LSB INDUSTRIES INC

Our operations are subject to hazards inherent in the manufacture, transportation, storage and distribution of chemical products, including some products that are highly toxic and corrosive. These hazards include, among other things, explosions; fires; severe weather and natural disasters; train derailments, collisions, vessel groundings and other transportation and maritime incidents; leaks and ruptures involving storage tanks, pipelines and rail cars; spills, discharges and releases of toxic or hazardous substances or gases; deliberate sabotage and terrorist incidents; mechanical failures; unscheduled plant downtime; labor difficulties and other risks. Some of these hazards can cause bodily injury and loss of life, severe damage to or destruction of property and equipment and environmental damage and may result in suspension of operations for an extended period of time and/or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties and liabilities.  We periodically experience minor releases of ammonia related to leads from our equipment. Similar events may occur in the future. As a result, such events could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We offer our customers from time-to-time, the opportunity to purchase products from us on a forward basis at prices and delivery dates we propose. Under our forward sales programs, customers generally make an initial cash down payment at the time of order and pay the remaining portion of the contract sales under their usual invoice terms when the performance obligation is satisfied. Forward sales improve our liquidity due to the cash payments received from customers in advance of shipment of the product and allow us to improve our production scheduling and planning and the utilization of our manufacturing and distribution assets.  Any cash payments received in advance from customers in connection with forward sales are reflected on our consolidated balance sheets as a current liability until the related performance obligations are satisfied, which can take up to several months.   We believe the ability to purchase products on a forward basis is most appealing to our customers during periods of generally increasing prices for nitrogen fertilizers. Our customers may be less willing or even unwilling to purchase products on a forward basis during periods of generally decreasing or stable prices or during periods of relatively high fertilizer prices due to the expectation of lower prices in the future or limited capital resources. In periods of rising fertilizer prices, selling our nitrogen fertilizers on a forward basis may result in lower profit margins than if we had not sold fertilizer on a forward basis. Conversely, in periods of declining fertilizer prices, selling our nitrogen fertilizers on a forward basis may result in higher profit margins than if we had not sold fertilizer on a forward basis. In addition, fixing the selling prices of our products, often months in advance of their ultimate delivery to customers, typically causes our reported selling prices and margins to differ from spot market prices and margins available at the time the performance obligation is satisfied.

We may utilize natural gas derivatives to hedge our financial exposure to the price volatility of natural gas, the principal raw material used in the production of nitrogen-based products. We may use futures, financial swaps and option contracts traded in the over-the-counter markets or on exchanges to hedge our risk.   Our use of derivatives can result in volatility in reported earnings due to the unrealized mark-to-market adjustments that occur from changes in the value of the derivatives that do not qualify for, or to which we do not apply, hedge accounting. To the extent that our derivative positions lose value, we may be required to post collateral with our counterparties, adversely affecting our liquidity.  We have also used fixed-price, physical purchase and sales contracts to hedge our exposure to natural gas price volatility. Hedging arrangements are imperfect and unhedged risks will always exist. In addition, our hedging activities may themselves give rise to various risks that could adversely affect us. For example, we are exposed to counterparty credit risk when our derivatives are in a net asset position. The counterparties to our derivatives are multi-national commercial banks, major financial institutions or large energy companies.  Our liquidity could be negatively impacted by a counterparty default on settlement of one or more of our derivative financial instruments or by the trigger of any cross-default provisions or credit support requirements. Additionally, the International Swaps and Derivative Association master netting arrangements for most of our derivative instruments contain credit-risk-related contingent features, such as cross-default and/or acceleration provisions and credit support requirements. In the event of certain defaults or a credit ratings downgrade, our counterparty may request early termination and net settlement of certain derivative trades or may require us to collateralize derivatives in a net liability position.  At other times we may not utilize derivatives or derivative strategies to hedge certain risks or to reduce the financial exposure of price volatility. As a result, we may not prevent certain material adverse impacts that could have been mitigated through the use of derivative strategies.

During August 2019, we completed an 18-day Turnaround on our ammonia plant at our El Dorado Facility.  Additionally, during November 2019, the ammonia plant at our El Dorado Facility was taken out of service for 16 days in order to make adjustments that improved the ammonia plant reliability and production volume. Also, during November 2019, we completed a 28-day Turnaround on our sulfuric acid plant at our El Dorado Facility, which included the installation of a new sulfuric acid converter which will increase reliability and production volume.  During November 2019, we completed an extensive 67-day Turnaround at our Pryor Facility including the installation of a new, larger urea reactor.  The next Turnarounds for these facilities are scheduled in 2021 for our Pryor Facility and 2022 for our El Dorado Facility.  See additional discussion below under “Items Affecting Comparability of Results.”

ASU 2019-12 – In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes which affects general principles within Topic 740, Income Taxes. The amendments of ASU 2019-12 are meant to simplify and reduce the cost of accounting for income taxes. The ASU removes certain exceptions to the general framework and also seeks to simplify and/or clarify accounting for income taxes by adding certain requirements that would simplify GAAP for financial statement preparers. The effective date of ASU 2019-12 is fiscal years (and interim periods within those fiscal years) beginning after Dec. 15, 2020. Early adoption is permitted but requires simultaneous adoption of all provisions of the new standard.  We continue to evaluate the effect of our pending adoption of this ASU on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures at this time.