Industrial end-markets and food manufacturing provide significant global demand for pure and high value phosphate products. The growth potential for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) used in vehicle batteries is also a major industry talking point currently, as Alberto Persona, Fertecon’s principal phosphates analyst, explains.
The Russian-Ukraine conflict and price volatility have affected the supply/demand dynamics of the Brazilian fertilizer market and the buying behaviour of growers. As a consequence, Brazil’s fertilizer consumption is expected to fall for the first time in eight years. Debora Simoes and Cleber Vieira of leading consultancy Agroconsult offers their key market insights.
Global demand for rare earth metals is increasing, particularly for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy devices, potentially leading to increased use of sulphuric acid in their extraction.
Sulphur markets suffered a correction in July-August that was more of a collapse; from $500/t to less than $100/t. Though it seems to have been something of an over-correction, and prices have moved back up since then, it is one of the most extreme price swings that sulphur has ever seen, comparable to the peak and precipitous fall in 2008. Indeed, at a time when commodity prices of all kinds have seen extremely high levels of volatility, sulphur has been more volatile still than just about all of them.
The curtailment of ammonia production in Europe and reduction in export supply from Russia has led to an unprecedented year for the merchant ammonia market.
Maersk has ordered six more 17,000 teu (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ships capable of running on methanol from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The order brings Maersk’s total order book of dual-fuel vessels capable of running on methanol to 19. Maersk said the new ships will replace existing tonnage in its fleet when they’re delivered in 2025. When all 19 vessels on order join the fleet and replace older tonnage, CO2 savings will be around 2.3 million t/a, according to Maersk. Maersk has committed itself to renewable methanol as a pathway to zero emissions shipping. Its first vessels are due for delivery from Q1 2024. The company has also signed several green methanol fuel supply agreements and joined a partnership to create the first e-methanol plant in Southeast Asia. Maersk is also working with Japanese trading house Mitsui and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), to jointly conduct a detailed feasibility study of methanol bunkering logistics in Singapore.
Most nitric acid is used for production of fertilizer nitrates and ammonium nitrate explosives, but it is also used in polyamides, polyurethanes and aniline dyes as well as a number of industrial processes including ore treatment. High ammonia prices have pushed nitric acid prices to record levels this year, but growth predictions remain robust.
Casale reviews urea plant revamping process schemes and successful case studies for energy savings and TOYO discusses its latest revamping technologies including application of the new generation low-pressure, energy-saving ACES21-LP™ process.
The fertilizer price and supply chain shocks caused by the war in Ukraine have supercharged the debate about the shift to more sustainable and efficient crop nutrition – with farmers and governments urgently looking for different approaches to maximise crop productivity.
T he high-price environment for fertilizers and other commodities, including natural gas, is having very different consequences globally.