CVR PARTNERS, LP (UAN) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q2 2026 CVR Partners LP Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Richard Roberts, Interim CFO, VP of FP&A and IR. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your participation in today's call. With me today are Dane J. Neumann, our chief executive officer; Mike Wright, our chief operating officer; and other members of management. Prior to discussing our 2026 second quarter results, let me remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined under federal securities laws. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You are cautioned that these statements may be affected by important factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our latest earnings release. As a result, actual operations or results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

The call also includes various non-GAAP financial measures. The disclosures related to such non-GAAP measures, including reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, are included in our 2026 second quarter earnings release that we filed with the SEC for the period. Let me also remind you that we are a variable distribution MLP. We will review our previously established reserves, current cash usage, evaluate future anticipated cash needs, and then reserve amounts for other future cash needs determined by our general partner's board. As a result, our distributions, if any, will vary from quarter to quarter due to several factors, including, but not limited to, operating performance, fluctuations in the prices received for finished products, capital expenditures, and cash reserves deemed necessary or appropriate by the board of directors of our general partner. With that said, I will turn the call over to Dane J. Neumann, our chief executive officer. Dane?

Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. Summarized financial highlights for the second quarter of 2026 include net sales of $202 million, net income of $78 million, EBITDA of $107 million, and the board of directors declared a second quarter distribution of $6.08 per common unit, which will be paid on August 17 to unitholders of record at the close of the market on August 10. For the second quarter of 2026, our ammonia plant utilization was 99%; both plants were running well and experiencing minimal downtime during the quarter. Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East significantly tightened available global supplies of nitrogen fertilizers in the second quarter, which drove prices higher for the spring. We saw steady demand for product across our system. Although toward the end of the planting season we began seeing some customers shifting away from UAN due to the elevated prices relative to other nitrogen fertilizers. We completed summer fill programs for ammonia and UAN in late June and early July, respectively, and we have a good order book for the second half of 2026, which I will discuss further in my closing remarks. I will now turn the call over to Richard to discuss our financial results.

Thank you, Dane. Turning to our results. Second quarter of 2026, we reported net sales of $202 million and operating income of $85 million. Net income for the quarter was $78 million, or $7.33 per common unit, and EBITDA was $107 million. Relative to the second quarter of 2025, the increase in EBITDA was primarily due to higher UAN and ammonia sales pricing. Total ammonia production for the second quarter of 2026 was 214 thousand gross tons, of which 64 thousand net tons were available for sale. UAN production was 342 thousand tons. During the quarter, we sold approximately 333 thousand tons of UAN at an average price of $392 per ton, and approximately 54 thousand tons of ammonia at an average price of $791 per ton. Relative to the second quarter of 2025, total sales volumes were down slightly, primarily due to an earlier spring planting season shifting some volumes into the first quarter, with some weakening demand later in the quarter due to the elevated price environment for UAN.

Second quarter prices for UAN increased 24% and ammonia prices increased 33% relative to the prior year period. The direct operating expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were $59 million. Excluding inventory impacts, direct operating expenses increased by approximately $4 million relative to the second quarter of 2025, primarily due to higher repair and maintenance, catalyst, and electricity costs. Capital spending for the second quarter was $17 million, of which $12 million was maintenance capital. We estimate total capital spending for 2026 to be approximately $85 million to $95 million, of which $49 million to $57 million is expected to be maintenance capital. We anticipate a significant portion of the profit and growth capital spending planned for 2026 will be funded through cash reserves taken over the past few years. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of $187 million, which consisted of $137 million in cash and availability under the ABL facility of $50 million.

Within our cash balance of $137 million, we had less than $1 million related to customer prepayments for the future delivery of product. Assessing our cash available for distribution, we generated EBITDA of approximately $107 million and had net cash needs of $43 million for interest costs, maintenance CapEx, and other reserves. As a result, we had $64 million of cash available for distribution, and the board of directors of our general partner declared a distribution of $6.08 per common unit. Headed to the third quarter of 2026, we estimate our ammonia utilization rate to be between 75% and 80%, which will be impacted by the upcoming planned turnaround at the East Dubuque facility. We estimate direct operating expenses, excluding inventory and turnaround impacts, to be between $57 million and $62 million; turnaround expenses to be between $30 million and $35 million; and total capital spending to be between $40 million and $49 million. With that, I will turn the call back over to Dane.

