Israel's ICL second-quarter profit dips, 22 months of war weigh
By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Israeli potash and speciality chemicals producer ICL Group ICL.TA on Wednesday reported a dip in second-quarter profit, weighed down partly by workers serving as military reserves, and said it faced minimal impact from U.S. tariffs.
ICL ICL.N said it earned an adjusted 9 cents per diluted share, versus 10 cents a year earlier. Sales rose to $1.83 billion from $1.75 billion.
Potash sales dipped to $383 million from $422 million, with ICL citing lower production at its Dead Sea facility "due to operational challenges primarily related to ongoing (Gaza) war-related issues, the annual maintenance shutdown, and a brief period of regional unrest in June."
Still, ICL reached new potash supply deals with key customers China and India during June. Potash prices have risen over the past year.
CEO Elad Aharonson said 22 months of conflict had seen hundreds of workers serving in reserve military duty.
"We are doing a great effort in order to cover them and back them up. But at the end of the day, it has some influence on maintenance, preventive maintenance," he told Reuters.
"And after more than 20 months, you start to see a bit of the impact of those many people that are in reserve duty."
ICL has also had to move shipments to Asia to the Ashdod port from the Eilat port, which has since closed, and that has added extra costs, he added.
On U.S. tariffs, potash is exempt. But ICL also has a number of U.S. production sites, as well as in Europe.
"We are well prepared for this (deglobalisation) trend, because we are very, very global by nature and we serve most of our end markets locally," Aharonson said.
Future growth will mainly be driven by speciality fertilisers and crop nutrition products, he said.
Sales of industrial products such as flame retardants, bromine and speciality minerals edged higher in the quarter, while phosphate sales rose to $637 million from $572 million.
ICL declared a quarterly dividend of 4.26 cents per share, down from 4.88 cents a year ago.
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