Seeds of Recovery at CHS Inc. Amid Trading Slump

08 Jul 2016 --- Farmer-owned cooperative CHS Inc has reported a 34 percent slump in income to $425.8 million in the nine months of its financial year though its latest trading reveals seeds of recovery. Profits over the nine months were hit by continued downward economic trends across the agricultural and energy sectors.

Revenues were down 17 percent to $22.2 billion, hurt by lower selling prices for energy, grain and fertilizer products.

Despite the nine month fall in profits and revenues, CHS's income for the third quarter was seven percent up on the year to $190.3m.

Its performance in the third quarter was helped by increased earnings across its energy sectors as well as its new CHS Nitrogen Production segment.

Across its agriculture segment, which includes crop nutrients, renewable fuels and animal nutrition, sales were down.

Earnings for the company's wholesale crop nutrients business also declined compared with the same period of 2015 due to lower margins.

CHS renewable fuels marketing and production earnings decreased in the nine months compared with the same period of fiscal 2015, largely due to lower market prices for ethanol.

CHS processing and food ingredients earnings decreased primarily due to a charge associated with disposal of the assets and a customer receivable.