosphate, adjusted EBITDA declined in the second quarter due to elevated sulfur costs, which have placed unsustainable pressure on global phosphate producer margins.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

We maintained our 2026 phosphate sales volume guidance, supported by reliability improvements achieved in the first half, while we continue to closely monitor customer demand and sulfur input costs in the second half of the year. Our downstream retail business delivered adjusted EBITDA of $1.24 billion in the first half, up 4% compared to the prior year. Following a strong start to the application season in the first quarter, North American retail crop nutrient volumes declined in the second quarter, in particular for phosphate and nitrogen. The reduction in commodity fertilizer volumes was offset by strong proprietary products performance. We maintained our full-year retail adjusted EBITDA guidance of $1.75 billion-$1.95 billion, with the midpoint of the range underpinned by three key items. First, we continue to project high single-digit growth in our proprietary products gross margin in 2026, supported by organic growth in our core retail geographies.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Second, we expect higher crop nutrient margins per ton to offset a reduction in sales volumes compared to the prior year. We anticipate firming crop prices and an earlier start to the North American fall application season will support nitrogen and potash applications similar to historical average levels, with phosphate demand expected to remain below historical levels. Third, we anticipate recent favorable weather to improve winter planting prospects in Australia and continued strength in livestock markets through the second half. As we look toward the remainder of 2026, we expect free cash flow to be supported by constructive fertilizer market fundamentals, strong operational execution, capital discipline, as well as ongoing portfolio optimization efforts. Reflecting this focus on capital efficiency and returns, we have reduced our capital expenditures guidance by $50 million to a range of $1.95 billion-$2.05 billion.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

We increased share repurchases in the first half of 2026 by 26% compared to the prior year and have stepped up our repurchase pace in the third quarter to approximately $75 million per month. This is consistent with our capital allocation approach of increasing cash returns to shareholders and maintaining a strong balance sheet as we structurally grow free cash flow. I'll now turn it back to Ken for final comments.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thanks, Mark. The results we shared today demonstrate the progress towards strengthening the business and positioning Nutrien for long-term growth and resilience. Across Nutrien, our teams continue to identify initiatives to further improve performance, unlock value from existing platforms, efficiently serve our customers, and advance future growth. Together, these efforts are expected to structurally increase free cash flow per share and enhance long-term shareholder returns. To that end, we intend on hosting an Investor Day on November 30th in Toronto, where we will outline the next phase of opportunities to create additional value across the business. To close, I'm encouraged by the team's execution in the first half of 2026 and the momentum we continue to build across Nutrien. With that, we'd be happy to take your questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised, and should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. The first question comes from the line of Chris Parkinson from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Chris Parkinson
Chris Parkinson
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Great. Good morning. Just want to circle around the second half outlook for potash. It seems like demand has been pretty stable across Asia, Southeast Asia, some of your core markets. I'd love to hear your perspectives there versus your initial January 1st expectations, run through the Americas. In terms of your order books, do you feel pretty comfortable where you are now, heading into December, especially that Uralkali's taking some maintenance downtime and some other stuff? Would just love to hear both the puts and takes, how you're thinking about that? Thank you so much.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Great, thank you, Chris. We are certainly constructive on potash for the second half and for the year. We continue to say 74 million tons-77 million tons of shipments this year, you will have seen that we raised the bottom end of our own guidance, now at 14.2 million tons-14.8 million tons. This is largely owing to favorable affordability, of course, and, to your question, healthy demand in all major global markets. We started the year with low inventories that are being replenished. Here we are in the second half. We've had a favorable response to our summer fill program. We're now heavily committed through Q3, of course, Canpotex, fully committed to Q3 and expecting year-over-year growth in offshore markets. Yes, constructive on the setup, maybe I'll hand it over to Chris Reynolds to just talk about region by region.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

Good morning, Chris. Thanks for the question. As Ken said, we are feeling good about demand for potash for the balance of the year. As you know, still globally the most affordable nutrient out there, we're seeing that in our major markets. As you suggest, as we go around the world here, North America, we had a good response to our summer fill program, subsequent to that, a price increase we took, where we've taken some orders against that already, also a fairly slim import lineup as we look out over the next couple of months. Brazil, Q3 is always a little seasonally quiet in Brazil, despite that, prices have been holding pretty steady around that $400 mark. The uptick in ag commodity prices we've witnessed has also helped sentiment down there.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

