CF Industries Holdings, Inc. manufactures and sells green and low-carbon hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement and other industrial activities.
The company's nitrogen manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom; an extensive storage, transportation and distribution network in North America; and logistics capabilities enabling a global reach to underpin the company's strategy to leverage its unique capabilities to accelerate t...
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. manufactures and sells green and low-carbon hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement and other industrial activities.
The company's nitrogen manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom; an extensive storage, transportation and distribution network in North America; and logistics capabilities enabling a global reach to underpin the company's strategy to leverage its unique capabilities to accelerate the world's transition to clean energy. The company's principal customers are cooperatives, independent fertilizer distributors, traders, wholesalers and industrial users. The company's core product is anhydrous ammonia (ammonia), which contains 82% nitrogen and 18% hydrogen. The company's nitrogen products that are upgraded from ammonia are granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution (UAN) and ammonium nitrate (AN). The company's other nitrogen products include diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), urea liquor, nitric acid and aqua ammonia, which are sold primarily to the company's industrial customers.
The company has a strategic venture with CHS under which CHS owns an equity interest in CFN, a subsidiary of CF Holdings, which represents approximately 11% of the membership interests of CFN. The company owns the remaining membership interests. CHS also receives deliveries pursuant to a supply agreement under which CHS has the right to purchase annually from CFN up to approximately 1.1 million tons of granular urea and 580,000 tons of UAN at market prices. As a result of its minority equity interest in CFN, CHS is entitled to semi-annual cash distributions from CFN. The company is also entitled to semi-annual cash distributions from CFN. See Note 19-Noncontrolling Interest for additional information on the company's strategic venture with CHS.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the company sold 18.9 million product tons.
Strategy
The company's strategy is to leverage its unique capabilities to accelerate the world's transition to clean energy. This strategy builds upon the company's leadership in ammonia production to capture emerging opportunities available to ammonia produced with a lower carbon intensity than that of ammonia produced through traditional processes. These opportunities include traditional applications in agriculture to help reduce the carbon footprint of food production and the life cycle carbon intensity of ethanol production, enabling its use for sustainable aviation fuel, among other purposes. They also include new applications, such as power generation and marine shipping, that would use the hydrogen component of the ammonia molecule for clean energy given that ammonia does not contain or emit carbon when combusted.
The company executes its strategy across four dimensions: decarbonizing its existing network to accelerate the availability of low-carbon ammonia; evaluating new low-carbon ammonia capacity growth; forging partnerships to accelerate its timeline and bridge gaps in areas where the company does not have expertise; and collaborating to build understanding of ammonia's clean energy capability, safety track record and regulatory environment.
Products
The company's products are ammonia, granular urea, UAN and AN.
Nitrogen Product Distribution
The company's nitrogen production facilities have access to multiple transportation modes by which it ships products to terminals, warehouses and customers. Each of the company's production facilities has a unique distribution pattern based on its production capacity and location.
The company's North American nitrogen production facilities can ship products via truck and rail to customers and to its storage facilities in the U.S. and Canada, with access to its leased railcar fleet of approximately 4,900 tank and hopper cars, as well as railcars provided by rail carriers. The company's United Kingdom nitrogen production facility mainly ships products via truck.
The North American waterway system is also used extensively to ship products from the company's Donaldsonville, Verdigris and Yazoo City facilities. To ship ammonia and UAN, the company employs a fleet of up to eleven tow boats and thirty-six river barges, which are primarily leased. The company also utilizes contract marine services to move granular urea and AN. The company can also export nitrogen products via seagoing vessels from its Donaldsonville and Billingham manufacturing facilities.
The Donaldsonville and Waggaman facilities are connected to the 2,000-mile long Nustar pipeline through which the company has the ability to transport ammonia to ten terminals and shipping points in the Midwestern U.S. corn belt.
Customers
The principal customers for the company's nitrogen products are cooperatives, independent fertilizer distributors, traders, wholesalers and industrial users. Sales are generated by the company's internal marketing and sales force. CHS Inc. (CHS) was the company's largest customer in 2024 and accounted for approximately 12% of the company's consolidated net sales. The company has a strategic venture with CHS under which CHS has a minority equity interest in CFN.
Competition
The company's primary competitors with North American operations include Nutrien Ltd., Koch Fertilizer LLC, LSB Industries, CVR Partners, LP and Yara International.
The company's primary United Kingdom competition comes from imported products supplied by companies, including Yara International, Origin Fertilisers, Ameropa, and Thomas Bell & Sons Ltd.
Seasonality
The strongest demand for the company's products in North America occurs during the spring planting season, with a second period of strong demand following the fall harvest. In contrast, the company and other fertilizer producers generally manufacture and distribute products throughout the year (year ended December 2024). As a result, the company and/or its customers generally build inventories during the low demand periods of the year to ensure timely product availability during the peak sales seasons. Seasonality is greatest for ammonia due to the short application season and the limited ability of the company's customers and their customers to store significant quantities of this product. The seasonality of fertilizer demand generally results in the company's sales volumes and net sales being the highest during the spring and the company's working capital requirements being the highest just prior to the start of the spring planting season.
Environmental, Health and Safety
The company is subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU) and Trinidad, including laws and regulations relating to the generation and handling of hazardous substances and wastes; the introduction of new chemicals or substances into a market; the cleanup of hazardous substance releases; the discharge of regulated substances to air or water; and the demolition of existing plant sites upon permanent closure. In the United States, these laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and various other federal, state and local statutes.
The company's U.K. manufacturing plant is required to report GHG emissions annually to the United Kingdom Environment Agency pursuant to its site Environmental Permits and Climate Change Agreement, which specifies energy efficiency targets. The company's U.K. manufacturing plant is subject to the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS), which generally requires the company to hold or obtain emission allowances to offset GHG emissions from those aspects of its operations that are subject to regulation under this program.
In Canada, the company is required to conduct an annual review of its operations with respect to compliance with Environment Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, Ontario's Mandatory Monitoring and Reporting Regulation, and the GHG Reporting Regulation.
History
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1946. The company was incorporated in 2005.