Tag: Demand

T he high-price environment for fertilizers and other commodities, including natural gas, is having very different consequences globally.

T he end of August saw a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society by Dr Mark Maslin of University College London. Widely reported, it looked at the prospects for sulphur production in an era of declining fossil fuel use, concluding that there could be “a shortfall in the annual supply of sulphuric acid of between 100 and 320 million tonnes by 2040, depending on how quickly decarbonisation occurs”. It added that “unless action is taken to reduce the need for sulphuric acid, a massive increase in environmentally damaging mining will be required to fulfil this resource demand.”

While most sulphuric acid demand for phosphates is based on the production of phosphate fertilizer, non-fertilizer sources of demand such as animal feed and industrial processes additionally represent a relatively small but growing sector of the market.

In a major blow to the British fertilizer industry, CF Fertilisers UK announced the closure of its Ince production site in north-west England in June (see p8). Ince is the UK’s largest compound fertilizer producer, operating three NPK+S units. It also manufactures large volumes of ammonium nitrate (AN) for Britain’s farmers. At the heart of the Cheshire complex is Ince’s long-standing ammonia plant. Unfortunately, high natural gas costs have kept this shuttered since September last year.

New research findings strongly suggest that iodine behaves as a plant nutrient. SQM International has been quick to follow up on this discovery by launching a new speciality iodine fertilizer for fertigated crops.

In increasingly volatile times for commodity markets, companies up and down the fertilizer supply chain are being left financially exposed to price fluctuations. Alison Coughlin and Tom Crane of CME Group explain how derivatives allow fertilizer market participants to protect themselves from the risk of adverse price movements.

The overuse of limited natural resources and excessive contributions to climate change are just two of the criticisms currently levelled at global agriculture. Plant scientist David Marks is addressing these criticisms head-on through the company he founded, Levity Crop Science. He believes that, with better access to the right products, farmers can bring agriculture back into balance.

Reclaiming phosphorus from sewage sludge ash holds great potential for the fertilizer industry – by helping to reduce dependency on global supply chains, ensuring resilience and even raising quality. But successful phosphorus recovery largely depends on the process used, as EasyMining’s Anna Lundbom, Sara Stiernström and Christian Kabbe explain.

The past couple of years have been quite the wild ride, with major global events dominating markets outside of the usual concerns of broad market supply and demand. It seems like a long time ago now, but this time last year, the price of a barrel of Brent crude was about $75. Go back two years, in the wake of the onset of covid restrictions, and that barrel would have cost you $40 (and just $25 a couple of months before that). In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, you could easily have paid $130, and it has been hovering around $110/bbl for the past few months. The last time oil spent any time at that level was in 2014, just before the Chinese economy ran out of steam and prices slumped by 70%.

E. Almeida and B. Ferraro of Clark Solutions discuss how regular monitoring by simple testing of the towers in sulphuric acid plants can improve the reliability and lifespan of the plant.