Thanks, Richard. In summary, we had another strong quarter of operations with ammonia utilization of 99%. Nitrogen fertilizer prices for the spring were elevated due to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The spring planting season went well, and demand for nitrogen was strong overall. The USDA estimates that 95.3 million acres of corn and 85.4 million acres of soybeans were planted in the spring of 2026, a 4% decrease for corn and a 5% increase for soybeans. Although corn plantings were down from the record levels of 2025, 95 million acres is well above the average level of corn plantings over the last five years. Yield estimates are approximately 183 bushels per acre for corn, resulting in an expected inventory carryout level below 2025. Soybean yields are estimated at 53 bushels per acre, which also results in an expected inventory carryout below 2025.

Grain prices have increased recently with expectations for lower carryout inventories driven by a combination of hot and dry conditions across the Western Corn Belt, increased export demand, and a smaller than expected corn crop in Argentina. December corn prices are approximately $4.80 per bushel, and November soybeans are approximately $12.20 per bushel. Summer fill and fall prepay for ammonia occurred in late June, and UAN fill was completed in early July. Overall, we saw strong demand for both products, and we were able to secure a solid book of business for the second half of 2026 at attractive pricing. Geopolitical issues have impacted nitrogen fertilizer markets for the past several years, beginning with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and continuing through the current ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. It remains unclear how long these issues in the Middle East and Russia will persist.

We will continue to focus on safely and reliably running our plants at high utilization levels to meet the needs of our customers. Prices for nitrogen fertilizers have declined since the spring, which is the typical seasonal pattern as prices reset in the summer after spring planting is completed. With the recent declines in fertilizer prices and increases in grain prices, we believe farmers are now better positioned than they were a few months ago, which is positive for our industry overall. Natural gas prices in Europe have remained elevated amid the ongoing Middle East conflicts, currently trading around $19 per MMBtu. U.S. prices have once again fallen below $3 per MMBtu. Damage sustained at LNG production facilities could take several years to repair, which will likely keep upward pressure on international gas prices relative to the U.S. Prices. We continue to believe Europe has structural natural gas supply issues that will likely remain in effect through the next few years, which should continue to provide an advantage to U.S. producers with access to lower cost natural gas feedstocks.

The conflicts over the past few years in Ukraine and the Middle East are a reminder of the value of U.S. production and adequate and secure feedstock availability. We are currently executing on a number of projects at both facilities that we have discussed over the past few years. At our Coffeyville facility, we expect to finalize a detailed design and construction plan this year intended to allow the plant to utilize natural gas as an alternative feedstock to third-party petcoke. We are no longer planning to invest the capital to source hydrogen from the adjacent Coffeyville refinery, and we believe we can achieve the feedstock diversification of this project at a significantly reduced total capital spend. We also recently secured the certification classifying Coffeyville's ammonia production as low carbon, and we are currently exploring opportunities to market low-carbon ammonia in the U.S. During the East Dubuque turnaround that is currently expected to begin at the end of August, we plan to complete the brownfield capacity expansion that is intended to increase ammonia production capacity by up to 5%.

We also plan to continue work on the water quality upgrade project. In addition, we have a water system upgrade plan for the Coffeyville facility along with the expansion of our DEF production and load-out capacity. The goal of these projects is to improve reliability and production rates, supporting our target of operating the plants at utilization rates above 95% of nameplate capacity excluding the impact of turnarounds. The funds needed for these projects and other initiatives are coming from the reserves taken over the last few years and the board elected to continue reserving capital in the second quarter. While the board looks at reserves every quarter, we would expect them to continue to elect to reserve some capital, and we anticipate holding higher levels of cash related to these investments in the near term as we ramp up execution and spending. We believe unitholders will see the benefits of these investments in the coming years as these projects are completed and brought online.

After eight years with the company, I have seen the benefits of focusing on safety, reliability, cost management, and prudent capital allocation. We have a strong team in place, and I look forward to continuing to execute on the strategy we have laid out over the past few years. In closing, I would like to thank our employees for their excellent execution, safely achieving 99% ammonia utilization, and a solid delivery on our marketing and logistics plans, resulting in a distribution of $6.08 per common unit for the second quarter. With that, we are ready to answer any questions. Operator?

