Tag: CF Industries

In spite of nearly two years of western sanctions, Russian exports of nitrogen fertilizer have recovered almost to pre-war levels, while high prices led to record earnings in 2022.

As Europe struggles to move away from its previous dependence on imported Russian natural gas, prices have been high and volatile, with a corresponding catastrophic impact upon domestic ammonia production.

In a recent webinar, Chris Lawson, CRU’s Head of Fertilizers, gave the CRU view on what 2024 holds in store for the global fertilizer industry. Here are CRU’s top 10 calls for the year ahead:

We report on fertilizer production, consumption and pricing in the US market. The country’s fertilizer industry, ranked fourth globally in terms of total production capacity, has grown and developed alongside its increasingly sophisticated domestic agricultural sector.

Bruce Bodine will become the new CEO of The Mosaic Company from the 1st January 2024. He was unanimously elected by the company’s board of directors at the end of August. His appointment followed the announcement that the current CEO Joc O’Rourke will retire next year. Mr Bodine was also elected company president in August and appointed as a member of Mosaic’s board with immediate effect. He was previously the company’s SVP -North America.

Merchant markets for ammonia have faced considerable disruption in recent years due to the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Proman has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mitsubishi Corp to collaborate on the development of a blue ammonia plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana. This new facility will aim to produce around 1.2 million t/a of low carbon ammonia, making it one of the largest of its kind in the world. The plant will incorporate carbon capture and sequestration technology. Proman says that this development aligns with the company’s commitment to sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed ammonia plant will be located at Proman’s existing site in Lake Charles, adjacent to its gas-to-methanol plant, which is also currently being developed.

CF Fertilisers UK Limited, a subsidiary of CF Industries, says that it plans to permanently close the ammonia plant at its Billingham fertilizer complex in order to secure the long-term sustainability of its business in the UK. The Company intends to continue to produce ammonium nitrate (AN) fertiliser and nitric acid at the Billingham site using imported ammonia, as it has for the last 10 months following its decision to temporarily idle the plant in August 2022.

The closure of CF Industries’ ammonia plant at Billingham, Teesside (see Industry News, page 8) marks the end of a long era for UK fertilizer manufacture. The facility was the last operating ammonia plant in the country, following CF’s decision to permanently close its site at Ince in Cheshire in June last year. Going forward, Billingham will now rely on imported ammonia as a feedstock to run the nitric acid and 625,000 t/a ammonium nitrate plants on the site.

Venkat Pattabathula , a member of the AIChE Ammonia Safety Committee, reports on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium, held in Munich, Germany, from 20-24 August 2023.