Lithuanian phosphate fertilizer producer AB Lifosa, a subsidiary of EuroChem Group AG, aims to resume production at Kėdainiai in mid-November, according to local media reports, citing the company’s temporary administrator, Rimvydas Vaštakas.
Lifosa halted production in mid-September due to the sudden rise in natural gas prices, as well as the suspension of production by the country’s only ammonia producer, AB Achema (GM Sept. 16, p. 29; Sept. 9, p. 28).
Lifosa said at the time that it expected to reach an agreement with its ammonia suppliers to enable it to resume operations in November.
The Lithuanian phosphate producer had only resumed operations on Aug. 7 after being forced to stop operations in April following its banks freezing of the company’s accounts the previous month after the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on EuroChem’s former controlling shareholder and CEO, Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko on March 9 (GM April 15, p. 1; March 11, p. 1).
Lifosa’s main product is DAP, with a production capacity of some 1 million mt/y.
Achema partly resumed fertilizer production at Jonava on Nov. 1 following lower natural gas prices, according to a Baltic News Service report, citing Achema head of Communications, Jolita Macelyte.
The company, Lithuania’s biggest nitrogen fertilizer producer, is reported to have restarted one ammonia line and one urea line, with plans to resume production of other products.
Achema has 1.1 million mt/y of ammonia production capacity. It also has 1.3 million mt/y production capacity for UAN, 1 million mt/y urea capacity, and 0.56 million mt/y capacity for ammonium nitrate production, according to Green Markets’ database. The company also can produce CAN and AdBlue.