At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the queue. Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Rob Maguire with Granite Research. Your line is open.

Morning, Dane, Richard, and Mike.

Hey, Rob. How are you doing?

I am well. Thanks. With the recent management changes, is CVR Partners still interested in making potential acquisitions? And if so, can you comment on strategic criteria for an acquisition?

So, Rob, I would say our thought process is that really anything's on the table: acquisition, merger, participating in a build, even a sale if there were an attractive offer. I think it is going to be a relatively challenging environment. From an acquisition perspective, we would want to see accretive cash flow very, very quickly. With the assets that are out there, I do not see a lot of them being available for sale. From a build perspective, I could see us participating in that value chain as an operator or marketer, but I do not see us being a big financial backer to a project like that. From a sale perspective, the political environment is still challenging and that may be a headwind. So we will continue to look for attractive opportunities and see what we find. Other than that, the business is doing well, and we are happy to hold as we are as well.

I appreciate that. Different topic. Could you comment further on your summer fill programs completed in late June and early July? Specifically, how much of your third quarter 2026 or second half 2026 ammonia and UAN production did you pre-sell? Any detail you can give along the lines of percentages, or whether it is in line with or below or above historical averages?

We will not give any specific details on the position of the book. But as we said in the prepared remarks, we did see demand slow down a little bit in June when the UAN nitrogen value started trading at a wide premium. However, when we got to the fill, we saw buyers come right back to the market. We did see the normal reset that we did not see last year. UAN tracked the NOLA benchmark, and ammonia did fare better. Prices have continued to tick up since then. One significant difference was we are roughly in line with sales, but we did have more fall prepay on ammonia come in earlier than we did last year.

Thank you. Could you provide color on inventory levels for UAN and ammonia at the distributor and retailer level? I do not know if you have data at the farmer level, but anything you can give along those lines would be helpful.

Rob, I do not have any color at the farmer level specifically. What we did feel was that inventories did get a bit higher downstream of us earlier in the year. That said, with the strength of the fill, there clearly was a need for product. We have seen a recent uptick in buying, which implies that product is now moving downstream to retailers and farmers. So it seems like availability concerns are back and driving behavior versus price risk at the moment.

So, separate topic: the 10-Q states you expect to proceed with Coffeyville, and you had some comments in the opening remarks. Can you give us an idea of how long that project will last? Will the conversion require taking the plant offline; if so, will it be offline entirely? Do you have any updated cost estimates?

Yeah, Rob. This is Mike. Thanks for the question. The project right now, as it stands with the delivery of equipment, construction, and permitting, will likely complete in the second half of 2027. The good news is there is no expected downtime associated with that project, so do not expect anything to impact production rates next year. Regarding a cost estimate, as noted earlier, we are finalizing design. At this point, we believe we will complete the project for less than half of the original estimate as we optimize the scope around our feed models and remove the need for the adjacent hydrogen plant. We will stay within the reserves that have already been taken for that project.

Thanks, Mike. Producers appear to be taking a more disciplined approach to FIDs on new facilities, and we saw Air Products and Yara back away from the Louisiana clean energy complex project. What are your thoughts and what would have to happen for the industry to feel confident it could achieve the necessary returns to build new plants?

That is an interesting question, Rob. Obviously, these facilities are massively expensive to build. Execution risk is significant in a build, and long-term pricing visibility is probably a little murkier. That is a lot of risk to bear on the shoulders of producers. We have seen discussion about government backing for ammonia expansion, or opportunities for long-term customer commitments or equity that help derisk projects for the producer. I think that could go a long way instead of having one party absorb all the execution and pricing risk. There is a path to some of these projects taking place, but assembling the agreements is challenging and they take a long time to develop. So it is a challenge and I do not know what fixes it definitively, but some of those options might be beneficial and helpful.

Yeah. I really appreciate it. That wraps it up for me, guys.

Thank you. You got it. Thanks, Rob.

I will now turn the call back over to Dane J. Neumann for closing remarks.

Again, I would just like to thank everyone for your interest in CVR Partners, and again thank our employees for their hard work and commitment toward safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible operations. We look forward to reviewing our third quarter 2026 results during our next earnings call. Have a safe day.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.