Fertilizer International 498 Sept-Oct 2020
30 September 2020
African fertilizer producers and blenders
AFRICA’S FERTILIZER INDUSTRY
African fertilizer producers and blenders
The last three years has seen a renaissance in fertilizer production and blending in sub-Saharan Africa. We highlight the expansion of capacity in Nigeria and other countries within the region.
Fertilizer production in sub-Saharan Africa is restricted to the manufacture of phosphate and nitrogen products – as potash is not mined in the region at present. According to the most recent survey1 , production in the region is concentrated in around 11 plants located in eight countries, excluding South Africa (Figure 1).
Phosphate mining and production
There are five main phosphate mine operators in sub-Saharan Africa, outside of South Africa:
- Industries Chimiques du Senegal (ICS), Taiba, Senegal (> two million t/a mining capacity)
- Société d’Études et de Réalisation des Phosphates (SERPM), Matam, Senegal (25,000 t/a mining capacity)
- Société Nouvelle des Phosphates du Togo (SNPT), Kpeme, Togo (> one million t/a mining capacity)
- Zimbabwe Phosphate Industries Limited (Zimphos), Mutare, Zimbabwe (150,000 t/a mining capacity)
- Minjingu Mines and Fertilizer Limited, Minjingu,Tanzania (100,000 t/a mining capacity)
Additionally, Kel Chemicals manufactures single superphosphate (SSP) using externally purchased phosphate rock at its 200,000 t/a capacity plant in Thika, Kenya. The phosphate rock mine operated by Toguna Agro Industries at Bamako, Mali (300,000 t/a mining capacity) is thought to be inactive.
South Africa plus Senegal and Togo in West Africa are major phosphate rock producing countries. They collectively extracted more than 5.6 million tonnes of phosphate rock in 2018, exporting more than half of this amount (Figure 2). The most recent International Fertilizer Association (IFA) statistics suggest that Mali did not produce any phosphate rock in 2018, while production in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe was minor.
Senegal’s phosphate reserves of 50 million tonnes are the largest in West Africa. The country produced 2.5 million tonnes of phosphate rock in 2018, one-quarter of which (almost 600,000 tonnes) went for export. The country’s phosphate rock and phosphoric acid production is largely targeted at the Indian market. Senegal produced more than one million tonnes of phosphoric acid in 2018, exporting almost 80 percent of this total.
Indorama Group bought a majority stake in Industries Chimiques du Senegal (ICS) in August 2014, with a promise to invest $226 million in the Senegalese phosphate producer. The group currently owns 78 percent of ICS, while Indian fertilizer giant IFFCO retains a seven percent share. ICS extracts phosphate rock, manufactures phosphoric acid (600,000 t/a) and has the capacity to produce diammonium phosphate (DAP) and NPK fertilizers (250,000 t/a). A planned second plant at Mbao could eventually see annual fertilizer production capacity rise to one million tonnes.
Togo possesses world-class phosphate reserves of 30 million tonnes. Phosphate mining is of strategic importance to Togo’s economy with overseas shipments generating a significant slice of the country’s export earnings. Togo’s phosphate mines were privatised in 2001 only to be renationalised as the Société Nouvelle des Phosphates du Togo (SNPT) six years later. SNPT’s mining and production operations, located in Hahotoe, 35 kilometres east of the capital, Lome, employ around 5,000 workers. The state-owned firm launched a $150 million investment programme in 2010.
SNPT’s output has rebounded following the strikes which have seriously affected production in recent years. Togo’s phosphate rock production totalled 1.1 million tonnes in 2018 (Figure 2), a 45 percent improvement on 2017. Almost all of the country’s rock output is destined for export. Consequently, Togo’s phosphate rock exports also recovered strongly in 2018, up by around one-third year-on-year.
New phosphate miners
Two junior mining companies began extracting phosphate rock on a small-scale in 2017 – but have struggled to maintain production since then.
Australian developer Avenira Ltd made the maiden shipment from its Baboab phosphate project in Senegal in 2017. The company shipped 21,400 tonnes of phosphate rock to India from the Port of Dakar, 145 kilometres west of its Gadde Bissik mine site. However, consistent and large-scale production of high quality rock concentrate was still dependent on full commissioning, ramp-up and debottlenecking of the project’s processing plant.