We estimate there's still a lot of buying to be done yet in Brazil for the balance of the year, somewhere around 4 million tons, feeling good about things there. We actually just got back from a trip to China, talking to customers there, and although port inventories have grown a little bit year-over-year in China, what we heard from our customers is that in-country channels are reasonably slim. When you think about 20 million tons of consumption as the expectation there for China and port inventories around 3 million tons-3.3 million tons, certainly not overbearing in terms of supply-demand.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

The other message we got loud and clear while we were there is that the government and the buyers there are prioritizing security of supply. They also like the outcome of an early settlement for this 2026 contract. Southeast Asia demand continues to be underpinned by really good palm oil prices, but also a little bit of concern in terms of the potential El Niño impact in that region. Overall, Chris, feeling good about demand for potash for the balance of the year and a continuing stable market.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ben Isaacson from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Ben Isaacson
Ben Isaacson
Analyst at Scotiabank

Thank you very much, and good morning. Ken, my question is, can you please talk about Nutrien's roadmap to expanding potash capability towards 18 million tons from somewhere around 15 today? It seems like you're getting close to your limit of capability, and given that supply is coming to market and given where demand growth is, what is the timing? What is the CapEx? Do you still want to be in a 19%-20% market share range in four or five years from now? Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Great. Thank you, Ben, for the question. The short answer, just to start on the demand side and market share is yes, 19%-20% historically has been the sort of market share that we've had globally. That's owing to the fact that we've had customers in each of these regions for many decades, and those customers are growing in each of their regions as demand for potash continues to grow, and we grow along with them. We've become a reliable supplier of high-quality volumes around the world for those decades now, and like I said, our customers want to grow with us. When we look to our own network and to your question, we ask the question, well, how are we going to continue to meet demand and 19%-20% market share?

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

We do have our six-mine network, low cost, sits very well on the cost curve. Mark just mentioned we've been successful at keeping cash costs per ton below $60. Part of that is the mine automation work that we've been doing. That mining automation work means that the next ton that we mine is also more efficient than the last. As we continue to deploy those automation efforts, we look to where we're going to unlock that next ton. It sort of happens in a way that we move from mine to mine, depending on so the all-in lowest cost, CapEx, capital charge included, where we get that next ton from. Today that has meant Lanigan expansion, but we have options at five of those six mines to continue to expand production. Again, with mine automation, those options are growing for us.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

This year, we would say that we have about 15 million tons of production capacity. To your question, Ben, we like to think about sort of a year lead time to unlock additional volumes and maintain that 19%-20% market share. Lead times are actually relatively short, and it's really getting mining machines in place and belting to the shaft, given that our milling capacity and tails management areas are built. It may require some load-out investment in some of our mines, but again, these are relatively, and I do say relatively shorter-term investments than something like a greenfield development. In terms of cost, we say that next increment of production, 15 million tons-18 million tons, is sort of $200-$300 a ton. That would be, as you know, as we're witnessing, an order of magnitude lower than a greenfield development.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

As we go from 18 million tons and beyond, we do experience a bit of a step change in capital, again, we're talking about $700 or $800 a ton. Again, maybe 1/3 or less of what a greenfield development would be. Suffice it to say, Ben, we have these plans. We have this mapped out. We've done the math. We've talked to our customers, every year, we just continue to demonstrate that we grow our volumes.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Wong from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Andrew Wong
Andrew Wong
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask about the pace on buybacks. The Q2 dollar amount was up pretty meaningfully versus Q1. When we look at Q3 to date, the repurchases, if we kind of average it out through the quarter, that puts you on another similar pace in terms of a sequential increase. Is this your new regular buyback rate, or was there something that was driving this increase more temporarily, like because of cash flows or how you see the value in your shares? Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. We do have, I would say, a pretty disciplined capital allocation structure and framework that we stare at as we make these decisions. We talk about it quite a bit with our board, but I will hand it over to Mark to just provide the color around that framework.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Yeah. Thanks, Ken. Good morning, Andrew. Just before touching on the specific buyback pace, I think it's important to provide some context on the overall capital allocation philosophy because the buybacks are but one component of a broader set of objectives that we have to add value for shareholders. As Ken has said and I've said numerous times, you look back at our 2024 Investor Day, since that time, we've provided numerous avenues to grow structural free cash flow from the business. We've had the upstream fertilizer sales volume growth, we've demonstrated the retail earnings growth, and the continued optimization of cost structure and capital expenditure structure, all of which have grown that structural base.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

