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Oceania

23 June 2026

AFC locks in Gladstone urea offtake as Australia still scrambles for imports

Written by Natalie Noor-Drugan

Australian Fertilizer Corporation has signed exclusive 10-year offtake agreements covering 100% of the planned 220,000 t/a output from its proposed Gladstone Urea Facility, in a deal the company values at more than AUD 2.4 billion ($1.56 billion) over the initial term.

The agreements cover domestic and international buyers in the agricultural and technical-grade automotive urea markets and give AFC full offtake coverage ahead of project financing and development.

Import gap remains exposed

The announcement lands just days after the Australian government said it had secured another three shipments totalling about 98,500 tonnes of urea for farmers under its Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, taking the programme’s total additional urea secured to around 340,000 tonnes.

That underlines the supply gap AFC is targeting: the company said Australia currently imports all of its urea requirements, while the government said around 1.4 million tonnes of urea have already been cleared through Australia’s biosecurity system since the escalation of the war in the Middle East in February 2026.

Gladstone project pitch

AFC said the Gladstone plant would produce 220,000 t/a of technical-grade urea for both fertilizer and automotive emissions reduction markets, with the project framed as a domestic supply-security play as well as an industrial investment.

Chief executive Stein Haugan said the offtake package shows “strong market demand for Australian-made technical-grade urea” and added: “Every tonne of urea produced in Gladstone is a tonne that does not need to be imported.”

Circular carbon angle

The company said the project would use a circular carbon economy model, converting underutilised carbon resources including mining by-products, end-of-life tyres, biomass and municipal materials into fertilizer products.

AFC said the facility would create about 800 construction jobs and 50 permanent operating roles once commissioned, positioning the project as both a regional manufacturing investment and a supply-chain resilience measure for Australian agriculture.

Natalie Noor-Drugan

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