Agrium Expects Q1 EPS Just Above Breakeven - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Agrium Inc. (AGU.TO, AGU) announced it expects the late spring season in the current year will result in first-quarter earnings per share to be 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, the company said.

Agrium said its 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.