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Nitrogen+Syngas 364 Mar-Apr 2020

31 March 2020

Nitrogen Project Listing 2020

Nitrogen+Syngas’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants shows that the key areas for new project developments are Egypt, India, Nigeria and Russia. The timing of new Iranian capacity remains subject to external sanctions, while other significant projects are under way in China, Brunei and Uzbekistan, and the new ammonia plant for Ma’aden in Ras Al Khair to produce diammonium phosphate. Currently however the number of new projects scheduled for beyond 2021 is relatively small, although a number of the current batch of projects are likely to slip.

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CRU Phosphates+Potash conference focuses on sulphur

CRU’s Phosphates+Potash Expoconference was held in Paris in mid-April, with the Iran crisis uppermost in everyone’s mind. Margins are under pressure, sulphur has become a strategic constraint, and the phosphates investment pipeline is thin. CRU Principal Consultant Humphrey Knight examined the fallout from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, noting that fertilizers have been hit harder than most bulk commodities. A large share of exportable sulphur and traded urea normally originates in, or passes through, Gulf producers. The effective closure of the strait has squeezed the traded part of these markets, where international prices are set, and pushed benchmarks up sharply. The global phosphate market is structurally tight, and the combination of Chinese export policy and Middle East logistics has pushed the traded segment into a much more fragile state.