In mid-April, Ammonia prices both east and west of Suez remained firmly oriented to the downside, with supply still heavily outweighing demand and suppliers scrambling to place excess tonnage. Bearish market sentiment was exemplified by a Trammo sale to OCP at $415/t c.fr Morocco, $20/t short of Tampa’s c.fr settlement for April and around $44/t down on February.
Clariant says that its MegaMax 900 methanol synthesis catalyst has been used in the successful startup of European Energy’s green methanol plant at Kasso, Denmark. The facility uses biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen to produce up to 42,000 t/a of green methanol. Clariant’s Applied Catalyst Technology (ACT) technical service team provided on-site support throughout the startup procedure, overseeing the catalyst loading, reduction, and startup. Clariant says that the catalyst is operating with excellent activity and stability despite the challenging conditions of CO2 -to-methanol conversion.
CF Industries has formed a joint venture with JERA, Japan’s largest energy company, and Mitsui & Co, a leading global investment and trading company, for the construction, production and offtake of low-carbon ammonia.
The Kazakh government has approved the construction of a new ammonia and urea plant in the country’s Mangistau region, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Construction will be carried out by a joint venture between QazaqGaz National Company and ESTA Construction under Qazesta Fertilizers Ltd. The total investment for the project is $1.35 billion, with construction expected to be completed within three and a half years. The plant’s annual production capacity is projected to reach up to 700,000 t/a of urea and 420,000 t/a of ammonia, adding value to the country’s natural gas production and helping to substitute domestic production for foreign imports of nitrogen fertilizer. Despite a national demand of 3.2 million t/a, domestic production currently only meets about half of that need.
De-bottlenecking is a profitable path for potash producers, as RHEWUM's Tountzer Ramadan and Alexander Krasovsky explain.
India’s push to replace its sizeable urea imports with home grown capacity continues, but may not keep pace with rising domestic demand.
PT Pupuk Kujang, a subsidiary of state-owned fertilizer producer holding company PT Pupuk Indonesia, is conducting a trial production of green ammonia projected to replace coal in the power generation industry. In local press reports, Robert Sarjaka, Director of Operations and Production of Pupuk Kujang, said that the production of green ammonia is part of the company’s efforts to contribute to realizing the energy transition in Indonesia, namely making Pupuk Kujang the first company to produce green ammonia in the country. Pupuk Kujang receives green hydrogen from renewable power supplied by PLN Indonesia Power (PLN IP), part of state power utility PT PLN. In the first trial phase, Pupuk Kujang will process 1 t/d of green hydrogen into 5 t/d of green ammonia.
Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL) says that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Odisha state to invest $440 million over five years to increase its phosphate fertilizer production and export capacity, including port/ jetty and infrastructure development. PPL currently has capacity to produce 400,000 t/a of urea and 2.6 million t/a of finished phosphates, via DAP and NPK plants in Paradeep, Odisha, and Zuarinagar, Goa. Details of the expansion were not announced, but the company previously said in December 2024 that it had agreed to expand phosphoric acid capacity from 500,000 t/a to 700,000 t/a to increase backwards integration of production and reduce dependence on imports.
Chevron says that its 50% owned affiliate Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO) has started oil production at its Future Growth Project (FGP) located at the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. FGP is the third processing plant in operation at the Tengiz oil field, which expands sour gas injection capability and is expected to ramp up output to 1 million bbl/d. This milestone follows the completion of the Wellhead Pressure Management Project (WPMP) in 2024, which is designed to optimise the field and processing plants. The FGP expansion aims to increase crude oil production by 260,000 bbl/d at full capacity.
Glencore says it is working with the Queensland government to secure the future of the Mount Isa copper smelter. The company had previously indicated that it would close the smelter in 2030, but recent media reports suggest that the government is looking at assistance to keep the smelter operational, which currently treats more than 1 million t/a of copper concentrate and supplies sulphuric acid to other industries locally, including phosphate production.