Tag: Urea

Certain fertilizer prices are likely to remain above $1,000/t well into 2023, according to Moody’s.

Nitrogen+Syngas’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants.

Spot ammonia prices made steep losses in west of Suez regions following the $200/t drop in the Tampa May contract price in late April, as supply and demand start to rebalance two months after the removal of Black Sea ammonia exports from the market. Yara has settled the Tampa contract price for May with Mosaic at $1,425/t c.fr, a $200/t drop from April.

Leaks in the high-pressure synthesis section of a urea plant may lead to catastrophic consequences. In 2017, building on an incident database set up by UreaKnowHow.com, AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com introduced FIORDA, the Fertilizer Industry Operational Risk Database, a global open source risk register for ammonia and urea plants.

The ammonia market, already seeing record pricing in the wake of the winter’s gas price squeeze, is braced for even higher pricing in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The impact upon gas prices has been most marked, with rates of over $65/MMBtu seen in European forward pricing as the threat of a cessation of Russian gas exports loomed. This will undoubtedly lead to widespread idling of ammonia capacity in Europe.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

Switzerland-based EuroChem Group AG says it has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire the nitrogen business of the Borealis group, after having submitted a binding offer. One of Europe’s leading fertilizer producers, Borealis operates fertilizer plants in Germany, Austria and France, as well as more than 50 distribution points across Europe. It supplies 3.9 million tonnes of fertilizer products per year, including 800,000 t/a of technical nitrogen solutions and 150,000 t/a of melamine via the Borealis LAT distribution network. It is a market leader in melamine, with its operations in Austria and Germany supplying primarily the woodworking industry. EuroChem says that melamine and technical nitrogen solutions represent important new business lines for the company to expand its nitrogen-based product portfolio in Europe.

High feedstock prices and regulatory burdens continue to put pressure on European nitrogen producers to innovate.

Improvements to equipment and materials are driving greater operational performance and higher efficiencies at urea plants. Recent advances are reviewed.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media