K&S : Limited disposal possibilities from December 2015

27 November 2015

Due to the continuing assessment of the injection application, from today's point of view the only means of disposal of saline waste water from the Werra plant as of 1 December 2015 will be to discharge it into the Werra river.

Against the backdrop of the water flow of the Werra river and the resulting limited possibilities for the disposal of saline waste water, full utilization of all sites of the Werra plant will not be possible starting from December. As of 1 December, production at the Hattorf (Hersfeld-Rotenburg district) and Unterbreizbach (Wartburg district) sites will have to be suspended for the time being.

The Kassel Regional Council is currently working on a transitional solution that would enable a continuation of injection in a few weeks after a detailed technical assessment has been completed.

In order to bridge the period before a decision is made by the Kassel Regional Council on the transitional regulation of injection, plant management and employee representatives have agreed that around 1,750 affected employees will work off their work hour accounts and remaining vacation.

As things stand, K+S does not anticipate any impact on deliveries to customers except in isolated cases. The expected EBIT I for the K+S Group of EUR 780 million to EUR 830 million for 2015 will probably also not be affected by this.

K+S is an international resources company. We have been mining and processing mineral raw materials for more than 125 years. The products we produce from them are used worldwide in agriculture, food and road safety and are important elements in numerous industrial processes. Potash and salt are integral nutrients for the megatrend of a constantly growing and increasingly prosperous global population striving for a higher standard of living. This will result in increasing consumption of mineral resources. We serve the resulting growth in demand from production sites in Europe, North America and South America as well as through a global distribution network. K+S is the world's largest salt producer and one of the top potash providers worldwide. With more than 14,000 employees, K+S achieved revenues in financial year 2014 of about € 3.8 billion and an EBIT of € 641 million. K+S is the commodities stock on the German DAX index. Learn more about K+S at www.k-plus-s.com.