Floods hit earnings

INCITEC Pivot will lose $10 million in earnings a week due to the closure of the rail line between Townsville and Phosphate Hill after flooding in North Queensland.

The listed chemicals and fertiliser manufacturer says its Phosphate Hill site is undamaged but it began a progressive shutdown over the weekend.

It will try to run each plant at the facility for as long as possible until it runs out of storage and materials.

The company said in a statement that it estimated “the impact of the rail closure will give rise to lost earnings before interest and tax” of about $10 million a week from last Saturday until production resumed fully.

Incitec would provide an update when it receives “a reliable estimate of the duration of the rail outage”, the group said.

The group is waiting for conditions to improve so it can get to the rail line and estimate when services can resume.

It said its Townsville fertiliser distribution and port facilities were operational despite suffering minor damage.