As you heard Ken say this morning, we've now generated, since the fourth quarter of 2024, about $1 billion in divestiture proceeds, which has put our balance sheet in a great spot. As we've mentioned numerous times, the return of capital philosophy is anchored in the idea that at mid-cycle prices, we want to be around 1.5x net debt to EBITDA. We're getting quite close to those levels today, and we're very comfortable with the balance sheet and feel like we're in a great spot on that front. When it comes to being disciplined on capital allocation, we now have a very streamlined and targeted set of growth investments in the business where our core strengths exist, and really believe that we can demonstrate strong returns for shareholders by reinvesting in the company in those areas.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

That also has allowed us to grow that stable cash base. As demonstrated, and as you've noted, this has allowed us to increase the pace of ratable share repurchase activity. That ratable share repurchase activity is also linked to the ability to grow dividends per share over time without growing dividend expense. When you zoom in on that framework and you look at this year specifically, we've gone from starting the year at a pace of around $50 million per month to around $55 million per month, and now in the third quarter, $75 million per month. What I'd say is with the second quarter behind us and the strong execution that we've outlined this morning and demonstrated in our results, there's confidence in cash generation for the year.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

I think as we zoom out even further and think about that buyback over time, there's certainly going to be this structural component to the buyback that as we grow free cash flow, the opportunity to increase that ratable buyback grows over time. Inevitably with our business, there's also a cyclical component to that buyback as we move through cycles where we'll be looking at the balance sheet and looking at where we are in the cycle. For the remainder of the year, we anticipate that we will remain in and around these levels. As we get into 2027, we'll be looking at all the factors that I just talked about and that Ken's outlined as we continue to level set that ratable buyback.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

The most important component of this is that shareholders can expect that Nutrien will continue to be a strong returner of capital, and the share repurchase mechanism is our preferred avenue to do that.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Joel Jackson from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Hi. Good morning. A little preamble to my question, I've noticed in Q2 for retail, obviously a big quarter for retail, it was the lowest domestic fertilizer volumes, like forever, since 2013. We all know that Agrium and Nutrien have been increasing in retail since then. Volumes are down a lot year-over-year. We all know what happened with commodity prices across Q2, I was wondering if you could talk about, and this also led to retail EBITDA being down in Q2. Can you talk about exactly what was happening in the domestic retail fertilizer market? Was there a buyer's holiday because of commodity prices, fertilizer prices, and what does that set up for the rest of the year in terms of inventories in the market?

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Yeah, thanks, Joel. As the sort of spring unfolded, at the start of the year, we were expecting lower fertilizer volumes in our downstream business. Albeit maybe not to the extent that you describe. What was going on there is we did see phosphate volumes down about 10% and we can use the words demand destruction and the reasons for that, we've talked about, obviously, what's going on in the sulfur market and I think the phosphate business in general as phosphate producers have struggled and shutting in facilities. Heading into the second half of the year, we expect we'll continue to see demand destruction as it relates to phosphate. Nitrogen volumes were down, you're correct, down about 7% in our downstream business owing to a few things. Obviously, year-over-year, corn acres are down and that certainly plays a role in nitrogen applications.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