In March last year, Avenira published a feasibility study to increase Baobab’s annual production to one million tonnes. Although Avenira had ambitious plans to expand the project, the company ultimately decided to divest from these assets, selling-off Baobab to a consortium of shareholders in July 2019. It is not clear whether the Gadde Bissik mine is producing currently.
South African mining company Kropz is developing what is said to be South Africa’s largest sedimentary phosphate deposit at a 5,000 hectare site at Elandsfontein on the country’s west coast. The project’s first phase involves producing 1.2-1.5 million t/a of high-grade (32% P2 O5 ) rock concentrate from a total resource of 250 million tonnes.
The $120 million Elandsfontein project briefly entered production in 2017 but has ceased operations since. The project’s highly automated processing plant, which has the capacity to deliver in excess of one million t/a of phosphate rock concentrate (>31% P2 O5 ), is now nearing completion, according to Kropz. Final commissioning is, however, dependent on further test work and design modifications.
Nitrogen fertilizers
Nigeria’s Notore Chemicals Industries Limited and Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited operate sub-Saharan Africa’s two urea plants. Notore’s 400,000 t/a capacity urea plant dates from 1988, while Indorama’s 1.4 million t/a Port Harcourt urea plant was commissioned in 2016, making the company the largest urea producer in the region.
Following the start-up of Indorama’s plant in June 2016, Nigeria’s urea production has rocketed from around 280,000 tonnes in 2015 to 1.5 million tonnes last year. Exports over this period have also risen from around 82,000 tonnes to almost three quarters of a million tonnes (Figure 3).
About half of Indorama’s urea output is consumed domestically. The remainder is exported to South America, principally Brazil, and neighbouring African countries. Some 84 percent of Nigeria’s 840,000 tonnes of urea exports in 2018 was destined for Brazil.
Other plants in the region manufacture ammonium sulphate (AS) and ammonium nitrate (AN) using imported ammonia (Figure 1). These include:
- International Raw Materials’ 180,000 t/a capacity AS plant in Madagascar
- Sable Chemicals Industries Limited’s 240,000 t/a capacity AN plant in Kweke, Zimbabwe
- Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia’s 64,000 t/a capacity AN plant in Kafue, Zambia.
- Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia also has the capability to manufacture 100,000 t/a of NPKs.
New Nigerian nitrogen plants
Two new world-class nitrogen projects are close to completion in Nigeria, confirming the country’s status as a major international production and export hub for urea.
The construction of Africa’s biggest fertilizer plant in Edo state in southern Nigeria for Dangote Group is almost complete. The plant will comprise of two urea production lines with a capacity of 3,850 t/d each (see box). Combined, these will provide Dangote with an annual urea production capacity of 2.6 million tonnes. Indorama, meanwhile, is aiming to complete construction of its second world-scale ammonia-urea production line next year. This second ‘Eleme II’ line will effectively double urea production capacity at the Port Harcourt complex to 2.8 million t/a (see box).
NPK supply – imports vs domestic blending
Africa represents a sizable and lucrative NPK market. The continent imports more than two million tonnes of various NPK grades annually. Much of this demand is met through tenders which typically total more than 1.7 million tonnes each year.
Africa’s NPK tender season usually starts in August and runs until the end of October. Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mali all place major tenders each year – with Ethiopia issuing the largest.
Africa is both a blend and compound NPK market. Higher quality compound NPKs – which are mostly imported – typically enjoy a price premium over blended NPKs. This should provide Africa’s blended NPK producers with a cost advantage over imported products. Despite this, NPK imports have traditionally been favoured due to the general lack of in-country blending capacity throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Blending capacity within the region has also only been operating at around 20 percent of installed capacity previously, according to AfricaFertilizer.org.
As a consequence, Africa’s NPK import volumes have been growing fast. The size of Ethiopia’s NPK tender, for example, has increased by more than 40 percent since the 2015/16 season, reaching 670,000 tonnes in 2018/19. Even this percentage underestimates market growth as – having reduced its tender year-on-year in 2018/2019 – Ethiopia subsequently returned with a 50 percent larger tender in 2019/2020. Ethiopia’s strong NPK import growth is mirrored by West Africa. Benin’s NPK tender, for example, increased from just 40,000 tonnes for the 2015/16 season to 230,000 tonnes in 2018/19.
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Dangote plant in pre-commissioning
Dangote Group’s large-scale urea-ammonia plant in Edo State, Nigeria, has finally entered pre-commissioning, the company has confirmed.
