Tag: Urea

Micronutrient products are one the fertilizer industry’s fastest growing segments. In response, ICL, Koch Agronomic Services, Levity Crop Science, Omex and SQM have all strengthened their micronutrient portfolios.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media. Urea: Prices fell in most global markets in early March as suppliers chased limited demand. Although India’s purchase tender has yet to formally conclude, IPL looks set to book 1.15 million tonnes of urea at $330-334.8/t cfr, with traders mainly sourcing from Russian and Middle Eastern producers.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit European fertilizer producers hard. Ammonia plants across the continent have been inactive over the winter due to prohibitively high feedstock costs. The future of nitrogen fertilizer production in the region will depend on access to an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply and the switchover to low-carbon technologies.

Sulphur is a vital secondary crop nutrient. It can be delivered in sulphate, thiosulphate and elemental form. The range of product and process options are outlined.

Storing urea under hot and humid ambient conditions can be a chall enge. Several quality parameters of the urea product itself like moisture, temperature and particle size distribution are critical. Fluctuations of these parameters over time are also important and can lead to caking issues and complaints by clients. Off-spec product means big losses in revenue and results in a troublesome stream that has to be handled separately. Learning from each other’s experiences is vital to minimise and avoid these problems. n

CRU’s Nitrogen + Syngas conference convened at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, from March 5th-8th.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

The EU benchmark TTF natural gas price had fallen to $16.89/MMBtu on average for February, down 19% on January’s average and 36% lower than the figure for February 2022. By the end of the month it had fallen to $14.83/MMBtu, its lowest level since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. EU gas storage was assessed as 61% full on 28 February, compared to a five-year seasonal average of 40%, due to strong LNG imports and mild weather over the winter. Over one third of European ammonia capacity has returned to production as gas prices fall.

Brazil’s agricultural industry continues to expand at the same time that most of its nitrogen fertilizer industry has shut down. Meanwhile, Venezuela continues to deal with the consequences of years of underinvestment and mismanagement, and elsewhere, gas discoveries in other parts of the continent have not led to the new plant construction boom that had once been hoped for.

More than 650 delegates from 326 companies and 56 countries gathered at the Hotel RIU Plaza España, Madrid, Spain, 17-19 October 2022, for the Argus Fertilizer Europe 2022 conference.