We did have a larger fall application season in 2025, we did see some significant volumes go down last fall, we had a delayed start to the Western Canadian planting season, which also had an impact. Yes, we did see some demand deferral into the second half, that's what happened to urea prices that run up and then the sort of seasonal lull as we came out of the season and growers stepping back and watching prices come down and delaying purchases. Yes, that contributed as well, albeit to a lesser extent. Potash was pretty much as expected. We saw 1% growth in potash, and that's owing to probably it being the most affordable of the three crop nutrients.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Once again, heading into the second half year, the crop is advancing well, which could lead to an open application season. We continue to expect good volumes this fall on the year. Could we be down a little bit on volumes? Yes, but we expect a higher gross margin per ton on crop nutrients again in the second half that will offset those lower volumes. More broadly for our downstream business, for our retail business, if you're talking about a tale of two halves, your proprietary performed very well in the first half. Crop protection, as expected, Australia is performing well. We had some higher costs as it relates to fuel, but coming out of the second half, we've maintained our guidance at $1.75 billion-$1.95 billion, and it's really just owing to the ongoing high single-digit percentage growth in our proprietary product gross margins.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Structural growth as it relates to proprietary products. Again, I talked about crop nutrients. Crop protection is performing well.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

We saw that in Q3 as farmers seek to maintain plant health. Again, those point to the midpoint of our guidance, those assumptions, and again, maintaining that $1.75 billion-$1.95 billion.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Vincent Andrews from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Vincent Andrews
Vincent Andrews
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just sticking with retail, there was a call-out in the retail section on the cover page about the strong Australian livestock season. I see that shows up in services and other, and it certainly helped the second quarter. Could you just give us a little more detail on that? It's not an area I particularly have a lot of expertise on. Will that carry forward into the balance of the year, and how will it play out? Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Yeah, thanks, Vincent. Yes, livestock markets are very strong. Not just in Australia, but yes, certainly in our Australian business. We have got a combination of good weather in Australia and a strong livestock market. Yeah, I'll hand it over to Chris Reynolds just to provide some more color.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

Yeah, thanks, Ken. Yeah, good morning, Vincent. Thanks for the question. Yeah, we were expecting, actually, livestock prices to come off a little bit in Australia after a pretty good run up there in 2025. On the continued strength of export demand for both lamb and beef, we've seen those prices continue. Where that comes from us, is those stock agent commissions. That's the revenue stream we have in Australia in terms of obviously a percentage off the price of sheep and cattle, mainly that we are instrumental in helping our growers sell in the Australian market. We also saw the Chinese government put some import restrictions on particularly Australian material, and product, but we haven't seen that impact prices yet. We're on the watch out for that a little bit, but we've been very pleased with the performance of that business year to date.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kristen Owen from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Kristen Owen
Kristen Owen
Analyst at Oppenheimer

Thank you. Good morning. While we are here in retail, let's stick with that. I wanted to ask about your proprietary products growth. Up about 3% year-over-year here in the second quarter, but 16% gross margin growth, larger than that if we look on the first half. Two questions. First, can you help us unpack the drivers of that gross margin strength there? Second, we've heard from some others in the space, maybe a bit of timing shift from here in North America from Q2 to Q3. Any color that you can provide on any timing shifts that you may have seen and, again, the drivers of that gross profit growth. Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thanks, Kristen. Proprietary products, as you say, performing very well. We believe this continued to demonstrate structural growth in gross margin contribution from our proprietary products. We've launched 26 new products this year and again, seeing strong demand in our core geographies. The first half, that was, once again, a story of our crop nutrients in light of volatile fertilizer markets, and constructive on the second half as well. I'll hand it over to Chris to give more color on some of the drivers of that growth. As it relates to timing shifts, it really just pointing to nitrogen. Again, we saw a bit of deferral, I'll say a bit out of H1 into H2, in our downstream business. The way the fall's setting up here, we're expecting good applications of N and K in the fall.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

That would be the timing shift that I'd point to. Chris, back to you for proprietary products structural growth.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

Thanks, Ken. Kristen, thanks for the question. We've been really pleased, obviously, with the performance of our proprietary products range so far this year. As Ken said, underpinned by the introduction of a number of new products and a terrific response from the market to those new products. Growers are obviously very focused on yield right now. Although commodity prices have moved up a little bit, which is helping sentiment. As we walk the fields with our growers, all of that conversation is around how do I increase yield? How do I preserve the yield that I have in this crop?

