Tag: Ammonia

Urea: Prices continued their global decline in mid-April, including at New Orleans. The notable exception was Brazil where prices firmed due to buyer interest in the market for May and beyond.

Urease and nitrification inhibitors are cost efficient and easy to implement solutions for improving the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN). The use of inhibitors enables farmers to substantially reduce nitrogen losses and achieve their environmental targets, explains Thomas Profitt , Syensqo’s Global Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Manager, while improving crop yields and generating a positive return on investment.

More than 370 delegates from over 150 companies and 40 countries gathered at the Hilton Warsaw City Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, 26-28 February, for CRU’s Phosphates 2024 conference.

Addressing the ‘leaky’ nature of nitrogen fertilizers is a longstanding priority for growers, fertilizer producers and retailers alike. Dr Karl Wyant, Nutrien’s Director of Agronomy, examines the valuable role enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) can play in improving nitrogen use efficiency.

While there has been a lot of talk about decarbonising ammonia and methanol production, for as long as blue and green production is more expensive than conventional production, uptake will be dependent upon markets which are prepared to pay a premium for such chemicals, perhaps because they have no other reasonable choice, given environmental mandates. One sector above all has dominated the prospects for medium term demand for low carbon ammonia and methanol alike, and that is shipping.

Although global ammonia supply is set to increase this year, there is a shortage of new merchant capacity after 2024 which may lead to rising prices in the medium term.

The ammonia market reverted to recent norms at the end of April, with prices more or less unchanged in the east, and several benchmarks west of Suez moving downward in line with May’s Tampa settlement. Following a trio of high-priced c.fr spot deals many wondered whether such business would be replicated in Asia, but the hype did not live up to the expectation, with the majority of tonnes continuing to move on a contract basis into the likes of South Korea and Taiwan, China. The $430/t c.fr concluded into China has been attributed to both supply uncertainty and an uptick in domestic demand, though several inland prices declined this week, rendering price direction difficult.

The board of Petrobras has approved the resumption of operations at the company’s Araucária Nitrogenados SA (ANSA) site at Araucaria, Parana state. The plant, which has the capacity to produce 475,000 t/a of ammonia and 720,000 t/a of urea, has been idled 2020.

Anton Kariagin and Stefan Gebert of Clariant discuss the benefits and commercial performance of the new low temperature shift (LTS) catalyst – ShiftMax 217 Plus. A case study demonstrates the benefits of this catalyst, providing ultra-low methanol formation resulting in increased ammonia production and/or energy savings.

Johnson Matthey's latest KATALCO™ 71-7F high temperature shift catalyst with its robust shape provides lower lifetime pressure drop.