Andersons Inc Q2 2009 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Hi, Good morning.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Could we start with the grain storage business? If you just look at grain storage income for the first half of this year versus last year, is it comparable or slightly higher than last year's level? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Exactly.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay. So ---

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : -- when you look at your put-through income, in the second half, if you look at your put-through income, do you expect it to be comparable to last

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst :

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : All right, and then when you look at Lansing Trade Groups, you had said they exited the businesses that they were finding challenging in the first half. Do you think even just the grain, grain volatility, etc., what should we expect them to earn maybe quarter or year in year out?

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay. And then moving on to ethanol, if you look at kind of profitability of your ethanol plants, are they currently making roughly $0.05 per gallon or $0.10 per gallon, how should we think about profitability on a per gallon basis of the various facilities? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay. So that's implying that you don't have much forward sales from those --

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay. And my final question and then I will pass it on is, could you discuss railcar lease for eight, what percentage terms or how much they are down and your outlook for lease rates?

Question: Farha Aslam - Stephens Incorporated - Analyst : Okay. Thank you very much for your comments.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Thanks for taking my questions. Good morning gentlemen.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : My first question is on the Plant Nutrient side, I was wondering if you could give your outlook on what you think we will see in terms of fertilizer volumes as we come up against much easier comparisons, and now that pricing had come down.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Okay. That's a very thorough review there. Just so I am clear that looking at say the fourth quarter where I believe your unit volumes were down 50%, should we expect a double-digit rebound in volumes against that background?

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Okay. That's very helpful. On the grain and ethanol side just, I guess, to sum up the previous questions, it sounds like ethanol is in better shape than it was a couple of months ago. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Lansing is expected to turn profitable.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : The harvest looks good. So should we expect second half earnings contribution from grain and ethanol to exceed that of first half earnings contribution?

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Okay. That's fair. My last question is on the cash and the balance sheet, this is the highest level that we've seen in some time, and I am curious as to how you prioritize use of cash and maybe your cashable expectations to the balance of the year.

Question: Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray - Analyst : Okay. Thank you very much.

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Good morning.

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Gary, we are going to miss you a lot and the all the good luck and have a good time in your retirement, and Nick I'm looking forward to working with you.

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : I have a few questions. One, I was wondering what impact the storage fee for wheat moving up, I think it went from $0.05 to $0.08 a bushel effective July 1st. I maybe wrong on those numbers, but I believe it went out July 1st. I was wondering if you still are holding a meaningful amount of wheat and secondly, if there is going to be a corresponding increase in your expenses or would or should your profitability on storing wheat move up?

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And some of the proposals coming out of the FTC of adding 15 delivery points as far as Chicago Wheat goes. Do you have any initial read on what you expect that impact to be for your business? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. On these two agreements you just signed about a week or so ago, is there anything about the -- and this is for the 4 million bushels grain storage capacity. Is there anything about those agreements? I mean, should your merchandising activity and all there have similar profitability to your other abilities, or is there anything different in these agreements?

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Have a couple more questions. On the rail side, utilizations steadily moving down, I believe you said maintenance cost moving up. Just wondering, in the back half, I mean, do you believe that you are still going to be able to maintain profitability in that business or? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : No, it does help. The final question is on the ethanol business. Like Q3, thought started out pretty good or I can't remember what your exact words were, but did Q3 start out better than the $0.02 per gallon of gas?

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And secondly, are you locking in any aspect? I mean, given where natural gas is, are you at least locking that in?

Question: Heather Jones - BB&T Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Well, thank you very much.