By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOT Just as an artistic mosaic is an arrangement of small pieces of stone into a work of art, the multifaceted supply chain of The Mosaic Company is an assemblage of routings of cargos – including small pieces of stone – that constantly sees vessels traversing the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike artists, however, whose goal is to create a work on which to feast the eyes, the mission of the people at Mosaic is a higher one – to feed the world. Whether exporting millions of tons of finished fertilizer from Tampa, moving phosphate “rock” to Louisiana and returning with coal on the cross-Gulf backhaul, or transporting cargos on any of several other supply chain routes, Plymouth, Minn.-based Mosaic is clearly a major player in the Gulf shipping scene. Mosaic’s multiple transportation demands keep Doug Montgomery, the company’s assistant vice president of supply chain, a busy man as he and the company’s supply chain group direct the movements of some 50 million tons of products a year. “It’s never a dull moment,” said Montgomery, citing the numerous distinct cargos and routings, as well as challenges in dealing with seasonal demands for fertilizer products. “Our job – to try to make the supply chain as efficient as possible – we see as very important,” said Montgomery, whose office is just outside Tampa, in Riverview, Fla. “It involves a fine balancing act between cutting costs and making sure our service to customers is as good as it can be.”
Mosaic Company
One of the key efforts with which Montgomery is involved is the export from Tampa of finished products such as agricultural phosphate used in crop fertilizing and, to a lesser extent, feed phosphate for the diets of chickens, hogs and cattle. Wade Elliott, senior director of marketing at the Tampa Port Authority, pointed out the significance of that trade. “Phosphate products, including fertilizers and animal feeds, have long been a mainstay of Tampa export activities,” Elliott said, noting that phosphate is the single largest export tonnage commodity for Tampa, accounting in 2008, from all shippers, for 8.5 million tons of the port’s 43 million tons of total activity. “Mosaic is the world’s leading producer of finished phosphate fertilizer and a major cargo generator at the Port of Tampa of bulk exports,” Elliott added. Montgomery noted that much of the phosphate originates in Central Florida’s “Bone Valley,” where Mosaic has manufacturing facilities in Bartow and New Wales, both within 50 miles to the east of Tampa. Mosaic also has manufacturing facilities in the Tampa suburb of Riverview and in Donaldsonville, LA. The company even has its own short-line railroad in Central Florida while managing a fleet of more than 5,000 rail cars. Primarily using CSX Transportation rail and, to a lesser extent, trucks, the finished products come to six terminals – five in Tampa and one at Port Manatee – and are loaded onto bulk vessels that may carry as many as 57,000 tons or as few as 1,500 tons, depending upon the customer’s need and the handling abilities at the destination port. Some 5.5 million tons a year of Mosaic’s finished products are exported to markets that include India, Brazil, Australia and Argentina, while 40% of production is used domestically, with some of it carried by river barges up the Mississippi River system to as far as Minnesota. One challenge for Montgomery is dealing with seasonality of use, as production runs 52 weeks a year but farmers only apply the fertilizer between two and four weeks a year. “You build up inventory and purge it, much like the frozen turkey industry heading into holidays,” said Montgomery, who cited the importance of storage facilities at plants and ports, as well as relationships with customers, distributors and warehousemen. Various other factors must be taken into consideration, such as the 40-day transit time to India or