Late spring season boosts Agrium earnings above breakeven in Q1

Agrium Inc.recently announced that the late spring season this year is expected to result in first quarter earnings per share just above breakeven. The slow start to the spring season is expected to impact the timing of Wholesale, and to a lesser extent Retail, earnings. First quarter Wholesale results were also impacted by reduced rail availability and the usual lag in realized wholesale nutrient prices.

Additionally, the Carseland nitrogen facility experienced a failure in the auxiliary boiler on March 22, 2014. There will be an unplanned shutdown to fix the boiler which is expected to be complete in the second half of May 2014. The shutdown is anticipated to lower product availability of urea by approximately 100,000 tonnes and ammonia by approximately 20,000 tonnes in the second quarter of 2014.

Agrium will provide guidance for the second quarter with our first quarter results, to be issued on May 6, 2014. Agricultural fundamentals continue to improve and we anticipate a strong spring season which will benefit both Retail and Wholesale results in the second quarter.