Russian fertilizer producer Acron Group has commissioned a second urea granulation unit at its Veliky Novgorod site in northwest Russia. The $65 million project was announced in late 2021 (GM Dec. 3, 2021).
Once fully operational, the 700,000 mt/y unit will take the Russian fertilizer group’s total commercial granular and prilled urea production capability to 2.1 million mt/y, Acron said in a Aug. 15 statement. The group is already the largest urea producer in Europe.
Acron launched its first urea granulation unit, also with 700,000 mt/y capacity, in May 2020 (GM May 22, 2020). Before that, the company had only produced urea that was prilled or rotoform. With the commissioning of the second facility, Acron has a total capacity of 1.4 million mt/y of granular urea and 700,000 mt/y of prilled urea.
The new granulation facility is part of a $1.5 billion capital investment program for 2023-2025 for the modernization and expansion of production, the company said. The other main projects under the program are the construction of the Talitsky potash mine in Russia’s Perm region and the reconstruction of the Ammonia-2 and Ammonia-3 units at the Veliky Novgorod site.
Acron reported in March that its Verkhnekamsk Potash Co. (VPC) subsidiary had completed the construction of the skip and cage shafts at the Talitsky potash mine project (GM March 10, p. 29). When completed, Talitsky will have an initial capacity of 2 million mt/y of potassium chloride, with the potential for further expansion to 2.6 million mt/y.