Strongest Quarter in 3 Years: Potash Price Hike Boosts ICL Profits
ICL reported strong Q2 results, with operating profit rising 47% to $266 million and net profit jumping 47% to $137 million. The growth was driven by higher potash prices and increased sales volumes.
Strong reports for ICL: The continued rise in potash prices, alongside an increase in phosphate prices and sales volumes of potash and bromine-based products, pushed the company's results for the second quarter, following the improvement presented in the first quarter's report. Simultaneously, the company announced it will distribute a dividend of $75 million in September.
The fertilizer and chemicals company's revenues in the second quarter totaled $2.35 billion, a 17% increase compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Operating profit rose by 47% to $266 million, adjusted EBITDA grew by 28% to $448 million, and net profit attributable to shareholders jumped by 47% to $137 million. This marks one of the company's strongest operating quarters in the last three years, despite the negative impact of a weakening dollar and rising raw material costs.
Revenue growth was recorded in all four of the company's areas of activity, though profitability impacts varied by sector. The primary profit improvement came from potash and industrial activities. In the potash sector, where ICL sells potash, salts, and magnesium extracted from the Dead Sea, the company benefited from a 22% increase in sales to $468 million. Consequently, operating profit jumped by 63% to $85 million. This improvement stemmed from a 13% increase in sales volumes—mainly to China, Brazil, and India—to 1.081 million tons, as well as a 14% increase ($43) in the average price per ton of potash compared to the corresponding quarter in 2025, reaching $376 per ton. In June, the company signed an agreement with a client in India for the supply of 375,000 tons of potash, with an option for an additional 50,000 tons, at $383 per ton.
In the industrial activity sector, largely based on bromine products, the company recorded significant improvements in both revenue and profit. Sales rose by 30% to $414 million, and operating profit jumped from $54 million to $115 million, attributed to higher sales volumes of flame retardants and increased product prices.
Conversely, in the phosphate sector—ICL's largest activity by sales—and the Growing Solutions sector, revenue growth was offset by rising input costs. In phosphate activity, sales rose by 13% to $722 million, but operating profit fell by 11% to $80 million. While the company benefited from a 22% average increase in product prices, it absorbed higher raw material costs due to global logistics disruptions and Chinese export restrictions. In the Growing Solutions sector, sales rose by 20% to $605 million, but rising costs for fertilizers, nitrogen, and sulfur, alongside exchange rate impacts, led to a 9% decrease in operating profit to $32 million.
ICL ratified the forecast raised in the previous quarter, estimating adjusted EBITDA of $1.5–1.7 billion for 2026 and potash sales of 4.5–4.7 million tons. The company is also promoting organizational changes effective early 2027, reorganizing into four sectors: Nutrition Solutions, Industrial Products, Growing Solutions, and Essential Minerals. Additionally, an efficiency plan aims to save $350 million by the end of 2028, with impacts expected to begin in early 2027.
Over the last 12 months, the company's stock has lost 24% of its value, partly due to investor concerns regarding the 2030 expiration of its Dead Sea concession, while the TA-125 index rose by 35% during the same period.
