Ammonia markets continue to be dominated by unplanned outages in Saudi Arabia (where the SAFCO 4 and one of the Ma’aden ammonia plants are both down, removing 2.3 million t/a of merchant ammonia from the market). This comes on top of other shutdowns earlier in the year on Trinidad, in the US and Australia.
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
While the covid pandemic has kept refinery run rates down in 2020, new refinery sulphur capacity will nevertheless form the bulk of new additions to sulphur production over the next few years. But delays to projects on both the supply and demand sides could tip a fairly balanced market in either direction.
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.
During this time of disruption, keeping connected nd informed has never been more important. While the in-person events the industry usually relies on are not possible, CRU’s Phosphates 2021 Virtual Conference, 23-25 March, offers exceptional information sharing and networking opportunities.
The United States has imposed duties on Russian and Moroccan phosphate imports.
Fertilizer International presents a global round-up of phosphate rock, phosphoric acid and finished phosphates projects.
Norilsk Nickel has finally closed down its nickel smelting operation at Nikel in Russia’s Murmansk region; the company’s oldest still operating production facility. The shutdown is part of the company’s environmental programme, which aims to significantly reduce its environmental impact at all production sites. The Nikel closure will eliminate SO2 emissions in the cross-border area with Norway, which had become a major bone of contention with the Norwegian government. Norilsk aims to reduce SO2 emissions at Kola by 50% by the end of 2020 and 85% by the end of 2021, and is modernising its production in Monchegorsk, including the construction of new state-of-the-art facilities.