Sofia-Bulgaria’s Agropolichim and Neochim, both major fertilizer exporters, are shutting down production, citing weak demand and the global financial crisis, according to reports out of the country this week. Agropolichim started shutting down production Nov. 14. Neochim will not come back up after a maintenance shutdown. “We are probably the last factory in the Balkans which is still working,” Agropolichim’s CEO Devnya Rombaut told the local press. He expects phosphate production to resume in three weeks to meet export demand; however, nitrate production will be down indefinitely. Agropolichim production is put at approximately 800,000 mt/y, and the combined chemical and fertilizer production at Neochim is reported as 1.6 million mt/y.
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