Calgary — Agrium Inc. expects its idled Vanscoy, Sask., potash mine to be back up at the end of November after repairs and tie-in for its major upgrade. The company opted to bring forward a planned turnaround after the mine experienced a mechanical failure on its main hoist system that shut down production. Agrium is in the process of adding about 1 million mt/y of capacity and expects to produce 2.1 million mt/y in 2015. As reported last week, Agrium expects gross profit from potash to be a negative $40 million, and it expects to have to purchase a significant amount of potash in the second half (GM Aug. 11, p. 15). In other news, Agrium’s Redwater, Alba., nitrogen plant is going down for 45 days in September to replace a heat boiler. Agrium said the problem was identified two years ago and was the cause of two turnarounds in 2013. Agrium reports that its Carseland, Alba., nitrogen plant came back up and is running on schedule. It said both Carseland and Fort Saskatchewan, Alba., have now been transitioned to four-year planned turnarounds from a two-year timeframe, which is expected to result in higher average output from these in the future.
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