Nutrien

Nutrien tripled its annual profit to 2.3 billion dollars in 2025 while cutting expenses 19 percent, so the money came from running leaner rather than from a lucky price spike. Core operating profit reached 6.05 billion dollars on record upstream volumes. In the first half of 2026 operating cash flow rose 12 percent and the company returned 848 million dollars to shareholders.

Nutrien is the largest potash producer on earth and keeps the controllable cash cost of mining a tonne below 60 dollars, which keeps it profitable at prices that squeeze smaller rivals. It set record potash sales volumes in the first half of 2026 and now mines about half its ore with automated equipment. In its August report management raised the potash volume forecast and cut planned spending at the same time.

Revenue grew just 3.5 percent in 2025, and the most recent quarter went backwards on profit, with core operating profit down 2 percent and net earnings down 1 percent even as sales rose 4 percent. Higher sulfur costs and idled nitrogen plants in Trinidad and New Madrid ate the gains. Nearly all of the profit improvement of the past two years came from cost cutting, and there is a limit to how long that can carry the results.

This business lives and dies on fertilizer prices that Nutrien does not set. Profit swung from 7.66 billion dollars in 2022 down to 700 million dollars in 2024 before recovering to 2.3 billion, so one bad turn in the cycle can erase most of the earnings. A rival's giant new potash mine is due to add supply, and any return of Russian and Belarusian exports would push prices down further.