Annual Report 2008 English [PDF, 2.69 MB] - Tessenderlo Group

annual report 2008
32
Margins for
agricultural products
could be restored
A closer look at
Tessenderlo Kerley Inc.
(US)
Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc (TKI) and its
business units in the United States
achieved solid performance under very
challenging conditions in the market place.
Fertiliser volumes for 2008 were on an
increase due to higher farm commodity
prices in the first half of the year. TKI was
able to maintain margins in 2008.
The speciality fertiliser products,KTS®
(potassium thiosulphate), N-Sure® and
Trisert® slow release nitrogen products as
well as CaTs® (calcium thiosulphate) have
enjoyed a strong year in 2008. Demand has
been strong in all cropping areas and in
several cases exceeded supply in most of
the broadacre and speciality crop areas.
Fertilisers and crop
protection products are
doing very well in the US
in 2008
NovaSource®, TKI’s crop protection
business unit, enjoyed a year of strong
growth and above average profitability in
2008 as the result of the Surround® and
Sinbar® product acquisitions made in
late 2007. In addition, good growth was
experienced in its existing business range.
In 2008, Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. acquired
the assets of Agrochem in Turkey. It also
acquired an interest in Wolf Mountain
Products.
MPR Services, Inc, TKI’s Solvent
Services Business that supplies
services to refineries for the treatment
of flue gasses and solvents, continued its
world-wide growth in both
mobile services and permanently installed
units. In addition to its international
sales agents, MPR became the operating
company for MPR Middle East WLL (MME),
a joint venture between Gulf Technologies
WLL and Tessenderlo NL Holding BV.,
based in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
MME will service the energy industry in the
GCC and Egypt.
The TKI Refinery Services model is being
pursued with refineries in the U.S.A. TKI
has production plants linked to refineries
to recover sulphur and other residuals that
are in turn used to manufacture sulphurbased
fertilisers.