Major phosphate producer Mosaic expects to resume Florida operations soon after sustaining minimal damage from Hurricane Milton.
Power has been restored to all Mosaic facilities and all ports have been reopened, Mosaic said today. Limited damage was found at the facilities and storage warehouses. Operations are expected to return to full production capacity in the coming days after a full clean up is finished.
Early last week, Mosaic halted all Florida operations before Milton arrived. Mosaic's Riverview facility near Tampa Bay had already stopped production because of flooding from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on 26 September. The plant was expected to come back online 10 days after Helene, but Milton swept through Florida before that point.
The back-to-back storms cause phosphate barge prices at the US Gulf to surge last week. DAP prices at Nola jumped $24/st from the prior week to $565-582.50/st fob, the highest since late March. MAP barge prices rose by $20/t to $625-650/st fob Nola, a two-month high.
Riverview has the capacity to produce 1.8mn metric tonnes (t)/yr of phosphate product, while Bartow and New Wales produced a combined 5.6mn t in 2023.
