Magazine: Fertilizer International

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

CF Industries announced several interlinked board changes in mid-October. Current chair Stephen Furbacher is to retire at the company’s annual stockholders meeting in May next year. In a coordinated move, the board elected Stephen Hagge – currently an independent director of CF Industries – as Mr Furbacher’s successor with effect from the start of January 2022. The board also elected John Eaves, another independent director and the executive chairman of Arch Resources, as incoming chair of the company’s compensation and management development committee. He is taking over this role from the committee’s former chair Mr Hagge. This appointment also takes effect from the beginning of 2022.

Like the vital nitrogen fertilizer they handle, seasonal cheer will be in short supply for Europe’s ammonia producers and buyers this festive season, after many difficult months in which upward price trajectories showed no sign of slowing.

Conventional fertilizers can be transformed into enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) using coating agents and inhibitors. Greater use of EEFs, by preventing nutrient losses and avoiding excess nutrient supply, can help global agriculture become more sustainable, as Urvi Mathur of Neelam Aqua explains.

Improvements to nutrient use efficiency (NUE), particularly for nitrogen, can deliver dual environmental and economic benefits. We report on recent developments in nitrogen management and global progress on NUE.

The feed phosphates industry is caught between conflicting trends currently, according to Alberto Persona of the Fertecon fertilizer team at IHS Markit. While the long-term demand-side fundamentals look broadly stable, there is still likely to be a fight for market share due to competition from substitute products and the emergence of new projects.

More than 230 delegates from 45 countries participated in CRU’s Sustainable Fertilizer Production Technology Forum, 20-23 September 2021. To highlight this successful virtual event, we report on keynote and selected technical presentations.

Yield, quality and profitability are the primary focus for the modern potato grower. But these objectives need to be balanced against the need to reduce the environmental impacts that result from cultivating the world’s fourth-biggest food crop. Fertilizer International talks to David Marks of Levity Crop Science about how its unique approach to product development is helping farmers adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.

PhosAgro’s Evgeniya Mescherova and Boris Levin explain how new EU and Russian regulations, designed to safeguard the environment and human health, are improving global support for both soil health and food security.

Fertilizer International presents a global round-up of current potash projects.