Romania’s biggest fertilizer producer, Azomureş SA, has announced a partial resumption of production, which was suspended last summer amid soaring natural gas prices (GM June 24, 2022).
The producer is using imported ammonia to restart production, according to a bne IntelliNews report, citing a spokesperson for the Azomureş plant in Târgu Mureș, Ovidiu Maior, speaking to local media.
On the origins of the imported ammonia, the spokesperson said only that it was from a European country “where the price of the natural gas is lower.”
Azomureş is operating at 10% of capacity initially, according to the report. It has an annual fertilizer capacity under normal operating conditions of 1.6 million mt/y, with approximately 75% of that output typically destined for Romanian farms, according to the company’s website.
The producer suspended ammonia production on June 23 last year, but continued to produce fertilizers until the ammonia stock was depleted. It had only restarted production in early May (GM April 29, 2022), after halting fertilizer production in December 2021 due to the high prices of gas and electricity (GM Dec. 17; 2021; Dec. 10, 2021).
The Romanian government on May 31 announced its intention to promote a state aid scheme for the country’s energy-intensive industries, with a total value of about €1.7 billion (approximately $1.82 billion at current exchange rates). Of this amount, about €400 million would be for the chemicals sector.
However, the Azomureş spokesperson said the partial restart of production was unrelated to the planned state aid scheme, but added that the scheme would help Romanian industry if it was implemented, according to the report.
Azomureş is a fully-owned subsidiary of Swiss Group Ameropa.