Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 2, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Holzman - Vice President, Investor Relations

Ken Seitz - President and Chief Executive Officer

Pedro Farah - Chief Financial Officer

Mark Thompson - Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Jeff Tarsi - Executive Vice President and President, Global Retail

Trevor Williams - Executive Vice President and President, Nitrogen and Phosphate

Jason Newton - Chief Economist

Conference Call Participants

Andrew Wong - RBC Capital Markets

Ben Isaacson - Scotiabank

Jacob Bout - CIBC

Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets

Vincent Andrews - Morgan Stanley

Steve Hansen - Raymond James

Adam Samuelson - Goldman Sachs

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Michael Tupholme - TD Securities

Richard Garchitorena - Wells Fargo

Lucas Beaumont - UBS

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Nutrien’s 2023 Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Holzman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Please go ahead.

Jeff Holzman

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to Nutrien’s third quarter 2023 earnings call. As we conduct this call, various statements that we make about future expectations, plans and prospects contain forward-looking information. Certain material 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 are contained in our quarterly report to shareholders as well as our most recent annual report, MD&A and annual information form filed with Canadian and U.S. Securities Commissions.

I will now turn the call over to Ken Seitz, President and CEO and Pedro Farah, our CFO, for opening comments before we take your questions.

Ken Seitz

Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today. Nutrien delivered adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion in the third quarter and $5 billion through the first 9 months of the year, down from the record comparable periods in 2022. We saw a number of positive market developments in the third quarter that are constructive for our business, including strong crop nutrient demand in North America and increased stability in global potash markets.

In retail, North American crop nutrient sales volumes were up 5% in the third quarter and 10% on a year-to-date basis as growers were incentivized to maximize crop production. North American crop nutrient margins in the quarter increased by $10 per ton compared to the prior year supported by improved margins for commodity fertilizers and growth in our proprietary crop nutritional and biostimulant products. These high value proprietary products contributed nearly $350 million in gross margin through the first 9 months of 2023.