Nutrien restarts operations at White Springs

: Fertilizers
24/10/21

Canadian fertilizer producer Nutrien today confirmed the restart of the company's White Springs, Florida, phosphate fertilizer facility, which was shut last month by Hurricane Helene.

Production at the plant is ramping up, the company said without responding to a question on how much production was lost during the outage.

The plant was shut by storm-induced power outages as Hurricane Helene made landfall on 26 September, so the plant was off line for at least three weeks. The plant produced 1.27mn t of phosphate rock in 2023, according to Nutrien's annual report, so three weeks of production would equate to roughly 800,000t of phosphate rock.

Helene also shut operations at rival fertilizer producer Mosaic's phosphate facility in Riverview, Florida, which is expected to return to normal operations later this week.

By Chris Mullins

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24/10/24

Ukraine's Rivneazot restarts CAN production

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Indonesian rice field growth to lift fertilizer demand

24/10/24

Indonesian rice field growth to lift fertilizer demand

Singapore, 24 October (Argus) — Indonesia's government plans to launch a program to develop around 3mn hectares (ha) of new rice fields from next year, which will likely lift domestic fertilizer demand in 2025. The first phase would involve developing around 1mn ha of paddy in Merauke, West Papua. This is expected to create local demand of around 500,000 t/yr for urea and NPK fertilizers, according to a source at state-controlled fertilizer group Pupuk Indonesia. President Prabowo Subianto supports this paddy expansion program to bolster Indonesia's national food security. The expansion plan also includes increasing the number of harvests from one harvest each year to around 2-3 harvests annually. Pupuk Indonesia is building a 1mn t/yr granular urea plant in Fakfak Regency, West Papua, which is expected to be completed in 2028, targeted to cater to potential growth in demand from expansions in rice planting areas. The group is also building a 400,000 t/yr prilled urea plant Pusri 3B in Palembang to replace its older prilled urea units. The plant is expected to come on line in 2025. Pupuk Indonesia is required to continue producing large volumes of subsidised fertilizers for the domestic industry. The government allocates approximately 25 trillion rupiah/yr ($1.6bn/yr) to aid farmers in obtaining affordable fertilizers, according to Pupuk Indonesia. The government increased the fertilizer subsidy allocation by around 14 trillion rupiahs this year to benefit more farmers. Pupuk Indonesia will distribute around 9.55mn t of subsidised fertilizer allocation in 2024, with around 4.63mnt consisting of urea fertilizers, 4.42mn t of NPK fertilizer including special formula NPKs, and 500,000t of organic fertilizers. Subsidised fertilizer allocations have also increased across all regions, with West Java receiving 1.21mn t, Central Java 1.51mn t, East Java at 1.92mn t, South Sulawesi 798,200t, and Lampung at 803,700t. Pupuk Indonesia currently has a fertilizer production capacity of over 14.6mn t/yr. The increase in domestic demand for fertilizers like urea and NPK could potentially result in fewer exports from Indonesia in 2025, as more production is prioritised for the domestic markets. By Dinise Chng Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Australia's Jan-Aug urea imports beat 2023 record high

24/10/24

Australia's Jan-Aug urea imports beat 2023 record high

Sydney, 24 October (Argus) — Australia's urea imports over January-August surpassed record-high levels in the whole of 2023, GTT data show, because of exceptional grain output and favourable weather conditions. Urea imports into Australia reached 3.35mn t in the first eight months of the year, already breaking the previous record high of 3.18mn t of imports in the whole of 2023 (see graph). Urea imports were notably at 768,800t in June, up by 66pc compared to the same month of 2023 when 463,200t was imported. Market participants have attributed the large increase to exceptional grain output across Australia, especially in New South Wales and Queensland, which has been supported by favourable rainfall. One urea importer noted imports could have been higher last year but many farmers put off their urea purchases, because of an El Nino forecast which failed to materialise, and this slowed imports. Saudi Arabia has been Australia's largest supplier so far this year at 597,000t, followed by the UAE, Indonesia, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia with 571,400t, 539,200t, 497,300t, 493,500t and 309,600t respectively. Imports from Indonesia have been notably much higher this year, more than tripling from 172,900t in the whole of 2023. But imports from China dropped significantly from 118,000t to just 17,000t on the back of export controls. Australian urea imports typically peak in the middle of the year before trailing off until January and then picking up again. Australia imported 625,200t of urea from September to the end of the year in 2023. Assuming imports stay at that level or are surpassed, as has been the case for most months this year, total imports could reach 4mn t, double the 1.99mn t of urea imported in 2019. Australia became entirely dependent on imports for urea in December 2022 after fertilisers and chemicals producer Incitec Pivot (IPL) shut down its Gibson Island fertiliser plant in Brisbane, Queensland. Market participants expect urea imports to remain strong until Australian fertilizer producer Perdaman's A$6bn ($4bn) urea project at Burrup Peninsula, Karratha Western Australia project is completed. Construction of the project started in late April and is expected start producing around 2.3mn t/yr of urea in 2026. The plant has a 20-year agreement with Woodside's Scarborough Gas Project to utilise its natural gas as feedstock while the plant also has a 20-year urea offtake agreement with IPL , with urea expected to be marketed to domestic and international export destinations. By Tom Woodlock Australia urea imports (t) Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

IRM, Atlas reach green nitrogen offtake agreement

24/10/23

IRM, Atlas reach green nitrogen offtake agreement

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Brazil's drought: River levels rise after declines

24/10/23

Brazil's drought: River levels rise after declines

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