Higher gas prices and lower demand weigh on Yara Q3 margins
Yara has reported third quarter (Q3) 2026 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), excluding special items, of $675 million, compared with $804 million in Q3 2025.
Financial accounts published today (Thursday, October 22) by the Norwegian based fertiliser company outline how higher gas prices and continued deferred demand weighed on margins and deliveries for the quarter.
Net income for the quarter was $199 million, compared with $320 million a year earlier.
Fertiliser
Total deliveries in Q3 2026 were 4% lower than a year previous, reflecting lower deliveries in Americas and Africa and Asia.
This was partly offset by a recovery in Europe where total deliveries were 2% higher than Q3 2025, due to a strong pick up towards the end of the quarter.
Europe EBITDA, excluding special items, was $73 million, 62% lower than in the same quarter a year ago.
Higher prices in the region were more than offset by higher feedstock costs and lower profitability in the phosphate value chain in Finland following an unplanned outage.
Yara responded to high European gas prices by curtailing production of ammonia and finished products during the third quarter.
As of October 16, curtailments were running at 270kt of ammonia and 140kt of finished products per quarter.
Yara
Overall, Yara's year-to-date EBITDA, excluding special items, was almost $2.5 billion, 18% higher than in the same period a year ago.
Year-to-date revenue and other income stands at over $13.1 billion, compared to $11.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2025.
The company said enhanced margins in the first half of the year, continued progress on improvement initiatives and cost discipline helped offset higher gas costs in the third quarter.
Total deliveries were 6% lower than in the same period a year ago, reflecting low off-season demand in the second quarter, lower deliveries in Brazil and planned maintenance.
At the January 2026 capital markets day, Yara set a target of an incremental $200 million EBITDA improvement by the end of 2027 and a further $150 million EBITDA improvement by the end of 2030.
As of Q3 2026, Yara said it had delivered improvements adding to a $60 million EBITDA uplift compared to Q3 2025 on a last twelve months basis.
In July 2026, Yara announced the acquisition of Gulf Coast ammonia plant in Texas, as part of its strategy to diversify energy exposure and strengthen long-term competitiveness and returns.
Svein Tore Holsether, president and chief executive officer of Yara, said the company had "delivered a solid third-quarter result despite continued market volatility".
"Strong commercial performance helped offset accelerating European gas costs while plant-specific reliability issues affected production volumes.
"Yara’s energy flexibility has been a key strength and will remain even more so, with the acquisition of Gulf Coast Ammonia significantly reducing our European energy exposure upon closing.
"We remain on track to deliver our EBITDA improvement target, and the increase in return on invested capital reflects stronger underlying profitability," he said.
Nitrogen
Holsether noted that nitrogen markets had "a slow start to the new season as markets took a cautious approach due to uncertainty around the Middle East conflict".
"Yara saw buying activity, particularly in Europe, picking up towards the end of the quarter, and Yara exits the quarter with a European order book stronger than normal for this time of year.
"Market demand for the 2027 season has been slow across all key nitrogen markets in Q3, with imports and deliveries in Europe, the US and Latin America lagging last year’s levels.
"As the Chinese export window is closing and northern hemisphere season approaches, a significant share of seasonal purchasing therefore remains to be done for the first full season with reduced supply from the Middle East, where also higher crop prices have improved farmer affordability compared to last season," he said.
Markets
Holsether said the company had optimised product flows, closely monitored margins and adjusted production to reflect market conditions.
Based on current forward markets for natural gas, Yara’s gas cost for Q4 2026 and Q1 2027 is estimated to be $450 million higher and $445 million higher than a year earlier.
"In volatile markets, diversification and flexibility are critical to food security and industrial resilience.
"We are strengthening Yara’s competitiveness through disciplined EBITDA improvement measures, strict capital discipline and by addressing recent reliability setbacks.
"Our premium portfolio, global production network and ability to optimise across products, assets and regions make Yara more resilient, further strengthened by our investment in the US.
"Combined, these actions will support higher base returns and sustainable shareholder value," he said.
