Last time around, we looked at the big picture driving the demand for PotashCorp's
How about this fun farming fact? Indian imports of urea have risen more than 30-fold since 2003. Urea is one of the products falling under Potash's nitrogen products segment, and it's a combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide. Ammonia, in turn, is synthesized from natural gas, so Potash has a strong incentive to secure low-cost natural gas production. It's found such a supply in Trinidad and Tobago, a country where folks like Petro-Canada
Potash (the mineral), which is experiencing strong demand as well, is mined directly out of the earth. Most of Potash's potash hails from Saskatchewan, a region perhaps better known for Cameco's
Add in the lucrative phosphate segment, and you have a company growing revenue by nearly 40% for the year. Profits fared significantly better, thanks to operating leverage. Potash is also very confident about 2008, forecasting per-share earnings growth in the neighborhood of 100%.
Now, the reason that investing in global megatrends can be so rewarding is that they tend to persist much longer than a normal business cycle. A couple more years like this one, and the valuation of Potash and competitors Mosaic