Seems like like there is going to be a push for more potash in agriculture. Potash is potassium. This potassium could be very helpful when it comes to agriculture. Crops need potassium very much in its fertilizer. Fertilizer uses potash as its source of potassium. . Because there is no futures market for potash, other minerals have outperformed it in a recent commodities market boom. There is intended to be a change with potash within the lead. An Australian minerals business has decided that is why they will take over, in a hostile manner, a Canadian potash business.
BHP not the best topic for shareholders who want more potash
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, known as Potash, has control over a big chunk of the world’s potash market. BHP Billiton, a big minerals extraction company out of Australia, desperately wants to purchase the Canadian fertilizer giant. According to the New York Times, $ 130 a share was what BHP was willing to pay for the business. The Potash board rejected the offer as too low. In response, BHP launched a hostile takeover of Potash by beginning a tender offer for the exact same price, which means BHP is dangling the cash directly in front of shareholders. Potash is trying to get a better offer from an additional while getting shareholders to stop selling to BHP.
World would go hungry without potash
12 countries actually make potash. More than 75 percent of global supply comes from Canada, Russia, Belarus and Germany. Reuters reports that potash is the generic term for different compounds containing potassium, a critical ingredient in fertilizers. Crops to better with quality and quantity with potash that also makes disease less likely. It is very important get potassium in fertilizer. Potash is the only source for that. Potash prices are up and down for a when. Ten years ago it sold for less than $ 150 a ton. In the global food crisis of 2007-08, it went up to $ 1,000 a ton. Now you are able to get it for about $ 350-$ 375 a ton.
The planet covets Saskatchewan potash
Until BHP has made all these moves, Potash hasn’t really been anything anybody cared about. The growth of demand for potash in the last five years has gone up quite a bit. It that continues, by 2011 the potash supply could never be enough for the world, reports Entrepreneur. China, Latin America and India are all examples of places where meat consumption has gone up which is why this forecast was made. One more reason for this is the biofuels like ethanol that are exploding. 25 percent of energy in the world could run off of biofuels in 20 years says the UN. Wheat and corn prices have gone up through this already. Now it seems that potash demand has to go up as well. Yet the industry’s ability to increase supply is limited. More than 85 percent of the world’s potash mines are more than 25 years old. Saskatchewan potash can’t produce much more.
Find more details on this subject
New York Times
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/bhp-begins-tender-offer-for-potash/?src=busln
Reuters
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67J2SQ20100820
Entrepreneur
entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/166229304.html
