Skip to main content

Agricultural

13 January 2026

Press Release: NEXTCHEM (MAIRE) announces two awards in China based on its proprietary NX STAMI Nitrates and NX STAMI Urea technologies, advancing the fertilizer industry

NEXTCHEM (MARIE)’s Press Release: 13 January 2026, Milan

  • NEXTCHEM will leverage its mono-pressure nitric acid technology providing the license and the process design package (PDP) for a new plant in China
  • NX STAMI™ Urea technology has also been selected for the revamping of an existing nitrogen fertilizer complex in Northern China

MAIRE (MAIRE.MI) announces that NEXTCHEM, through its nitrogen technology licensor Stamicarbon, has been awarded two contracts in China, leveraging its proprietary technology portfolio and reinforcing its commitment to delivering practical, efficiency-driven solutions to meet the evolving needs of the fertilizer industry.

NEXTCHEM will provide the license and the PDP for a new nitric acid plant in China. The project entails the application of Stamicarbon’s state-of-the-art mono-pressure technology, part of NX STAMI™ Nitrates series, which uses oxygen instead of air as feed for the process, enabling high energy recovery and low operational costs. This award builds on the Group’s long-standing expertise in nitrogen technologies and reflects its commitment to industrializing efficient, low-emission solutions for the agricultural supply chains. With approximately 80% of global nitric acid production dedicated to fertilizer applications, efficient and low-emission nitric acid processes are critical to the global production of sustainable fertilizers.

Moreover, NEXTCHEM has also signed a new contract to provide the license and the PDP, as well as technical assistance services for the revamping of a nitrogen fertilizer complex in Northern China. The project is aimed at upgrading an existing urea plant based on the proprietary NX STAMI™ Urea technology, allowing significant reductions in steam consumption and improving energy efficiency, while optimizing both CAPEX and OPEX.

Fabio Fritelli, Managing Director of NEXTCHEM, commented: “These two awards in China underscore NEXTCHEM’s ability to combine proprietary cutting-edge technologies with tangible efficiency gains for our clients. This is a clear testament to NEXTCHEM’s strategy aimed at accelerating a more sustainable and competitive fertilizer value chain while strengthening its long-term presence in key markets.”

Latest in Agricultural

Cherepovets hit by drone strikes; phosphate impact unclear

Multiple drone strikes have hit the industrial city of Cherepovets in Russia's Vologda Oblast region, according to Russian news agency TASS. The area contains PhosAgro's largest phosphate fertilizer production site. Cherepovets has a production capacity of around 700,000 t/a NPK and around 814,000 t/year DAP/MAP, according to CRU data, making it the largest phosphate fertilizer production site across Europe and the CIS. The site also contains several sulphuric acid plants with a combined capacity of 4.5 million t/a, making it Russia's largest production hub for the acid. This entire volume is consumed domestically.

CRU Phosphates+Potash conference focuses on sulphur

CRU’s Phosphates+Potash Expoconference was held in Paris in mid-April, with the Iran crisis uppermost in everyone’s mind. Margins are under pressure, sulphur has become a strategic constraint, and the phosphates investment pipeline is thin. CRU Principal Consultant Humphrey Knight examined the fallout from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, noting that fertilizers have been hit harder than most bulk commodities. A large share of exportable sulphur and traded urea normally originates in, or passes through, Gulf producers. The effective closure of the strait has squeezed the traded part of these markets, where international prices are set, and pushed benchmarks up sharply. The global phosphate market is structurally tight, and the combination of Chinese export policy and Middle East logistics has pushed the traded segment into a much more fragile state.