Oklahoma City-based LSB Industries, Inc. recently announced a net loss of $17.7 million, or 70 cents per diluted share for the second quarter of 2016, according to the company’s press release.
The company reported sales of $110 million in the second quarter, down from $125.5 million from the same quarter a year ago.
Capital spending in the second quarter was $46.4 million which included over $40 million for the company’s El Dorado plant in Arkansas. The company recently announced that the El Dorado ammonia facility has resumed production after experiencing an unplanned outage resulting from severe weather that caused a loss of power on July 14. The ammonia plant came back online on July 31 and is back to its operating capacity of 1,150 tons per day.
LSB also entered into a $364 million sales agreement with Sweden’s NIBE Industrier AB for its climate control business, which closed on July 1. With this divestiture, LSB continues to own chemical facilities in Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma while operating a separate plant in Texas for another company.
“Turning to our second quarter 2016 financial performance, results for our chemical operations declined relative to the prior year quarter due largely to lower selling prices for our agricultural products and El Dorado ammonia plant start-up costs,” said Daniel Greenwell, LSB’s President and CEO. “While the spring nitrogen fertilizer application was strong resulting in robust demand for our fertilizer products, pricing in the second quarter was relatively low compared to the last several years due to lower commodity prices for grains and anticipated capacity expansions for nitrogen fertilizer facilities throughout the U.S.”