Company: CF
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001324404-25-000006
Chunk: 29

Company: CF Industries Holdings, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 29
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Table of ContentsCF INDUSTRIES HOLDINGS, INC.

ITEM 1A.    RISK FACTORS.

In addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should carefully consider the factors discussed below in evaluating the Company and before deciding to invest in any of our securities. These risks and uncertainties, individually or in combination, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently do not believe to be material could also adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. 

Market Risks

Our industry is cyclical, and our operating results are highly dependent upon and fluctuate based upon changes in supply and demand of nitrogen products and our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows tend to be negatively affected in periods of industry oversupply.

Selling prices for our products, which are global commodities or derived from global commodities, have fluctuated in response to periodic changes in supply and demand conditions. Supply of nitrogen products is affected primarily by available production capacity and operating rates, raw material costs and availability, energy prices, government policies and global trade. Demand for nitrogen products is affected by planted acreage, crop selection and fertilizer application rates, driven by population changes, economic growth, changes in dietary habits and non-food use of crops, such as production of ethanol and other biofuels. Demand also includes industrial uses of nitrogen, for example chemical manufacturing and emissions reductants such as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). Many factors affecting supply and demand of global nitrogen products are out of our control and could significantly impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Periods, or anticipated periods, of strong demand, high-capacity utilization or increasing operating margins tend to stimulate global investment in production capacity. In the past, nitrogen manufacturers, including the Company, have built new production facilities or expanded capacity of existing production assets, or announced plans to do so. The construction of new nitrogen manufacturing capacity in the industry, and improvements to increase output from existing production assets, increase nitrogen supply availability and place downward pressure on nitrogen selling prices, particularly when supply growth outpaces demand growth. For example, in the two-year period ended December 31, 2017, additional production capacity came online, and the average selling price for our products declined 34%, from $314 per ton in 2015 to $207 per ton in 2017.

Additional nitrogen production capacity is