The Mosaic Company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice on August 26 covering 206 employees at two Louisiana phosphate complexes.
WBRZ reported August 28 that layoffs at the Uncle Sam plant in Convent and the Faustina plant in Donaldsonville will run through Saturday, October 10.
Mosaic cited global sulfur supply constraints and extraordinary market conditions as the reason for reducing staffing while phosphate operations idle.
Ammonia production at Faustina continues uninterrupted during the phosphate curtailment, a split that keeps nitrogen capacity online even as sulfuric acid demand falls.
The company said the sulfur challenge was previously disclosed in its Q2 earnings release and discussed on the earnings call.
Mosaic remains focused on safe facility management and will pursue opportunities to resume full operations as market conditions improve.
The Advocate put the parish workforce context in sharper relief: 369 people worked at the two plants in 2025, making Mosaic the fourth-largest employer in St. James Parish.
The same reporting cited farmdoc daily figures showing sulfur above $1,000 per ton in recent months, up from about $400 at end-2025.
Hormuz shipping disruption and trimmed exports from China and Russia were named as the upstream pressure points behind the Louisiana curtailment.
Mosaic is also reducing production at Florida fertilizer plants and at operations in Brazil, extending the sulfur squeeze beyond the Gulf Coast.
For Alberta recovered sulfur, Gulf phosphate curtailment cuts near-term molten demand but leaves Pacific export tonnes as the swing supply for buyers still bidding solid sulfur.
Tampa Q3 molten settled at a record $705 per long ton while Gulf spot exports reached $1,100 to $1,150 per metric ton in July in open reporting covered earlier this week.
Desk read: the WARN filing is the workforce confirmation behind Faustina's idle status. Louisiana layoffs make the sulfur shortage tangible at plant gates, not only on price screens.