Ken Seitz
Analyst · Scotiabank. Please proceed with your question
Yes, you bet, Ben. Thanks for the question. So I definitely wouldn’t say that this is a sign of demand destruction. Again, if we go region to region, grower sentiments are strong and margins are strong. The commitments out through the first quarter offshore are really related to just demand in the key regions where we operate and actually low inventory levels in just about every region where we sell as well. And so we sort of go to market to market, a big market for granular – sorry, standard-grade product in the first quarter this year has been Southeast Asia, where we’re seeing really incredibly strong palm oil prices, record palm oil prices and so demand very strong and certainly Canpotex has meaningful commitment, so standard-great product in the Southeast Asia. Then turning to the U.S., so again, we had very strong fall application season. So growers in the U.S. are looking into the spring here now and looking to shore up supply. And then Brazil, again, record demand in 2021, where we’re anticipating very strong demand in 2020 to again – and while inventories have grown a little bit in Brazil, it’s – the inventory growth is small compared to the overall growth in the market. And so the Brazilian grower also looking to shore up supply, so no, at this stage, we are not seeing demand disruption. In fact, grower margins are strong. Your question about our 5 million tons, and I’d just say, Ben, we just want to take a very pragmatic approach to this. When we increase production, we have to go open up ground, which is expensive. We have to install infrastructure. We have to maintain that ground if demand comes off. We still have to maintain that ground. We have to hire people. We have to put mining machines at faces. And so absolutely in a planned and thoughtful way can ramp up from 14 – 13.7 million to 14.3 million tons. So we can ramp that up on faced basis but we’re going to do it in a very pragmatic way because if the supply side issues go away quickly, then we don’t want to be left with all these costs. So we can bring on production in a planful way, and that’s the way we’re going to do it.