Phosphate Resources will shutdown its Christmas Island operations for more than six weeks over the the New Year due to a lack of demand from its Malaysian and Indonesia markets.
The company cited the current global financial crisis as the reason for the downturn.
The shutdown will occur from December 22 to February 3 next year.
Earlier this year, phosphate was touted as the next big thing, with prices soaring from $US42 per tonne to around $US400/t on the back of a projected increase in demand estimated at 2.1 per cent each year until 2020.
In October, the company announced it had a "sharp and marked" slowdown in demand from its Asian markets, a trend which has obviously continued.
Also in October, Phosphate announced an unaudited first quarter pre-tax profit of $36.1 million on the back of a record shipment of 262,310 tonnes of phosphate from its Christmas Island operations, up by 35,000 over last year's corresponding period.
Perth company CI Resources has a 38.77 per cent interest in Phosphate Resources, making it the stock's largest shareholder.
