Today, Compass Minerals reported consolidated year-over-year revenue growth of 7% for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, driven primarily by an increase in highway deicing sales volumes, an improvement in consumer and industrial (C&I) sales volumes, and higher Plant Nutrition and C&I pricing.

Operating earnings for fiscal 2022 first quarter decreased $7.7 million, while adjusted EBITDA was lower by $3.6 million year over year, primarily due to higher shipping and handling expenses and product costs.

“Our expanded Salt commitments allowed us to deliver revenue growth during the quarter despite a slow start to the winter weather season, while positioning us to capitalize on the prospect of more normalized weather demand during the balance of the season,” said Kevin S. Crutchfield, president and CEO. “We expect inflationary pressures and higher logistical costs to dampen our underlying earnings potential over the course of the fiscal year. In response, we are focused on offsetting these costs through continued pricing actions in our Plant Nutrition and consumer and industrial businesses, as well as throughout the upcoming highway salt bid season. Concurrently, as we advance our growth strategy into attractive, adjacent markets – lithium and next-generation fire retardants – I am confident these actions should result in attractive returns on capital, driving long-term value for shareholders.”

Other first-quarter highlights reported by the company include:

• Average sales price for the company’s Protassium+^® sulfate of potash product strengthened to approximately $660 per ton, an increase of 5% sequentially and 20% year over year, supported by a strong fertilizer macro environment
• Continued to advance company’s lithium development; anticipate achieving additional milestones in 2022, including selecting a direct lithium extraction technology provider as well as completing both a front-end-loaded level engineering estimate of operating costs and capital intensity and a third-party life cycle assessment of lithium development scenarios under consideration
• Bolstered senior management team and board of directors through addition of key executives with deep industry and advanced battery supply chain experience, including Lorin Crenshaw, chief financial officer; Chris Yandell, head of lithium; and Gareth Joyce, independent director
• Reduced fiscal 2022 adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $200 million to $235 million largely due to trends in the company’s Salt segment, and reduced capital spending guidance by $25 million from prior expectations to $100 million to $110 million

View the full release and Fiscal 2022 First-Quarter Business Update here.