Yara acquires Dureal

Oslo-Yara Nederland B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yara International ASA, said Dec. 3 that it has entered an agreement to acquire Dureal, an AdBlue supplying company from Univar N.V. Dureal. Yara said Dureal is a key player in the European AdBlue market, and is an ideal vehicle to further strengthen the leadership of Air1, Yara’s commercial brand for AdBlue. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. “The AdBlue market has seen tremendous growth over the past twelve months, and should reach 3.5 million mt in 2012. Yara is one of the main AdBlue producers, with existing plants in the Netherlands and Germany, and is to open a new production facility in Italy in 2008. Yara’s Air1 brand for AdBlue is already the market leader in Europe, and this acquisition will allow Air1 to significantly increase this position by having a unique scale and logistical capacity,” says Terje Bakken, Yara senior vice president and head of industrial segment. Yara said Dureal brings its understanding of the AdBlue market, as well as a distribution scale and closeness to the market. Dureal not only offers the AdBlue solution as such to transport companies, but also a total solution consisting of storage and filling units, including an advanced telemetric system that guarantees automatic delivery and consistent stock levels. It is present in 12 countries in Europe. This complements Yara’s approach to the AdBlue market with Air1, and thus maintains Air1’s commitment to bring a quality AdBlue solution on a pan-European scale. AdBlue is a high quality urea solution that feeds the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalyst on trucks, enabling them to turn emissions from diesel engines into harmless water vapor and nitrogen. It allows truck drivers to meet the more stringent European Union restrictions on exhaust gas emissions that came into effect in October 2006.