Acron Group is expanding and upgrading the granulated calcium nitrate (CN) capacity at its Veliky Novgorod site in northwest Russia, which on completion will take its aggregate CN production capacity to 270,000 mt/y from the current 100,000 mt/y.
Acron reported on Oct. 9 that it is increasing capacity at the existing CN unit to 135,000 mt/y, from the current nameplate 100,000 mt/y. Acron in July said the unit has been exceeding its design capacity since the beginning of 2023 (GM July 14, p. 28). The facility, Acron’s first CN production plant, was commissioned in 2022 (GM Aug. 12, 2022).
A second CN production unit, also with 135,000 mt/y capacity, is already under construction and is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2024. Acron uses liquid CN, a byproduct of apatite concentrate processing at the group’s NPK plants, as the feedstock for the new product, according to a company statement in July.
Acron produced 45,000 mt of CN in the first six months of this year (GM July 21, p. 28). The group said in its Oct. 9 press release that since the commissioning of the first CN unit, it has supplied more than 80,000 mt of CN to customers in Russia, Latin America (including Brazil and Mexico), Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the CIS. The CN is shipped in 25-kg bags and larger bags of various volumes.