Salt Business Unit

Key figures		2012	2011
Revenues	€ million	1,484.8	1,710.1
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA)	€ million	180.3	337.9
Operating earnings (EBIT I)	€ million	62.4	211.4
Capital expenditure	€ million	111.3	112.3
Employees as of 31.12.	number	5,092	5,230

The Salt business unit comprises the European producer esco – european salt company, the South American supplier Sociedad Punta de Lobos, and Morton Salt with production sites in the USA and in Canada. With a production capacity of approximately 30 million tonnes of salt, K+S is the world’s leading producer.

esco – european salt company is Europe’s largest salt producer

esco operates three rock salt mines, two brine plants and several evaporated salt plants and is Europe’s largest salt supplier. At up to 99%, the purity of our salt extracted underground is very high and occupies a leading position among the competition in Europe. esco’s production capacity is about 9.7 million tonnes of crystallised salt and salt in brine per year.

Sociedad Punta de Lobos offers salt for the next centuries

Sociedad Punta de Lobos extracts rock salt in the Salar Grande of the Chilean Tarapacá desert through cost-effective open-cast mining. The excellent quality of the crude salt allows speciality products to be processed for a number of applications. The salt reserves of these deposits are sufficient to provide the world’s population with salt for several centuries. The production and shipping capacity in the company’s deep-sea port is 6.5 million tonnes per year. In the north-eastern part of Brazil, the subsidiary Salinas Diamante Branco operates a sea salt facility with an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes.

Morton Salt is one of the leading salt producers in North America

In the USA and in Canada, Morton Salt has a large number of production sites that are close to customers (6 rock salt mines, 7 solar plants and 10 evaporated salt plants) and operates a nationwide sales and distribution network with more than 120 warehouses and distribution centres. Morton Salt is one of the leading producers of consumer, industrial and de-icing salts in North America. The production capacity amounts to approximately 13 million tonnes of crystallised salt per year.