The fertilizer plant, located near Lagos on Nigeria’s Atlantic seaboard, is just one part of Dangote’s massive $12 billion Lekki integrated petrochemical complex. On opening, it will be the largest fertilizer production plant in Africa. The dual-train plant has the capacity to produce 2.6 million t/a of urea and 1.5 million t/a of ammonia.
Italy’s Saipem is constructing the plant, being the project’s engineering, procurement and supervision contractor. Tata Consulting Engineers of India are acting as project management consultants.
The $2 billion fertilizer project is now in its final stages. Virtually every section of the urea production complex – including the central control room, ammonia and urea bulk storage, cooling tower, power generation plant and granulation plant – is now complete and are going through pre-testing.
The project, which was originally targeting completion in the first quarter of 2018, is being built to the following specification:
- Ammonia plants: 2 x 2,200 t/d based on Haldor Topsoe technology
- Urea melt plants: 2 x 3,850 t/d based on Saipem’s Snamprogetti technology
- Urea granulation plants: 2 x 3,850 t/d based on Uhde Fertilizer Technology
Part of the output from Dangote’s new urea plant will be dedicated to its expanding farming business. The Group is planning to increase sugar cane and rice cultivation in Nigeria to around 300,000 hectares, raising its annual fertilizer requirement to 150,000 tonnes. n
This reliance on imported NPKs may be about to change, however, thanks to the boom in African fertilizer blending capacity in the last three years. The number of NPK blending plants in sub-Saharan Africa has almost doubled, from 41 at the start of 2017 to 81 by the beginning of this year (Figure 4), according to the latest annual register compiled by AfricaFertilizer.org1 . This total excludes South Africa.
Almost 70 percent of these NPK blending plants (56) are located in West and Central Africa, the remaining 30 percent of plants (25) being distributed across East and Southern Africa. The plants vary greatly in size with installed capacities ranging from 10-200 tonnes/hour.
African compound NPK production capacity, in contrast, has remained static. The latest sub-Saharan African register includes just six NPK steam granulation plants with a combined capacity of 716,000 t/a, many of these dating from the 1950s and 1960s1 . All six are located in East and Southern Africa:
- Optichem 2000 Ltd, Blantyre, Malawi (100,000 t/a)
- Minjingu Mines & Fertilizer Ltd, Arusha, Tanzania (100,000 t/a)
- Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia, Kafue, Zambia (100,000 t/a)
- Zambian Fertilizers Ltd, Lusaka, Zambia (16,000 t/a)
- Windmill Pvt Ltd, Harare, Zimbabwe (200,000 t/a)
- Zimbabwe Fertilizer Co, Harare, Zimbabwe (200,000 t/a).
Nigeria’s blending capacity boom
Nigeria has been at the epicentre of the expansion in African blending plant capacity. The country has seen the number of active blending plants increase from just eight at the start of 2017 to 34 by the beginning of this year. Capacity is continuing to rise. AfricaFertilizer. org expects the installation of another 16 plants during 2020 – taking Nigeria’s NPK blending plant total to around 50 by the start of 2021.
Most of the 34 currently-active blending plants in Nigeria concentrate on blending NPK 20-10-10 under the country’s Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI). These NPK blending plants already provide Nigeria with a total installed capacity of around four million tonnes, according to a 2019 analysis by Argus, well in excess of the country’s actual NPK consumption of around 700,000 tonnes each year.
The Nigerian government’s ban on NPK imports in 2019 has undoubtedly boosted in-country production of blended products. The ban, which imposed foreign exchange and regulatory controls, was taken in response to oversupply and competition from imported compound NPKs. The ban is specifically designed to protect and encourage Nigeria’s bulk blend industry.
The ban has proved successful, having virtually eliminated Nigeria’s NPK imports. These declined from almost half a million tonnes in 2017 to less than 2,000 tonnes last year.
The NPK import ban was instigated following pressure from the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (Fepsan). It argued that an import ban would improve the country’s foreign currency reserves, protect the domestic NPK blending industry, and encourage Nigeria’s farmers to move away from generic NPK mixtures to customised soil-specific grades.
Yet – despite its apparent success to date – some analysts remain sceptical about the efficacy of Nigeria’s NPK import ban and its future.