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

That comes back to increasing the efficacy of commodity fertilizers, particularly when a product like phosphate gets high, it's, "Okay, how can I enhance the efficacy of this phosphate product with some proprietary products?" That's what we're seeing in the marketplace. I think some of that spill from Q2 to Q3, we're seeing that particularly in fungicide demand growth. We've had wet weather through many parts of the Midwest, growers keen to protect their crop against potential fungal disease, and we're helping them do that. Lots of conversation about yield preservation and how our proprietary products can help them to do that.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Edlain Rodriguez from Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Edlain Rodriguez
Edlain Rodriguez
Analyst at Mizuho

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. In the global potash shipments outlook of $74 million-$77 million that you have, given the affordability of potash and strong demand, what gets us to the low end and what gets us to the high end of that range?

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Great, Edlain. Thank you. Yes. We've got a set of assumptions, as you might expect on both ends, and I'll hand it over to Mark just to walk through them.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Thanks, Edlain. I think your question was about both the global supply construct, but I'll also make maybe a few comments about our own range in the context of that. As Ken set up in his prepared remarks, and I think Chris has alluded to this morning already, very robust demand for potash really across the world, and that's continued to be underpinned by the availability of supply that we believe does exist at the midpoint of our global shipment guidance range. Affordability and stability of prices. Then again, that fact that inventories have not been building disproportionately in any part of the world. It's all the factors that lead to the construct that if these are the factors we see going forward, the potash demand is healthy, and it can continue to grow over time.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

If we look to the upper end of that range, truth be told, we already believe that we're testing global supply chain capability. At the very top end of that range, we would need to see the effective capacity be available to serve all markets across the world for the remainder of the year. That would be the primary constraint as we get into the top end of the range. At the bottom end of the range, I think we're looking at some of the factors we've talked about today in terms of how the onset of potential risks related to El Niño and Southeast Asia, looking at how inventories evolve for the rest of the year in global markets. Of course, supportive weather, allowing potash to reach global markets and go to ground.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

If we look to our own range, again, our potash production has continued to be very stable and consistent as we've alluded to this morning. At the high end of that range, we would really expect that for us to be there, consistent with our targeted market share, that global markets would have to be trending to the top end of that range for us to be reaching the top end of our range. At the lower end, it's the typical factors that you would look at in terms of any disruptions to supply chain, the availability of good weather in North America for the fall application season, and all of those typical factors. As of today, we feel quite comfortable with the midpoint of our guidance, and that's been evidenced by the bump in the lower end of the range.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Jeff Zekauskas
Jeff Zekauskas
Analyst at JPMorgan

Thanks very much. I think in your retail segment or the quarter and for the first half, your SG&A costs are up about 6%. I realize that last year they were down. What's causing that and that level of inflation? Secondly, your seed gross profits were down about $20 million in the quarter. Was that a particular line of seeds or type of seeds that caused that shortfall or can you explain what's going on there as well?

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thanks for the question, Jeff. A number of moving parts there on the SG&A front. I'll hand it over to Mark. Yes, it was also on seed, just a particular crop, but I'll hand it over to Mark to just talk through what we're seeing on cost in a little more detail.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Thanks, Ken. Good morning, Jeff. Obviously, as always, there's a number of moving parts. I'd say when we step back and we think about the structural changes that we've made to the cost profile on our retail business, but also more broadly across Nutrien, that we believe that we're maintaining those structural cost savings that we've delivered.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

The single biggest factor that's driving the higher retail expense in the first half is something that we talked about post the war on our May call in terms of our guidance assumptions, which was higher expenses coming primarily from retail fuel and fleet costs, the fuel being the biggest of those factors. With the significant increase we've seen in global energy prices and the significant fleet that we have and the importance of fuel to execution of the business, we put a number of safeguards in place, but of course, we're not immune to those costs. As we speak and we look to the second half of the year, we continue to look at the factors that we can control in terms of cost discipline in the retail business. That's the largest of those factors that I would point to.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Maybe I'll just hand it over to Chris to talk about the seed portion of your question.

Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
EVP of Global Sales at Nutrien

Thanks, Mark. Good morning, Jeff. I think what you're referring to would be mainly the impact of lower rice acres and so fairly significant decrease there that we weren't expecting, but I think that was the main reason for the decrease in seed sales.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew DeYoe from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Matthew DeYoe
Matthew DeYoe
Analyst at Bank of America

Morning. Not to beat up more on retail, but Nutrien margins saw a nice tick up sequentially, but still running down year-over-year. Just kind of wondering if that's mix. I would have just assumed a better margin pull-through given what we saw on the price increases in the market in 2Q. On CP, similarly, or I guess pretty strong performance. I'm just wondering where volumetrically that comes in because I would have assumed given just farmer profits, we might have seen weaker overall sales. I'm assuming that growth is not priced.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thanks, Matt. With respect to the first part of the question, just on margins, I'll hand it over to Mark. I'll just say on CP, again, the first half played out pretty much exactly as we expected. As Chris mentioned earlier, for the second half, farmers are getting out and protecting their crop. We've seen strong crop protection movement of volumes in the third quarter and part of the story about maintaining guidance for the year is crop protection playing out as expected. Mark, do you want to talk about margins?

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Sure. Thanks, Matt, and good morning. Not a lot to add to the portions of the comments we've had this morning on guidance.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

I think when you look at the downstream crop nutrient segment as a whole, and you take the comprehensive look at that, I mean, one, as we indicated in our May commentary, we expected that fertilizer sales volumes would be down. Obviously, with the quarter now being behind us, and as Ken described, we saw that being a little bit more significant than we expected, particularly on phosphate and nitrogen. As we also said on the May call, we expected crop nutrient margins to be stronger. That dynamic is something that we continue to expect to occur into the remainder of the year, that we expected year-over-year we're going to have crop nutrient margins be stronger than what we saw last year, and that will partially offset some of the weakness we saw in volumes in the first half.

Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
CFO at Nutrien

Then, of course, in the second half, as we've laid out today, expecting phosphate to be down, but nitrogen and potash crop nutrient sales volumes closer to historical average levels.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ariana Milin from CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Ariana Milin
Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets

Hi, good morning. On nitrogen, do you still see some level of cautiousness among buyers just given continued volatility in the market and related to both the Middle East conflict and Russia and Ukraine? Was lower prices all that was needed to sort of return to normal? On that note, do you expect us to see, to some degree, a geopolitical risk premium in the nitrogen market over the medium term?

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thank you for the question, Ariana. With respect to the first part of the question, the answer is no. Much of what we've been discussing and crop is progressing well. There were some nitrogen deferrals out of the first half, going to have to be made up for in the second half. Notably, we ran our summer fill programs and had very strong response on nitrogen, and that certainly gives us confidence. We're 85% committed into the third quarter here, and again with an open fall application season. With nitrogen urea prices having come off, we're constructive on N and K for the fall, as Mark just explained as well. With respect to the ongoing risk premium geopolitical, it's a difficult one to answer.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

I mean, we talk about what's obviously going on in the Middle East with respect to disruption of trade flows and volumes that continue to be sequestered upstream of the Strait of Hormuz. That 1.5 million tons a month, that's not coming into the market as long as the Strait is closed. Really no conclusion, obviously. No conclusion there in terms of volumes being able to flow freely. Let's see how that plays out into the fall. Beyond that, we look to potentially longer term disruptions as we consider damage to infrastructure, fertilizer production facilities, certainly to natural gas facilities in the region and that export LNG to other places that produce nitrogen. There's a lot going on there, and it plays out today probably.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

You're seeing $20 natural gas in Europe, thankfully our assets continue to sit in geographies that are structurally advantaged as it relates to feedstock. It's that combination of things, constructive on the fall and where our assets sit that make us constructive overall on nitrogen.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Benjamin Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Rahi Parikh
Rahi Parikh
Analyst at Barclays

