(Reuters) - Australia's Incitec Pivot Ltd said on Tuesday a Queensland rail outage in February caused by flooding will reduce first-half core earnings by about A$60 million ($42.63 million).
The total impact of the outage on 2019 financial year earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) will be at the lower of end of its previously announced range of A$100 million to A$120 million, Australia's largest fertilisers maker said in a statement.
Incitec's earnings are also going to take a hit from a severe drought across parts of eastern Australian, which has resulted in lower distribution sales in the first half so far.
The drought, which has left soils so dry that many farmers kept fields empty to avoid large-scale crop losses, will have an impact of about A$20 million on the company core earnings in the half.
The fertilizer maker also said that ongoing issues at its Louisiana ammonia plant will reduce the plant's first half EBIT to A$14 million, compared with A$62 million in the previous corresponding period.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