“Local Nigerian NPK blends are often adulterated, and farmers are willing to pay premia approaching 50 percent for imported NPK compounds,” CRU analyst, Glen Kurokawa, commented in January. “The government has problems procuring raw materials for blends due to poor payment terms and delayed payments, leading producers being reluctant to supply.”
He added: “Furthermore, blend stocks have been reduced. We expect the ban to be lifted in 2020 and that OCP-sourced NPKs will be allowed into the country once again. We forecast OCP NPK exports to Nigeria rising to nearly 200,000 tonnes in 2020.”
Another 30 NPK blending plants are due to be installed in sub-Sharan African countries by the end of this year. Some 16 of these, as stated above, will be located in Nigeria.
More than half of these new blending plants will be fitted out by just three leading equipment manufacturers: North America’s AGI Fertilizer Systems, South African headquartered Bagtech International and Netherlands-based EMT. According to AfricaFertilizer.org1 , in 2020:
- AGI is installing five blending and bagging plants in Nigeria, another in Ghana, and an AGI blend system with a Nectar bagging system in Niger
- Bagtech International is installing a total of six blending and bagging systems in Nigeria
- EMT is installing four proprietary blending and bagging systems – two in Tanzania, one in Angola and another in Rwanda.
These three companies discuss their current activities in sub-Saharan Africa below.
AGI – forward-looking with a long legacy
For over 20 years Yargus Manufacturing, now AGI Fertilizer Systems, has been contributing to the development of fertilizer infrastructure in Africa. The company has been active in Nigeria for more than two decades now, as Anne Yargus Sheehy, AGI’s director of international business development, explains:
“Yargus first sold its blending & bagging plants into Nigeria in 1997. Those three blending plants consisted of a series of load hoppers that bagged fertilizer could be dumped into – then moved with belt conveyors to a central weigh hopper and eventually fed into a tapered vertical blending systems that fed a single bagging line.”
“This system would produce approximately 35 tonnes per hour of blended & bagged product. These plants were installed in three different states and were commissioned by the Nigerian Government.”
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Port Harcourt expansion targets 2021
Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals Ltd is aiming to complete construction of its second world-scale ammonia-urea production line next year. The second line will effectively double Indorama’s urea capacity to 2.8 million t/a at its Port Harcourt complex by duplicating the 1.4 million t/a capacity of the existing line production line.
Indorama secured the $1 billion finance package for the ‘Eleme II’ project in 2018 from a consortium of banks led by the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank (Fertilizer International 485, p10).
The project has been under construction for two years. Bukola Saraki, the president of Nigeria’s senate, laid the foundation stone at an official groundbreaking ceremony in July 2018.
Toyo (TEC) was awarded the contract to build the second urea-ammonia line at Port Harcourt, replicating its work on the original production line. Toyo is also the urea technology licensor (ACES21) for ® Eleme II, as well as being responsible for the project’s basic design, detail engineering, procurement and commissioning services. KBR will provide the technology licensing, basic engineering design, proprietary equipment and the catalyst for Port Harcourt’s second ammonia plant. n
“We have watched the fertilizer market in Nigeria evolve over the last 23 years. Back then, small batch systems were fulfilling the blending need. Today, there is a greater need for high-speed, automated blending and bagging facilities.”
“In 2017, we started to see a strong demand for bigger, faster machines in the exact same regions in Nigeria. The private sector wanted to be in the fertilizer business and the government had made that possible. Speed, accuracy and flexibility are all key factors when designing a new blending facility.”
“Three years later, in 2020, we have now sold seven new blending/bagging plants across the agriculture region in Nigeria. Four of the seven have now been installed and commissioned. By 2021, all seven will be installed and commissioned. All of these projects have high-speed, declining weight blend systems feeding into one, two or three bagging lines.”
“All these systems are equipped with liquid spray systems, giving customers the ability to add liquid additives & inhibitors. Several of these new plants also have powder feeders giving them the ability to meter small quantities of powder micro nutrients into their blends, in very accurate quantities.”
“We continue to receive inquiries on development in Nigeria, with two verbal orders pending final approval.”
AGI Fertilizer Systems also recently commissioned a new blending and bagging facility in Ghana, and secured another order in Uganda, as Anne explains:
“This plant will also give our [Ghanaian] customer immense flexibility in their blend analysis, making it possible for them to accurately add liquids and powders to a blend. This plant is also a high speed declining weight blender. It’s been fully commissioned and is now supplying the local market via custom blending technology.
