Yara North America Inc., Tampa, this past week announced two major new initiatives that should significantly enhance its logistics in the U.S. market. They include a new terminal near Savannah, Ga., and a new warehouse on the Mississippi River, 60 miles north of New Orleans.
Yara says it plans to build a new liquid terminal that will forge a strategic hub for logistical operations in the southeastern U.S. The land lease – signed with Seagate Handling, Inc., a subsidiary of Dulany Industries ?Çô clears the way for a state-of-the-art liquid bulk terminal to be located near Savannah, Ga., at roughly the midpoint between current Yara facilities in Baltimore and Tampa.
“Not only will the Savannah terminal act as a centralized link between existing East Coast operations, the storage capacity is an efficient fit with our European production system – providing value growth in step with global Yara,” says Steve Rodgers, Yara North America’s vice president of supply and logistics.
The lease gives Yara the ability to build a liquid bulk terminal consisting of four above-ground steel tanks: two 10,000 st for CN-9 and CN-8, one of 15,000 st for UAN-32, and one 4,000 st for sulfur. The project effectively carves out a long-term supply position on the eastern seaboard.
Once in full operation, the annual throughput of the new terminal is estimated to be 65,000 st. Product load-out will be both to railcar and truck. The state-of-the-art facility will be able load four trucks at a time, 24 hours a day.
“The Savannah terminal will create an efficient logistical hub of service for both the agricultural and industrial market segments in the southeastern USA ?Çô including Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and Tennessee,” says John Oster, Yara North America’s facilities director.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for July 2008, and the new terminal is expected to be fully operational in July 2009.
Yara said July 9 that it has signed a long-term lease for 50 acres of land in St. James Parish, up the Mississippi River approximately 60 miles from New Orleans. Yara will build and operate a 55,000 mt, state-of-the-art import fertilizer warehouse capable of handling panamax-size vessels. The deal was signed with St. James Stevedoring. Groundbreaking will start as soon as all permits are finalized, with a completion estimated for first quarter 2010.
The terminal will provide direct access to imported fertilizer for local markets and increased access for rail-served agricultural markets in the Midwest and eastern half of the U.S., including growing industrial segments. Key products will be granular and prilled urea, with expansion into bulk P and K product lines at a later stage.
“Yara North America is a leading importer of urea and New Orleans is the primary import geography for fertilizers in North America. The establishment of this terminal will provide our customers with increased access to imported fertilizer,” said Pete Valesares, Yara North America president. “The fertilizer industry needs an infrastructure to support the rapid increase of imports in North America, which is becoming more and more dependent on imported fertilizer to satisfy a growing demand. Yara is catering to this need and showing its long-term commitment to the North American market,” he added.
Stueve Construction Co., which is experienced in the construction of fertilizer storage facilities, will build the terminal. St. James Stevedoring will provide stevedoring services at the facility.
Yara did not disclose the projected cost for the new facilities.