Potash Corp to chop 2009 output by 2 mln tonnes

TORONTO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT.TO) will reduce 2009 potash output by 2 million tonnes, or about 20 percent, due to slackening market demand, the company said on Tuesday.

Potash, the world's top fertilizer producer, said it will produce less potash in the first quarter of the coming year due to a short-term lag in global demand as farmers feel the heat of the global financial crisis.

"Beyond (the quarter), we see demand accelerating through the balance of the year as farmers deplete existing stocks and work to rebuild global grain inventories from extremely low levels," Potash Corp Chief Executive Bill Doyle said in a statement posted on the Canadian company's website.

The company produced 9.4 million tonnes of potash in 2007 and has the capacity to produce 10 million tonnes.

Potash's shares soared through the first half of this year as rising demand and thin supply more than doubled fertilizer prices from the previous year. But demand has since dropped as the global financial crisis has taken hold.

The company's stock rose C$1.08 to C$78.07 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday. It is down by about two-thirds from its peak in mid-June.

($1=$1.26 Canadian) (Reporting by Cameron French; editing by Peter Galloway)