“Additionally, we have sold a new plant in Uganda that will be commissioned in the coming months. This is a smaller batch system that will supply custom blends to the growers in Uganda.”
Anne is proud of the company’s legacy and optimistic about the future:
“AGI Fertilizer Systems has installations across the African continent in Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius. We can offer engineered and new production plants in many regions of Africa that did not previously have fertilizer blending available, like Ethiopia and Uganda.
“We can provide a complete fertilizer handling solution that will help diagnose fertilizer requirements for various regions and improve fertilizer blend formulations specific for the soil and crops.”
EMT’s Africa-wide projects
Netherlands-based fertilizer blending and bagging equipment, manufacturer EMT has been heavily involved in the development of the African fertilizer industry. The Netherlands-based company has a long list of references, as managing director, Gustaaf Zeeman, explains:
“In total we have installed more than 460 projects in over 70 countries worldwide. The company has exported to more than 20 African countries in previous years.
“One of the most recent larger installations on the continent has been a Weighcont Continuous Blender Line with small bag bagging lines. The company Glofert has invested in a machine line with a capacity of 80 tons per hour (see photo). With its machine installation, Glofert can continuously produce blends and bag the fertilizer through two bagging lines, each of 40 tonnes per hour.
“The company is a local Ghanaian business that is directly selling fertilizer to their local distributors. Ghana has a strong presence of fertilizer blenders with EMT equipment, including LDC-Chemico and Yara. In fact, we recently expanded Yara’s blending facility with a new machine installation.”
EMT has been very active across Africa, Gustaaf adds:
“Analysing the African market as a whole, we can see Ethiopia as a big investor, with EMT blender and bagging lines installed at four different locations. But, of all the sub-Saharan countries, South Africa has the highest number of companies running EMT equipment. Having said that, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Nigeria, Togo and Zimbabwe also have local companies running our blending and bagging equipment.
“In the African market, there’s a constant need to develop the agricultural sector further. We are incredibly busy right now. Currently, we have EMT installation projects in Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria – all running at the same time!”
EMT’s equipment has the ability to coat fertilizers. This is becoming a valuable requirement, both in the African market and elsewhere, concludes Gustaaf:
“A new and upcoming development, both inside and outside Africa, is the coating of urea and/or blended fertilizers. Almost all of EMT’s blending equipment can add liquids to impregnate urea, for example, within the same machine line. We’ve also developed standalone coating units which focus solely on coating one type of fertilizer – usually urea with an inhibitor.”
Bagtech International – Africa’s local leader
Bagtech International is a highly successful bagging and blending equipment supplier and bulk material processing service provider based in Durban, South African
In 2018, the company installed the highest capacity continuous fertiliser blending plant in Africa, capable of blending at up to 200 tonnes per hour and bagging out at up to 240 tonnes per hour. The project was commissioned by Hoopstad-based fertilizer company Westfert in South Africa’s Free State. Hoopstad is at the heart of country’s richest maize producing region. Bagtech completed this installation in collaboration with automation specialists Festo.
The company is extremely active throughout Africa, currently, as Fred Coelho, Bagtech’s CEO and founder, explains:
“As well as selling the largest blending plant in Africa to Westfert, we have sold 15 to 20 complete NPK blending plants in Southern Africa. That includes sales to leading companies such as Yara, Gavilon, Omnia Fertilizers and TWK.
“Outside of South Africa, we’ve sold a plant to Angola, our first plant there, one for Tanzania and another one for Zimbabwe. Earlier this year, we also commissioned two large blending plants in Nigeria for major companies – one in Lagos and another one in Kaduna. On top of that, we have two very large plants waiting to be installed for another big company in Nigeria.
“We also have a plant in Nigeria running in Kebbi near Abuja. This was our first plant in Nigeria. We now have a very strong infrastructure in Nigeria, with 100 percent local support – and our people there will be key in expanding in West Africa as well.
“In East Africa, we sold a plant to Toyota Tsusho about three years ago, after they visited our competitors in Europe and the United States.”
Bagtech is expanding outside of Africa too – into Latin America and other international markets, as Fred makes clear:
“We have just sold our first NPK blender in Brazil. We are also about to close a deal for a very special blender to Thailand and are seriously looking to expand into Southeast Asia.”
References
