Potash Price Fixing...

[TOM4CWB]

"OAO Uralkali, a Russian potash producer named in a price-fixing, agreed to pay $12.75 million to settle out of court.
The suit alleges that major producers colluded to keep potash prices artificially high between 2003 and 2008.
The company did not admit wrongdoing. The lawsuit by two small U.S. crop supply retailers, originally dismissed, was revived in June by an appeal court. The action continues against Potash Corp., Agrium Inc. and Mosaic Co. Acceptance by the plaintiffs of a small payment by Uralkali suggests the remaining complaints could be bought off for around $100 million.
The original action sought damages of up to $6.5 billion and threatened to overhang potash company results for
years."

From Agriweek.com; Thanks Morris Dorosh!President & Publisher (mwdorosh@allstream.net)

[wilagro]

Price fixing is common practice for MOST business don't you know?

Proving it is the hard part.

Your business "friends" are SNEAKY Tom...get over it.

[bucket]

Canpotex is the fixer in canada. If BHP builds jansen the jig might be up.

Although canadian farmers have already told the potash guys to **** off, no one that I know buys it anymore at these outrageous levels.

It costs about 150 bucks a tonne to get potash out of the ground and into a rail car. Pretty sweet deal for potash, agrium and mosaic.

[mustardman]

Bucket how many Nickels does the province get paid by bhp,potash corp and mosaic for that ton they sell exorbitant prices?

2012 Commodity prices and 1970's royalty rates- WELCOME to Saskatchewan
We're not interested in Growth to make money, We're just interested in Growth LOL

[jensend]

bucket don't you think bhp thinks they can take advantage of the canpotex strategy without being part of canpotex? if canpotex holds prices up it's a benefit to bhp. they didn't come here to make less. bhp needs canpotex to keep prices high because they will be a relatively high cost producer with the new mine.

[bucket]

They can outproduce at a lower cost per tonne and get market share. And make a reasonable return with out gouging as the other three are doing.

[Hopperbin]

Well if you got 12 billion to spend on a potash mine maybe you don't really care what the price is going to be. Or maybe you do LOL. 5 years from now the demand will be there. Need more potash mines. Need an N facility also.