Belaruskali's Earned Five Times Less

The economic downfall is primarily caused by decline in prices for potassium fertilizers.

After 2016 OAO Belaruskali recorded a decline in net profit more than in five times.

It amounted to 217.2 million rubles against $1.126 billion in 2015, belmarker.by writes.

The Belarusian producer of potassium fertilizers also acknowledged a drop in the revenue raised on sales by 21% to 2.888 billion rubles. The cost of realized products rose by 20% to 868.4 million rubles. Sales profit equaled to 440.4 million rubles.

The economic downfall first relates to drop in prices for potassium fertilizers in the world market which reached a minimum last spring. Earlier, Belaruskali used to be one of the most profitable enterprises in the country.

According to Belstat, last year exports increased by 2.8 per cent in physical terms to 5.7 million of primary nutrient, but the profit reduced by 24.3 per cent to $2.02 billion. This January the domestic export of fertilizers shows an increase in physical terms by 54.3 per cent to 480.5 thousand tons, in monetary terms by 12.7% to $158.6 million. However, an average shipping price remains lower than in early 2016. Contracts signed in May-June, at the high rise of the price drop, are still valid.

Yesterday, Director General of OAO Belaruskali Ivan Halavaty stated that production output in 2017 would remain at 10 million tons, 9 million tons would be exported.