Hi, everyone. This is Rahi on for Ben. Sorry to bring it up again, for potash, I mean, you mentioned the strong demand globally, but I guess just more color on what gives you confidence that farmers will not cut potash spend in order to save up for nitrogen. Maybe if you can point to other periods in the past at a similar scenario, like higher nitrogen pricing, lower potash, relatively low grain pricing, maybe higher inputs. I know there's been some debate on the industry and whether there will be growth or decline in global potash shipments this year, just looking for kind of your perspective on that. Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Thank you, Rahi. What we're seeing in the farmer with our grower customers and with really our wholesale regions around the world is that with demand disruption in phosphate, for example, you look at the share of wallet that farmers deploy toward fertilizer purchases, and with the affordability, relative affordability of potash, we're actually seeing strong potash demand as farmers adjust the mix of what they're putting on the ground. We are seeing potash go to ground. What I can tell you is just the signpost, what we're seeing in the market, that goes to our successful summer fill program in North America, again, heavily committed here into Q3 and talking about this open application season in the fall, and maintenance of that global shipments range of 74 million tons-77 million tons, and certainly domestic being a part of that.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Again, potash volumes were up a little bit in the first half. Talking about commitment levels at CapEx is fully committed through Q3 and expecting overall volumes to be up this year compared to last. Again, that's just on the back of strong demand in just about every region that we supply, and Chris walked through that earlier. You put it all together and we say 74 million tons-77 million tons. Mark walked through our assumptions on each end of that range, the role that we're playing in that 19%-20% market share and the confidence that we have increasing the bottom end of our guidance range from last quarter.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Lucas Beaumont from UBS. Please go ahead.

Lucas Beaumont
Lucas Beaumont
Analyst at UBS

Thanks. Good morning. I just wanted to ask one on phosphate. You haven't had to reduce your segment volume outlook here at all, since you guys haven't had to curtail production from the cost pressures that are coming on the input cost side. I just wanted to understand, how are you managing that compared with the others in the industry? Just in terms of the strategic alternatives there, given the sort of current market disruption we're seeing this year, do you think you'd be able to get the value you want for that asset this year if you're looking at a sale, or would it be better to maybe come back to that in 12-24 months once things settle out there? Thanks.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Great. Thank you for the question, Lucas. With respect to our current operations in our phosphate business, we've spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort over the recent years to diversify our product mix, developing premium products and also focusing on cost reduction. Those efforts have been successful. Today, the operations are running well, they're running safely. It's true that we continue to watch sulfur prices and contribution margins. Today, contribution margins are in the black, and we can, like I say, continue to run those operations. That could change given the volatility in the sulfur market. Today, given the product mix, low cost or focus on cost, and of course, the quality of the Aurora asset, we continue to run our operations. With respect to the process, it's a good question, with respect to what the volatility and certainty in the market.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

As we entered the process, being of course, conscious of what's going on in the market, we assumed that any prospective strategic buyer would look through the current volatility, knowing that the phosphate market today is completely unsustainable. Something has to change and will change. That any strategic buyer would look through the current market and understand the quality asset that Aurora is, and assessing White Springs and our feed plants. That's exactly what's happened, Lucas, as we've invited interest in those assets. We're encouraged by what we see. We've had a number of responses. We're in the process now of shortlisting, and I can tell you we've had companies interested all of the assets, some of the assets, everything in between. We're going to be working through that over the coming months.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

As we've shared, have some conclusions we expect on our strategic review by the end of this year. It's a good question, but we are encouraged by what we're seeing.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Hansen from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Steven Hansen
Steven Hansen
Analyst at Raymond James

Yes, good morning, guys. Thanks for the time. I just wanted to circle back on some of the earlier comments on long range potash outlook planning. I'm just curious if you're looking at your existing logistical network, how you feel about that in a couple of contexts. I guess we've got the major projects planning here in Canada and some nation building efforts pushing for additional infrastructure spending on the West Coast. You've also got your plans to perhaps move into the Pacific Northwest as well for a terminal. Just thinking about, or I'd just like to get some commentary on how you feel about the current status of the network and ultimately how you view that network is set up to handle some of this longer-term planning that you're thinking about. Thanks.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Yeah. Thank you, Steve, and we're very thoughtful about that. If you look at global demand and what's happening, 2.5% average annual growth rates per year, and there's significant runway there given that the world habitually underutilizes potash. What we can do globally with respect to yield, plant health, disease resistance, drought resistance with more potash, like I say, there's a long runway. We plan for long-term growth. We have the customers and end markets to achieve that. Of course, we have the volumes underground here in Saskatchewan to provide to them. As you say, it's everything in between that we need to be thoughtful about, and we are.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

