Due to continued weakness in the global potash industry, hundreds of employees at one of Nutrien‘s mines won’t be back to work until at least the end of January.
A spokesperson for the world’s largest fertilizer company said roughly 265 employees will remain laid-off for several weeks as operations at the Vanscoy, Sask., mine stay offline to help manage inventories.
“We understand this announcement can be difficult during this season,” Will Tigley said. “It is not what we wanted to do. The timing of this announcement is based on business needs.”
He said the company will continue to monitor the market.
In September, Nutrien announced an eight-week temporary layoff for hundreds of employees at three of its Saskatchewan potash mines in response to a short-term softening across the market.
The production downtime was needed to help balance inventories as global demand dropped.
Tigley said workers at offline mines in Allan and Lanigan will return to work on Dec. 29 as planned.