Acron Group, Moscow, reported a 6 percent increase in its commercial output and a 3 percent increase in fertilizer output in the first nine months of this year, compared with a year-ago.
Production of commercial products increased to 6.32 million mt, up from 5.96 million mt, while production of fertilizers grew to 5.02 million mt, up from the year-ago 4.88 million mt.
Acron highlighted the group’s increased output of agricultural urea in the reporting period, which grew 18 percent year-over-year, thanks to the start-up of the Urea-6+ project at the Veliky Novgorod site in northwest Russia, which began operations in August (GM Aug. 13, p. 1).
The commissioning of the “Urea-6+” upgrade increased the Urea-6 unit’s capacity to 730,000 mt/y from 210,000 mt/y previously (GM April 23, p. 30), and took Acron’s Group’s total urea production capacity to 1.975 million mt/y. The upgraded capacity has made Acron the largest urea producer in Europe, according to the fertilizer group.
Granular urea output was also up significantly (+151 percent) in the nine-month period, while output of prilled urea fell 29 percent. Acron added granular urea capability to its production portfolio in May 2020, commissioning a new 700,000 mt/y urea granulation unit at the Veliky Novgorod site (GM May 22, 2020). Hitherto, the group had only produced urea that was prilled or rotoform.
Acron also boosted its output of UAN and complex fertilizers in the reporting period, by 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively. But nine-month AN production was down 10 percent compared with a year ago.
Industrial products’ production was up 17 percent over a year-earlier in the January through September period this year to 1.07 million mt, reflecting strong global demand.
Apatite concentrate output increased 10 percent to 936,000 mt.
Acron noted that fertilizer prices continue to head upward, but said major Russian fertilizers producers froze their key fertilizer prices for domestic farmers in July 2021 through the end of the autumn agricultural season. It said the voluntary price freeze was extended this month through the end of 2021.
Acron Group Commercial Output
| ‘000 mt | Jan.-Sept. 2021 | Jan.-Sept. 2020 | Year-on-year change percent |
| Fertilizers | |||
| Ammonia | 2,164 | 2,071 | +5 |
| Nitrogen fertilizers | 3,750 | 3,634 | +3 |
| Ammonium nitrate | 1,638 | 1,826 | (10) |
| Agricultural urea1 | 1,050 | 887 | +18 |
| Prilled | 273 | 381 | (29) |
| Granulated | 364 | 145 | +151 |
| UAN | 1,061 | 921 | +15 |
| Complex fertilizers | 1,945 | 1,747 | +11 |
| NPK | 1,798 | 1,663 | +8 |
| Bulk blends | 147 | 84 | +75 |
| Total fertilizers | 5,017 | 4,884 | +3 |
| Total industrial products | 1,066 | 909 | +17 |
| Total commercial output | 6,315 | 5,957 | +6 |
1 Acron Group also produces industrial urea