Mount Morris, N.Y.-based salt producer American Rock Salt Co. LLC continues to benefit from low customer inventories and higher than average selling prices. The company will continue to use excess cash for debt reduction, and we now expect it to maintain leverage below 5x over the next 12 months. We are affirming our 'B' issuer credit rating on American Rock Salt and revising our outlook to positive from stable. At the same time, we are affirming our 'B' issue-level rating on the company's $410 million term loan ($398 million outstanding) with a '3' recovery rating. The positive outlook reflects our view that the issuer credit rating could be raised over the next 12 months if leverage is sustained below 4x.
