Agrium Inc.’s Borger, Texas, plant went down unexpectedly last week, and the company says it should be offline for only two weeks. Agrium said there was a structural failure on the west side of the cooling tower at the Borger plant. A portable tower is expected to be in place in about two weeks, according to an Agrium spokesman. The company said the biggest impact would be on ammonia.
Borger capacity is about 540,000 st/y of anhydrous ammonia and 109,000 st/y of urea, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC).
In a market with rising prices, many last week said they would be watching closely to see if the plant does return to production in two weeks. Prices have been rising throughout the summer, and word last week that Russia is putting a ban on grain exports caused a spike in wheat prices. This at a time when buyers in the Southern Plains wheat country are working hard to make sure they have enough fertilizer. Sources again noted the need to get product on the Arkansas River prior to lock work later in August.
.In the meantime, last week Agrium was in the midst of a large turnaround in Argentina. The Profertil nitrogen plant had to go down earlier than expected due to gas shortages. The plant went down in July rather than the expected Aug. 1, when it was slated to commence a 45-day turnaround. The plant is expected to be down for repairs until Sept. 15, and Agrium expects gas supplies to be adequate for restart.
In North America, Agrium expects turnarounds at nitrogen plants at Carseland from Oct. 1-19 and at Sacramento Sept. 12-18. Fort Saskatchewan did a turnaround June 6-22.
The Redwater phosphate plant will take a turnaround Sept. 7-Oct. 4. The Conda plant was down June 1-30.
The Vanscoy potash facility was down June 25-July 19.