KOH Str PD 8.0 Corning

15:35 EST - While the nitrogen fertilizer industry has been rolling in profits, thanks to increasing corn acreage and low natural gas costs, a resulting boom in nitrogen production capacity could be starting to alter the market's dynamic. A longstanding correlation between urea nitrogen fertilizer and corn prices broke down last summer as corn prices surged, says Keith Swanson, a fertilizer risk manager for CHS Hedging. "We might be at the point globally where some of this supply is catching up to demand," he tells farmers at a Chicago conference. Swanson adds there are eight large-scale nitrogen plant projects in the works in the US, but says "no one really expects all of these to be built." (ian.berry@dowjones.com; @enberry)

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