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By Jesus Calero
(Reuters) -Yara International, one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, reported third-quarter core earnings above market expectations on Friday, citing record production and its focus on core operations to boost profitability.
Third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation (EBITDA), excluding items affecting comparability, soared more than 47% from a year earlier to $585 million. Analysts on average had forecast $482 million, a company-provided poll showed.
"Yara is delivering all-time high production performance and strong premiums this quarter, a testament to the robustness of our operations and the value of our core business," CEO Svein Tore Holsether said in the statement.
While European deliveries remain below pre-2022 levels amid higher raw material costs, Yara said improved margins from phosphate-rock upgrading and stable potash prices led to stronger-than-expected results, setting it up for profitability once market conditions stabilize.
It also pointed to stronger third-party sales in Brazil as a reason for the earnings jump.
Yara said the costs of buying natural gas in the fourth quarter were expected to be in line with last year's level, while in the first quarter of 2025 they were projected to be $60 million higher year on year.
Vast amounts of gas are required to produce fertilizers, so when gas prices surged following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they became more costly to produce and thus more expensive for farmers to buy.
(Reporting by Jesus Calero in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
