K+S generated revenues of just under €826 million in the second quarter of the current year, following a record figure of €1.5 billion in the prior-year quarter. EBITDA operating earnings reached €24 million (Q2/2022: €706 million).

This was mainly attributable to declining prices in the Agriculture customer segment and lower sales volumes. Subsequent price adjustments not relating to the accounting period, which were necessary following the closing of the China contract, burdened the key figures in this customer segment. Inflation-related additions to provisions for mining obligations amounting to around €18 million also had a negative impact on EBITDA.

“The price development, particularly in Brazil, was weaker than originally expected,” says Dr. Burkhard Lohr, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of K+S Aktiengesellschaft. “In the meantime, however, we have seen the long-awaited bottoming out there. We assume that the positive signals for the course of the second half of 2023 will prevail.”

In the Agriculture customer segment, revenues decreased to €557 million in the second quarter (Q2/2022: €1,244.2 million), mainly due to price factors. Following record results in the previous financial year, revenues in the first half of 2023 reached €1.4 billion (H1/2022: €2.2 billion). Sales volumes amounted to 1.67 million tonnes in the second quarter, compared with 1.87 million tonnes in the prior-year period. The main reason for this decline was the continued wait-and-see attitude on the part of the customers in some sales regions.

In the Industry+ customer segment, revenues rose slightly to €269 million in the second quarter despite weaker demand overall (Q2/2022: € 266 million). Tangibly lower sales volumes for industrial applications and significantly lower prices for chemical products containing potash were offset by significant price increases, especially for salt products. In the first half of the year, revenues rose tangibly to €599 million (H1/2022: €534 million), mainly as a result of the price increase for products for industrial applications. Overall, sales volumes in the second quarter reached 1.39 million tonnes, compared with 1.46 million tonnes in the prior-year quarter.

Outlook for 2023

For the year as a whole, it will not be possible to compensate for the EBITDA shortfall of the second quarter, at the end of which prices bottomed out in key overseas markets. Moreover, a volume-related optimization of the product portfolio is having an impact on production volumes. Furthermore, as a result of the port strike in Canada, negative effects from the still ongoing normalization of supply chains cannot be ruled out. If the positive demand impetus and price trends currently observed continue in the further course of the year, EBITDA would reach the upper end of the range at around €800 million. If, however, there is a renewed reluctance to buy in key sales regions, this could lead to negative volume and price effects. In this case, EBITDA could be at the lower end of the range at about €600 million (previous forecast of May 9, 2023, which was classified as unlikely to be achieved in an ad hoc announcement of June 14, 2023: €1.15 billion to €1.35 billion; record year 2022: €2.4 billion).