Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator's Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Mark Connelly with Sterne Agee.
Mark Connelly – Sterne Agee
Thank you. I got a two part question. First, with farmers holding back and imports low, I wonder if you could talk us through sort of the logistical risk of legitimately falling short in the spring. (Inaudible) talked about risks on their side, we've heard other nitrogen companies talk about it — I'm just curious from a logistical standpoint how concerned you are. You talk about having the inventories you need, but at the same time it doesn't sound like the inventory's really there.
Michael L. Bennett
Well, I guess what I would say, Mark, is that at this point in time, in other words (inaudible) October 22nd, I'm not necessarily concerned. But in all seriousness, we are in a different environment today than we were in 10 years ago because today we do require 50% of our nitrogen needs to be imported and certainly through the third quarter, domestic prices were basically low enough to discourage imports and really all the major nutrients are behind the curve relative to where they were a year ago.
And certainly one can understand the customer's reluctance to stock a lot of material after last year's experience, but the reality is a lot of material that will be needed next spring, at least on the UAN side and to some degree the urea side, will have to be taken and stored by customers so it's going to be in position for next spring.
And one of the factors there is that, for example typically in the winter we see river access curtailed for a period of time which can impact birds' transportation, and certainly when you talk about handling UAN, in colder areas in the northern tier of the corn belt, a lot of dealers do not want to take 32% in through the coldest part of the winter. So there are some logistical and, I'll call it, climate type challenges associated with this, and certainly we'd be better off if we saw some of this log jam break and began to see some product move now as opposed to after the first of the year. If this were to persist until after the first of the year, I think we could see some very strong challenge in getting this product positioned.
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