With respect to the end markets, whether it's North America, we say that set of infrastructure is built out more than probably anyone has done in our business right through to our wholesale customers in North America and onto farms. It is true, we continue to scrutinize cost and efficiency among that network, and we do see opportunity to get better there. We expect the majority of our potash volume to growth to take place offshore, overseas. To your question, Steve, how are we thinking about preparing for that today? Via CapEx, we have sufficient port capacity to meet near and medium-term volume growth. We have the rail contracts in place to get to those terminals. Of course, our load-out facilities, as I mentioned earlier, are sized to meet growth.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Over time, when we talk about an incremental step change in capital beyond 18 million tons, part of that is the load-out facility store we'll have to build some more load-out. We'll be planful and thoughtful about that with lead times that accommodate the volumes to flow. With respect to terminal infrastructure for the long term, yes. One, we like to have some options. We don't like all volumes going through one location, so we like to diversify that. Two, we know that we need more terminal capacity over the long term. Yes, that led to our announcement late exploring Longview as an option for us to construct a terminal for that long-term growth. Put that whole picture together, we don't see impediments to our continued growth in potash production as we serve our customers globally.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Symonds from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

David Symonds
David Symonds
Analyst at BNP Paribas

Hi, guys. Thanks for the chance to ask a question. A couple from me, please. The first one's a bit of a conceptual one. How are you thinking about increasing biofuel mandates around the world in relation to the amount of fertilizer that we'll need in the next five years? I saw a UN piece on food security this yesterday, where it strikes me that with a lot of tension around the oil market, there seemed to be a big increase in biofuel mandate. Secondly, your retail business has a lot of agronomists across the U.S. There's a lot of debate about weather conditions in the Corn Belt, and particularly around having had a quite a dry July. Do you have any view on the yields for U.S. corn this year? Thank you.

Ken Seitz
Ken Seitz
President and CEO at Nutrien

Yes, David. Thank you. It's a couple great questions. I will hand it over to Jason Newton now, our Chief Economist, who studies both of your questions quite closely. Jason.

Jason Newton
Jason Newton
Chief Economist at Nutrien

Thanks, Ken. Good morning, David. There's a number of different biofuel mandates that are expanding globally that have been providing support to grain demand and prices already. If we look at Southeast Asia, we've mentioned already the strength in palm oil prices, part of that's driven by strong veg oil demand, expanding biofuel mandate in Indonesia, which is moving to a B50 mandate there that's expanding domestic demand. That's been supportive of palm oil prices and grower economics in that region. In North America, we also see support for biofuels and potential expansion into year-round E15, expansion of renewable diesel production in the U.S. We've seen recent expansion announcements for crushing capacity for soybeans, that's really supportive of demand. We've seen strong demand for grains and oil seeds tighten those supply-demand balances versus what was expected earlier this year.

Jason Newton
Jason Newton
Chief Economist at Nutrien

As we look over the medium term, with that increased certainty, we expect increased domestic demand in the U.S. to be supportive of grower economics and acreage. To your second question on weather in the U.S., we've seen across numerous geographies globally, challenges with weather conditions. We've seen really hot and dry weather in Europe and dry weather, especially in the Western Corn Belt of the U.S. and consecutive weeks of reduced condition ratings in the U.S. providing potential downside on yields. We'll watch how that develops going forward. Of course, we know that nutrient application rates were down as well, that could provide additional uncertainty with respect to yields, given the importance of adequate nutrition in terms of drought resistance and so on.

Jason Newton
Jason Newton
Chief Economist at Nutrien

As we look toward the fall, the tightening supply-demand balance is from that strong demand and reduced crop yield potential is supporting a more optimistic view of ag economics and supply and demand fundamentals.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Jeff Holzman. Please go ahead.

Jeff Holzman
Jeff Holzman
Senior VP of Investor Relations and FP&A at Nutrien

Thank you for joining us today. The investor relations team is available if you have follow-up questions. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Jeff Holzman
      Jeff Holzman
      Senior VP of Investor Relations and FP&A
    • Ken Seitz
      Ken Seitz
      President and CEO
    • Mark Thompson
      Mark Thompson
      CFO
    • Chris Reynolds
      Chris Reynolds
      EVP of Global Sales
    • Jason Newton
      Jason Newton
      Chief Economist
Analysts
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