OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2013--
Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) has published its fourth-quarter 2012
highway deicing sales volume and regional weather data on its website at www.compassminerals.com/marketdata.
Compass Minerals’ highway deicing sales volume, which includes all
highway maintenance products sold in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., as
well as rock salt sold to the chemical industry, totaled approximately
2.3 million tons in the three months ended December 2012 compared with
sales of 2.7 million tons in the 2011 quarter. The year-over-year
decline was the result of high customer carry-over inventories following
last season’s mild winter and continued mild weather early this season.
Eleven representative cities in the company’s primary North American
highway deicing service area reported a total of 36 snow events during
the period compared with 16 events in the same cities in the fourth
quarter of 2011. However, the number of snow events in the 2012 quarter
was 22 percent below the ten-year average of 46 events.
“The milder-than-average start to this winter further reduced demand for
all of our deicing products, pushing both our highway deicing and our
consumer and industrial sales volumes approximately 15 percent lower
than last year. These lower sales volumes contributed to elevated
per-unit salt costs similar to the 2011 quarter,” said Rodney Underdown,
Compass Minerals chief financial officer. “Winter weather did return to
our markets very late in December, and we’re hopeful that we will begin
to see more typical weather.”
The number of snow events reported may not directly correlate to Compass
Minerals’ deicing results due to a variety of factors, including the
relative significance to the company of the cities represented and
differences in the amount of salt purchased by customers to establish
their pre-season stockpiles. The weather data should be used only as an
indicator of the year-to-year variations in winter weather conditions in
these cities. Compass Minerals draws its weather data from the U.S.
National Weather Service and Environment Canada without weighting or
other adjustments.
About Compass Minerals
Based in the Kansas City metropolitan area, Compass Minerals is a
leading producer of minerals, including salt, sulfate of potash
specialty fertilizer and magnesium chloride. The company provides
highway deicing salt to customers in North America and the United
Kingdom and specialty fertilizer to growers worldwide. Compass Minerals
also produces consumer deicing and water conditioning products,
ingredients used in consumer and commercial foods, and other
mineral-based products for consumer, agricultural and industrial
applications. Compass Minerals also provides records management services
to businesses throughout the U.K. For more information, visit www.compassminerals.com
Source: Compass Minerals
Compass Minerals
Theresa Womble, 913-344-9362
Manager of
Investor Relations