Magazine: 521 Jul-Aug 2024

We profile leading suppliers of tailor-made pumps to the phosphate, potash and sulphur industries.

Indian producers have begun producing nanofertilizers at scale with the backing of the national government, as part of efforts to improve nutrient use efficiency, limit fertilizer subsidies and reduce fertilizer import dependency. But some scientists have questioned the claimed benefits and the overall efficacy of these novel crop nutrient products.

Market as of 20th June 2024. Urea: Prices remain stable while the market awaits clear price direction on whether to hold current f.o.b. levels or to push higher.

The fertilizer market is full of contradictions and caveats. What applies to some markets is irrelevant to others, seasonality trends can be thrown off track by a single tender or government decision, and we remain at the often shaky intersection of food, energy and mining market fundamentals.

In a major milestone, Yara International has officially opened its renewable hydrogen plant at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn, Norway.

Levity Crop Science has a growing reputation as a leader in functional fertilizers, offering novel products that boost nitrogen and calcium efficiency and the crop uptake of micronutrients such as boron, molybdenum and silicon. This has culminated in the recent completion of a new research and development centre near Preston in the UK.

Today’s agronomists and farmers recognise the importance of boron in agriculture. But what do we know about why plants need boron and how boron deficiency affects crops? Fabiano Silvestrin, Principal Advisor, Global Market Development, Agriculture, at U.S. Borax has some answers.

Dr Setareh Jamali Jaghdani and professor Jóska Gerendás of K+S Group outline how micronutrient management, by positively influencing plant physiology and development, helps maximise crop yields.

Some 1,265 delegates from 552 companies and 72 countries gathered in Singapore for the 9Ist International Fertilizer Association (IFA) Annual Conference, 20-22 May 2024. Claire Newell, IFA’s Director of Communications & Marketing, reports on the main highlights of this three-day flagship event.

The newly-patented SWIFT process is designed to sequester fluorine at phosphoric acid plants in an environmentally responsible way. It can also offset the costs of fluorine management by generating a saleable dicalcium phosphate (DCP) end-product as an additional revenue stream. A number of capex and opex advantages provide the SWIFT process with highly favourable economics, as James Byrd of JESA Technologies explains.