Category: Outlook & Reviews

Although North America is no longer the world’s largest sulphur exporter, it remains a major producer and consumer, and there are still significant exports and imports of sulphur into and out of the region.

Claira Lloyd, Sulphur Editor and Sulphur Fertilizers Team Leader, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

Kuwait is in the middle of a major overhaul and expansion of its refining capacity, as well as boosting LPG output and sour gas processing.

Middle East supply will return to normal at the start of the second quarter with bottlenecks in the UAE and maintenance in Saudi Arabia at an end. But this is unlikely to result in lower Middle East f.o.b. prices until the second half of April, if not early May. This is because buyers who found it hard to find March loading cargoes will snap up any April product as soon as it’s made available.

Now in its second year, SulGas 2020, South Asia’s only conference on gas treating and sulphur recovery, took place 3-4 February 2020 at the Novotel – Juhu Beach, in Juhu, Mumbai, India.

What a difference two months can make. When I came to write the editorial for the January/February issue, the talk was all about climate change and sustainable production in the wake of Australia’s bushfire crisis, but these days there appears to be only one story that it is obsessing the world, and that of course is the Covid19 pandemic. The focus of concern has pivoted in recent days and weeks away from China and east Asia, which seem – hopefully – to have weathered the worst of the storm so far, and across to Europe and North America, where some difficult weeks and perhaps months clearly lie ahead.

Alistair Wallace, Head of Fertilizer Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for nitrogen.

The falling film high pressure carbamate condenser (HPCC) was the first type of high pressure carbamate condenser applied in urea stripping plants. Did you know that the first Snamprogetti stripping plants also had falling film carbamate condensers? In 1978 Mr Umberto Zardi, later founder of Casale, invented the horizontal kettle type condenser for Snamprogetti urea plants.

Lessons can be learned from the challenges faced during the construction, commissioning and start-up phases of major projects. In this article challenges and experiences are shared from the recent successful commissioning of ammonia and urea plants around the world, including projects in Indonesia, India, Egypt and the Middle East.

New ammonia and urea plants in Nigeria and Ethiopia are part of a wave of new capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa, and may help pull up regional demand from its current low base level.