Section: CRUFI Features

We look ahead at fertilizer industry prospects for the next 12 months, including the key economic and agricultural drivers likely to shape the market during 2025.

Emerging evidence suggests that by-products used as fertilizers, particularly ammonium sulphate, may emerge as winners from the EU’s implementation of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). In this article, Franck Boher of Upgraid investigates whether by-products can help reshape sustainable fertilizer production in Europe.

We look at the future of polyhalite mining and its use as a fertilizer following Anglo American’s announcement that investment in its UK-Based Woodsmith mine will fall to zero in 2026 under current plans.

The ‘golden batch’ refers to stable periods at production plants that consistently generate high quality NPK products at high output. Yara’s Golden Batch digital tool digitises and stores past data from optimal production runs, making these easy to retrieve and implement again in future. Yara’s Marianne Ytterbø provides an overview of this novel digital tool, explains how it was developed, and highlights key benefits.

Significant changes to the level and location of sulphur inventory over the last two years have caused swings in short-term supply availability. Inventory plays a necessary role in balancing the sulphur market but exactly when, where, how, and why inventory enters the market can trigger a diverse range of price responses. In this insight article, CRU’s Peter Harrisson looks at how inventory change influences sulphur availability and pricing.

The dry bulk market is forecast to cool, after a year of high freight rates driven by demand shocks. Should ships return to the Red Sea during 2025, then the market will weaken even more. This development, explains BIMCO shipping analyst Filipe Gouveia, would particularly affect the supramax and handysize vessels typically used in fertilizer shipping.

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

The prospect of a drastic expansion in potassium sulphate production has been linked to a plethora of projects in Australia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. These have sought to take advantage of market tightness and high price premiums. Yet investor interest in supposedly promising projects has waned over the last few years. In this insight article, CRU’s Alexander Chreky explains the reasons behind the high project failure rate, as well as highlighting some limited successes.

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

We profile Ulexandes, a fast-expanding supplier of agricultural boron products with production plants in both Bolivia and Peru.